Homemade Laundry Detergent

We made homemade laundry detergent for a Relief Society activity last week. It was rather fun, and it's super cheap. It ends up costing about a penny a load. Here's the recipe for anybody that wants to try it out.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar (you can substitute other bar soap, but I prefer fels-naptha as it's a bit stronger)
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda* (make sure it's the washing soda)
½ Cup Borax
1- 5 gallon bucket (like you use for food storage)

(you should be able to find all of the ingredients in the laundry aisle of most grocery stores)

- Grate Fels Napth bar of soap and add to saucepan with hot water. (If you have a food processor, it will grate it up really nicely. The smaller your pieces are the faster it will dissolve.) Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved.

- Add in melted soap / water mixture

- Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken. (it is normal for it to be only partially gelled and partially liquid, that's okay, just mix it up really good and it will work just fine and will eventually come to a normal gel level)

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap bottle with detergent. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

Use: 1/4 cup per load for top loading (this can be used with front loading machines, I have been told to use half as much, but the only person I know who tried said that half was not enough.... so you'll have to play with it if you have a top loader.

Kinley's best idea ever

After yet another snow storm, Kinley and I headed out this morning to shovel the driveway. Kinley is the complete opposite of helpful, she takes snow from the grass and brings it over to my shovel, certainly slows the process down. When I was just about done with the driveway, I felt a snow ball hit me in the back. I turned around to see Kinley with a big grin. Then she said, "I have a great idea. I will run around like a maniac and you try and hit me with snowballs." Definitely her best idea ever. So for about 15 minutes I threw snowball after snowball at her. I think I have failed to mention that she insisted on wearing her bike helmet and knee pads outside today for safety. So, of course, I was trying to hit her helmet. I know, what an evil mother, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

After a quick snowball fight we came in for a little hot chocolate tea party. Our tea party conversation one of our more bizarre conversations. Kinley was telling me that if I lose all of my blood I will die. Then I will go and live with Heavenly Father, Jesus, and Heaven. I told her Heaven is a place, not a person. She looked at me funny, put her finger to her lips to do some thinking, and told me that Heaven is definitely a person, Heaven is Jesus' best friend. But don't worry, if I die, Kinley is just going to say a prayer and Jesus will send me home again. Some how I don't think she is grasping the whole death concept.

Welcome to Primary

Well it has been an exciting time at our house. Kinley is a Sunbeam. Starting about mid November, we've been on a countdown to primary. Kinley was so excited and talked about it non-stop. Finally, the big day arrived. We head out to church and Kinley spends the whole drive talking about what a big kid she is and she can't wait to go to primary with her friends, and of course that her "bestest friend" Reese was going to be in her class. We make it through Sacrament meeting just fine and send her on her way to primary. I was curious to see how she would do and stayed to watch for a minute. I mean really, she can't sit still and never stops talking, so needless to say, I was concerned for her teachers. Well she went in, sat right down, then about 5 minutes later she came storming out of the room. When I asked what was wrong she said, "it's so boring in there and they won't even let me say the prayer." Oh, poor kid. We let her know that they would be singing soon and she perked right up and headed back in. The next week they asked her to say the opening prayer in front of all of the kids. She was acting like she had won the lottery. I was walking in to help her with the prayer but she told me not to come to her class because she can do it all by herself. I went in anyways but she said the whole prayer by herself, and it was actually a nice prayer, she didn't even thank Heavenly Father for every object in the room like she normally does. I must say, she does make one cute Sunbeam.

Christmas

I really should just say we had Christmas at our house and it was great. I should say that, but I won't. I think Kinley summed it up pretty well when shortly after her sprint to the Christmas tree she exclaimed, "this is the best Christmas ever!" Experiencing Christmas with Kinley helped me to remember the excitement and magic of Christmas. I remember being a kid and sleeping in the same room as my older brother and sister. We would set alarm clocks for like 3 o'clock in the morning and race down to see what Santa had left for us. What geeks, right? I almost felt like a kid again this year watching Kinley, she was so excited about everything and it helped me to more fully appreciate this great holiday season.

This year we asked Santa to just bring Kinley 3 presents to help us remember that the Wise Men brought 3 presents to baby Jesus. Kinley actually wanted about 800 presents, but she was very excited to see her stash under the tree. Kinley asked Santa for a Little Einstein's computer, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and "the ball popper game". She was also dying to get a doctor's kit. Lucky for her, Santa was able to locate all of the items she wanted and her parents didn't do too shabby either.

Here is Kinley testing out her doctor's kit with her daddy. Daddy makes an excellent doctor, but Kinley is showing real potential. I always end up diagnosed with "a bad heart and yucky cough".
Milo was so overcome with excitement that he slept for nearly the entire day. I guess he's just a real scrooge. He didn't even enjoy the stocking Santa left for him. Maybe next year he'll catch some of Kinley's spirit, we all know she has plenty of spirit.

Gingerbread house

Poor, poor Kinley. She has the world's most uncreative, least crafty, worst gingerbread house building mom in the world. However, she does have the mom that is most likely to let you eat too much candy. Here are some pictures at our feeble attempt at a gingerbread house. We have a really great time but our finished product is usually something we hang our head in shame about. Actually, I just tell everybody Kinley did it all by herself, then everybody is way impressed with my 3 year old's mad gingerbread skills.

Oh shoot, here's photographic evidence that I participated...I mean, I was just squishing the frosting down for Kinley, that part is super tricky (wink wink).

Some randomness

Kinley is most definitely the Queen of Randomville. I can't decide is she is creative or just plain weird. A few days ago I came out of my bedroom to find a war going on in the kitchen. Kinley explained that the ponies were the good guys and the Pet Shops had "rounded up some help to destroy the good guys". She also pointed out that the "roller skater girl" was in charge. I'm not sure why they needed to be lined up like this, but once the battle began she would pick one figurine and knock them down then say, "oh sorry, you got killed". For those of you wondering the good guys did prevail and evil was once again defeated.

Now to make the usual quick change of personality that Kinley does, here is a picture of Kinley having a quick pretend tea party at a display in Tai Pan. She is such a strange child, but I sure do love her.

Temple Square

We decided to go to Temple Square in Salt Lake to see the lights this year. It was freezing cold, of course. Kinley was semi impressed with the lights but was soon whining about being freezing. I think the lights are great but it's way too cold and crowded for me. Rich's parents and sister Debbie and her family came along for the adventure.

Kinley with Grandma and Grandpa, Arden, and AJ