Poof!

I need to apologize to everyone for my disappearance. Too many things happening prevented me from having the time, energy, or motivation to write. I'll give a brief catch-up entry, and there will be actual entries to come in the near future. I promise!

Bobble has had numerous relapses with his kidney issue since I last wrote. He's been on and off steroids many times, and that makes for a difficult time for all.We all have those days where our child is just acting absolutely horrible, right? (Please tell me I'm not the only one!) Imagine your kid at their most whiny, most defiant, most obstinate .... and then multiply that by about 10. That is how he gets every time he starts to relapse. Every. Single. Time.

Of course, after the relapse is identified, it all makes sense. Then we start the high dose of steroids that make his moods touchy, too. Sometimes he's just super whiny, other times very happy and hyper. All the time, however, he's hungry. Crossing my fingers he doesn't gain too much weight this go-round with steroids.

Squiggle is growing up, too. She's out of diapers (save night time), she has stopped nursing, and she has started attending a (pre) preschool 3 days out of the week. She used to beg to go, throwing a tantrum because her brother got to go and she didn't. Now that she gets to go, she gets upset that she can't go every day, only three days a week. I'll write an entry on this soon.

We lost our oldest cat over the summer, we gained 6 feathered babies (chickens), and our household has experienced changes in the dynamic as well.

I know that last year was a light year for how many entries I wrote. A lot of this has coincided with me returning to school. The first few classes didn't really take away from my blogging time, but as I moved through them, I had less and less time to devote to non-scholastic reading and writing. I am still in school, and it's not getting any easier or less demanding. In fact, I actually just took on as head of an organization through my school, so I have that to manage and I also have an internship taking up my time. Still, I am determined to at least write one post a week. Please bare with me if they are shorter posts. It's going to take some scheduling to get this to work, but I'll make it work.

Changes

I have struggled a lot with maintaining this blog, as I created this for cloth diapers, mostly, but have so much more I want to write about. I find myself writing elsewhere more often than not, and I don't think that is fair to this blog. Yes, cloth diapers are a big part of my life and I absolutely LOVE them, but I have other loves, too.

I went from just cloth diapering to other "attachment parenting" topics, and then expanded that to other "green" things in general (green items around the house, toys that are made of all recycled parts, etc.). Now it's time for one more change.

I'm making a jump. This blog should reflect who I am, and I am a lot more than cloth diapers and babywearing. I'm a displaced working mother. I'm fond of gardening. I'm a cook and a baker.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to start writing about lots of stuff, but mostly you'll see a bunch of recipes in the coming weeks. I love cooking and baking, and I love reviewing recipes. If I can find something my entire family will eat, that's a win and totally worth sharing in my opinion.

I hope you'll stick around as this blog changes course a bit and "grows up" a bit. I'll still write about cloth diapers, and I most certainly will be happy to do any posts on topics that you have trouble finding information about (like the stuffing of TotsBots Easyfits that I did a while back). I feel this change is necessary to continue on with this blog. After all, Bobble is potty trained and Squiggle is already a year old. Cloth diapers won't be in this house forever! *sniffles*

Thanks for following me thus far, and I hope that you will continue to follow me. If you have any requests on topics, as always, please feel free to ask on my facebook page, via email, or in the comment on my blog. I do read all of my comments.

What's the word?

My little Squiggle is now 9 months old, and cruising like mad. She's cruised for a bit over a month, but she's a pro at it now. If she has a walker toy, she grabs it and is across the room. I have a feeling she will be walking much sooner than Bobble did (at 12mo).

As always, things have been crazy. While I've been reviewing a few products for you guys, most of my time was spent searching for a job and juggling ailments with my children. Squiggle ended up getting tubes placed in both ears last week for a very *VERY* bad ear infection that wouldn't go away, but they are hoping that will help a bit with her hearing (she's never passed a hearing test in her right ear).

I've faced a lot of difficult situations lately, though all hypothetical. It's difficult trying to find work knowing that it will literally change everything about how we live. There is nothing for me (professionally) where we live now, so I haven't had much of a choice but to look elsewhere and/or consider graduate school. That "elsewhere" has been pretty much everywhere. A lot of places are taking longer to get back because of the healthcare change. Places are waiting to see how it will affect them before taking on new employees. I understand that. What concerns me is moving far, far away. From the little things like "will there be a cloth diaper store near us?" to the big things "will family ever be able to visit us?", everything is dependent upon what I do (or don't) do. That's a lot of weight on one's shoulders!


Just a little update for everyone wondering what happened to us. Reviews will be coming soon, so keep an eye open!