Homemade Laundry Detergent

{Above pictures are the little favors that my sister and I made for our MOPS moms. The theme for the month was HELP - helping moms share the load, so we thought this would be cute! :)}

I've had several people show interest in how I make my own laundry detergent. I basically go off the Duggar's recipe, {The Duggars have 19 kids, and I'm sure they are washing laundry 24/7!} however, I have calculated it so that it doesn't make such a HUGE batch. My laundry room is not HUGE, so I'm not thrilled with having a 5-gallon bucket in that room, so I stick to the smaller bottles! ;)

I saved old bottles from store-bought laundry detergent and just re-use those.

Aimee's Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe:

1/3 bar of any type of bar soap {grated}. The Duggar's use Fels-Naptha bar soap, however, I've found that really any type of soap works just fine.

1/3 cup Borax

1/3 cup washing soda {I buy Arm & Hammer brand, and this can be found in the cleaners aisle of your grocery store.}

Mix Borax and washing soda together and then use 1/3 cup of that for the bottle you make. So this amount will actually make 2 bottles, however I have no idea what 1/2 of 1/3 is!;)

{All of the above items cost me less than $6, and it lasts for a LONG time, so plan on making a lot of detergent with these products! ;)}

1. Boil 16 cups of water

2. Add grated bar soap, washing soda and Borax. {make sure you have mixed the borax and the washing soda and used 1/3 cup of that mix.}

3. Dissolve ingredients completely.

4. Use a funnel {if you don't have one, you can just pour it} and pour into used laundry detergent bottle. I do this in my kitchen sink, so if I miss the bottle a bit, it just goes into my sink.

5. Let cool. Again, I just let the bottle sit in my sink until it is cooled off. It may take a couple of hours.

6. Shake up the bottle, and you are good to go!

I have found NO difference in the cleanliness of my clothes, however, the smell isn't as strong as regular laundry detergent. To fix that, my friend said that you can buy essential oils and add a couple of drops, or I just add a fabric softener sheet in the dryer.

I've found that it costs just about $1 to do 1 bottle of laundry detergent, and something about it makes me feel happy when I make something myself! Love it!

I know these directions are a little sketchy, but this is the way I calculated it to fit into one bottle, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask away!!

Good luck, and let me know if you give it a try.

{Yields about 68 ounces of detergent.}

Loved this

Before Chloe's accident, she was struggling a bit in reading and math {here I go with the Before and After again}. Of course, while she was home I helped her a lot with her homework, and I think that one-on-one time with her really helped.

I was so happy to find this in Chloe's graded papers folder yesterday:

Missed

For those of you who don't know. My husband moved his office home in September of 2009. Overall, it's been good for us. It's kinda fun to have him here throughout the day. He's upstairs, so it's not like he's all in my face all day or anything! ;) It's also fun to have lunch with him most days! And the kids love that he's home - even though it means they have to be quiet when they go upstairs during the work day.

So the other day, I went to my friend Kate's house to get my haircut. I had car pool that morning, so I left my house at 7:15 and just headed to her house from there - no sense in coming all the way home when I could hang out with her until our hair dresser arrived! ;) {Nothing like a game of Super Mario Bros. for Wii with your best friend! ;)}

Ryan called a couple of times that morning. Then a couple times in the early afternoon. And then finally at one of the calls, it hit me. He misses me!!! So I said to him, "YOU MISS ME!!! That's why you're calling me so much!" And he was all "yeah, I do."

And you know what?!? That made my heart glad.

Struggling with my Emotions

I'm struggling.

Picture this:

All three kids with no shirts on. They each have a straw that is under their armpit. While they blow into the straws, it makes a sort of farting noise. They march around the house blowing into their straws and making these farting noises. It's annoying, to say the least. I let it slide for a bit, cause they are happy and having fun, but then it's just too much.

I tell them to stop. All done now. They continue to blow into the straws. My voice raises a bit and tell them again to stop. Still more blowing. Then I blow up! "I've had enough of the fart noises! Put the straws in the trash!"

And then I look at Chloe. She's got a scar from her collapsed lung, and I can see it cause she still has no shirt on. It's a constant reminder for me of how bad things really were.

I lose it.

Why can't I just let the stupid fart noises slide? Why does it bother me so much? Why do I get upset so easily?

I know I'm just being a mom, and sometimes, I just get frazzled, but I have a hard time drawing the line from being a mom, and being a mom of a daughter who nearly died and I am reminded of it every time I try to discipline her. Shoot, I'm reminded of it every day I look at her! She's a miracle!

I feel like, how dare I yell at my daughter who IS HERE!!! SHE'S HERE! She could be dead, and she's not, and I'm choosing to yell at her!?!? What is my problem!?!?!

I need to find a balance, and I just can't! I feel guilty EVERY time I discipline my kids, and I know it's probably wrong to feel this way, but I just can't help it! Not sure what to do about it either.

Here I go again...

Another one of those long random posts! ;)

Here goes:

Chloe's doing really good - minus some headaches, which the neurosurgeon's nurse said she will have for quite some time. It's a bummer really, but if this is all we have to deal with after her accident, we'll take it. She's also pretty bummed that she can't play outside at recess. The weather has been getting so nice out, and all she wants to do is play outside. Apparently, yesterday she played on the sidewalk at recess time, and I had no idea she did this. I've told her to sit on the bench. Ugghhh!! It's just such a hard decision. If we let her play and she falls and hits her head on the sidewalk, we've got a huge problem. I hate living my life in fear, but if we can try to prevent something bad from happening, we will!! So, it's back to the bench for her.:(

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My mommy is here to spend the weekend with us! :) I just love it when she is here with me! Lots of time to chitty-chat while folding the never ending pile of laundry! She always seems to enjoy folding the laundry. I wish a little bit of that would rub off on me! ;)

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Today, I was the VIP for my nephew Bennett's preschool class! :) I was second pick. First, being his daddy. I was completely flattered that he chose me!!! He was so excited when I walked into his class - grin from ear to ear! We had a fun time doing crafts and playing games together - something I don't get to do often with JUST him! Love you Benny Boy!

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I got my hair cut yesterday. I was planning on having it grow out, but absolutely hated the growing out process, not to mention, I really just like my hair short. Before I got it cut, I ran to Jewel and got a box of hair dye. Yeah, I only spent $0.46 on it! ;) {I used some left-over catalina's!} Gotta love that!

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Speaking of Jewel...kinda glad that week is over! Phew! It was a whirlwind of Catalina's, but good nonetheless. Looking forward to a couple weeks of "regular" shopping before another Catalina surge like that one! Was it just me, or was it hard to keep all the deals straight!?!?!

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Alrighty! I think that's it for now!

Wordless Wednesday

Tackle it Tuesday

I've decided to go ahead and do a "Tackle it Tuesday!" I'm sure all of us have something in our lives that we need to "tackle."

Well, for me, I needed to tackle my laundry. It was seriously getting out of control! I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but I'm going to anyway. I've had about 4 or 5 baskets of CLEAN laundry sitting in my family room since Saturday. I've got no problem washing it and drying it - it's the folding and putting away that I absolutely loath!!!

I didn't get a proper BEFORE picture, because I had already started to fold the laundry before I decided to do this post:
And here's the in-between

And as for the after? Well, let's just say I'm...Ahem...still "tackling" that! ;) Really, I am!!