Decided to take a lil' break from painting a life-sized storm trooper to do some blogging.
I've had several requests on Facebook and through email, as well as some badgering from family members, to post my recipes for dishwasher detergent and laundry soap. So here they are-
Laundry Soap:
2 bars Castille or Fels Naptha Soap grated
2c. Borax
2c. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1c. Baking Soda
*Use an old laundry scoop to measure, or about 1/4c per load.
Fabric Softener:
6c. Distilled Water
3c. White Vinegar
1 bottle Sauve or White Rain Hair Conditioner {any scent}
Add water and vinegar to a pot and bring to almost boiling. Remove from heat, and stir in the bottle of conditioner. Let cool and store in an old fabric softener bottle, or other pourable container. Use exactly the same as store bought fabric softener.
Dishwasher Detergent:
2c. Borax
2c. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
2. Lemi Shine
1c. Kosher Salt
*Use same amount as commercial detergent. Add 1-2 drops dish soap to really dirty loads. Throw in 1/2c. white vinegar, too.
I should mention that I make my laundry soap in bulk and store it in my old 5 gallon Costco laundry bucket. With 5 kids we are ALWAYS doing laundry, and I don't want to ever run out of laundry soap when I need it. We also have a household full of people with sensitive skin, so I tend to use the Castille Bar Soap (organic baby formula). You can get the bars at Woodman's or Whole Foods for around $1.29 a bar. I know some people use Ivory Soap, too. There are recipes for liquid detergent out there, but I personally have never been a fan of that. I prefer powder, and find it works better with our hard water.
Some of you may be wondering what we did with our romantic kid-free weekend. No, I will not over-share. ;) Really, we did a lot of errands! We visited the UWP Meat Market Outlet in Middleton for the first time. We used some Christmas money to stock our chest freezer. Tyler is especially excited about the 7lb pork loin he gets to cut up into chops for the grill and the 20lbs of meatballs we got to go with my homemade marinara sauce. They have a great inventory, at really low prices, if you have the space to store everything and the time & energy to break the meat down into family-sized servings. We won't have to buy any meat from the store for the next several months. YAY!
We made another trip to Menard's to get everything we need for our garden. Today we will be building our new worm composting bin to fertilize the garden. According to my father-in-law, next week we need to start several of our seed varieties in the seed trays. I am no gardener, so I'm a little nervous about how successful this will be for us. I have high hopes, despite my last two garden attempts ending up solely in death. This year we are going to give a go at growing zucchini, cucumbers, a carnival sweet pepper mix, beans, and white casper pumpkins. We also got a pack of fun hybrid sunflowers for our lil' ones to try growing and chives, cat grass, and basil for Tyler. I wonder if we are being a bit too ambitious this year?!?!? Oh well, I'm not usually happy unless I've gone way overboard anyway.
Our final errand was to the Habitat Re-Store where we found everything we needed to build the separation wall for our oldest kiddo's room, off the rec room. He was a bit tired of sharing a room with younger brothers and getting a lil' too old to anyway. Now he gets a portion of our rec room, once we hang the partition, as his very own room. He is more than excited!
Sadly we were so tired after all the running around, we decided to forgo a night out at our beloved Old Fashioned to stay in, cook, and watch a BAD movie on Hulu. I made us a Potato, Leek, and Chicken Pie...which was DELICIOUS!!! We shared a bottle of wine and snuggled on the couch. Believe it or not, it was really nice. The simple quiet moments truly are my favorites!
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