Homemade dryer balls

Okay, so I attempted homemade dryer balls.  The instructions I followed can be found here:

http://goodmama.typepad.com/goodmama/2008/05/make-your-own-wool-dryer-balls.html

I bought off-white 100% wool, followed the instructions exactly and they WORK. I do have some advice/additional info (learned from my own mistakes!), if you're going to try this, too:

1) The first ball that you make, make super tight.  You make the ball twice - first a small one, then wash/dry, then continue wrapping yarn around the small ball. That first small ball is pretty important.
2) I used an old knee-high.  Instead of trying to find string (I am NOT a sewer), I just knotted the knee-high between each ball. Worked fine.
3) It does not have to be color-matched.  I was concerned about putting a white ball in with dark clothes -- would I have little lint pieces all over my black clothes? I didn't.  I'm not sure if this is because they just DON'T give off lint or if it's because of the yarn I bought.
4) Watch how you finish the "second" part of the ball.  I should've done a very traditional "tidy" criss-cross look:

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/chatiryworld/347771427/sizes/m/in/photostream/)

But instead, one of mine, on the "Second" part was pretty messy and disorganized.  What this led to, upon first use, was the messy ball to come unraveled in the dryer.  The organized-looking ball stayed put together just fine.  And here's three cool things - a) the clothes were STILL soft and static-free and b) because I did a super-duper tight core ball, I only have to fix "half" of it, and c) the yarn that came off is still usable, and I plan to use that to fix my ball.

I feel like I should note that I only used two balls, had nice results.  But I REALLY look forward to having a total of four balls. OH the softness. I did read on one board that the larger the load (so if you have a large-capacity machine) you'll need more balls. 

I've also read that these balls will felt more as they get used, and will become harder/firmer with more use, too.  I read this to mean, the longer in use, the more unlikely I am to have a repeat of today's yarn mess. 

Lastly, I have read there are ways to naturally add essential oils to these balls, that won't bother sensitive skin or leave any reside/oil spots that are sometimes a concern with softeners.  I haven't experimented with that.

All in all, I feel pretty good about the experiment seeing as I don't think I ever touched a crochet hook or yarn until this last weekend.  I'm a crafter-in-progress... so if anyone who reads this has a better way or advice, please share!

New body pillow

So my blogging about my new body pillow, while yes, I believe it will solve many of my complaints, is more of an experiment. I started this entry on my phone just to get the pictures up, and yes, I'm seriously annoyed that Google+ will share my blogger pics there, but won't allow me access to my account pictures on blogger. Hopefully someday they'll fix this.

So that's the beast. Yes, it takes up most of our queen-sized bed (please also note that we are upgrading to a king in the next month or two). Yes, it's kinda wierd getting into. I'll be using it "opposite" of what the recommendation is, because apparently, 5'7" is too tall of a person to use it normally. (The arch is supposed to go around your head.) I did try it the normal way first, and the support for my belly was too high, and it wasn't long enough to really reach my knees. Lance, and his infinite brilliance, recommended we flip it around. So we flipped it, and I .... sighed deep. This is the position I've been looking for through 20 weeks of this pregnancy and 32 on the last.

If you've ever been pregnant and NOT a side sleeper, you know just how much of a bear being prengnant can be (not even touching just the general uncomfortableness that eventually swallows you into the third semester). NOW, if you've ever had a pre-existing back issue before getting pregnant, and find yourself pregnant, you know just how MISERABLE pregnancy can be. When I had my back problems, and went through physical therapy, one of the first things the therapist warned me of was to sleep on my back. No side sleeping. No stomach sleeping. HA. Then I got pregnant with Anna.

The last few weeks I've been sleeping on the couch because that bed was just not cutting it for me. I had another body pillow that was only one sided, and did nothing for my back, and did nothing to prevent me from rolling onto my back. The couch on the other hand, provided just enough of a "reminder" when sleeping on my side to not roll over. So that did help... but I wasn't sleeping in my bed. And because the couch wasn't wide enough for ME and the other body pillow, I was sleeping with a regular pillow between my knees which I would fight with most of the time to keep it in position.

SO, there's all the logic that went into buying a new body pillow. I haven't actually slept in it... yet. But just resting in it for the 10 minutes I did was nearly heaven. I'm only sad I just now got it and didn't have it for Anna, too.

Becoming.... crunchy.

So I've been absent from this blog for a long time. Because I haven't HAD time. I've been busy chasing a little girl that grows two inches every six months (so I haven't exactly measured this, but she's changing sizes about twice a year. I don't think it's much of an exaggeration). Got a NEW job, one that lets me work completely from home 40 hours, and we bought a house. A house that needed work.

And last, but certainly not least, we have another (surprise!) baby on the way.

It's not so much that I've got so much time now, but due to complications, not only am I home all day, I spend almost ALL of my time at home. I can't be on my feet for long periods of time, and I've had about three different topics that I wanted to write about in the last week... and I don't think it's a stretch for me to squeeze this in.

So, onto the topic:

Crunchiness.

I use some green cleaning products, but I would say that until recently, I was just way too in love with bleach to be completely converted. Well, with number 2 arriving, that we were not planning for, and now that I'm home all the time (and will be able to nurse! yay!) I have delved into the world of money saving. I read an interesting article on the extreme money saving properties of cloth diapering. And it's true - you will save a solid $2000 by cloth diapering. So I kept researching, and have been completely SHOCKED by the amount of YUCK that diapers contribute to trash/environment/loading all sorts of carcinogens right next to my precious baby's skin. We know that teflon coating on our pots and pans are bad, the plastic bottling has BPA which is direclty linked to hormone issues, not all "improvements" are good across the board (they may make certain parts of life more convenient, but not healthier!) I mean, we have come full circle in saying, "breast is best" (maybe we CAN'T make something as good as Momma's!), why not cloth diapering, too?

In doing my research, I have seen so much in favor of more natural parenting - I'm already pro-breastfeeding, now I'm onto cloth diapering. Which only naturally lead to babywearing. Now I haven't worn a baby before, but if I could do two things different with my 8-weeks-too-early Anna, it would be: 1) to try harder and do whatever pumping at work necessary to keep breastfeeding and 2) I should've worn her, because that's what we ended up doing anyway! (You had to hold her nonstop! Can't blame her, she was out way too early!). Due to pregnancy complications with #2, and already having a 50% chance of all the same complications in 3rd trimester as I did with Anna, I'm somewhere in the ballpark of 75% chance of having a preemie again. (Or something like that.) Now I've got a toddler, and I'm working from home, wearing that baby is only going to be a sense of sanity for me.

So now that you know the background and development of my crunchiness, I think I've been fearful/anxious about doing any more reading/research, because I know that foods are coming next. I just KNOW. Now we're talking major lifestyle changes. And frankly, I love Doritos. And Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. I don't like to think of all the harmful/fake things in those foods because I don't want to change... yet.

Not to mention, I went out on this endeavor to SAVE money! I feel like I'm being counterproductive to my original goal if I turn to natural foods. (I already do natural cleaning products, except for laundry. The ones that aren't natural, it's just because I haven't used the old ones up yet and I'm trying to conserve money. But I replace them with better options.) So now I'm wondering... is there a way to save money and eat organic, non-processed foods? I'm almost wondering if half the solution is to start gardening. Thoughts?

I think I'll stay in my ignorance, though, until the baby comes. It's all I can do with this pregnancy to not eat Kraft Macaroni & Cheese every day.