Most wonderful time of the year?

A quick errand to the store yesterday just made me feel overwhelmed. Right now, retailers are jumbling the holidays together and barfing them up like the aftermath of a bad party. A little Halloween here. A little Christmas there. And a teeny bit of Thanksgiving and fall flourishes crammed in just in case.

It’s no wonder my daughter was thoroughly confused when we were at the store the other day. Is it Halloween time? Christmas time? For a kid with little sense of time, it’s visual chaos. And for me, I’d just like to take a breather.

I realize my plea to let the holidays stand for themselves will fall on the deaf ears of retailers, who are quickly ripping down Halloween costumes to make room for Christmas lights, only by Dec. 24 to start ushering in Valentine’s Day. As a former retail widow, I fully understand it’s all about making the next buck.

But when does it stop? Can we ever enjoy the season for what it is?

Thanks for listening to me vent (and putting up with my horribly bad writing!) today!

College kid catches composting buzz

Composting has been long on my to-do list, but the big hold-up is that it's just not practical for us. Unfortunately, we face an uphill battle regarding homeowner association rules, small lots, etc.

While I've heard there are actual indoor compost bins, I don't have hundreds to invest in one of those at this time.

Of course, today I read today's Star and had one of those "Why didn't I think about that?" moments. Inside was an article about a Butler University student who was inspired to start a composting business. He offers a weekly pickup of your compost pail to Broad Ripple area residents, and promises them some of "the goods" when gardening season's back in full swing.

Maybe this is an idea worth catching on!

Cloth diapering: One year of dissing disposables

Cloth or plastic? It's a question I considered with the birth of my second child. Was going cloth worth it if you could only do it part-time?

One year into our family's experiment, I can say that yes, it is. I'm saying as a mom who's juggled cloth through wiggly babies, tumbling toddlers and, now, the start of potty training, all-in-ones are a great resource for moms to have on hand!

When I first seriously considering going cloth at home (our day care insists on disposables), I did the math, and found out that if I went conservative on quantity and washed each night (which I was doing anyways on weekends), I'd break even in 26 weeks. And that's with using them twice a week.

I have had to buy new diapers as the little guy's grown, but I've found that by shopping around you can find brands of diapers that stretch longer across the sizes. Luckily, I found great resources like Toasty Baby, which even delivered the diapers to my home, Zwaggle, and Craigslist. Granted, the latter two required a lot of visits to the sites to find cloth diapers, but when I found them, the prices couldn't be beat. I got 5 cloth diapers for $20 from one and a set of 6 new diapers for the cost of shipping with the other! So for the cost of three packages of disposables, I was set for another six months or longer.

Soon, I got braver and added cloth wipes into the mix. And you can even get by without those, in all honesty. How many infant washcloths do you have lying around your bathroom?

Sure, I may have a little bit more laundry to do, but I simply toss dry diapers and cloths into a box in the bedroom. No folding's required.

As potty training has approached, I've actually found cloth diapers are easier to manage than disposable. He responds to wetness faster, and the cloth diapers don't tear or get ruined after multiple times of opening the velcro to use the bathroom. And my laundry load has dropped as well as we're having more success!

Would I go cloth again? Absolutely. Investing in all-in-one diapers are easy, and, after the initial expense, well worth the hassle!

Pumpkin smoothie

Our Pumpkin Smoothie recipe was made up on a whim Sunday afternoon. I sincerely thought I had printed a recipe like this when I ran off several "kids cooking" recipes, but didn't have it when I came to look for it. The kids loved it!

Pumpkin Smoothie
1/2 15-oz. can pumpkin
1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt
1 1/2 cups milk

Blend 30 seconds. Add ice cubes for a thicker consistency.

Our cooking competition (Round 1)

Lunchtime approached, and I was at a complete loss of what to do. Burnt out on mac 'n cheese, grilled cheese and pasta, I faced a fridge with, frankly, a lot of random items.

Two bunches of radishes, eagerly bought by a 4 year old at the farmers market the previous weekend and then forgotten.

A few small kolhrabi, grabbed from the garden before last weekend's promised freezing temperatures.

A bunch of bok choi, a few packages of mushrooms, an abandoned half of an onion and snow peas, all bought with the intentions of making meals that just didn't happen.

I was stumped. And the troops were hungry.

Luckily, inspiration hit: A cooking contest! Think Iron Chef meets desperate mom.

I proposed the idea to my oldest: I would make some different veggie dishes, and they would judge and see what tastes the best. Thankfully, she was sold.

Into a small pan went the kolhrabi, sliced and sauteed in butter. (Not fancy, but as we'd never actually eaten kolhrabi before - we simply picked it because the name was funny - I figured we would play it safe.) Another pan held radishes to be sauteed as well.

In the wok went the main event: Veggie stirfry with a splash or two of teriyaki sauce, served over leftover rice.

The kids eagerly waited. By now, my daughter had deemed herself as "Giada" the judge, and her brother would be "Ted."

The kohlrabi was done first. "It's really juicy and good," she said. Hmm, juicy wasn't quite the word I'd associate it, but I did like the flavor. "Ted" took one bite and spit it on the plate.

The radishes were next. "It's pretty good," "Giada" said, munching away. "You did a nice job. You have good ingredents."

Though we've had cooked radishes before, perhaps these just looked like a pinker version of the kolhrabi. "Ted" spit his out and threw it on the floor for emphasis.

While we waited for the stir fry to be ready, we agreed that we'd go ahead and grow the kolrabi again next year - that much was a success. And then we served the main event. "Giada" gobbled the shitake mushrooms first. "Ted" went for the rice, then took one bite of the snow peas, decidedly dropping the pieces in protest - first on my plate and then on the floor. As added emphasis, down went the fork as well. The plate appeared to be at risk of a similar fate.

Despite one grouchy judge, our little "competition" worked wonders. It got my daughter at least trying a new vegetable or two, and cleaned out my fridge. Now, I've just got to figure out what's for dinner!