Cloth Diaper Giveaway # 1 Winner

So, I want to say thanks for everyone who entered to win the first giveaway. Keep your eyes out for another soon! But now for what everyone has been waiting all day for ( sorry it took me so long to put this up I had a stomach bug last night and needed to can some cherries before they went bad this afternoon) but this winner is... Stephanie Blair!

Cloth Diaper giveaway # 1 (closed)

Ok, so I know its been a while since I last promised a cloth diaper giveaway, but its been a busy summer. I wanted to do this as a video review also, but again time is standing in the way! I have two diapers to give away and the first diaper is an ALVA Baby diaper. This is a China made diaper brand and their diapers retail from about 4.50 for the newborn size up to about $10.00 for 100% bamboo for the inside lining and the inserts. So as you can tell this is a great bargain, but are they worth it? How do they last compared to the big name brands like Bum Genius, for those of you who don't know you shall soon find out that I am not a fan of the Bum Genius company, there products or there customer service. But that is a post for another day!

ALVA like I said before is a China diaper, some people are vary wary of these companies in fear of a bad product, I have only had good experience with them. No I am not being paid to write this or being endorsed in any way by any company I just am giving you my opinion.

I have several product from this company including the newborn diapers (which I haven't used yet so won't be talking about them yet), their regular pocket diaper with the microfiber insert, the bamboo minky diaper, and their wet bags. I have had no issues with any of the products! I like their pocket diaper just fine, however I do have to say its not my favorite just based on the way it fits my son, I do like it more than others I have, even some more expensive diapers! I would buy more of these though if I needed a few more to add to my stash or if we have a girl. However I love the Bamboo diaper! It's one of my favorite and I would love to get more of these, the one we have is the giraffe minky, with a bamboo inside and two bamboo inserts. It is so cute on him and I like that it is a natural fiber pocket diaper. I don't like using microfiber overnight because it holds the smell more and is harder to clean, but like the ease of a pocket or aio at night. Bamboo is not a stay-dry fabric so when we use it at night we do use a fleece liner, but we use one every night with either a bamboo pocket or a prefold and cover. The bamboo diaper comes with two inserts, I use both for over night but only seem to need one during the day, they absorb a good amount of liquid! I also love there wet bags they are just as good as the expensive ones and range from 4.50- 5.50. I would buy more and would recommend these diapers to friends and family. The only negative is that it does take a while to get an order in, about 3 weeks usually, they do have express shipping but it is expensive unless you buy 20 diapers then they express it to you for free. The regular shipping is free also.

ALVA makes pocket style diapers, they have a newborn size and a OS diaper. The diaper is like most OS diapers and has a snap down rise to fit most babies from about 8- 35 lbs. The diaper is a two part system or an AI2, that comes with the diaper shell and then the insert. They make a microfiber insert, bamboo inserts, and blend inserts that are two layers bamboo and two layers microfiber. I have microfiber and the 100% bamboo. I don't like blend inserts but that is just my personal opinion. The diaper shell has an elastic opening at the back to stuff the insert(s) into instead of a flap style opening. I have heard some women say that they don't like the way it opens but I like it more than most my  flap openings. The outer shell is waterproof PUL and the lining is either polyester seude cloth or a bamboo terry fabric.
So now for the giveaway!!! I have a solid gender neutral green 100% bamboo pocket diaper with two inserts to giveaway! Here are the rules for the giveaway. Please only enter to win if you will use this diaper, don't let it be a waste of my time and money please!
* This is a giveaway for a brand new in package ALVA bamboo pocket diaper, It comes with two 100% bamboo inserts, they have snaps to snap into a different diaper that Alva makes, however this diaper does not have a snap in option, this in no way affects the performance of the diaper. It was sent to me free of charge to do a review and give away so I wasn't going to get picky.

1. The giveaway is open to the continental U.S only
2. I will pay shipping to get it to you.
3. You must be a subscriber to this blog.
4. You must leave a comment saying why you love cloth diapers or why you want to use cloth diapers when your baby is born.
5. The giveaway will be open from when I post the blog till the Sep. 14th 2012 at midnight.
6. I will select the winner and ship the diaper by the 30th.
7. I will select the winner randomly, everyone will have the same chance of winning.
8. I will post the winner on the 15th and if I do not have correspondence by the 25th you will forfeits your "prize" and I will reselect a winner.

Great Frugal Glass Storage Solution

I just wanted to let everyone know of a great storage solution that I found while shopping at Dollar Tree. We don't find many things that are very useful there but sometimes they have a good product. They have 2 cup glass storage bowls (Pyrex knock-offs) so the bowl is clear glass and the lid is #4 plastic, which is one of the safest. I purchased six of them to help us avoidably stop using our #5 plastic Rubbermaid containers and haven't missed them yet! And they are made in the USA. Pretty good for a buck.

Top 5 Breastfeeding Items

This is just a list of the top 5 breastfeeding items that I am glad to have had while nursing.

1. Nursing tank top: It has been the best help, I know that I don't want my bare side showing while I'm nursing in public and this seems like the best way to prevent anybody getting any sort of peek.
2. Nursing cover: This is essentially a blanket with a strap that goes around your neck so the baby or the wind doesn't pull it off, giving an unexpected victim any surprises! There are several manufactures of them, or you can find tons of tutorials to follow. I made mine and want to make one more, when I do I will post my own tutorial.
3. Breast pads: I think everyone needs these. I needed them all the time those first few weeks, but especially at night when you might be having a further stretch in between nursing or laying in a strange way. I recommend either making  your own or investing in some good ones. The reusable ones from target ( Nuk brand) are terrible, not soft at all and just poorly made. And who thought It would be a good idea to make disposables? They gross me out just thinking about, they are made of the same bad stuff disposable diapers and pads are made of. Dioxin and that toxic gel ( and they want me to put that on my babies natural food source, no way!) Some of the brands I like are ImseVimse and several etsy shops sell nice, even organic nursing pads. I would recommend having at least 5 pairs at a minimum to get you through several changes before you need to wash.
4. Some sort of nipple cream, one that is safe for the baby to ingest and one that is not super stiff. Even just simple coconut oil is wonderful.
5. A big glass of water. This is the best way for me to get all the water a nursing mom needs, if you are dehydrated it will effect your milk supply. Make sure your container of choice is BPA free and made of safe materials. Glass or stainless steel are the best, but if you must have a plastic container opt for one that is safe. BPA will pass through breast milk so unless your 100% sure don't use # 7 plastics. The safest plastics are 2, and 4. Never use #3 or #6 plastics though they are known to cause problems.

There are other things that come close to making my list of favorites. A nursing pillow is very nice to have as well as a nursing bra, and ice packs. But these are the 5 things I would be very sad to live without! ~Erica

2012 2nd grade homeschool curriculum choices

     I wanted to share with you all our families homeschool curriculum choices for our 2nd-ish  grader, our son just turned 6 over the past weekend. The main reason I said "ish"  is because he is only 6, my husband has worked at a private classical christian school for the last several years and before our 2nd child was born when our son was ready for school we choose to put him in kindergarten there and both my husband and I were able to work there together with him. Then when our soon to be one year old was born I have been able to stay home with our children. We began our homeschool journey in august last year and just kept him going in the subsequent grade level. He has done surprisingly well and so this year we will keep the process going, I know that if the need arose to slow down or go back and redo something, or if I just don't do well as a teacher I will be fine with that knowing we have a bit of buffer room. So here are our choices so far.
     For Bible we will be using

1. The Bible  (ESV or NASB)
2. The Gospel Story Bible  written by Marty Machowski, our family has been disappointed by most story bibles by the lack of truth that they have. And we found our selves having to change the stories as we were reading and just don't enjoy doing that. This one had some recommendations and endorsements from some people we respect, once we read through it I will post a review of it, but for now I can't give my opinion.

.      For English we have chosen

1. Rod and staff: Preparing to build, the 2nd grade text

    For Math

1. Math u See by Steve Deme: Beta ( we used the alpha this past year and it went well so were staying with it)

.      For History we will continue using.

1. The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer

For Science my husband and I felt that for now at least Apologia was the best choice. They have several places you can start for Elementary Science including Astronomy, Botany, and Zoology: flying creatures of the fifth day. We gave our son the choice of the three, and for Science we are doing

1. Apologia Elementary Botany

For Penmanship he copies the Westminster shorter Catechism and memorises them as well.

for reading he starts his day by reading one page of his Bible and then we will begin reading for 20 minutes a day from a book of our choosing.
     This is our plan as of now, I will update as this changes and let you know how he does with our choices. I know that this looks like a lot but it shouldn't take him more than a few hours to complete a day. I will  soon write a post of what our schedule looks like after we get into our new curriculum in a week or so.

Party In My Pants ~ free cloth panty liner review

     A few days ago I received my free (after $3.99  shipping) Party In my Pants cloth pantyliner sample. I was very excited upon receiving it! I love having surprises delivered to my doorstep. Now I am pregnant so I can't give a full review of the functionality of this pad but I will tell you what at first glance I think of there product.
     It arrived in a tiny Mailer that was plain brown and had the owners names in the return address spot, which I was much appreciative of ( I could only imagine what our mailman would think if the company name was boldly displayed in the corner). I quickly opened the package and retrieved the pad that was folded up and unfolded it to display the surprise print, I wasn't disappointed it was cute with stop signs and traffic lights. When you order you have a few sizes to choose from, I chose the Luxe liner which is the longest choice, you can also choose cotton, flannel, or organic fabric for $1.50 upgrade. You can also add an extra snap for .25 cents, I opted for just the flannel. I didn't want to get to crazy with my "free sample". It came with a piece of dark chocolate it made it my little personal party!
     It is what it says just a liner I couldn't feel any absorbent fabric in the middle, but there is one layer of cotton in the middle, the outside of mine is flannel and the back is a water proof nylon. The only other pad/ pantyliner brand I had tried was Fuzzibunz, I purchased those while I was pregnant with my son just to use as protection against sneeze and pee and a horrible misdiagnosed yeast infection. I HATE those pads they are hot and thick and a poor design, I have used them a few times on my period and they work but are uncomfortable. So the other day we were going over to a friends house and I decided to give it a try. The pad is very trim you cannot see it through your pants, at first you can tell its there but after a few minutes you forget about it. The flannel is very soft and not hot at all and the nylon was more breathable than I thought it would be. like I said earlier I can't give a full review, but my first opinion of the company is a good one, I would recommend this product to my family and friends. This is a much better product than the Fuzzibunz. My only con is the price, this is one of the higher priced cloth pad companies. The Luxe liner on their website without the introductory offer is $9.99 plus shipping and handling, they do offer free shipping but you have to purchase $100 worth of product first, and I'm not about to drop that much into cloth  pads at least not from one company.  I would recommend them if you have tons of cash you just want to spend, but one of the pros for me to use cloth is to save money and there are several other companies that have better prices, but I can't vouch for the products yet. Plus you can make them yourself which I plan to do as soon as I can order the fabric I want online. So unless I have a coupon code or they have a sale I don't know if I would buy again from this company, but they do have a good product in my opinion. ~ Erica

Blossom cloth pads

I thought I would make a post about a website having a sale through memorial day, use the code "summer" at check out and recive 15% off your order! I should let you know that I have never used these pads. I just made a purchase a few days ago, but I have heard wonderful things through online and youtube reviews. The prints are super cute and you can also purchase "into" kits that are a really great price, 3 pads for $12-13.50 if you add a PUL underliner. I will post a review of this product when I recive it.