A City Life For Me

I recently started following the Gypsy Mama blog.  I would like to try and start participating in her Five Minute Friday Meme .  Here’s how it works, in her words… “Around here we write for five minutes flat on Fridays. We set a timer, throw caution to the winds and try to remember what it was like to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not. Want to play Five Minute Friday? It’s easy peasy! Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt- no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking Link back here and invite others to join in. Meet & encourage someone who linked up before you. OK, are you ready? Give us your best five minutes on: Good-Bye…” Go: During the last couple of weeks I said “good-bye” to my business.  Started out of an addiction {for lack of a better word} to cloth diapering, Ben and I began Doable Diapers in August, 2010.  It was my home based business, and it launched me even further into t...

Did you know that I have a home business?  I sell cloth diapers online.  My store is called Doable Diapers .  I won’t get into the whys and hows of cloth diapers in this post, but you can feel free to email me if you have questions.  I love talking about “fluff.” November and December were very slow months for my business.  I was barely making my obligatory payments for things like my website and postage.   Then Ben lost his job.  I have been asking the Lord to increase my sales.  And He has!  Business has been very   good in January.  New customers.  Repeat customers.  Lots of business.  Just when we needed it.  Just when I turned it over to Him.  And I am thankful.

{daddy did it}

…a conglomeration of pictures of Nolan at or around 1 month old… After one of his first tub baths with Elaine Awake time on Mommy’s bed – he always has his hands moving! First time in the Bumbo – he holds his head well for one month old! (Big sister had to get in on the camera action…Nolan looks so thrilled!) One and a half day’s worth of cloth diapers drying on my line.  Perhaps only my cloth diapering friends can truly appreciate this picture!

Yesterday we attended the Little League Parade in Brooklyn, NY.  It’s kind of a “small” event for Brooklyn, but I have never seen so many baseball players in my life!  The little sluggers all marched through Park Slope, Brooklyn and ended at Prospect Park where the Little League Season was officially opened with a ceremonial first pitch. Elaine is only 17 months, so we definitely didn’t attend because we have a Little Leaguer! (Though Ben would be ecstatic to attend as a Little League parent!)  Elaine and I walked the length of the parade handing out brochures about cloth diapers, and our business, Doable Diapers . Elaine was quite the people watcher, and also a cutie with her sunglasses and new purple outfit!   Some very enthusiastic fans!  I must say, I never thought I would end up married to a baseball guy, and living in a baseball city! We met Ben and the Bickel’s at the park to hand out tracts for our church’s evangelism program.  As we stood a...

As a FuzziBunz (those are cloth diapers) retailer, I have the opportunity to participate in a photo contest.  The winning photo will be featured on the FuzziBunz company holiday greeting card.  Additionally, the winner receives some free products and a great gift card.  Below are the photos I took of Elaine for my contest entry, and I can’t decide between them! This is where you come in – leave me comment voting for your favorite.  I may decide to attempt another photo shoot.  I don’t have great lighting in this apartment.  I still have some shadows that don’t please me.  The three pictures below are the best out of over 100 shots!  (It’s hard to capture a 1 year old sitting still, smiling, and looking at you!). So here they are… #1 #2 #3 I did my best with touchup and editing.  Any of my readers that are great with photos or Photo Shop (I actually use a different program) are welcome to offer suggestions to make these shot...

I have been thinking on this for a little while.  What exactly does it mean to be green?  I am not an environmentalist, and I never would have described myself as “green.”  But…I do have several “green” habits in my lifestyle.  They are mostly reusable products, but I have found that I really enjoy being “green” in these aspects: The biggest green thing I do is use cloth diapers.  While I started using cloth to save green, it is still a green choice.  I don’t have disposable diapers to throw away, and they are better for my baby. Recycling. This is something we didn’t do before moving to NYC, and we mostly do it here because it’s a law – we have to do it.  And yet, as I gather up my recycling on Sunday nights I can’t help but notice how much stuff I would have been adding to the trash.  If those items can be reused and recycled, then I am glad to help.  But just to be clear – I would probably not be a recycler if I the...

The other night Elaine and I took a late afternoon nap.  It was on a day when Ben works until 8pm.  Elaine doesn’t usually get to see him on those days, so I decided she could stay up until Daddy got home.  She had a lot of energy, and we ended up playing together unti 10pm!  Ben ate his dinner while we were playing.  Elaine really wanted a second helping of fried rice, so she took four little steps – all by herself! – to get over to Ben.  Then she tried to be a big girl and feed herself with the adult fork! Then she decided that Mommy’s cup of water looked better than her sippy cup, so she helped herself.  She was doing pretty good until she tipped the cup too high.  She got a face, mouth, and nose full of water!  You should have seen the look of surprise!  Not to be deterred, she tried again.  In the end, she settled for sticking her hand into the cup to play in the water. We finished the night off with cookies....

Tuesday night around 11:30 pm Elaine awoke.  She is teething, and I assumed she just needed some more relief tablets to go back to sleep.  I discovered that she was soaked, along with her sheet and blanket, and stuffed animal.  I was puzzled.  It did not smell like spit-up, and there was too much dampness for it to be sweat.  I concluded it was her diaper.  For some reason, when she wet, it all went everywhere except into the diaper. Now for those of you who know me well, you understand that I am addicted to cloth diapers.  I even sell cloth diapers online .  In fact, I think cloth diapers are perfect.  They are better for my baby, they save me tons of money, and they are just stinkin’ cute.  So I was really dismayed to encounter a problem which was causing my cloth diapers not to work.  As I struggled to find, and then fix, that problem the next day, I realized some things about my own heart.  I learned some spiritual lesso...

So I know that I am biased because I am the mommy, but I just think Elaine has been especially cute lately.  Every day she discovers something new or surprises me.  Even Ben said this morning, “Baby Girl you are so cute!” Here’s a couple of random shots…I captured them for my diaper blog , but I am saving them until I am actually carrying this product to sell. I love this shot because of the light coming in and the concentrated expression on her face!   Don’t worry Mom.  I won’t fall.  I can stand up by myself!   Yup.  Pretty much she is always happy!

I’m in business!  Well, I’ve been in business as an Independent Beauty Consultant for Mary Kay.  But this week Ben & I ventured out in a new direction.  We are starting an online retail store for cloth diapers! We filed for our sales tax license on Monday.  We are still waiting for it to be approved before we can purchase our inventory and start selling. On Tuesday Elaine & I went downtown to the County Clerk’s office and registered the business.  Yesterday I purchased the domain name, and I have a web designer and host already picked out too. We are Doable Diapers , and we will carry (hopefully): bumGenius! FuzziBunz Kissaluvs GroVia (from the Natural Baby Company) Rumparooz Planet Wise wet bags Prefolds Thirsties covers Flip covers We’ll start with those and see where it goes!  I do have my blog up and running, but I still have a little tweaking to do.  It is www.doablediapers.blogspot.com , and there you can read a lit...

I know.  It’s weird.  But I am.  Obsessed I mean.  With cloth diapers.  Want me to prove it?  Today Elaine & I arrived at the subway station at 5:05 a.m. (yes…that is 5 in the morning ) headed for Manhattan.  We were joining Jenn from Cotton Babies and a group of cloth diapering mommies convening on Rockefeller Plaza during NBC’s The Today Show .  Jenn is the creator of the bumGenius! cloth diaper line, so all of our babies were wearing bumGenius! diapers.  To say thanks for showing up and supporting cloth diapers, Jenn gave each one of us a  t-shirt and the all new 4.0 bumGenius! diaper with snaps.  This was very exciting to me for several reasons.  First, I love free stuff, especially cloth diapers!  This diaper is not yet available for purchase, so I get to try it first.  I have not been a huge bumGenius! fan in the past because they have only had velcro closures on their diapers.  I prefer snaps, ...