Homemade Laundry Soap

This is a crossover post from one that I did at Facebook. I got a lot of interest in it, so I thought I might do it here too.

I ran across this while browsing the TipNut.com site. http://tipnut.com/Love the site. One of the first books I got after getting married was  Hints from Heloise. Mom used to get Good Housekeeping and I'd pick it up sometimes to read and was captivated by Heloise. So I looked for her every month in the magazine, and when we moved back to the Atlanta area, she was in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution every Sunday. So I read that one too and clipped columns...while I was in 8-10th grades. When we moved to the Houston area, my only source was GH. After we got married, I found a book. YAY! I've always loved the tips in them, and have run across some others at times...oddly enough, Erma Bombeck had some good ones (when you have to iron a kid's pants for a school play or performance, find out which leg faces the audience, then iron that one ;D) When I was working in the corporate world, there were other tricks I learned...if I had a sweater or jacket that I wore all day over a dress shirt, cuffs, collar and front placket are all that need to be ironed. Cheap shampoo works great on dirty collars and cuffs. Little things that made life a lot easier.

I've collected a number of home books over the years, from Heloise, http://www.heloise.com/ to Annie Berthold-Bond http://www.anniebbond.com/ to Debra Lynn Dadd http://www.dld123.com/. Bond and Dadd have gone on to internet sites and other books, but I like their originals. Bond has a political agenda I don't care for, but I do still use a couple of her books for reference.

Once we started having kids, yeah, I started treating stains when they happened. As I seldom was washing them at stain time, I'd tie the sleeves or legs of the piece of clothing together and toss it in the dirty clothes. That reminded me to treat the stain again before it got tossed in the wash. I bought nothing but white socks for the boys when they were little. They just had a different colored stripe around the top and I taught them to pin them together to toss into the dirty clothes. Then they were already paired off. Folded their clothes in outfits for the drawers so they had a complete (matching--College Dude was color blind & we didn't know) outfit on. Saved us time and aggravation in the morning.

When we moved into a house in 1990, the boys started developing allergy symptoms, which they had not had before. We did some investigating and found out the house had been flooded a few years before from the creek behind it...the landlord cleaned the carpet and pocketed the insurance money. We had a cleaning business so we did the carpet also and pulled roughly 15 gallons of mud out of the carpet...they'd done a terrible job cleaning. But it was all covered up so well that we didn't know until too late. Absentee landlord, hapless agent and no real recourse at the time. (Then he was mad when we didn't want to buy the house when the lease was up!) That was when I started making my own cleaners. I didn't want to add to the boys' problems with more chemicals, couldn't find the one that I could get at Mom's in Houston and there was a limit to my stocking up when I went to visit so, I bought a few books and a few ingredients and starting making my own. Did it for years. When I went back to work outside the home, the kids started taking on more cleaning and Cabinet Man didn't really want to mess with it so, we started buying it again. Plus, by making my own cleaners, the boys could clean up part of the bathroom and I didn't worry about what they were being exposed to (or if they were wasting it)

Fast forward and I'm home again and I'm starting to get back into the groove of being a SAHM (and I like it) Sunshine is 10 and this is really the first time that I've been able to be home. Back to doing more from scratch and looking up old interests. I keep baking soda and borax around anyway for cleaning, and I already had ivory soap. And I can't find washing soda in the Wal-Mart's...maybe at the farm and ranch place...Also, I have a regular washer/dryer, not front loading (cobalt blue ones are on my Wish List) for someday, so I've not tested the detergents on them. Not even sure where to begin testing that, but as I plan to have a pair someday, I might need to start researching and looking up, especially since there seems to be a problem with mold in many front loading washers...which is odd that the new ones do, when the ones from many years ago don't)

Here's the link to the site: http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/

Recipe #8

2 gallons Water (hot)
1 bar Soap (grated)
2 cups Baking soda

    * Melt grated soap in a saucepan with enough hot water to cover. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring frequently until soap is melted.
    * In a large pail, pour 2 gallons hot water. Add melted soap, stir well.
    * Then add the baking soda, stir well again.
    * Use 1/2 cup per full load, 1 cup per very soiled load.

I also used about 20 drops of sweet orange essential oil. Smells nice. I'll use lemon or lavender next time...it's really faint. Maybe I'll use more too. If your soap is "fresh" it will grate into little curls, like chocolate. If it has been out a bit and dried, it is more powdery. Don't use 'beauty bars' like Dover or something like that. The oils/creams they add to it might stain.

I use recipe #8...grated Ivory soap, baking soda and borax. I have to get the melting the grated soap down really well, but even when it is 'flakey', it works well. I've gotten comments from the kids on the scent (who doesn't like Ivory?), and it seems like the clothes are softer. I don't use fabric softener or dryer sheets (did you know that it leaves a residue on the inside of your dryer--you can get it off with cloth soaked in vinegar), but even the towels seem softer. I have used vinegar on occasion as fabric softener and no, it doesn't smell like vinegar after they dry. I use powder detergent in the summer and liquid in the fall/winter/spring. I use cold water for everything but towels and the water is too cold up here most of the year to dissolve powder. Learned that one the hard way.

I've also used the powdered detergent for the dishwasher. I didn't always keep good track of stuff while I had an outside job, so I would run out when doing laundry late at night or when I just didn't feel like going out in the snow.

http://tipnut.com/homemade-dishwasher-detergent-recipes/

We've got reasonably soft water here, so I have not had the problems that other posters on the site might have. Your Mileage May Vary according to your part of the country, water hardness or softness or minerals, etc.

Maybe sometime I'll give my experiences with making my own mixed for Bisquick, brownies, spices, etc....

And a new pic of Duncan, aka, the Duncanator, Duncster, Duncmeister....he's put on a little weight and the dreadful haircut has grown out a bit.

And did you know that Laura over at Decor To Adore is having a lovely Halloween giveaway? YES! Go, now! http://decortoadore.blogspot.com/2009/10/spooktacular-adornments-giveaway.html

Balloon Boy - Yep, that is my town (update)

After that title, I feel like I should insert the lyrics to Montgomery Gentry's song, 'This is My Town'...but I can't find anything that rhymes with 'flying saucer shaped weather balloon'. (sigh) Why I am not a songwriter.

I'm sure most of you have seen this as it was plastered all over the world news. I got a Facebook comment from a friend in the UK about it...

And now all the word is about a 'hoax' by a family desperate to remain in the media spotlight. They've appeared on 'Wife Swap' twice (I think twice). Oddly enough, I think it replayed sometime recently as I was channel surfing and vaguely remember seeing a comment about 'storm chasers', but I had no idea they were from here. And all the furor about their YouTube videos, Falcon's comment about it 'being for the show', etc.

Let's look at a few things. Yes, the family is unconventional. Yes, they have been in the media. Yes, they do things a bit differently. What's the problem? My gut instinct is that it is NOT a hoax. For starters, as a former 6 year old and having raised 4 of them...I have a really hard time believing that a kid that age is going to stay hidden for 4-5 hours upon the instructions of a parent. Maybe would have happened in Victorian times (maybe) but I don't see that happening these days (short of a severely abused child doing so out of fear and there is NO indication of that in this case). He stated that he came down because he got bored. That comment absolutely screams SIX YEAR OLD BOY! However, I can see a kid hiding out for fear of punishment or reprimand...especially if he thought (right or wrong) that he'd let the family weather balloon go! It was a family project, so there was some time and money tied up in it and he was aware of that. Shoot, I'd hide out for getting into my dad's tools and there was not that kind of time/money involved.

And the comments about the kids sleeping in their clothes at times so they could be gotten up in a hurry to chase a storm. I had friends in Austin that were storm chasers (not sure if they were certified, I didn't realize you could be). But it also made sense to me. They also had 3 kids and they'd rouse the kids, put them in the car and the kids would go back to sleep--I recall they were around the same ages as the Heene kids. First though took me aback, but I could see it. Besides, where are you going to find a sitter at 2AM? Although I did tell her that if she suspected chasing it would take them hours and hours, to call me and drop them at my house.

But I think the media and others are looking to demonize this family because they do not fit the 'mold', and they are trying to find a way to make the Heenes 'pay' for the fear and attention that was trumped up. This story was shown around the world (thank you 24 hour news cycle).

Bottom line, I don't think it was a hoax and I am quite sorry for the family. Good luck to them with the attacks from the media. And I like the press conference that Sheriff Aldersen held yesterday in which he really defended the family and told everyone that he was NOT jumping to any conclusions and they would investigate. Which I am sure they would have done anyway. Our sheriff has made some controversial statements himself, but I do think he's a good guy and a good sheriff.

So, that is my two cents folks. For what it's worth these days ;D (I was wrong!!!!!)
Have a great weekend and I am heading back to bed. The family has pretty much gone down like dominoes this week with a respiratory thing (not the flu), and I am worn out from pandering, err, taking care of them.

Hopefully I will be back next week with a couple of Duncan stories and pictures. It's also nice to know that all the odd, unconventional families are not limited to Texas (which is what I was beginning to think!)

My Very Best Free Recycling Find Ever!

As many of you know, our local landfill has a free chemical recycling program. This is my absolutely, positively VERY best find there....EVER.

Two new puppies. 'Nuff said. Until Rhoda resumes Monday Thrifty Treasures in the spring.

http://southernhospitalityblog.com/pretty-practical-and-pure-pleasure-all-for-11-35/

Thrifty Thursday (I think) And for Monday too!

Yeah, I've been a bit MIA for the last couple of weeks. It was tough helping Snickerdoodle deal with her loss...and I was at a loss. Thanks for all the sweet thoughts and prayers. We are over the first hurdle of it and she started her senior year Monday.

On to my thrifty finds. I picked up these goodies at GW a few weeks ago. The door sign is perfect for fall. The danglies were stretched out, but I grabbed a pencil and wrapped the wire around it again and they were good to go. The little herb pics went into the kitchen by the window.

I also got two big pictures that day, but since I can't figure out how to photograph them without glare so bad that you can't actually SEE the pic...I'll wait.

There is a bit of a dichotomy with my Welcome sign, then the little one by the doorbell that reads:

NO SALES

NO SURVEYS

NO PETITIONS

NO SOLICITING

NO PROSELYTIZING

NO COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT

SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN

THANKS YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.

But the school fundraising, organizational soliciting season is upon us again. Our funds go to our school, church, charity and I get tired of answering the door and saying No. One of Snickerdoodle's friends freaked a little though (Honey, you've been playing over here for 3-4 years...you're okay)

And my final find. That's why the "I think" is in parens above. I've been looking for a dog for a while for me and, as usual, I found one for Cabinet Man. Again. This time though, I found one for me. Actually found a couple and am going with the 2nd one. He's an older puppy...5 months instead of 6 weeks. I think that is too young anyway to get a puppy, we prefer 10-12 weeks. Colorado law states that you cannot sell a puppy before 8 weeks. The two breeders we were talking to about puppies were adamant about 6 weeks. So when I found other dogs, I told the first ones we had talked to, "No thank you." They were great. We'd not put down a deposit and it was conditional so...no foul, no harm when we decided against them. And when someone selling puppies really is unfamiliar with the term 'alpha dog', back away.

I'm still trying to decide on a name. They call him Downy (who names a dog after a fabric softener?!) and that just Will Not Do. I have been considering Duncan (from Highlander:The Series), but I'm not sure if he is big enough to be a Duncan. Methos has been ruled out already also...bigger dog. Joe perhaps? Or Mac? I'll have to go thru the canon of the story and see. I missed out getting a female for free a few weeks ago...BUT, turns out she might be back there...the new owners had a house fire that destroyed their home and burned the father badly. He's looking at grafts for 30% of his body, so they just are not sure they can keep her. She would be great company for him as he has a lot of surgeries coming up, but being a puppy, she is also needier. So I might end up with her also :D Cabinet Man is not so sure...two dust mops running around. Since we are picking up a female cattle dog for him on Thursday, I'm not sure why he is allowed to have 2 dogs and I am not....we'll discuss that over the next few weeks I am sure.

Of course, if we get her, then it settles the names...Duncan and Amanda, Mandy for short)

The thrifty part actually comes in that I'm getting him for $100 less than she had him on the website for and $250 less than the price for her male puppies. We are getting the female cattle dog, Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird) for $50 less than he posted in the ad. Her parents are working dogs from a working ranch and he has been breeding them for years so we're happy with his knowledge...and he seems pleased that she is going to people who actually are familiar with the intelligent, weird, freakish ways of the cattle dog.

I've figured out a way to keep Caleb from killing me, by the way. http://susieqaworkinprogress.blogspot.com/2009/07/shhhhhh-he-trying-to-kill-me.html Turns out he hates the vacuum cleaner. He growls at it and darts in and snaps at it. Our female used to do the same thing. If the new puppy acts the same way, I will form the theory that all cattle dogs hate the vacuum cleaner. Now all I have to do is carry it around with me! It's a older Kirby. It weighs roughly a thousand pounds. Maybe I'll just record the noise to my phone and carry that..

I'll add this to my Monday post. I picked up this apothecary jar and lotion/soap dispenser at GW--$1.99 each!

Goodbye Bill. And thank you.

it has been a very sad weekend around our home. Sweet Snickerdoodle got a phone call on Saturday night that her BFF had died unexpectedly. He lived in Hawaii and they had never met in person but, as you all know, friendship is not limited by distance, especially in this day and age. She was planning to go out there after graduation next summer and spend some time. I wish I could afford for her to go to the funeral, but that is just not available. But we'll figure out a way for her to get out there next summer if I have to sell one of the other kids ;).

Bill had Crohn's Disease. http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/crohns/ In and of itself, it is not fatal. But he had a flare-up this summer and was on several medications. The medications were masking the symptoms of a bacterial infection that was undetected until Friday. He had gone to his first two days of college, then was sick for 2 weeks. He thought he had the flu. Bill went to the doctor on Friday and that is when they found the infection. My guess is that by that time it had infiltrated his bloodstream and it caused cardiac arrest sometime later. They put him on life support and I am guessing that they disconnected it Saturday morning. As I said, those are guesses from what she has said.

Snickerdoodle is absolutely devastated. Today was her first day of school as a senior, and she couldn't enjoy it and came home at lunch. The pain in her heart and soul is visible and visceral. And we cannot do anything to make it better.

As parents, the time eventually comes when  you cannot make it better with a kiss, a hug and a Happy Meal. All you can do is stand by with a box or two of tissues and open arms.You can cry with them, ache for them, but in the end all you can do is be there for them. But she is grieving, and that is good. She's grieving for the future too...for the years of friendship that were taken from them. For herself since he is no longer on the other end of the phone line or the computer.

Bill, thank you for being my daughter's dearest friend. Thank you for being a virtual shoulder for her to cry on, talk to and laugh with.Thank you for 'getting' her. Thank you for being her joyful companion the last few years, in good times and in bad. Thank you for helping her along the way. I am so sorry that we'll never get to meet you, welcome you into our home and have another kid around. You will always have a special place in her heart and memories, and you will always have a place in my heart also...just for what you gave to her.

My Falling Down Story`

Inspired by HeathahLee's story, http://butterflygenes.blogspot.com/2009/08/falling-down-revisited.html I have to share mine.

May 2007. Cabinet Man, Specialist and I were going to the younger kids' charter school to hear College Dude (Chick Magnet was his moniker at the time) present his senior thesis. Yes, our high school makes the students present and defend a junior AND senior thesis. 18 page oral, 25 page written for junior year. 25 page oral and 35 page written (I think) for senior year. These grads can write like the wind by the time they get to college. Forgotten his question, but the theme was The Phantom Tollbooth http://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Tollbooth-Norton-Juster/dp/0394815009/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251436030&sr=8-1 A book that my boys dearly loved.

Anyway, I was wearing a new pair of khaki slacks that I had just gotten. First wearing. Yeah, you know where this is going.

We were all talking and Cabinet Man and Specialist stepped up on the sidewalk and I am not sure what happened. I felt myself falling and did the usual reaching...and still went down...they were still walking and talking. A few steps later Cabinet Man looks back and says, "Susan? What are you doing down there?" (Duh, what do you think I am doing?)

I hit the ground and rolled over on my back...laughing. After THAT comment, I was laughing even harder. The expressions on their faces were ones that I wish I'd had a camera to capture. Priceless.

They helped me up and we did an injury check. Ankles, fine. Knees? One, bloody and torn slacks. Damn. Slightly grazed hand. And all I can think is that I hope the assistant principal was at the presentation and NOT looking out his window at that particular time as he would NEVER let me live that one down.

We went on in (me limping slightly) and God bless the school for reinforcing etiquette, manners and chivalry in those students as a young man got up immediately and gave me his seat and he moved to the back row. Chick Magnet (aka College Dude) gave a terrific presentation, then came over to find out what his mother was up to now...

The End.

More Thrifty Thursday and Thrifty Treasures Monday

Okay, I had to add the button and toss this in for Rhoda's Thrifty Treasures. See? I finally managed to get the button done.

Made another run to Goodwill Thursday for a couple of candlestick lamps I had seen Wednesday. Someone else had bought my Lucy Vitavegamin metal sign though. Shoulda hidden the thing!

Filled a cart then wandered around adding and thinking and subtracting. Realized that since I have been seeing a number of the metal wall vases, I will probably see a few more. So I grabbed the lamps and will use them with shades I picked up free in Denver. The one on my side of the bed appears to need to be rewired...but it's a candlestick...how hard can that be? It's a 3 way so I plan to use the wiring from the lamp it is replacing and paint the part that shows white. I'll keep one shade I had used, then I will take the other lamp and shade to Savers or Goodwill. Funny, do my donations at Savers and money at Goodwill recently.

I am guessing Target had recently sent stuff over as I grabbed a skirt that I thought Target wanted too much for. It's white so I can only wear it a week or so, but I have it for next spring and summer so it's all good. Hmm..guess I need to be ready to put away the white flipflops too with the flower and get another pair for fall. Yes, I still adhere to 'don't wear white after Labor Day or before Easter'. I think that it is tattooed on my bum somewhere. ;D

So here are my goodies.

 

The pics with the small frames are for our bathroom as I redo it. They are on the wall now and I plan to replace the towel rod with a shelf made from a small shutter and put hooks to hang my t-shirt that I use to dry my hair. (naturally curly hair...hair doesn't snag on a t-shirt the way it does on towels...less frizz).

Once I decided to go with a sort of beachy feel to our family room, I've been looking for stuff...and I found these two shell  displays. I am removing the frames and painting them white, along with the frames on the ones I bought last week. My biggest problem will be deciding how to display them. I think I will use the two narrow ones on the outside and these two vertically between them...or maybe just in a row across the wall and use another long shutter for a shelf under them and figure out a display for there...it's a long wall and I had a bigger pic there. I also found two larger pics at GW that I am going to try to go back and get if they are there when my next unemployment check comes in. if not, oh well. I'll find something else. Wasn't sure where I'd have put them anyway...maybe youngest daughter's room.

Anyway, here is a close-up of one particular find. Bill, http://affordableaccoutrements.blogspot.com/it's for you. And your dad. ;D I'm not sure what her name is yet...it's hard to understand her through the muffling effect of the plastic.

Now to get this silliness posted before midnight Mountain Time...technically it is no longer Thursday in Bloggeritaville, but it still is in my world.

PS: I did work on the lamp on Friday morning. I took an old yucky lamp and broke it for the cord. The socket wouldn't come apart on it, so I took another one that was actually already kind of stoved in at the back, but still usable. Besides, it was in the bedroom and not visible. Grabbed the socket from it and replace the old one. The cord was not the problem. Now I have a length of white cord with plug and a length of black cord with plug for future replacements! guess I need to start me a little storage bucket for that stuff.