My Sick-Day Project: Snap Conversions on Cloth Diapers

As you know, we cloth diaper. We are using the same diapers (with some additions) for L as we did with J, and some of them have aplix that is, at this point, beyond useless. Last week I picked up snaps and a snap press from Joann Fabrics (which now has a cloth diaper section, SQUEE!!). While I'm home sick from work, I might as well take care of those diapers! I'm using Fred's tutorial, found here. She is a clever one!

My Grocery Awesomeness Continues

I'm going to have to come up with a better name for this. Perhaps I will just stick with Grocery Guru. Anyway, this week's grocery shopping (everything, not just food):

King Soopers (Kroger):

• Bread - $1.99
• Colorado Proud Milk - $1.48
  
• Kroger Distilled Vinegar (not pictured, for laundry) - $2.99, on sale for $2.49
• Kuner's canned veggies - reg. $1.09, on sale 4/$3
• Fage greek yogurt (individual cup) - reg $1.99, on sale for $1.49, plus $1/1 coupon, final price $0.50!
• Oikos greek yogurt (individual cup) - $1.99, plus $1/1 coupon, final price $0.99
• Kroger CanJel (pectin) - $1.79
• Cheerios - $3.08, plus $0.55/1 coupon doubled to $1, final price $2.08
• MultiGrain Cheerios - $3.19, plus $0.75/1 coupon doubled to $1, final price $2.19
• Kellogg's Special K Blueberry - $3.49, plus $1/1 coupon, final price $2.49

Tax was $0.22, and I got $0.05 off (whooptie doo...) for bringing my own bag. Grand total at Kings? $19.27, with $7.25 in savings. Pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Albertsons:
I already mentioned this before, but whatever:

• Blueberries - reg $3.99 per pkg, on sale for 5 lbs for $5 (almost half what King's has theirs on special for...)

I got 5 1-lb containers, and with tax, spent all of $5.05, and saved almost $15 (though really, that's debatable, because had they been $3.99 each I would not have gotten them at all). These will be made into jelly/jam and syrup. Yum!

Sunflower:
Here's where I got kind of spendy, but that's mainly because we splurged this week so I could make lots of enchiladas:

• 3 green bell peppers - reg $0.69 ea, on sale for 2/$1, total $1.50
• 1 anaheim pepper - $0.48
  
• 1 package of 3 dozen corn tortillas - $2.19
• Nanita's Enchilada Sauce (local and YUMMY) - $3.99
• Dreyer's Ice Cream - reg $5.99, on sale for $3.99
• 0.9 lb Sunflower brand organic coffee (not pictured)- $6.29
• 1 large sweet onion - $0.77
• 5 Fuji apples - $0.99/lb, total $1.48
• 6 nectarines - $0.88/lb, total $1.47
• 4 pork Polish Sausages (surprise for C, not pictured) - on sale for $1.97/lb, total $2.17

In all at Sunflower, I spent $24.23, and saved $5.67 by shopping for sale items and bringing my own bag ($0.10 here per bag). Not so good for budget, and the ice cream wasn't necessary, but the enchiladas I made using the more expensive ingredients will be good for lunches for me all week, plus a meal in the freezer, plus were dinner for J and I tonight. They were a hit, too.

I also made a trip to Whole Foods because I heard a rumor I could get Santa Cruz Lemonade for $0.24 (on sale for $0.99, plus the $0.75/1 coupon). Well, they were on sale, but for $1.50. In all the lemonade ended up being $0.80. Not too shabby!

My final purchase tonight was Country Save laundry detergent. The only place that sells it in my area is Vitamin Cottage, but it is well worth the special trip, plus it's on the way to King Soopers. We don't buy anything else there because we can get better deals elsewhere and we don't buy supplements, but the detergent is about the same price as the cheap stuff at the grocery store (per load) and it cleans cloth diapers like wow. All Free and Clear is worse than just washing the damn things with water. Never use it on diapers. It sucks ass. Ok, enough of that rant. I love my Country Save, and I will never try to use anything else on diapers again. Never. NEVER. I am washing J's diapers now, actually, with the nice wonderful best detergent ever. Anyway, the detergent was $8.36 after tax.

My grand total? (Honestly, I'm kind of scared to add this all up...) $57.71. Yikes. Not awful, especially considering that last week we were under budget by $11. Also, if I drop the non-food items the total goes down to $46.86, which is really quite good! Sweet. We won't need to buy quite as much next week, but we will need to make a trip later this week to Costco for goat milk for J (since they have it for $6 or less per half gallon, versus close to $8 per half gallon at grocery stores).

My grocery trips this week also contributed to my Things to Do list, since I brought my own bags which is both "green" and helping reduce our dependence on plastic bags! Yay!

Whew. That was a long post!

Top Questions About Cloth Diapering Answered!

Jillian's Drawers sent out a fantastic newsletter recently featuring the top 10 questions about CDing. My favorite part was the cost analysis, which showed that you save anywhere from $1300 to over $4000 using cloth vs disposable diapers. The $4000 savings is using the same diapers on two children. The overall savings vary depending on which way you do cloth diapers. The cost factor was the main reason we chose to do cloth diapers, and with options like pocket diapers, it's really as easy as disposables!

Here's the link to the article, part 6 is about the cost factor:
http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/newtocloth

However, the velcro/aplix on our older BGs is wearing out, and the velcro I am using to replace it isn't exactly perfect. It works better than trying to use worn out aplix though. I only have 13 more to fix. Haha. I think as these wear out we'll buy any replacement BGs as the newest ones that come with snaps.

Baking Soda is a Wonderous Thing

I have discovered, in my quest to improve my housekeeping skills and to decrease spending as well as increase my environmental-friendliness, I have come across the many, many uses of baking soda. As an aside, you can buy a 4lb bag at Costco for something like $4.50. Compared to buying a small box at the grocery store for $3ish, that's a phenomenal deal!

Here are some of my favorite uses for baking soda:

Microdermabrasion:
For literally almost nothing, you can have a first-rate microdermabrasion experience using baking soda. I recently attempted a career in selling cosmetics for a Texas-based company (rhymes with Kary May) but failed miserably. However, in that foray into a strange world, I discovered microdermabrasion. I fell in love with how smooth my skin became, but at $30 a bottle for the exfoliant there was no way it was a truly affordable option for me. I happened to accidentally pick up a container of baking soda at the store that was in a shaker bottle rather than a box, and while reading the label noticed that it suggested using baking soda as a facial exfoliant. I was skeptical, but it works as well as the pricey stuff. Plus, you have the option of mixing it with whatever you want (no acid peels though, bad idea!) with no icky chemical additives. The container suggested using just water to make a soft paste, but I actually prefer using a dab of aloe vera gel. I am still working on perfecting this, and am going to explore adding it to a good facial cleanser gel, but since I am using a Dove facial cleansing bar at the moment so that idea really wouldn't work. Anyway, make up a paste, rub it gently into your skin, and wash it off. I do recommend using a light facial moisturizer afterward, appropriate to your skin type, as this can be somewhat drying. Mahvelous, dahling!

De-stinkifying Cloth Diapers (or laundry in general)
We use Bumgenius One Size cloth diapers, as I've said before. One downside to these particular diapers is that they cannot be bleached, so they can have a bit of residual smell even after several washings in a row. We use CountrySave detergent, which is a fantastic price and works great, in addition to being Earth-friendly. Turns out adding 1/8 to 1/4 cup of baking soda to the first diaper wash, in addition to the detergent, eliminates the poop smell! This is my wash cycle for diapers:
Hot soak cycle, with 1/2 scoop detergent added.
Hot wash cycle, 1/2 scoop detergent plus slightly less than 1/4 cup baking soda.
Cold wash cycle, 1/2 scoop detergent. -Smell the diapers, if they have any residual odor, add another wash.
Cold wash cycle, no detergent (this serves as a thorough rinse) but add 1/2 cup vinegar via the bleach dispenser.

Works great!

Cleanser!
Instead of using cleanser, try baking soda! It won't scratch your pots and pans, or your sink. Bonus effect in the sink is that it eliminates odors.

Fridge/Freezer Freshener
Put some baking soda in a small Gladware (or similar) container with holes poked in the lid. Place on a shelf in the fridge or freezer to cut down on odors!

That's all for now!

The 3 Rs

Recycle

We don't have recycling at our house, unfortunately, because the HOA has decided not to pay for that along with our regular garbage pickup. I need to find a recycling center near us, because the amount of waste we produce as a family is pretty grotesque at times.

Reduce and Reuse

As far as reducing the amount of waste we produce, we are trying to cut back on our use of plastic grocery/carrier bags. I need to just keep reusable ones in the car, and maybe buy some of the really cute ones from BabiesRUs for non-grocery shopping. We buy things in bulk when we can, to reduce packaging, but sometimes that doesn't work (for example, things that need to be frozen get packed into the size we will use in one recipe, so we end up using baggies for that). I am going to follow Amy's lead and start reusing jars when I can. I already spent part of yesterday, while waiting for dinner to cook, transferring spices from the baggies that we bought them in to jars that we had saved from old spices. The spice cabinet is so much more organized now! We buy animal crackers at Costco, and they come in these huge tubs. C suggested we reuse them to hold some of J's toys, and for some reason I said no, and now I regret that because I've come up with a lot of useful ways to reuse them. Oh well, the next time we use one up we'll reuse the container.
Another really good way to reduce waste when you have a baby is to buy wipes in bulk packs, rather than individual tubs. That way you only need one tub, and you just keep refilling it rather than throwing a tub away every time you use up the 80 wipes. Alternately, you can use cloth wipes, which many people who cloth diaper do. Baby washcloths also work well for this purpose, and you just spray a little water mixed with lavendar oil (or this) and wipe away! Of course, cloth diapers are also a great option for reducing waste. There is a ton of information for cloth diapering at DiaperPin and DiaperHyena. Yes, you use more water with cloth diapers, but it really amounts to about 3 extra loads a week, and that water goes through waste-water purification in most places and gets reused. Gray water generally gets reused, one way or another. This is the water from your sinks, showers, and laundry. Sewer water, from toilets, does not get reused.

If you have any other tips for ways to reduce and reuse, please share!

Bringing Up Our Baby

I realize that I have never really talked much about our parenting style with J. I mean, obviously it's come up but I've never really gone in-depth with it. I have finally started from the beginning in reading the blog of Mrs. Amy in-depth. In some areas, I agree with her so completely I feel that we must be kindred spirits (on an aside, can you tell I just read Anne of Green Gables?). In others, I feel that we could not be more different. I desperately wish I could be living a life like hers- a homemaker, staying at home to raise my child(ren) as naturally and wholesomely as I can. I do not share her views on faith, but I do share her views on misandry (mainly, that it's bad). In reading some of Mrs. Amy's earlier posts, I came across one in particular that made me realize that perhaps I've been harsh in expressing my views, and that those views may not actually have been heartfelt on my part. Having read Anne of Green Gables recently has also contributed to the rekindling- perhaps the further inflammation of- my desire to live simply.

I digress. J is breastfed still, at almost 15 months old, and will continue to be breastfed until he turns 2 or he self-weans, whichever is sooner. My reason for this is that when he turns 2 we plan to increase the size of our family, and I would prefer to be done nursing J during that time. His current nursing schedule, for anyone out there who'd like to know, is that he nurses when he wakes up in the morning, usually around 7 or 8 am. He gets a (~8 ounce) bottle of 1/2 whole goat milk plus 1/2 enriched rice milk at about 10:30, and another bottle of the same at about 3:30 after his afternoon nap. He nurses again as part of the bedtime routine at about 7:30, while I read him a story in the rocking chair in his room. The decision to breastfeed was never really a decision for me, it was just what I was going to do, and I was going to make it work no matter what.

No matter what turned out to be pumping as many as 5 times a day plus nursing when I was home, getting and battling mastitis which turned out to be a nipple infection, recurrent clogged ducts, and becoming desensitized to the pump by the end of 12 months of pumping. It was hard, and it was very painful at times, but I would not have given it up for anything. J has never had formula. Obviously this is not the case for everyone, and in the end, as long as your child is healthy, it really doesn't matter whether they get breastmilk from mom, donor milk, or formula.

J' meals are generally what we eat; he loves a scrambled egg with cheese for breakfast and he loves meat, cheese and animal crackers. He loves oatmeal with a tiny bit of either molasses or brown sugar, and he also enjoys unsweetened applesauce and other fruit as well as most veggies. He does extremely well with fingerfoods and table foods, and we've introduced them according to both his gross motor skill development and the number and type of teeth he's got. He currently has 14 teeth: all 8 incisors, all 4 molars and the top 2 canines. He's had all but the canines since before 12 months of age, so he's been pretty much on table food since those came in. Obviously I cut things up smaller for him and don't give him raw foods. He has a sensitivity to tomatoes so when we have spaghetti or anything else with tomato sauce, J gets a non-sauce version or something else entirely for his meal. In addition to this, J has a sensitivity (I hesitate to call it an allergy, as it doesn't do any more than upset his bowels and result in loose stools) to cow's milk in large quantities. This is why he drinks only goat milk, rice milk, and breast milk. He has no apparent issues with cow cheeses, yogurt, or things with cooked milk in them.

We have chosen to use cloth diapers (CDs) on J. We have used disposables sparingly, for instance we used them until the meconium was passed when he was a newborn, when we travel, and as backups when the CDs are being washed. We had a failed experience with g-diapers while traveling, and according to the other people I have spoken to, they either fit your child and you love them, or they don't and you hate them. For us they were in the second category. Also, they are not so very flushable as they'd lead you to believe, as my dad and his plumber can attest to (and yes, we followed the instructions given to the T). Anyway, back to my topic. We chose to use cloth diapers initially as a way to save money. This has worked very well for us, especially since my mother very kindly gifted us all the kissaluv's size 0 diapers we used when J was a newborn and 9 of the BumGenius 3.0 (a.k.a. BG 3.0) one-size diapers we are currently using, and will continue to use until J is potty trained. Had she not done that, we were looking at an initial investment of about $600 for diapers for the entire time J was using them, and certainly further use for child #2 (and subsequent). My original calculations of the cost of sposies put us at a $1000 savings in the first year alone in cloth diapering vs. using disposables.

Most of J's clothes are "borrowed" hand-me-downs. His cousin Ian is 14 months older than him, so all of Ian's old clothes get passed down to J, then we give them back for baby #2, assuming that Ian's little sibling turns out to be a boy. J also has gotten a number of clothes from grandmas, and aunts. I have almost never paid full price for anything for him, except maybe for his Roobeez knockoffs from Target or BabiesRUs. Most of the clothes I have gotten him came from the clearance racks and the consignment store. Toys have been handed down from other cousins, or given as gifts, or sometimes bought by Mommy and Daddy.

Our parenting style has been largely guided by instinct. I have taken some advice from Parenting and Parents magazines, and some from other moms on a message board I frequent, as well as some of the inevitable advice from my mom, stepmom, and MIL, (as well as some other family members) but for the most part it just sort of happens. J is alive, very happy, and healthy, so I guess we're doing something right. I never had the heart to cry-it-out, so we don't let J just cry for more than a couple minutes. Early on in the "sleep training" process, 2-3 minutes was all he needed and then he'd be out for the night. We don't panic if he gets licked by the dog, or licks them, we turn him away from things that will hurt him with a stern "no" and we let him explore his world. His environment isn't the most spotlessly clean place ever, but it's not a filth pit by any stretch of the imagination. We may not bathe him every night, but he isn't unclean. He doesn't get to watch TV designed for kids/babies very much, and didn't get any of that in his first year. Now, he gets to watch cartoons or "his" show for about 30 minutes once every couple weeks. It's a great way to make him sit still so I can cut his nails. We do have the TV on when he's around, but really only in the evenings, and he doesn't pay much attention to it. We play with him, we hug him and tell him that he's loved. I tuck him into bed each night with a stuffed animal, the quilt that Grandma K made him, and his sippy cup of water. His white noise machine plays ocean sounds, his space heater comes on when it gets below 60-65 in his room. He goes to sleep with little or, more often, no fuss and sleeps until morning.

We just keep taking things as they come. I don't think anyone can do better than their best, and we're giving this whole parenting thing our best shot.

Introducing...me

I have never written a blog before, but I figured it might be good for me to start writing a journal again. I'm not entirely sure what on earth possessed me to make a public blog, but here I am. The title of my blog is of course taken from the lullabye, my son's favorite (well, I don't actually know if he likes it, but he stops crying when I sing it). I realized that there are so many levels of that song, but obviously, the whole premise of it is to bribe your child to stop crying. I sing the song, knowing that I can't actually buy J anything right now that isn't baby food (or otherwise fairly essential). Not that he really needs anything, we use cloth diapers, have a huge stockpile of wipes, and he's breastfed. We got most of his clothes from my brother-in-law and his wife, since their son is a year older than J, so that worked out well.

I may as well introduce myself a bit, at least. I am 25, live in a suburb of Denver, and work in asthma research. I have a BA and a MS. I am married to my high school sweetheart (C), and we just celebrated 4 years of marriage (9 years together total). We have two dogs, and own our townhome. Our son J is our only child so far, and he was born January 7. I used to do a lot of short fiction writing, but lately I haven't had the time/motivation to do so.

I have struggled with depression for a very long time, since I was at least 12 and maybe a little earlier. When I turned 23 I finally did something about it, and started getting treated. I am on a low dose of sertraline, and generally it does a good job of keeping my depressive cycles on the upward swing, my panic attacks at bay, and my OCD under control (not that it ever got too bad, I wasn't washing my hands repeatedly or anything). One of my clues that I was/am beginning a downward part of the cycle is that I feel the need to compulsively clean. I have been doing this for the last two weeks, hoping and praying that it wasn't going to go any further. Well, it seems that tonight I've made some further downhill progress. I feel...empty inside, lacking motivation to do anything. My temper has had a shorter fuse than it normally does. My heart starts pounding out of nowhere, I can feel the anxiety building and I live in dread of when it will actually burst into a panic attack. The visions that come with the OCD have begun to frequent my days once again. I fortunately never feel like hurting anyone, but I hate this. We've already increased my dosage once since J was born. I desperately want to be normal again, like I was when I first started my meds and everything was under control.

I am going to go clean the kitchen now.