Hitting the TRAILS!

We went hiking at the narrows today. It's a nature reserve by a river. Lots of fossils and shelf fungi.

I packed food. bacon sandwiches and apples and watermelon and Organic cranberry lemonade from Trader Joes.


I made trailmix for us. Into a large plastic bowl I put sesame sticks (Trader Joes), Dry Roasted almonds (Trader Joes), whole grain pretzel nuggets (T.J.),all natural yogurt covered raisins and choc chips. Trader Joes stuff is either organic or at least all natural.

I love getting snack foods from Trader Joes. Their natural/organic chips, crackers, cookies, nuts and dried fruits.

I just ate a Trader Joes Fiberful Fruit Leather. A regular berry fruit leather with 6 grams of fiber.

My kids love trailmix. but usually I let them make their own bag. Because, of course, one boy likes cashews best and one likes yogurt covered raisins best & one likes the almonds and pretzels the best. (well, best after the choc chips). This time, one was napping and the other 2 were at Kung Fu, so I just made it. They all sat and traded ingredients before heading out to hike.

There was a flood here a few weeks ago so it was fun to see what the trails and plant life looked like post flood. There was silt debris hanging from the trees where the flood went up high.

SHOPPING FUN

My Cloth pads didn't come today. Maybe tomorrow.

I now have 11 reusable grocery bags. 1 is a cotton 'net' bag. It's great for produce. Looks like this:

But the handles are not as long. It's great. it folds so small. it can fit inside py purse or cargo pant pocket with room plenty of room to spare. And I can put a HUGE amount of produce in it.

2 oy my bags are on the smaller side. My Trader Joe bag is very big. The others are Meijer Bags. pretty roomy. More roomy than a brown paper bag. So I have PLENTY of reusbale bags for shopping.

And sometimes I just SAY NO. If I am just in the store for a head oflettuce and a bottle of shave gel, then I say no to getting a bag. I can carry that in my hands. I bet a lot of people could Just say No to bags from time to time. and the people I see in the store- 1/3 could say no to a bag! (Maybe Americans also need to plan our shopping better so we aren't always back at the store for that loaf of bread we forgot)

SO----- ANY-HOO

I went to Trdaer Joes yesterday. I bought all kinds of snacks.
Wasabi Peas - (in a bag like you'd get nuts)
Sesamae Sticks-
Sesame Sticks with Honey - My Fav! Ki's alergic ro honey so I have them labeled well.
Pita Chips with Sea Salt-
Pita Chips- Garlic & Parmasean Cheese
Bagel Chips
Dry Roasted Almonds

I bought hand soap and 2 things of tea tree oil face soap.

A scratching pad thing for the cat

Blueberry Juice

Bananas

Protein Bars
Fiber Bars
some new bar- a raw food, organic bar. looked interesting
Fruit Leathers

*All Clean*

So today was the main washing of the cup day. I hope I did it correctly. The website said to use antibacterial soap and hot water. Iused Dial, because hot water and Dial kills bacteria and it's what the burn hospital had us using on Manuel's burn and skin grafts. Then I did a rinse in vinegar water solution. I should measure it next time, I think I had too much vinegar.

Brian is home sick. He still hasn't asked why there is no trash evidence of my period, so I haven't mentioned it to him yet. It doesn't seem the kind of thing I just excitedly blurt out.
"Hey, honey, guess what!! I just got a rubber cup to insert in my vagina to catch menstrual blood! Isn't that cool!!??"

I'm glad he didn't walk in while I was washing it. I prefer not to explain it while washing it. I think having visuals for it would not be good for my husband. He gets queasy watching CSI. He won't watch it with me.

So, those of you who are Cup Users, how do you wash yours at the end of the cycle? Do you use antibacterial soap and bleach?

FINAL THOUGHTS

All in All... I am having with the cup. it's so much better that my old method. One the ladies on cafemom who has read some of my cup story decided to buy one. She bought a Diva Cup.

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I need more protien. I boiled some eggs, but left them in the water too long. Hopefully they are still good. I need to use the timer next time I boil eggs.

ADD/OCD

Well, my obsession is over. I used the cup for 2 days/2nights. All went well. I was cumpulsively obsessed, but got bored and time to move onto the next item.

I cycle through current obsessions.

So. my overview of the cup.
- it's mush better than tampons.
- less annoying
-less leakage (just a panyltliner the 1st day)
-the emptying the cup part still seems weird/odd/ almost icky. But not nearly as much as I thought.
-It's so nice to not have to be chaning my period protection every 1-3 hours.

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My Next Cup Adventure will be camping probably. Not sure the exact dates we'll be at the Grand Canyon area, but it looks like part of our 3 week trip from Ohio to California I'll be 'having my mooncycle'- or whatever the hippy-wanna-be term is for it.

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I'll probably not post here until then. This was just a safeplace to share my Menstrual Cup experiences and Hippy Wanna Be Stuff. Which I have no material right now.

In between the lines

Liners, actually. I am somewhere in between disposable liners and reusable liners in my thinking. Panty liners. Not ocean liners.
(don't forget to read the 2 previous entries as this is just a con't of those)

Moon Cup Trial entry #3
Last night was my first overnight cup use. I was a bit nervous, which caused to wake a few times. I am not a light sleeper, but when I have something to do first thing in the morning, esp early, I often wake a few times in anticipation. I had a pantyliner for backup and decided to not go check even when I woke up at 4 AM. And 6 AM. I was up at 8Am and did my thing. No leaking, but a full cup. So that was good. Great even. With tampons I wear a liner and a super at night and still leak. In fact the first night I wake up around 4AM and have to go change my tampon. And then I still have a lot of leaking. On night 2 I have leakage in the morning. So I am happy to not have to deal with that morning mess.

And I couldn’t feel it. I can always feel the tampons at night. (day, too usually).




I need a liner with the cup. At least for the first day or two due to the heaviness of my flow those first 2 days. And I have noticed I get a teeny bit of discharge just from residual blood up there after I insert the cup. Even if the cup catches everything that comes down, there was already stuff in the passageway.



I had thought worse of reusable panty liners than I had of a menstrual cup. The cup is rubber , you dump and rinse. Wash well at the end of the cycle.
A reusable pad seemed worse in thought. Blood-soaked fabric that needs to be washed out seemed like more of a pain. Then I got to thinking.

I don’t get fair warning. I never knew ladies did until recently. My period just starts full flow, but usually first thing in the morning, so it’s not too bad. But that means each month I have bloody panties or even sheets because I almost never think to wear a pad the time surrounding when I’m supposed to start. But I hate pads.

So I now figure, washing a panty liner can’t be that much different than washing those first day panties. And that’d be one less thing going into landfills.

I think I’ll buy a couple, and then think of making my own when we move and I get my sewing machine set up again.

Another line of thought on this topic is when my husband will notice, if ever. At first I figured he may not ever. It’s not like he asks about these things. Then I realized he probably will notice as the bathroom trashcan isn’t filled with adhesive backing from liners and tampon applicator packaging. That is usually his clue. Now, will it even occur to him when it’s been 4 or 5 months and there have not been these tell tale signs in the trash can?

Reusable Pad/pantyliner Links:

www.gladrags.com/
www.moonpads.com/
www.lunapads.com/
http://partypantspads.com/
http://www.newmoonpads.com/
http://www.momandmepouch.com/clothwelcome.html

Other Links:
Make Your Own: http://www.borntolove.com/d-list7-make.shtml
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloth_menstrual_pad

I find it entertaining- all the different things in Wikipedia

Be forewarned

This entry is about menstrual stuff and it’s not sugar-coated with cutesy terms. read on if your fine with it.

Today (Sunday) was my first day using the Moon Cup for REAL. Not just a dry run to practice getting it in and out.

My period was on the calendar to start Monday and the last 2 times I have been a day or two late. I actually put the Moon Cup in on Saturday for one last test run. All was fine. The weird thing about dry runs is the cup catches other bodily fluids. When I took the cup out in the early evening I noticed the contents were very slightly blood-tinged. Now, my period hadn’t started. (Nothing on the TP after using the john). I wondered if that was a precursor to my period starting. I check again right before bed- no period still.

I decided to put the cup in on Sunday as it might be nice to not be surprised by the start. I don’t spot the day before or anything- no warning signs. I just START full force.

Well, when I woke up Sunday morning it was already too late for a pre-emptive strike. So I washed up, inserted the cup. All went fine.

2 hours later I took a shower. The paperwork all says about 8 hours between needing to empty the cup. It was only 2. But I figured in the shower was a good place to try. All was fine, no problems. Except that the cup was already about halfway full!

So I checked the cup 4 hours after I put it back in. it was already full and about to overspill!


So Far- I like that I don’t feel the wadded up cotton packaging up there. I like that I don’t have strings that dangle in the stream of urine. I like that I don’t feel it at all and it doesn’t have that dry scratch going in or out. And for my first day, going 4 hours is twice as long as I can go when on tampons.

It was 3.5 hours between removals next time. And it was to the rim again. Not to the VERY TOP, but to the bottom edge of the rim.

Hopefully tomorrow I can go even longer between emptying. And I have to call my Gyno 1st thing in the morning as I planned a PAP without realizing I’d be ‘On the Cup’.

I haven’t mentioned the cup to my husband. Probably won’t. If he figures it out, he figures it out. I’ve never talked about menstrual stuff with him.

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