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Reducing Infant Mortality from Debby Takikawa on Vimeo.

Not much. Trying to keep busy while simultaneously avoiding meeting any new people. Pretty tricky thing to do without acreage. My husband suggested weeks ago that I share our new favorite “cookie” recipe. I put cookie in quotations because it is healthier and has less sugar that some meals the kids eat, and they taste more like a biscuit. Anyway, everyone likes them, even my Mom. That is really saying something since Mom is not a fan of healthy food.

Spinach Almond-Butter Cookies
a recipe to make with toddlers

Ingredients:
a bunch or box of spinach or baby spinach
1/2 cup Almond milk (unsweetened)
1 cup Almond Butter (no added sugar)
2 eggs
1/2 cup Blackstrap molasses
1/2 cup honey
4 tbls softened butter
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
whole wheat flour
all purpose flour

You may notice that I do not give measurements on the flour. The reason for this will become clear in the directions. If any of the almondy ingredients come pre-sweetened, it will throw off the whole recipe.

Directions:

1. Pour 1/2 cup of Almond Milk in a blender, then fill the rest of the blender with spinach. Fill it up to the top with just a little packing. Blend. You will have to poke through the hole at the top a bit to get all the spinach to blend into the liquid. The end result will be a bright green liquid. Set aside.

2. Put the Almond Butter, Blackstrap, and Honey into a medium mixing bowl. Let your kids have either, or both, a little bit of blackstrap and a little bit of honey on their fingers! Mix together using a whisk. This is a tough part and best to have an adult or proto-adult do this–hence the fingers of blackstrap and honey to keep toddlers busy. Then crack an egg into a cup and let one toddler pour that into the mixing bowl. Now crack the second egg into the cup and let the other toddler mix that into the mixing bowl. If you have a third toddler, let them pour the butter. Otherwise someone needs to put the softened butter in. Whisk. Now mix in the spinach liquid, baking powder and salt. When it is creamy and consistent, move the mixing bowl and the 2 types of flour to, or near, the floor. I usually sit on a stool and hold the mixing bowl in my lap while each kid is in charge of a bag of flour.

3. Let kids throw handfuls of flour into the mixing bowl while you continue to whisk. Unless your kids have big hands, or scoops, you will have to help out. Also, try to keep an eye on how much of each flour makes it into the bowl. You want about equal quantities. Continue this until you have a thick, but still very sticky and soft, dough. Now cover (or not) and stick in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease some cookie sheets. Take the now stiffer dough out of the fridge and let kids make 1in balls and put them on the cookie sheets. These cookies don’t tend to spread, but if you put them too close it could effect cooking times/results. Place the balls about 4 inches apart. Make a little bowl of ice water and get a fork. Dip the fork in the ice water and smoosh down the cookie balls like you would a peanut butter cooking. You will need to dip the fork into the ice water between every cookie or it will stick and make a mess of your next cookie. Don’t be alarmed by the cookies closely resembling poop at this stage. Block it from your mind and just keep dipping and smooshing.

5. Bake the cookies for 18-20 minutes and let cool before eating. They keep really well for several days in a jar on the counter top. Be careful having them sitting out, though, because you may find yourself eating them continually all day. Usually the day we make these, I let the kids have them for lunch. They surely have more nutrients and less sugar than the almond butter and jelly sandwiches the kids usually have for lunch! And yes, we get 100% fruit, unsweetened jelly. Still, though. Less sugar in the cookies!

Disposable diapers should definitely have a sin tax attached to them. A high one! And those yucky gel things should be banned from use! This way, a family may consider using only disposable diapers for 1 or 2 children, but if you start having more kids it will be financially unfeasible to use anything but cloth. The economic value of cloth if you plan to have more than a couple kids is HUGE. A one time expenditure of $300-$500 can last for 4 or 5 kids! Maybe with a booster purchase of $20-$50 just for new cute covers or supplies for each kid–just for fun. :) It definitely seems like a sin for parents with lots of kids to put all those awful disposable diapers first on their poor babies, and secondly on our earth. Of course, the diaper company lobbyists would be against this….

Beware, this is is a FULL DISCLOSURE review. If you do not know what a Diva Cup is, you may not want to read this post. If you are interested enough to find out, please go to www.divacup.com BEFORE reading this post.

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I never realized how abnormally heavy a period I have until I used the Diva Cup, but I have to say I like having more information :) I need to preface this review by saying that tampons have always leaked for me. ALWAYS. Very leaky. I would feel it and have to run to the bathroom. Sometimes even a panty liner would not be enough to prevent stained undies. Even with the fancy tampons that expanded out instead of long. No dice. Still leaking. Then, I didn’t have a regular period for 4 years thanks to pregnancy, then nursing, then pregnancy, then nursing! lol I did have lochia twice during that time, and 2 very light (although in retrospect, probably close to normal for most women) anovulatory periods in between pregnancies. By the time I ovulated and didn’t get pregnant, I had a Diva Cup.

They say that an average woman bleeds about 2oz per cycle. I am not one of those women. I bled more than 2oz the first day! Sure, this was my first cycle back, but even so… I have always been heavy. There was about a half-day learning curve with the cup, but after a few times, I got the hang of getting it in there correctly. It was comfortable, however there was 2 problems:
1) the blood that was further down than where I placed the cup would slowly ooze out. I found just a baby washcloth folded in half would be enough to keep my panties from staining.
2) If I went into a deep squat (like I do every single time I put a kid on the potty) the cup would shift. Then start to leak slightly. The only thing that would work would be to pull it out and reinsert it. This was especially bothersome at stores. There I would be bathrooms that are wet or otherwise too gross to sit down on the floor in front of the potty. Then I was in a bind. If I squatted, then I would have to either accept some leaking, or try and reinsert the cup with both kids there in the tiny stall.

I have waited to post this blog as I was in an ongoing communication with the Diva Cup company. I just got off the phone with a representative who advised me to go in a see a doctor during those days to assess my body changes. Since these problems only appeared the first couple days, she suggested that something naturally in my anatomy during the start of my period is preventing the Cup from sealing correctly.

After my flow went down to 1/2oz or less every 6-8 hours (an average woman’s flow) the Cup worked perfectly–exactly as advertised.

A friend of mine mentioned how she tried “The Keeper” once, but gave it up after just a day. So, being the interested consumer that I am, I had to go look up the differences between the cups.

The Keeper is made of latex, but they have in recent years put out a silocone cup to compete with the Diva Cup. It is called “The Moon Cup”. Otherwise, the cups are basically the same size, except the Keeper/Moon Cup has a longer stem at the bottom. However, the stem looks smooth. I really needed the ridges on the stem of the Diva Cup to get it back out. I even got to tying a cotton string tightly between the ridges to help me pull it out. This worked really well, although I would have to change the string every time or every other time I emptied the Cup.

The Diva Cup gives better instructions on inserting and removing their product. Since the cups are virtually identical, I would assume that they would go in the same way. However, by reading the Keeper’s instructions, it sounds like you push the cup vertically towards the cervix instead of horizontally towards the tail-bone. I can promise you that the horizontal installation works and the vertical installations doesn’t. So whatever cup you buy, read the instructions for the Diva Cup. They are more clear and work better.

Pluses of the Diva Cup:
1. First latex-free menstrual cup made
2. After a short learning period, very easy to remove, wash and reinsert (except when locked in a 2ftX4ft room with a 1.5 year old and a 3.5 year old.
3. Does not leak or require a panty liner for an average flow.
4. For an average flow, it only had to be emptied every 8 hours–so almost never in a public restroom.
5. On ultra-heavy flow days the Cup still leaked way less than I experience with tampons.
6. Much cleaner to use than either pad or tampons. No storing blood! It flushes clean away in the toilet :)

Minuses:
1. Still requires some protection, for me, on heavy flow days. Really, though, only a baby washcloth folded in half–no waterproof barrier.
2. I have to remember not to squat during heavy days, and figure out what to do instead at the wet, dirty floor public restrooms that the kids may need to potty in.

As you see, the pluses WAY outweigh the minuses. I will be using the Diva Cup again.