Bananas, bananas, bananas!!!!!!!!!

Today I came home with a wonderful find- 30lbs of bananas!!!! Yep 30lbs, which come to find out is only half a box :) and I only paid $1.50 for all of them. Quickly do the math and that is only half a penny per pound. I am super excited and hard at work already. These are blemished, bruised and pretty ripe bananas, but those are perfect for my intentions.
I have started with my first batch of banana chips, I sure wish I had a few more trays for my dehydrator. The chips make a wonderful snack for little ones- we like our banana chips a bit chewy so even the little guy can enjoy them. I do not treat my bananas prior to dehydrating so the process to get them on the tray is fairly quick and Zander is a great helper.
Secondly, I took a whole bunch of bananas, peeled them and laid them out on a baking sheet. Those I will freeze and use for smoothies.
Next I will make some banana bread but need to get some eggs in the morning :)
I have also thought on making a double batch of banana waffles and freezing the extras for a quick breakfast when we are on the run.

So, I am very excited to have found this great deal on bananas and will continue to buy them periodically, but I wanted to ask you all for help. What are some of your favorite recipes that call for bananas??? Please share so that I can use up my whole batch and continue to buy these gems at such a great price.

Cloth everywhere!!!!

Since we made the switch to cloth diapers we have encountered an interesting annoyance -wipes. What to do with the disposable wipes now that there is no diaper to wrap them in?? Well, the answer is cloth wipes:)
We had already been using cloth wipes intermittently, but not on a regular basis before switching to cloth diapers.
Everything was readily available -as we already had a massive amount of washcloths I purposed some of them to wipes. I keep them in a wiper warmer and pre-moisten them in my homemade solution.

I take 2 cups of warm water, add 1 drop tea tree oil, 1 drop lavender or lemongrass oil and about 2 tsp olive  or jojoba oil. Whisk it all up, wet the wipes and place them in the warmer.

In addition I have a spray bottle with a solution of water and Dr. Bronner's baby soap for extra messy jobs.
The second solution I also carry in a small spray bottle in the diaper bag along with dry washcloths.
When I remember I take some of the pre-moistened washcloths in a little wipe bag.
The soiled washcloths go into the pail -or special dirty diaper bag while on the road, and are then washed along with the cloth diapers.
We are excited to no longer purchase disposable wipes and feel at ease knowing exactly what touches our children's skin:)

Washing cloth diapers

Here is a quick look at how I wash my cloth diapers.

We keep our dirty diapers in a dry pail -a medium sized garbage can lined with a washable pail liner that is waterproof. The wet diapers just go straight in there, the soiled ones get rinsed off and then get placed in the pail.
Every evening -or every other:) I just take the liner with the diapers and place it in the washer. I do take the inserts out of the pocket diapers, but that is my personal preference. I have a frontloading HE washer and since they are so water efficient I place a wet towel in the wash along with the diapers to trick the machine into using a bit more water :)
I decided to use Country Save detergent for my diapers as I am not sure how my homemade detergent might affect the diapers' performance.
First, I run a quick cold wash cycle with 1/2 tbs of detergent or baking soda and no or low spin (about 30 min) then I run a full wash cycle on hot with 1 tbs of detergent and an extra rinse and full spin. Due to the high spin my diapers come out almost dry :)
I always hang dry my covers, line dry in the sun (if there is any) or dry the inserts in the dryer. That's it :) Once everything is dry I stuff my diapers and place them in the diaper hamper -ready for the next change!

Cloth Diapering

We have done it-we switched 100% to cloth diapers!!!!
The question that comes to mind is most likely why- we are on kiddo # 2 and he is 16 months old, so why now???
Well, the answer really has nothing to do with being more green, saving money or reducing trash, but rather with the convenience of cloth diapering. Huh-convenient?? Yes, I find cloth diapering very convenient, along with the fact that I do feel good about putting something less harsh agains my little ones tush.
We have been using cloth for about 3 weeks now; 2 of those were more part time while we were using up disposables that we could not return, as well as while we were building our stash of fluff.
I gathered our fluff (cloth diapers and supplies) from various sources-Simple Cloth-a local shop here in town, Kelly's Closet.com -a wonderful online retailer of all things cloth and Ebay.
I even bought a diaper sprayer for easy clean up. I wash my diapers every night most of the time, but have enough to wash every other night, and I do not find it to be a hassle at all.
I felt the satisfaction of our decision this past weekend while passing up a $6 off coupon for diapers, realizing I never have to buy diapers again or pay attention to "how many are left, is it time to buy more?"  :)  We will never run the risk of running out again.

So here are the diapers we are currently using with a couple of comments on which we like for what and how they perform:
Flip Hybrid diaper system-we have two of the outer shells, 6 stay dry inserts and we just recently bought some disposable inserts to try out. This system works great for being out and about as it is less bulky than some of the other types. The inserts hold a lot without feeling wet and this diaper adjusts as baby grows.
FuzziBunz perfect size- this is a pocket diaper and we started with a medium sized one, loved it so much and bought a whole bunch more. This diaper has a fleece liner sewn onto the shell with a pocket for the insert. We love using this diaper at night with an additional hemp insert- so that our pee-master stays dry until morning :)
SunBaby- I bought this one diaper on Ebay for about $4-cheap I know. This is a one-size diaper with snaps, though it does run a bit small. The cover is not bad, yet the insert that came with it feels a bit flimsy compared to the FuzziBunz or Flip inserts. We typically only use this diaper at home during the day. Not horrible, but not a diaper I will buy more of.
We just received a bumGenius 4.0 and Kawaii pocket diaper to try- these two have hook-loop closures, which I wanted to try as all others have snaps. We have not tried them yet, but will as soon as they are washed and prepped. I do like how the bumGenius insert has snaps to adjust it for the different sizes.

So far all diapers have fit Ethan great and we have not had a single leaking issue other than due to user error :)  Ethan loves the diapers and they are super cute on top of it all. Zander loves picking out the color for the next diaper.
We are glad we made the switch and do wonder why we did not give this a try sooner.
I will put together a You Tube video to show some of the diapers in more detail-so watch out for that :)