Eating (And the Other Things We Do In Life)

A vegetarian dish we liked.

And my first attempt at homemade marinara sauce turned out well. 

Someone loves oatmeal.
And feeding himself the maybe 25% that actually makes it to his mouth.
So much so that I found him in another room praying "Dear God thank you for oatmeal, Amen" yesterday.  (Either we eat too much oatmeal, or we need to work on prayers being at times other than meal times.)

Pumpernickel bread.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love using our bread machine on the "dough" setting and then pulling it out and either braiding or shaping it into "artisan" loaves?  No?  I haven't mentioned that?  Well, I do.   It is a great self-esteem booster and makes me feel much fancier than I know I am.


We do other things besides eating.
We learn about good and bad attitudes.
We learn that Curious George is naughty because he touched something that an adult told him not to touch.
We sing Baby Beluga (and sing it again and again.)
We read Beatrix Potter books and count Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter Rabbit and find Peter's ears sticking out of a watering can.
We gallivant around in the middle of snowstorms looking at farm properties that we might consider buying.  Ahem.
We also exercise.
We watch birds in our backyard.
Million fingerpaints.
We read adult books too.  Michael is loving this one.  I'm reading/studying this one.
We wait for Michael's new job to start in two weeks.
And we also play a lot of Solitaire together as a couple.  Just keeping it real, here, folks.

In all of our doing, I every now and then have to pull myself away and remind myself of the grand purposes and intentions behind why we do what we do.
And in those moments, I often find some superfluous habits that have snuck into my daily routine.
And I find character flaws like dishonesty (I've been working on not telling Million "in a minute" or "just a second", because usually those aren't my most honest statements.  It's a hard habit to break.)

May your day be filled with many blessed doings and beings, and may your doings and beings reflect what you want them to. 

My Recipes: Vegan Cornbread

If you have not tried blue cornmeal, you simply must!
Here's a recipe I tweaked to make vegan/healthier.  This was the most moist and sweet cornbread I've ever had, even before I added sugar on top :)  Michael loved it and said it tasted like it should be for dessert.

I went "vegan" for three months in college to prove I could do it.  I have to admit that at that time I was so much less aware than I am now about all of the potential "toxins". I now understand sugar is a debatable vegan topic, because of the animal bone char used occasionally to whiten sugar.  So if you're on the other side of the fence about sugar, feel free to substitute honey (for those who aren't opposed to insect products), agave nectar, maple syrup, etc.  For the record, we're not vegetarian by practice or principle (I love chicken; he loves beef!), but I do try to incorporate a lot of vegetarian foods (other than tofu---which Michael absolutely refuses to eat, but I don't mind) into our diet, simply for health reasons.


Heather's Vegan Cornbread

1 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C blue cornmeal
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 T sugar (or natural sweetener equivalent)
1/4 C coconut oil, melted
1 C milk
2 T ground flax/6 T water mixed together (in place of eggs)

in a medium bowl stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Grease a 9x 1-1/2 inch round baking pan. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl combine flax, water, milk, and oil.  Add liquid mixture all at once to flour mixture.  Stir until just moistened.  Pour batter into pan.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Top with sugar or sweetener.
Enjoy!

pinteresting (running inspiration found and not found)

I hit a brick wall in my running yesterday.
A hard brick wall.
A brick wall that had me off and on the treadmill four times, trying to finish one run.  


A brick wall that I kept hitting, and that I used to justify crabby behavior and comments towards my husband.  


It's tough being a perfectionist all-or-nothing-at-all person and trying to keep some balance in the healthy eating/exercising department.  And yesterday was my first day failing miserably. 


Oh dear.


It's troubling.
There may have been tears, a pout session, and excuses involved.


After I got off my duff and made myself finish with the thought that "I will NOT allow my crabbiness to continue, and I CAN physically do this, I just need proper mental motivation", Michael kindly allowed me to clean up.


I realized, as I was cleaning up, that... (brilliant thought, here, just wait) the Bible verse Colossians 3:23 (Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,) applied to me. 

I wasn't running for praise from anyone else, to lose weight, or any outward motivation.  (In all honesty, I was running to be a good example for my son someday, and I truly desire to learn to love to run.) But the verse still applied to me.

It could just as well read:

"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for your perfectionist self-approval."

Convicting?

So I haven't done much with that thought yet.  I'm still letting it stew. 

However, I did obsessively research on pinterest after one of my four attempts at my run.

I wanted motivation. 

Do you realize how many boards are out there entitled "motivation"?

Scads.

Scores.

I was looking for pins that would inspire me to keep going mentally.  

I wasn't looking for "the perfect abs and tush" pictures to motivate me. 

(It's surprising how many of those are out there, actually.) 

I wasn't looking for angry "I need to beat out my emotions and heartache on the pavement" kind of inspiration either.

I was just looking for emotionally stable persuasive words that would inspire me to stay running at mile howevermany.  

It's shocking how few emotionally stable running words there are. 

Many of the "quotes" are "look at all the fat non-exercising people. you're doing so much better than them."  (Admittedly, I repinned a few of these.)

or:

"Remember how miserable you were without exercising.  You'll be somebody someday if you're physically fit."

or:

"Do you really want to eat that biscuit?" (Yes. I do.) 

I was acutely disturbed at the obsessive mentality on these "motivation" boards.  Some of the advice was downright medically unhealthy.  But...I was able to find some "inspiration"/"motivation" what have you in the mire and muck of public opinions on healthy "ideals." We'll see how inspirational my research truly was when Michael comes home today and I go on my run.  

This Might Be a Stretch

Anyone else seeing Charlie Chaplin here?

Psalm 90, For Encouragement on Dreary Days

I've been discouraged every now and then for various reasons.
This week in particular, it has helped me to read Psalm 90 from its author's perspective---a man who knew many disappointments, a man who wasn't a particularly good leader, a man with public and private failures, a man with a dysfunctional family, a man whose "big event" in life was denied him.  In short, a man who could very easily have been discouraged.

He was also a man with many good character traits.  The first line in the psalm calls him "the man of God."

Psalm 90

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
 Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. 
Before the mountains were born 
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, 
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

You turn man back into dust
And say, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it passes by,
Or as a watch in the night.
You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep;
In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.
In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew;
Toward evening it fades and withers away.

 For we have been consumed by Your anger
And by Your wrath we have been dismayed.
You have placed our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
For all our days have declined in Your fury;
We have finished our years like a sigh.
As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.
Who understands the power of Your anger
And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?
 So teach us to number our days, 
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

 Do return, O LORD; how long will it be?
And be sorry for Your servants.
O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, 
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. 
Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us,
And the years we have seen evil.
 Let Your work appear to Your servants 
And Your majesty to their children. 
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; 
And confirm for us the work of our hands; 
Yes, confirm the work of our hands.

Food And Teething

I haven't left the house much this week, for a variety of reasons/excuses.

Primarily:

1) Million is cutting four teeth at once.  Behaviorally it's not wise to leave the house.

2) Michael's set a goal/plan to pay off our college debt in a very hardcore fashion this year.  If I don't go out of the house, I don't spend money on gas.  If I don't go out of the house, with teething toddler, I don't spend money on a "sympathy" coffee beverage for myself or caesar chicken wrap from a fast food joint.  We save money.

3) I don't want to go to the effort to scrape the ice off of the van's windshield.

So, I haven't been out of the house much this week.
It's been refreshing.

Since I've been home more and focusing on stretching our budget while still remaining health conscious, I've been searching for recipes in my spare time.

Here are a few I found and tried from Pinterest this week.

One-ingredient ice cream. 
Lemon bar cookie cups (This does not fall in the "health conscious" category.  It falls in the "we ate the whole recipe in two days" category.)
And one I didn't find on Pinterest, but I ended up pinning because we liked it so much. 

Tomorrow or Saturday I'm going to try to post a recipe I created for spinach chicken alfredo pizza (an effort to copy Papa Murphy's while remaining at home).  Michael rated it a 9.99, or 11.  He will never give me a "perfect ten" but said this time (for the first time ever) he could justify giving me an "11".  So I need to remember how I made it so I can make it again---hence the recipe forthcoming tomorrow.  No pictures involved.  We ate without a camera.  just a recipe.

Wrinkles From A Year

I've been teasing Michael all along about the white hairs he got from our adoption process.
He did.
He has white strands of hair speckled throughout his beard that showed up somewhere between our long wait to pass court and our embassy investigation.
Scratch that.  They started to appear pretty much right after we left Million the first time.

Up until now I've laughed at his hair loss and whitening beard.
Until a few weeks ago.
Natural lighting can be cruel.
I looked in my reflection one day and noticed a lot more wrinkles coming in on my upper cheeks.  I'd already had crow's feet, but never wrinkles on the upper cheeks before.
Fortunately, they are smile wrinkles instead of the opposite.
But I did buy some wrinkle cream when I ran out of my normal facial moisturizer.

Despite the toll this year has taken on our physical bodies, we've been so incredibly blessed and taught and grown this year.  I thought I'd take the time today to share about our first meeting with Million, a year ago.

 Waiting to meet Million.

The moment I first held my son

Michael holding Million for the first time.

First family photo,

 Absolutely in love with my sleeping baby.

Here are a few words I posted on our adoption blog last year about our first meeting.


The day we met Million, I'd slept five hours in four days. There was part brilliance in "let's stay up all night before we travel so we adjust to the time zones....and then not sleep a single wink on the plane!" and part sheer panic in "did I pack everything?" involved. 


 It was really not a magical adoption "we're a family" moment. 
The closest we've had to that was our referral. 
For me, when we got our referral, that was it---Ring all the bells, we were a family. 
So this meeting him seemed like an "of course" kind of moment. 


Of course he was our son. 
Of course he was terrified and cried most of the day until he slept in my arms. 
 Of course he was still fairly sick. 
Of course we were exhausted. 
Of course we loved him more than any human could imagine. 


 The way our agency does things usually, there is a shut door, and the adoptive parents wait up on a set of stairs while people take pictures. Then the door opens, the nanny slowly walks to you, as people take pictures of your face the first time you see your child. You take the child in your arms, and magic happens. 


 The door wasn't shut for us...so we could see Million in his nanny's arms for quite some time before they brought him out to us. 


 Not. As. Magical. 


 But perfect for us. Anticlimactic. It seemed to perfectly coincide with how our adoption process has gone. We've seen this coming for so long now. And now that it's actually here, it feels like it's always been here. So natural. 


 Of course.

Racism and My Filthy Heart

Give grace, give grace, give grace.


I have to breathe this in and out, out and in, this morning.


I didn't post on Martin Luther King Jr. Day yesterday.
Partially because there were so many out there doing it so much more beautifully and well than I could ever hope to.
The other reason was because Michael was home, and we were enjoying a day as a family, trying new whole-food recipes.


I went to sleep filled with good thoughts about racial harmony.
I woke up and was fairly immediately confronted with (barely) passive aggressive racism in written form.


It angered me, but even more than that, it saddened me.  I was reading this morning in the Bible about how things that come out of a person's mouth (fingers) actually come from the heart.  (Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.) 


I suddenly felt sad for this person to have such a filthy heart.
I pitied them.
Then I started to feel twinges of pride in my heart.
And I thought it would be wise to take a moment to examine my own heart.

What filthy overflow does my mouth speak---if not racism?

It speaks perfectionism.  It speaks a lack of grace when others are wrong.  It speaks judgement.  It speaks  words to please man and not God.

I started this morning angry and saddened by racism spoken from the heart of an acquaintance.
I continue this morning aware of the filth in my own heart, but in the knowledge that my Savior has forgiven me.
Lord, continue your refining work on me!

I Took Million On A "Hot Date" To A Bagel Shop

He wants to go again.

In The Morning

The boy stirred.
I poke man in the ribs.
"He's awake," I say, clearing my voice with every word.
We then do our quotidian dance that's almost become ingrained in our circadian rhythm.
I creak and crawl my way out of bed and beckon the dog to join me downstairs.
The dog will receive breakfast. I will pack the man's lunch, and a bottle will be prepared.
The man will tend to the boy.
After dog has enjoyed a brisk (frigid is more like it) bathroom experience, I stumble back upstairs, bottle in hand.
I crawl back into bed.
Boy is already asleep, bottle will be useful later.
Man is getting ready for work.
After he is clean, he sits beside me and prays to the Father, the Creator of our days, the One whom our quotidian dance is devoted to.
He leaves after kisses and I love you's.
And I can't sleep.

These morning hours between waking and beginning the day are a good time to pray and reflect.



A prayer called "Morning" from the Puritan collection of prayers found in The Valley of Vision

Compassionate Lord, 

Thy mercies have brought me to the dawn of another day. 

Vain will be its gift unless I grow in grace, 

increase in knowledge, 

ripen for spiritual harvest. 

Let me this day know Thee as Thou art, 

love Thee supremely, 

serve Thee wholly, 

admire Thee fully. 

Through grace let my will respond to Thee, 

knowing that power to obey is not in me, but that Thy free love alone enables me to serve Thee. 

Here then is my empty heart, overflow it with Thy choicest gifts; 

here is my blind understanding, chase away its mists of ignorance.

O ever watchful Shepherd, lead, guide, tend me this day; 

without Thy restraining rod I err and stray. 

Hedge up my path lest I wander into unwholesome pleasure, and drink its poisonous streams; 

direct my feet that I be not entangled in Satan's secret snares, nor fall into his hidden traps. 

Defend me from assailing foes, 

from evil circumstances, 

from myself. 

My adversaries are part and parcel of my nature; they cling to me as my very skin;

 I cannot escape their contact. 

In my rising up and sitting down they barnacle me; they entice with constant baits; 

my enemy is within the citadel. 

Come with almighty power and cast him out, pierce him to death, and abolish in me every particle of carnal life this day.

He Speaks

Linguistically Million is cracking me up these days.
He's started adding articles in front of various words to see if that's how they sound.
And his favorite prepositional phrase is "in the."

It's not at all odd to hear him say things like:

"The BonAmi in the bed. Ni-night!"
" A daddy-daddy in the car.  In the RED car!"
"Choo chooo in the train."
"Aga-ga in the I-wo-wa." (His name for my brother who lives in Iowa.)
"a-ma-mo in the book dee baaaaaa" (Animal in the book says baaaa).

He also has an obsession with rings right now.  He came up to me last week pouting/crying because he didn't have a ring on his fingers like Daddy and Mama do.  He also noticed the cashier who had about nine rings on her hands.  We've since given him a shower curtain ring to play with as a bracelet.  He's taken to pushing it around in his Tonka truck and saying "Ring in the truck! Beep beep! Ring in the truck!"

We've been watching episodes of The Muppet Show.  He likes to tell me when the saxophone is playing.  He can also sing/hum all the way through the alphabet song and most of Jesus Loves Me unless he gets distracted.

Last week Michael had some days off, and we drove into town early in the morning.  A half an hour drive, and Michael realized what I listen to all day.  He turned to me and said "Is he always this talkative at 6:30 in the morning?"

The other odd thing that cracks me up is that my son adores oatmeal and green beans.  He asks for them at various points in the day.  We don't add sugar or spices to his oatmeal at all.  He just loves it.  But it sounds like "e-mail" when he says it.  

Thursdays In Real Life

The above picture was taken two days ago.  In Minnesota.  In January.  Tuesday's high was 53.  We've since had snow.  Last year it was around -20 with piles of snow at least waist high.  

I know this because a year ago yesterday, Michael was involved in a truck rollover.  And we were leaving to Ethiopia very shortly afterwards.  

(Speaking of which, you'll be getting posts about meeting our son a year ago, etc. coming up.)

On a pinteresting note: I made a failure recipe (a crockpot orange chicken that neither Michael nor I liked...It's since been removed from my pin boards.)  So there.  Not even worth posting, but I felt the obsessive need to keep up with this.

And real-life has been so real-life lately that I really don't have anything share-able to post.  

Other than this sign designed by Emily Ley.

It speaks to me in very profound ways. 

Poems: Everyday Living

Instead of a blog post for you today, two poems. 

What the Living Do
by Marie Howe
Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there. And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of. It's winter again: the sky's a deep, headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through the open living-room windows because the heat's on too high in here and I can't turn it off. For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, the bag breaking, I've been thinking: This is what the living do. And yesterday, hurrying along those wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk, spilling my coffee down my wrist and sleeve, I thought it again, and again later, when buying a hairbrush: This is it. Parking. Slamming the car door shut in the cold. What you called that yearning. What you finally gave up. We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We want whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss—we want more and more and then more of it. But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass, say, the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless: I am living. I remember you. Daily Life   by Susan Wood A parrot of irritation sits on my shoulder, pecks at my head, ruffling his feathers in my ear. He repeats everything I say, like a child trying to irritate the parent. Too much to do today: the dracena that's outgrown its pot, a mountain of bills to pay and nothing in the house to eat. Too many clothes need washing and the dog needs his shots. It just goes on and on, I say to myself, no one around, and catch myself saying it, a ball hit so straight to your glove you'd have to be blind not to catch it. And of course I hope it does go on and on forever, the little pain, the little pleasure, the sun a blood orange in the sky, the sky parrot blue and the day unfolding like a bird slowly spreading its wings, though I know,  saying it, that it won't.

Cloth Diaper School: Finances And How to Choose Diapers

Whew.  Now that you've heard my voice FAR too much for your lifetime, you get to live through a post without my voice.  And no pictures.
Sigh.  Weep.  Gnash your teeth.
You'll survive, I guarantee you. 
(And I am looking forward to much less verbose posts...)


This post is probably the hardest of the three to write, because there is no "scientific" way to write it. In other words, I have no way to prevent my natural biases from becoming involved.


How to choose a cloth diaper
People choose cloth diapering for different reasons.  What kind of diaper is best for them depends on a few variables. 

• Finances.  Obviously AIO cloth diapers are more expensive than prefolds.  
• How much work you want to do to "prepare" each diaper.  Are you willing to fold prefolds and put covers around them?  Are you willing to stuff pocket diapers?  Or would you rather have your diaper all in one piece?
• How supportive is your spouse/partner/daycare provider about cloth diapering?  This is something that requires consideration, although I know many women who "solo" diaper with no help from their husbands.  
• Would you ever have two children of different ages in diapers at once?  If so, a one-size-fits-all diaper might be a good option.
• If you want the convenience of throwing all of your diapers in the dryer, prefolds might be the best option.  
• You don't have to be solely cloth diapered. One of my good friends uses cloth diaper during the day and disposable at night.
• Do you like snaps or velcro (we chose snaps, because we heard they last longer/are harder for babies to take off themselves.)

Things to consider if you're going to be un-biased about finances.

As far as financing diapers, there are a kazillion calculations.  Some will tell you that cloth diapers save you thousands per child.  Others will say that they don't really save you that much in the long run.  I think that each person who does calculations adds in certain things and leaves out certain things.  


Basically some things to consider when determining the financial difference between cloth and disposables are:


Trash service (disposables).
Water (cloth).
Electricity for dryer (cloth).
Cost of diapers. (both)
Laundry detergent. (Cloth)
Wipes (disposable).
Convenience fees (how easy you want either diaper experience to be...i.e. do you have a diaper sprayer, how many days of cloth diapers you would want to have in your stash.)
If you're a coupon addict or not.  (I'm not.)
The "second child" factor. (Reuse with later children or resale on craigslist.)


Here's how I do my non-scientific calculations: 
For our family---we used disposables for the first two months, due to a parasite that Million had.  We purchased the more expensive "name-brand" diapers, as we found that the store-brand cheap diapers could not hold in the stools as well.  Were we to continue using disposables, we likely would have continued using the more expensive brands even after the parasite issue resolved.  I am not a couponer by nature.  The diapers we used averaged about 23 cents per diaper. 


Moment of honesty, I was a little cloth-diaper happy in my shopping.  I have a very large diaper stash for one child (about 42 diapers).  15 of them were gifts.  For the other 27 diapers, a diaper sprayer, 2 diaper pail liners, a diaper pail, 50 cloth wipes that I also use as inserts, 3 wet bags, 2 swimming diapers, a wipe warmer, a spray bottle for his diaper bag, and lanolin for my wipe solution, I paid $235.  


Keep in mind, I had three years to watch sales, stalk craigslist, and pick up the wipes on a free rebate program at our local home improvement store, etc.  I do bargains.  


Since we were "out" $235, and the disposable diapers we used cost 23 cents a diaper, we knew that we had to use at least 1000 diapers to make up for the finances we had expended in our diaper purchasing.  This number does not account for the water that we use.  


Speaking of water and electricity costs, we have a high efficiency washer which can ration water used by weight of the load.  Our washer broke in January of 2010, and we already knew that we would be cloth diapering, so we chose one that would be the most cost-effective for diapering.  I don't have a water meter on our washer, so I can't divide up our water cost well.  However, it is running about the same amount that we're saving on using a much smaller garbage service (which we wouldn't be able to do if we were to use disposable diapers.)  We only use our dryer for the liners and wipes in the winter months.  We haven't seen a large increase in our electricity since we started drying them two months ago.


So according to my calculations, we have nearly paid for our "stash."  We will be able to reuse all of these diapers with a second child or sell some of them on craigslist.  (I made sure to get gender-neutral diapers with the exception of two "army" ones, not that any baby will care what color his diaper is.)


Craigslist & Cloth Diapering
One of the things that attracted me to cloth diapering was the ability to reuse them for second, third, fourth children, etc. (while knowing that some would need replacement over time.)  However, I was also attracted to the possibility of resale of diapers.  If you treat your cloth diapers correctly (washing with the right detergent, and sun-bleaching the stains, etc. like I talked about in my maintenance post today), you can resell your diapers on craigslist for almost purchase value, especially for brands like Bumgenius and Fuzzibunz.  


That being said, sometimes you can get really good deals on craigslist from really tired and stressed out first time moms who chose to use a different brand of diapers or to use disposables for various reasons.  I mentioned in my video that Bumgenius Elementals run about $25 brand new.  I got ten of them on craigslist for $10 a piece (after some bartering...) from a mom who just wanted to cloth diaper while her daughter was breastfeeding, and not afterwards.   


Conclusion:
I'm sure I'll remember some more details later on, but this was a good deal of what I could get down in one evening about diapers.  Please please PLEASE leave questions in the comments if you can think of any.  I'll try to do a followup post next week with any answers to questions I have.

Cloth Diaper School: Use and Maintenance of Diapers

Welcome back!
This post will be a little easier to write than the first or the third.
It's about the "how" instead of the "what."

First, here's a little tour of our diaper area, and then I'll post a few up close pictures of what I mentioned on the movie.

Above, the orange bag is one of our two diaper pail liners.  

I also show one of our wet bags.  Our diaper pail liners and our wet bags are Planet Wise brand, although I bought them from a retail shop on eBay.  

Our wipe warmer and cloth wipes (microfiber towels found in an automotive department that I got on free rebate.)

Bac-Out, the only chemical we use on our diapers (and we actually only use it on the soiled ones in the winter time.)  I also use home-made lotion and always apply some to Million's legs and tummy (his dry skin areas) during a diaper change.  We also use hand sterilizer even though we wash hands.  We're a little parasite-phobic at the moment, because we saw what parasites can do (even though it's all resolved.)  

Just two last pictures of the diaper pail and our whole changing table area. 

In the video above, I promised I'd include our wipe solution recipe.

Here is a link to a bunch of wipe solution recipes.  I currently use something between the lanolin & glycerin and "no measuring" recipes.  

Now to the nitty gritty details.

What do you do with the diapers when they're messy?

Option A) Just urine in the diaper.

I take the liners out, and put the liners and the pocket diaper or AIO  in the diaper pail.  Simple.

Option B) Stool in the diaper. 

Michael and I do this differently.  It doesn't really matter the order.  I take the liners out first, Michael takes them out last.  In any case, take the liners out when you put the diaper in the pail because you don't want to be un-lining the diapers at the washing machine.  Gross.  The aim is to not touch the diapers at all after you put them in the diaper pail.  

So back to the poopy diaper.  (That's a transition I doubt I'll ever use again.)  I bring it to the bathroom, spray off the stool (video below with no actual stool, since I didn't want you to lose your lunch), bring it back to the changing table, in the winter I spray Bac-Out on the cover where the stool was touching (to prevent bacteria and odor buildup), and then put it in the diaper pail.  If we're out in public we do have to end up swishing a diaper in the toilet, but it's fairly rare that we do this, maybe three times a month.

This is a really poor quality movie, taken during Million's bath-time so I couldn't zoom out, and you can see some of our post-Christmas chaos in this one.  

How do you wash your diapers?
Okay, so you've got the diapers in your diaper pail in a diaper pail liner that is washable.
Michael's here to tell you how to wash them.

But in case you don't catch it, details are  below.




We use a cloth-diaper (and eco-friendly) laundry detergent called "Country Save"---which you can purchase on amazon or some good food stores.

We wash one time on a cold setting.
Then we wash one time on a hot setting with a second rinse.
The total washing time, for our washer, is 2 hours, 10 minutes.
We air dry everything in the spring, summer, and fall.

We air-dry on a drying rack the AIO's, the pocket diaper covers, the wet bags, and the diaper pail liners in the winter.  We use our clothes dryer for the wipes and liners during winter months.

Two things about washing and drying that I have to note here, because there is really no other good place to put them.

• Line drying really does bleach out diaper stains.  They look brand new after each drying (although you notice from the picture I dry them with the stain side upward so as not to sun-bleach the colored part of the fabric.) I am so looking forward to spring for that reason.  It also prevents any bacteria. (Why we use the Bac-Out in the winter.) 
• If you choose to cloth diaper, really consider your laundry soaps.  Many common laundry soaps have softeners, scents, or coloring chemicals added, which will cause buildup in your diapers and make them less effective (read: leaky).  Same goes for diaper rash cream, although we've never had to use any with cloth diapers.  (I've heard that coconut oil works well as a diaper rash cream, and that would be cloth-diaper friendly.)  Cloth diaper laundry-appropriate laundry soap isn't that much more expensive, and like you saw in the video, you really don't use all that much of it. 

How many diapers should I have?
How often do you want to do laundry?
Those questions are linked.  I didn't want to be doing laundry every day, but I knew that doing it less than every other day could cause bacterial buildup.  So I settled on an every-other day regimen. That meant I needed diapers enough for two days.  Million came home at 16 months of age, so I really don't know that much of infant "statistics", although many websites say they go through 8 to 12 diapers a day.  Million's gone through anywhere between 7 to 12 diapers a day (the 12 was on some really bad days.)  He averages about 6 now.  (He's going to hate me for this some day...)  We started purchasing diapers before we knew if we were going to have one or two children, so we are ALWAYS the wrong people to ask this question, as we have, I think 42 diapers.
All of the cloth diapering websites that I know of say that you should have 12 to 36 diapers on average, for one child.

We'll see you back here later today for details about finances/how to choose a diaper.

Cloth Diaper School: What Are Cloth Diapers Like?

Here it is, Friday, and I had intended all week long to write up these cloth diaper posts.
Ummm hmmm.
That didn't happen.
Not my idea of a wild Friday night.
But Michael wanted me to watch one of my favorite movies with him...so I managed to get this done.
So this first post is "What Are Cloth Diapers Like?"  This will, by far, be the longest of the three posts.

By all means, if you have any questions at all, please post them in the comment section, and I'll try to do a followup post in a week from now!  (I already have one question about cloth diapering in apartment settings that I need to ask a couple friends and gather some replies on...)

You'll notice in my three series that I don't have a "why do I cloth diaper?" section.  That was intentional.

But first.
Let me play a little word association.

Cloth diapers.



What picture just came into your mind? For many people it was probably a combination of these three images...(And you all should give me extra bonus points for looking up pictures on google.  There were some very disturbing diaper pictures where I would look and say "Hey---that baby has pretty hairy legs.  Just KIDDING! It's a grown man in plastic panties!")

I don't blame you for thinking of those.  In fact, that's pretty much what I first thought of when we realized that we'd be requesting a baby instead of two toddlers.  Those cloth diapers and plastic panties and pins are very close to what I remember having around the house when I was a kid, although I think perhaps our pins were a little less cute and more functional.

To start, there are a couple different kinds of "modern" cloth diapers.

I mean... there are the diapers above (called prefolds), but most of you reading this were probably cloth diapered as a babe and can remember how it worked, since disposables didn't really come into mainstream popularity until the late '80s.  (If I have a silent audience from younger generations, welcome!)

There are four main types of cloth diapers.

1. Prefolds (above).  These require a cover of some sort (plastic panties, wool panties, etc.) and some sort of a snap/pin.  They're usually made out of cotton, hemp, birdseye, etc.  By far, these are what is considered the most "affordable" diaper option.  But they didn't appeal to me, so I won't be going into great detail about them.  For more information about prefolds, here are some links to families that blog about how prefolds work for them. 

Blog #1

Blog #2

2. Fitted diapers.  I don't own any fitted diapers, and I don't have any experience.  Essentially, they are like the snappy kind of diapers that I'll be showing you in the video below, but they aren't waterproof, so they need a cover.  Again, I don't have any experience with these, and I didn't want covers for my baby (an extra step), so I've posted some blog links below. 

Blog #1

Blog #2

Here we come to a brief intermission from reading, and you can listen to/watch  me blabbing about what kinds of diapers we have.  After the video's done, come back here, and I'll have more information for you.

Well, hello there! Welcome back!

3. All-in-one's/All-in-two's (henceforth referred to as (AIO's).  These do not require a cover or pins.  They are made out of material with at least one waterproof layer. The all-in-one's are just what they sound like, they're just one piece.  

In today's video, I believe I misspoke and said "essentials" instead of "elementals."  Bumgenius (a brand of diaper) renamed it's diapers since we bought our AIO diapers, and I'm still getting used to the name.  The Elementals  (when we bought them they were called "organic one-size all-in-ones") fit babies from 7 pounds to 35 pounds.  If you have a hard time seeing the differences on diapers that I show you in the video, please visit the links.  I was filming at night while Michael was home giving Million a bath (my time off), and so the lighting was pretty poor.  (***note: I'll get into this more in the third post today, but we did buy 10 of our Elementals off of craigslist used.)

4. Pocket diapers. There are a lot of different kinds of pocket diapers.  I showed you three kinds of pocket diapers in this post's video.  Essentially a pocket diaper is a diaper that has another layer of fabric sewn in such a way that an insert is able to be "pocketed" inside. 

The three types that I show you (in order of appearance) are:

• Fuzzibunz (size medium for 15-30 pounds)

• Kawaii Baby.  I have two of their kinds: this kind and this kind.  Kawaii one-size diapers fit from 8 to 36 pounds.

• Green Bees diapers.  I show some of the printed ones, but their solid color ones are cheaper.  I also have two of their minky diapers and am pleased with it as well.  (Minky is a kind of fabric.  I laughed too, when I first read it. It's the left one in the picture below.)  I just looked on their site, and I don't believe they publish weights that they're supposed to fit, but they're fitting Million the same way the other diapers do, so I would guess around 30+ pounds.

Okey dokey.  I went through the four kinds of cloth diapers.  In my next post I'll talk more about the use/maintenance of them.  

Pinteresting: A Craft And A Household Hint

I made these yarn-covered bottles, because of some inspiration I saw on Pinterest.  I added a felt flower that Michael helped me make during our Christmas crafting.

The following is a picture I took of our green onion stems placed in a glass of water in the sunlight.  According to a pin that linked to this website, you can grow green onions almost indefinitely.  And guess what?  They do grow in a glass of water.  I've got just the teeniest bit of green growth starting to show.

For a peek into one of my more ambitious projects I have in mind for this year, look at this anthropologie-inspired tutorial.  We have two armchairs that I've been longing to reupholster for a while, and that tutorial series just might give me the "oompah down my pants" required to do it.
Coach Z reference, sorry.


I read a book this past winter that had a chapter in it about how using silk flowers in your decorating doesn't teach children about nature and wildlife and blah-de-blah-blah-blah you're going to ruin your child forever.  So I've decided to try to at least incorporate more "natural" things that used to be alive at one point into my decorating.  Hence, my basket of clementines and my twigs in the first picture in this post.

and because the Bears are my team, and my uncle sent Million a Bears hat...

Cloth Diapers Posts Ahead (Warning)

We've had a lot of people asking about Million's diapers.
A lot.
And I've been so absentminded that each time someone e-mails me asking about them, I write a fresh e-mail.  It takes a lot of time to write out thoughts, methods, how to choose, how to wash, sizing, etc.
And I was doing it each and every time.
(slaps forehead.)

So here is fair warning.  Michael's next day off---Saturday, I'm going to put up a three-part series (likely all on the same day) about cloth diapers.
And I'll just e-mail people the links from now on.

My goal is not to convince you to cloth diaper.  It's just more for those who are asking for just general information.  I won't be posting links to how disposable diapers are killing the earth, etc.  I also will not be talking about the potential carcinogens in diapers.  I'm not a chemist or an ecologist.  I can't break down facts without some measure of bias involved.

If you're seriously not interested in cloth diapering, just tune out for that day.
But please come back afterwards! I appreciate each and every one of you who takes the time to read all of these little rambling thoughts of mine.

I'm thinking the posts will look like this:

What are cloth diapers like?
How do you wash/maintain them?
Finances of cloth diapers versus disposables/how to choose a diaper

I don't take myself too seriously, I'm just letting you know.
Cloth diapering works for us, but in no way am I advocating it for everyone everywhere at all times.
I have some friends who live in areas that are in droughts.
Obviously extra washing might not be a good idea for them
Many moms I know use daycares who are not cloth-diaper friendly.

One of the wisest things I've ever heard my mom say is that there are method people and principle people, and to choose to be a principle person.  Method people are hung up on HOW you're doing things and what you're doing. There are definite rights and wrongs for every decision in their lives.  Principle people are people who look at the underlying principle (in this case, that you keep your baby's bum clean, dry, and free from rash and infection) and just focus on that.  I've tried to be a principle person about a lot of our baby-rearing decisions, this one included.


***Special note: Michael had made this awesome movie where we actually changed Million (no parts showing) and showed how the diaper sprayer worked, and Million was cute and compliant, and Michael did what Michael does best----advertise products that he loves.

(those of you who know us might chuckle at this.)

Our computer ate the three segments of his movies about diapers.

And Million is not feeling very cute or compliant these days.  So I re-made the videos myself.  Something I'm not comfortable doing at all.
Hearing myself talk out loud about anything for any length of time is not the most comforting thing in the world.

(Those of you who know me well are nodding your heads.)

So it will be an exercise in humility for me to post the movies later this week (because one of them showcases a very "lived in" laundry room and a brief walk through our Christmas carnage from a few weeks ago.  (Our house is much cleaner now, I promise you.) 

Insights While Driving In Car With Toddler

• I used to strive for originality, but now I'm just exactly like the 8 million other women who have fallen in love with the yellow and grey color combo.
• I am too old to blame my parents for not instilling an appreciation for such and such or the virtue such and such in me.  I should be instilling appreciations and virtues in myself by now.
• Craft stores and produce sections fill a void of color-deprivation in my heart. 
• I'm not sure Michael would go crazy for embroidery hoop art above our bed.  But it would look pretty.  And the design I have for a cast iron sculpture is likely not going to ever become reality.
• My siblings tell my son much more than they realize. "Auntie A says to respect Mama."  "Uncle M says obey your parents."  "Auntie H likes it when you have a good attitude."  "Auntie H says treat books carefully."  It's helpful to know that while my siblings might not actually ever vocalize the thoughts, that they would most likely agree with the sentiment, were they presented the option.  Million respects (adores) them enough that for right now it's enough to know that his favorite uncle obeyed his mama when he was a little boy.  
• Being an aunt to girls is much harder than being an aunt to boys.  Because I have to fight with the desire to just buy pretty clothes.  I had some really good aunts that gave me good gifts that inspired and empowered me---gifts that told me I was smart and capable and that I could create beautiful things and read beautiful books, with the proper tools and fuel for my imagination.  If I had some nephews, I could just get them manly books about seafaring adventures and a plastic cutlass and tell them to protect the backyard from pirates.  I want my nieces to know that they are so much more than pretty objects, but little girl clothes are so cute.  Sigh.  This is where it helps to have a husband who says "She really wants to be viewed as an object, doesn't she?" after we encounter exterior-focused women.  Michael gives me good reminders.