Homemade Laundry Detergent

There have been a lot of really great things going on in our house this past month.  Celebrating Easter and the marriage of my sister.  And I will get to all those great things but I just had to post about my homemade laundry detergent because I love it! And it is a short post!

About two years ago I got a wild hair to make my own detergent.  I heard it was good and super easy to make and really, really cheap.  I got the ingredients and put it all together.  We were all a little skeptical because I am a big Tide fan and I am fanatical about laundry.

It worked like a charm.  The only downside was that if there is a navy or dark colored cotton t-shirt (Boop and Daddy) and greasy hands get wiped on them, it had to be pretreated with a little bit of Dawn dish soap.  No biggie.  With high efficiency washers this detergent is perfect because there are very few suds.

Well, these past few months we have been so busy that when we ran out of our homemade detergent (lasted like 7 mos for roughly $10.00) we (meaning Little Mama) just didn't have time to make more.  So, one of my goals when we weren't doing school was to make more detergent.  This time I have added lemon and Thieves essential oils.  And I am soooo glad we have it back!  The clothes aren't musty smelling and the savings is fabulous!

Score one for happy homemaking . . .

More PW Cooking

So, our little break is over and we are back to some Pioneer Woman cooking!  The following pictures of from the lemon blueberry pancakes.  And they were delicious.  I loved the mix of the citrus and the sweet!  I doubled the recipe and I think we ate all but 5 or 6 pancakes and had those for breakfast the next day.  I usually make whole wheat pancakes but I can very simply add the lemon zest, juice and blueberries to my current whole wheat recipe.  Same great flavor just maybe a little healthier.  We love breakfast for dinner.

Next up was pan fried kale.  I have heard so many great things about kale.  From chips to smoothies.  So I was real excited to try this.  A bunch of kale bought at our local co-op, 5-6 minced garlic cloves, a little bit of oil and we had a great veggie side dish.  I found that there is a perfect time between raw and totally cooked down where the kale was just right, not too crunchy not too soggy.  I will work on that happy medium in the future.

The last recipe I tried was the malted chocolate chip cookies.  I made these as a dessert for a "thing" we had at the house this past weekend.  I doubled this recipe as well.  All in all the cookies were tasty.  Everyone enjoyed them.  One downside I had was, they were to baked on wax paper on a cookie sheet.  I had a real tough time getting them off the wax paper.  Not sure why that was.  They were a nice change of pace from the cookies I usually make.  But, in all honesty, I think "my" cookie recipe is much better.

I made the ice coffee the other day with some left over coffee I had made.  It was good if you like coffee in the afternoon.  I let the kids each have a sip and they thought it was fabulous!  Go figure!

I still have to make the mozzarella cheese sticks and tonight we are having the His/Hers hamburgers.  My hubby makes one of the best hamburgers around, so this will be a true test of Pioneer Woman's talents.  Stayed tuned for our family review . . . 

Laundry Soap

Last week we made our first batch of homemade laundry soap.  I had bought the ingredients quite awhile ago but had a ton of the store bought liquid I needed to use first.  They say the homemade stuff works as good as Tide and with $20 worth of ingredients it lasts close to 9 months doing about 8 loads a week.

We had fun making it but decided the next time we will grate the Fels-Naptha soap over a period of a couple of days.  Grating three bars of soap with a cheese grater was a little hard on the wrists.  Nature Girl started out helping me.  And LM finished up.  I feared Boop was a little too young.  I didn't want him to grate off his finger tips. ;)

I will be using the soap this week and hope it works well.  I am really picky about clean, fresh smelling, stain free clothes so we shall see.

Next on the list is homemade dishwasher soap . . .

Finally Fall!

First, I wish I was an awesome photographer (or at least a decent one) because these pictures would be way better!

Oh, and in case you didn't know it, I am so darn proud of myself!

I am not much for decorating for the seasons (with the exception of Christmas.) But, this year has been different.

I saw a picture in a magazine that caught my eye. A few days later hubby mentioned to me about doing a little fall decorating inside. (He loves to decorate outside for fall - hay bales, flowers, pumpkins, cornstalks.) So, I showed him my picture. He liked it and I asked if I could do it and he said sure. He gave me a budget and I started looking around at craft places when we were there for school project supplies.

Every year we have a fall festival and we just love getting ready for it. For a lot of different reasons. We all love this time of year. We love the anticipation of hanging out with friends and eating chili. It is usually a little cooler outside. I don't know. I can't really put my finger on exactly what it is. But we just love it!

Anyway, we have brought some of our outside fall decorating inside. And, at night, when the candles are lit on the hearth, it is just so warm and inviting. Like a home should be, I think . . .

Baking and Cooking

I use to do some baking and cooking when I was little. I am sure I enjoyed it then. But, as I grew up I really stopped enjoying either one. Makes it kind of a bummer when you have a family to feed and you don't want to go out for dinner every night!

But, yesterday, as I was making sweet potato casserole (with potatoes from our garden) I found out what I "enjoy" about it, now. I like making stuff with stuff from our garden. Or with things that I know are really good for our family.

I love baking now, because I use majority of ingredients that are really healthy. I am giving my family something that nobody else can. I made broccoli and cheese casserole yesterday and some of the broccoli was from our garden. I liked that.

I can't explain it. Why that makes a difference. But, it just does. I guess it is a feeling of really accomplishing something that is truly good. When they eat that really healthy, good food, I envision their little bodies (and hubby's too) rejoicing. Being given the stuff it was meant to eat. (Don't get me wrong, we eat a lot that isn't good for us too. Everything in moderation!)

I think I like the challenge, too, of finding nutritious things to make with the stuff we grow. We have soooo many sweet potatoes. We are giving some away, but yesterday I made sweet potato biscuits with honey butter, just because we had all the ingredients. Some of the fam liked them. Some didn't. I don't know if I will make them again. But, I enjoyed trying.

When we had oodles of apples, it was fun trying to find different things to do with them. I made lots of applesauce that we froze, apple pies, apple brownies, apple muffins.

We are going to have tons of venison. Again, some we are giving away. But, I am looking forward to googling some really easy, good recipes. (I try not to make anything that has more than 6 ingredients.)

And, I am finding the more I am in the kitchen, the more comfortable I feel. I have always followed a recipe, exactly. I am now starting to "get" what more I can do or what I can change to make things more to our family's liking. Things that are not in the recipe!

I suppose I am bragging a little bit. But, considering I spent half (well, more than half) of my married life railing against being in the kitchen, it really is something I am kind of glad I am accepting.

I still like to keep things simple. I don't like a lot going on in the kitchen. But, at least I don't mind, so much, being in the kitchen . . .

Sewing

Today we had our second sewing lesson. It is not just for the girls. It is for me too. And the lady who comes to our home to teach us, and another family, is wonderful! She is patient and very understanding. She is like the 5th of 12 or something and had 5 of her own.

Anyway, I say all that, because a house full of 7 children, while trying to learn to sew can be a little crazy. The other mother and daughter learning with us, are friends and the kids are friends, so that is helpful. We are all comfortable with each other.

The teacher feels very strongly about learning the right way to sew. And I am thankful for that. We are all getting a really good foundation.

The girls' project is a baby size blanket. So far we have bought all the supplies and the material we need. We have washed and ironed the fabric and cleaned up the edges (I am sure there is a more technical term). Today we pinned, ironed and started to sew the hems.

It has been fun to watch how each girl learns. And, to learn myself. The teacher assures us as we become more comfortable with the machine and sewing in general, it will get easier. Right now, it feels so foreign, to all of us. But, the girls seem to be catching on quick. Little Mama is really enthusiastic about it. She is a natural born domestic diva. She really is going to make a good wife, mom and homemaker someday.

Nature Girl picked up quick. She probably just needs to be patient, though. She was hoping to finish the blanket today.

I enjoy it. I have no idea what I am going to do with my new found knowledge. I was going to say skill, but I would not say I have a skill, just yet. Well, whatever we decide to do, it will have to be something fairly simple. At least in the beginning . . .