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)