What You can Do With an Old Towel and Receiving Blankie

Since I got my sewing machine in March, I have been going on baby craft binges where everyday I have the urge to sew something baby. My most recent binge has included a newborn hat, prefold diaper, and today I made a QSFW (quick snap flat wrap) diaper! I got the idea Sweet and Sassy Girls blog, though she didn't have an actual tutorial she did have the pattern to print out. It seemed pretty straight forward so I attempted it just using my common sense :) My goal is to take pictures as I go next time and post a detailed tutorial because as it turns out, it would have been nice to have, especially if you are a second-guesser like me.

Anyway, here was the outcome of my first attempt at a QSFW:

 This is the diaper unfolded.

 As you can tell by the picture, I opted not to add snaps or velcro and will be using my snappi instead. This way I can customize the fit better (and eliminate a step in the sewing process!)

Elastic for the legs to contain poopy. I wasn't super happy with how my elastic casings turned out, but hey, I'm still new to this :)

The only materials used to make these diapers were an old bath towel, an old receiving blankie, and some thread. It literally cost me nothing to make (well unless you calculate the cost of thread used and the cost of the towel I bought like 6 years ago, the blankie was a gift...but I didn't because that seems silly). 

Lovin' The Free Time :)

Now that I am down to one class that meets Mon. - Fri. for 2 hours a day, I actually have some free time! Which means that last Tuesday and Wednesday I took a nap, Thursday I CLEANED the house & tried my hand at making a prefold diaper, and Friday I whipped up my first ever newborn hat and spent time with my cousin and her new hubby! I feel very productive and it feels good :) 

I've been having this insane urge to organize and clean the past few weeks...it could be pregnancy but I'm sure part of it was that I finally joined Pinterest. That place is horrible if you have homework to do, by the way. Anyway, two of the things I found while perusing Pinterest was a tutorial on how to make a cute baby girl hat and one on making prefold diapers.

 Please excuse the not-so-straight (curved?) line of the hat...I'm just not good with straight lines in general...sewing, cutting, drawing they all stump me. 

I am very happy with the overall outcome though, especially that flower!!! The thought occurred to me later that we could be having another boy, in that case some lucky Goodwill mama is going to get a cute handmade hat for very cheap! lol (tutorial found here).

The other project was this prefold that I whipped up in 45 minutes. Next time I think I'm going to take the extra time and effort to make it look neater, but this is still a perfectly functional diaper and now I know that I can make them :) The wonderful tutorial for these diapers can be found here. 

Well I should probably go study for my quiz tomorrow. My next project for later this week is to organize the linen closet!

....and I Survived!

I recently finished 4 of my 5 classes for this summer. If you remember from a previous post, this has probably been the most stressful semester of my life! Uncertain of my ability to pass the courses, I was praying and hoping like crazy to at least get C's so that they would count towards my graduation. Well, I am happy to announce that I passed! And with two B's, one C, and an A-!!! Yes, it's a bit lower than my average A's and B's, but much better than I was expecting. Ahh, it feels so good to be down to one class this summer. The teacher is an egotistical British man with a superiority complex, so I'm a bit nervous about his class (plus, I've never taken a class over this period of British history so...) but feel confident now in my ability to at least pass it. Now my goal is to get a B or higher :)

Cousins

So I am reaallly bad about getting pictures up on time...like the photos I'm uploading today are from Father's Day! So please forgive me for being a procrastinator.

We had originally planned on visiting my father-in-law but turns out he was flying to California to see his dad. My parents were at the Farm fishing and we didn't have the time to drive down there :( Luckily, we were able to get my mother-in-law and sister-in-law to come to Ames to visit us! So we didn't even have to do the driving, hooray! Oh, and Kathy (MIL) brought her yummy cheesecake :) But what I was REALLY excited about was seeing my little niece, Genesis. I was there for her birth (pictures to be found here), and just realized I never did come back and give you the details of that :/ I ended up being her labor support person as her husband had to be out of town working until the very end (he barely made it in time for pushing) and her parents also had to work and get sleep. I was the only family/friend there with Jessica until it was time for her to push! It was a beautiful experience.

Anywho, so here are some pics of the little sweetie and my little man on Father's Day.

 Gabriel tentatively poking his new cousin.

 Jessica, Genesis, & Gabe.

 Gabriel carrying his dog Scout in Genesis' baby carrier :)

Jaime and Genesis

Reminiscing

Is it just me, or does anyone else miss these shows? They might still be around (on some obscure cable rerun channel) but not on main television like Channel 11 anymore. 

Reading Rainbow

Wishbone

Pippi Longstockings

Where in The World is Carmen Sandiego?

Aghh...and to think my children will miss out on these shows. They will be limited to weird futuristic cartoons featuring talking underwater shellfish, anime cartoons, and aliens. My hope is that in 5 -10 years, Channel 11 will still be doing reruns of Arthur and The Magic School Bus like they do now. At least my little brother still gets to see some of the good 'ol shows. 

You want to be a what!?

Many of you may know that I am currently a full time student at ISU. When I meet new people/classmates they often ask "So what are you majoring in?" When they hear that I'm a history major they then ask if I'm getting certified (to teach)...as if the only thing you can do with a history degree is teach high schoolers. The other question, now that I am a senior, is what do I want to do with my history degree? What jobs am I looking into? My response to both questions, "I want to be a stay at home mom, Lord willing." Their response, "What? But what about your degree?!" I mean, why go to college and then "waste" your education (and money)? The thing is, I don't see my 4 years (with a 1 year maternity break thrown in totally 5yrs) of college as a waste. The skills I have learned, the experiences I've had, and the friends I have made are all worth it. If it were not for my time at ISU I would not have learned the critical analytical skills required to research a subject in depth. It is this knowledge that helped me research my VBAC, home birth, becoming a doula, hospital birth, etc. that has led me to my journey to chose a vaginal birth after cesarean- even though society and many doctors pushed a repeat cesarean. It is the idea of having an open mind and never taking facts at face value- do the research and find out for yourself. My education has given me confidence in my abilities. I will use these things for the rest of my life.

Also, my babies won't be babies forever. One day they will all be off to school, and I will need something to do. Maybe I will go straight into the job market, or maybe I'll go back and get my PhD so I can work at a museum! If my husband looses his job or can no longer provide for us, then I have my education to fall back on and help me get a job to support my family. Just as important is the fact that I will be able to tell my children that mommy graduated from college, that education is important. I'd rather my children hear that mommy completed what she put her mind to instead of giving up when life got hard. Not only that, but the joy and pride I will feel when I can say that I graduated from college with two kids! 

So no, my time in college was not a waste. It has helped prepare me for the most important job in the world, being a good mother. 

 My best friends/cousins right after we moved into our apartment (1st year at ISU). 

 Beth and I on central campus- sophomore year.

Gabriel at about 3 or 4 months old representing ISU! 

Loosing It

Sometimes as a full time college student, mom, and wife I feel like I'm (not-so-slowly) loosing my sanity. Boy has this never been so true as this summer. Four courses that are excelled -- what I usually have 16 weeks plus a few breaks thrown in to learn I have 8 weeks, and in one class just 5 weeks, to learn everything. MY. MIND. IS. SPENT! If it ever seems like a good idea to you to take 4 summer courses (3 of them online -- online class are EVIL!) my advice is DO NOT DO IT! Or you will go crazy, your house will fall to ruins, and you will become a cranky mamma. But then I stop and remind myself that I'm doing this because I am determined to finish college...preferably sooner than later. With baby # 2 due in December my hope is that I will only have to go to school for 1 semester with 2 children. If...that's IF, I pass this summer semester, I will take the fall off and graduate next spring :) Considering how the semester is going I'm not sure this will happen and I fear it's all a waste and that I will fail...but thank God for faith and prayer because no matter what, no matter how the semester ends, or when/if I graduate from college, I have God and I have a family who loves me. Being a mom is not an easy job, it requires sacrifice and hard work, but it will be worth it :) 

10 week ultrasound of baby #2

On a happier note, I am now in my 13th week of pregnancy and will enter the 2nd trimester on Monday! I've lost 2 lbs so far (which is good because I still had baby weight to loose from Gabriel and only need to gain a total of 15lbs this pregnancy, towards the end) yet my tummy is rounder and my boobs are bigger :( Oh, how I'll miss my small DD boobies again.