Homemade Laundry Soap

Today I made my own laundry soap. I've been toying with this idea for a while, but I was put off by the recipes for liquid soap, and the vision of a 5-gallon bucket of it in my laundry room.

Instead, I made a powder soap. Here are the 3 ingredients you need. All three of these are sold at our local WalMart.

Be sure to get "washing soda" and NOT baking soda. Evidently there's a pool product that's the same as washing soda, so you could check into that, if you like.

My recipe:
1 bar Fels Naptha soap (it's about 5 oz.)
1 cup washing soda
1 cup Borox

Grate the bar of soap. This is the only tedious part. I should have grated it on a finer setting, but, um, I'm a wee bit lazy.

Looks suspiciously like cheese. I like the color and the aroma.

Add the two powders, and stir well. I think it would have mixed better if I'd grated it more fine.

So this is the final product. I'll have to tell the kids to stir it well each time, to get all 3 ingredients in each load

The good news? This stuff is such a savings! Everything I've read says it costs about 2¢ per load. Normal detergent costs about 20¢ per load. That's a hefty savings, over time, and we do a lot of laundry. I also like that it's more natural, without some of the extra chemicals added to most ingredients for texture/color/aroma, etc. I may also end up using my own homemade soap, after I make some more.

Only This

 

When sorrow terrifies us, and a black

Future looms before us, dear, you cannot

Love me for the years ahead. Life is fraught

With many sadnesses. Do not shrink back.

We have today, only today, only

This moment. Who can promise anything

Beyond? And, my love, when you are looking

At the years behind, the hard and lonely

Years, before we met, before this sublime

Wonder of joy consumed us, bonded us,

Made such doubters believe in the wondrous,

Still, darling, do not love me for those times.

They are gone. The others do not exist.

Let us love today, embrace only this.

Copyright by author

May 24, 2011

Seeking Youth

Yesterday, a friend posted a fun quote on facebook:  "We have enough youth; how about a Fountain of Smart."  One friend responded "Or a fountain of thin."  Sigh.  If we can't have youth, then we at least want to look young, don't we?

I think if you polled Americans, you'd find that we dread death most, or at least the process of aging. We really, truly, long to be young forever. We'd love to have bodily youth, but with the wisdom of age, wouldn't we?

As a matter of fact, if you offered the average America a magic pill that would make him live forever, on this earth, in good health, never dying, he's take it in a second. Everybody wants to live forever, right?

The infamous Fountain of Youth.

But God has something to say about that.

This earth is fallen, riddled with evil and sin. We should not desire it. The unsaved man desires it. But the Christian should have a fundamental re-wiring of his inner desires; he should desire heaven.

Have you read closely in Genesis 3 about why God threw man and woman out of Eden? Because they were naughty? Because He was angry? Because they didn't deserve it anymore?

No, He did it to protect them. He had to make sure -- make absolutely sure -- than they would not live forever in this horrible, sinful state. He had to insure their deaths.

"Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.  Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever --' therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden ...."

Get this:  if Adam had eaten of that other tree, the tree of life, he would have been fixed eternally in his sinful state, unredeemable. God couldn't allow this. He denied us eternal youth on this evil planet -- it would be the worst fate of all! Death is, in this context, a great gift. It is a way to escape a fallen world, and (if you're saved by Jesus's love on the cross), have your eternal youth in a much, much better place.

Don't give me eternal youth in this place. I don't want to stay here and watch war after war, and murder after murder, kidnappings and abuse, corruption and deceit. Give me my eternal youth in a different place. I'll eat of that tree of life in God's new earth.

Don't long for youth here. Don't color your hair, yearn for 20-year old hips, moan at your wrinkles or live vicariously through your children. You're gonna die. And it's a great alternative to staying here for eternity.

Chocolate Mousse Royale

 Adam's been craving Chocolate Mousse Royale, his favorite flavor from Baskin Robins. But instead of heading to the nearest drive-in, he decided to make it himself. Homemade ice cream is dreamy, don't you think?  And these days it's really not even much work!

Adam's recipe:

The night before (or several hours), in your mixer:
1 1/3 cup of sugar
6 egg yolks
2/3 cup cocoa powder
2 pints heavy whipping cream
a pinch of salt
Blend together and then mix at high speed to whip air into the cream. Then refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Right before you're ready to put it into the freezer, put 1/2 cup chopped chocolate chips into the food processor.

This step didn't work as well as he'd hoped. He wanted tiny pieces of chocolate. He got that, plus some chocolate powder. Blend that into your cream mixture.

The secret to our easy ice cream is the Donvier Ice Cream maker we bought many years ago. We're not even sure when or where we got it. This thing works great! It has a frozen core, which we keep in the freezer. We can make ice cream any time we like.

And it involves very little "cranking" or stirring. There's a paddle that sits in the ice cream, and a handle on top, which you turn every 5 or 10 minutes, for about an hour. This recipe took a full hour, because it is so rich. You just turn the handle to scrape the cream from the sides. But you don't have to open up the container each time. It's easy.

We tasted the mixture last night, and it is so rich, chocolatey and silky-smooth. Adam mentioned that we achieved that smooth texture without the addition of propylene glycol ( a variant of anti-freeze), which is found in much commercial ice cream.

If you find an ice cream maker like this one around, I'd recommend buying it -- the results are worth it!

Motherhood

 

The apple tree told me

It was none of my business

Where the baby apples lay.

I looked anyway.

Tucked among the green

Sun-dipped, mottled and long

Leaves, whispering

As leaves do, hung

Thumb-sized apples

Of identical hue.

By August, the apple tree

Will bow, pregnant and ready

To be rid of them.

Bees will suck juice

From the ones she’s thrown away,

The hot air heady,

Sweet in mid-day.

I will make some use

Of the fat, red fruit.

And the apple tree will say,

Thank you.

Copyright by author

May 21, 2011

Considering Camping

Much humor has been enjoyed this past week at the expense of Harold Camping and his followers. It's been a long time since an end-times prediction has extracted this much attention from the media. Camping jokes are all over the internet -- everything from requesting pagan pilots if you fly on Saturday, to people offering to adopt the pets of those raptured. There's a lot of snickering going on.

But there's a lot of pain too.

The families of Camping's followers are struggling. Sometimes one spouse is a follower of Camping, and the other is not. The kids are confused and scared. Many have given up jobs, savings, homes, and whole lives, banking on the assurance that it'll all be over, tomorrow.

I wish it were true, in a way.

There's much to love in this life, on this earth, but there's much that is evil and broken. I'm looking forward to heaven, to a new earth, just as Mr. Camping is. I believe Jesus will come again, just as he believes it. I believe in a judgment too. We have a lot in common. We just differ (significantly) on his ability to predict it.

But I believe it's coming too.

I just don't live (much) as if I do.

I'm uncomfortable with Camping and his crew. He makes me squirm with a little introspection. I know he's a nutcase, but at some level I look at that devotion, that belief, and wonder if I'm lacking. I'm not the only blogger who's feeling this way.

So while I may smile knowingly with the rest of the world, when I look at Camping, and his people, I know I have a lot in common with them. We have the same hope. They're just so desperate for it to happen NOW, that they've gotten out of whack.

Because, we must ask ourselves WHY these people believe. Is it because Camping is so charismatic? Because his math is so convincing? Or because they long so to see Jesus's face, that they'll buy into it?

A little part of me wishes I longed for Jesus so much that I believed it'll be tomorrow -- a childlike belief that trusts in spite of all opposition. The Scripture says we cannot know the date. But perhaps we all should be hoping, eagerly hoping, each day.

S'more Caterpillar, Please!

I came home from Bible Study last night to find that Philip and Julia had been doing a little creative cooking:

Wanting s'mores, but finding the outdoors too cold and damp, they decided to use the oven. I believe the photo explains itself: long graham cracker, M&Ms and chocolate chips, topped by large marshmallows. I'm not sure what temp Philip toasted them on; I doubt it was broil because he's a cautious fellow. They made me one too, and it was delicious. In fact, I might suggest it was better than the usual s'more over the campfire. The tops of those marshmallows were firm, with an almost crusty top, and when I bit into it, the contrast of the top, with the soft,melted inner marshmallow, was so yummy.