Natural Homekeeping

Here's an easy, all-natural all-purpose helper for you.  It's my kitchen scouring/scrubby stuff.  Do you get coffee or tea stains in your cups?  A dirty pan with junk that sticks?  Dirty sink?   I even use it on those fresh eggs that need a little more than a rinsing to get off whatever the hens left on them.
 
What's in it?  When I started doing this years ago it was just baking soda.  Now, I mix baking soda, some kosher salt and a few drops of lemon essential oil.  The salt gives a little more scrubbing power and the lemon oil just because I love the smell.  I know it does have disinfecting qualities as well, but it's mostly in there just cause I love it.  It makes me smile.  Don't worry if you don't have any.  It's not required.  Just add a few drops, if you have it, and mix it all well.  Too much might make it clump and be hard to shake out of the jar.

Why do I love this?  It's so easy and it works so well!   Just shake it on the wet surface you want to clean and scrub away.  Sometimes, if stuff is really stuck  I sprinkle it in the pan I need to scrub and let it just soak for a bit before scrubbing.  Those tea and coffee stains just disappear like magic!

It's my daily sink cleaner.  When I need to, I spray on vinegar for disinfecting.  And yes, sometimes even I break out the Ajax, but only when I think it's really needed.  For most things, this is enough.

I used a half-pint canning jar.  At first, I just took a canning lid and hammered a
few nail holes in it.  Eventually, Sweetheart upgraded it for me and drilled holes into this cute gingham lid set I happened to have.  (I love gingham, don't you?  It's such a happy thing!)  Really, any jar with a lid you can pierce could be used.  Since this is cute, it just sits out on the counter all the time within easy reach.

Disclaimer:  Do be careful of sharp edges on the holes, especially if you use a nail.  Be smart people.

Let me know if you try this!  Also,  if you're looking for other easy, all-natural ideas, click here!


Linking to the Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop.

"How?"

How an average suburban mom has transformed her average life to one of simple joys and basic living. Or, how I became sewing, canning, gardening, organic eating, flour milling, cracker cooking, bread baking, deodorant, hairspray, lotion and lipbalm making Mama.

Awhile back I wrote about the changes we have made to simplify our lives. That post is here with an update here. Those posts are more about what we've changed and why. This post is more of the how. We have continue to grow and change and add more things to our lives, usually in the way of removing something else. In others words, instead of buying things we are making more and more ourselves.

So much is so different than even two years ago. If you had tried to talk to me then about canning or preserving food, or simple cleaning products, I would have smiled and been clueless. I even remember a mom speaking at Mops around then of all the natural things they did and used. I only half listened, one because I was holding my newborn and two because I thought a lot of the ideas were too different. I didn't know anyone doing those things, wasn't raised that way, didn't much care, and generally was just busy doing my own thing.

We figured we were doing fine happily raising our family doing a lot of what we saw everyone around us do. Not having television and having babies at home had already set us apart from a lot. For us, when the change came, it came quick and took over.

I've been asked several times about how we started doing all these things. By "all these things", it is usually meant all the things I make here at home. So much of it has been just absorbed into my daily routines I hardly notice it until someone mentions it. Then it is sorta funny to me to remember that not everyone is excited to preserve 120 pounds of apples, 80 pounds of tomatoes, 40 pounds of peaches, nor pickle at least two bushels worth of cucumbers. Not everyone loves an afternoon of making healing balms, lip balms, lotions, and deodorant. Not everyone thinks about how many loaves of bread should be baked, or what style of bread we'll need for the next week or so.

I'm not writing this to say look at all I do! I write it to see if someone will come help with the dishes. No, not really. I write this to encourage and maybe inspire others to look at the type of life they want to live and to see what they can do to begin achieving it right now. I'd love to live out on forty acres in the country. To have a cow, some goats and a flock of chickens. I'd love that. I'd love to have an orchard, for the boys to have room to run and play and build and grow. Reality is that I live in an American suburb and I drive a minivan.

Some of my favorite blogs lately have been trying to field the question of how to begin living more simply. Most write a lot about baby steps and the need to not get discouraged. That's great. One thing I think that is important to realize is that a simple life is not necessarily an easier life. It would be easier to drive through Mc Donalds. It would be easier to live at the mall, or to just stay in my air-conditioned cocoon. It is a lot of work to plan ahead for a handmade Christmas, to all the gardening and preserving, to try and live according to the rhythms God has made in our world.

I sometimes think it is more of a natural life than a simple one. And it has become a foreign one in this country. Taking a step back is hard and sometimes lonely and more than once I've felt like a total dork because I have no idea what everyone is talking about that happened on the television the night before!

But, aren't we supposed to be different? To be in the world, but not so wrapped up in it? Now, I believe salvation is through faith alone in Christ Jesus. I am not going to spend eternity with Him because I live like this. Living like this though, helps me to draw closer to Him in this everyday life.

Slowing down, living at a gentler pace, allows me to stop and listen. To praise Him while I'm working in the garden. To worship the wonder of His creation as I kneel, humbled in the dirt. Thanking Him for His hand in all I see. Looking at the absolute variety in something as simple as the lettuces, or the bugs. Cupping a frog in my hands and staring at its ugly, amazing face. Tuning out the other sounds to focus on the birds, or the rustle of the breeze in the cornstalks. To feel the golden autumn glow, gently warming my back as I dig up yet another weed.

To understand the verse that says, “Unless a seed falls t o the ground and dies....” and seeing how dying to myself and my constant struggle to pour my life out for others when all I want is to be left alone. It is in that dying I will live.

Lessons appear not just in the garden. “Give us this day our daily bread,” somehow means more when I'm praying while kneading that bread. The rhythm of grating the soap to make detergent is relaxing. Knowing that He has made plants for us to use for healing and finding them to mix into a balm that will soothe a scrape, or a rash, is amazing to me.

So, how do you get started? For me it was looking at all I was buying and seeing what I could make myself. Google is an amazing resource. I would see something I knew we used or ate a lot and started looking up directions and recipes and adapting these to fit us.

Reading blogs from other women who were trying new (to me) things and learning from them has been an enormous source of wisdom. It wouldn't have occurred to me that laundry detergent or deodorant was even something you could make at home if I had not read about someone else doing it! I always figured everyone used shampoo and conditioner until I read about several women who don't and who explained how to use baking soda and vinegar instead. Their promises that I wouldn't walk around looking like an oil slick or smelling like an Easter Egg made me willing to try it for myself.

Rhonda has oodles of amazing ideas for homemade cleaners using mostly baking soda and vinegar as well. She's just full of easy tips and shares her knowledge in such a wonderful way that you feel as though she is just across the kitchen counter, not around in the world somewhere in Australia. Her Co-op pools great posts from all sorts of writers globally who love to share the things they do in their own lives. They write about what works and sometimes even more importantly, what doesn't. A few of the writers are not as interesting to me, but overall there are some wonderful articles.

I look up things on You Tube as well. There I learned how to easily peel tomatoes for canning, and how to sew bias tape without cursing. (Thank you Amy Karol!) I am not linking to You Tube, nor endorsing it for random viewing. I am jut suggesting it for those of us who need to see something to get it. Although, I still haven't managed to follow the video on teaching myself to crochet.

If something helps, I do it. If I can find an easier way to do something, or a simpler recipe, I switch. I've grown to not be afraid of failure. An awful result is rarely permanent.

So a batch of body butter isn't right? Remelt it and add more stuff. A seam seems wrong? Get the seam riper and remove it the right way and do it again and again if necessary. Stuck on a project? Stop, make a pot of tea and then try again, or try another day when things are better. Bread doesn't rise? Eat it flat and next time make sure the yeast is fresh, the water warm enough, the dough is kneaded longer. Whatever. Don't be afraid of failure! You can learn a lot, certainly a lot more than if you had never tried in the first place.

I already enjoyed baking French bread for dinners, so it made sense to expand that to making sandwich bread. That done I moved onto pita bread, tortillas, flat breads, and crackers. Why keep buying the frozen Eggo waffles Sweetheart ate every morning? Find a recipe, bake huge batches and toss them in the freezer so he can happily toast what he wants each and everyday.

Making all these things requires a lot of flour. Why keep buying it in 10 pound bags? We bought a mill and I started milling the wheat myself. When the price of wheat went up at the grocery store by 70% in one month, we found a local source of 50 lb bags of wheat berries and stocked up.

I read a lot and the more I've read the more I thought about the food we buy. Our organic farm up the road led me to pay attention even more to how our food is grown and all the chemicals and pesticides on it all. So I began to seek out alternatives. I found a store that sold a lot of organic foods and natural meats. They have a wonderful bulk food section as well. I now drive across town every few weeks and load up. All the bulk purchases led to the next thing and I sewed up a ton of cloth draw string bags for all my produce and bulk things. Those little bags are also great to use instead of ziplocs and I also fill them with all sorts of little things whenever I need them. A quick trip through the wash with the homemade detergent as needed means they are always ready to go, either waiting by the front door or in the van with all the cloth shopping bags.

I grew extremely sensitive to smells and chemicals when I first became pregnant. That sensitivity has remained. When we began to change our food I knew it made no sense to eat organic and then continue to turn our house into a chemical vat every time I cleaned something. First, I transitioned to more natural cleaners having read about several people using Mrs. Meyers . Her products do work well and because of their concentrated nature ended up not being any more expensive than the regular things I had been using. As I ran out of things though I decided to see what else I could use their place. Though better, I still found them somewhat irritating.

After more reading and Googling, I've found that I can clean almost anything with vinegar and baking soda. I just pour white vinegar in a spray bottle. To clean the bathrooms I just spray pretty much every surface with the vinegar and wipe everything down. I poured baking soda and salt in a canning jar and had Sweetheart drill some holes in the lid. I shake the powder onto any surface that needs scouring. It works great on porcelain, laminates, and even stainless steel. You can add essential oils to both for fragrance, but I usually use them plain. A shaker jar, like for parmesan cheese, works, too. I just use what I have on hand. Arm & Hammer does sell a plastic container with holes in the lid, but it is not reusable and costs a lot more.

So far, I have been very pleased with my natural cleaners. I stopped using regular furniture polish because the aerosols bothered me. I used half olive oil and half lemon juice in a jar for awhile. Most of the time it worked great, but I did find that if I used too much olive oil the wood was a bit sticky. It isn't always perfect and that's ok.

I share these links and ideas knowing that some people will find them useful and some people will find them pointless. Maybe someone will file the ideas in the back of his or her mind for later. Maybe you will run out of something and not want to go to the store and decide to try to just make what you need. I hope this inspires you!

My goal is never to make someone feel bad for what they do or don't do. NEVER! I am just sharing my life because I have found ideas and inspirations from others sharing their lives. I tried to link to a lot of the directions for things, but if you are not finding what you are looking for, try the search box in the right column, or leave a comment and I will hook you up.

I wrote out most of this blog awhile back, but knew I needed to edit it and add the links. Today seems like the right day to just call it done and publish it. Maybe it was all the driving around in the country this weekend looking at farms, or maybe it is just because I am starting a new year today, but I want to get this out there.

If you have any questions or comments, be sure to leave them and I will get back to you. Also, do you want to read more along these lines? Are tutorials helpful? Any ideas strike you as something you would try? I am just curious. :)

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...

New Things & Special Places

Well, I've wrapped up quite a few projects lately and am working on more! I've been busy reading and gleaning new ideas from all sorts of places. I thought I'd share a bunch of links to some places you all might enjoy as well. The boys are napping and I've got my cup of Earl Grey right beside me. My mind is racing with all sorts of things, but I'm not sure where to start.

I'm making a renewed effort to better order my days. I've loved going with the flow lately, just taking each day as it comes and doing new things with the boys. This is good to some extent, but also leaves me feeling like I'm floundering a bit and not accomplishing as much as I'd like. I'm looking for a good balance as I seem to run to extremes. Anyone else?

I'm working on some new routines for myself and the boys. I find as the seasons change, my routines need to as well. I'm working on a list that I'll type up in a few days and post in the kitchen to help keep me on track. Tentatively, I'm planning on having Mondays as at home days. Working on cleaning and laundry need to have a set time again, or they seem to get lost in the shuffle of life.

Tuesdays will be days out. By this, I'm planning on spending our mornings doing new and favorite things with the boys. Maybe a trip to the zoo, or to a garden. We may meet up with friends somewhere, or just go exploring by ourselves. Tuesday afternoon during nap will become the time to plan the meals for the next week, clean the fridge and write the grocery list.

Our grocery store offers all the ending sales as well as the new weeks' sales on Wednesday, so it makes sense to shop that day. Since we don't grocery shop every week this also leaves a more flexible day to do something else, or have a friend come over. Wednesday afternoons will be dedicated to prepping all the groceries as needed like washing and slicing produce, breaking up bulk meats into meals.

Thursdays will be spent at home as we've got a little one planning to come over that morning each week. This will be the day to bake the breads as well as we'll be home for a long stretch. It was too much to try to do with the Monday chores. I'd either forget a load of laundry or a loaf rising! Since I make all our bread products including sandwich bread, pitas, tortillas, crackers, etc., it makes sense to do it all at once. Most of the ingredients are the same so it saves time and effort in the end. This will be done throughout the day as needed. I usually make and freeze big batches of each thing so I don't have to make everything each week.

I've marked Thursday afternoons to do desk duties as well. Whether it's writing a card, or dealing with insurance paperwork, I need a time set apart to work on these things. By Thursday there are usually one or two loads of laundry that need attention as well, so I'll squeeze those in as well since we'll be home. I was trying to do those on Friday, but it was getting all messed up and forgotten if we left the house.

Fridays are fun days. We'll play these by ear. I'm looking forward to it! Friday afternoons are set aside to touch up the house so it's fresh and clean for the weekend to enjoy.

This leaves my weekends open to enjoy. We'll see how it all goes!

Somewhere in the midst of the set things I'm trying to figure out things like making soaps and lotions and balms. I also want to make sure I'm keeping up with my sewing and crafting. These renew me and help keep me--me. Also gardening takes up more time this time of year as well.

I'm also revamping my daily routines. That's a whole other post I think!

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I've been working on new routines for the boys, too. Pumpkin is three and a half now and wanting to learn everything. I found a really neat site that I'm looking forward to exploring more and using some of the ideas immediately! She's got some great ideas for teaching the little guys that look like they'd be perfect for Pumpkin and Dumpling.
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This site is where I found the directions for an amazing new skin product. I had read the list of ingredients on the back of a Burt's Bees balm and noticed I had most of the ingredients on hand. I was looking for something to help with all the little bumps and scratches we get this time of year. Brambleberries' directions brought it all together.

The boys and I were out in Boulder to see the tulips a few weeks ago. As I was looking for a place to park we passed Rebecca's Apothecary. We went in immediately! I'd been wanting to find comfrey and calendula for a couple of recipes I wanted to try, including the balm. I found that and more! It was so nice to find a source for herbs and such without it being a really freaky place I don't want to walk in much less support. Ahem. Know what I mean?

I'm looking forward to going back soon and trying some new things. They even carried press-and-seal tea bags and sachets. I'd been looking for some for quite awhile. Perfect! They do nature hikes and show you the wild plants and herbs growing around here that you can use for all sorts of things. I'd like to go on one this summer.

When the boys napped, I filled a jar with the calendula, comfrey and a few handfuls of lavender filling the jar with olive oil. I let it steep in the sun for two weeks and then strained it. I added rosemary and eucalyptus essential oils to the olive oil then as well. Just a few drops of each, but I think I'll add more next time. Blending the oil with beeswax took hardly anytime and I filled several jars with my new concoction.

I LOVE it! I'll be making more and more. Maybe I'll even get my own etsy shoppe. :) This stuff is soooo wonderful. Seriously, the boys love it, too. It smells so clean and fresh and isn't at all sticky like others balms with beeswax that I've tried. I've even got a little jar in my purse. It is so soothing.

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Let's see...Since I'm rambling on, I'll mention a few other things I've been putting together. I've been blending our laundry detergent for awhile now and just storing it in a bucket. It works great, but I've noticed it drying out at times and not staying quite as well gelled. Yesterday as I was doing laundry I ran out of detergent, so I just blended the dry ingredients and dumped some in the wash. I figured I'd make it gel later, but wanted to keep the laundry going. Directions are here.

Anyway, I was about to clean up and wash the grater when I realized I should just grate all the bars of soap I had left. This is my least favorite part and I'd rather just have it over with for a few months. That being done, I decided I'd like to get rid of the rest of the box of borax as well. So, I just added the correct ratios of soap, borax and washing soda. I dumped it all in a glass jar and stuck a ladle in for a scoop. (About two tablespoons powder is the same as the 1/2 cup gel.) I wasn't sure how well a powdered detergent would do as the ones I used to buy didn't seem to dissolve well in our water. It worked great!

I'll probably mix some with water to keep on hand since that's what I've been using for stain remover as well. Here's an amazing post listing all sorts of ideas for natural stain removers as well. I'm sure I'll be trying them soon, too! I've also begun to add the vinegar in the rinse cycle again. I think it helps. I'd just stopped because I kept forgetting to add it at the right time! Setting a timer really helps me a lot, so it was beeping all day yesterday.

Well, I just heard Dumpling wake up, so I need to sign off. I hope you're having a wonderful day wherever you are. It's been raining here steady since midnight. I think we've had more rain since March than we usually get all year. Thanks for stopping by!

Simple Cleaning Ideas

***************Joanne's focus this week is on frugal housecleaning recipes. Click here for links to other ideas. She showed her batch of the laundry detergent. It looks much nicer in her enamel pot than my ugly black bucket, but we both just used things we had on hand--way to be frugal!*******

I've been asked what I'm doing for cleaning around the house. Avoiding it. Just joking! My cleaning agents are vinegar, baking soda. olive oil and lemon juice. In a jiffy, I can also make up a mean salad dressing! :)

I've got cheap, white distilled vinegar in spray bottles around the house. Some are half vinegar and half water, some are straight vinegar. I use them both. I use vinegar on mirrors, windows, bathrooms, floors, sinks, toilets, and occasionally little boy accidents.

Side Note: Pumpkin potty-trained himself last month. Sweet. It only took a week and accidents for the last month could be counted on one hand. It was sure easy than the first attempt last summer. Boy am I glad I quit after a few days then! This time he was ready. He's three and 1/4 for those that care.

I spray down the sinks after prepping meats for dinner and let it sit for a few minutes. It is supposed to be as effective on those germs as all the scary chemicals I was using before. We've done it this way for a year and no one has been sick.

I use baking soda/bicarbonate of soda to scour sinks, tea cups, coffee mugs, counters, tubs and more. I also use it to shampoo my hair with a vinegar rinse, but all that was posted a few posts ago. :)

I mix lemon juice and olive oil for polishing/dusting all our furniture. Works great. I've seen various ratios for this, but usually do a half and half mix I just keep in the fridge. Oil is also what I use to wash my face at night. I do a mix of olive oil and Castor oil. Here's the link for that. (Hi Joanne! Finally!)

A funny thing happened last month. Sweetheart and I were at the mall. We'd gone out to dinner for my birthday with my Dad and Stepmom and she wanted to show us some things she'd seen shopping earlier. As we were walking, a girl at a kiosk selling something offered a sample of some skin thing. I said, "No, thanks." Then she changed her tone of voice and said, "Can I ask you something?" Thinking she had a real question for me, I stopped. She asked what I used on my skin. I laughed and said, "Olive oil and Castor Bean oil with coconut oil for a moisturizer." She didn't understand. I repeated myself and she looked at me weird. She then tried to launch into her selling spiel. I said I make all my own lotions and such now and we just walked on. Hard to sell something to someone like me any more.

My skin has never felt better. It's interesting. I would have told you I had oily skin before, but now that I'm not stripping all the moisture out every time I wash it, it's not have to overproduce oil. I used to use powder on my face all day long to try and tone down the oil. Now, I'm putting oil all over my face and I don't need any powder. Weird. It still breaks out according to the time of the month, but it's always done that and probably always will. It's not perfect, but it looks healthy and feels great!

Rhonda's Blog has so many wonderful ideas on living a more simple life. This link is for various recipe for green/simple cleaning ideas. But don't stop there! Take some time to read her other posts. She's got some wonderful thoughts and ideas.

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The picture at the top is of my new gardening journal. I had an old spiral book on hand that I was planning to make into a scrap book for the year I taught Kindergarten. Since that hasn't happened and I quit teaching almost four years ago, I'm not thinking it will happen. So, I tore out a few pages I had started and was left with a blank book with some writing on the cover. I solved that by collaging pictures from gardening catalogs.

I've listed all sorts of things inside. Maybe I'll write about it later. It's been a lot of fun and since the SNOW has kept my from working on the garden the last two weekends, I'm getting a lot of planning done. I've been meaning to keep a gardening journal, but have limited myself to writing a few pages in one of my Everything Books. Now, I'm armed with a whole book just for gardening and since we've got VERY ambitious plans, I'll need a place to record what happens. I've prepped it by adding all sorts of gardening quotes, pictures and lists of all the seeds I've ordered. This way I'm not just staring at a blank page trying to fill it all.

This month's Hobby Farm Home magazine had an inspiring article. I'd been reading about what others' were doing, but nothing felt right for me until I saw this one. Guess there's a whole other post in this, but not today!