Giveaway Winner...SORRY!!!

UGH!!! So, my first giveaway didn't go quite as I planned. Life bogged me down, and I forgot to draw a winner! I'M SO SORRY! Any how, according to random.org, the winner of the homeopathic Children's Coldcalm is commenter #1, Michelle. Congrats!

A Good Idea For Gifts

Last year Mr. Man and I decided we'd had enough of buying Christmas gifts for our parents. Don't get me wrong - they're always grateful, it's just that they don't really need anything, and generally buy the things they want on their own. We felt it laid upon our hearts to give to someone who truly needed it instead. So, we chose to give through World Vision. We already sponsored a child through World Vision, and were thrilled with all the different gifts found in their catalog. The prices range from less than $20 to over $1000, with many options under $50. There are so many things to choose from, too! Fruit trees, animals, clothing, medical care... the list goes on and on. Purchasing our honorary gift was easy. Mr. Man went online during his lunch break, chose the gifts we'd decided on, and was able to print very nice cards to present to our parents. We were very excited to get the new holiday catalog a few weeks ago. We plan to do a gift each month in the new year, as a way to teach our children to care for others. I think the hardest thing to do will be choosing what to do first!

Confessions

Confession #1: I had oatmeal with chopped fun-size Baby Ruth bars in it for breakfast this morning. What?!? Quaker sells chocolate and marshmallow instant oatmeal for kids, so it's not that weird! And, at least my oatmeal started out organic!

Confession #2: I had the same. exact. thing. yesterday for breakfast.

Confession #3: I have the Christmas music digital cable channel playing on my television.

Confession #4: I played it yesterday, too. What can I say - it's mostly the "classic" Christmas music from the 40s to the 60s, the stuff my parents played when I was a kid. I love it! Any time I find one of the albums they had on cd, I snatch it up. It helps that it's the kind of stuff that's usually in the bargain bins. Even Mr. "I don't like Christmas stuff" Man will tolerate a little Christmas Elvis!

Million Baby Crawl

I don't know about you, but I am leery of all the nameless chemicals that are in many cleaners. I admit I'd gotten a bit lax in using natural cleaners, but am finding my concern renewed now that there's a baby in the house again. If you've ever tried to find anything out about conventional products, you know how hard it is to get any real information (such as the names of the chemicals used and the effects they have on a person). I signed up for Seventh Generation's Million Baby Crawl, because I feel like we as consumers at least deserve to know what we are using in our homes. I have a feeling that many people would not use them if they understood what they were exposing their families to. Besides - good old vinegar and water is almost free!

Go here to create your own crawler. Perhaps someday soon Congress will take notice and allow people to protect themselves, rather than continuing to protect Big Business.

Free Subscription to Living The Country Life magazine

Head over here and snag a free 3 year subscription to Living The Country Life magazine. I have received 3 issues so far, and this magazine is packed full of useful info for those who live on farms of any size, just live in the country, or simply wish to!

**Note: At the bottom of the form it says "Yes! I'd like to receive news and special offers from your family of publications via email.", and that this is required. They are published by the Better Homes & Gardens family - just so you don't wonder where on earth this magazine is coming from!

My Very First Giveaway!!!

I recently received an AWESOME package from Boiron. It contained three full-sized homeopathic products: Children's Coldcalm pellets, Children's Chestal syrup, and Children's Oscillococcinum. This offer was open to moms who have blogs, but apparently it was short-lived. I was excited to pass on the news, only to find the offer is over. So, I decided I will share the wealth!



I am offering up my full-size package of Children's Coldcalm to the winner of this giveaway! You can read more about it and Boiron's other products here. You can also print a $1 coupon good on the three products I mentioned above - the coupon is good through 2012!

In order to enter this giveaway, you need to become a follower through Google Friend or subscribe through a blog reader. Make sure you post a comment letting me know! This is required before earning extra entries.

You may have up to 3 extra entries for doing any of these things (one entry per item):
* Post about this giveaway on your blog.
* Tweet about this giveaway.
* Comment about this giveaway on Facebook.

Please make sure to post a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen at random, and the entry period ends at 6 pm CST on Friday, November 6th, 2009. Open to US addresses only.

More diapers

Little Miss happily wore the tiny newborn diapers I made for her . . . for a couple of weeks. Then they started getting tight on her. If I had made the wings longer, they would have been fine. It was a good thing that they ended up not being water-proof, though. I was able to squeeze a couple more weeks out of them by leaving them undone and just using the covers to hold the diapers on. I'm not finished making the next size up - I have 11 completed, and 2 more that are partially done - not to mention the numerous pieces that are cut out but still unsewn.



On the left you can see one of the newborn diapers I made. On the right, one of the "size 1" diapers I made. I bought a pattern this time - Darling Diapers Unlimited. I technically made the newborn size of that pattern, also, but it obviously runs so much larger than the pattern I drafted! I made them with pale pink PUL on the outer surface, and minky on the inner surface. There is a layer of French terry (from re-purposed baby towels) sandwiched in between. The soaker (the long thing that lays over top) has 3 layers of micro-fiber inside, with minky on top and some re-purposed t-shirt on the back.



If you've never used diapers like this before, then you can see from the picture above that the soaker, even though it looks too big, does in fact fit in the diaper very nicely. I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out, even though I got to the point were I didn't care what they looked like, as long as they were functional. Half of them have a clover green inner, instead of the darker pink. They work the same, though. Hopefully I can get a few more finished soon. Little Miss still hasn't settled into a routine yet, making it difficult to get much done. I'm half-tempted to just keep washing these twice a day and start on the next size, knowing that I should have them all done by the time she grows out of these ones!