Hi Grandma

Your cowboys miss you!

Hope you are having fun in Italy!
Give Aunt Linda hugs & kisses, too!

Laundry Love

Laundry. It is never done, is it? And that is okay now. I've shifted my thinking from chores being done to being done for now. Reoccurring household tasks are managed instead of finished. The weight of never having anything finished is lessened for me. For I am certain we will continue to wear clothes & eat off of dishes. The kitchen that is all cleaned up from one meal will be quickly undone with the next.

I find that typically doing laundry twice a week works well for me. Once a week laundry was too much to complete easily and had us scrambling for matching tops and bottoms by the seventh morning. A load a day didn't work because I usually forgot it either in the washer or dryer and there wasn't always enough for a light or dark load.

To add to the fun our laundry room is the far end of the guest powder room and the only bathroom downstairs. Nice. Because doesn't everyone want visitors to see all the laundry all the time? I am thinking this layout was designed by a man. It is a narrow, long space with hardly room to turn around, especially with a laundry basket in hand.

I divided the bathroom side from the laundry side with a lace curtain hung on a tension rod. Of course, I know people peek around the curtain, but at least it is better than nothing. I decided a few years ago to try and make the space more pleasant to look at and so I hung all sorts of little things that make me smile including Scripture I need to be reminded of throughout my days. Might as well look at something nice.

A few weekends ago Sweetheart added some shelving for me which has really helped out a lot! Since the room also holds my flour mill and buckets of grain, I need to be able to use every inch of space. He widened the existing shelf and added two more for now. What a difference.

Now, I have a place to store not just my laundry things, but also my oils and some of my stuff for making lotions and balms. I love it. Having everything together was helpful the other day when I needed to make more laundry detergent.

I wrote before about making detergent. It is so easy and takes so little effort. One can hardly call it "making" detergent as it is just assembling ingredients at this point. I stopped making it in gel for a couple of reasons. One, it seemed to dry out in the bucket I used because I had no lid. Second, I was in a hurry one day and didn't want to wait for it to gel up. Poor planning on my part, but oh well.

Now, I just grate and stir. I added lavender essential oil to this huge batch and it adds a subtle, but lovely fragrance to the whole room when I wash. I made a quadruple batch that I believe will last for months.

I grated eight bars of Ivory soap to 4 cups of borax and 4 cups of washing soda. I added some lavender oil though it is not necessary. That is it. Use about a teaspoon per load and you are done. I figure this batch will last for months. (I wrote a note with the amounts and dates on it so I can keep track of how long it lasts for future reference.)

Why am I doing this? It is cheap, works great, and only has a light fragrance to it. It also doesn't contain all sorts of things that I can't even pronounce. Some one else figured out that it costs about three cents a load to use. Can't beat that! Once we get our own soaps made, I will use that in place of the Ivory.

There is a soap called Fels Naptha some people swear by, but I can't seem to find it. That said, do be aware that washing soda and baking soda are not identical. Sweetheart found this link that tells you how to make washing soda from baking soda, but I haven't tried it out myself. I wanted to pass it on though as washing soda is not always easy to find.

Now, if only the dishes just had to be done twice a week...

Autumn Images

We are enjoying an amazing Indian Summer here in Colorado.
After 18 inches of snow last week, we've been embracing these gifts of golden days.
I've been surprised to discover there is still life in the garden, from flowers to herbs.
While the boys were napping, I went out back and just laid in the grass for awhile reading and relaxing.
Bliss.
While I relaxed, tomatoes were roasting away in the oven filling our home with the delightful scent of tomatoes, olive oil and herbs.
When the three trays are done in a few more hours, I will be down to the last four pounds of tomatoes from the garden.
That's 76 pounds of tomatoes eaten or preserved since this time last month.
The remaining four pounds are still ripening.
Blessed.

Another Autumn Luncheon

It is such an absolutely gorgeous day here today so the boys and I enjoyed our lunch on the front porch.
It was a lovely meal though a bit more informal than my last luncheon.
They sure do love fresh peas. ("Green balls, Mama!")
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I actually started making gifts in January and continued until April when we really devoted all our extra time to the yard and gardens. Summer was spent still working in the garden and fall on preserving the harvest. Now it is November and I need to get back in the swing of creating!
Though I find I am low on ideas.
Most of my family has already been given my homemade body products. And I wonder if jars of preserves are really considered a gift? I love handmade gifts the best, but have a hard time not just sharing those things year round. We are also planning to do most of the giving to charity this year, I believe. Still, decisions, decisions! I'd better get to work.
PLEASE feel free to leave suggestions!!!!
What are you planning for holiday gifts?

Secret ;) Sources

My husband is the Internet Shopping Guru. He happily spends hours searching for The Best Deal. Of course, this occasionally means that we have an...abundance...of materials. These are the sites he has found that have the best prices for the things we use.

Some offer specials at different times, and/or have the best total prices with shipping. You may be able to find better prices on specific items just by looking around. If you do, please share them with us! Also, feel free to add any other sites in the comments that you think we should know about.

The Chemistry Store has everything from Shea Butter to Lip Balm Tubes to Beeswax. US Plastics is a great company and has all sorts of things including the buckets we store our grain in to keep it fresh. Rebecca's Apothecary is in Boulder and where I go if I need something quickly, or just in smaller quantities. Her prices are higher, but sometimes it is more convenient.

Well, hope that helps you out! I've been so busy with canning that most other products have taken a back seat. I think I will be doing an Etsy store in the next few weeks so you can also just purchase some of the finished products.

That's My Boy!

Dumpling Slides Too!

Happy Boy-Answer to Prayer

We went out the other day to enjoy the amazing Autumn weather. (I am sure glad we did as we are staring at about 18 inches of snow in the lowest parts and it is still coming down.)
Pumpkin has been trying to overcome his fear of going down slides. He's been praying for Jesus to help him go down the slide every meal for a few weeks now. He went down by himself and that feeling of falling was too much for him. He would go down with me, but did not want to go solo. Dumpling has no fear at all, of anything. Go figure.
The other day was the day. We parked by a lake and the boys wanted to go play on the playground part. It had a double straight slide, not too high. Up he went! About 100 times. Thank you, Jesus.
Isn't that look of pure joy priceless?

Homemade Vapor Rub

I remember having Vicks Vaporub smeared all over when I was sick as a child. I loved the stuff! It always smelled good and fresh to me. Now, though, I prefer not to use petroleum products on my skin. Also, Vicks Vaporub is NOT recommended for kids under two. The reasons for that make me think it probably isn't much better for my guys who aren't much older.

I looked up a few other homemade vapor rub recipes and decided to come up with my own to use what I have on hand. Some of the recipes were vague, others had you pouring essential oils into a tub of Vaseline. If I wanted that, I'd just buy the Vicks!

The 1/4 cup beeswax to 1cup oil ratio works so well for my Healing Balms that I thought it would make a nice consistency for a homemade vapor rub as well. We all love the balm and use it all the time. It has been a big hit around here and with my friends as well. It goes on smooth, but not greasy or sticky.

I whipped a batch up of this today and it smells great. We are all well here, but I thought it would be nice to have something on hand because it seems like the rest of the city is sick. I have a jar I use for my beeswax concoctions so I just put the oil and beeswax in that and melted it in the microwave for about three minutes, until the beeswax had melted. The entire process has taken longer to type up than to actually make.

It was overwhelming when I first poured all the oils in and reminded me of the Mint Room on the Celestial Seasonings Tea Tour. However, now that it is in the jars and cooled it smells fine. I rubbed a bit on me to test it out and it is nice. I'm glad to have one more thing we can use that is a bit more natural.

Homemade Vapor Rub Recipe:
Melt 1/4 cup Beeswax in 1 cup Olive Oil. Add in 15 drops Peppermint Essential Oil & 10 drops of Eucalyptus Essential Oil. Stir and pour into containers. Let cool and rub on as needed. Breathe easy!

*****************Edited: I ended up going back, remelting the rub and adding in about twice the amounts of Peppermint & Eucalyptus EO. When I first was mixing it the amount seemed strong, but when I actually used it, it wasn't really. NOW it will really work. I'd suggested experimenting yourself to see what works best for you. Let me know how it works.

Kitchen Notes

I am still processing apples & tomatoes.
I am planning on making some homemade Vicks Vaporub stuff today. Hopefully, I get some Body Butters done today as well.
Then, there's bread & apple strudel for tomorrow--unless we get snowed under completely. It's looking pretty white out there.
There is a Puffy Pancake with Apples baking in the oven and it is time to make a pot of tea or coffee. Maybe both.
What are you hoping to do today?
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Links: Puffy Pancake Recipe & Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe