There's a new local blog in the Bay and I'm one of the lucky contributors! I first heard of the City Mom Blogs from my friend Jenny (conscientiousconfusion) and role with the Dallas Moms Blog. While we were having lunch on a recent trip to Dallas I found out that they had plans on launching a Tampa Bay Moms Blog (TBMB) here! I was excited and began to look for more information. I was immediately connected with the founder, Sheriss, and accepted as a contributor! The TBMB launched on April 29th with a week full of giveaways from local businesses and companies. The 13 contributors each introduced ourselves and shared more about why Tampa Bay is our home! What else do we talk about? Anything local! Fitness, kids activities, our favorite parks, local businesses we love, and stories about our families. There will also we local meet ups for moms and families to attend around the Bay. To see some of my recent contributions visit TBMB and be sure to subscribe to our emails and ... [ Read More ]
Flats Challenge 2012
Are you participating in the flats challenge this year? Have you been following the great blogs posting their experiences? What is the Flat's Challenge? Kim Rosas (Dirty Diaper Laundry blog) has organized an amazing event this year with over 490 participants signed up to use flat cloth diapers, covers, and hand wash for 7 days. Each day there is a blog prompt to let bloggers who are participating share their thoughts. Take some time and click through all the links because some of the tips are really great! Below is a list of these blog prompts and a link to Kim's posts and link to the other blogs. Monday- “What Do I Expect to Learn/ Why I’m Taking the Challenge” Tuesday-“What Supplies I am Using” Wednesday-“Favorite Way To Use Flats” Thursday-“How I’m Doing- My Thoughts on Handwashing” Friday-“What Tips I have Learned So Far” Saturday- Open Topic Day Sunday-“Final Post- Reflections on What You Learned.” I'm actually sad that I don't get to participate this ... [ Read More ]
2nd Annual Flats & Handwashing Challenge with Dirty Diaper Laundry
Are you a low income family? Have you ever had to choose between diapers and food? Did you know that you could be using reusable cloth diapers instead of disposables? You can diaper your baby for $50 or less (maybe even free if you're resourceful) until they are potty trained! You can handwash your diapers safely and effectively at home if you don't have a washing machine. You can save your money for more important items (like food and shelter) and know that your baby can still have clean diapers every day! Last year Kim with Dirty Diaper Laundry organized the first flats and handwashing challenge to help educate and raise awareness of cloth diapering and to show that it really is possible to use cloth diapers with limited resources. I am so happy to hear that Kim is holding the challenge again this year. I personally learned so much with this challenge and it opened my eyes to the challenges that low income families face when cloth diapering. It also gave me confidence that ... [ Read More ]
Flats Challenge – the Finale
Want to know how the rest of my week of the flat's challenge went? I CAVED! On Thursday life was just getting very hectic and I caved and used the washer. Then accepting defeat I started using some of our regular stash again. *hides head in shame* I had one super nasty poopy flat, I was out late with friends celebrating their children's bridging to Brownies, and I was getting the house ready to welcome my husband home from China. I've never done the 'single mom' thing for more than a day (hubby does it all the time when I travel for work) and I was just exhausted. He was gone for 9 days on a volunteer project with Habitat for Humanity leaving me in charge of the nest. I decided that I wanted to welcome him home with a big Memorial Day Party with our friends. That left me to clean the pool and whip the house back into 'visitor' shape. Do I consider my challenge a failure? Hell no! I learned so much that I would have never experienced otherwise. I learned that I ... [ Read More ]
Guest Post: Cloth diapering is an Adventure
Guest Post by Alicia whom I found through a comment on Facebook. Thanks Alicia for your words and for sticking with cloth diapering even when it wasn't the most convenient of options. XOXO - Calley Most users refer to cloth diapering as an “adventure”. It certainly is a process of learning, adapting and educating. You must explore your values and why you chose to ditch disposables. As your baby grows and his patterns change you must adapt the way you diaper, just as parenting styles develop with your baby. Cloth-toting moms love talking about diapers! Educating others about the benefits and ease of use is the best way to convert other families to this earth and baby-friendly way of life. My husband and I live in an apartment with our two-year old son, Joey. We use the laundry mat in town to clean diapers. Using a diaper sprayer, we rinse them REALLY well so we can wash only once a week. It is recommended to wash every three days, but at $2.00 a load we wait until all the ... [ Read More ]
Overnight (or heavy wetter) Flats Solutions
Today was the first day in a week that we woke up with a leak! EEEK! My tot insists on going pee pee on the potty every night before bed and last night she sat, and sat, and sat but never peed. When she woke up this morning she said, "Mommy my bankie wet." I knew what had happened obviously. We used a single pad folded flat (birdseye cotton) inside a Flip and it just couldn't hold a full nights worth of toddler pee. Tips for Overnights (or Heavy Wetters) When Using Flat Cloth Diapers Double up the layers by using two flat diapers before you fold and place in your cover. Add your favorite insert inside a pad folded flat to increase the absorbency. Use a hemp flat like Hemp Babies (alone or with an extra insert). Use a fleece or wool cover that will catch any leaks and keep them contained. Tonight we are trying our Flip cover with a pad folded Hemp Babies. Here are my pictures (just excuse the bad lighting and poor iPhone quality - my camera ... [ Read More ]
Q&A About Washing Cloth Diapers by Hand
Today is Day 3 of the Flats & Handwashing Challenge and I've learned a lot over the past few days. I've had some questions submitted to me that I'd like to answer for you regarding washing diapers by hand. If you have a question that I haven't answered please leave your question in the comments and I'll be happy to answer them. Q&A About Washing Cloth Diapers by Hand Q: In real life when would you need to wash cloth diapers by hand? A: While most of us have the luxury of owning our own washer and dryer many people in America still don't have easy access to laundry facilities. Apartments and rental properties, Homeless, Short term housing Emergency shelters Group housing Loss of power Broken washer or dryer Natural disasters Camping Traveling (hotels, cruise ships, and remote locations) Q: I've tried hand washing our diapers but find stains are harder to get out by hand; do you have any tips on handling stains? A: For starters especially ... [ Read More ]
Cloth Diapers, #FlatsChallenge, Potty Training, Shari Criso, and a hand washing meltdown!
So here is my stream of thoughts inside my head for the night because it's 11:20pm and I'm exhausted! Today started out just like any other day... I drop the kids off at school in the morning and come home to work. I was actually quite productive today and attended to a ton of projects on my plate. I had decided to meet some of my girlfriends for dinner tonight with the kids to get a much needed mommy break. Daddies hours this week haven't been very favorable so some mommy time was needed. Picked up my son and then my daughter and we were off to dinner. Except when I picked up the littlest angel she was wearing school clothes and someone else's shoes because we had a horrible day of potty training. I left her with 3 changes of clothes, 3 pairs of panties, and 3 diapers - she went through all of the clothes and panties and one diaper. The first thing I noticed was the pad folded flat was sticking out from the back of the flip cover. I guess the teachers are just that ... [ Read More ]
How to Hand Wash Flat Cloth Diapers
As a follow up to yesterday's How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby for $50 here is a brief tutorial on how to hand wash flat cloth diapers. The point of this exercise is to show that even if you don't have access to laundry facilities that you can still cloth diaper your baby. Keep in mind that my child is 29 months now and we are working on potty training so we only use 5-8 diapers on a bad day. Today I sent her to day care in an birdseye flat (pad folded) and a flip cover because she refused to put on her big girl panties for me. We're still using diapers at nap at night-time but at school they are using big girl panties and/or training pants. For the sake of the exercise I'm including any wet/soiled clothes from school in our hand wash challenge. Today we ended up using: 3 flat diapers, 3 diaper covers, 1 pair of panties, 1 training pant, 1 wipe (disposable at day care), and 1 pair of shorts. These all needed to be washed before I went to bed so we'd have a fresh clean stash in ... [ Read More ]
How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby for only $50
How to cloth diaper your baby for only $50 from birth to potty training. Can you really diaper a baby for only $50? YES! It may not be the most convenient method or the most hip and modern way to cloth diaper but if you are limited on funds you can cloth diaper your baby from birth to potty training for only $50-70 (depending on how many accessories you buy). Not only will this tutorial give you a list of diapering supplies it will also include supplies needed to hand wash your diapers. Supplies: 12-24 flat diapers (average price $1 each for flour sack towels available at your local WalMart and other retail stores) 5 diaper covers (average price $5-9 each - Bummis Whisper Pant sells for $5; Econobum diaper covers sell for $8.95) 5-10 reusable wipes or wash clothes (average price $3-10 pack) Laundry detergent ($5 for a 32 load bottle of Arm & Hammer Essentials) Plunger ($1-5 depending on how fancy you get) Snappi diaper fastener or old fashioned diaper pins ... [ Read More ]