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