Falling Behind...And I'm Still Not Caught Up!!!

This month has been probably one of the most hectic months of my life! From finishing up a class, two vacations (when does that ever happen?!?), Christmas, to sadly a death in the family. In my last post I said I was falling behind, but I think God really wanted to show me falling behind. My house is literally turned upside down, my mind has been constantly going a million miles an hour for I don't know how long, and my poor child doesn't even know what a daily routine is anymore. Let's just say it has been crazy around here for a while, but with the new year approaching and things starting to calm down I am making every intention to finally get caught up!

So, starting as of tomorrow my "new year's resolutions" (which I hate to even call it that, it just happens to be new year's eve) are:

1.Get Maddox and myself back on our daily routines

2.Get Maddox sleeping in his own room (yes, I realize we should have done this from the start, but that's first time parents for ya!)

3.RE-Decorate my house (We've lived here over a year and it still looks like we moved in yesterday!)

4. Eat healthier & drink more water (I got to have one that I'll only stick to for a week ;)

5. Most importantly get even closer to the Lord. 

I am super excited about number 3 because I finally get to go room to room and totally redecorate. I'll definitely be doing some before and after posts! I am not a natural at decorating by any means, but luckily there are some great blogs out there I can learn from!

What are your New Year's Resolutions for 2014??

Falling Behind & I Can't Catch Up!

I am just having one of those weeks maybe more like few weeks where I am falling behind on everything and time just seems to be flying by. I get to the end of the day and I feel like I have accomplished nothing! I created a daily schedule and a weekly cleaning schedule for myself a while back and I have definitely not been sticking to it! My house looks like a train wreck & for someone who likes a spotless house that is just not good.

We have also fallen behind on our budget plan. We semi do the Dave Ramsey cash envelope budgeting system. Some bills we have set up as autodraft from our bank account, so that is why I say "semi", but we have all of our monthly income written out how we are going to spend it before we even get it. That has not worked out that way lately and we have fallen behind on keeping up with our finances too.

I'm also taking an online class which has really been put on the back burner too for a while. So, my plan of action before we get crazy busy with Christmas is to be more intentional with my day & get everything caught up & get back on schedule. Also, most importantly to rely on the Lord for the strength to do so! I feel so scatter-brained when I get behind like this that is why I created those schedules!

"From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I." Psalm 61:2



Do you ever feel like you just can't catch up?

Our Approach On Christmas Presents

This has been another topic I've been having "internal battles" with myself now that Maddox is starting to understand "getting presents". In the past (as in before having a child), I just knew I wanted to buy my kid a mountain of toys every year. I didn't want to set any kind of limit. I just wanted to buy for my child until there was nothing left to buy. Last year, we bought Maddox a reasonable amount of "stuff" for his age. He was only 3 months old, so there wasn't a whole lot we could buy. This year on the other hand, I could probably buy for him until the cows came home if I didn't set a limit. I thought maybe a $100-200 limit or just to tell myself not to go overboard with buying, but then I thought I know myself better than to set a limit like that because I will con myself into spending way too much.

Then one day, I came across this blog post at Stacy Makes Cents and it was like a light bulb went off in my head. In her post she talked about how they do presents for their children. Like me they chose not to do Santa and really wanted the focus of Christmas to be on Jesus. So, what they do is give their children 3 gifts representing the 3 gifts that the wise men brought for baby Jesus (Gold, Frankincense, & Myrrh ). Click Here to read what each gift means. How brilliant is that idea?!? Not only does it set a limit to my buying problem, but it also gives a special meaning as to why we give 3 presents. 

So, this year for Maddox's "gold" gift we bought him a train table used for less than 40% of the original price! My child is 1 & he's not going to know it didn't come from Toys R Us.

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For his Frankincense gift, we bought him a Fisher-Price Noah's Ark Playset also used on eBay, so I was able to get a lot more figurines with it than if I had bought it new.

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And finally for his Myrrh gift, I bought him a Sesame Street potty seat for when we start attempting to potty train in a few months. It makes fun noises and is super padded, so hopefully that will spark his interest!

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We are still doing a stocking with stocking stuffers too. Some things I bought to go in that are sippy cups, little underwears, baby leg warmers, 2 nativity books, a Melissa & Doug toy, & there will be a little bit of candy too :)

This is our family's approach on giving gifts & what we feel comfortable with. I can't wait until we are able to really explain the meaning behind the gifts & he is able to understand.

 What are your approaches to buying gifts?

Our Approach On Christmas

I love this time of year! It is such a "warming" time even though it is cold outside. My heart gets that warm & fuzzy feeling this time of year.

My little man ready for Christmas!

We (as in my husband & I) have debated on how to approach Christmas now that we have a little one. With all the hustle & bustle & materialism that Christmas has been turned into nowadays, we wanted to make absolutely positive we instill the true meaning of Christmas into our child(ren)'s heart(s). I personally have had a big internal conflict about the Santa concept. I grew up believing in Santa so I'm not against it, but in order to pull off the Santa gig I'm going to have to lie to Maddox. EEK! As a Christian parent, I never want to lie to my kid(s). Aren't I supposed to lead by  example? I don't want Maddox to ever think it is ok to lie! 

My other thing about Santa is when I hear parents say, "You better be good if you want Santa to bring you presents". I just want to cry when I hear that! Not only did the parent just lie to their child, but they have made their child think when they are good then they are entitled to presents! If you look around in today's society in America, the last thing we need is more people who feel they are entitled to everything. I'm not passing judgement on anybody who does Santa because I've seen it done very creatively & I know that magical feeling it brings to children, but for us personally we have decided to pass on Santa gifts.

What we are going to do though is keep Santa in mind as a cartoon character like Frosty the Snowman or Mickey Mouse. We aren't going to try to hide Santa from Maddox, but we aren't going to let Santa be our "idol" of Christmas. We are going to set up our Melissa & Doug Nativity together,read lots of Bible based Christmas stories, & celebrate Jesus' birthday! When he gets older, we will read stories of the real St. Nicholas. We want to keep Christmas as Christ centered as possible, but also having fun by decorating our tree & house, going to see Christmas lights, building a gingerbread house, & spending quality time with family! We are just now starting to build traditions that hopefully Maddox will cherish forever!

What is you approach to Santa? What are some of your family Christmas traditions?

Join me next time as I talk about our approach to Christmas presents!

Buy Used, Save the Difference

As I was watching 19 Kids and Counting, I heard Jim Bob Duggar say that his family “buys used and saves the difference” and how that has become a motto for them. I have always enjoyed shopping at yard sales, consignment stores, and consignment sales, but had never really applied the “buying used” principle to other things beyond clothes.  Now, buying used for me has become a regular thing when looking to make any kind of purchase because saving the difference between an item new and the same item used will get you financially ahead in a hurry. And what’s not to love about getting a good deal on something!

Read the rest of this post here at Embracing Everything!

Some of my great consignment sale finds!

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The True Costs of Cloth Diapers

Today, I want to talk about the true cost of cloth diapers.Using disposable diapers will cost the average family about $1500 for two years (and more than that if your child isn't potty trained by their second birthday)! So for me, the primary point of using cloth diapers is too save money, but other families' primary point is to be more eco-friendly. So, there are two paths you can take when choosing to use cloth diapers, the cheap path and the expensive path.

 When I was looking to start my stash of cloth diapers, I was ultimately looking for the best deal I could find. I know I wanted to use pocket diapers due to how easy they are to use and I wanted the most number of diapers I could get that worked good and for cheap. After days (and I mean days) of research, I realized that was not going to be a simple task. There are many "name brands" of cloth diapers out there (i.e. bum genius, rumparooz, fuzzibunz, charlie banana, etc.). These are probably the most common brands sold and reviewed, but they go for on average $15-20 a piece. I know bum genius goes for about $17.95 a pop, so I needed a stash of about 20. If I would have went with those I would have paid $359 plus tax and shipping and handling. Somebody help me because I don't think I can breathe right now! I'm not downing name brand diapers such as bum genius because I'm sure they are great diapers, but I can not afford to pay that much for my diapers only because there are many other things you have to buy when using cloth diapers. I'm also the type of person who doesn't buy anything that I know I can get for cheaper either used or off brand. I do have to admit though that I bought a Charlie Banana diaper at Target, so I could get a sneak peek of cloth diapering before I bought a whole bunch.

Two Charlie Banana newborn pockets I recently bought for a friend, which I found on clearance at Target for $2.94 EACH!

 I had a budget of about $200 for everything I needed, so I thought there has to be another way or off brands or something. So, I got to searching on eBay and found alot of 20 pocket diapers that look and work just like the name brands, but for $100 for all! They also came in alot cuter prints!! So, thats what we went with. Now that's not to say I won't one day invest in some bum genius diapers, but for right now I'm content with the ones we got. So, what I am saying here is if you are looking to be more environmentally friendly and don't have a set budget for cloth diapers go for the big names because I'm sure they are a little more high tech, but if you are wanting to do cloth diapers to save as much money as you can the off brands may be for you too. But, no matter what brand you go with you will spend less in two years than disposables!

My baby sporting his dinosaur print Alva pocket diaper!

Once you get your stash, then you have to buy your accessories. This can also be a budget-breaker if you don't prioritize and shop around. You have to have a free and clear detergent. I use Ecos it is $8.97 at Wal-Mart for a 100 load bottle, but you can buy a  really expensive detergent that may or may not work any better. You also have to get oxygen bleach (if you want clean smelling diapers). I bought mine from Vitacost for around $5 for 32 loads. You also need wet bags to put dirty diapers in. I shopped around on Ebay and got 2 for $12, but retail they are about $15-20 a piece. I also bought some tea tree oil, it is not necessary to have it, but boy does it make a difference in helping your diaper pail not to stink. This was a splurge item for me at $15 for 4oz., but it will last a really long time. Another splurge item for me was California Baby Diaper Rash Cream. You have to use cloth diaper safe rash cream and I only consider mine a splurge because I normally wouldn't pay that much for rash cream for disposables.

My first stash and accessories- 20 Alva Pocket Diapers, 2 Alva Wet Bags, 2 Ecos, 2 Biokleen Oxygen Bleach, Tea Tree Oil, & California Baby Diaper Cream

 I have yet to buy a diaper pail liner. I've just been using a plastic trash can and putting a couple drops of tea tree oil at the bottom and you can't smell the dirty diapers. That just wasn't top on my priority list, but I'll get some eventually. Another item I did not invest in was flushable diaper liners. While they would be a big help, they are about 0.08 cents a piece and an average disposable diaper is about 0.25 cents a piece, so my logic was if I was gonna buy disposable liners I might as well just buy disposable diapers. I think they are more for if your top priority is to be eco-friendly because the liners are flushable and biodegradable. (Remember: My top priority is to save as much money as possible! Being eco-friendly is just an added bonus!) I would pay $100 for the diapers and then if I used a flushable liner it would cost 0.08 cents every diaper change, so I didn't think that made much sense when trying to save money. Another item I did not invest in was a diaper sprayer, though now I am considering buying one because I don't think I am getting enough poop off his diapers by just using to squirt bottle from the hospital. They run about $50 so that was not in my initial budget. Also, I am looking into bamboo inserts and wool covers because we are having to use some  left over disposables at night because he leaks through the microfiber inserts. I could go on for days on all the accessories you can buy for cloth diapers, but those are just the ones I considered. You can easily see how using cloth diapers can add up, but still unless you went totally crazy buying stuff it is still going to be cheaper than $1500.

Please feel free to comment on what your favorite brand of cloth diapers to use are, what your must-haves are, if diaper sprayers are worth the investment, any good night time solutions, and any thoughts or suggestions!!

UPDATE: I originally wrote this post about 6 months ago. Since then I have bought Charlie Banana Bamboo Liners, which were on clearance at Target for $7-8. I also purchased a Bum genius Diaper Sprayer, which caused a major leak underneath our floor so we no longer use it. I also have bought 4 bum genius 4.0 pockets, Flip diaper system, and several other brands!

2 Kissaluvs fitted diapers & 2 gDiapers I bought at a consignment sale. $16 for all!

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