Friday, 20 March 2009

Diaper Stash, a confession


This lovely dresser is BUILT INTO my bathroom wall. Awesome. 


This is almost my entire pocket diaper stash. Yes, all of it. I am embarrassed to say, I found the missing diapers, clean, at the bottom of a laundry basket of clean clothes that I hadn't processed (folded, put away). I found them about 3 weeks after I posted that I lost them and forgot to update the status. The lovely Tattooedmama gave me the pretties on the bottom right hand side to offset the loss during those 3 weeks.  Thank you J B-B! 


This is my stash of contoured inserts (gifted to us by Laurie B, from park day- Thank you!) and covers: 3 fleece Wallypops, three Thirsties. I also keep the BumGenuis newborn insert soakers in this drawer (on the left). I've started to use a cover with two inserts for overnight because it is less bulky and doesn't leak. To stuff a BG leakproof for overnight (since she sleeps right on through, though still stirs to eat) it is 1 reg + 2 newborns and that is just too bulk for comfort for her, yet still sometimes leaks.....


This is the changing station, at a right angle to the toilet and the dresser. Little can is for poopies and big for just wets. I have not gotton the hang of our new front loader yet for diapers and separating the poops for rinsing in the potty (we are in the sticky poo, soilds+milk transition) and a rinse in the washer before adding the wets to the wash, is helping right now getting them all clean in just that rinse + wash cycle. Other wise it was wash +wash + rinse and diapers take ALL FREAKING DAY TO WASH. Not so good. 

This is the blue drawer in the station. Dry wipes on left, pink wet bucket on right. The station is just too far from the sink to make wetting a wipe each time practical. Only a few go in the wet or it can get musty. Bag balm is in here too, that's what we use if Blueberry starts to get yeast build up in her folds. Works very well and we don't get build up on the diapers. 

So that's the tour of my diaper station! TMI? ;)

The Thrifty Barista

Free coffee recipe e-book. 

An interesting tidbit, when I worked at a Barnes and Noble and filled in at the Starbucks station I had to look at the cheat sheet for every drink but one: the latte. 

The equation in my head is basically this: (latte=4$=coffee + milk)>sucker customer. 
Another equation goes like this: ((coffee=50 cents= free refills)+ free milk or cream)=smart customer.

Seriously.

So now when I go to the coffee shops I still spend 4$ BUT I buy the 50 cent coffee and dress it up, leave a $3.50 cent tip when I can. Or I buy a muffin too. Or get Tot a "milk tea" and the balance is a tip. 

Sometimes I dress it up with honey and cream. That's a cafe breve with honey. Mmmmm. 

Anyway, I like the working guy to get the extra, not the corporation. Plus, 4$ for a cup of coffee with milk? French name or no.....

So there you have it, my frugal tip.

Monday, 16 March 2009

Seed data

This spreadsheet contains data about the varieties we are starting this year. We'll use it to help decide which work, and which don't. I've kept similar records in the past, but that was at another location so while I'm trying out our favorites from there, we'll have to see if they do as well here.

I still need to add a quantity column, but we've got at least 8 of everything, more for peppers and tomatoes.

Saturday, 14 March 2009

The long and short of it.....

Ok, Here's the run down of our week:  

Ah lady, up on her feet. 
Art class!
Sunshine! 

Crash boom, Mama P fell through the dock. Bruised up my leg and ego pretty bad, one worse than the other. I also cut my face on my camera lens. Right. I went down like this, "Lil'Bug be sure you don't forget the hole is right here, this missing board. I don't want you to fall through." And, "Ok mama," tot continues to happily fish off the dock.......KaBAM. "Mama did you forget about the hole? You just told me!" Then she ran back to land to set down her pole before racing to help get me out of the water. Baby Blueberry was in the Calyx carrier and completely unharmed. My camera was fine too, I buffered the impact with my face and hand. 


Crash boom, Dearest's hard disk thingy failed. He and Lil'Bug had a good time fixing it while I took Blueberry to a potato bar social I was invited to at the local church. Yum. Oh, and ultimately it was Lil'Bug's magic wand that fixed it, or so the story goes.

Blueberry attempted, for the first time, to climb a stair. And then another. She climbed the entire staircase all by herself (with Mama right behind her cheering!). It was neat. Pawpaw was on the phone with us, Daddy and Lil'Bug at the top cheering too. Yay!

I made a pie for pi day. Then the dog ate it and Dearest didn't even notice. I was mad but got over it. I'll make another. Still, many jokes were made about pi and dog and his growing list of reasons he should live outside (love of skunks is # 1). Ultimately, he sleeps at the end of our bed (just not on it, hey, it is SKUNK season!). 


Nana and Pawpaw came today and helped load the dead tractor up so we can take it to be fixed. Nana also helped me really, really clean and hang curtains. It was fun! Now the house is ready for the slew of Spring Break farm playdates. Not that it matters to any of the guests, but I always feel better welcoming friends to a clean, tidy house. They know it is not always like that, but this week it is! Yippee!

Seeds, seeds, seeds......almost time to plant outside! We are late getting seeds started, but I think in the end it will be alright. 


And that's our week in brief! Ta da!