Things I love

Recommendations of stuff I wouldn't want to be without.

(By the way, this site is not monetized - I am not making any money off anybody, so these are genuinely the things I love.)

In no particular order . . .

Baby Carriers: I have a Moby D, an Ergo (Sport or Performance or something), and a Baby Bjorn. All of these were either gifts or hand-me-downs, by the way. I love them all.

Baby Bjorn is really only good for newborns, for me, because I'm really short. The reason I love it is because it is easy (SO easy) and cool.

The Ergo is easy but not as easy, and cool but not as cool, especially for the newborn, who is down in it. The best part of the Ergo is the back packing part. Not only can I put a 1 or 2 year old on my back and feel pretty comfy and have my hands free to make dinner or whatever, I can also have my you-know-whats free and nurse the smaller baby. I'm always looking for ways to take care of more than one baby.

The Moby D (which is only a little different than the Moby) is the most versatile. It takes a little to put on, and it is pretty warm in the summer - to the point that I would just wear a tank-bra under it, but it is mama-love in a carrier. I can wear a newborn on my front 3 different ways, or have a toddler on my hip in a way that is still comfortable for my back.

I have even put a newbie on my front in the Ergo and a bigger baby on my hip in the Moby and been relatively comfortable, enough to push bigger kids on swings. (Needed help getting the 3 yr old out of the baby swing, though, but the 8 yr old hero saved the day: took little guy's shoes off and said, okay, mom, now LIFT! Cool.)

Strollers:

I had the kind of stroller that you pop your carseat into with my first kid, but because my children are closely spaced, that hasn't been used since my second child was born.

I have had two kinds of double strollers (I've owned a total of 4, only the first one was new, a Graco floor model), one that both seats lay back to make a long flat space, great for napping a child, changing a diaper, or for piling 6 or 7 hot youngin's into and making a beeline for the exit after a long day at the zoo, and the other kind, with two separate seats that also lean back but not into each other. I suppose the second kind is good for sun, since it has two visors, but I'm not that good of a mother, and I like the first kind better. Actually, I usually put sunblock on them anyway, so the visor isn't my first concern.

These days I usually use the umbrella stroller, even though it's a piece of crap, because I normally have big kids with me, and use the aforementioned carriers and like the flexibility.

Books I have loved

The Portable Pediatrician for Parents by Dr. Laura Walther Nathanson - gives good advice about developmental expectations and how freaked out to be about things. It is dated, so children's ibuprofen was not available w/o a prescription when it was published. Also, I do not agree with her about everything, for example, discipline or spacing of children, but I have used her reasons to do a better job of what I do.

Shepherding your Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp - I love this book, regarding the how and why of discipline, more than any other philosophy I've been exposed to. Although, I have not read the book "Train up a child" and have heard good things about it.

A Mom Just Like You by Vickie and Jayme Farris - Vickie Farris is the wife of HSLDA guy Michael Farris, a normal everyday homeschooling mom of 10 (which, when I first read it, sounded like a lot of kids).

(If you can get through chapters 3 and 4 of that book) A Full Quiver by Rick and Jan Hess - challenging, dogmatic, humorous except if you disagree with it then potentially downright offensive book about trusting God, or not with your fertility.

No Ordinary Home, the Uncommon Art of Christian Homemaking, can't remember who by.

Love Lord of the Rings and everything I've read so far by C.S. Lewis.

Love my Bible, NASB.

Diapering
I use cloth diapers. Mostly, it's a money thing. It also feels good, maybe because it helps me answer the critics of big families, maybe because there probably are chemicals in that magical gel contained in disposable diapers that explodes all over the bathroom if you hypothetically wait a half hour too long to take it off.

I have used Bummi's Super Whisper wraps and Dappies (the modern version of those nasty plastic pants we grew up with) with regular cotton pre-folds and Snappies (the modern answer to diaper pins, a little Y shaped gadget that works like the operating part of an Ace bandage), and I have a couple Flips on hand (a rectangular prefold that can be folded widthwise or lengthwise and fit into an adjustable open shell, not a pocket, cheaper than the pocket diapers; theoretically the open shell stays dry and clean and you can just switch out the absorbant rectangle and slip another in and re-use the shell . . . yeah, right).

But what I love are the BumGenius diapers, and here is why - my husband and older children will use them. They work just like "regular" diapers. They make them with snaps or velcro now, and I can argue both ways. The snaps are less likely to be pulled off by meddling toddlers, but have to be put on with two hands and cannot be as easily balled when soiled like a disposable or velcro, but the velcros wear out a little quicker maybe, and do get taken off by the self-changers. They make them to fit one size at a time, or to be adjusted, which will fit anybody but a tiny newborn. A friend loaned me some teeny terry-cloth "kissaluvs" for the newby stage this time, and they were great. My BGs were all either on extreme discount or gifts. Grateful.

I also prefer to use cloth wipes - any washcloth will do, especially the baby kind. I wipe the poop off with toilet paper first, then wipe with a wet little washcloth. The toilet paper comes off with the poop when I dump (or spray off with the BumGenius sprayer) it in the toilet; the wipe gets washed with the diapers. But I have not convinced anyone else to do this, so there are still many wipes used in my house.

Other things that help the amazing supermom be super: I have 2 dishwashers and 2 refridgerators and a deep freeze. I only have one washer and dryer. Now that I have a front loader, I don't need another dryer. I love my pampered chef apple slicer and chopper thing. I would not make pancakes without a big griddle. I drive a 15 passenger van. I think it's pretty safe, because it is pretty much all I drive, so I'm used to going slow on the curves.

I guess that will do. I promise I didn't get anything for saying I like any of these things.