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Big news! I’ve moved to my own domain!

Please visit at gidgetgoeshome.com

Special thanks to my friend David at setwise.com for helping me get things going, and doing all the high-tech stuff.

It’s the Absolute Ultimate!! #2

Gidget’s Ultimate Cloth Diapering Tips

We’ve been using cloth/hybrid diapers part-time for a few months now (I wish we’d started sooner!). Cloth diapers are in fact what started my whole green/eco-friendly/non-toxic kick that I’m gradually incorporating into our daily life. I thought I’d put together a little summary for my interested readers.

• We use cloth (Bum Genius) or hybrid diapers (gDiapers) as much as possible during the day when at home. We use disposables at night and when we go out, most of the time.
• I love gDiapers best because they are easy (flushable insert) and less bulky than the cloth dipes. But due to the expense of the liners, I use them less frequently. What I do like to do though, is use 2 BumGenius diaper doublers (each pocket diaper always comes with one of these) or one homemade liner in them.
• If the Chiquita only peed in a cloth diaper, I often toss the liner in the pail and then re-use the diaper with 2 doublers or 1 homemade liner. The BumGeniuses are excellent at wicking away moisture & odor so they can easily be used again! (I do usually use the reused ones for naps just in case they smell a teensy bit peeish).
• I insist on using these awesome flushable liners in all cloth diapers (Chiquita is a very sporadic pooper- you never know when she’ll strike) for easier clean-up. I order them from diapers.com who has free shipping if you spend $49. Refer me on your first order for a discount! My referral code is: NIBE4523.
• I dream of getting one of these (or making one) in the near future for those times when a messy poop goes off the flushable liner.
• In our bathroom upstairs, we keep a simple rubbermaid trash can from Home Depot with a washable Swaddlebees waterproof liner bag (I have 2 of these to switch out).
• I do laundry about 2-3 times a week. Here’s my method: 1. dump in all diapers & liner bag; 2. short, cold rinse cycle with a scoop of Borax; 3. Hot/cold cycle: hot wash with Dreft + scoop of baby Oxi Clean, then cold rinse; 4. hang dry in sun (for natural stain-lightening). Never use fabric softener on diapers. The plastic liners that go in the gDiapers I hand wash and hang dry, unless they get poopy, then I throw them in with the rest of the diaper load.
• With poopy cloth/hybrid diapers I use these flushable wipes. I don’t use these with disposables because they’re just not that great. But it works good with cloth because then you don’t have to worry about baggin’ up poopy wipes to throw away.
• That’s all I can think of! Please let me know if you have any other questions, and good luck cloth diapering! If you’re interested in buying anything I mentioned here, please click my Shop link above and support this blog through my aStore, or use my referral code on diapers.com. Thank you!!
  

White House Garden Petition

Here’s a great blog post linking to a petition to our next president to plant an organic garden in part of the White House’s 18 acres of lawn, like has been done in the past. In a time where food prices are rising, this would be a great example for the rest of the country to attempt to grow food in our own yards.

Read the post on DigginFood (there’s a video you can watch about it),
and then click to sign the petition.

Yum, I can't wait to eat you!

P.S. A few of my grape tomatoes are finally starting to redden!!

“Green This!” Book Reviews

The two books in Deirdre Imus’ series, Green This, are both very informative.

Vol. 1: Greening Your Cleaning
I’m going to have to buy this one to keep on hand as a reference. She categorizes by room in the house and within each room gives specific tips, products, homemade recipes, etc for cleaning various surfaces. She also gives great background info on why it’s important to detoxify our cleaning routines.

Vol. 2: Growing up Green: Baby and Child Care
I didn’t read this one all the way through (library books are due back today and can’t be renewed this time around!) but I will definitely check it out again when I have another one on the way. What I did read was helpful in understanding how the environment affects our children (diseases & other medical conditions, like asthma & ADHD for example). One reference I found particularly cool was her list of websites for companies that sell natural (non PVC, pthalate, etc) toys.

I will be adding these to the Gidget Goes Home aStore if you’d like to get a copy!

Homemade Cloth Diaper Liners

We use BumGenius one-size pocket cloth diapers and gDiaper hybrids during the day. In order to make the few we have last longer, I made a few extra liners out of 3 layers of microfiber towels cut to 6.5″ x 12′”. I just sewed a simple zig-zag around and then applied some Fray-Check to the edges because, man, does cut-up microfiber make a mess! Definitely keep a lint-roller handy when you make these!

Ready to be sewn together.

close-up of edge on finished liner

Stay tuned for more cloth diapering tips in this coming weekend’s edition of Gidget’s It’s The Absolute Ulitmate!

Just Found a Reason to Knit…

I do a lot of crafts… more on that later… but knitting is something I’ve never learned how to do! Mom crochets, so that’s my yarn-craft of choice, but I’ve only ever made blankets (which take me an eternity) and scarves.

Then I found this project, and have now decided that I must learn to knit, if only to make this sweater. Although the more I think about it, there are lots of cute things I could make with two needles and a skein of yarn! I’m not sure when I’ll get started, but it’s out there on the horizon. I’ve never been that great at learning crochet techniques from patterns/books, so I may have to wait till I get back to California to have my knitter (is that a word) friends give me some live lessons.  I know my girl Emma does it, anyone else out there a knitter?

Note: I found this project HERE on the Flint Knits Blog. She offers a free pattern a cute pictures.

What are your favorite knitting patterns/projects? Does anyone have any advice for a novice knitter?

Farmer’s Market Finds

Yesterday after church we went to our town’s Farmer’s Market. We’ve been going for a while now, pretty regularly (it runs here from late spring-fall), and it’s always fun to pick up some local fare, and usually Chiquita will get to see a couple of doggies which makes her very happy.

Early on, I was disappointed by the lack of farmers. There were booths selling sausages (yummy ones!), Tupperware, dip packages, burritos, etc, but only one booth with produce for sale. This was a bit different from the abundant spreads you’ll find at a California Farmer’s Market, such as the ones we used to frequent in San Luis Obispo and Huntington Beach.

But here in Colorado, the farmers have finally come out as summer crops are now in full swing, and in Highlands Ranch, our market has now grown to have at least five farm booths, with quite a variety of produce.

Here’s a photo of the lovely assortment of goodies we got for only $8.75… all this! Such a good deal! We had a salad for dinner last night, and the locally-grown lettuce was decidedly tastier than the store-bought variety, as I expected! Not only does eating local taste better, but it’s better for the environment because your food is not using up precious gas to arrive to your local grocery store from afar. Plus it feels nice to support the farmer who is handing you your produce with a smile.

Yummy lettuce, onions, cucumbers, cantaloupe & peaches.

It’s the Absolute Ultimate!! #1

Every weekend I plan to post a simple (& possibly silly) “tip, trick or tool”  here on Gidget Goes Home! Maybe you already know about these things (if so, feel free to comment on why they’re so awesome!), but who knows, maybe it will be something new to you!
FYI: “It’s the absolute ultimate!” is one of the most famous lines from the movie Gidget, spoken by my cute little namesake.

“Cook Time: a Simple Oven Solution”

I have on occasion been known to forget to turn off the oven after I take out the yummy home-cookin’ that was inside. I’m not sure if this is some sort of subconscious rebellion since my dad is a fire chief, or if I often just have too much on my mind and flat-out forget. Either way, this is the last thing you want to do on a scorching hot day!

Last night when cooking a yummy family recipe called Crusty Pineapple (sounds a little odd but it tastes delicious!), I decided to try a button called Cook Time (not to be confused with Timer, which I’ve used before). Cook Time not only let me set a timer, but then when it was done, it kept beeping until I turned off the oven! Brilliant! Now, if there was only a similar feature on bathroom candles…. er, Dad, I hope you’re not reading this.

Drastic times call for… Norah

I’m pretty rigid in my parenting. Rigid, but flexible at the same time, if that’s possible. We keep a schedule, have certain no-giving-in rules (No standing on the furniture!), and basically follow a Babywise philosophy. That said, flexibility and knowing what works for a particular child & circumstance are key ingredients for me in parenting.

Even though we are pretty rigid on some things, we are more lax on others… i.e. still using a pacifer at naps and in the morning in bed. NOTE: I’m so ready to be done with this little addiction. After our camping trip at the end of the month where I know we’re going to want her to have it for our (and the other campers’) sake, we will begin The Final Weaning Process off the paci. Also, because it has been so record-breaking hot here, and Chiquita gets the morning sun beating on her window, we’ve been bringing her a sippy of water in the morning because she’s been waking up early, upset & thirsty. Usually she’ll drink a little, take her paci that we bring her in the morning (to buy me a little more time for getting ready, Quiet Time, etc.) and go back to sleep. We’re hoping this morning drink doesn’t become another addiction…

she's supposed to be napping here!

I just wanted to share that it’s a good idea to have some flexibility when the norm isn’t working for whatever reason. Here’s my best example: when Chiquita had her fussy moments as a baby, she always calmed down with some light, jazzy piano music. Her favorite was Norah Jones. I even bought another one of her CDs back then so we could have some variety.

our personal baby whisperer!

Now that she’s older, she’s usually a great napper. But occasionally, be it due to teething or a catnap in the car earlier in the day, or whatever, sometimes she really fights going to sleep- I’m talking about hysterics. These occasions are now fewer and far between. But it’s nice knowing that if I get desperate, I can turn to our trusted baby whisperer, Norah. I have an iPod dock in Chiquita’s room for times like these, among others. I slip the iPod in there, let her cry it out while Norah croons, and usually she’s conked out before I know it.  I almost had to bust out Norah today… but alas, my good little girl finally calmed herself down and dozed off. So who knows, maybe she’s outgrowing this phase. But if not, I’m ready, iPod in hand.

**UPDATE: Chiquita woke up after about an hour. I gave her a little water (she was sweaty from napping in the heat), gave her back her paci & blankie, eventually put Norah on and… nothing worked. Don’t you just love the irony here? Classic parenting. Just when you think you’ve got something down, a secret weapon in your pocket say, it fails you miserably. So much for today’s to-do list.

Do you have any parenting hacks for flexibility or Secret Parenting Weapons to share?

Prayer for Today

Today I’m going to see a fertility specialist for an evalution for recurrent miscarriages. This passage of scripture really spoke to me this week and it’s my prayer for today…

Excerpts from Psalm 143 (NKJV): A Psalm of David.

1 Hear my prayer, O LORD,
Give ear to my supplications!
In Your faithfulness answer me,
And in Your righteousness.
5 I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all Your works;
I muse on the work of Your hands.
6 I spread out my hands to You;
My soul longs for You like a thirsty land.  Selah
7 Answer me speedily, O LORD;
My spirit fails!
8 Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning,
For in You do I trust;
Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,
For I lift up my soul to You.
10 Teach me to do Your will,
For You are my God;
Your Spirit is good.
Lead me in the land of uprightness.