Easy Sunday Pork Roast

It's eight in the A M, and two guys are asleep!
This calls for a sermon on the computer, a relaxed breakfast, and prepping for our Sunday dinner free from my wonderful distractions.
I love getting to spend time with my crock pot. Or rather, I love putting ingredients in and leaving it alone for several hours and then opening it up to find meals. I feel like the Jetsons.

This weekend, we bought a couple of 3 1/2 lb pork roasts from our friendly milk man, who recently butchered one of his pigs. I am by no means ready to take on that particular event myself, but I'm more than willing to buy the end product.

Healthy deliciousness.

Nom.

There are several easy ways to do this, so as I like to be flexible and use what's in my pantry before I go out and buy anything, I'll do a basic roast. Next week I'll post my harvest fruit pork roast.

Ingredients
3 lb roast
1 large onion, chunked
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
6-8 Carrots
6 potatoes, just to be consistent.
salt
pepper
rosemary
splash of lemon juice


Peel and chop your vegetables

-If you're able to buy organic, either wash n chop (keep more nutrients in), or peel,putting the scraps in the stock pot. Stretch that budget, baby!
-I buy my soap Here . It's made from kelp, biodegradable, and can be used for food, body, shampoo, laundry and housecleaning. For the win.
-A note for new crock-potters: cut those vegetables (or fruit, etc) to be around the same size so they all cook through the same. Tastes better. Just sayin'.


put them into the crock pot on low; mix in some minced garlic

place roast on top, and shake some of that pepper, salt and rosemary on that meat.

I also like to splash a bit of lemon or lemon juice as well, just for fun.

Rosemary, citrus, and apples: Three of my favorite things to add to pork. 

Meanwhile, remind yourself that while soaked oatmeal is tasty, I should not leave this guy alone with a bowl of steel cut oats and expect him to keep things clean.

Put on low and leave there all day. How about 8 hours?

I would say I have the final photo, but I don't, because we ended up taking the whole thing over after church to my in-laws, who cheerfully helped us eat it all. Another time, then. 

Enjoy your Sunday, knowing you don't have to think about this meal besides your timer. 

Yum. 

Beware that Pharisee in the Mirror

Tonight I realized being a pharisee can sneak up on you. 

That darn humanity and sinfulness. 

I was putting littler man down after nursing, and was holding him for a bit next to his crib. He likes to fuss, put his head this way, up, that way, suck thumb, mmmmm-ing and grumbling and gurgling in his wonderfully soft voice. After a couple of minutes, I started thinking of all the things I could be doing, and was about to put him down when I thought: what DO I have to do? 

Husband: home, reading to little man, who is all set for bed. 

Kitchen: good enough, dishes away, food in fridge. 

Toys: put away earlier by growing boy learning responsibility

Phone calls: made already, or too late

So what am I putting him down for? 

Now, I'm not against parents having down time, relaxing, or having something of their own to do. A moment of solitude? Take advantage. Recharge.

However

Sometimes 

You should hold your baby until he falls asleep

Because you can.

We want to be good stewards for our Lord with everything we have.  Money, time, resources, our children, each other. Yet it can so easily turn into Doing for the sake of doing, instead of Living in obedience and thankfulness. Rules for rules sake. 

Easy to forget in the everyday of life, that

 I can't earn my salvation, it has already been paid.

 I can't earn my Lord's love; I can only give what He's already given me. 

I've been provided with a home, money for bills, food, life, and love. I've been forgetting, though, about other gifts.

He gave me a baby boy who is already trying to walk, who is grumbling and gurgling and wanting to talk to me all day by climbing my pants and peeking over the couch cushions to give me a grin. 

Eight months and I've already gotten regrets about missing things. 

So. 

Tonight I held my baby. 

Parenting is...

Letting your arm go numb because they look so comfy 

Seeing the world through new eyes

Dressing up your kids to for your own enjoyment 

 Making birthdays and holidays special, no matter what age

 Going for walks with Batman  

Finding new reasons you love your husband 

Hiding the fancy ornaments 

Sharing small moments of happiness  

Persevering through unimpressed looks 

 Encouraging your children, even if you know they're going to run into a wall

Appreciating sleep-yours or theirs

 Pain, Reality, Beauty

Growing in love 

Cloth-diapering: toilet swishing to wash-room nausea

Cloth or Disposable? 

Cloth wipe, paper towel, or packaged? 

Insert? Doubler? Liner? 

Pouch, prefold?

Wool?

Charcoal?

Hemp?

Microfleece?

Cotton?

Organic Cotton?

Bamboo?

HELLLPPPP!!!

Thus it goes for many people interested in cloth diapering. 

Our reasons for cloth diapering: 

Money-Around $50+/week on average for disposables for two boys: not happening. Yes, we might pay more for water, spend more time, but I'm home and thus far the investment has paid off. 

Ecology: I'm not a fan of buying something that won't decompose and adds to trash. Plus, the little I've read about the chemicals that are in the disposables touching my babies skin...I'd rather not. I haven't been able to budget out enough for chemical-free or organic disposables when we travel, but maybe one day. 

We started out with Flip and Econobum diaper covers, (Our favorites, find them here )based on a friends recommendation and gift. As for inserts, we have everything from charcoal, hemp/bamboo combo, microfleece, and some I don't even know anymore. You've got to figure out what works for your family. 

we have a bunch of G-diapers, but our boys soak through them fairly quickly, and taking out the plastic liners before drying was more tedious than what I wanted from my routine. 

my favorite if we could afford it: Blueberry Diapers 

I only have one thus far, but it's been great for my heavy-pee boys for nighttime and naps. 

We also use cloth wipes made from old receiving blankets, but I've bought a few pre-made sets as well. Check out hereif you're interested in ordering, though they aren't hard to sew up if you have the inclination! 

Downsides to be aware of when cloth diapering 

I have yellow gloves to swish dirty diapers around in the toilet to get as much as I can off, and then I have a bucket for everything to soak until I do a load in the washer. With running around with two children, more often than not, there isn't time to put gloves on. And sometimes boys can be curious about buckets in the shower (although usually the door is shut for safety of the little guy) and wonder what else can be thrown inside. 

*For you essential oil users--a drop of Lemon, Melaleuca, or Eucalyptus in the bucket can be helpful for cleaning and absorbing smell, as well as the same in the washer*

I'm actually pretty good with the smell of urine. It's something I've gotten used to. However, last year with diapers added onto morning sickness, every load was a challenge to do, and my hard-working husband often came home to a waiting load that he would do so I wouldn't have to. ah, Love. 

You need to be aware of how many diapers you have left and know when you need to start a load so you don't run out before they're washed (which usually is a hot load with detergent, and then cold to rinse and second time) and dried (twice with these apartment dryers and the thick inserts). Ideally, we like to have a box of disposables on hand for those times when we wake up and go, 'hmm. three diapers left'. Those boxes usually last a few months, but they're only there when we can afford them. 

For us, it all comes down to stewardship: how can you use what you've been given, knowing that it isn't yours in the first place? God has blessed us most richly with a job for Travis that pays our bills, and enables me to stay home with our boys. Two boys that give us joy and push us further towards the Throne of Grace in sanctification. Each other. For the life we've chosen to lead and the priorities that follow, cloth diapering naturally followed, and the extra laundry and folding is worth it. 

Our DIY Toothpaste Journey

So.

Toothpaste. 

Our first foray into this do-it-yourself world was our basic toothpaste. We usually order from my brother-in-law, but ran out of money, and toothpaste, at the same time. I turned to the handy dandy interwebs, and cruised along. Here's what we used: 

Coconut oil. mmmm. delicious. cook, oil pull, moisturize, and apparently, toothpaste. I get mine here atVitacost. Organic, cold-pressed, the good stuff. I usually make enough for two containers, so 1/4 cup each coconut oil. 

Baking soda. pretty basic. 1 tablespoon.

10-15 drops Peppermint oil.  I am your friendly neighborhood DoTerra Wellness Advocate, so I will cheerfully recommend DoTerra as a reliable place to get quality Peppermint oil. I also add Melaleuca if I remember, as that's also a good antibacterial, anti-infectious, antiseptic, antiviral, and all sorts of other good things you can learn about in this book, Modern Essentials.

Basically, mix and use! See why I started with this recipe? 

Notes on taking this toothpaste:

 Know that coconut oil will melt. You can still use the toothpaste, just beware the container you use so you don't have greasy spots on your kitchen sink. Pyrex is nice. You can store it in the kitchen fridge, but that might be easier if any of these situations apply:

 A. you don't have kids trying to kill themselves by diving headfirst into the bathroom sink, necessitating your unceasing eye over them during toothbrush time.

 B. you care enough to do so

C. you have the time and energy

Which I don't. 

Also, the same rules apply with brushing with coconut oil as they do when you oil pull (see here for a basic tutorial and reasoning behind oil pulling): spit in a trash can, not the sink. 

For those with chillens: I've been giving my guy this toothpaste for over a year, and although he's no closer to spitting, I'm just fine with using it, knowing that what's going in him is not crud. Horray!  He gets his own paste container, and he can put it on himself. Learning independence for the win.  

To Update you on my Toothpaste journey, we recently started using DoTerra's OnGuard Toothpaste (here if you want to order either samples or take the plunge), and we are fans.  Good ingredients. Yum. And no, my guy is still not spitting. One day.

We're also going to be attempting to heal our dental woes with a remineralizing toothpaste shown here  by Paleo Mama: I will update that another time. 

Good luck!