We live all the way up here in Minnesota and it’s been hard being away from my family. When we first moved in I got Internet Minnesota for the house because I wanted to be able to email and chat with my sisters like I always had and that’s the truth. I love being part of their lives and I didn’t want to miss anything just because I lived farther away so I did what I could to make sure I was taking things seriously. I love that there are so many ways to keep in touch but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss our weekly dinners at mom’s house – I miss being able to hug them and their children but I’m going to make sure I’m going down to visit as often as humanly possible. I love that there are so many holidays and occasions that warrant a visit but if you ask me there aren’t enough. I wish I could see them every single month but that’s just not in the

So if you had any effect from post holiday blues, what did you do to shake the funk??

I do a lot of things really well. I am a fairly decent housekeeper, I am pretty good at my job, and I pay my bills on time. Know what I don’t do well? Remember to lock my front door. It is a legitimate problem, because no matter how safe your neighborhood is, leaving your front door open is just asking for trouble, really. The good news is I never forget to set my ADT TUCSON alarm. So although I am offering anyone the opportunity to just walk right in my door and steal every one of my worldly possessions, there will be a very loud alarm going off as they do so. I feel like it improves our odds at least a little bit. Kind of like I’m saying “Oh hey guys, come on in and take a look around!” but then when they do run in and try to rob us blind, the alarm starts blaring and the alarm company is called. It’s the best I can hope for at this point, because I know I’m not going to remember to lock the front door.

For the last three days, I have been haunted by a dream. Not the events in the dream, but the house in the dream. It is not a house I recognize, it is not even a house I can picture myself in (it appears older, and run down). But for the last several years, I see this same house. Only the back yard, and very specific details. A converted unattached garage at the back left corner of the property, the garage has been converted to a mother in law apartment with access to an alley in the back, and into the yard on the side. It is a small studio with a bathroom, and kitchenette. On the very back of the property is a chain link fence, and a garden that spans the entire back of the property, but is only about 8 feet wide with a small rock path from the garage to the back yard. In front of the garden is another fenced in area, this one not as long, just as wide with a worn out wire fence. Half the yard is flat, then it inclines leading into a walk-out basement. On the main floor of the house there is a large deck, and one more floor above that. The house is blue, or green, and barren of any sort of foliage. I cannot tell what area this house is in, although it has green grass, so we can rule out Texas or Colorado. LOL

The dreams itself vary, and usually don’t stick with me, as much as this house. I have very briefly seen the inside, but it seems that the back yard is the most significant element. The last dream I had involved finding out the mother in law apartment had been broken into, and a mother, father, and toddler were living in there unbeknownst to us. We ended up finding out they were legal immigrants who could not make ends meet and had recently lost their home. We agreed to let them stay and furnished the home with stuff we had in the house, allowing them to stay rent free and feeding them meals, in exchange for help around the house in the evenings. I babysat the little boy for a few hours while they worked to get some money saved to get a place of their own. This part of the dream seemed sort of injected into a dream that focused mainly on the back yard. I just wish I knew what it meant.

Evey time she opened her mouth to whine, I slowly felt my sanity slipping away that I was clawing at to keep a small grasp on. But I pushed on, I knew I had to be productive. First I tried to find my wool shaver, Liam’s wool diaper was looking kind of pilly. I searched high and low and could not find it, so I moved on and started soaking some covers in the sink. While searching for the shaver, I gathered some other items I needed for knitting later today when I get a chance. I turned around and Sophie was holding a handful of stitch markers she had taken off with a week before. We had searched high and low, but they never turned up. All we had to do was look on top of my comforter, under the throw at the foot of my bed. Well duh, what an obvious place!

I knew all hell would break loose if I set foot in my kitchen, so by 10am I still had not had breakfast or a second cup of coffee. Even when I removed the cup of water she set on my laptop, I moved it to the kitchen table just so I would not have to hear her flip out if I walked by the fridge. However, now I was at an impasse, if I wanted to put away the stitch markers, I would have to go into the kitchen to put them back in the container. Again, not where I had it, and not where I would look, but unfortunately, there it was. True to form, she started her “I’m hungry” chant, so I figured if I was in for a penny I was in for a pound. I made another cup of coffee, and cut a slice of cake, yes, cake for breakfast. In my defense, I added walnuts to it last night and called it coffee cake, and coffee cake is breakfast cake, right?

I finally think my day is looking back up. Sophie is watching TV next to me, letting me write this. I will feed her an early lunch here in a couple minutes, I am hoping she will take a nap, or at least lay down, while Liam is down for his nap. I am hoping he gets a good nap, I had a hard time getting him down, Sophie would not leave my room as I was laying him in his crib. Scratch this, the garbage truck came to pick up my trash, and now he’s crying. I think I need more coffee and cake.

Today I had to spot clean dirt tracked in from the dog, the 3 year old, red sauce in the dining room, and a mystery spot in the living room, all this within seven days of cleaning the entire upstairs. I am lucky though that I have a decent carpet cleaner, and a mini cleaner that I can do touch ups with. However, the very best cleaners in the world cannot help me when it comes to the task I have been putting off, cleaning my sofa and chairs.

Cleaning my sofas and chairs is a job that to me is ten thousand times worse than carpet cleaning, especially with my microfiber sofa and dining room chairs. They boast that they are easy to clean, which I agree, they release stains easily… however, I always feel like I am not doing a good enough job because I leave streaks and lines behind. My husband talked me into a light colored reclining sofa when we moved here 18 months ago, and it was probably the worse purchase I have ever made. Not only is it falling apart from all the moving parts, but it is white!? Need I say more? Any kind of water I get one this thing leaves water spots and it looks worse than it did before. I should probably invest in a visit from a professional cleaner, but part of me just wants to go buy a new couch, and leave my husband out of the decision making process.

Image courtesy of http://www.thesteamteam.com/ for upholstery cleaning services austin.

Liam has a bit of a summer cold, with a bit of a wheezy unproductive cough, so I figured a hot shower might do some good and moving some of his phlegm. All went well, until I laid him on my bed, turned to grab a diaper and said to him “do not pee on my bed”. I may as well have just given him a formal invitation to whiz on my bed, because sure enough, he crawled forward, and there was a nice big puddle on my sheets.

I forgot rule #1, you manifest what you ask for, and by telling him not to pee on my bed, the universe hear “pee on bed”, just like my sweet boy. Ever wonder why when you say “I am not going to throw up, I am not going to throw up” your body hears “time to puke?” The word “not” is just too complicated. Try telling your kids “do not wipe your hands on your pants”, do they grab a napkin? No way! The second you say that, their hands go right for their jeans and wipe peanut butter all over their lap. Next time, say “napkin please!” and hand them a napkin. I bet they will spare their pants.

The word “not” goes missing in a lot of things in life (and any negative statement for that reason). Pay your bills, buy groceries and fill your car up with gas, tell yourself “I am so broke” when you have only a couple hundred dollars in the account, and an unexpected expense will come up. Some say “that is so ironic”, it is not irony, it is you communicating what you want. Just like you teach others how to treat you, you teach the universe how to treat you.

I use the word “universe” here, but it may mean many things. The creator, God, fate, your body, destiny, etc., it really just depends on your belief of how things work. Really watch your self-speak for a week or so, and see how you manifest your own destiny. Tell a friend “my brother is coming for a visit, he’s such a pain in the neck”. The day of his visit, you wake up with a stiff neck… wonder why? You told your body to manifest the stress you are feeling over his visit literally.

Back to Liam peeing on my bed. In the end, his action was a positive one, as I was stripping my bed grumbling about them needing washed, I noticed some clean sheets I had folded and laid out at the foot of my bed last week. I had planned on putting clean sheets on my bed, but then never got around to it. This was just another way I was being nudged to do the right thing and be productive.

Seriously. BEST mother’s day gift EVER. I tease my husband he got me addicted to coffee to get me to quit harping on him for his cigar addiction. Well dangit, it worked.

While in Portland, I missed my new lover so much. I walked by many Starbucks and City Coffees, which were just teases because it wasn’t even 7pm and they were CLOSED! I could make a cup or two in my room, but the taste was not as good as my Tully’s or Wolfgang Puck flavors. In a sample pack I got some Chef’s Reserve Colombian Decaf and I was thinking “decaf?! Why in the hell would I want THAT?!?” Well, around 10pm I was jonsing for a good cup o joe, I had some convenience store brew on the way home that was just not that lovely, and then got busy with unpacking, kids, and laundry, so when that craving hit I almost cried when I saw how late it was until I spun my little k-cup carousel and saw my petite little k-cup-o-decaf. *swoon*

Not only is it heaven in my mouth, but it shouldn’t prevent me from melting into my bed. Ohhhh how I missed my bed. The hotel beds were fantastic, but how wonderful can they be when the baby is co-sleeping and figured he can have around the clock access to the breast he normally does not demand 3 feet away from me in his crib and a 3 year old kicking me.

However, the apple who tried to fill my craving for a doughnut…. while I do give it an A for effort for trying, gets an F for completion.

• Look at the date of purchase and try to remember what you were doing that day. What did you eat? Where did you go? Who were you with? Remember, some times there is a delay, so try to think of the 1-3 days before the purchase date, especially on weekends.
• Google the name or better yet, if they provide an address you can almost guarantee google maps will jog your memory. I remember in Colorado Springs “SDI” would throw me off when I saw it on my bank statement. A quick google of SDI helped me remember the half priced drinks I had gotten that week for happy hour at Sonic Drive-In.
• Check your pockets/purse/wallet for receipts. Pending totals may differ from actual totals, especially for gas stations, hotels, or places with gratuity. You may remember spending $24 on a haircut, but the total may be pending as $19 if you left a $5 tip.
• If your bank provides a category, you may be able to narrow down what you were doing if/when you made the purchase.
• If you have a joint account, check with your spouse.
• If you shop online, scan your inbox, sometimes there is a delay in billing and if you ordered something days ago, but it is just now being shipped, there may be a phantom charge you don’t recognize.
• Call your bank, they can see phone numbers an addresses you may not be privy to on your end. They can also transfer you to their fraud unit if they deem the charges suspicious.
• If the fraud unit deems your account breached, they will freeze your account activity, cancel your card, and reissue you a new one.
• Follow up with the three major credit reporting bureaus to make sure nothing unusual shows up on your credit report to lower you credit score.

Thankfully, I was able to hunt down my recent receipts in my purse, and the mystery of the two phantom purchases were solved. 99.9% of the time it is an innocent mistake of forgetfulness, but it is nice to have an emergency plan in place on how to handle mystery charges.

• 5 covers, 4 Thirsties v2, size small, $6.50 from Diaper Swappers, and 1 Fab Fitted, print, $13.25. Total $39.25
• 16 Target Flour Sack Towels, $1 each, 3 birdseye Flats, $1.80 each, 2 preemie prefolds, .80 each. Total $23
• 1 snappi $4, 15 wipes $3 (repurposed, torn blankets, and baby washcloths). Homer camp style Wash Bucket, $7. Total $14

So for $76.25, I was able to cloth diaper my baby, with the right supplies, for life!

The good: Flats were surprisingly easy! Folding was not as complicated or time consuming as I assumed. We had 3 leaks in 8 days, so they are very absorbent. I had no problem changing a diaper at 6am while half asleep with a wiggly baby. Being a geographically single mom with 4 other kids did not complicate it. My flats are SO forgiving, they are still beautiful white, soft, and smell like cotton. One of my covers got a little stained, but nothing that will effect wear. I love how trim they are, and how small they will fold into my suitcase when we travel. Line drying was so simple, and even on an overcast cool slightly breezy day, clothesline flats and covers dried much faster than inside hung diapers. Overnight is the perfect amount of time for indoor drying.

The bad: I will not lie, hand washing was hard. It was time consuming, tiring, and I really missed my washer and dryer at the end. In a real life situation I would probably have a larger quantity of diapers, and covers on hand. I would probably also try to borrow a washer a few times a week. I also would use a better plunger, my wood handled plunger ended up flaking paint onto my diapers. I also was not impressed on how much water it took to get my diapers clean.

The ugly: My hands are pretty calloused, my shoulders hurt the first part of the week, and my nerves were shot at the end by trying to wash quickly while the baby was napping, or folding flats off the line one handed with baby in arms. Liam was less than patient at times, and there were washes where I would get the baby calmed, run, agitate two minutes, comfort a baby again, plunge some more.

What I would do/do different: Like I said, I better handle for a plunger was necessary. My adjustable shower head that can adjust to a single jet was a lifesaver. A wet pail where it could not pose a drowning risk was so helpful. Hangers and clothespins to hang diapers from worked out so well. Line drying even when chilly and overcast pays off. A sense of humor was mandatory, as well as a healthy dose of determination. Splashing was almost guaranteed, wearing pajamas that I was going to change out of with pants rolled up worked well. I may have looked for a faster drying cover, I look forward to an Econobum coming in the mail, I hear they dry well. NEVER underestimate the power of the sun, instant whitener and stain lifter!

The best thing about this challenge was my confidence in myself, the amazing sense of community I gained, and the information gathered that I could not help but tell everyone about! In the forums, I repeatedly told people to try flats and come look at my blog. In Target, I stopped a young couple who were cloth diapering their baby and struggling with the start up cost and gave them a primer on flat use. And to my mom, who was probably ready for me to shut up already on cloth diapers in general.

What I am going to do next: Because I know I have all these new flats that I enjoy using, I am going to start de-stashing. I already got rid of quite a few older diapers. Next going will be newborn diapers split between 2 families, and then all my girly diapers to a friend north of me. After that? Who knows. Maybe I will find a family to sponsor with a primer guide as well as a half dozen flats and a cover?

Thank you Kim, at Dirty Diaper Laundry for taking us with you on what you described as Diaper Boot Camp. I feel like a much stronger warrior now, and I will continue to fight for the cause; for healthy bottoms, healthy budgets, and a healthy planet!

My one issue with hand washing is the incredible amount of water usage. I am not the most water conservative person, but I felt like I was using up a lot more water than I wanted to be. So I used the water from my shower to wet pail. When I was cleaning my hair, I let the soapy water drain over my diapers. I let them soak in that. And while I was showering this morning I used that time to rinse my diapers. Then while I was shaving, I let the water fill up the bucket with a small scoop of tide and then when I was all clean I agitated them, rinsed them, wrung them out and hung them to dry, hoping that the ominous black clouds decide not to dump until after my diapers are dry and off the line.

Today is officially the last day, but I am thinking I am going to extend until tomorrow, but machine wash on Tuesday, unless we run out of covers. I will also be able to use Tuesday to sum up my experience and share what I learned. Kim, the founder of the project, gave us the option to stop tonight at midnight, or to stop the 30th at midnight.

*Edited to add pictures*
I went outside to check the progress of my flats and got these pictures of my dog Isis playing under my clothes line. My camera has a super fast shutter speed and she still managed to look like a blur, she was really zooming and having a great time! Unfortunatly, my diapers are still pretty damp, and it isn’t very warm out right now, 59 degrees with an occasional breeze of 8mph, but we only have a 10% chance of rain until sunset, so just the wind alone I am hoping will dry them.

*Edited once again to add this:

It is amazing how quickly you can go from laid back to emergency. When I woke up, Liam had 1 dirty diaper in the wet pail from his night time diaper. I changed him, washed him, and put a clean diaper on him. I changed him twice more, one cover was saturated and the other one contained a poop of epic proportion. He some moisture wicked onto his clothing, but the poop mess was 100% contained in his cover. So now he has one clean cover, two dirty covers in the wet pail and so he had two clean ones, right? Problem is, *both* were missing. I called “all hands on deck” to get my helpers rounded up and one clean cover was found, someone put it on the stuffed bunny. The second one was nowhere to be found. I finally located it, 15 year old had put it in the diaper pail, not the orange wet pail I told him to. And when I asked him twice if he had moved it into the appropriate pail, he claimed he had. So I quickly washed the three covers, wrapped them in a dry towel and walked all over it to get them as dry as I could. Two got hung in my bathroom, one joined the other still wet cover outside on the line. The baby is in his last clean cover and I am changing him frequently so it stays as dry as possible. I would like to avoid having to go cover-free if at all possible. Sorry for any typos, I have a 5 month old guest blogger today who keeps trying to mess with my laptop.

The nicest thing about this challenge is the tips I have gained from the community of other bloggers participating in this experiment, just click on any of the links below and visit any of these extraordinary bloggers. Make sure you comment and tell them how awesome they doing.

Cotton Bottom Mama hung her diapers with clothes pins on hangers and then hung her diapers in a nice neat row on her shower. What a great tip! No more diapers hanging from every single surface of my bathroom!!

Another tip I read was to beat up your diapers against furniture to soften them up! This works so well, my diapers are no longer stiff, and the helpers were eager to lend a hand. I have to say, I have the cutest help ever! I was worried how well I would be able to juggle 5 kids, flats, and hand washing, especially without my husband’s help (he’s in Afghanistan), but it has been a lot easier than I imagined. I do want to say sorry to my husband, there were a few times when we were Skyping that he would run off to go shower, and I would run off to churn diapers and he would be back and dressed, and I had left him waiting. Sorry honey!

Last night, it looked like we might be clearing up, so I decided not to wash diapers and to wash and hang them in the morning, so I can sun them in the afternoon and dry them in a couple hours vs. overnight, and naturally bleach them. Mistake #2. I KNEW the forecast wasn’t calling for sun this week. I had one clean cover left, and he had already had a big poop earlier, I would be fine. I washed and hung his diapers and I noticed him turning red. I guess the poop earlier was just a warm up, and this was the main attraction. I cleaned him, got him nice and doubled up, went to grab a cover and none was to be found! I looked on the rack and four were hanging and I just put the 5th into my soapy bucket so I could wash it too. So if I really was without a washer and dryer, today I think I would have run screaming to the laundromat or to a friends house. Since this was an emergency, I decided to think of a way to rapidly dry the diaper that the average family home and the only thing I could think of was the hair dryer. I may have been cheating, but while the baby happily chewing on his feet in a diaper sans cover, I was washing the newly pooped in diaper and had the hair dryer angled to blow on the dryest of my 4 covers. It got done just in time too, after he nursed, Liam was exhausted and went to bed.

Overall though, I still wish I had known about flats when I was a new mama. My hubby had just joined the Army and we were struggling and living paycheck to paycheck. I remember letting him wear his diapers an extra hour or so because I knew how expensive they were. I remember counting change and hoping we could scrape together enough for a small bag of generics because we were a few days from payday. Even if I had cloth diapered part time, it would have really stretched our budget. However, in 1997, I didn’t know anything about cloth back then outside of the diapers my mother used one me. Even back then, I would have had options outside of the rubber pants my mom used on me. That is a picture of my mom and I in 1980. I was 15 months old.

It rained all day yesterday, and I knew it would because we are not supposed to have sun until Saturday according to the forecast, so I decided to start a cold soak in my camp washer when the boy was laid down, and when he was asleep I quickly did a wash and hung in my bathroom to dry. With the exception of my wipes, by morning everything was dry. To soften the flats up a bit I beat them against my bed before pad folding them and putting them away.

Today I am focusing on the diaper bag fold. Super simple and I can fold them ahead of time and stack them on my changing table and just toss on my babe and go. Changing with flats gets fast now that I am used to it. I also have started trusting the flats more and am no longer needing doublers. Little man’s diapers are so trim he’s back in 0-3 month pants that never fit over his butt and onsies, which I have ALWAYS hated with cloth diapers because they tend to slide into the leg gussets and wick moisture.

It is overcast, but bright and windy today, the PERFECT day for a line dry, and of course I have barely any diapers to wash! I never thought I would be sad I didn’t have enough dirty diapers. I did get some night time trainers for The Princess though, so I at least got to wash those, although I used my machine for that. I have noticed that I cannot get my flats quite as while as the wash machine does. The diapers all come really clean, but I did have some staining on one particularly dirty diaper. However, I am really shocked how clean they get hand-washing, my expectations is that they would all be stained when I hung them up to dry and it just is not the case, they all come beautifully white with just a little Tide and hot water. My routine is: cold soak in the bucket, swirl, and go find something to do. Come back, drain, rinse diapers. Add hot water and 1T of Tide to the bucket. Add diapers. Agitate for a few minutes. Soak some more. Come back, agitate some more, drain and rinse diapers and bucket with shower head. Add more hot water, put the diapers back the in and agitate with my hands. Then I ring them out, shake them good, and hang to dry. For covers, I roll them in a dry clean towel, and then hang to dry.