F&HC DAY 4: How I’m Doing

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.  For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all.  You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post.  This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world!



Filler Picture
Yeah I'm getting tired of this whole handwashing thing too!

 What little nostalgia handwashing brought me is now completely gone...I would rather go back to bucket bathing then have to do another batch of flats laundry, and my husband has totally been helping me out, and did the whole batch on my birthday!!!  I've reread my post on why I'm taking the challenge, I've even read a bunch of other bloggers posts in the hopes that it will re-motivate me.  Alas, it is not working.

Mujii is teething and I have gotten a total of 6 hours of sleep these past two nights.  Work is forever draining especially since I'm working 10 hour days all week.  The weather is muggy as a mug with the anticipation of thunderstorms which drags out my drying time. {Insert more lame excuses here}...{here}...{and here}.

If only I was a stay at home mom.
If only I had made a camp washer.
If only I had more flats.
If only I didn't have to use pockets for daycare.
If only...
If only...
If only...

I'm getting sick of my whiny alter-ego trying to talk me out of this! I WANT to do this!  I KNOW I can do this!  But I'm struggling.....hopefully I can find comfort from other participants who are having a difficult time of it, I can't be the only one in a rut can I????




So let's see how the rest of the challengers are doing:

F&HC DAY 3: My Favorite Way To Use Flats

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all. You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post. This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world!



Day 2: Happy birthday to me!
I got to hang out with my son while my husband took care of the diapers!

Thus far for the challenge I have pad folded my flats and pop them in a cover, or stuff them in a pocket for daycare.  I keep telling myself I should learn new and cool folds like all the other hip CDing moms, but we don't have internet at home, and I'm lazy not a fancy gal.  My favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla.  I drink my coffee black.  I pad fold my flats.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  It works well.  Why reinvent the wheel?
We used to use what I thought was the origami fold, but what I found out is actually called the Happy Anteater Fold (how redunkulously cute is that??? Thanks to Jenny of Cloth Diaper Revival).  In fact I drilled my husband in how to origami fold until he could do it with his eyes closed (it was hilarious, and in spite of his grumblings, Ganaa had fun too)!  Then we would just snappi it on and Muj had himself a snug, absorbent diaper that breathed.  It was my go to weekend diaper until the little monster learned how to unfasten the snappi O_o.  So we switched to pad folds and covers because I'm terrified of trying to get Mujii to sit still long enough for me to pin both sides of his diaper closed.

However, I saw a really neat idea from a fellow F&HC participant and blogger: Michelle of Grateful Moms of ManyShe has a nifty photo tutorial of how she folds her homemade flats and then center pins them with a single pin...thus reducing the likelihood of poking her kiddo by 50%!!!!  Something so simple yet so genius, and I never would have thought of it if I wasn't participating in the F&HC!

If you too want to learn some new ways to use your flats, go check out the other participants:

F&HC DAY 2: What Supplies I'm Using

1 cover, 5 pockets, and 9 flats hand washed and drying from Day 1!
Totally having Peace Corps flashbacks!!!

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all. You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post. This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world!

Since the whole reason for this challenge is to show how it is possible to CD on the cheap, and because in an effort to be more Mongolish I want to mimic their MacGyver-esq ingenuity, I decided to use what was on hand .  As you can see from my CD Stash, I already have flats, covers, and pockets (for Mujii's Daycare).  With Mujii's baby bath tub as my washing tumpun, and our handy-dandy drying rack I have everything I needed....or so I thought. 

It turns out that my darling husband also loves flats.  Not only are they a great and versitile diapering option they apparently make great cleaning rags for the car O_o.  So I augmented my flats stash with Mujii's swaddling/receiving blankets, and because we practice Elimination Communication Mujii got to enjoy some good ole' nakey time after his evening bm in his potty!  As much as I love CDs I love that potty more!  It may not be as cute, but it sure is a whole lot easier to handwash!!!

F&HC DAY 1: Why I'm Taking the Challange

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all. You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post. This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world!

I HATE laundry.  Even when I'm just washing in a regular ol' machine, I hate it.  98% of laundry (both cloth diaper and other) is done by my darling husband Ganaa. Part of the reason I fell in love with Ganaa was because he would visit me in the countryside and do all of my laundry for me (I had the forsight to bring enough pairs of underware with me to Mongolia so I could almost go a month without doing laundry). So why in the world would I voluntarily sign up to not only do laundry for the week, but to handwash???!?!?! 

1.  It is for a good cause. Not only do I believe cloth diapering to be better for the enviornment and baby, I also believe it to be better on bank accounts.  I think of how people in this country struggle to make ends meet (I know some months its like that for us), and I think of how much we have saved by using cloth diapers...and while it sounds intimidating it really isn't difficult at all.  No baby should have to suffer form reusing disposable diapers when there are ways to diaper for less than $50! This event not only raises awareness of cheap cloth diapering, it also raises money for Giving Diapers, Giving Hope, a non-profit that supplies cloth diapers to families in need.

2.  Because I miss the Peace Corps life.  Sure things like indoor plumbing and fruit are awesome, but they are accompanied by things like commuting and car payments.  As much as I hated having to handwash my clothes for 2+ years it was very much a part of the Peace Corps experience.  This morning I did my first micro batch of flats laundry and once the pee smell was rinsed out after the first soak it was actually kinda nice.  I got a good arm workout in (though nothing as strenuous as trying to wring out jeans!), and I felt accomplished...its almost like, if I can handwash diapers I can do anything!  And I think that is what I miss most about Peace Corps, that feeling that I can do anything!  So while I may not have an awesome tumpun ("bucket"), I will wash my flats like Mongolian's have washed their babies dirty diaps since the time of Ghengis...by hand :)

Mongolian Baby in a Tumpun via: BABIES

See why other mama's are taking the Flats Challange!

Motherhood Means...

...realizing that the washcloth you are using on your face is the same one you used on your baby's butt the night before, and being perfectly fine with that.

Urgelj : Forever



"How did you manage to stay together for 65 years???"
"We are from a time where if something is broken we fix it, not throw it away."

 While not mutually inclusive, my being a Mongolish Mama is very much based on the fact that I am wife to my wonderful (if at times aggravating) Mongolian Husband, Ganaa.  I have to admit that I got the better end of the bargain seeing as how I pale in comparison to most Mongolian wives I know (domesticity is not really my thing.  Layering Excel formulas to cross reference and extrapolate data comes natural to me...keeping a house does not).  One and a half years into our marriage we are still discovering who each we are, as individuals, as parents, and as a couple.  We still have our bad days (and our very bad days), but as time goes on more and more days are good ones, which bodes well, because I'm in this for the long haul, in this forever...urgelj.

50 years from now we will be this couple.  Ene minii urgelj. "This is my forever"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GANAA!!!!

Margaash

Margaash.  Literally, this Mongolian word translates to mean, "Tomorrow."  However, in common usage it quite often just refers to a non specific time in the future...if ever.  When I was living in Mongolia and was told something would happen margaash, my reply would inevitably be, "real margaash, or Mongol margaash?"  As I would soon come to realize, the latter was almost always the case.  The same holds true for the words for later, soon, and even now.  Even the advertised start time of a TV show is no guarantee that the show will in fact start at that time.  Of course, this fluid sense of time is less prevalent in the capital of UB as they are a very modern and "westernized" city that has adopted the concept of "Time is Money."  But even then, time does not seem to have the same amount of stressed urgency that we place on it here at times.  While frustrating at first, I came to embrace the Mongol Margaash.  It was an excellent lesson in patience, one I will inevitably utilize as a mother.  Things will get done.  But if they don't, there is always Margaash.

That being said, I'm afraid that I have become a bit too Mongolish in regards to the concept of margaash.  Laundry...margaash.  Grocery shopping...margaash.  Our Christmas picture...margaash.  It has been so easy for me to fall into the habit of margaash that even Ganaa (who is a jinkhen Mongol) has become frustrated with me.  This is something that is difficult for me to change.  As a child I vividly remember spending hours setting up and creating back plots for a game of Barbie with my sisters, only to tell them "I don't want to play right now, we can play later."  I remember their confusion, disappointment, and frustration with me...and this is not a pattern I want to repeat with Mujii.

Yes I work full time.  Yes I am a FTM.  Yes I have my wonderful husband to pick up the slack if I push things off.  Yes Mujii is only 5 months old and won't remember that I didn't read to him or take him on a daily walk.  Yes there are countless excuses I could give.  But I don't want to have to make excuses.  I just want to be a good mom/wife/person.

That is why one of my New Year's Resolutions is to be more proactive (or as my Ganaa says, "to don't be lazy!")!