Five Things I Meant To Do In 2009

It wasn't originally a meme, but more of a question on BlogHer post by Maria Niles of PopConsumer, but I love it. I severely dislike those New Year's resolution posts - I never make New Year's resolutions anymore. Mostly because I have a terrible memory and less than halfway through the year I have forgotten what they were. But there are always things I "meant" to do!

1. Start working out again. I have gone to Mome Yoga twice, but that is about it. I actually miss yoga a lot but have not figured out what to do with Little Sir in order to attend classes again. I also intended to walk around the block or down to the lake with Little Sir when it is still warm more often, but no. Have not done it. Have been washing and folding diapers and cloth wipes, cleaning the house, sleeping, sitting on the couch staring at him. I still have at least 11 lbs. to lose. I cannot stand the thought that I have 3 pairs of designer jeans that are rotting in my closet. I refuse to admit that I spent all that money on jeans I can no longer wear!!
   
2. Write profound stuff on this blog. I admire the depth of posts that bloggers like Crunchy Domestic Goddess and SassyMonkey write. I admire the honesty of Bobbi Janay and Mommy Is Rock n Roll. Marjorie of My Inner French Girl and Chirky write so skillfully that it reads like art. But me? I slap a few pictures on the family blog and I just don't really post much on this blog at all. I write beautiful blog posts in my head. They just never get to the internets. I have to admit that some of it is fear of what people will think. I know who reads this blog and I don't want to offend anyone I know IRL (in real life). Shame on me.
   
3. Go back to the orthodontist. When I was 25-27 years old, I dropped around $6K on braces primarily because I got tired of photoshopping my teeth in all pictures of myself. When Christian and I were married, my teeth were amazing. I have a retainer I was supposed to wear to keep them like that but, uh, lets just say I slacked off on that over the last 4 years. Finally this year I realized that I am back to photoshopping my teeth. There is one tooth that is crooked that has moved back. And this year I meant to call the orthodontist and set up an appointment to get that fixed. Have not done it.
4. Get a new iPhone. I have the very first old skool iPhone. You know, back when they were obscenely expensive. I am still a little bitter about how much we paid for mine and now they are so comparatively cheap. I don't have enough room for all my music in the 8MB it has, and it has the old-style input plug at the top that doesn't work for the audio jack of our new Honda Fit. But I am cheap and I keep thinking we just shouldn't spend the money. Also, I hear that GPS really drains the battery. I don't have that problem with my current phone!
5. Blog more often. This sounds a lot like #2 but there's a difference. Sometimes I feel like these 2 things are in conflict - quantity vs. quality. I've considered doing NaBloPoMo, but I've also noticed that some bloggers who participate in this challenge to blog every single day for a month suffer from a noticeable decrease in the quality of their posts. I really don't want to do that to ya'll. If I'm going to blog, I feel like I should have something to say, and say it well. Not just resort to talking about what I had for breakfast just because I ran out of things to say (although I did do a post about Malt-O-Meal once, that was for a good reason!). So I haven't committed to NaBloPoMo or posted as frequently as I probably should.
   

So, there you go. Things I meant to do. Just to be clear, this doesn't mean I'm necessarily going to do these things in 2010, just that I will probably continue to intend to do them...someday...

Happy New Year!

I Hate Disposable Diapers

We have been traveling for only 4 days, using disposable diapers instead of my beloved Bum Genius cloth diapers because, theoretically, disposable is "easier". And by "easier", I mean that other people are less scared of it.

I should never have done this. We were staying with my parents and I could have brought my cloth diapers because we could have washed them, but I believed the lie that disposable would be "easier".

At first we were using our favorite brand, the gel-free Tushies. These started leaking almost immediately, which had never happened before. We assumed they had become too small because we've been using this size since Little Sir was a newborn and never had issues before. So we went to the dreaded Walmart to buy Huggies Pure and Natural in a slightly larger size (Tushies are impossible to find offline, even in Dallas we have to drive 45 minutes to buy them). I wasn't excited about Huggies because they do utilize gel and still aren't biodegradeable.

So we stood in Walmart gazing at all the sizes. See, this is why I think cloth is so much easier-when I want a larger size of my cloth diapers, I just unsnap the next snap and they are instantly bigger. With disposables, I have  to go to the store and try to figure out what size to get, only to waste money on the wrong one because the weight ranges on the packages seem to be complete lies.

We bought what the package's weight range indicated should have been too large (14-18 lbs., Little Sir is probably 11 lbs.) but looked from the outside of the package to be only slightly larger than the Tushies. When we got home and opened them, they were in fact the same size, if not smaller than the Tushies. WHAT?!

We used them anyway, and they proceeded to leak the same, if not more, than the Tushies. We went through 2-3 outfits every day for the whole trip. We collected the dirty ones in a standard yard size trash bag, and after 4 days the bag was half full of non-biodegradeable diapers. Can you imagine how much waste would be created if we used those things all the time?! I was surprised.

The first thing people say to me when I tell them we cloth diaper is something like, "Wow, I don't know how you can do that!".

After 4 days of disposable diapering, I return that sentiment right back at ya.
Disposable diapers: wow, I don't know how you can do that!
I sure can't.

Ritter Sport chocolate: responsible chocolate

The kind people at Ritter Sport chocolate recently sent me lots of free chocolate!!

The reason they contacted me was because Ritter Sport is a great fit for this blog: conscientious.

Ritter Sport is really taking the initiative in responsible cocoa farming by supporting under-resourced farmers in areas of Nicaragua who would otherwise be forced to destroy rainforest to grow land-damaging crops, by teaching these farmers agroforestry farming. Agroforestry is farming that does not destroy the rainforest but instead utilizes crops and practices that co-exist and even benefit the surrounding land. You can read more about the CACAONICA project here.

My first question was: if this product is made so responsibly, why isn't there a "fair trade certification" seal on the packaging? Upon doing research on fair trade certification, it turns out that only products manufactured in the US and Canada qualify for most "fair trade certification" programs. Ritter Sport chocolate is manufactured in Waldenbuch, Germany. This is not true of all fair trade certification programs, but indeed, most.


In addition, Ritter Sport adopts environmentally friendly practices in their manufacturing facilities, creating their own power plant focusing on cleaner technologies, and working toward using more renewable energies. You can read more about their environmental practices here.

So, I'm convinced this is "responsibly made" chocolate - but what does it taste like?

Well, I didn't trust only my own personal opinion so I also forced 7 other people to try the 4 varieties of chocolate and rate them on scale from 1 to 5 (1 being ick and 5 being the best).

Here are the 4 varieties we tried and some notes:

Milk Chocolate with Neapolitan Wafers - I was disappointed to find out that this product contained trans fats (hydrogenated palm kernel oil). I think we all know how I feel about those. Most likely this comes from the wafers. I can taste trans fat in anything and this was my least favorite flavor, personally.
Yogurt - You might think "yogurt and chocolate, ew!" but the tanginess was really good with the milk chocolate! I liked it!
Dark Chocolate - 50% Cocoa, the dark chocolate fans rated this one the highest.
Milk Chocolate with Whole Almonds - Probably my personal favorite, in my opinion they seem to have used higher quality nuts than some chocolates I've had (Hershey's, I'm looking at you...)

With 8 people rating these 4 varieties, which variety "won" the highest score??

None of them!

What's funny is, for each variety there were exactly 2 people who rated that flavor a "5"!
The average score for each variety was either 4 or 3.75

I think this goes to show that most people like pretty much all 4 of these varieties, and according to each one's taste, there is at least one variety that each person loved!

Now for the fun part!

Ritter Sport is allowing me to give away 4 boxes of chocolate containing 84 mini bars in each. These are the tiny single-squares you might see in stores like World Market. I will pick 4 winners and each winner gets 84 minibars! That's a lot of chocolate!

To enter leave a comment on this post, please make sure that if you are posting without a Google login that has an email address associated with it, give me some way to contact you. I am new to this so if I can't contact you somehow, I am going to give up and pick somebody else.

For additional entries, do one of the following and please mention in your comment if you have done one or more of these (that is the only way I will know to enter you additional times):

1. Tweet this giveaway (Twitter, you know)
   
2. Subscribe to ConscientiousConfusion.com in a RSS reader or via email
   
3. Blog about this giveaway or Conscientious Confusion - please leave a link to your post in the comment!
   

I will pick the winner by 11:59 PM on January 2, 2010.

Good luck and have a great holiday!

Green Automatic Dishwasher detergent, Part II

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post about my failed search for a green automatic dishwasher detergent. Even though I failed at that time, I have kept up the search. More and more companies have put out their versions of green automatic dishwasher detergents and I have tried them. Here are a few that I have tried since then.

method Smarty Dish, Non-Toxic Dishwasher Detergent, Go Naked
I usually love Method products and I actually bought 2 containers in my effort to give it a good try, but no luck. It was very close, I have to say - the closest of any I've tried, but still left my plates dingy and occasionally I did have to re-wash my silverware.


Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwasher Gel, Lemon Scent
I also love Seventh Generation - I love them so much that I follow them on Twitter!! I also really wanted to love their dishwasher detergent, but no. Last night I had to re-wash all of my silverware by hand, which is part of what prompted this post. I hate doing that. Why do I have a dishwasher at all if I am washing all my silverware by hand?! It is very sad, but FAIL!!


Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Auto Dishwashing Packs, Geranium
I loved the way this one smelled, and it came recommended by a friend who said it really worked. Unfortunately, my dishwasher machine did not agree. As I recall, this one left residue of undissolved tablets inside my machine, which suggests that it actually didn't utilize all of the tablet in the washing.

So, I am still looking. None of the companies mentioned above provided the products or any feedback - I wasted all of my own money in this continuing search. I also have great things to say about all these brands, I have other products made by them that I love. It is just too bad that the "green clean" movement is so terrible at automatic dishwasher detergent.

Tag, you're it!

Is anyone still reading?

If so, I have some contest sort of thingys.

First of all, I have been tagged in real life with a sort of chain letter thing where you send scratch-off lottery tickets to 6 people. My brain is too fried to think of 6 people who would not be annoyed by me sending them scratch-off tickets, so I am asking you, internets.

If you would like me to send you one of the tickets and the chain letter thingy, leave a comment and email me your address at jenny [at] conscientiousconfusion [dot] com. I honestly do not care if you keep up the chain or not. I am just lazy. You do need to be a Texas resident, I believe.

Secondly, Ritter Sport contacted me to review their chocolate. I know I said I don't really do much PR, but THEY OFFERED TO SEND ME FREE CHOCOLATE. How could I say no to that? And it turns out they make it responsibly. I have learned some things about Free Trade Certification which I will share with you. And I will be giving away chocolate. So keep checking in!

BumGenius Organic take too long to dry: my solution

People have asked me how cloth diapering is going. My answer is: great! I am using BumGenius One-Size All-In-Ones, a combination of the Organic AIO's and the pocket 3.0's.

To me it's just as easy as disposables, and I feel much better about it. They go on just like a disposable, and then instead of tossing them in the trash, I toss them in lidded trash can with a washable diaper pail liner and when I have gone through about half my stash of diapers, I toss the diapers along with the washable liner. When they come out of the wash, I drape them over a drying rack in the house if it isn't sunny, but if it is, I hang them out on my clothesline. All they need is about 10 minutes of direct sun to bleach out any stains (no stain remover required in the wash cycle).

One difference I have noticed between the Organic AIO and the pocket 3.0's: the BumGenius Organic don't dry very fast. If drying inside, they could take up to 24 full hours to dry. This is because the "liner" is attached to the diaper's body at the top and the bottom, and at the areas where it is attached there is a lot of fabric, which takes a while to dry. However, I have solved this problem!

Here is what the Organic AIO looks like the way it comes originally:
And here is what I did to make it dry faster:

I just took a sewing stitch ripper and removed the seam that attached the thickest part of the liner to the diaper's body. This is no trouble to the functionality of the diaper - it lies so closely to the baby's bum that it isn't going to slide around. And it has really improved the drying time of the organic AIO's!

NOTE: cross-posted to the family blog

Mercedes 240D SVO/WVO Veggie Oil car: Is this the end?

In October 2006, after we had been married almost 1 year, Christian and I bought a 1980 Mercedes 240D which had been converted to run on vegetable oil from a lady in New Mexico off of eBay. For a year, we collected waste vegetable oil from an Asian restaurant and filtered it, which fueled the car. We drove on free fuel like this for about a year when the gas prices went way up - I can't remember what year that was, but you know what I mean? When it was almost $4/gallon? At that time vegetable oil collection became fiercely competitive. The restaurant stopped letting us take their waste oil because a big biodiesel company was actually paying them for it instead. We have been running it on biodiesel ever since.
*NOTE: Check out how totally hott I am in this pic. This was after we were first married. I am so envious of my own former self right now, since I still cannot wear anything but maternity pants and currently I have what I would refer to as a "mom haircut"

Meanwhile, the poor car has been slowly falling apart. We've put a steady stream of money into it for a variety of things. It will reach its 30th birthday next year. It drives slowly, so forget about merging into Dallas traffic. It's top speed is probably 70 mph, so most of the time we don't go above 60 mph. When driving above 40 mph it is very, very loud inside. Christian used a decibel measurement device on it at that speed and the level of noise is high enough to actually cause hearing loss when exposed to it for greater than 1 hour at time.

Part of the reason we bought our scooter was because this car is in the shop so frequently. Fortunately, we have great mechanics at Foster's German Motorworks. I think we are putting someone's kids through college over there with all the maintenance we have to do. But they are honest guys and they know us after all these years.

However, last week it exploded. I had just driven myself and Little Sir home from Plano and was pulling it into the garage when there was a huge "BANG!" and smoke poured out of the hood. Then it peed itself all over the driveway. Of course it did not move. We had to leave it there in the driveway over the Thanksgiving holiday. It turns out that the battery exploded and it was leaking battery acid. We replaced the battery and took it to Foster's today for them to look at.

It is not without some sentimentality that I now find myself saying: I am finished with this car.

It was fun to drive, and I enjoyed knowing that we were "off the grid" driving it for so long on free and recycled fuel. I liked that we were reusing an old car rather than driving a new one. And of course, it's been great not to have a car payment.

It has more than 240,000 miles on it.
I never know when it will, in fact, finally explode for good.
Driving in it with Little Sir means that when we go somewhere like Plano, the noise is causing him some small degree of hearing loss. I am OK with that for us - we are old. But it is not right to subject my son to that possibility.

Does anyone know someone who might be interested in purchasing a 30 year old Mercedes that runs on vegetable oil? If not, I think this old friend will be going on Craigslist or eBay as soon as we find a replacement vehicle.