Day Seventy-Three - Muey Go-Go

Heating Water in the Microwave Instead of Running the Tap

***WARNING***

This post contains information that will make you think I'm a bad mom (as if some of the other posts don't?). If you believe that all toddlers should be fed nothing but fruits, vegetables and free-range poultry while drinking their soy milk in a non-plastic container -- stop reading now! Also, get some kids of your own to mess up, as mine are taken.

It has been said that children crave stability and schedules in their lives. It helps them to feel secure with their surroundings, thereby allowing them to grow up to become stable, well-adjusted and healthy individuals. That's why day in and day out, each morning when my kids wake up I mix them up a nice hot cup of sugar-laden instant cocoa. It's become a tradition and I'll be damned if I'm going to jeopardize their budding senses of self-worth by messing with this routine.

However, I am starting to see the dark side of this little tradition and it is - water waste. It takes exactly 18 cups worth of full-blast tap-running before the water turns hot enough for their cocoa. That's over one full gallon of water, just to get the two cups required for the cocoa.

The solution should be simple - just put the water in their little Playtex sippy cups, pop 'em in the nuker and voila! hot cocoa. However, due to all the concerns regarding pthalates and BPA leeching, I no longer put anything plastic in the microwave.

Being your average Super-Consumeristic American, my mind immediately leapt to "I should buy some sort of vessel to heat the water in that has a spout for pouring - A 'Water Holder Heating Substitute', if you will. I wonder if they'd have one at Target...". But I decided I didn't want to break my compact (AGAIN) so I scrounged in my cupboards for such a strange item. Wouldn't you know, I found two perfectly good "Water Holder Heating Substitutes". One is my Pyrex glass measuring cup that holds two cups of water. The other is our ceramic gravy boat (which is so big it's more like a gravy cruise ship) that holds about two and a half cups.

So now armed with my new 'WHHS', I'm all set to whip up another round of my famous "Swiss Miss" sugar-fest any time my 2-year old asks me for "Muey Go-Go". And I won't drain the lake while I'm doing it.

Savings:

I'm SUCH a bad mom, that the kids often have seconds of my morning health drink. So I'd say they average 1.3 cocoas per day. That's over nine cocoa making sessions per week, for a total of 11.375 gallons of water wasted! In just one year, that's over 591 gallons of water wasted per year!! Egads!

Difficulty Level: 1 out of 5

Super-easy. No complaints -- from me OR the kids!