One Month of Cloth Diapering

About a month ago I went ahead and switched Kyleigh to her Charlie Banana diapers and cloth wipes for both kids. I have been anxious for a long time to dwindle down our disposable stash to get started. Also I'd been nervous about not having a fancy sprayer to connect to my toilet like many other CD mommies I'd seen. So I figured out a way that works out for me, saving me oodles of money as well. I bought a cheap spray bottle from Walmart, filled it with water & a little bit of Dreft.

I started about a month ago while I still had a decent supply of disposables as a backup just incase I didn't like the whole concept of cleaning the poo off of the inserts or incase she didn't like them for whatever reason.

Now that I'm typing this post up, I can tell you I put entirely too much thought into what my experience would be and nearly talked myself out of something I truly LOVE now. I won't lie, my first few days I went through the shuffling of the baby & the covers and inserts to avoid a completely stinky mess. By day 3 I'd gotten my routine down pat! And now it's like clockwork. We use 2 inserts at a time. Since Ky is rolling but isn't such a squirmed that she knocks inserts out, I lay them on top to avoid going through a cover for each diaper change. I wash diapers every night when the kids are asleep and I've never run out of diapers or inserts between washes =)

I wish I'd known about all of the options cloth diapering has now when my son was born! I assumed I'd be stuck with flat diapers that require safety pins and leak pee and poo everywhere!! Despite the fact that I won a free year of diapers with Huggies when he was 6 months old we still spent SO much money on disposables. Our house fund would be much more hefty if I'd known then what I know now!! However, you live and you learn. And cloth has definitely made life a little less rashy and more comfy in this house!!

Pinterest Project

Food Coloring & Little Cups with vinegar

Paper towel-lined casserole dish with baking soda & my dropper from Easter eggs

5-6 drops of food coloring per cup

Set up our little station with towels to protect from clumsiness (myself that is!!)

My child informing me that he wanted me to do it.  He wanted to see the reaction,  not cause it himself.

Covering up his cold little legs & watching the fizzing.

All Done!!

Preparations For Switching To An All Cloth Household

Recently, I've been following many fellow mommy bloggers who are pretty hardcore about cloth diapering (wipes, wet bags, etc as well). I did some more research into it myself. I looked through dozens of different diapering brands, learned all of the acronyms along the way, and decided I wanted in on this! Thanks to my amazing parents for helping us along the way by buying our diapering needs for both children!!

I chose Charlie Banana one size diapers to start Ky off with. We bought 12 of the Tutti Fruitti one size diapers, 12 extra Medium/Large inserts, Planet Wise hanging diaper pail, 90 Tender Bottoms (on Etsy) cloth wipes (for both kids), PW cloth wipe case & a PW Medium wet bag. We have already started using our wipes and they are amazing. I highly recommend checking out Tender Bottoms on Etsy!!

I spent about 4 hours washing all of my stash up and hanging them in various places to dry. I've discovered we now need a folding drying rack as a result.

I haven't run out of disposable diapers yet but I wanted to be completely set up for our first day =)

Look for updates coming soon!!


Here are some pictures of my stash as well!!

This is only the first set of 30 we bought. The two new sets are washing as I type this.

Happy Cow Creamery

Since 2009, Happy Cow has been part of our grocery routine & a source of entertainment for my son who is now in LOVE with cows. Every turn on the way there, he yells out cow and gets more excited. Not to mention that the Pametto Bakery Cinnamon Swirl bread is a necessity at our house, thanks to a certain particular eater. The ladies there receive a call from me once a week and hold several loaves of bread for us. Not to mention we usually find all sorts of neat food & knick knacks there. If you haven't been there and live near or in Pelzer, SC, its definitely worth the trip!!
Here's our birdhouse for our future home & our bread stash from our last trip.

Homemade Birdfeeders

So i'm a bit behind on this but back in February i decided to do a Pinterest project with Kade at his Mimi & Papa's House.  We made homemade bird feeders using plastic plates, paper towel rolls, pinecones, peanut butter, a nail, fishing line & birdseed, of course. And here were our results step-by-step. 

This wasn't a step, just a sleepy girl passed out on Mimi's sleeper sofa =)

Our week (so far) in pictures

Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili

A recent hit at my house has been crockpot chicken taco chili. I found the recipe through Pinterest, of course. I've been asked for the recipe numerous times after my husband & mother bragged about it to friends & co-workers. Here it goes::

For my 4.5 quart crockpot I used

3 cans of chicken breast, shredded
2 cans of corn
2 cans of black beans
2 cans of kidney beans
2 cans of tomato sauce
4 cans of diced tomatoes
2 packets of taco seasoning
2 tbsp cumin
4 tbsp parsley
2 tbsp chili powder

You can choose to cook for 10 hrs on low or 6 hrs on high.