My last couple days: Exploring

So I've been in the middle of a battle about food and $$ spent on food.  Do I go organic, all-natural, homemade?  Do I try Once a Month Cooking to save money?  Do I save time buy shopping at only a couple stores?  Do I coupon shop at a dozen stores?  Do I support only local businesses?  Do I only buy what's on sale (almost) regardless of quality?  AH!  Why does it have to be so hard?  But thankfully I have a science-minded, research-oriented husband to help me out.  So, I won't say exactly what we've decided, because I always seem to unintentionally discourage someone (or myself) when this food/health topic is brought up.  Let's just suffice it to way, I decided to give homemade laundry detergent a try (it's approximately $0.01 per load). And I did bulk cooking (definitely not OAMC, but maybe 12 meals (only 2 different menus, though)).  Here's what it looks like:

 

1 c. grated Fels Naptha soap

1/2 c. Super Washing Soda

1/2 c. Borax

Combine.  (Easy enough.  Having only used it in 1 load, I can only say it's no miracle mixture. Spaghetti and mystery stains remain.  Now I'll pretreat them and wash again.)

Here's the liguid gel version:

1/3 bar Fels Naptha

1/2 c. Super Washing Soda

1/2 c.  Borax

lots of water (I think about 2+ gallons)

Heat 6 cups of water.  Melt the soap in it, add Soda and Borax and stir until dissolved.  Pour 4 c. hot water in a bucket then add the soap mixture.  Stir.  Add a gallon plus 6 c more water.  Let set up 24 hours.  It's liquid with gel globs in it.   Mine's not totally set up yet, but I've got a load of it in the wash now.  Will see how this does.

 I got half way through the recipe when I realized I had meant to half it, but had forgot to.  And I'm definitely a novice.  I tried to save energy by just pouring from that big bucket into those jugs with the funnel... on our wood floor.  And had to use all those towels to mop up. (decided to set up the jugs in the sink and heave up the bucket after the big spill).

 Guess my floor needed mopping.  Yuck.  Actually, on closer inspection, I discovered the detergent had taken off the finish of about a 2 ft sq. spot in the middle of the kitchen.... well, Praise the Lord for old, splintered, creaky, worn down floors, I guess!  This spot doesn't stand out at all from the rest of the house.  So if you're needing to get that old finish off your floors, here's the recipe!  Doesn't even take any elbow grease!

 My freezer.  Of course, again like a novice, I forgot to write down what I had in there.  So now I get to unload it all, make a list of what have, and load it up again.  Thankfully, it's not that big.  But from my recent adventures I have 5 meals plus leftovers of spaghetti sauce, 1 Mexican casserole, 3 cups of taco meat, 3 c of browned hamburger, and 3 meals plus leftovers of Minestrone.

That ice cream is calling my name! AH!

A lot of things happened during all this work that could probably have frustrated me.  But as a wise experienced friend just told me recently (before all this), there just so much exploring for a young wife and mom.  Lots of mediocre meals, sunken loaves of bread, grocery shopping gone awry.  I guess she's right.  Columbus had no intention of landing in the Bahama Islands, and I had no intention of discovering finish remover.  Yet, all in all, it felt quite satisfying to get all this done.

By the way, spaghetti stains remain.  And it's one of my favorite shirts!  Why was I making spaghetti sauce with it on?   Well, I have a few more things to try.

**Lol, Micah and Lydia woke up part way through my post and have been playing in the living room.  Micah just called to me to say, "We're having a good time.  We're having Micah and Lydia time!" (That means, "Don't come in yet, Mom.").  LOVE it!**