mushy rants.

A little bit about me.

I am working on, but used to be, an all-or-nothing kind of gal.  As in, I wouldn't start a project unless I could really do it ALL right, have ALL the right tools, and focus on it and nothing else.  This, of course, in unrealistic.  Even when I didn't have kids, it was difficult to fully complete any project with these kind of parameters.  The main issue with this all-or-nothing nonsense is that I would rarely start projects I wanted to do because of not being able to fully commit.  A good example would be organic foods.  I would rarely buy the organic beans because I wasn't buying the organic eggs.  If I wasn't buying everything organic, I wouldn't buy even one item organic.  A change in my thinking was necessary.

I've been making a real effort in changing my ways.  Starting projects knowing that it might not be 100% perfect.  Buying the organic milk and not the organic oranges.  Hanging that picture frame, but not that one.  Trying cloth diapers without buying the whole supply first.  Learning & discovering what works first, before throwing all my time and money at it just to see it fail.

Which is why I recently researched organic foods and the importance of them in our family's diet.  Turns out, they're pretty important.  Keep in mind, I am one of those people that will say "I grew up drinking/eating/wearing/doing it this way, and I turned out fine."  But, there is a reason organic is making a comeback, and it's time I find out why.  When I googled the "most important foods to buy organic" I was not surprized, but motivated to find out more.  I strongly encourage anyone questioning the organic lifestyle to do this.

One of the top seven items was baby food.  BABY FOOD.  I have a baby (duh.)  And I feed him baby food. (double duh.)  Darn it all.  So, I'm starting a new project.  I also am well aware that it may fail, that I may not have time to do it all the time, and that it may be way more work than anticipated.  But, I'm gonna go for it.  I'm going to make my own baby food.

It looks easy.  I already have a glass blender to mush it up.  I have ice cube trays to store it.  And I have glass containers to thaw and serve.  I just pick and choose what organic veggies and fruits I want to mix and mush together, and spoon them into baby d's cute, tiny, toothless mouth.  And it's CHEAP!  I will be saving a noticeable amount of money and reducing the waste that comes with store-bought baby food.  No plastic containers (which I do recycle, but still).  No foil wrapper to keep it from spoiling.  No cardboard labels to toss in the trash.  Just my same appliances and bowls that I will use over and over again.

This photo, copyright and courtesy of Nicole at Nicole Barczak Photography,

captures the beauty of homemade baby food in all its glorious (and healthy) real colors.

I'm pretty excited to see how this turns out.  The only thing to do now is go buy the food. 

Avacados (did you know they are a fruit?) and sweet potatoes, prepare to be mushed.

my bucket list.

Back in December, David & I fulfilled pretty much the only thing on my bucket list. 

See Garth Brooks perform live. 

It was amazing and better than I imagined.  (People say that, but they don't mean it.  I really mean it.)  During the drive to Nashville for the concert, we started a pretty heavy discussion about The Bucket List.  What's on it?  What qualifies?  We decided there is a "Bucket List" which contains the most important things.  Things that you would sincerely be upset with if you did not complete in your lifetime.  Things that you just really, really feel the need to do.  Then, there's the "That'd be pretty freakin' awesome, but it's not necessary List".  This would be things that you would love to do, but wouldn't regret not doing.  There's a big difference in these lists.  Ever since the trip, I've been really trying to fill up my bucket.  I only have on item, but I'm working on it.  I don't want to fill it up just to have it full.  I want true and honest bucket-list-worthy items.

lauren's bucket list:

#1.  Learn how to play the guitar.

lauren's that-would-be-freakin'-awesome list:

#1.  Get professional pictures taken.  I'm talking hair stylist, make-up artist, wardrobe, manicurist, badass camera that would hide all flaws, professional studio, and big fan to blow my newly-styled hair around. This item is also closing in on the bucket list.

That's all I have for now.

it's been a while.

Whenever I haven't posted for a while, I always feel as if I have a million things to write.  But when I actually find a second to sit down and type, they all disappear.  And I've always told myself not to write something just to satisfy a timeline.  I want to write when it's about an event I want to remember or a moment that is important to me.  So, to keep it as real as it gets, here's another random post.

We had a party!

I did everything myself, from the invites to the decorations to the food.  And it was fun!  I'm not going to say it was easy, but it was definitely fun.  I googled fun little recipes and what I found were tons of finger foods.  I laid out plates, but they weren't touched.  We had cake pops (big hit!), cupcakes, lemon bars, and fruit kabobs.  I used cookie cutters to shape the pinapple into "3"'s and the cantelope into stars & hearts.  Let's just say I will never do that again.  Kabobs, yes.  Shaped kabobs, N-to-the-O.  I think the most fun was the Thursday night before the big day.  David worked late, so I put the kids to bed and started cooking everything I could while I watched my thursday night tv.  It's a pretty great memory of her party that I will probably remember forever.  She'll be 16 and wanting a new car for her birthday, and I'll think back to that thursday night when I was drenched in pineapple juice & licking pink icing off my fingers.  It was a simple party.  We had food & gifts done in the first 45 minutes.  The rest of the time was for visiting.  It was relaxing & Emma had a blast.  We only had family & godmama Lindahl, and it was nice.

Cloth Diapers vs. Naps

I'm going to be honest here and say naps win.  Always.

Baby D is a light sleeper.  He takes after his daddy.  He wakes up to almost anything.  He still doesn't have the greatest nap routine, but we try.  He has decided to take his nap smackdab in the middle of my strength class at the Y.  Meaning, if I put him in childwatch to work out, he gets fussy and they have to come get me out of class.  And well, that sucks.  So, now I skip my class and let him nap at home.  This sucks for me, as I LOVE this class.  It's the only thing getting me back in shape after having this baybee I'm speaking of.  Anywho.  Then, he takes a longer nap in the afternoon.  For the entire first week of cloth diapers, he did not take one long nap.  He would cry for 40 minutes and then sleep for 10.  It wasn't really working for either of us.  The day I put him back in a huggie is the day he took 2 two-hour naps.  So, now we split it.  Napps gett huggs.  Play gets cloth.  So far, so good.  Still haven't purchased diapers since I started the cloth.  My debit card just thanked me.

I still have bro's awesome camera.

More pictures, less words.

a silly, fake, "smile for the camera", smile.

wearing her gifts.

my big girl.

sicky poo.

here's my sick girl.

10 minutes ago, she had a temperature of 102.2,

and she still looks that beautiful.

you can see the fever in her cheeks.

it's days like this i'm so glad i stay home.

she may be sick,

and have a crazy fever,

and i will worry,

but i get all the cuddles i can take.

and it's pretty great.

Edittttt.

Love.



Photo. Shoot!

I'm borrowing my bro's camera in hopes to get "used" to it before I snap his engagement photos.

And well....I'm in love.

Here are some (unedited) practice shots with the different lenses from today:

my personal favorite.

Happy Thursday!

are you ready?

For a really random post.

-I have been Goodwilling (yes, I just made it a verb) everything I don't need anymore.  But I have some big items (ie. stained glass hanging lights/patio furniture/etc) that I haven't been able to load up yet.  Which got me thinking - I should have a garage sale.  I live on a good road to have one.  Everyone would see it driving by & there are lots of places to park.  There's even a U-shaped driveway to turn around in.  So, I think I've decided I'm going to have my very first garage sale this spring when it warms up.  Even if I only make $10, that's more than I get from straight goodwillin'. (<--there it is again)

-I got lost on Etsy last night.  Like, lost.  I think I was on it for 2 hours before I realized that I should really go to bed, and the website would still be there in the morning.  Here are some things I'm craving:

After some research, I found out wool diaper covers are the best for night time cloth diapering.  Isn't this handmade one the bomb?

These organic bamboo toddler training pants.

I can't believe I didn't think of this!

Emma is potty trained except when she sleeps.  I use 2 pull-ups per day for her.

That's more diapers than I used on Dean yesterday!

I'll be seeing these on my front porch very soon.

This simple necklace from my cousin's shop called outodry.

Isn't this pretty?  It's mint & mocha.

I can just imagine putting it on after a day at the pool. (with a tan!)

Can't you see Deaners in this hat? 

Those ear flaps come down to keep tiny ears warm.

He would look so darn handsome.

This print for Emma's room.

"Tell me...What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Well?  I told you it was gonna be random.

:)

man, that feels good.

That's what I imagine Dean would say to me if he could talk.  "Gosh mama, this clean cotton against my tush feels so much better than whatever is in those other diapers."  Though, I am still using those other diapers on rare occasion.  I don't think the cloth can handle the night time.  He really wets his diapers when he's sleeping.  The other is when I drop him off at my in-laws on Fridays.  They watch four kids, all under the age of 3.  Yes, three.  I would not & do not expect to have them deal with the cloth diapers while three other kids run around.  They do enough as it is.

Despite how it sounds, the diapers are easy.  There is definitely a learning curve, but I feel like I tackled that in about 4 diaper changes.  No, they're not as easy as the pull & stick tabs on a Huggie.  No, they're not as easy to just throw away and never deal with again. 

However, once you get used to it, it's not bad.

I double up the layers so he doesn't leak through.  I fold the edges to form my own barrier to leaks.  I stick the pins parallel to his body.  I started out vertical, and that just wasn't cutting it.  I also have poked myself about a bajillion times in the 24 hours I've been doing this.  That's probably the only really annoying part about it.  But maybe I'm just really bad at that part.  I just hope I never poke him.

It only takes a minute longer to put on than the Huggs, and it's just as quick to come off.

The storage issue was something I was wary about.  Where was I going to put these wet/soiled diapers in between being dirtied and being washed?  There are "wet bags" you can buy, but that's just more $$$.  There are pails that you fill with water and then let the diapers sit in the water until you wash them.  (in hopes to avoid set-in stains)  Does this option make you wanna hurl?  Yeh, me too.  I can't imagine wet-uriny-poopy diapers chillin' in water - it's basically it's own soup.  vomit.  for reals.  So I was perplexed.  Then one day it just popped in my head.  Use the Diaper Genie without the plastic bags.  So far, so good.  It keeps the odor in without being soupy & gross.  Keep in mind I only have 12 diapers so I use almost all of them each day.  The last two days I have just washed the diapers at night, and they're ready to go in the morning.  So they have not had to sit in the genie for more than a day.

And yes, I'll be getting more diapers.  I realize running my washing machine every night is not environmentally friendly either.  (Although better that sitting in a landfill for 500+ years trying to decompose.)  I just wanted to make sure I could work with the cloth before I went and bought the whole supply.

All of this has really got me proud of myself.  (Yes, I'm patting myself on the back as I type.)  In all seriousness, I'm so happy I decided to try this option.  I will be putting ONE diaper into the landfills today instead of 6.  And I feel bad about that one!  Hopefully I can find a night time option soon.

So basically, the cloth is working.  He's happy && I'm happy.  Isn't that the important part?  It's just a bonus that it's cheap! and environmentally friendly! and more comfortable!