Going to give blogging another shot!

I've been so wishy washy with my blogging! Perhaps I just don't get excited because I don't like the layout I have here. Anyone willing to help with that? Anyways, I'm really hoping to get back in the groove and use this as an accountability center.
I'm getting back in full swing with Big Boy's Tot School (we've been really sporatic with it because of all the Dr. appts we've been having to go to). This week we are working on the Letter Ii and Winter vocabulary words. We're also going to be going through Unit 11 in our Little Hands to Heaven curriculum (Judges 7:5-7).
Micah surprised me by ordering me my Christmas present early- a new, fancy camera! It will be here tomorrow and then I'll start taking some pictures of our Tot School and the other goings on for us!
Cloth diapering is still going great...If there are any new things with that, I'll be sure to post as well!
Please comment on here to keep me going!!!

Going Old School

So I'm loving trying all kinds of different cloth diapers! I've recently discovered a love for the old fashioned prefolds with Thirsties covers and GroVia shells. I ordered these medium (red edge) prefolds from Green Mountain Diapers (GMD). They offer sized prefolds which are really important to getting a good fit. The red edge fit from about 14 pounds, which is generally around 5 months. Sassy is only 14.5 pounds and almost 8 months old, so I thought this would be the best fit. The small yellow edge prefolds go up to about 16 pounds and they say to size up if you are close to the end of a weight range. These are still a bit big on her, but I've found a way to help that! Prefolds are basically a large piece of cotton with three different sections of material. the two outers have the same amount of layers and the middle has extra layers. These prefolds are 4-8-4 layers. Because it's just a large piece of thick fabric, they weren't fitting Sassy very well. I needed them to be slightly more fitted around her legs. I found a simple solution to this while searching the internet. I added thin pieces of elastic on either side of the middle section to that they pull a little bit.
Prefold before (I love how quilted and soft they get!)

Prefold after, with the elastic

Comparison of them without and with the elastic

With the elastic on Sassy. See how nice and tucked under it is?

Fastened with a pink Snappi! Ready for her Thirsties Hoot cover!

I'm still using all of my other types of diapers too, but there is something about the simplicity of prefolds and covers that is just comfortin

Stash Update

Wow! Life with two children 2 and under is BUSY! Here's an update on our cloth diapering.

It has grown quite a bit because of a website called Diaper Swappers. It's a great place to buy/sell/trade new and used diapers. We've bought and traded a few and we're pretty happy so far!

Here's what we have:

Two wetbags (1 FuzziBunz Mint, 1 Rumparooz Eco Owl)

Two small Grovia Wetbags (not pictured)

32 Cloth Wipes (I made)

8 Grovia AI2 Shells (Owls, Planes, Bluebird, Vanilla, 2 Cosmos, Blackberry)

4 Thirsties Covers (Alice Brights, Raspberry, Mango, Meadow)

3 Rumparooz G2 Pocket's (1 orange not pictured) (Eco Owl and Lux)

2 FuzziBunz One Size (Chocolate Truffle, Crushed Berries)

1 Small Happy Heiny (Cow Print)

4 Large Happy Heiny's (Blue, Hunter, Light Yellow, Orange- not pictured)

2 Kissa's Pocket Trainers

And the diapers themselves (not pictured):

8 flats (cotton)

6 Grovia Oragnic cotton soakers

4 Pooter's Contours (cotton)

6 gCloth (microfleece with hemp)

8 Thirsties Hemp Inserts

This is really probably more than we need, but I just can't help how cute some of these things are! The large HH's and the Pocket Trainers are Big Boy's for naps and over nights. Everything else is Sassy's :-) We've gone to all natural fibers...the microfiber we were using wasn't working well for them and was just stinky in the wash...

We kind of rotate through the different kinds depending on my moods, but Big Boy always sleeps in a HH with two hemp inserts and Sassy sleeps in a Rumparooz with two hemp inserts. This is just what works best for them...they are both tummy sleepers.

This is our update....we're trying a new washing routine with a detergent called Tiny Bubbles and Tide Free and Clear. It's working better than when we used All Free and Clear (military version).

Feel free to ask any questions and I'll continue to try and update!

Oh yeah, those inserts I made....they were cut in half and became cleaning rags :-)

Making my own Inserts

Well, I made a valiant effort in making my own diaper inserts. The materials I used were microfiber towels, old infant bath towels, and flannel receiving blankets. I made several different types...some resembling simple microfiber inserts, some like the G-flappers, and some like gCloth. The G-flappers way didn't work very well for me. So those were taken apart and made into other types. My favorite was the kind I made like the gCloth. They are just simple and fit great into her diapers. They have one layer of flannel, 3 layers of microfiber, and 1 layer of terrycloth. Honestly, I'm not thoroughly happy with them, but they definitely work. I think the biggest problem I had with them is that they aren't as trim as I would like. I'm used to the disposable diapers that are extremely thin, and I haven't exactly gotten over that yet! Because of that, I picked up 6 gCloth inserts (made by gDiapers). They are hemp with a layer of cotton on top of it. They are great!! Love, love, love them! I'm sure I'll end up getting more gCloth in the future, they are great in all of the shells I have! Sassy likes them too- the cotton is so soft against her skin! I'll keep the ones I made and they'll be my backups when everything else is in the wash. Overall, a good try, but I won't be trying to make them any more. They are very labor intensive, which shows me why they generally cost so much!

Thirsties Thursday Giveaway #2

Head over to Thirsties to enter the 2nd Thirsties Thursday Giveaway!! You could win two Thirsties Duo Diapers!