Beautiful Bad Hawk

Hannah requested an update on the chickens. Here are 4 pics taken yesterday. The gold ones are called Buff Orpingtons (there are 2). The black are Black Australorps (2). There are 2 mongrels. One unknown (silvery, perhaps a Silver Laced Wyandotte?). And then there are 3 Easter Eggers (1 white, 1 brown-grey-black, 1 brown). That last part is the sad segue. There used to be 4 Easter Eggers. A hawk got one the other day and ripped out its innards. The others were terrified and haven't left the coop until today. Since then, I've got this netting to cover a large part of the yard to keep the hawks out. The chickens are still not impressed.

BTW, chicks stop being cute chicks by the time they are 4 days old. Then they go through this awkward stage as their feathers come in. Now they look like little hens! We expect them to start laying eggs around January or February.

Concluding Prayer

I love the concept and practice of 'the offices.' This morning's concluding prayer for the morning office (from Phyllis Tickle's series) was beautiful and extremely heartfelt. I hope others of you can also pray it:

Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through King Jesus, our lord, who lives and reigns with you and the holy Spirit, one god, for ever and ever. Amen.

I'm a Happy Mother

Happy Mothers' Day!

Happy day to my mom, Kathi, and my mother-in-law, Debbie, and all the grandmas. We love you!

Aedyn gave me roses and we may go out for dinner if my stomach is up to the task. I've been queasy, well, horribly sick, for the last 3 weeks and may have another month or so of heaving. BECAUSE, yep. I'm a mother of 2! We expect Aedyn's sister or brother to be born about a week before Christmas.

Cloth Diapers: Our System

NOTE: if you don't care about how we cloth diaper, this will be a very boring read।

NOTE 2: We cloth diaper because we are stewards of the earth, of the money entrusted to us, and of our baby's bottom. An essay on benefits to all.





Some diaper sites I like for information and products:
wildflowerdiapers.com (my favorite site, easy to navigate, great detail)
cottonbabies.com (the home of BumGenius, they have a diaper grant for missionaries I love to suport)
greenmountaindiapers.com
(Best price for pre-washed cotton prefolds. This saves lots of time, H2O, energy.)





A few of you have emailed me about cloth diaper recommendations. Diapering really is a system and, as there are so many options, systems vary. Our system is basic with a few frills. Some of the fancy diapers and covers are really amazing. But the basics are easy to use and almost all our 'stash' was 'showered' on us at my Diaper Shower. Here is our system.

Terms:

DSQ: diaper service quality

Chinese prefolds / prefolds: multi-ply cotton or hemp diaper what has extra thickness in the center.

Cover: go over the cloth diaper. Not all diapers need a cover, some have covers attached

PUL: polyurethane laminate. The coating on most covers to make them water-proof

Newborn: Diaper service (great gift from friends) using DSQ chinese prefolds and our own covers (Classic Proraps, newborn size, worked best on our skinny-thighed boy.) We used Snappis fasteners as they are faster to put on and less dangerous than pins.

When the diaper service expired at one month, we used our own DSQ prefolds, some cotton, some hemp (it's more absorbent). We never bought newborn size, just folded the diapers down a bit in front. When Aedyn outgrew the newborn size Proraps, we had Bummis covers. They have a little pocket in the front of the cover to hold the diaper if you fold it in thirds and just lay it in. That way you don't need a fastener as the cover wraps around the waist and velcros closed. We folded in thirds the short way until he was about 6 months because he has a small bum.

We also had a few AIOs for going out. They are constructed like disposables, are trim fitting and convenient. We loved the BumGenius AIO and liked the Bumkin. That one was better suited to a chubby waisted baby.

Now he's in medium sizes. We didn't make the switch until about 8 months, later than the sizing on most products indicates, because Aedyn is leaner than average (25 percentile.)

We use the small prefolds still folded the long way. We also have several contour diapers that are the same shape as the wrap covers. They work better for us if we use a snappi. They are nice and cushy and have a sewn in 'doubler' for extra absorbency. We have added Kushies covers and some med. classic Prowraps as well as Bummis. I also now have a few wool soakers. They pull on like underwear and are make of wool. The lanolin in wool neutralizers pee. These aren't washed often. Seriously! Ours are so cute and soft and they keep a bottom warm.

OUR FAVORITE DIAPER! BumGenius One-Size Diaper! We have 6 if these. They are 'pocket diapers.' While several companies make pocket diapers (the cover has an inner liner and you stuff the diaper or absorbent liner into the cover, then it goes on like a disposable) Bum Genius One-Size has an adjustable rise. We've used these since Aedyn was about 2 months old. They are our night time diaper. Now we double stuff them with the original inserts and/or a small prefold. This gets Aedyn half-way through his 12-13 hour night. They are easier to put on in the dark than prefold/cover combo.

Pail: we bought a 22 gallon garbage can with a foot-operated lid and a liner. The liner gets washed with the diapers. We also use a wash basin to soak a diaper if necessary or store dirty covers and then wash them in the basin. (I usually hand wash covers at the end of the day, dry over edge of tub all night. they can be machine washed with the diapers, too.)

Diaper sprayer: started using this when he started eating solids to spray poo off the diapers into the toilet. now I hardly ever need to soak a diaper.

Washing: 1) a cold, short cycle wash/rinse with NO detergent. 2) a hot, longest cycle wash/rinse with about 1 TABLESPOON ONLY. Diapers hold odors and become less absorbent due to detergent build-up. I have used a bit of bleach only once, on a single poopy diaper I forgot about in a bag for a week. USE SUNLIGHT instead of bleach to whiten out any stains. Never use bleach on PUL covers.

Q3

I'm doing my second inpatient Pediatric rotation right now. November is a weird month for the Family Practice residents (e.g., me) because whatever rotation we are on that month, each of us gets pulled off of it for 10 days to cover our own hospital service. I was on FP hospital service the first 10 days. The peds people found it fitting, then, to kind of punish me and put me on call Q3 (which no one else is doing). What that means is that every 3rd day I am on call from 7AM until 1PM the next day. Every 3rd day is tough. It means that for the next few weeks, including Thanksgiving holiday, I get ONE day off total—the Friday after Thanksgiving. Now, the peds chief resident argues that I actually get Thanksgiving off, too, since I am post-call that day (work only from 7AM wed till 8AM thur). Really? That's a day off? I guess if I work mostly during dark hours but can get home before more than 2 hours of light, that counts as a 'day off'. Well, this is all my way of saying, "Sorry for being absent from the blog." Hope to catch up more later, but I'm glad Heidi is able to keep you all updated. Love you.

Happy Hemi-Birthday, to Aedyn!

Aedyn Shepherd is 6 months old! He likes sucking on his toes and blowing spit bubbles. He loves cantaloupe-rice puree and playing outside. Ah, the life of a baby.

Critters!

Although Eric says that the baby snake we captured in the basement is quite possibly the only one that lived there, I know that babies have mamas. and often, siblings. No more barefoot laundry duty. boots time.

I spotted this praying mantis on the handle of a hanging flower basket on our front porch last night during dinner. (that's a lot of prepositional phrases!)

Lily

Another water lily bloomed yesterday in our little pond; it's been about 6 weeks since we had one bloom. The fish act like a pack or a tribe rather than a school. They are so fast and very "Lord of the Flies." Aedyn loves to watch them when we feed them.

Here he is during naptime. Caught in the bars. Awake. Happy, at least. If I could find a crib with sides like a milk crate I would consider buying the ugly thing because Aedyn is always getting a leg or 2 stuck.

Eric took this picture last week in the late afternoon sun. It's been amazing how many times Eric has been able to come home in time to feed Aedyn his veggies. It was our prayer that E would see the baby awake every day--not easy with a resident's schedule. We've visited at the hospital some and Eric races home. Aedyn seems surprised when I'm the one holding his spoon full of carrots. Must be papa's gig.

Hannita might visit in a few weeks. My parents are driving over from western Nebraska in 3 weeks. We leave for Roatan in 6 weeks. Yeah life!

Missing you.

Heading to Honduras

Yep! Aedyn's first trip oversees is for Eric's international medicine rotation in Roatan, Honduras. Eric will be working with a missionary nurse and local and missionary staff at Clinica Esperanza. Roatan is an island known for scuba diving and great beaches. We'll have our own little apartment w/ kitchen and Aedyn and I will find plenty of lovely people to meet and things to see while Eric does clinic and community health. Roatan has an interesting history as many of the current inhabitants are descendants of Carib slaves left behind on Roatan island, indigenous people , descendants of English, Spanish, and Dutch pirates and imperialists (sometimes there is a difference, I think) and now tourists. We're so excited to go!
We don't scuba but we're going on that glass bottom boat!

Our Domain

Our little piece of earth is pretty. Because it's been so dry here our garden is a bit underwhelming and a few of the bushes we transplanted are beyond hope but the trees around the yard are lovely. This is today's harvest.

I wrote last week about a little water plant called velvet. The soft tiny petel-like leaves float. The fish ate them all. They had to because a racoon got the fish food.

missing you