Making my own stuff

Whew. So after a two month hiatus...

Sorry. It's been a busy couple months for us. Between work, a daughter who's turning 1 soon, and a son who just started preschool, there's chaos and then...there's more chaos.

I mentioned some time ago that I make my own laundry detergent. The ingredient list for that looks remarkably like the ingredient list for making my own dishwasher detergent, so I decided to start doing that too. It's amazing how much cheaper it is...and how much fun everyone has in the process!

So here's the schedule...
1. Go to Home Depot, get a five-gallon bucket and a lid.
2. Go to Michael's or Jo-Ann, get some essential oils (how you scent your laundry detergent is up to you, but I highly recommend getting some lavender oil too) and a container of citric acid. It'll be in the soap making section, because it's used to make bath fizzies.
3. Go to the grocery store, get a box of Borax, a box of washing soda (NOT baking soda), a bar of Fels-Naptha soap, and a gallon of vinegar. Odds are good you already have a couple empty spray bottles laying around, but if not, pick some up. If you couldn't find the citric acid, pick up a few packets of UNSWEETENED lemonade Kool-aid mix.

My total bill so far here is roughly $23.

First, let's make an all purpose cleaner. Take one of your spray bottles, fill it halfway with vinegar, then add enough filtered water to fill it up almost all the way.

Hey, that was easy!

The problem with that is VINEGAR STINKS, so add about 6-8 drops of lavender essential oil. I recommend lavender because lavender oil has the added benefit of having some antiseptic properties, so it does more than just smell nice. If you don't like lavender, you can also try rosemary, grapefruit, lemon, thyme, cinnamon, or...everyone's favorite...pine.

Next, dishwasher detergent. 2 cups Borax, 2 cups washing soda, and enough of those little packets of lemonade mix (or citric acid, if you found it) to make 1/2 cup. Mix well and put it in a jar with a lid. Use a tablespoon in each little cup in your dishwasher.

Hey, that was easy too!

Third, and longest, the laundry soap.

Cut that bar of Fels-Naptha into three chunks. Save two of them, so you can do this again later. Grate the other one into a large saucepan with four to six cups of hot (not boiling) water. Mix and keep it simmering until the soap is melted. Add a cup of Borax, a cup of washing soda, and whatever fragrance you want to use. Pour it into your bucket with enough hot water to make four gallons. Stir well, let it sit overnight, then use half a cup per load of laundry.

The vinegar will also work great in the rinse cycle as a fabric softener AND as a rinse aid in the dishwasher. Seriously.

Now....why go to all this trouble?

Because I went to the trouble and priced out everything. I could get the cleaner on sale for, say, $2.00 per bottle. And the laundry soap on sale for $10 for a 100-ounce bottle. And the dishwasher detergent for $2.00 for a box.

Now, adding everything up...I can make eight bottles of cleaner, 512 ounces of laundry detergent (that I use less of!) and the rough equivalent of one average-sized box of dishwasher soap with this $23 that I spent. Going to the store, that's...

$2.oo * 8 =$16 for the cleaner
$10.00 * 5=$50 for the laundry soap
$2.00 for the dishwasher detergent

$68. I spent $23. And I still have enough to make more of everything. It's free of phosphates, the detergent is gentle enough to use on baby clothes, and it seems to work better. I have had no trouble getting stains out of clothes, and for those of you with rambunctious sons, you know it's a big deal to be able to easily get bloodstains out of stuff.

Anyway. That's my two cents. I also make my own yogurt (inna crockpot!), but that's another post...

These are a few of my favorite things...

I got a Nook for my husband for Father's Day. He absolutely loves it, he's probably read more books in the last month than he has in the previous three years combined as a result. Also as a result, he got one and gave it to me as an early birthday gift.

It is MUCH easier than dealing with a paper copy of a book. I like the changing fonts, text sizes, the linked bookmarks, the .epub compatibility...it's been great.

I have the version without 3G, and it's only been a very, very minor nuisance. The only problem I've ever really had is that when I ordered my cover for it, it took nearly two weeks for them to get it here. That's more a gripe on the post office, really, because all the tracking info said it hit Kansas City three days before it was in my mailbox. (Seriously. I could have WALKED to the nearest Barnes & Noble, taken a nap, bought my cover, and walked back, stopping for dinner along the way in three days! I didn't, because it would be boring, plus Google Maps has me taking shortcuts through three cemeteries and the part of town where the hookers like to be, but still!)

Anyway. One of my favorite things about the Nook is "Free Book Fridays". Every Friday, there's a new free book (or two). Sometimes it's a romance novel (which I'm not interested in), some times it's a murder mystery (ooooh shiny!), it's all over the board that way. One of their free books a while back was His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik.

Which leads nicely into my OTHER new obsession, which is that series of books. His Majesty's Dragon takes place during the Napoleonic wars, and opens with the capture of a French ship by the British Navy. In the hold--and as such, part of the spoils of war--is a dragon egg. Dragons exist in this alternative history, and are capable and intelligent creatures that are part of early aerial warfare. They speak. They learn. They are not the mindless, fire-breathing creatures that we have come to expect. The dragon that hatches from this egg is Temeraire, named after another French ship that had been captured. Temeraire had been intended as a gift for Napoleon, but is instead paired with a British captain.

It's been a fascinating series. After reading the first book, we purchased the second one, Throne of Jade. When I've read a few more books to try and catch up to the ones my husband has read, we'll get the third so we can read it together.

It would be absolutely interesting to see if textbooks will ever be available in such a format....it may have its drawbacks but its benefits could certainly overcome those.

Kansas: Not as backward as you think.

Today I ramble! I talk about states, and nursing, and Mommy-monsters.

It would stand to reason that in a state that evokes mental images of rolling plains, miles of nothing, lots of cows, and sheltered farm kids who have never seen anything of city life, we would be a little more than shocked to see a mother nursing a baby in public. And it seems like in Michigan, where many of my friends live, it would not be as big of a concern. Michigan is, after all, more densely populated (which tends to make some things go unnoticed), and it's also more...progressive, I guess is the word I'm looking for here. Except it isn't.

I have nursed my children at parks, restaurants, work, church, and a college graduation (not mine). My friends who have tried anything similar have been asked to leave the establishments they're in, or to go into a bathroom, or the car, etc. (At least, for parks and restaurants...I didn't ask about church or graduations.)

It surprises me, because Kansas always has been and always will be more conservative than Michigan. Before I moved to Flint to go to college, I envisioned the whole of Michigan to be like Detroit, which I had seen when I was younger on a trip to Niagara Falls. (We covered a lot more ground than that, but the Ambassador Bridge was why we were in Detroit.) I thought it was a sprawling city, full of busy people and loud conversations.

It was the middle of my first semester, when one of my friends invited me to her hometown for a weekend, before I saw my first Michigan small town. It was another two years before I went camping in the Upper Peninsula.

My Michigan born-and-raised husband, on the other hand, always believed Kansas was boring and featureless. Imagine his surprise when he discovered the county I grew up in is one of the wealthiest in the nation, and is also starting to succumb to urban sprawl.

Anyway, back to my initial topic. It surprises me that I can break out one of the girls in public here, and nobody even looks up; and in Michigan, which is supposed to be more liberal and relaxed about such things, people panic when a mother covers up her shirt with a blanket, because there's only one thing that could mean...THERE ARE BOOBIES UNDER THERE.

Bad news, sports fans....they're always there.

Kathryn Blundell of Mother and Baby UK Magazine recently published an article called "I Formula-Fed. So What?", which claims she thought the idea of breastfeeding to be "creepy" and ultimately decided she couldn't be bothered to breastfeed because she wanted her body back, along with the ability to start drinking again. (Couldn't find a link, if you know where one is please let me know.)

(Please don't contact her. I'm sure she's heard more than enough abuse for her words.)

She claims she did it for all of the formula-feeding mothers who are feeling oppressed by the breastfeeding mothers with a superiority complex. But the fallout has been imaginably severe. The breastfeeding elitists have cried foul, because they are NOT the majority and should not be portrayed as such because they're not having everything shoved in their faces.

Some of the formula-feeders are crying foul, because for them, they had no choice.

Those of us who could not manage to nurse exclusively for however long we're supposed to are crying foul, because we kind of have no place we belong. Sure, we mostly nursed, but we occasionally gave our babies a bottle, and that kicks us out of BOTH clubs.

One of my friends and I have something of an interesting history as far as our children go. She has a son who is about a month older than my son. She has a daughter about a month older than my daughter. She formula-fed her babies, while I nursed mine. I would not dare to judge her for her choice, and I will never ask her what made her choose.

Feeding a baby, no matter which route you take, is difficult. Breastfeeding needs to happen at awkward times. It's uncomfortable. It leads to leakiness and smelliness. You'll be lucky if you never get bitten. Formula feeding, on the other hand...you have to figure out which one works with your baby the best. And since there's so many choices out there, that could take a while. Not to mention the money you stand to waste if your baby has a reaction to one of them.

Here's what I think needs to happen, even though it never will:

Mothers need to stop judging one another. Everywhere. At all times.

This means: No more picking at each other for how we each feed our babies. We have our reasons for nursing or not nursing, and we're not interested in discussing them.

No more picking at each other for the clothes we buy our kids. I may never buy my daughter frilly dresses, nor my son a sweater vest, and you may never buy your kids Harley Davidson shirts or onesies with the AC/DC logo on it along with the words "For Those About To Rock...", but our kids are all cute, and they're all individuals with something worthwhile to contribute to society.

No more elitist Mommy cliques around the soccer field. And this one is aimed at myself as much as it is the people around us growing up. We never played any team sports, so my mother was always kind of left behind by the other mothers there. But now, I live in a town where my children have the potential to be the "rich kids" just because my husband and I are both lucky to have good jobs. And I will have to remind myself that financial standing does not mean a thing.

Seriously. Raising children is not a competition. Our reward for raising good children is not a medal or a trophy or the right to gloat around other parents. It's knowing that we've raised kids who can stand on their own two feet and contribute something good to this world.

And just speaking from watching my children and the others that are their age--and I have seen ALL KINDS--I am excited to see what the future holds.

Whoo. Sorry for the long post. / soapbox

Where does it stop?

Today I'm going to ask for your opinion on freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech gets invoked a lot for a lot of annoying things. Westboro Baptist "Church" uses it to spread their hate. Stuff like that.

Yet we all know it has limits. You can't print lies about someone, you can't yell "fire" in a crowded theatre, you can't say "bomb" on an airplane...limits.

But how far should those limits go?

I'm asking because recently somewhere not too far from Kansas City, someone in possession of an old rail car painted some slogan on the side of it. I don't remember what exactly it said, but I do remember it called Democrats "parasites".

Okay. He's entitled to his opinion. Does that give him the right to paint a childish insult on the side of something everyone can see?

The article I was reading about it also mentioned that it had been set on fire at least twice. The owner's response, both times, has been to paint his sign again. And we all KNOW arson is a big no-no.

And yet, it's freedom of "speech", in a way. At least, that may well be the defense the arsonist uses, if he's ever caught. And people who agree with the owner, and more to the point, agree he has the right to use his freedom of speech for namecalling, have been quick to point out that the article said nothing about the police looking for the arsonist.

So I guess the question is: does freedom of speech protect our right to hurl insults?

This may well be why I don't like politics. There's a point at which we decide civilized debate and compromise is not enough, and we must result to condescending remarks and shouting and all kinds of behavior unbecoming to adults.

I think freedom of speech should be absolutely protected. And I'll use another example from my own life here...there's a distinct difference between writing the local school board and telling them they don't have the children in mind when they make these decisions and that everyone is going to suffer from their poor choices...and writing the school board and telling them they're all morons and inviting them to jump into the river.

Politics has made it far easier and more appealing to write the second letter.

On my mind today...

So the day before I left for vacation, a television fell on a four-year-old in my hometown and killed him.

About an hour after arriving at our destination, I found out the four-year-old was the son of one of my friends.

Losing a child...always seems like one of those things that happens to other people. And heaven forbid, if it happens, it's like being stuck in some awful Lifetime movie until it hits you, every so often, that it isn't a movie, it's your life.

His mother donated his organs. He's a hero, just like he wanted to be. But still, I would give a great deal to be there for her tomorrow, to give her a hug and tell her that the best approach is to take things minute by minute, and if you need fifteen minutes to go somewhere and cry, that's fine.

When my son was stillborn, it took a therapist to tell me something that sounds cheesy, but it has new meaning for me. He told me, "It's okay to be okay."

I never understood what that meant until I was faced with something like this. It means that, two weeks later, someone's gonna tell a joke, and you're gonna laugh, and everyone's going to look at you like you're about to crack. Like maybe they think you have already. But you haven't. And nobody should ever feel like it isn't okay to smile, and if it ISN'T okay to smile, then that dumb SOB shouldn't have been trying to make you laugh in the first place.

Just saying.

It's hard to believe people get famous doing this.

Even if it's halfway-fame.

Seriously. I'm kind of a nobody right now. Nobody's going to read this, in all likelihood (full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?) because most of the world doesn't know who I am. And I'm cool with that. Nobody really gives a flying rip that I'm a short, hot-tempered, mother of two. They may half listen when I say I make my own cleaning supplies, but only in a "huh, wonder why" sort of way. And yet, there's people out there who get famous for logging on to tell the world their opinion of soccer or the newest movie or something.

It's hard to believe people get famous for blogging.