Mommy Cereal

One of my sons cannot eat foods that contain any form of corn, so we buy our cereal at Trader Joe's on our way home from church every other weekend. The cheaper cereals sold there are made without corn syrup and tend to be priced the same as the cheap box cereals sold in our local grocery stores.

Last weekend we ran out of cereal. I am six months pregnant with our third child and, for some reason, I really wanted cereal. The grocery stores close by don't sell cereal that is safe for Andrew. Trader Joes is a 30 minute drive from our house and it wasn't Sunday! So, out of pregnant desperation, I got creative. My ten minutes of creative desperation was apparently creative genius to my little boys. They gobbled this cereal right up. Recipe below...

Mommy Cereal
3/4 cup strawberry jam
1/4 cup honey
1 pound of cheap oatmeal
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup cashews

Preheat the oven to 350F. Melt the jam and honey in a small pan. Stir well. Measure the oatmeal into a boul and pour the syrup mixture over the oatmeal. Stir with a rubber spatula until the oatmeal is damp. Spread in a large cookie sheet and toast in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Watch carefully - my batch was done at 12 minutes. Let the mixture cool then mix in the raisins and cashews. Store in a glass jar or a plastic bag. I wasn't sure if the jelly needed to be refrigerated so I stored the cereal in the refrigerator to be safe.

Then the business brain in my head convinced me that I needed to sit down and do some quick math... it doesn't make sense to do this very often unless it is also cheaper than buying cereal from Trader Joes. I was really surprised. The ingredients came from the tiny grocery section in our Walmart (oatmeal, raisins, cashews) and Costco (honey). All together, the whole batch of cereal actually cost me less than $2.00!

I'm already mulling over other variations on this... adding peanut butter and chocolate is sounding really yummy for the next try!

Poo: To Spray or Not To Spray

***Update***
The wee wiggler finally filled her diaper this morning! I tried out the diaper spraying bottle idea with much enthusiasm!

I'm not so sure how I feel about it. It wasn't a raging success, that's for sure. I really couldn't get it to squirt with enough pressure to do a good job of cleaning off the mess. There was alot of brownish splatter left all over the toilet, yuck. I sure don't want to have to scrub the toilet every time I change a dirty diaper.

So, I'll hang in there and try my idea a few more times...but it might be a good idea if you leave a comment and share your bum Genius Diaper Sprayer success stories, cuz I think that's the direction this momma is headed. Does it leave a "brown splatter" all over the toilet??? That's what I'd like to know:)


***Original Post***
We have had one or more babies in cloth diapers since June of 2003. There has not been a time since then that the cloth diapers were put away. Wow, that's alot of washing. And that's alot of figuring out what to do with, you know...poo.

I have tried it all, dunking, liners, flushable liners, scraping, swishing, more scraping and more swishing.

The only thing I haven't tried is a diaper sprayer. All my cloth diapering friends rave about them. They get great reviews, 5 stars out of 5. Apparently, they're the greatest thing since sliced bread!

So, why, why on earth haven't I tried one?

The answer is this: I have 5 children...one of them is two years old and he LOVES to play with water guns. Installing a water gun (aka "diaper sprayer") in my bathroom would be great for cleaning off messy diapers, but it could potentially wreak havoc on my sanity (and my dry house)!


The reason for my post is this: I may have brainstormed an alternative to the diaper sprayer. I was cleaning out closets and I found a squirt bottle. I was going to throw it in the garbage (I like to pitch anything that could offer the possibility of any kind of indoor water shoot out--I know I'm a party pooper) until I realized it could be used like a diaper sprayer. The beauty part is that I can keep my diaper spraying bottle up on the top shelf of the medicine cabinet, where it is not plainly visible and tempting for my two year old potty trainee.

This idea is just that at this point...an idea. For the wee wiggler has yet to dirty a diaper for me today. I'll be sure to post a follow-up "review" of the diaper spraying bottle idea as soon as opportunity has lent me a few chances to test my theory. There are rare moments in a parenting career that one is impatient for the next stinky bum:)

Saving money for Christmas with cloth diapers

Over the last year, we've seen our family's expenses rising. Milk is nearly $4 a gallon. Cheese is crazy expensive. Even my farmer's market has raised prices on fruits and vegetables. And we don't even have to talk about gas prices, right?

So, let's talk about how much we can spend on diapers. A newborn can go through as many as 12 diapers per day... if you do the math on the cost of disposable diapers at Amazon.com, it works out to around .17 - .25 per diaper or as much as $3 per day or $90 per month. In theory, that $90 per month could buy groceries or put gas in my car!

At least for the moment (we have a little surprise on the way in February), our family is beyond the newborn stage. Our youngest son, Oscar, is three now and potty training. We have him in regular underwear during the day (my theory is that wet pants are a better potty-training method) and he wears bumGenius One-Size Cloth Diapers at night (with two inserts). I just did the math and realized that I am saving so much money! If I buy Pull-Ups at Amazon.com, I'll be spending $18.99 for 40 diapers. That is .47 each! At the rate we're changing pants around here, I'd be spending as much as $40 - $60 a month.

$35 is enough to get Andrew (my first grader) a Super Soaker Water Gun for Christmas. By using reusable potty training products for one month, I've already been able to buy my son one cool new toy to put under the tree this year!

Oscar found one of these Balancing Monkey in the Cotton Babies warehouse a few weeks ago and was sure that he wanted it, right then please mom. He doesn't know it yet, but he'll reap the reward of mom's cheapness too when he finds his monkeys under the Christmas tree!

The very idea that the world economy is going to mess up Christmas this year has me tingling to the bottom of my toes with ideas for helping our family save money. I might be a cheap mom, but I'm not a Scrooge! My kids (and yours too) should be able to have a good Christmas this year.

So as we go through the next couple of weeks, watch for more posts from me along these lines. This is a big issue for many families right now and, as parents, we can help other families be better prepared for the holiday season. If you have ideas too, share in the comments!

Cloth Diapers and International Travel

Last month my 8 month old daughter, Marguerite and I traveled to Europe and Africa together. Ordinarily we use cloth diapers for financial and environmental reasons and I had a hard time deciding whether to use cloth diapers or disposable during our travels. I went back and forth for weeks before our trip. There were so many things to consider...it just wasn't and easy decision for me.

I wanted to use cloth because my daughter was exclusively breastfed at the time, which meant that her stools were watery and she was almost guaranteed to have a "blow out" if she had a bowel movement in a disposable diaper--yuck. The bumGenius! cloth diapers that we use are SO good at keeping poop from escaping and I was really nervous about traveling without the security of our bG's:) I seriously had nightmares where visions of poop explosions in airports danced in my head. Let's face it, there just isn't time to deal with changing baby's diaper and clothes and mom's clothes when rushing from one plane to another.

BUT, we do not own 10 days worth of cloth diapers and I was doubtful about finding access to laundry facilities during our trip. So you can see my dilemma here. How does one use cloth diapers when traveling if there is no way to wash the diapers?

I did finally come up with a solution. I used a combination of cloth and disposables. I put a disposable on Marguerite with an unstuffed bumGenius! One-Size cloth diaper over the top like a cover. The disposables saved me from the diaper laundry dilemma and the bG! saved us from the dreaded "blow out".

I know you're wondering if putting the bG! over the top of the disposable really did any good:) Well, after the first couple of near blowouts (poop made it's way out of the disposable diaper but was stopped by the bG! on top) I started keeping tally. In the end, the bumGenius! proved to be a Super Hero... saving mom and baby from poo-poo doom on *10* separate occasions!

Disposable Diapers are Hot

We are in the process of moving from one house to another and the situation has been difficult at best and brain-frying at worst. In the midst of all this I have had Lily is disposable diapers after not using any disposables all Summer. It should make for one less thing to worry about, right?

I had forgotten how hot they are! Every time I take one off of Lily it is stuck to her lower back with sweat. Even in the night and when she is in the air conditioning the whole time she wears it, she is still all hot and sweaty.

Then I remembered that time right after having a baby. My midwife gave me some of those Chux pads to lay on so I wouldn't wreck my sheets. Ugh. Those were really hot too! I was so glad to get rid of those and just lay on a towel instead. Plastic and paper just do not make for comfortable skin!

So for her own coolness and comfort, I have her back in her comfy, cozy cloth diapers. If we can time it right, the diapers shouldn't have to wait longer than usual to be washed during our move. And if they do, well then that is just life.