Things to Accomplish for 2013

2013 is going to bring some major changes for our family that our 2012 whirlwind will be just a blink and an interesting story to remember. So my plan is to try to implement some EASY changes into our daily lives that will make life go a little bit smoother for all of us!

Some of my January Goals...

 * Out is going to come the digital calendar!

    - need to get into the habit of using SIRI a bit more on the reminder factor!

 * Meal prep days are going to become more of a necessity rather than a convenience

    - the freezer is really going to get a work out!

 * Pinterest is probably going to see a massive increase do to needing to organize my IT life

     - apologies in advance!
 * Kids activities are going to have to be set up the night before rather than in the morning
    - busy boxes galore!
 * Mommy's filing system is going to be simplified...
   - Bye Bye Piles
 * Walgreens.com is going to see an influx in picture posting
   - I am not going to just be able to wait a month or two to post pictures to print
 * Create an OUTBOX
   - just a box where stuff can land that needs to be donated

OH and if you are in Harris Teeter Territory...Super Doubles are going on this week! All the way up to $2.00 will double and what is even better....IT's Chicken TIME!!! Buy 2 Get 3 Free! We went last night armed and ready! How did we do? Well, spent almost 2 weeks worth of money on groceries but...

$192.48 Spent, $217.83 Saved     =   $410.31 worth of Groceries for less than $200! Not Bad since we saved more than we spent, which is always the main goal! Over 50% savings!

Day 25: Adventures in Cloth

Since our consumerism challenge has come to an end, Adventures in Cloth Diapering has begun.

Lesson One: Some of these need covers and some do not

When Monk was a baby, I had seen many of my SAHM friends using cloth diapers on their babies and we had briefly talked about the advantages of using them; less irritation, less diaper rashes, money savings, environmentally conscious...and the lists they gave me went on. They weren't using what looked like your mom's white dish cloths with pins and stuff. They were using one that looked like a disposable diaper with velcro tabs, they just happened to look a tad bulkier on the hieny. Apparently, there are considerable differences in this growing going cloth world. Well since we have had our own tribulations with baby Gator, plus our consumerism challenge, we knew that we had to make the switch to cloth.

There are CD's (Cloth Diapers) that need covers and some that do not, we learned this on day 1 of changing to CD's. After putting one on that didn't need a cover, then changing the Gator into one that apparently did, and again and again...having to clean up the mess, I pretty much psychologically broke down and almost said screw it. It just wasn't for me. All I knew of CD's were that they were "new age" and easy piezy, well yes, if you know what you are using!

Both types of CD's that we were given have velcro tabs on the outside and looked very similar. We were not given any "covers". We were given ones that had prints on them and when I found out that they needed a cover, I thought well "why put a design on them if you are just going to cover it up?". I apparently had so much to learn and I had to do it quickly. The CD's that did not need covers soon became my favorites to use. They had a pocket inside that you just "stuff" a cloth retangular pad into and you are off and running. They also have velcro or snaps, so it makes them easy on easy off. Voila, diaper change in 2 minutes, same as with a disposable! Soon these became my favorites to use. Ya know in the first 48 hours!

We had 4 no-covers on hand and 4 need covers and well I knew that Mr. Bacon Bringer Homer wouldn't be that into changing the Gator if it took him more than the usual 3 step process of remove, wipe, put one on. So 4 just wouldn't cut it. I found myself washing one as soon as it was used. I began losing my mind. My friend Mrs. P, who had used CD's on both of her babes, came over with 6 dipes from her stash that she could share! WaHoo, we now had 10 and I could possibly make it from morning to night and then wash! Life was so much easier in tushy land! The Gator, took well to CDing and we have had no reactions since!

I began looking into getting my own stash of our CD's. We knew that we wanted ones that had the built in no cover. To my surprise, I found a whole marketing mecca of CD's. So many options, so many different varieties, each with their own must-have tweaks to make your CD life easier. I feel like I have learned a whole new language with all the terminology that comes along with learning about this. Terms and Abbreviations amuck! It was mind blowing. More on this later in another blog.

Lesson 2: $$$$
Then came the cost of these suckers! Some of them range from $9-$29 each! WTF? Could there be that much of a difference in these pee and poop catchers? Our new found favorites, Bumgenius, as we have come to learn are some what of the cadillac of CD's, they are about $18 each, luckily they are not the coveted Shelby Mustangs or Ferrari!

At the tail end of our challenge, after scouring the internet for the best prices to buy some Bumgenius to build our stash and give Mrs. P back hers, I came across a giant sale. Buy 5 get one free! Cha Ching! My discount shopper beacon went off! Apparently, this type of sale is rare in the CDing world! So, I began navigating around, and another new vocabulary lesson into colors and prints of CD's began. I thought that ya know, staying away from colors and prints, and staying with white ones would be cheaper, but nope the ones without prints cost the same as white. I filled a shopping cart with 12 of these suckers. Mr. Bacon Bringer Homer began to think I was nuts. He would come home and find an open window on the computer tuned into dipes. I would ask him about what colors he liked, I wasn't going to leave him out of this new found bargain! But guess what, I got another odd look, because frankly he didn't give a flying. "Why should I give a flying about what color the poop catchers are?".

The night before our consumerism challenge was coming to an end, he checked the total in the shopping cart, his mouth dropped. "Are you kidding me" I heard him shout from the other room. "You can't possibly think that we are going to fork out almost $200 for 12 Diapers! We're coming off a saving money sprint!" So as quick as those words left his mouth, I reminded him that we would not have to buy diapers again, even if we had another baby! Quickly this lifestyle, when put to dollars and cents, and considering the fact that the Gator would be in dipes for another 2 years at minimum. That's a pretty good deal compared to the $60 a month we were spending on dipes, then throw in the money we were spending on rash and redness cream for Gator's allergic reactions, at $20 a month...all this even with coupons!

So here's the math:

2.5 years or 30 months x $60= $1800 on dipes

                                30 x $20= $600 on cream

                           _________________

                                     $2400

vs. $180 

Since we were already running our washing machine with 4 people in the house, it really wouldn't change our bill there, by throwing in some dipes.

So...Hello...Buy now!

Day 23: The November Challenge

The November Challenge: Trials and Tribulations of Cloth Diapering

As we have come to learn, our little Gator has developed an allergy to disposable diapers. It doesn't matter what type I try, how long we have tried it for, what types of creams we have used, changing him every hour. Dollars just began running down the drain.

So during our October Consumerism Challenge, we enacted a trial of Cloth Diapering. We tried 4 different types of cloth diapers, all with tribulations of their own. I have used my cloth mamas resources and scoured message boards trying to learn as much as I could on the "these are not your mom's cloth diapers" anymore. So for those last 2 weeks, I think we did fairly well.

So for the entire month of November we bring you the Trials and Tribulations of New Age Cloth Diapering. 

Day 10: EveryBODY Poops

So, today is our anniversary. I woke up in bed with my husband. Mr. Bacon Bringer Homer woke up in bed with our 2 children. We have been married for 4 years. Little did we know that 4 years later this would be our routine. Monk was born exactly 10 months and 1 day after we got married, so we really never got to experience the newlywed period of life without children. Oops, guess we were just too good at the practicing. We always said that we didn't want to just have one child. We wanted him/her to have a sibling, and well we weren't going to rush it, but I didn't want to even think about it until Monk was at least 2 years old. Well, God had a different plan for us. There was no thinking about it or "trying". A few weeks after Monk turned 2 the stick turned blue.

Having a new baby, your world starts revolving around poop. We never thought that poop would be a topic of conversation in our household. Boy, is life...ummm interesting. The screams of "oh, my God, how could something this little have that much poo!" was probably heard by our neighbors as well as "Honey, get the scissors, this onezie is not worth saving!". Oh the delights of being a first time parent.

Now, flash forward 3 years into parenting comes potty training. Just when our neighbors thought that the yelling for scissors was over, little did they know it would be followed by "these underwear are not worth saving!" nor did we. While we were in the beginning stages of this new parenting quest, praise, joy, and rewards were abound. We made a big deal out of using the potty and wearing big boy undies. Monk pretty much has it down pat except for at night. Yay, one kid out of diapers, one more to go!

Gator is an a-typical pooping baby. When he was about a month old, he went without pooping for 6 days and our entire family began to worry something was wrong with him. We rushed him to the pediatrician, who looked at me and said "since he is a breastfed baby, it's OK. We will talk when he hasn't pooped for 10 days. Since he is a preemie,  he is probably using up everything he eats.". When he finally did poop, later that night, we sort of made a big deal with it. Of course, Monk was there to hear and bear witness to the whole thing.

Little did we know that we created a poop patrol monster. Monk is the Sergeant in Command. Now Sgt. Monk of the Poop Patrol thinks it is his duty to have to look at every one of the Gator's diapers checking to see if the Gator has pooped. If he did, the excitement comes out "Yay, he pooped" comes flying out of his mouth followed by "it's ____(color)".  If Gator has not, Monk is quiet and somber "Nope, just pee." and goes running back to whatever he was doing.

So now, the cloth diapers has turned Sgt. Monk of the Poop Patrol's world upside down. Cloth diapers in this house already come with colors. Though the insides are white in the ever on duty mini-human's mind, the poop has to be a different color than what it used to be when we would throw them away. Throwing in another curve ball is the fact that the Gator started eating solid foods. "whoa Mommy, that doesn't look right, I think he needs to go to the doctor!" What's a mother to do?

Now the "Why's" have started and beginning with poop and the color of it. Dog poop, cat poop, everybody poops Sgt. Monk, just like you! A wise friend, who has raised her children, just sending her youngest off to college, told me that she hasn't been to the restroom by herself in over 32 years. When she first told me of this, I thought...Hello door locks! Well door locks as I have come to find out, don't keep your child from asking you "Mommy why did you lock the door? Are you pooping? Daddy Whatcha doing in there? Are you pooping?" I now understand where she was going with this when she was referring to her children when they were little. Why lock the door, they are just going to beat on it until you answer them! All our Pooping Sgt. wants to know is if you are regular or do we need to take you to the doctor. We have thought about getting the "Everybody Poops" book for him at the library, but that's about making it OK for a kid to poop in the potty, defeating the grand purpose of changing the subject of poop in our house. 

Day 3: Consumerism almost gets the best of me

This morning began as the epitome of epic failure and it all started oh at about midnight. So as I told the world that we were pretty much out of diapers yesterday, what I failed to note was the 6 that I thought we had was actually 3 which dwindled down to 1 come morning. So last night we attempted the cloth diapers on the baby and well, the first one went on great, no problems there. Both and I mean both of my children decided somewhere the universe told them that they wanted to stay up and wait for Mr. Bread Winner to come home from a long day of elections. So the baby made it until 11:45 and the 3 year old made it until about um...3 minutes after he walked in the door. So just after midnight in the land of should be all peace, love and quietness the baby woke in the nice placid way he does, and needed to be taken up to the crib. But apparently that notion was nowhere in his little mind. Mr. Bread Winner sweetly rocked him beside the crib in usual daddy fashion and normally that works to get this little one back to the land of sweet dreams. Nope. Not today. After a diaper change and 30 minutes of the purple cry, we gave in...we thought that since it was not a-typical of him something might just be wrong...out comes comfort boobie or CB as it is referred to around our house. All being right with the world again after another 1/2 hour the baby was finally fast asleep in the crib.

DUN DUNT DUN....

The batteries in the smoke detectors start going off a couple of hours later and the whole house is up well before the sun even has the chance of rising on the horizon. Mr. Bread Winner teaches what he thought was the right smoke detector a lesson...Nope...Monk as we call our 3 year old wants to get up and watch TV and the baby, we call him Gator is wailing. We typically don't let Monk watch that much TV and well the sun isn't even awake so maybe he will fall back to sleep...WooHoo after 5 minutes the Gold medal goes to Chez Stoneford, but Gator on the other hand not so easy. Upon closer look at our little cherub, he is SOAKED, and so is the crib! We changed him, brought him into our bed for some CB and back to sleep we all went.

DUN DUNT DUN...

We woke to a pee soaked Gator again. We didn't think we had been doing anything wrong, but again maybe because he had eaten so much over the course of the night...Got up changed everything and the Gator came down stairs, put him on the floor and since he is doing the scoot roll thing, he was having fun. I walked in the living room after giving Monk his breakfast to SQUISH! My carpet is wet. Ok now my own tears have started to come down...Mommy meltdown before noon. 2 beds and now the carpet. What were we doing wrong?

Did you hear that toilet flush, because Consumerism was beginning to get the best of me by now and I was fully prepared to go and buy those diapers that I forcibly did not buy yesterday. 1 disposable left so I called for HELP!!! I took that 1 disposable and started to put it on the Gator and then guess what? The freaking tab broke on the one side deeming it useless. So at the advice of a friend, DUCT TAPE to the rescue. (I will ad in she offered to go to the store and buy me a pack of Diapers!) Now Mr. Bread Winner is an Eagle Scout so we had to have it just lying around right? No freaking duct tape! By this time patience was not getting the best of me and well I took that broken last disposable put the Gator in it and put a cloth diaper over it. It just had to work until something. I went to the store or just got rescued from my pee floating island.

Knock Knock...Who's there?

There I stood with my hair a mess, smelling horribly in my jammies that smelled from the puddle, eyes puffy and just losing it. The same friend that had given me the Cloth Diapers came knocking Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha in hand, she handed it over and graciously gave me a hug! Apparently I was supposed to use these things called Diaper covers on some of the diapers that she had given me. And well they were not anywhere to be found in the bag!

So to sum it all up, Consumerism Diverted for another day, Cheers for a friend with Starbucks to the rescue. Now where was there room in my morning for those BonBons? or my afternoon of cleaning, scrubbing? All for the love of my children. All for the love of my children :)

Totals for the day:

Consumerism: 0
Us:1