New Name, New Chapter, New Beginning.

So much has happened so fast.

 

A month ago we decided that life in Las Vegas was not doing it for us anymore. I grew up in a town called Pahrump about an hour from here and honestly have so many amazing memories. For years we had talked about moving out of Las Vegas and Pahrump was always a good contender. It has the small town feel which is exactly what we decided we want for our family. We dream of being self sufficient. We want a home run by solar energy, a private well so we can grow our own food, raise our own meat, all those things. We had set a goal for the end of the year. As the days went on, though, I would read news headlines on my feed and be so unbelievably depressed by the stories I saw happening in my city that I didn't think I could wait until the end of the year.

 

We decided to get an estimate on our current home, we weren't expecting much to be honest but, surprising we were given an offer we couldn't turn down. So the race to find a new home was on. We got a realtor out in Pahrump and started pounding the pavement to find a house all while in the process of selling this one.

 

After a few weeks of discouraging issues, lender and credit problems, not finding a house the three of us could agree on or that was big enough for our family, you name it, it was thrown at us, we finally found an option that almost sounded too good to be true in my opinion. We went to take a look at a home that was 5 bedroom 3 bathrooms, perfect for our family, on 5 acres making it perfect for growing our own food as well as the boys having more land than they would know what to do with to run and play on. Honestly this was the first house the three of us agreed on without argument.

 

The reality hit us quickly, we went from a stand still to having a new house, in a day! We are still currently awaiting escrow to close on the new house so we can get keys and get moved in but we have such big plans for our new home that none of us can wait. I know it is going to take some adjusting to for all of us but I am so excited.

 

The reason I felt the need to share all of this is that I will be turning this blog from our green baby adventures into our journey to becoming self sustaining. I really hope you will follow our journey and if we manage to inspire at least one person then I will be happy!

 

 

Would you enjoy a self sustained lifestyle? If you have thought of or are taking the path we are what tips do you have for us?

A new home made laundry soap

A few months ago I posted about our homemade laundry soap.

You can see that post here:

Laundry soap

 

Well, we finally ran out so it was time to make more. Momma wasn't a huge fan of the paste like consistency of our first soap, plus once we got towards the bottom of the jar we were have to stick our entire hand in the jar which made for quite the mess and wasted soap.

 

This time around I hunted down a recipe for a powder detergent to try instead. I found one that had the exact same ingredients:

 

1 bar Fels Naptha

1 Cup Borax

1 Cup Washing Soda

 

 

I will admit that the process on this one was a bit tedious.

 

You have to grate the Fels Naptha up extremely fine. Luckily my hand grater has the little tiny grate in it. It took me about 7 or so minutes to grate the entire bar.

 

 After you finish grating it, you add your other ingredients to it and mix it up. I would suggest a whisk for this process as it helps to mix all the ingredients together nicely.

 Once you have it all mixed up you just add it to a jar with a lid of your choice.  

 Once I had it in the jar I shook it up just a little bit. You use 1 tablespoon per load same as the other soap.

 

My oldest has sensitive skin so we were having to use Tide Free and Clear for his laundry. I decided to give the home made stuff a try just using a small amount on his clothes with an extra rinse. So far he hasn't had any breakouts and I have washed his clothes in it multiple times. We still have to buy the Tide for Baby K's clothes though. Soon enough I will try to convert his clothes to using the homemade stuff instead as well.

 

 

Have you given any homemade detergents a try? What did you think of them? Feel free to share in the comments!

Post Circumcision

We are coming up on the one week mark since Kayson's Circumcision.

He has healed well and has had an extremely great recovery. I expected a lot of crying and discomfort but he has seemed to be his same old self.

 

One HUGE downside to this experience is the fact that we can not cloth diaper for two weeks. I guess it isn't really a matter of CAN'T, more of a don't want to risk ruining our diapers because of the Vaseline that has to go on him.

 

After having used cloth his whole little life seeing him in 'sposies is so strange! I really don't think it is something I'd be able to get used to. Worse than that though, is the smell of the disposable diapers. Maybe I'm crazy but I definitely feel as though they have a smell and it isn't one I enjoy.

 

Does anyone else think disposables have a smell?

Controversial subjects

There are vast amounts of articles out there on the subject and

in all honesty I feel like no matter which view you take on it, you will find ample evidence to back you up.

 

I always TRY to approach things with a to each their own attitude. I also try very hard not to judge, but I am human. On this subject though I never looked to much into it. With Gage I was a young first time mom so I did a lot of things that some would deem "wrong". I didn't even know that not having him circumcised was really an option and even had I known it was an option, I'm not sure I would have not had it done.

 

I'm sure that many "green" or "crunchy" mommas out there are probably cringing at the fact that I admitted that. I gave up allowing myself to feel bad for decisions I have made as a mom though. There is no rule book or instruction manual, we all do the best we can and hope our children don't come out worse for the wear. (Does that even make sense?)

 

With Kayson, I did take the time to read into it a bit. I actually came across one blog from a mother who's first child was and the rest were not. This mother expressed her regret over her decision with her first born. She also expressed fear of that her first son would hate her for it.

 

 From my PERSONAL stand point, I didn't/don't want my boys to feel like one was given more or better of anything. I want them to feel as though they are equal in every way.  I didn't want the boys to be bathing together at some point, as brothers do, and for one of them to notice the difference. I didn't want them to question whether we loved one more than the other. While these may seem silly fears, children notice things and take things certain ways. Kayson was born with a slight issue with his penis, one that if not corrected could cause issue for him later in life. Therefore not having it done wasn't an option anyway. 

 

Circumcision was just one more thing that our boys would have the same. I will NOT fear one of them feeling less loved than the other. I will NOT have regrets.

 

Because of the issues he had we had to wait until he was four months old to have it done. He had to be put to sleep and given anesthesia. As moms we were of course terrified but his doctors and nurses were so amazing. After the surgery yesterday his doctor told us that it was a little bit worse than they had originally been able to see with out the operation. Luckily everything was fixed and he is fine. He has had some slight fussiness but hasn't seemed to bothered by the whole experience. He has been just as happy as ever and is still that same smiley boy he was before. I am glad that now we can put this behind us and not stress or worry about it anymore.

 

I feel like this post bounced around a lot and may not make much sense. Katie and I are both exhausted after spending 6 hours in the hospital yesterday so you'll have to forgive my scattered thinking.

 



Your Approval Is Not Needed.

So this post is going to be a more serious one. There will be no pictures but I hope that won't stop you from sticking around.

 

Yesterday here in Las Vegas, a news story aired regarding three recent cases of infants dying in their sleep. This newscast literally bashed co-sleeping. There was no sugar coating as it went into the "ABC's of baby sleeping". I don't think I have been this appalled by something in a long time and as horrible as the newscast itself was, what unfolded after that was worse. Katie and I co-sleep with our youngest. We have since day 1. We are always careful and she wakes at the slightest stir or sound. I also know that when I have to move at night I physically wake up and roll myself over in one spot without moving side to side. We have a cal-king bed. This post is not a post of me defending ourselves though because I do not feel that I need to.

 

The reason that I felt the need to write this is because a person we considered to be a friend decided to spread the hate, so to speak. I KNOW THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY AND THIS IS MINE. Take it how you will but I need to get this off my chest. After sharing the news story on her personal page with some ridiculous caption that honestly slips my mind now we left it alone for a short period of time but eventually Katie needed to say something.

 

Do not get me wrong, EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OPINIONS ON ANYTHING and we are never in a shortage of judgmental opinions about our household. We are a lesbian couple raising two beautiful boys. Our boys share the same father and know that he is their father. With our first I was unable to breastfeed and there is plenty of scrutiny thrown my way for that. With our second child we have decided to "go green", we cloth diaper, I am making homemade soaps and the like, we co-sleep, we are currently awaiting our amber necklace. All things we did not do the first time around. So as you can see, there are plenty of things to judge my household on.

 

 Moving on though, here is where the trouble began, this is EXACTLY what Katie said: 

If done right by a responsible adult cosleeping can be amazing, Kayson has slept in bed with Gail and I since the day we got home from the hospital. Its idiots who do it wrong that gives cosleeping a bad rep. Cosleeping also just about eliminates the risk if sids. I would not have it any other way and I know that the safest place for my son is right next to me. If one of the parents is on drugs or drinking of course precautions need to be made but the people that don't put their baby first put their baby at risk.

I do not personally see anything wrong or attacking in that response. Do you? From there this person decided it would be a good idea to ramble off a bunch of nonsense:

 I would rather play safe then sorry. i calue my childrens life. we used a bassinet next to our bed. 4 inches away can safe a life safesleep.tn.gov Babies should sleep ALONE, on their BACK and in a CRIB. (ABC's) High school child ed...Early ed in college. They also taught us this and every child hood class i took.

 

Now the way those things were posted seemed to me like an attack. Like this person honestly tried to say that we don't value the lives of our children. NOTHING could be farther from the truth! These things were literally sent in five different posts. I responded with:

Oh but we don't Value our childrens lives? Wonderful.

 

From there it turned into some back tracking about how every parent values their child differently. Personally, I think that's a joke. Then I was told that I don't think anyone is allowed an opinion. That's not true. And I always have to be mad blah blah blah. So before I could say anything else on the matter Katie and I were deleted. So I sent what I had been typing up to comment in a message. I was then called insane. Which has its own comical humor behind it, followed by being blocked. I was dumbfounded to say the least. Someone who claimed to love our family and claimed to be a friend honestly reacted this way.

 

So on to why I felt the need to post this here. This sat with me last night and then all day today. To be honest I am proud of how I handled the situation because I have a temper and yesterday I was not having the best day to begin with. I was ready for a fight. I did not fight and I did not call names either. I was calm and then blew it off. The fact that it has sat in my mind and in my heart for 24 hours now though has allowed me to reflect and sitting here doing that prior to writing this it popped into my head that no ones approval is needed. I do not need to please anyone or live up to some ridiculous guidelines. 

 

It all comes down to the fact that fear mongers are going to do whatever they can to spread fear. You can have an opinion on ANY topic either FOR or AGAINST and you will be able to find ample "scientific" evidence to back that up. In the end what matters are your instincts as a parent and doing what is best for you and your child. NO ONE ELSE'S APPROVAL IS NEEDED!

 

That "friendship" is one that will NEVER be rekindled and to be completely honest, I am not even remotely upset about that. My life up until our first was born revolved around pleasing others. I put others comfort and happiness before mine. After seeing Big Brothers smiling face and realizing that I had someone who depended on me, I knew that my happiness needed to be put first, or second to only his. I know that there is no handbook on parenting but our boys are beautiful, healthy and Big Brother is one smart cookie and he's only 3. These boys are my life, my love, my world and nothing will ever change that.

 

So I guess what all this boils down to is that I am so glad to be at a place in my life where I don't need any one's approval or opinion.

 

Fun new match up and home made laundry soap!

Going green with baby is pairing up with Domestic Dingbat for an awesome dual family "granola" Facebook partnership!

 

You can find her adventures with Honey Badger Baby here:

http://www.domesticdingbat.blogspot.com/

 

and you can find us both sharing our adventures on a more regular basis here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Going-Green-With-Baby/195221390647600

 

We aren't entirely sure on what direction we plan on taking our page but tune in for the adventures that will unfold!

 

 

Now, home made laundry soap!

 

I am sure we have all seen those fun little recipes being passed around on Facebook. I myself have shared quite a few of them. One I came across recently was for some home made laundry "sauce". I will link the recipe below for you to check out on your own.

 

What caught my attention right away was that the post boasts 128 loads of laundry for the cost of $1.76 once it is broken down. Who wouldn't want to try it at that cost?

 

 

 So these are the ingredients needed plus water. Amazing right? Four ingredients and not one of them is overly expensive! The Fels-Naptha was $0.79 and then the Washing Soda and Borax were roughly $4.00 each. Honestly not bad at all.

 I was highly skeptical as I was following the instructions and started realizing a few things. First this soap is literally the consistency of mayonnaise and two you place it directly in the drum of your washing machine, we have a front loader.

 

 

I put my skepticism aside, though and set to making it. I was worried about doing something wrong of course especially after reading about errors that the creator had come across. It could end up to gritty, it could be to runny, if stored improperly it could combust! So many could happens! Now I won't lie and tell you that the recipe was an easy one because it was definitely not, but so far we are liking the outcome.

 

For our first wash with the new soap we wanted to put it to the ultimate test. We took a bunch of towels that had been used to clean up various dog "messes" as well as a few others that Big Brother had left sitting around that had begun to smell. Placed the load in the drum and added the soap right on top of the clothes like directed and added an extra rinse cycle, just in case. (Big Brother and I have sensitive skin and he has been prone to breaking out with certain soaps.)

 

After the towels had finished washing and drying it was time to judge the result. Our towels no longer smelled like they had cleaned up dog messes. The didn't smell particularly like anything really. There was no perfume-y fragrance either they just smelled...clean. We have of course continued to use the soap on our laundry, excluding Baby K's of course. If you are looking to try to make a detergent of your own and don't mind the strange consistency of this one I'd say give it a try.

Keep an eye out for when we try out a recipe for DIY cloth diaper detergent!

 

As promised here is the link to the blog with the recipe:

http://www.budget101.com/myo-household-items/whipped-cream-super-laundry-soap-3993.html

 

Hope you found this useful and I hope you will follow us daily on our Facebook page. Also don't forget to check out Honey Badger Babies adventure over at Domestic Dingbat!

 

 

Long time no post!

I have been seriously slacking on all of my blogs recently!

 

Adjusting to a new baby and the lack of sleep that can come with it has really dwindled my motivation! That coupled with the fact that I am trying to get my photography business up and running has made me feel like I am losing my mind to be honest.

 

Baby K has grown quite a bit in his short 11 week existence. He is now up to almost 14 lbs. and quite the squirmy thing. Since he has grown so much we had to move up in diaper sizes so we decided that since we know we are in love with CD (cloth diapering) we would invest in a set of our own this time on top of borrowing from our amazing, wonderful, sharing friend. Double the prefolds!

 

Buying our own prefolds meant that we had to prep them ourselves as well. I can honestly say that I was looking forward to our order arriving so I could do this. I boiled the prefolds with a touch of dawn dish soap before throwing them in the washer in order to boil away any materials that would cause them not to absorb waste. I also want to add that luckily Baby K is strictly breast fed which means his poopy is water soluble, this makes cleaning his diapers VERY easy! We just throw them in our washing machine and wash them first on a cold cycle and then on a hot cycle. No need to pre-treat.

 

 

On top of getting to buy our first set of prefolds, we are also getting to try out some new covers. My absolute FAVORITE cover of ever right now is the FLIP cover. It is honestly, in my opinion, the coolest most genius invention EVER! It is a one size diaper cover that has what seems like a million snaps so it grows with your little one. I am seriously in love with it.

 

We also bought a couple of one size pocket diapers to try out. While I genuinely love the idea of them, I am not as big of a fan of them in practice. The whole notion of having to pull the insert out before washing them as opposed to taking his cover off and removing his prefold seems so much more difficult. I am not sure why because in the steps are pretty much the same. Regardless I am not really a fan of them. I will stick to our flips and slip ons for now.

 

 

Enough about diapers for now! We are also lucky enough to be able to try out a few different baby carriers thanks to our amazing friend. She loaned us her woven wrap that is now to small for her to use. She also made us our very own ring sling.  I never thought I would say this but I love baby wearing also. It isn't a constant in our home because K does not always want to cooperate but I do it as much as he will allow. I am just starting to look into making our own woven wrap as well as one for the water because we take him in the shower with us and a wrap would make that experience much more enjoyable I think.

 

Momma "wearing" Baby K

Mommy "wearing" Baby K

 

Well I am sure you have read more than you really wanted to at this point so I will cut it off here! Thanks so much for reading!

 Oh! I almost forgot, Happy world breastfeeding week!