so this is the new year

i didn't post over the hollidays because i didn't have time, and i don't feel like recapping. suffice to say that our visit with family was great.

i've started donating milk to a couple who are adopting a baby next month. it feels really good to be able to help another sweet baby get the best food for him.

only 12 days till tony leaves. my stomach turns just thinking about it. it's going to be so hard to be apart for 8 months. we've never gone more than 2 months without at least a visit.

i've been researching home-made cleaners and am going to start making my own laundry soap and dishwasher soap. once it's warm enough to have the windows open i'm going to make body soap as well. i want to make as much as possible to cut down on the chemicals that come into contact with haven. she's got some pretty serious eczema.

i'm starting to use cloth diapers, and i love them. i only have 5 that i got as gifts, but i'm working on getting a sewing machine so that i can sew my own. even just putting the 5 i have to use i'm saving $15 a month. and haven has never had a poop blow out in a cloth diaper, although she routinely has them in disposables. i can't wait to be able to go all cloth. i should have tried it sooner. tonight is the first night i'm not doing a disposable to sleep in, so i'll see how it goes. hopefully the bed will stay dry. but she had such a bad rash tonight that i just didn't want to do disposables. ---edit--- this blog is taking several days, so the cloth diaper didn't leak. i was impressed.

we did taxes saturday. i loooooove tax refund time. it means finally getting rid of the nasty old couches we have, and getting shiny new ikea living room furniture. it's so much easier to keep things clean when they are nice. i've been depressed about the state of the living room for months, and that's not a great mood for cleaning. i really want to get the whole house cleaned and organized. tony and i purged our closets this week, which was the first small step.

i'm not generally a believer in new year's resolutions, but this year i am making it a goal to become serious about making homemaking my career. that means learning how to maximize my contribution to the family. it's why i'm cloth diapering, making soap, organizing, etc. since my committment to haven means that i can't have an outside job and bring in money, i instead can contribute by saving and maximizing the money that tony brings in. and beyond money, i want my home to be a place of solace and inspiration. i want tony to feel relaxed when he comes home, and i want haven to have a clean and safe place to explore. so for the 8ish months that tony will be gone, i'm goig to be a busy busy bee....it will also be a creative outlet to keep my mind off of missing him.

i've been trying to write this post for almost a week, and i'm just going to finish it here.