Well, Hurricane Florence got me motivated to prep my house and hunker down, and as a mom of two little kids, that means more than making sure we have enough water, bread, and batteries. The more I started to think and prep for losing power, the more I began to realize how important it is to have activities for the kiddos. And I realized how easy it is to assemble new, free/cheap, fun activities for little kids with things you probably already have in your house!

This makes hurricane prep, power outages, sick days, or a boring afternoon just a little more fun and exciting. You can pack them away for the car or a trip, or only take them out in times like these to keep them exciting. Who doesn’t love a few cheap (or free) and activities that double as learning and fine- and gross-motor skill development?! Here are the top busy bag activities that I either had the supplies on hand to make already or found easily at the grocery store/pharmacy while I was out and about.

IT IS HURRICANE SEASON! We’re from the northeast (like the real north, where we get real winter, real cold, and real snow. And, real ice). One thing we don’t get much of is hurricanes. We got a little more experience with hurricanes when we moved to North Carolina ten years ago, but through various lucky circumstances we managed to out run a few of them purely by chance. We were in the Dominican Republic on vacation for one, in California at a friend’s wedding for another, that kind of thing.

Well, not so much traveling happens these days with two small children, so we’re staying put this year, and as luck would have it, a hurricane is headed right for us in Raleigh, NC!

I’ve done a few book posts before (see here and here), but this short one is just going to contain links to some of the other books that I’ve read, have been reading, or have next on my list to read.

A Crash Course on Storing, Cleaning, and Laundering Your Cloth Diapers

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One of the main reasons people choose not to cloth diaper today is they’re afraid of the laundry. I’ll admit, I was there too. The idea of going out, needing to change my daughter, and then bringing home poo was disgusting to me! But, she had constant blowouts (I tried probably 12 different brands and kinds of diapers AND modifying my diet by the time she was 6 mos old), so I finally switched to cloth. They’re not 100%, but their track record is MUCH better than disposables. (If you’re new to cloth diapering, I encourage you to start with Cloth Diaper 101.)