Merry Christmas

From the Nieder-Meyer household to yours, we hope that you have a wonderful Christmas! If you don't celebrate Christmas, we hope you enjoyed your holiday with your family and enjoy today anyway!

Over the past few years Dan & I have tried to create our own Christmas traditions while incorporating some from our individual pasts.We know that neither of us will ever be able to have everything that made Christmas, a real Christmas like it was growing up. But we've decided that from the Niederman side: shrimp ring and special pajamas on Christmas Eve. On the Meyer side: coffee cake in the morning.

While it's hard not going over to relatives houses with extended family, visiting the Santa downtown Ft. Wayne, and not being at "home" for the holidays, we anticipate that our Christmas incorporates our two favorite things, food & family. So whatever, however, and whenever that combination gets together you know we'll be celebrating!

We are thankful for the wonderful people in our lives, our amazing baby girl, the opportunities that we have, and the many privileges that we are enabled to experience every day. Merry, merry Christmas!

With much love,
The Nieder-Meyer Family

Come back next year for our 2012 recap (with lots of photos)!

It's been awhile

Hello All,
It's been awhile. Sorry. With baby, school, work, and life this blog has taken a back seat. But wanted to let you know you weren't forgotten! This is just a little note before I work on our Christmas card, and wait for the New Year for our BIG year end family recap with LOTS of pictures. That is my full intention at least!

For the good stuff: Our sweet baby girl is even sweeter than yesterday! She is working on crawling, talking, and eating solids (we've got sweet potatoe waiting for her)! She loves to giggle, lay on her belly, and listen to daddy beat-box (seriously).

To hold you over, here is a picture:

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope that you and your family have a GREAT Thanksgiving, we all have a lot to be thankful for. The Nieder-Meyer's sure do!

Video :)

Here's an exciting video of little Remy rolling over from back-to-stomach (not seen here, she can also do stomach-to-back)!

Something to make you smile



Remy is adored at the Crestmont Boy & Girls Club so of course I took her to our annual Fall Festival and Haunted House! It was a huge success, 400+ people, and had a great time!

Undercover CIA agent, in disguise

 

 

Make your own cleaning supplies

Did you know you can make your own cleaning supplies? Not only is it more natural, but it is a heck of a lot cheaper too! So, here is a post to share our recipes and reasoning!

You might be wondering, "Cloth diapers and now this? These Nieder-Meyer's are some modern day hippies!" Well, we'd be ok with that. But reality, we are money conscience! I'm in grad school, we've got a baby, we budget, and definitely aim to live within our means. So, if spending a couple of hours every few months to cook up some cleaning supplies saves us money you can guarantee we will commit to it! It took us 25 minutes today to make this batch of laundry detergent, and it will last us about 4-5 months. In reality, that "saved" money goes to where we really want to spend it, FOOD!

I found all of these recipes via Pinterest, the wonder site. People have great ideas and I love learning about their creativity and benefiting myself from it!

Homemade Cleaning Products

All Purpose Cleaner (Blue Spray Bottle)      Good for: Surface cleaning

3 tbs. Vinegar

½ tsp. Washing Soda

½ tsp. Castile Soap

2 c. hot water

Grease Cutter (Pink Spray Bottle)     Good for: Stove, microwave, and greasy areas

2 c. Water

¼ c. Castile Soap

10 drops Lavender Oil

Bathroom Cleaner (Plastic Squirt Bottle with Lid)    Good for: Bathroom sinks, tubs, and toilet.

2/3 c. Baking Soda

½ c. Castile Soap

2 tbs. Vinegar

½ c. Warm water

Tough All-Purpose Cleaner (Red Spray Bottle) Good for: Areas in kitchen or bath, inside fridge, etc.

1 tsp. Borax

2 tbs. Vinegar

½ tsp. Washing Soda

½ tsp. Castile Soap

2 c. Hot Water

2 tbs. Lemon Juice

Laundry Detergent (Blue laundry container, clear 1 gallon jug) – ½ cup per basic load

1 c. Borax

1 c. Washing Soda

½ to 2/3 bar of soap (Zote, FelsNaptha, etc.)

1/4 c. Dawn for grease remover *Must be Dawn

·         Grate soap into large pot. Add 1 gallon hot water. Cook until soap is dissolved.

·         Add Borax and Washing Soap, bring to boil.

·         Turn off heat, add 1 gallon cold water. Funnel into containers

Fabric Stain Remover – Carpet Spot Remover

·         1 Part Dawn

·         2 Parts Hydrogen Peroxide

·         Add 1 tbs. baking soda/washing soda for tough stains

  

 Window Cleaner

Mix in bowl/bucket

·         2 c. warm water

·         3 tbs. vinegar

·         ½ tsp dish detergent

  

Toilet Bowl Cleaner

·         1 c. Borax

·         ¼ c. vinegar

·         Mix together and pour into toilet. Let sit for 15 min. Brush/scrub and flush

Ingredients (all found at Kroger): Borax $4.50, Washing Soda $3.50,  Fels-Naptha laundry soap $1.50, Dawn $3.75

That's not cheese, that's the grated soap

Our cooking pot. We purchased specific utensils for our recipes so we don't have soapy soup

Boil the soap with water

Add the dry ingredients and bring to a boil

This is how we had time to cook :) Passy + swing + Sophie + music

Adding the cold water

  

The final product

Add to containers. We use an old laundry contained and a gallon Hi-C jug. We prefer the Hi-C jug actually!

  

This is the total batch. Both items filled. We reuse the plastic cup that came with the laundry container, it is equal to 1/2 cup the amount needed per load.

Our other cleaning supplies

Enjoy and good luck!

Remy from 0-16 weeks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cloth Diapers the Nieder-Meyer Way

This post is about cloth diapers, if you don't want to learn about cloth diapers just ignore this one!

Remy wears cloth diapers, and I've had a few inquiries about that. Dan is the diaper man and did the research and got me on board, but it didn't take long to figure it out! We love our cloth diapers, Remy has a bit of a bigger bum but it's kinda cute! It took a lot of searching on You Tube and just seeing the diapers too. It takes time to figure out the system too, but it soon becomes habit. We aren't against disposables, and we definitely use any we are given! But here is a little insight about our decision (like most things as a parent, you need to do what works for you all):

• We wanted to save money. We spent maybe at the most $300 on diapers total, and they will last her until she is potty trained and can be reused for any future siblings...in 10 years if you were wondering. I think we researched it's about $1500 savings over the span.
• We got most of our diapers from The Green Nursery http://thegreennursery.com/ We didn't go, but I know that they offer a weekend Diaper Training workshop.
• We have about 20ish diapers, and we wash every third day. No fancy detergent (well you can), any fragrant free detergent will do but some others are recommended.

1. Detergent with cold water, extra rinse (sometimes we add baking soda if they are super smelly)
2. No detergent, hot water
3. Dry on low, or medium; hang dry outside when possible (bonus: the sun will bleach the diapers)

• We have a large diaper bag that we just take em off and put them in, then dump the full bag in the wash. We also have a smaller bag that we take with us for when we are on the go.

We have the following styles:

-8 Pocket diapers (I think our favorite style - quick drying too)

*bumGenius OS 4.0 pocket diaper

 - 6 Flip covers with 10 Flip inserts (the covers can be reused if it is only soiled)

 -4 All in One diapers (the more flaps the quicker drying)

*bumGenius Freetime AIO One Size - Snaps

• Advice: Our favorite style is Bum Genius by far! The Kiwi Pie is super cute and soft, but not very practical. Other great brands are Rump-a-Rooz. We aren't fans of the GroVia but they are still good. We don't have any velcro because we heard they velcro wears much easier than the snap kind.

That's the Nieder-Meyer Way! Some pictures to help you visualize (unsoiled . . . don't worry)

Flips (cover on left, insert on right)
 

 

All in One 4.0

 

 

 

Pocket

 

 

Kiwi Pie (must use flip cover to keep waterproof)

 

All in One - this one takes a long time to dry

 

Diaper bag

Cute model