House of B is moving

We're moving house soon. We've worked really hard to make our current house eco-friendly and sustainable, but the irony is now that we have just got our solar panels we are moving house :-) But we are very excited about the new House of B. It is a larger block, with a house that lends itself better to being made over in a sustainable way.

Also even though we are moving further out, it has greater access to public transport and the ability to walk to local shops etc. So we wont have to use the car as much (have no choice where we currently live - its the car or rock climbing). And the exciting bit for me, is the garden (read lawn and some fruit trees) is a blank canvas for me to redo my vegie garden. And I'm keen to do a big permaculture garden.

Since we move in 5 weeks, I've been indulging my gardening urges by working on Granny B's garden. Another plus for new house is its 6 doors down from Granny B's (yay the walking distance thing again). We've been working hard on putting in spring plantings and enjoying all our mini orchard fruit trees blossoming. Our blueberries are fruiting and so are our dwarf peaches. Yummmmmmmm

Sneaky little vampire loads

I'm proud to say that reducing our electricity usage is really paying off. We are now down to 11kw a day!! *dance, dance*.
By slowly turning things off at the powerpoint and not using other items, I am slowly whittling down dollar amount of our electricity bill as well as kilowatts used.

Biggest culprits so far have been the things that have vampire (standby) power -
* the TV (when not in use we pull the plug out - it spends alot of its life like this LOL)
* microwave (which we turn off unless we use it)
* lights (which we changed to 12 watt leds)
* mobile phone charger (keep unplugged)
* computer (moved to laptop, and use battery until it needs charging)
* digital alarm clocks (we moved to old fashioned key wound alarm clocks).

But one of the biggest culprits has been our cordless phones. Call it a blinding flash of the obvious, but I didnt even think of these until I read a Choice article on them. By going back to an "old fashioned" phone, we knocked $40 off our electricity bill alone. The mind boggles!!!!

But I have more to attack with our house, and with a move to a new house, we hope to bring it down even further.

Go no poo :-)

I have been reading an ever expanding list of blogs recently which have inspired me to try new things at home.

The most successful was has been going shampoo free. Who would have thought it would feel so freeing. I have been in an ongoing battle to find a chemical free shampoo that actually cleans my dirty mop of hair. I would think I'd hit onto a new favourite but it would disappoint after two or three washes, leaving me with limp dirty hair.

I am so happy to say my new process works like a dream. I sprinkle bicarb on my hair when dry, rub it into my scalp. Then jump into the shower and rinse it out. I follow this with a vinegar water mix as a conditioner. My hair has never been this soft or clean. It also doesnt get as dirty as usual.

I'm not the first to try it nor the last I'm sure, but I am so happy to find something that works!! :-)

And thus begins the scented path....

After being inspired by so many green blogs, I thought I would start my own.

I began our families journey 3 years ago when Mr B and I began a business based on solar. With each step into this new domain, we began to focus more carefully on our choices. In hindsight, they were baby steps. We watched our power usage (or so we thought), I cooked all our meals, ate "healthily" and made a tree change to live closer to the environment.

Little B was then born and I began to take my decisions and choices in earnest.

I'm lucky that we already had embraced breastfeeding and cloth nappies. But when Little B was diagnosed with food allergies, I started to take a really good look at our food choices. Boy was I shocked. I thought we done all the "good things" but really we were eating things full of fillers, not to mention pesticides etc on our food.

And with this focus, my eyes literally opened wide to how we were living our lives. Yes we had begun a sustainable business but our lifestyle left much to be desired.

And so began our journey along the scented path...

I wish he could eat more things

I'm starting to tire of this journey. We are currently in limbo and trying to wean Toddler B off his reflux medication. He's been on it since he was 5 months old and I think he needs a break. The good news is that he seems to be responding well to the decrease in his meds. Bad news for me is this is a 2 month process and we cant food trial until it is over.

I just wish he could eat more things. It feels like we go round and round a limited circle. Which is fine most of the time. But some days he doesnt want to eat anything on offer BUT I dont have anything else I can offer him.

So I've had my nose to the grindstone to start modifying new recipes which just puts the same ingredients into different configurations :-)

Hospitals Suck

Toddler B went in for a procedure for his teeth yesterday (another issue from antibiotics during pregnancy). He had a general anaesthetic. First of all, they dont make an unflavoured anaesthetic for children - its all strawberry, chocolate or pineapple flavoured. All childrens face masks are imbued with scent as well.

So today I have a child getting over a GA and having a massive reaction to the overdose of salicylates in the scented masks etc.

Also in recovery, do they cater for children with food allergies?? Of course not!! I was prepared and took our own food, but nurses kept insisting he ate one of their icy poles. Umm no - he's allergic. I was starting to feel like a broken record.

Food Challenges

Up until recently, Toddler B has failed all his food challenges. Soy is as evil as ever!!

He also failed his most recent egg challenge as well.

We tried a dairy challenge in April under the supervision of an allergy dietician. While he initially passed a cooked milk, he failed yoghurt dismally. So four months later we are in the process of our next dairy challenge.

Against common advice we are avoiding yoghurt and cheese completely. After much research, I believe the protein chains are inducing an allergic response in Toddler B. So far we have passed milk in baked goodies, and are slowly moving up the chain of a cooked milk custard (de-natured milk as he is allergic to all the additives in formula).

So far so good. I think what has helped the most has been the introduction of a good Probiotic. It has also helped with his environmental allergies. Since introducing the probiotic we have seen a HUGE reduction in his reactions.