So the Green Mommy is happy to say that our new energy star dishwasher and washing machine (along with a really energy efficient dryer) are here and working. 
Recently we bought a dishwasher. We decided they really do use less water than hand washing and with a baby we needed the extra help. So we found a really great deal on a really great energy star dishwasher. Of course mere days after we spent the money on this (tapping out our savings), our washing machine broke! So we had to wait until we got our tax refund back in order to purchase a new one. Since our washer and dryer were a combo set(one won’t work without the other) this meant a new dryer too. So we figured we would take advantage of the need and upgrade to an energy star washer and a energy efficient dryer. 
However from the washer breaking, to when we got our tax money was about a month. So in that month I was washing loads of clothes by hand in our tub. That meant diapers too. After about 3 weeks of hand washing poopy diapers I finally had had enough. My hands were cracked and bleeding, I had a sore back, and had touched enough poo to last a lifetime. So since I knew we were buying the new washer soon I switched (briefly) to disposable diapers. We still had some on hand that people had given us so I didn’t even go buy new ones. By the time the washer was set up yesterday I was so ready to get him back in cloth you have no idea!
Simply from a convenience point of view the disposables were a nightmare. My son quickly learned how to get out of them, they always leaked, he got rashes, they tore, pieces broke off, they shredded. By the end of the week and a half or so we were in disposables I wanted to scream. I loved cloth before but now I am only reaffirmed in that love!
The main argument people always use when I tell them how much I love cloth is this “It’s not even better for the environment because of all the extra water and electric usage.” Well our new washer uses between 16-50$ a YEAR in water and electric. The amount of that that is actually from diaper washing will probably amount to 1-2$ a year. 1-2$ a year! It is estimated that roughly 5 million tons of untreated waste and a total of 2 billion tons of urine, feces, plastic and paper are added to landfills annually. It takes around 80,000 pounds of plastic and over 200,000 trees a year to manufacture the disposable diapers for American babies alone. Although some disposables are said to be biodegradable; in order for these diapers to decompose, they must be exposed to air (oxygen) and sun. Since this is highly unlikely, it can take several hundred years for the decomposition of disposables to take place, with some of the plastic material never decomposing.(Taken from thenewparentsguide.com)
Not to mention one of the greatest aspects of cloth diapers is when your baby grows out of them you can hand them down to a new family or your next kid. The cost then become almost nothing.
Oh Cloth how I love thee. This is one Green Mommy who is relieved to say we have a washing machine again and are happily back in cloth!!!!!

So living in a college town has it’s ups and downs. One of the ups is the well educated professors and students who are enlightened about the world. One of the downs is those same professors and students trying to prove how great they are when really they are rich yuppies. 
Today I got so angry, when I overheard a professor and a student talking in the grocery store about their carbon footprint. Now I saw the professor had a car, which he had driven to the store and it looked like to me he was only buying a handful of groceries. The student could have been walking but lets say for the sake of statistics and the temp he was not. They were discussing how they were so proud to have such small carbon footprints and basically how everyone should look to them as an example. I did notice neither used reusable bags, although the professor got paper. 
I was so annoyed by the whole scene, as I and my husband both walk, bike, or push a stroller everywhere. I never ask for rides unless it is absolutely necessary. Today for instance I walked in 28 degree weather and carried not one, not two, not even three but four huge and heavy reusable grocery bags packed full home all by myself. I do it so often I don’t even bat an eye about it now. I actually wouldn’t have even thought about it had those two not made me so mad. I really hope as they got into their cars and jacked up the heat and blasted their stereos they passed me carrying my four reusable grocey bags the 7-8 blocks to my house and felt a little less pompous. 
Since when did helping the planet become a pissing contest for every rich yuppy intellectual. I hate to break it to you guys but the poor people you look down your noses at everyday.. have a much smaller carbon footprint then you because…. let’s face it being green is more down to earth.. it’s just how we always have lived and we don’t have to “TRY” to be more natural. 
Don’t get me wrong in the end if those two are helping our planet… then great more power to them.. but guess what driving a car to the grocery store just for a few things… doesn’t reduce your CF and also you don’t get a prize for doing what everyone should already be doing.

Ok so this isn’t really so much about shopping local… but it is supporting a much smaller and in my opinion better chain that also is known for giving to charity and started the Family Hope Charity to help it’s employees who are hurt by disasters. This is a little blurb I wrote about how Walmart is not the best choice for your dollar when you can go to Family Dollar. We all know Walmart isn’t the green option but it’s not even the value option. Plus with the money you save not shopping at Walmart you can support a local business or give to charity!
It shouldn’t surprise anyone.. I don’t like Walmart. I don’t like the noise, the size, how rude the people shopping are and how rude the people working there are. Their prices are low but by no means the lowest, and their quality sucks. The only thing that is nice is the fact that 1. You can get everything in one place and 2. they have great selection in groceries. Once in awhile you can get a good bargain. For instance we got a great deal on a really nice full sized Christmas tree to replace “Frankentree”. However most things are not worth the price. Last night when we ordered the tree we figured why not buy some new ornaments with it. We had sorted through our ornaments keeping only the red or silver ones and the ones that meant something to us. We have been trying the last few years to color coordinate our ornaments. So since we threw out a bunch and we also have a much bigger tree this year we figured why not buy some more. So we checked out what Walmart had figuring we would just add them to the order. What they had was sets by color of 32 plastic ball ornaments for 15 dollars each. 

Since we needed both red and silver that was 30$. Add to that a lighted tree topper 

for 12$ which brought our total to 42$. Then they doubled the shipping from $14 (for a huge 7.5 ft tree) to 30 just to add two boxes of ornaments and a topper. So that would have been all together just under 60$. Ridiculous right? Lowest prices my butt!
So I took everything but the tree out of the cart and just ordered the tree.
So today I decided to take a walk to Family Dollar. I love that store you can find everything there! They always have super low prices. So I checked out what they had and for the price of one box of ornaments from Walmart I got all this…..

It’s 2 boxes of candy canes:

A box of glittery red balls and a box of glittery silver balls:

A box of glass hand blown silver ornaments:

A light up tree topper:

A box of regular red balls:

And a box of silver bells

Now to be fair the Walmart ones were 64 ornaments and a tree topper and the family dollar ones were only 42 (not counting the candy canes) and a tree topper but when you compare the 60$ at Walmart to the 15$ at Family Dollar and the fact that some of them were hand blown glass… well for that price I could have bought a few more boxes to make it an even 64 and probably still have been under 20$.
So Family Dollar ROCKS MY SOCKS! In this economy I say down with Walmart and up with Family Dollar.

One of my mottos is whenever possible support and buy local. WHere I live there are a ton of local venders who mostly work out of their homes or online and so there is no store to shop at, and it’s all word of mouth. That is why every fall we have a huge craft sale for two days in the hockey stadium. Every year I go and take several buissiness cards. I would like to share with you two of the venders that focus on earth friendly stuff. 
The first one I have mentioned before. She has a store on etsy.com. Noble Bunz is associated with Noble Farms. The owner is a kind lady and all her products are great. Most are kid orientated. 
The second vender makes hand bound journals from recycled paper, with hand designed covers. She also is on etsy.com. http://www.etsy.com/shop/EarthGirlDesigns Her work is beautiful. I know it’s not directly related to being a Mom but what better way to record your adventures in motherhood then to write it all down in her gorgeous journals.

Some women have a hard time with breastfeeding and some don’t. It can be a touchy subject. I have had great success with it. One thing though that they don’t tell you is most women produce the amount of milk they need to feed their baby. If you produce more than usual chances are you baby will eat more than usual. The nurses at our hospital kept telling me… pump pump. I have found that on the rare occasion I can pump some, the next time I go to feed him there is not enough milk and I go running to the fridge for that saved up milk. Now if you are away from your baby for the day yes of course you should pump, but it is the opinion of this Mom that you should not feel bad if you are not pumping while feeding. Your body is not dumb, it knows how much your baby needs.

They work great!!! I love them. They are absorbent and great and very cute. So that is a positive review from me. QBaby on Amazon.com make great all in one diapers.

I also have made my first homemade cloth diaper. It is flannel with a prefold inside. It closes with Velcro strips. Here is a pic. 

I didn’t have a pattern or anything, I just saw how the ones he already had were made and copied it. I may start making more if I have time.

A few days ago I found a new company on Amazon.com. It is called “QBaby”. They offer 5 all in one cloth diapers for $39.99. They also offer 20 for $99.99. That is a really good price. Well they arrived today. They are so cute and well sewn. I prewashed them and am about to use the first one as soon as they are dry. I will let everyone know how they hold up. So far though the best cloth diaper I have found are from the company “BumGenius”. They are so great. One diaper fits from 6 lbs-40 lbs. They are simply amazing. They are very absorbent and hold up great. They usually run about 19.95 each but I have found them as cheap as 14.95 on Amazon.com. Most of our diapers though are from a local company “Noble Bunz”. These are $10 each and also really good quality. I have found that all in ones and pocket diapers are so much easier than prefolds. Prefolds are fine in a pinch but I am mostly using all in ones.

I was raised by a Mom who was what is now called “green”. We were always boycotting bad companies who used rain-forest grown beef, or Styrofoam containers. We used all organic products and grew all our own veggies. We used cloth diapers and most of us were breastfed. My mom is my role-model. She was green before it was cool and she raised me to be the same. To care about our planet and using products that benefit not only our planet but healthier for ourselves and our children.
When my husband and I found out we were going to have our first child, I decided that I too wanted to be a Green Mommy. I wanted to use cloth diapers and breastfeed. Even though my Mom had used cloth diapers and breastfed, I still felt lost. I needed help. Things have changed so much since me and my siblings were kids. Luckily I had a circle of friends who were all Green Mommies and who all had information and help to offer me and my husband.
Now my son is 7 weeks old and I have begun to realize that not everyone has readily available help and information on how to be a more Green Mommy. So that is why I am starting this blog. I will be posting about breastfeeding, cloth diapering, making my own baby food, organic baby products, and other adventures I may have in being a Green Mommy. Welcome to my Blog!

So if you are reading this then you know that the Green Mommy is going to be both at it’s blogger home www.greenmommy142.blogspot.com and here on tumblr. I will slowly be reposting all the old posts and then start putting new posts on here too.