Hunter Boots...

My Summer mud boots have a gaping hole in them (gasp!), and it's still too warm to break out my Arctic Muck boots.  Is there anything more gross in the world than getting chicken poo between your toes while in a non-breathable rubber boot?  I think not.  This needs to be remedied pronto.  Dear Santa, if it's not too much trouble, I'll forfeit the right to any and all gifts at Christmas time if you bring me a pair of Hunter boots, yesterday...

Source

I think it's pretty interesting how barn chore attire has made its way into mainstream fashion.  To be completely honest, Miss Olsen is rocking a look that I'd wear every single day if I could get away with it.  Comfy sweater, comfy leggings, bad-ass jacket, slip-on boots, and a bag big enough to hold a week's worth of diapers.  It's really quite ideal...for anywhere else but rural Vermont.  Unfortunately, if I went out like this around where I live, one of two things would immediately be assumed of me:
1) That I'm a flat-lander (not from Vermont, and one of the worst insults you can give an actual Vermonter) because no actual Vermonter would ever wear their fancy stuff with the stuff that gets chicken poop on it.
2) That I spent so much money on the bag and the jacket that I couldn't afford to buy fancy boots/shoes to go with them, and therefore I'm wildly impractical and must also not be from around here.  I know this because the only jacket that Vermonters spend mad amounts of money on that gets worn with our barn boots is a red and black checked wool one.  Our family is classy enough to also own a pair of the matching pants (with suspenders).  You know you're a truly loved individual when you receive the set as a gift, as my husband did from his parents.  Dear Santa, if you could also put one of those coats (in my size, not my husband's) on my list, I promise to stop stealing my husband's and I promise not to eat all of your cookies this year...maybe.


Thanks for stopping by,
-Lindsey

1st day of school...

The 1st morning of the new school year is always chaotic, and this year was no exception, but this one in particular was kind of bitter-sweet.  I've never been one of those teary-eyed, overly sentimental moms that sobs on the first day of school.  Even the very first first day was a sob-free morning.  But this morning The Baby's big brother went away to school, and therefore so did my helper.  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm totally going to miss having The Kid around, and not just his helping hands.  It's not about that.  It's about the fact that this was the first morning of all of them that he left the house seeming way more grown up.  He's a big brother now, and a wicked good one.  He can take on responsibilities like feeding the chickens, holding the baby, doing his laundry...

When I wrote this post back at the beginning of the Summer, I was terrified.  All of a sudden stay-at-home mother hood just got real.  What on Earth was I going to do to entertain a small boy for 2 months straight?  Well, then I blinked, we got a baby, I blinked again, and here I sit not having to worry about it again until next June, and am, quite honestly, pretty bummed about it being over.

Happy 1st day of school, Kid.  I'll be hanging out here drowning my sorrows in a pot of coffee, trying to remember how to do your laundry again...


Thanks for stopping by,
-Lindsey

Greeny-Meanie: Trials and tribulations with Environmentally friendly baby stuff (Cloth diaper edition. Yes, there will be others)...

gdiapers

Dear gdiapers,
  Oh, how I want to love you...
I read countless reviews and after much deliberation decided on buying gdiapers for The Baby.  This decision was made, and so was the investment, before we even had a baby to put them on.  I settled upon them because they functioned the most like a disposable as any other cloth option, and I knew I was going to need simplicity or I wouldn't stick with them.  At 2am things need to be fast and easy.  There are both cloth and disposable inserts available for these particular diapers, and for eco-friendly, as well as financial reasons I opted for the cloth inserts.

We started using them on The Baby as soon as we brought him home.  The first one I put him in leaked out the side.  Figuring there was a learning curve, I stuck with it for a few days, changing slightly each time the way I put them on, put the insert in, secured them, etc.  They continued to leak EVERY SINGLE TIME.  Holy ol' rip my hair out, Batman!  wtf?!  So then I figured he just wasn't big enough for them yet.  The weight range for the Smalls I have is 8-14 pounds, and he was just shy of 8 pounds when we brought him home.  So, fine, I put them back in the closet, picked up some Seventh Generation disposables, and waited...

The other day I stepped on the scale at my mom's house with The Baby (yes, I'm the only woman in America who doesn't own a scale), and sure enough, he was 11 pounds.  Sweet!  guess what the first thing I did when I got home was... Yup, plopped him on the changing table and strapped him into a gdiaper.  Guess what happened about 15 minutes later...  screaming, unhappy, wet baby with pee on the outside of the diaper cover, and on his pant leg.  **me with smoke pouring from my ears Yosemite Sam style**  WTF!?

Surely not one to give up on something I've set my stubborn mind to...
I hop online and buy a package of the disposable inserts to try them out in comparison to the cloth ones.  They arrive lickety-split, and sure enough, they're way more absorbent, The Baby is way less pissed off, and they seem to work beautifully.  I should be thrilled, right?  Well, kind of, yes, but mostly, no.  I'm thrilled because it's at least a way more eco-friendly option than straight-up disposables, because they can be flushed, composted (without the poo), or tossed, and are completely biodegradable.  I'm completely bummed because it's still a disposable, costs about 1/3 more money per diaper change than the Seventh Generation disposables, and in the long run will cost me about a billion dollars (slight exaggeration) more than the cloth inserts would over the span of diaper-wearing years.

I already have covers and cloth inserts (still in their packages, thankfully) in the next size up, and am seriously (but with a very heavy heart) considering returning them...    

So what do I do?  What would you do?  What have you done in the past?


Thanks for stopping by,
-Lindsey  

Summer-to-Fall wardrobe help...

I'm a huge fan of wardrobes that laugh in the face of seasonality.  For instance, I just bought myself a pair of cropped jeans at the tail end of Summer.  Why?  because I can wear them even when the temperatures drop by trading sandals for what my son calls my "Obi Wan Kenobi boots."

I also (finally) found a Chambray shirt.  I've been on an incredibly long search for one that was just the right color, came down low enough to cover enough of my rear that I could wear it with leggings, but not too enormous that it would look like a denim jumper from 1993.  For something that's very "in" right now, you'd think it would have been way easier to pin one down, but not so much.  Anyway, now that I have one happily hanging in my closet I'm wicked excited for it to get chilly out so I can rock it more often, but Mother Nature's been coming through for me pretty well over this last week with her cooler temps.  Thanks, Mama Green!

Thanks for stopping by,
-Lindsey

Nursery Themes...

Did/does your baby's room have a theme?  When The Kid was born I had in mind this whole tropical island theme.  I  made him a blanket with palm tree patterned fabric and painted the whole room a bright Caribbean water blue/green.  It was completely bizarre because every time I walked in the room is was like walking to the bottom of a swimming pool.  Definitely too much of a good thing.  So ever since then I've been kind of anti-theme for baby rooms.  I'm even kind of anti-baby-stuff for baby rooms.  I know that sounds strange, but I have my reasoning.  Babies don't stay babies forever, and it's cool when I don't have to paint and redecorate every year.  I learned my lesson on this one after buying numerous bedding sets with various favorite-this-second characters on them for The Kid.    

This time around, for The Baby, I had in mind a no-theme-whatsoever-but-sort-of-eco-eclectic-mix-of-new-and-old-things type of room.  These were my favorites of my Pinterest finds...

Bright, but not blinding color (lesson learned), and simple furnishings.  And I have a fondness for that chain of elephants in the back corner.

I'm not a huge fan of the chalkboard paint (those parents will figure out when their baby becomes a toddler that leaving chalk in a room with a carpet, nicely upholstered chair, and other non-chalk-friendly walls is not a spectacular idea), but I really like the mod crib with the antique bureau, and neutral colors.  

I liked this one because it's teeny-tiny like ours, and because that chair looks amazingly comfy. 

And when you have 3 days instead of 9 months to throw together a nursery, this is what you end up with...

When my mother-in-law walked in and asked, "are you going to put any baby things in here?" I knew I hit at least one of my goals of it being a room to grow in.  PS:  I put a baby thing in there... The Baby.

So the walls are totally baron, which I don't love, but other than that it's OK for a room thrown together at a moment's notice with completely repurposed items.

Thanks for stopping by,

-Lindsey

Sources: achadosdedecoracao, littlegreennotebook, apartmenttherapy.

Welcome back! (to me)

Well hello there blog friends that I never actually see, but have missed oh-so-much over the last month.  How's things with you?  We've had a bit of a wild ride here at our house since you've heard from me last.  I promised you a big announcement when we last spoke, and I feel like I'm going to come through swimmingly for you...

We adopted a baby!

 We'd been waiting for about a year and a half.  So it wasn't like we didn't know a phone call was coming soon, but it definitely went from 0-60 in a crazy hurry.  The Baby (as he''l be referred to as from here on out in my posts) had already been born when we got our phone call.  So within a week we got our news, drove a good 8 hours south of our comfort zone, picked up a newborn baby, spent a ridiculous amount of time and money taking in the novelty that is Target in a major metropolitan area, camped out in a hotel with him for 5 days until both states agreed that we could make him a Vermonter, then drove about 10 hours back home (stops for feedings and diaper changes make trips a tad more lengthy), and began our existence as new zombies parents.

The Kid is a tiny bit excited about The Baby...

So, definitely more on this subject to come in future posts.  Also to come in future posts:

~Why I will eat my words about being frustrated that more people don't post specific detail about their adoption process trials and tribulations (spoiler alert, I figured out why, and it has to do with being totally terrified of the information you share coming back to bite you in the hiney, and ruin everything... notice the severe lack of posts from me over the last month).  

~My reviews (both good and evil) of baby products.  Keep in mind that it was 8 years ago when I did this the last time, so there's some pretty neat (and not-so-neat) new stuff out there today.  

~Some unkind, and some hilariously funny comments, and situations that have unfolded due to significant lack of sleep.  The photo below captures one of them...

~And some interesting developments in the chicken coop over the last month also.  Does anyone want a rooster?

Thanks for stopping by,

-Lindsey