Getting 3 kids out of bed, dressed, fed, and out the door each morning is a circus: matching outfits, brushing teeth, combing hair, finding shoes, putting on coats. It’s chaos. A time-sucker. It’s not for the faint of heart. Mama’s always trying to find a way to make it easier. I used to pick out a week’s worth of outfits per kid every Sunday night. This way we’d have an easier time getting out the door each morning. Sometimes this would backfire. On more than one occasion, my daughter put ALL of the clothes on, as well as her brother’s
Author Archives for Francesca Abernathy
Author Archives for Francesca Abernathy
Every time a new year rolls around, I am so anxious to get my house in order after the chaos and mess of the holidays. With that, I do lots of organizing and a bit of spring cleaning. Yes, even in January! And so this year, the tree went out to the curb, holiday decorations were boxed up, and the toy room was purged for the hundredth time to make room for new stuff. I cracked the windows to let in the fresh cold air, and cleaned the house from top to bottom. This time, I used Better Life What-EVER
Author Archives for Francesca Abernathy
If you’ve been using cloth diapers as long as me, you may find that some aren’t as snug around your baby’s legs or gap in back, causing leaks. This is because repeated wear and washing can cause elastic to eventually “relax.” But luckily, it can be fixed — and inexpensively! I’m going to show you how easy replacing elastic in your bumGenius Freetime cloth diapers can be! First, gather your supplies. You’ll need: white thread a sewing needle small safety pin small sewing scissors a seam ripper (optional) 3 strips of ¼” elastic, each about 4.5” long or a bumGenius Refresher Kit, which includes the
Author Archives for Francesca Abernathy
When I started using cloth diapers several years ago, I was looking for the simplest cloth-diapering system available — the one system that would be the most husband and childcare-friendly. I knew that we’d have our hands full with a newborn and a toddler, and I really wanted cloth diapering to work for us. After a good amount of research, I had determined that an all-in-one diaper was the best choice. I stocked up on original Elementals and eventually some prefolds and covers. But for some weird reason, I stayed away from pocket diapers! I guess I didn’t think I would be
Author Archives for Francesca Abernathy
The Diaper Dawg Spray Collar is a simple, inexpensive accessory to your all-important diaper sprayer. It fits over the nozzle of most diaper sprayers, and is designed to keep all the yucky poop-water in its place: in the toilet bowl! It comes in a cute, colorful tie-dye pattern, is made with high-quality silicone, and works with most brands of diaper sprayers. The Diaper Dawg is part of a line of creative cloth-diapering accessories, all created by a mom, with really funny, tongue-in-cheek product names and descriptions. Upon installation I realized that while it does technically fit the BumGenius Diaper Sprayer,
Author Archives for Francesca Abernathy
Oh, how I wish I would have come across these sooner! Hemp Babies Bigger Weeds are truly a work-horse of a diaper! They can be stuffed into a pocket diaper, added to an Elemental or Freetime, or used on its own with a diaper cover. I absolutely love using BumGenius Elementals during the day, but at night we need a more absorbent method. Our nighttime diaper solution consists of a Flip Nighttime Organic Insert or Econobum prefold wrapped around a soaker, topped with a homemade fleece liner, all stuffed into a diaper cover. Needless to say, his little bottom busts out
Author Archives for Francesca Abernathy
The spooky season is upon us! And one way to make Halloween extra fun is to create costumes with your kids! I’ve made most of my kids’ costumes over the past 6 years. One thing that has kept the tradition going is that my kids have so much fun with it. They love coming up with their own ideas for costumes. We also try to stay away from the scary stuff, which leaves a lot of room for creativity and their own personal interests. My oldest son has been a scarecrow, a cowboy, the Alphabet Tree from Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom, the letter
Author Archives for Francesca Abernathy
I’m a working mama of 3 kids, and I’ll admit, I often don’t do things the “easy” way. I love to cook from scratch, I clean incessantly, and I research almost every product before making a purchase. So there are times I just need something to be simple. And using cloth diapers is simple! But with it comes a whole slew of techniques on how to clean them: spraying, swishing, soaking, sunning, etc. I don’t have time for all that! I do laundry seemingly around-the-clock as it is. I just want something that works the first time; something that I don’t
Author Archives for Francesca Abernathy
As a mom of 3 kids (all of whom I have nursed past 12 months), I have had my share of lousy nursing bras. I buy a new one only to wear it only a month or two because it stretches out, warps, or no longer fits. In my opinion, comfort is KEY when it comes to a nursing bra (or any bra for that matter)! So when I saw that the Original Bravado markets itself as a comfortable bra for a nursing mom’s changing body, I was definitely interested! And this bra is absolutely comfortable for three main reasons:
Author Archives for Francesca Abernathy
THIS SUMS IT ALL UP. In many ways a “day in the life of a working mom” is always changing, never the same. Throw a longer-than-usual work meeting, rush hour traffic, or a teething baby into the mix and it can change the course of the entire day, which can then impact everything else around you. But one thing never changes, and that is the nonstop pace of holding down a career and a household. Here is a sampling of a day in my life as a working mom of 3 kids: 5:00am: Alarm goes off (and by alarm I