Drivers wanted? None here!

Gack. Once again, only one of my parents' children has a driver's license.  Only now, it's Abigail, not me.  :-o

Mine was expiring anyway next month, but apparently the government couldn't wait 'till then for me to pay the fines... and suspended it instead.  MUST take care of this immediately!!!

 

(like first thing after aerobics class on Tuesday, when Ted is off work and I'm also renewing my health card and the littles'...)

 

p.s.  Eli used to have a driver's license, but apparently relinquished it voluntarily.  A Very Good Thing, if you ask me.

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Mikveh Sham(poo)

One of the few things I dislike about going to the mikveh - because really, what is there to hate about a place where they basically order you to take a half-hour soak in a warm tub, and don't make you clean up afterwards??? - is the shampoo.

 

I love not using shampoo.  I'm a total convert from shampoo.  I have a special no'poo method instead using baking soda and apple-cider vinegar (it's here if you're interested, though these days I sometimes just dump baking soda on my head because it's quicker). 

 

Call me a total wacko, but I have come to believe that shampoo is a scam.  Hear me out!  First, it strips your hair of its natural oils, then, so it won't feel dry, coats it with conditioner instead (this is either one or two different products and different steps in your daily routine).  And then, you wash it again the next day because it's lank and unpleasant.  I believe that if you leave hair for a couple of weeks, it will regain some of its natural balance and require washing FAR less often. 

 

I understand that this is a very big IF for some people:  going a couple of weeks without shampooing while your hair recovers.

 

Not NEVER, you understand:  I point this out for anyone who thinks this whole business is pretty gross.  How often will depend on the individual woman, and on different times of your life.  Whether you are pregnant or menstruating or using hormone-based birth control could affect how often your hair will need (really NEED) washing.  Certainly, it will NOT be every day, or every other day, or whatever schedule - slash - short leash your current brand of shampoo has you barking on.

 

Anyway, back to the mikveh.  Specifically to the one on Sheppard, which is very nice and has several "kallah suites," each with a small, personal mikveh in the same room as the bathtub.  You can't really request it, but it's lovely and private if you happen to be assigned to one.  I usually go to the Village Shul, because it's closer, and really quite nice, but on this particular evening I wanted to go during suppertime and the Village Shul one wasn't open yet.

 

If I remember, and if I have time and leisure, since I've been no'pooing, I try to wash & brush out my hair before going to the mikveh, then wash everything else when I get there.  On this particular evening, no time, no leisure.  I got a final bedikah in before sunset, which was early; that's about the extent of my leisure time that afternoon.

 

In past, if I haven't had a chance to no'poo at home, I've used the chemically squirt-dispenser shampoo they give you there.  It smells nice; I'm sure it's not terrible.  But actually, the fact that the scent lingers in your hair feels, to me, actually LESS clean and LESS ready for the mikveh than just the faint vinegar smell after no'pooing.  It usually feels and smells like I've just coated my hair in a cosmetic product; how pure is that?

 

So this time, I took my no'poo on the road.  Had to stop at Shoppers first because I forgot a brush and comb for my long tangly curls, and then I was on my way.  And I happened to luck into one of the aforementioned kallah suites.  Yay!

 

The only problem was the smell.  By the time I'd finished no'pooing, the whole room STANK of apple-cider vinegar.  I thought the mikveh lady would faint, or, even if it dissipated a little, assume I'd been cooking, or drinking, in there.

 

But what could I do?  I finished the rest of my preparations as quickly as halacha would allow (the reason I went early is because we had a committment later on).  And yes, there was a faint vinegary tang in the air when I pushed the buzzer.  I could smell it, but I was pretty sure it was ALMOST at an acceptable level.  Certainly, it couldn't be as bad as the bleach and nail polish remover I'm sure some women use in there.

 

Anyway, of course, the anticlimactic climax to the story is:  the mikveh lady came in and didn't say a word.  (what could she possibly say?)

 

My other fear was that baking soda would get everywhere and leave a powdery, dusty mess.  I'd brought along the whole industrial-sized box of Arm & Hammer because I was in a hurry to get out of the house before prying teenagers got home from school.  In future, I would probably bring a reusable container with just the right amount.

 

And yes, I suspect there will be a future for the mikveh no'poo experience.

There's no way around the vinegar smell, I think.  I may mention it to the mikveh lady next time, if I'm brave enough.  At least to let her know that the smell will clear pretty quickly... in time for the next customer, I would hope.

 

Speaking of smell, I just want to say one more time:  the smell DOES completely dissipate.  It leaves your hair TOTALLY.  There is NO TRACE of vinegar smell.  Because, beyond the one or two weeks of greasiness at the beginning, that's usually people's main objection to no'poo.  It certainly was mine.  And it was no objection, as it turns out because, miracle of miracles, the smell does leave your hair very, VERY fast.

 

(Which is also true, by the way, of white vinegar as a rinse agent in the washing machine:  it does NOT leave a lingering smell of vinegar on your washload.  In case you were worried.)

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More Homeschool Pea Math

… back to the split peas!!!  Best $3 math manipulative money can buy!

  

And great for a range of ages, too!  Gavriel Zev loved pretending it was soup and (mostly) pretending to eat it from the measuring spoons.  Naomi was being ornery and making weird, wild estimates (“How many of the small spoon will it take to fill up the cup?”  “A thousand!”), but the beauty of this is that the learning happens no matter what, even if they couldn’t care less.  Just let them loose with the split peas and their Junior Scientist Brain will absorb basic concepts of volume and measurement.  Amazing!

I still plan to make soup out of whatever’s left after a couple of months… we sweep up and throw away all the ones that end up on the floor.  Even though I know, theoretically, that boiling will kill whatever shmutz is on the peas.  Maybe I’ll plan a whole “math-themed” supper around the soup!

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Druid Boy

He loves this dirt-coloured hoodie beyond belief… and for some strange reason, so do I!

   

Here’s Druid Boy with his magical accomplice, Snot Girl:

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Buying into the Evil Empire

I shopped at WalMart today, and I am ashamed.

I can’t help it!!!  Much of what they sell, you can’t even buy elsewhere because other retailers can’t compete.  And okay, sometimes you can buy the stuff somewhere else, for twice or three times the price. 

Naturally, I want to be the one to lead the way, and in theory don’t mind paying what something is worth.  But the truth is, what the other stores carry for two or three times the price is the same Chinese junk (no boat pun intended) that WalMart carries. 

WalMart just gets a bigger, better deal from the junk-makers, so they can  undercut at the retail side as well.

But I am proud that I stuck to the list, which had exactly six items on it:

~ hankies – the main reason for the trip, and WalMart has very decent big white ones, 13 for $9.

~ tights for Naomi Rivka – in the back of my mind since someone mentioned going to WalMart for tights a few weeks ago.  One pair all-cotton, $5, one pair bamboo rayon, $4.

~ indoor watering can - $3 (plants are dying because I can’t find the blue dollarama one)

~ markers, Crayola – I dunno, maybe $4?

~ inkjet cartridge, $40 (eek!!!)  - and, yes, they do probably sell printers, with ink cartridges, for less than $40… what are we supposed to do, buy a new printer when we run out of ink???

~ earrings for me because the top pair is too small and they are slipping into my earring holes…so $10, kind of an impulse because they were only added to the shopping list in the parking lot.  But it still counts as sticking to the list, right?

Does it cancel out the good karma of overwintering plants (instead of buying new ones every spring!), using cloth hankies and choosing renewable fibres if I buy the stuff at WalMart…?

While I am celebrating Tacky White Trash day with my trip to the evil retail giant, I was also struck by the insight that Not Every Supper Must Be Wonderful.  What a revelation!  I couldn’t think of what to make and didn’t want to shlep to the grocery store a day early, so I decided we can darn well eat cheap, easy food lovingly hand-crafted from the contents of the potato room.

Suppers!

Tuesday:

~ Leftover Shabbos chicken soup

~ Superstore Chicken

~ Roast tinned potatoes (no onion soup mix, though… definitely inferior without it!)

~ Creamed corn / leftover Shabbos corn

Wednesday (today) – the supper that doesn’t have to be wonderful!

~ Roasted-garlic potato bread

~ Some kind of soup with broccoli in it

~ Tuna patties (in keeping with the Tacky White Trash theme) w/mushroom sauce

~ Stir-fried multi-coloured Ontario peppers

So yay, me!

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Oh, yes.

The previous post title was an obscure reference to the quote, apparently from Groucho Marx:  "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."  It's often quoted in grammar texts and also in discussions of creating an artificial intelligence that is actually capable of figuring out what we're saying.  More discussion of these dull obscurities at Wikipedia here.

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Like an arrow... or a banana

Naomi asked Ted last night when people become grown-ups.  He said, "when they're 18."

 

We were waiting to pick up YM at the time... and a few minutes later, out he wandered from the kolel, bigger and taller and more grown-up than ever before in his suit and hat.

 

Only three years 'till he's a grown-up.

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And may I just say...

I HATE sharing a computer!  It feels so personal, like sharing a pair of still-warm underpants:  "Hey, pass those over; it's getting nippy outside and I'd like to make a run to the grocery store!"

 

So don't ask to use my computer.  It's just... gross.

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No, I’m not pregnant…

Two images dredged up from my last two pregnancies for no particular reason.  Okay, because I mentioned this squirrel ultrasound on someone else’s blog, only I haven’t looked at it in almost three years and I wanted to know if it really did look as squirrelish as I remembered.

See the shadow?  It was all people could talk about; nobody even noticed the baby.  Ha ha ha bloody ha.  Yes, we’re expecting a squirrel, okay?  And we’ll name her Naomi Rivka.  Get over it.

 

And this is one of those ridiculous bulletin-board pregnancy tickers that I usually ignored, but I saved it because (okay, it’s a bit hard to see, but squint) I felt that “getting bone” was at best a really, really disgusting image.  Nobody else thought it was even a little funny but maybe it was because they were all crunchy hippie bulletin-board mamas and not complete wackos like me.

That’s why I’m posting it  here.  My blog, my funny.  No highway option.

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Argh! More LEAVES!

Here’s our across-the-street neighbour.  Notice which way his leaf blower is pointing???

Yes, that’s right.  Into…the…Street.

Lest a leaf happen to mar the pristine grass or walkway surrounding his own personal property.  To be fair, this guy has some kind of dysmorphia when it comes to his lawn and he is always doing some obsessive-type thing to it with noisy power tools.  Really.  More than anybody else I’ve ever seen. 

As crazy neighbours go, it’s mild, but some summer afternoons when the doors and windows are open, I swear it’s like listening to a dentist’s drill… all day long.  And then, just when you think the blowing or weed-whacking or whatever is ceasing, he either relocates to a different spot on the lawn or comes out with another tool.

Seriously.  The guy’s lawn is like ten feet by ten feet.  It’s not a huge property, but it is indeed obsessively tended.  And so, apparently, is the road nearby.

For my full Best-of-Leaf-Rants rant, click  here.

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