Triple Clicks

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Mamacloth Information

Fair warning, if you're a man and you're reading this-you might want to stop, because this could get uncomfortable very quickly for you. (Don't say I didn't warn you if you keep reading.) 



Mamacloth 




photo credit goes to sewnpads.weebly.com



Also known as cloth feminine pads. 

Now before you start in on 'eewwww', think about it this way. It's a GREAT money saver.  Even buying enough fabric at the store to get your supply going or buying them already made, we're talking $30-$40 for the rest of your life-or, at the very least, years depending on if the cloth wears down or not.  Is there a certain ew factor, yes, I would have to agree with that, but it's not really that bad.  

There are many different styles, from the "stuffed" ones like in the picture, to All In Ones (AIOs), where everything is all together and you just have to put it on. 

(Now for the personal part..) Since I started using cloth-still only part time since I just now found a pattern I love and it works great-which will be a different post-the length in periods has gotten shorter, the cramps are going away... All in all-it's a better week for everybody in the house. Sure I still get the PMS symptoms and mood swings, but even I can tell it's not NEAR as bad. 

Switching to cloth can be pretty simple. If you sew, you can make your own very simply, or you can buy them already made. There are a ton of ladies on Etsy, Luna Pads, Kawaii Babies has some (I know I'm missing a ton of the big ones).  Pretty much any place you can buy cloth diapers, you can buy mama cloth.  

Making your own is simple, too once you find a pattern you like.  I first started off using Hillbilly Housewife's pattern. Simple, but not quite what I wanted. After much searching on Pinterest and Youtube, I found a tutorial to show me what I was doing wrong and am now working on building my cloth pad stash.  Amy Nix does awesome tutorials from how to make your own pattern, to what you could be doing wrong that your pads aren't turning out how you want them to.  There are even some groups on Facebook to get you going (Isn't there a Facebook group for everything?).   If you choose to make your own, you have to decide what you want to make them out of. You need an absorbent layer, I've seen everything from bamboo to flannel. Personally, I like flannel..mostly because I have it in the house just sitting in my huge scrap pile. So that's the core... Then you have the front layer (layer against your skin), you obviously want this to be soft, so something cotton or flannel (again lol) would work just great.. Now comes the back layer. For the 'just in case' scenario, you'll want something that will keep your clothes clean.  You can do PUL (a waterproof fabric), or you can do fleece. While fleece doesn't have the waterproof way that PUL does, it seems to work just fine for me.  

Most people use snaps to hook them together, those fancy plastic snaps you know-they are a lot easier that the metal ones.. I just have to save up for the tool and the snaps.  Right now I'm using a diaper pin...that has to be situated just right or it's very uncomfortable.. You can use velcro, or I've even seen buttons. It's really up to you. If you don't want wings, you don't have to have wings. If you need them longer, wider... There are entirely customizable-as is anything homemade. 

Sew all your layers together, insert the snap if you have them and you're ready to go. 

To wash, some people wash in the sink after putting them straight in a pail of cold water to minimize staining.  I just throw them in with the cloth diapers and wash at the same time.  

Cloth pads do have more than just the monetary value, there are no chemicals against your skin and they are less abrasive-not to mention you don't have to worry about toxic shock syndrome.  If you have issues where you have to wear a panty liner all the time, it really is a money saver.  

Leave any questions you have and I'll see if I can find the answer! I'll follow up with a blog with pictures on how to make your pattern (straight from an Amy Nix video) that was as easy as pie and what part of my final stash looks like. 

~Tabitha

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Stroller Bag

Beginning of the summer I found out quickly I needed to make a bag for my stroller to hold my things. So I dug through my scraps and found some material that would work (old slacks and jeans) and bought some heavy duty snaps.  

It turned out pretty good, but Not quite even because when I went to cut the straps, I cut from my front piece and I didn't have any more of that material. OOPS. But it works. :) 


I measured the distance on my stroller handle to find out about how wide I needed then added an inch (1/2" seam allowance on each side). 


The first thing I did was measure my phone and make a pocket (the one on the right). 
Then I took some flannel and made pockets for credit or debit cards, I also labeled these with sharpies once I got everything done.. because I can.. and it was fun. 
The elastic straps are for a water bottle to hold it still. 



Then I realized I wanted a pocket for a pen and miscellaneous things, so I added a pocket with a button.  The two straps with snaps are for keys, they are just the right size that I can loop a key chain through then snap them in and keys are easy to find. 



That's it. After all this sewing, I sewed the front on, and the straps, which are situated catty-corner on the top corners. I looped in on the stroller handle and marked where the snaps would go. I put two heavy duty snaps on both straps just to make sure they stay in place. 

I'm loving this bag!  I think I'm going to add a closure of some sort along the top this winter and it looks like I need to resew the elastic.  But everything is easy to get to and the bag doesn't get in the way when getting in the basket for other things. 

Have fun sewing! ~Tabitha

Friday, August 28, 2015

Shopping Trip 8/27

I'm a little on the happy side this week. I actually came in UNDER budget on our grocery trip. I think I heard the checkbook singing. :D 

We did get a few premades and extras this month, but I only paid for 4 things that weren't on my list-and those were at Dollar Tree.  

Sam's we spent $147.  The instant savings gave us $10 off-AWESOME, didn't see that coming and I also had a $10 gift card from a survey site.  This is where I got my 'cheat food' lol.  I had planned on getting ravioli, but they didn't have any-not even the fresh stuff. Disappointed reigned, but we did find already made chicken fried steak, so got a box of that-and we'll get more meals from the same amount I would have spent on ravioli.. The kids and I have been craving pizza, so I got a carton of single pizzas. It'll only be a few meals worth, but it's something easy for when we're running around and talking walks.  Since my trips to my parents will be resuming, I also bought Dennis some pizza for when we're gone.  It's better than fast food (a little, anyway).  

Hyvee we spent $137. Not many convenience foods here, but oh my are eggs expensive!!! 

Dollar Store we spent $20, Mostly tortillas. The tortillas they have are a little smaller, yes, but just as good as what you get at the grocery store. They don't hold a candle to fresh-but that's another story as my tortilla making skills are nil.   This is also where we got our extra-I'm a sucker for the chocolate isle and the kids know it.  I also got Andrew and Eva a couple marker boards for school. I'm not sure we've spend more than an hour since we opened them that they have stayed in the drawer.  Best $2 Ever spent!! I was looking for an ABC chart and came across a laminated USA map, so I bought that-now I don't have to use ink to make our own. :)  

The bakery outlet was my favorite.  We got our bread, and for customer appreciation day we got a free loaf of Sara Lee's new bread. It LOOKS good and is cut texas toast style-perfect for garlic bread to go with our spaghetti.  $6 at the outlet, 11 loaves of bread and a box of muffins (also free).  

Over all, it was a good day.  Although for lunch we learned the hard way that Taco John's chicken nuggets are spicy, Grace was a trooper and ate a few though! :) 

School has started in our house so I feel super busy.  To finish this week, we are reviewing the letters and sounds we've been through. Next week we start with letter E and get back into the full swing of things.  

As soon as i can get back to my sewing machine, I'll let you know how my new skirt is going... 

Have a good week!! Tabitha 

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Vacation Rundown!

So we got back from vacation Monday. We had fun, the kids had fun and we came in under budget from what we had saved-which means we have that much we will save for the next vacation.   

So here's the rundown.. 
We drove down to Springfield, Illinois and back home, taking backroads and avoiding four lane highways and interstates when possible. 

I spent about $150 before we left on snacks and toys for the kids to keep them occupied. Our plan was to get hot sandwiches from a fast food restuarant for lunches and eat the chips and drinks we had in the car from my shopping trip. I put together a homemade happy meal for the kids, complete with a toy for the lunches.  

For breakfast, we made sure we stayed in hotels that had a continental breakfast which we took advantage of all but one morning. That one morning, we went down to breakfast and the breakfast bar was packed, so we decided to swing by Mcdonalds and grab sandwiches. 

Suppers we ate out.  Usually the kids ended up finishing their food at the hotel, but hey, either they ate it or we ate it for them.  

The entire trip was more about the drive and what we found than what was in Springfield when we got there, although we did enjoy seeing the Lincoln sites in Springfield.  We are family genealogists, so when we saw a graveyard, we stopped and perused.  The kids weren't so sure about it, but after awhile they figured out what we were doing and had fun spotting graveyards.  

Before we went, we tried to find as much as we could that was free to help with the costs.  We did do a few things that cost money, but I would say those few things were worth it.  I do have to say, while we did write down how much we needed for those and figured more for parking, a few of the costs were wrong so just make sure you have a cushion for fees that are more than websites said they would be.  

The big towns we hit were, St Joseph Missouri. We drove around the historic district and took some pictures-especially the house where Jesse James was killed.  The next big town was Hannibal, Missouri where we took pictures of anything Mark Twain we could find.  We then went on to Springfield where we did everything Lincoln we could find.  After Springfield we drove through Carthage and Nauvoo for Mormon history.  We spent our third night in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Drove through the Amana Colonies-which we TOTALLY planned wrong because we went through those on early Sunday morning. We drove through Ames and stopped at the Historic Fort Dodge in Fort Dodge, Iowa.  We spent our last night in Le Mars, Iowa and ate at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream shop/museum before we headed for home.   

Andrew's favorite part of the trip was parking underground in Springfield. He just enjoyed that! Eva's favorite part was her 'superhero ice cream' in LeMars. I honestly don't remember the actual name of it, but she certainly enjoyed.   

All in all costwise, we spent about $800, which isn't too bad for a family of 5 on a 4 day vacation.   We had fun, and that is the important part.  

We also have a ton of snacks leftover. :)

-Tabitha 

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Grocery Trip And Homeschool Stuff

So we went grocery shopping today. HyVee has some good sales this week. 

I'm loving the idea of planning 7 meals and just doing a rotation. So That's what I'm doing again. HyVee has pasta 10 for $10 so we are going mostly with pasta meals. Chicken was also on sale.  I did decide to splurge a little and get charcoal for our grill, because it will save the house from heating up. 

All in all, I spent $330 and a little extra for perishables and some extra snacks we decided we wanted for vacation. 

For those of you who are school shopping, go check out Dollar Tree. I know Walmart and Target run .50 or $1 sales right about now, but if you can't find what you want or need there for cheap, check your local Dollar Tree (or you can buy a case on their website and have it UPS delivered).  I found some great worksheets at ours today. And they have little marker boards I'm debating about grabbing next month. 

On my homeschool sites, I often see questions about teaching kids to budget.  In my opinion, budgeting is a must. Everybody (unless you're a millionaire) needs it. So might as well teach our kids early. And I think they learn best when led by example.  If you don't want your kids helping with your grocery list, give them some random amount and the grocery ad. Tell them they need to meal plan and make a grocery list that fits within that amount. If it doesn't fit, it can't go on the list.   The grocery ad is good for all areas of basic math and life skills to boot. 


That's all to report for now.


I'll be back in a few weeks with vacation tips. 

-Tabitha

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Vacation Food Shopping

Well, we made an unexpected trip to the city today, so decided to do most of our vacation food shopping. I'll hide the goods in the office so the kids don't eat them. 

We've decided we prefer something fresh (Subway or the like) or something hot (think Arby's sandwiches or KFC type).. So we'll get the entree off somebody's dollar menu and use out of our stash for the rest of the meal.  Most everything will last us beyond vacation, but that's ok.

I got variety boxes of cookies and chips and we all love Gardettos, so I got those for a salty snack. Now normally I just a big bag then portion it all out, but in this case, I just bought the boxes of single serving packs. 

Hubby and I (ok..more me) love our coffee.  So since Sam's had the Starbucks Frappucinos on sale, I got a little case of those. Also got Dr. Pepper for him and 7 up for me.  The kids got a case of juice boxes and I grabbed a flat of water. If we need more water, we'll just find a grocery store and grab another flat.   

I was going to get the kids those squeezable applesauce pouches (they love those things), but I couldn't find just applesauce, so I got a variety pack.   

Now, since the plan is to NOT get kids meals, we also made a stop by Dollar Tree. We got a toy for lunch for each day we plan to be gone. One of these days during nap times, I'll put them in paper bags we already have with name on the bag.  New toys are always a good distraction.   We also grabbed a few new coloring and activity books. 

All of this will get stashed away until vacation next month. But I ended up saving $10 by getting it now. 

Have a good week! 
Tabitha

Monday, July 6, 2015

The Next Month

The next month will prove to be a busy one... like I ever have non busy months. LOL

For meals, I've decided on a 5-6 meal rotation. For the most part (unless somebody gets sick from a meal), it's going to be Spaghetti, tacos, stir fry, pork chops, bbq chicken, leftovers.  Then we start all over again.  I am trying to keep dessert of some sort in the house in case somebody doesn't get full on the supper.  

Around the house we have been cleaning and will be prepping for a garage soon.   There's just so much stuff!  

I am doing my homeschool lesson plans, getting everything ready and we'll start again in August.  Still Kindergarten things, but Andrew is determined to learn to read, so we have to learn all the letters and their sounds.  

Lots of sewing projects and still working on the stockings...still on my first of six, I forgot how tedious cross stitch is. 

I'm also planning furiously for vacation this month as we go beginning of August.  I'll go to Sam's soon to grab some snacks and drinks while they are still on sale and then stash them in the office until needed.   One of the biggest vacation expenses is always food.  Our plan is to get hot sandwiches of some sort, then have drinks, chips and cookies in the van and either eat in the van or have a picnic and let the kids get some energy out while we eat.  The van also needs vacuumed and the car seats washed before we go.  

I'm way behind on laundry. I'm really trying to not use the clothes dryer, and that has put me behind with laundry as we have been blessed with many rain showers this last week. 


We'll get to pick our mulberries this week, the kids are really excited. They seem to be small, but are turning black so they are ready. 

That's about all the excitement happening here. Hope you are having a good summer, too. 

Tabitha