{bits & pieces} (and a cloth diapering follow-up)
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
Happy Independence Day!
Good news! My diaper issues are resolved for now. I know – that’s what was most on your mind this 4th of July.
I read all of your advice (yes, all those dozens of comments! thank you so much!) and tackled the laundry question.
So far the change that I have made is to wash with more water and to add Borax. I had already been doing hot water, yes, and already had been doing two rinses. But I realized that I could set the load to “extra large” and get more water into the mix; my normal instinct is to be as frugal as possible with water use, so it was good that you pointed this out to me. And I had been wondering whether Borax would be okay for the diapers and sensing, vaguely, that it might help, so I’m glad you brought that up, too. I honestly didn’t expect that we had hard water issues, since Manchester supposedly has very high quality water. But apparently that was part of it!
I didn’t really alter the amount of detergent that I use – I’ve done a little less and a little more on different loads (testing out some of the conflicting advice given), and I haven’t noticed yet that it makes a difference.
Crucially, there hasn’t been one leaky diaper since making these changes! Yay! All that cloth is also smelling a bit fresher, too.
Admiring some beautiful eggs our friend graciously shared from his family farm.
As for the logistics question, I’ve decided (after taking your input into account) that it works fine for me to just stow a few diapers aside, along with a makeshift changing pad (usually on our master bed) and wet bag, during Finnabee’s nap times and early bedtime. I think, after all, that I don’t need a full-blown second changing station.
But! Don’t sign off yet, cloth diapering experts! I have another question for you!
Those extra few diapers arrived – the BumGenius ones I mentioned that I had ordered with a gift card (I would have gotten Smartipants had they been an option). And now I’m wondering if I should go ahead and toss them in with my Smartipants batch or if I should decide to get hung up on the fact that they’re a different make. After you all talked laundering to such extent, it struck me that maybe I would prefer to have my diaper lot be as homogenous as possible for the purposes of streamlining the diaper routine; that maybe having the odd BumGenius diapers in there would throw off my laundry groove, as it were, and I’d later wish that I had just traded them for more Smartipants-s.
So what do you think? Look into trading my brand new, unopened BumGenius diapers for some more Smartipants diapers, or just toss them altogether and not give it another thought, trusting that they’ll all wash similarly enough? (They are all the same style: AIO/pocket insert.)(Part of me is curious just to try out the BumGenius ones.)
If I do decide to trade them, opinions on the best way to go about that?
And to answer some of your questions – in case it helps – I have a top loader washer in my kitchen; it is not HE; I don’t have space enough in my bathroom for a changing station (although that would be lovely, wouldn’t it!).
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
On another note – switching gears here – the other night I made this tart.
I had some tomatoes that needed to get eaten, and it’s that time of year (like most times of year, really), when I miss France. This is the kind of thing that I seem to recall my host mother whipping up on most nights.
It’s just tomatoes and pesto, sprinkled with a little thyme, on a simple pie crust brushed with egg yolk. I added a touch of dried rosemary to the crust when I mixed it up, and found that it really did make a pleasant difference. Those of you with great memories may recall that I first tried this out three years ago.
And on to this week’s links!
A few more thoughts on Obergefell:
Does it strike you as a bit much to keep going on about this topic? Are you of the opinion that it’d be better to move along with our lives and let others live theirs? Maybe obsessing about it strikes you as unseemly and those who do seem… unbalanced. Well, Mark Steyn writes here about the consequences of Going with the Flow.
One way that I’ve formulated this in my own mind is to recognize that “let’s just do our thing and let them do theirs” only works if it’s a two-way street. It would be quite naive to think that they (“they” being the powers and the money behind the movement, if not our immediate friends and acquaintances with whom we disagree) want to let us do things our way.
A sort of {b&p} within your {b&p}: Jurisimprudence from Essays in Idleness. An essay with some of its own valuable links included.
Misc:
Auntie Leila approves this list of books for boys enough to intend to add it to her original Library Post.
For fans of Flannery O’Connor (I can’t say I number among you): Stamped but not Cancelled. According to my mother, “Flannery might not be amused. On the other hand, she usually got amusement out of such things, so maybe I’m wrong about that.”
From the Archives:
It’s not hard to process veggies for the freezer!
Ask Auntie Leila: “I don’t want to be ‘yelling, screaming, crazy mom.'”
Check out today’s Catholic Culture summary on Independence Day for some interesting links on Catholicism and the United States!
Have a great day celebrating today! God bless!
~We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).~
Follow us on Twitter.
Like us on Facebook.
Habou’s Blog: Corner Art Studio.
Auntie Leila’s Pinterest.
Rosie’s Pinterest.
Sukie’s Pinterest.
Deirdre’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Pinterest.
Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
Rosie’s Instagram.
Sukie’s Instagram.
Bridget’s Instagram.
