A New Bum

I briefly mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I took the plunge and switched Morenna over to cloth diapers. I may appear the Queen of Green by doing such a thing, but really the change was influenced by a little emergency preparedness chat my hubby and I had.

Water? Check.
Food? Check.
Battery radio? Check... What else would we possibly need?
Ooo, diapers. What'll we do about that?

So I looked into cloth diapering. I had briefly considered the option when I found out I was pregnant with Morenna, but it held little appeal to me. I know my mom had cloth diapered, but it seemed like a lot of work, albeit she had a diaper service. Besides, I scored cheap diapers at CVS, so the expense for disposables seemed minimal to me.

Yeah, minimal.

Come to find out, paying less than $5 a pack can still add up week after week. Who knew?

My first tour of the world of cloth (the new and improved world of cloth, that is) left my head spinning. After one evening of research, I promptly informed Matt there was no way, no how, I was going to be able to do it. Ah, but I love a challenge.

Once I faced my fear of all the unknown lingo, the choices, the very opinionated mommies... I found a company that offered a trial pack of several well-known, well-liked diapers for only $10. That certainly made things a bit more doable, so I gave it a try.

After just a couple days my thoughts mirrored those of many others I had read: Why in the world didn't I do this from the beginning?

It's true, the front-end dishing out of cash seems like a lot. And the concept of washing poopy diapers each day can sound ridiculous and pricey in resources. But really, it is cheap(er). And the extra work? Well, I haven't really noticed it, other than that one extra trip I have to force my pregnant body take down the stairs to the washer each night.

Cons? Swirling a poop-stained diaper in the toilet isn't my idea of a party. But the biodegradable liners you can put in your diapers pretty much take care of all the dirty work. And I have my eye on this handy-dandy little do-dad that would help out a bit, too.

My favorite pro? Simply put: cloth doesn't stink. Consequently, my trash can doesn't always smell and I don't have nasty, stinky, diapers piling up to be thrown out. Morenna's room always smells fresh, even though the pail of dirty cloth diapers sits there. Very cool. And we're now two months into this. Another pro? Not feeling guilty for buying a pack of diapers because I accidentally ran out. I don't run out. Sweet!

We still sometimes use a disposable diaper at night. Morenna is such a heavy-wetter that the cloth diaper I have to make for nighttime use makes her look like a freakin' grasshopper. One night alone she soaked through 4, yes FOUR, inserts in her diaper and I still ended up putting her in a disposable by night's end. There are lots of other options I could try, but I'm lazy. And honest. :-)

Our daytime diapers of choice have been BumGenius and Fuzzibunz with a few old-fashioned prefolds thrown in. The BumGenius are an easy and cost effective route in my opinion, because they have the ease of disposables and are one-size-fits-all. Once Baby Roo arrives, I won't be forced to sort through a pile of diapers to find which one belongs to who. Both girls will be able to use them!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go hang up some diapers. :-)

Frugal Is as Frugal Does

Our little family raked in some super frugal deals last week! The local grocery chain that I frequent was offering quite the promotion from General Mills: buy 15 qualifying items and receive and instant $5 off. On top of that it was triple coupon week!

But the best part was that this little deal included some super mini deals like Totino Pizza Rolls buy 2 get three free and $0.99 frozen Green Giant veggies that likewise generated their own $3 cash back for every 5 you purchased.

Make your head swim? It did mine... but I'm so excited by the outcome. We scored 11 packages of frozen veggies, 5 boxes of pizza rolls, 10lbs of flour, a box of toaster pastries, and a Betty Crocker Warm Delight brownie for $5! Yay!

In other frugal news...

Back in February I mentioned my new obsession with Swagbucks for my internet searches. For those of you who may not have taken action on this great new search engine, you still can! And here's a little update: I've now cashed in my searching points for over $50 in gift cards! I'm loving it! Matt is also a "swagger" and he's added another $20 in gift cards to our little stockpile, too! Looking for some side cash to gear up for Christmas? Sign up here for Swagbucks!

Home for the Holiday...

the Labor Day holiday, that is. We made our last trip before Baby Roo's arrival to the Buckeye State to visit with family over the long holiday weekend. For the hundredth time (or so it seems to me) I came down with a cold the day we left and spent the first couple of days recuperating. Morenna had some teething issues, too, and combined with the sleeping issues we already were dealing with made for a couple sleepless nights. Oh well.

On Sunday we celebrated my dad's birthday. Morenna got a kick out of all the packing peanuts that contained his gifts. I'm so glad we got to be there to sing and celebrate as a family!





My extended family also got together later that same day for a bonfire, a common occurrence with my family seeing how my grandpa, dad and two cousins are all firefighters. Where there is a good time, there is fire. :-) The rest of us enjoyed sitting and relaxing. Matt kept all the little boys busy learning how to play football and that gals watched. Morenna threw rocks. That's my girl.


Two of my cousins and I have little ones the same age. My grandpa, now the great-grandfather of eleven (soon to be twelve!), enjoyed sitting with the three youngest on the swing for a large part of the evening. I think they enjoyed it too.

L to R: Riley, Grandpa, Stephen (15 months), Morenna (17 months), Ryan (14 months).

I also got to visit awhile with my other set of grandparents. Unfortunately my mom's dad was in the hospital the entire time we were home, but my mom's mom was able to come join in all the family fun with my dad's family. I love that my grandmas are friends!

All in all it was a good weekend home. I can't believe we won't be able to go home again until Christmas. ::Sniff:: But it's all for a good reason. :-)

Morenna sitting in the baby rocking chair that has been in my family for three generations.
My mom, me, and now Morenna have grown up with it. So fun!

Sweet Refreshment and Other Stuff

Who doesn't experience burn-out? During the season of motherhood the "cliffs" of weariness and discouragement seem to ever loom in the not-too-distant future for me to plunge over. And I only have one child! (At least for the next two months!)

This past spring, Matt and I initiated a new Mom's Time-Out on Saturday mornings. What refreshment I've found during that time! He graciously takes Morenna and I escape to the local coffeeshop for a few hours of alone time, followed by any necessary errands I need to run.

Are you feeling ready for a break? Let me encourage you to see if your spouse would be willing to give you some time away.

A couple of my friends have inquired as to what I do with my morning out. Here's a basic overview, in preferential order:

- Eat a slow-paced breakfast someone else prepared;

- Study God's word and prepare my heart for any foreseen challenges in the coming week;

- Evaluate my calendar and think through the events of the coming week;

- Menu plan: I usually do one week at a time and establish my meals based on a day's events. I can always switch it up if my day changes;

- Clip and organize my coupons and shopping list for the upcoming week;

- Balance my share of our budget

- Update my blog: yes, I admit, I only blog once a week. :-) I typically set my posts to run on future dates so that the fresh content pops up all week long; and

- Browse the internet :-)

It's amazed me just how refreshed I feel after being away just for a few hours each Saturday. Mentally I'm refreshed and ready to return to serve my family and my weeks run much more smoothly since I feel on top of things. Many thanks to my hubby for his support of such an outing! :-)

Do any of you do something similar?

A Night Out

Though Matt and I share the same spring birthday month, I took the liberty of extending his birthday well into the summer this year. Two weeks ago we had a night out to celebrate, just the two of us. It was fantastic!

Following dinner at McCormick and Schmick's, we headed to our box seats at WolfTrap for a summer evening together. For Matt's birthday gift I purchased tickets to see WolfTrap's HD showing of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The movie was shown with a live orchestra and choir. Wow. I'm not a huge fan of LOTR, but I couldn't help but thoroughly enjoy myself.

To compliment the event, I wore my Lord of the Ring's Evenstar necklace that Matt had bought me for my birthday. Hmmm, see a theme here?

Breakfast for Dinner

I have a love-hate relationship with weekends. Who doesn't love being with family and having daylight hours to blow through to-do lists?

But I don't like cooking on weekends. By the time Friday night rolls around, I'm done with food prep. Despite menu planning - which I love - I still am not in the mood to be in the kitchen.

In an effort to curve our weekend take-out bill, I've established Saturday's dinner as breakfast time. :-) It's working so well for us, especially since I can't do the fancy recipes I'd like to on Saturday mornings because of being pregnant.

Banana-nut pancakes have become a favorite of ours. I double the recipe and freeze the extras for quick weekday breakfasts. We had them again tonight and loved them yet again... so I thought I share the love recipe with you:

Hearty Banana-Nut Pancakes
*Recipe adapted from epicurian

1.5 cups flour (wheat or all-purpose)
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons buttermilk
3/4 cup mashed bananas (about 2 large very ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
1/4 to 1/3 applesauce (amount dependent on flour type)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) chopped pecans or walnuts

~Enjoy!~

Growing Up - The Lengthy Edition

My first thought was to begin this post with the proverbial: Morenna is growing like a weed. ::Yawn:: That's a no-brainer. Instead I'll try to be a little more purposeful in sharing what her life (and ours as parents) is like these days.

As I type, I'm glancing at my husband's khaki-clad pant leg, which is currently a marbled tie-die of marker smudges. Drawing is a new thing for our little BG, but I'm elated that she's finally taking an interest. It didn't take long for a "marker rule" to be enforced after this picture was taken. After cleaning my floor numerous times (what heavenly provision washable non-toxic markers are!) we finally moved all coloring to the table. We're still having issues with marking our face, teeth, lips, clothes and other extremities, though. I thought about switching her to crayons. No stain. No mess. Brilliance! But she's taken to badly chewing the ones we get at restaurants so I've stuck with drawing utensils that can defend themselves.

Concurrently, I'm listening to Morenna (who's supposed to be sleeping) on the baby monitor counting the dots on her pajamas. It sounds something like this: "won (one)... doo (two)... tree (three)! Seriously, in the matter of about a week she picked up counting to three and will typically perform on demand. Yes, this is definitely my most favorite developmental milestone at the moment. I'm trying to move her past "three" and on to "four", but she's pretty adamant about staying at three. She refuses to even say "four". So, no dice. (Note: as you see in the picture from Monday's post, Morenna refuses to fall asleep unless her feet are propped up. She also has to prop them up at the table, too. So funny!)

Speaking of refusals, what's up with the sudden arrival of picky eating? If offered to her, any variety of food will be refused. Even favorites. But if haphazardly placed within her reach (whether purposefully or accidentally), any food may readily be devoured, including, but not limited to: raw potatoes, garlic, prunes, onions - gross stuff like that. What the...?

She very much enjoys climbing and standing on her stool to watch me cook, prepare food, do the dishes, you name it. I can't believe how big she looks to me standing there and trying to help out. Too cute!

By far her favorite thing to do is stand and swirl around the bubbles in my dishwater. It will keep her entertained the whole time I do the dishes. Can't beat that!

One personality trait Matt and I have been a little disappointed about is her lack of luster for outside activities. We are both big outdoorsy people... but not her. No way. She'll play out in the yard with us a for a little while, but in no time at all she'll waddle her way to the door and pound on it until we let her in.

On a positive note, she's a big singer. Yes, she loves music. And loud music, too. Matt and I still haven't outgrown our loud music tastes from college, but Morenna is a great sport and will start bopping to the music as soon as she hears the beat. Not to worry: she listens to Christian music, too. :-) My mom taught her to sing the Hosanna song. It sounds something like this:

Morenna: Ho, ho, ho, ho...

Mommy: Hosanna...

Morenna: Ha, ha, ha, ha...

Mommy: ...hallelujah...

Morenna: He, he, he, he...

Mommy: ... Saved me...

Morenna: I got da...

Mommy: ...love of the Lord...

Morenna: in Me! ::big grin::

I'll be sure to post the video we have of that sometime soon.