One of the tools in my weight loss tool box is a basket of quilting scraps.  I know it sounds crazy, but crafting is helping me stick to my diet.   Last week, I pulled out a crazy quilt that I had been playing with finishing for 5 years now.  I decided it was time to embroider, quilt, and bind the crazy thing and get it over with.

One of my eating triggers is boredom.  Last week was especially hard because I pulled back from exercising while I was recovering from a nasty cold.  By pulling out a craft project, I was able to keep my mind occupied and my hands busy doing something besides shoveling food into my mouth.  Even without being able to exercise, the scale showed a 2.7 pound loss!

I finished my quilt and I am once again under 150.  This is my danger zone.  In the past I have allowed myself to get comfortable whenever I break that 150 barrier.  I guess I had better pull out my rag rug and finish it up.  I’ve been carrying that project around since 7th grade.

Larry Burkett Says that we spend the first 5-7 years of marriage trying to reach the same standard of living as our parents, only it took them 30 years to get there.

After 5 years, I’m still looking for that 1972 velvet sofa.

When I was about 10 years old, my brothers bought me 2 milk crate boxes for Christmas.  He was only going to buy me one, but my dad said, “Get her 2, one isn’t useful, but she can do something with two of them.”  I remember him telling me that so many years ago.  When I look back, I think the message stuck.

Last week I went out to buy peaches to can.  The Elberta peaches are in and they are heavenly!  Each case is 24 pounds, minimum.  Last year I only got one case and it wasn’t enough to get us through the winter.  I didn’t want to make that mistake again, so I knew I wanted to buy more peaches.  Rather than buying one case last week and buying another case this week, I bought 3 cases all in one day.  Seventy-five pounds of peaches.

When the cherries came in on the trees, I actually took the smart approach.  I learned that I could fill and ice cream bucket with cherries twice and that was just the right amount to fill the canner.   Each morning while Wiggles was napping, I would climb up in the cherry tree and pick 2 buckets full of cherries.  I would pit, pack, and process them while he was taking his afternoon nap.  I managed to put up 10 quarts of pie cherries, and then they were all higher in the tree than I could reach while standing on the ladder.  The smart thing was that I was able to can the cherries and clean up the kitchen all in one day.

Last night at about midnight, I was wishing I had learned my lesson during cherry season.  However, peach flavored sunshine will be wonderful come Feburary.  Maybe next week I will go buy 3 cases of apricots…

Mopping the floors is great meditation.  Especially when, as I am mopping I notice the beautiful wood grain of the 97 year old fir floors underneath the mop head.  And as I mop I begin to imagine how beautiful the floor will be when we finally get to refinish them.  Of course we won’t be refinishing the floors until after we finish paying off those student loans.  We are back on the Dave Ramsey plan.  Mopping the floors shows me just one more reason why we need to be gazelles.

1. Don’t go driving just because (saves both in gas and in wear and tear on the car)
2. Stay out of thrift stores and yard sales unless you have a shopping list (don’t buy anything unless it is on your list)
3. Don’t eat out on trips, pack a lunch and find a park
4. Make or buy freezer meals for those “I don’t want to cook” nights.
5. Cut back on cell phone plan (Call your provider to find out if this is right for you)
6. Bake your own bread each week
7. Pay bills online
8. turn off computer/ unplug appliances when not in use.
9. Eat meatless every other day, eat simple though rather than meals that require fancy ingredients
10. Drink water instead of juice, coke, gatoraid, etc.

I made this for dinner last night.  Fairly quick and easy (especially since I used canned tomatoes and canned corn).  It came out delicious.   This probably has 4-6 servings.  If you wanted to make more, you could probably add another can of beans and some cooked rice.  Cheap and healthy too.

1 c chopped onions
1 T olive oil
1 c chopped tomatoes  OR 1 can diced tomatoes drained
1 1/2 c fresh or frozen corn  OR 1 can whole kernel corn drained
15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 T fresh lime juice
1 t salt (optional)
1/2 t ground black pepper
2 c rinsed, stemmed, and chopped Swiss chard or spinach*
2 c crushed baked tortilla chips
8 oz (or so) grated fat-free sharp Cheddar Cheese
2 c salsa
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Saute onions in oil until translucent.
3. Stir in the tomatoes, corn, black beans, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Saute for 5 – 10 mins. or until heated through.
4. Prepare your casserole dish (I used a 9″ round deep casserole dish) with a coating of cooking spray.
5. Spread half of the chips on the bottom. Spoon sauteed veggies over the chips.  If you used canned vegetables, there will be quite a bit of liquid left in the pan.  Don’t pour it all in or your meal will come out soggy. Sprinkle 2/3 of the cheese over that. Arrange the greens over the cheese and spoon half of the salsa on top of it. Then, sprinkle the rest of the chips, salsa, and cheese.
6. Bake for about 35 – 40 mins, or until it is beginning to brown.

Oh and my confession–I didn’t actually measure anything, I just eyeballed it.  But then I never measure anything when I am cooking–baking is a whole nother story

I didn’t intend for this to become cloth diapering week, but once I had three articles written it seemed good to finish up with some good cloth diapering resources from around the web.

For starters, the articles on this blog:

• Top 10 reasons to use cloth diapers
• Supplies for getting started
• The simple wash routine

When I was making my decision on what cloth diapers to use, the best resource I found for reviews was DiaperPin.com

I bought my diaper covers from NickisDiapers.com and they arrived quickly.

If you are more the do it yourself type, check out diapersewing.com

Another link for sewing fitted diapers

If you are looking for a baby shower gift–Diaper cakes are all the rage right now.  Look here and here for how to make a cloth diaper cake.

I’ve read a lot of opinions on how to properly wash cloth diapers.  Some say use bleach, others say don’t bleach.  Some articles insist on HOT water, others say it doesn’t matter.

Here is my simple routine for washing cloth diapers, everything seems to come out clean and stink free and that’s what’s really important isn’t it.

My dirty diapers get stored in a trashcan that is lined with a laundry/duffle bag.  I wash the diapers as needed (which means whenever I notice I am getting low or when I decide the dirty ones are stinking up the bathroom).  On average, I wash a load of diapers about once every 3 days.

Rather than rinsing out poopy diapers, I start my wash with a pre-wash cycle, cold water with 1 oz (1/8 c) of All Free & Clear 2X concentrated laundry detergent–this is 1/2 the recommended amount of detergent per load.  If your washer doesn’t have a pre-wash cycle, use a short wash cycle.

*note–once we start with solid foods, I will have to shake any solid waste from poopy diapers into the toilet before putting them into the diaper pail.

After the pre-wash cycle I set the washing machine to a regular cycle, cold water, with 2 rinse cycles.  I then add 1 oz of detergent and put 1 T lime juice in the fabric softener cup.

I originally used vinegar instead of lime juice, but that is not recommended PUL (Poly-Urethane Lamiate) fabrics like the Thirsties cover or for diapers made from synthetic fibers (like fleece).  The acid in lime juice helps rinse out all the detergent and disinfects the diapers.

From there, I just drop the diapers into the dryer.  Once it gets warm enough, I will be hanging them out on the line to flap in the breeze and bleach out in the sunshine–not to mention that line drying is cheaper than doing it in a machine.

There.  That was easy.

Back when I was still pregnant, people would ask me, “Are you planning on using cloth diapers?”  When I answered affirmatively, they responded, “You won’t do it.”  I talked to several friends who had briefly attempted cloth diapering and then gave up.  “It was too hard,” they said. Momentarily, my resolve wavered, but I found my inspiration within myself.

I gave myself permission to get my feet back under me after Wiggles was born, but at about 2 months, I was ready to stop spending money on disposable diapers.  We’ve been doing cloth diapers for about a month now, and I honestly haven’t found them to be much more work that disposables.  I do have to change diapers more often during the day, but Wiggles is very aware of a wet cloth diaper and doesn’t like it at all!  He always rewards me with smiles when he has a fresh diaper in.

Honestly, I have loved using cloth diapers, and I really haven’t found them to be any more trouble than disposables.  Actually I think they may be less trouble because I can wash the diapers any day of the week rather than keeping them around, smelling up the house, until the trash service comes.

When I was doing my research, I really wanted to use Bum Genius diapers.  They are just so cute!  One evening I even had them in the shopping cart ready to press the order button.  My financial sense beat out  my fashion sense, and I just couldn’t go through with the order.

Rethinking, I decided to go the cheap route–prefolds with covers.  Then one of my friends who had tried cloth diapering and gave up made me an offer I couldn’t resist–free!  My biggest challenge at that point was figuring out what accessories were necessary and which ones were just an added convenience.  Simplifying the list, these are the supplies that I started out with:

• ~36 Gerber Prefold Birdseye Cloth Diapers
• 3 Thirsties Diaper Cover
• 1 diaper pail liner
• 1 wet bag (for the diaper bag)
• 13 gallon trash can with lid

My wish List:

• 1 more diaper pail liner (so I have one in while the other is in the wash)
• 2 or 3 more diaper covers

I would highly recommend the Thirsties Diaper covers.  They are super easy to use, no pins involved, come in a variety of colors, and they are cute.  The covers were the most expensive part of the set up, and I love that I only need a few.  They can be reused between washings until they smell or become soiled.

For my diaper pail liner and wet bag, I raided my camping and kayaking gear.  For the pail liner, I used a water-resistant Coleman duffel bag.  It’s washable and has a drawstring top.  The main advantage of using it is that I didn’t have to buy something else.  For the wet bag to carry in my diaper bag, I a nylon dry bag–which is designed to keep gear dry while you are in a kayak.  Both of these items were purchased (a year or so ago) in the camping section of Walmart.

Any old trashcan will work for a diaper pail, but I recommend one with a lid that is easy to open (like with a foot lever) so you don’t have to fight with your trashcan when you are trying to hold a baby on the changing station and toss in a dirty diaper.

The cost of these supplies purchased new would be between$80-$100 (for the basics), and about another $40 for my wish list.  With the Thirsties Diaper covers, the X-Small size fits 6-12 lbs, Small 12-18, Medium 18-28 lbs, Large 28-40 lbs.  Estimating $10 per week spend on disposables, each diaper cover would be paid for in about 1 week of cloth diapering.  The total cost of getting started would be recouped in 8-10 weeks, and you could diaper your child from birth to potty training for about $300 (estimating 5 covers per size).

I can say with absolute certainty that we will continue with cloth diapering with Wiggles and will do it again for any more children we have in the future.

1. It’s no harder than using a disposable diaper–Cloth diapering has come a long way.  Put out of your mind images of sticking a baby with a pin or soaking dirty diapers in a pail of water.  With velcro diaper covers you can use prefolds (old style diapers) with no pins, if you prefer to go more technical, check out fitted, all-in-ones, or pocket diapers.  You’ve got a lot more options than your grandma did.
2. Easier to restock when you run out–I would much prefer to throw a load of diapers in the wash than to load up the baby and head to the store.  Washing a load of diapers would take 10 minutes of my time (including folding), going to the store would be at least and hour of my day shot and probably a lot more money spent because I would get there and think, “Oh yeah! I need _____ too.”
3. Frugal–You can diaper a child from birth to potty trained for less than $300 (depending on what cloth diapering system you choose) versus about $1300 to use disposables for the same amount of time (assuming $10/ week for diapers and toilet training by 2.5 years old).  You can also use cloth diapers for more than one child so you could (potentially) diaper 2 or more children for around $300 ($700 average when you include the cost of water and detergent).
4. Easier to potty train–with cloth diapers children can actually feel when they are wet, and judging by Wiggles’ reaction, it isn’t a happy feeling.  According to the National Association of Diaper Services, cloth diapered babies potty train a year earlier on average than their disposable clad peers.
5. Long term use–cloth diapers can last through multiple children as diapers and when they have reached the point where they are not suitable as diapers they make great burp cloths or cleaning rags.
6. Disposable isn’t–have you ever thought about where that disposable diaper goes after the trash service takes it away? After one use of a disposable, they create a landfill problem (both because of the quantity of diapers and because of the dangers of having human waste in open landfills).  On a side note, did you know that you are supposed to shake out solid waste from disposable diapers too!  It’s written on the side of the package.  In many states it’s illegal to put human waste in the trash.
7. Easier on the Earth’s resources–Disposable diapers take a terrible toll on the Earth’s resources.  It takes 1 cup of crude oil to make 1 disposable diaper, not to mention the use of wood pulp.
8. Less Toxic–Then there’s the matter of bleach and other chemicals used to make the diapers white and absorbent.  There are a lot of chemicals being legally dumped into rivers from diaper plants.  Less toxic to the Earth means less toxic to my baby.  Why do we worry about eating organic, drinking filtered water, wearing natural makeup, etc and then put harsh chemicals against your sweet baby’s sensitive skin?
9. (possibly) reduce diaper rash–Even though I, personally, have not had to deal with diaper rash, I did notice that the baby’s skin looked healthier almost as soon as I switched to cloth diapers.  By healthier, I mean peach colored instead of red.  Many parents leave disposibles on their baby until it is completely full and can’t hold any more this means that the baby has been sitting with bacteria and ammonia right next to his skin for a long time.  With cloth diapers, the covers breath and you can’t ignore a wet diaper so the bacteria gets wiped away faster.  With disposables “dry” ? “clean”.  Or as one cloth diapering mama said, “It’s a diaper, not a toilet!”
10. Finally, Cloth diapers are just so darn cute!