We had an absolutely wonderful trip to my parents’ house last week. Unfortunately, my kids all came home sick. We left here getting over colds, and they started getting new colds right before we came home. Poor things. Samuel started feeling better yesterday but the younger two are taking a little bit longer. They do seem to be doing much better today though. I’m thinking they should be pretty good by tomorrow or Wednesday.

Don’t you just hate it when kids get sick? I sure enjoy the extra snuggles though!

After using cloth diapers faithfully for almost six years, we have switched to disposables. It is a bit frustrating.

With Samuel, we used cheap prefolds and plastic covers. I later made him some fleece covers, and used that system until he was out of diapers.

With Caleb, I made some Rita’s Rump Pocket diapers and loved that the system was easier than folding and pinning prefolds. Then he started getting rashes that wouldn’t go away. At first, I thought it was related to the materials the diapers were stuffed with. We experimented and changed and nothing really made much of a difference. We tried to keep him changed as frequently as possible but it never really got a lot better.

Anna came along. I made her a couple dozen of her own Rita’s Rump Pocket diapers. We had fewer issues with Anna and rashes so we just concluded that there was nothing wrong with the diapers themselves, and that Caleb must just have a lot of acid in his system.

We saw the doctor when Caleb’s rashes turned into blisters. He referred us to a urologist, who also couldn’t help us. I started reading about cloth diapers again, trying to figure out what the problem was.

It was our detergent. I used homemade with Samuel’s diapers with no problems. But clothes got dingy pretty quickly, so I switched to using storebought for all our laundry. When we added Caleb’s diapers I thought the Free and Clear detergents we were using would be good. In trying to find the cause of Caleb’s rashes though, I found out that the Free and Clear we used the most was one of the worst detergents for cloth diapers because of the buildup it caused.

We switched to Sun powdered detergent after I read this article on the Green Mountain website. Caleb’s rashes cleared up almost instantly. I was thrilled.

Almost as quickly, I started noticing that Anna was beginning to get rashes. To make a long post a tiny bit shorter, it turns out that Anna is sensitive to the Sun detergent. So I made up a batch of homemade detergent again, since it worked so well with Samuel’s diapers. We put the diapers on Anna and started watching her. Within a day, she had a rash again. Evidently she is sensitive to the homemade detergent too. *sigh* We have rinsed and rinsed the diapers, and straight out of the wash, they smell clean. But the way Anna’s skin is reacting, it’s as if there is a lot of buildup in the diapers. I don’t mind experimenting and searching to find a good detergent, but not at the expense of my little ones. We put the kids in disposables.

It absolutely kills me to put a disposable product on them knowing we’re buying it to just throw away. Especially when we have something resuable (that I don’t mind dealing with!) here already. But these rashes have GOT to stop.

I’m going to try to strip the diapers again. We tried it several times but maybe more rinses or something will work this time.

The whole point of this insanely long post is this: Does anyone know of a good cloth diaper detergent that’s not too expensive? I don’t want to spend a ton on the detergent – we might as well use disposable diapers if the soap costs a lot. But there’s got to be SOMETHING out there. Anyone? Help? Please?

I’m having an After Thanksgiving Sale (it started Black Friday but it goes through Monday) at my store. It’s been fun so far! Here’s what’s on sale (clicking the pictures will take you to that section of the store):

Don’t wait long – the sale ends on Monday!

After spending a wonderful week at my parents’ house, we are home. We just pulled in the driveway this morning. It was one of our longest stays at Mom and Dad’s and one of the shortest drives home (14 1/2 hours). It feels good to be home.

We were able to spend a lot of time with my brothers and their families too. It was wonderful. I’m glad to be home, but am looking forward to spending time with them again too.

Now. . .to just get everything in from the van, unpacked, and put away.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day is wonderful. We have so much to thank God for!!

Yesterday I met some friends for lunch. One of those friends was Tammy from Tammy’s Times. We’ve read each other’s blogs for several years (and have corresponded other places, too).

Yesterday we were able to meet in person. She is so sweet! It was a real blessing to be able to meet her. We might have talked longer after lunch, but we were standing out in the parking lot and it began to rain so we quickly hopped into our cars and left.

I’ve met other bloggers before, but I’ve been wanting to meet Tammy for quite a while. It was great! I am looking forward to being able to meet up again some time.

This morning we went to church at my brother’s church. My parents and other brother went as well. It was the first time we’ve all attended church together since I went away to college. That was lovely.

My brother’s church had Children’s Church during the morning service, and my kids went downstairs for it. It was so different than what we’re used to because our church does not have Children’s Church. It was really strange to be sitting in church without my kids sitting beside me.

At our church our children stay in the services with us. They do have a separate Sunday School class for the kids but for services they stay with us. Anna generally sits with a different family – since Stephen leads the singing and I’m the pianist we can’t hold her ourselves. But even she stays in the services too.

It was just such a contrast from what we’re used to. I’m not being critical of his church at all – it was just so different. Out of curiosity – what does your church do?

We have such adventures with vehicles.

Last Tuesday, 45 minutes before my first piano student of the evening was supposed to arrive, Stephen called me. “My car just broke down on the highway. I called AAA and they’re sending a tow truck, but you will need to go get a babysitter.” I loaded the kids into the van as quickly as I could and rushed to go pick our sitter up. We weren’t even back at the house for five minutes before my student arrived. What a day for her to arrive early.

After that lesson I typically have a one hour break. We loaded back up into the van and went to take the babysitter home. Her dad is our mechanic, so Stephen had the car towed there. We picked him up, went through the drivethrough for supper, and got home just in time for me to teach the rest of my lessons.

After my last student left, the phone rang. It was our mechanic. “I’m afraid your car is dead. It needs a new engine.” The cost to replace the engine was more than the car was worth.

Great. Good thing we have a van for me to drive and Stephen’s grandpa’s old farm truck. Neither is optimal for the kind of miles Stephen drives in a week (some weeks he drives over 600 miles), but I was thankful it didn’t happen to our only vehicle. I started worrying.

Thursday morning Stephen called me from work to ask me to put the car on Craigslist as is. Less than five hours later, the car was sold and towed away. He received the exact amount for it that he had wanted. I was amazed. I never imagined that we’d have a car die and sold in two days’ time, but it happened. We were just thankful to have it be that easy!

But it doesn’t end there. Stephen has been looking for a new-to-us car for several weeks. He didn’t have a lot of requirements, but was having a hard time finding something that met all the things he was looking for.

We drove over an hour yesterday to go look at a truck. We got there and found out it had 50,000 more miles on it than the seller had told Stephen on the phone. Not good. We went home and Stephen kept looking. He found another car to go see and made an appointment for this afternoon.

Stephen just called me. He bought a VW Jetta. Today is Tuesday. His car broke down exactly a week ago, and today he bought a new car to replace it. God worked every tiny detail out – from selling the old one quickly to finding a new one just as quickly to providing the money needed to buy it.

I am so humbled. I had been worrying about how we were going to juggle everything, but God worked everything out far better than I imagined He would. How humbling. But we have SO MUCH to thank Him for!!!

At the request of someone on Facebook, I made some snowman earrings today. They’re so fun!

These are for a craft event this weekend, but I’m considering making myself a pair.

I can’t decide which ones are my favorite. I like different things about each set. Which is your favorite?

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.

Psalm 68:19