Totally Hooked on Cloth

So Dominic's arrival is just a couple of weeks away (or it could be tomorrow, who knows). As I've shared with you, we're getting ready to cloth diaper our little guy this time around and I am already completely sold out to cloth diapering without even trying it. I'm addicted to the cuter than cute fluff that is available for babies and the idea of saving THOUSANDS of dollars on diapers makes me giddy with glee!

This coming Monday, I'm hosting a Cloth Diapering party at my house and I'm so excited! Kristi Rooks from Hip Green Baby is coming to give demonstrations on how to use cloth diapers and give a run down on what options are available right now for cloth diapering families. Not only does she sell some of the major brands of cloth diapers (FuzziBunz, SoftBums, Kissaluvs, Thirsties, etc), she also makes her own. Now, you all know I'm a sucker for people that craft their own things, so her innovation and devotion to making her own cloth diapers to sell brings a smile to my face. WAY TO GO! I've got 6 other mommies that are going to be attending and I'm hoping that they're going to fall in love with cloth as much as I have.

So far, I've purchased 4 Fuzzibunz diapers, 3 Bum Genius 4.0's, and 1 Thirsties Diaper cover (planning on purchasing some prefolds from Kristi on Monday). I ordered all of these from Kellys Closet, an amazing cloth diapering online store and resource center. They also have a fantastic blog called The Cloth Diaper Whisperer that I've started following. One of the deals that the store had was that if you purchased $59 in cloth diapers, you could receive a FREE cloth diaper (up to a $22 value). Well, I was going to be purchasing my initial stash, so I said, "Sign me up!" When all my sweet fluff came in the mail a couple of weeks ago, inside was a Sunshine Yellow Rumparooz. SOOO CUTE! I'm also planning on purchasing some SoftBums diapers on Monday. I've already seen Kristi do a demonstration at another friends house and she's amazing. I was very impressed with how knowledgeable she was about cloth diapering. I also appreciated that she taught us about cloth diapering in such a way that the fear often associated with moving from disposables to cloth lessened a great deal. I can not wait to put Dominic in these diapers. I've actually been considering putting Gabriel in a cloth diaper at night and moving away from using disposables all together for him, especially since he only uses one a day.

Don't be surprised if my blog starts to have more cloth diapering posts. Eventually, I'm even going to start making my own wipes. I'm all about saving a buck and transitioning to this style of living is going to save us hundreds!

Snowed In

Back in 2003, as I was waving goodbye to the Kansas and Oklahoma borders and saying a big hello to the state of Texas, I never thought I would miss my good ol' home state. This week, reminded me of the fondness I have for dear old Kansas.

On Tuesday, Texas experienced a true "Arctic Blast" (a phrase used a least once a year here to describe a few snowflakes falling). This year was different than years past, as Texas got more than it bargained for. Starting early Tuesday morning freezing rain and then sleet, along with frigid temps began beating on homes, businesses, and streets across the state and before you knew it, the great DFW metroplex was shut down. And I mean literally shut down. People didn't, and really couldn't leave their homes. By the end of Tuesday, at least in our neighborhood, we had about one and a half inches of ice everywhere.

Now it is a known fact that Texans have absolutely no clue what to do with true winter weather. This Kansas girl often laughs and becomes cynical of people whining about the annual snow apocalypse. But I have to say, this time around, it was really bad. So bad, schools around the metroplex were canceled for four days! My husband even stayed home those four days because there was no way he could drive the car on the streets, even with our four wheel drive. Apparently DFW has not seen the value in investing in salt trucks...

But today, day four of being stuck and frozen, beauty was brought in. Snow started falling early this morning and by 7 am the ground was blanketed in white. Cars were still not moving on the streets, but the temps had risen to a balmy 18 degrees. As I let our dachshund outside, I smiled, seeing the little birds hoping from branch to branch behind our house, tweeting a sweet song to welcome the day. My heart swelled and I thought of Kansas. This kind of weather is a pretty common occurrence in the Heartland, but I don't think I appreciated the beauty of it until I moved to Texas and had been so far away from it.



Now I won't lie, it's been a challenge to keep my two year old cooped up inside this house the past week. I thought I was about to go crazy if I couldn't get him outside and burn off some energy. But God smiled and blessed us with warmer temperatures, some sunshine and a lot of fun snow to roll around in....and by us, I mean my two year old and his 8 month pregnant mommy. That's right, 34 weeks pregnant and I made a snow angel right along with my son. Here's to you, Kansas. I miss you and your four seasons.