(cue music) “Watch this is so fun to see. Oh… despicable me…”
Well, maybe not despicable, but certainly domestical me. =) Alright, alright… just “domestic me”.
When Rachael was 11 months old I “retired” from the working world and became a homemaker, housewife, and wonderfully unemployed me. Beginning my second trimester of Abi-pregnancy goodness and keeping track of my 11 month old at the time was a whole new challenge. It’s been a learning curve as we’ve gone through different stages and new challenges have arisen throughout the past two years. There have been moments of tears and moments of great triumph in mastering a regular order to the house and intentionally offering myself to my kids. Matt has been more than generous in lending a hand to keep things going during the “newborn: will we even get sleep again?” phase, the Abi-crying phase, and the various challenges in balancing life and kids. I could not have asked for a greater teammate at life.
With increased balance and mastery of the house/child rearing, I have taken on a few “projects” of my own. I am finding the utter delight in mastering and contributing to my family through my “projects”. The laundry/cleaning was one of my projects – finding that attainable balance of daily contribution and preventing the utter pile-up.
Homeschooling is one of my projects. And while it certainly will become a necessity in educating the kids, right now it is such a fun research, curriculum writing adventure of being intentional to instill Christ (to the best of my ability) in my kids. Christ is the one who takes up residence in somone’s heart, but I sure can be intentional about watering and planting.
And then there’s my very recent project: diapering. My sister in law, Ellen, was wonderfully kind to allow me the borrowed use of my nephew’s old cloth diapers. Now while cloth diapering may sound ridiculous to some, disposable diapers are quite expensive and for an investment upfront (which thanks to Ellen was near nothing for us this far), you can diaper and re-diaper for “free”. “Free” includes the regular price of laundry soap (really it’s about a load or two more per week since the diapers can go through with your regular laundry). I’m trying out cloth diapering after Abi’s repetitive rashes, highly irritable skin, and the luxury of being available to tend to her diaper needs promptly if need be. But thus far, count me in that crazy bracket. =)
It’s all about trying to do better with what you are responsible to do. Christ has given me the wonderful chance to serve Him through my family and I have to say… it really is a blessing.
Thanks, dear blog, for letting me share a slice of my domestic life here.
Cloth diapering is a wonderful thing and I am soooo glad you are trying it. The diapers themselves are SO much better than when I was diapering many years ago. Yay you and way to go!
I do like cloth diapering in terms of helping poor Abi's bum feel better. But what I do not like about cloth diapering is the upfront cost being so high. I certainly understand the over-all cost effectiveness and purchasing a quality product. I don't think the cost is unreasonable for the cloth diapers, I just personally find it hard to swallow the cost outside of a babyshower request list. Craigslist was helpful for Ellen in purchasing many of her diapers, but when you're already on a budget cloth diapers can be a bit of a pinch while you get your stash up high enough to effectively diaper your kid. I am grateful to have begun diapering at a later age for the economical standpoint of not going through a huge amount of diapers (added cost). But I really do like the alleviation of further cost other an a slight bit of extra detergent and water used. Also I really like the material helping Abi stay clean and dry verses rougher/courser disposable diaper material. Abi's diaper rash has already cleared up too. =)
My one suggestion in cloth diapering though, is to seriously think over the design of your diaper and the ramifications of that design in terms of cleaning. I prefer the easy-to-remove pads in a drop-in verses pocket-type diaper when removing solid waste. But the fleece pulling away from the skin when wet is very helpful as well in alleviating diaper rash and keeping you from having to change the kid “on the spot” once they pee.