Review: Dr. Bronner's Coconut Oil

Coconut Oil is a natural living go-to. You can eat it, put it on your skin, put it on your baby, and even paint with it. We use coconut oil as our primary baby skin care. We use it to prevent diaper rash and treat the few that pop up and it's completely safe! We've never had build up issues. We also use it as Alex's "lotion".

You want to find an unrefined coconut oil for use on the skin. My favorite is Dr. Bronner's.

Photo from drbronner.com

Not only is it unrefined, but it's also organic and fair trade. It just doesn't get better than that! Ok well, maybe it does. Dr. Bronner's is generally available in most markets. (Here in little ol' Abilene you can find it at Drug Emporium and Natural Grocers. It may be available elsewhere but that's where I've seen it.) Dr. Bronner's also doesn't fetch as hefty a price as some of the comparable coconut oils. Off the Dr. Bronner's website it's about $11 for 14 ounces. That's not a bad price!

Diaper Review: Chickapea Baby Extended Tab Prefolds

I am an avid pocket diaper lover. They comprise most of my stash, but don't really work for us over night. Alex is just too heavy of a wetter. We've been using a couple of fitteds at night but were getting leaks. The diapers were soaked in the morning and so were his jammies. So, even though I was not particularly interested in prefolds, I jumped at the chance to try Chickapea Baby Extended Tab Perfolds.

Chickapea Baby Extended Tab Prefolds

Chickapea Baby is a mom-owned business run by Melony, mom to four here in Abilene. Current offerings include the homemade extended tab prefolds, cloth wipes, teething jewelry or "bling", and boingos. You can read my review of the boingo here.

I prepped the diaper and booster on the stovetop to make it a bit quicker and hung both pieces on the line. Putting the diaper on seemed a little daunting, but I studied Melony's instructions and practiced a few times diapering a stuffed animal first. I was able to get the diaper on and secured properly. I was pretty proud of this and may have done a little happy dance. (No judging.) I will say that when Alex is particularly squirmy, it can be a challenge. I think once I've gotten more used to it, I'll be able to do it faster.

We had no leaks that night! Or any other night we've used this diaper. Some nights, the diaper doesn't even feel soaked all the way through. I'm using a hemp diaper with a booster "insert" for added absorbency. Overall, it's a great diaper and much less daunting than it seemed! I might just be a prefold convert!

We're trying to find the cover that will work for us but have used a Flip and a Sweet Pea cover with success. After the diaper was prepped I just included it with our regular diaper laundry. It does take longer to dry then my pockets, but it's so much thicker!

I've already picked up another medium (the size Alex fits now) and have ordered two larges for when he grows out of this size, which probably won't be any time soon. You can get the diapers in hemp (what we used) or bamboo. There are a variety of prints. We have "All Crabby" (so cute!) and a striped one.

I received our All Crabby diaper at a discounted price as part of a small test group. I was not compensated for this review.

Boingo: Cool Name and It Works!

Boingo Diaper Fastner (photo from Chickapea Baby)

Over the weekend I tried my first extended tab prefold (review to come). This was my first diaper that didn't have snaps or aplix and I was a little worried. I had seen Snappis before, but they were a bit confusing and I couldn't ever find them locally (I probably wasn't looking in the right places). Anywho, I was trying out this diaper and decided I'd give the Boingo a try.

The Boingo is two little gripper pieces on a tight rubber band type thing with awesome stars on each end. You attach one side to each side of the diaper and you're done. It really was pretty simple and now I don't know why I always thought they were so daunting.

I was worried about using it as I had heard that the Snappis aggravated reflux in some babies, but I didn't notice any problems with the Boingo. (I've never tried the Snappi so I can't compare the two from personal experience.)

I got mine from Chickapea Baby for $5 per pair. (Link to purchase) It worked really well and was really cute. If you're going to be using any type of diaper without built-in fasteners, this would be my recommendation.

I'm Starting to be Convinced...

A little while back I got Alex an Amber Teething necklace through a co-op with some other moms. I've heard moms rave about baltic amber and it's ability to soothe teething babies and with Alex starting to teethe early (he showed obvious teething signs shortly after one month) I decided to give it a try.

Well, Alex pretty much always wears his. At daycare and bedtime he wears it on his ankle under a sock or footed sleep and play. One day, I forgot to put it on his ankle before day care and so they took it off because it's a choking hazard (but really only if not supervised properly). That day, they also reported that he was very fussy which is not like him.

Tonight I went to change Alex and had to change his outfit because the daycare lady didn't put the diaper on right (she's new). I took the necklace off his ankle and put it next to the change mat with the intention to put it on his neck when I changed him. Well, I forgot to put it back on.

Alex normally sleeps from 6:30/7 until we wake him for bath and feeding. He normally falls asleep easily and stays sound asleep that whole time. Tonight he fought taking his nap and woke up after only about an hour. He fussed a bit but did eventually fall asleep. It was when he woke up that I realized that he didn't have his necklace on.

Now, two events are not enough to prove that the necklace works, at least not to this skeptic, but I'm starting to think I might get convinced soon.

You can see Alex's necklace peaking out just a little here.
A teething necklace if worn around the neck should be tucked
into a shirt so little hands can't grab it.

You can find more info about teething necklaces and the one I bought for Alex from Inspired by Finn here: http://hyenacart.com/stores/inspiredbyfinn/index.php

*This is not an endorsement for Inspired By Finn or their products. I'm just providing the link if you want more information.

**Please note: There are safety concerns involved in using amber necklaces. All parents should use good judgement when choosing products for their children.

Review: Butt Paste

I got a tube of Boudreaux's Original Butt Paste from whattoexpect.com for review. It happened to come in the mail right when we were dealing with that nasty stomach bug and Alex's first diaper rash. Great timing! We used it right away.

Now as you may know, we use cloth diapers and with cloth diapers you have to be careful about using diaper creams as they will leave residue and will make your diapers repel. We had a box of paper diaper liners so we used those as a barrier between the diaper and the Butt Paste.

The Butt Paste worked. His diaper rash cleared up rather quickly. I probably saw an improvement in the rash within the first three or four diaper changes. The cream wasn't too bad to get off my hands and it didn't have any sort of yucky smell. Overall I would say that the Butt Paste was a success.

However, as the diaper rash cleared, the little guy's bum got really dried out. He had such terrible dry skin on his bum and on his scrotum. Once the rash was mainly gone and I noticed the dry skin we stopped using the Butt Paste and switched over to coconut oil. The coconut oil has healed up most of the dry skin, but his scrotum is still pretty dried out. :(

I would say that I am glad that the Butt Paste got the rash to go away, especially considering the stomach bug Alex had, but I wouldn't buy it. It left the little guy's skin so dried out. It's been a little over five days since we stopped using the Butt Paste and his skin still isn't make to it's normal baby softness. Perhaps Alex just had a bad reaction to it, but I didn't like the Butt Paste overall and wouldn't recommend it.

Restaurant Review: Bob's Waffle Shack

We went to lunch at a new restaurant today. Well, new to us, not sure how new it really is. Bob's Waffle Shack is here in Abilene on North 1st, near the Westwood Twin Theatre.

Bob's Waffle Shack is a little diner open from 6 am to 2 pm and serves breakfast and lunch. We each had the waffle with eggs and bacon. The waffles are huge! Each one easily took up a whole plate and they were good... oh boy were they good! The eggs and bacon were yummy as well.

The services was great and the food came out fast. Not only was it yummy and fast, but it well priced too. We spent about the same amount as we would at a fast food place, but got waited on and served freshly cooked food!

We will definitely be going back and I recommend anyone in the area give it a shot!

Book Review: Before I Dream Bedtime Bible Storybook

Review: Before I Dream Betime Bible Storybook by Karyn Henley

As we await little A's arrival, we have been reading a bedtime story each night. Yes, I read to my belly, and yes, he sometimes seems to respond. Recently we finished reading Karyn Henley's Before I Dream Bedtime Bible Storybook. I bought this book at an Abilene Educational Supply booksale and got the copy that came with a CD of music. The same issue with CD can be found on Amazon for about $50. You might try second-hand bookstores or Christian bookstore's clearance racks for a better deal. Tyndale gives it a retail value of $15, but it is currently out of print.

That being said, keep your eyes out for this book at any second-hand sales or your church's library! I loved reading through this book. It covers a variety of stories from the Old and New Testament, some children's classics such as Noah and David and Goliath, but also some lesser heard stories such as Samuel and Saul. A's favorite seemed to be the couple with Solomon.

Ms. Henley describes her purpose for the book as sending kids off to sleep with positive images in their minds. She does just that. Even when some of the more gritty stories are included, they are tastefully made child-friendly. There is plenty of onomatopoeia ("clip-clop, clip-clop" "whoosh") in the stories to help the reader and listener get into the spirit of things a bit more. Each story also has at least one illustration, and some have full page art.

Overall, this was a great book and I would highly recommend scooping it up if you find a copy!

Review: Reusable Swiffer Pads from Handknitted 4 You

I stumbled upon this product while looking through the eco-friendly items on Etsy.com. Handknitted 4 You has been on Etsy for a bit over a year now. They make adorable hand knit items of all sorts. The hand knit Swiffer pads are available as singles or in sets of three. I got a single one for $3.50 plus shipping.

Pros: It works great! It picks up hair and cat fur and all the other junk that lives on my floor. It is machine washable. It did shrink a wee bit the first wash, but not enough to make it fit any worse.

Cons: I would say that the only downfall that I've found is that you can only use the pad once before having to wash it. You might be able to flip it inside out and use it a second time, but I've tried and it's been pretty hard to flip like that.

Overall, it's great! I plan to buy some more when I run out of the disposable pads that I still have.

Review: Reusable Produce Bags from Eco-Friendly 4 U

Continuing along with today's sustainability tip, I thought I would review my own produce bags. I bought my produce bags from an Etsy shop, Eco-Friendly 4 U. This is a Canadian shop and the owner makes all sorts of produce bags, tech cases, and snack bags. I  got a set of four large produce bags, plus a bonus purple bag for $6 plus shipping. I found this to be a great price comparatively to other shops and have been very happy with the bags.

Pros: The bags are lightweight and easy to clean. If they get dirty, I just rinse them with hot water and set them to dry on my dish rack. I've not noticed any additional weight to be added by the bags, if any is added, it's a tiny fraction of an ounce. These bags have held up well. I use them for any produce that you'd but in a bag, including onions and potatoes like you see above. I even use them to store some produce in the party.

Cons: Really the only negative that I recall from the entire transaction, (and I really hesitate to call it a negative) is that it took a long time to get my order. Now this wasn't the shop owner's fault. Anyone who has ever purchased anything internationally knows that delivery time for international shipments is a guessing game. The owner did ship the item quickly, so once again, I hesitate to even call it a downfall.

Overall, I love these bags. I use them every time we go shopping and plan to buy more in the future.

Review: Reusable Sandwich Bags from My Outdoor Mom

Here's another option for reusable snack and sandwich bags from Etsy.com. My Outdoor Mom is a new shop to Etsy, but is already having a ton of success, and it's easy to see why! I bought my bags when I was first starting to work towards more reusable products. I got a pair of reusable bags, one snack bag and one sandwich bag, for $10 plus shipping. While this is a little expensive, I think it was worth it. You choose the pattern for each bag, and they come with a solid inside and zipper.

Here is the snack size with blueberry print. Easily holds a chopped apple.

Here is the sandwich side bag with strawberry print. This easily holds a regular sandwich, but a really hefty one might not fit too easily.

Pros: I love the zipper! The zipper keeps everything in, even peanuts and popcorn, and doesn't take up hardly any bag space. I also love the prints. Not only are they fun, but they're more "adult" than a lot of the reusable bags out there. These bags are also machine washable. I've washed them once or twice in the machine, but usually just rinse them out with dishes.

Cons: These aren't exactly airtight. The other day I brought cheese and crackers to work. I cut the cheese the night before, put it in the blue bag, and put in the fridge. Well, by the time I ate the cheese the next day, it was starting to get a wee bit hard. It was still fine, but is a downfall to those who are used to the airtight plastic bags.

Overall, I really love these bags. Budget-willing, I'll be adding more in the future.

Review: Reusable Sandwich Bags from The Green Haven

To go along with today's sustainability tip, I thought I would review some of my own reusable snack bags.

I got this pair of bags through a trade on Etsy. (Trading on Etsy is a great, "green" way to get products.) The Green Haven is a shop on Etsy.com that's been open since 2009. The shop offers a ton of great reusable bags, lunch bags, and drink cozies. I got a pair of cute snack bags in a jungle print. Had I paid for the bags, they would have been $7.00 plus shipping.

Pros: They are adorable! They have also been very easy to flip inside out and clean. At $7 for two, they were also very reasonably priced.

Cons: Probably the biggest con is the velcro. It limits the volume of the bag slightly but the bigger problem is that it doesn't seal it completely. It's great for larger items like chips or apples slices, but if you were to put something smaller, like Cheerios, they would slip out the ends.

Overall, I'm happy with the bags and they definitely serve a great purpose! These can be a great option to fill out your collection of reusable snack and sandwich bags.

Recipe Review: Poor Man's Lasagna with No Yolk Noodles

So, a long time ago, I had a coupon to get a bag of free No Yolk Noodles. These are egg noodles with no cholesterol and are 99% fat free. I got a package of the dumpling style. Now, I don't know why I got dumpling style (can't remember if they were the only type in the store or if I just really wanted to make dumplings). Long story short, they sat in my pantry for some time and I decided to bite the bullet and make something with them before they go bad.

So, I was looking online, and there I found one of my mom's favorite recipes: Poor Man's Lasagna. This was a really simple version using the No Yolk Noodles dumplings. Here's the recipe:

1 bag No Yolk Noodles dumpling style
2 cans Prego Heart Smart Traditional Italian Sauce
1 pound shredded Mozzarella cheese (2% skim)

Boil the noodles and cook through just like with any pasta. Then, put a layer of noodles on the bottom of the pan. Cover with sauce and sprinkle with cheese. Put a second layer of noodles and sauce. Cover top almost completely with cheese.

You can leave it at that, but I added Italian Seasoning and a sprinkle of grated parmesan to the top layer.

Slide in the over and bake at 325 for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese looks baked and some of the noodles start to brown.

One pan makes about 6 servings.
(Nutrition Facts from MyFitnessPal and are only an estimate)
Total Calories: 518
Total Fat: 15 g
Saturated fat: 7.6
Polyun. fat: 1.2 g
Monoun. fat: 5.1 g
Trans fat: 0g
Sodium: 1097.1 mg
Potassium: 713.4 mg
Total Carbs: 64.8 g
Fiber: 8 g
Sugar 20.5 g
Vit A: 23.9%
Vit C: 6.7%
Calcium: 62.3%
Iron: 17.6%

Here's what I liked about the meal: 

• Super easy and only used four total dishes: one pot, one pan, strainer, spoon.
• Vegetarian! Great for serving mixed groups of veggies and non-veggies. You could probably even try it with a vegan cheese-substitute.
• Low Calories! 518 calories for an italian dish with this much cheese is simply amazing!

Here's what I didn't like:

I didn't like the noodles. They are egg noodles and they taste like eggs. I think it would be possible to get used to the taste of the noodles, but being so used to flour/wheat noodles, they just tasted off. Now, Philip liked it and didn't have a problem with the egg taste, so it could just be my picky taste buds.

Restaurant Review: Little Italy

Little Italy is a locally-owned Italian restaurant located on South 14th next to the Abilene Public Library. They are moderately priced with dishes ranging from $7 to $15. They are open for lunch and dinner. They serve a variety of traditional italian plates as well as pizza and some sandwiches. They also have a small, but nice salad bar.

We've been going to Little Italy for years now. The pasta dishes are made in a more traditional style than you might find at other restaurants, and the pizzas are made with a special crust that is to die for. Each table is served fresh rolls with dipping oil.

 The staff is friendly and helpful and they often have live music on Friday and Saturday nights. The atmosphere is great for business meals and dates. They have space for large tables, families, and couples. They have some tables set aside behind wicker gates that provide extra privacy perfect for anniversaries and other special occasions.

My recommendations:

• Manicotti (Philip's favorite)
• Personal Pizzas (what we usually get at lunch)
• Fettucini Alfredo (an oil based Alfredo which is lighter than cream-based sauces)
• Chicken Parmesan (classic and amazing) 

Review: Buddy Fruits

I found these cute little things in the produce section at Wal-mart. At first I was surprised at the appearance in said store, but then I was intrigued. I decided to buy a couple of packs to try, at 88 cents a piece it wasn't too much of an investment.

Buddy Fruits Pure Fruit Bites are gummy fruit snacks which count as a serving of fruit! They're made by Buddy Fruits and under 100 calories a pack, a decent little snack. On the package it tells you exactly which fruits went into your package of gummies. There's no additives, dyes, preservatives, dairy, and if I remember correctly they are also gluten-free. This makes them seem like quite the awesome treat, especially for kids with food sensitivities or those who seek to keep a natural diet.

They come in four flavors: orange, apple, raspberry, and pomegranate & acai. Philip and I tried the orange and apple flavors. I preferred the orange, he preferred the apple. I noticed that they had a little bit of an aftertaste, similar to what you usually get from health food type snacks. Philip pinpointed that it was from the lemon which is often used as a natural preservative.

Other than that little bit of an after taste, I liked them. I think they would be great for kids, especially if you start them on these instead of the conventional gummy candies. They might not replace my gummy worms, but they've got a good chance of ending up in my shopping cart again.

You can find more information on this and link over to the company's other products here. The company also makes fruit smoothies and pure blended fruit in drinkable containers.

I chose to review this product without incentive from the producing company.

Review: My Memories Scrapbooking Suite

I was offered a free copy of this software to try out and see what I thought. It's taken me a while to write the review because I wanted to really play around with it and make sure I knew what I was talking about. My Memories Suite is an application that allows you to make digital scrapbooks.

This scrapbooking software is actually quite easy to use, for the most part. I'm not a big scrapbooker, but I really enjoyed how easy it was to drag and drop pictures into the templates. Also, the site emails out newsletters with the occasional free paper package to add to your collection. You can buy additional templates and papers from the site as well.

You can then export your scrapbooks into video or podcast form or print them. You can add music and narration as well as all the little bows and buttons that you can do in a physical scrapbook.

To get used to the software I made two different scrapbooks (more than I've made in real life).

Here's the first one I made:

The second one I made was of pictures of our wedding and honeymoon:

Here are the problems I ran into: 

When I first tried to download a paper pack, it took me forever to find it. Once I did however, it made a lot more sense and was easy to do afterwards.

The other issue I had was with adding music. The tutorial on their blog says you can just select the iTunes file and add it as background music, but if you're on a Mac, the iTunes file isn't one of the formats that they accept for background music.

One more that you're likely to notice: They give you ample "journal" space, but when you transfer the scrapbook to video format, you can only have 10 seconds per page, no more. So if you're a long-winded blogger, you won't be able to read it all.

Also, I just realized that the movie version (what I've posted) doesn't actually show each page for 10 seconds like I asked it to. Don't know how to fix that, but I'll let you know if I figure it out.

Overall, I really liked the scrapbook software, and I would probably use it again. I think it can be great for sharing important photos and memories with family and friends. I can see how this would be a great option for those with children and family that live a long way away.

Want to try it out for yourself? You can win a FREE copy of this software! Simply go to http://www.mymemories.com/ and tell me which template would fit your next scrapbooking project! A winner will be chosen at random at the end of the month! 

Can't wait until the end of the month? Use the code: STMMMS38016 for a $10 discount on your very own copy of this software!

I was given a free copy of this software to review but did not promise a positive review.

Grocery IQ App Review

Grocery IQ is an iPad app (maybe iPhone too, I'm not sure) from Coupons.com. I had seen it on a demo at one point before we got the iPad, and thought it was really neat so when I finally got my iPad I downloaded it.

It took a little while to get used to, but I love it!

Here's what you can do with it:

• Create your grocery list (and separate it by store if you plan multiple trips)
• Save your favorite items and their prices
• Download coupons to a savings card (if you have one)
• Print paper coupons
• E-mail your list to yourself or spouse.

It takes a little while to get everything set up. I started by taking my receipts and inputting the items I buy a lot like pasta sauce and Dr. Pepper. You can put in the details of the item (if it's not one of the many brands that are pre-programmed into the app) and add the price.

To make your list you can add items from your favorites or history, or add it straight to the list. At the bottom of your list, it totals the items for you (obviously it can only add up the items that you have a price added for, but it updates as you update the list). The list is also separated by which aisle or area of the store the item is located in such as deli counter or canned foods.

Once you get an item you click the little box and it goes to your cart. The list then shows how much you've spent in your cart and what your list of items still to get totals to. 

I really love this app. It makes budgeting a grocery list incredibly easy. I used to make my lists on index cards and then add the items up as I went, but this is so much easier! I've used the iPad by itself for my last few grocery trips and this app is just so easy and helpful! Best of all, no more index cards to recycle!