Wednesday, January 14, 2009

~around the home~

Hi everybody~
We have been having a serious cold spell around here. Nothing exciting is going on, just playin' and cleaning and laundry and meals and schoolwork and being preggo. Yup, the normal ol' stuff. I took some pics around the house recently and thought I would post a pic blog. Here ya go: (in no particular order, since I don't want to take the extra time to move 'em all around)

Remember that "sitting/nursing area" I had talked about? Well, here is the "area" - obviously I still have to find the *perfect* chairs. For right now, we just have our extra dining room table chairs set up there. Not very comfortable.....but someday.....

Here's the new grater my dear hubby bought me so I could grate up the Fels Naptha soap for my homemade laundry soap. It worked great! And it's cool looking too (which is why it's displayed on my dining room shelves)!


Just your basic, everyday, generic laundry soap container. This is what my homemade laundry soap goes into once it is made up - I add in the lavender essential oil to this container as well.


Here's the homemade soap that's still sitting in my 5-gallon bucket in the laundry room. I'm obviously still working through the first large container of soap (see previous pic). What's left in this bucket will make up many more containers......so I'm thinkin' this will save us $$ big time!!


Here is my eldest son eating his breakfast one morning. I know it's a dark pic, but I wanted you to see his Ohio State hat. He literally wears it ALL DAY LONG. He takes it off only once he has gotten into bed (he then lovingly places it on the end of his bed) and when he gets in the shower (oh, and for prayers). He's adorable!!


Just a loaf of my bread machine whole wheat bread. The picture hardly does it justice, but it is just as soft as the store bought kind (hard to get with homemade WW bread) and has great texture. Yet, I'm actually not a HUGE fan of completely WW bread - so I'm going to try my hand at some 1/2 white- 1/2 WW loaves next.


Here's what on my kitchen island. A basket of lemons. I've been trying to get in AT LEAST one glass of lemon water a day. But let me tell you, when you first start this, STAY NEAR A BATHROOM that day! It definitely has a "cleansing" effect (sorry, kinda gross).


A new crockpot dish from A Year of CrockPotting (2008). It is crock pot enchiladas and it turned out really good. We'll tweak a few things next time (just to our family's tastes) ~ it's definitely going on our regular menu (and so easy).
So there ya go - just some random pics.




Here's some random facts as well:


*I found my old bluetooth and can now answer and talk "hand's free". This is a wonderful thing, as I usually just can't answer the phone 'cause I'm changing a diaper, or mixing up dinner, or folding laundry, or whatever.


*I finished my first prototype (sp?) of my very own crocheted "sleep sack". It turned out really cute, although I do want to try a few things differently next time. When I get one I really like, I'll snap some pics and show ya~


*My 3yog has finally begun pooping in the potty (and no, I don't want to hear all your success stories about training your children at 1 & 1/2.....please.....this is hard enough ;)
She has pooped in the potty before, then regressed and was "scared" for about 6 months or so (yes, a LONG time). We are on day two of pooping in the potty of her own accord ~ so I am thrilled!!


Thus is my life ~ ain't it grand!!



p.s. I'm a little freaked out 'cause I found out some people at my church have "found" my blog (not that I was actually trying to hide it or anything). I'm not concerned they won't "like" me or anything......I just would never want to reflect poorly on my dh or his ministry 'cause someone takes something I say the wrong way or I'm having a rough day or whatever. So if you are one of those people, take everything I say with a grain of salt - this is just my personal journal type of thing. I may not even agree with what I said a year ago or a week ago, honestly. Luv ya~

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the pic of the soap. i just got home from Meijer and I have all of the ingredients upstairs in the kitchen, minus a 5 gallon bucket which I need to pick up. I got vegetables and dip for tomorrow too. Let me know if there is anything else.

brooke

Unknown said...

Hope the soap works out for you guys. I will say, I have to be more diligent with the laundry - in that, I have to watch out for STAINS more than I used to. If I see a stain, I will rub some soap on it or spray it with Shout! Otherwise, they just don't come out as easily as with the store-bought stuff.

But as long as I'm paying attention, the laundry seems to be getting nice & clean. And yes, I still use bleach with my whites - and they seem fine thus far too.

I'll probably have to "re-load" my large soap container with more of the concentrated stuff from my 5-gallon bucket this weekend. Yet even if I have to reload it 2X's a month, we will still be saving $$ big time. I *am* trying to cut back on laundry in other ways too (i.e. having the kids actually *look* at their clothes at the end of the day to *see* if their clothes are dirty or not - plus wearing their jammies more than one night in a row, arg!!) - but we still just have a lot of laundry to do.

Anyways, let me know how it goes~
L.

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say Oxy-clean, Oxy Magic (what i'm currently using) works wonderfully. And I'm a self-professed LOVER of bleach!!!! I do pre-treat stuff w/Zout (WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY better than Shout, or spray and wash, check it out, really!)

Oh, and instead of Fels-Nalpha, you can use Ivory soap. It's probably cheaper too, you can get a 6 pack of Ivory soap.

~Danielle

Anonymous said...

okay, so I have unbelievable quantities of laundry soap now. I have about 2 1/2 gallons of the concentrated stuff still in a bucket because I ran out of containers to hold it in mixed with water. Is your bucket that you have stored away the concentrated stuff, awaiting water when you refill your laundry soap container? Just making sure.....I think I am going to be set for a looooooooooooooonnnnng while!

Brooke

Unknown said...

Yes, that big ol' orange bucket in my laundry room is the *concentrated* stuff - awaiting more water when I put it in my large container.

So yes, you will be set for a LONG time! Now granted, I am going through the soap TWICE as fast as I was my store bought laundry detergent - 'cause you are supposed to use 1 c. of it in top-loading machines. But still.....I'm still on my first large container.

And thanks for the Zout recommendation. I've heard good things about that in the past and just may give it a try now (since I feel like I'm depending on it more now to make sure I get those stains out). Thanks~
Lori

Julie said...

Don't worry about your little girl. My oldest boy potty trained one week before he turned 4. He was that stubborn. LOL