Teaching Our Children

Hey guys!  I guess I better post this month since this is a topic I'm super interested in.

What do you do with your child(ren) that you would consider moving them in a forward direction (rather than backward or just not moving).?  Sorry if that was confusing.  Let me explain what I'm trying to say...

When I teach Vidalia how to play her violin or about saying please and thank you when she wants things, I feel like we move in a forward direction.

When I dislike what Vidalia is doing (i.e. pulling my hair) and I tell her to stop or say no without explaining to her why, I feel like we move in a backward direction.

I can't think of anything that I wouldn't consider either moving forward or backward, so forget the not moving.

I feel like when I do small things that make me a better person, they help Vidalia to become a better person as well.  So, what I'm asking, I suppose, is what is it you do that betters your family?

One of my favorite things to do is learn about what other families do, how they function and then evaluate how those same things would or wouldn't work for my family...so if you have a little time, please share with me (in September or next February or anytime).

Oh and p.s. we are officially in Orem now.  Although we will probably move again within a month.  We move way too much.

Family Home Evening

Hey all,

With a topic of "Building Righteous Traditions" for this month, FHE is the first thing that comes to my mind.  I find FHE a little bit awkward with a 1-year-old.  She's at an age where she understands things if they're simple (perhaps she understands more, I guess I wouldn't really know).  It makes for super short lessons (i.e. we should take care of our bodies, let's do push-ups and eat berries) and sometimes completely unrelated activities.

What do you guys do for FHE?

Hmmm...Textiles

Does anybody have a favorite craft?  Mine is making baby shoes.  Like these.  I was amazed at how much easier they are to make then I suspected.  And they're cute.  I think that's why I like making baby shoes.

May

Hello!  I had a May thought, regarding good food and feeding our families.  What's one thing/recipe/whatever you want that you feed your family all the time because it's simple/stores well/they eat it so well/none of those, but you just love to make it.

One thing we make is chicken stuffed crescent rolls.

I've used this recipe before and often use this recipe for crescent rolls.  Don't make bread, buy the canned crescent rolls things.  I often don't follow a recipe for the stuffing at all.  Some combination of chicken, cream cheese, milk, cream of chicken, peas/broccoli/something not disgusting in a roll that is green, and onion.  Sometimes all those things, sometimes only a couple.  It depends on what's on hand really.  And as far as rolls, I buy zero attention to what kind of flour recipes require and always use whole wheat, since I've stopped buying any other kind (this is recent though, so I really need to make some cookies to make sure they're not disgusting).

Side it with some vegetable and rice and gravy and I think any family will be satisfied and full.

What we've been trying

Feeding my family healthy AND staying on a budget is one of the constant battles in my life as a mother/stay-at-home wife (if I wasn't stay-at-home, I don't think I would feel as responsible).

It seems like the price of groceries has tripled, maybe quadrupled, since we were freshmen (which is when I started noticing prices of food).

I'm open to all and any good ideas people have.  These are some of the things I've been trying to help my budget, my food storage, and the health of my family:

• Limits.  There are some foods we eat that are just expensive.  Cereal for example.  So what we do is at the beginning of each month we'll buy 1 or 2 of the bulk bags of cereal.  When it's gone, it's gone.
• Freezer.  When things that can freeze (such as cheese) are on a good sale, I buy up to $20 worth and put it all in the freezer.
• Cans.  Same as freezer things.  The things we use in cans (tuna, cream of whatever, corn, etc.) I buy a case of when they are an extraordinarily cheap sale.  I don't know what the prices are around you, but if I can find cans for less than 40 cents, it's a good price.
• LDS Cannery Items.  This is one I've been working with a lot and for several reasons.  These items can be so useful and the number 10 cans store for 30 years!  I try to purchase all of our oatmeal from here.  I also have some cans of dry milk.  I use it in recipes that require milk, but not real milk.  If you get it from the cannery it makes things cheaper, if you buy it from the store, it may not be.  Dry milk is super expensive in stores.  I use other cannery stuff too, this is just an example.
• Amazon.  I order some things off of amazon.  Not everything can be shipped, but I've found some items (such as peanut butter) are cheaper when bought online.  If you have a prime membership (free from buying baby things...formula, diapers from them), sign up for subscribe and save, and collect amazon gift cards from websites like swagbucks, you can get some seriously cheap, possibly free (depending on how much searching you do and how often you buy things from amazon) peanut butter.  I buy dishsoap this way too.  (It's not necessarily cheaper than buying the cheapest dish soap, but normal dish soap makes my hands bleed and I use a more expensive kind that does not.  Totally worth it to me to be hand pain free.)
• Make your own stuff.  This won't always save you money, so I think you have to be really realistic about how much something costs you to make it vs. how much it costs you to buy it.  My mother gave me her grain grinder, so I buy wheat from the cannery and grind it (actual whole wheat flower).  I use it to do, well, everything.  I haven't noticed a huge flavor difference.  I actually like it better.  The cannery sells wheat you don't have to grind too.  I usually spend about $20/month on cannery items.  We don't use all those items in a month, so it builds our food storage and it's stuff we use in our regular diet, so if there were a disaster, we wouldn't suddenly switch to a weird diet, ours would stay the same.  (I make bread [still searching for a recipe I'm in love with], tortillas, biscuits, pierogies, and pretty much anything else I feel like.)
• I try to make sure to always have at least one fresh vegetable and/or fruit in the fridge.  I would like it if I always had a few choices, but the end of the month it tends to dwindle.  This one saves zero money, but I've felt like it's a huge benefit to have these things available.  I clean them and put them in bowls so that if we feel like a snack an already prepared something healthy is available upon inspection of the fridge.
• Rice.  We eat a lot of rice.  We eat brown rice.  Is it better for you for real?  I don't know.
• We rarely make a dessert.  There's only three of us here.  When we make a dessert it lasts forever and we all get way to much sugar, so it really has to be a special occasion or we have to have company and even then sometimes we don't have dessert.
• Snacks.  I've come to be really realistic about snacks.  We snack when we feel like it, so I've started making sure something is available to snack on so that we don't eat the food that was intended to be our meals.  If you don't buy super expensive snacks, I think it can save money.  And when you have set things that are snacks already, you have a lot of control over how healthy too.
• Vegetables.  I've been trying really hard to make sure a vegetable accompanies every meal.  Sometimes salad, sometimes a can of corn, sometimes something frozen from a bag, sometimes just potatoes, but anything I consider a vegetable.  I don't know if it's actually helping us be healthier, but it makes me feel better about our eating habits.
• Left-overs.  When we have left-over breakfast, it is our snacks until lunch.  When we have left-over lunch, its our snacks until dinner.  When we have left-over dinner it becomes part of another meal.  This just seems like a good idea to me.  It's what Ryan's cousin does and she knows more about healthy everything than any person I know, so I always assume that the things she does are a good idea.  If you're curious about her this is her blog about being healthy.
• I've been working on figuring out an exact system for grocery shopping so that I'm always getting the same amount of the same things for the same price from the same stores with a dollar amount of flexibility for trying things.  It's a huge work in progress.  Sorry for the long list.  I've been working on this topic for quite a while now.

There are so many DIY things available online for other things to like shampoo or cooking oil or laundry soap, or a rinse aid...blah blah blah.  I've tried the baking powder as shampoo thing.  I hated it.  I love my shampoo and conditioner and will not try it again.  I don't buy cooking oil.  I have a misto can that I exchanged at a fancy department store from our wedding.  I just put some oil in it.  I've also heard of putting some olive oil and water in a bottle and spraying it on things.  Try it if you feel so inclined.  I've never used a rinse aid before, but I've been putting vinegar in my dishwasher (we have extremely hard water here) and it's been helping my dishes.  I'm going to start trying a 1 to 1 vinegar water mixture as an all purpose cleaner and disinfectant (when my stuff runs out).  I'll let you know how that goes, but vinegar really is amazing.  I'm also thinking of starting to make my own laundry soap.  I know of two ladies in my ward that make their own (both of their clothes look nice and they've been doing it for 5 years minimum).  It ends up costing you about $4 to make, what was it, I think 10 gallons of laundry soap.  The price has me sold on trying it.  I've been trying to research it for the sake of my clothe diapers especially.  So far my research is inconclusive, but there are lots of people who use it and write about it online.  All about the same recipe.  I have yet to hear someone who doesn't like it.  I get skeptical of these things, but with the purchase of our van, I'm looking for as many ways as possible to cut money that we can use to pay it off so that we can have a savings again.

That was long.  Sorry.  Ryan was nice not to complain that I was using the computer while he cleaned up dinner though.  :)

Congratulations if you read to here.  I consider it a feat.

My Garden

Today I planted my garden (well,  a few pots and some flowers).  Behold the evidence...

Flowers

Cherry Tomato

More Flowers

Strawberry

There are two of them.

I tried planting onions in water and it worked, but was moldy, so now I'm trying dirt.  Two of those pots are still empty, three have seeds.

One Last Thing on Diapers

Because I had this thought today and couldn't remember what I had said before...

Cathryn (and anyone else this may apply to), I would suggest for you, since you seem to want to try cloth diapering and I get the impression Scott doesn't so much, to try the diapers Allie is using.  They're a super good price for those diapers.  The great thing about pocket diapers is you can stuff them with whatever you want.  I stuff mine with my prefolds.  They tend to hold more fluid then the inserts mine came with.  And those diapers are so much like normal diapers that Scott might even be willing to try it. I would not use what we've been using if you want Scott on board and he's not even really wanting to try.

Allie - When you've used your diaper sprayer for a while (after it comes, if it hasn't), please let me know how you like it.  I haven't been able to convince Ryan that it's worth trying one, but if I get convinced enough and show him a good price, he'll probably budge on that.

That is all.

Experiences Can Make Scriptures More Personal- And More Powerful

So, to be honest, I feel kind of nervous writing this because I'm about to share with you something that is quite personal to me and I have with only a select few people.  When Cathryn wrote her "ramble" on scripture study, she mentioned looking at the people in the scriptures as real people.  I try to do that, but it can be so hard sometimes.  I will get back to the scripture people in a second.

I've been trying to have a baby for quite a while now.  I know, how long could I really be trying, I have a baby.  Well, when you want lots of kids and have verified that the potential of A, B, C, D, etc. are much greater than normal since they are hereditary and in your family, you don't do much waiting.

Waiting and waiting month after month gets so frustrating and tiring and fills you with emotions you didn't know existed before.  At least, that's what I found.  It's hard.

Then I was finally pregnant!  I was so excited and in so much disbelief and things fell together so well and it was so easy to see God's hand in the timing.

Then it ended.  It didn't make any sense.  It was so confusing.  It's still confusing.  I knew it was ending before it ended and I was still so sick and that made me all the more frustrated.  I was baffled at my need to mourn a person that didn't exist.  Mourn a loss that was not mine to have right now anyway.

At first all I could do was cry, at everything.  All I could do was feel like my body was failing to be fully female.  That I was so inadequate.  Doubt if God really trusted me to be a mother, giving me Miss Perfect and just that. It took me a long time to come to my senses and even longer to process the facts.  I want children.  I can have children (obviously, I have one).  I had a miscarriage.  One miscarriage isn't considered anything.  (It's past that and consecutively that it's a concern.)

Now that all being said, I didn't tell you that so that you would feel sad for me.  I'm really doing better than I expected with the whole situation.  I told you that story so that I can share this next one with you.

In Relief Society this last Sunday, we had a lesson on the Gathering of Scattered Israel (that's a name of a talk, I think, but the teacher gathered lots of talks).  We talked about the obvious, temple work, genealogy, missionary work, etc..  It was a pretty good lesson.  In part of it we talked about the Abrahamic covenant.  About Abraham and Sarah, about Jacob and Leah and Rachel.  Sarah was barren.  Leah's husband loved her sister.  Rachel's "womb was closed" because Jacob loved Rachel.  Now I'm not in any situation quite like any of these women.  My husband loves me and I'm not barren.  But my recent experiences have given me an entirely different view...on the world as a whole really.  When we started talking about these women, I was surprised to find that my heart broke for them.  Understanding more than I had before about the desire to have children.  About doing things right and wishing for righteous blessings and being denied, for whatever reason.  I understood a little better about them.  About their lives.  About what it was they really had to deal with.  I'm quite positive that when the scriptures say that "Sarah laughed", that she also cried and with probably so much joy in her heart.  And knowing that "God remembered Rachel" helps me remember that God will remember me too.  That he lets me go through hard things and for good reasons (that I often don't understand).  All I can hope is that God remembered Leah too.  It's really not her fault, I don't think, that she married Jacob.  I'm sure she would have preferred to marry someone who really loved her...on purpose.  I don't know that any number of children could make up for such a situation.  And I'll take my lot in life over any of these women.

On Creating Habits

For Cathryn, first of all, these are my thoughts on habits, any habit really, and this is what I do to continue habits (note it's not 100% successful at everything, but I find that it works for me better than anything else).

1. Think about something (i.e. daily scripture study, or journal writing)
2. Decide you want it to be a habit (just decide, it's a very important step though, don't underestimate)
3. Decide that you care so much about making this thing a habit that it is worth going to bed 30 seconds later than you were going to, on a bad day. (Makes it a little less enormous of a thing to do.)
4. Now do that thing everyday.  (Hard part I know.)
1. Oh, but I'm so tired and I need to get up early and blah blah blah blah...my suggestion, read one verse, write one sentence, just do it, for the sake of creating a habit.
2. Hmmm...it's still pretty early and the thought just occurred to me that I haven't read yet and I should probably do that.  (Use willpower and just do.  This will make you so happy when you do.  When you don't, you find yourself in number 1 situations a lot and that just gets obnoxious.)
3. Oh no!  I forgot to read yesterday, my precious habit is destroyed!!!  (Don't fret, just read today.)
4. Make up other situations that I can't think of right now and decide what's appropriate.

So, maybe reading a verse a day isn't the most spiritual thing to do, but when you're starting to make a habit, you could have your 2 to 3 days of reading and 4 to 5 days of just 1 verse.  It will change eventually and it gets easier to remember and your stamina can change from read 1 verse to read 1 page to read 1 chapter or read 1 whatever you study.  You find that the time commitment of scripture study is actually quite minimal.  (It can still be a daily struggle though, it is often for me, especially on routine-free days.)

Other things that can help

• Ryan and I check up on each other's scripture study (and lots of other goals too).  We ask each other if we've read.  We kind of put that expectation on each other.  It works for us.  Might not work for you.
• Something else, couldn't think of anything.

Scripture Study

Hey All!

I think scripture study is one of the hardest areas for me, as far as Sunday school answers are concerned.  It's not that I don't study/read, usually that's read, my scriptures daily because consistently committing to things is not something I have a problem with.  I'm pretty good with consistency, it's more that I struggle to consistently feel like I'm getting a lot out of what I'm reading or sometimes remembering what it is I read from day to day.  This is one category that seriously goes in waves for me.  I say this all as an intro and so that you hopefully feel welcome to share your ideas of what will work or what you does that does work.

More specifically, since conference just happened, the conference ensign.  Last conference I buckled down and read at least a talk a day once the ensign came.  I was so proud of myself for sticking 100% to that exact schedule, but when I was done (and that really doesn't take long) I didn't know what to do with the ensign.  Obviously I could read it again and again and again and I think that's a good thing, but what else can you do to study conference talks.  Anybody ever found anything cool.

Shortened version of this post:  Feeling burned out of my current study habits.  They work ok, not great.  Anything work great for you?  Anything you think would work great?

Ok, love you all, bye.

Garden Update

No, I don't have a garden (it is border-line early for that), but now that I've moved, I bought a few pots (that's the kind of gardening around here, that or flowers).  I've decided to do a little of both.  I'm allowed to plant flowers in the ground around my apartment, but not vegetables, so I bought some snapdragons and petunias.  I think I'll plant them next week, if the weather is good enough.

I'm going to plant a tomato...kind still to be determined.

I'm going to plants some herbs too, in my kitchen...kind also to be determined.

I'm going to plant something else too, since I have a couple other pots.

I'm an aspiring gardener...meaning my vegetable plants grow leaves and if I'm lucky the fruit too.  I've never had herbs grow well enough to use them.  I've never even grown flowers before, so we'll see how this goes.  I'm not very good at this, but it's just so worth it to see something grow at all.

Pictures to exist someday.

What's all ya'll's plans?

So it looks like it's March now.  Congratulations to March!

I don't know about you guys, but I love the idea of gardening.  Last year I had a little place behind our apartment for gardening.  It was super fun to have actual ground to plant in (that was a first for me...and a last for the time being).

So out of curiosity, who is planning on planting something (I say anything even just one pot of something counts as gardening).  How are you planning to do it?

I for one will be looking for ideas.  We should be moving in the next 3 weeks or so and then I'll see what room I have to work with.  I suspect I will be able to have a pot or two, maybe three.  Anybody know of things that produce a lot and grow well in pots.

I always try tomatoes, but I've never gotten more than 5 off of my plant(s).  They say they produce like crazy, I just must not know what I'm doing.

Mostly, I didn't have anything particular to say about gardening right now, but am definitely looking for ideas for small spaces and no yards.  Anybody have any?

Budgeting

This is a duh post, but I thought it was important to note.  And I want to include two things here:

1) Keeping a budget
2) wants vs. needs

I don't even know if I need to say anything else.

We have saved loads of money by creating a budget and keeping an intricate diary of where our money comes from and where it goes.  I know that if I'm not paying attention, then I'll spend more.  Not to mention that it's quite empowering to know that you have control over your finances and your life and that they are commanded at your will and you don't have to be a slave to unnecessary debt.

As far as wants vs. needs, sometimes you just have to go without things.  I think this is especially true when you decide to be a stay-at-home mom.  I don't think in the long run (or even the short sometimes) that this brings grief or disappointment, if anything, it teaches selflessness and self-control.

As far as kids things are concerned, go ahead and fill in blanks.  This is a simply said, simply understood, a little harder to implement idea.

Cloth Diapers Part II (Answering Cathryn's Questions)

Cleaning Diapers before you Wash Them
This is the gross part of cloth diapering that probably deters people the most.  As for types of diapers, there are also options here.  We do things the very gross way, which means I clean my diapers out in the toilet with my hand and then deposit them into the diaper pail.  (I would encourage rinsing out just peed diapers too, it will pretty much eliminate smells from the diaper pail, at least, it did for us.)

They also make sprayers for cleaning your diapers.

I keep wishing I could try one of those and know how well they work.  They run about $50.00, which isn't much if they are going to work well, but is a lot if it's going to be a flop.  That's why I don't use one.  

I've also seen a few other things, but I'm not sold on them making it so you hardly have to use your hands.  I could see this one working, if you get enough pressure.

The truth about this part:  You get used to it.  It's not so gross when it's your own kid anyway, but you may find you know more about their bowel movements than you ever ever cared about.A n

A note on covers

We have fewer covers than diapers.  This is how that works.  If we change her diaper and the cover is soiled, it is dirty and goes into the pail.  If we change her diaper and the cover is not soiled, we clean it with one of our wipes and leave it to dry and exchange diaper covers at the next diaper change.  The only exception to this is on washing day when I try to wash as many diapers that have been used at all as possible.

How I wash my diapers
First of all, I have washed our underwear with her diapers.  Everything gets clean.  You can think of it as washing his blow-out clothes with other clothes.  Washers are amazing!   We wash diapers twice a week.

Note:  Of course every washer is a little different, so I'll try to keep it general.  My washer is a HE front loader.  I don't know what my dryer is, someone gave it to us.  It's old and squeaky.  :)

• Cold Rinse Cycle, no soap or anything, just rinse in cold (I put everything dirty in the washer: diapers, wipes, covers, wet bags)
• Hot wash Cycle with soap and ecover fabric softener (not necessary to use fabric softener)
• Then I dry the diapers and wipes on the highest, hottest setting our dryer has and run it twice.
• I hang my diaper covers and wet bags.  Although I have dried my diaper covers with my diapers before, but I decided to try and make them last longer by following half the tag (They say to wash in cold and hang to dry.  I'm of the opinion that I can't be bothered to do too many extra things.)

A few times a year (every other month to every 3rd month, I use bleach as follows)

• Cold rinse cycle
• hot wash cycle with soap
• hang diaper covers, wet bag, and move anything that can't be bleached to dryer (fancy diapers)
• hot wash cycle with bleach
• hot wash cycle with soap (may not be necessary, but I'm paranoid about there being any bleach left on the diapers)
• 2 times through the dryer like normal

The diapers always look so bright after a bleach cleaning.  Makes me happy.

As far as utilities, we pay about $100/month for our gas + electric.  I've asked around and other people in my ward in a 2 bedroom apartment pay about the same, so I figure it has very little to no impact.

Absorbency

I wouldn't be surprised if the gel in Luke's diaper wicked the moisture away.  I think it's designed to do that to keep the baby's bottom as dry as possible.

That being said, absorbency can be a hard one and you sometimes have to experiment to figure out what works for your baby.  All babies are different.  Some wet so so much.  Some don't.  Some poop every diaper.  Some basically never do.  That being said, we have on occasion had absorbency issues, but we also have had absorbency issues with disposable.  I don't know what the deal is with this girl.  The good news though is that we fixed it.

About two months ago, it seemed like Vidalia was wetting through everything for about a week.  At first I thought, man these covers must be terrible, which really made no sense because I had been using the same covers for 8 months with no unusual problems.  I tried trying the size larger, which were way too huge, so that was not the issue.  I think she was just peeing more.  We took a flat diaper folded it up and put it inside the prefold as we put it on.  It was amazing the difference really. 

How often do I change diapers

4-6 times a day.  Usually 4.  Without any problems.  This will change depending on how absorbent you make the diapers and age and such.

The Nylon Pants I Use

First of all, these are not the best diaper covers available.  I pay $4/2 pairs.  They're about the best you can get for that price.  I think the next step up is going to run you at least $10/pair.  That's why I use these nylon ones.  And I haven't had leaking problems through the nylon.  Leaks usually occur at a leg hole or the waist line, but I don't usually have leaks.  (I did more when she was younger though.  Cloth diapering seems to be an adaptive process, changing with age and sizes.)

My dislikes of my diaper covers 

• You can't adjust how the waist fits
• You can't adjust how the legs fit (I'm actually not sure if this is a pro or con.)

Possible solutions

• buy better covers
• wool - I've recently become very curious about wool, but all the covers I found online run $30/cover, it seems.  So I will probably never try wool covers, but if anyone ever does, let me know what you think.
• Make your own better covers.  I don't think it would be too hard.
• Don't use prefolds with diaper covers.  Try a different kind of cloth diaper altogether.
• Etc. Because there are more, but this is all I thought of just now.

Night Diapers

We do not currently do anything different for night diapers.  She lasts 12+ hours at night with no leaks easy.  

Before we were putting flat diaper linings in all her diapers, we were putting them in for night only.

What sold Ryan

 Well, lets just say any of the following phrases sell Ryan on things.

• Less expensive
• Eco friendly and about the same price
• Eco friendly and less expensive (this super sells Ryan)
• Save money
• spend less money
• etc.

Good luck trying to sell Scott on the idea.  It wasn't hard for us here.

One-Time Costs

• We have 3 sizes of diapers.  24 of each size (you can get away with fewer).  For the life of a baby, you may want to add 2 more sizes, one bigger than what I have and 1 smaller. Buying 12 diapers at a time cost me just under $30. (You can get the small size of prefolds from Mandalay, where I got my flat diapers, for cheaper.  They're not quite as nice, but about the same as far as absorbency is concerned.  They only have the one size though.)  Total = $300
• lots of flat diapers, lets just say 24 @ $0.75/diaper = $18 (I actually didn't buy any of these though, they were a gift.)  Total = $18
• We have 8 of 5 different sizes of covers (NB, small, medium, large, toddler) and we're currently using medium.  40 covers @ $4/2.  Total = $80
• Wipes = cut up old things Total = $0
• Snappis 1 pack of 3 Total = $7.40 (I'm guessing here, but that price came up online.  I think you may need more if you use these for several kids.  They're bound to fail eventually.  We've been using ours for about 1 year so far and they are still fine.)
• Diaper Pail, depends on your choice Total = $10
• 1 bought babysitter diaper + 1 made Total = $25 (over estimating on the one I made)
• Micro fleece (it wicks moisture from the bottom.  I use it sometimes with rashes.  I can't believe I forgot to mention it before now)  Bought it at the fabric store and cut it into insert-size strips and then did not sew it.  It doesn't shred the edges like other materials.  I used maybe a quarter yard. Total = $5 (max)
• A washer ours cost $450
• A dryer, ours was free

Total One-Time Costs = $445.40

Total with washer = $895.40

Recurring costs

I will overestimate what I think I use and what I think the costs are.

• Baby soap, 2-3/year $2/bottle? Total = $6 (I use this same soap to wash her, so that's not just to diapers)
• Baby oil, 1-2/year $2/bottle? Total = $4
• Extra Laundry soap, I have no clue, maybe I use one container for diapers? (I don't even think that much)  Total = $10
• Lanolin (I use it instead of desitin because desitin will ruin cloth diapers) 1-2/year $10/tube Total = $20 (there are cheaper off brands, but I haven't tried them yet.  And by cheaper I mean you could get the same amount for $5 or less, I think)
• Baby Powder (1 that we got from our baby shower and are still using) less than 1/year $2/bottle? Total = $2 (don't worry, I know what they say about baby powder.  We don't use it often.)
• Utility cost, no clue, no different than other people's so I'll say Total = $0 (or in other words, negligible)
• Ecover fabric softener I use 32 oz./2-3 months A case of 6 bottles on Amazon/$20.  (Free shipping with subscribe and save) About 1 case/year Total = $20 (You can cut this cost, I choose not to.  How much you use will also depend on your washer though.)

Total Recurring Costs = $62 (I think you can easily make this less.  I haven't gotten to working on that much yet.)

Sorry about the forever long post.  I think I hit on all of the questions you asked.  Feel free to ask more if you have them.

Cloth Diapers

Disclaimer: I don't really think cloth diapers will save you any money if you don't have a washer and dryer.  They may actually cost you more if you have to use a laundromat.

We started using cloth diapers when Vidalia was 1 or 2 months old.  It wasn't a complete cold-turkey transition, so I don't remember.  It's really not hard to do, but I do think if you're really going to, you have to commit yourself to doing it (at least until it's habit).

Why People Use Cloth Diapers
There's lots of reasons to use cloth diapers.  Obviously one is to save money or I wouldn't be writing this in the first place.  It's said to be more environmentally friendly.  May or may not be true.  I suspect it is.  Some people have to because of allergies to disposable diapers.  Some people do it as a hobby.  And about a billion other reasons.  I'm sure you can find several.  A lot of the stuff I read when trying to decide what we were going to do was written by people who are very (read overly) passionate about cloth diapering.

Why I use Cloth Diapers
When Vidalia was born we had some nursing issues, actually strike that, we had almost no nursing issues, but I had milk production issues.  This was quite unexpected and landed on top of us a monthly formula bill we were not planning on.  We hadn't really considered cloth diapers, but had a few that were given to us as a gift, at my mother's request, to be what she called "food storage diapers".  I was curious and started looking into it.  It didn't take me long to decide that we could cut some baby costs out here, so we tried it.  Unfortunately, the money saved by cloth diapers was not equal to or greater than the money lost to formula.  At least, I don't think so.  I don't actually know because I never purchased disposable diapers.

Pros of Cloth Diapering

• ability to custom fit to your baby (both size and how absorbent)
• lower cost over time (if you have a washer and dryer)
• fewer blow-outs (this was definitely the case for us)
• decrease of diaper rash (I've heard this.  I haven't had much experience to really compare though.)
• baby doesn't destroy wipes or diapers by playing with them
• cute designs (I just use white stuff, but I've heard this listed as a pro before.  People really get into it.)

Cons of Cloth Diapering

• you have to rinse them out and wash them
• more expensive up front
• way way way too many choices (at least, this can be a little frustrating when you are trying to figure it all out)
• more bulky

Why I'm Completely Sold on Cloth Diapering Now
When I went to visit family in Utah last July, my Dad really didn't want me to use cloth diapers at his house.  (They did them when we were young and he apparently was disgusted and hated it so so much.)  So, they bought me a big box of pampers.  I think Vidalia may have been allergic to them because she had a terrible rash.  And that would be my only experience to compare rashes with the different types of cloth diapers.  Anyhow, it seemed like every time I changed her diaper, I was changing her clothes.  I know she is a baby, but she was 7 months old.  She was past the constant blow-out stage.  Pee is not so annoying, just wash the clothes, but poo blow-outs are super annoying.  Washing out clothes and often soaking them trying to get the stains out (by-the-way oxi-clean is amazing).  You may think, but what about the actual cloth diapers?  Well, mine are stained, but noone ever sees the diaper.  It's really not an issue.  And they are not as stained as you would think.  I occasionally wash them with bleach and that pulls out a lot.  So that's why I'm completely sold on cloth diapers.  I've had more blow-outs with disposable diapers, which we've used for a maximum of 3 months out of her whole life, than with the cloth, which account for her other 10+ months of life.  That's a big deal to me.

Ryan is 100% with me on the cloth diapering.  I don't know if I would do it otherwise.  Or at least, I wouldn't solely do it.

What I Use
Note: Not all of these things are necessary.  Feel free to ask me about any of these things.

I tried to think of every last thing we use.  Let me know if you have questions about any of these.

• Green Earth Prefold Diapers (I bought mine from a local baby boutique for $2.50/diaper.  There are different sizes.  No such thing as one prefold fit every baby for life, but I wish.  I've tried some other brands of prefolds and this one comes highly recommended by me.)Snappi Diaper Fasteners (Instead of safety pins.  These things are amazing.  Bought them from the same local boutique for who knows how much.  We have been using the same pack the whole time.)

• Dappi Nylon Diaper Pants (Bought online through this link.  They are a little more expensive than vinyl diaper pants, but they don't shred into pieces if you accidentally put them through the dryer (or on purpose, I did a lot of experimenting at first).  Totally worth the extra $1 or whatever it is.  You need different sizes.  We have 8 for each size.  I think you can get away with 4 pretty easily though.  I just like to be overstocked.)

• Flat Diapers (I use the ones from Mandalay International.  $0.75/diaper.  I've cut some up and used them as wipes.  Sometimes I use them as a changing pad when I forget mine.  We currently use them as extra absorbency in her diapers.  We didn't always, but it became necessary.  There are stores in Ogden, Provo, and China or you can order them by phone (I don't think online.)  I used these ones because I used to work for these people and they are super cheap.)
• Ecover Fabric Softener (completely unnecessary.  I use it because the diapers were getting rough and it bothered me, but the baby didn't seem to care and it wasn't making her body raw.  It was simply to appease my conscience.  Oh and p.s. never use ordinary fabric softener on your diapers.  It apparently destroys them.  I didn't even experiment with this one, it seemed like I would be super upset with myself if I did.)

• Wet Bag (a wet bag is good to go in the diaper bag.  You put your dirty diapers in it, zip it up or pull the drawstring closed, and you don't smell hardly a thing and there are no leaks.  This things are awesome.  They say not to dry them in the dryer.  Believe them.  You can make them out of PUL fabric and cotton fabric.  It would be super simple.  It's just a bag.  Note on making things with PUL fabric though.  I suggest running them through the dryer at least once to ensure no leaking.  I know I just said don't, but I have an untested theory that if you leave the bag zipped up, you won't have delamination occurring, which is what will ruin your bag.  This are kind of pricey, in my opinion, but totally worth it if you don't want to make one.)
• Small Garbage with lid  (I think ours came from target.  It was the cheapest small garbage with a lid they had.  It is plastic.  It works great.  In hind-sight I would get the same garbage; it is super easy to clean out.)

• FuzziBunz One Size Pocket Diaper (I was (and still am convinced) that I signed up for cloth diapers and babysitters did not.  As part of figuring out cloth diapering, we tried to figure this out too.  They have a pocket and you stuff it with your whatever you want.  These things are pricey $20/diaper new.  Used you can probably find much cheaper.  I have 2.  The one in the picture with the snaps and one I made out of PUL fabric and velcro.  The velcro is so much better, p.s.  This diaper is good because it is basically like using a disposable.  It's much easier.  I still think they are more prone to blow-outs than prefolds though (since you wrap that diaper around your individual babies little bottom).  If you want to use cloth diapers and husband isn't into it, this may still work.  People call these kind of diapers husband-friendly.  I'm telling you though, if you can make your own, you will save yourself probably $19/diaper.  Not exaggerating.  I stuff mine with prefold diapers.  They come with their own stuff, but I find it less absorbent.  I've never had a babysitter need more diapers, so the 2 have worked great.  I still think it would be wise to have more, just in case.)
• Old cotton clothes that were going to be disposed of.  (We cut them into squares and use them as wipes.  Cost us nothing.  I wouldn't suggest buying clothe wipes.  They are made from things like microfiber and although very soft, will not have much grip, if you can imagine what I'm saying.)
• Water + baby soap + baby oil = wipe solution!  (You actually don't even need to add the baby soap and baby oil.  I know people who don't.  Or you could add one or the other.  I use all three because I like to think I'm actually washing the baby's bottom and the baby oil is so nice to their skin.  I haven't always used the baby oil, but I will never go back now that I have.  You can also buy wipe solution.  I'm guessing at least $10/bottle.  My suggestion is don't.)

I like to have 24 diapers and 8 diaper covers of each size.  It's more than you need for one baby.  I don't know how many flat diapers I have, but way way more than I need and they only come in one size, as far as I'm aware.

Some (but not all) other options
I never tried most of these other options because I am cheap and they are not as cheap as me.

• fitted diapers (most similar to disposable diapers.  They come in sizes the same too.  NB, 1, 2, etc.)
• all in one diapers (as it sounds, all in one piece.  You don't need to add absorbent cloth.  They can be fitted or one-size fits all, I believe.  I would discourage these because I think you would have to dry them a billion times to get them dry.)
• all in two diapers (also as it sounds, has two pieces. similar to a pocket diaper, but you generally snap the absorbent stuff into it instead of stuff a pocket.  I think pocket diapers are better because you can stuff them with whatever you want rather then having to get another insert that snaps and fits your snap if you were to ever need to replace it.)
• so many other kinds of diapers and things.  If you are interested we can talk more or you can do some of your own searching.

P.S. If you decide to use cloth diapers, please talk to me.  Then you can take some of the things I've learned (dos and don'ts, because there are many) and not have to take forever learning what I've already learned.  And sorry...so many words.

P.P.S. I think it is unwise to invest in a lot of stuff upfront.  Figure out what works for you first, then invest in that.  You would hate to spend $100 on fancy diapers that don't fit your baby well and thus you hate them and never use them.  You could have figured that out for less.

About Melissa

Hey all!  I tried to make this easy to skim/easy-to-read.  I didn't mean to make it long.

Here's a little about me and my life as it currently is...

My Family
Me
It's been a big change for me going from super busy, always doing homework, never finishing said homework, and just barely squeezing by to being not so busy and have almost no obligations.  I think I'm finally getting the hang of it though (now that it's been a year).


Ryan
Ryan works as a recreational therapist at the state hospital and he really likes it.  He works with the adult male general psychiatric department.  Good for him (I would never enjoy that).

Vidalia
Vidalia is now 1 and is a super happy baby/little girl.  I'm so glad to have her.  Life would be so hard without her I think.  She's currently up to 13 steps.  So that's the stage we're in.


What's Going On With Us?
Moving
In March.  Staying in Lincoln.  Much better place.  Much cheaper place.  I've already started packing.

How are things?
We like ourselves, however, we wish we had friends.  How do you make those again?  I can't seem to remember.

Our Routine
We play lots and lots and lots and then eat and sleep.

Hopes, Dreams, Etc.
Family
I wish they were closer.

Children
I hope we are able to have a large family, but we'll just have to see.  It's too soon to know how that's all going to work out.  (Our official child policy is we have 1 we know we would like 2.  After we have 2, we'll be able to decide if we want 3.)  So asking/telling how many kids we want has become a taboo thing.  We just don't do it.  In large part because my family is super full of fertility issues and miscarriage issues and early menopause history.  I suspect a lot of how many and what timing will not be up to us at all.

Other things
Cloth Diapers
We use cloth diapers.  I'm willing to tell you guys anything you want to know about that.  We are experts at how we use cloth diapers and there are about a billion other ways to do it as well.  It's not really a one-size fits all.

Homeschooling
I've thought about it and thought about it and thought about it and I'm leaning towards homeschooling.  There are pros and cons to all types of schooling and when it comes down to why we're thinking of homeschooling, mostly we just want to.

Violin
It's always been my dream to teach my kids the things I know, so we've been teaching Vidalia the violin.  She's 1, so it's slow going, but we both love it.

Egypt
I keep hoping someday the records from Egypt will become available to someone like me.  One of my biggest dreams is to be able to find my family lines.  They go basically nowhere right now and it's currently impossible for me to do anything past what is done.  (At least right now it is.)


If there is anything you guys are curious about in our lives or how we do things or whatever, please feel free to ask.  As far as things I mentioned above, feel free to share insights, opinions, or what you do.  I want to know.