on cloth diapering

Recently, I've had a few people ask me questions about cloth diapering. A few even said that I'm the only person they know who cloth diapers. I can't believe that! And if that's the case, then I need to better my campaign to convert everyone to them! This started out as an email to a friend but since a few have asked, I thought I would post it.  

 I'm sure my neighbors love my cloth diaper laundry. The sun is great for bleaching out smells and stains. With gInserts they recommend you do not use a clothes line and instead lay them flat to dry-- hence spreading them from one end of the deck to the other!

We use a couple of different brands. My favorite is a Blueberry pocket diaper. It is one size with an adjustable rise on it which means they wear them from birth through potty training. I feel like they are the best bang for your buck. They are pretty expensive ($25ish per diaper). But when you consider how long you're using it, it's a good investment I think. They look exactly like a disposable with a Velcro closure and the same design. They come in the cutest patterns too!

Blueberry one-size pocket diaper in white. Bet you thought it was a disposable!

We also gDiapers with their cloth inserts. I use those same inserts with a Thirsties cover. The gDiapers are sized  so you have to buy more as they outgrow them. We bought ours secondhand from a friend so I got a good price-- I might not have bought them new. We have had some problems with leaks. Dane is a very heavy wetter so I double the inserts to keep him dry longer. Thirsties are also adjustable so you get a lot of use out of them. They come in two sizes but we bought the larger and just adjusted the waist and rise way down while Dane was small.

modeling his gDiaper

fluffy butts are cuter!

I would recommend cloth wipes too. Disposable wipes shred in the wash and are not fun to clean up! Since you're already washing diapers, wipes are easy because you can just toss them in the wet bag too. I bought a bunch of those thin baby washcloths and store them in an old wipes container. I mix water, baby shampoo and some olive oil together and pour it over them. You can read more about making wipes in this post.

I don't use a diaper sprayer because Danes poop usually just falls right into the toilet-- but there have been a few times when I wishes we had one because I will not swish a diaper around in the toilet. Gross. 

I also don't buy special cloth diaper detergent, I just use All Free &Clear. When the diapers start to stink-- when you open the washer and they still smell or if he smells like poop and hasn't pooped-- it's time to strip them. I put a couple squirts of blue Dawn in and wash them on hottest setting and rinse until the suds are gone. Sometimes I add bleach if they are really bad. gDiapers doesn't recommend bleach but I have used it a few times when even Dawn didn't do the work. I strip diapers probably every six weeks.

I don't think cloth diapering is extra work. I throw the diapers in the washer, then the dryer and then dump them in a laundry basket and usually use them right out of there! I started out folding them all but I got lazy. And, when you're low on diapers you don't have to run to Walmart, you just throw in a load-- that's my favorite part!  

The number of diapers you'll need depends on how often you want to do laundry. We have approximately 15 diapers and I do laundry about every other day. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I don't like to let the wetbag sit for too long because then it stinks up Dane's room. We bought the DiaperChamp diaper pail because I read that it worked for cloth diapering. Rather than the special bags like the Genie system, it just uses a regular garbage bag. My wetbag it too thick so the lid won't shut right. We just hang the bag on a hook at the end of the dresser/changing table. We use gDisposable inserts (biodegradable and flushable--not to mention chemical-free!) at night sometimes so we keep the diaper pail lined with a garbage bag for those.

I love cloth diapering because I know we are saving so much money every month. After our initial investment of about $300, we haven't had to spend anymore except for the roughly $3/month our water bill has increased. And you can't buy a month's worth of diapers for $3! It's been great seeing our families get on board with it and even hearing my mother-in-law compliment our decision to do it. 

As long as this post is, I STILL haven't covered everything! I'm happy to answer questions. I'm by no means a professional but I have read every CD blog and website out there and have had to learn by trial and error how to wash using an HE washer, how to diaper a heavy-wetter for nighttime and how to CD while traveling. Give it a try! You won't regret it!

in a Thirsties cover. couldn't you just eat him up? 

in the country

Even though we are less than a mile from the city limits, our quaint little neighborhood sometimes feels miles away from town. We love seeing bunnies hop through yards, kids play in the street and talking walks down to the creek. On our morning walks we stop to say hello the horse in the pasture in front of us and sometimes listen to the cows munching grass in the pasture directly behind us.

the view from our back door

It's been so hot here lately, even the local cattle need to cool off. Apparently, our neighbor's kiddie pool looked awfully refreshing when today's temps soared past 100degrees. 

noticing they had company

refreshed and relaxed, the cows mooooved along. (ha!)

Uncle Chase

Dane's uncle Chase, my baby brother, came and spent some time with us last week. It doesn't seem like all that long ago that he was the toddler I was chasing around... so I thought it was fitting payback to sit back and watch him run around after my toddler for a couple days. ;)

Did I mention we were keeping mom and dad's dogs-- which means there were FOUR dogs in my house! So, please excuse all of the puppy prints on the floor in the above photos. It was too hard to keep up with them!

Chase will be 16 next month. How on earth did that happen?! He found his first car while he was here. It was love at first sight. :)

so excited!

giving his best Anthony Davis "Brow Down". ;)

We love you, Chaser Racer and can't wait to celebrate your birthday next month!

edible

It's really hard to resist just gobbling him up.

good

What do you say when you don't know where to start? This has been the most insane ten days. An emotional roller coaster if ever there was one. 

This house thing, man. Is the Lord ever encouraging us to lean on Him, to be obedient and to listen. It's been exciting, it's gotten ugly and it's been a pain in the butt, BUT He keeps nudging us along and giving us just enough lamplight so we don't trip and fall flat on our faces. 

The ram in the bushes I mentioned a few days ago? Well, it's really making a lot of noise now! God has again provided for us in a way that just doesn't make sense. He continues to show us that He's carrying us. He is so good. 

In my quiet time this morning I studied from Beth Moore's Esther. She writes this on Week 8, Day 4: "If we could only see what is happening around us in the unseen realm, our eyes would nearly pop out of socket." I LOVE that because it's how I feel. We are in the period of waiting on the Lord to see how He is going to work. It feels stressful and tense sometimes down here. We don't how things could possibly fit together and work out and THEN they DO! If we could only see how He's orchestrating things together up there. Angels running around like heavenly party planners setting everything just so. I hope there's one control-freak angel up there bossing the others around. :) I wonder what kind of pride Christ feels as He draws back the curtain and reveals to us an event or instance that is too perfectly timed, too detailed, to be a coincidence. I pray His heart is full of joy as we respond with praise and adoration-- and maybe even astonishment-- becau He's just.so.good. 

 

for sale

The calendar says it's been almost six months since I wrote about the heartache I was having over listing our home. I can't believe that much time has past. 

I wrote about how much I love the memories we've made in this home and about how we've worked to make into a comfortable place to raise our family. I agonized over the perfect shade of grey for Dane's room. I painted the front door bright red against my husband's advice. But even he liked it once we were finished. I've broken nails and ruined manicures landscaping the yard-- planting bushes, placing rocks, and keeping it free of weeds (for the most part-- I hate picking weeds!). We could feel God calling us to lay our home before Him. That if we wanted to follow Him we needed to live obediently and in order to do that we HAD to listen when He spoke. 

He put the story of Abraham and Isaac in front me time and time again. I clung to it. I clung to the fact that He had tested Abraham's faith, yes, but He had also given Abraham a ram in the bushes and that He would provide the very same thing for us too. So we listed... and we've waited. 

The Lord has a very funny way of making things work in my life. Having the blessing of staying home with Dane came after a very humbling experience. I prayed, He moved. But in the middle of that He wanted to be sure I learned something too. Six months into this house thing, I think we're back in school and learning something else. 

When this house went on the market I didn't want to leave. I cried big, giant tears as I mopped the hardwood floors by hand. I ached in my heart as I dusted the little toys on Dane's shelf. I moped through the yard picking weeds and setting up the furniture on the deck so it would be picture-perfect when the realtor arrived. I knew God was calling us to be faithful, but I didn't want to leave my home. 

And a funny thing happened on our journey to selling our first home. I wanted to get rid of it. I was eager to leave it behind. I realized that selling my home didn't mean I had to sell the memories we'd made it in. THOSE come with us... and my drapes and washer/dryer would too. It was exciting to think about the opportunities waiting for us. A new place to call home. 

That's when I heard it... A quiet little noise that sounded vaguely like a ram caught in the bushes.  

So as God continues to provide for us in HUGE ways, I am beginning to wonder if He tested us to prove us faithful. And if so, what a blessing that is-- that the Lord has faith enough in me that He would stretch me further than I thought I could stretch so that when blessings come my way I am all the more appreciative for them.  Man, He is good, isn't He? 

superhero

Dane, Did you know we live with a superhero? 

He works hard six days a week, but uses his super powers to make enough energy to play with you in the floor, take walks around the neighborhood and follow you while you explore the world on your wobbly legs. 

He knows every sports stat that has ever been recorded and keeps all of them stored in his brain for quick recall. You definitely want him on your team for Sports Scene-It and you'll have the best math tutor when you need one. 

He can even read minds! He knows what I'm going to say and finishes my sentences and he also knows me so well he can sense when I'm about to get into trouble. Like the other day when I almost cut my finger on the food processor again.

He drives us everywhere safely and he manages our budget like a Fortune 500 CFO. 

He takes us to church, prays for us and leads our family to make decisions that bring God the most glory. 

Yep, not only is our daddy the greatest daddy in the history of the universe, I'm pretty sure he's a superhero too!

Happy First Father's Day, Dada! We love You! 
Love,
Mommy and Dane

splish splash

all these toys and the hose is our favorite thing to play with! ;)

water up the nose!

i could eat him up. i love this kid.

The Good Shepherd

My Aunt Lesli was visiting the day I was baptized. She took me to the local Christian bookstore and bought me a WWJD? bracelet and we spent lots of time talking about what repentance meant and what it was going to look like in my life. She made me flashcards with Bible facts and scripture on them and we would read them over and over. Once, on a trip to visit her she told me the story of Esther in a way that sounded so cool, I was SURE it wasn't in the Bible. After all, nothing that cool came from the old testament. :) She became my spiritual mentor, maybe without even knowing it.

In the past few years she has battled breast cancer with a grace and peace that only someone who is intimately acquainted with our Savior can. While spending time at her home in April, I noticed her love of sheep. She explained how she loves illustration of Christ as our shepherd and explained the uncanny similarities between humans and sheep. 

Other than Jesus totally looking like a white guy (which he was not, but that's another post), I love the above illustration of the Shepherd. I love that He's carrying a black sheep, because I definitely feel like a black sheep most of the time. I also love that it appears to be storming, dark clouds surround them and it might even be nighttime. As the most scared of all the sheep, that comforts me. When the thunder is loud and I am afraid, He comforts me. Better yet, when I wander from the flock rather than just calling for me to come back, He goes looking for me and carries me back to the fold. 

no fear

If you do not already get the Proverbs 31 daily email devotion, I would encourage you sign up today. I love how God times each message to me. You know fear is kind of an issue for me. Last week these verses were delivered straight to my inbox. Thank you, Lord, for getting to me. 

The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1-2

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand. Isaiah 41:10

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6

For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind.1 Timothy 1:7

So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:6

I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34:4

This was the same week that the preacher preached a sermon straight to me. You know the kind-- where you feel like you are the ONLY one in the sanctuary. I had tears streaming down my face the whole time. He recited my mantra-- 2Tim 1:7-- and said that Paul called it out in that verse. It is a SPIRIT of fear that we battle. And if you have been sanctified and set apart as God's child, then that spirit is an intruder. Man, that's good! I needed the reminder that I do not have to be afraid and God has already crushed satan's power.