Homemade Laundry Soap

For about 6 months now we've talked about the idea of making our own homemade laundry soap. I researched and pondered, and decided OK! Well, fast forward, and I made it last night. A simple enough recipe all the ingredients and I was set.
I honestly don't' remember where I got the recipe from, but I will say that it was simple!

1 bar Fels Naptha Soap (grated)
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda

NOW, this is the part that wasn't clear, nor did I care for. It tells you to add 2 cups of water to the soap and melt it down. However, this doesn't work out as well as I'd hoped it would. You actually need upwards of like 6 cups of water to melt your soap down. Why? Well, if you're only using two cups, chances are you'll end up with a bubbly soapy sticky goo.

I added my Borax and Washing Soda to my 5 gallon bucket with hot water and stirred it until dissolved. After adding the soap mix to this I stirred and stirred. The hot water didn't get all the soap melted (remember the bubbly goo?), so I strained out the soap chunks, added water from the bucket and melted it down again and poured it back into the bucket.

Stirred and stirred some more, then I let it sit over night, covered. I broke up the gel and got my mixing beaters out to help break up the gel clumps, and added to detergent containers we'd purchased from the store. I'm unsure how they'll come out of the push spout (still kind of chunky).

I am super excited to try this on our clothes, and will be testing on our cloth diapers too! I added up approximately how much a 5 gallon bucket would cost, and it's about $1.50. A lot of sites say that's about 80 loads, but I added some more water to it once I got it into containers, so I'm hoping to get more than that (the containers claim there's 166 loads in each one).

Looking back. . .

Phoenix had to be 5 here. This face gets me every time.

This is my first bio baby. I am so incredibly blessed to have this amazing little man in my life. Being his mom is the most amazing gift! So let me tell you a little about this mister!

Phoenix was born on June 1, 2005. A week and a half over due, as per doctors specs. I had an easy pregnancy--no morning sickness, no complications, etc. I did gain almost 70 lbs and had horrible back pain the last month  before he was born. Car rides were a nightmare, I seriously thought my vagina was going to catch fire! Too much? Too soon?

i was induced with Mister, because my body refused to show any signs of labor. After 4 hours of being on pitocin, my sweet boy was born. An epidural that either didn't take, or wasn't in long enough to take effect, and nurses telling me how to labor and threatening forceps, I was exhausted, and THRILLED my sweet 9 lbs 22 1/2 inch long baby was in his Mommy's arms safe and sound!

Brand new! 2005

Being a mother is the only thing in life I KNEW I wanted other than to be married, of course! LOL Little did I know I would be the mom to an amazing step-son--who is my son where it matters more, in my heart--and two biological children! 

I may not be perfect, but my kids are! They are perfectly imperfect, and beautiful souls whom I cherish and adore more than words could ever express! 

My boys, when they were still little! 22 and 8 now.
I miss these moments the most!

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Monday Morning Thoughts

I seriously cannot get enough of this little girl in cloth! 

Being a parent today is rough. I mean, seriously, look at everything. You have to make decisions every day based on what other think of you, your discipline, and your child's behavior. 

Let's look at this, you choose to cloth diaper but you formula feed, for whatever reason that's your choice. You get ridiculed and looked down on by people not only because of your choice to cloth diaper (Oh, how nasty!) but because you chose to give your child formula. It's a lose lose world out there. 

So, what do I say? Do what's right for your family. It may not be popular, it may not be what people consider the "norm." THEY aren't raising your child, YOU are! If you want to be the crunchiest of crunchy, then you rock that the best way you can.

What we don't need is people making it so parents give up, there's already too much of that. Be the parent you want to be and strive to be the best! Don't back down from your stance. You know what's best for your baby and your family!