Homemade Laundry Detergent

So my kitchen science experiment for today was making homemade laundry detergent. I've done a bit of research on this by reading several internet sites and have realized that quite a bit of savings can be made by making your own and most have stated that it works just as well, if not better than commercial detergent.

When I posted "my status" on facebook today that I wanted to do this and receiving several responses, I decided to give it a try. One of my friends, Cheryl, gave me this recipe below for powdered detergent and so it's what I decided to go with since it's coming from a personal source. I also have a recipe for "liquid" detergent and might try that one down the road. It requires a 5 lb. bucket, of which we did not have laying around, and so for storage reasons, decided to go with the powder.

In preparation for making this, in recent weeks, I had purchased both types of soap called for in the recipe, Fels Naptha and Kirk's Castile, and so I made a batch of each. For the shaving/grating, I cut it up the bar of soap in to chunks and then used my chef's chopper to "grate" it. I barely use my chopper, believe it or not, for food chopping and so I figured I might as well get some sort of use out of it!

We will run out of commercial laundry soap this week and so I will then try this homemade mix and report my feedback!!

Ingredients
1 cup Fels Naptha or Kirk's Castile, shaved and grated
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup washing soda

Directions
Use ONE tablespoon per load.
Use a little more if you have an especially dirty load.

Pregnancy Brain

So I learned today that supposedly your brain shrinks by 8% during pregnancy. Because of this, that's the reason I'm giving as to why I haven't written anything anything on my blog in the past week! Even as I sit here trying to come up with something to write about, I've got nothin'. Sad, I know. Maybe something will come to me this afternoon as I go about my day...stay tuned...I'll get it together soon.

Salad Cravings...

So I'm having my first "pregnancy cravings" and it's something that's somewhat healthy! Tomato, cucumber and onion salad with dill! So yummy and last night after work, I went straight to the grocery and bought all the things to make it, came home and chopped and mixed and sat and ate a bowl of it warm! As though who have had this, we all know that it's best to be served cold and after letting everything marinate for a couple of hours!

For the salad I made, I only used 3 tomatoes and 1 cucumber and I also added dill to mine to give just a little more flavor. This is a recipe that you can easily alter to suit your taste and there's a ton of them out there if you don't like this one.

MARINATED TOMATO AND CUCUMBER SALAD
4 lg. tomatoes, cut into wedges

2 cucumbers, peeled & cubed

1 lg. Red onion, peeled & sliced

1/2 c. olive or salad oil

1/4 c. cider vinegar

1 tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

Dill to taste

Put prepared vegetables in large salad bowl. In smaller bowl combine remaining ingredients with wire whip until salt and sugar dissolve. Pour dressing over vegetables and let stand in refrigerator about 2 hours before serving for best flavor.

Bright & Early...

This morning, at 8:49 am, my boys, ages 5 and 6, were into a full blown out argument about a Wii game. As I sat and watched them fighting over whose turn it was and why Caden always gets to go first, I was amazed at their ability to get out of bed, come downstairs and automatically start fighting as though they had been up for hours as well as maneuver their way through a videogame. Why can't I have that kind of brain energy to wake up and have that ability...it takes me an hour of getting ready, 20 minutes of eating breakfast and then a 30 minute car ride to work, all while drinking a cup of coffee, before I even sit down at my desk to get my day started.

Free Friday Night!

Kevin and I are like babes in a toy store. Our neighbor 3 doors down from us has invited both Samuel and Caden to have a sleep-over with her two boys to celebrate a birthday. This is a big night for us because it will be Samuel and Caden's FIRST sleep-over and Kevin and I pretty much have the evening to ourselves once we put Isabella down! We are almost giddy with the possibilities of what we can do (get your mind out of the gutter). We decided to splurge on ordering a pizza, eat popcorn, and we'll watch movies!! I rented Gran Torino for Kevin's liking and then He's Just Not That Into You for mine. Oh, the excitement of having an evening to ourselves! But for us, this is huge! It's the little things in life!

Happy Birthday Audrey!

Today, our first-born daughter, Audrey Marie, would have turned 8. She was born in 2001 and went to be in Heaven and wait for us there on June 27th...she only lived 10 days. She was born with Trisomy 18 and had a series of birth defects and ultimately died of congestive heart failure. Although she is not here with us physically, she is always in our hearts everyday.

40 and Pregnant!

We found out the Friday before Mother's Day that we are expecting another baby! This was wonderful, shocking news but it came at a time in our lives where the timing just wasn't right as well as we thought we were done having children! I turn 40 in August and to be quite honest, I never thought at age 40, I would be having another child. So we thought we were done and to the point that I've been giving things away over the past couple of years as Isabella had been growing out of things!

But it all started in early May when I had been feeling nauseaus each morning and Kevin even asked at one point, "are you pregnant" and I blew it off saying "there's no way" and we both agreed and went on about our morning. Two days later, on my way to work, I thought I was going to have to pull over the car to puke my guts out and that's when I pretty much knew, without having to take a test, that I was in fact, pregnant. I took the test and it didn't even take seconds before I saw that second line pop up to confirm what I pretty much already knew! I sat there in complete shock, excited, nervous and scared all at the same time.

Luckily, although Kevin is without work, I was able to get the family on my insurance through my work and so the timing worked out perfectly in that regard. My doctor's office has so graciously given me about 10 weeks worth of free prenatal vitamins and then as soon as I got insurance, they scheduled me in within the week to get both an ultrasound and an appointment. Because of "my advanced maternal age" mixed in with our first-born's genetic history, they are treating this pregnancy cautiously.

So I'm currently 11 weeks along and our official due date is January 5th! We're hoping maybe that we can have this baby December 31rst and have a nice tax deduction! ha!

God certainly has a lot of surprises in life and if we just say YES! to the adventure and let Him lead, we may receive things we never expected but can't live without. This was one of them!