Hodgepodge of Lately

I've been using/trying a lot of stuff lately and thought I'd do a smattering of crunchy slash mama product reviews in case anyone might be interested.

And, well, if you're not... oh well.

Rumparooz 6r All in One, One Size Diaper - found here, but I purchased mine with a coupon code at Kelly's Closet.

We cloth diaper - have I mentioned that? I mean, with all the crunch around here, is anyone surprised? We've used pretty much everything - prefolds & covers, WAHM fitteds & covers, All in Ones of all brands and we've even tried the hybrids. I just broke out the teeny tiny fitteds from when Boyo was a wee one to get ready for the new baby. Oh man - the cuteness. I had forgotten how teeny-tiny they are!

Anyways, a while back we bought some used Bum Genius 3.0 off a friend since I wanted a pocket diaper for night time for my super wetter. They do hold the pee but man do they also hold the stink! Wash, wash, wash and still, they stink, stink, stink. I'm convinced its because they have microfiber inserts (not a natural fiber and I've only ever had cotton diapers before, with nary a problem), so I was wary of trying another microfiber insert diaper.

But, Sally raved and raved and raved about how great RaRaz (that's the nickname for Rumparooz - and you know, we're buddies now, so we can be cool like that) are and how much she loved them; how they didn't stink like B.G. and were just the best. So, I thought and thought about it.

And then I saw this print:


That, combined with a coupon code for a percent off (and the justification that its not only an All-in-One - which is diaper code for, it doesn't need a cover, you just throw it on like a 'sposie - but its also a One Size, which means Boyo and Pumpkin could wear it), sold me.

Is that not the cutest print you've ever seen?? Little kangaroos! And they're wearing diapers! In person? Its even better!

And, the diaper itself rocks my socks. Its super soft, the inner gussets look great for breast milk poo, Boyo had NO leaks on a many hour outing of the house and it is stink-less. Love, love, love.

My only complaint? How to justify buying more....

Bum Essentials One Size Diaper - found here, but I received mine FREE! FREE! FREE! from Kelly's Closet with a $25 purchase (coupon codes still available for that, btw - I'm trying to come up with $25 worth of stuff I need so I can get more free diapers).

KC's was running a promo - spend $25 and get a free One Size Diaper. SOLD! So, this arrived in the mail, along with the above mentioned RaRaz and some other goodies. I love the bright red color; I love the soft fleecy inside and I love how its a One Size so it can be used with both boys.

I am a negative fan of aplix tabs (snaps all the way - they hold up better over time, IMO), but it does have a good fit. It did leak after a 3 hour outing (possibly wickage?), but that was only the first time, so the inserts might need some more time in the wash to reach full absorbency. Overall, it was free and thus, awesome in my book!

GroVia All in One, One Size Diaper - found here.

Mr. 2nd Lt. has always been onboard with cloth diapering. He's a real champ and he's pretty darn crunchy himself. But, he lets me do all the research, so he's not really up on all the ins and outs of the 80 million kinds of cloth diapers. Thus, when we started with Boyo - prefolds from a diaper service, with a smattering of covers - he knew no differently and was content.

Then, after we stopped the service for economical reasons, I bought a bunch of fitteds to supplement the prefolds we also had. Fitteds? he said. These are so much easier!

Then, after sizes small and medium got too small, and I was shopping for larges, I ended up with a Target giftcard and bought a bunch of Bumkins All-In-Ones (which are super sturdy and even the Velcro holds up over much wear and tear in the wash - so says us, 1.5 years later!). Wow, he said. All-In-Ones are so much better!

Frankly, if I had a million dollars (or shoot a couple of thousand. hundred?), I would only use AIOs and then pockets for nighttime (he thinks that pockets are equivalent to AIOs because guess who does all the stuffing? ). So, when I pulled out the infant diapers (lots of prefolds and fitteds, remember) and was swooning over cuteness and size, all he could say was - ugh, prefolds again?

Therefore, I determined that all diaper purchases in the future need to be either a) All in Ones or 2) one size AIOs. Thus, the GroVia AIO purchase - win-win on both! I bought it in Ice (blue) and then, liked it so much, I got another in Vanilla (beige).

The organic cotton inner and doubler are swoony soft. We've had no leak issues thus far and these are the trimmest diapers we've ever used. I do wish they came in more colors (only three to choose from - I need more selection!) and its kind of a pain having to prewash 5 or 6 times before use (or 3 because you can't stand waiting anymore. Some people might also do that.)

And, because its a One-Size, you just adjust the size of the diapers with the snaps on the outside and voila! It fits a Pumpkin or a Boyo and makes a Papa happy not to have to tuck and snappi a prefold.

Motivated Moms Daily Chore Planner - found here.

Well, we've moved and we're settled here for a while. We are also living in the biggest house I've ever lived in, and certainly the biggest house I've ever been responsible for keeping. In addition, we have a new baby coming and at some point in the not so distant future, a deployment. I need to be organized. I want to keep house properly, have a schedule and some semblance of organization. That way, when the Pumpkin arrives, I'll have something to throw out the window for a few weeks.

However, I have a hard time knowing what exactly to do (apart from laundry, vacuuming and dinner. Oh and toilets) - I need someone to boss me. I like to be told what to do and when to do it. Thus, this planner is perfect for me.

Its the most OCD list of chore minutia you can imagine - I love it! It breaks it down by day, 365 days a year. The best part is that if think its too much or something that doesn't apply to you (ie. changing my bathroom hand towels 2x a week), you just don't do it!

The negative part is that its only downloadable and you're supposed to print it off for yourself every week (or day). I hate loose sheets of paper and our printer access is spotty. Sooooo, I got one of these:


Catholic Mama Day Planner - found here, with your choice of classic artwork cover

Love, love, love. This combines my love of all things school supply, all things Catholic (includes daily readings, monthly papal intentions, feast days, prayers, saint quotes and more!), and now homemaking.

I plan to copy my daily chore lists into the daily section each week, so I have a nice hard copy to check things off (I'm a visual learned). I can keep my appointments in here and assuming I make some kind of friends at some point, I can write down their info as well. Oh and I ordered the meal planning part which has detachable shopping lists so that I have no excuses for not finally figuring out a meal plan for our family.

And? You get to pick your cover from like 10 classic works of art. Oh, how I agonized. Which to choose? Laundry Madonna? Monstrance? I went with The Angelus. I've always loved that painting and now I have a personal copy.

Best part? It runs from August to July (caters to homeschooling moms. Or really, moms with kids in school), so its not too late to order one. AND, it means I have a few weeks left before I must be organized because my calendar says so.


Toddler Beach Hat - found here, custom orders welcome (which is what we did, because she didn't have enough boyish stuff in stock at the time).

She has great customer service and worked with us to create an adorable "pool hat" for our big-headed two year old. I like a floppy brim to keep off the sun (lazy mama over here with the sunscreen, so its nice to have backups!) and, as we found out, it holds up well after falling in both the ocean and the pool. I do wish the brim was a little bigger, but I'm sure if I ordered from her again, she would be happy to adjust!

Also, they are reversible which was perfect for us. The elephant print that was originally the "outside" turned out to be a little too "little" for my big little Boyo, so we are using the blue solid inner as the outer instead, with no problems!

Rockin' Green Laundry Detergent - found here, but I purchased mine as a sample size off of, you guessed it, Kelly's Closet.

Again, on the recommendation of other cloth users, I thought I should try this detergent that everyone and their mama was raving about. So, to get my free one size, I threw in a sample packet of the Classic Rock (it comes in three formulas - soft water, hard water and regular people water).

Needless to say, 2 full bags are now sitting in my Amazon cart waiting for my giftcard to arrive from my credit card rewards! It rinsed so clean on my diapers, I was truly impressed. I mentioned a stink problem before, I having the diapers rinse out with no suds was awesome. Hopefully, the full bag will not disappoint!


Whew! Done. That's a lot of stuff. Hopefully one or more of these is of interest to someone. Also, a few of the blogs I read have done an open Q&A lately - just commenters asking whatever they want of the blogger.

I know I have like 3 readers who aren't my mom, aunt or sister ((waves!)), but if there is anything someone wants to know, feel free to ask. I figured it might be more interesting to do something like that instead of more blogging about not sleeping, hip pain, breech paranoia and excitement about where we hung our latest picture on the wall.


ETA: All of the above products were purchased (or won) by me. I received no compensation to do these reviews and these are my honest opinions. Of course, if someone wants to give me free stuff, I'd be happy to review it. I'm just sayin'....