Cleaning day

Yay Friday!... this morning is our "cleaning morning". 

The oldest is down for count with a fever and head cold... I've managed to clean up stairs baths and grabbed all towels on the way down to work on the kitchen. I open the wash to switch over the load from last night...

And wait..it's STILL dry!?

 Did I not hit the start button? 

Didn't this happen yesterday? 

Ok.. Maybe I'm losing it. 

grabs soap to put in washer.. hmmm the soap is still in there..so I DID in fact attempt this last night..

 puts soap away, shuts front of washer and pushes start... nothing. 

pushes start again NOTHING! ?

 pushes start and a sequence of other buttons in order to get any reaction N O T H I N G!

I'm seriously hoping this giant machine is unplugged...because everything else works. And I've got two loads in line waiting and this things just sitting here like a stubborn metal box holding my hopes of clean and fresh clothes hostage. 

.....

Minutes later, after refusing to let ONE machine hold up that much laundry,

I break out a few buckets and announce to my younger two

"Today we will learn how to wash Laundry by hand!"

gasps from the natives

"Can we do it!?" they ask excitedly..

But OF COARSE you can! 

(anyone else had their kids hand wash stuff?)

One washed , one rinsed

And I tossed all my towels and such on the porch. 

They Did pretty well!

... until tree seeds fell into the rinse bucket.

But It was only for the last two towels... 

Lesson learned and laundry done!

And when the Man got home...

He fixed the washer!

Yay! 

I love being able to turn negatives into positives!

Thank you Lord for these teachable moments!

homemade laundry detergent recipe

• 1 bar grated Fels Naptha Soap
• 1 cup washing soap 
• 1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
• 4 1/2 gallons water

• 5 gallon bucket
• 4-5 empty gallon jugs

Put grated Fels Naptha in saucepan and cover with water. Heat on low until dissolved. Fill bucket 1/2 way with hot water and add soap. Stir. Add 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax and mix well. Fill bucket with more HOT water. 

 As it cools, it will thicken.
If mixture becomes too thick you may add some more hot water to thin it out.

Then we funneled it into the empty gallon jugs. 

This recipe made up 4 full gallons

for us. 

I occasionally have to shake up the gallons

as they tend to settle over time.

 We love using this recipe

it smells good 

and is mild enough for even our "sensitive skin" natives. 

                                                                     
    We have front loading washers as well and it works just great!

And with at least a load of laundry a day

we have saved a ton in the detergent area! 

win win.