An eco-friendly time of month?

So this post may be a little TMI, especially for any men reading this. Just stop reading if you get grossed out, okay?

I had no idea how many sanitary towels/tampons one woman can go through in a lifetime. And now I've forgotten the figure. But it was a lot, like 7000 or something. And all of those end up in landfill, or floating around at sea somewhere. Now if you thought they were gross in your litter bin, how gross is thousands of them in a landfill? Also, how environmentally unfriendly are they?

OK, I know that there are organic, biodegradable pads out there... somewhere... but they're expensive and for me at least hard to get hold of. I'll be honest though, expensive matters more. Switzerland is dear enough without buying expensive disposable stuff! I also know that you can make or buy re-usable pads. From where I'm standing, that is a great idea. If you have your own washing machine. But if, like me, you live in a block of flats with a shared machine in the laundry room, you don't want to be saving all that stuff up to wash once a week on "your" day to use the machine. And I absolutely do not want to be handwashing them. Eww. (Although I am still bearing it in mind for if my current solution doesn't work out).

So here's what I think is the very very best option.

Last year I heard about menstrual cups and for some reason I didn't really follow up on it till this year, when I made it a New Year's goal to get one and at least try using it. A menstrual cup, in case you've not come across the phrase before, is just that, a small cup for collecting menstrual fluid. Not to keep, of course. :-) It's like a tampon but it doesn't soak up the fluid and is reusable - for about 5 or 10 years! This means that while they can be a bit pricey, you do save money in the long run. I worked out that in my case, at about 9 months I'm breaking even and from then on I'm saving money. That's if I only buy one. Some people buy a smaller and a larger one. But even then I'd still break even after only 18 months of using them. And think how much stuff is not going into landfill. And then think of all the chemicals that are now not going into my body.

My husband can't quite understand why I'm so excited about this. :-)

So I'm not going to go into any more detail here but for anyone interested in finding out more, I found this brilliant blog by a lady who has tried out loads of different cups and writes about them to help other ladies decide which might be the best for them. And after reading the comparison charts carefully I chose one and ordered it, and today it has arrived and I am so excited! I can't wait to try it out and see if it really lives up to what the people who use these things say about it! I'm also thrilled because the company sent me a second one free of charge (it has a tiny mark in the silicone which means they can't sell it, but it's still safe to use) which is a different size and style to the one I ordered. So if I don't like mine, I can try that to see if I just have the wrong size, or if cups aren't for me after all.

All of this means there will probably be another post about this sometime in March. I was just too excited not to blog about it straight away.

And if you've used a menstrual cup and been happy (or sad) with it, or just have thoughts about anything I've mentioned here, I'd love to hear from you! Leave me a comment. :-)

Christmas fake-Danish-hearts

This post has been linked to learning cooperative ABC&123 - check them out!

This is a close-up of our Advent calendar. These are "real" Danish hearts. You can find a tutorial for making them here or by Googling "Danish heart baskets". They're fun to do if you're old enough, but no good for our five-year old. Also they're much easier with paper than with felt - I know because we tried felt last year. But here's what I'm talking about today:

This is our Advent "wreath". Cute, and much easier! We got ours from Ikea, full of tea-lights. Now the tea-lights are hidden it looks much better.

Here's what you need. Well some of what you need. Old wrapping paper or craft paper in various colours - we used both. Scissors, pencil, ruler, template...

You can use the template for making real Danish hearts too - click on the picture if you want a better look. To make the template, we used the bottom of a wine glass and then extended the sides till they were the same length as the diameter of the wineglass (you can see I've marked the identical lengths "A"). To make our decoration we needed to cut out four hearts from plain paper (any colour would do) because I wasn't sure about Froglet gluing stuff directly onto the backdrop. And for some reason I started drawing six. Never mind eh.

Don't worry about that little mark on the template where it says "plus a bit"- that's not relevant here. It just shows to make the cuts a bit longer so it's easier to weave the strips together on a real heart basket.

Here I'm cutting out the template from the coloured paper that we're using to decorate our hearts. Whatever colours you like - we always used red-and-green when I was little.

Cut out the semi-circle and then divide the square into equal parts - I think sixteen would be more traditional but we chose the easy option and did nine. Froglet only cut the little squares out because I don't really trust him with curvy lines yet for something that's actually going to be in the middle of the table for a month! Yes I know. One day I may be less of a perfectionist.

Glue your cut-out paper onto the plain paper heart, making sure your child knows to alternate the colours like a chess-board. Then stick your heart onto whatever you're using it for, if you didn't do that directly. I glued ours on a piece of gold wrapping paper cut to more-or-less fit around the inside of the Ikea candle vase...

Turns out I didn't measure that carefully enough and the vase is wider at the top than the bottom so it doesn't sit quite flat. But at least my semi-circles are well-cut-out. :-)

Advent activities - Week Three

The last week of school was a busy time

Baking and cake decorating

Sewing, knitting and crocheting
Ironing new patches on very old jeans
Reading Christmas books
Playing with friends
Building with Lego
Sledging in the wonderful foot-deep snow on the hill outside
And wondering whether Christmas will actually be spent where we intended...

Christmas cake shared with dear friends...

...who brought us this lovely gift

First gift from Froglet opened

Second gift adorning the shelf
in a beautiful bag he decorated himself at school

"We three kings of Orient are

With our psychedelic camels we travel afar...

...Field and fountain, moor and mountain

Foll'wing a felted star!"

Didn't Froglet do a lovely job on those camels?
Wooden shapes from the DIY store which he coloured with felt-tip pens and glitter glue.

Advent activities - Week Two

Froglet's wrapping paper made at school...

"Mummy, it has to go on the wall, Miss said so!"

Scones, strawberry and rhubarb jam...
with our advent "wreath" behind them...

We give thanks to Ikea for the flat-packed gingerbread house...
and to God for the fun we had decorating it...

A reindeer with handprint antlers to adorn the front door...
although he seems to prefer the floor...

Toilet roll snowflakes, painted pearl and white, strung together for a garland...
much prettier than our blinds outside...

Waldorf-style shepherds...
with misshapen sheep...

And we still have time to hide in boxes too!

Advent activities - Week One

Advent calendar finished and hung up...

Tree decorated with unbreakable baubles, to the great delight of one small girl...

Some Christmas cards made...

New Jesse tree acquired (last year's died) and Holy Family settled beneath it...

Great concentration is required for making jingle bell necklaces...


Pipe-cleaner, beads and bells for a lovely jingle bell bracelet/tree ornament!

I know I've finished my advent list for this year (and yes we are doing all those activities so far - and some extra too! and photos will follow eventually) but here's one to save for next year:

Winter Crafts and Activities for Little Ones from Rhythm of the Home

(I like the one partway down about making felted balls with a bell inside, which I would pair with re-teaching my youngest "Jingle Bells", but there are other things to do with small children too.)

Rhythm of the home is the newest blog on my list and I love it! So many amazing ideas for crafts or food... two of my favourite things. :-)

Stocking fillers

Here's what's going in our little ones' stockings this year:

A home-made Waldorf baby doll and carrier sling each, if I get them finished in time...
A balloon each
A banana, satsuma, piece of pear-and-rye bread each
Chocolate coins - one bag between the four of us
A piece of Haba pretend food each, probably a muffin or berry of some sort
A matchbox car each - Nutmeg likes cars just as much as Froglet does!
A bracelet for Nutmeg, which Froglet will help me choose.
An umbrella for Froglet, for walking to kindergarten with
A mini-archaeology kit (semi-precious stones to dig out of a block of plaster)
A spoon with a coloured handle each. We're always short of spoons.
A blank mini-sketchbook of some sort each, so we can start having family drawing time as suggested in this post from The Green Parent.

This year our stockings are also our main presents, because we know we'll get lots of things from the grandparents.