Home Made Laundry Detergent

The first time I ever made laundry detergent, I made liquid detergent, and after all the messy melting, boiling, stirring and pouring, I knew I'd never do that again.

So I tried the powdered version next. I don't remember where I found the original recipe (most likely Pinterest ;) but I have since adjusted and tweaked it so it's perfect for us!

There are 5 of us (3 males, so stuff gets dirty!) and we use an HE front loader washer.

What you need:

• Cheese grater or food processor
• 1 bar of castile soap  (about $2.50)
• 2 cups of Borax (about 95c)
• 2 cups of washing soda (about $1.25)
• 10 drops of preferred essential oil - I enjoy lemon or other citrus scent (optional)
• Container (preferably with a seal to keep moisture out)

What to do:

1. Grate your bar soap using a cheese grater or a food processor, which is what I use when I'm in a rush (i.e. most of the time). 
2. Add all ingredients to your container (including your essential oil if you have chosen one) and shake/mix well. If your container is large, or hard to shake, use a zip lock bag to do the shaking and then transfer the mix to your laundry detergent container.
3. Use 1 tablespoon for a regular load, 2 tablespoons for an extra dirty load.

Things to note:

• Using a cheese grater allows you to grate the cheese more finely, which makes it blend nicely even though it does take a bit longer.
• No, grating the soap in the food processor has not ruined it, nor is there flying soap or mess ;)
• Essential oil is useful for more than just scent - if you need to disinfect, add lavender or tea tree to your load - 3 or so drops should do.  If you are washing bedding, add chamomile and lavender to aid sleep.
• Your whole batch should do about 32-64 loads depending on how much you use, costing you 7c a load (versus Tide, at about 26c for powdered detergent and 29c for liquid - about a $35 savings a year)
• THE BENEFITS: The benefits for me are not mainly about the savings, although every little bit adds up. The main benefits to me are:
  1)  My product is natural, without any added chemicals. Some of the ingredients found in Tide include:
  
  • Sodium Carbonate
  • Sodium Aluminosilicate
  • Sodium Sulfate
  • Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonate
  • Alkyl Sulfate
  • Sodium Percarbonate
  • Sodium Polyacrylate
  • Silicate
  • Nonanoyloxybenzenesulfonate
  • Ethoxylate
  • Polyethylene Glycol 4000
  • Fragrance
  • DTPA
  • Disodium Diaminostilbene Disulfonate
  • Palmitic Acid
  • Protease
  • Silicone
  • Cellulase
  2) It is suds-free/low suds which is good for the septic system!

Make your own..... {Pinterest Style}

My co-op class for the Fall is:

Make Your Own... {Pinterest style!}

This fall will be our first time at our new co-op, and my first time teaching there. I plan on offering a class that will incorporate concepts from different subjects, such as science and home economics, as we spend 8 weeks making our own products to replace those that might be bought at a store.
All recipes/products have been/will be proven by their use in our home before the class :)
We will make the following (and possibly more if it looks like we can do more than one in one lesson at times, or less if they end up overflowing into more than one week):

• Natural Home: Laundry detergent & other laundry goodies
  ~ Laundry Detergent ~
• Natural Home: Washable "Swiffer" dusters & other reusable things
• Natural Home: Natural household cleaners
• Natural Home: Natural bug spray (personal use) and insect killer (not harmful to people!)
• Natural Kitchen: Taco seasoning & other kitchen mixes
• Natural Kitchen: Never ending vanilla extract & lovely home scents
• Natural First Aid: Home made herbal remedies & the use of essential oils

Each week I will blog what we do, and link to it here :)

Creation to the Greeks Resources

The Mystery of History


Week 16
Videos that correspond to the Olmecs and all of CTG and RTR
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4E39C6D24CDECA8C

Hatch a Turkey!

How's THAT for a summer project! LOL! Yip, a friend has some excess fertilized turkey eggs that she can't fit into her incubator, so we're fostering them for the 28 days it takes to hatch them.

Since it's a Still-Air incubator without an egg turner, we have to be sure to turn the eggs 3 times a day for the first 25 days to prevent the chick from sticking to the shell while it develops. Then, for the last 3 days the chick positions itself for hatching and it's HANDS OFF! It's very cool that you can sometimes even hear the chick cheeping before it hatches :)

So that's one of the things we'll be doing this summer (to make the daily Math and English more bearable ;) as well as our vegetable garden, and just generally having a good time out in the sunshine :)

ECC Field Trip Ideas

This is more a post for my own records, and is a compilation from the posts on the MFW forum.

• World Showcase at Epcot Center (Disney World, Florida)
• Zoo
• Arboretum & Japanese gardens
• A favorite spot for nature walks, to re-visit in various seasons
• Restaurants from various cultures - Russian, French, Mexican, Greek, Chinese, etc.
  (many times the restaurants include artwork etc, not just food)
• Hispanic market
• Local German architecture
• Russian art museum
• Swedish "castle" museum
• Missionary speaker and missions experiences
• Library's map drawers, atlases in reference section, & huge wall map of our city
• Small county museum for looking up ancestors, neighbors, etc
• Chinese restaurant and little Chinese grocery store
  Mexican restaurant
• Indian Restaurant and little shop attached to it
  
• BIbles for the World (the founder is from India and he entertained our children for an hour with his stories)
  
• Our German babysitter spent an hour discussing how things were in her town during WWII (she was a young girl of about 7 or so).
  
• The people across the street met a family from Kenya and we went to visit them for an afternoon.
  
• We went to the local mosque and visited. While there, the leader wrote our kids' names in Arabic on a piece of paper for us to keep.
• Aquarium (after studying Japan and oceans)
• United States: We went to an Atlanta Braves baseball game. We also went hiking in order to identify trees in an American Forest. To conclude our studies we had an All-American BBQ, complete with grilled cheeseburgers, homemade lemonade and New England pumpkin cake.
• Mexico: We visited the International Farmers market to pick up some different types of cactus, brought them home and cut them open to study what was inside.
• Brazil: Our botanical gardens have a rain forest terrarium. Very cool!
• Norway: We took a little field trip to Ikea. Some of the largest forests in the world occupy Norway, Sweden and Finland. Furniture is a major export. Plus, they have a Swedish market so I could pick up some authentic eats.
• France: Visited a lake, did tree identification and painted en plien air. We also visited the Coke museum and drank soda from around the world.
• Germany: I had every intention of visiting Helen, Ga. This city is a recreation of an alpine village. We never made it, busy December. Instead we went to the Christmas Around the World exhibit at our local children's museum.
  
• Kenya: the zoo. Also did geocaching.
• China: Found out that there are Chinese Culture classes in our area. Went as a guest. This was quite an experience. They taught brush painting, Chinese songs and even had stories in Chinese.
• Russia: Went to a ballet performance of Tchaikovsky's work.
• Antarctica: Saw the penguins at the aquarium.
• We also met with missionaries from other countries whenever we could. We were able to talk with missionaries from China, Mexico, Zambia and India. we also have friends from Mexico, Australia, Holland, Ireland, India and Brazil so we made a point to tell them when we were studying their country. They always loved talking to us about their homeland.
• On a few occasions we went to restaurants of the country we were studying; Mexico, Canada (Bugaboo Creek), Norway ( Ikea),India and Australia (I never knew meat pie could be so good!) But our favorite memories were when we cooked at home ethnic food.