Our FI Nest

I've always enjoyed making gifts for people to show them how much I care. I will admit I dislike spending money on a gift when it feels like a gift is required. There are definite exceptions when I find the perfect thing for someone, but I'd rather take some time and use my talents to make something they will love (hopefully). If I can save some money on what I'd typically spend on a gift, while providing something I they appreciate, that doubles down on my gift giving joy. Two kids in school means a lot of gifts at the end of the year. This year we had 4 pre-school teachers, 1 teacher for my son, the bus driver, school secretary and principal. They are all amazing and I want to give them a little something to say thank you for all they have done for my kids over the year, but man does it add up to buy for 8 people. At $10-20/person this could reach $100-200 easily. And well, let's be honest, this was my main justification for buying my cricut machine. I wanted it t...

My last diaper load, diapers all stuffed. 21 diapers ready to go.  There are lots of pages out there that talk about the different systems of cloth diapers but thought I'd share what worked best for us. I'll start by going over what I have and what I like/dislike about them after 3 kids (and roughly 6 years cloth diapering) and what I would actually purchase if I was starting over again. The main two systems I've used are flats and prefolds with covers and Pocket diapers. Here are the  flats (or prefolds) and covers  , (there are a few videos on this site and this is the system I inherited for a friend for my 3rd. I had bought some second hand ones from a diaper service but the fell apart by the 2nd child and have become cleaning rags). I had 23 pre-folds and about 14 covers. You can reuse the covers if only pee. Simply rinse and let dry out then use again. If poop throw the diaper into your wetbag. The main advantage of this is it is the easiest laundry met...