Monday Mission 8/8/11

Is it monday again?

Today's mission is to enjoy the summer! I'll be preparing for Finn's First Birthday & the 'unveiling' of our house improvements!

Monday mission!

Happy Monday to you! It is beautiful outside here in central New York.

This week's mission for myself is to get prepared for camping! We are headed to Vermont to camp over the fourth of July weekend. Jon and I, and Kayla, have been a bunch of times, but this will be Finn's first time camping.

We plan on: hiking, making s'mores, rock hopping (possibly), visiting Ben and jerry's, cold hollow cider mill, the farmers market, going to the forth of July parade, hopefully seeing the fireworks (this depends on Finn!), and generally getting dirty and having fun!

For meals, I am a huge proponent of hobo packs. You can put whatever meats and veggies in there you like with some butter or EVOO, wrap in foil, stick in fire, flip a few times, serve on a bun. It can be much healthier than the classic hot dog on a stick (which my husband could eat every night if I let him). Lunches will be peanut butter and jelly on homemade bread. Snacks are fruit, or homemade granola bars, and I usually make some trailmix as a treat. Since we usually like to get going in the morning (as opposed to rebuilding the fire) we'll just have some homemade granola and yogurt for breakfast.

I'm bringing the camp washer and flat dispers with five covers for Finn's bottom.

More planning to come.

What is your favorite camping pastime?

Monday Mission

Happy Monday to you! Most monday, I plan to challenge myself to something new, or something I'd like to start doing, or something I'd like to try - all in the name of bettering myself, improving habits, and trying new things. I challenge you to join me on this journey!

Today's mission, if you choose to accept it, is to

prepare for the flats and handwashing challenge!

I started this morning by sewing one of my wool covers. It was a basic bum wrap, and super easy to hand sew! I sewed up the body of it in about 20 minutes. After Finn's swim lesson (which was incidentally cancelled because the lights in the pool area at the YMCA went off... strange!) I stopped by a craft store to buy elastic to finish off the waistband. After that? lanolizing... I tried this twice when he was a newborn with some handknit covers and the results weren't awesome. They turned out a little greasy and smelling like the lanolin. So I'm going to have to research this a little more and figure out how to do it right!

I have enough felted sweater to make three more wool covers, but I was thinking it might be wise to see how the first one holds up and if there is anything I want to tweak before sewing up three more! So far, I am really happy with the results.

I am going to order six more flats, and another cover. I just sent my husband a link to the tutorial on how to make the bucket washer. we have a salad spinner laying around, so maybe I'll use that to get the excess moisture out! Brilliant! (I read that in the comments on DDL's tute).

~~~5/9/11 - update!~~~

We have the bucket AND the plunger - and a too-small hole in the top. I received the Swaddlebees flats that I ordered (and the extra blueberry cover - not pictured).

Finn enjoys sitting in the bucket and being spun around... and picking up blocks from the

bottom.

On the right is the first felted wool cover that I made (still

working on it as you can see). There are a few repairs required to the waistband, and I need to finish sewing in the soaker pad (an extra layer of protection for those heavy wetting instances). In the top left corner is the wool for the next soaker. I'm making it a little bigger than the orange one so that he can grow into it a little more.