Homemade Laundry Soap, Version 2 . 0

Powdered homemade laundry soap - I can't believe I didn't try this before!  I think the main thing holding me back was that the recipes I had come across for the powdered version required the use of a food processor (which I don't have and don't have any plans to purchase).  Then I came upon this recipe at DIY Natural.  It seemed too easy to not try, so why not?

I used the same basic ingredients as for my liquid version, minus the water:

1 bar Sunlight soap

1 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda

1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax

I grated the bar of Sunlight soap in a large bowl using a cheese grater.  Then I added the washing soda and the borax.

Then I stirred and stirred and stirred some more...

...until I ended up with a powder.  It took about 10 minutes of vigorous mixing to end up with a fine powder.  You use 1 or 2 tablespoons per load.  This made enough to last me about two weeks.

I was skeptical about how well this would work and if it would leave a powdery residue on the laundry.  So far, after nearly 3 weeks of use, I haven't had any problems at all.  If a load is quite dirty (play clothes, etc.) I have been adding a scoop of Oxi-Clean to the water first.

Thanks for visiting today!

A Winter Sunset

This was the western sky last night...

It was so beautiful! I couldn't decide which photo to use so I used them all.  I walked down the road a little to get a good shot of the sun over the hills and there were some people pulled over on the side of the road in their truck also snapping photos.  So, I'm not the only person who runs around taking pictures of sunsets in -10C weather.  Does that make me normal? ;)

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Mid Winter on Prince Edward Island

11 February 2011

18 February 2012

It's the same lane.  It's the same car.  The car is STUCK in both photos.  The only difference is the amount of snow.   Such is life here in the winter.

Happy Islander Day to all my fellow Islanders!

Workbaskets

We have been using a modified version of Sue Patrick's Workbox system this year in our homeschool.  We do not have the space in our small home to do the original system, so I came up with this after looking at others homeschoolers' creative solutions.

I decided that we would each have an assigned colour - mine is green, Lassie's is pink & purple, and Laddie's is blue.  I already had the 2 white plastic baskets that are just barely big enough to hold the file folders and lots of plain manila file folders, which I decorated with patterned scrapbook paper.  I bought a few coloured file folders at our local discount store ($1.09 for 6).  The charts and number cards are from Sunflower Schoolhouse.  I laminated the charts and cards with clear contact paper and used Velcro dots (from the dollar store) to attach the cards to the chart.  So setting up this system cost less than $10 total.

This is Lassie's basket

Her pencil box is stored right in the basket so all her materials are ready to go.

Her work is sorted into the file folders.

Currently, folder #1 is calendar and Bible, #2 is her Bible Reader, #3 (pictured above) is the Bible Notebook, #4 is Math, #5 is her Read Aloud book, and #6 is Narration & Journal.  I do have the chart set up for 12 folders but we haven't done more than 8 on any given day so far. 

This is my basket.  Those 5 green file folders are labelled Monday-Friday.  I put the math worksheets, copywork pages, books, Bible verses, etc for each day into the appropriate folder.  I usually try to do this on Saturday.  That way, I can just grab my planner, pull the folder for the day, and organise the workbaskets in no time at all.  It took me some time to get the routine down, but I find this system is very helpful in keeping our homeschool on track. 

Thanks for visiting today!