Samuel and Amelia - 3 months old

That's right, the twins are 3 months old already!

Where did the time go? I swear, each baby I have somehow makes time go even faster than before. I swear I was just finding out I was pregnant, getting the news it was twins, revealing their genders, and counting down to their birth. Didn't I just meet them face to face for the first time and introduce them to their brothers and bring them home?

Mommy's pretty girl

My favorite duo

I am in the ever constant battle with myself that always happens in this stage (well, probably in most stages if I think about it) - that fight to keep myself from looking forward to easier, funner, different times down the road and to just embrace these moments. The smiles, the coos, the cuddles, the baby smell. Such good stuff! And the last time I will ever experience them from my own children.

Love those handsome smiles!

We have a thumb sucker - our first!

All smiles while sister picks on him

The sleeplessness is hard, but for twins I know I have it lucky. Amelia is often sleeping through the night and if not, she usually only gets up once. None of my boys were doing that this early! And Samuel generally gets up only twice. They are down by 7 every night and up around 6:30 in the mornings. There really isn't much to complain about there! Well, minus not having slept through the night myself for months (don't have the exact count since I wasn't sleeping during the night for a lot of my pregnancy either). But it's amazing as mothers how we learn to adapt and function under less than ideal conditions.

Headbands are fun :)

Littlest brothers bonding

The real challenge isn't any different then it was when I had one infant - the simple act of getting stuff done. Keeping up on the housework, getting meals made, getting myself ready. The day to day stuff is enough to overwhelm when there is always someone to hold, change, feed. Especially times two! And when you add in my 3 older boys I truly feel like there is always something to be done and never enough of me to go around. But there is such joy in getting to watch my children form bonds with each other and learn to pitch in to get things done as a family. The love definitely outweighs the work!

Thankful for my Moby Wrap!

My crew

Samuel is currently receiving physical therapy in our home once a week for what they originally thought was torticollis but for what the therapist now thinks is just a preference on his part to keep his head in one direction which has caused his head to be pretty severely misshapen. But he makes amazingly huge progress every week and they are pretty sure it will correct itself over time.

Rockin' his tortle like the cutie he is :)

I am excited to see what the next few months will bring. We are really looking forward to hearing them laugh and are sure the boys will be competing for the honors of getting the biggest laughs from them.

What's that elf been up to?

Another week of fun as Elfie found new ways to entertain us every morning. Here's a look at what he's been up to:

Mommy forgot to get out the Christmas books so Elfie dug them out of my closet for me:)

Hanging out with the Nutcrackers

Parachuting back from the North Pole and got stuck on our light fixture (Nathan says he must have blown in through the window!)

Getting handy on the boys' tool bench

Brought the boys hot chocolate and marshmallows, Jordan was VERY excited!

Spending some time with his old pal Mrs. Claus

Puzzles (I got them free with my Disney Movie Rewards) with a note saying that Santa sent them after Elfie reported that they were so good for daddy the last two nights while mommy was at Christmas parties

Let me say that I think Elfie is just as fun for us as for the kids. And they are really starting to get into it. Every morning they ask where he is and go on a hunt if he isn't in plain sight. If he is up high or on top of something Jordan often yells at him to get down. This morning was the cutest, after putting together our puzzles Jordan walked up to Elfie and thanked him for bringing them. The only downfall is when we forget to move him...twice this week I have had to do it at 2:00 am when I woke up with Isaiah and realized I had forgotten. But it's worth it! Stay tuned, who knows what Elfie will do this week:)

Continued Progress

I have been writing lately about trying to get organized (here and here) and thought I would give a progress report on how I am doing. My daily routine has continued to shape up starting with me getting myself completely ready. As I am finishing getting ready I put back all of my things and wipe down the bathroom, including the toilet. Yes, everyday. This has made a huge difference because it is constantly clean and only takes two minutes of my time to upkeep. It feels so good to take this little step that stops me from having to do the deep clean after it has been neglected for days weeks.  I then get all of the children dressed, start a load of laundry, feed them breakfast and wash the breakfast dishes. The rest of the day consists of me working on whatever zone we are in (last week was the kitchen, I did things like clear the counters and wipe them down) and hitting some of the "hot spots." I do dishes after every meal so that they don't pile up and I make sure the sink is shining every night before bed. I still have work to do, like incorporating more daily small cleaning to keep up on things and tackling some of the bigger problem areas like the boys' bedrooms but I can confidently say that I am making huge strides and have no doubt I will be able to keep this up. It has done wonders for my state of mind and has made me not only feel better about my home but about myself as a homemaker. My husband has noticed as well and has been kind enough to constantly praise me on my new found organization. That alone makes me want to keep it up!




 

Homemade Laundry Detergent Part 2

A little over a month ago I tried my hand at making my own homemade laundry detergent.  Days after making this my detergent was put to the test with several loads of vomit covered items (I know, lovely).  It was then that I realized that this would not pass the test for heavy duty loads. I have since also discovered that it does not do well at removing things like deodorant and sweat stains and that it leaves clothes pretty much smelling the same as they did when they went in the washer. So when doing a load that has my husband's clothes in it, they all come out smelling like his cologne which is nice smelling but not how I want MY clothes to smell.  Of course this is a much better smell then the clothes that went in with vomit on them.  I also had to bump up the amount of detergent to a cup each load to try to make it cleaner so this has reduced the amount of loads I get out of a batch, also reducing the amount of savings. Now having said all that you may think I have thrown in the towel on homemade detergent. But seeing as I still had ingredients left and that I am determined to give it a proper chance before resorting back to overpriced, watered down, chemical filled store bought detergent, I gave it another go. This time trying the powdered detergent hoping that by not watering it down it will be more effective. I haven't washed any clothes with this but promise to update when I have properly tested it out.

Ingredients:
* 2 cups grated Fels Naptha (or other bar soap)
* 1 cup Washing Soda
* 1 cup Borax

(Again, I was able to find all 3 of these together at Fred Meyer's)

I just tossed all 3 of these into my food processor and gave it a spin until it was powdered. A little warning, this is much like putting flour in your food processor and creates the same lovely "dust" so don't make near any open food or drink (says the lady who had a class of Iced Via sitting about 6 inches from my food processor at the time of making this).  When that was done I put it in an old empty flax seed container (I hear many people use old large yogurt containers). I added 15 drops of essential oil, orange is my scent of choice at the moment, put the lid on and gave it a good shake. I then labeled the top with a reminder that I would need 2 Tbsp per load and put it in my laundry room. Again, I will update when I have used it long enough to really get a feel for it. Hoping this goes better then the liquid version!

**UPDATE**
Since I was on here today getting the measurements to make some more detergent I thought I had better update you on this current version of detergent that we are using. I can happily say that this powdered version is working MUCH better than the liquid and I have continued to use it on a regular basis. I now make a triple batch at a time and don't have to remake it all that often. I have started using Dial bar soap instead of Nels Faptha as it is more readily available and with sale and coupon I can get it an 8 bar pack at a great price. Plus, I love the great clean smell:) Speaking of smell, I no longer have had the issue of my clothes coming out smelling the same as they went in, so I am pleased.
Also, I am very happy with how long my supplies are lasting. I just ran out of Washing Soda today and I bought it 5 months ago. There is still about 1/3 of Borax left.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have been planning to make my own detergent for a few months now but was waiting to run out of my store bought detergent. That finally happened this week so I excitedly gathered all the ingredients I needed to make my own (I know, it is pathetic the things that excite me these days). Now there are literally dozens of homemade laundry detergent recipes out there. I settled on this one and will decide whether to stick with it after a few uses. I already did 3 loads of laundry with it yesterday and am pleased for the most part. I am thinking about upping the washing soda and borax though as I read that that helps with getting the clothes really clean.

Ingredients:

1/3 bar Fels Naptha

½ cup washing soda

½ cup borax powder

Two gallon bucket 

*essential oil (optional)

Directions:

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan.
   

Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts.  Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved.

  

Remove from heat.  Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket.   Now add your soap mixture and stir.  Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir.
  

Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. 

You use ½ cup per load.

*I also added 1/3 oz of orange scented essential oil for a nice scent. 

 **Mine didn't really gel after the 24 hours. But I read that that was normal for it to come out watery and that it can still be used that way. I am going to play around with this a little bit but was happy how it turned out for my first time. This really didn't take much time at all so it wasn't an extra hassle.


Now while I am pleased that one side effect of using homemade detergent is getting rid of the chemicals used to clean our clothes, the main reason I am doing it is to save money. To make sure this was really a money saving endeavor, I kept track of what I spent on all of the ingredients. Here is the breakdown:
-Fels Naptha: 0.99
-Arm & Hammer Washing Soda: 2.69
-Borax: 3.67
-Essential Oil: 4.99
TOTAL: 12.34

The Borax and Washing Soda will last me quite awhile but I am going to figure this based on the Fels Naptha and Essential Oil for which I get 3 batches. Each batch will do 64 loads of laundry. So a third of $12.34 is $4.11. 64 loads at $4.11 comes out to .06 cents a load. Now if we compare this to a leading brand of detergent (I looked at Tide): For 64 loads of Tide it is $14.99 which comes out to .23 cents a load. It is almost 4 times the cost. I say that makes it well worth the effort!
For those of you wondering where to find these items, they can be found at local grocery stores. I was able to find all 3 items together at Fred Meyer, which is what the prices were based on. I picked up the essential oil at a organic store.


*** For an updated version of this post please read HERE***