Post by Contributing Writer Sherrie Cook

For years prior to 1961, parents used cloth diapers on their children because there was no other option. Since the 60’s, paper diapers have grown with such popularity that many moms now choose them because they, too, think there is no other option.

Ten years ago I began my own personal search for a cloth diapering alternative in our modern world. I hit so many brick walls that I began to wonder if the reason was perhaps because there was something wrong with cloth diapering. Were these diapers unsanitary? Maybe all the extra laundry was too much work. Could it be that moms had finally grown weary of diaper dunking?

It didn’t take me long to decide that diapering babies using cloth must now be an archaic, extinct notion. The days of plastic pants and safety pins had been replaced with the quality and functionality of disposables. We, as a nation, had obviously arrived in diaper utopia.

However, I couldn’t help but wonder…what cost would we now pay for such luxury? It quickly became apparent to me after a few trips to the grocery store. Upon bringing my Tigger & Pooh stamped paper diapers home, I realized exactly the price to be paid – too much!

Just as that package of diapers was walking through my front door, I found myself exchanging it for a garbage bag full of its soiled predecessors. Essentially, I was throwing away my money. How much was I actually wasting? You might be surprised to learn – cloth vs. disposable diapers: a good estimate.

Twenty-two years ago it was estimated that over the course of a single year, 18 billion paper diapers were sold and used in the United States alone.1 For a family with a child in diapers, the diapering portion makes up approximately 50% of their entire household trash content.1 What a waste!

And that waste is willing to stick around for a while, too. It has been predicted that it could take 250 to 500 years for a single disposable diaper to decompose.2 That’s not the legacy I want to leave for my great, great, great grandchildren – ick!

Image by zenac

Steps to switching to cloth diapers for less waste:

1. Research your cloth options. The hardest part can be getting started. Visit forums where moms flock to talk about cloth. I love the Diaper Jungle and Stephanie’s cloth diapering section in her forum!

2. Learn how to wash cloth diapers. (It’s not as hard as you think, I promise.)

3. Pick 1 or 2 diapers to try and let the fun begin! If you can sew, consider making your own diapers. (CAUTION: some moms claim they have developed a cloth diaper addiction.)

4. Enjoy the ride to reducing waste by using cloth diapers regularly.

For those who cloth diaper, what was it that brought you to that decision? For those who don't, what holds you back?

1Lehrburger, Carl. 1988. Diapers in the Waste Stream: A review of waste management and public policy issues. 1988. Sheffield, MA: self-published.

2Link, Ann. Disposable nappies: a case study in waste prevention. April 2003. Women's Environmental Network.

Sherrie is a wife, mother, peer counselor, speaker and author. She enjoys helping fellow moms in their quest for a simple, God-centered home for their natural living families. She notes her (hopefully) helpful hints at The Proverbial Woman.

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

More from Keeper of the Home

• Cloth Diapering a Newborn | Keeper of the Home
• Cutting Down on Waste in the Kitchen: Tossing the Paper
• Cutting down on waste | Keeper of the Home
• Organization in the Real Food Kitchen: Knowing and Using What’s in Your Freezer

Image by Nina Matthews Photography

**Update- I have had a huge response- thank you so much everyone! I won't be accepting any more email applications for this, but will be choosing from those who have already contacted me!**

Is your family trying to make healthy changes towards real, whole foods and in need of some direction? Do you know that changes need to be made but you're unsure of what to do first or where to start?

This April, I am planning to take the different scenarios and circumstances of 4 different families. I want to help each of them by offering very practical, tangible suggestions to keep them moving on the road towards greater health and stewardship of their bodies by improving what they eat!

I will spend a bit of time getting to know each family through email and will then offer suggestions in areas like:

• Changing their shopping habits
• Choosing a few specific foods to get rid of or add to how they currently eat
• Knowing which would be the most beneficial next steps that the could make
• Ideas for menu planning and types of meals to include
• Any other tips I have that might help to make these changes stick!

Each week in April I will share about one family, giving you some background so that you can understand who they are and where their health and eating habits are currently at. Then I will share my suggestions for them- nothing fancy and long-winded, just simple, practical and hopefully helpful ideas!

My goal is to not only help these specific families, but to offer all of you some direction and suggestions for wherever you might be at in your real foods journey. By reading my recommendations for others in similar situations, you may glean some takeaway ideas for your own family, and I pray that will be the case!

If your family is interested in being considered as one of the four families to receive a Real Food Makeover, please email me and include in your subject "Real Food Makeover". Due to time constraints and the need to keep my family first, I will only be contacting those families that I have selected to be featured on my blog, but thank you to everyone in advance for putting yourself out there by applying and for pursuing more ways that you can serve your family and honor the Lord!

What types of suggestions and tips would be most helpful to your own family in your journey towards real, nourishing, whole foods?

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

More from Keeper of the Home

• Baby Steps: Let’s get soaking!
• Organization in the Real Food Kitchen: Planning to Make Food Preparation Happen | Keeper of the Home
• Time to Get Organized! | Keeper of the Home
• Letter to a Mom at the mall

Photo credit: Sklathill

This is our second contributing writer's post, from Beth Corcoran. I asked her to write on a topic related to cutting down on waste, which is one of the themes this month at Keeper of the Home. I love Beth's easy-going and relaxed approach to using cloth in her kitchen.

*******

The kitchen is probably my favorite room in my house. I spend a lot of time in there every day. After all, with four kids, I have a lot of meals to cook, meals to eat, dishes to wash, and tables and chairs to wipe down. But one day a few years ago, I realized that food was not the only thing being consumed in my kitchen. With all that cooking and eating and washing and wiping, we were also using up a whole bunch of disposable paper goods!

To me, it just seemed to make sense to get away from using disposable paper goods because it would save a lot of money. (Have you seen how much paper towels cost?!) But eventually it struck me odd that our family used and threw away that much trash when there is a perfectly reasonable and easy way to avoid it—using cloth instead of paper. So, a couple of years ago, our family made the “conversion” to have a paperless kitchen. It was a process. I didn’t switch everything over in one day, but once I saw how easy it was, I was eager to adopt more non-consumable alternatives to paper.

There are many ways to cut down on waste in the kitchen. Here are two of my favorite!

Use Cloth Dishrags Instead of Paper Towels.

My husband I both grew up in families where the weekly grocery shopping trip included buying a huge package of paper towels. And if you have grown up in a Western culture, chances are that you did, too! So, I thought that when we switched to cloth dish rags for washing dishes and wiping everything down, that I would find it very inconvenient. And I was sure that I would hear protests from my husband, as well. But I found out that using cloth rags is actually very easy as long as you have a good system for keeping up with them.

Our dishrags have come from all over. Some are old wash cloths from the bathrooms. Others are our daughter’s old (and well cleaned!) cloth wipes from when we used cloth diapers. I have also knit and crocheted a whole bunch of dish rags in fun colors and designs. It just spruces up the dish washing experience.

I have a whole bunch of them, and I try to have enough so that I can use several per day and not have to constantly wash them or be tempted to reach for a paper towel. I keep them all in a pretty little basket under the kitchen sink. When I need a new rag, I just reach for the basket instead of the paper towel roll. So there is no extra effort needed.

When I am finished with a rag, I put it in a bowl that I keep on top of my dryer. All the dirty kitchen cloth items go in that bowl. Whenever I do a load of laundry, I just toss the contents of that bowl in the washer, too. (Note: This is okay for me to do because I use gentle, natural cleaners that won’t hurt my clothes. But if you use harsher chemicals or anything with bleach in it to clean your kitchen, you’re going to want to wash your rags separately!) It is really easy to keep up with cleaning my rags, and as a mother of four, I always have enough laundry to do, so I’ve never had to worry about the rags sitting for long periods of time and mildewing.

As a side note, I do still keep a roll of paper towels out for guests that come over—especially those who come over to babysit. A lot of people still feel insecure about using rags to clean up instead of paper towels, and I want to make them feel welcome. But, they are the only ones that use that roll of paper towels, so it takes us months to finish the roll. But I have felt that I didn’t want to sacrifice hospitality just to prove that we could go completely paperless in our kitchen.

Photo credit: evilmidori

Use Cloth Napkins.

Again, this was something that I never grew up around as a child. For us, cloth napkins were for fancy restaurants and Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. But someone gave us a set of cloth napkins as a wedding gift, and that’s what got the ball rolling. Whenever we were first married, I would lay out the cloth napkins whenever I would make a nice meal. All other nights, we would just use paper napkins.

But it was a lot of fun using the cloth napkins, so I ventured out and bought some more. I am ashamed to say, but I probably paid way too much for some fancy cloth napkins. But as our family has grown, I’ve started to understand that we don’t all need matching fancy napkins to have a good meal. Now, I am always on the lookout for good napkin deals. I buy them on clearance, after holidays, at the Salvation Army, or wherever I can find a good deal.

I have lots of different patterns for our every day napkins, and I do have some nicer matching sets that I save for guests and holidays. We keep them all in a drawer next to the table, and when my kids set the table, they always compete to get their favorite patterns. I think it makes for a memorable family tradition. And when dinner is over, my five year old son’s job is to clear off all the napkins and put them in the bowl on top of the dryer. It’s as easy as that!

And I love cloth napkins because, not only does it cut down on trash and wasted money, but it adds color and love to our family table.

I am the mother of four children—two girls and two boys, ages 7, 6, 5, and 2 ½. While not homeschooling or chauffeuring the kids to their activities, I enjoy all kinds of craft projects and learning how to be a better steward of all that the Lord has given me. My blog is stewardshipnotconvenience.blogspot.com.

What ways do you try to cut down on waste in your kitchen?

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

More from Keeper of the Home

• Cutting down on waste | Keeper of the Home
• Organization in the Real Food Kitchen: Ferments Everywhere | Keeper of the Home
• Training Kids to Help in the Kitchen | Keeper of the Home
• Organization in the Real Food Kitchen: Favorite Recipes Lists | Keeper of the Home

Photo credit robyn michelle-lee lifestyle photography

There's a change coming. It's been coming for a long time and I'm sorry that it's taken me so long.

I need to apologize to you all. For the past two years, I have been a member of the BlogHer ad network. I need to state right away that there is nothing wrong with BlogHer or with any other blogger who is a member of their network. Not in the slightest. They're fantastic ladies, a great ad network and I found them wonderful to work with.

The problem is with me.

I knew that 90% of the ads didn't really sit right with me. Yes, I opted out of some of the ones that were particularly not something that I wanted on my blog. But I also let a lot of other ads run anyways, even though they were something that I would never buy myself and would not actually want to promote.

Funny thing is, allowing the ads to be up on my site is pretty much condoning them, isn't it? Ouch.

I've known for a long time that I needed to leave the ad network and branch out on my own. Truth is, I was scared to. It takes a lot of hard work to run your own ads, and there is a significantly greater degree of risk involved.

This past month, however, God really convicted me that what I was doing was absolutely not serving my readership and was undermining the integrity of my blog and the topics and products that I share about.

Remember, stewardship applies to all areas of life and that would include the way that I am stewarding the awesome privelege of writing this blog and sharing the things that I am learning with so many other women. It is a great responsibility and in this area, I have not been faithful.

Can I just say that I'm sorry? Sorry for not putting my responsibility to be honest and integral with my readers above my desire to keep bringing in a reliable source of income. Sorry for exposing you to ads for things that I would never personally recommend to you.

All that is changing on March 1st. I am now running entirely private ads. The only things that you will see on my site from now on are either paid ads that I have personally chosen to run, or affiliate ads and links for companies that I believe in and would buy from (or do buy from) myself.

My criteria for accepting advertisements will now be for companies and products that fit well within the parameters of what my blog is about: natural and sustainable living products, real/traditional foods, books on Christian living or real food or natural living, small family-run businesses, homemaking helps, etc.

I am so excited to kick my first month off with advertisers like:

• ListPlanIt (fabulous organization pages that I use all the time)
• HopeInk Scripture Art (encouraging and inspirational and hanging in my own home)
• Moukisac (a 6-in-1 reusable bag system that I have and love!)
• It Starts at Home (a new book from Moody Publishers, intended to help parents learn to disciple their children)
• Vintage Remedies (the fabulous reference book on herbs and natural remedies that I recently reviewed)
• Your ad here (only one left- do you want it? Email me at stephanie (at) keeperofthehome (dot) org)

That's much more like it, isn't it? Phew... I feel so relieved.

The wonderful bonus? I have already seen God's hand of blessing as I've made this move, confirming that it was indeed the right thing to do. He is so full of abounding grace and kindness.

Thank you, everyone, for your continued support of this little corner of the blogosphere. You make it so worthwhile.

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

More from Keeper of the Home

• Q&A: Blogging and Balancing Time | Keeper of the Home
• It’s Planting Time! | Keeper of the Home
• Living Simple Saturdays- First time, all the time | Keeper of the Home
• It’s time for another Bloggy Giveaway! | Keeper of the Home

Image by DeclanTM

Based on my recent announcement that I'm going to be scaling back a little on my blogging efforts, and the absolutely enormous (and incredibly encouraging) response that I received, I thought I would just share a few thoughts on how I am working to keep blog work minimal while I continue to keep up my blog:

• Write shorter posts- If I notice that I post is getting too long and I can't finish it as I'd like to within the time that I have available, I will either just ditch part of the post OR turn it into a multiple part series. Either way, I can finish up more quickly and call it done.
• Write more stream-of-consciousness posts- Posts that are very information/research/link heavy tend to take several hours to write, edit and format. I will be doing these posts less frequently and will work on them a little at a time. Instead, I will be writing more posts that are just from my life and personal experience. These tend to be faster and easier to write, and still allow me to focus on subjects that I am really passionate about!
• Give myself more strict time guidelines- I am setting a time each afternoon when I will be finished with blog work, whether the kids are up or not. Even if they're not up, I will stop work so that I can focus on other things that need to be done for my family or home. I think that I will start using a timer to accomplish this, because I need that tangible signal that my time is done! Anyone know of a good, online timer?
• Try the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge- I saw this at Steady Mom a while back and thought what a great idea... how on earth would I write and publish a post in 30 minutes??? I still sort of wonder, but I'm going to try. If I can write posts in 30 minutes that would be a great help in allowing me to continue blogging!
• Worry less about including lots of images- I will still include images in my posts, but I won't worry so much if a post only has 1 image and doesn't look quite as "professional"
• Try some different types of posts- I was inspired by Kimi's video post. What a fun idea and a great way to answer some questions or talk about a subject without taking a long time to write up a thorough post. I will also try doing some posts that are more image based and have less words. It's editing the writing that usually takes the most time, but images are a bit easier. (It's when I try to include both a lot of writing AND images that I get really bogged down!)
• Stay strict on my "no blogging on the weekends" rule- And I think I will try to add that rule to the evenings as well. It really, really helps me to keep things more simple and manageable when I keep my blog time restricted to only certain times or the day or week.

For all those who agreed that they need to cut back on blogging and focus more on their families and other primary responsibilities, what are some of the ways that you will achieve this?

Guess what? I completed this post in 30 minutes for the Moms' Blog Challenge! Well, maybe it took about 34 minutes, but not bad for a first try!

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

More from Keeper of the Home

• How I “Do It All” | Keeper of the Home
• Keeping Blogging Time in Check | Keeper of the Home
• Pro-Mom, Not Pro-Blogger | Keeper of the Home
• Carrying Burdens That Don’t Belong to Us | Keeper of the Home

Today's grocery shopping outing was a bit of a disaster. Hungry, upset children, a crying baby and a frazzled mom. By the last store, I was barely looking at prices anymore as I tossed things into the cart that appeared to have at least some semblance to what was written on my trusty list.

I know that I made at least one really good decision this afternoon, though. Nope, it wasn't a frugal decision-- stocking up on some exciting sale or figuring out which 3 lb bag of apples actually contained 1 more apple than the rest.

No, today I chose to spend more money and vote with my dollars.

The item? A simple box of mandarin oranges, a yummy treat for my husband's bag lunches. The decision? Whether to spend $3.99 on a 5 lb box of conventional mandarins, or to spend $4.99 on a 4 lb box of certified organic mandarins. I hemmed and hawed for just a moment before my hand rested on the organic oranges and I knew that I had chosen well.

There are a number of reasons why I could have chosen to buy organic over conventional. Exposure to less pesticides, herbicides and other nasty chemicals, for one. Higher nutrient content in food that has been grown in healthier and more nourished soil. Quite likely, better taste. All good reasons, but none of them the ultimate reason for my decision.

I purchased organic today because (although I value all of those other reasons) I had never seen organic oranges before at the particular produce market where I'm a regular customer. I wanted to cast my vote for more organic produce, showing them that their customers think it's worth it to pay a little bit extra, in hopes that they will continue to pursue carrying more and more organic products. In turn, my vote helps to ensure that more organic farmers are supported for the excellent work that they are doing, bringing high-quality vegetables and fruits to our tables, while better stewarding the earth as well.

Does my vote seem just a tiny bit insignificant to you?

Let's put it in perspective. In Canada (where I live), us Westerners have a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to our nation's Federal elections. You see, the bulk of our country's population does not live in the West, but is much more concentrated in the more Eastern provinces of Ontario and Quebec. When we watch the election results roll in every 4 years or so, the election has already been called by the time that they begin to declare any of the winners in our neck of the woods. Ontario and Quebec voters have such a majority that they largely determine who will be the winning party, and our votes simply help to seal the deal, and very rarely turn the tide. I think that this is true for many states in the USA as well. Your state receives so few electoral college seats that your votes seem to be barely a drop in the bucket, when compared to the higher-population states like Texas, California, Florida or New York (see? see? I know a little bit about American politics!

The next time elections roll around, should I decide that voting simply isn't worth it because my vote seems to make such little impact on the outcome? Do I relinquish not only my right, but my responsibility to be an educated, informed and faithful voter in this democratic nation of which I am blessed to be a citizen? No! Absolutely not!

In much the same way, I will not undermine or belittle the importance of the way in which I use my dollars to support good farming pratices, healthy soils, and less toxic-burden in my family's bodies. Every single dollar counts. Every one. Do not allow yourself to feel that the way that you spend your hard earned money is insignificant, because it is not!

In the fantastic documentary "Food, Inc." (which has recently been released as a rental video- a must see!), there is an excellent segment that bears mentioning. Gary Hirshberg, the CEO (or CE-Yo as he likes to be called) of Stonyfield Organic yogurt company discusses his involvement with Walmart and the placement of Stonyfield's products on the shelves of a multi-national store which many die-hard organic and sustainable living proponents have actually boycotted. And yet, Walmart is wisely listening to the demand from consumers and choosing to purchase from organic companies like Stonyfield in the millions each year! I love how Gary describes how many of his activist friends get up in arms at the discussion of whether he has sold-out by keeping company with the likes of Walmart, until the conversation turns to the facts of the billions of tons of pesticides that are prevented each year, through the small organic farms that contribute to a large company like Stonyfield.

Towards the end of the movie, there's a clip of a disillusioned farmer bogged down by the politics and the general mess of conventional farming these days. He passionately tells the camera that people need to demand what they want, because if they truly demand it, farmers will respond and will gladly provide it for them. That's us! If we support organics today, we are assuring the farmers of tomorrow that we will stand behind them, purchase their products and keep them in business.

So you see, my $4.99 box of organic mandarins is not just another way to keep my family a little healthier. It's so much more than that.

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays!

Do you agree with the concept of "voting with our dollars"? How does that impact the decisions that you make as you purchase food (and other products) for your family?

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

More from Keeper of the Home

• Living with PCOS: Guarding our Hearts | Keeper of the Home
• Conserving Water: Why It Matters and Ways to Do It | Keeper of the Home
• Living with PCOS: Things to Avoid | Keeper of the Home
• Adjusting to Life with 3 Little Ones | Keeper of the Home

Image by Joe Schlabotnik

While I wouldn't say that I'm completely unconcerned about conserving water, it hasn't been a large focus for me in my desire to simplify our home and practice better stewardship of the earth that God has given us dominion over. I had heard and read bits of information here and there about how to conserve water, but sometimes when you jump into making a lot of changes in life, some of them stick with you more, and others you just pass on by until you're ready to really go there.

I think that as North Americans we tend to expect clean water to always just be there when we want it. I say that because I often live that way myself. We forget that we are incredibly fortunate to live in a part of the world that does have fresh, clean water for us to use daily and we act as though that water will be there forever. Although we are usually advised to limit our water use each summer, I've never been in a situation where water shortage became a reality.

The issue became much more real to me a couple years ago when we considered a job opportunity for my husband in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. When we began to hear the news stories of the very real water shortage happening in Georgia later that same year, I was suddenly struck by the fact that water shortage is not only a possibility, but perhaps it is more imminent than I thought.

"Although water covers about 70% of our planet's surface, less than one percent of that is safe and available for human use. That one percent must be shared among countries and continents and between the many residential, agricultural, commercial, industrial and envrionmental needs we all have. In the United States alone we demand 26 billion gallons of water every single day. Thirteen percent of that is for residential use, with each person in the country averaging as much as a hundred gallons of water per day.

Because water consumption has increased threefold across the planet in the last fifty years, people everywhere are suddenly feeling the pinch. In the United States over the last five years, nearly every region of the country has experienced water shortages. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, at least thirty-six states are expected to experience local, regional, or statewide water shortages by the year 2013."

This quote is from the book Sara Snow's Fresh Living which I've been reading lately (and recommend). She touches on the topic of water conservation multiple times, as the book takes you on a tour of your home, discussing ways to weed out those things that are toxic to you and your family, or damaging to the environment. There are so many places in our homes where we use water in truly astounding amounts. Here are some of the examples that she mentions:

• In the shower- 4 to 7 gallons per minute, which means that your 5 min. shower uses 25 gallons of water on average. A 10 minute shower uses an incredible 50 gallons!
• In the toilet- Anywhere from 3.5 to 7 gallons per flush for a pre-1992 toilet. Newer, low-flow, energy efficient toilets are generally only 1.6 gallons-per-flush (gpf). We have an older home, so let's suppose our toilet uses 5 gpf and we use it maybe 20 times per day, that's 100 gallons a day just for the toilet!
• In the sink- The typical bathroom faucet uses anywhere from 2-6 gallons per minute.
• In the laundry- A washing machine can use as much as 30-35 gallons per load of wash! I do about 8-10 loads a week (a couple small, but most large loads). That's 300-400 gallons a week!

(I also found this nifty water-use calculator to try to figure out how much water your family uses. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but I think it's eye opening to try to estimate the amounts anyways!)

A friend of mine was babysitting her friend's son and was reprimanded by him when she flushed his pee-only potty use down. In his home, they practice the phrase "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down."  He was quick to inform her (as his mom so often reminds him) that "God gave us that water!" Ouch! But that's a wise 3 year old (who happens to have a very wise and conscientious mommy)! Edit: Realized I need to explain that we don't necessarily use this practice in our home, but I think it's wonderful that a mom is purposefully teaching her children to carefully consider how they use the resources that have been entrusted to them. It looks different for all of us, of course.

I want to practice good stewardship in every area of my life, and now that I've been further educated, this area should be no exception. I intend to put some of these ideas into practice in the next few weeks and will include my children as I do it, teaching them about why the water that we use matters.

Ways to Lower Your Water Use:

1. Only use the washing machine when you have a full load.
2. If you're going to wash a smaller load, make sure to adjust the water settings to a lower level.
3. Time your showers and once you've established your average shower time, begin to cut it back, one minute at a time until you can do it in 5 minutes or less.
4. Bathe your kids in less water. They're small and the tub doesn't need to be more than half full to get those little bodies clean.
5. Take showers and baths less often. My skin and hair have appreciated the fact that I've cut my showering down to every second day instead of every day. My kids take a bath twice a week at most. They don't stink too bad. (Just kidding!)
6. Install a low flow shower head that will use less gallons per minute. (Look for the term "Water Sense" on bathroom appliances)
7. Fix any leaky faucets.
8. Install a "faucet aerator" on any faucet that is using a lot of water per minute. (You can also find "Water Sense" faucets)
9. Purchase Energy Star appliances the next time you're replacing an appliance, especially for items like the washer or dishwasher, etc. If you're replacing a toilet, look for one that is low-flow or energy efficient. There are also new dual-flush toilets (yes, a little flush for #1 and a big flush for #2).
10. If you're stuck with an older toilet, take a water bottle or small milk jug and fill it halfway with pebbles and the rest of the way with water then put the cap on. Open up the back tank on your toilet and put the container into the tank. This displaces the water so that less fills up the tank and less is used with each flush.
11. Always turn the water off when brushing teeth, then just turn it back on for a quick rinse of your brush. Same goes for when you're washing your face, shaving, etc.
12. Don't leave the water running while rinsing your dishes. Either use the stopper and put a bit of water in the second half of your sink and do your rinsing in that, or let a few clean dishes build up in the clean sink before you turn on the tap to give them all a quick rinse at one time.
13. Never run your dishwasher when it's not full. Learn to organize it well so that you can use it as efficiently as possible. More on using your dishwasher well here.
14. Carefully observe the lawn-watering restrictions in summertime and keep your watering minimal. Yes, green grass is nice but letting it dry out a bit isn't the end of the world. If you must water the lawn, be sure to do it in the morning before the day heats up, or later in the evening once it's cooled off again.
15. If you garden, try putting buckets out to catch the rainfall and use these for watering your garden instead of the hose. Don't water except when it's absolutely necessary (for new seeds, or when the weather has been extremely hot and dry), and mulch to conserve water.
16. Your suggestion here...

These are just some of my suggestions and some from Sara Snow's Fresh Living. How do you conserve water in your home? And are any of these suggestions something that you think would be feasible for you to do?

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Sadly, my sweet pickles didn't turn out this year. For some very unknown reason, rather than staying wonderfully crisp, then turned soggy. Very soggy.

Since the recipe I use is pretty tried-and-true (I've done it before many times without fail), I decided to call my mother-in-law to brainstorm ideas of what went wrong. The recipe originates from her, so I thought she might have some clues to help solve my soggy pickle mystery. Together we came up with various thoughts... the extra pickling cucumbers I was given from a friend were too large, or they were the wrong kind of cucumber, or maybe they had some kind of bacteria on them, or maybe my fridge temperature wasn't cold enough... we still don't know and it's bugging me a bit, so if you have any thoughts to add in, send them my way!

However, my mother-in-law did come up with one fantastic solution to my main problem-- I just hated the thought of wasting so much food! All that organic apple cider vinegar, raw honey, onions from my garden, not to mention the cucumbers.

So why not make relish?

I did just that. I used a slotted spoon to scoop out all of the pickles, along with a bit of the onions and of course, some of the pickle liquid. I put it all in my food processor and chopped it up in several batches. It looked like relish. It smelled like relish. But not being a relish fan myself, I still wasn't quite sure. I called my hubby in for a taste test... and he loved it! Best relish he's ever had! Phew! 

Perfectly good food, saved from the trash can. That makes me really happy, and even happier to see my husband enjoying the relish on the hamburgers we ate the other night.

How have you made good use of food that would have otherwise been wasted? Any stories to share of how you transformed a kitchen disaster into a victory?

And, to help out a reader who left this comment:

Now, here
is a "pickle" for you: I made a large batch of the lacto-fermented
refrigerator pickles that you had posted a recipe for awhile ago. I
used 2T of salt, because I had no whey. They ended up being way too
salty. Even my husband who loves salty pickles had to admit that they
probably need to be tossed. They have since been in my refrigerator
because I do not want to throw them all. Any ideas on what to do with
these?

Any suggestions for Sheri?

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*******

Guest Post by Babychaser

We’ve taken the plunge to healthier living… but why?  This is a question I have to ask myself from time to time… mostly when I’m focusing a little too much on the specifics.

It’s easy to get wrapped up on making sure we are eating healthy and not being exposed to dangerous chemicals… and when we get too wrapped up in it, it can become an idol. 

On the far, far other side of that is my inclination to be lazy and just let it go when it gets to be too much. 

So why have we made the decision to live a healthier lifestyle?  I think the answer to that helps to keep me in check.  Stewardship. 

Most of the time we think of stewardship as being in reference to finances.  We are to be good stewards of our money… all that God gives us.  We are also to be good stewards of everything else God has and will give us… including our bodies and our family’s bodies. 

Upon learning more and more of the crazy things we’ve implemented in our lives, one friend smiled and said, “I’d love to know how you guys are going to die.”  I had to laugh because the truth is; we are all going to die.  Even if we take all the chemicals and harmful substances out of our lives, we will still die.  But God gave us these bodies to live in (note: we are not our bodies, but merely live in our bodies while we reside on earth.)  He gave them to us and it is up to us to be good stewards of them. 

Good stewardship may look different from one family to another.  I do not hold myself above those who have not chosen to make the food and chemical choices we have just like I hope those in better physical shape are not looking down on us for failing to exercise as I know we should.  None on this earth is perfect, but as I have learned about the harm so many of the foods, etc. available to us are to our bodies, I’ve felt the need to make changes in order to be a better steward of my family’s health. 

Let me give a couple examples: 
•    Refined sugars lower our immune systems as well as a ton of other things.

•    BPA affects our bodies in a number of ways, including its links to breast cancer and fertility problems.

•    Pasteurization depletes most (or all) of the healthful aspects of milk and is linked to a number of allergies and health problems.

As I work to be a good steward of our health, it only makes sense to me to cut as much refined sugar as possible, to remove BPA from our home and to switch to raw milk. 

I’ll be the first to admit that we are are not die hard on these things.  From time to time my kids can be found playing with bad plastics or our family will get ice cream from one of the yummy places around town, but we are on a road to being healthier and getting closer and closer every day. 

You can learn more of our journey to healthier living beginning with this post. 

What motivates you to live healthier? Do you agree that it's an issue of stewardship?

Babychaser is the wife to her Beloved and mommy to Tornado and Sweet Pea.   You can read about the “Adventures of the Babychaser” at her blog, Stay at Home Mommy.  Blogging anonymously, Babychaser writes about raising healthy children, training her children, day to day happenings, and anything else tickling her fingertips.

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I ran across this last week at Beauty That Moves (hat tip to Small Notebook), which is part of an excellent discussion of the grocery costs for buying healthful, whole foods:

I wonder how much other families spend on groceries each week. Is that
too bold of a thing to ask? I've been wanting to pose this question for
several days now, yet admittedly, I don't really know why I need the
information. But then I thought, maybe it's not just for me, maybe we
all need the information - from one another. Maybe it would help us to
feel a little less alone as we hand over however much it is to
the cashier in our respective hometown markets each week. I was taught
growing up that our grocery budget is the one area in  our household
finances we have the most control over, and I do believe that still.
But I also am still so amazed at how much so little costs each week,
regardless of not buying packaged foods and doing all of our cooking
from scratch.

I highly recommend that you read the rest of the post fully, as well as look through the lengthy comments below. The discussion is well worth it.

For those of us who are committed to purchasing nutritious and higher-quality foods, it can sometimes be daunting as we face the balance between a commitment to our health, and the financial constraints that most families find themselves in.

I love the question "expense or investment", because I think it's a very valid one that most homemakers have to continue to ask themselves as they make choices about what they will and will not purchase, and how many dollars they will spend. 

Personally, we've chosen to try to take as balanced of an approach as we can at this stage of life. We agreed early on that good food is an investment in our health, and that you either pay now (in higher food prices) or you pay later (in poor health, medical bills and reduced quality of life). However, we're still a young family, working to save money and spend what we have cautiously. We have a specific and not-so-roomy grocery budget, considering the quality and cost of the foods that we value buying. It's a very tough balancing act, month to month, and it only increases as our family grows.

For me, it's a worthwhile tension when I look at the bigger picture, but I definitely feel the stretch of it each and every month, and have had to make many sacrifices- a bit less meat, no convenience foods at all (even healthy ones), almost only homemade treats, raw milk that we ration out over the course of the week, few bought beverages (but lots of water!), everything from scratch...

How do you view your grocery budget? Is it an expense or investment? Do you relate to the grocery budgets and the concerns of the women who commented on the other post?

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