First Attempt At Cloth Diapers

My grand parenting years have begun.  I have one and one on the way.  Since the birth of Everlee last October I have rediscovered my love of sewing.  I have always loved to sew.  The idea of taking a flat piece of fabric and turning it into something beautiful and useful gives me a lot of satisfaction.

I used cloth diapers with my first 2 babies but gave in to the ease of disposables by the time #3 came along.  I always liked the idea of cloth diapers.  The fitted ones looked so cute but they are so expensive.  I didn’t have the money to invest in a bunch of expensive cloth diapers.  I never dreamed of making my own.

Things have changed.  Instructions for cloth diapers abound on the internet.  In fact, there are too many good tutorials and suggestions for me.  I want someone to tell me what to do not 10 different options on possibilities.

I have a friend that I now call the cloth diaper lady.  She used to own a diaper business so she knows it all.  She brought me some fabric she had left over.  This is not the kind of fabric I was considering using.  I was going to use the only thing I know — what you can buy off the shelf at Wal-mart or Hobby Lobby.  This fabric she bought is wonderful — organic cotton, flannel with a slight stretch, french terry.  I am now completely spoiled and will never be satisfied with the fabric I was going to buy.

I made 4 fitted diapers today.  It took about 1 1/2 hours. Not bad but I know I could do it more quickly once I figure out exactly how I want it done.  These diapers do not have snaps or velcro.  I think they’ll fit the baby longer and better that way.  We’ll see how the new mommy and daddy like them.

Tags: cloth diapers, diapers

27 Years Ago

We were so excited, so scared, so innocent. We were having a baby. After a very normal, first time hospital delivery, we were elated and exhausted. Snuggling with my precious little 8 lb boy was blissful.

We were living in Mississippi — far from home and family. Danny was preaching for a congregation in Houston, MS. The people there were (and still are) wonderful. They took us in and treated us as their own.

It was time — we were going to get to take our sweet little David Scott Dow home in the morning.  I was so ready to go home. We had had so much fun getting the nursery ready, buying all the little things a newborn baby needs.  I went to sleep knowing that all was well and we would be going home in the morning.

That night, everything changed. A doctor came into my room to tell me that our sweet little David was very sick. He had had a seizure and would need to be transferred to the hospital in Jackson, MS — 2 hours away.

The flurry of events that happened next are still very clear in my mind.  I won’t go into all the details but I will say that David needed heart surgery or he would not survive.  He had surgery on the 26th to replace a portion of his aorta that was missing but his little body just couldn’t hold out.  He died on July 28, 1985.

We never did get to take him home with us.  Instead we took him to the funeral home and then buried him 2 days later.

It was and still is one of those life altering experiences in my life that has helped mold the person I have become.   Here, 27 years later, I think about him and those few short days he was with us and I am sad all over again.  Not depressed, not distraught, not hopeless, just sad.  I am comforted all over again by the wonderful friends that supported us during that time and by our family that came to help us mourn.  I am in awe again at God’s wonderful design.  A design that sometimes goes wrong but so many times over and over again, everything works just like it should.  I am thankful for the medical community that helped us so gently through the decisions and events that we did not want to be a part of and that we barely understood.  I miss you, David, and love you very much and 27 years later still wish you were here with me.

 ‎”I know now that we never get over great losses – we absorb them, and they carve us into different , often kinder, creatures. We tell the story to get them back, to capture the traces of footfalls through the snow.” from _Let’s Take the Long Way Home_

Permit Me To Brag

I try not to gloat over my children but, well, they’re very special. I’m sure you understand because, of course, yours are special too. My 16-year-old is a musician. I don’t say that lightly. It’s not that he can play an instrument fairly well. All of my kids can do that. Timothy is a true musician. He thinks about it all the time. He doesn’t just do enough to please his teacher. He goes above and beyond what is asked of him. He’s not satisfied to play an instrument. He wants to play all the instruments. He’s not satisfied to play someone else’s music, he writes his own music. He’s not satisfied to buy an instrument, he makes his own. I’m not going to burden you with the details of all of his music adventures in one post. Today I would just like to tell you about the past 2 weeks in Timothy’s life.

This is always a busy time of year for him. He has attended SFA’s String Camp in Nacogdoches, TX for the past 4 years. It lasts a week and ends on Friday. For the past 3 years, he has hitched a ride to Singing School in Wilburton, OK the following day and spent the next week (that would be this week) learning how to be a better song leader in our worship services.

During string camp this year, he won the concerto contest and was given the privilege of performing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C 1st mvt with the orchestra accompanying him. He did an excellent job. We had just bought a new camera the day before so we were able to get a decent video of his performance. If you’d like to hear it, go here:

The following picture was created from some a friend took at singing school yesterday. He spends all day Monday-Friday learning how to be a better song leader, learning new hymns, learning about the importance of worship, etc. On Thursday evening, after the nightly singing, they have a talent show. He took his violin (that he made) and performed a fiddling tune. I’m not sure what he played but I’m guessing it was either Listen To the Mockingbird of The Orange Blossom Special. He also got to participate in a barbershop ensemble. I personally love barbershop and am thrilled when my boys get the chance to sing barbershop.

Thanks for allowing me this moment to brag. Feel free to brag on your children on your own blog. :)

Home Where They Belong

I rediscovered this YouTube video while giving my website a face lift. I thought I would share it again. The folks at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine asked for family pictures that might be appropriate in a video of this sort. There are 3 pictures of our family in the video:

The picture of the 3 boys on the swings (Jonathan, Andrew, Timothy)
A watermark picture of the whole family on playground equipment
Benjamin wearing a bucket for picking blueberries

We even got listed in the credits at the end.