$10 Gift Certificate to www.monkeybunz.com CLOSED

I was so excited to discover that I'd won a Bumkins Diaper Cover from Monkey Bunz.com awhile back, and even more excited when I discovered that they were going to sponsor  a giveaway from my blog!

Yes, folks, it's time for another giveaway! Who doesn't love giveaways???

First things first.  Monkeybunz.com is an online retailer that specializes in cloth diapers and cloth diaper accessories and they offer some of your favorite cloth diaper styles and brands.   It was started by Rhonda,  a stay-at-home-mom who needed to return to work but preferred her at-home lifestyle with her kids.  She says, "After a lot of soul searching, and business research, Monkeybunz.com was born.  Now we have a business that both eco-friendly and family-friendly.  Best of all, it's budget-friendly for our customers."

One of my favorite things about Monkeybunz.com is that it offers Free Shipping within the contiguous USA.  Have I mentioned how much I love retailers who offer Free Shipping?    So go ahead, add Monkeybunz.com to your list of favorite retailers when you're searching for the next perfect cloth diaper.  

With so many good things to say about this store, I'm so pleased to do this giveaway!

Monkey Bunz has generously offered one $10 gift certificate to their store. I will extend this giveaway for 2 weeks, as I normally do for my giveaways.
TO WIN:

Mandatory Entry: To be eligible for this giveaway, you must be a follower of my blog, and you must answer the following question:
Which accessory would you buy from Monkeybunz.com and why?

Additional Entries:
(please put your email in each comment.  It can be in a "____ at _____ dot com" format if you prefer)

* 5 entries: blog/facebook/twitter about this post and comment here with the url address and your email.

* 1 entry: Tell me what cloth diaper Monkey Bunz offers that you would like to try.

* 1 entry: Add my button to your blog

*1 entry: Follow Monkey Bunz on facebook

*1 entry: Check out the Monkey Bunz blog and tell me one thing you discovered there.

*1 entry: Follow Monkeybunz on Twitter (Twitter page is Monkeybunzstore)

*3 entries: submit an order at Monkeybunz.com during the duration of this giveaway and leave your order number in your comments.  

Good luck! You will have from today, Saturday, May 8th until Wednesday, May 26th to enter this giveaway.

Thomas Nelson Book Review: Plain Paradise

If you are an Amish fiction junkie like me, then you’ll love Plain Paradise. It’s the sweet coming of age story of Linda, a young girl who’s madly in love with her beau and anxiously awaiting a proposal. But her life is turned upside down when she discovers she is adopted and her birth mother is an Englisher—a very rich and fancy Englisher. Just when she gets used to the idea of her new family status and she starts embracing her birth mother as a friend, a devastating secret is uncovered that will change everything.

I love reading Amish fiction and I generally stick to the same couple of authors because I know I’ll like them. I was delighted to discover Beth Wiseman’s book because I’d never read anything by her before and I really enjoy her writing style! She’s entertaining and believable and really pulls you into her characters’ world. She also makes the message of Christ very clear as she weaves it seamlessly throughout the story and the characters’ lives.

Ultimately, this book is one of redemption, renewal, hope, and salvation. It’s fun to read and really grabs your attention from the start. I absolutely loved it. I can’t wait to get my hands on more of this fabulous author’s work!

09-09-09

My daughter won the nines photo contest at Kelly's Closet's The Cloth Diaper Whisperer!

I knew she had to win with this birthday.  Sure her photo was cute, but seriously if you enter a photo contest whose theme is 9s and your birthday is 9-9-9, then you've GOT to win, right?

Check out her picture:

Okay, I feel stupid, but do you win anything if you win this photo contest?  I don't think so since they didn't sent me an email or anything...

*edit* I contacted them and there is, in fact, no prize for the photo contest, FYI.  Maybe that's why they had so few entries with such a large following?  Either way, I'm happy to have won :-D

Which detergent for your cloth diapers?

It can be a bit daunting when you first start out cloth diapering and you discover all these new "accessories" that you need to get.  Things such as wipes, wet bags, diaper sprayers, and special detergents can sometimes seem like too much!

For me, getting laundry detergent for my cloth diapers was a big problem.  It was hard enough building a decent diaper stash, carefully scrounging $20-$60 dollars each pay check for me to buy 1-3 diapers at a a time was trying on my patience.  Meanwhile, I was wholeheartedly into cloth diapering full time so I was washing loads of 6-8 diapers at a time, 1-2 times a day so that I wouldn't have to put my Bunny in a yucky disposable.  Until we were able to afford something better, we just used Tide.  Not the best, I know, but it did the trick for awhile. 

Finally, when my stash reached somewhere around 20 (around the time Bunny was 3-4 months old) I gave in and bought some Rockin" Green cloth diaper detergent.  I have to say, I was disappointed.  First of all, it's extremely small.  Over time, I discovered that this wasn't an issue since it lasted me for about 2-3 months of washing cloth diapers every day or every two days.  Secondly, the amazing smell that everyone raves about didn't reach past the little, muslin bag the detergent comes in.  My diapers did not smell amazingly.  Thirdly, it didn't eliminate the need to strip as everyone claims.  Granted, that's probably due to the fact that my town has TERRIBLY hard water which we run through chemicals in a water softener, AND we have an HE machine.  (I would have never guessed I'd be disappointed about having a washing machine that uses less water! Ha ha!).  Over time, I discovered ways to compensate for our hard water and HE machine and I just do a MAD amount of rinses before and after washing, but by the time I figured it out, I was out of Rockin' Green.  And, I"m sad to report that some of it spilled on the floor because I left the bag opened on the top of the machine and it scooted off the edge.  I dutifully spooned up a few loads from the floor, though, so as not to waste one precious and expensive drop.

I don't think I will be replacing my bag of Rockin' Green.  I mean, it's okay.  It works.  But it lacks the WOW factor everyone raves about.

Meanwhile, my husband came home from Sam's Club with a very LARGE and inexpensive bottle of Ecos--an all natural laundry detergent.  Well, many detergents claim to be all natural in grocery stores so I wasn't sure if I was buying it.  I read the label and it's pretty much free and clear of all these different chemicals that I can't pronounce, but I still wasn't sure.

So I googled it! Well, maybe I Swag Bucked it, but that's not what's important.  What IS important is this amazing LIST I  found at www.diaperjungle.com.  It's the most helpful detergent list I've ever seen! You should go check it out.

And guess what?  No more buying detergent online for me because Ecos is rated as GREAT for cloth diapers! Yay!!!!

And what's best is that it smells amazing--like lavender--and it works great!  When you cloth diaper you just get used to not being able to find any of your diapering necesities at actual brick and mortar stores located nearby so this is just wonderful, to me.  And do you know what's even better?  The only reason my sweetie pie even bought the detergent to begin with was that it was the cheapest.  Woo hoo!!!

WINNERS: $15 GF from RG Natural Babies

Here are the two winners of the RG Natural Babies $15 gift certificate!

Quiz Winner is: Lisa She was the first person to figure out all the answers to the questions most completely--as in, she remembered colors and complete names of the products. She was actually the second person but I couldn't, for the life of me, find a way to contact the first person!

Winner drawn at Random is: comment # 11 from the updated RG Natural Babies Giveaway Post-- Tim, Allyson, and Kids



For future reference, if you enter my giveaways, I need a way to contact you.  I prefer an email in your comments, but if it's not there, please have a profile or a blog where I can reach you.  Thanks! :-D
And thanks, everyone who participated.  I definitely made that quiz much more difficult than I'd meant to, and should I ever do anything similar in the future, it will in no way be so involved! :-D

An update on the weekend

Hey guys, so I'm sure some of you are wondering how last weekend went with just prefolds.

I took lots of pictures and may write a more detailed post later as a guest blogger to earn some free diapers (at this point most of my free dipes will be gifts), but my loyal readers need an update, I realize!

So, we've traveled twice before and used only cloth.  Once, when Bunny was two months old, my husband took the young adults on a weekend retreat (he's also the young adult pastor at our church) and over Christmas when we traveled 7 hours to see my family we used cloth exclusively.  Both times, all we had were pocket diapers.  At the retreat I experimented with hand washing them.  I found that it was possible, but that it's difficult to hand wash and hand dry microfiber inserts because they just hold SO MUCH WATER! I was getting blisters from wringing them out and they weren't drying fast enough! (I think I only had 15ish diapers in my stash then, and since Bunny was younger and only breastfed--no solids--at that point, she went through more.

In the end, I found a dryer and just machine dried them all.  I found that hand washing pockets is doable but not ideal

Over Christmas I just used my parents washer and dryer with the pockets.  This worked fine.  It was much like cloth diapering at home... except that pockets are sort of bulky to carry around.  I had about 20 diapers at this time.

This past weekend, I bought prefolds and flats and brought 29 of them with me. (17 prefolds and 12 flats).  I didn't realize how much less my daughter needs to be changed now that she is 7 months old and that nearly 30 diapers would be unnecessary if I was planning on washing them--which I was.  Since I'm somewhat chicken about using prefolds at night, I brought 6-8 pockets with me for night time.  She only used four.  She generally gets changed only once at night even though she wakes up more than once on some nights.

And prefolding worked well! I'm still not the best at using prefolds.  I'm awkward about putting them on with the snappi and only using a wrap.  No matter how you slice it, it will never be as easy to put a prefold or a flat diaper on a baby as it is to put an All in One or a pocket diaper--or even a fitted.

But I liked it! I didn't mind that I was awkward at it! I'm such a cloth diaper enthusiast that I enjoy trying everything!

ANd I washed them--hand washed them in the bathtub and dried them in front of a roaring fireplace.  There was a dryer available because this was a retreat center with separate houses for showers, bathrooms, washrooms, etc, but I guess I wanted to know that I would be capable of cloth diapering in a worse-case scenario.  Ha ha! Next I'll have to try it while camping :-D.  I'll wash them in the river or something while carrying my baby on my back :-P.  ANyway, the clothesline I used was a rope my husband had along for some activity he did with the kids.

Originally I'd laid them out to dry on a tightrope he'd set up for one of the challenges (let me tell you, my husband is an AMAZING youth pastor! He sets up the most intricate and wonderful retreats generally with a movie to set the stage, challenges, clues, and everything always pulls together to help the kids learn one, God-centered point, but I digress!) but since it was rainy, the outdoor clothesline/tightrope wasn't cutting it.  The rope I eventually used was red and dyed some of my diapers with an orange line, but I'm sure it will wash out.  Also, the diapers were stiff after drying in front of a fire.  I guess they'd be the same way after drying outside.  They usually aren't stiff on my drying rack in the baby's room.

From now on, if a washer/dryer is an option, I"m using it because I don't want so much stiff fabric against my baby's skin.

It turns out that I didn't need to wash them at all, though.  Bunny only went through 19 prefolds (I didn't even have to use the flats--talk about an awkward diaper to learn to use!) and four pockets.  I could have just waited until I got home.

All in all, cloth diapering at a youth retreat was a successful experience.  I enjoyed it! I don't have very many covers, though.  I've discovered that Thirsties are, by far, my favorite.  I brought four of my wool soakers, two thirsties (one Medium with velcro and one duo size 2 with snaps), a Bumkins, and two made from diaeprkit.com.  I mostly used the Thirsties and the wool ones.  But with wool I don't like to have anything OVER the cover because one of the positives of using wool is that it feels almost moist when the baby has wet so there's no guesswork about changing.  No, it doesn't leak, or get anything else wet, but it does feel warm and moist.  Have I mentioned I love wool???

So, with the next points I earn from Diaper Junction from my posts there, I'm getting at least one THirsties.  I'd get a lot more but there are lots of other things I need from them--including a diaper for my friend at church who really needs more diapers but doesn't seem to have a way to get them herself.

 Oh, and we learned that Bunny really loves loud, Christian Rock...which is a GOOD thing since having a youth pastor for a daddy means lots of loud teenagers and their awesome music and festivals such as Creation that she will attend every year for her entire life...well, maybe not this year.  I don't know if I'm brave enough to go with her this year and deal with the throngs of dirty, hot people, port-a-potties, SUN,  and washing cloth diapers.  If there ever were going to be something to put me over the edge with diapers and push me to use disposables, it would be Creation!

Moby Walks are my Favorite!

When people ask me what that ONE thing is that every new mom should have, I will usually say a Moby Wrap.  Seriously, if you're expecting, go get one.  Or something like it.  It's amazing.  Of course, I think another thing that no new mother should be without is cloth diapers, but most people disagree.

Anyway...

I just came back from a Moby Wrap walk with Bunny.  It was the first time I'd been able to do that in a L-O-N-G time! My back is almost back to normal and with it's gradual healing comes the gradual re-usage of my favorite baby accessory.  And walking without a stroller.  Bunny has grown up a little since the last time I could wear her and it was different walking with her in the Moby today.

It's windy and she loves wind.  She loves when we blow in her face too! So she intermittently pulled her face out and threw it back with her little eyes closed and her cheeks puffed out in a gummy, open-mouth smile like a puppy throwing his head out the window of a moving car.  I thought my heart would burst to see her experiencing wind for the first time with such rapture and joy!

I used the wind as an opportunity to tell her about God.
"You can't see the wind and you can't hear it, baby girl, but you know it's there because of the evidence it leaves all around you.  You can hear leaves and grass rustling and see trees moving, and feel the wind rubbing your face and that's how you know it's here.  God is the same way.  Sometimes you can't see him or hear him but you know He's there because of the great things he does."

She didn't get it yet, but one day she'll understand.

She was sightseeing today too.  When I want her to go to sleep I take the one side of the Moby and tuck her little head under it with her face sticking out.  I did that because I mistakenly thought she was the same baby who'd gone on Moby walks with me a month or two ago and thought she'd go to sleep.  But she protested, refusing to be confined and sticking her little head out and looking to one side for awhile, then the other just observing everything.  And when the wind got too strong, she burrowed her little face against my breast seeking the comfort of my nearness.

Meanwhile, I was getting back on track to losing the last 5-10 baby pounds that had been sneaking back on me while my back recovered.  Losing weight while cuddling Bunny.  What can be better!  Wearing your baby is one of the best ways to bond, in my opinion.  It's an everlasting cuddle!

And today, we enjoyed said cuddle to the sound of the trees praising their Maker and the lilacs sending up sweet aromas of worship to Him.  And He walked with us as He always does.

...and this is what happens when your wonderful SLR focuses on YOU when you set it up rather than focusing on the background...oops!!!