Whole Lotta Laundry Soap!

A few weeks ago, Halibut and I tried an experiment.  We actually made laundry soap out of three inexpensive ingredients.  I was a little skeptical that it would clean as well as the commercial soaps I'd been buying.  But since then, I've been pleasantly surprised!  Here's how we did it:

Just a few ingredients:

• 1 C Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
• 1/2 C Borax
• 1 whole bar Fels-Naptha  heavy duty laundry soap
• Water
• essential oil (optional) - example: lavender, rosemary, eucalyptus, lemon....

**Must be WASHING SODA.  Baking soda won't work, neither will Arm & Hammer detergent.

Containers!  

This liquid laundry soap recipe yields 10 Gallons.  

So make sure you have plenty of containers 

to store it in!

Grate the soap bar and melt in a saucepan with 4 cups of water

 

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full with hot tap water.  Add melted soap, washing soda, and borax.  Stir well until all powder is dissolved.  Fill bucket to top with more hot water.  Stir, cover, and let sit overnight to thicken.

In the morning, the soap will have a thick, jell-like consistency.  Fill the soap containers 1/2 full, and fill the rest of the way with more water!  Shake or stir.

If using essential oils, add them now.  Use 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons of soap.

I used Grapefruit essential oil and red soap dye in this bottle.  If  you don't use dye, the soap will look something like egg-drop soup.  But that's okay, it cleans just fine.  Remember to shake the container before each load, though.  It has a tendency to coagulate...

  This could last us about 6 months, maybe more.  Total cost about $2.00

To use add: 5/8 Cup per load for top load machine (approx 180 loads)

1/4 Cup per load for front load machine (approx 640 loads)

So Excited for Scouts!

Halibut just can't wait until he is able to go to Scouts! Even though he has several months let before he can start, he decided to wear his Scout shirt to school yesterday and proudly showed it off to his teacher. He had a fantastic day and came home with a note saying he'd been "Exceptional". He told me that wearing his uniform was what helped him be exceptional. Maybe what we wear does matter...

Going Green

'Going green' in the summertime around here means fingers, toes, and hair (!) colored in the official colors of the Heritage Hills Hurricanes.

Halibut was half-way to neon-green hair when he decided he liked his 'beach-bum' bleached blond locks well enough to stop right there.




That's what the Psyche -up party is all about. Well, that and throwing pies at the coaches!

Trouble Sleeping

Dear Heavenly Father,
please help me not see stuff that isn't there,
not have bad dreams,
and not be scared of the dark...





...oh, how simple and heartfelt are the prayers of a little boy who has faith.
(these are his actual words, not mine)

Don't Cry About it

Dad seems to be having a great time at the beach - he's even a bit cooler since carrying on his beach-tradition of shaving his head!

...at some point during the trip, along comes a precocious 7 year old and lays this comment on him:











"Dad, there are some spots where your hair won't grow back, ....but don't cry about it."

....Poor Dad...

Boys will be....Art Critics!

I am still laughing about a comment Halibut made the other day. He was looking at his sister's drawing of a house, trees, and flowers. I was across the room concentrating on something else. It got quiet, then I hear this, very serious comment from my son:

"Well, if I made that picture, I would put a bat right there, and a vampire over there, and a spider somewhere."

I just laughed and laughed thinking about how differently little boys and girls see the world and express themselves.

Sharp Dressed Man

I bought this outfit for Halibut a long time ago. I think he must have been 2 or 3. It was HUGE on him. But I liked it because it was different. The print on the vest is little rocket ships. So it went into the box of 'someday clothes'.

Well, a few weeks ago, his drawers were getting bare. The 'too small' clothes had been going out (to the huge pile in the living room waiting for my attention), but not much had been coming in. Down came the 'someday clothes' box. I was sure everything in there would still be too big. It wasn't.

He LOVES this outfit. Wants to sleep in it sometimes. I think it looks better with a white oxford shirt and black Sunday shoes--as I intended...but this kid has his own ideas: white T-shirt and Vans.

I laugh, thinking he looks like belongs in an old Backstreet Boy Video. He's already won a dance contest (at Big T's recent company picnic). Maybe I should start looking for an agent...

Old Ladies' Hearts are all Wrinkly

The scene was like something out of a Hallmark commercial. Halibut had been having a hard time falling asleep. Every fifteen minutes or so, he would call me or Big T into his room for some reason: another hug, more water, etc...."please stay with me", "draw on my back", "just a few minutes"... . It was difficult...the getting up to go in to him part, then the leaving him part. Over and over.

After about the fifth call, I grabbed a smooth heart-shaped rock inscribed with the word "Love' on it, which sat near my bedside table. I gave it to him to hold and told him, "you can have my heart to hold and it will help you fall asleep".

A similar tactic had worked with Marlin, but there wasn't a heart-shaped rock involved. When she was little, I always had to study at night. I would usually lie down with her for a few minutes at bedtime, then I would plant a kiss on each of her palms, curl up her fists, and tell her to hold on to them tight. This always helped her go right to sleep. It also seemed to go on for years... .

So I fully expected it to work with my son. But he threw me a curve-ball. "Old ladies' hearts are all wrinkly," he stated, matter-of-factly.

Now, do you think I could just walk out of the room at that point? I'll admit, my vanity got the best of me. Instead, I ended up snuggling with him a while longer to gently probe: exactly who did he consider to be an 'old lady' and thus, "wrinkly hearted".

I learned that 'grandmas have wrinkly hearts because they have wrinkly faces,' and that mine (bless his...heart) did not fit into that category. I went to bed relieved - but not before applying an extra layer of eye cream.

Funny Boy

I've had several friends tell me lately, that my son "cracks them up"! I never really thought of him as a funny kid, because he doesn't really try to be. I fact, I think he's too serious for being five! However, sometimes he'll say things that are hilarious to me given the situation, and the way he does it in that serious way of his!

to me: I'm so Glad at you! (when I found my swimsuit after telling him I couldn't and would not be swimming with him).

Mommy, does my hair look awesome with this bump right here? (after combing his own hair for the first time on record)

turn it off! (referring to the sunlight coming into his room when I opened the blinds on the first day of school)

Get up lazybones, it's time to go to school! (this was funny because his sisters had been up a long time and were already on the bus by now when he was just rolling out of bed and he was now yelling into an empty room!)

and my favorite: Mommy, when I grow up I'll marry you!