It's been a while...Reed - 6 Months

I was doing so well with my posts, then got sick for a bit.

December is more than half over now and Reed is almost 6 months old! I won't lie and say it seems like he was just born. It doesn't. It feels like we have had him forever (in a good way). Sweet boy is growing like a weed at almost 28 inches and about 18 pounds (triple his birth weight). I recently got a jacket and pants for him, size 6 month jacket, but 9 month pants. His other pants are getting to be high waters because of his long legs, and I refuse for my child to ever have pants that are too short. I had to deal with that as a child and I think it scarred me a little. Anyway, here's the handsome man now (and yes, his pants ARE long enough).

6 months old!

Height: 28 inches

Weight: 18 lbs

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Blue

Food: Just milk

Sleep: He's up 1-2 times a night.

Temperament: Reed is really chill, but lets you know when he's bored

Reed loves: people, his feet, his Mommy (he keeps his eyes on me at all times), rolling over, chewing on EVERYTHING, standing with assistance, and kicking his legs.

New adventures: Trip to North Carolina for Christmas and making our own baby food is coming up next! We had lots of apples this week, so I decided to make some baby food and freeze it. It tasted pretty good!


I may have to go back and do all his other months, but we will see if I have the time!

Merry Christmas!
The Turners

CHRISTmas is coming!

Christmas decorations are up and I find myself wanting to drink hot chocolate and watch Elf almost constantly. And my favorite channel is back on XM, Holiday Favorites. I love all the old classic Christmas songs. Wes doesn't get excited about Christmas the way I do, but he humors me by putting up decorations so I can enjoy them for the entire month of December. In fact, he put the whole tree up by himself yesterday and started putting lights on it just so I could enjoy it. What a sweet guy.

This is either the 2nd or 3rd tree we have inherited from family. Like the others, it's slightly broken, but we don't care, because we don't have to buy one. It is definitely a step up from the last one we had, where you had to put each branch on individually. Yuck!

So here is a picture of our awesome tree:

Yes, the lights don't match, and yes, there is a dark patch toward the top, but that's ok. I just have to go get one more strand of lights and it'll look good as new.

Reed loves looking at lights on a normal day, but the Christmas tree is out of control. He doesn't know where to look. There are SO MANY LIGHTS! OVER-STIMULATION!! We were talking the other day, and this will be the only Christmas that we can put ornaments on the whole tree. Next year we will probably be decorating the top-half of the tree. I'd better enjoy it now.

Enjoy your neglected November! (that time between Thanksgiving and December which most people already count as December or are wishing it was December already)

The Turners

Adventures in Sleep Training: Part 3

So it's been a week since we implemented the "cry-it-out" method, and we are still alive....and still crying.

Naps: Reed does pretty good for his naps. Most of the time he goes right to sleep when I put him down. If not, he will fuss for just a little bit before falling asleep. A few times he has woken up early, but has put himself back to sleep.

Nighttime: The first few days I was just sure Reed was going to sleep for like 7 hours straight. Not. About 2 hours into it he was up and ready to eat...and all this after crying for at least 30 minutes. Not sure this was going to work. But then Saturday night, he slept longer, and was only up ONCE during the night! WOW! I got such a good night's sleep and felt so awesome in the morning that I did my hair!!! WHAT?!?! I had forgotten what it felt like to be rested and have nice-looking hair. Sunday night rolled around, but I wasn't excited, I was thinking realistically. Reed has the knack for doing something awesome once. But Sunday night he was only up once, again! 3 great nights of sleep later, I am actually feeling optimistic. He still cries for a while before going to bed, but is only up once during the night, getting 5-6 hour stretches of sleep. AWESOME!

I hate to hear him cry, and wonder when he'll figure it out during bedtime, but I think there's progress being made.

A funny development in his sleeping:

He usually goes down like this:

The other morning, I found him like this:

Not sure how that happened. Pretty funny, though.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Turners

Adventures in Sleep Training: Part 2

Okay, a little back story:

Before Reed was born, I had ideas of the kind of mother I would be. Stern, but loving; always having the big picture in mind. I wanted to raise a gracious, disciplined, loving child. This meant having clear boundaries and practicing "tough love" if that's what was best. All of that changed when I became a mother.

I always wanted him near. I never wanted him to be upset. I would gladly stay up all night holding him so he wouldn't have to cry. I would probably let him do whatever he wanted. He had me wrapped around his finger. I am pretty much the antithesis of who I thought I would be. It has left me conflicted and confused (knowing what I should do vs. what my heart wants to do). Sleep training, UGH!! I just knew if I loved Reed enough, he would fall right asleep and stay asleep all by himself.

That's not how babies are made, unfortunately.

So sleep-training is underway in the Turner Home, and mom and baby are doing surprisingly well! So far, it's only been mom and baby involved, so we'll see how dad holds up when he's actually home and put to the test. Part 1 was encouraging because I actually lived through letting my sweet boy cry until he fell asleep (although I felt genuinely heartless watching TV in my jammies while he cried). I didn't have a break-down or even cry at all (I did that the previous night when Wes and I decided to let him cry for a little bit before bed - AWFUL!). So here is the update so far:

Try #2 (afternoon nap): I put Reed down at 4 because he seemed sleepy. Tucked his blanket tightly around him, turned on his noise bear and left......I didn't hear anything.....panic, PANIC! I went to check on him and he. was. ASLEEP! ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! Nope, slept for an hour and a half. I think it would have been longer, but Wes got home and the door beeped, and I was making noise in the kitchen. This cannot be that easy!

Try #3 (bedtime): Believe it or not, I was not optimistic about bedtime going as smoothly as his afternoon nap. Naps were always easy, bedtime was not. So I did a bedtime routine: bath, story, feeding, a little cuddle/tv time, then bed. He cried, of course, but only for 30 minutes. Woke up for 2 very brief moments to whine, then went to sleep. Success!! I will admit, I was disappointed in the 5 hours he slept. That was only a half hour longer than the night before, but at least I didn't have to pick him up 5 times to try and rock him back to sleep.

Try #4 (morning nap): Reed was pretty fussy only an hour after he was up for the day, so I tried to keep him distracted and awake a little longer. Only 30 minutes later I figured he was ready for a nap. Put him down, turned the sound on and left. Only cried for 15-20 minutes. Getting shorter!!

Wes has class Tuesday nights, and wasn't able to partake in the bedtime try last night, and is out of town today, which means he will miss it again. Reed will probably be a pro by the time Wes gets to help. That's probably a good thing. Daddy caves too quickly. :)

Enjoy your Wednesday! More updates tomorrow.

The Turners

Adventures in Sleep Training: Part 1

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ........

That's pretty much what my body wants to do all day and all night. In the past few weeks, it has happened VERY little.

Reed was such a good little sleeper. He would get about 6-7 hours straight before he would wake up hungry. We were doing so good! Then, it went downhill.

It decreased to 4-5 hours, then 3-4. One week he was up every 2.5 hours. All the while we were trying to get him to sleep without the swaddle (since he can now roll over). That was probably part of it, but safety over sleep! Then it started to get harder to put him down to sleep.

Reed is a people person. He loves people and loves being held, especially to sleep. So he'll fall asleep in one of our arms, or laying next to us. Once he is out, we will transfer him to his bed, only to find him awake within 20 minutes, or immediately. I can't fault him for loving people and being more comfortable sleeping near us, but mommy needs her sleep very badly.

After a long conversation with Reed's nurse about this behavior, my worst fears were coming true. We needed to sleep-train.

Over the past few months, just the thought of sleep-training would reduce me to tears. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle this, but exhaustion makes a person do crazy things.

Try #1: Reed had been awake for an amazing 4 hours (2x his normal limit). I thought, after feeding him, he'd crash for a few hours. He ate, then fell asleep. I put him in his bed and immediately, he was awake. Not cool. I figured I'd let him hang out for a while. He started to cry, of course. I made my call to the nurse, with Reed crying in the background. She confirmed that we should start getting him used to his bed and sleeping on his own. Reed's pediatrician seconded the advice and added that healthy babies can cry up to 8 hours and be fine. He'd already been crying for about 20 minutes off-and-on, so I figured I would see how it went. Thanks to our trusty DVR, I had some fun shows to watch to partially drown out the screaming. Burn Notice, Burn Notice, Burn Notice, Burn Notice......10 minutes later, I heard nothing. I rushed in to check, and he was ASLEEP! My goodness, that wasn't bad. But then......the screaming started again. I guess he woke up.Castle, Castle, Castle....I waited again, and he was asleep 5 minutes later. I didn't hold my breath this time because he was up in 5 more minutes crying. Dancing with the Stars, Dancing with the Stars, asleep. This time, he was truly out. 2 hours later, I had a very happy baby smiling at me from his crib. Praise the Lord!!

So proud of him for sleeping on his own and proud of me for sticking with it. I know this is only the beginning, but at least I had the courage to try.

To be continued...

Living off Envelopes

The Turner Home is a huge fan of Dave Ramsey. His common sense approach to money really speaks to us and we have been loyal followers for years.

Now, Dave's whole premise is living debt free, which means always paying cash. He has some really great reasons why in his course, Financial Peace University, and his book, The Total Money Makeover. The way he keeps track of his money is 'the envelope system.' We have been using this system for almost 2 years and we LOVE it! It is so simple! Dave uses envelopes for EVERY category of spending, but this was a little too much for us. We just chose to pay cash for food, and it works really well because food is the easiest category for us to cut back on if we need to. Here's an example:

1. Decide how much you want to spend on food in a month
2. Get that amount of money out of the bank at the beginning of the month and keep it in an envelope
3. When you buy food, ONLY use the money in the envelope. No credit cards!

The beauty of this system is you can see how much money you have left/get to spend. If I check the envelope and we are running low, I know how to plan the meals for the upcoming week. Before, when we used credit, I had a lot of random/impulse buys. This was costing us a lot of extra money! Now, I am very conscious of what I buy. No impulse buys, and I look for sale items. We aren't starving for food, just living within our means.

Here's the fun part: at the end of the month if we have any excess, Wes and I get to split it! Fun money!!

Seriously love this system. If you want to reign in your spending, it's a great way to start.

Have a good one!

The Turners

Prayer List

It's the beginning of the month, which means I need to update my prayer list. I thought I'd share my process here, since it has been very helpful to me.

I'm bad about keeping track of my prayers. I've tried starting prayer journals in the past, but with no success.
I am a visual person (more now than ever since having a baby and losing most of my ability to recall information). I have lists all over the house: on the fridge, iPad, mirrors, purse, EVERYWHERE! I actually need a list for where all my lists are. So to visually see all my prayers, I have started writing them on sticky notes and leaving them on the bathroom mirror. This way I can see them every day when brushing my teeth/getting ready for the day/bedtime. It works pretty well because, honestly, what else do you do when brushing your teeth? Seems like a perfect time to pray. You can't talk to anyone around you (well, without spraying them with toothpaste or dribbling it down your front, both of which are gross).
So, remembering my prayers was solved. Now for organization.

Yes, I organize my prayers. It's weird, I don't care.

I did want to keep track of my prayers, but only so many fit on a small sticky note. I wanted to have prayers we could see answered, but I also have lots of ongoing prayers the Lord has yet to answer positively. My solution was a month-by-month prayer list. So I choose some ongoing prayers to write down, plus some that we could see answered during the month. Ex: Last month we traveled to North Carolina. One of my prayers was that we would have safe travel and Reed would have a great experience. Prayer answered!

At the end of the month (like today) I will take my October sticky note and put it in my journal. Next to any prayers answered, I will write how and when answered. Then I will make a new sticky note for this month.

Of course, this doesn't mean I won't pray for other things, but you get the picture.

I really like the idea of knowing what I was praying for and when. I can look back through the months to see what was going on and see how God blessed our lives.

On an unrelated note, November 1st is a busy day for grocery stores. They have to get all the Halloween stuff out of the store and Christmas put up in 1 day. At least that's what was going on at my Kroger today. (A disaster zone)

And....Starbucks broke out their Christmas cups.

Happy November!

The Turners

Reed - 4 Months! Happy Halloween!

 

Height:  26.5 inches 

Weight:  15 lb. 10 oz.

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Blue

Food: Breastfed, but we've started rice cereal to try and fill his little tummy up an sleep longer at night.



Sleep: Reed wakes up throughout the night. Tired Mommy!!

Napping in the swing

Temperament: He's a chill little dude. He is also rather serious. It's almost impossible to coax a smile out of him. He does make some funny faces, though.
 

Not sure about our new "friend"




Reed loves:

-Family time

-Mommy!

-Playtime



 

New adventures:

= squealing: Reed LOVES squealing with delight

= chewing on anything he can get in his mouth

= eating rice cereal!

=Sitting in the high chair

 

 

=Rolling!

=Boppy time!

 

=Bottles: I'm so glad Reed will take a bottle so I can go do things if I need to. Daddy likes helping feed him, too.

 

 

 

=First trip to the zoo! We had a great time with our MOPS group, but Reed slept most of the time.

 

 

 

Chair picture!

 

Enjoy!

The Turners

Bathroom Organization

God created the most wonderful and perfect husband for me and I am thankful every day for him.

But he's messy. 

Not gross-messy. He's the 'drink out of 10 cups a day and leave them around the house' messy, or the 'leave your shoes wherever you take them off' messy, or the 'leave everything out on the bathroom counter so it looks like the sink is having a small garage sale' messy.

And it drives me bananas!! Especially our bathroom. It's not like we don't have any storage space in our bathroom. We have LOTS! It's just less convenient for him to get something out of a drawer, use it, then put it back in the drawer. Not much different from picking it up off the counter, using it, then putting it back on the counter.

I'm just saying.

So this is what I was up against and lived with for 5 years:

 I pick my 'tidy-up' battles around our house carefully. A few things I don't budge on. Others I have tried and given up on, but the bathroom was now on my list. I decided to make this as painless as I could for my dear, sweet hubby. I wanted to keep everything contained, yet accessible, as he likes to see everything. I decided a cute basket would do. So after a quick trip to Target, I had my basket.

Now it was time to attack the counter!

I decided what could go in his small drawers and what would stay in the basket. Things like the toothbrush and toothpaste could go in the drawer. A place where they would be easy to get to, not buried in the basket. When I was done sorting and corralling everything in the basket, Ta-Da!!!

I was so happy! It was neat and clean! Wes sure was surprised when he got home, but has stuck to the basket pretty well. A few things are out, but I'm still happy. It also makes it much easier to clean the counters. Picking up every little thing to clean under it was very annoying. Now I just have to pick up the basket.

As I said before, I seriously have the best husband ever. He has been a good sport with the basket (and all the other wacky things I like to do) and agreed to let me write about his messiness on the blog. If you don't know him, you're missing out.

Have a good one!
The Turners

Basket shelves

Reed's closet is a mess (by my standards). Bags of clothes, things littering the floor, empty tubs just laying around, trash bags of old stuffed animals...it drives me nuts!!! But I can't justify spending money on containers and things to corral all his stuff. So in the quest to organize Reed's closet, I found some baskets I had for my classroom.

I got these at the Container Store. 

Here's a link: http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10008430&N=&Ntt=plastic+basket
They were pretty cheap; about $3 each. I LOVED these baskets. I used them for work stations. I created tags for the work stations I needed. The basket was the perfect size for paper, so I filled them with the work/activity for that day. Then I placed them around the room where the stations were. Such a great way to organize your room. But I digress.....


Anyway, I don't have a classroom anymore (thank you Lord for providing for us so I can stay at home!) so I got an idea. Maybe I could use them as a sort of shelving. Of course I have command hooks laying around, and these baskets had holes that would make them easy to hang. So here we go.

I put up the command strips like so.

 

 Then I put the baskets up. It worked well for some of his small toys. 

I even used the top of the baskets, so I got 4 "shelves" out of it.

It'll be super easy to take down if necessary, and I can use the baskets again. I still have 3 baskets, so I'm looking for a way to utilize them.

Happy Sunday!

The Turners

Gift bag storage

I loathe gift bags.

Yes, they are easy to put gifts in.
Yes, you can reuse them so they are cost effective.
Yes, I have used them on numerous occasions.
Yes, I have a Million of them.

If you love gift bags, I'm sorry. This post is probably not for you, until I get to the part about organizing them. But first things first, I vent:

First of all, you cant rip into a bag. Who doesn't like tearing into fresh wrapping paper? It's like buried treasure! It's a small form of therapy! It's total bliss!! But there are people who don't like it. You know who I'm talking about. The ones who gently un-stick the tape, slide the box out so carefully, leaving a wrapping paper carcass you could actually use again. Where's the fun in that? You'd think with my OCD tendencies I would love trying to get a perfect "carcass," but I don't. I want to make a huge mess of paper, then promptly clean it up. Nuts, right?

Anyway, another pet peeve is the tissue paper. I have tried and tried to find the best way to use tissue paper in a bag, but it always looks stupid. some people can make it look so beautiful, like a paper sculpture. Not me. Wadded. Mess.

And speaking of wadded messes, the most annoying thing is un-wadding the paper and folding it back neatly so you can use it again. Yes, I do that. Don't act like I'm the only one. It's free paper! But seriously annoying, nonetheless.

You can peek into bags. No fun. No surprise.

Not only do I hate gift bags, I have more than the average person. I used to teach, and every Christmas and Valentines Day I got about 50 bags (my number, my data, totally made up, but probably close). So teachers have exponentially more bags than anyone else on the planet. The amount of bags in my container was getting out of control. The lid wouldn't close without me sitting on it. There was an unfounded fear that they would somehow come alive and smother me. Time to do something about it. Enter my hero, the command hook.

First I had to sort through the mountain of bags I had. I threw away some (yes! I did it!) then continued to put them in piles. I had a Christmas pile, baby pile, wedding pile, then some for general use. I sorted those into girly colors and manly colors. I chose the largest bag from each pile to house the remaining bags. Then I had to find a place to put them. 

We have the most ridiculous hall closet. It's in the shape of a triangle with triangle shelves. Now tell me, what is going to fit on a triangular shelf that will utilize the space most efficiently? Nothing!! But I did have a large chunk of wall space at the top. This would be perfect for hanging bags. A stepladder and a few command hooks and I was ready to go. Here is the finished product. 

I also needed a place to keep the tissue paper. A Hefty 2.5 gallon zip bag and a binder clip did the trick.  They can be hard to find, but I found mine at Wal-Mart.

 

Now I don't hate my gift bags (or my stupid hall closet) as much. And if you want to come shop my closet for a bag, please do!


The Turners

North Carolina trip!

Last week we traveled to North Carolina to visit my parents and see their new house. We were a little anxious about taking Reed on his first plane ride (crying baby in cramped quarters = nightmare!). But as it turned out, Reed did great! Here are some "learnings" (as Wes calls them) for traveling with a baby:


1. Infant carrier: I had a Moby wrap for Reed. It is a pain to get on, but once in place, Reed was very happy (especially when we were moving around).
2. Lightweight Stroller: We weren't sure if we wanted to take the stroller. It was another thing to carry, and we didn't know if we'd even use it when we got to my parent's house. It was totally worth it when we got to the airport. Reed didn't want to stay cooped up for too long in the wrap when we were just sitting there, so having a place to put him was great. Also, it gave me a chance to eat and relax a little. On our trip back I ended up putting him in the stroller as soon as we got off the plane. Thumbs up!
3. Travel on a Tuesday or Thursday midday: We had lots of empty seats around us on our Thursday flight to NC, and on our way back Tuesday, we had the last 6 rows entirely to OURSELVES! We were so glad to have the space to maneuver if needed and in case Reed was fussy.

All in all, the traveling went very well.

Also coming to visit them was my Grandmother and aunts. Coincidentally, Wes' parents were coming, too, for Wes' Granny's family reunion. Needless to say, we got to see lots of family in one trip.

Here are some pictures!!

4 Generations

 The Aunts!

 Great Grandma Turner

 Great Grandma Wheatley

Granny Smathers

Papa Smathers

LOTS! of family. Reed was so spoiled! Met all but one set of Great Grandparents, got to see Nana, Grandpa Edgar, Bebe and Grandpa Chuck, and lots of Great Aunts and Uncles. He was such a trooper doing all this traveling and meeting everyone. We look forward to seeing everyone again, plus a few new people, this Christmas.

We also got to see some race stuff! North Carolina is NASCAR central, so we drove by Charlotte Motor Speedway and went to Hendrick Motorsports shops.

Wes hangin out by one of Jimmie's cars.

Dad at the shop. Go Jeffie!!

What a wonderful trip! We enjoyed all of it, but were so exhausted when we got home. We will be resting up until we do it again.

We love you all!!

The Turners

This is where I get it from

I have so much to write about, but I am going to tattle on my parents today.

My amazing parents, back in "the day."

I have the absolute best parents in the world. They are so giving and sweet, and they have made me who I am today..........sarcastic, prepared, and freakishly organized.

  Here's Dad (Grandpa Edgar) and Reed!

My dad once went through his local grocery store to create a shopping list with items sorted by aisle. Yes, this means he went through every aisle and wrote down everything that was on that aisle. Then he made a spreadsheet he could print off and check off the items he needed to buy. This cut down on the time he spent in the store, as he wouldn't have to backtrack to find something. This worked really well...until the store reorganized everything.

He also has packing lists saved on the computer. (cruise, race, how many days you'll be gone, etc.)

And during one of our moves (my brother and I; we moved a lot during college) he had to rent a U-Haul. To figure out the best way to fit everything without having to rent a larger truck, he made a model of the truck and paper cut-outs of all the furniture (all to scale) and worked it like a puzzle until he found the best way to pack it. It totally worked! He has a spreadsheet or list for just about everything.



And then there's mom. Very prepared.

Here's me and Mom!

We went to North Carolina to visit, as did a lot of other family members. Being a good hostess, my mom picked up a few things for the bathroom just in case someone forgot something/needed something. When I opened the drawers, I laughed.

This was a FEW things!? But then I ended up using about 4 items from these drawers, so I was very happy to have a prepared mother.


Funny, right? If you know me at all, this is where I get it from. Oh, and my good looks.

North Carolina trip coming up!

The Turners

Cheap Cleaners

I have been really inspired by Pinterest lately, especially the cleaning pins. Now that I have a little one, using harsh chemicals is much less appealing. That, and now that we are living off one paycheck I want to do everything I can to help. Which means.....Cheap Cleaners!!

The first one I wanted to try was laundry detergent.

I honestly do at least 2 loads of laundry a day now. A LOT compared to the 2 I did a week before Reed was born. That's a lot of laundry soap! My curiosity got the best of me this morning, so I went to the store. All you need for the detergent is Borax, washing soda, and dawn. I had the dawn, borax was $3.99 and washing soda was$ 2.99. I spent a grand total of $6.98. Probably close to $10 if you have to buy the dawn. (Really cheap considering I used 2-3 Tablespoons of each!) We have a great recycling program where we live, so I just rescued an old milk jug and I was ready. Here's the recipe according to the blog (onegoodthingbyjillee.com):

3   Tablespoons Borax

3   Tablespoons washing soda

2   Tablespoons Dawn

Add 4 cups boiling water and mix until powder is dissolved. Let cool.

Fill with tap water (bubbles will come all out the top).

The blog said she used 1/2 cup to 1 cup per load. It is rather thin, but it's so cheap to make! I only made a gallon, but it works, so next time I'll make several gallons to keep on my laundry shelf.


Dish Detergent:
I was also running low on dish detergent, and had a pin for homemade powder, so I thought, let's DO IT! After looking at the blog (simplydesigning.blogspot.com) , I realized it also called for Borax and washing soda. SCORE! I don't have to buy a lot more stuff! All I needed now was Kosher salt and Lemi shine. I had never heard of Lemi shine before, but I found it right next to the rinse aids and dish detergent. I wasn't sure how much this was going to make, but here is a comparison of the size container I filled. Trying to save money, I scrounged around my tupperware nightmare of a cabinet and found this old potato salad container. It is a 48 oz container, but I actually had a little more than that. I put the rest in an old deli meat container. (Yes, I save those!)

Here's the recipe!

2 cups Borax
2 cups washing soda
2 cups Lemi Shine (The container I bought was just a little less than 2 cups, so I just poured the whole thing in)
1 cup Kosher salt

The lady from this blog mentioned that the mixture gets hard, so she let it set out for a few days and stirred it. I went ahead and put it in my containers and just shake them as I walk by.

Anyway, it just calls for 1 Tablespoon per load with a vinegar rise aid. She said she didn't put the vinegar in the rinse aid compartment, just put a container/cup on the top rack filled with vinegar. Something about it eating away at part of it. Well I did it and inspected my dishes closely before I started using it nonstop. They seemed very clean! I couldn't tell a difference.

So the Lemi shine was $3.69 and the Kosher salt was $1.79. I'll have to buy a new container of Lemi shine ever time I want to make more of the mixture, but seeing as I'll only use 1 Tablespoon of the mixture per load, that's fine with me.


Surface Cleaner:
I've also made my own surface cleaner. The recipe I found was with vinegar and water. Talk about cheap!

As you can see, I used an old spray bottle and labeled it (always a good idea).
I did 1 cup water, 1 cup vinegar, and some orange oil (okay, a LOT of orange oil; it stinks to high heavens, but it disinfects and the smell eventually goes away. Now if you know anything about oil and water, you know it doesn't mix, so I shake it up before I use it. It helps a bit, but you're still going to smell a LOT of vinegar with a little big of orange).

And voila! No more kitchen spray cleaners for me! With how cheap vinegar is, why don't more people use this?

I've seen other ideas for making your own body wash and soap, but I think experimenting on my clothing is brave enough. (and even then, I practiced on towels first)

Happy cheap cleaning!!

The Turners

Helpful hints for new moms

When I was pregnant with Reed I got a lot of advice from moms, which I was SO grateful for! It is really overwhelming and scary having a newborn, so every little bit helped. My little guy isn't a newborn anymore, which is sad and exciting at the same time, but here are a few pointers that helped me along the way.

1. Buy a small lingerie bag for baby's small things, like socks and mittens. Every time I threw socks in to be washed I said a little prayer that I would find both of them on the other end. There were a few close calls, so to alleviate the stress I bought a small laundry bag. I used a command hook and hangar to put the bag on the side of the changing table right next to the laundry basket. No excuse for daddy to not do it!

2. Baby Log App: If you are anywhere as organized as me, you will want this -no- NEED this. This simple app will help you log baby's feeding, diapers, sleeping, etc so you don't have to remember. After you have a baby you won't be able to remember anything anyway, so invest the $5 and enjoy life. The best ones I have found are Baby Connect, Baby Log, and Total Baby. Find one that graphs the activities, too. The visual was so helpful for me.

3. Formula Clubs: I nurse Reed, but I signed up for all the formula "groups" or "clubs" I could, just in case nursing didn't work out. I'm a planner, if you can't tell. They'll send you formula, yes, but they'll also send you coupons. At first I wasn't sure what to do with them, but I have been able to bless people who DO use formula by sending them my coupons. I suggest signing up if you're going to nurse and passing those coupons along if you don't use them. You will make someone VERY happy.

4. Diaper secret codes: No matter what side of the fence you are one, you will probably have a disposable diaper on your baby at least once. I had no idea there are secret codes inside the packages! I may be the only ignorant one out there, but when I found them it was like I found treasure! The more codes you enter, the more points you get, and you can get free stuff! They also come on wipes, so if you're serious, stick with one brand of diapers. Hopefully your kiddo isn't allergic. But you could bless someone else by passing those codes/diapers on.

5. Destination Maternity: You may be lucky to inherit lots of maternity clothes from friends/relatives, but I was not. Every time I bought something from Destination Maternity (Motherhood/A Pea in the Pod) I got tons of coupons. TONS! And stuff I'd actually use, too, like diaper coupons! Their stuff may be a tad pricey, but just know you'll get lots of coupons, even if you buy online. They like to do a lot of sales and specials, too.

6. Hand-me-downs: Don't be afraid of second-hand clothes. I can count on one hand the amount of stuff I bought for Reed. YAY! Thanks friends!

7. Hospital Bag: Pack flip-flops. I didn't think of this until my hair stylist said something (thanks Mikala), but you'll have to shower there, and do you really want to put your bare feet on the grotty floor? Also, our sweet Reed would not sleep alone unless someone was holding him or he was swaddled really tightly in one of those swaddleme blankets. Invest in one (just in case) and bring it to the hospital. If we had done that, I may have gotten some sleep that first night.

8. Photos! Lets be honest, you're going to take like a zillion pictures because your baby is the cutest thing in the world. I had a hard time figuring out how to share these photos with just the people I wanted, and not the whole world. Facebook is great, but come on. All my photos are on Shutterfly anyway, and they offer a free share site you can password protect! Problem solved! The other major sites offer this too, I just happened to have a shutterfly account.

9. Vaseline: A must for us. Prevents diaper rash. Just constantly goo them up when you change a diaper.

10. Label the baby room: This helps dad put away clothes (he cant say "but I don't know where anything goes!")

11. Constantly go through stored up clothes: I was so paranoid I would miss some clothes that I went/go through Reed's clothes once every week. And you can forget about the number sizes. Just compare them by length. And make sure you wash clothes before. I almost missed out on some outfits because they looked too bug, but when washed were perfect.

12. Keep snacks at your bedside table or wherever you feed the baby. You will get hungry at 3 in the morning.

13. If you have an idea or need to do something, write it down. You will forget. I had a great memory.

Key word 'had.'

Hope these help someone. I'm sure I'll learn more along the way.

The Turners

Handprint Hilarity

My inspiration for this project was from a friends Facebook page. It was so sweet that I just had to try it! I had seen hands done before, but I liked the idea of a print and how this one was displayed.

My first errand was to find a frame I liked. Hobby Lobby has cute "simple" frames I like, and if you go at the right time they are 50% off. My mom and I picked this one up. It had an inserted mat with 3 cut-outs, but our hands were too big for that so I had to figure out what I wanted to put the prints on. We looked at poster board and foam board and even canvas. I didn't like the idea of any of them. We found that Hobby Lobby also sells HUGE pieces of mat board for relatively cheap. I liked this idea because I could get about 3 of the right size piece from it just in case we messed up, which we did. But I'll get to that in a minute. They had lots of whites, so I picked the one I wanted. We also picked up the acrylic paint. That was the easy part.

I had Wes cut the mat board into the desired size pieces. The box cutters worked ok, but the edges would be hidden anyway, so it was fine. Next was to get Reed's hand print. Word of warning; newborns and paint do not mix. The obvious choice was to do this while he was asleep so we could paint and manipulate his hand without him fighting us. I was holding Reed while my mom had his hand. Wes painted the paint on it and then we were going to see how well it would turn out on a scrap piece of the board. The first one turned out really well. By this time, though, Reed's hand started moving. We had to do this fast, so we got the piece we wanted and went for it. Smear. Good thing I had some extra. We got another piece and SMEAR! You see, babies like to have their hands closed. As soon as we would get his hand on the board, he would try to make a fist and smear it all. Only one board to go. We had just gotten the paint on his hand when his arm slipped from my grip. Smacked himself right in the face and smeared blue paint all over it. My mom and I laughed so hard we nearly cried. Wes was not as amused. We did get him all cleaned up without him waking up, though.

I felt pretty bad after that, so we abandoned the project for the day.

We did have one good print, but it was on a small scrap. Not my vision at all. I resigned myself to use this print, cut to size, with a blue piece of tag underneath. It actually turned out pretty good and I am really happy with it. I had originally wanted to add other baby hand prints next to it for any other children God gave us, but I think I'll just make a whole new one for each child and let them keep it. I say this now, but that means I have to use paint with a baby again.....hmmmm.

The Turners

12 weeks old

Happy Friday!!
Little man is now 12 weeks old. What a little love! The news this week was Reed discovering his hands. He will stare at them for a long time and try to find different ways to put them in his mouth. He's not always successful, but he sure is cute as he tries! We are enjoying and loving every minute we get with him.

Let's do a little photo comparison.

Newborn:

12 weeks:

















Big difference! That's what almost 3 months of growing will do.

We are looking forward to Nana's visit tomorrow. She will be here for one GLORIOUS week that will go by way too fast, but we are so blessed for her to be able to come back. Reed will be like a giant to her since the last time she saw him was when he was 4 weeks old. Pump some iron, Nana, he's getting heavy!!

Enjoy your weekend! I know we will!

The Turners