ABCDEFG...

The other day while David was drawing on the white board I looked over and found him practicing writing his letters. He has known his alphabet for quite awhile now, but has never tried writing them until now. I think he did a pretty good job!

Cousins Close By

It has been very enjoyable having Andrew's sister Aimee, her husband Jon and their four children living just down the road from us. Matthew was excited to meet his cousin Patrick who is just his age. I think he overwhelmed Patrick a bit when he tried to crawl on top of him. David has been having so much fun with the three older cousins, especially Justus..

Cloth Diapers Again

 When Matthew was born and the dirty diapers began piling up in the trash, I started thinking again about cloth diapering. With David I did it a little bit. I mostly had some prefolds and some kind of fitted diapers with those rubber pant covers. I really liked the idea at the time but in practice I didn't care for it. I hated using diaper pins, the rubber pants weren't too great, he grew out of the few fitted diapers so quickly, and besides what was I supposed to do with the dirty ones between washes? Well this time I got online and did some researched. Lots of it. I discovered that there were more styles of new easier to use diapers than I could keep straight, a wonderful thing called a wetbag for storing those dirty diapers in, and that to get stared looked like it was going to cost a fortune. So not having much money to spend, plus having a sensible husband who advised me not to go overboard before I knew for sure what I wanted I went with a cheap diaper from China that I found on Ebay. The brand is BabyCity. They are pocket diapers with a waterproof PUL fabric on the outside and the inside is microfiber. They get stuffed with an absorbent insert. Did I mention they were cheap? About $3- $4.50 each. I bought enough to last a couple days(about twelve) and splurged on a nice large wetbag from Planetwise ($20)with a cute owl pattern on it.

I was super excited when they arrived. They looked really nice and are so simple to use. They snap on easily and are a similar shape to disposables. They are also a one size diaper with snaps for adjusting the size, I knew I wanted a one size diaper to avoid the growing out of them issue I'd had last time and so that I wouldn't have to have a set of diapers for each size. I also loved the wetbag. It is big and waterproof. I just pull the insert out of the diapers and toss the whole thing in dry and zip it closed. I have read that when baby starts eating solids the poopy ones need to be rinsed but we are not quite there yet,  probably soon though. The wetbag seems to contain the smells pretty well. When I wash the diapers I just dump all the diapers in the washer and throw the bag in as well. I knew that with such a simple system I could do cloth diapering and enjoy it. The good thing is that we figured out how much money we saved on disposables and after about two months they were all paid for out of the diaper budget. Around the same time though I had a few of my diapers delaminate, that is when the waterproof coating on the outer fabric comes off and they begin to leak. I then came up with a new scheme: keep using these but every month spend the diaper budget money that we were saving by not buying disposables to buy better quality cloth diapers and try out some different styles.

So far I have tried two brands. The first one was a lovely chocolate brown FuzziBunz. It was a pocket diaper so I was comfortable and familiar with it since it was similar to the Baby City ones. The first thing I noticed was how much thicker the outer PUL was. It felt so much sturdier! The inside was also much softer and it came with to inserts. I also really like the elastic size adjustments rather than the snaps. The fit on Matthew is really good. I  have been using it for about a month and love it! So far it has had no leaking issues except when I left it on him for way too long. I will probably be buying a few more of these. I spent about $17 on the FuzziBunz diaper

The second brand I tried is a Flip diaper.  The Flip is a bit different than the other style. It is a one size PUL cover with snap closures. It works well with prefold diapers. I shied away from this idea at first when I saw the word prefold. It brought back not so pleasant memories. As I read more about these I began to get more convinced. I liked the fact that I still had my prefolds and that I could use the cover multiple times before washing. If only wet, simply wipe it out, lay another prefold inside and re-snap. I wouldn't need nearly as many of these as other styles, therefore saving money. I purchased a light blue one without an insert (I believe they come with an insert sometimes, but I was planning to use my prefolds). It fits Matthew well and is easy to use. So far I have had no leaks. I really, really like it! I am tempted to switch to this style only, although I don't think I will completely. I got my Flip diaper cover for about $13.

Now just a quick note about nighttime. At first I was quite nervous to try cloth diapers at night because he sleeps in our bed and I really didn't like the idea of washing all the sheets daily and I also didn't want to change him in the night. Again I did some reading and decided to try it out. What I have been doing is adding an extra bamboo insert to a pocket diaper then putting a wool cover over the top. I made the wool covers form old sweaters using this pattern.  It works amazingly well! He can go 12 hours without a change. I have fewer leaks than with disposables. The only problem that I am having is that they are getting too small and hard to get on over his chubby legs. I am going to try to make a one size wool cover with snap or velcro closures.

I have been loving cloth diapering this time around. At this point Matthew always wears cloth at home; day and night, and sometimes but not very often when we go out. I am planning to transition into using cloth even when we are out once I get a few more better diapers. I enjoy the challenge of working out the problems in my system and I love trying new diapers. I don't even mind washing and folding them. Besides Matthew looks so cute in cloth diapers. Here are a few pictures to enjoy.

Diaper Dryin' On The Line

A Red Wool Cover

Another Wool Cover

The FuzziBunz Diaper

So Cute And Chubby

And The Flip Diaper

Side View Of The Flip

Light in the Darkness

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in theland of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. Isaiah 9:2

Location : Springdale, WA 99173,

Winter on the Farm

Winter has come to the farm. The garden is sleeping under a blanket of snow. The pace has slowed down quite a bit. We are indoors a lot more now staying cozy by the fire and doing indoor projects, crafts and baking. We are enjoying the rest, the break while at the same time beginning to plan and look forward to next season with anticipation. The seed catalogs are starting to appear and we can't resist flipping through them and dreaming of spring. But for now we are content to wait, to plan, to work on the projects that need to be done in preparation. Spring will come soon enough with all the busyness that comes with it. For now I am grateful for the quite and the peace of this seson.

Candies, Gingerbread and Memories

We received a catalog on the mail recently. It is full of unique and interesting items and David loves looking through it. His favorite page is the one with a gingerbread house on it. He was always turning to that page and say "We should make one of these fancy cakes sometime". So I decided that it would be fun to make a gingerbread house with him and began planning. I have only made one gingerbread house before and that was two years ago with my sister Melissa. I decided to keep it a little bit simpler than that one since I would be doing this one with a three year old. I also decided to invite my sister-in-law Aleah to do it with us. One day Aleah and I went to the candy store to pick out all the fun and colorful candies for the houses. I baked the gingerbread pieces ahead of time so that everything would be ready to put together. Aleah's friend Abigail was visiting for a few days so she came over and joined the fun as well. We had fun putting the houses together. Fitting the pieces together which had shrunk to funny sizes while baking was a bit challenging but we managed to get it to work. Then of course the most fun part was decorating them. David loved adding more and more candy to his and of course sampling some of it, too. We had a lovely morning and made some special memories together.

Colorful Candies

Aunt Aleah and Abigail

David adding more candy decorations to his house

Gingerbread house makers

David's Gingerbread house

Aleah and Abigail's gingerbread house

Snow Play

We woke up yesterday morning to the electricity out and fresh snow that was perfect for building snowmen. We spent the morning building snowmen. David wanted to build four snowmen; a daddy one, a mommy, one, a David one, and a Matthew one. We got three done but never got to the mommy one because Matthew woke up from his nap and mommy had to go inside. Later after lunch we went outside to play in the snow again. David got sled rides, he helped daddy shovel snow, and we threw a few snowballs. The power was out all day so I couldn't do any dishes or laundry instead we just had fun! For dinner we made soup on the woodstove a warm tasty meal after a day of playing in the snow.

Cloth Diaper Baby

I have started using cloth diapers on Matthew part time. At some point I would like to transition to using them full time. I just so dislike all the trash using disposables creates. I am amazed at how easy to use the new styles are and how well they work. I am still researching and learning about it all, there is so much to learn. There are so many styles and brands and price ranges, knowing which ones to buy is challenging. Then there are wetbags, cloth wipes and washing routines to learn about. So far it is going well. Maybe someday when I have learned all about it I will post what I have learned on the blog.

Honey Cough Syrup

Cold and cough season is fully upon us now, the days have become chillier and everyone at our house has caught a bit of a cold. Time to make some healthy, natural cough syrup. It is so easy to make, too! I made two different kinds; one is elderberry and the other is lemon ginger. I use honey as the base for both, it is naturally antibacterial and also feels soothing on the throat. Elderberries are great for your immune system and are excellent for coughs and colds. Ginger is also good for your throat and lemon has antibacterial properties as well. I also added a dash of cayenne to the lemon ginger syrup. Cayenne is good for you immune system and improves circulation. So here are the simple recipes.


Lemon-Ginger Cough Syrup

1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup water
juice and zest of one lemon
1 inch piece of fresh ginger grated
dash or two of cayenne

Elderberry Cough Syrup

1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup elderberries(mine were frozen, we have elderberries growing wild abundantly around here, so I harvested some this past summer and froze them)


To make your syrup combine all ingredients from your chosen recipe in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and allow to simmer gently for about 5 minutes. Strain through a wire strainer into jars. Store in the refrigerator for several weeks, it should last for quite a long time. To use simply take a teaspoon at a time. Your kids will love it! Warning: do not give this to babies under 1 year old, the honey can contain botulism spores.

Simmer gently for about five minutes

Strain into a small jar

Cute!