Cloth Diapering: 3 simple steps!

 I knew I was going to cloth diaper from the beginning. There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to. I use natural cloth products for my menstrual cycle, so cloth diapering was the only route for me to go. I received a lot of criticism for choosing to do it and that fueled my campaign to do it even more. I luckily received cloth diapers from my wonderful second mom (Baby Daddy’s mom) and did not have to make the initial investment although it only comes to about $250 that we used for the last six months of his life.

I recently gave in and bought more covers. Offspring #1 is not wetting or pooping his diapers as much so I am not doing the laundry as much. It did suck that I had to do the diapers in a communal laundry machine at our apartment, but we made through it.  I actually had to soak and scrub the diapers to get them clean with our machines. It was a very bad machine!

I use Econombum prefolds and mostly Bububibi covers (with some Bumkin and other randoms). I wanted to share just how easy it is to wash them and make it apart of the routine. When I was searching for how to cloth diapers, it looked really complicated to me. So I wrote this to counteract all this confusing stuff! 

Side note about my system: I don’t believe in laundry day. That gets too overwhelming for us. So I do a little laundry every day, with two days off in between. It only boils down to about five loads a week. Laundry is the first thing I do, I walk downstairs with the dirties, throw them in the wash, and pull up what I have clean from the day before and put it away.

How to Cloth Diaper! 

STEP ONE: Put a cloth diaper on

Fold the prefold, put in the diaper and snap the diaper on the offspring!

STEP TWO: Take a cloth diaper off

Take off the diaper, clean the butt, and put the dirty diaper away. Optional: If offspring has more solid waste, push it in the toilet. Also, putting the clean diaper on.

STEP THREE: Wash cloth diapers

(This is the system that works for me. If it doesn’t work for you, that’s all right. I had to do it completely different in the apartment.)

I put the dirties in, and choose all the extra cold rinse options on my high efficiency washer. Then I push start. I do not add detergent though sometimes I will add apple cider vinegar for an extra clean!  Then when they are done washing, I put them in the dryer!

It’s about as simple as that! J

Cosmo could be connected to Child Sexual Predators?

There is not a word in my brain that describes the magazine known as Cosmopolitan. If you read this blog AND read Cosmo, you should stop at least one. I'm not trying to lose readers, I am just being blunt. If there is one anti-feminist and anti-women magazine out there, it would be Cosmopolitan.

Trust me, I used to be a reader of Cosmo. I used to eye sweep the articles about makeup, fashion and sex on a regular basis. Then something happened to me, I started realizing how badly I felt about myself after I read them. I remember cutting out pictures of the models and saying "I will look like this!" Even though the model was slightly anorexic and looked nothing like me.

Some women state that Cosmo is the "Women's Bible", but the only thing it really does is tell you how to sex up your boyfriend, husband and male lover. Or tell you how to do the perfect orgasm, which incidentally, includes your man friend. (So essentially the tips are just for straight women!) It also includes interviews of stars who brag about their lifestyle, tell them how great their relationships are and then tell their haters to stop hating because they are ugly. Great.

Sometimes it includes great tips about fitness, but usually does not educate women on the risks of overexercising, anorexia, bulimia or body image issues. Sometimes it has a page or two on social justice issues, but it's usually the latest fab or celebrity issue asking for money. It does not actually give average people the chance to make change unless they donate money.

Finally, what drew me to the pages today was a young women I worked with looking at the "hot meter" of celebrity men. Daniel Radcliffe was at the bottom for what? He decided to share that he prefers his women more natural down there. And you know what Cosmo said about that.....GROSS! That made me step back and say, wait what? That should be considered a good thing?!?! Shaving your pubic area makes you more susceptible to bacteria...it also reminds child predators about children. Think about it when was the last time you saw your area hairless if you don't shave it regularly....pre-puberty right? I'm not saying men who prefer it hairless is a predator but I am saying it has an interesting similarity!

Alright, don't put down your Cosmo yet. Take a look at what messages it gives you before you do. Make a choice, what is Cosmo feeding you? A heterosexual men dominated lifestyle that ignores the real issues faced by women across the world...that's not something that I want to read. If it's what you want to read or you get something different from it, let me know. That's what comments are for.

What leads girls to murder...

I always know better than to click on a pop song. But I do it anyway.

I found this little gem, if I can call it that, during one of those pop song sessions. It's called "This Little Girl" by a 'little girl' named Cady Groves. I was hoping it would be something like 'this little girl is growing up to a fine young woman' or 'this little girl is going to college'.

But yet again, it's not that. This obviously-autotuned pop song is catchy, but not in a good way.

I think instead of it being called "this little girl" it should be called "this fricking psycho". Because that is exactly what Cady Groves is in this little music video.

It featured Cady as the main character who is trying too hard to get a guy that obviously does not like her (maybe she needs to watch he is just not that in to you to figure out if he is or not) then after their 'date', she watches him from the road in her car. Can you say creepy? It even says "I followed you home, would you be alone?" Then later it says "I know you're creepin"!

Okay, uhm, he is NOT creeping. YOU ARE. It gets scarier, because she states that she is two steps away from murder over and over again. She even sings that she has an alibi...a good one.

I understand 'this little girl' you are hurt. He hurt you. But that doesn't mean you should kill him, he didn't even seem that nice of a guy to begin with. I hate to say this, but....did you not expect this? He didn't even kiss you at the door, he didn't hold your hand, and he didn't make a move on your advances!

Besides for the major psychological disorders this girl has before she started dating this guy, I feel like there is a few things wrong with this song in the first place.

It seems like it is centered on the idea that woman, or girls, only care about their relationships. Which you know, it's great to care about your relationships, but it is not the only thing you care about. More importantly, this little video seems to show that this little girl is all about boys.

It also brings light to the fact that women are all murderers. I'm serious. We are all going to kill men someday, so you better watch out. If we don't get what we want, which is obviously just a man-nothing more-then we are going to kill you.

I lied. I'm not being serious. Women are not murderers. Women are humans and have feelings. Men are also humans and have feelings too. I'm pretty sure that you do not need to tape a guy up to the wall with duct tape to make him see that he hurt you. Men, behind their rock hard masculinity, do have feelings just like women do.

It makes me angry that the only thing that makes women angry is when their man cheats on them. And I know it seems like it is the end of the world, but it is just an end of a relationship...not the world. I wish I could see pop songs about getting an education or standing up for their rights. Women getting angry because of something more important than an end of a relationship, seeing music videos that represent more than just the modern cult of domesticity...

Notice I am using the term women here. Women. Not girls. Men, like the man in this little video, are not going to take you seriously, if you call yourself a girl. Be proud. Call yourself a woman! You get a lot of respect from people!

After this horrible music video, I wanted to find a better song that didn't focus around a man. So thanks for reading, but you should listen to songs like "Not a Pretty Girl" by the WOMAN Ani Difranco.

Or No Doubt and "Just A Girl"... which has similar references of having it 'up to here' because of how society oppresses women like Gwen because of their girlhood (not 'three steps from the edge' because a man cheated on her...)