lauraska's Profile

I love this post! Just last week, I wrote a similar one for The Shopping Mama (see it, here: http://theshoppingmama.com/2011/07/thoughts-of-a-cloth-diaperer/). We also use BumGenius and LOVE them. We waited a few weeks to switch from disposables to cloth and couldn't be happier. We don't have the luxury of a clothesline, though, and are coming up on some issues with lingering stinkiness after washing. Anyone with any advice?

Walmart is one of the most deplorable companies in this country. It bullies its way into communities (and just to be fair...so does Whole Foods). They have been sued in 32+ states for awful employment practices. And they feed the American fantasy that we are entitled to have access to everything and that it should be as cheap as possible.

In other countries, the crap food is just as outrageously priced as the good food, but that's not what makes people make healthier choices. It's societal. We can make organic apples as cheap as we want but the shoppers at Walmart who load up their carts with pre-packaged, processed junk every week and feed it to their kids are NOT going to buy apples because they are cheap. They buy it because they are lazy and feel entitled to stay that way. I know this sounds classist, but I grew up in a low income household and watched my mother work like crazy to put good food on our plates every day. It wasn't about affording it...it was about WANTING to do it right.

Re ebarrett3's comment: I didn't realize that it was the host/hostess's responsibility to police every single guest to ensure they haven't had one too many. I would like to assume that the friends I would invite to a party are adults who can be trusted to police themselves. Putting the onus on the person hosting the party is absolutely ridiculous.

I stopped watching the A&E program because it became too frustrating to me. Sometimes I have issues with "Intervention" for the same reason. I totally understand what boogers is saying about how the process needs to be therapeutic, but I don't have the patience to watch some of the families on "Hoarders." Adult children who leave their parents to rot in these filthy and disgusting conditions and then act amazed when they come back for the first time in years and find that the conditions are even worse? It's maddening and those people should be ashamed of themselves. The episode that comes to mind in this instance is the one where the mother resorted to wearing adult diapers and strapping herself into a toilet chair at night to sleep, and then almost died when she fell out of the chair and got wedged among all the garbage, which included her dirty diapers. Her daughter was heartless and clearly just wanted the problem to disappear, despite the fact that her mother was clearly exhibiting symptoms of mental illness. And while I don't think the problem can be solved in two days, I think there is an incredible amount of "babying" that goes on with the hoarders. They need to be TOLD that this behavior is unacceptable and needs to change, even if it has to change over a period of time. The younger hoarders who actually had minor children in their homes? They shouldn't have custody of those kids and anyone who says differently has no concept of what "neglect" actually is. I used to work in the foster care system and some of the homes that we saw were worse than any other form of neglect you could imagine.

That being said, I do like the TLC show more because it delves into what causes people to hoard. It's a hard issue to understand, and to empathize with, so giving a little background on the condition is way more helpful than just an hour of throwing away the person's stuff.

I just got back from purchasing two of these at the Tractor Supply Co. My husband and I had purchased some slightly ugly cedar log beds from Lowe's, but then I saw this post and we instantly had a new plan. They will fit in well in our Philadelphia back yard because our other containers are a mishmosh of galvanized steel wash bins and terracotta planters. The only downside is that they are deep and require alot of soil, but otherwise I think they'll be awesome!

I would REALLY like to know how to make all of the other stuff that is in that delicious-looking picture!

I read this post and instantly thought of this one that you had a while ago...

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/look/look-plates-on-display-at-anthropologie-062120

Thanks for inspiring my latest blog post! It's here...

http://www.examiner.com/x-3706-Philadelphia-Arts-and-Crafts-Examiner~y2009m3d31-Whats-on-your-walls