Extra! Extra! Water Heater Turned Down, Mom Doesn't Notice!

Welcome to the January 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Experiments in Natural Family Living
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have reported on weeklong trials to make their lives a little greener. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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When I visualize "experiments," I think of Doc and his DeLorean or Frankenstein and his lonely monster. Compared to those, my family's experiment in natural living is so woefully unremarkable I'm somewhat embarrassed to share it. Of course, compared to those examples, my experiment was real. So, there's that.

We decided to turn down the thermostat on our water heater. We have the old tank kind that most people still seem to have. It sits in the spidery corner of the basement, heating element coming on, going off, on and off, hour after hour, day after day. Lots of water hot and at the ready and mostly going unused.  Seemed easy, to turn down the dial. With a four month old and a three year old during the holiday season, easy seemed like all the experiment we could handle.

We were already running the heater at a lowish setting. Our dial's highest level is "Hot," then there are four marks below that, then "Warm," then two marks below that, and finally the coolest level is "Vacation." We were running at one click above "Warm" before beginning our experiment.

Here's a typed representation of the round dial:

-Hot
-
-
-
-
-Warm
-
-
-Vacation

Day One

We turn our water heater down three clicks, from one above Warm to one above Vacation. I notice the water doesn't seem to get very hot when I wash my hands in the kitchen sink, but I don't dwell on it.

Day Two

My husband suffers through a chilly shower and informs me that the water temperature is now too cold. He heads into the basement and turns the temperature back up. I believe our experiment failed. 

Days Three - Seven

Life goes on. I take normal showers and fill the bathtub for my daughter. We wash dishes and wash diapers. For all intents and purposes we are normal, hot-water-using people, and I notice nothing out of the ordinary. 

It's not until the week has passed and I mention having to write a "failure" post about our natural living experiment that my husband explains we haven't failed at all. I'd misunderstood what he did on back on Day Two. He'd increased the temperature, but not back to where we'd had it before. He'd merely turned it up one click, to just below Warm. We were living happily at two notches below where we'd begun!

Days Eight - Today

And that's where we've stayed. The baby's diapers have been clean (that was one of my big worries, going with cooler water, but so far so good. No stink, no rashes). My three year old's baths have been comfortable for her (still plenty of warm water to splash onto the floor). My showers have been hot (granted, I'm not in there for much more than ten minutes, but that's just how it is when you have small children who wait until you are in the bathroom to decide they really really need you right then). 

If the diapers begin to seem dirty after their wash, or when the girls get older and need showers in the morning then I could see us moving the thermostat back up a click or two. But for now it seems we've found our perfect minimum water temp. Perfect because I haven't noticed a difference at all. I do hope we notice some savings when we get our next electricity bill, though. Not bad for an experiment I'd thought failed!

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Make your own moisturizer! — Megan at boho mama whips up a winter skin-friendly moisturizer.
• Cold Water Only — Brittany at The Pistachio Project talks about how you do not need hot water to wash laundry.
• Family Cloth... Really?? — After lots of forethought and consideration, Momma Jorje finally decides to take the plunge with family cloth.
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle : 5-5-5 Things A Day — Luschka from Diary of a First Child writes about decluttering her home in an attempt to create a gentler living space. She takes on a new project where she sets a goal of reducing, reusing and recycling every day.
• Pros and cons of family cloth — Lauren at Hobo Mama would love to continue replacing paper products with family cloth … if she could only get over how damp she feels.
• Craftily Parenting — Kellie at Our Mindful Life finds that crafting makes her a better parent.
• Changes — Laura at Pug in the Kitchen couldn't choose just one area to experiment with, so she wrote a long post about all the fun changes initiated in her life!
• Life without Internet: Not all it's Cracked up to Be — Adrienne at Mommying My Way tries to go a week without the Internet, only to realize a healthy dose of Internet usage really helps keep this stay-at-home mom connected.
• My Progression to Raw Milk — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling shares her natural parenting progression all the way to trying raw milk.
• mama's new little friend. — Sarah at Bitty Bird tries a menstrual cup to "green her period," and is pleasantly surprised when she falls in love with the product!
• Before you throw it out, try homemade laundry soap! — Jennifer at Practical OH Mommy shows visual proof that homemade laundry soap is cheaper, easier, and works better than the store-bought chemicals!
• Oil, Oil, No Toil, No Trouble — K from Very Simple Secret talks about her foray into the oil-cleansing method.
• I Need a Hobby — Amanda at Let's Take the Metro couldn't decide which experiment to run, so she did them all.
• 7 days of macrobiotics for a balanced family — The Stones make a [successful] attempt to release the "holiday junking" with 7 days of macrobiotic meals to balance their bodies and souls. Elisabeth at Manic Mrs. Stone includes an explanation of macrobiotics.
• Chemical Free Beauty Challenge — Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction turned to natural alternatives for her daily beauty and cleaning routine, with great results.
• Greening my Armpits!? My Green Resolution — Shannon at The Artful Mama talks about how she decided to give up her traditional antiperspirant and make the switch over to crystal deodorants and definitely isn't looking back!
• Going Raw (for a while) — Jenny at Chronicles of a Nursing Mom shares her family's experience with raw food.
• Do we get to eat gluten today? — Sheila at A Gift Universe has been trying to figure out if her son does better with or without gluten in his diet … but it's really hard to tell for sure.
• Hippies Can Smell and Look Fabulous Too! — Arpita of Up, Down And Natural details her experience of going shampoo-free and overhauling her cosmetics to find the balance between feeling beautifully fabulous and honoring her inner hippie.
• Our cupboards are full...but there's nothing to eat — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud takes on the challenge of chomping through the contents of her storecupboard rather than going shopping — but there's something that she just can't bring herself to do …
• Elimination Experiment 3.0 — MudpieMama recounts the messy adventures of her baby daughter trying to be diaper free.
• Family Cloth Trial — Amyables at Toddler in Tow talks about making and using family cloth wipes in the bathroom for the first time.
• Taking a Hiatus — Amy at Peace 4 Parents shares how her experience of much less internet interaction affected her family and how it will change her approach in the future.
• Trying Out the Menstrual Cup — Lindsey at an unschooling adventure ditches the tampons and gives menstrual cups a try.
• Managing Food Waste in Our Home — Tired of the holiday waste, Robbie at Going Green Mama takes a weeklong focus on reducing food waste in her home, and learns some lessons that can take her through the new year.
• Going Offline, Cloth Tissues, and Simplicity — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama muses over her time away from blogging and social networking. In addition, she shares her newfound love of cloth tissues and simplicity.
• The Oil Cleansing Method — Erica at ChildOrganics explores an easy, organic and natural way to tackle skin care.
• Experiments in Natural Family Living - Natural Toys! — Lani at Boobie Time enjoys the silence of natural toys and being more present with her son.
• Discovering a New City and Organic Foods — Amy at A Secure Base describes her family's switch to and search for organic foods for one week.
• My Experiment in Homemade Bread — Crunchy Con Mommy tried — and loved — baking her own homemade bread.
• Menu Planning: Stop the Excuses — Gaby at Tmuffin stopped the excuses and started planning her weekly meals, drastically cutting her grocery budget and stress level and improving the quality of foods she fed her family.
• My First Menstrual Cup — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children was pleasantly surprised with her first experience using a menstrual cup.
• My Natural Beauty Regime — Christine at African Babies Don’t Cry shares the results of banishing cleanser and soaps from her bathroom, as well as a couple of natural homemade recipes that have worked well on her skin.
• Unplugging and Creating a Rhythm: Our Experiment in Natural Family Living — Dionna at Code Name: Mama focused less on gadgets and spent more time with her family to create a healthy rhythm for the new year.
• Experiments in Natural Family Living: 5 First Steps Toward Preparing for a Natural Birth — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama discusses how she tackled the pressing matter of how to begin preparing for a natural birth.
• All you need is...vinegar! — Kristen at My Semi-Crunchy Life learns that one household product can replace all the cleaners in her cabinet.
• Nope Nada Ixnay Negative Pass Decline — Zoie at TouchstoneZ finds out what shakes loose if she says, "YES!!" to anything anyone asks of her over the space of 10 days.
• Reducing our exposure to toxins found in plastics — Syenna at Gently Parenting Twins throws out the melamine and BPA plastics which have been hanging around the kitchen for too long.
• Duh! — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment shares how she began the process of helping her 2-year-old son stop physically acting out.
• Experiments in Natural Parenting: Starting, Stopping, and Gaining Perspective — Melissa at Vibrant Wanderings explains how pregnancy brain interfered with her attempts to complete an experiment, but how she gained some interesting perspective as she started and stopped several.
• From Experiment to Lifestyle — Abbie at Farmer's Daughter shares her experience avoiding processed foods for a month, and deciding to make it a permanent lifestyle change.
• From Disposable Paper to Reusable Cloth – AGAIN! — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle stops flushing trees down the toilet and switches to the softest ever butt-wiping material: cloth.
• Extra! Extra! Water Heater Turned Down, Mom Doesn't Notice! — Thomasin at Propson Palingenesis finds an energy-saving experiment that's so easy she didn't even realize it was happening.
• Worm Tea — CatholicMommy isn't sure how successful her worm bin will be, but she's having fun anyway.
• Miles to Go ... — Rachael at The Variegated Life learns that when it comes to sleep debt, she's in real deep.
• My Month With Water Kefir — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries experiments with a new fermented probiotic drink homemade in her own kitchen.
• OMG Mom is Home... All Day Everyday: A Week-Long Experiment in Connecting — What a difference a week makes! Ana at Pandamoly is afforded a week off from work and takes the chance to reconnect and reattach with her 16-month-old son through an experiment in simply being there.
• Creating Healthy Family Recipes — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares her experiment with healthy, gluten-free recipes and a chocolate muffin recipe that was created during the experiment.
• Adventures in Alternative Haircare: No 'Poo — This guest post at Natural Parents Network from Amy at Anktangle chronicles a months-long journey into the world of no 'poo.
• My Experiment in Natural Family Living: Natural Family Planning — Birth control options are seriously limited for those of us trying to live a little closer to the earth, so Mama Psalmist experiments with natural family planning.

Thomasin's Test Kitchen: Laborade Edition

While I was laboring with Ilse (I know, I know. I haven't posted the birth story yet. I'm working on it. Promise), my doula made sure I stayed hydrated and energized by giving me sips of various drinks including lots of water, an almond butter-berry smoothie, and--perhaps most refreshing of all-- laborade. I was planning on posting this review of laborade recipes, oh, five months ago. But you know time... So, here we go, five months later than planned but hopefully still interesting.

The idea behind laborade is that it provides quick calories to provide the laboring woman an energy boost (fruit juice and sweetener), prevents dehydration (liquid and salt), calms your stomach (baking soda), and helps muscles relax (calcium & magnesium). Keeping the drink slightly sour can be helpful to increase saliva production and avoid a dry mouth.

I'd planned on testing several different laborade variations before I had the baby and then making a batch of my favorite while I was in early labor. But because I am a terrible procrastinator, I didn't test any recipes beforehand. And then labor started and I was more focused on laboring itself than I was on making beverages.

Thankfully, when my in-laws came to pick up my firstborn, my mother-in-law kindly made a batch of this first recipe. The lemon and honey mixture reminded me the hot water/lemon/honey mixtures my parents had us children drink if we were ill when we were young. Turned out to be very soothing to me, having that familiar taste during the hard work of having a baby. Comforting.


     Lemony Laborade from www.naturalbirthandbabycare.com/laborade.html

• 1 quart water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1-2 calcium tablets, crushed
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

          Blend/mix well. Chill

I then made this second recipe about a week after Ilse was born and found I liked it even more than the first, which surprises me since I'm not an apple juice person (Hot cider = happy Yes, please! Cold apple juice = indifferent Thanks, no). But using the apple juice as a laborade base was delicious.

     Apple Juice Laborade  from www.naturalbirthandbabycare.com/laborade.html

• 2 cups water
• 2 cups apple juice
• 2 crushed calcium tablets
• 1-2 fresh-squeezed lemons
• salt to taste
• honey to taste

          Blend/mix well. Chill


Of course, the internet is full of other laborade recipes I still mean to try.  This one sounds particularly interesting because of the molasses (I love molasses):

     Molasses and Lemon (or Vinegar) Laborade

• 1 qt pure water
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 Tbsp blackstrap molasses
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (could substitute apple cider vinegar)
• 2 Tbsp raw honey

          Blend/mix well. Chill



Kimarie of The Cardomom's Pod makes gallon-size batches of laborade for her children (kind of a homemade Gatorade). Her recipe uses lime juice for taste:

      Lemon-Lime Laborade

• 1 cup lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
• 2 Tbs lime juice (can omit, but is the key to great taste)
• 2/3 - 1 cup sugar (or 1/3 to 1/2 cup honey)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• water to make 1 gallon

          Blend/mix well. Chill



And these last two sound interesting because they use different fruit juices than most laborade recipes. The first uses pineapple, orange, and apricot (yum!) and the second is Bloody Mary -ish with its tomato juice/tamari mix. I could see either one sustaining a laboring mom.

     Apricot/Pineapple/Orange Laborade  from www.preciouspassage.com/laborade

•  1/2 cup apricot nector
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 1/4 tsp sea salt

          Blend/mix well. Chill


    
     Tomato Juice Laborade  from www.preciouspassage.com/laborade

• 2 cups tomato juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 dashes tamari
• juice of 1/2 lime

          Blend/mix well. Chill


 
 
Perhaps you've tried a laborade variation yourself? Care to share the recipe and your review? I'd love to hear it!

Nobler Modes of Life

It's not exactly what Tennyson had in mind, but once again I am using this time of year to set some goals for myself. I suspect some of my former Resolutions smacked of too generic to be useful. Be Healthy is less  helpful to me when I'm deciding between doughnuts or hopping on the elliptical than if I'd promised to eat only homemade snacks for next twelve weeks.

So here, rather than more generic resolutions, is my obscenely long and likely not-totally-doable list of Goals for 2012. (I'm hoping that by hitting the "Publish" button on these I'll be more likely to fulfill some of them than if I'd kept them to myself.)

Create/Media/the Arts

• finish knitting Ilse's baby pants by end of January
• blog 102 posts (2x week) on Palingenesis
• blog 24 posts (2x month) on Wellcookbooked 
• get a spiral planner to plan blog posts  done!
• read more poetry---at least a few poems a week
• write a poem a week (used to write one a day. I can do this!)
• see a play at a local playhouse
• join Twitter and figure out what it's all about
• use Pintrest at least 1x week
• revamp the Palingenesis blog's design
• schedule evenings for TV and other nights for projects/writing/reading (default in 2011 was TV). Discuss with Justin and figure out by January 15th.
• frog the sweaters by my bed
• knit socks (one pair for me, one for Justin)
• knit handwarmers (one set for me, one for Justin)
• set-up sewing machine in place it can be kept out and used 
• make Advent calendar (by July)
• use my lunch break for creating or reading novels vs. net surfing
• make flannel mennorah for Hanukkah (by October)
• participate in 2012 NaNoWriMo
• at least one carnival post a quarter
• try at least 24 new sauces or salad dressings in 2012
• re-read Arthurian legends/novels
• knit wool diaper cover for Ilse
• read a classic a quarter
• make the girls a puppet theatre

Household

• Ilse and I move into Uli's room/futon  (3/12)
• go through my clothes boxes in Uli's closet and donate unused
• go through downstairs bookshelves and pull books/magazines to donate; rearrange the rest (3/12)
• follow Martha Stewart's housekeeping schedule for a month and see how it goes
• plant the garden with herbs/veggies, keeping in mind savings/usefulness
• pack decorations (spring/autumn/winter holidays) into easily-findable containers in basement
• brush dogs at least 2x month
• brush Lucy at least 2x month
• decide what to do about Lucy (find new home?)
• take dogs for runs in the AM when weather permits (2x week)
• make another batch of deodorant using arrowroot
• weed through our children's books, pulling the non-literary type (3/12)
• switch to cloth dinner napkins (1/12)
• lay out clothes the night before
• keep birdfeeders filled
• create chore charts for Uli (bedtime and downstairs)
• organize linen closet (make sure everything smells good!)
• pick paint color for hallway
• hang pictures in Uli's/Ilse's room
• find way to keep top of microwave clutter free
• keep top of fridge clutter free

Traditions/Memories

• celebrate vernal & autumnal equinoxes/equiluxes--look up traditional celebrations
• get snapshot/photo of entire family
• start eating breakfast with Uli/Ilse at table
• Passover at my house this year
• celebrate solstices--look up traditional celebrations (winter = the burning/releasing old with pouches of tobacco)
• one night (first? eighth?) of Hanukkah at my house this year
• light a candle during meals at home
• print out some photos in "hardcopy" vs. keeping all on computer

Nutrition/Foods & Health/Fitness

• jazz up lunch (at least two delicious and nutritious lunches a week)
• snacks are limited to the homemade (if I want fries or cookies I'm welcome to them, so long as I [or my husband] has made them at home)
• kick the coffee habit! Reduce to one cup a day. Switch to black tea for less caffeine.
• exercise DVDS 2x/week (mornings)
• sit/squat for one meal a week (coffeetable)
• find a healthy whole grain bread both Justin and I can agree on (2/12)
• bake a loaf of whole wheat bread at home (Laurel's Kitchen)
• grow and glean items for homemade teas
• elliptical 40 mins week (whether 10 mins at time or all in one day)
• in good weather:  back to walking in the evenings with the girls
• find good peanut-free Pad Thai recipe
• find raw milk supplier
• eat only organic for one month
• sign-up for CSA! (use PPlus reimbursement)
• work up to sitting on heels comfortably
• try meditation (spring?)

Misc.

• start a Montessori school fund for the girls
• bike to work at least one time in 2012!

OK. That seems like kind of a lot. But I have a whole 365 days. Surely some of the above can be accomplished. And more. I just need to get  to it. 

How about you? Have you made resolutions/goals for 2012? I'd love to hear them!

I love my sweet girls

Ilse was making new sounds this morning. Not talking, obviously, but new-to-her noises. It's amazing, watching her grow. And it's fun, watching her watch Uli, who is also changing daily.

What amazing children I have. Their relationship is evolving. I no longer see the only-child whose territory was invaded. Instead, I have two girls. Sisters. Uli talks about loving and protecting and teaching things to Ilse. Ilse smiles the biggest, most amazing smiles for Uli (not even momma gets these smiles. They're a mile wide and accompanied with lots of eye twinkles and arm waiving and occasional wild cooing).

Ilse loves to hold your fingers and push up with straightened legs until she's standing. I don't remember Uli doing that (at least, not so often. At four months). She also loves to hold and turn the pages of That's Not My Reindeer, drooling over the shiny foil illustrations.

She thinks we're documenting her candy score,
but I really just wanted a picture of her with her hair brushed! ;-)

Uli now gets her crayons out of their box by herself, and she's been on a coloring spree. If you leave paper within her reach (which is extensive) you are going to come back to it and find embellishments of red, yellow, blue, and green. Guaranteed. She also calls her father and me by endearments we use with each other and with her. It's not unusually for her to say, "Hi Sweetheart" to me or "Okay, Honey" to her daddy. I love that and I'm soaking it up, for I suspect she won't keep it up for long.

Every day is a a day I'm thankful to be with my family. Love these little ones so so so much.

Lunchtime Purge

Mental purging, people, mental.

I've been thinking. I eat like crap. Seriously. I make some good homemade meals, and my husband does his best to cook interesting meals day in and day out (whilst also managing our household and caring very sweetly for our two girls), but overall what I bring to work for lunches is too often too much of the bad stuff and too little of the good. I came to this conclusion after looking at today's lunch and realizing it was awesome and how usually I don't eat as well.

Today's food so far:

Breakfast (no awards here)

• Coffee with del-ISH creamer someone shared with me (ok, so this one is kinda bad)
• Small piece of almond kringle someone set-out in the breakroom (props for the "small"?)

Lunch

• Coffee with milk (hurray! No sugar or weird transfats! but... two cups of coffee isn't my finest hour)
• Hard-boiled egg
• Borscht
• Steamed broccoli
• Two clementines (though, technically they aren't part of lunch. I'm saving them for a snack)

Good lunch, no? I wish it were like this every day. But it's not. Even when my husband sends me to work with healthy items in my lunchbag I am often tempted by the dark side and scarf down on the amazing amount of fatty, nutritionly void, really tasty, crunchy and/or sweet treats I can buy at work (even worse: each costs a dollar. Bills fly from my finger tips. Just. Like. That. And suddenly the food is in my mouth. And then, worse, gone. And I'm still hungry. And poorer. Horrible.)

So this all leads me to think I should start talking/writing more about what I eat. Because public shame is a motivator for me. If I know I "have" to share what I'm eating I'm more likely to stick to a healthier diet. It's just a thought, but I think it'd be good for me.

Other thoughts: 

• I cannot believe Christmas is THIS WEEKEND. I need to get my Christmas Eve Eve menu finalized and get to the grocery store!!
• I hurt my back this weekend. I reached for and lifted a kitchen sponge off the back of the sink  and nearly passed out from the spasm of pain (didn't lift with my knees?). Justin says it's because my core is weak. But apparently, to strengthen my core, I need to, like, exercise. And, get this, all the work I've put in moving my fork to my mouth doesn't even count. Bummer, man.
• I wish lunch breaks were longer. And took place on the beach. In Mexico.

Letters to Santa, 2011

Dear Santa,

Uli has made her first Christmas list! She would like:

1. a drum
2. a flute
3. a baby kitty

That would be a real baby kitty, in case you're wondering. Apparently the five cats we already have are too old and don't climb up our legs often enough.

Ilse, while not yet able to compose an official list, nevertheless appears to enjoy dog toys, which reminds me of her older sister, who also favored our pups' things.

It's your call, Santa. Kittens. Dog toys. Whatever. We're ready!

(But no kittens. In all seriousness. No.)

Recycled Holiday Postcards

Do you save the Christmas cards people send you? I do. They're usually so pretty, I never feel right throwing them out, not even into the recycling bin. So I've been hoarding saving-up cards these past few years. I just tuck them into the boxes of decorations and down into the basement storage they go. But then each year as we set-up the tree my husband asks me, What are we doing with all these old cards? I've always told him I'm working on a project; he's humored me so far, even though he knows my "projects" might take a year or two (or four) to percolate. But I've always been certain  I'd figure out some way of reusing those cards someday. And this year, I did!

My family is cutting back on household expenses, and holiday cards, especially the ones I like to buy on recycled paper (have you noticed the stores seem to charge a dollar or so extra for them? Opportunists), seemed a natural item to trim from the budget. (Nice to send and awesome to recieve, but necessary on a tight budget? Not exactly, what with e-mails and FaceBook.)

But I was sad, thinking about not sending any cards to my friends and family. I love receiving them and figure my loved-ones do too. But how to make it happen this year...  I had some cards left over from previous years' mailings that I decided to send to new friends not on our previous mailing lists, but how to share holiday wishes with the rest of my family and friends?

Enter:  stroke of brilliance!

You take the lovely cards people mailed to you in years past.

Cut them in half, seperating the pretty card front from the well-wishing and family/friend signatures inside.

Write your own well-wishing and holiday greetings on the back of the cards' fronts, just like you would on a postcard. Address as you would a postcard.

Voila! Holiday postcards for those you love, upcycled by you from past years' cherished cards.

Is there a risk you'll send the card Aunt Kathy sent to you last year back to Aunt Kathy this year as a postcard? Possibly. I recommend checking the signatures before cutting off the cards' backs and addressing them. I had a few cards that I'd already cut-up, so it's a possibilty I'll be mailing back someones card to them. But would that really be a tragedy? They chose to send them in a past year because they liked them, right? However, for those cards I had saved intact, I did take steps to ensure I wasn't re-mailing them back to their original sender. I even went so far as to seperate the cards we'd received from my husband's family from those from my own family, and then also from my friends, and then attempted to mix-up the postcards enough so that my family's former cards were sent to my husband's family and vice versa, so no one would notice repeats from last year. But if I messed some up? I'm not worried. I think everyone who knows us will be okay with my thrifiness and will--it is my sincere hope--understand that it isn't because we don't love them that we didn't buy new cardstock this year.

How about you? Have any cards saved from years past and wondering what to do with them? I wholeheartedly recommend the postcard recycling method. It not only saved us money, but it was fun to go back through all the cards and try to pick out the best card for each recipient on our list. It helped me get into the holiday spirit for sure!

Wordless Wednesday: Napping

My sweet Ilse

Baby dreams 

Baby cheeks

The baby I love