Have you ever wondered how easy it would be to make your own homemade liquid laundry soap? This recipe is not only easy, the cost is less than a few dollars per batch and each batch makes enough for 110 loads of laundry.

This liquid laundry soap works Great for High Efficiency washers as it’s not a super sudsy soap.

The ingredients you’ll need should be available at your local grocery stores or maybe big box stores.

Box of 20 Mule Team Borax – You need 1 cup – in laundry soap isle
Box Arm & Hammer Washing Soda – You need 1/2 cup – in laundry soap isle
1 bar of ivory soap (I used my own handmade soap and part of a bar of castile)
Large clean bucket enough to hold 3 gallons of water easily – I used a 5 gallon bucket we acquired from a fast food joint – it used to be filled with bags of pickles.. we got it free.
Water

The ingredients are simple enough. Should only cost maybe $10, at most, likely less (I’ve had my boxes of powders for a year or so, and have no idea what I paid for them). The two boxes of powders will last you through several batches (or use to make powdered laundry soap, or even liquid hand soap).

First, shave your bar of soap using a peeler. I used 1/3 bar of castile and a 1/2 bar of handmade soap

Once your soap is in small pieces, place a pot on the stove big enough to hold 5 cups of water. Bring the water to a boil. When it begins to boil, lower heat to simmer and put the soap in the water. I covered with a lid and let it sit.

While your soap is melting, add 3 gallons of hot water to your bucket. For ease, I used a 2 qt pitcher to fill it.

To the hot water, add 1 cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of Washing Soda. Stir with long handled spoon until dissolved.

Add the melted soap water to the bucket and stir well. If you want to add any fragrance, add it now. Since I make soap, I have tons of fragrances around. I used one called Eucalyptus Thymes – I got from a place called Sweet Cakes (their eucalyptus is the best clean smell – not like medicinal eucalyptus). Or add essential oils. If you plan to make your soaps regularly and want it fragrances, I’d suggest finding a good soap/candle supply company (maybe one local to you?) and order it – it’s Much cheaper to order your essential oils and fragrances rather than purchase from the health food store or craft store.

Cover the bucket and set aside for 24 hours. Your soap may be watery or gel up in areas, may be slightly lumpy in areas. This is normal and nothing to worry about. Make sure to smoosh up the clumps when you add it to the washer. If you have smaller containers to put your in, it may be easier to handle – I have old detergent bottles and filled mine with my “new” soap. My soap is very watery – but very soapy.

This makes over 110 loads of liquid laundry soap – and you only need to use about a 1/2 cup.

It’s been forever and a day that I enjoyed homemade rice pudding. It’s a memory from when I was about 7 years old, my grandmother and I would make both rice pudding and egg custard.

This evening, one of my daughters made dinner. It included rice – of which she made a lot. Way more rice than we needed for dinner. Spur of the minute I decided to make rice pudding with some of the leftover rice.

I search several different recipes and sort of combined what I thought I wanted. I ate mine while it was still hot, so it was still a bit soupy (like in the photo) but ooh was it yummmy! Here’s how I made mine.. remember some recipes are just a guide – and apparently this is one of them. Don’t be afraid to change it up a bit if your ingredients don’t quite fit.

I used:
3 1/2 cups of milk
2 cups of rice plus a spoonful more
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup of brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 TBS butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

I know others like raisins in their rice pudding so if you have some handy, throw some in. I didn’t have any and prefer mine without anyway.

I poured the milk into the pan my daughter had used for the rice along with my semi-measured amount of rice. I turned it on about medium (that’s about 4 on my stovetop).

While it was heating I cracked and egg and whisked it up with a fork, added my vanilla.

As the milk and rice was warming up, I measured both sugars and tossed those into the pan along with the pinch of salt. When it came to a slight boil, I turned it down to low/simmer. Stirring often.

I thought I was going to heat everything and then put into the oven on 350 to bake for half and hour, but I was too impatient so I just put in the rest of the ingredients – the egg, vanilla, cinnamon, butter and let cook on the stove about 15-20 minutes. Stirring very often to prevent scalding.

It thickened up a lot as it cooked, but after it cooled was when it really got thicker. I ate a bowl hot and put the rest in the fridge.

There were so many different rice pudding recipes, I’m just adding to the masses. I thought I share anyway since I really didn’t have a specific recipe and just muddled this one together. It is sweet, but I like it sweet.

Weeds, on Showtime Mondays at 10pm, is about a woman whose husband dies and she still has to pay the bills. Her and her two boys live in cookie cutter suburbia and she’s jobless. She makes ends meet by selling pot. It’s such a good show, the cast is awesome and it’s funny too.

But, since I’m a season behind because I never get the tv to myself, I’ve been buying each season on iTunes. So I am just now starting season 4. The first episode “Mother Thinks The Birds Are After Her” (and I suspect they are in some form or another, ha!) the usual theme song is of course, Little Boxes, originally sung by Malvina Reynolds, but sung by several different artists on the show is as always great! The ending song piqued my curiosity though, so of course, I googled.

The song is Se Puede by Los Mono. It’s got such a good beat it makes you want to grab a beer, or me, a few tequilas and lemons, and jump up and dance (and for me that says a lot since I’m not much of a dancer). I then found another song of theirs I like too called, Promesas – another great beat. And the youtube video for it is funny too — Love the dancing monkey man. See video at the end here..

I did find a translation of Promesas in both chilean and english and was impressed. The song isn’t just a hip-hop mess of words to rhyme with little meaning or story behind it. Rather than just reword what’s been said, here is a quote by Sonic360 regarding Los Mono and the album playing these two songs:
“Not only is Somos Los Que Estamos a full on high-energy blast from start to finish, the album is an adventure with a moral message; promoting creativity, originality, positivism, and self-responsibility. In fact, the conscious lyrics and upbeat vibe are the perfect compliment to an album that is driven from start to finish with a myriad of crunchy lo-fi beats n bleeps, infectious melodies and pure funk-fuelled inspiration.”

While I haven’t listened to the whole album, maybe it’s off, but I am definitely getting a few songs of Los Mono to listen too. I like the beat.

Here is Promesas in both chilean and english and the translation is in thanks to c.hilino.com – like it, let ‘em know.. something off about it, let ‘em know. Oh and seriously, don’t pass on the video:

Promesas by Los Mono
Album Somos Los Que Estamos

Las palabras son bastantes,
son bastante importantes
cuando hablo pienso antes
hay que hacerse responsable

Mula! Mula!

Decir una cosa una cosa por otra
Es como confuso es como pura boca
Una promesa rota palabras que rebotan
Una persona por delante y por detrás otra
Una promesa trucha, puras palabras mula
Porfa diga la verdad
Y no me prometa lo que nunca llegará

Una vez que se dice algo
Se hace, se cumple, no se pasa por alto
Una vez que se dice algo
Se hacen las promesas no se pasan por alto

Prometé una liebre por un gato
Lo que prometiste lo espero hace rato
Que pasó? Se olvidó? No cachó?
Cuando me lo dijo no ponia atención
Aaaaa q pena q pena q me da
Ya no estoy seguro cuando dices la verdad
Duda duda duda duda duda
Muchas dudas ahora me das

Una vez q se dice algo
Se hace, se cumple, no se pasa por alto
Una vez q se dice algo
Se hacen las promesas no se pasan por alto

Cuando digo algo y lo cumplo
Algo gano yo siento q triunfo
Pero cuando digo mucho me confundo, me siento
Como un gusano como un humano trucho antro

Puede ser, quizás, q yo te llamo
Te lo juro, demás, obvio q vamos
Sí sí sí, como si fuera tan fácil
Mula…

Yo lo se, es difícil decir que no
Pero vale la pena
Entonces vamos a aprender
Como N con O es NO, N con O es NO
Si le pones un “gracias”, cuanto mejor
No gracias, señor
Yo esta vez pasó
Para qué le digo que sí sí no ,
Si te confundo a ti termino confundido yo

Una vez q se dice algo
Se hace, se cumple no se pasa por alto
Una vez q se dice algo
Se hacen las promesas no se pasan por alto

Una vez q se dice algo
Se hace, se cumple, no se pasa por alto
Una vez q se dice algo
Se hacen las promesas no se pasan por alto

Etc…
- – - English translation (roughly)
Words are pretty,
pretty important
I think before I speak
You have to be responsible

La-hame. La-hame!

To say one thing, one thing for another
It’s confusing, it’s only your mouth
A broken promise, words that bounce back
One person on the front and another on the back
A false promise, only lame words
Please tell the truth
And don’t promise what will never come

Once you say something
You do it, you fulfill it, you don’t overlook it
Once you say something
You fulfill promises, you don’t overlook them

When i say something and i fulfill it
I get something, I feel like i win
But when i say too much i feel confused
I feel like a worm, like a bad human being

Maybe, perhaps, I’ll call you
I swear, sure, of course we’ll go
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like it was that easy
Lame…

Once you say something
You do it, you fulfill it, you don’t overlook it
Once you say something
You fulfill promises, you don’t overlook them

Words are pretty,
pretty important
I think before I speak
You have to be responsible

I over-delivered on my promise
I’ve been waiting for a while for what you promised
What happened? You forgot? Didn’t understand?
When he told me I wasn’t paying attention
Aaah, man that sucks, that’s really too bad,
Now I’m not sure even when you’re telling the truth
Doubt doubt doubt doubt doubt
There’s a lotta doubt you’re delivering

Lame!

Etc…

And the video… makes you want to move… even in your seat.

For about a year, I coveted Amazon’s reading device called the Kindle. While there are other reading devices available, I liked the Kindle because you can be just about anywhere, browse Amazon’s books and download a new read in less than a minute.

For Christmas, my husband said, “Order it”. I did, knowing it had a 13 week back order date. I hoped by February or early March I’d have it in hand. Little did I know at the time, but the Kindle 2 was going to make it debut and I’d be getting one of those.

While the Kindle 2 doesn’t have a memory card slot, it provides plenty of on device storage. Amazon keeps a history of all the books you download from them, so you can delete items and re-download them any time.

If you don’t have a good connection, or you prefer, items may be transferred via usb. Yet another option if it is a small files email it to your kindle email address, which Amazon provides, for a small fee of 10 cents per email.

I’ve had my kindle since February 25th, 2009. In that time, I’ve read so much more than I would have had I not had it. It’s just so easy to use. I’ve found many books for free, and many others for just a few dollars. While I am not able to resell, or buy used like I did for paperbacks, it’s beneficial to me just because of how much I am reading. I have found new authors I never knew about and I just love. I’ve read many series I’d not known about.

When asked what the downside is the only one I can think is the lack of organization ability. There are no folders, no way to tag or use keywords. You can sort by book, by author and by date, or just to a different page. Using the Search feature is easy so finding your book isn’t hard. It keeps your most recently read books at the top of the first page, so keeping track of where you are isn’t hard. While the lack of organizing is definitely a downside, it’s absolutely not one to keep me from buying my kindle, or loving it now.

I have read many books, but decided to keep a list of the series I have been reading (My Reads). My list will make it easier to reference the authors I’m waiting on for new books. It has been fun though getting caught up on some series. I have been able to download the next book as soon as I finish one; reading a series one after another is great. I find myself always scanning and searching Amazon for new authors and series.

Who is your favorite author(s)? Do you have a favorite series? Do you read paper books or use a reading device?

It’s only the middle of summer, but as a home school family, I’m already looking at the next year. I don’t have to worry so much about buying supplies from the school required list, or making sure we have clothes for the first day of school and I don’t need backpacks or lunch boxes.

What I do need is to notify the school district of our intent to home school again this year. This needs to be mailed, certified mail so you have a receipt, to the school district Superintendent before the start of school. They are usually fairly quick at getting an acknowledgment letter back to you and you’ll need this before school starts.

We write our notification letter every year, for each child home schooling the coming year. Our letter to the school district Superintendent gives notice, but also provides a list of all the resources we’ll use for our education in the coming year.

Our notification letter will also include either a summary from a certified teacher who has given an assessment of each of our children from the previous year who will be home schooled, or we can test our child(ren) with a home test. Either option provides the Superintendent a look at how well we were teaching and learning the previous year.

Usually, we opt to test. This way we don’t have to worry so much about keeping track of everything we do all year long. I order CAT (California Achievement Test) from Seton Home. The tests aren’t expensive and it includes test results. The CAT is easy to administer at home too.

If you choose to have an assessment done, you’ll need a certified teacher. This is easy to do too. What is looked at most in the assessment is progress. The teacher wants to see the child has progressed from the beginning of the school year to the end. Take samples of the work from early in the year, and samples from the end of the year. Keeping a calendar of all your activities is helpful too.

This year, my youngest son is age 5 before August 1, or in some districts September 13th. In Ohio, that means he’d start kindergarten this year. It’s not a requirement to notify for kindergarten, at least not in Ohio. However, if I were planning to put him in school for first grade, it’s a good idea to go ahead and notify for kindergarten. This way there is a record he schooled for kindergarten because in Ohio a child must complete kindergarten to move on to 1st grade. Here’s another article about Kindergarten Options in Ohio.

Once you have your acknowledgment letter in hand, it basically makes you an educator. So take it to your local library and ask for a teachers library card. This allows you to check out books for a longer period of time and may have a few other perks. Take the letter to your local book stores, there you can get a discount card which may give you up to 20% or more off educational materials. Don’t be shy, when you make purchases for your home school, ask if they have a teachers discount. Some activities will provide a discount for teachers and you may qualify.

Just writing about getting ready for homeschooling makes me excited for the coming year and all we’ll learn and do.