Livin and Lovin GREEN!

Five years ago, as I was preparing to have my first child, I never once considered cloth diapers. Or even being green. As a new, young, single mother, I followed what everyone told me would be the best idea. Honestly the thought that anything else as an alternative was out there never crossed my mind.

Fast forward 5 years, and as baby #2 was on his way, I was introduced to a group of woman that had me starting to think twice about some of the choices I was making and had already made.

Cloth diapering was just the first among many long hours of research. I had no idea how many different types of cloth diapers there were, how many different reasons there were for using them. It started for me as a way to save money and now, it is an addiction! (As well as very healthy and safe for my LO). As cloth diapering became my obsession, so did learning to live a greener life. I started to look at different aspects of my life and wonder what else I could change.

First was the laundry. I was already using Rockin Green detergent for the diapers, why shouldn’t I use it for all our regular clothes! (Motley Clean and Earth, Wind and Orchids are my favorites so far!) I have to tell you, I am amazed what a good soak in the Rockin Green will do to dirt, blood and other bodily stains! They even have AMAZING odor neutralizer sprays. Red Hot Apple being my favorite there I am also enjoying learning all the different ways Rockin Green can be used! (www.rockingreensoap.com to sign up for 52 weeks of clean!)

Continuing on with laundry, if I was going to be using natural detergent, I couldn’t very well be putting fabric softener on my clothes or using dryer sheets for that matter…these are not recommended with cloth diapers or even your towels, FYI. So, I ended up finding wool dryer balls. A truly natural means to drying your clothes. The wet load ends up drying faster and is actually naturally softened! (Don’t mind the picture; the balls are a bit worn!) These 3 little balls are my absolutely laundry necessity; I would be lost without them. Love that I use these and not the unnatural scents that are in the dryer sheets we used before.

Everyone knows the reports of Johnson and Johnson using chemicals in their soaps that could cause cancer. I’m not certain that it was proven and I am definitely not an expert but it is still scary so a fellow mommy introduced me to Earth Mamma Angel Baby products. Soaps, lotions, bath sachets for fussy babies, and a natural bottom balm. All natural. And WONDERFUL! These smell so good and even cleared up a patch of eczema on my newest LO. I wouldn’t use anything else!

There are so many other ways to be green, healthy and natural it’s really too hard to get it all in one blog! We have changed as much of the food we eat as possible to organics and plan on eventually raising our own chickens, hogs and cattle on our farm. This will provide us with natural meats and eggs, knowing where they came from and will be healthier for us as well. My new compost bucket is soon on its way, so I will have my own compost pile to use as fertilizer on our soon to be spring garden, which also gives us organic veggies, which we can ourselves!

And these are all just little changes! Even just the little things can make such a big difference in families and in the world.

I am a single mom to a girl and boy, 4 yrs and 5 months. I work full time, help with animals on a 100 acre farm and will soon be working towards getting a certificate to do therapeutic riding for special needs. I love all aspects of cloth diapering, green living and work towards helping as many people as possible.