See- I Cleaned Something

I cleaned everything off and dusted. I sorted and reshelved. I filled three boxes with books to get rid of and move to other locations. And I resolved not to buy anymore books. It's still over filled but it looks much better.
My Husband got out the steam cleaner and I have a nice floor again. So I'm resolved to keep it clear of toys and clutter. And to limit drinks to the kitchen.

There's always more to do but this still makes me happy.

The TMI Post- Reusable Sustainable Feminity

If you're squeamish about reusable feminine hygiene products then this post is not for you. Feel free to look away. Also, no one is paying me for this post- this is strictly my own personal opinion of these products after using them for a few years.

Today I'm going to discuss two products I use-

The Keeper is a reusable menstrual cup made from natural rubber that is inserted inside the body. The insertion technique is slightly more difficult than inserting a disposable tampon. You fold it in half twice to insert and then you have to twist it bit to get it to fit into place. It took me a little while to figure this out but now that I have I prefer this greatly to any overnight tampons. It has never leaked on me. I've never even needed a pad like I do with regular tampons. I only use this overnight but I am not replacing my disposable tampons. This is in fact, A Keeper, for me. The initial price seems steep ($35) but when you think about paying $5 and up for a box of disposable tampons it pays for itself in a few months. Also, I love those leak free mornings.
The clean up isn't bad. Just dump the contents into the toilet and give it a good wash and rinse with hot water and soap. You can also do all of this in the shower too.

My favorite feminine hygiene product has to be my GladRags though. I know it seems yucky to have to wash out the dirtied pads but it's not much different than washing out leaked on panties or a pee pee diaper. I simply put mine in the wash with dirty towels. They come out clean and ready to go. They are shaped like normal pads with wings but have a snap instead of sticky tape.
There is an envelope bottom that you can put more pads into for however heavy your flow is that day. They are really absorbent. My favorite part of using Glad Rags though is that they are so much more comfortable than disposable pad. I don't feel like I'm wearing a diaper and there is no fear of having the tape stick painfully to anything it isn't supposed to.

If you don't mind the slight squirm factor involved with sustainable hygiene (and really it's not bad) and you are tired of paying out the nose for uncomfortable disposable cotton and plastic then these products might be right for you. I've had menses for over half my life (27 years in fact) and I prefer the comfort and ease of the reusable products to the disposable. I never have to make an emergency run to the store and I'm not filling up our trash cans with used up tampons and pads (discretion is a bonus).

Our sick day.

Two of us are still in jammies and in lieu of lunch we've snacked on chips, granola bars, apples, and cheese sticks. The kids have had one scuffle, Little Guy is on his fourth cloth diaper, I finally finished reading my latest novel, and attempted to make my first batch of homemade yogurt.



Of course, as soon as I was ready to put my milk/starter mixture into my cups the electricity went off. Apparently it was a planned outage that I didn't find out about until five minutes after I called to tell the electric company that our power was out again. Anyway, the power is back on and I figure yogurt is just rotten milk anyway so it should be fine if I have to cook it a bit longer.

Back into cloth - and skipping the humidifier purchase

My supply of disposable diapers is running low.

Remember when I said I wasn't buying any more diapers? Sigh. I guess it's time I worked on potty training. I am dragging my feet. My mom suggested that I wasn't ready to give up my baby and I think she's right.

I also still have piles of cloth diapering stuff that I bought for Big Girl years ago. And it mocks me silently when I pass by it because I spent a lot of money on those diaperaps and snappis and such.
So, here we go again.

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A few days ago hubby said that we should buy a humidifier for our upstairs because it gets so dry in the winter. I suggested that instead of that we buy a few dryer racks and hang our wet laundry in our rooms to dry at night. He agreed and now I just have to go get some decent drying racks.
The cheap wooden one that I bought at Target is already broken after a few uses. This time I'm going to buy the best the store has in stock.

There's a whole web page devoted to air drying your laundry. It's green, it's free, what's not to like?

Mulling it over- Diaper Shopping Time

We're running low on diapers. I've been buying Aldi's Nanny brand and using Huggies Overnights at bedtime. I think it works great. Hubby is not convinced that the Nanny's are just as good at the Cosco Kirkland brand. The Kirkland brand are .20 cents per diaper. The Aldi's brand run about .17 cents a diaper.

I'm so tired of diapers and the piles of cloth diapers and covers are staring at me mockingly. The smell of two days worth of dirty diapers makes me gag. And hubby's complaining about cloth doesn't help. But, I'm considering them. Not only to stretch our diaper dollars but I really hate throwing out .20 cents of diaper in a landfill every two or three hours.

We're gingerly stepping our feet into the potty training pool. We started too early with our daughter and it backfired. As much as I love having a baby in the house I will not miss diapers- cloth or paper.

Simple Pleasures

I've been meaning to buy a 2.99 bouquet for myself from Aldi but decided that I could make do with a few simple flowers from our yard. The saki bottle was a dollar shop Christmas gift a few years ago from my husband. The cloth napkin is from a batch that I bought for .50 from a thrift store. The art work is courtesy of my daughter. She and grandma painted yesterday when she visited. And the plastic green thing is a diaper snapper called a Snapee. I love it. I got so tired of trying to use pins and poking myself.



I couldn't resist hanging my diapers out to dry today although it's against the Neighborhood association policy. There's nothing I like better than watching the Sun dry my laundry for free.

The Amy Challenge.

So, I've been perusing my Tightwad Gazette daily lately. I'm reinspired, which is the case whenever I reread it.

I'm still doing cloth diapers whenever we're home during the day. I did my first small load of diapers and they are hanging to dry in our laundry room. I splurged and bought the cheap drying rack from Target. I put it together while I watched a Joyce Meyer show on some religious channel that we now get.

Oh yeah, we shaved many many channels off of our DTV package for a $20.00 savings monthly. It was a compromise between keeping the big package that we had (I will miss you TLC, DHC and A&E) and getting rid of it completely. Our reception isn't good anyway and we really love having a tivo. Now I think I'll watch less tv during the day since my favorite shows are no longer available to me. At least until Lost, Survivor, and Grey's Anatomy restart.

I made two jugs of sun tea instead of drinking up our hoarded cases of our sale pop.
My husband is a big dude who needs lot of hydration so this hits the spot. And I enjoy seeing my tea jug perking on the patio in the sunlight.

I made lentil soup for dinner which was pretty good but not toddler friendly. We had bing cherries for dessert.

On a not so frugal note I settled on a day care provider for my son when my daughter goes back to preschool. Because we don't live close to relatives or anyone I know well enough to leave my children with I don't have a free sitter. And I have to be available for helping and field trips and I can't take jr. Yeah, it bugs me too but, the side benefit is that those days that I'm not at preschool.. I get to grocery shop alone or see a Dr. w/o small companions. We're looking at 5-10 hours a week. Next Tuesday is his free trial day and I hope he likes it.

I think that's all for now.

Cloth Diapering.... again.

With my first child we started out using cloth and disposable diapers. I was fortunate enough to have generous in laws who offered to pay for three months of diaper services for us. Well, that company went out of business at the end of those three months and I was able to buy up some of their very nice diapers for 5.00 a dozen.
I also accrued two dozen unbleaced diapers, a dozen unfolded diapers, and various covers and snaps. All told I probably have invested 150 dollars in cloth diapers. My daughter wore mostly disposable after those first few months with another try at cloth diapering around the time we were ready to potty train.

So, I've been rereading my Tightwad Gazette for inspiration... and I stumble on a diapering article that I'd forgotten about. Here's an easy way for me to pinch a couple lincolns... cloth diapers. I have them. I have a toddler. Voila.
My son is now 17 months old and I decided that it was time to finally get my money out of those cloth diapers that are sitting in his closet.
So, this is his second day in cloth diapers. We still put him in a disposable for outings and for sleep. Now I have to think about buying a drying rack for the diapers and covers. We don't have a clothes line outside.
Another thing to consider.