The Laundry Enemy

Oh laundry…you are quickly becoming my enemy! I have always loved doing laundry, especially neatly folding everything.

It seems like lately if I can remember to wash before my husband runs out of underclothes I’m doing good!

Then once I get things washed I often neglect the folding!

And then once they’re folded they just sit!

Here’s the evidence:

What’s not pictured is the other laundry hamper in the closet…yeah, it often looks just like this!

Here’s more evidence from earlier this week! (And I realized I’m also sharing the fact that my bed was never made!) Notice that the whites are somewhat molded in the shape of a clothes basket! Yeah, they stayed in there that long!

Another shot of our mess! But if you look very closely on the pillow you will see progress: one folded handkerchief (I am a hankie user!)

Ah, baby clothes and kitchen towels awaiting placement in their proper “homes”!

Once Paxton moved to his crib over 2 months ago the pack ‘n play just stayed…John David has lowered it though, if it was up to me it’d still be like this! And, I’ve found that it makes an excellent “laundry catcher” for those nights when we just want to push the clean clothes off of the bed but not into the floor!

Of  course I have much better things to do than keep up with the laundry these days:

This little man doesn’t care about clothes! He’s just happy in a diaper! (And I have *mostly* mastered doing the diaper laundry, thankfully!)

Linked to: Friday Fails

Seventh Generation Natural Baby Starter Kit Giveaway

*This giveaway is now closed, congratulations to commenter #39, Emily!

As a cloth diapering mama, I’ve found that I can’t always cloth diaper my baby. There are times that it is easier to use disposables (like overnight trips!)

In the first few weeks, we used disposable diapers before we started cloth diapering. Once he started wearing cloth diapers full time at home and only wearing disposables when we were on the go, I noticed that the disposables had a smell! The “diaper smell”scent it made his soiled diapers smell just horrible! I knew there had to be an unscented disposable diaper!

Then I was introduced to Seventh Generation Diapers:

• Wood pulp processed without chemicals containing chlorine
• Hypoallergenic
• Fragrance and latex free
• Premium fit and absorbency

The light tan diapers make them look different than other diapers. One of my favorite features is the stretchy tabs and the fit of these diapers is great.

With a breastfeed baby (and the explosions and blowouts that come with that) how did they do? They were great! They had a high rise on the back and contained messes. He did have a little poop up the back one time but it was only a little bit and it was a huge dirty diaper! Other than that I never had any problems and never had any leaks with the wet diapers! (Other brands…let’s just say when he has to wear disposables I’m super prepared with tons of wipes and extra clothes!)

Looking cute in his diaper!

I also tried out the Seventh Generation Baby Wipes. They were okay wipes, they were a little thin and I found that I needed to use 2 or 3 wipes to clean up most dirty diapers. However, the fact that they are also hypoallergenic and unscented makes them a great option for babies with really sensitive skin.

Giveaway:

Win a Seventh Generation Natural Baby Starter Kit including Chlorine Free Diapers (in the size you need), Chlorine Free Wipes, Baby Laundry Liquid, Disinfecting Wipes, All Purpose Cleaner and a few more products (I’ll let you enjoy a surprise when the package arrives!)

Mandatory Entry:

Leave a comment telling me why you want to try out Seventh Generation Diapers!

Additional Entries: (leave a separate comment for each)

1. Tell me who the diapers would be for!

2. Tweet about this giveaway.

Giveaway ends Saturday, August 28 at 12:00 pm CST.

Disclaimer: I was provided a Seventh Generation Natural Baby Starter Kit to review. I was not compensated in any other way. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Four Months

Yesterday our handsome little man was 4 months old! (Where does the time go?) He weighs 16 pounds 3 ounces and is 26 inches long!

(Visit our family blog, The Simple Life of the Boreings to read about milestones from this past month!)

Linked to: Wordless Wednesday

A Different Perspective on Pregnancy

This post was written by my sister, Rebekah. It’s a beautiful story of God’s forgiveness, grace and love. Not every woman is thrilled to learn it’s positive when they take a pregnancy test but each one of those babies are blessings!

Rebekah and 3-day-old Emerson

I was 19 when I found out I was pregnant.  I had just started my sophomore year in college and it was a nightmare.  Not only was I pregnant, but I was not in a relationship with the baby’s father; this was not exactly an ideal situation.  I was so scared about what my parents and friends would think and say.  I think I was even more nervous about going to church pregnant and unmarried.  I told my parents and they were pretty supportive, upset of course, but supportive.  My mother and I did get into a few arguments and she said some things that really hurt my feelings, but I know she was just as upset about everything as I was.

So many people that I talked to acted like it was no problem at all.  “You can take care of it” or “just get it fixed” were common remarks and an abortion seemed to be a simple “solution” to the problem.  Even though my parents already knew I was pregnant it would be so easy for me to just tell them I had a miscarriage.  But I couldn’t do it.  I had never even considered having an abortion if I got in this situation and now that I was in it an abortion was certainly not an option for me.  I knew things would be hard and some people would think badly of me, but I had made the decision to have sex and this baby was not something I could just get rid of like it never existed.

Each month was difficult for me.  Often I felt like no one cared and that I was a loser and a screw up.  I kept wishing that things would go back to normal, but I knew that realistically this was my life.  I was going to be a single mom and I needed to prepare for it whether I wanted to or not.  During my pregnancy my relationship with the Lord actually improved.  I had been a Christian for several years, although I had made poor decisions on many occasions, but I felt like I was closer to the Lord than ever.  Even though I was in a bad situation I knew that everything would be ok and towards the end of my pregnancy I was actually happier than I had been in a long time.

Emerson Alexandria was born on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 9:54 am.  I couldn’t believe that this little bundle was actually my daughter.  It took a few months for me to realize that I was a mommy and the “unconditional love” didn’t set in for a couple months either.  I felt like something was wrong with me and that I wasn’t going to be a good mom.  After a while, however, I continued to fall more and more in love with my little girl.

Today I don’t know what I would do without her.  I love holding her in my arms and my favorite thing to do now is take naps with her lying on my tummy.  She has made me become a better person and has made me realize that I need to enjoy life and what I have and not take things for granted.  Although my situation is certainly not ideal and what God intended, I know that this happened for a reason.  I am so glad I made the decision to keep my baby and not “fix the problem” like I was encouraged to do.  Babies are not choices, they are a life.  We should not have the decision to terminate a life that God has created.  All people are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and seeing how every person starts off as a baby, this applies to them also.  Emerson is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I know that every other baby can bring just as much joy as she has.

Celebrating Emerson’s First Birthday!

Rebekah is now 21 and is a wonderful mother to her little girl! She graduated with her Associates degree this past May and is starting classes in a few short weeks for her Elementary Education Degree. Emerson is 14 months old and into everything but such a blessing to our family!

One Year Ago

One year ago tonight we found out life changing news, we found out we were expecting!

It’s amazing how much a + symbol means!

We were just thrilled that we were going to become parents but had no idea how amazing it really was going to be!

Today we reflected on the anniversary of finding out we were going to become a family of 3! We celebrated by loving on our son!

Our sweet sleeping blessing one year later!

Financial Goals Update: July

Now that 2010 is halfway over (which I can hardly believe), we’ve looked over and revised our goals. It is amazing how much can change in a period of 7 months!

Our original goals:

1. Save $3,000 for new to us vehicle. We’ve revised this to “Have $2,500 total in new to us vehicle fund (by the end of the year).” We had around $1,000 saved at the beginning of the year and currently have a little over $2,000 in this fund. With changes in expenses, giving and budgeting we don’t think $3,000 is a realistic goal for us and we’ve also decided that we don’t need to replace John David’s truck just because it won’t comfortably seat the 3 of us, we’ll go in our family car instead!

2. Add on a guest room in the basement without any debt. We’re not adding on a guest room. Our office/guest room is working just fine so we don’t think it’s wise to spend money adding on a room at this time. (The $562.78 we had saved in our “Home Improvement” fund was applied to the purchase of a lawn mower, which we needed!)

3. Establish a college fund for Paxton. No changes here!

4. Make an extra principal payment each month. We’re changing this to ” Make a $215 extra principal payment each month.” $215 is the magic number to getting the house paid off in 15 years so we thought it would be wise to have a specific dollar amount to reach each month.

Here’s what we accomplished in July on our revised goals:

1. Have $2,500 total in new to us vehicle fund. We saved around $40 towards this goal and our vehicle fund has $2,121.79 so we have $378.21 to go!

3. Establish a college fund for Paxton. Still nothing official! We’ve read over different types of options though and hopefully will make a decision soon!

4. Make a $215 extra principal payment each month. We made $243.10 in extra payments!