Wife, Then Mama

Do you like doing laundry?  No??  That's okay, me neither.  Well that isn't true.  I like sorting, washing, and drying my laundry, I just hate folding it.  I would say I hate putting it away, but since I rarely get to that part, I don't really mind it much.  Yup, my family lives out of laundry baskets. One thing I hate about doing laundry is static electricity.  Something I hate more is fabric softener.  I am not sure that I have ever used fabric softener as an adult, since its full of chemicals (not unlike laundry soap, which I do use...  Hmmm, I am a little inconsistant...) and ruins your towels absorbancy.  So imagine my delight when I was selected to review Woolzies! Woolzies are 100% pure New Zealand wool dryer balls.    A picture of the Woolzies.  I am a terrible photographer and probably should have inquired about stock photos before I wrote this.  But since the review had to be done by today and I mak...

I don't know how people can work and have kids.  Not in a judgmental way, not at all, it just seems really painful to leave them everyday.  I mean I am grateful for it, because it allows me to stay home and spend time with some awesome kids, but I don't know that I would like it at all. Michael and I went to the Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center for a week this month.  It was really fun, and I know I am blessed to spend a week at the beach almost every year.  But I had to put Miss Baby in the nursery for about an hour and a half, twice a day.  And I felt terrible, like I was abandoning her.  One evening they even served the kids dinner in nursery so the adults could have a child free meal.  I felt really bad about that, well at least I thought I would, turns out I was exhausted, and Michael was sweet and let me nap through dinner, so he dropped her off at nursery.  Apparently dinner was gross that night, so sleeping was a great choice....

Don't forget to enter to win a $25 Comfy Joey Baby Carrier Voucher!   In honor of the first day of school (September 3rd in our area) starting next week, I give you these pictures from September 1994.  The first day of Second grade.  This picture was taken at my grandparents house, which my grandma recently sold, so I am happy to have pictures of it.  I am not really sure the look I am sporting is a good one, what with the voluminous hair, the to big shirt (that I insisted on wearing because my 7 year old brain thought it was beautiful), and what appear to be ankle socks.  But hey, I was 7 and we were barely out of the '80s right?  Oh and I totally have that maroon afghan on the back of my couch now, which is pretty awesome. For another Throwback to the 1st day of school, check out My First Day of School

Don't forget to enter my baby-wearing giveaway! My blog is really suffering from neglect.  I don't mean for it to, its just that while Miss Baby doesn't actually make it so I have no free time, she does make it so Michael and I can't both lock ourselves in the office all night and use the computers.  I also can't lock myself in the craft room for hours either, so perhaps I have less free time than I thought and was just deceiving myself by the amount of television I still watch...  Does TV time = Free time, or do you have to be free to do what you want to for it to be free time?  Such deep questions I ponder :) Anyways, if I had a laptop, I could blog AND be with the baby at the same time.  I know this because I am perfectly able to use my smartphone, its just typing an entire blog post on my smartphone would be tedious.  And full of glaring typos if my texts are any indication of my typing abilities on my phone. Sadly, laptops cost money.  Despi...

So I am a little late on posting this giveaway, since I try to start them on the 1st and 15th, but this one was worth the wait!  I was on vacation and didn't have a computer to use, so it wasn't really an option.  Loving her new Comfy Joey Dolly Sling! Someday I will probably have a laptop, but right now I only have desktops and blogging from my phone sucks.  Anyways, on to the review! When you are baby(doll)-wearing, your baby should always be kissably close :) I was sent a Comfy Joey Dolly Sling to review.  I chose a Cacao Beach (Black) sling because I am a little weird about matching and figured it would go with everything better than a colored one.  When you order a dolly sling they ask you what color you want, how old the child that will be using it is, and what gender they are.  Yeah, I thought that last one was weird too, but it because they add fun colored rings, and most boys would be a little disappointed with the prett...

Finding Monsters by Liss Thomas is a very entertaining book.  The love story between Missy and Charlie was sweet, but completely appropriate for the YA audience it is targeted to.  I really appreciated that while the teens were in love, and willing to make a commitment to be together, they acknowledged that they were not ready for a physical relationship.  This is rare in a teen novel, and usually I have found the opposite to be true.  The story is intriguing, and you definitely want to find out what happens next.  The characters are likeable and realistic (well emotionally realistic, not physically, most of them are monsters after all!). A couple of times when I was reading this I was fairly certain I wouldn't like what was going to happen next, but it always turned out well.  For instance at one point on Missy's quest to become a monster she has to face "The Devil".  I was pretty sure that I was not going to be able to keep reading the book, b...

Don't forget to enter the current giveaway for a Cloth Diaper Prize Pack from Betsy's Baby Boutique.    When I was a kid I LOVED to get muddy.  As evidenced by the pictures, my friend and I would literally SIT in mud puddles, and intentionally cover our whole bodies in mud.  I don't know why it was so fun to me, but it was.  Now I wear gloves to keep my hands clean when I garden... Anyways, my mom was a great sport about it, on a regular basis we would come in, absolutely filthy, and she would just laugh, take a picture, and have us go clean up.  Sometimes in the summer she would "make" us hose off before coming in, but in the summer that is fun, not torture.  I am not sure I will ever be as relaxed about it as my mom.   See I love kids, and I am not a neat freak, but I do try to avoid difficult to clean messes.  For instance, no child in my care will ever have a "messy spaghetti face" picture.  Because if I give th...

Don't forget to enter the current giveaway for a Cloth Diaper Prize Pack from Betsy's Baby Boutique.   A little while ago I wrote a post about my inexperience in camping .  Another thing that I had not done in forever is riding horses.  For about a year when I was 12 we had ponies, and some friends and family had horses, so I rode horses on a semi-regular basis.  As an adult I had been on a horse exactly ZERO times. My grandparents have horses, and Michael had NEVER rode a horse (or even a pony at the fair!) so I figured it was high time to get back in the saddle (pun most certainly intended).  Turns out that was a TERRIBLE plan. One of my grandparents horses had sores on her belly, so she couldn't have a saddle put on her.  The horse that was able to be ridden is a brat.  My cousin put the saddle on the horse for us and my brother and Michael each took a turn riding.  The horse was being super bratty that day, and wouldn't really leave the ...

Don't forget to enter the current giveaway for a Cloth Diaper Prize Pack from Betsy's Baby Boutique.   Welcome back to Magazine Monday!  Today are more ads from Parents' October 1947.  Remember, you can click on the little pictures to see them bigger and read all the small print.  Which I really think you should do!  I have more ads from Parents' and some from For Teens Only from past Magazine Mondays . World Book still makes encyclopedias.  Assuming that you have $1000 sitting around, which I don't, you can buy all the world's knowledge.  I suppose that it would take a lot of money to pay people to write this, plus binding and etc.  Sadly (to me) the 2013 edition has a brightly colored parrot on the cover, instead of the classic look of these books.  As far as I can tell Enameledware no longer exists.  I mean I think you can still buy enameled cookware, but not from this brand.  I think it looks really cute.  The...

Don't forget to enter the current giveaway for a Cloth Diaper Prize Pack from Betsy's Baby Boutique.   About two weeks ago we got our first foster child placement.  A little girl that I am referring to as Miss Baby on the internet.  As I already said, I am absolutely in love with her.  But I am pretty sure I am going to regret doing this.  And yet at the same time I am equally sure I will do it again in a heartbeat. Doing foster care is a roller coaster of emotions I decided.  Starting out before you even get a placement.  You pray to get a placement, because you want so badly to have a baby in the house.  Then you realize that to get a placement that means that some poor baby has to be removed from their house.  But you still want a placement, so you say a very specific prayer every night that IF a child has to be removed from their home, that you would be the foster parents they go to. Hadlee and Miss Baby playing at the park ...

I got a cloth diaper to review from Betsy's Baby Boutique.  I JUST started using cloth diapers, so I am by no means a pro at using (or reviewing) them.  I was given a product to try out free of charge, but despite that, all thoughts are my own :) This diaper is so pretty, it is to bad that you have to use a cover with it!  Maybe I can find a see through one (I don't think that actually exists) ...  I tried it out a couple days ago, and sadly it did leak, but I attribute that more to Miss Baby being a very heavy wetter (she can down an 8 ounce cup of water in about 2 minutes!) and my cover being very, very old, than a failure of the diaper.  I tried it a second time with a much better (although equally old...) cover and had no leaking at all!  The diaper is really soft, and very trim.  She uses a special material called Zorb, so it can be more absorbant, while being thinner. The stitching is great, the color held up perfectly in the...