Perseverance

CW playing in my 1st garden. Yes, I grew that honeydew!

I am currently experiencing a major setback with one of my favorite hobbies, my garden. After two years of successful and productive summer gardens, I have nothing but dirt outside. I won’t get into details about what’s been going on, but I will focus on how disappointed I am. It bothers me so much, that I hate to talk about my garden or anyone else’s garden. I hate taking the trash out, because then I have to walk by the desolate ground. It’s a huge failure, and I hate failing. But it’s time to stop wallowing in my personal pity-party and get back out in the dirt. This past week, I spent time “working the land” as I like to call it. Really, I was just tilling it with a metal rake, and then flooding the garden with a lot of water. I was working to get it back to a good starting point before I begin again. Sunday morning, I replanted. This is my third time planting since March. *sigh* So depressing…so much work and nothing to show for it! Anyways, it’s been replanted, and I’ve been spending a lot of time making sure the ground isn’t drying out. {This may have been one of many problems this season.} Now I’m optimistic. I feel good about this replanting. It’s difficult to pick yourself up after failure and trying again.

BW staring at the 2 lone squash plants.

Cloth diapering for me has been a lot like my garden. I’ve had good experiences and have also faced a setback. My washing machine was broken for quite some time, and it took me and Mr. GBE awhile to figure out what the problem was. While the machine was broken, it took forever to wash diapers. I’m talking 4-5 hours. I dreaded wash day. Some of it was inexperience: not using enough soap, using too much & not rinsing enough, and forgetting to pre-rinse. But the main culprit was not enough water! I would take buckets of water and pour them into the washer during the pre-rinse, wash cycle, and rinse cycle. It was insanely time consuming. It was unbelievably frustrating. *Ack* Looking back, the only thing that kept me going was my stubbornness to make cloth diapers work. I just loved them so much, even with all the work I had to do. Thank goodness Mr. GBE realized this was crazy to spend so much time washing diapers. He watched me do laundry one weekend and called the repair man as soon as they opened on Monday. Once my machine was fixed, my wash routine was so simple. No sitting around and waiting for the right time to add water in the cycles. I felt liberated by my free time! I’m so glad I stuck it out during the rotten time. Wash routines are meant to be simple!

I’ll be discussing wash routines next, as well as keeping you all updated on my garden. For my local followers, we used Authorized Technical Services {520.903.141} to repair our washer. And for my gardening buddies, I’m working with Westwind Seeds to rehab my patch of dirt. Neither one has asked me to pass along word of their businesses. I am just pleased with both, so I thought I’d like to share with you all.

~~Tonya~~

Practice Safe Sun

Here in Tucson, we are experiencing an incredible heat wave. As I was driving home last night from a fun diaper consultation at 10 pm {too many diapers to look at and so little time!}, it was 100 degrees on my car’s thermometer. So, when I say incredible heat, I really mean intense, awful, searing heat. This time of year not only do we need to protect ourselves, babies, and pets from the heat, but our diapers as well. I do sun my diapers, and I have blogged about the benefits of using the sun to get stains out here. But this time of year, it’s best to sun your diapers for a shorter period of time and early morning is best. I also do not have my covers/shells in direct sunlight. Honestly, I’ve never had a stain on a cover/shell and have never needed to put one in direct sunlight. However, if you do have a stain on a cover/shell, sun it briefly and early in the morning. Look at the care instructions on your diapers. Most of them say to hang dry or to tumble dry on low heat. At this time of the year, a dryer on low heat has to be cooler than the 110+ degree heat we’ve been experiencing here. That’s not a fact, just my wacky, unscientific opinion. I have no idea how hot dryers get, but 100+ degrees is blistering hot here in Tucson. Ack!! {Where are my monsoons?!} And do not underestimate the value of sunning your diapers indoors when it is too hot to have them outside. The UV rays can still work their magic indoors. Finding a sunny window in the afternoon may be a good alternative if you don’t get a chance to wash and dry your stash in the early morning hours. Today I put my diapers out for only 30 minutes at about 9 this morning. {I got a late start on my wash today.} Take care of your diapers and make your investment last!!

My little Wildcat is too cool!

I should mention that I'm sponsoring a giveaway {ends 7/5/11} over at Times for Keeping. Erin's a sweetheart of a gal, and she recently gave birth to her second baby girl. Her precious little doll tested out a GroVia newborn AIO. You can read her review here. And if you are looking to purchase GroVia newborn AIOs, Green Baby Elephant LLC has them in stock!!

Dang It's Hot Out

We don't have a swimming pool, so we beat the heat with the next best thing...sprinklers & a pirate water table. My boys had a great time splashing around in the water while I raked the grass. Darn pine tree messing up my yard! I decked out BW in a super cute Swimmi. What's a Swimmi you ask? It's a swim diaper! And not just any swim diaper, it's a super duper swim diaper. What's so super duper about it? Man, are you asking a lot of questions! It's so super since it opens in the front with hook & loop tabs. I have used other reusable swim diapers in the past, and they were the pull up kinds. Bad news, people. Think about what swim diapers are meant to hold in...poo. Now think about pulling off a wet swim diaper with poo inside. Close your eyes for the full effect. EEEEEEWWWWWWWWW! A Swimmi will not need to be pulled down your babe's legs thanks to the hook & loop tabs. Now picture taking off a wet Swimmi with a poo inside. Close your eyes if need be. Now wasn't that a better image?!

For the price of a pack of disposable swim diapers you can get a Swimmi instead. And with a disposable pack of swim diapers you are limited to the number of times you can swim by the number of diapers in the pack. With a Swimmi your baby can swim all summer long!! If you're on the fence about cloth, think of a Swimmi as your gateway diaper. Cloth is easy, and a Swimmi will prove it to you!

And for the mama's that are more experienced with using cloth diapers, I do NOT recommend using one of your regular cloth diaper covers as a swim diaper. Once you use a diaper in the pool, it should only be used in the pool. The harsh chemicals aren't good for the PUL/TPU waterproofing part of the diaper. Your covers/shells/pockets are more expensive than the Swimmi.

I hope you all had a pleasantly hot first day of summer! Here in Tucson, I'll probably pack up BW's Swimmi in October!! Summer's only just begun here...