Quick laundry soap update

We've been using the homemade laundry soap for a few months now and I've decided that I like it. I'm not crazy about it, I just like it. I have tinkered with the recipe a bit and have altered it for my needs:
2 cups Borax
2 cups washing powder
1/2 grated fels-naphtha bar (using the zester side of my grater works fab)
1 cup of powdered laundry detergent

Ya see- it didn't smell good enough for me without the detergent.
That is why the laundry soap is just a "like" for me. I miss my clothes smelling like Gain. But it gets the stains and dirt out.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Brian probably thought that I had lost my mind when I told him I was going to make my own laundry detergent. 

But I have 2 hobbies: making stuff and saving money.

So this was very satisfying!!!

Here's the recipe:

1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax

1 cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Powder

1 grated bar of soap

   (I chose Fels-Naptha because I have small kids and a messy husband who get lots of stains on their clothing, but really any bar of soap will do - Ivory, Zest, whatever)



So I started by grating up the soap.  I got really really tired of grating soap.  It's rather boring and I couldn't check Facebook while grating and it was 1:30 pm and there is absolutely nothing on TV at 1:30 pm... so I only grated about 3/4 of the bar.  I figured it would be okay.

It ended up looking like this.  I thought it looked a little coarse but I really didn't want to break out my food processor.  I really didn't want to dirty any more dishes.

Then I added the Borax and the washing powder

mixed it well and decided I'd better break out my food processor and make this a little more symmetrical.  I'm a symmetrical kind of girl.

Yes, thats my little food processor... in my bathroom.  It was nap time for Cowboy and I just couldn't risk waking him up.  When I use the food processor, he screams and cries in terror.  Like I'm going to make him eat pureed green beans or something...

I wonder where he got that idea...



before





After



So you actually only use 1-2 tablespoons of this homeade detergent per load.  I used 2 because I have this ginormous beautiful blue washer and this load was kid clothes, extra dirty.  I did not pretreat the stains. 

The verdict:  I was really quite impressed.  The clothes were really clean!  Like maybe even better than Tide.  The older stains faded. but didn't come out completely.  But the newer stains (3 days or less) came out perfectly and the socks were white again. 

So how much money will it save me?

Lets do some easy math:

60 load Tide - $8.99 at Target on sale

$0.15 per load

but lets be realistic here.  Tide says that it will last 60 loads if used for small loads where I fill the cap to line 1 or 2.  But I have large loads of very dirty clothes so I always put it up to line 3.  So maybe I get 40 loads out of that bottle, so

$0.22 per load

Lets do some less than easy math:

The box of Borax was $5.49 for 72 oz.  I used a cup of it.  So I probably used about $0.50 of it.

The washing powder was $4.49 for 55 oz. I also used a cup of that.  So probably about $0.55 of that.

The Fels-Naptha bar was $1.29 and I almost used all of it.  So maybe about $1 worth of that.

Total of $2.05

The recipe I used says it should last about 30 - 60 loads depending on if I use 1 or 2 tablespoons.  Knowing that I probably going to use 2 tablespoons per load, it will probably last me 30 loads which ends up totaling:

$0.07 per load

(and if I had used Ivory soap instead of Fels-Naptha, it would have cost me $0.04 per load!)

(or if I had purchased those items at Kroger instead of Ace Hardware I would have saved more $$$)

And thinking of my typical laundering habits, I could save about $75 a year just by making my own detergent. 

Both hobbies accomplished in one project :-)

Little Feet

Mostly for my own personal reference ;-)



Little Red's new glitter shoes size 10.5



Today I was searching for a cute yet cheap pair of squeaker shoes for Cowboy - he loves things that squeak!  Then I thought, "Hmm... what size should I get him... and when will his foot grow next?"  It seems that he has been in a size 5 since he turned 1 and he blew through the size 4 size in about a month!  So how am I supposed to know what size will get the most use?  Well, in my google-ing I stumbled upon an average age - shoe size chart.  So here it is, mostly for my future reference:

Size 0  -  newborn - 6 weeks

Size 1  -  6 weeks - 3 months

Size 2  -  3 - 6 months                        

Size 3  -  6 - 9 months
Size 4  -  9 - 12 months
Size 5  -  12 - 18 months
Size 6  -  18 - 24 months
Size 7  -  2 - 2.5 years
Size 8  -  2.5 - 3 years
Size 9  -  3 - 4 years
Size 10 - 4ish years
Size 11 - 4 - 5ish years
Size 12 - 5 years
after that, who knows!

Looking at this chart, both my kids tend to linger on the "odd" sizes and fly through the "even" sizes.

Julia & Tiffany?

One of my favorite movies is Julie & Julia. After I saw it for the first time we went to the library and found Julia Childs cook book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." I cooked a few dishes out of it and was hooked! Then I had to give it back :-(
So for my birthday, Brian and the kids gave me my very own copy, plus "Mastering... Volume 2" :-D
Today we tackled something from volume 2 - French bread.
We started making it at 2:00
.
.
.
.
It is now 10:00 and I still don't have any fresh French bread...

Julia taught me a few things today:
Check the temperature of the water you are going to use to activated your yeast; if it's over 100 degrees, chances are you will kill the yeast. We have attempted bread several times and never ever understood this properly and therefore our bread just wouldn't rise despite our best efforts.
Julia also taught me today that bread takes a freakin long time to make. You knead dough, let it rise for 3 hours, punch it down and let it rise 1.5 hours, then shape it into loaves and let it rise 2 more hours.
I also learned that bread making really is as hard as it looks!
So at 9, after I shaped the dough into the loaves, I gave up and stuck it in the refrigerator.
Julia is testing my patience...
I really wish I had some fresh hot French bread. Right now. With butter. Please.

If this goes well we will try to make croissants in the near future!!!

Maybe they'll be as good as La Madelliene's!!! Mmmmmmm

What if...?

Little kids ask random questions. It's part of their charm. If you give them your time and listen very carefully, sometimes you learn something about them or about yourself.
Tonight after her bedtime story Red ask me, "what if you had the wrong daughter?"
"what do you mean? Like what if I had brought the wrong baby home from the hospital?"
"no. Like if you had the wrong daughter."
Hmm... I thought. What does she need me to tell her?
"Sweetheart, if you lined up 100 little girls I would know exactly which one was you. I know every inch of you, down to the last freckle. And I wouldn't want any other little girl. Just you. Does that answer your question?"
"yes mommy. Thank you" she said with a big smile.
"we will always be Mommy-Daughter best friends"

Don't grow up too fast, little girl :)

Confession of a selfish mommy

We've been sick.  Cowboy and I started first with the sore throat, coughing, etc and now Little Red has started showing signs.  I pray hourly that Brian doesn't get this. Yes, because I love him and don't want him to suffer like we have.  It has nothing to do with previous illnesses where he has proven to be sicker than me and incapable of doing anything but lie around the house.

So today I was only sick of being stuck in this house.  I needed out!  I decided today would be a great day to go garage sale hunting for summer toys!  Which led to going to Target!  Which led to Toys R Us!  Which led to lunchtime!  Which led to Chick-fil-a!!! 

The whole time that we were out, I knew that I was being a bad mom.  My poor little girl was coughing often and had a runny nose.  She was cold, then hot, then cold again, and had that glassy look in her eyes.  But in my defense, I asked her many times if she wanted to go home and watch TV or keep on shopping and she chose to keep shopping.  So I don't feel that bad about how she was treated today.  I feel bad about spreading her germs to 4 different zip codes. 

We love Chick-fil-a!  Tasty food, decent playground, and staff that is courteous enough to help a mommy with her hands full. 

We'd been in the play area with several other moms and kiddos when Little Red started to cough that rattling phlegmy cough. Then she did the huge snotty sniff, which caught all the other moms' attentions.  Then as I was wiping her nose, I felt them glaring at me.  I know... I've been there, thinking, "Why would she bring her obviously sick child out in public and risk infecting my sweet innocent little angels?!"  So with that in mind, I knew I had few options: hand out Purel wipes with an apologetic look and get us out of there, or blurt out a lie as my little snot head ran back to the slide.

I blurted out the lie.

As I wiped her nose, I asked her (with appropriate shock) "Oh Sweetheart, have you been coughing and sneezing like this all day?!"  She nodded at me as she ran back to the slide and I muttered out "our babysitter didn't mention that when I picked her up 30 minutes ago..."

Just a little white lie to save face in front of a bunch of moms that I'll never see again. 

Lord, please forgive me.

Hi there...

Surprise!  Its me again... Did you miss me?  I'm still here, just haven't signed in to blogger in a really long time.  Like embarrassingly long long time.  I started thinking of excuses like "Sorry guys!  Haha, forgot my password, LOL!"  Well, that's not really true, is it?  I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent person and hope my friends do too, so you really wouldn't believe any lame excuses... right???

The biggest reasons that I have for not blogging are as follows:

AND

and this:

(hehe, just a little RT humor for ya!)

Honestly - being a wife and mom and full-time employee and law abiding citizen takes a lot out of a girl.  I need a place to ramble on and on about my day.  I have good days.  I have not so good days.  I have bad days.  I have all those days rolled up into one big long roller coaster day days.  Today was one of those kind of days.

My kids are cute, aren't they? ;-)  My girl is now 4 and my boy is 16 adorable months old.  I LOVE 4 year olds!  The conversations are the best.  Yesterday, she told me everything she knew about mockingbirds.  It took 5 minutes of non-stop little girl chatter.  This is a long time to listen and fake enthusiasm.  Don't judge me too quickly.  This was at 5:30 in the evening.  I'm trying to clean up the living room, the kitchen, and put away the laundry while making dinner and keeping the toddler happy and out of the dishwasher.  And watch the evening news. 

Wow, it just occurred to me... that happens every night...