Books, Diapers and Vitamin D
We seem to be going backward in time. Hurrah! Well, at least Hurrah for some things.
REAL VERSUS FAKE? BOOKS THAT IS.
There is a pending sense of relief that “real books” (the kind where you physically turn a physically real page) are back in style.
- I still get caught up trying to tap-turn a page in my E-reader with a too heavy hand that flips three pages at a time.
- Besides, E-book editions are now oftentimes higher priced than good old paperbacks.
- E-readers are sending me odd messages too. “We are unable to download the book you just ordered. Please return to your Library and try again.” Huh?
What are your gripes about e-readers? We could write a whole post about just those irritations..
Is there anything good about them? Maybe we could write a whole post about that.
SUNSHINE VERSUS VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS
The trend is toward natural sunlight which they say encourages your own body to manufacture its own Vitamin D! The benefits of supplements are now listed on the “iffy side.”
I now aim for 20 minutes in natural sunlight with unprotected skin to help Old Sol along.
Falling asleep out there however, is not a good idea. Just ask my grandgirl, Jess.
CLOTH DIAPERS VERSUS DISPOSABLES
They say disposable diapers are now clogging up the environment with all that in-disposable content. But cloth can be washed and rewashed.
I didn’t really know it but I used to save the planet like that but almost traumatized my infant son with extreme diaper rash. Are you ready for a Dor-story? That’s D-O-R – not, D-O-G.
In those ancient days of yore (before Pampers), I was hysterical about poor Corky’s terrible suffering with a constant diaper rash. Eventually I conferred with an expert. “What are you washing them in?” asked a helpful friend (mother of 6). “He has perfectly clean white diapers,” said I, “They are washed in soapy water and bleach!” And that saved our boy from further agony because my friend said, “There’s your problem! Urine and bleach don’t work. Better to have slightly stained diapers.”
Assuming most new mothers today are savvy, the trend toward cloth diapers makes perfect sense doesn’t it?
Meanwhile, I am hoping our son (now a fine man) was not emotionally marred by those early days of a young mother’s ignorance.
Virginia Views 
Never took to e-readers, give me the paper version please!
Always loved the sun, only putting on sunscreen for long exposures and the beach (I do wear a big hat these days, however). I am blessed with lots of melanin, the skin protector, so I get quite brown. Moisturizer nurtures.
I was the odd one of my peers who loved using cloth diapers. Sunshine was the best sanitizer. I loved seeing them all out on the line!
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Speaking of diapers and the environment, is the human body the ultimate recycler or what?!
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What a relief! I thought you were going to talk about adult diapers!
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My brother and his wife read ebooks all the time. I’ve had problems downloading them from the library and figured I’d get better with time. The trouble is, I rarely take time to read, so I don’t check out books often enough to really get the hang of it. I could read two or three chapters in the time it takes to get things set up. It would take an hour to drive to the library and come home, so that’s not much of an option, either.
First-time moms have a rough time. I put bandaids on Lise’s legs when she had multiple sore spots. What did I know? I had never seen impetigo before.
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Smart girl to follow your instincts and the sun. 🙂
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🙂
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Nope. Not ready for that yet….. maybe never?
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I can’t go to sleep at night without reading so I love having a stack of books all in one e-reader. That’s the plus for Kindle. But I still like holding a “real book.” And weren’t we innocently ignorant when our kids were small? Oh, the mistakes I made!
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We all made mistakes. Ignorance didn’t kill our kids, though.
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🙂
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Not much to say about diapers, and sunshine’s no problem since I work outdoors and gets hours’ worth nearly every day. But e-readers? Spare me. I bought a Kindle, downloaded a couple of books, gave the thing a try, and put it up on the shelf. There’s every sort of reason I don’t like it, but then… I’m the one who’s still using a flip phone and isn’t on social media. So there you are: I’m Pleistocene!
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Getting Vitamin D from the sun, and using cloth diapers to save the environment – sometimes the old-fashioned way of doing things is better.
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And we wonder how those kids grew up so well. Being outside in their pram in the open air even in the rain, pram hoods up, playing in the dirt, eating nuts and other things that cause allergies; yes it’s certainly amazing that they survived.
And books, I’ve recently read a couple of real books and remembered how much I liked them, but today I read on my iPad on the train going to town. Much easier and lighter than carrying a book.
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I wish I had kept my flip phone!
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Yes, I think we are going “back to the future.”
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The good and the bad of progress and isn’t it lovely that we have choices?
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I’m not crazy about e-readers, although I do read in one. But I’d rather have a ‘real’ book in my hands. A few minutes of real sunshine does me a world of good. And although neither you nor I need to worry about cloth diapers for babies (I won’t go there for adults — tee-hee), here’s a tip I wish I’d known when my kids were little — after washing diapers and they are still stained, set them out in the sun and the stains disappear. Can you believe it? Vitamin D and spot remover all at the same time!!
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What’s old is definitely new again Dor. I read only Ebooks because they’re so portable but I do miss the feel of the paper and the ease of marking and looking back. Sigh 😢
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Love the title! 1) I still prefer paper books over my Kindle but I have started downloading books from the local library to read when it is not a book I want to buy. I too read at night and often “flip” several pages ahead and once I dropped the Kindle on the floor when I fell asleep. 2) My two children had cloth diapers but the second one had Pampers for travel. I too caused irritation because I put too much detergent in the laundry for the diapers. 3) In my youth I spent too much time at the beach so I got plenty of vitamin D and my skin shows it. Today I still probably get more than I need. Cheers!
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I see e-readers as robotic enemies just waiting for the chance to shut down when I’m in the middle of a great story. Sigh. And yep, the sunshine is a great combo for health and disinfecting too. Love it! 🙂
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I’m with you on the e-books thing Tina…. but I just don’t trust ’em and have the urge to take a paperback along anyway on a trip – just to have some reliable backup. 🙂
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My skin is of the splotchy variety too… having grown up under the Florida sun! I still miss baking in all that Vitamin D though. 🙂
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I don’t have kids but your writing about washing diapers reminds me of my dad (when he lived alone years after mum died) still washing his cotton handkerchiefs rather than using paper tissues.
I can’t stay in the sun for longer than a few minutes without sun lotion as I have very fair skin. I’ve always had a problem with it. And I get confused by the vitamin D supplements anyway, as I think you need exposure to sunshine anyway for it to activate in your body… but am not sure about that.
I don’t use a kindle or anything like that. Old fashioned paper books for me anytime. This isn’t snobbery either, it’s just that I get eyestrain reading from a screen for any length of time. (Am fine with imagery, but maybe it is less strain visually than scanning lines of text.)
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Kudos Val for your attention to finding better (natural) ways to get your Vitamin D and returning to “real” books. Sometimes I believe going back is more progressive than going forward.
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