Productivity

The past week or so has been a mixed bag of days where I feel like I was able to do a lot and days where I did nothing. The days that I do nothing are days that I am trying to fight back nausea, headaches, and general feelings of craziness in my body. The days that I feel productive are the days where I am able to mostly ignore all of that stuff.

Unfortunately, Father's Day was a day that literally had my on the couch all day! Blech! Luckily, Alan is a sweet guy who likes to cook and enjoyed cuddles with his kids. He did get a Droid, so he really can't complain too much, right?

Luckily, today has already been oodles better! I was able to fold 3 loads of laundry (and put them away!), semi-organize more clothes given to little miss Caroline (adorable stuff! Thank you, friends!), unload and load the dishwasher, and even make a batch of laundry detergent! Yes, you read that correctly.

You see, months ago my cousin had posted on her blog about the joys of home-made laundry detergent. Five years ago I would probably have laughed it off as some psycho thing that only crazy people do . . . and yes, my cousin is crazy, but that's why I love her. However, over the past few years I have become more and more aware of many things, including all the added ingredients put into things that we eat and use. So I didn't pass this one off as crazy. I passed it off as awesome and I couldn't wait to try it. I went shopping and bought all the bits and bobs needed (3 ingredients, no big deal), and those items sat in the laundry room for months. Until today! Hooray! Aside from the money I'm saving, I'm also helping out two people I love very much - Alan and Caroline. They both have eczema and all the added stuff in soaps really irritates their skin. Now I don't have to buy the super spendy laundry stuff because I have a home-made, all natural alternative! Yay!

Interested? Here's the recipe I used - it is a dry mix, but there are liquid mixes out there, too. I found all ingredients at my local grocery store (WinCo).

1 bar Fels-Naptha Soap, grated
2 cups Washing Soda (NOT Baking Soda)
2 cups Borax

I used my box grater for the soap, but if you want to use a food processor, you can. Then I just mixed all the ingredients together and put them in a glass canning jar. You need 1 tablespoon of soap per load. Pretty kickin', I'd say!

I put Caroline in her high chair, gave her a cup of milk and some crackers. I was done before she was. Awesome!

Hopefully I will keep feeling good today so I can get more done. There's unpacking/packing still to do aplenty. Crossing my fingers!