7 Quick Takes Friday - Volume 6

I'm excited to announce that I've been chosen to be apart of the 2011-2012 TOS Homeschool Crew!  Last year, as my first year on the Crew, I'll admit I felt a little frazzled by figuring out how to balance our school year while including the curricula we reviewed, how to be properly prepared for writing up reviews, even how to blog about regular life amidst all of the reviews, and so on.  This year, I'm feeling like I have a much better idea of what to expect, AND what's expected of me.  I'm really looking forward to sharing some more awesome homeschool products with y'all!

This week began my first week of exercising since Rachel's birth.  Since I didn't really exercise at all during my pregnancy with her (bad! very bad!), it's really my first week of exercise in... a YEAR!!  That's a lonnnnggg time for a body to be not-so-active!  I've upped my wake-up time to 5:30 (ish) so I have time to work out, shower, and still have some quiet time before real life starts.  Rachel has been helping me in that regard as all week she's woken up around 5 to nurse (thank you for that, Rachel).  I'm alternating strength training with walking/running.  I'm not following the Couch to 5K program, but a similar one that incorporates walking and running until I'm able to run 3-4 miles consecutively.  I'm looking forward to being in "not tired and flabby" shape soon!

It's growing season at our house!  We're growing lots and lots of tomatoes, we've got some radishes, a watermelon vine, and even a cantaloupe!  In just two weeks, our plants have gone from this:

  

To this:

And there are flowers blooming everywhere!  And where there's flowers... there will be fruit!  I'm so excited!

We are back to using cloth diapers full-time.  With Rachel, in the beginning, I kind of waffled about using cloth.  I had lost the love.  So I used disposables for a while, and then after dealing with leak, after leak, after leak... I ran back to my beloved and dependable cloth!  I still have some disposables on hand for "just in case", but I'm even using cloth at nighttime.  In disposables, she was waking up several times a night, soaked from diaper leaks.  In cloth, she stays dry, her clothes stay dry, and she sleeps a lot longer.  I'm using prefolds in Thirsties covers during the day, and FuzziBunz for outings and nighttimes, because of the stay-dry fleece.  Another bonus, of course, is the cuteness factors of cloth! They're like their own little fashion accessories!  ;-) 

Two of my favorite retailers for all things cloth diapering are Abby's Lane and Little Lions.  Abby's Lane has awesome customer service and free shipping on all orders, and Little Lions has awesome sale prices on all of their things (you have "add to cart" to see the sales prices, but they can't be beat!), and happens to be owned by a friend of mine (hi, Gina! *waving*)... so check them out!

I want to take a second to get real .  I struggle sometimes with my "blog identity".  I want to be honest and forthcoming, not painting a false picture of some imaginary perfect family who is always smiling and accomplishing all their goals and never struggling with things. However, I don't tend to post too much about struggles or problems because, either, 1. they're too personal, or 2. I want my blog to be an encouragement to others, not a downer.  However, I have realized more and more recently that I find the most encouragement from those who are "real" and do share their struggles and problems.  So I've been thinking a lot about the voice I use on my blog, the portrait I paint, as well as the light in which I display my family. 

Let me just let my hair down for a moment.  We are real.  We struggle!  I have awarded myself the "most horrible mom of the entire existence since Creation" award many a night once I've wrangled all of the hooligans to bed.  I lose my temper.  I am not a very good housekeeper. Michael and I argue at times. Sometimes we're just disconnected and disjointed.  The kids bicker, disobey, and make lots of noise and lots of messes.

I fail ALL.the.time. This journey of marriage and mothering is sometimes the hardest challenge I've ever faced.  I am grateful beyond words that God's grace is sufficient - not only for me, but for my husband and children, too, as we stumble through this thing called life together.  He is my source of strength - I am weak and helpless in my own flesh.  I am a regular woman and mom, with regular kids and a husband, serving a really, really awesome God.

So, just in case it ever comes across as though we have it all together, or that I'm pretending all is perfect, please know that it is not my intent!  We have our ups and downs, just as anybody does.

I know I've mentioned before that we like to run together as a family, but I realized that there's a more prominent activity that the majority of our family participates in together that I've never mentioned - Disc Golf!  Michael has been an avid disc golf player for years, and each boy has learned how to throw a disc from about the time they start walking.  Isaac and Ezra just completed their first Disc Golf league, with Ezra placing first and Isaac second.  They're really excited about their award plaques!

  

Disc Golf an excellent family sport because anyone of any age and fitness ability can play - you just have to be able to walk the course and throw the discs.  And it's inexpensive!  When the kids are small, Michael pushes them in our jogging stroller and they just toss around small marker discs or frisbees, but as soon as they're big enough to walk the distance (just like regular golf, there are 18 holes), they're able to join in the fun!  We even have a practice basket in our yard.  I'm the only one who doesn't actually play, but on occasion I will go and walk the course with everyone.  Most of the time while they're out playing, I stay home to get some much needed quiet time and chores done.

For the first time in 6 children, we have a painted and decorated nursery!  I know, it's probably terrible that we never went to such lengths for the boys and now that we have a girl, suddenly it matters!  Hopefully it won't scar the boys for life.  It's nothing too fancy, but I thought I'd share some pictures anyway:

Have a great weekend!

More on Cloth Diapering

I had a few questions asked after my last post mentioning cloth diapers, so I thought I'd dive into the topic a bit more for anyone interested!

Let me first preface this with the disclaimer that I am not an "expert" - I'm just going to share what I've found works best for me, and what hasn't worked. There's such a huge variety of cloth diapers for the very reason that every mama and baby are different, and my experiences may be vastly different than someone else's! But I have been using cloth for the main part of 4 years on 3 different children, so those are my "credentials". :-)

First, Manda left a comment with a few questions:

Do you find that covers contain blowouts?
Absolutely! Especially those with gussets at the legs. In the past 4 years, I can count on two hands the number of blow-outs in cloth I've had to deal with, where, with disposable diapers, I experience leaks or blow-outs daily!

How many do you have, and what kinds??
I have probably 8-10 covers in each size. I don't use that many in a day, but I like having decent back-up. I especially like Proraps (inexpensive, super durable, and extremely dependable), Thirsties (gussets on the legs, lots of fun, vibrant colors, and a great fit), and Bumkins (trim, lots of cute prints, but a bit pricey).

What do you do when infant prefolds are too small and regular are too long?
Hmmm... I am trying to remember. I honestly don't know if I've run into that problem. I've been able to use trifolded infant-sized prefolds up until toddler age, but I also didn't use them exclusively once the boys got to that size... I've always used a variety of things at that age! Regular prefolds do tend to be a bit bulky. So, I don't know that I'm of much help on that one, my apologies!

A friend in "real life" was asking me about the popular "one-size" diapers. I have tried them, and in fact, for my sister-in-law's baby shower, our family chipped in and got her a good rotation of them. In both my personal experience, and my sister-in-law's... they aren't worth the price. On newborns, they are very bulky, and after a good 6 months or so of regular use and washing, we encountered elastic failure as well as lots of leaking. My sister-in-law's began leaking so badly that they were completely unusable, before she even used them for an entire year. So much for infant-to-toddler usage! So I don't recommend investing in them, especially since they are pricey but don't live up to expectations. However, they are extremely popular, so others must have had better luck with them than we did. I will say that once past infant stage, I really loved the fit- very trim and easy to use, and I really, really wanted them to be the "perfect" diaper for us. I was disappointed when they proved to be unreliable.

I also wanted to explain more about how I use my cloth diapers. For the infant stage, I've been using preemie sized prefolds, rather than infant. However, preemie sized don't have as many absorbant layers as infant, so I've been doubling up. First, I lay the prefold into a cover, trifolded in the front, but flaring out in the back to help catch messes and keep the covers clean. Then I trifold another preemie prefold and lay it in the middle of the first one, so that there's a double layer of absorbancy. Here's a picture, since its tricky to explain (click to enlarge for better detail):


For wipes, I use baby washcloths. I fold them in half, lay them in an old plastic wipes container, and pour a little warm water in to get them moist. That way both the diapers and wipes can just be tossed into the diaper pail and washed!

Cloth diapering can sound intimidating at first, but I would assure anyone interested that it is very easy, economical, and, of course, "green" ;-) Feel free to ask any other questions you might have, I'm more than happy to help if I can!

Random Ramblings

In my middle of the night ponderings (probably more than a bit abstract) there were a few things on my mind I wanted to blog about, but none are really "worthy" of their own posts, so I thought I'd throw together a conglomeration of them here.

• First, my favorite soft soled shoe company is going out of business, and having a huge clearance sale. I'm seriously considering on stocking up before they're gone forever. I LOVE these shoes - great quality and the price is so much better than the "high end" (read: more expensive!) shoes, in which I find no difference. The smaller sizes are a soft suede sole, and the upper sizes have a thin rubber sole for traction and outdoor protection, but they are still super soft and flexible. Anyone who knows me in "real" life has seen Nathan's frog and turtle shoes - this is where they are from! So, check out Wiggees and use the code SAVE15 when checking out to save an additional 15% off their closeout price. This will only be until March 31! (and no, I don't get anything for sharing this, lol! I just wanted to pass along a great deal)

• Second, let me ramble about cloth diapering for a minute. I started using cloth diapers when Joel was a few months old, and have tried what seems like everything out there - I was really into getting the "latest and greatest" for a while. But now that its been 4 years, I've learned that simple really is "greatest", at least for me. While I love the convenience of All-in-Ones, they are a bit too pricey for me to have enough of them to use exclusively. Fitteds are fun because they can come in cute colors and prints, but over time I've decided they're a bit too bulky for my taste, especially when under a cover, which is necessary for outings. Pockets are also a bit pricey, even though the adjustable absorbency can be a plus, especially at nighttime. So where does that leave me? With good, old-fashioned, tried and true prefolds! And some fun, trim covers. I don't even pin or fasten the prefolds, I just fold them into thirds, lay them in the cover, and TaDa! instant, easy diaper. And so inexpensive, comparatively! The funny thing is, the mama who introduced me to cloth diapering used this method, and I was lured away from its ease and reliability by all the other tempting systems... only to find myself back after spending too much time and money trying everything else under the sun. For some good info on cloth diapering, check out The DiaperPin. And, if you're curious about cloth but don't want to invest alot of money just to decide it isn't right for you, check out Jillian's Drawer's 21-day cloth diaper trial for just $10! Its a pretty neat way to try the different "systems" and see what suits you best! A few other cloth diaper websites I enjoy are Abby's Lane (free shipping on all orders!) and a local-to-me one, Emi Beans!

• Next, I'm considering actually decorating the nursery! I've never decorated a nursery for any of the other boys, its always been something I considered a little bit frivolous, especially when we went through our season of really bad budgeting ;-) Little niceties such as decorating just weren't priority. But now we've become more frugal, and I've grown in confidence in my "decorating on a budget" skills, and I think I can pull it off with paint we already have, plus some chair rail, which Michael assures me we can find room in the budget for! There are two different color themes I'm trying to decide between, inspired by this bedding set and this bedding set...bedding set itself I'm not sure will be included, that is something still considered a bit "frivolous" and definitely not a necessity, no matter how cute. But I love the colors, so I think its a good starting point! Please feel free to share your opinion with me - blue and green, or green, cream and brown?
  

That's about it for my random thoughts. And just to make this post worth your while, here's some cute pictures :-)