Category: being a stay-at-home mom

Cheap and Easy Done Right

Had the joy of making my dear friend, Kassie, a nursing cover last week. I got so excited after making it that it was hard to contain my joy in getting it to her.

The project cost a total of $12 ($6 to Kassie for fabric and I grabbed a $6 cost for the D-rings and the boning).

$12 total is much better than the $30 that these things sell for. Plus, we got to custom pick the fabric and the dimensions for Kassie.

It was fun to see something, think “I could do that”, find an easy and free pattern WITH PICTURES online and then make it in 2 hours from gathering supplies to calling Kassie for a drop-off time.

Starting materials:

Finished nursing cover (as modeled by bear):

=D

It was a fun and relaxing project done after the girls went to bed.

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The Joy of Financial Responsibility’s Accomplishment

I sent this email to my sister this morning and I just wanted to share it with you all over here too because it really makes me happy.

God has blessed us with our financial situation and the ability to stay afloat through good budgeting (even with some mistakes) so that I can stay at home to raise our two (almost three) girls. Along with choosing the budget and for me to stay home, comes gradual financial decisions and less of the “eggs all in one basket” whims. While the later method sounds foolish, there are some cases (like purchasing a vehicle) where “eggs all in one basket” is really the only choice.

One way to “cut back” and be more financially responsible in our spending has been to cloth diaper over disposable diapers. One helper of that decision has been Abi’s skin sensitivity, but another has been the obvious money saver.

I must confess, I have been slightly jealous of those with duel income or at least a greater nest egg that have been able to make the cloth diaper switch all at once, purchasing their whole stash in one big chunk of a withdrawal.

But the reality has been for us that the slower building of our stash and adjusting our stash method has been the piece by piece and most responsible approach for us.

This may not sound like too much of a sacrifice until you see the behind the scenes of that picture. Adding 1-4 diapers per month to get to a 3 day washing schedule for Abi and build our stash for a newborn has involved hours of research, trial/error, craigslist hopefuls and failures, waiting on 3 week difference international postage, and much strategy of mine and the girls’ allowance money over an eight month period.

That being said, I give you my email to my sis this morning and share with you my domestic joy:

“So I’m dorkily excited because my last shipment of cloth diapers came in today. I got 6 more. I have been slowly picking at adding cloth diapers to our stash for the last, seriously, EIGHT months and we finally have a full stash from birth to potty training. I’m SO EXCITED to no longer be looking at, sewing, altering, and fussing with cloth diapers to build up our stash. As it is our newbie baby stash has me washing every 2 days, for the 3month to 18 month phase I’ll be washing every 2-2.5 days and for the 18month plus phase I’ll be washing every 3 days. YAY! This just gives me a REALITY washing experience (cause washing daily is not on my agenda along with managing 3 kids/nursing/house work/wifehood/outside of our house ministry oh yeah and eating, breathing and sleeping).

So as I wash the “fresh from the factory” 6 diapers, adjust our diaper bins to fit our new diapers in, and settle into the new washing machine routine just know that this domestic-happy me is smiling…. big time.

And after next month’s allowance money spend on 3 wetbags (one for Hannah’s diaper bag [since Sundays/Wednesdays Abi and Hannah will be separate and I’d like a “catch the dirty diaper and lock out the smell” bag for each], one for the living room changing table [new baby = CONSTANT changes] and one for the nursery changing table), I will happily put the cloth diaper thoughts aside and just coast through diapering 2 kiddos. [Sure some of these things are not needed, but there also is a “convenience” factor of diapering two kids 2 years apart that plays into my success on minimal hours of sleep. – Just being real.]

On our registry there are still 3 covers/prefold sets for the 3m-18m phase that could be quite helpful to add to our stash as night diapers (prefolds/covers are the only thing we’ve found that can hold a HUGE amount of pee and not leak all over the bed while the child does aerobics in the night), but nothing we couldn’t live without. So it’s possible that in the future I may purchase 2-3 more diapers, but it’s just nice to sort of close the door on the “building our stash to actually work for our lifestyle” phase and move on. =D

If we were Mr. and Mrs. Moneybanks, we would have dropped the money all at once (up to $300 – and that’s on the cheap side!), but that’s not the case with us, so purchasing primarily 1-2 cloth diapers from overseas and waiting out the 3 week difference between purchase and receiving we have done… for eight months. And now…. YAY! We’re done! YAY!

The washer never sounded so good.

=)

– delighting in domesticity. ;)”

Our financial situation is really good due to my husband’s hard work and great budgeting. So please do not think for one minute that I am complaining or in any way feeling oppressed. We are blessed beyond belief to be able to sponsor two (soon to be three) World Vision kids as well as serve the Lord in many ways with our finances. I’m just happy to see the fruit of our budgeting coming to a close in the world of cloth diapering. =D

– Thanks for sharing in my joy. =)

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Sew Easy

Been working on a few projects here and there. One of which I made in a total of 40 minutes.

Every Sunday and Wednesday and on various babysitting occasions, we find ourselves taping a name tag to Rachael and Abi’s sippy cups before dropping them off. I use masking tape since it comes off of the cup easier than the nursery stickers provided. But each Sunday morning there is the “Oh right, we forgot, let’s find the tape, a permanent marker or pen and get the names on there.” Sure we could write the names on Saturday night if we were overly thoughtful parents, but we aren’t. LOL.

So I came up with a crafty solution that will eliminate confusion and can translate to more than just sippy cups.

After viewing a diaper strap tutorial, I modified it to work for us and to work with what I had in fabric.

I started out by measuring the middle of our sippy cups and kid water bottles. After measuring, I took the variance of 2 inches between all the cups middles to measure out the length of my soft-side of the Velcro (will explain more later). Then I knew from the 7inch to 8.5inch width of my sippy cups that I needed to make the strip of fabric at least 9 inches to accommodate the cups. I chose to make my base fabric 10 inches just to be safe.

I grabbed out a few scrap pieces of receiving blankets used for other projects, measured my soft-sided Velcro and cut it. I decided to place my soft-sided Velcro on the inside of my strap so the sticky part of the Velcro would only adhere to the strap and the soft-side would not adhere to clothing/etc if exposed by a fatter cup than the smallest setting.

I measured the sticky side of my Velcro to be 1.5 inches to make sure it’d stick really well, defying toddler curiosity, and the soft-side of my Velcro to be 3 inches to allow for further cup variance in size should we get other cups in the future. (Sticky side of Velcro is located on other side of fabric behind the button).

Then it was to work sewing the fabric, flipping the fabric inside out, folding in the edges and sewing them shut, sewing on the Velcro, and then the hardest part; stitching the names.

I free-handed with a pencil on the fabric the girls’ names (excluding the one pictures above. I just free-handed that on the sewing machine) and then sewed accordingly. I wasn’t worried about perfection, just readability and functionality with a little cuteness of course.

I added on a reused button from my button tin just for a little flare.

And voila! Our cup name tags (on three different sized cups):

 Front and back.
 Front and back.
 Front and back (see a trend?)

I made 2 for Abi since she’s the sticky-fingered/less neat child. That way one can be in the wash while the other is in use. Also, we’re carrying around cups less frequently for Rachael so I wasn’t as worried about making her two. If I find we need two for Rachael, I’ll make her a second one in 15 minutes (her name is long).

Abi also discovered while playing with one off of her cup that they can be used as bracelets. =) They can also be used as bag tags, luggage tags, and pretty much anything you need to label for kiddo that has a loop. Be creative. =D

Functional, cute, effective and fun.

Cost: No financial cost, total of 40 minutes of free-time during the girls’ nap time.

YAY!

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Social Isolation

So it’s been sort of socially quiet around here. Our Internet went out in a storm last Thursday night/Friday morning of last week and I’ve, excluding a trip to Matt’s office to touch base with the virtual world, been socially cut off for a week. It sure makes this “stay at home Mom” appreciate the outlet of virtual connections. I’ve missed staying in touch with the daily lives of family across the country, friends on different schedules, and not the networking, but the opportunity technology allows for real connections to be made through virtual outlets.
I’ve found myself with a quick question thinking, “I’ll just look that up,” only to remember the lost resource and remain in the dark to the answer. No it’s not that there are not other resources available to me to aid in my question answering, but it is to say that many times those resources are unavailable and when they are, I have forgotten the question or find myself so distracted with two young children and my current oven baking contract (wink, wink), that I miss the opportunity.
We were blessed to not sustain any damage from the tornado-like winds that hit Friday night/Saturday morning in our area storms. I sat out on the front porch swing with Abi for what felt like a surreal break in time, watching tree branches and debris swoop over our roof and ride off into the neighborhood. We just sat in silence, in awe, of the power and might of God displayed in dark clouds, heavy rain, and flag-pole shaking winds. Our house is designed with an inlayed porch that runs for half the length of the house. Since the porch is capped on each end by the built-in garage and bedrooms on the other side, it is actually a pretty protected little space housing our porch swing. We’ve spent many quiet afternoons, evenings and mornings swinging to a storm’s rain, enjoying the overhanging roof’s protection and the occasional misting reminding us of the reality that we are actually outside. The porch is further protected by a row of bushes, soaking up the rain and standing as a waist-high protection from small backwinds. This little blessing of a space provides for safety and security to two little girls as their little toes get dusted with occasional mists from the comfort of the porch swing.
In the process of the storm, though while our power did not sustain damage (yay for lights and AC!), our community’s water line broke, resulting in a 36 hour boil advisory followed by an additional 24 hour extension. When you use boiled water for almost all functions, the advanced timing, lack of ability to cool the water quickly, and practicality of two water/water-ingredient consuming kids plus my “drink at least 64 ounces of fluid per day” leg cramp needs seems a bit outlandish at times. So needless to say, we consumed many store-bought fluid ounces of additional powerade-type drinks and eventually broke down to purchase 2 gallons of water (It still leaves a foul taste in my mouth to purchase water in this advanced and blessed country. Not being snooty, just cringing at purchasing something I can get from a hose. LOL. Though in this case, I completely understand not utilizing the hose.)
During the past week of “social blackout” I’ve realized a few things:
  1. Sewing projects have to be put on hold until free patterns can be further reviewed Online.
  2. I use the Internet and Internet-connected devices for distraction a lot during this last trimester.
  3. My friends/family use the Internet to connect with people more than the phone.
  4. It’s way too quiet around here.
  5. We miss Netflix.
  6. Facebook and Pinterest and Email are my news channels.
  7. I wonder what’s happening in Nigeria lately.
  8. Or what’s happening in my friend’s adoption, or the other sites I enjoy keeping up on – my newspaper.
  9. I miss my cousin, and sharing the pregnancy hiccups and encouragements together, from the “heart of it all” to the West coast.
  10. I’ve missed some opportunities to pray through some prayer requests that have been posted Online.
  11. My little nester-needs missed Pinterest and the really good and practical ideas I’ve enjoyed adding to our daily lives.
  12. I’m just kind of bored. LOL.
It’s not that I don’t enjoy books, or “non screen time” activities. But it’s also the reality of the heat wave (will it ever leave the mid-nineties WITHOUT venturing into the 100’s category again?) keeping this little sun-burnable crew indoors. Coupled with the reality of being on a boil advisory adjusting our drinking habits, resulting in some light-headedness and general fatigue in my “making another human” category. Coupled with the reality of two young children’s and this tired Mommy’s napping needs, completion of homeschooling this week before our “Hannah break”, and the general reality of the heat zapping all motivation/energy… it just has made things a little quiet, and eventless, and boring around here. Maybe Matt has noticed how I wait like a puppy for his return from work. “What’s the outside world like?” “What are people doing out there?” “Any new life-happenings?” hehe.
So needless to say I wrap up this long and, probably, exhausting post that I’ll get to post AFTER all this is said and done, with the anticipation of our “fix all” web-box parts that are coming in the mail for us on Saturday. And Amazon, if you really love me, send them a day early just to be nice. 😉 
[THEY CAME FRIDAY!!!!!!] So Yay for our “social blackout” problem fix. =D
Thanks for sharing in this dose of RANDOM!
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