The Great Cloth Diaper Change

On Easter weekend, we participated in a Guinness Book of World Records event - The Great Cloth Diaper Change.  The last count I saw was was that over 6000 babies participated from around the world to change the most cloth diapers at the same time.  In order for it to count, there had to be witnesses, and at least 25 babies in the changing place.  DFW had two events - one in the north, and one in the south.  We attend the northern event in Lewisville.

This is the diaper he had on before...

Lots of cloth diapering, babywearing and nursing going on here!

Wave to sister!

 

My beautiful friend Heather, and her Livvy.  Our big girls played together while the GCDC was going on.  It made my heart happy to see the three of them together!

And another sweet momma, Ashley with Zachary

Here is one of my friends from homeschool co-op, Jennifer

...and after.  I made sure to bring my favourite diapers.  :)

I love that I know so many wonderful, beautiful mommas!  <3<3<3

*Disclaimer* The following picture has nothing to do with the GCDC.

These boys melt my heart!

Making laundry detergent

Earlier this year, I blogged about making things.  One of the things I like to make is laundry detergent.  It's great!!!  This saves us lots of money, and has fewer additives than store bought detergent.  The recipe involves three ingredients and water.  Borax can be found pretty much anywhere in the laundry aisle.  Washing soda can be a bit more difficult to come by.  I found mine in the laundry aisle at Market Street.  You can really use any old bar of soap, but I like Dr. Bronner's hemp castile soap for a couple of reasons.  First, it's made from natural, fair trade ingredients, second, because it has essential oils in it that smell yummy.  :)

To begin with, put 4 cups of water in a pot to boil.  While water is coming to a boil, grate your bar of soap.  This is the most labour intensive step of making the detergent, and takes a little under ten minutes.  I really thought grating soap would be much more difficult, but it's not at all.

Once the water is boiling, add the grated soap a bit at a time, and stir until it's dissolved.

You'll end up with soapy soup!

Add 3 gallons of warm water to a large bucket with a lid, 2 cups washing soda, 2 cups borax, and your soap soup.  Stir well, put the lid on your bucket and let it sit for 24 hours.

Here is the last little bit of detergent I poured out of my bucket before I made the new detergent.  As you can see, it sort of congeals and has some clumps in it.

I keep a long spoon on top of my bucket to stir the detergent with each use because it will separate, as well as a 1/4 cup to measure it.  This recipe lasted us for six whole months!  It's SO much less expensive than the 7th Generation laundry detergent that we were buying, and no one's skin has had a reaction to it, which is always questionable around here when we switch detergents or soaps.  :)  This whole process takes me a grand total of about thirty minutes.  Twice a year?  To save a TON on laundry detergent?  I'll take it!  :)

More fluff!

I spent some time this afternoon with a sweet friend here in Anna who makes and sells cloth diapers.  She also homeschools her kiddos, so we had plenty to talk about.  :)  ANYWAY...  It was great to be able to actually physically pick up all the different kinds of diapers she sells, and I brought home a couple of snappis, and some very pretty dyed prefolds.  I think I may have to pick out an even dozen in different colours.  These are gonna be so cute on my little Zachariah's bum!  :)

**UPDATED**  I didn't have the snappis out of the package for long before Celestia and Tatiana asked how they work, so we had a brief cloth diaper training session with a teddy bear.  :)

Cloth diaper stash... continued!

When I ordered our first round of cloth diapers, the fabulous Megan at Pampered Buns sent a coupon for some free cloth wipes along with the order.  Of course, I went back to her for our second round of cloth dipes!  :)  "One size" diapers almost never fit newborn babies, so you need something to use for at least the first month or so to get the baby up to a size where they'll fit.  Our plan is to use prefolds, and covers.  Now, before you start wrinkling your nose, and thinking of white plastic pants, take a look at these!

Aren't they adorable???  These are Thirsties Duo diaper covers in a size one.  They fit from 6 to roughly 18 pounds, so we'll get much more use out of them than we would out of a small fitted cover.  They can be used over fitted diapers, or over prefolds.  Our newborn stash is now just about complete.  I will be purchasing some infant prefolds to go in them, which we will be able to use for extra absorbency even when they're too small to wrap around the baby by simply tri-folding them and putting them in a shell!

I think these wipes are absolutely adorable, don't you?  I'll be making many more soon, but since I had the coupon, I figured that would be 3 wipes that I wouldn't have to sew myself!  :)

Baby's first fluff!

Are these the cutest cloth diapers, or what?!  Now, I know what most of you probably envision when you hear the phrase "cloth diapers".  You're thinking of Gerber prefolds and ugly white plastic pants that are impossible to get on a squirmy baby.  Let me assure you that unless you're a glutton for punishment, today's cloth is nothing like the cloth your grandmother used.  This particular diapering system is GroBaby brand.  They're a one size, hybrid cloth diaper.  What does that mean?  The waterproof shell is only changed if you have an extra messy diaper.  What you change every time, are the inserts.  I chose these because they dry faster than an all-in-one diaper, and also because you can fold a standard prefold (but not a Gerber!  They're filled with polyester and don't absorb well.) in thirds and use as an insert in addition to buying the GroBaby inserts.  The snaps are what makes them one size.  Snap them all the way up for a little baby.

Let them out a row for a bigger infant.

And let them out all the way for a toddler.

 Now, realistically, "one size" diapers aren't really.  Depending on how long it takes to potty train, we may need to purchase larger toddler diapers, and newborns still need prefolds and covers, but the covers are much like these diapers in that they come multi-sized and have velcro closures just like disposables.  You can choose to wrap your prefold diaper around the baby and use a snappi to fasten it, you can fold the prefold in thirds and put in in the cover just like in these diapers, or you can even wrap it around the baby and leave it unfastened, letting the cover do the work!
The best part?  Well, there's several really.  First, you can know you're doing something good for the planet.  The amount of disposable diapers that get sent to a landfill each year is astounding, and they take over 500 years to decompose!  Whew!  I had never thought of it before, but once I did, the tree-hugger in me couldn't stand it!  I also really like to try to keep as many unnatural chemicals out of our house as possible.  All the stuff that's in those disposable diapers is pretty yucky.  Believe me, I had one bust open once (forgot a swim diaper at the lake.  What's a girl to do?) and it was NASTY!!!  If I had really thought hard about it, I would have realised that the chemicals were probably what caused poor Celestia to get such horrible diaper rashes.  Of course, realistically, I know that not everyone is a tree-hugger or a naturalist, but everyone loves to save money, right?  Disposable diapers cost (based on conservative estimates) around $60 a month.  Assuming your baby is potty trained by age two, that's almost $1500 in diapers alone!  Cloth may be more expensive up front (why do you think I'm starting to build my stash now?) but even considering a few extra loads of laundry a week, it will never add up to that much.
So that, my friends, is why I'm choosing to cloth diaper.  I know it's not for everyone.  You can take it or leave it.  I'll love you either way.  People are going to call me crazy, and I know that.  If I'm not used to that by now, there's a problem!  ;)  If, however, you are interested in trying cloth, GroBaby diapers are all on clearance right now for 25% off from pampered buns, and Megan is AWESOME to work with!!!  I'm definitely going to order as much of my stash as possible from her just because she's super sweet and absolutely bends over backwards to get you what you need!  :)

First baby purchase!

Well folks, I did it!  I've been really restraining myself from buying anything for the baby since I found out I was pregnant in January!  I found out that the diapers I really want to try are being rebranded in May, and were on clearance, so I bought some!  These are a one-size, an all-in-2 type diaper, which means you have a shell that you put inserts (or prefolds!) in and you only have to change the inserts unless baby has a super messy diaper.  All the snaps can be taken in or let out to fit the baby for an extended period of time, so you don't have to buy tons of sizes.  I think both of these are absolutely adorable, and will go on either a boy or a girl, so I'm excited to get them!!!  :)

Creation

I like to make things. Be it clothes, purses, or household cleaners, I love to put my creative side to work around the house! This morning, I was pondering what to fix the kids for lunch. As I stood, staring into my refrigerator, I decided it would be "leftover soup". Out came the black beans and rice, spaghetti sauce, and homemade veggie stock. Yes, I make my own veggie stock. More on that later. All this, I dumped in a pot, with a little extra seasoning, and heated up. It was served over tortilla chips, and monterey jack cheese. Even Tatiana, who doesn't like black beans, gobbled it up and asked me to make it again tomorrow. Success!

Some of this love for creating things stems from a desire to be a more natural household.  (Says the woman who uses baking soda and vinegar to clean everything!)  It struck me at some point, that bouillon is typically loaded with sodium, and just not natural.  I mean really, what is in that little cube?  I made some chicken stock over the summer in my crock pot, and it occurred to me that it was really easy.  Why not make veggie stock, too?  Now, every time I peel carrots, onions, celery, mince garlic, or basically any veggie prep, I toss all of the leftover stuff you would normally throw in the rubbish into a container and freeze it.  When I have a nice, full bowl of it, I throw it all into my crock pot, fill it with water, and season to taste with sea salt.  Leave it on low heat overnight and, voila!  Strain out all the veggies and you have yummy, homemade veggie stock without the cube!  How easy is that?

Some of the desire to create simply comes from a love of creative solutions.  The above dresser lived in our bedroom before we bought our house.  When we did, more of my old furniture came home from my parents' house, and we no longer needed this piece.  Originally, it was a sort of wannabe woodgrain brown.  It had chunky wooden handles, and just wasn't really my style.  For years, we had talked about buying a piece of furniture for our bathroom to help alleviate the fact that we had no counter space.  One day it struck me that we had this piece of furniture in the garage which wasn't being used and was the perfect size!  I picked colours from a picture that hung in the bathroom already, and we painted it, and replaced the handles.  Jonathan put hooks on the inside of the doors, giving me a perfect place for all my necklaces, and little trays inside for the rest of my jewelery.Yay for repurposing furniture!  :)

Yet another reason for creation is simply for creativity's sake.  Tatiana wanted her bedroom decorated like a "meadow with horses".  I saw this fabric, and just had to make her a big picture board out of it.  Sometimes, it's fun to make things just to make them.  I also knew that I wanted her to have actual flowers on her wall.  Yep, just to be creative.

I'm curious how many other people have this love for creating things.  Do you have anything you like to make?  Do you have one particular thing that you're really good at, or like me, do you have this innate need to make everything?