Wow, That Was Fluffy! (Making Laundry Detergent)

Last year around this time, I made homemade laundry soap for the first time.  A friend of mine had  mentioned it at Bunco, and I decided it was worth a try.  It cost around $28, and it lasted us just shy of one year.  That was for a family of 5, doing ALL laundry except cloth diapers.

Since we liked how the detergent worked and we liked the price, I decided to do it again.  I couldn’t find the exact recipe I used last year, so I hunted for a similar recipe online.  This time, it only cost a little over $18 plus tax!  It seems like it might be slightly less detergent than what I made last year, but it’s still quite a lot!

Click on the picture below to view the recipe that we used this year:

The only difference is that I decided to try Zote soap this year, rather than using Fels Naptha.  
It’s pink.  It sounded pretty.  I must be spending too much time with my daughter.   Too bad Zote isn’t sparkly ;)

We don’t have a food processor, so grating the soap is tedious business.  (Okay, that’s kind of a lie.  My husband just got a food processor as a Christmas present, but he wasn’t really too keen on me using a BAR OF SOAP in his brand new food processor!)

Last year, I found that grating the bars of soap by hand took FOREVER. 
And ever. 
And ever.  (Get the idea?)

So this year, I decided to try something I’d seen online – microwaving the soap.  Oh my, that was an experience!  It’s still easier than grating, and I had a VERY clean microwave by the end of this process!

This is what a bar of Zote soap looks like after spending a few minutes in the microwave.  Because we have a small, low wattage microwave, this filled the ENTIRE microwave.  (It deflated when the microwave stopped.)  I’d read that it only takes a minute or two, but it actually took 6 – 7 minutes in our microwave.  There were still a few ‘wet spots’ in the center of the plate under all the fluff, but I gave up on those!  The whole house smelled like citronella during this process!

(For those who may have googled ‘microwave Zote’ and found this post, please note:  I cut the bar into 6 pieces and spread them out across the plate.  I microwaved it one minute at a time until it seemed ‘done’.  It looks like cotton candy, but it is actually very dry and brittle.  If you poke it, it releases a lot of steam from the moisture that is being released from the soap, so BE CAREFUL!  Let it cool!)

This is what it looked like after cooling for 20ish minutes.  I just used my fingers to crumble it into a powder.  It feels so soft in your hands as you do this!

While the Zote was cooling (before I crumbled it), I mixed up the other ingredients in a bucket lined with a plastic trash bag.  Be prepared for a LOT of stirring!  Make sure you use a sturdy spoon and dig deep!  Mix all the ingredients, and then decide how you want to store it.

We have ours stored in two Purex Crystals containers.  I fill the Purex cap to the bottom line for each load of laundry.  (This is in a top loader; you may want to use a little less in a front loader.)

The Purex containers are stored in the cabinet above the washer.  What doesn’t fit in our Purex Crystals containers goes into a large plastic Sterilite cereal container that is stored in the cabinet under the utility sink.

I am hopeful that this will, once again, last close to a year.  Even if it comes up a little short of a year, it’s still a very economical detergent recipe!

Technorati Tags: laundry,detergent,homemade,Purex,Zote

How We “Get It All Done” (HA!)

          
Or, better yet, how we live WITHOUT getting it all done! ;)

This morning, I got a phone call from an acquaintance who was feeling really stressed about this lately.  Her three kids are almost exactly a year younger than each of mine.  She was feeling overwhelmed and wanting advice.  (She might have hung up the phone immediately if she’d seen what my house looked like at that moment – I am NOT the one to ask for advice on pulling it all together with little ones, ha ha!)

I’ve also had a few e-mails recently from moms wondering how we get it all done with three little ones in the house.  How do I take care of the kids, teach Alex & Max, keep the house clean, design printables, and just generally keep up with life?  Oh ladies, I am nothing special.  I am just like you…maybe worse! :)

Jensyn “helping” by dragging the items from the laundry basket all over the house ;)

I want to be transparent about this.  This blog is not about giving the impression that we are a perfect family.  We do not have it all together.  Oh, please trust me on this one.  If you stopped by unannounced sometime, you’d know the answer for sure.  There are days when I hope with all my might that my neighbors do not ring the doorbell.  I’d be embarrassed beyond belief to let them past the front door.

I don’t have it all together.  I don’t even come close!

Confession: We never make our beds.  Ever.  Unless I’m washing the sheets.

We are learning as we go.  Our days are always evolving, depending on the ages/needs/interests of our kiddos.

our messy school corner – you can’t see the floor behind the table, and I’m glad!
Somebody dumped all the colored pencils, and another somebody has toy cars all over!

We had a pretty good routine in August and September.  It included doing school time in the morning during Jensyn’s nap, and I *loved* it that way!  We were really enjoying this routine, but then the time came for Jensyn to give up her morning nap.  Ugh.  Even though I dreaded that inevitable day, it arrived.  My baby was partying in her crib during her afternoon nap, refusing to sleep, and then cranky and miserable by 5 PM.  It was time to rearrange the nap schedule…and, as a result, rearrange our whole day.

trust me – it’ll be MUCH worse before the day is over ;)

I *love* to do school in the morning, but I just *CANNOT* do school with a toddler underfoot.  It doesn’t work for me, and I give a lot of credit to the moms who manage that each day.  I can’t!   So, like it or not, school time is now in the afternoon in our house.  Which means that Max is getting less school time with Mommy, and I can’t figure out how to fix that problem.

Jensyn’s room is the easiest room in the house  to keep clean at this stage!
Even so, there are almost always books & blocks on the floor.

Here’s what is working for us right now, but PLEASE keep in mind that my house is never fully clean.  There’s usually a laundry basket full of clothes waiting to be folded.  The kitchen counter is often covered with papers, toys, and other random items.  The living room floor is often a minefield of toy airplanes and HotWheels just waiting for you to step on them and cry out in pain!  I struggle to get the bills paid on time or remember to make important phone calls at times when 3 children aren’t noisily interrupting.  Sometimes I am opening the freezer at 4:30 PM and realizing that I’m not sure what I can pull together for dinner.  Yep, I am *VERY, VERY* human!

Our kitchen counter is usually KID-STUFF CENTRAL!
The floor is ALWAYS sticky,
and the windows have fingerprints and yogurt splatters with 30 minutes of being cleaned!

6:40 AM – Keith leaves for work; I read or check Facebook from my Kindle
7ish AM – boys wake up & snuggle with me in my bed to watch PBS together
(I also take a quick shower during this time.)
8 AM – Jensyn wakes up and we all eat breakfast
9 AM – we *try* to be dressed and ready for the day by 9 AM
(I will admit, though, that it’s after 10 AM and I am typing this in my pajamas.  The kids are dressed, if that counts for anything!)
Morning – play time/run errands (I try to squeeze some blog/design time in here if all 3 kids are playing happily.)  Bible study on Tuesdays, babysitting on Thursdays
Noon – lunch
(sometimes we run a local errand right after lunch, otherwise we play)
1:30 PM – story time & naptime for Max & Jensyn, school time for Alex & Mama
(sometimes Max stays up for 30 minutes of school)
3 PM – Alex & I clean the “room of the day” together, then he plays quietly while I design printables/fold laundry/pay bills etc.  
(Max is sometimes awake by 3 PM; Jensyn often sleeps until 4 PM)
4:15 PM – Get dinner ready while the kids are underfoot and making me crazy ;)
5 PM – Daddy’s home!  Hooray!
7:30 PM – bath time
8 PM – stories, prayers, bedtime
(usually, all kids lights are out by 8:20 PM)
10 PM – Keith & I head to bed.  He’s usually asleep by 10:30; I usually stay up until 11 to read a Bible passage and then read a chapter or two of a book on my Kindle.  I aim to turn off the Kindle at 11 and then pray until I fall asleep.

Office: where I design printables & where Keith sometimes works from home –
the desk is usually COVERED with papers by the end of each week!
There are usually Little People or toy trucks scattered about on the floor.

Room Of The Day – My husband suggested this a while back, and it’s working well for us!  Each room in our house is assigned a day of the week.  On that day, I spend 15 – 20 minutes focused on cleaning that particular room.  That way, even though the whole house is NEVER clean at the same time, at least it’s getting cleaned once a week to keep the piles & messes from getting out of control! 

playroom – toys EVERYWHERE on the floor!
(and this is *after* the boys and I filled 4 paper grocery bags
with toys to give away last month)

I usually also try to do one load of laundry/day and attempt to get all dishes done each night after dinner.  (The dishes wait ‘til the next day if Keith has a church meeting/praise team practice/etc and I am a “single parent” for the evening.)

Yesterday was bathroom day on the cleaning schedule.  :)

For the really curious readers, here’s our cleaning schedule:

Sunday ~ master bedroom (pick up clothes piles from floor, put away stray toys that have wandered into the room, clear all flat surfaces of “stuff”)
Monday ~ laundry room (it’s also our family’s main entrance, where piles accumulate quickly!)
Tuesday ~ living room & office (put away toys, sort paper piles, dust, spray & wipe glass surfaces)
Wednesday ~ both bathrooms
Thursday ~ kids’ bedrooms
Friday ~ kitchen (clear junk counters, clean out fridge, wipe counters & cabinet doors, etc)
Saturday ~ bonus room (our school/toy room)

This is pretty much the cleanest our laundry room gets…
it’s also our mudroom/main family entrance. 

Each picture in this post was taken around 10:30 AM today.  It’s pretty real.  And it gets WAY worse than this! So, as you can see, I am really NOT the one to ask about how you can get it all done.  We’re just wandering our way through this journey, hoping to do our best each day.  It’s messy.  It’s noisy.  It’s often chaotic. 

It took courage to post this one.  The clean laundry pile on my dresser (and dirty laundry pile in front of the dresser, if you can see that…) is awful!  My nightstand is always messy, and there are all sorts of random objects sticking out from under the bed.  The bed is ONLY made if I’ve washed the sheets.  Oh, and the center picture that should be over our bed fell down MONTHS ago.  The frame – and the broken glass – are STILL under our bed because I dread cleaning up all the glass.  Sigh. 

My few bits of advice are:

1. Have a basic routine, but not a set schedule, for your day.  Try to stick with it as Monday through Friday.
   We live in a small town with one decent (but overpriced) grocery store.  I used to take a day each week to run errands 30 minutes from home.  We opted to give that up in order to stick closer to home at this phase of life.   We may pay more for groceries now, but we save money on gas (and sometimes fast food) by staying closer to home, and we keep the house cleaner and our lives “saner” by keeping to a routine rather than having a wasted day “up north”.
2. Don’t overload your schedule – limit playdates, outings, etc.
   This is easy for me, as I love to be home!  We do try to do something fun about once a month – a special playdate, a trip to Grandma & Grandpa’s house, etc.  The rest of our time away from home happens during our ‘morning play’ hours.  That’s when we do things like:  go to the library every other Friday, Bible study on Tuesday mornings, invite the neighbor kids to come and play, etc.
3. Have a cleaning schedule, and ask your husband to hold you accountable.  This has helped us a TON in our house!
4. Involve your kids! 
• Alex LOVES to help me clean the room of the day each afternoon!  Bathrooms and anything involving a spray bottle/cleaning rag are his favorites.
• Alex is very good at setting the table for dinner, and Max is learning.
• Max & Alex both put their clothes in the hamper after bathtime.
• Both boys put their pajamas on their beds after getting dressed in the morning. 
• Both boys know to put their coats on their hook and their shoes on their shoe shelf AS SOON as they walk in the door from outside.
• Both boys clear their plates/bowls and place them in the sink after breakfast and lunch.
• Even though it takes a LOT longer and can leave you wanting to pull out your hair at times, involve your kids in your cleaning and cooking.  Alex is learning to do a lot of helpful chores by working alongside mommy each afternoon.
5. Let it go!  I am not a perfectionist, so this is actually easy for me ;)  Who cares if it’s messy?  I’m not saying you should live in a dirty heap of trash, but just let go of the idea that it has to be perfect.  You do not live in a Pinterest-perfect house.   You live in YOUR house, with YOUR busy life.  Enjoy your kids!  They’re only going to be little and cute once…but the clutter and mess will always be there :)

So there you have it – 
some non-expert advice from a mom whose house is never clean…
and is wearing her pajamas at 10:30 AM as she types this! ;)

I’d love to hear any tips or tricks
that work well for your family!

The Little Things

Sometimes, we think we have to do amazing things to have fun with our kids.  We plan huge projects, expensive outings, etc.  Those days are fun, but I’ll bet our kids are just as likely to remember the little things we do for fun.

My boys LOVE when I do a sink full of dishes.  I put in lots of soap, scoop all the bubbles off the top, and plop it on their heads.  They giggle, run to the mirror, give themselves bubble beards, and smear bubbles all over each other.  When Daddy had some time off at Christmas, he got in on the fun with the boys. 

 

When it snows, the boys love when I bring in a few bowls full of the fresh, white stuff and set them at the table (or counter) with a bunch of toy tools, measuring cups, spoons, etc.  This time, I gave them bowls of snow and their Color Shifters Hot Wheels cars.  This kept them busy for over an hour!

(The lightning is horrible, but you get the idea…)

      

What are YOUR favorite ways to make your kiddos happy and keep them busy without spending a penny?

The Box

We’ve been having some issues with our water pump lately, and we ended up having someone come out to install a new part.  (THANK THE LORD, it was still under warranty for 2 more months, so we didn’t have to pay $150!)

Keith offered to throw out the old part, but the man said he needed it for the warranty.  He offered to give Keith the box, which Keith brought into the house for the boys.

Oh, what fun the boys have had with this box in the past week!  I just threw it out a little while ago, and Alex sobbed!  There were big tears dripping down my little boy’s face, as he just didn’t want to let that box go.  It almost made me go and bring it in from the garage, but I resisted. (Our living room was ready to say goodbye after a week of housing this giant box!)

It’s been a crawl-in house, a place to stand up and peek out the little “window”, a slide, a bobsled…you name it!  (Alex liked us to stand him in the tall box, and then he’d let the box tip over so he fell to the ground.)  But now it’s falling apart and almost useless.

Isn’t it amazing how much fun kids can have with one piece of trash?!     

There's a FISH swimming in my DRIVEWAY!

Well, today has been an adventure. Storms came through last night. We were without power (and sump pump) for 6 hours during the night. The lightning was like a constant strobe light, keeping us awake until after 1 AM.


Amazingly, Alex slept through all of the lightning, thunder, and rain. When it finally quieted down & we were able to fall asleep, Alex decided (at 2 AM) that it would be a good time for a midnight snack. He was up again at 4:30, and the power came on while I was up with him. I heard the sump pump kick in, but thought nothing of it since we'd had storms.


Keith got up for work at 6 AM, but quickly came back to the bedroom where I was still dozing. He woke me to give me the good news & bad news. The good news? The backyard, which normally floods in storms, was dry. The bad news? The view from the front window was not as pleasant.


Keith stayed home from work, knowing that his little car wouldn't get very far in this water. A few neighbors tried. The ones with SUVs and trucks were more successful. One neighbor with a small car had water coming in through the bottom of the doors, and his feet were getting wet. He did make it, but I just can't imagine it being very good for the car!





I guess there are many flooded roads in the area, but we've been told that our subdivision is among the worst. A nearby farmer has a gate (illegal!) across the ditch to control the water that gets to his fields. He had the gate closed, which caused the water to flood in our neighborhood. We, along with most of our neighbors, have been calling the county...but the county claims that it's not their job to keep the farmer from gating a public ditch.

It's slowly receding...I'm marking the driveway every hour or two...but I doubt we're driving anywhere today. Anyway, here are some pictures of our mess/adventure in Lake Brookwood (formerly known as Brookwood Drive)

Our house, probably around 8 AM

Keith's footprints cleaned the neighbor's driveway.

(I wore shoes...ya never know what you'll find under the water!)

Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail...

They never mentioned floods ;)

I've been marking the driveway throughout the day to show the receding water.

As I marked it at 11, a FISH swam past my feet!

He was green and about 5 inches long.

Nothing like a little water to get the neighbors out! ;)
Hunter, Donovan, and Prada the Puppy

Preston was SOAKED from head to toe!

Ellie made a boat. It actually floated down the road.

Road? Did I say road?

We're worried about what would happen if more rain comes soon.
We're wondering if we built in the wrong place.
We have absolutely no desire to move.
We're not panicking or over-reacting, but realizing this could prevent us from selling.
And we're also having fun enjoying our wet, wet world.

Happy Mothers Day! (Saturday)

A wise person would have cropped this picture before adding to the blog, but I'm pressed for time...Alex could wake up any minute! This was at the Mother Daughter Banquet on Saturday afternoon. We had 4 generations of Purdy (Duncan) family here. Alex was the only boy at the Mother Daughter banquet! :)

Here's Jessica with Alex. She spent a lot of time holding & caring for her cousin this weekend.
Here's Aunt Leanne with her nephew. She's a good auntie, but she's a little concerned about Alex's bare feet ;)

Keith is working on the concrete pads outside of our shed. He poured the step on Saturday while we were at the banquet. When I got home from the banquet, we took Alex out to get his handprint in the concrete.

Unfortunately, Alexander had no clue that we needed his hand OPEN for this. Sooo...we moved on to trying his foot...
That didn't work so well, either. We got a mushy blob, but the concrete was a little too set to take on the actual shape of Alex's foot.

Keith smoothed out the blobby footprint, and we settled for writing "Alex 2008". It'll have to do. Maybe we'll try again when Keith does the concrete outside of the big shed door in a few weeks.

The night ended as most Purdy family nights end...card games. We all sat around playing a game of Five Crowns.