Simple Womans Daybook

I have come across a number of blogs who participate in the Simple Woman's Daybook and I enjoyed the posts.  So I have decided to participate.  Here is my daybook for today.

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...it is cool and cloudy.  The trees are bare of all leaves.  Winter is arriving.

I am thinking...about my husband traveling on the roads today.  I hope they are not too icy.

I am thankful for...my family and my nice warm house.

From the kitchen...today I am baking bread.  I am also making some cinnamon buns with the bread dough.  Mmmm good.

I am wearing...grey sweatpants with a T-shirt and a zip-up sweater.

I am creating...a crochet scarf (to be a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law).

I am going...nowhere today and it is nice to be home.

I am reading...Remembered by Tamera Alexander.

I am hoping...for a relaxing evening.

I am hearing...some music from VBS playing on the computer.

Around the house...Star is working on some needle point, Sky is doing a craft with stickers, and LK is trying to help me type.

One of my favorite things... fresh bread.  My loaves are ready to go in the oven.

A few plans for the rest of the week: We are butchering a beef this weekend.  Time to restock the freezer.  Also on Friday the girls don't have school and I plan to take them skating.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing
 

9 Months Old and Getting Into Everything

LK with his elephant at 9 months old.

LK is now 9 months old.  Wow does time fly.  He is a very proficient crawler and can zoom across a room in no time.  He can also pull himself to standing and cruise along the furniture and walls so nothing is safe from him anymore.  We have strategically placed our coffee table and infant rocker in front of our entertainment unit to try and keep him away from all the fun buttons that there is to push there.  And remotes?  What is it with kids and remotes?  You cannot leave them anywhere below waist high or he will have them in 15 seconds flat.  He likes to grab them, push all the buttons messing the TV, satellite dish, PlayStation, etc. completely up and then bang the remotes violently on the floor so that even if we knew how to fix up the mess he made; we cannot as he has now damaged the remote beyond repair.

At his 9 month check up we discovered that he now weighs 22 lbs and is 29 inches tall.  This is exactly the upper limit on the infant carrier car seat we have.  So I had to purchase a new convertible carseat for him to ride in.  I got the True Fit  for a good price from Zellers and so far we are liking it.  I like that you can adjust the harness height without rethreading it. 

So that's whats new with LK.  He is still breastfeeding 4 times a day and continues to eat more and more solid food.  He sleeps through the night most of the time.  In general he has been a fairly happy, active baby.  He does like a lot of attention though which is making it harder to get everything I want to done but I am enjoying him and trying to learn to be flexible.

LK getting into trouble under the computer desk.

Menu Plan Monday

Well, it has been a while since I last posted.  I have been keeping busy with the kiddo's and their activities.  As well this past weekend we had a large birthday party for my father-in-law who turned 70.  We served supper to about 50 people  (Not me by myself, it was a group effort and I really did very little).  So I had a bunch of company for the weekend and I have a bunch of turkey I need to use up.  Here is the menu plan for this week.

Monday: Chicken (turkey) stuffing casserole.

Tuesday: leftovers

Wednesday:  This will be my bread making day so we will have BBQ turkey sandwiches on fresh bread.

Thursday: Beef Teriyaki and mixed vegetables.

Friday: Fettuccine Alfredo

Saturday: Not sure yet probably something simple like cheese bread and raw veggies.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween.  The weather was really beautiful here which is unusual for Halloween in Saskatchewan.  We don't generally do a lot for Halloween.  This year the girls did want to go trick or treating and with Halloween being on a Sunday we were able to go in the afternoon.  We met up with some friends in town and enjoyed a nice walk around town chattting as the kids ran door to door getting their treats.  Hubby didn't come along as he had work he wanted to get done around the yard but he made up for it by carving Jack-O-Lanterns with the kids in the morning.  They had a great time and the girls were able to clean their pumpkins pretty well.  They then drew the faces they wanted on a piece of paper and Daddy tried to replicate it on the pumpkins.  They turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.  Carving jack-o-lanterns is one Halloween tradition we do every year.

Cleaning out the pumpkins.

Star with her Jack-O-Lantern.

Sky with her Jack-O-Lantern.

Winter Stuff

Well today we are getting our first real taste of winter.  It is cold, windy, and snowing.  So that meant it was time to bring out the winter jackets, snow pants, boots, mitts, toques, and scarves.  I have a big rubbermaid bin into which all the mitts, toques and scarves get thrown into.  Today I dumped it out and sorted through all the stuff in there.  I threw away anything that was worn and/or ragged as well as the mitts with no mates.  The girls each have a small bin in the porch for their stuff, so into each of their bins went one set of mitts, a toque, and a scarf.  The rest of the good stuff went back into the large bin for we will need many extras throughout the winter.  I used some cardboard to divide the bin into three sections.  One each for the mitts, toques and scarves.  Hopefully that will keep it a little neater so that when we are looking for something we don't have search through the whole bin. 

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Hamburgers

Tuesday: Chicken noodle soup and biscuits.

Wednesday: Mini meat loafs, oven fries, and cooked carrots.

Thursday: Oven omelet and fruit salad.

Friday: Slow cooker lasagna

Saturday: Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken.

Menu Plan Monday is at orgjunkie.com.

Cloth Diapers

This past week Simple Mom did a series on cloth diapering.  So I thought I would share with you how and why I use cloth diapers.  My mom used cloth diapers for all her children.  If  you remember I am the oldest of seven children so I had changed many a cloth diaper before becoming a parent.  This made it a fairly easy choice for me as I already had experience with it and knew that it really wasn't that difficult.  The main reason I cloth diaper is for the money savings.  I got many cloth diapers from my mom when I had my first child so I do it old school with flat folds, diaper pins, and I use a variety of diaper covers (pull ons, velcro on, whatever I can find for cheap). 

Here is a picture of a diaper folded and ready to go.  This one actually was a receiving blanket.  (They make great diapers and are pretty cheap.)  I believe this is called a kite or triangular fold.  If  you search on YouTube you can find lot's of videos showing various ways to fold cloth diapers.

Here it is pinned on LK.

And here he is with the water proof diaper cover on.  This one velcros on.

Now I don't exclusively cloth diaper.  I use cloth diapers when I am at home and disposables when I travel or am going to be away from home for a while.  There is a great post at Simple Organic about how cloth diapering doesn't have to be all or nothing. 

I don't find it to be any more difficult dealing with a poopy cloth diaper than a disposable one.  I just dump the poop in the toilet and throw the diaper in the diaper pail.  I wash diapers about every three days and I don't launder them any special way.  I just throw them in the washing machine like any other load of laundry.  I do line dry them in the summer like I do all my laundry.  (The sun does a good job of removing any stains there may be.)  In the winter I either hang them in the basement to dry or use the dryer.  The nice thing about flat diapers is they don't take much time to dry.

My diapers drying on the line.

So that's my cloth diapering story.  Like I said my decision to cloth diaper was mainly a financial one but I am glad to be also doing some good for the environment.  If you are interested in cloth diaper check out all the great info at Simple Mom and just give it a try.  It isn't as hard as one might think.