When My Heart Aches

When I got pregnant, one of the first fears that washed over me was how vulnerable my heart would to pain. That sounds far from the joy of a little one kicking inside your belly, but from a young age I got to see, hear, touch and feel true pain. When my sister passed away, I watched as my parents' hearts literally broke, unraveled in front of me. Unknown to me, I was learning the vulnerability of having children. Your heart exposed to what may come. I didn't realize this was something set in the tiny folds of my mind until I was faced with having a little one of my own. 

As I walk into a season where my little one would prefer papa, I'm starting to feel my heart exposed. The small ache that comes from tiny hands that don't want to be held by yours.

Where do I go? What do I do? How does my heart mend time and time again?

And then God reminds me that I do the very same thing day in and day out. And the reason I feel safe with Him, the reason I keep coming back is because of His unconditional love. All I have to do is follow this great example. I am His and He is mine. Love my little one unconditionally and she will keep coming back.

And when my heart aches...I cry. I reflect on truth. And then I play with play dough.

The Honest Co. :: Review and Tips

I first ordered The Honest Company free trial right after I had my little in the fall of 2012. I liked their products, but wasn't ready to commit to anything, so I didn't sign up. (If you get their free trial, make sure to cancel your subscription within 7 days of receiving it. You can still cancel if you don't catch it in time, but it's easier if you do.) It wasn't until my little started crawling that I started to re-think our cleaning products. I calculated it out for our budget and we decided it would be a good investment for our family. We've been receiving bundles since May 2013.

I have a lot of friends that our intrigued by their products, but don't want to jump in and/or spend the money. Yes, these products will be more costly than your standard Target brand. But if you value natural or plant based products, the price is comparable, if not cheaper than other brands. So here are my thoughts on the products I've tried, what's good and what's not and a few tips on how I make it affordable for our family. 

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Cleaning

Multi-Surface Cleaner- This smells great and I can use it on everything. Tables, counters, high chair, stove, trash can, etc.

Suds Up Dish Brush- This works pretty well for us but we don't use the ceramic dish like I thought we would. You just need to make sure to rinse out the container and let it dry every night. Otherwise you have still water just sitting in there getting quite gross.  

Bathroom Cleaner- The scent is what gets me, eucalyptus mint. It's like I'm cleaning in a spa.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner- Leave it in for a few minutes, scrub a bit and flush. Super easy, works great. I just wish we used it more often:)

Floor Cleaner- Works great on our hardwood floors, for spot cleaning and when I mop. And, of course, I love the smell.

Dishwasher Packs- Easy peasy and gets the job done.

4-in-1 Laundry Packs- We made the switch to laundry pods even before using The Honest Co. It makes our laundry room a lot less sticky and messy. 

Oxy Boost-  When a load of laundry is extra dirty or when I'm washing our cloth diapers I use this for an extra boost. It's worked great on odors.

Stain Remover- This seems to be hit or miss, but I think that's largely, like a lot, due to user-error. I've seen it work miracles and also do nothing at all. BUT, I never pre-treat and sometimes things will sit for weeks before being washed. The great thing is that it can also act as carpet/rug cleaner. Every time it's worked beautifully on our rugs. 

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Bath and Body

Healing Balm- This will usually cure my little's diaper rash within a day. Love it. I've also combined it with aloe and lavender oil to soothe a sunburn. I'm sure as my little gets older, it will be used for tons of cuts and scrapes as well.

Bubble Bath- Smells great and makes bath time a blast!

Shampoo + Body Wash- I've used this for my little as body wash and shampoo. We recently moved to some homemade botanical soap for her excema, (check them out here), but we still use it for shampoo. It's no tears and smells like a dreamy creamsicle. I've used it for my hair too, but it seemed to dry it out after a few weeks.

Conditioning Detangler- I love this spray. My little gets a huge "nest" right in the back of her head. Every day. And every day it's a battle to get it out. When I use this, it's helps a ton getting the brush through her hair. I've tried California Baby's spray as well and this one worked better for us. 

Face + Body Lotion- Not a fan. Partly because it didn't work for my little's excema and party because I just didn't like the consistency. 

Organic Breathe Easy Rub- I've only used this once. I love that it doesn't have menthol or petroleum jelly, but my little did seem to break out a little when I put it on her chest. Nothing alarming, but something to look out for. 

Sunblock (Lotion, Spray, and Stick)- Be warned that the sunblock is thick. But that's what you get with a zinc based sunblock. The spray is great, it just doesn't get an even coat, so there's still a lot to rub in. And it's pretty thick as well. Don't expect your usual spray. I LOVE the stick. My friend just introduced this to me to use on the face. Um, how have I not known about this? This one goes on smooth and it's easy to use. 

Bug Repellent- I've used this once. I didn't get any bites, but I really have no idea how many bugs there actually were.

Hand Soap- I like their soap a lot. I haven't gotten in a while, cause we had another stash we were trying to get through, but I"m excited to try the new scents.

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Baby

Diapers- Love, love their diapers. We do cloth about 75% of the time. The rest we try to use Honest. We've used a couple of other plant based diapers, and for me, Honest wins. Other easily accessible (aka: at Target) diaper options: Seventh Generation- these leaked a lot for us. Babyganics- This is our second option if we don't have Honest diapers. They're a little cheaper, so that's nice, but they also seem cheaper. We've had more leaking with these diapers. And they don't come in cute patterns.

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Not Worth It for Me

Dish Soap- This soap didn't seems to suds up very well and we prefer Seventh Generation. I want to give Watkins a try too. 

Baby Wipes- The wipes are really think and nice, but they didn't "glide" very well for us. Our wipes of choice are Seventh Generation. Easily available and much more cost effective. 

Fruit and Veggie Wash- I actually really like this wash, but it just comes down to cost. Once I'm done with the bottle we have,  it will be more cost effective to make my own with vinegar. 

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Tips

These ideas might help you fit it into your family's budget or make it more appealing for you.

1. Choose your own ship date. You don't have to get an essentials bundle every month. You can automatically set your account to ship every 4, 5 or 6 weeks. BUT, you can also select your own ship date beyond that. Like, any date. I get mine every 8-9 weeks, but you could do it every 12 weeks if you wanted. Or even every 6 months.

Here's how: Go to your account page. View/Edit Bundle. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. On the right you'll see you can change your shipping frequency (Every 4, 5 or 6 weeks). On the left you'll see the date of your next shipment. Click on the little calendar next to the date and select the date your want it to ship. It will only allow about 9 weeks out, so if you need it to be longer than that, just change it again as your ship date gets closer. 

2. Get Free Shipping. The essentials bundle is $35.99/month, but they'll add a $5.95 shipping fee unless you add to your order and make it at least $50 (before taxes). I do this every time. It doesn't make sense to loose out on $6 worth of product. Generally I just add the diapers I need and that covers it. They don't have a place to do that online, so I have to email them to add it to my order. They're customer service is great, so it's no hassle. 

3. Put the higher priced items in your bundle and the lower priced items as add-ons (you get 3 add-ons with 25% off per bundle order). You're essentially paying about $7 per item in your bundle, so make sure the items in your bundle are worth it. Like the healing balm would be $9.71 as an add-on item. Totally worth it in your bundle. But the multi-surface cleaner is only $4.46. Make that an add-on item.

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Signing Up

If you're interested in signing up, use this link and I will get a $20 credit (thank you) and you can get $10 off your first order with INVITED10 promo code.