What an incredible day!!

Today was a really interesting day, so if you can hang in there through the whole post, you will be a real trooper! :)

Woke up this morning knowing it would be a crazy day! Why, you ask? Today is the day that my husband, Tim, goes on terminal/transitional leave! He is using up the paid leave that he has saved up before officially getting out of the Army a month from now after almost ten years of service. Crazy, right? (Paid leave being a relative term, considering what is going on with the governmental agencies acting like a bunch of kids with dirty diapers!)

We've been looking forward to this for the last 3 years that we've been planning this transition to civilian life and it was just so cool to see the day finally come! We got out of debt (car loans and such), saved up a chunk of change, had a baby, got me preggers with another, and got both he and I back in school.

What a way to sum up three years of marriage!

It felt like we waited all day for Tim to get home, so I tried to keep my hands busy!

I picked up sticks out of the yard (thanks, storm!), cleaned the chicken coop, lamented over the huge tree down in our yard and how being 19 weeks pregnant, I'm not in any shape to bust out our chain saw...

Oh, did a ton of diaper laundry, got Jackson down for a nap in his twin bed (Yay for my big boy!), and got in the kitchen!

This was our lunch, along with some homemade corn muffins that my son absolutely adores! Zucchini, squash, red potatoes, and carrots. All thickly sliced, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with sea salt. The flavor was incredible, totally filling, and the chickens were thrilled to get the ends of the veggies as a treat! (Maybe now they will feel inclined to give us some eggs?)

Here are some banana chips dehydrating! I had to lay the smack down on my dad and son today. They were both in the kitchen getting into the dehydrator all afternoon. These guys just slay me- I can't make chips that actually get to be chips, because they get eaten too quickly. Banana fiends need to back off of my snacks ;) But yes, these were salvaged- 3 of my 4 trays made it into crispy, crunchy, delicious chips! I'll take the 75% odds!

Gotta love his "no poo" hair and cloth diaper!!

Jackson on his $5 consignment sale bike! He's a little guy, so it cracks me up that a bike that teeny has training wheels that are removable. I would love to see a person that small riding a Fisher Price two-wheeler without training wheels!

On top of my cooking, cleaning, and thumb twiddling- I sliced up a TON of fruit and froze it combinations that would be yummy for smoothies, which have become our go-to breakfasts around here.

I finally got tired of being productive and sat myself in a lawn chair to read the end of a book and start another while Jackson napped.

The book I just finished is:

“Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream . “ by William Powers

A great book written by a guy local to me. It highlights his experiences living in a 12 foot by 12 foot cabin in rural North Carolina. Very cool read!

I'm actually planning to give away a copy of this particular book (gotta support our local authors!) next week!

This is the book I just started reading:

"Better Off : Flipping the Switch on Technology," by Eric Brende

So far, it seems to be a book about an Ivy League educated couple that decide to see what life would be like without the distraction of electricity and their quest to return to simplicity. I have a feeling that this one is going to be good!

Cloth diapering a newborn!

I started cloth diapering when Jackson was 4 months old. Before then, I was researching like it was my job. I had tried to cloth diaper Keelin, but just didn't quite have the knowledge to pull it off. I had problems with leaks, buildup in the diapers, and looking back- I had a GREAT stash of prefolds and Snappis, I was just missing out on some really good covers and a kick butt cloth diaper detergent. If only I'd had someone to give me advice on what to buy! With Jackson, I started out with WAHM (work at home mom) made all in ones that were great during the day, but wicked at night, leaving his clothes wet. I eventually discovered Thirsties covers (to this day, my favorite PUL covers) and fitted diapers. I finally got the guts to try prefolds again and boy, was I in love! I then ventured into the world of wool covers- knit and interlock. And I found my true love! WOOL! So breathable, so natural, so virtually bombproof- what's not to love? Baby Finn already has half a dozen wool covers, some bought for him, some that Jackson has outgrown! When we found out in December that we were expecting out third and final baby, the first thing I did was start shopping for diapers. I've never diapered a newborn before and have always lusted after teeny tiny diapers. And guys, they are soooo teeny. Can't help but "awww" over them! I posted a few pictures last night, but forgot this one! It's my drawer of fitted diapers. The ones on the left are Tinkle Traps (prefolds cut and sewn to fit like a sized fitted) that were dyed by the previous owner plus a couple of bamboo fitteds that I got in a trade! Those two bamboo diapers are my only new diapers!! The ones on the right are Kissaluvs Size 0, also known as KL0s. They're super fluffy and I adore them!! Can't wait to put them on Finn's teeny hiney!

Some people are hesitant to cloth diaper. Some people would be even MORE hesitant to cloth diaper with used cloth! But I've been cloth diapering full time for a couple of years now and I LOVE to buy used! Saves a ton of money, the cloth is already prepped (natural oils that can prohibit the best absorbancy have been washed out), and sometimes you find really special diapers, like the dip-dyed Tinkle Traps! I don't know if I'll ever get around to tie-dying the prefolds like I want to, but it's nice to have some already done for me!

As far as santitation goes, I sanitize my diapers when I buy them used. I boil the daylights out of them, strip them using Rockin Green (my favorite cloth diaper detergent), wash them with baking soda, rinse them with vinegar, dry them in the sun- in no particular order! :) That, my friends, is more sanitary than the hospital sheets most of us have given birth on top of!

For those of you that have cloth diapered a newborn or are planning to, what kind of diapers are you using, have you used, or are thinking about using?

Root Beer Floats and other awesomeness

I have been craving a root beer float (more like root beer awesome), so I bought a 6 pack of Blue Sky certified organic root beer at Earth Fare yesterday and a pint of my favorite organic, fair trade vanilla ice cream.

See? Even your junk food can be kinder to the planet!

I cannot tell you how delicious these things are! I have 3 cans of root beer left and half a pint of ice cream. Running out of ice cream before I run out of root beer would be like running out of carrots when you still have ranch dip in your cup. Just a sad state of affairs.

We ran out to grab dinner (thanks to my Dad for staying home with a sleeping Keelin) since the chicken I had been thawing/marinating all day in the fridge was still half frozen (epic fail) and nothing else sounded good (thanks to my sweet Keelin throwing up all day, I think... poor, sweet girl). We went to Bonnie Kay's and had some salt and pepper shrimp (hit the spot!), then went to check out the yard sale they had going on to benefit a child in our community who needs to travel for medical treatment. I won't rub in ALL of the amazing deals I came across, but I will tell you that my son now has an awesome pair of black Chucks, I found the coolest costume bling, got a $5 Kozy Carrier (Yes, you read that right!!! and in perfect condition), a bazillion hardback kids books, and a huge box full of other goodies. My grand total was $14, but we donated some cash on top of that... Altogether, killer deals for a good cause. Blessings to that family. I cannot imagine having a child with health issues- parents that care for children with special medical needs are my heroes.

On another note, I went onto Amazon to order Jackson a few more prefold diapers, since I have credits on Amazon and a few of his prefolds are getting a little sad looking. NONE of the good brands had Prime shipping. That did not excite me. I decided then to forego the prefolds and buy them elsewhere and started looking for Econobum covers, since we could use a couple more One Size diaper covers around here that aren't bulky and can fit in my purse easily. There were NO Econobum or Flip covers in stock. I take that back, there was 1 Econobum and it was $9 + $7 shipping. How about no?! Nothing economical about that!

So, the story of my night... I had a delicious float, I went to a great indoor yard sale, and I was disappointed in Amazon. I hope our girl feels better tomorrow, but I fear we'll be missing our friend's little boy's pirate birthday party. Can't risk bringing the Outbreak monkey to the party, though.