It looks like our little family will be moving very soon. For the past 2 years we have been fortunate enough to live in a house that belongs to a local church. It is lovingly referred to as the "mission house" and has been home to many a missionary, pastor, youth pastor, etc. over the last 20 years. Living in the mission house has been a tremendous blessing to Daniel and I as we settled back in town and started Vigilant Hope and began working at LifePoint. I will always have a special place in my heart for the little house. After all, it's where we brought our first baby home to live. But our time has come to venture out and find a place of our own. We are not sure where we will land... but this I am confident... it will be wonderful.
 
A lot of thought has gone into the whole process. What part of town do we want to live? Is it too early to think about school districts? How many bedrooms do we need? Should we look for a house that is big and something we'd grow in to... or just something that will work for the next few years? It's overwhelming really... and exciting... and stressful.

This is what we've settled on... We want to be where God wants us. No where else.

So, today finds us waiting as patiently as we can (the suspense is killing me if we're being honest!) to hear back from our real estate agent. We put in an offer on a house that we just LOVE. It seems perfect for our little family. However, we haven't prayed that God would give us the house. We've prayed (and continue to pray) that he puts us where he wants us. That means, if they don't accept our offer we walk away knowing that God has something even better for us. So while I wait and pace around the mission house I'll rest in the knowledge that God already knows where we're gonna be resting our heads in a couple months. And maybe I'll start packing some boxes.

I know I run the risk of sounding like a free spirit, granola eating, bathing optional, all you need is love type (what with the previous post being about cloth diapers and all)... but I'm doing it anyway. I'm going to talk about making my own laundry detergent.  

I like to save money. I like to make things. The idea of making my own laundry detergent just seems like a natural progression, right? And I was pleased to discover that making your own detergent really isn't that hard and it is more affordable than store bough stuff. Unless you're one of those extreme couponers that gets 70 bottles of Tide for free because you spend 40 hours a week clipping coupons and figuring out how you can store the 200 free spicy brown mustard's you just scored. I digress.

Join me on this magical adventure of detergent making. Here are the things you'll need...

1 bar "Fels Naptha" soap bar

2 cups Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 cup Borax 

4 cups hot tap water

A 5 gallon bucket (make sure to buy a lid for it too)

 To get started...
-Grate the entire soap bar. Pour grated soap and 4 cups hot tap water into pot and place on stove over medium heat. Stir continually until melted. 

- Fill 5 gallon bucket up halfway with more tap water and add the melted soap, washing soda and borax. Stir until everything is well combined and dissolved.

 -Finish filling the bucket full of tap water and stir.

-Cover with lid and let thicken and congeal overnight.

-In the morning stir vigorously until combined. Then fill a 1 gallon jug or pitcher 1/2 to 3/4 full with the detergent. Add tap water to fill to the top. Shake well. Store remaining (undiluted detergent) out of the way until next time you need a refill.

-Shake well before each use. Use 1 to 2 cups for each full load.

The only place I could find all the soap stuff in my town was Harris Teeter. All together it cost about $7. I got my bucket at Home Depot for $3. For $10 you get between 7 and 10 gallons of laundry detergent. I call that a win. AND... the next time you make detergent you will only have to buy the Fels Naptha soap bar ($2ish) because you'll have left overs of everything else. Hooray! 

I use this homemade detergent mainly on my towels, bed sheets and jeans. For baby clothes and our nicer shirts I use store bough stuff. The homemade detergent doesn't get stains out very well. However, I've been told a scoop of Oxi Clean along with the homemade detergent works well. Also, if you would like a fresh sent (the homemade detergent is unscented) add a scented fabric softener sheet when you throw your load in the dryer.

And that's it. :)

I decided early on in my pregnancy I was going to use cloth diapers on Deacon's cute little bum. My friend Jillian was the only person I knew who had used cloth diapers and she raved about how easy, cute and money saving cloth diapers were. All of that sounded good to me. Especially the money saving part. Just keeping it real.

Did a little research.

Talked with Daniel to make sure he was on board.

Took a trip to a local store that sells cloth diapers and asked them to educate me even more.

Picked out diapers I thought would work best for us.


Found out another friend used cloth diapers and went over to her house to see her routine.

Looked at blogs and was encouraged by many other women going the cloth diaper route.

Then we started sharing with folks our decision. I know it's not the truth but I felt like a lot of people thought we were crazy. Like they were looking at us with "bless her heart... she has no idea" eyes. So anytime the subject would come up I would get really defensive and start talking really fast like...

"Cloth diapering has come a long way and it's so much easier than it use to be and it's gonna save us thousands of dollars and i know it's going to take some extra time but it's worth it and we aren't doing it because we're trying to save the planet even though it's so much better for the planet that's not why we're doing it and it won't be that much extra work especially since I'm going to be a stay at home mom and... and..."

Then Daniel would look at me, smile and pat my arm and I would realize that I needed to take a deep breath. 

Once I got over my unfounded fear that people were judging me for using cloth diapers I started getting really excited about collecting some adorable diapers for little man. I decided I want to try out a couple different types of cloth diapers to see which I liked best. Different diapers work better for different people. For us... FuzziBunz and GroVia.

I love FuzziBunz because they are SO soft and SO simple to use. FuzziBunz are considered "pocket diapers" as they have an insert that is placed inside the pocket of the diaper. (Call me captain obvious.) The material pressed against babies body is a soft microfiber that wicks wetness and moisture away and into the insert beneath. It also comes with the option of a "one size" fit so you don't have to buy different size diapers as your baby grows. You just adjust the elastic in the leg openings and continue using the same diapers up through potty training. Money saving win. They even come with a replacement elastic just in case the original elastic wears out. FuzziBunz also uses snaps to secure the diaper into place on babies body. Snaps are good (apposed to Velcro closures) because they are more secure, they don't stick to everything they touch in the washing machine, they don't loose their stickiness with age and they are much harder for babies to take off themselves... a problem I've heard I may face as my son gets older and tries to disrobe instead of take his nap, etc..

FuzziBunnz are a definite winner in my book. They are amongst the more expensive cloth diapers BUT I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for... and these bad boys are worth ever penny. And they are so easy to use it's ridiculous. And that is important to us. We don't want to mess with a lot of steps. Just snap the diaper on. When diaper is soiled unsnap and throw in wet bag. Done.

So far I've only discovered one down side of FuzziBunz. The soft microfiber will sometimes form a buildup  if you use the wrong detergent or use too much detergent. This buildup causes the diaper to smell (yum) as soon as it gets wet and it also causes the diaper to leak. Neither of these scenarios are good. However, I did a little research and figured out how to "strip" the diapers of the buildup and haven't had a problem again since. Score.

We also really like the GroVia diapers. They are considered Hybrid Diapers, having a waterproof shell and a cloth diaper insert that snaps into the shell. When the cloth insert is wet you just unsnap the insert and replace it with a clean one. No need to change the shell unless the cloth insert has leaked and gets the shell wet. Because you can reuse the shell multiple times you only need to purchase a few (we have 3) and a good handful of inserts (we have 9). This gives you 9 diapers in all. Another money saving win as the inserts are cheaper to purchase than the shell.

There are a few small downsides to Gro Via. Though they are considered "onesize" diapers they do not come with adjustable elastic in the legs like Fuzzibunz. So when we first started using Gro Via they often leaked because we just couldn't get the diaper tight enough around Deacons legs. Now that he has chunked up we do not have this problem anymore. Another downside is your baby will be able to feel that he is wet right away because the snap in insert is cotton based. This will probably come in handy when you start to potty train but right now it just means you will be changing diapers more often because your little one will not want to be sitting on a wet cloth. And the last downside is... the inserts take a long time to dry. 

Now it's time to get real. Babies don't just pee... they also take massive poops. Multiple times a day. Let me introduce you to the greatest invention ever in the world of cloth diapers... the poop sprayer. It attaches to the side of your toilet and you just spray the poopy diaper into the toilet and you're good to go. Not a big deal at all. Anyone can use it. Gone are the days of "dunking and swooshing" dirty diapers in the toilet bowl. Hello poop sprayer that makes life so much easier. 


We are still learning about cloth diapers and figuring out what works best for us. Here are some things we have learned and some things we're still trying to figure out...


We didn't start using cloth diapers until Deacon was about 4 or 5 weeks old. With learning how to breastfeed, live on small increments of sleep and take care of a fragile human being the last thing we wanted to do was figure out how to use cloth diapers. So we cut ourselves some slack and started cloth when we felt a little more stable with everything else.

We started out with about 10 to 12 diapers in our collection. We wanted to make sure the diapers we had chosen would work well for us. When we decided we liked them we took the plunge and bought some more. Now we have about 23 cloth diapers in our collection.

We don't want to mess with cloth diapers at night. I put little man in a disposable diaper when I put his jammies on at night and then switch back to cloth diapers when I take him out of his jammies in the morning.

I wash my cloth diapers about every day and a half or two. If I wait until two days have passed the wet bag (the waterproof and supposedly smell proof bag in which we put his soiled cloth diapers) starts to smell pretty bad and his cute little nursery therefore starts to reek. Not ok. I dump the soiled diapers and wet beg into the washing machine. Run everything through a cold rinse cycle. Run everything through a hot wash with about 1/4 of the recommended detergent. Then hang dry everything on a cheap little drying rack I got at target. I hang dry just because it's saves on energy. But you can totally dry in the dryer on a low heat setting.

I'm still in the process of deciding whether to leave the nursery workers, babysitter, etc. with cloth diapers or disposables. Should I try and teach them how to use his cloth diapers? Or do I just leave them with disposables. What I have been doing is leaving him in his cloth diaper and just telling folks to put him in a disposable when he needs a diaper change. Still figuring this out.

I love using cloth diapers. Definitely the right choice for us. However,  I don't think using cloth diapers is right for everyone. I believe anyone can use them but they do require a little more time and commitment. Therefore, don't take the plunge and spend money unless you really want to do it. And don't feel guilty if you choose to use disposable. Cloth diapers are not for everyone.

If you are interested in using cloth diapers I would encourage you to either check out a store that sells cloth diapers or find a friend who will show you their routine. I truly believe doing this will help you understand how very easy cloth diapering can be and will also let you see and touch the many different varieties of cloth diapers. This is so important. 

Or talk to me... I'd love to encourage you and answer your questions. 

I made homemade chicken stock yesterday. I felt like my momma would be proud of this... and she was. I love my mom. The older I get the more I realize how amazing she is. When I was little I was allergic to everything. No really... I was. Wheat, milk, corn... pretty much anything delicious. Thankfully it wasn't the kind of allergic that was life threatening. I just got horrible migraines and threw up everywhere. This meant my awesome mom had to make everything from scratch (which she did anyway) and buy horrible things like rice milk ice cream and barley bread at health food stores that smell like vitamins. (To this day the smell of a health food store makes me dry heave a little... sorry Tidal Creek) Mom was, and still is, a rock star at stretching pennies and cooking delicious chow. She made her own chicken stock. She canned pickles and tomatoes from our garden. She baked her own bread. She made homemade everything. No really... I never had box macaroni and cheese or soup out of a can until I was a teenager. And by that point my taste buds were spoiled.

I'm proud to be my mothers daughter. Now it's my turn to learn how to stretch pennies and make homemade chicken stock.  And to spoil little Deacons taste buds too!

Yesterday my sweet mother in law sent pictures of baby Daniel Walters. Yes. Fat cheeks, huge smile, big'ol healthy baby Daniel Walters. Just as we suspected, Deacon looks like his daddy. I am completely OK with this. I was ecstatic to receive the surprise email with photos of my husband in his diapers and jammies. Daniel, being the middle child, doesn't have hundreds of baby photos like his older sister.  In fact, I had only ever seen one or two of his baby photos many moons ago. Seeing multiple baby pics of my husband yesterday gave me warm fuzzies all over. I love that man. He is the absolute perfect match for me and seeing him as a baby made me fall even more in love with the man that he is today. It also made me fall more in love with my son. Recognizing such a strong resemblance of his father made me realize what a truly miraculous gift Deacon really is. God wove our DNA together and the outcome is bits and pieces of us deposited in another human being. Each day I stare at our son and am thankful that God choose us to take care of Deacon. Yesterday that thankfulness deepened. 

Baby Daniel

Baby Deacon