Homemade Dishwasher Powder

$$  I may not be out in the world making money, but I sure help the world and SAVE it! $$ 

    So, in a house of 8 people we use A LOT of dishes.  I hate walking into the kitchen with dirty dishes.  Yet my kids always fail to mention when we are RUNNING out of dishwasher soap...until it's GONE!  Of course in their minds they can't clean the dishes without the dishwasher...yeah, right!
     Well I have been making my own laundry soap for a year now (LOVE IT!)  Can you imagine how tickled I was to figure out I could MAKE dishwasher soap?!?  The next best part...I already have all the ingredients at home!!  Another major plus is that it's safe for septic systems.  Plus I have a big plastic container from when I bought the store brand "pods".

Dishwasher Powder

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Kosher salt
• 1 Cup Arm & Hammer Washing soda
• 1 Cup Borax

Mix it all together!  *You can add a tsp of white rice (like in your salt shaker) to help with the clumping.

You only need 1 Tablespoon per load.

Use white distilled vinegar in your "JetDry" spot for a sparkle that's truly NON-TOXIC!

This recipe washes about 30 loads!  That's a month of dishes (washing a full load a day!)

I have Kosher salt for cooking, washing soda & Borax from making laundry soap!  I personally would make enough to use the box of each (washing soda & Borax) which means I would have ANOTHER 5 gallon bucket (like my laundry soap)!

*Kosher salt is on the baking aisle,  the washing soda and Borax are on the laundry soap aisle.

You can label your container with a printed label, a hand written label sealed under clear packing tape, or use chalkboard paint!  Your limits are only bound by your creativity!

Here's a site that has FREE downloadable printable labels! WorldLabel
                     
*(Feel free to hit up GOOGLE!)

Homemade Greek Yogurt...SUCCESS!!

     So Tuesday (the 6th) I found a site that showed how I could make Greek yogurt at home!  Now, I HATE yogurt, even the smell!!  *Gagging*  However, I don't mind cooking/baking with it.  Oh, and I LOVE fro-yo!!  A couple of my best friends made it for Aaron and I one night.  I was VERY leery!  O.o  He had fresh strawberries, kiwis and mandarin oranges to go on it.  I was in LOVE!!  <3  I came home and the next day I went to buy the stuff to make some at my house.  I went into sticker shock!!  Greek yogurt must think it's equatable to GOLD!!  I bought enough to make for my family of 8 and it was over $20 to make a single batch!!  Sadly I haven't made it again.  :(
     So anyways, I found this recipe and I had everything I needed except the single serving of Greek yogurt.  (I could handle paying $1 for this one!  LOL)  So here's how I did it!  (I even have pictures!)

Ingredients:
1 Gallon WHOLE milk
3 Cups Dry milk
1/2 Cup (or single serving size cup) Greek yogurt PLAIN

Equipment:
LARGE crockpot
Thermometer that reads over 180
Jars (Mason/old spaghetti jars/etc)

1. Pour the gallon of milk into the crock pot, turn it on HIGH.  I added the powdered milk to it when it was cold and it took FOREVER to dissolve.  Next time I will wait until  the milk is warmer!  The powdered milk is simply there to add proteins and help thicken the yogurt.  Heat the milk to 180 degrees.  
2. Then turn off the crock pot.  I actually took the pot out and sat it on the counter to help it cool down.  You want it between 95-115 degrees.
3. Once its temperature is in that range, take some of the milk and add it to your yogurt in a separate bowl until combine.  (This helps temper it.)  Add the yogurt to the milk.
4. Once it's been mixed in, pour the mixture into your jars.  ( I used 6 "Pint & Half" wide mouth jars)  I sat the lids on the top to prevent anything from falling in...I did NOT screw the rings on.
5. Place in the oven with only the light on for 8-10 hours to allow the cultures to do their work.  I put mine in at 9:00 pm and they were all thick and yogurty at 6:00 am.  
6. Tighten the lids down and chill before using.

*Should be thick enough that draining is not necessary.

                                           

                                          

                                         

     Now you can add any flavorings if you wish...like vanilla or honey.  Zackary wants me to try and make the key lime version.  I'll add some sugar to a couple of the jars with vanilla extract then the kids can make parfaits!  :)

*The Greek yogurt adds/grows all the healthy bacteria our bodies need.  By bringing the milk to 180 degrees it kills all the bacteria in the milk, which in some cases I guess is a good thing.  Fortunately the yogurt puts the good stuff back in!

**I bought my milk at Aldi's for $2.49 and I already have powdered milk in my food storage.  I bought the yogurt at WalMart for $1.  By this morning I had 1 gallon of Greek yogurt for $3.50!  I seriously saved over $20!!

2nd week of August...School starts

     So the second week began with school starting!  It did NOT make me happy that 4 out of 6 of the kids went back to public school.  :(  Mackenzie, Kay, Maggie and Bug are now gone for over 8 hours a day, 5 days a week!  My mom keeps telling me how the first day of school for her was always a PARTY day!  I truly don't think she realizes how it makes me feel.  Too many people are perfectly happy being part-time parents.  I'm not!  I don't see them in public school as my only time for freedom.  I see it as a small failure on my part.  I do NOT believe that the government run school system is the best educational choice for ANY kids, especially mine!
     Everyone wants to talk about how people are individuals and each person has a different style of learning.  They agree that students need to be TAUGHT best how the LEARN best.  However, when it comes to actually applying this in school systems they are overruled based on budgets and time restraints.  So children are "programmed" in a very confined box and then tested on what they retain...not LEARNED.
     I have heard repeatedly that home schooling keeps kids from the social interaction they need.  Mackenzie went to school for the last 3/4 of the school year.  He got ALL the socialization he NEEDED and FAILED every single class but PE.  Do you know what the school did??  They PLACED him in 10th grade anyways.  So my son, who did NOT pass 9th grade has been moved into classes that are supposedly building on the information and skills from the previous year.  Even a blind person can read the writing on this wall!
     Zackary has started his home schooling.  I found all of his books on Amazon, in their Kindle store.  He has Algebra 1 for the first semester, reading "The Jungle Book" for British Lit, has Earth Science for first semester, World History and governments rounding off with creative writing and daily reading reports for composition.  Alley's classes at GCA begin on Monday.  :)
                                     
     So, I'm all sorts of depressed after I drop everyone off at their schools (a tradition they wanted me to keep).  I came home and baked for the rest of the day!  I made treats like sugar cookie bars, jello jigglers, and chocolate syrup.
                                         
                                         
  Then I made 2 more loaves of sour dough bread and even calzones for our lunch and for the kids to take to school today.  I had cheese, pepperoni and mushrooms, Alley had cheese and pepperoni on garlic butter, Zackary had just cheese and pepperoni.  I made the kids pepperoni and pineapple for school.  Just as I was getting done, I received a phone call from Mackenzie that Bug was not on the bus home!!  O.O  We called the school and they said they put him on the right bus.  (Obviously NOT!!)  I jumped in the van with Alley making all the calls so I could drive.  It's when I'm 1/2 way to the primary school that I find out Kay's not on the bus either.  Her school gave me the same sing-song!  It took an hour for me to find out that they were indeed on A bus, but not the right bus, and fortunately they were on the SAME bus!  They got home at 5:00.  :(  By this point, I was drained!  :(  We had baked BBQ chicken, rice and cucumber salad for dinner and I didn't last much longer.  ( I did get their bedtime story read though).  :)

1st week of August is history!

     It's been a crazy month...which is really not that unusual at our house.  We will start off by saying my husband gave up over-the-road driving.  The company he worked for was not really motivated to keep him rolling.  The other issue was he missed us!  He missed being here and helping with the family, spending time with us and basically just being a family.  I'm tickled he is home, but the financial aspect is still a little icky!  LOL

     Our garden has exploded and I LOVE spending time in it!  Just being out there lets me think of all the reasons it is good to have a garden.  The fresh food, with no additional cost, that tastes AMAZING and is BETTER for you are just some of them.  The pigs LOVE the weeds and grass as well as the tomatoes that the chickens get to before me!  >.<  My corn is well over 7' tall and I can feel/see the ears!!  We have 2 watermelons and have already harvested over 40 lbs of tomatoes and squash.  My pinto beans are EVERYWHERE!  LOL  I finally found about 8 thumbnail size cantaloupes too.  My sweet potatoes plants have almost taken over the center of the garden.  I keep reminding Aaron that this a learning environment.  I did not grow up on a farm.  My parents did not have a garden after I was 5 years old.

   
 So the first picture is Mackenzie checking out my ears...of corn. ;)  Then it's a close up.  I've never actually had EARS on my corn before!  The next picture is my broccoli.  Yum!  I just love looking at my watermelon...it makes me so HAPPY!  The next pictures are my beets with sweet potato and watermelon vines on the left, and cantaloupe vines with pinto beans on the right.  Last, but definitely not least are my piggies!  They are hoping I'll toss some green stuff over the fence to them!

1st week of July is gone!!

     Well, Independence Day has passed us in a week of rain.  We should be well above our annual rainfall amounts thanks to this first 1/2 of the year!  We watched fireworks after an early night of Youth activities, through a mist of rain.  It was kinda cool to see the lights glowing in the clouds.  Aaron was not too pleased about it though :(  At least we got to watch it with our friends!  Cindy, Luke and the kids were there with us. We got to sit in Aaron's big blue beast and be comfy while we waited for it to get dark.  :)

     Aaron is back on the road, until my birthday!  He's checking into having a relief driver run his truck so he can spend the week at home!  That makes me very HAPPY :)  I have plenty to do to keep me busy.

     The garden is just amazing!  I try to get out there at least once a day and pull grass and weeds.

  The pigs have figured it out and stand opposite of me in their pen waiting for me to toss the green stuff over! It's been less than a month since we got the last of it planted.  The corn is now up to my thighs :D  I picked 4 tomatoes this morning so I could have fried green tomatoes today.

  We have gotten over 3 pounds of summer squash.  I had to pull out 2 of my 3 plants and throw them over to the pigs...squash boring bugs ate my vines.  I have 6 more seedlings that have already sprouted, to plant them as replacements.  I just need to figure out what we are going to do with them once they are ready to harvest.  Kay is making a double batch of bread with the ones we already have.  <3 I'm seriously thinking about grilling some ;)

     Pulling weeds and grass is a great activity to do when your brain needs to roam.  I find myself thinking very clearly while I am bent over pulling vegetation with sweat dripping.  While tending these magnificent plants I think about how healthy they are and what good they do for our bodies.  This causes what I refer to as a "chain thought".  I think about how unhealthy our country is.  It comes to mind that in history the unhealthiest people were often the wealthiest people.  The farmers were often active and ate only what they grew.  These people did not have the "luxury" of sweets on a regular basis.  The wealthy people ate extras just for show and because it was a status symbol.

     Now we have generations of families that are unhealthy.  It is far too easy to pull through a drive-thru, than tend even a small garden.  It's too easy to pick up a "box" dinner in the grocery store than to get a recipe and ingredients.  People are of the mind set that if it takes longer than 30 mins from beginning to end to make it, well just buy a "box".  Processed foods and easy access to sugar and sodium rich foods are what will be the demise of this country.  People are more worried about what type of gun they are ALLOWED to purchase, and show no care for the type of foods they being fed.  Really will how many bullets in a single magazine of a semi-automatic be of ANY importance when you are suffering a heart attack at 39, 42, or 51??  Will it be important when you are trying to come up with the money you need to buy insulin for your type 2 diabetes at 23, 34. or 46??  Ok, enough of my ranting for this piece.  :)

     Mackenzie is over at the Fossum's helping to get some projects done on their property.  Zackary got our yard cut, while I was finally able to hang out my sheets...on my makeshift clothesline.  We tied 550 paracord to the tree and then to the back of my trailer.  It's works GREAT!!  One load less for my dryer to deal with today!

     The girls have another "Scripture Sleepover" at Cindy's tomorrow.  They are going to see Monsters University first, then work on their Youth Conference costumes while catching up on their scriptures.  I have the Sister missionaries over for dinner tomorrow night as well.  Then Wed. I have to be in Greensboro to pay for the citation I got for Alley being on a jet ski. :(  $99.50 is what that costs me.  Live and learn!!

Wow! Time flies!!

     I can't believe how much time has passed since my last post!!  Our lives have only gotten busier, if that is even possible!  Aaron is running across the country like a pro... :)  We miss him terribly, but are always proud of the effort and principles he lives.
     Yesterday was Bug's last game of the season.  He was amazing!  I was so tickled that my friends stayed to watch his game and cheer him on!  He was definitely a superstar!!

                   



     School is out for the summer.  I have been called as the Young Women's president in our branch.  I have to admit to REALLY freaking out when that happened!!  :o/  I was inactive at church from the time I was about 9 until 5 years ago.  I missed the entire Young Women experience as a youth, so I had no idea even where to begin leading them!  I have been told repeatedly that the Lord doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the ones he calls!  How true this statement is!  It has been hectic and busy as I learn all my responsibilities in this new calling while our branch got a new presidency.  

     One of our first activities was to make a welcome basket for the new branch president and his wife.  We made "Friendship Soup" in a jar, a small herb garden, strawberry jam, S'more cookie bars and zucchini bread.  When they were done with the baking they got rock out and dance to Disney songs on Just Dance Disney :)

     Alley went to High Adventure this past weekend.  She got to go white water rafting, sleep in a cabin then do a rope course including a rock wall and swing. 
 Kay only has 2 more years to wait before it's her turn.  ;)  Alley, Kay and I are getting ready to go to girls' camp on the 25th of June.  I'm excited but a little leery.  I have recently discovered I have an egg intolerance.  This along with being allergic to the sun  should make girls' camp interesting!
 
    Yesterday the kids all worked with me to get the rest of the garden planted.  It's amazing!  We have 7 different types of heirloom tomatoes, plus some random tomato plants that were just growing throughout the area, summer squash plants are blooming too.  We have purple lettuce, giant and little gem romaine lettuce, spinach, spaghetti squash, long cucumbers as well as pickling ones, even lemon cucumbers.  There's heirloom sweet corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini, sweet potatoes, pinto beans, beets, sweet peppers and hot peppers.  I think there's still some other stuff out there, but I can't think of them right now...LOL

     I have a hen that's gone "broody".  Everyday another hen adds to her group while she gets out to grab some food and water.  This is our first time one of our hens have gone broody and I am looking forward to how it goes.

     I think all of my does were bred, so we're thinking summer kids.  :)The pigs should be getting to business too, if they haven't.  I have been reading up on delivering piglets and their care.  I do NOT like surprises!

     I am getting ready to pick up the girls from a scripture-sleepover at Cindy-Lou's.  We are doing a 100
day Book of Mormon reading challenge.  A couple of the young women were behind...until today.  I got a note saying that everyone is all caught up!  I am soooo proud of them!

     Then it's a stop at the store for the ingredient's needed to make my laundry soap and dishwasher soap.  I'll make another post with just those recipes shortly.  I LOVE knowing exactly what is going onto my family.  People tend to overlook the chemicals that they come into contact with on a daily basis.  It's in the air when you pour it, then soaked into the fibers of your clothing.

My YW Presidency <3

        Alley and her jam :)

         Kay's jam is DONE!

   Zackary asking Annah what she's making :D

 Alley making zucchini bread...Mmmm...mmmm

Dancing together...forever!

     I don't know who's learning more...them or me!  :)

Busy-busy-busy!

     It's been a busy-crazy month since I was last on here!  First and foremost, I got my fence working!!  It took having my husband home and standing next to me for the light bulb to go on above my head.  LOL  I knew it was grounding out.  That much everyone I asked was able to clarify for me.  The problem was how and where.  Aaron, the boys and I had walked the perimeter repeatedly and couldn't see any where it was happening.  Then in a brilliant flash I asked Aaron if I used the fence volt tester on the steel T-bars would it show if there was any charge in the bars.  Sure enough it worked!  Then my voltage tester went out before we could all around the perimeter.  :(  In the morning we went to Tractor Supply and I bought the $40 digital tester.  It was WELL worth the extra money!  It took a few hours but by the time we finished we had the fence popping out over 7000 volts!!  Goats require a minimum of 4000 volts because of how stubborn they are.  Other livestock usually only needs 2000 volts.  That explains why even when the fence was putting out 2k it wasn't even bothering the boogers!  >.<
     Now, every morning we check the fence voltage.  Because so much juice is able to flow through it, when it arcs we can actually here it "popping".  With that sound we go to the proper pole and adjust the line to make sure it's not close to the pole.  Once that is done, the voltage goes right back up and my goaties get to wander their own little pasture.  My heart simply swells when I walk out there and watch them run around and especially when they come running up to see me.

     The pigs are next on the list.  I need to run the fence line around their new pen...next door to their current one.  LOL  Once they have been moved over the kids and I will work on getting all the rocks and roots out of the garden and get it ready for my little seedlings to be transplanted.  As of today, we have 12 different veggies and 8 herbs potted in my flats and egg crates.  I have picked up several types of beans to get started as well.  I'm considering growing collards even though I absolutely do NOT eat them!  I'm thinking about growing them for the animals and giving extras away.  I was thinking about the elderly in Madison.  A lot of them eat the ol' southern style foods.  Maybe I can give them the fresh produce that they might not otherwise be able to get.  Just a thought...

     Aaron is officially on his own.  He is in his own truck for almost a week, with his own second seat.  Now, just waiting for his own "real" paychecks to get started.

     Zackary finished his 30 hours of Joshua's Law, required for him to get his driver's license. YAY!!!  When his certificate comes in the mail and I have the money in for the insurance increase, I'll be taking him to get his license.  I can't believe my baby will be driving, fully, completely, legally!!

     We have had another set of hatch-lings!   I actually ordered Silkies on ebay.  I bought 6 eggs and 4 of them plus one of my EE's hatched out on Easter!  They are LOVELY!!  I have a partridge (brown/mottled) one, a grey-vaulted one, and 2 white/cream ones.  I've already been looking at Golden Sebright eggs.  ;)  I need to build some breed specific coops and runs before I get too many other breeds.  I would be very happy to sell the eggs and even chicklets, but I need to make sure they are breed true.  I have plans!!  <3