Phoenix Rising

It's been a crazier than usual time. We lost our house to an electrical fire back in August. It took us a month of bouncing from place to place, a lot of plans to figure out and a ton of stress to deal with... But we made it home with a lot of help from friends, family and the community.

We've been back home for almost a month now. Things are starting to settle down into a routine once more. And I'm starting to think about decor and wants, now that needs are almost taken care of.

I'm considering making a wall hanging out of a blank canvas, stenciling and the kids' hand prints. I think it'd be a cool family project to do. Other crafts I'm wanting to do is a Roseanne style Afghan for one of the sofas, a wreath and some decorated candles.

Laundry Soap

So today is laundry soap day. I don't know why, it's a simple enough task, but I always have to convince myself to make the laundry soap. So today, I made a giant batch so I won't have to start conniving myself to do it again in a few weeks time and I can spend more time doing the things I love! With that keep in mind that we're a family of 8 lol.

For a normal batch of laundry bombs..

Ingredients:
1 bar Ivory (I'm using ivory because I got it for almost free years ago when I started couponing and we don't use bar soap usually. You can use a 1/2 bar of Felz Naptha instead)
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax
2 cups water
20 drops essential oil (optional)

Directions:
1. Finely grate your bar soap
2. Bring the water to a boil.
3. Add your grated soap to the water and stir until completely melted.
4. Add the washing soda and borax to the melted soap. Stir until it's all dissolved.
5. Remove from heat and let sit for about half an hour. I like to stir mine occasionally while it's cooling.
6. If you're going to use essential oils, add them now. Using a hand mixer, beat the soap mixture until it has doubled in size.
7. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Form 48 balls/pods, placing them on the wax paper. A melon baller works well.
8. Stick the cookie sheet in the freezer for 15 minutes.
9. Keep in a container (I have an old tide pod container I'm reusing) and use 1 per load (2 if it's a really dirty load).

It's that easy, effective and cheaper than buying laundry soap.

Welcome to the Homestead

I've been thinking about starting a homestead blog since we started the process of homesteading. Why start yet another (homestead) blog you might ask? Firstly, though I plan to have hard copies of such, I like the idea of having a place for our recipes, gardening, successes and failures. Secondly, I discovered when looking into homesteading that you primarily find well established homesteads that are inspirational but intimidating. I thought I might be able to help others who are just starting out.

We had talked about some of the Homestead ideas for years, but all of those well established places with all their inspiration and intimidation had me putting it off, feeling like I'd never get where I had decided I wanted to be.

My beginning piece of advice to anyone interested in homesteading, dream big but realize it's going to take one day at a time. Baby steps.

So whether I'm just going to talk to myself on this blog or if anyone finds my blog useful and entertaining, welcome and I hope you enjoy.