Homemaking

We're staying home for Christmas this year and this has given us the
opportunity to start some new traditions and spend more time with
friends as well.
Mid-month two of my homeschooling mom friends came over with their
families and we had a little Christmas party. We made Christmas pizzas
for lunch. I got the idea from this Pinterest link. The kids thought it
was way cool to eat a Christmas tree and snowman pizza!!

After lunch, we made a Gingerbread Nativity which in our case actually
used graham crackers. I got the idea from this Pinterest link. We had
lots of fun and I thought ours turned out well.

The first Sunday of December, Miriam was in a little Christmas musical
at church. We are blessed to have great little children's choir at
church which Miriam very much enjoys. This year they did "Just Believe"
the story of a church children's choir that doesn't get to do the
preformance they intended but along the way learns some important
lessons. Miriam played the part of a sheep. I know I'm bias but Cutest.
Sheep. Ever!!! I was so proud of her. She was in the front of the stage
the whole show and she did so well singing out and saying her Bible
verse (John 3:16). The last 6 months have seen a big jump in her
maturity and it show in places like this.

One final bit of proof that Pinterest is not a total waste of time... I
made this new decoration for our family. A felt Christmas tree the kids
can play with and decorate! It was easy to make and I think they did
enjoy being able to decorate over and over.

So this year Evan asked for a Spiderman cake and Miriam asked for a
princess cake. I wasn't thrilled with either requested and managed to
talk Miriam into a castle cake with princesses on it. But there was no
moving Evan off Spidey.

The Spiderman cake ended up giving me quite a headache. I was trying to
make a 3-D bust of Spidey. I made the body and shoulders out of cake and
the head out of rice crispies. I got this far...

But the head was just too heavy even with a tripod style dowel holding
it up. In 5 minutes it was obvious it would fall and take the cake with
it!

So we went to Plan B... star foam head. But the local craft story didn't have an egg or oval shape.

On to Plan C... lay Spiderman down. I think that worked well! Here he is:

Miriam's Castle cake actually took a lot longer but it all went as planned. I got the idea and some insight here.

Only part of the cake not eatable is the lower parts of the towers which are cardboard tubes covered in fondant!

It's been busy around here. But I found a little time to do a little nesting.

We finally got bunkbeds for the girls. (Although we left them as twin beds for now.) So now that Katie is in her big girl bed, the crib has been moved into the boys' room. (Love saying "boys' room"!!) The boys' room has not changed a whole lot beyond the addition of the crib, but the girls' room is quite a bit different. They seem happy with things, and Evan can't wait to have a roomie!! 

When you follow roads like these:

You end up with loads like these!

Then your kitchen looks like this:

And your sink fills with these!

Thankfully, I have helpers like these!

I've been busy turning these,

Into this! Yeah, we really need this much jelly! Seriously!

So what have I been up to lately?  Well, picking these from our tree.

Making this with them.

And doing this with them. We love peaches. :)

It's not been the best year for gardening with not enough rain then too much, but somethings have done well enough. The sunflowers look lovely, for example. :)

The blueberries have also done well thanks to the rain arriving just in time.

The tomatoes loved the dry weather we had early on so they are doing well too.

Miriam asked for a kitty cake this year for her birthday. So I decided to try my hand at my first real 3-D cake. I made the body using the top tier pan of a wedding cake. I cut it in half and set the halves together upright on their cut side. I made the base of the head from a small oven safe glass bowl. I then cut the tail, ears, front paws, and muzzle from a 9 inch round cake. I assembled it all with icing and a few toothpicks and cardboard dowels. After freezing the cake overnight, I sculpted the hind legs and face and did a bit of of general sculpting until I had the cat shape I wanted. I rough iced everything. Then, using a #233 tip, I piped "hair" on to the cat in three colors. I made the eyes, nose, and mouth along with the ball of yarn from fondant. I was very happy with the end result as was Miss Miriam. :)

As those who have been around awhile know, I like to make a special cake for each of my children on their birthday. In the past, I've done coordinating Sesame Street cakes for M & E, a candyland cake, Elmo, Veggie tales cakes, a barn cake, and an ice cream cone cake.

This year Evan asked for a Toy Story cake. (He LOVES Buzz and Woody). So, I did Andy's Room. I made a half sheet cake and covered it with fondant (this was my first time working with fondant). I used MM fondant made from this recipe. I added a small rectangular cake for a bed, covered with a fondant "bedspread" and made a headboard out of fondant, graham crackers, and pretzel sticks. I added fondant stars to the base for decoration. I also added miniature character toys I bought (they were easy to find thanks to the new movie coming out!) As you can see, Evan loved it!

As long time readers of this blog will note, I've reviewed gDiapers before here and here.

Earlier this year, gDiapers released their cloth inserts (gCloth) to use with their little gPants. I was very excited and got my hands on some ASAP. I've been using gDiapers with cloth inserts as our primary diaper for 3 months now, and I think I'm ready to report!

First, As you might remember, my biggest complaint about gDiapers in the past was that the snap-in liner would stain where poop touched it, and it would also smell unless bleached. Well, I'm happy to report gDiapers has addressed this issue. They changed something in the material of the liner. They no longer stain easily (I've had no stains with the new liners) and no longer retain smell. WOOHOO!!

Now, about the gCloth inserts.

Positives:
They are trim fit, almost as trim fit as the flushable refills or a disposable diaper. They wick moisture away from the baby's skin with the fleece side. They are easy to wash. Easy to remove poop from. Staining is limited. They are absorbent enough to last 2-3 hours during non-heavy wetting times without leaks.

Negatives: These inserts will not cut it over more then 4 hours (i.e. overnight), nor will they stand up to a heavy wetter.

Workaround related to above negative: I HAVE found a way to make the gCloth work well for us for 4-5 hours or during heavy wet times (right after breakfast here). I take two inserts and place them with the fleece side out, works wonderfully! Only down side is the increased thickness, and they still wouldn't make it overnight.

Overall, I really love them and recommend people give them a try.

Some of you may remember the review I did on gDiapers, the environmentally friendly diaper,  awhile ago. I ended up really liking them but only used them for travel due to cost. Well, they recently came out with cloth inserts!! Woohooo! This plus a new 6 pack of cover unit makes them as affordable as other cloth systems. I really love how trim they are and they have most of the positives of all-in-one diapers with none if the negatives!

Even better, right now (until July 31st) they are running a special where you can get their 6 pack of covers regularly $70 for $40!! That is incredible! You need a coupon code to get this deal and I have one. The really cool thing is if enough people us my code, I get some free. Here are the instructions on how to use the code and the code, of course:

Here's the personal gMum/Dad coupon code we promised:

g1323West

To use your personal gMum/Dad coupon code, add one or more everyday g's six-pack(s) to your
gDiapers.com
cart, enter your code and click the "redeem" button. The price will
automatically drop from $70 (regular price) to $40. What a sweet deal!

Please note, gDiapers.com coupon codes are case sensitive, so make sure to enter your code exactly as shown above.

Well, I have finished spring cleaning the house! WOOHOO! It was really dirty behind the couch... sssssh! Don't tell anyone! kay?

I have also completed the dry run packing. Weight limits for in China flights are tight... even though we are allowed two 50 pound bags each on the trip over, once in China, we get one 44 pound bag each! We also get one carry-on each. As you can imagine, this limits packing a bit. First, I packed everything that I know I'll be sending back with Brian... that came in under 25 pounds! Woohoo! Then I packed everything as I want to have it for the trip over. Bag one, a rolling duffel, came in at 40 pounds!! Bag two, a standard rolling bag, came in at 30 pounds!!!! I still have a few items to pack, but they aren't even close to 5 pounds total.... besides between 10-15 pounds is donations/stuff for our friends which we will get rid of in Beijing! Ok, I'm really proud of myself! I guess the two months of obsessing over my packing list have paid off!

 T -4 days to leaving... T -9 days until Katie-Day!!

This weekend I worked on the food angle. We now have a 10 week menu planned as well as detailed plans for the 17 days I will be gone.  There are 32 meals prepared and frozen in the freezer including those numbered for use the days I am gone. Yup, I'm pretty happy with myself. Now on to this week's mission... clean the house!  T- 9 days and counting!!

Well, since poor Evan never got a proper nursery due to his sudden arrival and since the girls' room was already decorated for Miriam, I decided to give Evan his big boy room instead of doing a nursery for Katie.  So after almost 2 years, Evan finally has a room just for Evan (it was also a guestroom in its previous life).

The theme is "Transportation" and the breakdown goes like this:

• Primary-color Furniture (bed frame/headboard, desk & chair, and shelf) - $50, used from friend
• Fabric to re-cover chair & make two curtains - $7
• Dresser - free from neighbor
• Hardware to make dresser gender neutral - $17
• Paint to cover gold on dresser - free, re-appropriated from other project
• Multi-color ceiling fan - free, already in room
• Mattress - new, $100
• Box-spring for bed - free, was mine growing up
• Canvas to cover torn bottom of box-spring - free, re-appropriated from other project
• Bed skirt to cover rest of old box-spring - $12
• "Transportation" theme sheets - new off ebay, $17
• Train blanket - gift from Mimmi
• Bed-rail - free, off freecycle
• "Transportation" rug - free, off freecycle
• Pattern for wall murals - free, created myself off of online pictures
• Paint/brushes for wall murals -  free, re-appropriated from other project

I think I did pretty good if I do say so myself! :)  Have a look see.

Grandpa George picked 4.25 bushel of apples off our tree today.  I'll be making applesauce tomorrow, but tonight we eat these. 

Okay... as promised, a full review of gDiapers.  I used them for 10 days while visiting family; two of those days were a 12 hour road trip.  Except for one issue, I LOVED them.  I'm going to break things down into sections and give gDiapers a grade as well as compare them to disposables and cloth (Motherease and various pocket diapers).

Ease of use:  gDiapers=A, disposables= A+, cloth=B

Well, today was peachy instead of blue! I harvested 2 bushels of peaches off my first peach tree.  YUM!  Hopefully I beat the worms and ants to most of them.  We'll see as they finish ripening on the tables in the basement.

Well, the trial run to church was a great success!  i find the diapers easy to put on... not quite as easy as disposable but not as hard as cloth... and easy to assemble.  The kids seemed very comfortable in them and changes were almost as quick as disposable. (I think once I am 100% comfortable with them, it will be a quick as disposables.) No leaks despite being on during Miriam's heaviest wetting time! :)  The real test will be on the road next week, but I'd say we're good to go!

The gDiapers have arrived. Very fast shipping and delivery... I'm impressed by that. I like the look of the diapers in person.  The cover is very soft, strechy and comfortable looking.  Miriam LOVED the pink striped cover and cried when I made her take it off.  Evan seemed to really like the feel.  The fit looks good on both kids...

Blueberry that is! I snuck out between rain showers and picked just over 3 cups of blueberries off my bushes.  I'm very pleased with them this year! My four bushes are doing very well.  They are staggered so one bush is basically done, one bush is half done, one bush had the first few today and one is still green all over. Love those berries!

I've always hated using disposable diapers.  They cost an arm and a leg, are full of bad cemicals, and are clogging up the landfills.  So we went with cloth diapers... most of the time.  I've tried a number of different types of cloth diapers and found one I like and don't mind using them at all... most of the time.  But there are times when the hassle of cloth just isn't worth it... namely travel.  Finally, I think I've found a solution.  gDiapers. I'm so excited.  I can't wait for my order to get here so I can try them.  I'll keep you posted!

Evan has been having a rough transition to being two and to his Daddy (who hung the moon and stars in his mind) getting a new job.  It's been a rough two weeks as a result.  But I learned something new... Evan, who never much liked the sling, is a different little boy after just ten minutes of being strapped to Mommy in the Mei tai.  I think that says how far he has come attachment wise!  Being close to me centers him and calms him... that was once, even a few months ago, not true.  Since we're taking about slings, let me tell you how I came to have one. ;)