Lilli playing outside this afternoon. She loves the snow!
Lauren playing indoors this last week. She loves pushing the grocery cart. The other day she was in her bedroom being really quiet, when I checked on her, this is how I found her (she climbs onto and into EVERYTHING): LOL
We love the winter around here. We love Michigan and the change of the seasons. No, it's not great getting both girls out in the mornings for school, but that's ok....we love it anyway.
Lilli LOVES it. She played outside for an hour after school today. She would have played longer but she had to come in and get ready for her Acro class. I would have loved to let Lauren play outside today while it was so nice, but she is still sick, so I didn't want her outside any more than was necessary.
Lilli is busy at school preparing for their Christmas program. She's been singing Christmas songs for weeks now. I love listening, it's so sweet. She sings Rudolph a lot, and we all love that one.
Lauren still has a cold. I may call the Dr tomorrow and just see if they have any suggestions. It's been 9 days now and she is still pretty sick. She has a runny/stuffy nose and now she's coughing too. I think I'll call the Dr and just see if they think it's what Lilli had and if she might need an antibiotic as well.
Lilli had Acro tonight and we had a nice time. She is really doing well with that class. Her cartwheels are getting MUCH better and it's so fun to watch the girls progress each week. I need to try and get a picture of them together, but it's hard with my camera not working.
We met some friends at McDonald's afterward and had a nice visit there as well. I love our Monday nights together.
Lance and Lauren had a nice visit with his folks who just returned home from Texas yesterday.
UPCOMING PLANS:
Lance plans to attend a cattle auction tomorrow night. We need more cows. LOL. Seriously, Lance keeps selling our beef and now we need more. He has 2 sold for next year and we only have two that will be ready for the processor next year right now. That leaves us with no beef for ourselves. We have 5 head of cattle altogether, but 3 are calves and won't be ready until the following year.
The girls and I might visit a friend tomorrow afternoon, if Lauren is up to it (with her cold).
Wednesday I plan to help out at Lilli's school while my parents watch Lauren for a few hours. Lilli and I will pick her up after school and visit a bit. I may try to get a haircut in the morning, but we'll have to see if there are any openings.
Thursday is open, and I like to be home on Thursdays. There is a 'diaper swap' on my cloth diaper site that I like to watch. I don't always buy things, but sometimes there are good deals that come through. I did buy a new diaper last week that I'm going to give Lauren for Christmas. I've been wanting to try that brand for a long time, so I'm excited to see if it works for her.
Friday night the girls are spending the night at mom and dad's while Lance and I go to his company Christmas party at the La Cantina in Paw Paw.
Saturday we'll visit at mom and dad's and then we hope to get our Christmas tree.
Saturday night I may go out to dinner with some girlfriends to celebrate a friend's birthday. I haven't decided for sure yet if I'm going or not.
Sunday we'll probably decorate our tree, IF we get it on Saturday.
Next week...Lilli's Christmas program is on Tuesday and we are looking forward to that. Then her Christmas party for her class is on Thursday. Then she only has 1/2 day on Friday (the 21st) and it's her last day of school until January 7th.
Yay for Christmas BREAK!
CLOTH DIAPER TALK:
We have now spent a total of $400 for (30+) cloth diapers, various inserts, (30) cloth wipes, (3) wetbags, (1) diaper pail liner and (1) diaper sprayer. I really don't think that's too bad. Lauren's been in cloth for 10 months now, so we are right at $40 per month. HOWEVER, she will most likely be in these same size diapers until she potty trains, so we'll get another year or two out of them, I think. That's quite a savings over disposable diapers and wipes. I'm sure I'll add to the stash occasionally, but that's still a good savings. NOT to even mention that I can sell our used diapers when we are done with them and make about 2/3 of that money back again.
All of that being said, I have bought 4 packs of disposable diapers in the last 10 months. I keep them on hand for days when we are out all day, or if we go on an overnight trip, and to have on hand for mom and dad to use at their house, if she spends the night there. I also use them if she gets a diaper rash, as I can't use diaper creams with cloth diapers (it ruins them). I also used them after her VCUG test (when we found out she had kidney reflux), as they used a sticky solution for the catheter and I didn't want it sticking to the cloth when it came back out.
Cloth diapers really aren't very much work at all. Lance put a diaper sprayer in our bathroom, so I can spray poopy diapers right into the toilet, then I just put the wet diaper right into the diaper pail until I do wash. There is no smell or stinky buckets with diapers soaking. I usually wash diapers every other night. I have enough diapers to go every 3 nights, but I don't like the diapers to sit that long (it does happen sometimes though).
I have an online friend that used cloth diapers full time with just 9 cloth diapers! I found that amazing. She washed diapers every night. I started with 12 cloth diapers and I washed every night at the beginning, as I only had one night-time diaper. The night-time diapers are 'thicker' than the daytime ones, as they have to last all night without leaks. It took me a couple weeks to get a second night-time diaper ordered. Now I have 3-4 night time diapers. I usually only use two, but I like to have 3 in the drawer, just in case I can't do laundry, or something else happens (like she poops right after I put her night diaper on her...LOL).
