My 20s

A few weeks ago I started to reflect back on the past decade of my life: my 20s.  I turned 20 the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college.  Matt and I had just been dating for a year.  My life now seems so completely different than it was 10 years ago.  At that time I was a daugher, sister, girlfriend, college student, friend, and janitor.  Now 10 years later I'm a daughter, sister, WIFE, former accountant, friend, MOTHER, aunt, godmother, daughter-in-law, and sister-in-law. 

I have so many of the things that seemed to be distant dreams back then.  A brief summary:

-graduated college
-got a real job
-got engaged
-bought a house
-got married (those first 5 were all in 12 months)
-went on my last vacation with my parents and sisters: to the Smokeys and Charleston, SC
-went on 12 vacations with Matt, adding 7 new states to my list and 4 countries, doing everything from snorkeling in Hawaii and gambling on the Vegas strip to drinking tea at a palace in London and eating crepes under the Eiffel Tower
-saw 4 of my sisters and countless friends & cousins get married
-bought my first car, drove it for 8 years and sold it
-bought jet skis used them for 5 summers, sold them, bought a new one
-went skydiving twice
-became an aunt - first by marrying into Matt's family and then when my sister had kids
-saw Backstreet Boys, Carrie Underwood (3xs...), Zac Brown Band, Kenny Chesney, Hunter Hayes, Craig Morgan, Josh Turner, Billy Currington, and various other opening acts in concert

The two biggest milestones of probably my whole life happened in my 20s: first becoming a wife by marrying Matt:

We look so young!!

And then becoming a Mom when we got Luke:

Luke is so little!!

My whole life pretty much revolves around my 2 boys now. (A few days ago I was telling Matt how this is the first time I've lived in a male dominated household and then corrected that saying a male majority household because we both know I dominate around here.  To which Matt pointed out that it's really Luke in charge right now.  Which is 1,000% true.)

Anyways.  Other than many of the people in it, so little of my life is the same as it was 10 years ago.   I start to freak out a little when I realize I won't be in my 20s anymore...30 is like a whole new category!!  But at the same time, the older I get the better I feel I know myself.  As mature as I thought I was at 20 I know I've done a whole lot of growing up since then.

I am apprehensively excited to see what my 30s bring.  Here's to growing up!

Getting rid of stuff

Growing up I was a bit of a junk collector.  I had a hard time getting rid of anything I ever touched.  Ever.  I had junk.  My desk was overflowing with stuff and rarely usable.  I eventually grew out of that but still had a very hard time of getting rid of anything remotely sentimental (that's when having a good memory is not helpful).

When I went to college my room was getting passed on to one of my sisters and I had to clear out.  So everything went into boxes and mostly stayed that way in my parents' attic for 5 years.  When we got our house all those boxes came here and filled the back half of our front room (where the dining table is now).  I unpacked what I needed (kitchen stuff, clothes, etc.) but the other boxes stayed.  When we got home from our honeymoon I was overwhelmed with coming home, having wedding presents all over, and then my boxes.  So the boxes went to the basement where they stayed another 3 years.

In the summer of 2009 I finally got tired of having these boxes (approximately 8 years after packing most of them).  So I made myself spend 30 minutes a day, setting a timer on my phone, down in the basement going through them all.  It took most of the summer.  But I did it and got my pile greatly reduced.

after my 2009 cleanout

Look how organized that is.  It no longer look like that.  More of Matt's stuff has been moved into the basement and we have various tubs of life jackets, tubes, and snorkeling equipment.  Actually the above picture looks pretty good compared to how it looks now:

Everyone should be really relieved to know that the paper mache hot air balloon I made at a library craft time around the age of 10 is still down there.

I've been spring cleaning pretty much since the first of the year and have gotten all the main and upper closets and cupboards cleaned out.  Even though I've gone through them multiple times, every time I am able to find at least another thing or two to get rid of.  It's a little addicting.  Having to make room for Luke was part of it (and the stuff that came as a result of him...like bottles, formula, and a food processor).   Part is just I like having less.  The more I get rid of the more I want to have less.  Bonus: having less means it takes less to go though it!

But then there is the basement. 

I have fewer boxes but it's still a mess.  It needs reorganized.  The entire basement.  Half-ish of the basement is Matt's workbench/computer parts storage so he's responsible for that.  Then we have our laundry and workout areas which are fine.  But then there are the boxes in the above picture...

And these:

Although, not all of this is mine.  Only about half.

And these from the filing cabinet and a bookshelf in our former spare room, now Luke's nursery.  

You mean you don't have your 2000 Backstreet Boys day planner any more???

You might be wondering why I am posting all this.  Well...I need motivation and I need to be held accountable to go through these and greatly reduce.  I'm feeling pretty good about the upper 2 floors of the house.  I've gone through all those areas so many times I don't have much more to get rid of (I mean, I do, but stuff we actually use.). 

I am seriously burdened by all this basement crap.  I would really like to have a more organized and less crowded basement.  So I am really going to work on it.  I was doing well earlier this year.  Then Luke showed up which complicated things a little.  But I can work around his naps and when Matt is home.  I will get this done by the end of summer.  That's my self-imposed challenge.


Here are some articles I found inspiring:
From Young House Love: The Simple Life and Living with Less
From Making This Home: How to Clutter Your Home and 5 Reasons We Love Living Small and 10 Ways to DeClutter Your House)

And this:

Space is a precious thing to waste. You don't want to fill your house with anything that doesn't directly add to your happiness.

From the Young House Love book.

Getting the futon and garage sale piles out of there were a huge inspiration.   It helps motivate me to keep going and get the rest of the basement cleaned up.  I am working to simplify our lives in many areas and this needs to carry over to the basement.  

Then maybe we'll get to the garage....it's just so hard to clean out there with 1-3 jet skis taking up so much space... (although...it can't be too bad if we could fit 2 cars, 3 jet skis, and 2 kayaks in there all winter.)

Updates to come....

Things I like - July

1. Pineapple corer

I don't really know how I ever dealt with pineapples before I owned this.  I mean, I know how I did but this thing is amazing.  All you have to do is cut off the top and bottom of the pineapple, insert the corer and turn.  20 seconds later you have a nicely sliced and decored pineapple.  It is seriously amazing.  I just used mine for the first time and it kinda made my day.  The best part...I got it at Aldi for $3.  Yep.  The one pictured above is $11 at Target.  I would have paid that much but the $3 is so much better.  If you like pineapple but hate cutting them go buy one now.  Seriously.  It's amazing.


2. Blueberries

 

I love almost all fruit (no melons or some cherries) but blueberries are my favorite.  My sisters used to joke that I should be weighed before and after blueberry picking in our childhood because I would eat so many while picking.  Mmmm...nothing quite like fresh blueberries.  I haven't been picking in years but I've gotten many good ones at the store (bad ones too).  The big ones are my favorite: sweet and juicy.  I pick out the small ones first and save the biggest for last.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it...  Lucky for me, blueberries are one of the few fruits that Matt doesn't like plain so I get them all to myself.  Which is good because, in the summer when they are cheap and yummy, I can easily eat a pack in one sitting.  They are delicious.


3. My CamelBak water bottle

I don't know how this hasn't made a list yet.  I love my CamelBak. It's is generally within 5 feet of me at all times of the day.  I pretty much don't drink water out of anything else.  It is awesome because:
1) It keeps water cold forever, even in direct sunlight
2) It's perfect for 1 hand drinking which is super helpful when driving or feeding a baby
3) It's basically impossible to spill
4) The handle makes it very easy to carry around, even when juggling baby, car seat, etc.
5) It fits perfectly on the little ledge next to my workout bike in the basement
6) With the bite and suck mouthpiece it's hard for kids to drink out of which is good if you don't want to share. =)  

I would highly recomend it to any and everyone.  We got mine on Amazon around 4 years ago but they are now sold at Target and are even smaller but hold more.   It is one of my most used possessions.

4. Mindless summer tv

We've never had cable or any sort of subscription tv service.  Neither of us grew up with it and are waaaay too frugal to ever want to pay for it ourselves.  Plus you can watch so many shows online, legally, that it just seems silly.  And who really needs to watch more tv? (nobody).  (side note: I do really wish we had HGTV though...I love HGTV, especially House Hunters.  When we are on vacation or, say, stuck in surgery recovery with a sleeping baby, we watch HGTV).

Anyways, last month I said we don't turn on the tv much in the summer...that was before American Ninja Warrior started at the beginning on July.  It's like super Wipeout for incredibly fit people who train for it all year.  They run a crazy obstacle course that would be impossible for most humans and usually have some sob/weird back story to go it.  It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say this is one of Matt's favorite shows.  So we DVR it and watch once Luke's in bed.  I watch mostly to mock all these people who quit their jobs to train to become "America's next Ninja Warrior" (that's like me quitting my job to practice winning the lottery, except I would have higher odds).  Or to point out places we've been like Miami Beach where trials were the other night (right by where we walked to the beach daily, side note: I want to go back; that was a fun trip.) 

Last week we also started watching Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls (after Luke's in bed).  Kinda like a combination of Survivor and The Amazing Race (neither of which we watch...).  Basically more tv to judge people who are doing things we could probably never do (well me at least...Matt would last longer).   I think they are in New Zealand (somewhere I super want to visit) and have to do all these survival tasks.  It's entertaining enough for summer.  Something to do when we are both too tired to do anything else but still want to spend time together (sitting on the couch next to each other and watching/mocking/commenting on the same tv show totally counts as together time a few nights a week.)

But really...besides these 2 shows the tv really isn't on in the summer.

5. The tag feature in Microsoft

I started "tagging" all my pictures on my computer at the beginning of the year (as in, I started with 2013 pictures because it would be waaay too time consuming to tag the 32,000+ pictures from prior to 2013).  It's become a very useful.  To organize my pictures I keep a folder for each year (2012, 2013, etc) and then multiple subfolders inside each.  For 2013 I started doing 01 January, 02 February, etc and then each folder has further categories like Luke, New York, Projects, Memorial Day weekend, etc.  Anyways I then tag every picture as I upload it.  Some have multiple tags (Lake Pleasant, sunset, Luke) and some just have one (Luke).  With a quick click I can change the way the files are displayed so the entire year can be sorted by tags which means I can easily pull up all 2013 pictures of Matt, Luke, and I.  This display will also show pictures under multiple tags.  Every picture of Luke I use the "Luke" tag but then could also use the "Dad & Luke" tag so, by this display method, it would show up under both (and makes me lose the argument that there are more pictures of Matt with Luke than me with Luke...it was a difference of 2).

Ideally I would do this for all years but like I said, 32,000+ is a lot of pictures to go through.  It has become a handy way to sort pictures, especially when I am looking for something somewhat specific to frame.  Or to get a quick count of how many Luke pics I have (696 at last count, and I do delete a lot of the duplicates...).  I am trying to come up with a way to use this to better organize my recipes to make for easier menu planning but I haven't figured it out yet.

Would you do it again?

The big test of how successful any experiment is if you would do it again.  Rewatch a movie, remake a recipe, reread a book, repeat a workout, etc.  There are plenty of things that are ok once but it's not worth your time/expense/effort a second.

The other day Matt was asked if, knowing what it took, if we would still do the whole adoption process.

..........................................

I don't know how the answer could be anything besides a resounding YES at this point.  Yes, it was long.  Yes, it was stressful, emotional, exhausting, etc.  But look what we got out of it:

 

We would 1000% do it all over again to get this guy.  I honestly feel that everything we went through, infertility - adoption wait, was so we could be the parents to this little man.  I firmly believe we were meant to be his parents all along and he was meant to be our baby. 

And, unless we miraculously end up pregnant, we plan to go through the whole adoption process again.  And again.  And maybe again.  =)  It's worth the wait, stress, time, money, and opening up our home and lives to complete strangers.  Luke will always be worth it.  His shirt says it all:

P.S. We've already started to get questions of when the second one is coming...and we've decided when we are going to start the adoption process again.  But right now we're just enjoying being parents to this little guy.

FINALIZATION!!!

Today was yet another big day for little man.  Luke's only 3 1/2 months old but there have already been so many! (being born, meeting us, signing day, coming home, baptism).  Today he officially and legally became ours.  I asked Matt yesterday if he was excited, he said he's always been ours, this is just making it legal.  Which is true.  It really doesn't feel any different but it is a huge relief.

The past few days I (as usual) began to worry about it, had nightmares they were going to take him away from us in the courtroom.  But nope.  He's ours. =)

We got to the courthouse about 3pm for our 3:15 hearing only to find out they were running about an hour behind.  It was 4:06 before we went in front of the judge.  I had imagined this taking place in one of the big courtrooms where I had jury duty a year and a half ago but instead it was in a tiny room.  Present were the judge; a clerk; Matt, Luke & I; our attorney, our social worker; and both sets of grandparents.  Not too many more people would have fit in that room!  I think we were in there about 8 minutes.  The judge went through all the paperwork prepared by the attorney and then Matt & I were sworn in.  The attorney called me to the stand and asked me questions: my name, address, the name we gave Luke, his date of birth, the day he came home, my husband's name, our wedding date, if I thought it was in his best interest to be with us, and if we had ever been convicted of a felony.  Then she asked Matt if he agreed with everything I said.  The judge said a few things and declared that it was in Luke's best interest that he remain with us.  And that was it.  By 4:15 we were officially and legally a family of 3.

It was one of the happiest moments of my life.  It was exciting but exactly the same afterwards.  But I still cuddled my little boy a little closer tonight.  Still can't believe he is ours.  =)

The adoption process

 
When we decided to adopt I knew very little about the process other than we hoped to have a baby in the end.  It's pretty much been a learn as we go process, even with all the books I've read on the topic.  With our finalization coming up I thought I'd summary how the whole process went for us.  Every agency is different and every state as their own laws, but it will generally be the same for most.  This is how it went for us:

Intake
We had an intake meeting with our social worker (SW) at Catholic Charities (CC).  We didn't know much about their adoption program but knew we wanted to work with them.  This meeting cost $100 so we were kinda committing from the outset.  We asked the SW a few questions (how many babies they place a year, how many couples are on their waiting list, how much would this cost etc.) and then got all our paperwork.  She filled out a basic info sheet about us to start our file (names, contact information, ages, etc.).  We were given 60 days to finish all the paperwork and have it back in.  This meeting was around Valentine's Day 2012.

Paperwork
We got all our paperwork done in 40 days (I was an invalid for part of this time) and then had to wait for CC to process all our background checks, our references to get those back, and our fingerprints and physicals to be sent back.  We turned it all in at the end of March 2012.

Home study
The dreaded home study.  By this point I had read a few adoption books and knew enough to be scared of the home study.  Even though everyone said it wasn't that bad.  Our first home study visit was at the CC offices and the SW asked us questions together.  The second one was the scary one: when she visited our home.  I super cleaned for weeks knowing it was coming.  Then recleaned.  I was nervous.  Turns out, she spent less than 5 minutes going through the house and didn't even look at the garage (something I was worried about).  It definitely wasn't nearly as bad as I built it up in my head. These meetings were in late April/early May 2012.

After this the SW wrote up a report using her 2 interviews with us and various paperwork we had submitted.  We have multiple copies of this and it's very strange to read someone else's summary of your life.  Very strange.  We had only met her 3 times at this point so almost a stranger.  But also exciting to pass this part!!  We got a letter shortly after the second visit saying we had been approved by CC and all they needed was our profile to start presenting us to birth moms.  Kinda felt like getting an A+ on our marriage. =)

Profile
These are different for every agency, even for the 2 we listed with here.  Our was the size of a normal church bulletin: 8X10 front, full spread on the inside, and 8X10 back.  Or 8 1/2x11.  I don't remember.  We were approved so fast that we barely had time to start this between the second visit and being approved.  We spent about 2 weeks working on it quite a bit.  Matt put it all together in photoshop.  We picked pictures, decided on a layout, and wrote the words together.  It was kinda fun working on it, deciding what the best parts of us and our relationship was to share.

We sent our SW a draft the day we left for Europe (late May 2012).  She had comments a few days later but there was nothing we could do until we were home in June.  She actually e-mailed us our first day in Ireland and asked us to call her.  We got really excited and had no idea what it could be about.  It took us awhile to figure out how to call her but finally got through to the CC offices about 24 hours later...only to have her out.  Through e-mail we found out that she had a potential baby coming soon and wanted us to get our profile in ASAP but, being in Ireland, there was nothing we could do about that.

Anyways.  We got home from Europe on a Saturday evening and by Tuesday evening we had printed copies of our profile that we were trimming, folding, and signing.  Thursday morning we had an e-mail from the SW saying we were all ready to be presented.  YAY!!!!!  From our intake meeting to being ready to be presented was just shy of 4 months.

Being presented
This was the beginning of the long wait for us.  We heard very little from the SW from the time we found out we were ready until we got the e-mail/text/calls about Luke 10 months later.  From our previous discussions with her here is how the process of picking an adoptive couple happens:

1) The birth mother contacts CC, either while still pregnant or after the baby's been born (our situation).  SW said they've had birth mothers as early as 6 weeks along up to a baby that's already a few weeks old.  The SW and birth mother discuss what sort of adoptive parents she has in mind: already have kids, no kids, etc.  Then the SW will go through her couples and pick ones that seem to match the criteria.  She will give the profiles for these couples to the birth mom to look at.  The birth mom does not see anything else in our file other than the equivilant of 4 pieces of paper about us,m mostly filled with pictures.  The profiles don't leave the CC office, birth mother has to look at them there.

(I keep saying birth mother because the birth fathers are very rarely involved, from what SW told us).

2) The birth mother may want to meet with multiple couples or just one.  She can pick a couple while still pregnant but will very rarely sign then .  If she is still pregnant the adoptive parents might go along to appointments and be there for the delivery, every situation is different.

If the baby is already here then birth mom has to wait at least 24 hour after birth (I think) and then can sign at any point.

3) What the birth mothers sign is a voluntary termination of her parental rights.  If there is a birth father in the picture he will sign the same.  Or if there are multiple potential birth fathers they all will sign.  SW said in many cases the birth fathers are more than willing to give up their rights and often don't have any input into selecting adoptive parents.  There is a punitive father registry that the agency has to file with.  Any potential fathers (that didn't sign) have 30 days from birth to make a claim on the child.  If any do a paternity test would be done before anyone could get custody.

Meeting baby/birth mother/etc.
This part is probably so completely different for everyone that there isn't much to say.  You probably already read my post about how this happened for us.

Initial signings
The birth mother signs the above mentioned voluntary termination.  We only had to sign 3 places each, so different from the stack of paperwork we did to be listed!  We signed:

"Motion for a Temporary Custody Order"
"Verified Petition for Adoption of Minor Child"
"Child Custody Affidavit"

We have copies of all of these...I was waaaay too emotional at the time to really pay much attention to what we were signing (the attorney did explain them), much less remember the names.

Post-placement visits
We had 2 post-placement visits with our social worker where she came to our house to ask us questions.  The first was when Matt was still on his paternity leave.  The second was about 2 months after Luke came home.  The visits were pretty easy.  And I definitely didn't overdo the cleaning like our home study visit a year ago!  We spent more time talking about what happens next than any offical questions.

Our social worker wrote up a report after these visits which was given to the attorney to be eventually presented to the judge at our finalization hearing.

Finalizaton

I've had a few people surprised that we still have to go to court and that the adoption isn't finalized.  While it certainly feels official to us, legally right now we are his legal guardians, not his parents.  His name is legally still Baby Male {birth last name}.  We didn't know how all this finalizing stuff worked until after Luke was already home with us (I said this has been a learn as you go process...)

When we go to court this week the attorney will present the judge with all the paperwork from CC and probably some official legal papers.  The judge will ask us some basic questions: name, address, employer, etc.  I think he asks if we think it is in the child's best interest to be with us.  Then he declares us a family!!!!!

We are given 15 minutes of court time but the actual hearing takes about 5.  Luke doesn't have to go but can (he is).  I think the birth family can go but generally don't (I have absolutely no idea if they will).  We get our picture taken with the judge and that's it!!

The attorney's office will file for his new birth certificate that will have his name as Luke James and us as his parents.  It'll be like I gave birth to him and he's always been ours.  And really, it feels so strange that there was ever a time that he wasn't ours.  

The closer we get to the court date the more emotional I get about it.  I cry just thinking about it now.  Even though it feels like we've been a family for almost 3 months it will still be so nice to have it official official.  I am so excited to go to court, probably the only situation where anyone is ever excited about it!!

Going Forward
It's never really been established how open of an adoption this is or how much contact we will have with the birth family going forward.  So far they have not reached out to the attorneys requesting contact or information about Luke.  The attorney advised us to wait until they do so.  We've been told the birth mother only wants letters and pictures once a year which we plan to do around his birthdays.  These will be sent to the attorney's office and then forwarded on.  I'll probably stress about that when the time comes but it's still months away right now.

_______________________________________________________________
And to finish this...a picture of our baby being cute.  We've been putting him in the Johnny jump up a lot lately because he is doing so well with his head and he loves being up to see things!  We pack him in with blankets so he doesn't fall over.  He's finally getting the hang of jumping too!!  It's super super cute. =)

From being an accountant to a stay at home MOM

I spent 7 1/2 years working full-time between college and my semi-retirement last December.  I never expected, or wanted to, work that long but I look back on it somewhat fondly.  Maybe it's just the double income but there were still a lot of happy times in those pre-baby years.  And even working wasn't horrible.  I didn't love my job but it helped us do a lot of things (take 12 vacations in 7 years, buy jet skis, pay off our mortgage).  And I do think it was really good for me.  It was probably bound to happen anyways, but I did a lot of growing up in those 7ish years.  I'm not nearly the same person I was when I sobbed before my first interview ~4 weeks out of college.  Heck, I even cried on my last day when I was leaving, for completely different reasons.  It helped me overcome a lot of my shyness by forcing me to talk to clients, often telling people twice my age what to do.  I interacted with all kinds of people I never would have otherwise.  I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the tax code and tax forms.  And general business running and bookkeeping.  I had increased confidence and work ethic.  It was a good experience.

But this new one is even better. =)

It's been almost 3 months since we became parents.  And it's certainly life changing but I can't say everything is different.  In fact, sometimes I am amazed at how little has changed.  We both love this little guy more than just about anything...but we're still the same people that we were when we left for New York (just with less tears over baby commercials and such - that's me).  Nothing and everything changed at the same time.

It helps that Luke is pretty easy.  Sure, I spend a good part of my day playing/feeding/changing/etc. him.  And he can be frustrating on days he really won't nap but those days I just remember all the frustrations I had at my old job and realize how lucky I am to be able to stay home with him. 

Even with caring for an infant I feel like I have much more time now that I am mostly home.  With this new "job" it's easy to squeeze in laundry loads between taking care of Luke.  Doing things like baking breads and cleaning the house are also easier because I am home for all the the waiting periods. 

Luke really likes sitting up

For instance, on Wednesday we went to the drive-in which meant leaving home around 6:30.  If I was still a full-time accountant this would have left me about an hour at home between work and leaving again, which isn't much time to get anything done, especially after a long day at work.  Since I was home with Luke most of the day though (we did take a walk!) I was able to wash, fold, and put away his laundry; wash diapers; bake hamburger buns; (and write most of this blog post).  All things that don't take a lot of hands on time but wouldn't be possible if I only had an hour at home.

So life is different now but in mostly good ways.  Instead of dressing up every day for work I get to spend my time in comfy clothes.  If I wear anything besides my workout pants or soffes, PJs, or workout clothes...I am dressing up.   I saw this on Facebook the other day:

And it made me laugh a lot.  It's true.  Not only do I not usually change, but I will continue to wear the same workout pants for the next few days (if I switched pairs he'd likely just spit up on those too).  I will change my clothes for pee though.  That's a different story.

I'm constantly on call for a baby waking up or needing me but that's kinda the best.  It's what we've been waiting for for years and I certainly wouldn't trade time with him for our former dual incomes and my professional life.  I feel very lucky that I get to stay home with him and consantly thank Matt for going off to work every day so I can do this.

P.S.  I also saw this on Pinterest this week which also made me laugh.  Pretty much how every family meal at my parents has gone ever.  12 simultaneous conversations with 8 people?  Just a normal family supper growing up. =)

Homemade laundry detergent

Edit to add: I have since gone back to store bought detergent after many years of using homemade. See this popular post: Stripping: Laundry Style for more!

At the beginning of the year I decided I wanted to start making most of our household cleaning products.  Mostly to save money but also to simplify and to have less poisonous things in the house when we got a baby.  (See previously posted fabric softener, goo gone, and dryer sheets).  I've found good homemade substitutes for everything except toilet bowl cleaner.  And we do buy dish soap (Dawn) because that stuff just works so well and I use it in various other things too.  

I've been very excited about this homemade laundry detergent.  Like waaaay more excited than I should be.  I made in back in February even though we wouldn't need it for months (we finally started it in May).  When I initially wrote this post we didn't do a lot of laundry.  4 loads every other week plus Matt's scrubs about once a month.  Now we do that plus Luke's laundry every 10ish days (we keep it separate because we're using the baby detergents on it.  Plus it's just so easy and cute to put away) and diapers about every 48 hours.  

Because I started this pre-baby I spent about a month accumulating all the ingredients, all 5 at 5 different stores.  I could have consolidated shopping trips but most items I just picked up when I was already getting something else.   I've done some price comparing and this is how it worked out:

• 3 bars Fels Naptha
• 1 box Borax
• 1 box Washing Soda
• 2 cups of baking soda
• 2 containers of Dollar Tree Oxyclean

3 bars Fels Naptha soap
I've only found this at Walmart but also didn't know where to look at Target or Scotts.  Price for 3 bars: $3.11

1 box Borax
I purchased at Target for a total of $3.39, after bag credit and 5% off with Redcard.  Total at Walmart would have been $3.62

1 box Washing Soda
I purchased at Scotts for $3.73, price at Walmart would have been $3.47

2 cups baking soda
Used a full 1lb (a little over 2 cups) box from Aldi for $0.49, would have been $0.56 for 1/4 of a 4lb box at Walmart

2 containers of Dollar Tree Oxyclean 
I was on the fence about even using Oxyclean because I found different recipes but since it was cheap I decided to, but just a small amount.  Bought at a not-really dollar store for $1 each.  Total spent $2.14.

Total price for all my supplies: $12.86

The last time I bought store detergent it cost $13.71 for a Target bottle supposed to last 96 loads (about 9 months for us). 

pre-stiring

The Fels Naptha is grated and then everything is mixed together.  I thought the grating would be a pain but really the mixing was the worse part.  It was really hard to stir it all up.

I use 1-2 TB each load, depending on what it is and how big of a load it is. 

We've been using it almost 2 months and so far it works great and it seems like we've barely made a dent.  We use it on everything but Luke's clothes and blankets, but we will use it on those when the baby detergents we were gifted run out.  If this lasts 9 months I'll be pretty happy with the cost, considering how much more laundry we are doing now.  Update coming then....