Search String Whimsy

I always think it's fun when someone ends up visiting this humble blog via a search result.

Most of the time, the search strings that people enter into the big search engines are quite interesting. Most often they are variations of the same handful: anything related to shrugs, circular shrugs or Craftster circular shrugs (I wrote the pattern for the Craftster Circular Shrug, which was worked out by committee in a long thread).

Another reason that this blog pops up in search angine results is people come looking for my Porcupine Balls recipe. Some of those people are also here looking for recipes for Mac & Cheese or simple Stroganov.

We won't discuss some of the more disgusting things people have typed into their favourite search engine. Some of it is toe-curlingly awful and you have to devlop a thick skin to ignore this degenrate portion of humanity. I prefer to delude myself with the Pete Townsend defence: it's all research.

In the last couple of days, however, a totally brand new search string has brought a few dozen folks to these environs all looking to find out the exact same thing: who is the "author of the story collection "little birds""?

Honestly a quarter of my traffic in the last 24 hours seems to be people, all from different cities and states (I think they're all confine to the US, but maybe I missed something), typing in that exact same search string, with few exceptions. While my traffic is quite modest, that's still a significant number of people!

I'm dying to know why!

So, if you came here hoping to find out that Anais Nin wrote Little Birds, a book of erotic short stories written during the early half of the 20thC in Paris, could you tell me why? A quick comment would help.

Inviting Calm

It's been crazy around here lately.

Last week, I hosted some of the area's Doulas on Wednesday evening. On Thursday and Friday I prepared for a training. On Saturday and Sunday I went out of town to do my Postpartum Doula training. On Sunday night we celebrated my mother's birthday with a dinner party at my sister's house.

I also spoke with the kind person who offered to replace Kieran's stolen wagon. After much deliberation, Sean and I thought it best to refuse the generous offer. We'll replace the wagon soon ourselves. We were very touched to receive the offer though. We were really amazed at the show of support you gentle readers showed as well as the support and good wishes of our neighbours, most of whom are strangers to us. We met a lot of nice people who stopped to read the sign and took the time to introduce themselves and comment about it.

This morning, in an uncharacteristic show of Super Mom-ness, I made pancakes for myself and Kieran so that we could have a nice little sitdown breakfast.

Normally, I give Kieran some whole grain toast with jam or cream cheese on it and a fist full of grapes and berries and orange slices. He will run off into the living room to watch a favourite show (Jacob Two Two, perhaps, or Max & Ruby or Dora...) and munch away at his breakfast at his own pace. I eat some toast and have my gigantic cup of tea in front of the computer in the kitchen, catching up on email or my favourite websites. But, with no toast - we forgot to get bread - I had to be a little more creative.

It was a great chance to try out the yummy pot of plum jam my doula friend Robyn made and gave me. She makes the jam from her own plums. It was sooooo delicious! Kieran loved it, too! It was nicely tart, something Kieran is developing a taste for. I'm going to have to make some soda bread and scones because the plum jam deserves no less.

So, to make up for all the silence while I've been so crazy busy here are lots of wonderful pictures of Kieran, local cutey-pie.

Even More Video Love

An Inconvenient Truth

If this man wants to run for President in 2008, I'd consider applying for a green card and voting for him.

This is a visually stunning, politically galvanizing and intellectully compelling documentary about Al Gore and his crusade to save our planet.

More Video Goodness

I don't believe in god.

I loathe religions.

But, if people do believe in god, if they must belong to religions and attend churches, it is my heartfelt wish that they all join this one.

"Look At Me Being Serious!"

I was going to get to the meme that both Kathy and Mama C-Ta tagged me with, but instead I think I'm going to bring you some viral fun.

Check out this video on YouTube.com.

The student body president of an American university has his office filled with balloons, but instead of laughing, he throws a tantrum: "Who paid for the air?!"

Any Holiday That Involves Candy

Any holiday that involved candy is a reason for true celebration in Kieran's eyes. Easter is probably the best of all of them. Over the course of the weekend, he ends up getting more candy than Halloween and he gets to participate in three separate candy/egg hunts.

On Saturday afternoon we went out to Port Dover where Kieran's Aunt Julie had organized an egg hunt beside the canal. His much older cousins Quinn and Summar were there to help him find every last egg.

As an added bonus for Sean and I, our niece Richelle came and brought her newborn son Noah. He was 3 days old! What a cutey!

On Sunday morning, Kieran was already awake when i got up. Luckily for both of us, he's not particularly savvy about how things work with this Easter bunny thing. So, I ran into the kitchen and got my little plastic eggs and went to get the jelly beans out of the cupboard and they weren't there!

I must've purged them in rare fit of cleanliness and organization. But, that left with scrambling for something to put in the plastic eggs. I settled on a couple of sour gummy worms in the candy bin. Kieran wouldn't know I'd snagged these from his usual batch of candy treats. I'll have to be more on the ball next year, though. He's not going to stay dopey for long.

With three plastic eggs and three Kinder eggs, I left a trail out of the kitchen and down the hall into the living room. I pretended to see the one of them for the first time and Kieran jumped off the couch, grabbed the little basket I gave him and took off down the hall shouting, "A Kinder Surpise! A-nonner one!"

He ended up in the kitchen where a giant chocolate roadster waited for him at his place on the table.


Later the same morning, we went to Grandma Donna's house where there was yet another egg hunt. Cousin Julia and Kieran ran around the yard finding eggs that were perched on little nests. Some were in the garden and some were in the shrubs. Kieran had a slight advantage over his younger cousin and managed to snag the lion's share of eggs which were filled with things most adults wouldn't touch: cheap little chocolates and gummy candies shaped like breakfast food items. Kieran couldn't have been happier, though.

Here he his, King Of Chocolate Trucks, savaging his domain.

The Thief Of Robinson Street

It's been two days since the theft of the wagon.

Kieran and I took a walk around the neighbourhood, but we didn't see the wagon anywhere. Even though it cost a little less than $100CDN, I made a police report about it. Our deductible is $250, so I can't claim the wagon on our content insurance.

The sign has been a big hit. My neighbour told me that the entire neighbourhood is talking about the theft. I've seen lots of folks walking past who stop read the note and look at the porch and the house with a sad, concerned look.

Today, our beloved upstairs neighbours (the ones who had a baby back in November, for whom I made a pinwheel blanket and who are now moving out of town) knocked on the door today and gave me a note a concerned citizen.

The note said that Camp Trillium, a charitable organization that "offers 54 programs throughout the province of Ontario for children living with cancer and their families", would like to buy Kieran a wagon to replace the one that was stolen.

I haven't worked anything out yet, but if anyone was so inclined to part with a couple of dollars for a very good cause, go here and make a little donation.

Thank you everyone for your kind words and sentiments and your empathetic outrage. Both Sean and I got really down about this. I know living in a big city is not the safest situation to be in sometimes, but it's really shakes a person's faith in humanity when senseless things like this happen. Your camraderie, gentle readers, makes a very big difference.

What The Fuck Is Wrong With People?!

It's 12:30pm. I just went to get the mail out of the mailbox and noticed that our wagon was stolen off the porch.

Somebody stole my son's wagon!

Off of our porch!

He got that for his 2nd birthday!

What the fuck is wrong with people?!

A Venti

Why do so many people wish to be culturally and politically anesthetized?

Why do so very many people walk around in haze of complete denial?

I consider it my duty as a human being to call bullshit when I see it. It's the least I can do. In my limited capacity as a mother, all I can do is talk. And, so I talk.

A writer at Blogging Baby recently wrote about her disgust that Parents magazine printed a fluff piece that encouraged women to "Have a "clean-out-the-garage" party. For every thingamabob your husband gets rid of, you'll give him a smooch (after the kids go to bed)."

It looks innocuous at first glance, but a little analysis turns up some cringe-inducing bullshit.

Firstly, Having a "clean out the garage party" has got to be the stupidest idea ever! If most garages, and I don't have one (just as at least half of North America does not have a garage, so if you're one of those non-middle class folks who don't live in a little subdivision with a driveway and garage, you're screwed for fun - Parents would just prefer that you didn't exist so you don't screw up their happy little idea about what a parent is), are like I imagine, a storage place for old paint, various auto fluids, the giant sized jug of CLR and a host of tools, do you really think it's wise to be partying around that?

Secondly, why are you manipulating your husband to clean up the garage with sexual favours? Apparently Parents thinks a) women must manipulate their partners, b) have no currency with which to bribe their husbands except their bodies and sexual skills, c) that men will do things in order to get sexual favours from their wives, d) that men require bribery and manipulation to do chores, e) that husbands and wives are unable to communicate needs and desires in a normal fashion.

Thirdly, what's with the assumption that men clutter up garages with men-stuff, of which women do not have any knowledge of or desire for understanding. His "thingamabob"? Are they talking about his dick? His Model train switcher? His jar of re-claimed screws? His pneumatic hammer? (Oh wait, is THAT his dick? Im getting confused with all the talk of thingamabobs) His six boxes of Grateful Dead tapes? His collection of original, though well played with, Star Wars figurines?

What the hell is a thingamabob? And, isn't the word more than a little condescending? Parents thinks that the stuff of spouses is not worthy of respect.

Fourthly, why is the husband getting rid of stuff in the garage but not the wife? Perhaps she should be encouraged to get rid of the stupid nameless things in that room. But, Parents thinks that only men horde useless things in garages.

Fifthly, what if your spouse is a woman? Does that change things? Or what if the wife is another man? Or, how's this for totally fucking radical: what if there is no spouse? What if the other parent is absent due to divorce or was never in the picture to begin with, for whatever reason? That really screws up the happy little fluff piece, doesn't it? I mean, if half of all marriages end in divorce and the rate of single motherhood (and, to a lesser extent, single fatherhood) ever increasing, than this little dysfunctional family is a statistical anomaly.

I could go on, but I think I've dusted off the gems in this hunk of dirt.

And, you know, when I agreed with the Blogging Baby author, and a small host of other parents, that the story was bullshit, out of the woodwork came all the happy little fog heads to suddenly whine, "you are so harshing my buzz with all your wasteful negativity!"

I grew up in a world where women and men, gays and straights, whites and blacks and polka dots, stood up and said, "Fuck your stupid backwater ideas! We will make the world a better place." And I believed they could do it.

So what the hell happened?

Urban Baby Runway Contest!

My buddy Mama C-Ta just launched a cool kid gear site called Urban Baby Runway. She's having monthly contest and Kieran is in this month's contest!

So head over to the April contest page and vote for Kieran or one of the other gorgeous kids in the contest!

Meme: Women Authors

Instructions: Bold the ones you've read. Italicize the ones you've been wanting/might like to read. ??Place question marks by any titles/authors you've never heard of. Put an asterisk if you've read something else by the same author.

And, I'm going to add another one: put a + beside anything you add.

**Edited to add, this meme came from My So Called (ABD) Life by way of The Clutter Museum.

Allcott, Louisa May–Little Women
Allende, Isabel–The House of Spirits
Angelou, Maya–I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
*Atwood, Margaret–Cat's Eye
*Austen, Jane–Emma
Bambara, Toni Cade–Salt Eaters
+Bank, Melissa-Girls' Guide To Hunting And Fishing
??Barnes, Djuna–Nightwood
de Beauvoir, Simone–The Second Sex
*Blume, Judy–Are You There God? It's Me Margaret
Burnett, Frances–The Secret Garden
*Bronte, Charlotte–Jane Eyre
*Bronte, Emily–Wuthering Heights
*Buck, Pearl S.–The Good Earth
*Byatt, A.S.–Possession
Cather, Willa–My Antonia
+*Cherryh, CJ- any
*Chopin, Kate–The Awakening
Christie, Agatha–Murder on the Orient Express
??Cisneros, Sandra–The House on Mango Street
Clinton, Hillary Rodham–Living History
??Cooper, Anna Julia–A Voice From the South
Danticat, Edwidge–Breath, Eyes, Memory
Davis, Angela–Women, Culture, and Politics
??Desai, Anita–Clear Light of Day
+Diamant, Anita-The Red Tent
Dickinson, Emily–Collected Poems
Duncan, Lois–I Know What You Did Last Summer
DuMaurier, Daphne–Rebecca
*Eliot, George–Middlemarch
??Emecheta, Buchi–Second Class Citizen
??Erdrich, Louise–Tracks
Esquivel, Laura–Like Water for Chocolate
+*Fielding, Helen-Bridget Jones's Diary
*Flagg, Fannie–Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Friedan, Betty–The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne–Diary of a Young Girl
+*Gedge, Pauline-Child Of The Morning
??Gilman, Charlotte Perkins–The Yellow Wallpaper
??Gordimer, Nadine–July's People
Grafton, Sue–S is for Silence
??Hamilton, Edith–Mythology
Highsmith, Patricia–The Talented Mr. Ripley
*hooks, bell–Bone Black
Hurston, Zora Neale–Dust Tracks on the Road
??Jacobs, Harriet–Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Jackson, Helen Hunt–Ramona
Jackson, Shirley–The Haunting of Hill House
*Jong, Erica–Fear of Flying
*Keene, Carolyn–The Nancy Drew Mysteries (any of them)
Kidd, Sue Monk–The Secret Life of Bees
Kincaid, Jamaica–Lucy
Kingsolver, Barbara–The Poisonwood Bible
??Kingston, Maxine Hong–The Woman Warrior
+*Klein, Naomi-No Logo
??Larsen, Nella–Passing
+*Laurence, Margaret-The Stone Angel
*L'Engle, Madeleine–A Wrinkle in Time
Le Guin, Ursula K.–The Left Hand of Darkness
Lee, Harper–To Kill a Mockingbird
*Lessing, Doris–The Golden Notebook
Lively, Penelope–Moon Tiger
*Lorde, Audre–The Cancer Journals
Martin, Ann M.–The Babysitters Club Series (any of them)
*McCullers, Carson–The Member of the Wedding
McMillan, Terry–Disappearing Acts
??Markandaya, Kamala–Nectar in a Sieve
??Marshall, Paule–Brown Girl, Brownstones
+Mccullough, Colleen-The Thorn Birds
+*McDonald, Anne-Marie-Fall On Your Knees
Mitchell, Margaret–Gone with the Wind
*Montgomery, Lucy–Anne of Green Gables
??Morgan, Joan–When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost
*Morrison, Toni–Song of Solomon
??Murasaki, Lady Shikibu–The Tale of Genji
*Munro, Alice–Lives of Girls and Women
Murdoch, Iris–Severed Head
??Naylor, Gloria–Mama Day
Niffenegger, Audrey–The Time Traveller's Wife
+*Nin, Anais-Little Birds
*Oates, Joyce Carol–We Were the Mulvaneys
*O'Connor, Flannery–A Good Man is Hard to Find
Piercy, Marge–Woman on the Edge of Time
??Picoult, Jodi–My Sister's Keeper
*Plath, Sylvia–The Bell Jar
Porter, Katharine Anne–Ship of Fools
*Proulx, E. Annie–The Shipping News
Rand, Ayn–The Fountainhead
Ray, Rachel–365: No Repeats
Rhys, Jean–Wide Sargasso Sea
+*Rice, Anne-Interview With A Vampire
??Robinson, Marilynne–Housekeeping
??Rocha, Sharon–For Laci
??Sebold, Alice–The Lovely Bones
*Shelley, Mary–Frankenstein
+*Shields, Carol-The Stone Diaries
Smith, Betty–A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
??Smith, Zadie–White Teeth
Spark, Muriel–The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
??Spyri, Johanna–Heidi
??Strout, Elizabeth–Amy and Isabelle
Steel, Danielle–The House
*Tan, Amy–The Joy Luck Club
??Tannen, Deborah–You're Wearing That
+*Tyler, Anne-The Accidental Tourist
??Ulrich, Laurel–A Midwife's Tale
Urquhart, Jane–Away
*Walker, Alice–The Temple of My Familiar
??Welty, Eudora–One Writer's Beginnings
Wharton, Edith–Age of Innocence
*Wilder, Laura Ingalls–Little House in the Big Woods
+*Winterson, Jeanette-Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
+*Wolf, Naomi-The Beauty Myth
*Wollstonecraft, Mary–A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Woolf, Virginia–A Room of One's Own
+*Banana Yoshimoto-Kitchen

I could do this all day - search for women I've read and add them to the list. But, a mama can only spend so long procrastinating on the computer the day before her son's third birthday. There are a lot of obvious women authors who I did not add to the list because I have not read them, such as J.K. Rowling (of Harry Potter fame) or
Octavia Butler (pioneering sci fi author who recently passed away) or that Kinsella woman who writes the Shopping series that seems to popular.

I will leave you with a picture of my little man, taken yesterday, 2 days before his third birthday. I can't believe he's three already. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it. Gosh!

Love It - Snub It

Love It!
They Might Be Giants: Here Come The ABCs (CD & DVD)
I've never been the biggest TMBG fan in the world, but I do have a deep appreciation for geeky looking guys (a personal weakness) and witty songwriting. Their documentary DVD Gigantic is really very good and further deepened my appreciation.

We got a copy of Bed Bed Bed, their book with accompanying CD and liked it, but we got it when Kieran was very little and he wasn't much into listening to kid music. It rarely got played. Last year, we got Here Come The ABCs on CD. I never bothered to listen to it. Kieran was far more fascinated with DVDs and TV shows and I was happy to let him play to Max & Ruby reruns and Mighty Machines and Scooby Doo.

Lately, however, I've been trying to become a better parent and encourage less TV time and more play time. So, in order to keep the atmosphere lively, I've been playing CDs, many kids ones, while I resad or knit and Kieran plays happily away.

Last week, a year after we got it, I finally threw ABCs on the player and I was blown away. It is fun and witty and subtely instructive without ever once talking down to the intended audience. It's so catchy, I've been compulsively singing snippets of songs as I tidy up or wash my hair ("F is for fun, F is for fun, F is for fake-believe!").

So, if you are in the market for music that will appeal to young music fans without driving you around the bend, go grab some ABCs.

Snub It!
Swiffer Sweeper
Apparently, the folks who are marketing the newly redesigned Swiffer Sweeper have heard of my prodigious houskeeping skills (cough!). They heard of my wonderful cleaning habits (cough, cough!).

So, the wildly popular Swiffer Sweeper, the cleaning implement that revolutionized how we cleaned our floors (bye-bye broom!), has been redesigned. It's sturdier and the cleaning head is bigger to more effectively clean your floors.

The only problem is that the Swiffer Sweeper only works on dusty residue on your floor. For my busy house, it's no match for the larger crumbs, beads, sand, shedding man-hair, bits of paper and whatnot that ends up all over my floors. I found that, after I used my Sweeper, I would go over all the edges with a broom and then switch to yet another cleaning tool when I had to use a brush and dustpan. And, half the time, dirt was getting left behind in the grout lines of my cermaic tiled floor.

This meant that when I put on a wet pad to do some spot mopping, the Sweeper soggy dustballs around and left them smeared all over my floor. This meant that I would have to get the damned mop out and wash the floors more completely.

Some time ago, I shelled out the $30+ for a Swiffer Vacuum which is what it sounds like: a Swiffer Sweeper with simultaneous vacuum suction. It is far more efficient. It's so damned efficient, I swear by it!

So, sorry Swiffer. I can't endorse your newly designed Sweeper. But, your Vacuum? Beautiful product! (I'd just like to know where the heck I can find those little filters you need for inside the cup?)

Love It!
Febreeze Noticeables
I've been taking my time reviewing the new Febreeze Noticeables. The same folks who let me try out the new Swiffer Sweeper let me try out the Febreeze Noticeables. And, I'm so very happy they chose me!

We don't smell or anything, but I like to get a sniff of something yummy and clean smelling every once in a while. I'm always jealous of the way people's houses smell when they have lots of pretty smelling candles and air fresheners around, but the cost always has been a bother. Who wants to pay a couple bucks for something that you can't smell after a couple of days? Not me! I'm too friggin cheap!

But, the great thing about the Noticeables is that it operates using the fact that we become so used to a new scent that we stop smelling it (which is the only way people with chronic bad breath can get through their lives - they just don't smell it anymore!). Every 15 minutes, the air freshener switches to one of two built in scents. 15 minuts later, it switches back, and again, 15 minutes later, ad inifinitum. This means that you neve smell the same scent for more than 15 minutes at a time, reducing the liklihood of your becoming so used to the scents that you stop smelling them.

Get it?

You plug the sucker in and it starts realeasing it's timed scents. A green light on top shows which side is smellifying the room at that moment. And the scents are really good. We started off with Morning Walk and Cleansing Rain. The scents were pretty intense for the first week or two. By the end of the month, we were getting a little used to them. But, the effect wasn't as bad as it usually was.

After about 30 days (we had ours set on low, but you could set it on high if you need to do a smell cleansing and get your room or house smelling like something yummy right fast), we switched the scent duo to Calypso Breeze and Hawaiian Paradise. Don't worry, they won't make your house smell like suntan lotion. But, you will find yourself suddenlly daydreaming of fruity, slushy drinks with lots of rum, pineapple garnishes and little umbrellas.

Of all the different smelly things I've done to my home, this was the best. Of course, if you are concerned about low wattage electricity usage contributing to escalating utility bills, you might want to do a contrast and compare on your meter after a month. I don't pay for my apartment's electricity, so I can't comment on this, but the Noticeables is a plug-in unit that runs continuously. On the plus side, the whole unit swivels 360 into any position to accomodate the other plugs in your outlet.

Love It!
Grass Armchair
If I owned a home, you can bet your first born child that I would be the first on my block to start a trend of lawn furniture that is grown out of the lawn.

How cool is that?!

You can buy the £ 65 kit but I bet you or a friend could figure this one out yourselves. It's only a cardboard frame, afterall. A couple of boxes, a box cutter, a little reverse engineering and you're set!

I want one! I would lie around in te grass all day!

(I am using too many exclamation marks again.)

Sleep Conundrum

Readers, we have a problem. A sleep problem.

You see, Kieran goes to bed, in my bed with me, around 11pm every night. The going to bed with me part isn't that big a deal. In fact, it's quite useful in forcing me to take some time and just be quiet and do some reading.

Now, I know, most of you are increduously whispering, "11pm?" to yourselves. It's kind of late, isn't it? But that's how much energy Kieran has in the evening; he has enough energy to get him to 11pm.

I've tried putting him to bed earlier. Even at 10 pm. The results are the same: he reads and squirms and talk until just after 11pm.

We've tried starting the bed routine at 8pm with the hope he'll be speeping an hour later, but no go. He is bouncing around like a mad toddler on an espresso bender.

Except the other night.

Since my beautiful niece and nephew came over in the afternoon during Kieran's normal afternoon nap time, he didn't get a nap.

By the time they were gone, it was nearly 5pm and Sean was due home shortley thereafter. I warned Keiran that he wasn't allowed to fall asleep. That's all I needed: a toddler who decided to take his afternoon nap from 5 to 7pm!

He was still awake when Sean got home. He stayed awake through dinner and he was awake for a little while longer after that. But it was obvious, he was TIRED.

At 8pm, we bundled him into a new diaper and some jim jams of his choosing and climbed into my bed. We grabbed our Thomas The Tank Engine poetry book and I started reading poems about all the useful engines. He was sound asleep in 5 minutes. After 10 minutes, so was I!

Around 10:30pm, Sean got me out of bed so I wouldn't miss Ricky Gervais on The Daily Show (brilliant, btw!). We talked about how wonderful it would be if we could get Kieran sleeping around 8pm every night. It would give Sean and I a whole evening of time to do things that weren't the most toddler friendly activities. You know, things like rent hookers, snort some coke and play scrabble while listening to True Norwegian Black Metal™ .

In the morning, Kieran was awake around 8:30am. Meaning: Kieran slept for about 12 hours, uninterrupted. Wow! He woke up refreshed and happy and we went on to have a great day together.

Trying to repeat the success of the day before, I tried to keep Kieran awake all day again, but he fell asleep on the couch around 3:30pm (despite my walking into the room every 5 minutes and shouting, "Hey! No falling asleep allowed Kieran!" - he would just giggle and close his eyes and snuggle back into the couch.)

Again, Kieran went to bed at 11pm.

So, if I can get him to stay awake and not nap, he sleeps at a normal time. However, it's almost impossible to keep him awake in the afternoon, so after two hours of nap, he's ready to go until 11pm.

What the heck can I do?

Lucky Me!

One of the bonuses of being a SAHM is that I'm around in case my sister needs me to watch the kids for a little while. Like yesterday, when my sister and brother-in-law went to deal with some mortgage stuff (it's their five year anniversary of owning their home! Yay for them!).

My sister asked to drop my niece off for an hour while they went to their appointment and I happily agreed. "Why don't you leave the baby with me, too!" I offered.

Lucky me; I got to hang out with my cutie-pie little niece and I got to sniff her brother's head, which at 2 and a half months, still smells like newborn head. Life is good!

Economy For Your Hands

I love little money saving ideas. Especially the really simple ones that double as ways to keep things clean.

Which is why I am in love with foaming soap.

Ah, you say, but what the hell is wrong with bar soap? Well, it's messy. You have to have a tray or special spot for it and that spot ends up getting all gummy with lumps of soap and bubbles and dirty smears. I am the master slacker housewife, so bar soap means extra cleaning for me.

Liquid soap is your favourite? Too expensive! Even if you get a big jug of refill soap and meticulously refill the fancy smelling liquid. Every time you pump some into your hand, a little always seems to drip off the spout onto the sink. Worst of all, the portions are too big! You have to wash forever to get that soap rinsed and by the time you're done, you have to incur the expense of a moisturizer for your dried up hands!

Which leaves the elegant and economical foam soap!

The inital layout is about the same for liquid soap: $3 or $4 for the pump (which you can also buy on it's own at gadget stores and from home marketing companies like Pampered Chef) and $3 or $4 for a jug of economy size liquid soap refill.

Now, if your foam soap dispenser came with soap in it, go ahead and enjoy the foamy clean goodness until the soap runs out. When that happens you, and the folks who bought an empty dispenser, can do the following:

• fill the dispenser to 1/3 full with liquid soap (economy shampoo can be used for the very thrifty)
• fill the next 2/3 about 3/4 full with hot water, added gently (you don't want to create any undue foaming action and you need to leave room for the pump)
• Insert the pump and tighten the lid
• Gently agitate to mix the water and soap (I slowly rock the rig back and forth)
• Pump out some sweet, sweet foam and clean your hands!

Did you notice how fantasticly little actual soap you used? Your economy jog will last you approximately three times longer than it used to, or up to about 6 months.

And, little kids? They love this stuff!

So, keep your money where it can earn you interest and out of your bathroom/kitchen sink; get yourself a foaming soap dispenser and fill it yourself!

**This message is brought to you by North American Moms Who Are Sick Of Cleaning Up After Everyone and by The Canadian Society for Moms Who Are Saving Up To Buy Stuff For Themselves, in partnership with Thrifty Mums of the UK and Deutsche Mütter Die Hausarbeit Hassen (German Mothers Who Hates Housework).