Day 4-Local CD'ing

Check out the rules to the Flats & Handwashing Challenge I'm participating in HERE.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that today I was planning to use only items I could find at WalMart to diaper the little man.  I changed that to what I can find locally, because we have a Lowe's (for wash bucket making items) and a Target (for flour sack towels) the next town over, which is only 15 minutes away.  I'm pretty sure a lot of my recieving blankets also came from Target.  I think a mom here in town could feasibly get to that town if she needed to, and if she were to have  baby shower, most everything would come from that town (not many options in our town) so...it seems realistic to me.

So what am I using?

• Pins...because I found them at WalMart and we can't get Snappis locally.  I've never used a diaper pin before today!
• $1/4 pack for the locking heads
• Flour sack towels
• $3.99/4 pack at Target OR 4.89/5 pack at WalMart
• Recieving blankets I've found around the house
• Free from baby shower, from WalMart, Target and even Family Dollar
• Refurbished crib sheet cut into a flat
• Free.  We've had that sheet for 7 years now
• T-shirts
• Free.  I used an old one
• Wash bucket
• $5.00 total from Lowes
• A bamboo towel I found in the kitchen
• It's from The Pampered Chef, but I'm sure one could be found at WalMart?  I'll have to look it up

The only thing I'm subbing is covers because locally all we can get are plastic pants.  My son does not do well with the heavy duty plastic/PUL, so it wasn't something I was willing to entertain for a full 24 hours. 

So far so good.  I noticed that the thin recieving blankets fold *really* well, but don't absorb much.  I'm having much more luck with the kite fold on the recieving blankets and since they are trimmer, they are easier for me to pin. 

Which leads me to the fact that I've also noticed that I don't have much confidence with pins and can't seem to get a good, tight fit.  The covers save my behind, but when little man pooped this morning, it got out of the legs of the handmade flat and soiled one of our wool covers.  I tried to spot clean it, but a couple hours later it is evident that I'll need to do a full washing, which means that cover will be out of the mix for a couple more days.  I never used pins before today.  EVER.  So this has been interesting.  I had tried to use them a few days ago and couldn't get them through the materials.  I was so scared to poke little man, that I just walked away.  Luckily a mom posted a tip to store the pins in a piece of soap or candle, so I found an old candle in my closet that I've been keeping them in.  It's worked fantastically!

For naptime we used a thicker recieving blanket and a bamboo terry towel I found in my kitchen for extra absorbancy.  It did so well that I washed it right away and hung it to dry so we can use it at bedtime. 

I worked out a couple of my issues with this morning's wash.  First of all, I still didn't get up early because our eldest had a friend overnight (she was absolutely adorable and came to me at church last night and asked "do you homeschool?"  I said yes and she said, "since GraceAnne and I are in the same grade, can I spend the night and you school me tomorrow, too?"  Of course I had to oblige!) and we visited with her parents who are good friends we don't get to see frequently until midnight.  Needless to say I was dragging butt this morning. 

So after I changed little man, I took him downstairs, made my coffee, made some pancakes and left little man and the awakened children with Hubbs, I fumbled back up the stairs and got to washing some dipes.  In the middle of the wash cycle, I was brought a poopy boy.  Enter the soiled cover mentioned above.  Despite the bustle of the day, the wash went much better because I had a quality lid and a plastic handle on my plunger.  Oh.  And a cup of coffee!  That helped tremendously.  Then, of course, there was the calming effect of hanging the dipes.  Oh how I love watching them sway in the breeze!

And then we got to our homeschool thang.  The kids were great and had a blast and I liked it so much I almost want to find another kid my daughter's age to do school with next year so she can have a classmate.  Having other people's kids makes me much more lenient, too.  It's easy to be hard on a kid when you know what they are capable of, but it seems to be difficult to remember sometimes that your children are, well, children.  Having a friend here reminded me of that a bit.

 So at the end of today what are some tips I have?  (See HERE for tips from others doing the challenge)

1. Don't be afraid to try things you wouldn't have thought of.  It really decreases your diapering expenditures when you look around the house and find things like recieving blankets, old t-shirts, old sheets, etc.
2. Store your diaper pins in soap or wax to help them glide through fabrics
3. Better yet, find and use Snappis.  I will be having these in stock when I start my classes
4. You really do need to use quality items when making your wash bucket.  Get the bucket and lid at Lowe's and make sure that your plunger has a plastic handle!

That's it for me at the moment.  I have some pictoral tutorials I would like to post here.  Perhaps tomorrow/Saturday since we seem to be on the maintenance end of the learning curve.  Until next time, God Bless!

OH OH OH!!  ETA:  Check out this cute t-shirt dipe!  It was totally impractical since I'm not good with the pins, but WOAH!  What an adorable idea! :P

ROCK STAR!!  That's a Black Label skate shirt I've had for...geeze...12 years now.  I was really relieved when he peed on it and didn't take a dump cuz I might not have wanted to wear it again if it had been pooped on.  HA!