Triple Clicks

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Getting Ready for Baby

I realized I forgot to do a blog post last week.  Sorry.  My brain has vacated the building.  Baby is due anytime and we are getting very impatient waiting for it to make it's appearance.  

Normally, I'd have a hospital bag packed and waiting in the car.. But we decided on a home birth this time.  So here is what I'm doing around the house. 

I've washed the bassinet and a few sets of clothes for boy and girl, but mostly just the gender neutral clothes.  In the bassinet, I'm collecting everything we'll need for the birth and baby right away.  It's all in one place and easy to access.  I'll probably rearrange it at least ten more times before baby comes. 

I can't remember where the camera is, or I'd take pictures lol... so Sorry, no pictures. 

(warning men, you may not want to read the next few paragraphs lol) I have the baby quilt, nursing tanks, and baby wipes done.   I have not finished the baby in a bag outfits... but only because I'm struggling to get normal house work done, let alone anything else.  Also in the bassinet I have chux pads, feminine pads, sterile scissors (since we plan to let the placenta drain all the way before cutting we won't need a clamp), two dollar tree quality plastic table covers (for the bed..because you just never know), an old sheet and a package of newborn disposable diapers... Because that way I won't have to worry about laundry for a day or two, Grace will also be in disposables.  

In an end table for our bed, I have the baby's cloth diapers-mostly homemade prefolds thanks to a friend, but I do have some flats and All in Ones that are newborn size. The covers for the diapers and snappis-which may or may not be needed considering the covers, but I want them handy just in case (snappis are the 21st century version of the diaper pins I LOVE them).  I also have two nursing nightgowns thanks to a friend-can't wait to use those, all my nursing pads-which I'm already using-but also disposable so I don't through AS MANY shirts while my milk evens out.  The boppy is stuffed in the bottom of the bassinet, covered with a crib sheet so it doesn't get all furry from the cat. Lanolin, although I'll use coconut oil first, I wanted lanolin available just in case.  And Lavender essential oil is patiently waiting in the bathroom cupboard for calming effects.    

Downstairs we have the new rocking chair that is OH SO COMFORTABLE!! And we'll put the play pen up with the bassinet so baby has a place to lay downstairs.  

As far as the family goes, we have plans for somebody to come be with the kids, along with a back up plan.  Easy meals (and numbers to the few places in town hubby can go pick up food if wanted or needed), paper plates, plastic ware, precooked bacon-gotta have the bacon lol.  We are blessed that my husband's work is understanding, while he did schedule vacation time, his boss understands that when it actually starts depends on when baby decides to come, that way he can be home for two weeks after baby comes instead of sitting here  all day being impatient with me, he's being impatient at work while I'm impatient at home. 

I did realize I forgot two very important things. Frozen berries for smoothies (GASP, really gotta get some berries) and ice-which we can run and pick up when I go into labor... because I love ice water when I'm in labor...and that's about the only time.  

In the meantime, I'm sitting here looking at my lonely sewing machine and feeling lazy with the huge pile of projects on a shelf nearby, but I'm sitting here, typing this and trying not to fall asleep-because I can't sleep at night, but during the day when my kids needs me, yep, I'm all over that sleep thing.  

Have a great week! 

~Tabitha 

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

What We Pack For A Road Trip

Our road trips are pretty low key around here... We don't pack a lot of entertainment for the kids-actually, they do much of their own entertainment packing. 

When we went on vacation last year, I did pack some extra entertainment that they never ended up needing.  

Usually on our road trips (6 1/2 hour drives to see grandparents, big sister and usually some cousins), the kids get a basket of toys that they fill up, blankets for hide and seek, sun shade and just in case they're cold, and their car pillows.  A bottle of water and some snacks handy.. The rest is up to them. 

My mom made these awesome toy baskets from plastic grocery bags-washable, durable and cheap.. Don't ask me how she did them, I don't know other than crochet lol.  They fill them up and take them to the car the day before (or the day) we leave.  I use an old cooler that doesn't keep things cold anymore to keep all the snacks and drinks together and within easy reach for me.  We also have a couple of little coolers Dennis got from work that I have started using for the kids' snacks.  Keeps them in spot and if I need to, I can strap them to car seat. 

We are headed to a Bible Conference in Fargo soon, so I have been planning on how to keep my little goons entertained for a 3 day Bible Conference.  Now I know I won't be able to keep them in the conference hall the entire time, I'm also hoping it won't be snowing so we can run off some energy in the hotel yard.  Here's hoping.  I decided to stay low key with this, too.  I grabbed 4 new color books, we'll grab the crayons in soap containers and they can sit for a sermon at a time.   I'll keep drinks and snacks in the car, so the sermons they get restless during, we can have a quick snack if wanted-but that way it isn't sitting there tempting them.  



I'm still working on my sewing list for baby.. Getting out baby stuff this week and cleaning the car seat.  Eva lost her favorite stuffed animal, so that hunt has been added to my list.  

Have a good week!!
~Tabitha

Friday, March 11, 2016

Shopping Trip 3/10

To start off this post, I spent more this month.. I fully expect baby to be here within the month... and even it's not, I'm utterly exhausted and just wanted more convenience foods.  I also picked up some extras for what we will need when baby comes (paper plates for instance).  Any foods we need, my husband said he will just go to the local store and get. 

I was going to use HyVee's grocery pickup service (I've used it before when I'm this far along, it's a back and sanity saver for a $10 fee-completely worth it I think)... But they didn't have any open slots available, so that didn't work.  The kids went a little crazy with mommy's slow walking, but they survived.  

I am proud to say I kept better track of my list this month.. so I didn't forget anything I could find lol.  The few things I couldn't find, I blame on HyVee rearranging one whole corner of the store. 

So we started off our trip at Sam's like normal... 
I bought french fries instead of making my own this month-which I've been doing for a few months now, I just bought them in Sioux Falls this time.  I can't order from Azure before I run out of laundry soap, so back to ALL laundry soap we went.  A huge pack of foam plates-we'll use them all eventually. Precooked bacon, so bacon will be easy for me or Dennis when baby comes.  I only got half our bacon precooked and a package of regular bacon.  I also got a case of juice boxes, partly for a trip to Fargo next week, partly to make it easier on me so if we run out of juice, I don't have to go to the store as fast (we get juice on WIC, which typically means a weekly trip locally).  Oh and chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese....because.. I'm exhausted. Sam's total 277.56

At HyVee, we picked up four rolls of cinnamon rolls for Sunday mornings-a lot easier on this momma than making waffles two mornings in a row.. Refried beans for the burritos-in case I don't feel like making homemade.  The rest was normal spending. HyVee Total 106.07

At Dollar Tree, we grabbed some new coloring books for the kids for the conference next week, tortillas, worcestershire sauce, italian dressing and air freshener.  Dollar Tree Total 13.78

The Bakery outlet was awesome. :D  We got our normal 8 loaves of bread, some donuts (because I was lazy and didn't make coffee cake last weekend-so hubby needed something with his breakfast, raisin bread (I blame that one on the baby lol).  They were giving away free samples of their artesan bread (REALLY YUMMY, especially as cheesy garlic bread) and since I spent $10, I got a free loaf of the same thing.... So Basically, I spent $13 and got about $25 worth of bread.  Oroweat Bakery Outlet total 12.72

So total grocery spending was $410.13... Over budget, but that's what happens when I buy convenience foods... and the $20 in extras (plates and laundry soap) didn't help much.   


Things are going a little crazy around here... We got new furniture, a new love seat, it's a rocker/recliner on both sides with a console in the middle.. Original price was around $1100, we got it for $799. Not bad, eh?  A bunk bed for the kids, I don't THINK it was on sale, but we got it for around $179. And a twin mattress for that which they gave it to us for $99... We think we did pretty good spending $1130 on that (sturdy frame construction) including delivery and assembly.   Another $120 for a new rocker/glider with footstool for me from KMart.. That one's original list price was $160, but with the sale and getting it from the Kmart closing in Mitchell, gave me a good discount.  That stuff came Wednesday, so this weekend we have some rearranging to do to get end tables how we want them and get my sewing stuff and the kid's school stuff figured out.. Along with hopefully getting the keyboard back out.  

Have a good week!! 

~Tabitha 

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Quilted Booster Chair Seat Cover

The kids moved up in car seats... Andrew's seat needed a new seat cushion, so I figured we might as well make it fun for our little super hero lover.  Remember that Marvel Comic fabric I bought a few weeks ago? Well this is what it was for.  

The cushion turned out pretty good, and Andrew loves it! It is a little too wide, but that's ok. 



So here's what you need to make your own (especially if you don't have the original cushion to take apart and trace).  I used four pieces of copy paper from our printer, taped them together, laid it on the booster seat then traced the imprint of where the original lay (just... don't forget to add seam allowance...like I did lol).  I also used an old hand towel for some absorbency, he's a kid, spills are gonna happen.  The batting is what's left over from the baby's quilt for a bit of cushion-but not too much to keep it safe.  Along with 1/4 inch elastic.




So here's his booster seat.  After I had traced the ridges (see the ridges?), I turned it over and marked where the hooks were for the elastic that hold those cushions on. 



 My pattern... minus seam allowance, because I forgot... (don't forget) See the circles? That's where my elastic will go, Once I marked the circles, I measured from where the cushion ends to the hook, took off about 1/2 inch and put that measurement on my pattern to know how long to cut the elastic.






Then I sewed the towel (...yeah no seam allowance, but I did cut the main fabric with a seam allowance) onto the wrong side of the fabric, this is the bottom.  



The OTHER half of the cushion got the quilting.  I cut it just to the approximate size so I had plenty of room for some scrunching when I machine quilted it (REALLY, REALLY don't like machine quilting).  For the quilting, I took my ruler and measured 2 inches between each line-lengthwise and widthwise.  



After both pieces were done, I sewed on the elastic...the wrong way.. Yeah yeah, I blame it pregnancy brain.. Just make sure your elastic goes towards the inside of the fabric, not like I did DON'T point it out.. it's a pain to undo and fix. 




After getting the elastic on, I pinned to two pieces, wrong sides together and sewed except for the straight edge to it would be easy to turn around.. See you you can see the elastic? You shouldn't see the elastic. 


After that I turned right side out and top stitched.  Then we put the cushion on top of the booster seat, stretched the elastic to make sure I made the loops big enough to go over the hooks on the bottom, sewed those loops and we were done.   

Pretty simple, really. (If you look close you can see the square from the machine quilting.)



Lots of projects still going on around here.   Getting a few done at a time as my energy allows.  Although some days it seems my energy allows more than my back does.  We have about a month before baby comes, so let the countdown begin!  

Have a good week!!

~Tabitha