Small Steps on Our Journey - review & giveaway!

  

Rachel, a friend from church, has a blog called Small Steps on Our Journey.  It is dedicated to recording their journey to improving their health and reducing their impact on the environment. 

This week, Rachel reviewed our body & hair butter, and she combined the review with a giveaway!  The drawing will be on Friday night, April 8.  You can check it out here. :)

Oh, so easy.

Want to support our adoption fund while shopping for something fun for yourself?  Check out these links! 

We earn a 15% commission through Chunky Bling.  Their necklaces, bracelets, rings, and watches are beautiful! 



At Kelly's Closet we earn 5% on all orders through our button.  Kelly's Closet does not just sell cloth diapering supplies.  They also sell baby carriers, bedding, swimming gear, laundry detergent, skin care products, nursing supplies, and Mama care items. 



Truly Pure & Natural also sends 15% our way.  I recently blogged about them here and here.  Awesome company.

Our body & hair butter is now sold through Curly Is Cuter.  Check out Rachel's beads and beaders, snaps & barrettes, hair & skin care products, etc.  She has a huge assortment for sale, and you can do all that shopping from the comfort of your own home. Watch out -- don't get addicted to the hair bling! :)

If you want to grab our button and spread the word about our fundraisers, the html code is on our blog home page.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thank you, thank you for supporting our adoption fund!  It is humbling to see how many of you are supporting our efforts to bring home our baby.  Family, friends, acquiantances, and people we have never even met.  It is such confirmation of God's call for us to be available for one more precious child.  Even now, He is paving the way for him/her to be joined to us. 

Work is picking up for Andy, and if all goes well he will be able to fully support our family again in the next few months.  As soon as we are off partial unemployment, we will be ready to be presented to expectant Mamas through our local Christian agency.  We are so excited! 
(If you need a licensed architect for your home addition or other project, please let us know. :)

Bountiful Baskets

We've been enjoying fresh fruits and vegetables, purchased through the Bountiful Baskets co-op.  Can you believe all of this came in one basket?  And is that not the biggest mango you have ever seen???  The produce is usually locally grown or sustainably farmed, and we choose the organic basket for health and environmental reasons.

Today's basket was such a blessing.  Although we're definitely sold on the value and quality of the produce, we've passed on ordering the last few weeks.  We just couldn't squeeze one more thing out of the budget.  And then I received an email from Cate.  Cate had a giveaway on her blog recently, and she asked her readers to leave comments sharing what they are doing to stretch their budgets in these tough times.  I mentioned how much we are saving through cloth diapering, and when she did the drawing, I won! 

I needed this kind of encouragement this week.  It's like a whisper from God, a reminder that He is caring for us, even in this tough season.  We continue to pray for a job for Andy (anyone out there in bloggerland need a talented and dedicated architect? :), and in the meantime, God is showing Himself faithful.  Day by day....little by little. 

How have you been blessed lately?  :)

all natural gum

My kids love gum.  And I'd love to give it to them as a treat from time to time.  But it drives me crazy to see the list of ingredients on those gum packs at the grocery store!  So today I did a search for 'gum without artificial sweeteners'.  The first to catch my eye was Glee Gum.  Check it out at www.gleegum.com. 

When I mentioned it to the kids, they were so excited that I decided to pack up all four kiddos in the car and we trekked over to Sprouts to buy a few packs.  Yep, I was feeling pretty energetic today!  Our Sprouts had cinnamon, tangerine, and bubble gum flavor.  All were a hit with the kiddos, including Keandre, who promptly swallowed his but did better with subsequent tries.  I wasn't overly impressed, as it loses its flavor fairly quickly, but I won't be the one chewing it anyway.  As long as the kids give it a thumbs up -- which they did -- that's all we need! :) 

What do I love about this gum?  Great size, no artificial colors/flavors/sweeteners, and it's 'green' -- made from sustainably harvested rainforest chicle.  To top it all off, it will look great in a gumball machine we have laying around that is currently full of marbles.  (Yeah, I'll admit that was not the best idea we've had.  Choking hazard, anyone?)

Here is a coupon for Buy One Get One Free boxes of Glee Gum.  To purchase it locally, go to Glee Gum's home page and search for a local store using your zip code.  We had several options within a mile from our home.  

For those of you with children dealing with sensory or attachment issues, check out Cate's blog post for an idea on using gum to help your child and encourage healthy bonding.  We will be using this idea in our family on rough days, along with healthy doses of loving affection and prayer, to help close the gap between us and our sweeties' hearts.  (Destany's OT said chewing gum will help her with her sensory issues, so that is an added plus!)

Enjoy!

newborn cloth diapering

Yep, we're loving it. I have to resist buying more! They are just so cute on her....and so practical....and we're not throwing away 2 diapers per feeding. What's not to love about that? :)

Cloth Diapering options

Part of my former overwhelm at the Cloth Diapering world was all the different types of diapers available.  I didn't know how to approach all the options, and was afraid of choosing the wrong diapers for our family.  I didn't even understand what all the options were!  Here, I'll break it down a little....

Fitteds -- cloth diapers that require a separate cover; can also be worn without the cover if your little one has a diaper rash, or just to save a step when you're at home and changing baby often.

One-Size diapers -- diapers made to accomodate a baby through a toddler, usually 10 - 30+ lbs.; these come as fitteds or AIOs/AI2s (see below).

Prefolds -- the flat diapers most people picture in their minds when someone says they are using cloth diapers; these require a separate cover, but you no longer need to use pins (check out Snappis!).

Pocket diapers - a diaper and cover in one; stuff the cover's inner pocket with absorbant liners.

All-in-Ones - complete diaper and cover in one; one of the most convenient ways to CD.

All-in-Twos - complete diaper and cover with an inner absorbant liner that snaps in or is sewn in, which lets it separate in the dryer or when hung up.  AI2s usually dry more quickly than AIOs.

Hybrid - a reusable outer cover that can be used with cloth inners, or disposable inners that create less waste than regular disposables and are sometimes compostable.

For examples of each of these options, check out Kelly's Closet.   And to read lots of great info and stories about cloth diapering, check out The Cloth Diaper Whisperer. 

Happy cloth diapering!

(pictured above: Blueberry Pocket diaper with velcro/aplix closure)

Newborn Cloth Diapers

Are these not the cutest little diapers?!  My latest hobby has been purchasing a variety of newborn cloth diapers from Diaperswappers.  We didn't start CD-ing our other kiddos until they were a few months old and the one-size diapers would fit them better.  This time around we'd like to start from day one. 

These diapers are mostly All-in-One (AIO) diapers.  Until diapering my niece, Khiana, I had no experience with AIOs.  Now, I may be sold!  They are so easy and convenient, and the colors and patterns are really cute.  They are not as cheap as the prefolds and covers, but they still pay for themselves pretty quickly.  And like all cloth diapers, they are environmental and will keep chemicals off our baby's bum, so it's worth it to us to have diapers we will enjoy using.

The other fun side of buying your diapers through Diaperswappers.com is the 'fluffy mail'.  For a while there, we were receiving packages every day or two, and when the kids would see the mail truck coming down the street, they would scream out, "Fluffy mail, Mom!  Can I open the fluffy mail this time?"  I think our various mail persons are rather confused by the excitement over the packages.  One of these days we'll have to fill them in. ;) 

Mother-Ease Cloth Diapers

Cloth diapers have changed a lot over the years.  Prefolds with safety pins and a plastic diaper cover are definitely not the standard option anymore!

I purchased my first stash of cloth diapers when I was expecting Lucas.  I was a bit overwhelmed by all the options, especially because I didn't know anyone using cloth diapers so I couldn't hear the pros and cons of the different options first-hand.  After reading a few reviews I settled on Mother-Ease (ME) One-Size cloth diapers with the Air Flow covers.  Later, I threw in a few of their small Sandy's diapers since the one-size dipes are a bit big for the first few months.  ME diapers were touted as virtually leak-proof, reasonably priced, and they hold up well for using with multiple children in a row.  They may not be the cutest or most stylish diapers on the market, but they served us very well for several years!  In fact, since Lucas and Destany were just 21 months apart, they were both in diapers at the same time for quite a while.  I loved that I could literally grab any diaper in the changing table and put it on either child.  Only the covers were different sizes, but I marked them well and they were easy to grab also. 

Keandre is using our old ME diapers for naptime and overnight now, and I have to admit that although they're getting a little worn out, I feel a bit sentimental about these dipes. My sister and both sisters-in-law here in AZ are cloth converts now also, so I'm looking into fun new options for this next baby, but I'm having a hard time thinking about getting rid of our tried-and-true ME diapers, at least for Keandre. Poofy bums are in, right?

If you're interested, here is one Mama's story about converting to cloth diapers.  There are lots of other fun stories on that site, too, so if you're a CD mama, or are interested in becoming one, check it out!