Cloth vs. Disposables

I know that a lot of you will read the title of this post and quit right there, but if you have children in diapers, I would really encourage you to keep reading. I think you will be amazed at some of what you learn.

I admit, the reason I started using cloth diapers was to save money (and less trips to the store with 3 kids was also a nice plus!), but since then I have also learned a lot about how bad disposable diapers really are. Recently, Pampers came out with a new Dry Max diaper that has been causing a lot of rashes and other problems for babies and I have been reading a lot of articles and blog posts about Pampers telling a lot of lies to defend their diapers and disposable diapers in general. As I have read these, I have been amazed to learn how bad for babies and the environment disposables really are. Did you know that disposable diapers contain cancer causing chemicals that are no longer used in tampons and are banned in all countries but the US??? Why are we putting something like that on our children? Did you also know that disposable diapers will sit in landfills for 250-500 years? How is that being a good steward of the earth God has given us?

These are just a couple of the facts that really stuck out to me, but I would encourage you to read up for yourself and find the facts. If you are interested here is a great post on The Cloth Diaper Report and Dirty Diaper Laundry has done several posts, some with links to more news articles (you may need to read back a ways on her blog to find them all). The Real Diaper Association, a non-profit organization, also provides a lot of information.

If this at all convinces you to consider switching to cloth diapers, I would be more than happy to help you get started. For those of you who picture them as folded diapers with pins and plastic pants, I am very happy to inform you that there are many, many more options available than that and most are as easy to use as disposables (and much cuter too)!

Really, who can resist such cuteness?

Tasty Tuesday - Strawberry Pink Lemonade

We've had a few warm days this week, so I made our favorite summer-time drink for the first time this year. It is so refreshing after working outside on a hot day and we all love it!

Ingredients

1 packet Crystal Light Pink Lemonade powdered drink mix
8 cups cold water
1-2 cups frozen strawberries
Ice cubes

Directions

Mix drink mix and water in a pitcher and then pour about 1/2 of it into a blender. Add the strawberries to the blender , cover, and blend until smooth. Return mixture to remaining drink mix and stir. Pour into cups and serve with ice cubes.

Enjoy! And please share your favorite recipes with me so I can try out some new ones too!

Tasty Tuesday! Creamy Chicken and Veggies in the Crock Pot!

Last week I needed to find something for dinner that I could make ahead of time so that it would be all ready when we got home from Tae Kwon Do, but I couldn't find anything that sounded good at the time. I decided to try out my own crock pot recipe and this is what I came up with.

First throw in your veggies. I used chopped carrots, green beans, corn, and diced potatoes. Then I put a couple chicken breasts on top of that and then dumped a can each of cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup on the top. I turned it on high for about 4 1/2 hours and it turned out really good!

When we were eating it, I thought it would be pretty good with the chicken cut up also and put it all on some biscuits. You could make it to your liking and use what ever veggies or cream soups you like.

If you have any really good recipes to share, please leave me a comment with them!

Winner of This Little Prayer of Mine!

This morning I picked a winner for my giveaway of This Little Prayer of Mine. Actually Buddy helped me and picked the winner.

And the number he picked was.....

...#11!

Comment #11 says:

Anonymous said...
I would love to read this book to my 2 boys. It seems like a really great book!

Congratulations and I will be emailing you shortly!

Tasty Tuesday! Gummy Candy!

The other day I found this really easy recipe to make homemade gummy candy, so yesterday Sweetie and I gave it a try. All you need is 1 package of flavored jello, 6 packages of unflavored gelatin, 1/2 cup of water, and some molds to put them in (we used ice cube trays).

1. In a small saucepan, mix both the flavored and the unflavored gelatin.

2. Stir the gelatins up. Pour cold water in mixture and stir with a spatula until you have a gloppy-chunky blob not unlike play-doh.

3. Turn heat stove top burner on medium and melt blob.

4. Stir the blob constantly until melted.

5. Pour the melted mixture into miniature bear molds, or other small candy type molds.

6. Place filled molds in freezer for 10 minutes to cool.

Then peel them out, eat a few, and store in an airtight container (if any are left!).

The kids (and Hubby) loved them! I thought they tasted good, but were a little too chewy so next time I am going to try this recipe that I found that uses a little more water to see if they turn out a little better.