Looking Into Our Cabinets: Cleaners.

In efforts to make our home into a "greener" home & environment we've eliminated most unnecessary cleaners and whatnot.


Here is a look at what you will find in our cabinets. 

This is our cabinet (out of the reach of little hands too, OF COURSE!). 

Starting with the bottom shelf you will find: SOS pads for dishes, a couple essential oils, Borax, vinegar&water&EO solution for cleaning, carpet spray (I use that for quick messes by animals), two types of green cleaners, window cleaner I'm using up, a handful of "smell good" sprays, air in a can for electronics, a spray bottle of Clorox, homemade dishwasher detergent behind that, a couple different dish liquids, and the last of some cheapo dishwasher tabs I'm using up.

The top shelf: in the basket there are various items like pads for the Swifter wet jet, the covers for our steam mop, sponges, magic erasers, and more. In the reusable bag there are plastic bags from the grocery store (just downsized from a lot more we did have). And trash bags.

Our laundry cabinet (also out of reach from "littles"), on the bottom shelf you find: a basket filled with fabric softener sheets& a couple detergent and product sample packs, All Free&Clear in bulk for dipes & everyday washes, All with Oxi for everyday washes (we're finishing up), Oxi Clean, and a fabric roller.

The top shelf: laundry bag, washable mesh bags, Clorox bleach (rarely used), Vinegar (I buy in big bottles and use for multiple tasks!), and some liquid starch (bought for making silly putty). 

Edit: I use vinegar for a lot of my cleaning. It works for cleaning different surfaces, windows, floors, carpet solution... so much. The smell is tolerable. And less potent with water. Or I add some essential oils for smell & disinfectant. 


I'm still working on using what I have and downsizing our chemicals and cleaners. 

- Rayne.

The Cloth Experience: Week One!

Now... I've been talking about possibly cloth diapering since AWS was little. A week ago I received my first lot of cloth diapers to begin doing so! Hooray! Enough talk, action! I had ordered a 20 piece lot of diapers with inserts from http://alvababy.com/.

 A rainbow of cloth! (: Love how colorful they are!

My kids have only been in them full time around the clock for 6 days though. The first day I went ahead and used disposables on them at night, and we had an outing once in the beginning of the week I decided to use sposies then. Now we've had a couple test runs out and about with them, and more overnights. 

My 20 piece lot was $84 (covers & inserts). Break that down $84/20 that's $4.20 a diaper. 

Plus, shipping is free! But if you order more than 20 items from their website, shipping is much quicker. Otherwise, you might be waiting weeks for your order.

If you were to start out with 20... you could make it work. I've made it work with two littles in diapers. Normally, we would purchase a bulk box of diapers at Sam's. Before the kids were in different sizes, so we'd have to purchase disposables for both of them. Now, they both can fit into a size 3, but it's large on Peyton and runs kind of small on AWS. Depending on the amount of bulk diapers you are buying and where, the price can range. 

Let's take my 228 count of Huggies Snug&Dry size 3 ones I have in Peyton's closet for example.

That exact box count is $39.98 right now at Sam's. I'm terrible at math, but that's about .18 cents after tax and everything per a diaper. 

Is it expensive to start up? Yes and no. The whole cost up front, yes. When you look at the fact that they are going to be used over and over and over.... no. That you won't be running out to buy a box of diapers every month, thus saving money from that... no. You can make do with what you can get as well... you can settle for plainer prints and colors. Is it easy? Yes and no. They are more work. So it all depends on how you spend your time, your lot size, and how many kids are in diapers. I launder what I have usually at the end of every day. Until my extra inserts come, I have been using leftover receiving blankets for double stuffing at night. Are they for everyone? Probably not. I figure, since I would handle dirty diapers before, this doesn't make it any different... I pull them off, I rinse the poo in the toilet, I throw them into the pail to be washed, into the washer they go at the end of the day, into the dryer (or I hang the covers up), out of the dryer they get stuffed, and then they are put away to be worn. I've gotten used to it. It can seem like work, but could become second nature. If you are traveling, I can definitely understand how using disposables would be easier. I disinfect my washer, by the way. I can understand how it would be hard to start up a stash though... considering deployment made it affordable for me.

Since receiving my first lot. I've invested a little more just for comfort's sake. I've purchased a lot from http://sunbabydiapers.com/ (which I'm excited to try! Too bad it takes 20-30 days for me to receive them..), extra microfiber inserts, bamboo inserts, two more prints, and a wetbag from Alva. I may invest in one more lot of 6 and be done after that. Plus I'm looking at buying a diaper sprayer to install with the toilet.

So far.. I'm liking cloth. I don't mind the work. My kids have had less rashes, when they do have a rash it clears away. I also like that I'm not throwing my money away, with disposables. I also like that while I use cloth, that means less dirty diapers in my trash. Great for me. Great for the landfills. I also think cloth is cute! Also, my kids look adorable with their fluff butts. And provides a cushion for them when they fall with double stuffed dipes. Ha.

Anyways. This is just the beginning. 

- Rayne. 

Salt Dough Recipe + how to.

4 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of salt
1 1/2 cups of water

Start by mixing your flour and salt... Add water slowly and mix... When it is thicker and more pliable lay out on a table and roll out the dough. Flour underneath helps so it doesn't stick to your surface. You can cut out the shapes with cookie cutters.

Don't forget to use a toothpick (or something similar to make a hole to hang them with). I think it helps to make them thinner, because our thick ones were the ones that cracked. Heat your oven to 325 and bake for about an hour. Or 100 and bake for 3 hours. 

Then you can paint them after they have cooled. Pretty inexpensive, and easy.

Credit to Play at Home Mom

Inspired by salt dough ornaments.

200 Days +3! Into Deployment.

Mkay.
So I'm a horrible blogger. I know this now.

We have finished 203 days of deployment. That's a lot of days. Our chain link is pretty long too.

Which means we have less days than what we have finished. We are in the count DOWN process instead of just counting UP. I'm ready to have him home again. 

Created and ordered this sign for homecoming, just waiting on it.

I got my early Christmas present from my husband already (:

This is my new cutting table for crafting and to provide me with my own work space. Love it.

We made salt dough Christmas ornaments some time ago. Austin liked it. I'll post the how to next.

We made cookies the other day. Mmmmmm... They are so good. 

 I finished a couple bows for a friend of mine just the other day. Two for her girls, and one for her.

Started a work in progress of a cami bag too.

My son has been making it a habit of sleeping in our bed... this could be bad later on.

I ordered our first lots of cloth diapers. I can't wait to put them to use. 

We found a library close by. AWS seemed to dig it. He had a little trouble with noise control... but it should get better. We also got library cards. (:

Today he keeps asking about a "baby brother"... not really sure what to think about that.

Until another day. We'll keep going through the days. 

- Rayne.

Overdue Update - Santa Photos, completed projects, & more.

I've neglected my blog for a little while now.

Everything is going okay. The usual household insanity continues.

Deployment is getting shorter and shorter as the days go by. We are into December, which means another month finished. We just barely started day 189. Almost to 190. Almost to 200.

I ordered our homecoming sign. HOORAY! I'm preparing for homecoming, or beginning to I should say.

We got Santa photos done. 

 Poor Peyton, when she looked up she started bawling. And she did it every time we tried again.

We got our tree up and everything.

Took photos in front of the tree to try on outfits for our Santa visit.

 

Put together the Christmas Care Package for Todd. (:

 

 

And I just finished another sewing project earlier tonight. (:

 

A kid's purse! With butterfly print on the outside, sparkly purple fabric lining, pink binding, sparkly purple pocket, and a little lace lilac bow. I hope it is liked. (:

Closeup on the front pocket area with bow.

Anyways... Hopefully I manage to update my blog again another day.

I need to crawl into my bed and hopefully get some rest, it's been a long day...

- Rayne.