Cloth Diapering: It’s How We Doo…Doo

Like what I did the title there? I know, so clever. So, here’s the deal. This is how WE do it. When this journey of pregnancy and parenting began, I learned quickly that I wanted to learn from others, but that was all I wanted. In turn, I try not to give advice unless asked. I believe in making informed and educated decisions that are YOUR OWN. Figure out what works for your family, and if it’s cloth diapering, I hope this helps! This is only from my own experience.

Why? Why not? We already do laundry. Despite arguments that it increases water and electricity bills, we didn’t notice any change when we converted when M was 2 weeks old. It takes a little time, but not much more than folding laundry. In fact, I fold clothes and stuff diapers in the same sitting. It’s good for our wallet. It’s good for our world. It works for our home. That’s enough for me! 

How many? I’m actually not totally sure how many we have. I think it’s around 36. We have 24 newborn size and around 36 one-size. That was our goal when we started buying them. Everything I read said to have about 12/day…so if you don’t want to be forced to wash all of the time, plan accordingly. I will say that I wash about every other day. Sometimes I go every three days. By the way, NO WAY older babies use 12…that’s only for the tiny ones.

 The newborn diapers we have are all prefold. These are the old-school ones that are now most known as burp cloths. 

The majority of our one-size lot are pocket-diapers. These have inserts made of different things. I sometimes use the newborn diapers as inserts. We have a few one-size all-in-ones. These are pricey, but convenient. 

We also have several one-size prefolds that I bought on Ebay for super cheap. I’ve accumulated covers as they’ve been inexpensive on Ebay as well. These are good when there’s a diaper rash; I put him in one without a cover so his behind can breathe a little more and I know when he’s wet instantly.

Cleaning? When we take diapers off, we toss them in the dry pail. If a baby is solely breastfed, the poo is water soluble. There is, seriously, no need to do anything about it. If you think it’s gross, consider…newborns have blow outs…I mean, SERIOUS poo. Poo all over pants. Poo all over shirts. Poo all over mom’s pants. In my house, after those incidents I didn’t rush to do a load of laundry every single time. It’s all right. It comes out. Now, I can’t vouch if a baby is not breastfed, but breastfed baby poo is easy squeezy.

Our Pail

As the little poo maker gets older, things change just a tad. This is where diaper sprayers make a lot of money; however, J (my husband) and I decided they’re totally not worth it. Most poo just slides right off into the toilet. If it doesn’t, we use the little spray bottle they give you (mama) at the hospital after you had the little one. It works just fine to get those little pieces into the potty where they belong.  You can also use flushable or reusable liners so that the poo doesn’t stick to the diapers. These last forever and work fine as well.

The Squirt Bottle Thing

In terms of detergent, we used Ecos Free and Clear for the longest time. It was the best bang for our buck, and it did just fine. Now, I make my own using the same one that my fellow blogger, Donna, taught me. To wash, I do one short rinse cycle. Then, I add about half of the detergent I normally would and put it on the longest cycle. Now that I’m stateside and it’s an option, I wash with hot water about once a week. Every now and then when I feel they might be getting a tiny bit stinky, I put a few drops of tea tree oil in the wash. It’s magical. Then, I rinse again, and I hang dry.

When it's sunny! 

When it's rainy!

Aside from diapers? I strongly recommend having extra inserts. I haven’t felt the need as strongly as I do now that my little guy is older. It’s getting necessary to double up inserts for naptime.

You need a bucket or trash can that is a designated diaper pail along with wet bags. We have three and it works wonderfully. There’s usually one being used in the pail, one hanging to be dry, and one ready to be used at all times. They make some so that you can unzip the bottom and the diapers fall out into the washer. These are fine, but just regular wet bags work as well. You can easily dump diapers without touching them. 

You also need a few travel wet bags. These are small for you to put dirty diapers in while traveling.

These are some of our extras. We do have some wipes, but we rarely use them. The top, funny shaped things are snappies for prefold diapers. The brown bag is a small wetbag, and the folded pile of white, blue, and red are our big wet bags. The rolled up case are flushable liners that we don't use very often. The CD was from Real Nappies. 

Kushies is a simple, affordable travel wetbag.

G-Diapers products are good. I like their big wet bags. We just don't use their diapers because they don't do a lot of one-size. 

Cloth diapers are not friendly with powder or regular butt paste. Good things to have on hand are coconut oil just for baby’s bum and Grandma El’s Diaper Cream (check that out HERE). These are, of course, if your little one HAS TO have a diaper on. If not, let that little rash air out.

Of course, if you're super intense on not having any trash, you'll want wipes and such too. 

Buy used? The majority of our diapers were purchased new; however, we do have some there were used when we bought them. Some feel that is gross. I feel like I buy used baby clothing that was potentially peed and pooed on as well. If I trust the lack of stains to mean that it’s all right to put on my baby, then I feel the same about used diapers. I will not buy crazy stained diapers, but I will buy used if they look all right.

Brands? This is where my experience actually contradicts what I will do in the future. It’s a “If I had thought then what I think now” moment. I will just tell you what I have, and what I feel about them. I’ll also tell you my plans for future purchases.

Real Nappies- all of our newborn diapers are Real Nappies. They are prefolds and I love them. They are made in New Zealand and they have a 2 kid guarantee. After using their prefolds as inserts, I believe the guaranteed whole heartedly. Check them out HERE.

Alva- Many of our pocket diapers are Alva. They are extremely affordable and they are good diapers, BUT, they are truly too good to be true. In the same way that we have been striving to eat local, real food…we have been convicted to try and be a little more aware of where our money goes. These are unfortunately straight from China. We will not be buying them again.

Kawaii-We have a few of these diapers. I do really like them; however, they find me in the same predicament as the Alva. Even though the price is right, I probably will not purchase these again.

BumGenius-These are my favorite!! Unfortunately, when new, they are pricey. The quality of these diapers is far superior to the Alva and Kawaii. To top that off, they are made in Colorado and a newly opened factory in Egypt. I am a fan. Check out their story HERE.

Happy Heinys-These are my second favorite! This company is based out of Indiana and run by two lactation specialist mama’s! The diapers are not cheap, but I really like them. They get the job done, and there is an evident difference in quality when compared to the China-made brands. Read about them HERE. 

Smitten Baby- I can’t vouch for these diapers…yet! They’re on special on Zulilly AS I TYPE. My biggest draw to these diapers is that they’re 100% made in Canada. It’s so difficult to find diapers that are not made in China that when I do, I get excited and curious! Check them out HERE!

ALWAYS cloth diapering? Not in this house. We didn’t start cloth diapering until our little guy was about 2 weeks old. Then, we only did it at home. Now, it depends on how long we will be out. You do need to change cloth diapers more frequently than you change disposable. So, if we’re going to the store to be home by lunch, I will let M stay in cloth. If we’re driving an hour and planning to visit for a while wherever we’re headed, I will put M in disposables until we go home. Currently we do disposables at night because I haven’t quite figured out how to maintain his new heavy-wetter status! It’s just easier that way. Otherwise, cloth diapering is not much work at all. If you’re thinking it could be for you then it probably is. If it’s your first baby, I recommend requesting a shower exclusively for diapers. If you know you’re going to have more than one…use one to start your stash!

I mean, it doesn't get much cuter than that little cloth covered booty! Well, that’s that. Let me know if there’s anything I missed.  Happy cloth diapering!

-Hollie

Real Food Resources

Chana Dal and Roti (Indian flatbread) from Leanne Brown's Free Cookbooks.

I am writing this blog post ahead of time in an effort to keep from skipping out on writing during busy weeks.  Today, I was surfing the internet and I came across a website that is run by a food studies scholar named Leanne Brown.  She has generously put together two completely free cookbooks on her website which look phenomenal.

Brown's newest book called Good and Cheap, is a collection of real food recipes designed for families on SNAP (aka food stamps).  Don't get me wrong though, these recipes are not just for those on SNAP.  They are healthy, simple, REAL FOOD RECIPES that anyone can make.  The added bonus is that they can be made for very little money.  In fact, according to the author, these recipes fit into a $4 per day food budget.

The author apparently wrote this cookbook for her capstone project while getting her Masters degree.  After it received positive feedback online, she decided to launch a kickstarter campaign in order to get this book into the hands of those who need it and may not have access to a computer.  How wonderful is that?!?!?!  The author states on her kickstarter page:
      "It bothered me that so many ideas for fixing the food system leave out the poor: it seemed like they didn't have a voice in the food movement. I wanted to create a resource that would promote the joy of cooking and show just how delicious and inspiring a cheap meal can be if you cook it yourself."

I agree with her wholeheartedly.  The poor are almost always left out of the discussion and often, they are the ones most affected by "junk" food because it is so cheap.  Have I mentioned how awesome I think this is yet?  

Rolling out the Roti.  

My absolute favorite part of all of this though, is the fact that the author is addressing eating real, wholesome food on a budget, while utilizing less meat and more filling vegetables and fruits.  As we all know, I am a huge proponent of at least being conscious of your meat intake, while substituting fresh fruits and vegetables.  But, I think that the most important thing you can do for your health and the health of your family is to cook your own food from scratch.  There is no better way to find out exactly what is going into your body, and this helps you to make healthful decisions.  

The first cookbook that Brown wrote, From Scratch, is also a great looking read.  She says on her website that "From Scratch is a vegetarian cookbook intended for people just becoming comfortable in their own kitchens".  Most of you may have noticed that I am very comfortable in the kitchen, but I still thoroughly enjoy the recipes and ideas that she has presented here.  Again, all of these recipes utilize real, whole food ingredients to make delicious looking, nutrient rich meals.   

Closeup of the dal with kale stems.

The great thing about both of these books is that Brown explains how to cook for yourself.  She gives ideas for substitutions and teaches you how to make things from what you have in your own fridge or pantry.  This is super important because, too often, people try to change their eating habits too drastically, which, in turn, often leads to failure.  When people learn to look at a recipe and substitute the ingredients that they like, they will find it easier to stick to a real food plan.      

I have to mention that the photographs in both of Brown's books are amazing!  After looking through these books, my mouth is literally watering.  It might also be dinner time, but the fact remains, I want to try out every single one of these recipes.  Well, maybe not the roasted chicken or the pulled pork, but almost all of them.    

Chana Dal cooking away.

You can download both of Brown's cookbooks for free here.  If you feel so inclined and can afford it, I encourage you to check out her kickstarter campaign here as well.  I hope you all enjoy her cookbooks as much as I do.  

Note: I made Brown's version of chana dal with spinach and roti last night for dinner and it was phenomenal.  Even though I made a rookie mistake and used yellow split peas instead of actual chana dal which is apparently a split chickpea.  Whoa!  Anyways, my pictures are not nearly as pretty as hers, but I have included them in this post for some added color.  The only substitution I made was to add some extra water and to use kale instead of spinach because that is what I had this week.  In case you are wondering, the recipe for the chana dal can be found in From Scratch on page 67 and the recipe for roti, the Indian flatbread can be found in her other book, Good and Cheap on page 104.    

~Donna  

Who do you trust with your children?

Hello all. I have been MIA for a while...sorry. It has been a very busy past few weeks. B, E, and I traveled to Germany and France for a 2 week vacation, then returned to pack up our home, then moved to a temporary place for a few days, and then journeyed back stateside for a short respit at my mom's for a couple weeks before traveling to our new home...Guam! (You can read more about that here.) Wow! It sounds even more crazy as I type it out.

So this post is mainly for the Mamas and Papas out there, but I would love to still here from those who may have insightful information to share on this subject; both personal and professional.

Who do you trust your little ones with? This goes from simply who do you feel comfortable with your children being around, to who do you trust leaving your child with?

I feel that I grew up in a time where all adults were trusted and it was not considered rude to tap someone on the shoulder during a neighborhood cookout and say, "Hey, please don't curse like that, my kids standing right here and can hear you", without fear of being punched in the face or convicted of prohibiting free speech. Can we say, "Times have definitely changed." We know now more then ever that all adults cannot be trusted. By saying this I don't mean that they all were trustworthy in the 80's and 90's. But we see daily on the news and through social media that even family members cannot be trusted. We are able to see more easily that predators of all kind lurk in each and every corner of our society...from your Pediatrician's office, to your local police, even your home church. So, what are we as parents left to think?
Are you a worrier (like me) who pretty much does not leave their child with anyone? Do you happen to have a close group of really trusty friends or family that you feel hands-down comfortable leaving your off-spring with? Do you have one set of grandparents you wouldn't hesitate leaving your babes with for a whole weekend, yet others you wouldn't let keep an eye on your kids while you went pee?...Do you feel completely freaked about placing your kids in daycare or church childcare? Have you pulled your kid out of a daycare? Please share with me your thoughts. I'm really curious. I feel this is a topic we don't openly discuss much in detail as parents, but all think about on a daily basis.

I would love to do a follow-up post about this, where I share your responses and stories as parents or as children (growing up) left in the care of really trustworthy or untrustworthy caregivers and the affect it's had on you and/or your parenting. 

I couldn't publish this post without adding a photo from our Euro trip.

Until next time....

-Anjelica

Homemade Pizza on the Grill

I don't know about the mainland, but here in Puerto Rico summer is definitely here.  It has been ridiculously hot this past week.  I can't bring myself to do much of anything unless it involves going somewhere that actually has air conditioning.  Right about now, I would really love central air.  Maybe I'm just doing my part to slow global warming or something.  Yeah, that didn't have the desired effect of making me feel better.  In this heat, I just don't care as much about the planet.  ;-)

Wedding photos at the Muny in Forest Park. 

Monday was my two year wedding anniversary with S. We didn't get a plan together soon enough to do anything last weekend, but we did find some awesome goodies at the farmers market on Sunday.  We had baby spinach, pounds and pounds of lovely tomatoes, leftover red onion from a pasta salad last week and some kalamata olives from the same salad.  Of course we had lots of other goodies from the farmers market, but these are the things that are actually relevant to this post.

I love this one with the bubbles.

S. was craving pizza again (imagine that) so we decided that we should make homemade pizza.  Since that is sort of a fun, multiple-person-friendly cooking activity, we decided that it would be a good anniversary dinner.  Little did we know, Monday was going to be the start of an epic heat wave.  After S came home from work, we went to go get coconut water to try to cool down and re-hydrate.  It helped until we ran out of coconut water.  We talked about how miserable it was going to be to turn on the oven and make pizza, but with all the talk about pizza, we were both really craving some.  Not to mention, I had spent most of my afternoon simmering pizza sauce on the stove.

Anniversary Coconuts!

Suddenly, I had an idea.  I wondered if you could grill pizza.  I figured it was a long shot, but totally worth it if it worked.  Well, as it turns out, grilled pizza is phenomenal!  I started out by searching the interwebs for success stories and some tips and tricks.  In my research I found that the general consensus was that you have to cook the dough on one side first and then flip it over and top the pizza while it is on the grill.  Otherwise the dough may not cook all the way through.  This made for a less than perfect looking pizza, but the taste definitely made up for the aesthetic aspect.

The grilling process is pretty intense, because it all happens very fast.  As a result, I don't have any pictures except of the finished product.  It really is sort of a two person process.  Here I am going to share my recipe for pizza sauce and the pizza dough recipe we use.  If you have a favorite pizza dough and sauce that you would rather use, feel free to adapt.

Maybe not the most symmetrical pizza of all time, but it was the best homemade pizza I've ever helped make.

From Scratch Pizza Sauce

Ingredients:

2 pounds of good heirloom tomatoes

1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon sugar (preferably organic cane sugar)

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon parsley

2 teaspoons basil (or substitute fresh if you have it)

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: red pepper flakes, onion powder, garlic powder.

Instructions:

1. Put the tomatoes in a blender and blend on high until you have a nice liquid consistency.  There will be small chunks left.  That is okay.

2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil on medium and saute the onion until it is soft, but not brown.  

3. Add the garlic and saute another minute.  

4. Add the tomatoes, sugar, and spices and turn heat to the lowest setting.  

5. Let tomatoes cook on very low heat until all the water has absorbed or until the sauce reaches the desired thickness, about 3 hours.  

Important note:  The idea is for the sauce not to even bubble.  You really do want to do this on the lowest possible heat setting.  If it bubbles too much, it burns.  

Makes enough sauce for approximately two 12 inch pizzas.  

From Scratch Pizza Dough 

adapted from Wolfgang Puck's Pizza, Pasta, and More

Ingredients:

1 tbsp honey

1/4 cup warm water, plus 3/4 cup water 

1 package of active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups white flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for spraying

Instructions:
1. Dissolve honey in 1/4 cup water, then add yeast and let activate for 10 minutes.
2. Mix dry ingredients: whole wheat flour, white flour, salt, garlic powder and onion powder.
3. Add the yeast-honey mixture, 3/4 cup water, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the dry ingredients and mix.
4. Mix until it forms a ball, then kneed by hand in the bowl for about two minutes until thoroughly combined.
5. Spray the top with olive oil, cover with a towel, and let rise for one hour until it has doubled in size.
6. Pound down the dough after an hour and divide into two equal portions.
7. Roll out dough on a floured surface to your desired thickness.

Makes enough dough for approximately two 12 inch pizzas.

How to Grill Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza Crust

Pizza Sauce

Desired toppings such as spinach, onion, and olives.

Note: If you use meat as a topping, you may need to cook it first, depending on what it is.  (I'm the wrong person to ask about that, though, so use common sense and safe cooking practices, please.)

Cheese

Olive oil spray (we use a Misto)

Instructions:
1. Heat grill.
2. Spray the top of the dough generously with olive oil.
3. Place dough on grill oil side down for 3 minutes, rotating if necessary.
4. Spray the top of the dough with olive oil and flip.
5. Quickly add sauce, cheese, and toppings to pizza and close lid.
6. Cook for about 5 minutes or until crust is browned to your liking.

Enjoy your summertime grilled pizza!  Have you ever grilled pizza or anything else out of the ordinary?  Do you have any summer cooking tips for keeping the kitchen cool?

~Donna

  

Quick DIY Cleaning Wipes

The colorful upcycled t-shirts make it look pretty too.

Does your bathroom ever get yucky long before you have time to really clean it?  Mine does.  I usually blame the hubby, but the truth is, we all have our own messes in there.  Am I right ladies?  Plus, with two dogs and a cat, there is typically a pretty high risk that you are going to have some sort of fur on any given surface at any given time.  Anyway, I always clean my kitchen and dining areas really well. Hubby some might say that I am a tiny bit OCD. I say that we eat stuff that comes from those areas and it needs to be clean.  That never changes. However, when things get super busy, the first thing that falls to the wayside is cleaning the bathroom.  No one likes to do it and frankly, it's not like we eat in there or anything.

Cutting up the t-shirt rags to see how many are needed.

Old t-shirts being upcycled.

So in order to combat yucky bathrooms, I have decided to start actually doing a quick wipe down of surfaces every morning.  (I haven't started this yet, so we will see how it goes.)  In order to make myself actually do this, I realized that I need to make it easy on myself.  I am never going to go to the kitchen where the spray and towels are located to walk it all back to the bathroom before I've even had my coffee.  Trust me, it's not going to happen.  But, I am perfectly capable of remembering to do this if I have the materials already in the correct room.  I think.

This is how many of the rags fit in the jar.

I am also not going to spend any money on anything to put this together.  The materials need to all be located in my house already.  Of course, I am a bit of a hoarder collector of things that I can reuse so this shouldn't be a problem for me.  I simply cut up old t-shirts into scraps large enough to use as a wipe and added them to a mason jar with a combination of vinegar, water, and antibacterial essential oils.  I can't really take credit for this idea though.  I saw something similar on pinterest awhile back, but it used ingredients that I still don't trust, like borax.  Honestly, the borax is unnecessary anyway because the vinegar and oils will kill anything. I decided to just use my own combination of these cleaners that I already use successfully everywhere else in my house.  So today I give you my recipe for antibacterial cleaning wipes.  Next time I plan on using lemon infused vinegar for the job, but my newest batch isn't done infusing yet. See the instructions for that here.
 

Finished product. 

Materials Needed:

Quart Sized Mason Jar with a Lid

10-15 Old Rags or Cut Up Old T-shirts

Ingredients:

1 cup filtered water
1 cup vinegar
20 drops lemon essential oil
10 drops lavender essential oil
5 drops tea tree essential oil
5 drops frankincense essential oil

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a mason jar and swirl to combine.  Add rags or t-shirts pushing down to get them submerged in the cleaning solution.  If needed, put lid on and flip jar upside down to saturate all of the rags. 

Do you have any easy tricks for keeping your home clean?  I'd love for you to share them with me in the comments section below.

-Donna 

2 Simple Salad Dressings/Dips

You can use either of these two recipes as dressing for a simple salad or dip for wings or veggies.

Dairy-Free Ranch

(A lactose intolerant friend created and shared this recipe with me.) 

• 1/2 cup mayo
• 1/2 cup unsweetened original almond milk
• 2 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 tsp. Adobo Criollo seasoning (MSG free)
• 1 tbsp. fresh dill
• 1/2 tbsp. dry parsley

Combine all ingredients in a small mason jar, cap, and give a good shake! That's it. Enjoy!

Sesame Soy

• 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 1/2 tbsp. agave nectar
• 1/2 tbsp. sesame seeds

Combine all ingredients in a small mason jar, cap, and shake, shake, shake!!

-Anjelica