Did I catch your attention? The sad part is that it really was… Ok Ok, I’ll tell you what happened.

I found a couch and oversized chair on Craigslist that was within our budget and looked GREAT! We set up a meeting time on Saturday morning to go pick them up. First we had to move ours out of the house (thanks mom for buying them from us!) and then we had to drive another 50 minutes to go get the new to us furniture.

Oh, can I tell you that Patrick and I trying to move our 8+ foot couch out of our house was a little ridiculous. If you saw the Friends meme I posted on my facebook that morning, I can tell you it wasn’t as funny as that but miraculously we did it without damaging anything and got everything and everyone loaded up.

Upon arriving at the house to pick up the new couch and chair, everything looked great. We paid for them, loaded them up and brought them home. We got them in a lot easier than trying to get our old ones out, so I was thankful to finally have my living room not look like an incomplete disaster area.

We set them into place and horror flooded me. They looked disgusting. Like absolutely nasty. Water stains, dirt stains… it was insane. I cried. What had I done?! After a little research, we found out that you can clean microfiber couches with rubbing alcohol and some scrubbing action.

6 hours later. They looked and felt brand new. Patrick and I aren’t afraid to put a little hard work into something to make it work. In between scrubbing, I decided to spray paint a few frames to help spruce them up. I removed the glass and put it in the living room while taking the frame outside.

Bennett was napping so I didn’t think anything of it. After a 12 hour day of moving furniture and scrubbing couches, I finally went to shower so I could sit on the couch in good conscience.

I sat down, noticed that Bennett had grabbed the glass from the frame, said, “Don’t touch”, took the glass from him and sat back down. Bennett crawled away into the kitchen and that was that.

Patrick walked into the room and said, “Wow, they really look great….. oh my gosh… what the heck is on the couch?!?!” I look down and there are spots of blood everywhere. I immediately jump up thinking I cut my leg shaving and didn’t know it. Patrick is standing there in horror as it clicked in my head. BENNETT MUST HAVE CUT HIMSELF ON THE GLASS. I run to him and look at his hand, there is blood everywhere. We were trying to find where it was coming from and finally saw the gash on his thumb. Every time he straightened out his thumb, blood would literally pour out. I scoop him up, grab a towel, take him upstairs to get all the blood cleaned off of him and see how bad the wound is.

Patrick tracks the blood from the couch, to the toy bin, throughout the carpet in the living room, to the kitchen floor, to the kitchen chairs, to his high chair, to the pantry door and back to the kitchen chairs.

I’m trying not to panic as the bleeding was fast and furious. It was filling up paper towels faster than I could change them and it would literally drip when I would release the pressure. I told Patrick that we might need to go get liquid stitches if it didn’t slow down.

After about 25 minutes of sitting with B in my lap and holding his hand up while applying pressure, it slowed down enough that we were able to put a bandaid on it with some neosporin.

Have you ever tried putting a bandaid on a teething 10 month old thumb?! “Don’t eat your bandaid” was a repeat phrase for the rest of the night.

We made it through dinner and bedtime where we cleaned it really well and put A&D ointment on it and left it open for the night.

What a day. Thankfully all the blood came out of the carpet and furniture. I’m even more thankful that B seemed uninterested in what was happening. He didn’t whine or fuss or even cry when it cut him and even let me hold his hand up for 20 minutes. I did use the TV as bribery though.

Everything is healing up great and between keeping it clean and giving it plenty of air, B doesn’t even notice it.

Just another Relbot Adventure that I couldn’t help but share. Don’t worry, all the glass is safely out of reach now. Sigh.

While running on my treadmill this morning, I couldn’t help but let the words of the worship songs sink into me. As I tried to sing along, I realistically could only get out like every third word. Yay for getting back into shape, right?

“Sink or swim I’m diving in
To the passion of Your heart
Where love starts

I lift my hands if my hands fail me
I’ll bend my knees if my knees grow weak
I’ll raise my voice and sing, I’ll sing
I know that You love me”  – Will Reagan & United pursuit 

…I know that He loves me. To know that He loves me unconditionally…it’s everything. My broken, insecure, constantly struggling self. He takes me with open arms and loves me.

which then led me to think of the song

“Here I am before You, falling in love and seeking Your truth
Knowing that Your perfect grace has brought me to this place
Because of You I freely live, my life to You, oh God, I give
So I stand before You, God
I lift my voice cause You set me free

So I shout out Your name, from the rooftops I proclaim
That I am Yours, I am Yours

All the good You’ve done for me, I lift my hands for all to see
You’re the only one who brings me to my knees
To share this love across the earth, the beauty of Your holy worth
So I kneel before You, God
I lift my hands cause You set me free” – Jesus Culture

I started thinking of the verse, All the good You’ve done for me, I lift my hands for all to see. I even thought about putting that as my facebook status. But I don’t want people to think I live this perfect and problem free life. I’m just a normal mom and wife doing everyday life. I have faced very very very hard seasons in my short 24 years. Yet, here I stand, still praising God for the good in my life.  You see, you can’t appreciate the peace, the calm, the mountain top, without the valley, struggles and storms. There are seasons that come and go in our lives. Some are a lot longer than others. Some are hurricanes, when they build up, move in, consume and destroy and you’re left in a wake of destruction, trying to rebuild. Others are a quick afternoon shower that the only reason you noticed it happened was because the grass is wet. Sometimes it doesn’t rain for days, weeks or MONTHS and you forget what it’s even like for it to storm.

Here’s the thing though, without the extremely trying and sometimes crushing seasons I’ve gone through, I wouldn’t be able to appreciate when it’s sunny. Patrick and I had a very hard first year of marriage but we survived and now look where we are. A family of three where we haven’t seen a hurricane in a very long time. An afternoon windy thunderstorm, yes but by God’s grace, hurricane season is over.

Everybody goes through seasons or storms where everyday life can feel like an uphill battle… in slippery mud…. with rocks being thrown at you as you climb and fire ants eating your skin. BUT! Storms won’t last forever. Do storms cause damage? They can… but that’s not the end of the story. You rebuild. You move forward. You climb the mountain so that eventually, you stand as an overcomer at the mountain top. You look back and see how far you’ve come and you reflect on how the storm changed you.

How to make it through the storm:

1. Remember that you’re already victorious over every trial, circumstance and trying season. Jesus died on the cross so that we could have VICTORY in this life.

2. Find like minded people to cheer you on when you’re fighting your way up the mountain.

Don’t climb alone. period. Find a group or even just one person to help support you when you need it the most.

3. Stay rooted in God’s promises. 

Find out what the bible says about your circumstance. Then stand firm and grasp tightly to what the scripture says.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from people who have been on the path you are climbing.

They can help point you in the right direction on where to plant your feet to safely make it to the top.

5. Even if you feel like the storm will never end, it can’t last forever. Turn to the One who will give you shelter and rest when you feel like you can’t go on.

I still have a index card on my bathroom mirror with the verse Matthew 11:28

²⁸ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]

from 3 years ago when I was working 70 hour weeks trying to do Miss Jee’s, go to school full time and work a full time nannying job. I would wake up in tears from exhaustion wondering how I was going to do it all. 3 years later, I look back and I thank God that I made it through that exhausting season.

The same can go for mamahood. I look back on the sleepless nights in the beginning when I couldn’t see straight from the pain of giving birth and the lack of sleep and yet I survived.

Going through a storm that you don’t see the end to? Hang on. It won’t last forever. 

 Praying for all the mama’s out there who are struggling. Who need rest. Who feel like they’re drowning. You’re going to make it. It’s just a season. You can do this. He’s got you. He hears you. He see’s you. You’re going to make it to that mountain top.

I get asked about our cloth diapers all the time, so I figured it was time to update the blog on how our cloth diapering journey has been going.

9 months later?

We STILL love it! We have made a few changes from when we first started, but I thought I would share on what works for us and what our cloth diapering routine looks like.

A question I get asked a lot-

How much money do you have into it? Total? For EVERYTHING cloth diaper related, we have spent around $350 dollars. That includes cloth wipes, wet bags, diapers, diaper sprayers…. and we have NICE diapers… like organic bamboo diapers haha. You can totally do it for cheaper…. or you can totally do it for more, but I feel pretty confident that I have spent that $350 extremely well. Also, I won’t have to spend anymore money for baby #2 and then I can RESELL them and make some of that investment back. BAM!

I have bought 80% of my diapers used from people who have tried it for 2 weeks and decided it’s not for them. I’m really really really good at finding good deals.

Do you need a fancy washer/dryer? Nope! Our washer and dryer was bought off of craiglist 7 years ago and it was already 3 years old. Your wash routine is more important than what you wash them in.

How often do you wash diapers? I typically wash my diapers every other day unless it’s been a crazy day of poop.

Is there a lot of time involved in prepping them? I spend probably a total of 40 minutes every other day. That is a total from washing, hanging, stuffing, putting them back away. It’s basically the same as a load of regular laundry. If I didn’t use pocket diapers at night time, I could cut that time in more than half because I wouldn’t have to restuff the diapers.

How do you wash them? 

I do a COLD rinse cycle with a tiny bit of Tide powder detergent. This makes sure that when you actually wash them, they aren’t being washed in dirty water.

Then I set my washer to a HOT and HEAVIEST cycle possible. I add half to a full cup of Tide powder depending on the size load, and then let them wash.

I then hang them on the drying rack once they are done.

Voila.

What types of diapers so I use:

1. Bumgenius Elementals for anytime we leave the house.

2. Kawaii pocket diapers for nap time.

3. Bumgenius elementals, Grovia Hybrids, Bumgenius freetimes for anytime except nap time.

4. Sloomb Happy Little Cloud with a Thirsties Duo wrap for bedtime or a Target disposable.

Where do I store dirty diapers?

I use a large Planet Wise wet bag that hangs next to the dresser/changing table. I have 3 of these (I scored them for $4 each on a Buy/Sell/Trade site). I like having multiple bags because it let’s me always have one hanging even when one is drying/being washed.

What about poop? 

Well first of all, we have never had a blowout in a cloth diaper. They are THAT good. It’s amazing. When he DOES poop, if it’s solid, it just plops off into the toilet and there is very little evidence of poop on the diaper. If it’s NOT solid, we have a diaper sprayer which is basically like a mini pressure washer which is attached to the toilet (haha) and we spray the diapers off into the toilet so that they are virtually clean before going into the washer.

We’ve been doing it for so long, it’s just another part of our day. We don’t think twice about spraying a diaper or washing a load of diapers. It’s just second nature for us. Just like people who use disposables probably have to take their trash out a lot more often, we only do it once every week or so and it’s usually only half way full. Once you get into a habit of spraying or washing diapers, it’s no big deal.

Patrick, who was originally against cloth, is probably it’s biggest fan. He can talk to you about it just as much as I can which I find hilarious.

Any down sides?

They take up more room in a diaper bag. So that’s a little annoying. It’s not like you can take just 1 diaper. You have to also take a wet bag (it’s a waterproof bag that is used to put soiled diapers into) to put the diaper into until you get home. It’s not a huge deal, but sometimes I feel like I am carrying so much stuff because i’m toting around cloth.

Sometimes, I just don’t want to restuff the diapers. It’s not hard but you have to actually sit down to do it and with a mobile 9 month old kid, sometimes it’s annoying to stop, sit and stuff.

Cloth diapers don’t always fit under the right size pants. You typically have to size up to compensate for the larger fluff butts. We use Bumgenius Elementals when he has to wear pants and they are so trim that we actually don’t have to size up if he’s wearing them. Any other diaper though, we do.

How many diapers do I have?

I have enough diapers I could go a week or maybe 9 days without washing IF I wanted to. BUT I like to wash every other day. Having as many as I do, allows me to having an entire load in the washer/drying and STILL have enough diapers to use while those are being cleaned and on the drying rack. I have gotten stupid good deals though… SO, I contribute that to how many diapers I have. 🙂

If you want to wash everyday, you’ll need like 12. Every other day? 24-28. Just think, if you change a diaper around every 2-3 hours in a 12 hour period, that’s 6-7 diaper changes a day. That doesn’t include if they all the sudden pee in a new diaper, poop more often than usual… etc. SO, to be safe, you would need 10ish (minimum). It all depends on how often you want to wash and how quickly you’ll need your diapers to be ready to wear again.

A cloth diaper in (cell phone) pictures:

That’s a bumgenius elemental. It’s made up of organic cotton which is sewn into a waterproof cover with snaps. It’s our go-to diaper.

Don’t they start to look gross? 

As long as you wash them correctly, you’re good. These have been used for 6+ months, poop and pee GALORE and they still look brand new.

I finally took my diapers out and took a “stash” shot. It’s most of my diapers. It might be overwhelming when you look at it, but it all fits on B’s bookshelves. I’m missing a few that are dirty and in a wetbag…. but you get the picture 😉

These containers go onto B’s book shelves in his room. They keep everything organized and it keeps his room from looking like diaper central.

SO- for $350 I have diapered my kid(s). I know for one box of target disposables, I spend anywhere from $30 to $40. I don’t even want to know how much I would spend over the course of 2-3 years PER child. Easily hundreds, possibly thousands.

Happy Diapering yall. Always feel free to ask me a question about cloth. I could talk for days about it. 😉