Homemade Laundry Soap

About a year ago I made some homemade liquid laundry detergent. I made 5 gallons and although we did end up using it all we didnt LOVE it. After the batch was gone we went back to Tide. The liquid soap did get our clothes clean, but it didnt have a great smell and it also made the colors fade very quickly. My cousin Farryn tried making some homemade powdered laundry soap and brought me some to try...I love it. It smells great, cleans great, doesnt fade the clothes and is soo much cheaper than Tide. It makes a ton so my mom and I decided to make it and split a batch. Its super easy!! Here are the directions in case anyone wants to try!!

What you need:
1 - 4lb 12oz box of borax
1 - 3lb container of oxyclean
2 - bars of fels naptha
2 - 2lb boxes of arm and hammer baking soda (or 1 4lb box)
1 - 3lb 7oz box of arm and hammer super washing soda
1 or 2 - 55oz bottles of purex crystals

Directions:
Grate the bars of fels naptha.
Pour in all ingredients and mix together. We found it was easier to mix if you do it in layers.
THATS IT YOUR DONE!!

You only use 2-4 tablespoons per load (depending on load size)

John was very skeptical at first but after our first couple of loads even he was impressed!!!

The Chickens

Well I finally got my chickens that I had been wanting for so long. We talked about getting them a while ago and even bought all the stuff for John to make the coop but we never got around to it. When Spring time came all the feed stores were selling baby chicks and we decided to get some. We started out with 4 baby chicks..we bought these chicks from a flea market and they were sold straight run (meaning they had not been sexed). We dont eat eggs every day so we decided that 3 hens would be plenty for us. Since we were unsure of the sex of the chicks we decided to get 4 hoping that 2 or 3 of them would be hens. They were 10 days old when we brought them home...there isnt much cuter than a little tiny baby chick :) A couple days after we got them I got to thinking how sad I would be if all of them turned out to be roosters (cant keep roosters in city limits) and I decided to get 2 more from a feed store by our house that had chicks that had been sexed..that way I would be sure I at least had 2 females. So a week later I brought home 2 more 3 day old baby chicks. I knew 6 chickens would be more than I needed but I figured out if they all did turn out to be hens I could give away a couple and keep the ones I wanted for us. The man at the feed store told me that around 4 weeks old the roos will usually have a much larger comb on their head than the hens..all of mine have pretty small combs so I am now thinking that maybe we do have all hens (we wont really know until they start laying eggs or crowing lol) We kept them in the house for the first month and we just moved them out to their coop about a week and a half ago. We are down to 5 now because the dog got ahold of one (long unpleasant story). They are doing great out in their coop and we are hoping they will start laying in about another month and a half. We have 3 Rhode Island Reds that are supposed to be very good productive egg layers and they lay brown eggs and we have 2 ameracaunas that wont lay quite as many but they lay blue and green eggs so we thought that would be neat!! Cant wait to enjoy fresh eggs from my own backyard!!!

Siri Girl

Last time I posted we had our little piglet Charlie. We sure havent had the best luck with animals...but we are hoping that has changed :) We decided that we wanted to have a big dog the kids could play with and that would protect if needed!! So after much research John decided on a german shepherd. We found a breeder about an hour away that had one pup left and we decided we would get him. Sarge was 9 weeks old when we got him and he was an awesome puppy..he was very gentle with the kids and picked up on potty training right away. His only fault was that he played a little to rough with Charlie. We tried keeping them seperated but we felt like it was unfair for Charlie because we werent spending as much time with her. We ended up giving her to a family with a nice big farm for her to play on. We thought we had finally found the perfect dog, but of course it was to good to be true! Sarge had stomach issues since we had first gotten him and had been in and out of the vet a bunch!! After a couple months and tons of tests they found out he had some congenital issues and had to be put to sleep. We were all devestated and knew we wanted another dog right away to replace him!! So John found us Siri..she is a 5 1/2 month old siberian husky. We have had her about a month now and she is great. John has always talked about owning a husky since we were dating..but I wasnt in love with the breed like he was. When he showed me the pictures of Siri I agreed and am so glad I did. She is a great dog and is in perfect health. She has a LOT more energy than our german shepherd pup had (probably because he was sick) but she is a great fit for our family. She loves the kids and is always up for going on a walk or jog with me which is fun!! She is already housebroken so that is very nice and she is doing good with her crate training. She was never introduced to a crate before we got her but she is quickly adjusting to the crate and is whining less and less every time she goes in there. I think we have finally found a winner :)

Kyle

Kyle turned 2 1/2 a couple months ago. He is finally talking and he is a mess. He keeps us laughing with his silliness. He loves anything that has wheels and can play by himself with his cars forever!! He is a big mommas boy but the older he gets the more he loves spending time with his daddy. He has the most pitiful pouty face you have ever seen and uses it to his advantage on a daily basis lol

Kaylee's 4!!!

Once again Ive neglected my blog and a lot has happened since my last post. Im going to do a few posts and try to get caught up!! Kaylee turned 4 a couple months ago. We decided not to do a big party this year but she had been wanting to go to Chuck E Cheese so thats what we did. We took her to toys r us and let her pick out her own toys this year and it was a simple birthday but she loved it. She had been asking for roller skates since before Christmas so her Grams and Papa got her roller skates and her Mamie and Pappy got her all the pads to go with them :) She is not very graceful on her skates so for now she only wears them in the house on the carpet haha..but she is totally fine with it!! She has such a sweet spirit and it so thankful for everything she gets!! I think her attitude is getting better the older she gets (Im sure that will change in a few years though haha)

The Wedding

Last weekend Kaylee was the flower girl in Farryn and Justins wedding. She did a great job in Katelyns and Bryans wedding last year when it came down to walking down the isle, but she wouldnt have any part of the pictures. Kaylee has been so excited to get to be a flower girl again and assured me she was going to do a good job lol. At the rehersal dinner she cried and would notg participate (Just like at Katelyns) but on wedding day she did great. She was a good sport for pictures before the wedding and did great during the wedding. Before it started all the girls were in their dressing room getting ready and Kaylee told me that I could go ahead and go sit down because she was gonna stay with all the big girls haha. After the wedding she was pretty much done and didnt want to do anymore pictures. Most of the pics of her after the wedding werent so great..she was trying her best to hold back the tears lol. The pictures arent back yet but here are a couple of Kaylee with some of the "princesses" as she called them. The wedding was so beautiful and we were so glad to be a part of the special day :)

Planting

Well one of my new years resolutions was to do some gardening. I wanted to try a bunch of different veggies and other edible things!! I know you arent supposed to start so early but I couldnt wait so I decided I would go ahead and start a few things inside the house and when it gets closer to spring I will plant more. So about a week and a half ago I planted my sprouted potatoes, jalepeno peppers, cayenne peppers and chili peppers. The peppers wouldnt have been my first choice since we dont really eat them much..but I already had the seeds left over from a kit I bought last year. I was really excited to do the potatoes because we use potatoes a lot. We stayed at my parents house this weekend while John wsa out of town again and when I came home I was thrilled that everything has started sprouting :) I cant wait to get to the store and get some more things to plant. I am thinking next I will try squash, lettuce, tomatoes and maybe carrots!!

Meet Charlie

Charlie is our new little mini pig. We got her a week ago and we are in LOVE!! Well Kaylee and I are in love..the boys could care less about her!! She is soo cute and is so easy to handle and take care of!! Kaylee calls her a baby pliget and does not want to leave her side!!

SNOW

Kaylee had it in her mind that it wasn't Christmas unless there was snow lol..during the weeks before Christmas she would look out the window every morning and say "Nope, its not Christmas yet because there is not snow" We planned on taking her somewhere to see fake snow but got too busy and didnt make time for it. So the other day John got a package and Kaylee was of course right there to help him open it. When she saw all those styrofoam peanuts she said "WOW SNOW" her face just lit up and it was too cute. She started getting it and throwing it everywhere. She called Kyle in the living room and they both played and played in it. I knew it was going to be a horrible mess to clean up (and it was), but they had so much fun I couldnt resist letting them play in it :) John wouldnt even look at the floor lol..he said he didnt even want to see the disaster so I took some pictures so he could see it after it was all cleaned lol

Weekend With Mami and Pappy

John had to go to Tampa for work on New Years weekend so we decided to spend the weekend at my mom and dads house. Kaylee was EXTREMELY excited that we were gonna get to sleep there lol. I made the mistake of telling her about it first thing when she woke up on Friday morning and she asked me ALL DAY LONG if it was time yet haha. We had a few other things to do that day and weren't going to head over until around 5:30 so the wait was torture for her. Once we got home and were getting things ready to go I told her she could pack a bad with a few toys to take while I was packing our clothes..next thing I know she had everything she owned packed up in bags and lined up in the hallway lol. I told her we would have to narrow it down a little then we would be on our way.

Once we got there Friday night Kaylee was ready to go to bed as soon as we got so she could be sure that we were really staying haha. I kept telling her she didnt have to go to bed and that I promised we were really spending the night but she wasnt sure. She felt a little better after we put her pjs on. Pappy got all the supplies to make homemade pizza and Kaylee really enjoyed helping him make them. We made a big pallet on the floor and the kids slept good.

Saturday morning when we woke up the first thing Kaylee said was "I want to sleep here again" Lucky for her Daddy was going to be spending another night in Tampa so we stayed again. Saturday aftrernoon we had to run home and get more clothes and stuff and Kaylee was so upset because she thought we weren't going to go back. Saturday night was New Years eve and we had a little party with family and some friends..the kids LOVE when everyone gets together because they get all kinds of attention. They both made it until midnight then passes out shortly after. Sunday morning they slept in then we headed home to wait for daddy to get back. Kaylee has asked me EVERY SINGLE DAY since then if we can go sleep there again lol. She is looking forward to the next time Daddy goes out of town so we can have another sleepover :)

2012

Well the time has come again to make our new years resoultions..Ive been thinking the past few days about what mine would be and have come up with a few.

~Lose Weight - I mean come on..isnt that everyones new years resolution??? I was doing so good for a while with my eating good and working out but then with the holidays coming I kind of fell off the bandwagon!! My goal is to get back on track and not only to lose weight but live a healthier lifestyle.

~Be consistant with Kaylee's school - When the school year started in August I decided I would start doing K3 at home with Kaylee. I am intending to homeschool her at least for the younger years (maybe more) so I thought we would go ahead and get a head start getting into a routine and teaching her the basics. I was very good at first about printing school work for her, reading with her every day and trying to include her in projects that I thought would be good for learning. Things got busy and I got out of the routine and now we only do things few and far between. I know it isnt necessary to make sure she does school everyday since she is only 3 1/2 but I want to be more committed to it and really work at getting back into a routine with her.

~Couponing - For a few months I was an avid couponer and it really saved us a lot of money and I had fun doing it. I started doing too many other things and let the couponing go. Now that we have gone through most of the stuff I had stockpiled and are having to buy things again that I was getting for FREE..I decided that I really need to make time and make it a priority this year. I have researched a lot more about different techniques and I think I have found a way to make it work without having to spend so much time on it every day!!

~Chores - I made Kaylee a chore chart a while ago and she loved doing her chores every day (with the exception of cleaning her room) Her chore chart only had a few simple tasks on it and it only took her a few minuted to get it done. She has to get dressed, brush teeth, comb hair, make bed, get all laundry from the bathroom floor, make sure the pillows were on the couch neatly and make sure her room was picked up. I think now that she is a little older I can add a few more things and I plan on being more strict with making sure she gets them done and in a timely manner.

~Gardening - I am really into the idea of being more "self sufficient" and I really want to start a garden with veggies and other things that my family can eat. When we lived at Johns grandparents house we loved having a pear tree, grape vine and lemon trees so much when we moved last year we got a peach tree, raspberry bush and blueberry bush for our house. I am hoping that they all produce well this year and I want to add a few more things as well!!

~ Pinterest - This is kind of a funny New Years resolution but I just had to add it to the list lol. I have a ton of things I have on my "pinterest to do list" I am always seeing these great ideas and I have all intentions of trying them out but usually instead of crossing projects off my list I am adding more. I really want to start a list of "Pinterest Projects" and start getting some things crossed off lol

~Cooking - Last but not least, this year I want to get better with my cooking. It wont take much to improve since I am pretty terrible at it lol. I dont cook much at all..usually John cooks or we eat something thats easy for me to throw together like sasuage and rice or some kind of boxed dinner lol. I have seen a ton of ideas for different recipies that look fairly easy on pinterest so I am hoping to really improve this year :)

I think that about sums it up, all of these are things that I think would really benefit me and my family so I am really going to work hard at keeping up with them :) Good luck to everyone with all their resolutions and Happy New Year!!