Drought up the Spout

Take a look at this map of Texas that illustrates that we basically live in HELL right now. Ok, so maybe i'm being a little over-dramatic but it sure feels like it! And looking at the map makes it LOOK like it too! We're less than ten days away from breaking a record for hottest summer EVER in recorded history. That means if we make it and break the record, we have bragging rights to alllll the generations(assuming they don't break it first) that follow us that we lived through the hottest summer EVER, walking on scorching asphalt uphill both ways, hell even chickens crapped eggs out that were pre-boiled! Am I right??? Eh.

Also see the following picture taken of the bottom of my mom's water "tank" (cowgirl for watering hole/large pond):

Water has become scarce. Even some cities have nothing but sputters when they turn their faucets on. How can you help avoid such a debacle? Well, not gonna lie, I had some help with this list from a trained professional in water science if you will, she's also a good friend of mine. Her title is so fancy I'm not even sure what it entails entirely: Environmental Investigator III (Public Water). She works for the TCEQ, yeah you heard right. (It's ok, I had to google it too, the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality). Which basically means the city pays her to regulate on people knowingly or un-knowingly misusing and polluting the waterways etc.

So here is her list of tips to conserve our precious H20:

1. If you don't like tuna, buy a can anyays and find a cat that does! Put the empty can out in the lawn and when it's full your grass will be too! Grass isn't as thirsty a creature as people think.  Brown grass isn't necessarily dead grass either, and keeping it longer in the summer months can help preserve the full lawn.

2. It is best not to wash your dishes before they go into the dishwasher (double the water). However, not everyone has the best dishwasher and running it twice is just as inefficient. If you need to prewash fill the sink with water rather than letting the water run- it doesn't need to be sanitary to be put in the dishwasher. - OK I'm super guilty of this one, and I'm thinking Eeeeeeeeew! dirty stinky dish water under my nails!!!!! Eck! Solution? and it took serious googling to find these, like at least 5 minutes! Eco-Friendly Household Gloves! you can even purchase them on amazon here. I'll be buying some in small and hopefully writing a review here soon. We''ll see how that works out. Quick tip for amazon - use the subscribe and save, then cancel the subscription after you recieve the first package! Hells yeah, Savings...moving along now.

3. Keep a bucket in your shower, it will collect all the water you waste when you are waiting for the nice steamy stuff to come out. This water can then be used to water plants, mop floors, or throw on sleeping teenagers to wake them up for school!

4. Don't wash the driveway/sidewalk with a hose- if you want, go at it with a broom. Who does this in 100+ degree weather?! Maybe I'm just lazy...

5. Low flow appliances shower heads and toilets. Some toilets even have 2 buttons for flushing nowadays. 1 well for going #1 and 2 well you get it... this will help cut down your water use. Interesting side note on toilets, Jeremy says that there's a "Rule" that goes "If it's yellow keep it mellow, if its brown flush it down." The only time we follow this is in the middle of the night so we don't wake each other or the baby since the toilet in our tiny home is only about 6 feet from the bed. But hey, maybe it's time to scrub the bowl a little more frequently to save some water. I don't know it still grosses me out a little...

Thank you Liz for your awesome and helpful tips. Here's how my list was going to go:

1. Don't use so much water.


Yeah That's all!

Thanks for reading everyone, talk at you soon!

Green Bum!

It's really hard for me to think of all the things we do to conserve off the top of my head. Probably the biggest thing is cloth diapering so I'll start there. Why are disposable diapers or "sposies" bad? Firstly they have what they call absorbent gelling materials, or AGM, in them. AGM has been linked to increased asthma in children and a lower sperm count among boys. Even some/most(don't know for sure) organic sposies have AGM in them. And even the organic diapers require the same amount of water, energy and fuel to make them as other non-organic sposies. I won't bore you with all the actual statistics, but you can find them HERE but here's some highlights:

• since sposies have been introduced to baby bottoms, diaper rash occurrences have raised by alarming percentages
• those clear beads you find on your baby when changing a sposie is the CHEMICAL sodium polyacrylate
• dioxin is in bleached sposies from the bleaching process which has been shown to cause cancer, birth defects, liver damage, and skin diseases
• it's estimated that 18 billion single-use diapers are thrown in landfills each year
• sposies can take as many as 500 years to decompose, and usually contain raw, untreated sewage.
• to manufacture the sposies, it takes more than 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp, or a quarter-million trees, to cover the bottoms of 90 percent of the babies born in the US¹

I'll stop there because I think you get the point. 

I've found that you can also make cloth diapers even more environmentally friendly by keeping in mind that bamboo grows at a very quick pace and requires less pesticides in order to do so, making it an even more renewable resource. It's just an added bonus that its also more absorbent than cotton and just as soft! So when possible I opt for bamboo over cotton. You can also opt for organic cotton to avoid the pesticides. I also opted to use mostly prefolds or fitted diapers with a cover separate that way I can avoid having the synthetic fibers in each diaper. This way I only have 5 covers with the synthetics rather than 30 pocket diapers or all in ones (AIO) with synthetics in each. My favorite bamboo fitted is the little known Pooters one size fitted. I do have a few pocket diapers as well, but hey, I'm not perfect!

My next step to making cloth diapers even more green in our household is the baby wipes. I didn't really think about it when I stocked up when I found a great deal on baby wipes on Amazon.com because Jeremy had said he didn't want to do cloth baby wipes. Well he changed his mind when some friends of ours told him they use cloth wipes. Now I still have about 3 cases of disposable wipes left to go through before I make the switch. I will be doing some research soon, and emailing that friend to see what the best material is. I'll report back more on that later!

Oh and I almost forgot. Studies have shown that cloth diapered babies potty train up to a year earlier than sposie babies!

Special thanks to my baby boy who sat on my lap through the duration of this blogging endeavor very patiently! But now he says its time for a change of scenery! Toodle-loo!

I'm going to leave you with this blissful photo I took when I was line drying(another eco-friendly practice) all my colorful cloth diapers/covers when I was 8 months pregnant!

^{1 http://www.diapernet.org/whycloth.htm} 

Fertility Friends...

365 days ago I woke up at 5 am. I took my basal body temperature, noted that it was still elevated, and trudged to the bathroom ready to see another pregnancy test laugh in my face. I had tested just two days prior and received a Big Fat Negative. I had little hope left. I had learned to not get too hopeful at any one month, after getting let down 20 times before. As I stared at the little white window I started to see something I never had before, a very faint second line appeared. I immediately started crying and trying to wipe the tears out of the way to make sure it was really there. I put the test down and paced the tiny bathroom giving it the full time to develop(and tried to compose myself so I could see!) before I made my conclusion and announcement to my husband. The second time I looked, I decided it was time to freak out. It was true, I wasn't just dreaming anymore. I was pregnant! Here's a little about infertility and what I went through to get here, and what makes me thank God every day for my little blessing...

When my husband and I decided we were ready to have a baby, we had no idea what we were in for. Not for the normal reasons but because we didn't know it would be one of the hardest things for us to do. This Trying To Conceive (TTC) thing proved to be the biggest hurdle we've had to jump, er, run at full force and face plant into again and again. I read a part of a book, probably on that amazon sneak peek thing, that was written by a psychologist that studied couples with infertility. He said that for couples with infertility, the emotional pain associated with each month's period can best be described as the loss of one's sibling. And while I didn't necessarily feel like I lost my big brother every month, there were times where this statement was undoubtedly true. Times when I was tired of hoping, trying, putting on a happy face, looking for answers that I already knew weren't there...times when all I could do was collapse into an insurmountable heap and sob until I passed out. All my husband could do was hold me an tell me it was going to be ok. I knew it'd be "ok" though. I didn't want it to be just "ok" anymore. I wanted what every mom, regardless of whether she wanted it or not, had the pleasure of being blessed with. I wanted what I was taught was so "easy" to accidentally get; Pregnant. I wanted what I had always dreamed about, while playing with dolls, while holding other people's precious bundles of JOY.

I didn't understand why nobody ever talked about how "some people" can't get pregnant. By some people I mean the 7.3 million people old enough to reproduce in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control. Most people with children take it for granted. Then they tell people who can't get pregnant or are having trouble, that "Children are overrated" or "Stop trying and it will happen". DON'T EVER SAY THAT TO SOMEONE EXPERIENCING INFERTILITY! 80% of people experiencing IF(infertility) have a PHYSICAL DIAGNOSABLE REASON! They can't fix bad eggs or low sperm count and motility by just "letting it happen". Then there's the 20% of people with IF that doctors cannot diagnose with an actual issue.

Which brings me to my next topic. Which is worse, knowing whats wrong with you or not knowing what's wrong. It's arguable, but for me not knowing what was wrong was worse. I had no "direction" to go in. My hubby's count was amazing, I seemed to be ovulating and had no abnormal hormone levels. I was lost. There had to be a reason that for 20 months in a row with perfectly timed intercourse that his super swimmers were not making it to my young eggs and making an embryo. NO MATTER HOW RELAXED I WAS! Some women have 4 perfect embryos implanted into a young and supple uterus and the lining is still shed resulting in a very expensive(sometimes upwards of $10,000) depressing, absolutely earth shattering realization.

The miracle of life isn't an exact science. That's why they call it a miracle.

Sometimes it doesn't happen for 8 years with hundreds of thousands of dollars of failed attempts. Sometimes it happens when you have your tubes tied...That's why its called a miracle. Let me stress that I did not put my life on hold. I still did things that made me happy, I still had fun. But there was always a yearning I couldn't seem to shake. I wrote this next tid bit 2 weeks before I got my BFP (Big Fat Positive).

"I love you. Even though your heart has yet to beat, your limbs have yet to form, I Love You. I pray you find your way to me every day. I will never give up wanting and praying for you, despite the pain it causes me to wait. I love you and know that you are out there; the perfect beautiful soul to compliment and challenge your Daddy and me. I will wait eagerly anticipating your arrival and sending you all my Love however long it takes. You are worth it. I just know I will hear you say "Mommy" one day and all of this pain and sadness will no longer matter. I promise to fully appreciate you because you are a miracle and to Love and care for you to the best of my abilities until I draw my last breath and in the afterlife if I am so allowed...There is a special hole in my soul reserved for you whenever you may find it. I will wait for you to complete me. Always...With Love, Mommy"

Well I was right! He brings out the best in both of us. After looking back on the whole journey, I'm glad we had to wait. I think it' made every sweet moment sweeter. I feel like I have cavities! I also met some of the best women I have ever known through infertility. Forums where I spilled my guts and found friends who understood. I didn't feel alone with them. Seeing their strength in suffering, and also their vulnerability, was comforting. The "veterans" were there for advice. Some women who struggled with infertility for 9 years and somehow got blessed with child. Women who suffered through 5 or more miscarriages before getting their take home babies. Some women still hoping to get pregnant after countless years and some who decided adoption was the way to attain their dream of a family. Others were going through the exact same thing as I was right along with me. These women are my idols! I love them so much and I think of them everyday and I pray every day for those still hoping for a baby. I hope that everyone going trying to conceive and not having any luck can find a group to support them like this. It truly is a insurmountable help.

To my son August, I hope one day you understand just how special you are to your Daddy and me. I prayed over my belly every day for 38 weeks after I found out you were inside me because I knew we still hadn't made it all the way yet. The day you were born was the best day of my life so far and you will always be my baby boy! MUAH! I still thank god for every day I get to spend with you! You are amazing!