A Few Recent Photos

 

 

 

 

Just Like Papa

D.L.F. loves to imitate T. The other day D.L.F. decided he was ready for dinner (even though it wasn't done cooking yet), so he climbed up into his high chair and prayed something like this: "Thank you for this food, thank you for my Missy wife, AMEN! Okay, let's eat!" (Can you tell that T is usually the one who asks the blessing at dinner?)

Hair, Hair, Everywhere

The shedding, it has commenced.

Cloth Diapering

Stephanie asked about cloth diapering, so I'll give a quick overview of what we do. We use diaper-service-quality Chinese prefolds (currently newborn size for Cupcake and regular size for D.L.F., but soon we will be putting D.L.F. into toddler size when Cupcake needs the regular size) with Snappi diaper fasteners (you can get them on Ebay pretty inexpensively). We use hemp doublers inside the diapers.

Over that we use Aristocrats wool soakers. We have two for each of the kids. It would be better to have more, but they are expensive, so we make do with what we have (we do have some cheap back-up plastic covers, but I don't like using them because they leak). Because we only have two soakers each, we wash them pretty frequently with a soap containing lanolin (lanolin helps make the wool more waterproof). I occasionally lanolize the soakers (we call them "woolies") with lanolin balm.

My favorite cloth diaper resource is Diaper Pin. It has articles, product reviews, a sale page where retailers can list their current promotions, and more. Here is a cloth diaper "how-to." Also, Candy has written some posts about cloth diapering, which you can read here and here.

Whew...that's a lot of links. Okay, any more questions?

Really Busy!

We've been super-busy lately...with having family members over to our house, attending weddings, running errands, and the like.

I've gotten into the habit of walking 2 miles every morning before T goes to work. I actually really enjoy it and look forward to that time (well, except for the getting up at 5 AM part...but at least Cupcake sleeps through the night, so it's really not so bad). I've been listening to audio sermons and messages on my MP3 player that I download from Oneplace.com. Lately I've mostly been listening to Revive Our Hearts, with Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

I've also been in an organizing mood lately. Today I worked on our bedroom closet and a small table in our bedroom that was piled high with baby clothes and accessories.

There are often Christian books I hear about that I want to read, but they aren't available from my public library. I just recently figured out that I can use the interlibrary loan service my library offers that allows me to get (for free!) almost any book in almost any library in America. What a blessing, as I certainly couldn't afford to purchase all those books! I visited the library by myself tonight (a rare occurrence!) and put a whole bunch of Christian books by Carolyn Mahaney, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Anne Ortlund, and others on hold through the interlibrary loan service.

Homemade Natural Deodorant

I like it! I finally tried it because I kept having to switch brands and scents of deodorants because of skin irritation. Also, I was concerned about the health effects of the aluminum that is in most antiperspirants (aluminum has been linked to cancer, Alzheimer's disease, etc.).

This all-natural stuff feels great and it honestly works better (read: I don't stink) than any store-bought deodorant I've ever used. I think it is important to use a good-quality unrefined coconut oil, because of its antibacterial properties.

Here's the recipe at Tammy's Recipes (which is a really great blog/recipe site; many of Tammy's recipes have become standbys at our house!).

Update: Okay, now that I've been using this stuff for a while, I have to say that sometimes if I apply it right after shaving, my underarms get irritated. I still like it, and I really like the light coconut scent, but I think next time I make it, I will use less baking soda.

Cupcake is 2 Months Old!

I had my last appointment with my midwives yesterday. Cupcake weighs 13 pounds now, and my midwives all said she seems very mature for 9 weeks. Midwife L. said Cupcake is allergic to something I'm eating (indicated by scaliness behind Cupcake's ears), so L. recommended I stop eating peanut products, which are the most common culprit. She said if eliminating peanut products doesn't help, then the next thing to go will have to be dairy. Hopefully it won't come to that....

I am going to start walking a few evenings a week. There is a 2-mile fitness trail near our house, and last night I walked it twice (4 miles!) in 70 minutes. I have a couple of albums specifically intended for exercising. The songs have strong beats, and each song flows seamlessly into the next. The beats per minute gradually increase and hold at a pretty fast rate for quite a while, and then slow again. Today I'm feeling the burn!

Family in Town

T's parents are here from out-of-state and spent the weekend with us. I only wish we'd had more time together, but we'll get to see them a little more next weekend.

Lately, whenever D.L.F. wants something, he phrases his request in the form of a question, and then answers himself with an enthusiastic, "Okay!"

"Do you want some raisins? Okay!"

"Do you need some help? Okay!"

"Do you want to get the mail? Okay!"