4 pounds of wool batting arrived!

I was so excited to see the big box of the softest fluffy wool batting that I have ever seen! Of course, I couldn't resist testing out the felting process, I mean I wouldn't be called OCD otherwise!

Here is the untouched carded wool batting that I ordered from West Earl Woolen Mill in PA!

This is the fluff ball that I pulled off the ends to do a practice run:

This is the finished felted mini ball!

Tomorrow I'm heading to Walmart to pick up some supplies that I need to make the real ball cores. It's going to be an interesting checkout to say the least!

1. 6 pairs of cheapo knee high stockings (you know the kind that come in the plastic bubbles)

2. 10 packs of Kool-Aid (haven't decided a flavor, er I mean color profile yet)

3. 1 felting needle

4. Various wool yarns (hopefully I can raid the remenant bin)

Check back soon for more updates on the BALL PROJECT!

Let's get woolly!

So my middle daughter's preschool class is starting a project on balls. They will be exploring the many types, and uses of balls. I had recently discovered the wonders of using felted wool balls in the dryer to fluff your laundry without the added chemicals of fabric softeners.


Here is the link to where I got instructions to make felted wool dryer balls:

http://bnyce.tenyearsof.us/goodmama-make-your-own-wool-dryer-balls

My first thought was visiting the class and teaching them how to make their very own wool laundry balls. My kids are pretty understanding of doing things more natural and crunchy and actually get excited about all the cool home projects that come from that. I was a little unsure about how cool it would be for twenty five 3-5 year old kids to make a hard as a rock set of balls to take home and put in the dryer.

Thus yet another Google search was sparked. I was on a quest to find information about homemade TOY balls that could be made easily with a large group of preschool age kids.

Voila I came across several sites about felting wool to make toys... I was shocked at the sheer number of toys that can be made with felted wool. But I needed to focus... Her project is balls.

I came across a cool blog: http://crunchyparent.com/

On this site this awesome PhD mom, shares how to hand-felt balls using wool batting/roving. She also shares a shortcut to make the same style of balls using the convenience of the modern washing machine. Awesome!

Make sure you check back often as I will be posting my progress in turning 4 pounds of carded wool batting into at least 25 soft wool balls (might even splurge and add jingle bells). Then I will be sharing pictures of the process of teaching the kids how to decorate their ball cores with kool-aid dyed wool (for the privacy of the preschool kids, I will only post pictures of my kid working on her ball).

Check out this site for awesome instructions on how to kool-aid dye wool.

http://cyberseams.com/article/105501/craft_basics/how_to_dye_wool_roving_with_kool_aid.html

Here is one about dying wool yarn, with neat color examples!

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html

Mini cloth diaper crisis!

So I don't know what math told me that 4 hemp diapers would be enough to diaper 2 preschool age children through the weekend... Maybe if I wanted to wash Saturday, Sunday and Monday... BLECH... too much laundry.


This dawned on me Saturday at about 11am, when I discovered that the diapers I had just taken out of the wash would only last that day and that on Sunday and Monday I would have to wash them again, and again...

Mini crisis ensued for about 30 minutes while I tried to decide what to do. I figured I would just suffer through the excessive wash schedule for the weekend, and go back to the cloth diaper store on Monday and pick up more hemp. Ugh, more money, on an already tight budget, that we hadn't planned on shelling out.

Then in a RARE moment of brilliance (remember I have a parasitic human sucking up what remains of my brain cells at an alarming rate) I remembered that I just washed 24 microterry pocket diaper inserts for the baby that would be too big for him for at least 4-5 months.

Hmmm? Will those work? No sense in letting them collect dust in a dresser for months, right?

Microterry is a super absorbent product and should not be wore right next to the skin (that's why they are pocket diaper inserts). Well crap there goes that bright idea, or maybe not?

I was putting away towels and saw a stack of baby blankets from when the girls were babies. Of course we couldn't use all those girly print blankets to wrap up a baby boy, and I didn't want to just throw them out, and seriously how many blankets do the girls need for their baby dolls anyway?

I decided to pull out the old sewing machine and whip up some "pockets" for the microterry inserts. Ah hah! Problem solved!

Best part of this whole ordeal?

Mini crisis fixed for FREE!

Empty "pockets"

Stuffed "pockets" in the diaper cover

I was so happy with the cloth diapers for the new baby....

that I decided to invest in some Thirsties covers and hemp inserts for his big sisters to wear to bed at night!

I just hope these diapers can hold all the pee my super soakers produce in one night! I will let you all know tomorrow!

                             

*update*

We only had one small leak. Cam pulled the front of her diaper way down and pee leaked onto her bed. Good thing I had them sleep on mattress pads.

Haha I am so wishy washy when it comes to cloth diapering... but I finally made a purchase!

I have bounced back and forth in my choice of cloth diaper styles. Instead of updating my old blog post to reflect my new choice, I decided to just create a new post.

So here it is:

Today I took the plunge and purchased a cloth diaper stash. I was super stoked to find out that little old Newark, Ohio has a cloth diapering store. It is called Tickleberry Moon.

I bought the 24 BumGenius package!

Yay! All look at all that new fluff. In this picture we have 24 BumGenius one sized pocket diapers, 4 large hemp inserts, 2 large diaper pails, 2 wet bags, 2 ounces of tea tree oil, 1 ounce of lavender oil, 6 washable breast pads, 1 bag of Charlie's laundry soap, sample size of Rockin Green laundry soap.

Yes, I am that big of a dork that I had to dress up my oldest daughter's Cabbage Patch Kid doll to see how they work and look.

I'm thinking these may be a little too big on a brand newborn baby, but that's ok, we were planning on using disposables for the first couple weeks to allow the cord to fall off and the sticky tar poops to stop.

I am also glad that we didn't buy newborn sized clothes. We definitely need the room in the rump for the cloth diapers!

I have never been more excited about changing a diaper before!

I took some more pictures of a diaper as I was playing and practicing stuffing/sizing today:

Bum Genius one sized completely unstuffed

The cover unsnapped to the largest setting

top view of the diaper

Do you want to Empower or Disempower your children?

"Parents can't choose the mates of their children or the behavior of their children. You actually can't choose anything for your children without disempowering them." - Esther Hicks

I will be back later to share my thoughts on this. I just wanted to post the quote before I forgot it.

Brownie, you are right there are times (most of the time actually) when it is good to let your kids make choices. I figure they will be better able to make good choices later if I let them gain practice now. I also allow natural consequences to let my kids know when they didn't make a good choice. For example, Cam didn’t want to put her shoes on a couple of weeks ago when it was time to leave her preschool. I tried to talk to her about how it was cold outside and that her feet would be cold without shoes. She didn’t care and didn’t want to wear shoes. So I said ok and out the door we walked Cam bare footed. I knew it would be uncomfortable, but I didn’t want to force her into shoes. We made it halfway to the van and she decided she didn’t make a good choice and wanted her shoes. I handed her the shoes and she put them on. Next time she didn’t choose not to wear her shoes.


I don't let them into danger or to be rude, but if they want to argue something and talk about it with respect then who am I to tell them “no you have to do it just because that’s what I want”. Now there are occasions where I have to say, I'm sorry but this is not something you have a choice on. Because let’s face it there will be times in the real world when they won’t have a choice. I do try to limit this to situations where a choice really isn't possible. I also make sure we talk about all the things that mommy and daddy don’t have a choice on too. I validate their frustrations.

Why should I even bother being more natural?

WATCH and SEE!

A Wake-Up Story from Healthy Child Healthy World on Vimeo.

This is an awesome video. This is one of the many reason I have been making small changes to do things more natural more crunchy.  All the small things, eventually add up to a really important big thing.

Baby Steps!