Per Suzanne’s Request

Many, many months ago during a girl’s night out (actually “in”) when we were discussing money saving techniques among other stimulating subjects mom’s and wives often cover when given the chance to congregate, one thing mentioned was making your own laundry detergent. (I did truly enjoy the evening despite how that sentence sounds…thanks Jill!)  Many of us had thought about making our own, but none had.  When I said I planned to, Suzanne asked me to blog about it after I tried it.  So, this one’s for you, Suzanne.

Here’s the summary.  I first used this recipe:

1 bar Fels Naptha soap

1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax

Use 2 Tbsp for large loads, 1 for smaller loads

The Borax and Arm & Hammer ingredients come in boxes that last forever.  Since I’m not an official informative blogger, I can’t tell you exactly how much the ingredients cost altogether, but suffice to say it was VERY cheap.  (I do know I spent $4 today on 10 bars of Ivory and that makes almost 7 recipes – more on that below.)

However, neither Jacob or I liked the smell of the Fels Naptha.  It smelled fine once the clothes were dried, but it really smelled strongly when the washer was running and when you moved the clothes to the dryer.  I had read that you could use Ivory instead, so I gave that a try and that has been fine.  The Ivory bars are smaller, so I took it upon myself to decide to use 1.5 bars per recipe, though I think other recipes still call for only one bar.  I am still using dryer sheets for fabric softener in order to get a nice scent because I had a huge stash to use.  The kind I use are cheap enough that I don’t think I’ll be making my own fabric softener, though that seems easy enough, as well.  Also, I have read that you can use different things for scents, but I haven’t done that.

So, as far as simplicity goes, it really isn’t bad at all to make it.  The Ivory, in particular, is soft enough that I just cut it into large cubes with a knife and put it in my food processor.  Be sure to go ahead and add at least some of the powder ingredients initially or the soap will just gum up in the processor.  If you don’t have a food processor you can just grate it, but who wants to do that?  Overall, it only takes me about 5 minutes to make it and clean up, so it is totally worth it and I no longer have to have big boxes of detergent for whites and colors taking up space.  Though I do still have Jacob’s special detergent.

I wash my and the boy’s clothes with it, but Jacob still objects.  He is afraid it wont do a good job on his work clothes (It does though!  He doesn’t know it, but his clothes have been washed in it, too!) and the stuff he has me use is scent free so it doesn’t attract bees…but this is scent free, too.  I’ve just talked myself into not buying more of his detergent as long as he’ll go for it!  I wash an average of 4-5 loads a week with it and it has cost me less than $10 since starting in August or September.  That’s a deal!

The last couple things you should know are that it does not produce suds like you are used to seeing and that you can make a liquid, too, if you prefer.  Making a liquid involves using your stove, so that was a turnoff for me :)  And finally, here’s my disclaimer: I still use a stain remover.  I love Shout!

Next up: bargain grocery shopping.  Many of the girls that night were talking about grocery shopping at WalMart in order to decrease grocery bills, though we all admitted to hating the WalMart shopping experience.  I had come away from there planning to shop the sales at Publix to stock my pantry and only buy what I needed that wasn’t on sale at WalMart, but that just ended up being too much to do each week on my days off with 2 kids in tow, especially since each store is in opposite directions, each 30 minutes away.  But now we are getting a new WalMart on the way to Publix, so I am going to recommit to that when it opens.  I’ll let you know if it makes a big difference in my grocery bill.  I figure if I have to go there to buy other randomness, then I may as well.  Wish me luck!

Sometimes I think I’m crazy!

A Whale Of A Tale

A couple weeks ago we did something we’ve been looking forward to doing for a long time.  We went to Sea World!  With Josiah being the cautious type, we’ve put it off until we were pretty sure he’d enjoy himself fully, and boy did he ever!  It was a huge success with both of the boys.

First, we headed to the otter, seal, and walrus show:

Josiah was mesmerized, but Elijah was a ham:

Then, we were off to the Pet show, my personal favorite.  The building was dark and I didn’t want to flash my camera, so I didn’t get any pictures.  It’s just as well because I was too mesmerized by the cool animal tricks to be distracted by picture taking.

Next was the dolphin viewing.  I could stay there forever if it wasn’t for my rambunctious kids and small crowd that would like to have their chance to see.

I think this dolphin is smiling and winking at Josiah to ask him to come and play!

And some aquarium exhibits:

They both look electric, don’t they?

Then we had some free time to spend in the kids area.  Josiah could have spent the whole day here.  We were blown away that he wanted to ride every ride we showed him.  I didn’t even suggest two of the rides that seemed a little old for him, but I thought he was brave to do a few that even made me, someone who loves rides, a little dizzy.  He also loved the three (?) story rope jungle gym!

I don’t know why I love this picture, but it just reminds me of what a good daddy Jacob is.

Our little runner at the splash pad:I love when Elijah laughs at Josiah’s antics!

Ummm…yep.  He’s ours.

We ended the day with the whale show.  We were a little disappointed because we’d all looked forward to it all day and Josiah kept asking about it, but now that the trainers can’t swim with the whales and the show just isn’t the same.  Regardless, they are impressive creatures!

Mmmm…I so love them!

Since going, Josiah has loved the fact that there are killer whales painted on the nursery walls at church.  I guess we’ll have to go back.

Well, we were gullible and got the year passes for each of us.  Hopefully we’ll put them to some use.  Just so you know, in our efforts to save some money, we packed lunches.  I had called ahead to be sure home packed lunches were allowed because I had heard they were, but they weren’t!  Due to all the timing of the shows, we never made it back to the car to eat and we were too stubborn to buy lunch :)  Good thing I brought lots of snacks!  Next time we’ll know. 

Christmas Festivities

Our Christmas celebrations seemed to be endless this year. We spent three days down home visiting both of our families. We had a good time, the boys especially! Josiah has really gotten to the age of loving Christmas, the decorating, the getting and giving of gifts, the food, and the fellowship. He was really in tune to Jesus’ birth being the reason we were celebrating and loved making festive ornaments and artwork at church. Elijah enjoyed it, too, but he was mostly just happy to be along for the ride.

We started off our festivities visiting Jacob’s family, first celebrating with extended family at his aunt’s house:

Nana and Dandy looking at a photo album of the grands and great grands from Aunt Patricia

Christmas kisses!  There was no mistletoe, it was just cuz.

I’m not sure if Sam is admiring the tree or prowling the gifts, but I think she was captivated!

Elijah, on the other hand, was prowling the tree and didn’t care about the gifts!  He kept getting these tractor ornaments off and playing with them.  They were all hung near the top by the time we left.  Sorry Aunt Patricia!

If it has wheels, he likes it!

 

Next, we were off to Jacob’s parent’s house:

Granny and Papa got the kids the Hallmark book with “Jingle” the dog – you know, the one you see on t.v. where you read the story and the dog barks on cue.  Granny hid the dogs (see one on the floor next to her) and the boys went wild trying to find it while she read.  It became a game long after Josiah figured out we were teasing him.Papa has real dogs on the other side of that window which is where the boys started their search.

hmmm…where IS that barking coming from?  Several running laps around the room followed.

Then he steps on the dog to just listen to the story.

Then the excitement wore off.

That’s my boy!  He has great etiquette because he reads the cards first!  Actually, he just has a fetish for thick paper in general.

The grandkids elbowed their ways into position to look out the front door at the Great Blue Herons Granny feeds on her front porch.

No trip down there during citrus season is complete without a ride in the back of the truck to pick oranges.  Josiah begged for this the whole time he was there and even wanted to do it before opening presents!”Ewww!  I touched a frog!”

 

Then  we spent Christmas Eve at Gram’s house with my fun family:

Elijah opening his favorite gift…animal crackers!

Gram opening box after box to finally get to her earring and necklace set from the family.

Josiah got a fire truck and Elijah got a garbage truck.  They immediately traded and have each enjoyed the other’s gift.

Elijah kept taking his jar of animal crackers around to everyone , then did his excited “animal cracker dance”, and asked them to open it to give him some.  He knew no one could resist that!

I brought silly string as gifts so the kids could participate in our white elephant gift exchange.  I never anticipated it being used inside the house that night, but I should have known better.

Jacob and I both had the same thought and shared it after the fact..that we could almost see Deda sitting there in a chair (likely with food nearby!) just loving that his family was in his home and missing those who couldn’t make it.  During the silly string war, he would have laughed his quiet laugh that shook his whole body with a broad smile on his face!  Just like Gram, he wouldn’t have cared one bit about the mess as long as there were laughs to be had.  We sure miss him!

 

Then after a long, late drive and carefully putting sleeping boys in their beds, we awoke Christmas morning in our home:

I bought this engine for Josiah on his first Christmas and put it in the top of the closet because it said for 3 year olds.  I should have given it to him sooner because Elijah loves it!

Ok, so you can’t see the kid and his excitement and the game is upside down, but this was a good buy!  I have had my eye on age appropriate games we can play as a family and this one was a winner and it was affordable.  I can’t say we have played it by the rules yet, but we sure have had fun!

  This baby doll was also a good buy that both boys have loved.  It is the first doll in our home.

Flashlights are always entertaining and LED lights last forever even when boys leave them on for all hours!

  Elijah got a tricycle because he has been trying to ride Josiah’s big tricycle and bicycle to no avail.  He loves it!

  Josiah saw this big monster truck when he was shopping for my present with Daddy.  Daddy can’t say no to this boy when it comes to a mutual love for trucks, even though we had finished our shopping already.

Enjoying some paper rolling!

I tried to tell him screwdrivers don’t belong in the microwave, but he wouldn’t listen!  Actually, Daddy used it to put this kitchen together so Elijah just figured it must be essential to playing with it.  Josiah has always loved a play kitchen, but we’ve never found one small enough to fit our small space, until now.

Elijah hasn’t played with this since Christmas day, but as it turns out, Josiah is great at it!  And yes, we made it taller for him.

Our poor pets have been removed from our Christmas list for many years now, but who needs a gift when you have a discarded box?

Well, that wraps up our Christmas!  I hope you all had a good one, too!