Homemade Laundry Soap

Here is the 18 gallons of laundry soap I have been making for nearly 3 years now.

INGREDIENTS:
Three bars of Fels Naptha (Top Foods $1.59 per bar)
Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate).
Borax Powder
Grate or chop up 3 bars of Fels Naptha. This has been around as a laundry bar for over 100 years now.


Melt on stove in 54 cups of water. This is the longest part but still only takes about 40 minutes.


Once melted add 4 1/2 cups of Borax powder. I paid about $4.50 for this 4lb 12 oz box.

Add 4 1/2 cups of Washing Soda (not baking soda). This is sodium carbonate. I bought this 50 lb bag for $19.00 nearly 3 years ago and still have lots of it left. You can find this at many pool supply places. It has a higher PH and gives your clothing a good cleaning.

Here I have it added to the Fels Naptha soap mixture. It dissolves in about 5 minutes. Make sure to stir it really good.

I had my husband transfer the mixture into our 22 gallon container we've been using. Now add 235 cups of water. Yes, 235 cups of water. We have a line on our big, black pot we used to melt this all together in that is 55 cups so we only have to fill a little over 4 times. Maybe use a milk jug as that holds 16 cups. Hopefully, you have something larger. Stir with a stick or something large several times a day for the next 12 hours or so or it will gel up.

We bought this 55 gallon barrel at an Ocean Spray cranberry factory for $3 last year. I asked my husband if he could configure it to hold our soap. We already took some out as you will see below but it looks like we will get nearly 3 batches in here. So, I guess I will be making another batch next week if I don't have the baby by then.

Here are some of our gallon milk jugs filled with the soap from the barrel in the garage. It makes it very convenient for many months to come. The clothes wash wonderfully in this and smell so good. We've had no complaints about using this formula so far and the savings is phenomenal. We used to go through all 18 gallons in about 9 months. Now we are going through it pretty quick with all of the kids.

You can use as little as 1/4 cup of this detergent. We use a full cup though as we have kids playing on the farm and Matthew working with chickens, etc...

Upcoming Pictures...

First of all, things are looking great these past few days with my pregnancy. I do feel that I may have an early baby and hope so. There are some signs... : )

Here are some posts I will be posting in the upcoming week:

Making homemade laundry soap - 18 gallons
Our homemade pizza
Sugar cookies from my favorite cook book
Little Matthew's haircut from daddy
Homemade scones
Collards from our garden
Matthew's stainless steel table he built

I may be posting a little less frequent since the baby is nearly due. But, you can count on me to post tons of baby pictures for the first several months after little Leah is born. I can't wait to meet her. Our children are just beautiful to us and so precious. After three hard years of learning to adapt to having to be on demand to everything... especially when tired or sick, we are getting the hang of it. We have a wonderful routine that has just saved us so much. It has improved the home and our marriage tremendously. We get things accomplished and have rest (8 hours of sleep and a nap many times too), teach and read to the kids daily, read the Word, sing a hymn, cook delicious meals, tend to chickens, gardening and harvesting, butcher turkeys, build things for the home, enjoy company and more. Our lives are full. They haven't been for either of us until we married and now we are in the fullness of it. It is rich. It is beautiful. We are so, so grateful. Thank You Lord, only You could have put us and this together.

In Need of Prayers - Pregnancy

I've had bleeding throughout this pregnancy. Last night it started again and I went to have an ultrasound this morning to check the low lying placenta for separation. Unfortunately the ultrasound won't pick it up unless it's 30% or more separation. It looked fine. The doctor noted the amount of blood with the exam though and sent me to Labor and Delivery with a warning that if it didn't stop within a few hours they would be doing a c-section TODAY! I prayed and prayed while there during my 7 hour stay. The bleeding did cease but started again lightly right before my release. They do not know why the bleeding. It could be the placenta separating or the placenta growing into my c-section scar which is not good. Please pray for the health of our baby, my health and that the next time I go in will be to deliver a baby vaginally. I was just in last week for bleeding. I am on complete bedrest and know that if I go in for ANY kind of bleeding again they will do an automatic c-section. I am just humanly scared, but I also love being in the position of having to turn something completely over to the Lord. My eyes look upward now so much more than when all was well. Thank you for your prayers.

Getting to be Closest of Friends

We always heard that one of the benefits of having children close together is that they will be best of friends. We are already starting to see that this year with Elisabeth and Hannah. I pray they will be close throughout their lives and that they will be of comfort to one another one day when a spouse dies.

Jumbo Garlic and Sweet Onions

Last week my husband gave away some of our roosters and Lloyd gave us some jumbo garlic and sweet onions from his garden. Boy, what a treat!!! The fragrance is delightful.

Fresh Snap Peas

Here are some fresh snow peas from our garden. We have so many of them that we cannot keep up with picking them. We've given much away, sold some, tried to make baby food - yuck, too fibrous and have eaten much. The girls love to pick these and eat them raw. Yet, if I put any greens on their plate they will not touch them. Live local? Stop on by to get some fresh snow peas. : )

Baby Chicks Made it to Kansas

We sent these baby chicks out to a family in Kansas about a couple of weeks ago. The hatch we "intended" to send out to this family ended up hatching and needing to be sent out on Labor Day. Of course the Post Office was closed but thank God we had more hatches coming up. Here are some pictures of this special event.

Hatched and just a few hours old.

Getting ready for the journey

To the Post Office you go you little chickies!!! May God be with you on your journey.

They arrived to their destination 36 hours or so later - All alive. They did lose two since then but we recently sent them a hatch of 29 chicks and they made it as well and are thriving beautifully. They are well taken care of.... especially by their new momma! : )

Daddy Workin?

Matthew goes out each day for some time to do some of his work in the garden and fields. Hannah looks out the window when she realizes daddy is gone and asks, "Daddy workin?"

Working another piece of our land.

This is our garden just weeks ago. You should see it now! It's huge... we even have corn stalks that were planted a wee bit late that are taller than our chests! I'll post some pictures very soon.



Here's our snow peas. We can't keep up with picking them each day. Bear in mind, this was a few weeks ago. They are much taller now and bearing plenty of peas. We pick about 4 lbs a day. We have heard that you just cannot freeze or can these because the quality goes way down. Well, I tried to freeze and then steam them with lunch yesterday and sure enough the quality went from a 10 to about a 2. So, we're giving plenty away, the girls are eating them like crazy and we just keep a pickin'!

Up close - Aren't they just beautiful? I will take some new pictures this week. They now have flowers and tons of snap peas hanging from them. They are just so pretty to me.

Real Blueberry Pancakes

Oh, these were simply delicious! My husband stored up enough blueberries from our new blueberry plants this year that I could make us some homemade blueberry pancakes.

Don't skimp - use real butter and real whipping cream.

Here are the egg whites being folded into the pancake batter.

Our blueberries

Here's the pancake recipe I use from Mr. Breakfast:

Homemade Pancakes

(8 servings)

• 2 Eggs (separated)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 cup milk (plus some for consistency)
• 1 1/3 cup
  
  flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla (opt.)

Beat egg whites until stiff - set aside.

Beat egg yolks, add sugar and salt, beat in.

Add baking powder, beat until just mixed in well.

Add flour, milk, and oil. Beat until smooth(not too much otherwise the baking powder won't react correctly) add vanilla.

Add egg whites to batter and FOLD gently. Let batter sit for 15-30 minutes prior to cooking.


Have a great breakfast!!!

Cleaning Green Beans

My husband is such a good father. He really includes our daughters in a lot of things. Here they are cleaning green beans together to put in our freezer.

Everyone looks so happy!

Fleece Dresses - Getting Ready for Winter

I made some dresses for the girls out of fleece. It is mighty cold and windy here in the winter and these will keep them warm and toasty. So far they've worn them for dress during the day and for nighties at night when it's dropped down to the 50's in temperature. They are comfy!

Here's Hannah

Elisabeth playing with her playdough

All Smiles!

Fun with Blocks

Hydrangeas

Here are some beautiful hydrangeas from our yard. They are special to me as they were our flower when Matthew and I got married. We had a small intimate wedding at our friend's John and Karen's. They have a beautiful home and Karen and some other ladies put everything together for us... the flowers from her garden, a cake from Rosa who has been cooking for probably over 50 years now (catering, owned a restaurant, culinary student in France). I wish I could remember the cake. I wish I could remember the flowers. I just remember being nervous and excited. My husband to be and I were to kiss for the first time in 2 1/2 years after being announced husband and wife. It felt strange. It felt like I was kissing my brother - though I don't have a brother. About an hour later though we went outdoors and snuck a kiss and he didn't feel like my brother anymore....

What do you do with Leftover B-day Cake?

Silly - you top it with homemade blackberry preserves! We pick tons of blackberries each year down our driveway and make yummy things like this. Of course this cake isn't 3 weeks old, I pulled out a couple of pieces from the freezer for me and Matthew to eat after the kids went down for a nap.

Matthew and His Cute Pajamas

I found these comfy, cute pajamas at the Goodwill about a week ago. He was just so snuggly soft in them, I had to keep hugging and kissing him.
Matthew is 10 months old already. He's moving around so much and so heavy for me right now as I am 33 weeks pregnant, that it's hard to hold him much anymore. It makes me sad sometimes. : (

Big Family Cookin'

Earlier this month I bought a 22 quart, stainless steel stockpot at Walmart for big family cookin'. I know one day with just four hungry kids and probably more, we will get good use out of this pot. I plan on using it for making big batches of soups, stews, etc... and freezing a lot of it. I've already used it for split pea soup to pull out of the freezer sometimes after the baby is born.

Here it stands next to my old 12 quart pot.

Homemade Noodles

We've been making homemade noodles for about 2 years now. We love them and just can't go back to the store bought. Anyone can make them and the ingredients? Egg, flour and salt.

First, crack 2 eggs into a bowl.

Add 2/3 cup of flour and stir with a fork.

Add one more 2/3 cup of flour and stir really, really good. Add a couple dashes of salt now too.

Get your hands in there and mash it around. Squish it, mash it, whatever you need to do to get it into a firm, solid consistency.

Now we just bought a hand crank pasta maker last year. You really don't need one of these to make wonderfully, delicious noodles. If you don't have one, just roll the dough out on a floured surface until it is the thickness you desire for the noodles you are making. I always had Matthew roll these out. They take some serious man-power to roll them out well! Here, I rolled out a sheet as I wanted to see how it works for future lasagna.

Here's my noodles for our chicken noodle soup.

And walla - here's our deliciously fragrant chicken noodle soup. It was wonderful.

All Three Playing Together

I found this fun toy at a garage sale last week for only $2. What a find! It has all sorts of activities they can play with on this including a magnetic board with letters, shapes and the appropriate holes to place the shapes in, zippers, buttons and more. Here they are all playing together. We have so much joy watching all of our children play together.

The Girls' Baby Animals

I downloaded the camera and saw that Matthew had taken a picture of the girls playing beddie by time with their stuffed animals - drinks, blankies and pillow. I'm sure they all slept really good.

Leah's Blankie

Here is Leah's blankie I made for her. And the first blankie I have made. All the kids have their own blankie (store bought) and they love it. They take it to bed with them and Hannah still has to have her blankie after she falls down or gets hurt. Here is a blankie I made for Leah this week. I am happy with it and I think she will be too!

Here's the bassinet she will sleep in. The other kids slept in this until they were almost ready to turn over. I bought it before we got married as I knew at one point we would be having kids. I remember it sat in my apartment and I would just stare at it. Now it's been filled three times and is about to be filled with a new baby again. I love how the Lord unfolds things in our lives.

Here's the blankie all laid out.

A close up of the fabric I coordinated with it.

Dinner from our Neighbors

YUMMY! We invited our neighbor over to get a bag of our snap peas grown from our garden. And look at what he brought us over! It was delicious. We finished the rest at lunch today.

This corn we got from Jim the bee man the day before. So, we had to have it accompany our wonderful salmon. We had some fresh green beans also from our garden and some homemade rolls I made from a James Beard cookbook.

Labor Day - Giving Thanks to God

Many of us here used to work outside the home. Here we can give thanks that our work is inside the home now and pray for those who want to come home.

Thank You Lord that my work is productive now inside the home and that You have changed my heart to seek after heavenly things. I thank You that when I did have to work that You gave me hope and a place in my heart that it would only be for a season... Let me pray for the women who work outside the home that I do not judge but pray that You will instill a place in their hearts to want to come home even at sacrifice of giving up the greater things of the world for the greater things of Christ. Let those who work outside the home be a testimony through you Lord. And though they be separate You put them together with their own kind. Let me be more thankful that I am home than when I first came home in 2005. I am forgetful and take much for granted Lord. I forget how easy it was not to complain as I knew I could have been at work that day. I pray for our brothers and sisters who labor outside the home that they be good stewards and diligent and upright in the midst of a corrupt and vile people Lord. Help them Lord. Let us pray for them. Many are weary and need strength. Let us pray Lord...