by | March 13, 2012

Homemade Laundry Detergent Experiment

Phase 1:

Buy ingredients
1 big box of Borax – 4.35
2 medium boxes of washing soda – 6.98
10 bars of Ivory soap (only used 4) – 4.99
Total cost – $16.32

Ingredients left over –
five bars of ivory soap

Because there was so much soap left over and because I can use that for normal shower washing time, I’ll calculate the cost of supplies to be $13.82 instead of $16.32.

Process:
Shred soap on smallish shredder side – took about five minutes. Each bar made about 2 1/2 cups shredded soap.
Measure equal parts shredded soap, borax and washing soda into a bucket.

Recipe:
11.5 cups shredded soap (five bars worth)
11.5 cups washing soda
11.5 cups borax

Mix.

Because I made a large batch, it was actually hard for me to mix. I think making two half batches or even smaller would have been much better. Then I would be totally sure it was mixed evenly and it would take less effort. Besides, mixing it for a longer time means more yucky soap powder puffs of your bucket. It doesn’t “puff” badly, really… but it’s not good for breathing so I don’t want any of it if I can help it.

The smallest amount I’ve seen suggested to use per load is 1 tablespoon. I have a top loader, so it uses more water than a front loader… so I think I will start by using 2 tablespoons at a time. If that works great, then fabulous! If it’s not great, then I’ll use more. The most I’ve seen suggested is 4 tablespoons, or 1/4 cup. (same thing)

Cost per load
Total cost – $13.82
Total cups of soap = 11.5×3 = 34.5 cups….. so 34.5cups x 16tablespoons per cup = 552 tablespoons
Just in case I measured anything short, let’s pretend there’s only 500 tablespoons in there. (I think that shredded soap was kinda loose)

So – for 1 tablespoon per load:
$13.82/500loads = $.028 per load or about .03
For 2 tablespoons per load – $.055 per load or about .06
For 1/4 cup per load = $.11 per load.

I’m actually surprised at the math. When I looked this up, I was expecting it to be just $.01 per load. The cheap “True Value” detergent I’m using is only $7.99 and it says it’s 150 loads. I’m going to need to read the fine print to see, but if it really is 150 regular sized loads, then that’s $.05 per load which is comparable.

Thoughts? I’ve been using it for about 3 weeks (2 tablespoons a load) and so far, so good! The clothes still look just fine and smell fine too. Much happier with this than my homemade dishwasher detergent (which is leaving stuff chalky). Not sure if it’s worth the (minimal) effort, but we shall see!

Photo description of soap-making here:

3 Comments

Filed under Everyday Stuff

Tagged as

by | March 4, 2012

Gardening and More

First – videos. Because videos need to be first sometimes:

Anna and Maggie – basket cases:

Silliness at the dinner table:

Hi! Just a friendly family update. It snowed a dusting overnight Tuesday and Wednesday last week and the girls were bundled up and playing in it by 7:30am each morning. Gotta get the playing in before it melts at 9! haha They were pretty cute. And cold. It’s also planting time for us! The first crop is in. Crop 1 of 3+ of snap peas, radishes, lettuce, chard, spinach, onions, parsnips, carrots, and bok choy. We harvested parsnips that I planted last fall and they were way bigger underground than we thought! Mashed parsnips tonight and for a little while! (they are yummy mashed) If you’ve never read the new Square Foot Gardening book, we found it is a good match for our gardening skill level and our yard size. (and the new one is quite a bit different than the old one) We’ll be trying to grow more things vertically this year – tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, cucumbers, and peas of course. Hope things grow as well as we hope!

One thing that hasn’t grown well for us is tomatoes. This year’s plan: plant the tomatoes in stages too (every two weeks, starting in late April or May) – that way at least a few of the plants are bound to thrive and not be killed by early planting and long, cold springs.

Enjoy the pictures! (click to see them larger)

2 Comments

Filed under Everyday Stuff

Tagged as

by | March 3, 2012

Jordan – 3 Months Home

Can you believe Jordan has been home three months? Today marks exactly three months since Jordan arrived home after a long week and a long flight with Brian and Grammy, intrepid travelers and baby nabbers. I’ll take this moment and update you on how he’s doing!

I think the biggest and best description for Jordan now is that he feels like a part of the family! He doesn’t feel like a stranger any more and he doesn’t spend the majority of his time worried or hiding. He is here with us now, pretty much all the time. He smiles and comes to us when it’s time to get him up in the morning or after nap. This morning we put him down in the living room while we all hung out in the living room for a little bit of sleepy morning time and he was laughing and babbling and crawling all over the place.

He’s proactive when he wants something now… much more of the time, anyway. I am so excited for him to learn to communicate with us more when he wants things. He’s doing better though! If he’s been playing alone for a long time, especially if he’s hungry, he will eventually cry. And when we go to him for snuggles and tickles and play time… he smiles real big and reaches for us. “Yes!” he seems to say, “Come play with me! I’m sooooo bored!” haha If you sit down on the floor, he’s more likely to initiate play. He’ll crawl over and stand up against you or bop a toy on you. What’s more, he’s very comfortable most of the time with eye contact and snuggling and babbling back and forth! We may only babble nonsense back and forth once or twice, but it’s clear that he’s learned the game of “talking” in some ways and I just love it! When we bang on his booster seat tray, sometimes he’ll bang back. Love it.

Since he’s gotten over the bulk of his tummy issues, he has been so hungry! He is happy to eat a full bowl at breakfast and lunch, two small snacks and part of his dinner. This encourages me, because for over a month, he was not eating well. He rarely chokes on the little chunks in his food and he’s tolerating far more flavors. He does seem to prefer his food cold and a certain consistency. Texture and flavor aren’t as important to him as slimy/runny and cold. Gross. But I digress. He’s eating great – mostly whatever we’re eating. He had peanut butter and jelly sandwich with yogurt and applesauce for lunch. I’m adding a probiotic to one meal a day to help with the lingering poop issues. :-/

I’ve noticed him watching Anna and Maggie far more lately. Also, the girls have begun initiating play with him! It’s wonderful. They aren’t as clueless what to do with their big little brother any more. Especially when he’s in his booster seat (and therefore contained from grabbing their hair as easily… or any part of them with his cold, slobbery hands), they are enjoying playing tickle with his feet and peekaboo too. Mostly, he’s just annoyed at peekaboo, but Anna has gotten him to laugh several times with tickles and plays. He loves to watch her as she claps and chatters with him. I have seen him paying more attention to toys too… I may need to dig through our toys and see if we have anything else appropriate for him now that he might play with more. His favorite toys are still long sticks and plastic necklaces, both of which bang nicely when you bump them on the floor… whether sitting or standing. 🙂

Jordan, you’ll be turning three years old in a couple months… and pretty soon I won’t be able to call you a baby! You may be my big baby right now, getting lots of snuggles and baby treatment, but I am excited for the little things you are learning that make you a big boy! You will be walking soon (he’s standing in the middle of the room frequently every day), you’re learning to play games, and you’re just getting so big and handsome that I will have to call you my little man instead of my big baby. (But that doesn’t mean you’re going to stop BEing my baby. Just that I’ll have to call you something else.)

Just hanging out, being family:

3 Comments

Filed under Everyday Stuff

Tagged as , ,

by | February 28, 2012

SCHOOL PLAN – 2012/2013

Anna will be in kindergarten next year! Well, she’ll be kindergarten age, anyway. She turns five in April. Maggie doesn’t turn three until October so we’re not doing much with her yet besides letting her tag along with Anna.

The dangerous duo

The master plan… and I am so happy it’s so simple. (It will get more elaborate with time, I’m sure. But as a first time homeschooling mom, I’m very happy with this plan. Relieved!) So far, we read together and do a little handwriting while Maggie naps. I don’t know how it will work next year, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. Baby #4 will arrive in early September, so we aren’t committing to doing this every day. 🙂

The subjects – and how we’ll teach them:

What: Math, learning to recognize numbers higher than 10, counting by 2’s, 5’s, etc., addition and subtraction
How: Getting some Math U See blocks (you know, cuisenaire rods), writing numbers, math with beans, print worksheets off the internet, etc.

What: Reading
How: Anna reads to me from books we have. Then I read to hear from The Little House book series.

What: Writing
How: Letters and numbers in the BrainQuest workbooks we have… then I’ll print worksheets off the internet. Once she doesn’t need letter guides, we’ll practice handwriting and do spelling at the same time.

What: Bible
How: Brian reads Bible stories to the kids before bed. We also pray together at the dinner table and sometimes Anna takes a turn. Anna also attends AWANA

What: Science
How: She is learning plenty of this by asking a million questions about how the world works and why things are the way they are! No need for more yet.

What: History
How: Not yet. Have any good ideas for later?

What: Co-op
How: Well, it’s co-op. We show up once a week and I don’t know what classes will be available yet. 🙂 But we’re hoping to do this.

That’s it. Fin. Kaput. Kapow!

10 Comments

Filed under Everyday Stuff

Tagged as

by | February 27, 2012

An Unusual Sunday

What isn’t unusual is that three of us are kinda sick. Yep, colds. Nothing big, but definitely a cold virus and not just the chronic winter runnies. Anyway, we don’t put the kids in Sunday school when they are sick and we didn’t think that Maggie and Jordan could make it through service… so we stayed home. It was nice. We slept in and woke up rested. We had a great family breakfast of french toast. Then we had church together – with Anna dressing up in her church clothes and everything. We read the story of when Peter was rescued from prison and we talked about how God really is with us all the time.

Then we went to the pool.

In February for goodness sakes! Who goes to the pool late on Sunday morning in February!? Well, you can add us to the short list! I wondered what it would be like going to the pool with a bunch of unchurched hooligans, but it turns out that only nice people with cute kids were hanging out in the warm kiddie pool today. 😉 Anyway, it was Jordan’t first time at a pool and he did great. He didn’t want to be carried around in the water or swim, but if he could stand in just one spot and splash, he was ok with it. I think if we did it more often, he would just LOVE it. As it was, he had fun and the rest of us had lots of fun!

1 Comment

Filed under Everyday Stuff

Tagged as , , ,