Crunchy Mom Stuff (warning: inane mom post)

I've got a bit of crunchy mom inside of me; here's how some of that is working out right now (I spend a frightening amount of my time thinking about things like this when I'm not keeping children happy, clean(ish), fed or not fighting).

• After 14 weeks of morning sickness (started getting sick at 4.5 weeks, just passed the 18 week mark last week), I've decided that I've got the gaggies enough under control that I'm going back into cloth diapering, starting today. The first cloth diaper I had to change this morning was a doozy -- almost made me change my mind ... permanently!  But I survived with no gagging!
• I've been doing the super frugal water-vinegar cleaning thing for almost every part of my house, but I bit the bullet and bought a tub of Seventh Generation essential oil disinfecting wipes for the express purpose of teaching Tito how to clean his own bathroom. It's awesome. Now every few days, T wipes down his own toilet and sink ... a very important skill for him to be learning now since he is a boy and boys are, um, messy in the bathroom.
• Since I'm doing the mostly-natural house cleaning route, I have a lot of vinegar and baking soda on hand, which also turns out to be great for science experiments for kids. Last week, we made exploding ice chalk, which they loved. This week, we're going to put drops of vinegar in trays of vinegar and watch it fizz and explode. It's too hot for this pregnant lady to go outside for most of the day, so I'm having to get creative with ways to keep two energetic kids busy inside.
  
• I was disappointed to realize yesterday that the Method hand soap that I have next to every sink in my house has Sodium Laurel Sulfate (SLS) as its second ingredient. Here, I've been working so hard to avoid that ingredient in other body care products in our house, and the item we use the most is full of it! (SLS is a skin irritant, generally avoided now in the "natural skin care" community, and particularly of interest to me because I have a few charges with sensitive skin in my house). I'm thinking of checking out The Honest Company's soap, but I'm wondering if there's a cheaper option available. I like The Honest Company's marketing (hello, ADORABLE diapers!), but it's not exactly cheap.
• I take a lot of baths in epsom salts: it's supposed to be detoxifying, and the magnesium that your skin absorbs is supposedly a mineral that many people are deficient in, purportedly -- according to some people -- a contributor to morning sickness, which is why I started it in the first place. A side benefit is that the salt stays in my hair after I rinse it, and if I have it braided while it dries (or I sleep on it), it creates that "beach hair" look that's so coveted on Pinterest right now. That's me: fashion forward.
• This isn't really a crunchy thing, but I made this Bobby Flay citrus grilled halibut recipe for dinner last week, and it was really good. I'm going to try it next week using salmon (we have a freezer full of fish due to a recent spousal fishing trip to Alaska). The citrus-butter-thyme sauce was also delicious over some carrots that I grilled in a foil packet (with butter) alongside the halibut.
• More on the food front: JR and T are going camping for two nights next weekend, and I'm trying to come up with frugal, healthy, easy meals to send with them. I think I'm going to make a lot of use of foil packets that they can just throw on the grill -- sausages with veggies, breakfast burritos wrapped in foil, and maybe even a variation of grilled cheese sandwiches (literally grilled over the campfire) for lunch? I'm also going to make banana bread cookies for breakfast and snacks -- I haven't found a recipe for that specifically that appeals to me, so I'll probably use my regular recipe for banana bread and drop the batter in balls on a cookie sheet and see how it comes out. Seems like a more camp-friendly way to consume your banana bread, plus, the kid will be super excited to be eating cookies for breakfast.
• One more food item: have you guys ever had grilled onions in foil packets? You can either peel and core a whole onion and fill it with butter and salt and pepper, wrap it in foil and grill it for a long time, or you can cut it into quarters and do the same thing, maybe over medium heat. Wrap it tightly enough that you can flip it a few times, leave it on long enough for the outside layers to get nice and brown (use lots of butter!), and it turns out to be melty soft and sweet and caramelized and delicious. We (the adults) each ate a whole onion cooked like this the other night.  Mmmm... I love not being sick any more so I can cook and enjoy my food!