Better for Grownups Organic Cotton Face Round Review

Note: Better for Grownups did not pay me to write this review.

This is my first product review from the list of things you'll never see my buy again post.

These rounds come in a box of 30 with a refill package of an additional 30 available. They also come in a great little dispensing box with a bag to wash them in. They contain two layers of fair trade organic cotton velour and come 3 great colors.

The Better for Grownups company is an incredibly environmentally conscious as well as socially fair company and have put that through into everything they produce. The bag they come with is organic cotton and the packaging is a high quality cardboard package that transforms into the dispenser and can be recycled.

I have found these rounds to be versatile and use them daily with my facial toner. They also work great with my waterless face wash that I use when I'm traveling or after a long day. Recently I began using them with some water to "brush" my baby's gums and he absolutley loves to chew on them when he has teeth coming in. I've also used them in a pinch when we were camping as baby wipes and as a baby washcloth when the rest were dirty.

They wash up well and I have always hung them to dry and they do not get stiff and crunchy like some products, they're just as soft as they were when I first purchased them. You can hang them up on your laundry line right in the baggie. I've probably washed them close to 20 times and they are holding up great and still have their beautiful color nice and bright. When I first began using them I was concerned they might hold the color from my makeup or dirt but they wash up nice and clean. I use Rockin' Green detergent on them and wash them with my whites or sometimes with my prefold diapers.

I hadn't realized how much waste I was creating with all the disposable cotton face rounds I was using and feel much better about using this product that I can easily wash with laundry I am already doing. These could be great for someone who is new to using greener products and I highly recommend them.

Personal note: My Mom actually just asked me to take her to buy some when she comes to visit next week, I am slowly but surely converting her away from her love of disposable items (for those of you who know her this is a big deal)!!! I'm planning to buy an additional 30 for myself since I'm now using them with my baby I'm going through them too fast.

Head on over to Better for Grownups and get some for yourself!!!! You won't regret it.

Feel free to let me know if you have any additional questions about this product.

Things you won't see me buying anymore

I've been looking at the Green America website a lot lately and was inspired by this article
Ten Things You Should Never Buy Again. Now, we have some of these items in our home- gasp! However, in my quest to be Zero Waste I won't be buying the following items anymore (some of these we've always done but I wanted to include them on my list as food for thought):

• Disposable cups, utensils and dishes (We have a huge package of biodegradable plates. I might use those in the future but I will probably just use the dishes we already have and maybe buy some cheap dishes from a thrift store for parties and whatnot)
  
• Paper towels and napkins (We got a great set of "un-paper towels" made from organic cotton from a company that was going out of business and some towels from Freecycle and use those all the time)
• Cotton face rounds/ cotton balls/ Q-tips (I LOVE to clean my ears out with Q-Tips. The doctor, however, does not so I'm done with those. For the face rounds and cotton balls I got these 100% organic fair trade cotton Face Rounds)
• Kleenex (Again, we got some 100% organic cotton fair trade Tissues from the same company as the face rounds. They're a little pricy to start but we'll never have to buy tissues again and they're SO soft and nice!!!)
  
• Over packaged food (Do things really need to come individually wrapped and then in a box? Probably not... this one will be hard for me though because I love things I can easily grab as I run out the door)
  
• Bottled water (did you know it takes more water to make the bottle and over 80% of bottled water companies are just bottling the local tap water?)
• Store-bought health and beauty products (I get most of my products from Moondance Botanicals. They're a great local shop in Denver that make all their own stuff and are locally sourced and organic when possible. My soap has 4 ingredients, love it!!!! And they refil most products for 40% off. What I can't get there I'm going to make myself with things like Castile soap, vinegar, and baking soda)
• Cleaning products with chemicals and scary warning labels (Mostly we clean with baking soda and vinegar. We do our laundry with Rockin' Green detergent and would recommend it to everyone! They'll be releasing a line of cleaning products soon.)
• Disposable feminine products (If I put my baby in cloth, why not myself? It totally grossed me out at first but after learning about all the scary chemicals in that stuff and the horrible environmental impact I bought a great cloth stash of "Mama Cloth"... it's big in the cloth diapering world. I used to have such horrid cramps I'd have to stay in bed all day, cramps no more... what kind of scary chemicals caused me pain??)
  
• Disposable diapers and wipes (Cloth all the way. We use prefolds with Thirsties covers and Rumparooz I made my own wipes from cut up T-Shirts I got off Freecycle)
• Cheap brands of clothing (Stuff that we know won't last more than a couple years. We try to get things at consignment stores and thrift stores whenever possible)
• Stuff for a dog (this has nothing to do with being Green or anything... we just have to find a new home for our dog who isn't adjusting well to the baby, so sad!!!)
  

Keep an eye on future posts for more info and review of these products!!! Let me know if you want recipes for any of the make-it-yourself cleaning and beauty products!

Finally Updating

It's been 8 months since I last blogged... my son went from being an itty bitty newborn to a crawling, sprawling little guy. We went through fall, winter and spring. I had quite the battle with postpartum depression and struggled with God through the sadness. Family has come and gone to visit and we've buried a relative. My son has had many firsts. We've said goodbye to good friends and welcomed new ones. I just haven't felt much like writing. Once I made it through the depression I only wanted to spend time with my family and try to make it up to my son. Now he's to the point where he sleeps for a few hours before I come to bed so I thought it was time to resurrect my blog. I'm going to share stories of our families journey of being gluten free, organic, green and moving towards zero waste. My hope is to inspire others to try some of the same things and to realize how easy it truly is. I've missed blogging. I will write some reviews on some of my favorite products (which will hopefully get me some freebies to review on my blog if I get enough traffic!), I will share tips, I will answer questions and share stories. Hope you enjoy.

Now, for those of you who are interested here's a little bit more info about where we're at in life right now... I'm not even going to try and catch up on everything in the last 8 months- if you want to know, ask:

We moved in May to a fantastic two bedroom two bathroom in Lakewood. We're living on the third floor and have an incredible view of the Denver skyline from our place. Our new apartment is so quiet. It is such a drastic change from our old place- it took me a while to get used to not having a dog constantly barking upstairs!!! We have nearly double the square footage here as in our old place and are able to keep it much cleaner and more stress-free. In May we also celebrated our 5th Anniversary at an amazing dinner at Root Down and went to see The Fray and U2 at Invesco.

In June we welcomed a roommate who will be staying with us for several months. We absolutley love having her here with us and I am really enjoying having another girl around!

Our poor dog is still not adjusting all that great to having a baby around. We're really praying about what to do with him and hoping he'll continue to get better acquainted with the tiny little boy who loves him so dearly.

I am on summer vacation right now and LOVE being a stay-at-home Mom this summer. It's pretty much the best job I could ask for. Spending time with my son has been priceless and I savor every moment.

We returned on Thursday from our first overnight trip to the mountains as a family. My husband was at a conference at Mt Princeton resort outside Buena Vista so we tagged along and spent three days enjoying the hot springs, mountains and sunshine! We also took a trip to the fish hatchery and got to feet the trout, it was a blast and I'd highly recommend visiting if you get a chance. I didn't want to leave and really enjoyed the refreshing break.

I'll end this post with some photos from our trip and the concert. Enjoy!!

He's here!!!!

Our little boy, Jonathan, arrived on October 19th. It's been quite the journey the last month, I realized I better get to it and write down details before I forget them.

Sunday, October 17- Jeremy and I decided we were going to go walk the baby out! After church we went and had a fantastic lunch at Mad Greens downtown and then went to Pink Berry for dessert. We then spent a couple hours walking around the zoo until we got tired and came home and took naps.

Monday October 18- 12:30am- Contractions started and we were up the entire day with them. I was having back labor and we knew we were going to be in for a wild ride. Nothing was comfortable but we stuck through it together. I had my regular 41 week appointment at the birthing center and met with Leigh, one of the midwives, who checked me and tried a few natural things to get labor going.

Tuesday October 19- 12:30am- 24 hours after contractions started I was feeling strange. They were only 5 minutes apart and we were not "supposed" to go to the birthing center until they got to 3 minutes apart but I wanted to go get checked out so we headed over in the middle of the night. Leigh was the midwife there at the time, another family was having a baby. I got checked in, we met up with our Doula and got settled in to the room. I was in a lot of pain as my contractions became more intense, and I knew baby was turned wrong because of where my contractions were. I tried many different positions and just couldn't get comfortable. After several hours I began feeling a lot of spiritual oppression, anxiety and complete exhaustion. Jeremy and I rested and prayed for a couple hours in bed as my contractions slowed. At 6am the "changing of the guard" happened, Leigh and Catlin left and Aubrey and Shaunti came. My anxiety and spiritual oppression increased and I was given some homeopathic anxiety medications. I knew in my heart that I wasn't going to be delivering at the birthing center, I knew something was wrong. Around noon we went outside and tried to take in some sunshine while the staff discussed what to do with us. Since I wasn't progressing, was so uncomfortable and anxious and totally exhausted we made the choice to transfer to the hospital. This was an incredibly difficult decision for me. I knew my dreams of a nice, natural childbirth were gone and that medical intervention would be necessary. I also knew that with back labor and such long labor, csection might be an option. Thankfully, the midwives at the birthing center have hospital privileges so Aubrey came over with us. She checked us in and got me all plugged in to all the icky hospital stuff. We were able to get in with one of the best midwives at the hospital and Aubrey stayed with us until I was comfortable and in the care of Mary at the hospital. After getting an epidural and pitocin around 2pm I was able to sleep for a few hours, the first sleep I'd had in almost 2 days. My contractions started back up again full strength but I couldn't feel anything. I was connected to a monitor that showed them but I wasn't feeling pain... just back labor pressure. We tried various more things to alleviate the pressure. I was frustrated because I couldn't get out of bed with everything I was connected to. Nathan and Sarah came to visit me and so did my in-laws. It was really nice to have some company and love there. We were feeling sad and alone and scared. Finally at around 6pm my epidural was lightened enough so I could start trying to push. I pushed for almost 3 hours and he came within a centimeter of coming out. However, he just wouldn't turn quite right to come out. Midwife Mary called in a doctor and he said my options were the vacuum or a csection. We tried the vacuum and there was still no progress. Before I knew it I was being prepped for an operation and wheeled into a room. It wasn't even an hour from when he said it needed to happen until I was on the table being cut open. Our Doula, Manige, was such a blessing to us during this time. Jeremy was able to stay with me while she told our family and friends we were having the csection. She had one with her own daughter's birth and stayed right by our side during the operation and explained what was happening to me. I was really scared so I put on my ipod and listened to music and the gentle voices of Jeremy and Manige whispering in my ear while the surgery took place. I hardly remember anything about it, I didn't really look around at all. I didn't want to know. I just closed my eyes while I was wheeled in to the room and set up. I found my happy place with The Fray and some worship music on my ipod. Before I knew it I heard him cry!!!! After that I don't remember much, I got to kiss him quickly before I was wheeled into another room after the surgery was over. He was born at 9:45pm. I don't remember being brought into our hospital room, I don't remember being reunited with Jonathan and Jeremy, I don't remember his first feeding or much about his first day. I do remember a nurse bringing him to me in the middle of the night to cuddle and feed him.... I am sad that I missed out on his first moments, sad to have not had my natural birth experience, sad to have a scar and surgery recover. But so very thankful and blessed to have a beautiful little baby boy. We were surrounded by incredible people who helped us through and angels who protected us. God has richly blessed us with our son and we love him so much. I will share more about his first month later.

Due date has come and gone

My due date has come and gone. I was told to not be surprised if I went overdue so here we are waiting. I worked all week this week but plan to have the sub come in for my on Monday even if the baby still hasn't come, I'm tired and crabby at work. Wednesday is a teacher work day and Thursday and Friday are conferences- if baby still hasn't come by then I will go in.

We were blessed last night by a new (to us) car from my in-laws! It was my sister-in-laws car, then my in-laws had it and now it is ours. It's a '97 Ford Aspire, I've always thought it was SO cute!!! It's a stick so I'm going to have to learn how to drive it once this baby comes. We are feeling so glad to not have to only have one car and one of us on the bus this winter!!!

I just had a fantastic little shopping trip to Vitamin Cottage- all of their "good life" brand food is almost 50% off. This is one of the best allergy-friendly brands but is usually VERY expensive. It's free of the 8 most common allergens and once baby comes I will be gluten and dairy free. I am also going to have to go nut-free at work starting after Thanksgiving when we have a HIGHLY allergic-to-nuts student starting. I also got some of my favorite Lundburg farms brown rice couscous on sale- yum yum!

The last few days all I have wanted to do is shop for baby- diapers and clothes especially (and clothes for me after baby comes!). I can't wait to get some gender-specific things after the baby arrives but I haven't bought anything yet!!! I think it's my version of nesting since I'm too wiped out to clean much now and the apartment is pretty clean and organized anyway. Been spending lots of time picking things out online.. dangerous!!! Good thing we're on a tight budget and we have some gift-cards to use once the baby arrives :)

That's the latest in my little world... hopefully my next post will be of baby pics

Diapers

People keep asking where we are at in terms of our cloth diaper stash so I wanted to give an update. We have enough to do laundry every other day at this point and have a pretty big variety. We are getting a diaper service for the first month so we don't have to do so much laundry and so I can spend more time resting and enjoying my baby. We will need some more diaper covers before we start the diaper service. I'm planning to use the Thirsties brand duo wrap size one and some Flip by BumGenius if I can get some. The flips are one size and they have an organic pre fold insert that comes with them so we can use the diaper cover with our diaper service and then have the insert for later too. We are also planning to use Rumparooz and are hoping to get some more of those in some of the more gender specific types after the baby comes. We also have a few gDiapers that I got used from Craigslit that I'm planning to mostly use for travel. I would like to use organic whenever possible but its more expensive. I'm planning to post opinions and reviews once we've gotten to use more diapers. I'm really excited about cloth diapering and hoping to try several different kinds out.

Happy Due Date!!!

Yup, we're due today... no signs that we are going to be getting our 10/10/10 baby though. I was told at my last appointment that it wouldn't be surprising if we go 7-10 days over. So, maternity leave is supposed to start tomorrow but I will keep working until I have my baby. Will keep you all posted!