Cloth Diapers!

Now that we have been using cloth diapers for 3 months I figured it was about time that I filled you in on all the details... The overall message is that CLOTH DIAPERS WORK FOR US!!!

I love them!

When I was pregnant I decided that I would give cloth diapers a try so I discussed with Matt and he said that if we invested the money we better follow through and that even if I hated it we would have to stick with it. That of course made me SUPER worried. What if I hated it... I don't want to be stuck doing something I hate... Poop makes me gag!  so i read a million reviews/blogs and ultimately took note from two people I fully trust... but don't know... John and Sherry P... from Young House Love. They both swore by the bumGenus All in One Diapers for their little one. So that is what I went with...

Knowing that it was all or nothing we jumped right in and purchased 24 of the Freetime bumGenius diapers from Cotton Babies. At $399.95 they were NOT cheap but in the long run I know that they will end up saving us a TON of money! We settled on the Freetime model because not only are they one-size fits all (w/ snaps that adjust as baby grows) but they are also "all-in-one" meaning that the "inserts" are permanently sewn in! One less step when it comes to cleaning and changing Hunter. We also settled on snaps and not the Velcro as we hope to use these diapers with other kiddos and I was worried that the Velcro would wear out. 24 was our magic number(18 seems to be the number that many other folks go with) because we wanted to always have 2 in each of the diaper bags, 1 emergency diaper in the car, and 3-4 at my mom's house and I wanted to be able to only wash every other night.

Again we love them, they’re no harder than disposables. Everyone asks about washing them but realistically it does not seem like more of a hassle. Every other night I throw all of our diapers into our WONDERFUL front loader and set on a special "urine/feces" cycle... YUP my amazing washer has a perfect cycle just for poop! This means I only have to run them through one 3-hour cycle (not the 2-3 that some people do). So before bed I start the washer and when I wake up the next morning I transfer the diapers to the dyer and set for a 40 minute tumble dry. I would say that my washing effort is equal to changing out a diaper gene and throwing away disposables...

**Note: occasionally one may come out of the wash with a slight orange tinge (very rarely, this isn’t an everyday thing). The good news is that it’s 100% clean and sanitized, sometimes one every few weeks is just a bit discolored from breastfeeding poop. As Sherry and John say "It’s kind of like how old Tupperware containers can get stained from tomato sauce and even if you run them through the dishwasher and they’re totally clean they can still have that tint." There are two ways to deal with this issue... you can run them through the wash again with your next load(what I typically do) or you can lay them out in the sun while they’re still moist from the washer and it will bleach them white again. I will likely transition to the sun bleaching method when it gets warmer out.

What does Hunter think??????

He seems to love them more than disposables too! I have found that he sleeps longer at night (we double fold the insert so that there is more material in the front and he wakes up nice and dry... before we figured out this trick we had a wet belly anytime Hunter would sleep over 6 hours). We also experience 95% fewer blow-outs  and zero diaper rash since trading up from disposables.

What does NaNa think?

My mom was NOT fond of the cloth diapering idea. In fact she offered to buy disposables at her house so that she would not have to use the cloth ones. But after having her watch us with the cloth diapers she quickly realized that they were the same ass putting on the disposables because we didn't have to worry/bother with separate incerts. All she had to do is toss the diapers in a bag and NOT the trash and I pick the diapers up when I get Hunter!!!

So all in all!!! I have much cloth diaper love and would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone!

2013 Planner!

For over a year I have been a daily reader of I Heart Organizing and I was so excited when Jen shared her Personalized 2013 Planner.

While reading the post I was litterally drooling and wishing that I could have the same system that she had designed for her family. When I finished reading I couldn't resist heading straight to her etsy shop and purchasing the PDF planner! At only $25.00 it was a no brainer!

Her printables include:

Personalized Planner Cover

Special Dates Page -- Perfect for Birthdays!

12 Dated Monthly Calendar Pages

52 weeks of Daily Dated Pages... Complete with a meal organization section.

Notes Page

Weekly Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping Page

My PDF arrived three days after purchased and I couldn't wait to assemble my binder! I probabaly checked my e-mail 100 times while waiting for Jen to e-mail me my personalized planner pages!

From Staples I purchased the Large Arc notepad(Jen used the Martha Stewart version), the arc hole punch,  and the extenders so that my planner could accomidate 150 pages! I love that I will be able to remove/add pages as needed... If I mess up or our calendar changes I can easily reprint that one page and BAM the planner is perfect again!

Here is MY planner!!!

P.S. - I LOVE the arc system and am currently converting my co-workers to use the same!!

4 Months

4 MONTHS!

 Look at that drool!!!

 Happy little man!

 

Hunter is 17 weeks!

Hard to believe that Saturday will mark 4 months!

Hunter is getting so big! We are now fully fitting into 3-6 months clothes... though Daddy is still in denial that his little man is getting bigger and Matt will still try to cram him into a 0-3 month outfit. The 3-6 moth clothes make him look like such a big boy also! I love his little heart breaker outfit above from GAP.

Hunter drools ALL THE TIME. I keep feeling around in his mouth but I'm not feeling any teeth yet.

This is my first full week back at work work 8 hours for all 5 days... it is an adjustment and when I get home I am just so happy to see my little man that all I want to do is snuggle and spend time with him. This makes cleaning up around the house VERY difficult. Our first feeding after work has also started to be a "playtime" for Hunter... it is so funny. Any time I speak Hunter stops eating and just stares at me, laughs and tries to talk back.

Hunter went 10 Hours without getting up in the middle of the night! Our best night sleep yet!

Hunter is also starting to take an interest in other toys! He loves the jumperoo that he received for Christmas (Found on craigs list! Only $35... and YES I sanitized it!) and will now typically bounce while the family eats dinner.

New Car! Proud Van Owner

I'm excited to share that on New Years Eve we became proud owners of a 2013 Honda Odyssey!

We splurged and got the top off the line/fully loaded model. Matt decided if we were going with a van we better just go all the way!

The main selling features for us were:

• Blind spot sensors... LOVE
• Back up sensors and camera
• Great navigation and sound system
• Large center console... The Quest had a HORRIBLE console and was immediately out of the running in my mind because of that simple fact
• Ultra wide rear DVD player which can display two movies (thought that this would be good as we have a large age difference with our children)

• "High Intensity Discharge" headlights... SUPER powerful!
• The ability to carry 4'x8' sheets of plywood inside the vehicle (with back seats adjusted)

• Cooler built into the front. Like this feature for bottles, water bottles, and snacks. Will be useful for days when we have soccer or travel.
• I love the automatic open/close doors... this is a standard feature on vans but a new one for me. It makes it SOOO much easier to get Hunter's car seat in and out
• More leg room in the second row. Also a huge one for me as I am often sitting back there in a parking lot feeding Hunter.

Also, my cutie hubby added a few after market items that I'm enjoying... the most notable is the remote start!!! This allows me to start my car 10 minutes before departing each morning (at 5:50 a.m. when it is FREEZING) and it gets my car all toasty!!!

With the new car comes a resolution to KEEP IT CLEAN and ORGANIZED! In the past my vehicles have been a dumping ground. This weekend I plan to work on some little projects for car organization and I will share once they are complete.

January Get Organized Checklist!

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to use The "One Year of Organizing" Monthly Checklists from Creative Organizing.

I'm so excited to get started on this and I'm feeling super motivated... In fact I already have FIVE items check off my original list (above).

Items completed include:

• Set your goals for the year! I completed this here when I shared my resolutions for 2013. AHHH I still cannot believe that it is 2013!
• Check your monthly tickler folder. Since I am new to this organization system I first had to create my tickler folders for the year. On the creative organizing site they recommend one folder per month AND one folder per day (in a month). I felt like this was a bit overkill... I decided to only create one folder per month and that I would use my planner as my daily organizer. I mean let's be realistic... I'm lucky enough to remember to grab my planner each morning let alone a different file folder each day... I've set up a station in my kitchen which is devoted to this new organization system and each time I print something that I will need for the future I go ahead and add it to the appropriate folder. So far I'm loving this... W2 form went right into the March folder (as I will likely do taxes in March)...
• Create a master family calendar for 2013. I did this as a part of my planner that I created for 2013 and will share more on that in a future post!
• Family organization station in kitchen or create a binder. I am sooo excited about my new planner binder! As a sneak peak I purchased the printable system created by Jen of I heart Organizing. If you do not already follow her blog... start NOW! It is life changing. I will do a full post on this later in the week!

• 2013 Budget. Done and done... So here is how finances are taken care of in the Park household... Matt and I each have an equal allotment that is automatically taken out of each paycheck and it goes into our joint checking account. Again we pay into this equally. This is used to pay for the mortgage, groceries, eating out, joint family activities, home improvement items, and the family vehicle... What is leftover in our paychecks goes into personal checking to do with as we each see fit. Matt is a SUPER saver/investor and typically puts a majority of his money into our future, pays his car payment, and buys electronics with his additional money. (** before Matt proposed he paid down all personal debt... what an amazing hubby). With my leftover money I typically just blow through it... in all honesty. I spend it on gas, my Verizon payment, personal food (lunch/coffee), my banana republic credit card, and let's be honest HOMEGOODS (see small... "julie wants this but we don't NEED it" items cannot go on the house account... wompwomp... because well I have a lot of these WANTS...) so my budget for 2013 has to do with my own personal spending! My goals for the year is to take after Matt and to start SAVING!!! I will be automatically putting $500 per paycheck right into some type of savings. Divided between personal savings, Emma's College Fund, Hunter's College Fund, Christmas Savings. This means cutbacks at homegoods and bringing my own lunch 4 out of 5 days... Wish me luck... to aid in my goal to spend less I've put myself on a cash diet. Each payday I will take $200 out and ONLY use that cash over the next two weeks for my personal expenses...

looking forward to sticking with this

2013 - The Year of Organization!

One of my goals in 2013 is to become a more organized mama!

Via

After MUCH research I have decided to use The "One Year of Organizing" Monthly Checklists from Creative Organizing.

I love that the tasks are broken down in monthly checklists and that I am able to add my own items. To customize the checklist I simply downloaded the monthly pdf. Took a snapshot and pasted into PowerPoint. I'm sure that there is an easier way but I figured in Powerpoint I can keep all of my monthly lists together and I can easily make edits as needed.

Tomorrow I will share my personalized January to do list and will share my progress with you each step of the way!