Same old, same old

Same weather, different day.  Actually Thursday night we had such terrible thunderstorms that we had a flash flood.  Hubs, Bear and I were headed to Toys R Us to get Bear his birthday present...shHH don't tell
I'm just a little bit excited about giving it to him!!!...So back to the story...
We headed North on our road to find that both drainage ditches on the sides of the road were flowing over, it actually took out the end of our driveway.  We get about 200 feet up the road and see that the water has covered the road.  A man is walking around in galoshes and the water comes up to within 2 inches of the top of his boots. 

No way we were going through that.

So we head South.  We go about 1/4 mile and see the road is once again covered but it's not too deep, maybe 6 inches.  So we head South, and then head back North on the next road over (our roads here are pretty much a grid).  At one point there is a farm on the right hand side that's about 4feet about the roadway with an embankment.  The water is bubbling out from the bottom of the embankment from this field.  It was so surreal. 

So we make our quick trip and by the time we return the water has receded. 

Come Friday at lunchtime I see a state trooper (we live in a rural area, state troopers are unusual in these parts) with lights and sirens on, then I see the firetrucks go by.

I think nothing of it and go on with the day.  Hubs comes home and says "Why is the road closed?" Turns out a township truck was driving down the road and it collapsed under him.  The same part that we drove through the other night.  Apparently the water ran over the road so hard, and it has a drainage pipe under it, that it pulled all the rocks and dirt out from under it till it collapsed.

We are so lucky and grateful that we made it safely through.

We are also so thankful that we've been so fortunate.  All of our neighbor's basements have flooded.  We've been very lucky with the grade of our land and our drainage that only our barn flooded.  Thankfully the barn is equipped with a drain (that couldn't keep up) and it only made it about 2 inches deep in half the barn before it ran out. 

The Lord has spared us from these trials in our own home, but it means that we, more than ever, must serve our neighbors.  We have been lending our dehumidifier out, Hubs has helped clean up, and we're always willing to come clean.

The rain has been so bad here that the RV dealership down the road is having a "Noah's Ark Sale".  Hubs has joked about building an ark. 

Praying for sunshine...

But I have been crafty again!!! To help a foundation for a family struggling in the NICU.  I'm making two quilts and two sets of cloth wipes. 

I love having Bear napping in his crib, I have so much free time.

Today isn't a total bust.

It was pouring out this morning as we had a huge thunderstorm pass through. But it's now sunny out while we wait for the next round of storms. It seems that we're in the hole of it, some people around us are getting nailed.

I've got cloth diapers on the line and a baby napping in the crib.

Wait??!!

A baby napping the crib?

Why, yes, yes I do!!!!

For the past 4 days, Bear has decided that napping in the crib is not a plot against him.

He used to go down after about 30 minutes of rocking for naps and would wake at the 30 minute mark (do babies have internal kitchen timers because you could bake a cake to it. It would then take me 30 minutes, if not more, to settle him down and get him back asleep. And we would start the kitchen timer again and repeat. So if you like math as much as I do, that's 60 minutes of sleep and at least 60 minutes (usually more like 90) of effort to put him to sleep.

Last week at some point he was getting fussier and fussier while being rocked to sleep at night. Hubs was getting frustrated so we said, fine, let's put him in the crib with his soother and seahorse on.  We put him down, gave him kisses, said "Night-Night" and left.  He cried for about 2 minutes.  Sort of.  He would escalate to a cry then immediately quiet down.  He rolled side to side pretty vigorously and gradually began to slow down, as did the fussing.  Finally, he was silent for about 2 minutes and slowly turning his head side to side and the next thing we knew, HE WAS SOUND ASLEEP!

Apparently, he's been trying to tell us that he is done with being rocked to sleep.  So now we rock him for a few minutes to get some snuggles in and then we put him down, give kisses, say "Night-Night" and leave.

I have held him for his naps his entire life.  Probably once or twice a month I would put him in the crib to see if the 30 minute nap monster still lived.  So 4 days ago, I was extremely frustrated.  I was trying to get him to go down and he was wiggling and squirming. When I was patting him and rocking him and jiggling him he started laughing at me.  So I told him "Tough luck Bear.  It's nap time."  I got up, put him in his crib, gave him kisses, said "Night-Night" and walked out.  He proceeded to fall asleep in about 2 minutes WITHOUT A PEEP!  He woke up after 12 minutes, cried for 30 seconds and fell back to sleep for an hour.  He then woke up, I gave him a paci and he slept for another 1.5 hours.

Naps have been going well since then, he's better rested and I'm not so touched out at the end of the day.

I can do my chores (blogging) while he naps and we're all happier!

Well that was frustrating...

Blogger deleted all posts made after Wednesday!!!

So my frugal instincts have been having a detrimental effect on my wallet.

Bear is chronically "irritated".  His muscle tone is so tight that he kind of exists on his last nerve for much of the time.  And while he is on medicine to combat it, it's not 100% effective.  Add this irritation to teething and we're in a fussy nightmare. 

So I've been looking into amber teething necklaces and THANKFULLY!!! Bear is only getting his FIRST tooth now so I've had time.

BabyHalfOff had InspiredbyFinn Amber Teething Necklaces on sale for, yep you guessed it, 50% off!
So we're now on the bandwagon.

Tomorrow we have a baby sitter coming (who so graciously volunteered last month) so that Hubs and I can get some work done on the house, for Bear's 1st birthday, in the yard, and run some errands. 

This means I'm on with my own Clean Up Smackdown!

Okay last time I emptied the dishwasher while Bear played on the floor.  Can I empty the dishwasher and dish rack this time?!  And go!!!

Yes I know, I have a sitter coming, so I can clean.  But, I want it to seem like I'm I've got this whole Stay At Home Mom thing down not near as messy as I really am.

I'm just one of those people that falls in the category of last minute inspired procrastinator.  I'm trying to change my ways.  I have cleaning schedules, and home organization guides, etc and for some reason I always choose Bear over schedules.

My home is not DIRTY.  I never let it get that far, but there is usually a pile of clean laundry folded in the living room, dirty bottes on the table waiting to get rinsed for the dishwasher, an unmade bed, and some cat food spilled over the bowl.

What usually happens is it stays this way for a few days week, until I finally get so sick of it that I make Hubs watch Bear for an hour while I do my Clean Up Smackdown.

Today it was supposed to happen during naptime (which is going on currently), however, I forgot to turn on his sound machine.  So I can't clean up much without making noise and waking my baby.

Or I'm just using this as an excuse to sit on my butt and blog and watch terrible afternoon TV.

Or both.......

Blech!!!!

This is our 10 day forecast.  I am not looking forward to it.  I'm already in a funk because of this weather.

High / Low (°F) Precip. % Tonight May 11 Showers Late 60° 30 % Thu May 12 Scattered T-Storms 79°/63° 40 % Fri May 13 Scattered T-Storms 74°/60° 40 % Sat May 14 T-Showers 69°/56° 60 % Sun May 15 T-Showers 64°/51° 60 % Mon May 16 Showers 59°/48° 40 % Tue May 17 Few Showers 58°/48° 30 % Wed May 18 Showers 58°/49° 40 % Thu May 19 Showers 61°/50° 40 % Fri May 20 Few Showers 65°/50° 30 %

Cloth Wipes Begets...

Family cloth.

I made a bunch more 8"x8" flannel squares to use.  Initially I was just planning to use them for myself because I doubted Hubs would ever be sold on the idea.

But much to my surprise he was!  So now we use cloth wipes instead of toilet paper, any extra dirty ones we use the diaper sprayer to clean off and throw them in the diaper pail.  Come wash day they go in with the diapers and get nice and clean.

This was less about the Eco-Friendly aspect and more about the cost savings aspect.  I used more of the flannel I had left over (I told you I had a LOT of it, I probably still have 2 yards left) so it was only a matter of using some time to zig-zag the edges.

So far it's been an adjustment, but our toilet paper with a small amount left on it is still hanging on.

Oh, and don't worry, we don't expect guests to join in with the family cloth. 

I've been neglecting my blog for something so much bigger...

THE SUN!!! It has made it's appearance for the past 3 days....

I took time to mow half the lawn last night, put Bear in the swing yesterday and today, we went for a walk in the park yesterday and my laundry smells like sunshine!

And back to the rain we go with a thunderstorm tonight and rain everyday in the rest of the weeklong forecast.

For your viewing pleasure...
My cute cats, Hubs and Bear (well they're technically in the photo)

Cloth Diapers Begets

Cloth Wipes.

Thankfully, 90% of our diapers and wipes have been gifts.  My mother is extremely generous and has bought us boxes upon boxes of diapers and wipes.  However, we're down to our last few packs and I've decided to start making our wipes.

I have yards of flannel left over from a project.  Embarrassingly enough, that project was 3 years ago.  Since I haven't used it up, or used it again for that matter I figured I couldn't screw it up.

I cut out 8x8 squares of flannel and used my zigzag stitch around the edges.  This is time when a serger could really come in handy.

I then rocked a soak with Rockin Green or Eco Friendly Family cloth diaper detergent.  This is cheap flannel from Joann's and it repels water like crazy.  So in order to get the chemicals and soften it up I soaked them for about 4-6 hours and some overnight (uhmm overnight MAY have been accidental because I forgot about them).  Then I just washed them with my next load of diapers.

I used an empty wipes box and folded them so they would pop up using this tutorial. 

I do not pour my wipes solution into the case.  I just put it in a spray bottle and spritz as needed.  I usually spray half the wipe, wash Bear's rear and then use the dry half the dry him off well.

Wipe solution:
I'm currently using wipes cubes I got for free as part of the promotion at the Great Cloth Diaper Change.  I love the way it smells, you simply add one cube to 2 cups of water.

But I'm way too cheap to keep buying them. So once it runs out I'll have to investigate.  Probably just water, baby soap and some olive oil.

Saying Farewell to Wal-Mart

One week ago, I stopped in at Wal-Mart with Bear, to pick up two things, while on our way to refilling his prescription.

It took me about 45 minutes to find a garbage can because they're in the process of reorganizing the store and all the workers are too busy to be bothered by a customer.

When I asked for help I was either completely ignored, given a rude "I have no idea", "Ask someone else" or given directions to the frozen food area.  I'm pretty sure no store would put their garbage cans in the frozen food section, and they weren't there.

After a long and arduous search, I found them, in a random aisle with the Tupperware.  There was a whole stack of them and they said they were marked down to $6.  There was no barcode on the price tag, so I read the whole title and it matched up.  When I got to the cashier with my garbage can and swiss chees,; it rang up $14.24.  I told the cashier that was incorrect and her answer was "It has to be that.".  No asking for someone to check it, no listening to what I was saying.  I told her to cancel my order, removed Bear from the cart, and for emphasis, walked away.

Of course I then struggled with guilt that some poor undeserving soul had to put my cart and groceries away, but it needed to be done.  This was not the first time I have been disappointed in their customer service. They're return policy is awful, and I've always felt like I'm disturbing them by being a customer.  Half the time the stores are dirty and disorganized, their pricing is disorganized, and they, as of late have a horrible inventory.

Wal-Mart and I have broken up. 

The next day I proceeded to buy my trash can from Target.  I know, still an evil conglomerate, however I have never heard the awful horror stories about Target as I have from Wal-Mart.

So, yesterday Hubs, Bear, and I went to our local grocery store/Ace Hardware (they're all in one now) and did our shopping.  We did some investigating and found we can refill our 5 gallon water jugs for just $0.31/gal, 4 cents cheaper than Wal-Mart.

So I've decided to only buy from our two local grocery stores (they're both small chains, but one is still family owned).  I'm still struggling with where to buy my other necessities, so I'm going to stick with Target and try to minimize those purchases.