I Love My Little Girly-Girl!

What Mommy?  Surely you don't expect me to rock in my chair without my pearls!

At 15 months, Isabelle is revealing more and more of her personality every day. One thing I didn't expect to see so early on is how much of a girly-girl she is. It's not just her dainty little features and her petite toddler body, it's her cute mannerisms, the way she gestures, the looks on her face. It's sweet!


When she was younger, she army crawled everywhere she went. She used her arms to crawl and would drag the rest of her body behind her. This worked well for her girly-girl personality because it accommodated dresses nicely--her skirts would drag the floor and not get in the way at all. Now that she crawls like any other kid, her dresses totally get in the way and keep her from getting around. But Isabelle has been quick to adapt. She just bear crawls instead. It looks completely ridiculous because her little rear is up in the air in order to get her skirt to clear her knees, but it gets the job done. Of course when she starts walking, that'll solve her problem, but we realized a long time ago that Isabelle has her own timetable for everything, and there's nothing anyone can do to rush her.

Attempting to bear crawl over her toys, but not quite succeeding.  We have plenty of time to work on modesty!

We never really embraced the whole princess idea for our daughter, maybe partly because we don't like a princess attitude! We even kept the nursery walls the nice, calming shade of pale blue that they already were, and opted instead for pink baby bedding. But there's something sweet about a little girl's early realization of her femininity, just as boys turn anything into a ball or a bat. I remember being about 17 and crying about something (or maybe about nothing? I was, after all, a teenage girl!), and my baby brother, who was somewhere between one and two, crawled into my lap and said "pretty eyes." Maybe it was his boyish protector instincts or simply his peacemaker personality, but he seemed to know that a well-timed compliment would make me feel better. This is the same boy who grabbed a Christmas ornament and, before anyone could stop him, said "ball!" and threw it, as we all watched it shatter. I love watching babies develop their little personalities, and I think it's amazing that they're aware of such things at young ages.  Isabelle is already a chatterbox.  She babbles to me, in conversation, and she also babbles as she plays with toys.  It means nothing, but it sure gets lots of fun comments when we're out shopping together. 

Because one strand of beads just isn't enough!

Isabelle loves necklaces right now. When she pulls toys out of her toybox, she pulls all the Mardi Gras beads out and loops them around her neck. Her favorites are the big pink pearls that her Nonc Bug (Uncle Bug, my brother) caught for her at her very first Mardi Gras in Lafayette, LA last year, when she was about 9 weeks old. Yeah, we know it's a choking hazard, but we keep an eye on her and let her enjoy them--she thinks they're pretty and has been oohing and aahing about the shiny beads since she first took notice of them. But she'll loop anything around her neck, including a purse or laundry. Isabelle has this idea that if it can go around her neck, it should. Daddy had to draw the line somewhere, so when she decided to wear our new Canon camera around her neck like jewelry and crawl around the house last week, he took the strap off the case and let her crawl with just the strap. So if you see my daughter out and about, wearing beads that are almost as long as she is, just know that her mommy certainly didn't put those on her. She did it herself! She might even cry if you take them off of her! What can I say? That's my girl!

What's for dinner?

I came across this blog article about a month ago:  1 Chicken, 17 Healthy Meals, $26 Bucks, No Mayo.  Basically, she roasts a chicken one night and uses the leftovers for healthy dinners--no enchiladas drenched in cheese (yum) and no chicken salad soaked in mayo.  My husband's response:  "No Mayo?!? What's wrong with mayo?"

I had a whole chicken, already seasoned, that I got from a freezer meal exchange a few weeks ago, so I roasted this in the oven with veggies on Friday.  I deboned it yesterday  (saving the scraps for stock) and made the White Chicken Chili last night.  I skipped the first recipe, Chicken Picadillo, out of respect for my husband.  Last week, he specifically asked me to please stop trying to cook weird stuff.  I wasn't sure if White Chicken Chili counted as "weird stuff," but I was pretty sure Chicken Picadillo did, since I have no idea what Picadillo is.  The poor guy is burnt out from my attempts at culinary creativity.  I guess I shouldn't have tried to make meatless sloppy joes with lentils AND quinoa pilaf in the same month--bad idea, Gabby, bad idea.

The verdict on the White Chicken Chili?  Completely and utterly awesome.  Damian loved it and had a second bowl of it.  The recipe says it makes 2-3 servings, and it really is a small recipe.  I had a bowl, Damian had two, and there might be another 3/4 of a cup left.  Next time, I'll definitely double it or triple it.  I didn't completely seed the jalapeno because we like spicy food, but it was even a little spicy for us.  It cleared my sinuses up though!  I think I might serve it over chips next time too, to give it a little crunch.  I love that it didn't take a lot of time or energy to make--it simmers for 20 minutes, long enough to have the kitchen clean by the time dinner is ready.  I'll try the Chicken Curry in a Hurry tomorrow.  Tonight, we'll just have smoothies for dinner.  Damian has a soccer game at 7, so he wants a light dinner.

Yesterday I went shopping for a dress to wear for Easter and my brother's wedding, so I wasn't really in the mood to do a lot of cooking.  I've never been a big shopper, and having kids makes me less of a shopper.  It's just a hassle to go in and out of stores when I'm used to being able to run in and out pretty quickly.  Not to mention the racks that are way too close together to maneuver a stroller, tempting my one year old to reach out and touch the pretty fabric.  But I think that's yet another good thing about being a mom--Isabelle forces me to slow down and do things carefully and thoughtfully. 

I found nothing yesterday.  Usually, the issue is finding something that fits the way you want it to, but having just dropped a dress size, I was really pretty excited about trying on clothes.  I never even got to that part--I couldn't find anything I liked.  I went through this in October too.  I just wanted a nice A-line skirt, similar to the cute one from White House Black Market that I owned, but shredded when it caught on the door jamb on my way to work a couple years ago.  Bummer!  I settled for a solid black A-line last fall, but I'm hoping I won't have to settle this time.  So today I'll try again, or else find something in my closet. 

I did find a precious white one button cardigan, perfect to go over a sleeveless dress.  It was $29 at Dillards.  I also went to Ross and found the identical cardigan, same designer, same one button, for $16.99.  So for those of you who worry that the quality at these stores isn't the same, think again!  Just shop carefully, and you can find some great stuff at these stores. 

Guess I better get my adorable shopping buddy dressed cutely so I can head out!

Christ-Centered Easter Traditions

Easter 2009--Isabelle, at 3 months old

Before having kids, I think I was clueless on all the roles moms have to play in their families.  Among these roles, few are as important or as overlooked as the family tradition maker and tradition keeper, especially during holiday time.  At Christmas and now Easter, I can't help but spend some time thinking about what exactly these holidays should look like at our home.  Every day, but certainly on Christian holidays, we should make it our goal to show the supremacy of Christ in all that we do.  If my kids have a blast dyeing Easter eggs but aren't joyous to know that He really rose again, then they're missing the point, and so am I. 

So this week, I need some imput from you!  I'm just at the beginning of this role in my life, and I know many of you have lots of great ideas on Easter traditions.  Specifically, I'm looking for traditions that emphasize Christ.  I think it's a sweet tradition to get a new Easter dress, but that doesn't particularly help the family focus on Christ at Easter, although certainly going to church on Easter Sunday does.  Here's what I need from you:  Please comment below with Christ-centered Easter traditions.  Maybe these are ideas that you have now in your family, from your own childhood, or even ideas that you've read about.  I'd love to hear them.  I can't promise to do all of them because I may not have time for each one, or they may not work in our family, but another reader may take your suggestions, or we may give it a try next year, when Isabelle is old enough to understand more.  I'm really hoping to get some great ideas.  And if anyone wants to explain the resurrection eggs, that would be great, because I've seen them in Lifeway sale papers and online, but I don't know exactly what they are or how to use them.  Thanks in advance for your suggestions.  I can't wait to see what you guys share!

A few months ago, I read Treasuring God in Our Traditions, by Noel Piper (thanks for the book loan, Jo!).  I loved this book!  It was so helpful and it covered all the important celebrations in a family.  She even has a great section on the great "to Santa, or not to Santa?" debate.  She had some great suggestions on Easter, including a cool playdough mountain to use for illustrating Christ's death. 

Lindsay, my favorite blogger, posted Resources for a Purposeful Easter Celebration last week.  I can't wait to try the Easter cookies, which have kid-friendly symbolism in the ingredients (such as breaking the nuts, as the soldiers broke Christ's body).  You preheat the oven and put the cookies in the oven to bake, but then immediately turn the oven off and "seal" it shut with tape overnight.  The kids should feel bummed that they're not getting any cookies tonight.  In the morning, with much anticipation, get the cookies out of the oven, and they should be hollow inside, just was absent from the tomb.  How cool is that?  The only problem is that most of these traditions make no sense to my 15 month old, who hardly knows what cookies are and would only try to eat the playdough mountain.  At the very least, we'll make our family devotions for Holy Week center upon the events leading up to Easter.  Noel Piper's Lenten Lights article on Desiring God explains a great reading schedule that can be done weekly throughout Lent or daily, beginning the Saturday before Palm Sunday.

One thing I'm really excited about this year is our church-wide fast on Good Friday.  I know that sounds like a strange statement to make, but it's a great way to remind us of the despair on that first not-so-good Friday (it didn't become good until He rose again!).  Ideally, we'll also be praying throughout the day too.  Typically in a fast, you pray during the times you'd normally be eating, as a way of focusing your heart on the Lord, specific to the purpose of the particular fast.  And I don't know about you, but prayer is about the only way I can make it through the day without eating!  We're all going to break the fast together on Friday evening with a light dinner of soup, bread, and dessert (because I don't think the people at Fellowship can get together without having yummy desserts).  I think that's an amazing tradition to start.  I think the fast will keep the focus where it should be, on Christ.    

    

Cloth Diapering Odds and Ends

So what else do you just have to have in order to cloth diaper your baby?  Nothing, really.  There are some nice things, but we started off with just four cloth diapers and inserts because we weren't sure if we'd stick with it.  But as time has gone by, I know I'm in love with cloth diapering, so there are a few other things that are nice to have. 

Cloth Wipes:  If you're washing cloth diapers anyway, why not wash wipes too?  This just adds to your overall savings and reduces your waste if you're wanting to be "green."  You can order some really adorable and fabulous wipes or you can make your own.  I've got instructions on one of my previous posts (see How to Make Cloth Wipes).  Storebought wipes vary in price depending on if you're going with organic cloth or cute designs.  The Thirsties wipes pictured here are $10.25 for 6.  My homemade wipes cost nothing but my time, since even the fabric was free.

Wipes Solution or Booty Wash:  This is definitely not an essential.  Lots of people use nothing or just water when the diaper is dirty.  Check out Diaper Pin's reviews if you want to buy a solution.  You can get wipes solution drops that you just drop into water or soap chips that you mix with water, like the Baby Bum Drops pictured.  I do like using a solution, but I've never purchased one. I've just made my own, using recipes from Zany Zebra and other websites.  I've tried one recipe using castile soap (Dr. Bronner's from Target), and it was nice, but because it was a recipe that required a few ingredients, it was a little bit more of a hassle.  Lately, I've just mixed water with a couple squirts of baby bathwash, and I find it much more handy.  Most recipes call for an oil of some sort, and the oil just makes the baby's skin soft, so I don't think it's a big deal to leave it out, but you may want to include it.  Everyone has different ways of using the solution.  Some people keep a spray bottle of water or solution on the changing table so that they can spray wipes as needed.  Others use a wipes warmer with solution in it and pull wipes out as needed, all ready to go.  I just use an old wipes container.  I add the dry wipes and pour solution over it.  If you do it this way, be sure not to keep a lot of wipes in there at once, or your wipes might get moldy before you have a chance to use them all!       

Cloth Diaper Safe Diaper Rash Cream: OK, this actually is an essential.  If you use normal rash ointment, it can totally ruin your cloth diapers.  Diaper rash creams repel moisture to protect your baby's rash and keep the ointment from coming off in the diaper.  If a cream gets on the cloth diapers, the diapers will repel moisture instead of absorbing it.  Not good!  California Baby and Grandma El's ointment are both safe for use with cloth diapers.  California Baby is the only one I've found where I live (Target, $9.99).  You can also make your own.  Check out Lindsay's instructions over at Passionate Homemaking.  I don't know if it would be any cheaper or not.  I know I haven't had any success at finding those ingredients anywhere in my town, but if you're in a larger city, it's possible you can find raw shea butter and other unusual ingredients.  Another option that I've tried is still using an ointment like Desitin, but then putting a disposable liner in as a barrier between the ointment and the diaper.  My "disposable liner" was a paper towel, folded in half.  It worked, but I wouldn't choose to do that frequently, because I don't care to run the risk of ruining my "investment" in cloth diapers.

Diaper Sprayer:  I didn't think it was a big deal to have one of these at first.  In fact, I think a diaper sprayer can double as an excellent water gun with a mischievous toddler.  And really before solid foods, it's not necessary at all, if you're breastfeeding.  This may be TMI, but breastfed baby poop is water soluble, so it can go in the washer as is, with no need to dump it in the toilet.  But after solid foods, you really need to get as much off the diaper as possible.  Some days, it's no big deal to just dump it in the toilet.  Other days, I feel like I did a few days ago and say "Ew!  Honey, I really, really need a diaper sprayer!"  My husband thinks they're great, so we priced them online, and they all seem to be around $40, except for the Sigma Diaper Sprayer.  Most diaper sprayers look just like kitchen sprayers, so it seems like a bit of a waste.  My husband is pretty handy, so quite a while back, he began putting our diaper sprayer together himself, using a kitchen sprayer he bought at Lowe's.  However, after a couple trips back to Lowe's for parts, it still leaks a bit, so he needs one more valve and then it should be functioning fine.  In the meantime, I've found fleece liners to really help with the messy diapers.  I think we figured out that we only saved $5-$15 by doing it ourself, so you may want to save yourself the effort and buy one.

Fancy Schmancy Diaper Pail:  You can use a trash can or diaper pail and purchase or make your own reusable liner for it, or you can go the plastic grocery bag route like we do.  The longer we stick with cloth and as Isabelle's diapers are getting stinkier, the more I think we need a better solution.  I'm looking for a system that will work well for me, not take up much space, and enable me to still have a trash can in the nursery too.  I love the FuzziBunz hanging diaper pail.  It has elastic at the top so you can hang it and (the best part!) a zipper at the bottom for dumping the diapers in the wash.  I did read a review that says it doesn't keep the stink in very much and it doesn't hold up well with wet diapers, so I may just make my own version of it, using PUL fabric I bought from Snap-EZ. 

Wet Bag:  A wet bag is a small bag made out of two layers of fabric and fastened with a zipper to keep in odors and moisture.  The inner layer is usully PUL or some other waterproof fabric, and the outer layer is a cute print.  I actually registered for one of these at Target when I was pregnant, thinking it would be great for dirty (disposable) diapers and later, wet swim suits.  I used one of my Target gift cards that we got as baby gifts to purchase my wet bag, and I loved it long before I started cloth diapering.  I can think of a ton of ways a mom could use a waterproof bag in her diaper bag, but none better than cloth diapers. Of course grocery bags can also do the trick just fine.  Mine, a Wet Happened? bag (similar to the one pictured, but not as cute), cost somewhere between $10-15 at Target.  I made a wet bag for my friend, Melissa, who uses cloth diapers.  Using $1 fabric remnants, the bag cost less than $3, with the bulk of the cost being the zipper, and I had plenty of fabric left over.  I used vinyl for the inside, but if you can find PUL, it'll be much nicer and easier to sew (I broke my needle on it because the fabric was so thick).  Now that I do have PUL, I'll definitely use it next time.  And Melissa and I both agree that the $3 wet bag I made for her is cuter than my $15 store bought bag.

So go crazy, and get all the cool gear, or take it slowly.  If you're at all crafty, try making your own of at least some of this gear.  I don't have a crafty or creative bone in my body, and I'm really not very good at sewing, so if I can make this stuff, trust me, you can!  Just remember, there are 10 different ways to do everything when it comes to cloth diapering, so figure out what works for you and go with it.  Keep it all in perspective though---if it's gonna be pooped in or pooped on, it really doesn't need to cost a fortune!  I'd much rather be able to help my kids out in college or pay my house off early than have the world's cutest cloth diapering gear.  

I think we've covered the basics of cloth diapering this week.  Thanks so much for all the positive feedback.  I'm so glad you've found this helpful.  If you have any other questions or ideas, please comment on here or shoot me an e-mail.  Thanks!

Cleaning Cloth Diapers

There are a lot of misnomers about cleaning cloth diapers.  Evidently it used to be popular to dunk your dirty cloth diapers in the toilet and flush repeatedly to get the poopy out (?!?).  Gross!!  If that's what was needed, there's no way I would've ever went with cloth.  Another myth is that you have to have a pail of water to drop the diapers into in order to release stains.  People who use this method also put baking soda into the water.  This is still a popular method, but you don't absolutely have to do it.  I have no desire to use this wet pail method because it makes no sense to me.  Here's why:  Having a wet pail means you have cloth diapers.  Having cloth diapers means you have kids.  Kids + Wet Pail = potential for a mess of water and poop all over the floor.  Yuck!  No wet pail for Gabby!

The method I use for washing our diapers is probably one of the most common methods among cloth diapering moms.  The reason a good washing practice is so important is because the inserts are so incredibly absorbent that they often absorb small amounts of detergent over time, leaving you with detergent buildup in your inserts.  That will lead to stinky inserts or inserts that aren't as absorbent as they should be.  If you have a buildup problem, you'll have to strip your diapers.  I know very little about it, so if it's an issue you run into, google it--I can't really help you there.  

Here's our system, step by step:

1. All used diapers go in a plastic grocery bag that hangs on the closet door, right next to the changing table.  
2. At bedtime, I take the diapers and dump them into the washing machine.
3. Diapers are given a cold rinse.  Really, only poopy diapers need the cold rinse, but it definitely doesn't hurt all the diapers to be rinsed.  It helps the diapers and inserts release the filth.  
4. Add detergent and wash on a hot cycle, on the longest wash cycle.  
5. Hang pocket diapers on an inside clothes line and dry inserts on high heat. 
6. Once a month, I dry all the pocket diapers on high heat as well.  This helps the PUL fabric stay sealed at the seams.  I do this at the end of the month, just for the sake of my memory.

Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. 

It's very simple to follow and doesn't take too much time.  Ideally, I would love to have a separate trash can in the nursery for cloth diapers or have a reusable hanging diaper pail, but this has worked for us for 8 months, and I haven't decided exactly what I'd like to do.  If you dump all solid waste into the toilet as soon as you finish a diaper change and remove the inserts immediately as well, then all you have to do is dump all of this into the washer, so you have as little contact with the dirty stuff as possible.

A bigger issue is detergent.  Some detergents don't wash out of the diapers well or leave residue in the inserts and diapers.  Sometimes this can even a cause a rash on your baby, but most often, it will lead to detergent buildup.  I used Purex Free and Clear when I first started using cloth, and it seemed to work well, but after about a month, I noticed suds in the washer at the end of the load.  That's not good!  It means the inserts still had detergent in them.  I had to do a little mild diaper stripping to remove the detergent buildup, so I just washed them without soap over and over again until they were suds free at the end of the load. 

I began looking into cloth diaper friendly detergent and came across a few charts that helped me make my choice, one on Diaper Jungle and another on Pinstripes and Polkadots.  I also saw that Snap-EZ recommends Allen's All Natural detergent.  After really analyzing the charts, I went with Allen's, and I ordered it directly from Snap-EZ because it was the cheapest price and Allen's doesn't charge shipping if you order through Snap-EZ.  That's huge--shipping on a gallon of laundry detergent would be expensive!  My husband just about choked when I told him that I paid $50 for laundry detergent ($46.50, $4.40 for a dispensing pump to go with it).  Then I showed him the detergent bottle.  To wash one load of clothes, you only need 1 oz. or less of Allen's detergent, so one gallon of detergent will wash 128 loads.  BUT, if you have a high efficiency washer (this includes front load washers like ours), you only need less than 1/4 oz. of Allen's.  One gallon of this $50 detergent washes 512 loads of laundry!  That's less than 10 cents per load!  I bought the detergent in September of 2009.  Six months later, we're still using the same gallon!  I used it to wash all of our clothes up until a month ago, but now I'm back to my Purex for the rest of the laundry.  The $50 detergent was worth it, but probably wouldn't have been if we didn't have a front load washer.          

We haven't seen an increase in our water bill since starting cloth diapers.  Having a front load washer does help because it uses less water, so it also uses less energy to heat up the water.  Don't be discouraged if you have a normal washing machine because I've read that normal machines actually wash diapers better than front loaders.  Plain water is one of the best things for keeping diapers clean and preventing detergent buildup.  Front load washers usually calculate how much water to put in the load based on the weight of the clothes--it's automated, so I can't select a small, medium, or large load.  If you have a top load washer, you can use plenty of water, which is really what's needed for properly cleaning cloth diapers.     

Liners and Inserts and Doublers, Oh My!

Among all the confusing cloth diapering jargon are the terms for the "stuffins," the innards of the diaper.  I had a hard time keeping these straight at first and knowing what to buy. 

Inserts:  These are the main thing you use for stuffing the pocket of a pocket diaper, and they can also be used to go inside of prefolds to make them more absorbent.  They can be made of microfiber, hemp, and other fabrics.  Each fabric has advantages and disadvantages.  Microfiber absorbs very quickly and hemp absorbs a lot of moisture for it's slim size. 

I bought a few BumGenius one size inserts to start off with, for about $3.50 each.  When I was troubleshooting leaky cloth diapers, I thought the insert was the issue, so I then ordered several Loopy-Dos (pictured).  Loopy-Dos rock!  They're a combination of hemp and microfiber, so you get the best of both worlds in a slim insert.  It's made in a loop so that it won't take long to dry.  They can cost as much as $8 each (I found them somewhere at a cheaper price), but they're amazing.  I also bought a Super-Do, perfect for nighttime diapers.  I purchased two Snap-EZ inserts too, and while they're even more absorbent than the Loopy-Do and Super-Do, if I remember correctly, they're a bit more expensive too.   

Doublers:  Anything that you add to a cloth diaper to make it more absorbent is a doubler.  You can even use a wash cloth as a doubler if you don't want to add much bulk to the diaper. 

I bought one doubler, a Swaddlebees hemp doubler (pictured) that's very small, but I just fold it over as part of Isabelle's nighttime diaper.  I didn't put it in last night, and sure enough, she had a leak, so it really does make a big difference.  

The cheapest doublers you could ever find, however, can be found in the automotive section at Wal-Mart!  Microfiber shop towels make inexpensive, thin doublers that can catch any extra moisture.  Isabelle's typical daytime diaper is a Loopy-Do and one microfiber shop towel.  I don't remember what I paid, but I think it was about $6-10 for a bag of 6 or 8 towels.  Three or four towels are white and the others are blue, so I use the white ones as doublers and the blue ones for cleaning and dusting in the house. 

Liners:  Sometimes the term is used for doublers, but strictly speaking, and for the sake of simplicity, a liner is typically put inside of the diaper, immediately against the baby's skin.  They can be used to pull moisture away from the baby or to make it easier to clean a poopy diaper.  You can even buy disposable and biodegradable liners so that you can just flush the poopy down the toilet. 

I didn't want to use the disposable liners because again, that's one more thing to buy and one more opportunity to flush money down the toilet.  Instead, I bought a six-pack of BumGenius liners for around $10.  I used to not use them very much because I just forgot about them, but lately I've been using them because Isabelle has had some yucky diapers.  With the microfleece fabric, the poop just falls off into the toilet, no matter how "gross" the dirty diaper happens to be.  As great as they are, I think it would be so easy to make them, if you can find good fabric for it.  The BG ones are just a really thin rectangle of fleece with the edges finished off, so even a sewing novice like myself could sew these.   

Do know that any kind of hemp product has to be boiled and washed a number of times before the first use in order to get all of the oils out of it, so follow the instructions carefully.  My sister called me one day and asked what I was doing.  I said "boiling my hemp."  She groaned and said "Gabby, you're such a hippie!"  I tried to defend myself, but I had little to say--my car gets 50 mpg on the highway, I made my own baby food, breastfed my daughter, and use cloth diapers.  So maybe I'm a little bit of a hippie, but it's really because I'm health-concious and thrifty.

The Perfect Pocket Diaper

It can be overwhelming to select the "perfect" cloth diaper among all the different brands of pocket diapers out there, but a good place to start is Diaper Pin.  Click "product reviews" to see people's opinions of all the different brands out there. 

I was determined to find the perfect cloth diaper, and my main criteria were 1) Excellent reviews,  2) Snaps instead of Velcro, and 3) a lower price.  I loved the idea of a one size diaper, but most, like BumGenius and Happy Heinys, were made with Velcro tabs.  The few brands that offered one size diapers with snaps, like FuzziBunz, had very conflicting reviews, so I decided to forgo the one size diaper in favor of a high quality diaper that would last for years and fit well. 

After poring over reviews on Diaper Pin, I concluded that Snap-EZs and Preston's Pants were both consistently rated very highly, since their scores were nearly perfect.  Snap-EZ was in the process of changing their inventory, so they're dumping all the old style for their new eco-diaper.  The old line, which is made just like any pocket diaper, was on sale for $12 (now reduced to $10!).  Preston's Pants can be pretty posh diapers because they're completely customizable.  You can get just about anything embroidered on the diaper's booty, and they also have a really soft minky fabric that makes for a good nighttime diaper.   But they had a few diapers on clearance for $9 each, so I got two Preston's Pants and 3 Snap-EZs, just to start with.  Neither brand came with inserts, so I had to buy them separately.  I loved the Snap-EZs so much that I later bought two more diapers.  I also started having second thoughts about Velcro and one-size diapers, so I went on a forum for selling used cloth diapers, Diaper Swappers, and waited for someone to sell their good quality, gently used one size diapers.  I ended up buying two BumGenius 3.0s for $12 each, with inserts.  That makes my total cloth diaper purchases $102 for 9 diapers, without tax and shipping, which really isn't bad at all.  I did have to buy inserts separately, so I'll tell you about those in another post.  This one's long enough!

An adorable Preston's Pants cloth diaper booty!

My Experience with these Diapers

My go-to diaper, my workhorse diaper, is definitely the Snap-EZs.  They are extremely well made.  The inside fabric is microfleece and suede cloth, depending on what I picked out (I've got a few of each), and after 8 months of using the same cloth diapers every day, there are no stains at all on the Snap-EZs.  The outside fabric looks just as nice as the day they arrived in the mail.  The old diapers also came in every color imaginable, both inside and outside, so they're especially cute.  

The Preston's Pants are ok!  Not my favorites.  The outsides of the two I bought aren't that cute, but I knew that when I got them on clearance.  I think it's either something about the way that these diapers fit my baby or the way the insert fits inside, because Isabelle does have occasional leaks in them.  The inside fabric is also a very nice fabric, and they do not stain either.  

The BumGenius diapers are very good diapers.  I usually save these diapers for when I know someone else will be changing Isabelle's diaper, like at church, MOPS, or the gym because the Velcro makes them seem very similar to a disposable diaper.  These diapers are extremely easy to use and there's no guessing about what snap setting to use.  The diapers are made with laundry tabs for the Velcro to stick to, so that they don't latch onto other diapers and ruin the outside fabric, but the laundry tabs wear out very quickly, so my BumGenius diapers end up sticking to each other in the wash.  The white fabric inside the BGs do stain easier than others, but I've only had a little bit of discoloration from the cloth diaper friendly rash cream I put on Isabelle sometimes.  These diapers really don't leak.  On a road trip once, we stopped 2 1/2 hours into the trip for a bathroom break and to change Isabelle's diaper, but she was sleeping.  Any parent knows better to wake a sleeping baby, especially on  5 hour drive, so we decided to take our chances.  When we arrived at my mom's house, Isabelle hadn't leaked a bit.  Now that's a good diaper!

Troubleshooting

For about the first month after I started cloth diapering, I had an issue with leaks.  Isabelle would leak from time to time in the inside leg area, so I started fastening the diapers really well, on a snugger setting, to prevent the leaks.  But the leaks continued!  I posted questions on cloth diapering message boards and even e-mailed the owner of Snap-EZ (Ruth, who is excellent and handles orders and problems firsthand).  Finally I discovered the problem.  The diapers were too tight!  I knew they would leak if they were too loose, but too tight??  I never would've guessed!  The problem is that the inserts absorb so much liquid, but like a sponge, if you squeeze them too much, the liquid will come out.  That's exactly what was happening with Isabelle's diapers.  They were on so tight that she was having compression leaks in the leg area.  

Now that I've been using cloth diapers for 8 months, I've started to conclude that most problems with cloth diapers are user errors, like mine.  I think most of the diapers aren't going to leak if used properly.  You can always add inserts or doublers to hold more moisture or adjust the diaper setting, and usually that will fix the problem.  So I think if I picked diapers out again by reading reviews, I would probably come to different conclusions and make my decisions based solely on durability.

I said earlier that few companies were making one-size diapers with snaps, but that's changed since August!  A few months after I ordered my diapers, Happy Heinys started making their diapers with snaps.  I'm going to order more diapers soon, so I've decided that any new ones will be Happy Heinys one size with snaps, since these diapers are well-known for being durable, high-quality diapers.  Jillian's Drawers has a great return policy, so I'm going to buy one to make sure it fits Isabelle well (she's on the tiny side!), and if I like it, I'll order more.   

Hybrid Diapers

There are some really cool diapers out that I think of as hybrids.  They seem to combine the pocket diaper with the prefolds and covers.  These are diapers like G-diapers and the new Flip and Econobum, from the makers of BumGenius.  These diapers have a waterproof outer shell, and either disposable or reusable liners.  Most pocket diapers have inserts that should not be up against baby's skin, but these are safe and comfortable enough that no pocket is needed.  All you do for a diaper change is pull out the old one, wipe the shell if needed, and put a new liner in.  The old G-diapers were similar, but had a disposable liner.  I disliked the G-diapers because I didn't want to have to buy anything anymore, but the new G-diapers have a reusable liner that you wash, so this sounds great.  I haven't read enough reviews on these diaper systems, but they definitely sound appealing.  The Econobum would be a very thrifty way of having a lot of diapers without a lot of cost.  But really, I see very little difference between these diapers and the old prefold and cover route, except that these liners may possibly be more absorbent than prefolds.          

Your thoughts, questions, ideas, or advice?  

Cloth Diapering 101 or "Not Your Mama's Cloth Diapers"

When you think of cloth diapers, if you're like me, you envision folding white cloth diapers a special way, securing them in place with pins, and then adding rubber pants to protect your baby's clothes.  While this can be cloth diapers, it doesn't have to be.  There are so many options in cloth diapering that it's a bit overwhelming to research, so I'll share with you the different types of cloth diapers and the thought process that led us to choose pocket diapers.  There is no one universal option, so your conclusions may be completely different from mine, or you may stick with Pampers.  That's your call.   

Prefolds and covers:  These are the standard cloth diapers you imagine, although they come in many different styles and levels of absorbency.  I'm not an expert on these, and I won't pretend to be, but I do know that you don't have to use pins anymore.  Instead, you can use a Snappi, which is a plastic T-shaped piece that has teeth in it to grab the fabric, so you no longer have to worry about sticking yourself or the baby.  Also, you can cover the diaper with a wrap, like Thirsties or Bummi's Super Whisper wrap.  Pros:  This is definitely your cheapest route, so if you want to save the most money, go with prefolds.  Cons:  More complicated than other options, and daycares and church nurseries may not be willing to mess with these.

Fitteds:  These work similarly to the prefolds in that they do require a cover, but they are also very similar in function to disposables.  Moms who use these seem to love them because they are extremely absorbent and protect against leaks and blowouts.  I've been told that these are the best option for nighttime diaper wear.  They're fitted, so you'd have to have several different sizes.  Moms who use these often buy or knit adorable wool diaper covers to coordinate with outfits.  Check out this adorable outfit I found on Etsy:

  Pros:  Absorbency.  Cons:  Expensive, possibly even more expensive than pocket diapers because of the need to purchase different sizes and covers.  The diapers themselves will often run about $13 or more, but that's without a cover.  And again, it might be hard to find daycares or nurseries who are willing to change these diapers.  They also take longer to dry.

Pockets:  Pocket diapers are the coolest innovation in cloth diapering.  They function just like a disposable diaper, but you wash them instead of throwing them away.  That's how I explain them to nursery workers at church and at the gym, and the sweet ladies are more than willing to change my daughter's diaper.  Happy Heiny's diapers calls their diapers "daddy approved," and I agree completely.  Here's how they work.  They're made with an outer, waterproof shell, usually made out of PUL, polyurethane laminated fabric.  The inside is a soft fabric that keeps moisture in, but usually feels fairly dry to the touch, even when your child has wet in it.  In between the PUL and the inside lining is a space, a pocket, which you stuff with inserts.  Most diapers come with inserts, but you can also buy them separately so that you can make your diaper as absorbent as you want. 

Pocket diapers are usually fastened with Velcro, but snaps are becoming more popular.  I prefer snaps because they'll last longer than Velcro, and we plan to use our diapers for more babies.  

Pocket diapers can also be one size, completely eliminating the need to purchase new diapers as your child grows.  This concept completely blew my mind.  I asked a friend "so you're telling me that your 2 1/2 year old son and my itty bitty 8 month old daughter can wear the exact same diaper?"  The answer is yes, they sure can.  The picture above with the cowprint diaper shows that it is the exact same diaper, but the rows of snaps enable you to make the diaper larger or smaller as needed.  If you have two kids in diapers, they can share one size diapers. 

Popular pocket brands include BumGenius, Happy Heiny's (pictured above), FuzziBunz, Preston's Pants, Rocky Mountain Diapers, and Snap-EZs, among others.  They come in every color imaginable.  Pros:  Easy to use, quick drying time, and completely customizable because you can add inserts as needed.  Cons:  Price.  This option is much more expensive and at a cost of around $20 a diaper, it will usually require an investment of $200 to get started.        

All-in-Ones:  These diapers are similar to pockets, but the inserts are built into the diaper.  Some AIOs even have an extra pocket so you can add another insert at night or if you have a heavy wetter.  AIOs usually fasten with Velcro, but some brands, like the BumGenius Organic All-in-One pictured above, are starting to include snaps.  These diapers are also typically one-size, so you can use this diaper until your child is potty-trained.  Pros:  The most convenient option available.  Cons:  Price.  The most convenient option is also the most expensive option, usually running abut $25 per diaper.  Also, it can be hard to ensure completely clean diapers.  The BumGenius is rumored to be the best at coming completely clean in the washing machine.  Another downside is drying time, because they have so much absorbent fabric. 

Our Conclusions:  I honestly doubted my ability to keep up with laundry and stick with cloth diapers if it required too many changes in our habits, so that removed prefolds as an option.  I didn't really understand fitteds, and they seemed similar to prefolds to me, so I didn't even consider them.  Pocket diapers seemed to be the easiest to use and the easiest to launder.  Unlike the all-in-ones, pockets hang up to dry while the inserts go in the dryer, so hanging the diapers probably makes them last a lot longer too, and durability is a big factor for me.  Pocket diapers seemed to be so similar to disposables that they would not require much extra time or energy, so I thought this option was manageable. 

I asked my mom for her opinion, as a mother of seven kids, and she said that she did try cloth diapers with my sister and I, since we were twins and were costing them a lot of money in diapers.  She said it was just so involved that she couldn't keep up with it (she also had a 2 year old), and she suggested that I go with an option that I knew I could sustain.  It wouldn't save money to purchase prefolds and covers, but then not be able to stick with it for very long.  My mom thought the pocket diapers looked easy, and if they'd existed in 1981, she might've been able to stick with cloth diapers. 

So we went with pocket cloth diapers, and I've absolutely loved them.  And when people see Isabelle's cute little diapers and how simple they are, they realize I may not be completely insane for using them.  Nusery workers, especially older ladies, think they're fascinating.  When we have another baby, whenever that may be, I'd seriously consider buying a few prefolds and covers, especially for those early months when babies require so many diaper changes and they don't move much on the changing table.  I love the convenience of pocket diapers, but the prefolds would be an inexpensive way to get more diapers and not have to do laundry as often.  Right now, I don't have very many diapers, so I wash a load of diapers every day.  Even if you decide to go with prefolds, it might be nice to have a couple of pockets on hand so that babysitters and nursery workers can easily change your child's diapers.  To me, it would've been a huge leap to go from disposable diapers to prefolds, but now that I'm using pocket diapers, it doesn't seem like such a big jump to make.                   

Need more info?  I just came across this intro to cloth diapering.  It has a great breakdown of the cost of each method and money saved.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the specific diapers we purchased as well as the inserts and liners, a troubleshooting tip or two that I wish I would've known ahead of time, and the cheapest insert/doubler ever, which can be purchased in the automotive section of Wal-Mart. 

Feel free to post any questions, comments, or helpful info.  I'm definitely not an expert on cloth, so if you've been cloth diapering your baby and you've got some hints, please share! 

 

My Cloth Diapering Journey

When I first started investigating cloth diapers back in August of 2009, I was completely sucked into an underground world of cloth diapering moms.  I was staying up until midnight just to find time to look into every available option, weigh the pros and cons of all the different types, and become familiar with the terminology.  So I want to blog about it so that if other moms decide to consider cloth diapering, I can hopefully save them some time.  In my day-to-day life, I find myself frequently answering questions about cloth diapers, so now I can simply direct everyone to my blog instead of writing yet another massively long e-mail about cloth diapers.

Isabelle at 8 months, pretty in a pink Snap-EZ cloth diaper. 

Throwing Money Away  
Isabelle is our first baby, and everyone was so sweet and generous in the excitement of her arrival that even though none of our 4 baby showers was a diaper shower, we received a ton of diapers as gifts.  We did the math, and it was somewhere in the 480s!  That doesn't even include the diapers and wipes that both of our moms bought us from time to time after she was born!  So once the gravy train of free diapers ran out, we started buying diapers ourselves, and of course we picked up the soft little Pampers Swaddlers.  A few diaper packages later, we realized they cost a fortune, and we downgraded until we were eventually buying the store brand at around $7-8 per package, which usually lasted about 6 days.  Do the math, plus tax, and it adds up in a hurry!  I would complain to my husband about the cost, and he'd jokingly say "well you can always do cloth," which always made me roll my eyes.  I'm a pretty frugal mom, but while there are lots of things I was willing to do to save money, I didn't want to go there.  One day when he made that comment, I told him I just might have to look into it.  It can't be that hard, right?  Moms have done it for generations.

But Does Anyone Really Do Cloth Anymore?
Around that same time, my dear friend from college, Leslie Campbell, mentioned in passing that she used a newer type of cloth diaper, so I asked her about it.  She immediately directed me to one of her blog entries, A Whole New Cloth Diaperin' World.  Had she never told me about her experience with cloth diapers, I never would have done it, simply because I didn't know anyone else who was doing it.  It sounds great, in theory, to read about the cool new cloth diapers, but hearing about it from a real mom, I knew for sure that it was totally do-able.

I then began the process of investigating cloth.  I needed to determine a few things.

1. Will cloth diapers really save my family money?
2. What type will I use? 
3. What brand will I use? 
4. What kind of inserts will I use?
5. How will I handle cleaning, sorting, storing, etc.?

These are some of the questions I'll tackle throughout the week.  We'll start with the first one today.

Will Cloth Diapers Really Save My Family Money?
This seems like a no-brainer, but once you realize that the "new" version of cloth diapers (no pins, no rubber pants) can cost around $20 a piece (!!!), then this becomes a very important question to ask.  My husband and I are logical, analytical people, except for my occasional lapses into total girlyness when I get emotional instead of logical.  We wanted to see the numbers in black and white.  I came across a cloth diaper calculator on Diaper Pin, and this was a wonderful resource.  I don't remember the exact numbers that we entered at the time, but our calculations showed that the initial investment on cloth would cost us around $200, and we would break even in about 4 months.  Anything after that would be saving us money.  There are lots of variables that simply can't be accounted for, so it's not going to be 100% accurate.  I actually found diapers cheaper than I'd estimated, and I also found that I can make do with 9 diapers that I wash every day.  We also have all energy star appliances, including a front load washer, which uses less water and less energy to heat up the water.  And since Isabelle is our first child, we definitely plan on using these same cloth diapers for future babies.  It could save us thousands of dollars, easily.  I can't run the numbers for your family, so it's something you'll have to look at and decide for yourself.  But once it became clear to me that it would save us lots of money, nearly $40 a month in fact, I then had to decide if it was worth it. 

Why Cloth?

1. It saves money. 
2. It is safer for the environment.  Theoretically.  I came across information that shows it could go either way.  Manufacturing cotton and the other aspects of a cloth diaper is definitely harmful to the environment, but it does keep disposable diapers out of landfills.  So it's a tradeoff, and I'm not even going to get into that debate.  I think it's probably better to use cloth, but if environmentalists debate that issue all the time, it's certainly not an issue I can resolve.
3. Less chemicals next to baby's skin and more comfortable diapers.  I don't know exactly what they put in disposable diapers, but they're definitely full of lots of chemicals.  Just how harmful those chemicals are is up for debate, but some link disposable diapers to the rise in infertility cases and other issues.  I'm not going there.  I don't think you're poisoning your kid by putting them in 'sposies.  This is a questionable issue for me, but many moms feel really strongly about it.  But, as I've pointed out to my husband, would you want to wear paper underwear?  Probably not.  

For me, numbers 2 & 3 on this list were not compelling enough for me to make the switch to cloth.  Number 1 was a huge factor, but I honestly wasn't sure if I could handle the added laundry and the ew factor.  Finally, I just decided to take the plunge and do it.  I figured if Leslie could do it, then I could do it.  Now I just had to decide:  Pre-folds, pre-fitteds, pockets, or all-in-ones?  Huh?  What?   Decisions, decisions...

Feel free to ask any cloth-diapering questions!

Experimental Grocery Shopping

What if I were able to find the cheapest possible price on each item on my grocery list?  This question has been asked by both Jonni McCoy (author of Frugal Families and Miserly Moms) and Amy Dacyczyn, of Tightwad Gazette fame.  Having read their books, I decided it was high time I started implementing their grocery shopping suggestions.

Normally when it's time to shop, I sit down with a paper and pen, think of things we want to eat, write out my meal plan for the week, and then use that meal plan to create my shopping list.  I then take the list and organize it according to where the items are in the store, which enables me to knock out my groceries in about 45 minutes.  Today, I tried something different.  It's nothing new, nothing novel, but it's new to me, and I'd say it worked out pretty well.  I pulled out all the sale papers for the week and circled the items that I normally buy that were on sale.  That's a key phrase.  It doesn't save me money to get a "deal" on something I don't normally purchase because I'm spending money I normally wouldn't.  I then compared the circled sale papers to my price book to make sure they really were sales.  Then I wrote down what I wanted to get and planned my meals around these sales.  So my shopping list was a store-by-store breakdown of what I wanted to buy, and then I made a list at the bottom of the things we needed that weren't in the sale papers.

Today, I actually went to four different stores to get my groceries.  I know that sounds like a waste of time, but it really wasn't.  I finished my shopping excursion in less than two hours, including dropping off a tire for repair and patiently waiting behind a nice couple for 20 minutes because they were new to using food stamps and had made some errors.  I started with Super 1, which had whole chickens on sale for .67/pound.  They're normally .98/lb at Wal-Mart--cha ching!  Tuna was also on sale for .50/can for Chicken of the Sea.  Other stores sometimes have their generic tuna on sale for .67, so this was a steal.  I saw it at that same price a month ago at Super 1, so I'm thinking I should expect a repeat sale next month.  I won't get into all the sales I hit, but I just listend these to give you some examples.  My total at Super 1:  $14.30.

Rehkopf's had potatoes on sale for .77 per 5 pound bag.  Seriously!!  That $2 savings more than paid for my gas for the day, especially since I was driving our diesel-sipping Jetta TDI today.  I opted for .79 per bag for new potatoes instead of the russets.  The green leaf lettuce was also .50 cheaper than Wal-Mart, but it was so wilted that it was only worth it because I know how to revive it (slice off the end of the stem and give it a cold water bath for 30 minutes).  I also bought onions since they were at a great price.  I don't need any at the moment, but I cook with them frequently, so I'll dice them up and put them in the freezer if I think they'll spoil before I need them.  My total at Rehkopf's:  $3.03.

Albertsons had the steal of the day, and I broke my own rule for it.  The steal was $14 for 7 boxes of cereal, plus 3 gallons of milk FREE.  But when I walked in, a salesperson pulled me aside and gave me a coupon that made it $12 instead of $14.  You're not required to get all 3 gallons of milk at once.  When you make your purchase, you can opt for coupons for free milk instead, which is what I did.  I'll keep the coupons on the fridge, ready to grab next time we need a gallon of milk.  Now we don't normally eat much cereal.  We've been eating a lot of oatmeal lately instead, but we'll definitely consume it, and the extra boxes of cereal can be stored under my bed so they're not wasting valuable pantry space.  Also, I know that in two weeks, I have family coming into town for Easter, and my teenage brothers can really put away some cereal!  So I was just thinking ahead.  I made sure to include Rice Krispies in my cereal purchases so that I can make rice krispy treats with any extra cereal.  My total at Albertsons:  $12.67

I rounded out my shopping at Wal-Mart, since I know they generally do have the cheapest prices overall.  I needed some essentials like flour, bananas, eggs, etc.  My total at Wal-Mart:  $34.84.

Will I do this again?  Most definitely.  I'm thinking about trying to get groceries every other week instead of once a week, simply to save time. 

What was missing from my purchases?  Convenience food.  We don't eat a lot of pre-packaged food because it's an added expense and it's really not very healthy.  Our side dishes are usually a salad, a canned or frozen green vegetable, or a starch like corn or potatoes, mashed or baked.  Baby food.  At 15 months, Isabelle mostly eats the same meals we eat, with few exceptions.  I do always keep snacks for her in the house and in my diaper bag, but those are crackers, cheerios, or Goldfish.  There's not much need for the snacky baby food types of things that are on the baby aisle, at least not for her.  Lately she's been picky, but a PB&J or oatmeal will usually work fine for her.  And she drinks water, not juice, so that's an added expense we don't have.  Baby "stuff."  Cloth diapers, cloth wipes, and adorable hand-me-down baby clothes all mean that Isabelle hardly costs us a thing.  I think it's a myth that babies have to be expensive.

What are worthwhile splurges?  Frozen pizza.  I know, I know, I just said we don't do convenience food.  But I do try to keep frozen pizza on hand in case we have something unplanned, like a sick mama or some last minute emergency that prevents me from cooking.  If the $2.50 spent on pizza will prevent us from ordering pizza, eating out, or picking up fast food, then it's worth it.  Organic yogurt for Isabelle.  She's been a picky eater lately, so I splurged on it, since I know she used to love it and lately she won't eat the big tub of strawberry yogurt I bought.  Yogurt has a lot of the vitamins she needs, and I do prefer organic dairy products when possible.  So I'm actually not sure if this is a worthwhile splurge, but we'll see.  I also normally buy organic whole milk for her, but with the sale at Albertsons, I'll only be buying the milk that's covered with the coupon. 

My total of $64.84 isn't truly a week's worth of groceries because I bought many things that will be used throughout the month, and I'll also use meals in my freezer that I prepared weeks ago.  Because I do a lot of freezer cooking, a weekly breakdown just isn't possible.  I also purchased items to make a dish for MOPS on Monday, so there are lots of other variables in my grocery bill.

For people who live in a bigger city, this whole shopping excursion may not be worthwhile, but in a town as small as Texarkana, it's definitely feasible.  Super 1 is "across town" but is only 10 minutes away, and Rehkopf's just required a small detour on the way to Albertsons.  Both Albertsons and Wal-Mart are literally just minutes away, so it won't be a big deal to get my other two gallons of milk when we need them.

Has anyone else tried the salespaper method?  One key element is to never deviate from the list!!  That's where they get you!  Notice, I left Rehkopf's having spent just $3.  If I would've gotten my regular groceries there, I would've spent much more than at Wal-Mart (I know because I checked their prices!). 

What do you find helpful in saving money on groceries?  I'm always looking for new ideas and ready to experiment with something different.  As a wife and mom, groceries are probably the biggest area where I can have a real impact on our budget, for good or for ill, so it's definitely an area where I'm trying to improve.

Thank You for the Daffodil

Our daffodils, like myself, are perpetually, historically, notoriously late.  My husband and I planted the bulbs late many years ago, and just figured they'd kind of catch up eventually, but they never really have, so every spring, I admire my neighbor's daffodils and anxiously await the arrival of my own.  This year, only one has bloomed so far.  It bloomed while we were out of town, so at 11:15 pm, after a tiring 6 hour drive home after a funeral in Baton Rouge, I was completely thrilled to see this little ray of sunshine waiting for me, and I squealed "ooo, just for me" as we pulled into the driveway.  It felt like my own sweet little present from the Lord, specially handcrafted and perfectly timed.

It's been a tough week, which is why I've been so silent on the blogfront.  Last Thursday night, I was repeatedly hanging my head over the toilet getting sick with the miserable stomach virus that's going around.  Friday morning, still recovering from last night's date with the toilet, I received a terrible phone call that my husband's 29-year-old cousin had died, and it was likely suicide.  In a family who gets together every Sunday and Wednesday for meals, where the adults help raise each other's children, cousin doesn't really accurately describe the closeness of my husband and his cousin, Nathan, so this news was devastating.  Nathan was the fun guy, everybody's friend, and anyone who knew him loved him.  No family function will be the same again.  Part of me still can't believe this is real, that he won't be greeting us with giant hugs the next time we arrive at maw-maw's house.   

After many, many tears, we began making arrangements to leave town.  At one point, my husband wondered if we really should go, if we might just be in the way, but we also just knew we needed to be with everyone, even if it was just to give hugs and be physically present during what has been the toughest thing his family has been through.  And once we were there, we struggled with what to say, how to act, and even what to pray.  What do you say to the wife who would give anything to take back that last arguement?  What do you say to the parents who wonder if they could have possibly stopped it? 

You say little, give hugs, and pray a lot.  Sometimes outloud, but more often, pray silently.  That's about all we could do.  That and cry with them, and share in their grief.  That's what we learned anyway, that, and we learned that our child is an icebreaker, a mood lifter, and a most excellent distraction from tears.  She's at this great stage between babyhood and toddlerhood that makes her a bright spot in a dim circumstance.  If you're ever in a similar situation (and I hope you won't be), consider bringing your young kids with you.  It seems counter-productive when you think of all the time you'll spend chasing them around, but their fun personalities will do the grieving family a world of good.

None of us could've prevented what happened.  It was a horrible combination of factors that all came together at the most terrible of times, and all any of us can do is pray for comfort, for peace, and for God to be glorified.  We're still praying.         

Nathan and Damian, sweet little boys.

What I'm Reading: The Complete Tightwad Gazette

I just finished reading The Complete Tightwad Gazette. If you're already frugal or you're looking for ways to really save money, this is a must read! It's not for the faint of heart though. Many of the ideas in here are extreme, but even more ideas are completely reasonable.

The author, Amy Dacyczyn, a mom of six, used many of the methods in this book to save up to pay cash for her dream home in Maine. She published a newsletter from 1990-1996 about thrifty living, and this book compiles all of the newsletters from that time period.

She also tests great ideas. Do front load washing machines really save money? Do you have to fill up your dishwasher to the fill line? What's cheaper: Generic hot cocoa, a reader's recipe, or Amy Dacyczyn's recipe? She gives a cost benefit analysis of all of her topics. By the way, her last name is pronounced "'decision,' as in, 'I made a decision to marry a guy of Ukranian ancestry'" (TZ, page 7). That's the kind of humor that's peppered throughout the book. It's not just a helpful read, it's also an entertaining read!

Some ideas are completely outdated. For example, she wrote one article about how no one would ever need a home computer. Obviously, she was wrong on that one, and I think she saw that in the later years of publishing her newsletter. And of course her prices are incredibly outdated, thanks to the huge increase in food costs in recent years. But the vast majority of her ideas are not outdated, and she shows the reader how to calculate cost per meal so that we can do it on our own, regardless of the higher prices in 2010. The best part about reading this book is that it is HUGE and takes a long time to get through. Why is this a good thing? It's great because every day, I read a few more pages, and it forced me to look at my home and my life in a new way. Most of us, myself included, have a consumer mindset. When we need something, we run to the 24-hour Wal-Mart and pick it up, instead of making do with what we already have. Our moms and grandmothers had to be crafty and creative, which is why my mom can make a peach cobbler at least 5 different ways, depending on what ingredients she has on hand. It's a lost art. Reading The Complete Tightwad Gazette helped me to completely change my perspective on purchases.

If you're a true tightwad, then borrow this book from a friend (I did) or check it out of the library. If those options aren't possible, buy it used. It's worth every penny.

Reality Check

I'd intended on blogging this week on cloth diapers, but it's been a terrible week, and today is only Tuesday!  Quite frankly, I've been too upset to even touch the blog.  Instead of talking about cloth diapers, I've decided to be real and tell you what's going on in my life.  We'll save the totally awesome diaper blogs for next week.

We have no plumbing at our house, and we won't have it back until Friday, Saturday, or Monday.  My first response to this news was to leave my home and go visit family for a week!  Seriously!  How am I supposed to cook, clean, do laundry, and shower without plumbing?  But then I realized that real moms tough it out and get creative, so that's what I'm doing.

The worst news is the cost.  The asphalt in front of our home will have to be pulled up, the plumbing job completed, and the road repaved.  You can't imagine how much that's going to cost, but it's enough to wipe out our savings completely.  I felt ill yesterday just thinking about all that money, quite literally gone down the drain.  After many tears and little bit of binge eating of my toddler's Goldfish (there was no chocolate in the house!), I still just felt terrible about it all.  I finally realized I needed to pray, honestly, and tell God just how much this situation stinks.  It stinks a big one.  A really big one.  And I told him that.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  -James 1:2-4

And then I also told Him that I trust in His provision and His wisdom in this trial.  He knows what He is doing through this circumstance, and He knows what He is doing in me through this trial.  He's making me holy.  Maybe I find too much security knowing that we've been saving up, since the days when I was working, "just in case" we should need it.  Maybe I find happiness in my circumstances instead of finding joy in my God, who is bigger than all circumstances.  Maybe it's none of these, and He just wants to show us just how mightily He can provide for us.  So here you go, Father.  Glorify Yourself, and make me more like you, so I can bring glory to You too.    

**Update:  God has already begun providing for our needs, through an unexpected windfall and a much larger than expected tax return.  These won't cover all the funds, but God is making sure that we will still have a small savings, and He's already showing us just how mighty He is.**

How to Make Cloth Diaper Wipes

My name is Gabrielle, and *gasp* I'm a cloth diapering mother. 

Now that the danger of a coronary has passed, and you've had a chance to catch your breath or roll your eyes, let me just say that I use the new version of a cloth diaper, which involves no pins whatsoever and is very convenient to use.  More on this next week.  First I'd like to tell you about the project I've been working on today: making more cloth wipes.

Once you begin cloth diapering, cloth wipes are a pretty easy jump to make.  Think about it.  When you change your baby's diaper, what do you do with the wipe?  Most of us tuck it neatly into the diaper and throw it into the garbage.  If you use cloth diapers and disposable wipes, then that just doesn't work.  So like the thrifty mama I am, I decided I wanted wipes, but I wasn't spending $10-$15 on something that would wipe poop off my baby's rear end.  I made my own, and I love them, but I needed more.  So today I made another 6 or so wipes during naptime.

It's a very easy sewing project, even if you hardly know how to sew.  And the great thing is if you mess up, who really cares?  Again, it's just going to wipe poop!

Choosing fabric:  Wipes are often made out of flannel, fleece, terry cloth, bamboo (rayon), or any combination of these fabrics.  When choosing fabric, go with what you already have or can get cheaply.  My wipes cost me a grand total of FREE.  I e-mailed moms, asking if they had any flannel receiving blankets I could have.  I got plenty of fabric this way.  I also came across a few hand-me-down baby bath towels that had been passed down to me from a family member.  They had definitely seen better days, and since I had received so many as gifts, I had planned on tossing these.  Instead, I cut the binding off and used the rest as fabric.  I also had some scrap fleece, so I used this too.     

I ended up with wipes of flannel/terry, flannel/fleece, and flannel/flannel. My favorites are the flannel and terry because it really cleans up dirty diapers. What I used to refer to as a 5 wipe poopy has now become a 1 or 2 wipe poopy with my cloth wipes.

Instructions:  You can make them with a single piece of fabric or double-sided.  I like mine double-sided, so they're nice and thick.  These are the instuctions I'm giving you.

Step 1:  Cut fabric into 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 squares.

Step 2:  Piece them together, right sides facing in.

Step 3:  Sew them up, using a zigzag stitch (1/4 inch seam allowance), and leaving a gap to flip them inside out.

Step 4:  Trim any excess fabric and turn them inside out.

tep 5:  Sew them all the way around with a zigzag stitch, overlapping where you began.

Folding them:

Cloth wipes can be just as easy to use as disposable.  You just have to learn how to fold them, which takes a whole 60 seconds to do. 

Lay one wipe down, then lay another, overlapping halfway. 

Fold the first one over. 

Then overlap another wipe, and fold the second one over. 

Continue this process with all wipes. 

Then drop it into a wipe container, pour your solution over it, and voila, you've got your own wipes!