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How Rach Quit Throwing Money Away 9

Filed under the home, Uncategorized
Written by Annie on 1st Jun -10

This is a guest post by Rach of Rach’s Blog Bite; if you’re interested in guest posting for Sister Wisdom, check out the guidelines.

A while ago a light bulb went off and I decided to start making my own cleaning products at home. Okay, it really wasn’t a light bulb. It was more like major bolt of lightning, striking right down the middle of our expenses.

It really just ticked me off that I was paying so much for detergent, {laundry and dish}, our cleaning products and our fabric softener. It felt like I was just throwing money away. That crap is just ridiculously over-priced, and a lot of it is super chemically {of the “OMG I can’t believe that is really in there” kind of chemicals}…

So enter me with my bright idea. “I will just make my own.” My friends scoffed. Never had I had a friend actually scoff, but at this idea they did. They seemed to think that Walmart had homemade laundry detergent: the kind that comes in a cardboard box and says TIDE in big blue letters! I was determined. I figured it couldn’t be that difficult or expensive.

So, I did it. Here’s the “recipe” and you can see it is pretty basic.  There are so many different ways to make this stuff.  Me being me-{lazy} I picked the easiest one.  It works. Plain and simple.  Your clothes are clean, there are not chemicals breaking your clothes down {saving you money there as well!}, and it’s just a better way to take care of your stuff.

Rach’s Homemade Laundry Detergent

1 bar grated soap (I use the 3/$1 from the dollar store)
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup Washing Soda (Not to be confused with Baking Soda…)

Directions

Mix together until the grated soap starts to dissolve.
Use 1 tbsp./load
***The only place near me that I could find washing soda is Harris Teeter on the laundry aisle. Look up- You’ll find it on the top shelf. [Annie's note: I've seen washing soda at Wal-Marts in my area, greater St. Louis.]
I usually grate 6-9 bars at one time- this makes a HUGE batch that will last for 3-4 months! (Remembering that there are only 3 of us in the house and you only have to use 1 tbsp. /load.)

Once I started making laundry detergent at home I looked around knowing there had to be away to do fabric softener the same way {read: the cheap way!}. I googled it, {I google everything} and this was the simplest, cheapest one that I found.

All you need is a Downy ball, vinegar and any type of fragrance oil that you like. I know what you are thinking… and no, your clothes are not going to smell like vinegar. If you use this oil – Downy April Fresh fragrance oil – that’s what your clothes are going to smell like!
I mix the solution in a pitcher and just pour in the Downy ball- I purchase a 16oz. bottle of the fragrance oil approximately every 9-10 months.
You can do this even cheaper, and not use the oil- that’s just for your nose’s sake anyway!

Rach’s Homemade Fabric Softener

1 gallon white vinegar
2 teaspoons fragrance or essential oils

Directions

Mix essential oils into vinegar. {I mix in the vinegar jug then pour into a smaller pitcher just because it’s easier to handle!} Add to Downy ball and toss it in the wash!
Depending on what EO smell you use- you may need to use a little more- try a test wash first, then add a drop or two at a time.

Rach of Rach’s Blog Bite is a fun, real, and hilarious blogger who keeps me coming back to her blog just to see what she’s going to be up to next. As Rach puts it, she writes about “Misadventures from my kitchen, my attempts at getting crafty and other things I find I think I need to try!” She’s always trying new things, living and learning even when it’s messy, and picking up some great ideas and skills in the process. I’ve picked up some super recipes ( cookies to die for) and what-to-read tips as she shares from her kitchen and her 52-in-52 reading challenge. Great giveaways, too: I just WON my first-ever blog giveaway on Rach’s Blog Bite! Wheeee! Thanks, Rach! Go check out her site and I guarantee you’ll have fun.

Recommended Reading, Issue #2 2

Filed under the world, Uncategorized
Written by Annie on 29th May -10

So my original plan of having an issue every Friday is kind of… gone. Heh. Ah well. -Best-laid plans and all that. But here’s Issue #2, for what it’s worth. I do read a lot, more offline than on, and I love recommending books and blogs that I think others will enjoy…

[There's no Mr Linky. I'm simplifying things - such as my life  - so if you have reading to recommend,  or a similar post, or a book review on your own site, please leave  a link in the comments below! ]

#1: Reading about Writing

I don’t follow many writing sites, because it’s often just rehashed same-old advice. But Write to Done produces some gems. I find myself re-reading the posts to make sure I didn’t miss something good, like this:

“We have to write whether we are in the mood or not. If you write for your career, then writing must be a daily act of self- discipline, even when it’s lackluster and boring.” That’s from this post.

And this:

“When the writing day is over, make sure you’ve scribed something because one of the best schools of writing is writing.” That’s from this post by Daryl Sedore.

Good stuff. Worth reading if you’re a writer.

#2: A Book a Day. Or Just a Book. Or Two.

I read and reviewed Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge this last week. I resisted it a long time, but when Thomas Nelson had the new revised edition up for review, I decided it was time. And it was. A great book with a good message that women need to hear.{End shameless plug for my own book review.}

I also read -Josephine Tey’s The Man in the Queue. I’ve never really been a mystery fan, either in book or movie form, but I figured maybe I just hadn’t tried the right one. I enjoyed Tey’s book but I can’t say I’m a convert. I’ve got one by Ngaio Marsh in my bag to take with me this weekend… we’ll see.

#3: Old Stuff from the Starred List

I’ve cut way down on the blogs I follow because there just isn’t time for them all, people. I feel a little guilty, being a blogger myself. Oh well. I can deal with guilt. I can’t deal with ten thousand blog feeds.

So once or twice a week I hop to my Google Reader and catch up. I skim. If it catches my interest, I read. If I really like it, I star. And then I share. Like so:

“Could it be enough to quietly sit and hold the baby and take care of the kids, or do I have a whole list of extras to do too?” From a post published several months ago, which I’ve read several times, which still makes me pause and think… Go read it all. [And kind of funny, I just realized that of my total 2 issues of Recommended Reading, this blogger has been in, yup, both! Hm. I must like her writing. Yup. I do. She might not know it though, because I'm what we here in the blogo-sphere call a lurker. Which I feel like I should feel bad about and I do, kind of, but not enough (apparently) to wait for my slow connection to load the page to leave the comment. And now I'm done talking.]

#4: Not Really Reading, Exactly…

I just had to add this. You can read about it, here, at the artist interview on The Artful Parent. But if nothing else, just go see this art by Tif McDonald. It’s beautiful and different and if anybody wants to buy me the dandelion one I’ll be forever grateful. I wish I had the money… Oh, I wish.

I’d never even heard of “encaustic” before, but I’m going to go scour Etsy for it now. Check you peeps later.

Oh, don’t forget:

What’s your recommended reading? C’mon, haven’t you read something good lately? Prove it. (Nyah nyah nyah. I dare you.)

Outside Is the Real World Comments Off

Filed under the world, Uncategorized
Written by Annie on 11th May -10

We get confused, with our climate control options and antibacterial everything. We think things like dirt is bad, subconsciously maybe, but still strongly enough that we shy away automatically from dirty little fingers or mud puddles.

And we say things like, Oh, kids, c’mon, can’t you stay clean for 5 minutes? I know I’ve said that last one recently. Maybe yesterday…

There’s nothing wrong with being clean – by which we mean free from dirt – but there is something wrong with attempting to live and keep our children in a sterile environment. Sure, it’s germ-free. It’s also fun-free.

“Sylvia thought how all parents wanted an impossible life for their children — happy beginning, happy middle, happy ending. No plot of any kind. What uninteresting people would result if parents got their way” (1).

The reason children can’t seem to stay clean for 5 minutes is because they don’t (yet) have that subconscious antipathy toward dirt. They seem to have the opposite. They like the feel of dirt, the squish of mud, the splash of puddles. We need to let them like those things. This is how the explore the world in their tactile, no-nonsense way. What is this? they wonder. So they feel it, touch it, see what their fingers can do with it.

Now we know, most of us, that being outside is good for our children.

“For we are an overwrought generation… and every hour spent in the open is a clear gain, tending to the increase of brain power and bodily vigour, and to the lengthening of life itself. …perhaps a mother’s first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time… the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air” (2).

So even if we, the Mommies, are not of the outdoors persuasion, we try to get our children out. It’s good for them, so we go on walks. We go to the park. Maybe we even grow a few vegetables on the patio. But how much time do we spend trying to make the great big, dirty, muddy, puddle-wonderful world a little bit more like the small, stifling, sterile indoors?

How many times have you just laid in the cool green grass, no blanket between you and the earth?
How many times have you walked around in gloriously bare feet, feeling the textures and temperatures beneath you?

Of course, you the parent need to oversee things. You don’t want your kids squishing the dog poo into neat little shapes. But try – try really, really hard – to hold back your own normal, grown-up desire to be clean. Try to squelch the eeeeeew that automatically comes to your lips when your daughter shows you the super-big worm she just found.
Try to give these unconscious explorers time when they can be outside, in the real world, getting real dirt on their hands.

When it’s time to come inside, go ahead and break out the antibacterial soap.

“…a love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humor” (3).

Images

1. Mud is my new best friend courtesy of BionicTeaching on Flickr.

Sources

1. Karen Joy Fowler, quoted in Michael Dirda’s Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2005.
2. Charlotte Mason, Home Education: Training and Education Children Under Nine. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1989. Pages 42 and 43.
3. Charlotte Mason, page 73.

What Is Natural Health? And Other Questions Way Beyond the Scope of My Intellect Comments Off

Filed under the world, Uncategorized
Written by Annie on 4th May -10


What is it that we call natural health? To me, it is two things:

1) it is an overall quality of life, of vitality, energy, and a general habitual freedom from sickness and

2) it is a way of dealing with injuries and sicknesses when they do occur.

Quality of Life

Let’s talk about the overall quality of life, first, and I’ll give my own background to explain what I mean. The most serious injuries/illnesses I’ve had probably all occurred in my early childhood: a couple of trips to the e.r. for stitches due to overzealous games with my sister. Past that, not much eventful in the line of health problems. And uneventful is the best adjective for health.

I’m not very athletic, but I was always active, outside playing, running, swinging, riding bikes, building forts, climbing trees. No broken bones, no serious illnesses. A cold or two every year or so, maybe. The occasional stomach bug which no one can escape.

As an adult, I have a pretty high energy level most of the daylight hours. My attention and energy go down and I’m ready for sleep around 9, though if I’m focused on something or interested I can be alert and awake for much later than I should.

The only recurring sickness or pain I deal with is muscle tension in my neck and shoulders, which is almost always a result of stress and improper posture, and which can result in pretty nasty tension headaches. I consider those pretty continue reading…

{Build a Better Marriage} Having Fun Together 1

Filed under build a better marriage series, Uncategorized
Written by Annie on 26th Mar -10

I feel a little funny writing an article about having fun together. Questions assail. First, do I know enough about having fun with my spouse to actually give people advice on it? Two, after a bunch of far-more-serious articles about respect and trust and intimacy and the like, will people get this? Will it come across as flippant? Is it flippant? And most of all, this problem: fun is a relative term. What is fun to me is boring, strange, unnerving to a lot of people. So I’m not sure how to introduce the concept and give help that might be practical on a topic that is so subjective and preferential. But here goes. continue reading…

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