America Unchained

Last night I finished reading America Unchained by Dave Gorman. A Londoner decides to road trip coast to coast across America without giving any money to The Man (i.e. he has to find independent gas, food, and accommodation). As one proprietor expresses when Gorman explains the nature of their journey "I don't know how it's become part of American culture, this homogenization of us" (pg. 154). And it's the truth that resounds throughout the book. Why has America become so insistent that everything be the same and familiar throughout the 50 states? It's not something that Gorman can answer, but I respect that his journey is attempt not to answer, but show how apparent it has actually become. It's something that is impossible to not be guilty of, no matter how difficult you may try. By the end of the book Gorman points out "Twenty years ago a journey like ours would have been easy. I can't help thinking that in 20 years' time it might just be impossible" (pg. 376). I find that sad and terrifying.

Holy Cloth Diapers, Batman!

I don't usually bang on about the fact that we use cloth, but I really want to share this experience from the past weekend:

We use Fuzzibunz and Grovia and have 20 of each. It's a pretty good stash and I love them both pretty much equally. In the evenings we use 1 'sposie (Huggies) because I haven't been able to use a cloth that doesn't irritate or leak during the evening. Oscar is a pretty heavy wetter during the nighttime, and I can only hope Mother Nature will forgive our nighttime 'sposie use.

ANYWAYS...

The past weekend we went to Brighton. I originally wanted to use cloth for a weekend away, but I was midway stripping our stash and couldn't justify bringing half of what I needed. So we opted to use 'sposies the whole weekend.

(sidenote: I actually finished this post and then it deleted it. Now I have to re-write from here on and I'm really irked about this. Doesn't the internet know I only have so much time available while my baby naps?!?!)

We reach our destination and cannot find the Huggies I usually buy anywhere. I opt for the Natural Fit with cotton and all we could find were either Huggies Super Dry or Pampers Super Dry. We steer clear of Pampers because of Dry-Max and I wasn't thrilled about anything that says "Super Dry" on the packaging. But we were out of options and so we bought some.

On late Sunday afternoon I took Oz to a bathroom to change his diaper and I was absolutely slack-jawed surprised. A weekend of wearing Super-Dry nappies resulted in my son's bottom literally having the moisture sucked from his skin. It was all dry and cracked and well on it's way to being red. Because I use cloth I never carry around diaper ointment and I felt so horrible for him. For me tho, it was proof positive that cloth diapers aren't just good for the environment; they're good for his skin.

When we got home I slathered some coconut oil on his butt and got him in a Fuzzibunz. I'm still going to continue with our 1 'sposie at night, but I am now 100% sure that I am doing the right thing by keeping my baby in cloth. Amazing.

The going's on of these days

The sickness is neverending in this household lately. Except for Griff. Griff hasn't been sick at all. Lucky bastard. Me and Oz have been going rounds and it's exhausting. I'm starting my 2nd round of antibiotics to try and kick out a nasty sinus infection. Poor Oz is just teething. He's really a good sport about it tho, just a bit more clingy than normal. But it's made nighttime horrible because he just won't sleep for long periods; starts rolling over and waking himself up or just begins to wail. I'm sure my lack of sleep is contributing to me not getting better as well.

Today I got our Fuzzibunz stripped. Hopefully no more leaking for the time being. Luckily, the Grovia's have REALLY grown on me and I haven't missed the Fuzzi's too much. I think my mom and Griff actually prefer the Grovia. Personally, I just think I have a good stash and think both are great.

This weekend we should be going to Brighton! *fingers crossed* I need a good weekend away. This post is so boring! Bad, Ashley, bad! Hopefully after the weekend away I'll have something interesting to bring to the table.

So how's your resolutions coming along?

I think my list is going along alright so far. I have been given a chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I've yet to have a moment to try it. So I really need to get busy on that one. Otherwise :

- I'm currently working on my 3rd hat for the year. Oscar's rainbow hat proved very popular so I've been knitting some up for other beautiful babies in the universe. After the hats are done...I think I might work on a scarf for me? Or try my hand at making my own pattern for a sleeveless jumper. I really want this beautiful rainbow yarn by Kauni, but it's so very expensive. So I'm going to make the jumper in black first with cheap, acrylic yarn and see how that goes. But then I also need to get crackin' on Oz's halloween costume. That's right, he's going to wear a knitted costume.

-I've definitely baked a good bit. I've made a cheesecake, blueberry muffins and some oatmeal raisin cookies. I was supposed to make Griff an Oreo cake for his birthday, BUT sickness has struck La Casa de Griff.

-the plan to learn to sew is temporarily on hold. but for good reason.

- The internet is an evil temptress that is hard to quit! :( I'm trying to cut down tho, really I am....

-I feel like I've really gone of Sherlock Holmes. The plan was to read a story or 2 between finishing books. I've finished 4 books the month of January and I have only read 1 story. NOT GOOD. I need to find a better motivation.

And now the good deed option. Do I post? Sure. Why not. I did make a small contribution to a friend participating in the Penguin Plunge to raise money for the Special Olympics.

The good deed I'm really happy about tho, I don't really feel like I did more than be the go between.

My husband has an addiction to Free Cycle. I've tried to have little interventions here and there but he just can't quit it. He has become more selective about the free things he collects, but a few weeks ago a woman was giving away a collection of cloth diapers and he went for them.

When he got home with the box of diapers, they were all pre-folds. I just do not have the patience for prefolds to make them fit properly on Oscar. But what were we going to do? We didn't want to turn around and put them back on Free Cycle, and I knew if we took them to a charity shop they would be thrown out. So I told Griff to take them to the local baby clinic to see if they could put them into the Real Nappies scheme.

The next week I received a phone call from the woman who runs the clinic saying "thank you" for the diapers. She knew a family who wanted to use cloth diapers, but the start up cost was proving to be a problem for them and she would make sure they got them.

AWESOME. Obviously, the woman who originally posted them on free cycle should be the one with the warm fuzzies, because she paid for them...but I'm really happy they're going to a home where they'll be used. So for this month, I'm happy I was able to be a go-between.