Heavy Absorb Pads

The trial run of the heavy absorbency pads are all but sold out and I have already taken custom orders for them. The line was asked for by some of my heavier flow customers and has really taken off, and a lot faster than I expected at that. With a new line comes another installment of pad info for all those who have questions about them.

The heavy absorbency pads are made with 2 layers of flannel, 1 layer of Zorb, and a layer of fleece. The fleece is super soft on your body, comes in very fun prints or neutrals, and is absorbent. The soft zorb is super absorbent. The fleece backing on the heavy pad is brown, making it easy to tell the difference between your medium absorbency pads and heavy pads. They come in both the short length (roughly 10 inches long, 3.5 inches across at the widest point and 2.75 inches across the narrowest point) and long length (roughly 12 inches long, 3.75 inches across at the widest point and 3 inches across the narrowest point).

The new heavy pads are a little bulkier than the original or medium absorb pads. They still feel very soft an cozy though and are not a distraction at all. The only other difference is that the heavy pads can hold twice as much fluid. This makes them great for heavy days.

You can expect to see more heavy pads available soon and feel free to contact me for custom orders. Let me know if you have any questions and I will make sure to answer them!

Find all of our pads at thecrazyelephantboutique.com

My Homemaker's Journal

I mentioned before that I made a homemaker's journal. It is the cornerstone of our house! It has been so much easier to keep track of everything. It has been a lot of trial and error to get to where we are now. I will break it down for you. Keep in mind that this is what is working for me. Your family is different than mine, so you might not use the same technique.
The main tool is my planner. On the monthly pages I record appointments and schedules and what our school theme for the week is. On the weekly pages I write up my checklist. One side is for household projects and the other is for Crazy Elephant projects. Here is how a typical week plays out:

Monday: Laundry, list/update (TCE), sewing, getting photos ready for the week (TCE)
Tuesday: Sweep/vacuum, food prep for the week, list/update, blog
Wednesday: Family day
Thursday: Bathrooms, list/update, blog
Friday: laundry, list/update
Saturday: general tidying up, clean/set up school room for next week, list/update, blog
Sunday: church

I don't write school on my check list, but I do have pages written up for each day of school too. They are in Jayne's school binders with each week's materials. I started writing up my planner pages for the month and I like it that way. I do it the same time I write up our menu and grocery list for the month. The planner and my TCE notebook (previous post) go in the homemaker's binder. The binder also has detailed cleaning instructions for different rooms in the house. We don't use them often, but they are great to have for when we do. There is an inventory sheet to use as a guideline for writing up the grocery list. It includes all the foods and non foods that we always want in the house. There is a yearly calendar for checking. It includes things such as spring cleaning in April and winterizing the house in September. It helps us to remember to do them. I also have my spring cleaning chart that I use for making my spring cleaning check list.

I also have a homemaker's journal folder in my Internet favorites and on my desktop. That way I know where to go for my homemaking sites and downloads. That would be for recipes, sewing instructions, cleaning tips, etc.

As far as keeping the house clean, start by determining your standards. Clean for us is tidy, but lived in. It is not immaculate by any means, but it is tidy. Jayne picks up all his toys every night. I do the dishes each day which includes wiping down all the kitchen surfaces. Laundry is 2- 3 loads per week. When we tidy up on Saturdays we usually pick a room that really needs it and focus on it. There is still lots of time to do school, cook, work, and do daycare. We are all working on not just leaving things where they are and putting them away when we are done with them, that goes a very long way in keeping things clean. I am not sure if I have missed anything, but I have run into school time. So, feel free to ask questions, I am an open book!

Last Night's Show

The weather was nice! We got to be in the shade and we didn't even need to put up the tent. Adam was able to come with me and that meant an evening of grown up time for us. It was really great! We saw lots of adorable kids and made some "interesting" sales. We will be showing at the Zumbrota Block Party again next month on the evening of the 18th. I am looking forward to it!

 

During our down times we discussed our upcoming birthday. That's right, The Crazy Elephant turns 2 next month! We have decided to take a look at our pricing, so you will notice some changes there (some up, some down). There will be a new line launched. We will be doing 3 shows, 2 days at Rolling Stone and 1 day at Zumbrota. There might be more happening, but that is all we have planned so far. I look forward to sharing our birthday with all of you!