IT’S THE FLUFF OF LIFE!

Life isn’t always easy, sometimes we need the fluff, little things to make us happy.  For me, that is cloth diapers and the kindness of the owner of SugarBritches Nappies, Melanie.  I ordered some AiO (All in One) diapers from her and didn’t love them as much as I did her Ai2’s (All in 2’s).  So I contacted her and she willingly converted them at no additional charge.  Then she made my life 100 times better.  How?

Recently Melanie contacted me to try out two new diapers that she has come up with.  Of course I said YES!!!  I LOVE new diapers and I am honored that she thought of me and was willing to let me put them to the test.   More than that, I was excited to get some fluff mail.  We agreed she’d send them in the box with my recently converted diapers.  It was a box I was eagerly anticipating! 

I got my box today. Yep, in the midst of dealing with a wonderful stomach bug that has hit the oldest boys the hardest, my FLUFF arrived.  I was so excited to get that package, I needed a pick me up after the rotten day that I’ve had.  BOY did that package deliver.  AND I can’t wait to test the diapers out and share the results with everyone.  Be on the lookout for the reviews.  More than that head over to the store and check out her diapers!  The prices are awesome, her customer service is beyond amazingly phenomenal, and her kind heart makes life a lot easier!  Sometimes it’s all about the FLUFF of life, and I can’t wait to share more!

FLUFF MAIL!  YAY!!!!

Isn't it pretty? I can't wait to try this new style AiO out!

EEEK!  I also get to try her prefold style out!  I LOVE my prefolds!!!

BACK TO SCHOOL!!

I can’t believe it is time to start another school year.  This year, as always, I am humbled and in awe of my children and the charge that I have been given to teach them.  Each year I love to see the growth and changes that my children will go through.  I also know that this year marks the beginning of the end for our time with Maggie since she is officially a high school student, something that I am not really ready for.  It also marks the end of John Robert’s elementary school years, again something that I am not ready for.  This year marks the middle of Ethan’s elementary school years and the beginning of Cole’s “real” schooling adventures. 

In a way this is the year of beginning and the mark of the endings of our lives as well.   For me, the start of every school year is bittersweet.  Each new school year means that I am that much closer to having my children spread their wings and fly away.  SIGH.

So, without further ado, here are our 2014-2015 Back-to-School photos along with glimpses of what we are studying!

Maggie is now in 9^th Grade.  Her desire is still to go to UF and become a veterinarian and a missionary.  She is using Sonlight for History and Reading studying World History from 1800’s on, Apologia Science General Science, Math-U-See Pre-Algebra, Queen’s Homeschooling Language Arts and Copywork, Writing Strands, Creative Writing, and Home Economics. 

John Robert is now in 5^th Grade.  He has decided that he wants to be a full time cowboy.  He is using Sonlight for History and Reading studying Native American and early American History, Apologia Science Zoology 1, Math U-See Delta, Queen’s Language Arts and Copywork, Writing Strands, and Artistic Pursuits.

Ethan is now in 2^nd Grade.  He still desires to be a police officer, more specifically a K-9 officer.  He is using Sonlight for History and Reading studying Native American and early American History, Apologia Science Zoology 1, Math U-See Alpha-Beta, Queen’s Language Arts, and Artistic Pursuits.

Cole is in Preschool, specifically geared for 2 year olds.  He is an active and precocious boy who wants to be like his hero, his Daddy.  This year he will continue to be little and explore the world around him through play and not necessarily a specific program.  He will work on colors, shapes, recognizing letters and numbers, and developing motor skills through coloring, scissor usage, and of course lots and lots of playing.

All five kiddos will continue to be learning and growing together and we continue on the journey set before us.  We have been called by Christ to be a homeschooling family, and we will go on this journey with faith, love, laughter, tears, and a lot of joy!

This year will be our best year ever!  Together we will continue to learn and grow in Christ.  YAY for new school years and new adventures!

BIRTHDAY PLANNING

It’s that time of year!  It’s time to start planning for our rush of birthdays!  We have two big kiddos with birthday’s in November, one in December, and now one in January.  So that means that this not so always crafty Mama needs to start to plan her annual birthday rush.

Our oldest two kiddos both have birthdays in November and this year it will be fairly “easy”.  All that they have requested is some time in the woods.  So, I think that we will head out to a friend’s ranch and spend the day riding in the buggy or on horseback enjoying the cattle and wildlife there.  This year they are easy, nothing overtly stressful or fancy in the birthday planning here. The only thing is that they both want different cakes, which of course we will be more than happy to oblige them with!

The next birthday is in December with a wonderful two year old who will be turning three.  This year we are having a Mickey Mouse theme party.  Then we have a baby turning one in January.  I had thought of doing a little man party, but we opted on a Little Monster theme since we had a lot of those party supplies.  These two parties are the ones that I get to be crafty with, and I am having tons of fun pursing Google and Pintrest for ideas.  Oh Mama’s, what did we do BEFORE Pintrest?  HA!

So, there you have it.  We are heading into the fun time of four birthdays in three months!  This busy and crazy Mama is in birthday party fun and planning mode, and I’m loving it!  YAY for birthdays and being able to celebrate the blessing of my amazing kids!

CLEMENTINE

I married into a family of animal lovers.  Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a big fan of animals, let alone animals living in my house.    In spite of that, I have been blessed with three kiddos who love animals.  One of the kiddos is like me and could take them or leave them (which is funny because he is our Chicken Whisperer) and the other kiddo is too young to have an opinion on any animal yet. 

So, what’s a Mama to do when their daughter saves her babysitting money up to buy a rabbit again?  Clear a spot in the kitchen and celebrate with her of course.  We have a new bunny. Yep, this anti-animal in her house Mama cleared a spot in her kitchen for a small bunny cage.  The animal loving kiddos are thrilled, the not so animal loving kiddo is okay with it, and Mama and Daddy are happy because their kiddos are happy. 

Introducing the newest member of the Best family, Clementine.

  

PAYING IT FORWARD!

I am in love with cloth diapering. I love my prefolds and covers for the days that it is just me changing diapers.  BUT, prefolds and their covers are not a favorite of my husband or my kiddos.  They prefer to use my AIO (All in One) or my AI2 (All in Two) diapers that I got from Sugar Britches Nappies. I LOVE her custom diapers, they are adorable and I get compliments on them every time that I use them. My love for these adorable diapers is one reason I was so excited when the owner contacted me and asked me if I would help her get the word out.  More than that, I am humbled and honored I get to help her out.

My little man in his Sugar Britches Nappies diapers!

So what’s the news?  Melanie at Sugar Britches Nappies is ready to pay it forward.  From now until November 20^th she is taking nominations for a lucky person to WIN an awesome diaper starter, completer, or filler stash!   It comes with 10 AI2 with inserts, 6 prefolds and 4 waterproof wraps. The only requirement is that when the winning family is finished using all those goodies, Melanie asks they pay it forward by donating it to another family in need.  What a HUGE blessing this will be for a lot of people!

A sample of the winning diapers!

Take a minute and head over to her Etsy store and check out the rules and get your paperwork turned in.  If you can, order some diapers too!  Melanie’s customer service is phenomenal, seriously she is the BEST to work with, and you will be supporting a business that believes in blessing others!  When you’re done, look for ways to bless someone today the way that Melanie and Sugar Britches Nappies is looking to bless someone too!

CLOTH DIAPERING, MOM’S GOT THIS!!!

I haven’t chatted about cloth diapering in a while.  I am still happily using cloth diapers.  My go to diaper is a prefold and a cover.  My favorite covers are Thirstie’s, but I have some Kawai’s and Sweet Peas as well.  I do have some AIO (All In One) diapers and some AI2 (All In Two’s) that I had custom made by Sugar Britches Nappies from her Etsy store.  I mainly use these diapers for church and babysitters since they are as close to a “disposable” diaper as they come.

Wearing his red AIO diaper.

LOVE the camo AI2 Diaper!

Gotta love a cowboy fluffy bottom!  All the diapers above came from Sugar Britches Nappies!  LOVE THEM!

Surrounded by prefolds....

In a Thirstie's cover with a prefold on under it!

BUT, I’m not here to talk about what I’m using or why I LOVE them!  I’m here to chat about what I am getting more and more often, the comments and questions about WHY I’m cloth diapering!  Most people when I say that I am cloth diapering just stare, then comes the comments.  Most often the comments are the same, with some wording variation.  Usually they start off with:

                   Wow, I could never do that!

                   I didn’t know you could still do that!

                   How do you clean them?

And my personal favorite………….

                   What about the pooh?

And on that note, I always want to respond the honey bear or baby pooh?  The answer is always  the baby pooh; as in the cleaning of the baby pooh.  Yep, that's the answer,  always!

Ah yes, the dreaded pooh diapers, that is really the heart of the matter when it comes to cloth diapering.  People want to know how you handle the mess that can be in a diaper, or more to the point, why would you!  Easy, I’m a MOM!

Let me preface this by saying that as a mom, I lost all my dignity when I found out I was having my first little one.  I had morning sickness almost anywhere.  I lost all my dignity when I was in labor, and it was the same with each subsequent pregnancy.  As a mom you have to get used to icky situations from the get go.  Then the baby arrives and the ickiness morphs into a new form.  That precious baby spits up and then pooh’s and they pooh a lot!  That pooh is what makes someone squeamish about cloth diapering.  BUT, here are some things that a lot of people don’t realize.

With cloth diapering the dreaded blow outs aren’t as frequent.  Yep, blow outs are a dreaded occurrence for any mom.  BUT, since I’ve been cloth diapering I’ve had only two blow outs, and that was when we were starting out on solids and the baby’s tummy was still adjusting to new food and not just breast milk.  After his first two diapers, we got into the swing of things and that the blow outs ended.   So what do I do about pooh?  Easy, I change his diaper and we go…….just like in a disposable.

 Not the answer you were looking for was it? Goggle cloth diaper washing routines and you will find a million different ways to wash diapers and deal with pooh.  People can make this so difficult.  I know my mom told me her wash routine and I was almost in tears.  Here’s what most people think you must do…..

A.    Rinse the diaper in the toilet.

B.     Soak in water for 24 hours or overnight at least.

C.    Rinse in hot water.

D.   Rinse in cold water.

E.    Wash in hot water with specialty soap that costs more than disposable diapers every month.

F.    Wash in cold water with regular soap.

G.   Bleach.

H.   Don’t bleach.

I.    Rinse in hot water.

J.   Rinse in cold water.

K.    Don’t put in the dryer until the diapers have spent at least 10 hours in the sun on your clothes line.

L.    Stand on your head!

M.  Jump up and down!

N.   Do a rain dance!

So, are you turned off from cloth diapering yet?  Umm, yeah, I would be too!  But dealing with messy diapers IS not that complicated, no more so than dealing with spit up or blow outs.  When the baby is just breast fed or on bottles, the first few steps aren’t always necessary, but once solids are introduced they are.  This is my diaper washing routine, including dealing with those pooh diapers.

A.    Get a diaper sprayer.  I know that these are luxuries, but for me, they are a must.

B.    Get some gloves.  Yep, those wonderful yellow cleaning gloves come in handy when baby starts solids.

C.    Rinse all pooh diapers off into the toilet and throw the diapers into a bucket next to the toilet.  Most people LOVE the Home Depot buckets for this charge since they say “Let’s Do This” on them!  I just use an empty bucket that has a lid that Robert got from work.

D.   All diapers that are just wet diapers or diapers that are breast fed pooh can be tossed into the wet bag in your diaper pail.

E.    Wash day start off rinsing your diapers.  I use warm water for this, but you can use whatever you want.

F.    Wash the diapers.  Now this is where things can get tricky. Most people insist on special soaps but really Tide or whatever you use is just fine!

G.   Rinse your diapers.

H.   Hang on the clothes line or dry in the dryer.

I.    Put your diapers away, folding is optional.  (I do like to fold mine!)

Yep, it’s that simple.  And in reality, dealing with pooh is the least of my worries as I deal with a teething and grumpy little one.  To be honest, I have to wash Robert’s work clothes in a more “intense” way than I do diapers.  So in answer to the question that I know everyone is wondering…..YES, I do still enjoy cloth diapering.  I’m a mom, diapering and cleaning up after kiddos is really no big deal!

THANKFULNESS

There is a beautiful fellow homeschooling mom that I have met on an online forum and then connected with on Facebook whom I consider a true friend.    To be honest, I’m not sure she would even think that of me; I have not had the privilege of meeting her in real life, but I just know we’d get along fabulously, because she’s an honest, open, and transparent person.  Every day, in spite of the challenges she is dealing with in her life, she posts uplifting and edifying messages.  She herself will readily admit that there are days when she is doing this to build herself up, being in her situation can be challenging, but more often than not her positive outlook is so contagious, it over joys me to read her little messages about life.

Every Thursday, this sweet spirited woman, starts a blog and Facebook post titled Thankful Thursday.  This speaks volumes to me about her and the person that she is.  It also reminds me to step back and evaluate my life, what I am thankful for.  Most often I comment on her Facebook post and let that be that, but today I needed to do more.

This Thursday I am thankful for this sweet woman, and all of the Sonlight Mom’s on the forums that have helped me so much.  Some days, most days really, they are the only ones who “GET” where I’m coming from in my frustration and need to vent.  I am thankful for the people in our lives who love my children so much that they sacrifice their time to teach them new things, be it quilting, riding, or just wanting to hang out with my kids, your kindness blesses my heart more than words can say.  I am thankful for naps; sleep is a glorious thing, especially for a growing, teething, grumpy baby.  I am thankful for being able to homeschool my kiddos, and wanting them to stay at home with me for another year.  I am thankful that I can work at their pace in their schooling and not try to make them fit into a mold but make the mold fit around who they are as an individual.  I am thankful that my husband loves me enough to bring me home Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and put them in the freezer so I can have a daily pick me up.  I am thankful that there are women who care enough about me that they call me and tell me they are taking me out Saturday morning without kiddos so I can unwind some.  I am also thankful that my husband encourages this to happen.  I am thankful that God is so real and alive that all I need to do is read His word and He is willing to show me and teach me something new, even if it is in a passage I thought I had mesmerized and already knew!

There is so much more that I have to be thankful for, but I think for now I will stop.  I need to fold some laundry and ponder about all my blessings and my life.  I need to focus on what I am ultimately thankful for; Christ and His completed work on the cross for me.  I need to go sit at His feet and tell Him how thankful I am.  Because today, as I am every day, I am truly thankful, I am truly blessed, and I am truly loved.