Motherhood

Yesterday I saw an image on Facebook that made me feel a lot better about myself. It read "being a beautiful mother isn't about how you look, but how you live." The image showed a mother reading to her two young children in a robe, with her wet head wrapped up in a towel & glasses on.

I immediately sent this to my best friend Brittany. We always talk about how we have to strategize to take baths somedays, how we only care for makeup on special occasions, and our children are our #1 priority.

I am not the perfect mother by any means. I get easily overwhelmed, frustrated, and sometimes feel like I'm running an insane asylum. My house is never perfectly cleaned. I never wear makeup at home because my husband is amazing and actually prefers when I don't wear it! My hubby also works two jobs to support me being a SAHM, while saving for our future home to be built on our land. I watch Yo Gabba Gabba with my son on a daily basis while dancing & singing along (even in the car sometimes). I talk to my cat like she is my child (I love my cat more than some people love their children, and yes, she is my furbaby!). That is my life in a nutshell.

I haven't placed anything else before my children. Too often I've seen kids shuffled around because their parents don't have time for them because they won't MAKE time for them. I'm not knocking people with jobs because I know you have to support your family. However going out to bars EVERY weekend and getting plastered to the walls isn't a valid excuse for ditching your children in my book. My weekends mainly consist of spending time with my husband and children at my parents to cookout and swim. Every other Saturday I do my grocery shopping and occasionally me and my husband go out to eat and to a movie.

Another pet peeve of mine is that I hear too many people say they need "me time". My husband about has to break my arm for me to even go pick up food from a drive-thru without one or both of the kids. My purse is always packed with a diaper, a pull-up, big boy undies & a bag of Cheerios or Goldfish depending on my son's current favorite snack food. My husband and I are even seriously thinking of homeschooling our son & daughter. I consider myself lucky to not have this so-called "me time" be a part of my routine.

So for anyone who has seen me at home or out in public without makeup and rocking some pajamas I apologize for my appearance. However, I won't apologize for making sure that my children look good, are clean & happy. My kids won't care when they look back at all of the pictures that mommy wasn't wearing makeup. They will care that they had a mommy who raised them herself and had fun with them!

One Month of Cloth Diapering

About a month ago I went ahead and switched Kyleigh to her Charlie Banana diapers and cloth wipes for both kids. I have been anxious for a long time to dwindle down our disposable stash to get started. Also I'd been nervous about not having a fancy sprayer to connect to my toilet like many other CD mommies I'd seen. So I figured out a way that works out for me, saving me oodles of money as well. I bought a cheap spray bottle from Walmart, filled it with water & a little bit of Dreft.

I started about a month ago while I still had a decent supply of disposables as a backup just incase I didn't like the whole concept of cleaning the poo off of the inserts or incase she didn't like them for whatever reason.

Now that I'm typing this post up, I can tell you I put entirely too much thought into what my experience would be and nearly talked myself out of something I truly LOVE now. I won't lie, my first few days I went through the shuffling of the baby & the covers and inserts to avoid a completely stinky mess. By day 3 I'd gotten my routine down pat! And now it's like clockwork. We use 2 inserts at a time. Since Ky is rolling but isn't such a squirmed that she knocks inserts out, I lay them on top to avoid going through a cover for each diaper change. I wash diapers every night when the kids are asleep and I've never run out of diapers or inserts between washes =)

I wish I'd known about all of the options cloth diapering has now when my son was born! I assumed I'd be stuck with flat diapers that require safety pins and leak pee and poo everywhere!! Despite the fact that I won a free year of diapers with Huggies when he was 6 months old we still spent SO much money on disposables. Our house fund would be much more hefty if I'd known then what I know now!! However, you live and you learn. And cloth has definitely made life a little less rashy and more comfy in this house!!

Pinterest Project

Food Coloring & Little Cups with vinegar

Paper towel-lined casserole dish with baking soda & my dropper from Easter eggs

5-6 drops of food coloring per cup

Set up our little station with towels to protect from clumsiness (myself that is!!)

My child informing me that he wanted me to do it.  He wanted to see the reaction,  not cause it himself.

Covering up his cold little legs & watching the fizzing.

All Done!!

Preparations For Switching To An All Cloth Household

Recently, I've been following many fellow mommy bloggers who are pretty hardcore about cloth diapering (wipes, wet bags, etc as well). I did some more research into it myself. I looked through dozens of different diapering brands, learned all of the acronyms along the way, and decided I wanted in on this! Thanks to my amazing parents for helping us along the way by buying our diapering needs for both children!!

I chose Charlie Banana one size diapers to start Ky off with. We bought 12 of the Tutti Fruitti one size diapers, 12 extra Medium/Large inserts, Planet Wise hanging diaper pail, 90 Tender Bottoms (on Etsy) cloth wipes (for both kids), PW cloth wipe case & a PW Medium wet bag. We have already started using our wipes and they are amazing. I highly recommend checking out Tender Bottoms on Etsy!!

I spent about 4 hours washing all of my stash up and hanging them in various places to dry. I've discovered we now need a folding drying rack as a result.

I haven't run out of disposable diapers yet but I wanted to be completely set up for our first day =)

Look for updates coming soon!!


Here are some pictures of my stash as well!!

This is only the first set of 30 we bought. The two new sets are washing as I type this.

Happy Cow Creamery

Since 2009, Happy Cow has been part of our grocery routine & a source of entertainment for my son who is now in LOVE with cows. Every turn on the way there, he yells out cow and gets more excited. Not to mention that the Pametto Bakery Cinnamon Swirl bread is a necessity at our house, thanks to a certain particular eater. The ladies there receive a call from me once a week and hold several loaves of bread for us. Not to mention we usually find all sorts of neat food & knick knacks there. If you haven't been there and live near or in Pelzer, SC, its definitely worth the trip!!
Here's our birdhouse for our future home & our bread stash from our last trip.

Homemade Birdfeeders

So i'm a bit behind on this but back in February i decided to do a Pinterest project with Kade at his Mimi & Papa's House.  We made homemade bird feeders using plastic plates, paper towel rolls, pinecones, peanut butter, a nail, fishing line & birdseed, of course. And here were our results step-by-step. 

This wasn't a step, just a sleepy girl passed out on Mimi's sleeper sofa =)

Our week (so far) in pictures

Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili

A recent hit at my house has been crockpot chicken taco chili. I found the recipe through Pinterest, of course. I've been asked for the recipe numerous times after my husband & mother bragged about it to friends & co-workers. Here it goes::

For my 4.5 quart crockpot I used

3 cans of chicken breast, shredded
2 cans of corn
2 cans of black beans
2 cans of kidney beans
2 cans of tomato sauce
4 cans of diced tomatoes
2 packets of taco seasoning
2 tbsp cumin
4 tbsp parsley
2 tbsp chili powder

You can choose to cook for 10 hrs on low or 6 hrs on high.

Preschool Prep Company =)

Over the course of the past TWO DAYS, Kade has learned to read many of his sight words. All of this is Thanks to our Preschool Prep Company DVDS & iPhone Apps.

He is able to read these words as they appear on the screen & before the DVD pronounces them. Today, my husband and my neighbor Emily were able to see this as well. Last week, Kade could only read I, a, and play from the DVD. As of today he's able to read : I, It, Of, Play, To, Said, Is, Have, You, In & A.

It has been so rewarding to stay at home with my babies and to see something as simple as an educational video make this big of a difference for my son. I highly recommend anyone with toddlers and babies to check into this series.

Our weekend in pictures

Saturday Afternoon Walk With Mommy

Sunday afternoon nap on the inflatable

Watching "Puss in Boots" on Saturday morning

Kade's Frog his papa found

Our "Pillars"

Examining his "pillars"

Donkeys

Sunday afternoon rainbow; Kade's shirtless because he got attacked by fire ants

Love her face

"Pillar" & "Crick"

Playmat time

Teething baby

Cartoons

Donkeys

Pinterest Idea, Mess-free paint bag

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All sprawled out after a long afternoon