The Move

This moving experience has been A LOT more than I originally assumed. We're almost completely unpacked. The last part of the house that needs works is my office/craft area. It currently looks like this:

I've gotten almost everything sorted, just have to find a home for all of it. Please bear with me a few more days. I'm hoping to have everything put away by the end of week.

Until next time...........

Cloth Diapering: Our Setup

Hey!

If you read my last post you know that I was pregnant with my first child. Tres was born June 22 at 8:55pm. He weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 20 inches long.

He has been a great addition to our lives. I thought I would take some time to write out my experience with cloth diapering. Long before I ever got pregnant I decided that when I had children they would be cloth diapered, my husband wasn't sold on the cloth diapering at first but he has come around.

Making the decision to cloth diaper isn't a simple one, it is definitely more than just saying "I'm going to cloth diaper". That is a great start but you have to decide things such as :what kind of cloth diapers you are going to use, whether to use a diaper service or not, what kind of detergent to use, how many diapers to buy, etc. When it comes to cloth diapering execution is very individualized, what works well for me might not work well for you and that's ok. I'm hoping by explaining our setup and how we decided upon this setup we will be able to help someone decide to cloth diaper their children. Remember: Cloth diapering is best for your baby and the environment.

Our Setup
Our current cloth diapering setup consists of 36 prefolds, 8 covers and 26 cloth wipes.

When I was deciding which cloth diapers I was going to be using I considered 4 things

• Cost
• Ease of use
• Construction materials
• Laundry options

As far as cost is concerned, to me one of the many advantages to cloth diapering is saving money. The price of cloth diapers can vary greatly, it just depends on what you choose. I chose unbleached prefolds from Green Mountain Diapers, based on my research these are the best prefolds on the market. Green Mountain prefolds come in sizes, we decided to skip the newborn size and go directly to small. The small size is suppose to fit babies 10-15 lbs. I had a feeling that Tres would be about 8 lbs at birth and I was fine with the prefolds being a little  big for a couple of weeks. The small prefolds from Green Mountain Diapers are $28/dozen.

Prefolds require some sort of diaper cover, there is no getting around that. I knew that I didn't want to have to have four or five sets of diaper covers, so I was looking for covers that could be grow with my baby. I ended up deciding on Thirsties Duo Wrap. These covers come in two sizes, size 1 is for babies 6-18lbs and size 2 is 18-40 lbs. The covers come in great patterns and colors but even better they are only $12.75 each and are available for free 2 day shipping if you have an Amazon Prime account (which everyone should have, it's awesome). The duo wrap comes in snaps or velcro, I chose snaps because while researching I found that babies learn to open the velcro and take the diapers off. That's not something that I ever want to experience. 

I made my own cloth wipes. My wipes are 10x10 squares made from two pieces of flannel. I bought 4 yards of flannel to make the wipes from Joann's, with a 50% off coupon the fabric only cost me $13. I have found that 26 wipes are not enough. I'm going to make a tutorial on making the cloth wipes once we get moved and unpacked.

Lastly would be laundry options. I knew that I didn't want to use a diaper service because I am very particular about how my laundry is done and what products are used. I found that the type of detergent used on cloth diapers is very important because it is possible for the diapers to loose their absorbency if the wrong detergent is used. I'm lucky enough to have a cloth diaper store close to me and they have a great website. One of the sections in the information section which includes detergents they recommend and washing instructions. I chose to use Tiny Bubbles detergent because it is not scented. (I hate the artificial scents that are used in cleaning products. If you're a person that like scents I believe Rockin' Green has a lot of options to choose from) I will admit that Tiny Bubbles is a little pricey but I was able to buy the 6 pack from Amazon which saved me almost $30.

We also have two diaper pail liners, 3 snappis and a diaper pail. To date we've spent just under $300. In the future we will have to purchase bigger prefolds and covers. As of right now I believe I am going to 3 dozen medium and 3 dozen x-large prefolds as well as 8 size two covers, so I anticipate spending another $300. I don't think that $600 is bad. 

Washing

Laundry is extremely simple. We received diaper sprayer as a gift. Sometimes we use it..........sometimes we don't. The poop of breastfed babies is water soluble so it is not a big deal that we don't spray the poop off in advance. We literally just throw all the diapers, wipes and the pail liner in the washer together with hot water and everything but the covers go in the dryer. That's it! Easy peasy. 


Here's a recent picture of Tres in one of his diapers:

Until next time,
Kellan

Grind Your Own Meat!!!!! 70% of Ground Meat at Supermarkets Contain "Pink Slime"

I was reading blog posts today in my Google Reader and came across this post from Backyard Farming. The cut and dry of it is that 70% of ground meat sold at supermarkets contains "pink slime". Pink slime is basically trimming that would usually be used for pet food that has been sprayed with ammonia to make it "safe" for eating. What's safe about eating meat sprayed with ammonia? I would think that is something that a person would do if they're trying to kill someone. See the video below if you don't believe me.

What's the solution? Grind your own meat. It's not hard and it doesn't require expensive equipment. I've been saying to myself that I was going to grind my own meat for a long time, well the time is now. Alton Brown did an excellent tutorial on his show Good Eats about using a hand grinder (he was making pork sausage but it's the same technique), which I found on Youtube. Please view the clip, the part about grinding meat start at the 5 minute mark.

I found the exact grinder that he's using in his video on Amazon and it's only $35. I will be ordering one as soon as I finish this blog post. You can also "grind" meat in the food processor if you have one, it's not going to be as fine of a texture but it will get the job done. 

Pass the word!

Until next time, 

Kellan

Cleaning Periodic Table

I'm back...............

So if you read my last blog post, which admittedly was a while ago, you already know that I'm pregnant with my first child and have been super busy. Aside from being pregnant (which is a roller coaster ride) and mentally preparing for labor, I am also running a business, doing tax returns, looking for a house to buy and finishing grad school. So while I've thought about all the projects that I could be doing, I've had neither the energy nor motivation to actually do one. I recently decided that I need to get more organized before the baby is born and while perusing the internet for ideas I came across an article which spoke about a periodic table of clean that was made by Real Simple Magazine. My first thoughts were "this is awesome", the problem was I couldn't find it online. Apparently Real Simple removed the chart from its website. After a lot of digging I finally found a copy online and while it was awesome, it didn't quite fit my needs. So I decided to make my own. 

This is the periodic table of cleaning that works for me. I'm sure that there's something different that works for you. I uploaded the Excel file that I used to make my periodic table to my Google Docs, if you click on the upcoming link you can download the file and change it what fits you. Click here if you would like to make your own chart.

Happy cleaning and organizing!

Until next time, 

Kellan

P.S. I have lots of fun and easy baby projects coming up!

NEWS

So I've been MIA for a little over a month know, and by now I'm sure you've started to wonder if I had given up all together. I DID NOT GIVE UP!!!!!!!

That was a little theatrical but that's how I'm feeling these days. I'm pregnant! I haven't been blogging because I haven't felt like doing anything. Morning sickness was/is kicking my butt, however I think I might have that under control now. (Hopefully). I will be back with lots of cool stuff, as soon as I get myself together. 

Until next time, 

Kellan

Tips and Prep Work for the Future

A few months ago I came across Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and started reading it. First, this is an awesome book that everyone should own......not rent from the library, BUY IT. There's simply too much information in the book to get any real benefit from it if you don't own it. In short, Sally Fallon talks about the importance of eating a wholesome diet that is prepared in a traditional way. Nourishing Traditions starts off with a introduction section which gives detailed information about the difference components of food, i.e. fats, carbohydrates, proteins. The introduction section is the first 78 pages of the book. Pages 79 through 620 are all receipes, awesome recipes that address every aspect of cooking and eating that ANYONE, including me, could phantom. The remaining 56 pages are appendices, including a sources section, that are really helpful if you're really trying to make a change to cooking and eating in a more traditional manner. 

In the future a lot of my cooking posts/experiments are going to hail from information I found in this book as well as a few traditional cooking blogs. Having said all that, if you would like to experiment along with me you need to know about an important bit of information that I found out recently and do some prep work. 

Important Information

While reading The Healthy Home Economist blog, I recently came across a post entitled "Whole Grains Cause Cavities?" The blog's author, Sarah, attended the 2010 Wise Traditions Conference, where author Remi Nagel presented. During the presentation, Mr. Nagel made an observation about traditional cultures that had been somewhat overlooked in the past: Traditional cultures typically do not use the entire grain, they remove the bran. He suggests that bran from wheat, spelt, rye, kamut, barley, corn, millet and oats be removed through sifting or sieving. Rami Nagel also suggests that whole grains MUST  be soured first to significantly reduce phytic acid. Phytic acid, aside from hindering the absorption of mineral in grains, is a major cause of why whole grains cause cavities. According to Sarah,  Mr. Nagel states the best method for souring grains, thus significantly reducing phytic acid is to soak grains in a mixture of filtered water and liquid whey. The ratio is 1 cup of grains to 1 cup of filtered water plus 1 tablespoon of liquid whey. 

Prep Work

All that information lead to your prep work. Sarah did a great step-by-step post and video of how to make liquid whey (yes, you have to make it yourself). Please watch that and complete the steps. 

Also, grind and sift your grains. Put them in the freezer when done. 

Lastly you're going to need some sort of fabric bowl cover. As soon as my camera is done charging I'm going to do a tutorial on how to make awesome reuseable bowl covers and we will be all set to start on start preparing food in a traditional manner. 

Until next time, 

Kellan

P.S. I'm SUPER excited about this!!!!!!!

Belief and Faith: Luke 8:40-48

I'm going to stray away a little on today's post from what I usually write about. If you've read the purpose of this blog you know that I write this as a means of sharing my experiences with trying to live a healthier and greener lifestyle, and to me that includes working on my relationship with God. I believe that it's important to work on the spiritual aspects of my life as well as they physical, thus from now on there will be the occasional posts about faith. Having said that, I've been in conversation with God a lot lately regarding some aspects of my life and yesterday I had a serious revelation that I feel that I need to share with as many people as possible.

The Faith to Make Things Happen

Have you ever wanted something, prayed for it, had God speak to you telling you that he would bless you with it and then didn’t receive it? Have you ever wondered why? Do you then question if God had really spoken to you or if you were simply all in your mind? I’m going to be honest, I have. Actually I often find myself in this situation and as I’ve been earnestly working on myself lately I wanted to know why. I asked God to show me why these situations occur in my life and I was honestly a little shocked by the answer: We often don’t receive our blessings because we don’t truly believe that God is and can.

Now I’m sure after reading that one line some of you reading this are pissed off. You thinking “Of course, I believe God is and can.” But do you really? Truly think about how you live your life and the words that come out of your mouth. I’ll give you an example from my personal life. At the age of 17, I began having debilitating migraines that grossly affected my quality of life.  I spent countless hours in the hospital and racked up a lot of money in hospital bills. I’ve had pretty much every neurological test run on me possible and from a medical prospective, nothing is wrong is me.  I’m perfectly healthy. No doctor could explain why I continued to have these migraines and the medication they gave me didn’t work, they were stumped and eventually I accepted that this problem would just be a part of my life. I didn’t have them very often so it wasn’t that big of a deal or so I thought. Recently I began having migraines back to back, again the doctors ran tests and again found nothing wrong. I changed my eating habits, my lifestyle and it changed nothing. Finally I became desperate and in my desperation turned to God. I prayed to God asking him to heal me. The next day I woke up and I felt better, everything seemed so clear, it was as if fog had been lifted from around me.  This went on for a few days and then one day I ate something that under my new healthy diet I shouldn’t have eaten and I didn’t drink the amount of water that I was supposed to drink and as the night came to a close I began being fearful of what the next day would bring. I began to fear losing the clarity that I had recently received or even worse having a migraine because of what I had eaten and what I hadn’t done. A few days later I did have a migraine, in terms of pain it was mild but it took a lot out of me. I was in bed, in the dark for almost 36 hours.  When I came back to my right mind I began to pray and ask God why this was happening to me. I believed that God was trying to teach me something but I couldn’t figure out what it was, today God revealed plainly the purpose behind all this. He was trying to get me to understand this point: People pray and say that they have faith in God but then act and/or speak is a manner that is contradictory to what they just professed. I’ll go back to the example I just gave regarding my migraines. I prayed and asked  God to heal me but then when I did something that went against the “lifestyle changes” that I had made in an attempt heal myself, I freaked out and became fearful  of what the outcome would be based on those actions. If I truly believed that God had healed me would it matter that I only drank 50 oz of water instead of 75 or that I ate Little Caesar’s pizza for dinner? No. Now I should try to be as healthy as possible, which would include being properly hydrated and eating a wholesome diet? Yes, of course but one day of compromise shouldn’t make or break me. My healing isn’t due to anything that I have done or could ever do, my healing comes from God. If I could have healed myself, I would have been healed a long time ago.

God lead me to Luke 8:40-48, which gives an excellent example of someone with a similar situation. When I compared myself to the woman in Luke 8:40-48, we had a lot in common.  The Bible says that the woman had been afflicted with hemorrhages, bleeding, for 12 years. She had spent every penny she had and no one could help her. At this point, this woman had to believe that her affliction was a part of her life, as I did. She understood that there was nothing that she could do to heal herself but she believed that Jesus could heal her. Think of how great her faith must have been, she believed so much that Jesus didn’t have to take the time to acknowledge her, that He didn’t have to touch her, she believed that if she touched his clothing that she would be healed.  What could we all do if we had faith like that?

The second thing that I took from this woman is this: When you have faith that God is going to bless you move forward as though you’ve already received the blessing. When the woman explained to Jesus why she touched Him, the Bible says “In front of all the people, she blurted out her story – why she touched him and how at that same moment she was healed.” Now let’s be completely realistic for a second, this woman suffered from hemorrhages aka bleeding, so I wouldn’t imagine that she suddenly felt herself stop hemorrhaging and yet when we presented her case before the crowd she told them that at the same moment she touched His robe she was healed. If you think about a situation in your life in which you’ve asked for something and it seems like nothing is happening have you ever considered the possibility maybe nothing is happening because you haven’t moved forward. So let’s give this point a real life scenario. Let’s say that your dream in life is to own a business. You pray about it, but that’s all you do. You never actually act. How is God supposed to make your business prosperous when you never start it? It’s just as important to move forward as it is to believe that God can and will. The act of moving forward is a outward expression of the faith that you have in God and the belief in what He’s promised you. What’s holding you back? What step do you need to take to start receiving your blessings? I know it’s cliché but everything starts with a leap of faith. 

Until next time, 

Kellan