K-mart Deals!

K-mart is having a 50% off sale on all their clearance toys.  I went to 2 K-mart stores and got these 18 toys for $85.82!  Woot!  I am almost done buying Christmas gifts and birthday gifts for everyone on my list!

Check it out now thru October 8th!

Menu Monday - Oct 1

Sunday:  Chicken, Squash*, Green Beans*, Potatoes*
Monday: FYOD (leftovers)
Tuesday: Mexican Chicken Caserole
Wednesday:  Po'boys, Kale*, and Corn*
Thursday: ?
Friday: Pizza and salad*

* Food from CSA Share

Do: Freezing Tomatoes - A Photo Tutorial

We FINALLY got around to harvesting our tomatoes from our raised bed garden.  We planted Early Girl and Black Price heirlooms and got quite a load!  This last batch was picked just before our first frost, so I had to do something with them FAST.  Since I haven't figured out canning yet, I decided to dice them and freeze them for winter.

Freezer Tomatoes

18-20 Ripe Tomatoes

Boiling Water

Qt Freezer Bags

Marker

1.  Wash your tomatoes.

2.  Bring a pot of water to a boil and carefully add your tomatoes.

In less then 1 minute, start removing the tomatoes that have split.  

Place in a bowl to cool.

Use a bowl to help your baggie "stand" up.

Now the skin will just all off!  Peel and dice the tomatoes.

Place in Qt ziploc bags and label.  Freeze!
They have a shelf life of about 8 months.

Enjoy the fruits of your labor!!

Menu Monday - 9/24

Ah, what has happen to the the last month!  I have lots of photos to blog about, so I will be posting a bunch of catch up posts soon!

Here is this weeks menu:
Monday:  Shrimp Corn* Chowder (corn, potato, onion all from CSA)
Tuesday:  Eggplant* Parm
Wednesday: FYOD
Thursday: Chinese
Friday: Pizza
*Food from our CSA share

I'm also starting to store some CSA and garden food in the freezer, so I will post my process tomorrow!

Menu Monday - 8/20

Monday: Cheesy Mexican Rice Bake
Tuesday: Bourbon Turkey Tenderloin kabobs, saute swiss chard*, and leftover potato salad.
Wednesday: Shrimp, pasta, alfredo with eggplant and basil*
Thursday: Tuna Sandwiches, corn* and green bean*/tomato* salad
Friday:  Travel
Saturday:  Travel
Sunday: Steak with broccoli and potato

*Food from our CSA share

Read of the Week: Somewhere Only We Know

This isn't an article,but its an exceptional PSA about protecting our National Forests.  Happy Friday!

Love it!: Pinterest Review

Yes, I am one of those people.  I spend hours browsing Pinterest looking for the perfect kitchen color, perfect living room decor, and perfect kids room.  I have my dream house pinned on Pinterest!

What is it?  Pinterest is an online bulletin board for your interests.  You "pin" your "interests!" Remember when you ripped out pages of a magazine of the perfect kitchen or bedroom color and put them in a notebook or up on a bulletin board?  No more!  Now have the whole internet as your inspiration. You just "Pin it" when you see a photo or article you like and it's saved to one of your Pinterest "boards.

Rating:  Love it!

Pros:  All your ideas are all in one place.  It almost takes the place of website bookmarks. I still bookmark my favorite sites, but if I find a great recipie or craft tutorial, I pin in and a photo of the craft or recipie is saved along with the link.  It couldn't me easier!  You can also follow your facebook friends and see what they are pinning.  I steal all my best ideas from friends!

Cons:  There are few privacy settings to limit people from seeing your pins. Once you pin something, the whole world can see it and repin it (repin means they can save it to their board.)  So if you pin a gift for your friend and call it "Great idea for Sally's birthday," it is likely that Sally will see it if she is a member of pinterest. 

Go check it out!

Do: Cheesy Mexican Rice Bake Recipe

I made this up for dinner Monday, and it was so yummy. Pure comfort food!

Ingredients:
1 cup dry white rice
1 can red or black beans
1 can corn
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup of salsa
2 cups of cooked boneless chicken breast or thigh, cubed
1 cup shreaded Mexican blend cheese, divided
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried cilantro (fresh would be better!)

Do:
Preheat oven to 350.  Cook your rice according to the package directions.  In a 9x13 casserole pan, mix the beans, corn, cream of chicken soup, salsa, chicken, 1/2 cup of cheese, and spices.  Add cooked rice and stir until blended.  Top with remaining cheese.  Bake for 30 minutes or until warm and bubbly.
Serve with avocado, sour cream, or diced scallions.

Enjoy!

Cloth Diapers - The Basics!

I promise this won't be a cloth diaper blog!  But I wanted to share some Q and As I often get from my friends who don't cloth diaper.

Q.  Why do you cloth diaper JD?
Mainly to save money, but also for environmental reasons.  When I was pregnant, I researched EVERYTHING!  I discovered this whole community of cloth diapering parents and they taught me that modern cloth diapers are functional, affordable, and cute!  I did a quick calculation on the "return on investment" of a cloth diaper stash and I got 8 months!  After 8 months we will diaper JD for FREE!  I was sold.
I won't bore you with all the statistics about disposable diaper trash, but I didn't want to contribute any more trash than I had to.  Cloth diapering, even part time, can drastically reduce your trash!   Full disclosure time:  we do use disposables at night, when we travel and when JD was a newborn (see below), but most days we use cloth.

Q: What did you do when JD was a newborn?

JD at 12 days in a Kissaluvs 0 and Bummis cover

A: For the first few weeks of JD's life, we used a case Earth's Best newborn disposable diapers because we didn't want to have to learn to be parents while trying to figure out the whole cloth diaper thing  (sign up for Amazon Mom and you can order a case of diapers super cheap!) .
We skipped buying a full stash of newborn cloth diapers because we knew he would outgrow them so fast!  A friend gave me 5 Kissaluvs, size 0 and a few Bummis newborn covers that worked great from the start, but I was too chicken to go full time with cloth until JD was about 6 weeks old!  Knowing what I know now, I could have gone fulltime cloth a LOT earlier.  Maybe we will for #2!

At 6 weeks, and about  9-10 lbs,we finally got a good fit with our one-size diapers and started diapering full time with Bumgenius One-Size All-in-One Elemental diapers and Bumgenius 4.0 One-Size Stay Dry Pocket Diapers.

Q. How to you wash the diapers and deal with the Poop!?

A. We have the washing routine down and it really isn't that much work.  We bought a diaper care kit to get us started.  It has everything you need to clean the diapers except the pail (any trash can with a tight lid will work)

Wet diapers just get thrown into a diaper pail that has a washable liner.  Poopy diapers get rinsed off with a diaper sprayer (comes with the kit) that is attached to the toilet, then tossed in the pail.  Every 3rd day, we take the liner out of the pail and toss the whole thing in the washer.  One cold wash Tide original powder to remove any remaining poop, then a hot wash with Charlies soap, followed by another hot wash without soap.  We dry the inserts and all-in ones on medium heat, then toss in all the covers on low heat.  It takes 2 rounds in the dryer to get the all in one diapers dry.

Q. Do you touch Poop?

A. To be honest, I think I have to deal with more poop with disposables because the are more likely to leak and I have to not only change the diaper, but his clothes too!  There have been so few leaks with the cloth diapers that I am tempted to start traveling with them! 

Q.  Don't cloth diapers cost a lot of money?

A.  We've spent about $350 on our diapers, laundry soap, and washing kit (we should broke even when JD hits 8 months! After that, it's all gravy!).  We bought most of our diapers on e-bay, as seconds or used.  This saved a ton of money.  Cottonbabies.com has clearance sales every few months that includes seconds and returned diapers.  Ebay is great and you can find new diapers for cheap (lots of people try cloth diapers and give up - then sell off their diapers for 1/2 the price).  From my flats challenge post you can see how you can cloth diaper for under $100!

Gently Used Diapers websiteshttp://www.jilliansdrawers.
com/products/clothdiapers/gentlyused
http://www.diaperjunction.com/
used-cloth-diapers.html


Other Websites to browse
http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/
cloth-diaper-video-reviews/
http://community.babycenter.
com/groups/a16235/cloth_diapering
http://www.jilliansdrawers.
com/products/clothdiapers/tryclothfor10

Menu Monday - 8/13

Here was last week's menu.

Leftover Lobster + Mayo  = AWESOME LOBSTER ROLL!

Monday: Lobster Roll with left over lobster!
Tuesday: Easy Chicken Enchilada
Wednesday: Fish Sandwich, corn* and Cole Slaw*
Thursday: Fried Eggplant* Parmesan and salad*
Friday:  Pizza and salad*
Saturday:  FYOD (Find your own Dinner - Leftovers in our house!)
Sunday: Burgers, salad*, and Loaded Potato* Salad

*Food from our CSA share

CSA Share this week!

Happy Birthday Nana!

JD wanted to wish his Nana a Happy Birthday! 

 

I made a video of this photo shoot....check it out!

Do: Fried eggplant and/or Zucchini Recipe

Summer is here, so it's time to make fried zucchini with all the extra zucchini you have coming out of your garden!  Actually, this is the first time we are making fried zucchini this year because our zucchini plants got trampled...so sad.  But that is a story for another day!  We just got our first zucchini and eggplant from our CSA so it was time to make this yummy family recipe.  It's so easy and SOOOOOO good.

Fried Zucchini and Eggplant (YUM!)

Ingredients:
1-2 zucchini (big ones work great!)
and/or eggplant (peel the eggplant because it's tough)
3 eggs (I use about 1 egg per zucchini//eggplant)
1-2 c. flour
grated parmesan cheese
lemon
vegetable oil

Do:
In a large frying pan, add enough oil to cover the bottom of your pan.  Warm oil on medium-high heat.
Cut your zucchini and eggplant into thin slices.  Make sure you peel your eggplant.
In a shallow bowl, scramble your eggs.  Pour 1 cup of flour in another shallow bowl.  Once your oil is hot enough (I drop a little water in the pan and if it sizzles, it's hot!,) dip your zucchini slices in the egg wash first, coating both sides.  Then dip the slices in the flour, coating completely.  Place in pan in one layer.  After about 2 minutes (or when golden brown,) turn with a fork.  Cook 2 more minutes. Place on a paper towel to cool.  Sprinkle with lemon and grated parmesan cheese while still hot. Continue until you cook all your zucchini/eggplant.  It usually takes 3-4 rounds to finish it all.  Make sure you add the lemon and cheese after every round.
Serve with pasta and red sauce.

My cooking station:  Egg, Flour, Cook, Cool, Lemon, Cheese!

Toddler Approved!

Enjoy!

Menu Monday-8/6

Here was last week's menu. I hope to post the fried zucchini recipe tomorrow.

Monday: Hot Dogs, salad, and Tots
Tuesday: Burgers, broccoli* and corn*
Wednesday: Fried eggplant* and Zucchini* with pasta
Thursday: Chicken with Mushrooms, green beans* and Rice
Friday:  Pizza and caprese salad
Saturday:  Lobster (It's $3.99/lb!) and corn
Sunday: FYOD (Find your own Dinner - Leftovers in our house!)
*Food from our CSA share

Do: Pizza

When I was in high school I worked at a pizza joint and I still love to toss pizza!  Every Friday we have pizza at our house.....here is how we do it.

Ingredients:

1 pizza dough ball from the Deli

Dusting of Flour

1 8oz can of tomato sauce

Sprinkle of dried basil and oregano

Fresh mozzarella or shredded mozzarella

Toppings of your choice:  We usually do 1/3 cheese,1/3 meat, 1/3 veggie.

Do:

First you need to thaw your dough for about 8 hours if it is frozen.  Frozen dough works just as well as dough from your deli. 

Preheat your oven to 450. I unwrap my dough ball and dunk it in the flour, coating it on all sides.  On a floured surface, flatten out your dough ball, working out all the air bubbles.  If you leave in the air bubbles, you may get one of those giant bubbles on your cooked pizza.  Then I toss it.  I'm sure you can find a youtube video on this....I may try to make one net week!

After your dough is stretched to the size of your pizza pan, spread out your sauce.  I like to use the back of a spoon to spread it around.

Then I give a generous sprinkle of basil and oregano (use your best judgement.)

Pizza with sauce and spices.

Toppings:  1/3 Turkey pepperoni and Bacon, 1/3 tomato and basil, 1/3 cheese.

Once the sauce is on, I like to lay out my toppings, then the cheese.  Some people like the toppings on top of the cheese, this is your choice.  JD likes shredded cheese, so his chunk is shredded, while the rest is slices of fresh mozzarella.

Ready to bake!

 Bake for 12 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown.

Fresh out of the oven!

Wait about 5 minutes before cutting so the cheese can set.

Serve with a salad.  Enjoy!

Read of the Week:Honesttoddler

This is sooooo JD!
Enjoy the read!

http://honesttoddler.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/recipes/

Love it!: Bumgenius 3.0/4.0 Stay Dry Pocket Diaper

Here is my first "Love it!" product review! Since I migrated all my Flat Diaper/Handwashing Challenge posts over from Domestic Dirt, I thought I'd start with a cloth diaper review! 

Bumgenius 3.0/4.0 Stay Dry Pocket Diaper

Rating: Love it! (snaps) Like it (hook and loop)

What is it?:  Bumgenius 3.0/4.0 stay dry pocket diapers are modern cloth diapers have a pocket made of suedecloth (soft) that you stuff absorbent inserts into.  The 3.0 versions come in velcro (hook and loop) and the 4.0 version comes in both snap and hook and loop.   In my experience, they fit from about 9-10 lbs to 35lbs.

Here is JD in a 4.0 snap version on the middle rise at 4 months and about 17 lbs.

Bumgenius retail for $17.95,but often are on sale for $14.50 each when you buy 6.  I bought several of JD's new, but over half of my stash are "last chance" diapers that cottonbabies.com offers occasionally.  These  "last chance" diapers are used and in need of repair, but cost only $1-2!

Pros:   Bumgenius are trim and they work!  What more can you ask for in a diaper!   The suedecloth wicks the wetness away from the baby so they feel dry.  JD seems to like the stay dry better than having wet cotton against his skin.  It's more like a disposable diaper where all the wetness gets locked into the inside of the diaper!  The hook and loop versions are very easy to put on (especially in the middle of the night!)  I like that you can customize the amount of absorbency by stuffing it with different kinds of inserts. The come with 2 microfiber inserts, but at 21 months, we now stuff all JD's Bumgenius with one pad folded flat and a 3-layer bamboo insert.

Here is JD in a Bumgenius 3.0 at 17 months and 30 lbs.

Cons:  Like most pocket diapers, you have to take out the microfiber insert before you wash it and then stuff it back in again after the wash.  Just an extra step, which when you are tired seems like a mountain of work!
The hook and look versions haven't held up over time.  After about 8 months of use, the hook and loop started to fray, and lost their stickiness.  I have replaced the  hook and loop  on several of my diapers which costs about $3 in supplies to accomplish.  I also bought snap pliers and some KAM snaps and converted some to snaps to avoid the  hook and loop issues in the future.  A set of pliers cost about $20 and snaps run about $5 set, which will fix 5 diapers.
The biggest con with Bumgenius is the microfiber inserts.  They hold a TON of liquid, but get stinky over time.  I've stripped them with dawn, beached them, changed my laundry soup, but they still stink.  Ever since I took the Flat Diaper/Handwashing Challenge in May, we have used only cotton flats and bamboo inserts in my Bumgenius and they work great.  

Disclaimer:  I was not paid or "perked" to give this review.  I bought all my Bumgenius from cottonbabies.com or the cloth diaper swap on babycenter.com.

Buy Local with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)!

By now most people have heard of CSA or Community Supported Agriculture. 

Community Supported Agriculture or CSA is a partnership between consumers and farmers in which members buy shares of the farm’s harvest and enjoy regular allotments of food throughout the growing season. For farmers, this provides much needed cash flow for the beginning of the season, as well as a ready market and community of supporters. Shareholders join in the risks of the growing season but reap the benefits of the harvest.

Source: http://seacoasteatlocal.org/

When I moved to New Hampshire 6 years ago, I had no idea CSA shares existed.  I often went to the local farmers market and bought what I liked (tomatoes, lettuce, beans) and kinda squinted strangely at things with names like kohlrabi and kale.  By mid-summer that first year, I noticed some of the farmers at the market had grocery bags of food set aside that people would come pick up.  I drooled over the plump red tomatoes and corn on the cob in the bags set to the side.  The remaining vegetables for sale at  the stand were pretty picked over and there was a sign that they were out of corn.  This confused me.  So I asked one of the farmers how I could get some of the bagged veggies.  She explained that those were farm shares that people pre-bought at the beginning of the year.  She also explained that by buying a share, you get the "first picked" and the best.  You are guaranteed a bag of food every week for 20 weeks and you will get a little of everything to try.  Wow, that sounded great!  Too bad it was July and the shares sell out in March.

Fast forward 5 years, I finally got my act together in March and bought a "half share" at Heron Pond Farm in S. Hampton, NH.  Before I picked Heron Pond Farm, I went our winter farmers market CSA fair in January, talked with some farmers there, and looked at their brochures.  I discovered there were 10 farms that delivered to my local area!  After a little more research, I decided on Heron Pond Farm because they offered a half share, which was cheaper and about 1/2 the food.  A half share sounds like the best plan because I was afraid I would get overwhelmed with all the food!

Like all CSAs, I had to prepay for my farm share, but over 20 weeks, it averages $17 a week.  With the increase cost of food at the grocery store, that's not too bad!  Here is what we picked up Monday: 2 tomatoes, 2 peaches, 1 lb potatoes, 1/2 lb beans', 2 ears sweet corn, 1 eggplant, 1 onion, 1 bunch carrots, 1 head broccoli, 1 pepper, and a bag of greens. What a haul! 



Why do we love our CSA?  Not only do CSA support local farmers and the local economy, but we are eating fresher, more sustainably grown food.  Our farm share isn't certified organic, but they are low spray and I am confident in their farming practices because I talk to the farmer every week!   We also get to try a variety of foods I would normally buy just browsing the farmers market.

Anyone try a CSA this season?  Do you love it?

Do: Baked Ziti

This is a recipe my mother in law makes this when we visit, and it's become a family favorite!  We don't make it with ziti very often.  JD prefers pasta wheels!

Ingredients:
1 lb box pasta (ziti or other shape)
1 1/2 jars of pasta sauce (it's good with Newman's sausage sauce or homemade meat sauce!)
16oz container ricotta
1 egg
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
8 oz fresh mozzarella

Do: 
Preheat oven to 350.  Boil past according to package directions.  Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix egg and parm.  Add ricotta and salt and pepper to taste. 
In a 9x13 casserole dish, pour a small amount of sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Add 1/2 of your cooked pasta, and 3/4 jar of sauce.  Then top with the ricotta mixture.  Add the remaining pasta, sauce and top with thin slices of fresh mozzarella. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Enjoy!

Menu Monday-7/30

So here is my first Menu Planning Monday!  My plan is to share with you our menu form the previous week with recipes as we go!

Monday: Grilled Salmon in a foil packet with Zucchini and Rice (make twice as much for tomorrow!)
Tuesday: Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice(used the leftover rice)
Wednesday:  FYOD (Find your own Dinner = leftovers)
Thursday: Baked Ziti
Friday:  Pizza
Saturday:  Beef Burritos
Sunday: Shrimp and Broccoli Alfredo

Blog migration

So I finally finished merging my 3 debunked blogs into one!  Domestic Dirt, Just Start Running and Lily Mountain are all now Do Love Do!  I was too complicated to maintain a family blog, a running blog, and a craft blog.....so here is my everything blog!
I brought over posts from Domestic Dirt and Lily Mountain that I thought worked with the new blog.  Just Start Running will be live until blogger kicks me out!  There were just too many posts to migrate!

As I figure out this new format, I want to start with some weekly topics.  Here is a rough idea of my plan (subject to change of course!):
Monday:  Menu Planning Monday
Tuesday:  "Do" it Tuesday....tutorial/recipe
Wednesday:  Home/Family update
Thursday: "Love It" product review  (sometimes it will be a "Leave It" review!)
Friday:  Read of the week - something online that is worth reading
Sat/Sun: anything random that comes to me!

So buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride!

Flats Challenge Day 7: We are DONE!

We made it!  We finished the 2nd Annual Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge! Seven days ago, I signed up our family for a 7 day challenge to ONLY use flat cloth diapers and handwash them.  Check out Flats and Handwashing Challenge to learn more!

Want to recap?

Flats Challenge Day 1: Handwashing Diapers…I must be mad!

Flats Challenge Day 2: Poopy Day!

Flat Challenge Day 3: Pad folding flats

Flats Challenge Day 4: Handwashing Status

Flats Challenge Day 5: Tips and Tricks

Flats Challenge Day 6: In a Groove

So after 7 days, would I recommend flats? – YES!  The are very absorbent, trim, and cheap.  Check out Day 2 for a cost breakdown. I think we will be putting flats into our regular rotation as pocket inserts!

My favorite flat fold?  The PAD FOLD!  We stuck to pad folding flats 99.9% of the time, but I did learn a new fold that even I can manage.  Check out the Jo fold!  It works GREAT (even held a very messy corn poop!!)

Would I recommend handwashing diapers? – Maybe.  In the last 7 days, I’ve learned a lot about what it would take to handwash diapers.  If I had to choose between food and diapers, I would use flats and handwash in a heartbeat. With that said, it is very time consuming to properly handwash flat diapers.  If you work long hours, or work outside of the home, like I do, washing diapers at the end of a day is A LOT of work and time.  I’m happy to be blessed with a house and new washer/dryer.  I was 32 before I had a washer and dryer in my home  If JD came earlier in our life, I’m not sure I would be using cloth diapers.

Let see how everyone else did:

Flats Challenge Day 6: In a groove

We just finished Day 6 of the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  I can see the light!  Our family is ONLY using flat cloth diapers this week and have to ditch the washer and dryer in favor of good ol’ fashioned handwashing.  There are close to 500 participants this year and many are blogging their journey.  You can find their posts linked at the end.

After 6 days of handwashing flats, I’m getting in a groove!  I washing today’s load in about 35 minutes from start to finish (including putting JD to bed while they soaked!)

I realized I haven’t outline our handwashing routine, so here we go:  Once JD is in his PJs and nighttime diaper, I take all the diapers (in a 5 gallon pail) to the tub, fill the bucket with warm water, and give it a few swirls with an old gdiaper swish stick.  I dump that (nasty!) water and shake open all the flats.  I fill the bucket again with hot water and a 1/2 tsp of Tide.  I return all the wet diapers and covers to the pail. Before I put in the pockets, I scrub the suedecloth with a nail brush and a little paste of Tide soap and water.  After the stink we had day 4, I want to make sure the pockets are clean!

Once everything is in, I hand agitate everything for about 2-3 minutes.  Then I leave it to soak while I put JD to bed (usually 20 minutes).  After the soak, I dump it all and rinse each piece individually under running water.  Then I fill the bucket again with warm water and agitate them again for about a minute to make sure they are rinsed.  I then wring them out, roll the covers in a towel to get out all the extra water, and hang to dry.  I  was hanging them on the shower curtain rod, but after washing 13 flats on Day 4, I needed more room!  I now use our HUGE drying rack that I moved from basement to the dining room so it can dry under the ceiling fan.  My only laundry problem now is getting the diaper cream off the fleece liners….any thoughts from the blogesphere?

I know this week is about learning, so I tried an origami fold on JD today….it didn’t leak, but it wasn’t pretty! I also tried a Boingo for the first time.  This fold was hard to fasten with 2 Boingos, so I ended up using just one on the side.  Of course, I didn’t get a picture until I was changing it so it’s wet here:

Even though it worked, I think I’m going to stick with pad folded flats in pockets and the occasional Flip cover.  I did hear about a Jo fold, which looked pretty easy.  I might try that tomorrow – the LAST day of the challenge.  Before this challenge, I would never have thought to use flats in Bumgenius Pocket diapers, but I think I’m starting to like them more than the microfiber!  No stink, they’re trim, they dry fast, and cheap!

Find  out what are other people talking about today:

Flats Challenge Day 5: Tips and Tricks

We made it to day 5!  When I cut my thumb on day 3, I almost threw in the towel, but I’m glad we stuck to it! As you probably know by now, I am taking the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  By joining this challenge, I agreed that I will only use flat cloth diapers on JD for 7 DAYS and can only handwash and air dry them.

Handwashing Update:  All those diapers I washed last night were “almost dry” this morning.  Those stretchy tabs on the flip covers and bumGenius pockets are drying VERY slow, but I have a few tips for that below!  Also, those 4 pockets that were still stained were a little stinky this morning, so I’m rewashing them using the nailbrush/soap paste method.  Now they are clean!  Tonight I handwashed:
7 Flats
4 Fleece Liners
8 BumGenius Pockets (4 from yesterday)
1 Bummis Wet Bag
(My Flip covers were rinsed and are air drying for tomorrow)

Here are a few Tips and Tricks for using Flats and Handwashing:

1. Wash every day or when you have about 7 dirty flats!  If you have more than that,  you will have to do 2 “loads.”
2. To clean pockets, make a paste of laundry soap and water and scrub the suede cloth with a nail brush and a little soap paste – hand agitation did not get the pockets clean!
3. If you have a diaper sprayer, use it to get off all the poop before trying to handwash.
4. Avoid diaper cream if possible.  I cannot get the diaper cream off my fleece liners by handwashing.
5. Rinse each flat under running water.  This is much faster than trying to rinsing an entire bucket!
6. Roll the covers in a towel to remove extra water (great tip from Kim @ DDL!)
7. If you have aplex/velcro covers or pockets, make sure you dry them with the aplex unfastened from the laundry tabs so air can dry the inside (see photo below)!
8. You don’t have to use a complicate fold…Pad fold works great!

To learn more tips and tricks for using flats and/or handwashing diapers, check out these blogs:

Flats Challenge Day 4: Handwashing Status

I just finished Day 4 of the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge. This week, I agreed that I will only use flat cloth diapers (1 large square of fabric) on JD and I can only handwash and air dry them.

How are we doing??……Well…..I skipped washing diapers last night because of my cut thumb, so tonight I had to handwash:
13 Flats (at least 6 poopy!)
8 Bumgenius Pockets
4 Fleece Liners
1 Flip Cover
Here are all the flats, pockets, and covers in a 5 gallon bucket.

Handwashing had been pretty easy the last 2 times, but this load was a mess from the start!  First, there were WAY too many diapers in the pail!  After my initial rinse, I realized I couldn’t agitate them because the bucket was so full!  (I am hand agitating them) I split the load in half and wash each individually. My dream of saving time by skipping a wash day was lost in having to wash 2 loads!  It took me almost 2 hours to wash them all and I think 3 or 4 of my pockets are still stained with poopy.  I think I’m gong to have to rewash them – tomorrow.  So lesson learned, when hand washing diapers , wash every day!

Overall, using flats in our pocket diapers and Flip covers haven’t changed our daily diaper routine that much.  Daddy Dirt is happy with the pockets (he’s use to them) and we’ve has zero leaks! I’m beginning to think that using Flats exclusively is soooo doable if you are dedicated to handwashing daily.

Check out how other bloggers are doing:

Flat Challenge Day 3: Pad folding flats

We’ve made it to Day 3 of the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  Our family is ONLY using FLAT cloth diapers this week to learn more about the cheapest method of cloth diapering.

I’m lazy when it comes to cloth diapering.  Give me a pocket or all in one and I’m happy!  When I signed up for the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge I started to panic when I realized I might have to fold these flat pieces of fabric into complicated shapes to work.  I tried to “fold” a flat into various origami crane like shapes (epic fail), but in the end it’s the Pad fold that won me over. It’s so simple!  Here is a short video of me folding our flat into a 10 layer pad folded insert for a BumGenius pocket diaper (or Flip cover)

Day 3 of the Challenge was going great until I cut my thumb while making dinner. Not pretty!  My left hand hurt so bad from the cut, that I decided to skip washing diapers tonight (you can see a cameo appearance of my giant bandaged thumb in the video!). I have enough flats to go two days, so I will defer washing til tomorrow.  I’ve heard having lots of diapers to wash can make it harder to wash, but washing every other day is probably more realistic over the long term, so we’ll see how it goes tomorrow!

Want to know how the other bloggers in the challenge fold their flats?  Check out this linky: 

Flats Challenge Day 2: Poopy Day!

Day 2 of the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge was poopy!  Seriously, 4 poopy diapers in one day is not a record for us, but when you have to handwash them, 4 is 3 too many! As a reminder, I have signed up our family for a 7 day challenge to ONLY use flat cloth diapers and handwash them.  Check out Flats and Handwashing Challenge to learn more!

Today I handwashed:
7 flats(4 poopy)
1 FLIP cover
3 BumGeius pockets
1 Bummis wetbag
4 fleece liners.

I was not in the mood to wash diapers, but I did it anyway!   I was lighter with the soap today, so I only had to rinse twice!
Yesterdays flats were dry when I woke up, but the covers were still wet around the stretchy tabs.  It took almost 14 hours total for the covers/pockets to be completely dry.  I think I’m going to have to increase my original 3 pockets to 8….to accommodate the slow dry time.

Today we are talking about supplies…..what am I using during this challenge? (I’ll try to give a cost break out too):

• 15 Osocosy unbleached flats (Mom’s Milk Boutique)- $24
• 2 Flip covers (Seconds) (Cottonbabies)- $20
• 8 Bumgenius pockets (all last chance used diapers from Cottonbabies)- $16
• 8 fleece liners cut from a 1/2 yard fleece (JoAnns) – $2
• Bummis Small wet bag for the diaper bag (Cottonbabies) – $12
• Diaper Sprayer (Diaper Junction) – $36.30 (totally optional, but makes handwashing easier!)
• 5 Gallon Bucket with lid (Home Depot) – $2.50
• Tide Original Powder (Big Lots)- 6.99
• Nail Brush (Dollar Tree) – $1

$84.49 (120.79 with diaper sprayer)

Not too bad considering this could last you from about 2 months til potty learning!  (Add a couple newborn covers and you would be able to diaper one baby for about $100 (or 140 with a diaper sprayer!) Considering it takes at least $40 a month to keep a baby in disposable diapers, or $480 a year, you could save the difference of 3 years in diapers and have nearly $1,340 for a college fund or emergency fund!

Check out how all the other bloggers are doing with their challenge: