by mlvanwinkle
So I mentioned in my last post that Jonathan was going to do some demo in the kitchen over the weekend. . . and boy did he! I was out of town for the day on Saturday and when Evie and I got home late that night we discovered he tore out the icky linoleum floor to reveal hardwood! Yippe! We knew the wood was there and that it matched the rest of the house (it needs refinished, but so does the rest of the house) HOWEVER, we also knew they had laid a sub floor on top of it for the linoleum. In other places in the house things like this were glued down so we were leery that the wood floors in the kitchen could be saved. Because of this, we had decided to hold off on ripping out the flooring until we were ready to refinish all the floors in the house and ready to lay tile if the floor was unsavable. So. . . needless to say. . .it was NOT the plan that Jonathan rip up the floor on Saturday. He was tearing out a door frame (because we believe 4 doors in a kitchen is a little excessive) and other things to prepare to drywall and prep that wall for more cabinets (more on that project later) and discovered that the sub floor was stapled to the hardwood (not glued). So he did what any other amazing husband would do and went after it.
He wasn’t quite finished when I got home that night (the linoleum ran under some of the cabinets that are not original to the kitchen) but his poor hands were so blistered he called it quits. Last night he finished the job and showed me ‘what lies beneath’ our way old linoleum.
Why yes. . that is carpet! It was under the linoleum and then you are seeing the sub floor and then the glorious hardwood.
I remember when our Realtor showed us this house, he cautioned us that 85 years is a lot of time for “home improvements”. Yes, he used air quotes. And yes, he is very right. It always amazes me (although it really shouldn’t at this point) what we uncover. Like, the fact that there was once wood paneling in the kitchen- pre fake tile paneling.
So on the walls we had: original paint. wallpaper layer 1. paint. wallpaper layer 2. paint. paint. wood paneling. fake tile paneling. Whoa. That’s a lot of transitions- about one a decade. Seeing all of this layer on top of one another (as opposed to stripping down to the plaster/first layer of paint each time) is why Jonathan and I are so convicted to, wherever possible, do things the right way in this house. Sometimes this point of view is hard for us because we know that doing things the right way like this do not add up front value to our home (but require a lot of effort on our part). We could have put up bead board and called it done- but that isn’t what we wanted and it just leaves this mess for someone else to deal with. These kind of things future home owners won’t know to appreciate, but if we didn’t do that. . . they would be cursing us under the breath just like we do about the previous owners of this home which is not what we want. Anywhoo. . . that is what is happening in the kitchen project.
Thanks for bearing with horrible night time blurry photos :)
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Today I am thankful for God taking me ‘further still’.
by mlvanwinkle
because posts have been a bit baby heavy (what can I say, I just really love her). . . .
and because I promised to keep you posted. . . . .
and because 3 people have asked . . . . which I naturally translate into the whole world caring. . . . .
Here is a kitchen update:
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Beautiful no? Whaaat? You mean it doesn’t remind you of a famous chef’s kitchen? Oh. Yup, I guess it’s pretty terrible.
We have big kitchen plans for the weekend. . .and when I say we, I mean Jonathan plans on doing some major demo and framing in a wall. . . than maybe I will paint next week!
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I am thankful I have a kitchen to cook in, no matter what it looks like right now.
by mlvanwinkle
First of all. . . I just want to say about this post and other posts I write about choices I am making in parenting- I in no way think I have things figured out. Not at all. I want to share what works for Evie and I- but I am absolutely not saying this is something you should be doing – or even committing that everything I do now will look the same for future kiddos of ours. I really don’t want to enter into the cloth vs disposable debate. . . but get asked about this a lot. A lot. So I am writing out all my thoughts to share with those who want to know.
That being said. . .I really kinda love cloth diapering. There are definitely low points (some are obvious like laundry, but I will share them all) but the highs really outweigh the lows for me.
And. . .I want to say up front. . .I am not a staunch cloth diaper-er. Evie wears disposables when we go to church, sometimes on vacations (however I have started using cloth on vacay’s where there will be laundry available and it’s no big deal) and when I didn’t get diapers washed before I ran out of cloth among other times. I buy a box of 80 diapers and it lasts usually until Evie is into the next size of diapers so at least 3 or 4 months. Evie also wore cloth for the first 2 weeks until I was ready to face cloth.
Why I love cloth:
1. WE SAVE SO MUCH MONEY. I am a stay at home mom. . . and I consider it part of my job to make our money go as far as it can. Assuming your child is potty trained between 2 and 3 years old, you will spend somewhere between $2,500 and $3,000 on disposables. Eek! Are you ready for it. . . I spent $400 (you can spend less if you chose a different type of diaper, more on that later) on diapers, wipes and wetbags that will last until Evie is potty trained. Even if I don’t use them for future babies (which I plan on. . .think of the savings adding up) I am saving tons. Now. . . I do use diaper liners and will talk more about them when I talk products, but the cost under $12/roll and I go through a roll in about 2 months. I also use some disposable wipes as well as cloth and after mucho coupons spend about $10/month on those. I would add those into the cost of the diapers for ya, but wipes are not included in the disposables number either.
2. These are not your Momma’s diapers. Seriously. If you haven’t seen a cloth diaper since your Momma was sticking pins into your little sister. . . . you need to check out today’s diapers. There are a lot of options out there. You can still go for the good old pre-folds if you would like (they are by far the cheapest) all the way up to all-in-one diapers that grow with your baby. Diapers now are snazzy people. I planned on doing cloth from the get go. . . but when I started researching diapers online I was shocked. Once Evie’s diapers are laundered and put together (again, you can get all-in-one’s and skip that step if you so desire) it is no different that putting on a disposable. Velcro is a beautiful thing. Not only my husband, but my DAD changes Evie’s diapers.
3. Blow outs. If you are not a momma. . .ask one. Blow outs happen. And they are not pretty. I will never forget when I woke up to get Evie on a Sunday morning and had to yell for Jonathan because I was in shock. Poop had come up the back of Evie’s diaper and was all over. It was through her pj’s, sheet, mattress cover, and well soaked into her mattress. Yuck. She was wearing a disposable. In fact, I can’t think of a single time this has happened in a cloth diaper. Evie’s diapers have fabulous elastic especially around the back that doesn’t let anything out.
4. They are cute. Here’s my model:
5. They are eco friendly. Diapers take a long time to decompose and although you use more water washing. . .cloth diapers win out in the which is better for the Earth argument. No way around it. While this was not a deciding factor for me (cloth diapers had me at CHEAP) it is a definite plus.
6. Evie has a lot less diaper rash in cloth. She has had diaper rash just a few times. Two of those times has been while cutting teeth. Evie get’s diarrhea while cutting teeth which has given her diaper rash. Bummer. Outside of cutting teeth Evie has only gotten diaper rash after wearing disposables for a few days in a row. Evie’s diapers wick away moisture pretty stinking well and are gentler on her bottom when compared to disposables that have chemicals in them to help absorb and wick.
The less than fabulous part of cloth diapering:
1. Laundry. I don’t like laundry anyways so this is my least favorite part. I will say though, it’s a lot less bad than I thought it would be. First of all, I was working full time when I bought Evie’s diapers and committed to washing diapers a couple of times a week. What seemed overwhelming then is not a big deal now. Again, this is a thing where it works for me, but I can see how it might now for you and your life :) I have to wash diapers every 3 days. I have 18 diapers total. I used to have to wash diapers more often when we were changing Evie over night. I will say, diapers motivate me to keep up on laundry in general because I am already standing in front of the washer, might as well throw in another load after I take the diaper’s out so that is a real plus for me (no more 2 weeks worth of laundry piled in the basement).
2. Pooh happens. If you breastfeed, pooh is not really any big deal until your babe starts solids. When a baby is breastfeeding exclusively the pooh can go straight into the washer. If you formula feed that will sound really icky, but trust me, it’s very different from formula pooh. Once you start solids it’s a whole nother ball game baby. And that doesn’t matter if you are using disposables or cloth-pooh is gross. There is a misconception that if you cloth diaper, you have to get way more up close and personal with the pooh side of things than if you use disposables. Not really true. If you are basing your information on your Momma’s diapers. . . things have changed my friend. As I mentioned in the cost I use diaper liners. They look a lot like a dryer sheet (but don’t use a drier sheet) and you lay them inside of the diaper before you put the diaper on your baby. When you change diapers you just dump the liner into the toilet (they are flush able and if they don’t clog our broken sewer they won’t clog yours) and flush it away. That’s it. The only extra step to your diaper changing experience. You could even dump the liner into a trash can but I wouldn’t recommend it because it’s tres stinky. Just sayin.
3. Cloth diapers hold a lot more pee than disposables which is nice because you don’t have to change as often. This is nice. . . but. . . when Evie gets a diaper rash it is a downer to me because cloth diapers don’t get squishy and stink as soon as the baby pees like in disposables so it sometimes takes me a while to notice she is wet. Keeping a baby’s bottom dry is the key to healing diaper rash so that stinks. This might seems to contradict my #6 above, but it really just means that I have to be on the ball and checking Evie’s bottom more often.
There it is. . . why I do it. I don’t think it’s for everyone, but I do think it is worth considering. This post is pretty long. . . so I am going to follow it up with another post sometime in the next week with what diaper’s and products I use.
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Today I am thankful for fantastic weather.
by mlvanwinkle
These were not the very first steps. . . but pretty close to it! Exciting stuff.
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Today I am thankful for baby steps.
by mlvanwinkle
Okay. . . so my daughter has a lot of hair. Lots. From day one, everywhere I take her I get hair comments.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
I love her hair. When Genevieve was born she looked nothing like me. Nothing. She was her Father’s daughter and seeing as how I am married to a good looking man, I was happy about it. But part of me felt like, come on. . . I carried you, I pushed you out, and you look your Dad? But her hair. . . it come from me. It might be her Daddy’s color, but ALL THAT HAIR, that’s from me. My siblings and I were born with our fair share of hair as well. So she could look like Jonathan all she wanted. . . at least I could claim the hair! Nowadays she looks a lot like both of us. . . but 10 months ago. . . I was attached to all that hair.
And then it grew. And grew. And became a mullet.
So it was time for her first hair cut.
My Mom was visiting and it seemed as good of a time as any so we did it. Evie sat on Jonathan’s lap and ate animal crackers (a major treat as sugar is not abounding in her diet) while I started snipping. I just took a couple of inches off mostly in the back but did snip just a little on the sides to keep it even.
disclaimer. . . .none of these photos are in focus. . . our camera really stinks coupled with me giving my mom no instructions as to how to deal with the camera’s any issues resulted in blurry photos. . .but they are what we have so I will share anyways :)
Speaking of mullets above reminded me of a funny story. When I look back at the things my friends and I did to entertain ourselves in high school I always have to laugh. I wasn’t a party-er and neither were most of my friends so we got creative. I don’t remember the specific details. . . or even who I was with . . . but I know one night we went mullet hunting. I think we split onto two teams each armed with a video camera and were given a time to meet back together and went on search of as many mullets as we could get on camera. I remember stopping at bowling alleys among other ‘mullet hotspots’ and trying to video tape people inconspicuously. Oh man. . .
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Today I am thankful for cool weather.
by mlvanwinkle
Evie and I have been out of town for the past couple of weeks. Sorry for no blogging. . . the trip was unexpected so I wasn’t prepared.
This morning we went to the Overland Park farmer’s market (a great market) and then stopped in Ten Thousand Villages where this awesome picture of Evie (and me too) on a magic carpet ride was taken.
Ha ha. . . It was a totally awesome ‘green screen’ set up. They were taking these to promote their rug event coming up.
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Today I am thankful to be home.
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