MY BLOG
Today was one of those days where I can’t really say “the highlight of my day was…” because there were so many. I was so blessed to have a play date with two little kiddos (a 1 year old boy and a preschool aged little girl). I have a lot of fun watching my boys play together, but when you add a couple of other kids into the mix, some sweet stuff happens.
First off, Hannah was a little timid because my boys were so excited to have a friend over. She just sort of stood there while Zeke and Zack carefully looked her over, inspecting her glittery sweater and dress. We don’t have those in our house. Zeke kept jumping and saying “you jump, you jump.” She just stared, and then informed him that she has to let her ankle rest.
Zachary then tried to break the ice and said “Hannah, you will want to see this. It is hilarious. I can make a really funny fart noise.” I’m not sure if I ever plan on telling my boys that girls aren’t as in to that kind of stuff as they are. Next he got very serious and became a very close and low talker. “Hannah,” he said, “I have to tell you something. When I was your age, my mom talked to me a lot. And I would just say to myself, ‘Zachary, if you could just not do any bad things, then you would be a very good boy.” She stared.
Of course it only took a few minutes before all the kids were playing together. We built a fort. Forts are always fun. We had an animal hospital in there and every once in a while someone would get caught in the tunnel and we would have to stage a rescue operation. While all this was going on, Levi was having a blast with Nemo. He thought it was so cool to have his little buddy around. They would start to play with something and then both stop and stare at each other. I’m assuming that they were both waiting to see what the other would do.
Later on, Zeke got a little upset because he felt left out. Hannah so sweetly put her hand on his chest and reassured him, “Zeke, you will never ever be left out. God is still in your heart.”
We had a busy afternoon with all of our playing, watching part of a movie while snuggling in a pile of blankets and eating cheezits(I have to say that Levi and Nehemiah were comparing chewing skills like mad with the cheezits), and making some bread. It’s now funny to me that I even had a “oh goodness, what am I going to do with five kids” sort of thought. Now I know what to do with five kids – enjoy them.
A couple of other “highlighs” of my day were getting my mom’s old piano moved in (Jake did a 30-point turn on our patio to back the truck right up to our front door so we could roll the piano right in), and getting one step closer to some Imperial Stout and all its yummy goodness (Jake is bottling it as I type).
I feel like there should be more of a conclusion, but I’m getting tired. I guess my concluding thought would be “boy, I had a good day.”
I love that the sun peeked through the clouds this morning.
I love my green sweatpants.
I love that I can give my boys opportunities to do what they love.
I love slow cooking big hunks of meat.
I love my husband.
I love a clean house, even though it’s rare.
I love Great Uncle Jim and I love that God took him safely to the hospital.
I love late night conversation with good friends.
I love pretty much any dessert.
I love getting to the end of the day and knowing that I did my best.
I love my church.
I love that God provides through others, like relatives “cleaning” out their pantries for us, and the occasional “God told me that you need this.”
I love Janet Kannady, and how she loves my kids.
I love knowing that my aunt doesn’t have Huntington’s Disease.
I love that I am not type A.
I love the type A’s in my life that balance me out.
I love the library.
I love plastic mattress covers.
I love those tender moments with my kids.
I love honesty, even when it’s hard.
I love knowing that God is preparing a place for me that’s so amazing that I can’t comprehend it.
I love having friends that I can look up to.
There is so much in life to be thankful for.
Being a mom seems to get crazier by the day. I’m not complaining – I love being a mom. When I was a little girl, “a mom” was always my answer to the inevitable “what do you want to be when you grow up” question. And then in high school they forced me to pick a “career.” Like being a mom isn’t enough, because it doesn’t require a college degree. Psh. Well, today I vacuum-sucked the back of Levi’s head by accident. I guess it wasn’t really an accident since I was very purposefully holding the vacuum nozzle a half inch from his head. Maybe a college degree could have helped me in this situation. I don’t know. I gave him his first haircut today and got the bright idea to vacuum as much hair off of him as possible, so not to track hair down the hallway and into the bathroom. The vacuum-suck didn’t bother him much. His eyes got big and then he gave me one of those “and you call yourself a mom” looks. Yes, they master those looks at a pretty early age. And he has a red birthmark right where I vacuum-sucked him, so I’m still not sure if any hickifying took place. At any rate, the vacuum-suck made me want to blog. So here I am.
Over the last month or so I have had quite a few thoughts that I wanted to put in writing, but haven’t done so. I am going to try to think back and give you a quick paraphrase version of each one. I’m talking a sentence each. Since my life has been mostly at home with four boys (Jake has been work deprived lately), most of my randomness has to do with being an at home mom and a wife. Here it goes -
From Zachary – “Mom, you should put hot fudge in my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That would be sweeter than Thanksgiving pie.”
I am still very afraid of the dark. My night time laundry routine is as follows – Carry my phone if Jake is not home; Clap my hands as I walk toward the garage; Wave my arm in front of me to set off the motion sensor light; Peek down the hallway and make sure there are no bears; Run for the laundry room and do my laundry; Upon completing the laundry switch, run for the front door as fast as I can while squealing just a little. I sometimes wonder if any of my neighbors have seen this.
Zeke is doing great with eating utensils. He leans over his bowl, carefully eats his soup, and when there’s about two bites left he rubs it in his hair and over the rest of his body. Yes, I regularly scrub split pea soup out from between that boy’s toes.
During my ongoing efforts to teach Zachary that in Christ, he is a new creation, I sometimes forget that I am as well. It’s important for us to remember that the best way we can bring our children up is to lead by example. I can teach my boys loads of Bible stories and verses, but how will they know the value if they can’t see it working in my life? I can sit with Zachary and help him read his daily devotion, but does he see me in the Word daily?
The upside to Levi’s big boy haircut – it’s a reminder that we are quickly getting through those tough baby years. The downside – it’s a reminder that we are quickly getting through those tough baby years.
I’ve had a gift certificate for a 30 minute massage for almost a year now. The massage therapist is about 5 minutes from my house. What is wrong with me?
The biggest booms often come from the smallest bums.
And to sum it up, I ABSOLUTELY love my church family. The other day I was thinking about Ray and Mary. My thought was “oh, they’re my favorite.” After thinking about it more, I realized that I routinely say that about pretty much everyone that I go to church with. We all bring something unique to the body of Christ and I find that the things I love most about individuals are the characteristics that they can only have because of Christ. Make sense?
I think I’m done now. I got my blogging fix. Time to put on some warm socks and put some wood on the fire.
Yup, that’s right. I make soap. And then I blog. Tonight I’m going to tell you all about the soap making process – well, at least how I do it. If you are interested in making a batch of soap, please don’t use me as your only resource. There is ton’s of info out there. I’m just writing about my experiences for fun and to show you the general process. There are some really great websites out there like soapclalc.com, thesage.com, and millersoap.com. “Thesage” and “millersoap” both have a ton of great recipes. “Thesage” also has the best prices on ingredients that I’ve found, a wealth of helpful information, and an awesome selection of high quality fragrances and essencial oils. They are also quick to respond to questions. I can’t really take credit for finding “thesage.” My friend Jenni (naturallycowgirl.com) told me about it. On “soapcalc” you can plug in a recipe and it will tell you how hard, sudsy, cleansing, and conditioning your soap will be. You can make your own recipe on there, or fine tune one you already have. All three websites have detailed soap making instructions.
So here goes something…
First thing’s first – safety. Get yourself some safety goggles and gloves. Lye can get pretty crazy, so you want to be prepared. Another good thing to have is a gallon of vinegar nearby – a tip that Jenni gave me. If you do get lye on yourself, the vinegar will neutralize it. It’s also good to wipe everything down with it after you’re done, just to be safe. And I make my soap after the kids are in bed. That way I don’t even have to think about one of them getting hurt. Here’s me being safe. And Jake thinks my hair is weird.
I was able to order a lot of the stuff I needed to start this hobby from “thesage,” including gloves, goggles, bucket, soap spoon, fixed oils (sweet almond oil, caster oil, etc.) and fragrance oils.
To start, I use a digital kitchen scale to weigh my lye and water. I do it in separate containers. When they are weighed, I go outside and pour the lye into the water and stir. If you are doing this and see a cloud come out of the water, don’t breathe it. Trust me on this one. And no, I did not go “oh, a chemical cloud. I wonder what it smells like.” I just figured that “mix in a well ventilated area” meant that I could do it by an open window. Now I mix outside and make sure that I am up wind from the pitcher. The up wind thing was Jake’s genius. It’s funny, because he mentioned it like I was already doing it that way. I thought “no duh, Sheri!” And then I just nodded and gave Jake the ‘like I didn’t think of that already’ eye roll and pretended that I came up with it first. Now I could ramble on and on about how I am a product of California’s broken public edyoukayshun system…nevermind. Yes, so you measure all ingredients by weight. I’m glad that I am so focused and able to stay on topic. This is my lye on the scale.
I leave the lye/water outside for a while to cool. Ah, yes. Lye reacts with water and gets very, very hot. While the lye is cooling, I weigh all of my fats.
After the fats are weighed, I put them in a pot on the stove and heat them on low until they’re melted together. After that it is important to get a hot man to stir the fats and make kissy faces. You can’t borrow mine, so don’t ask 
After the oils are all melted, it’s time to mix the lye in. Some recipes give a specific temperature that both the oils and the lye have to be at when you mix them. It’s sort of a pain, cause you have one thing cooling and one thing heating and you hope that they somehow synchronize. Anyway, my recipe doesn’t have specifics on the temps, so my life is now a little easier. I put the oils in my soap bucket and then pour the lye/water into the oils. Don’t do it the other way around. Oh, and pretty much any kitchen gadget that you use for soap, will become a soap gadget. I learned that lesson with my super heat proof spatula that I always make eggs with. One morning of scrambled awapuhi eggs and that spatula was banished from all food.
Ok, so here’s where everything went crazy fast, so I didn’t get very many pictures. I mixed the lye with the oils and started stirring with my soap spoon. Then I grabbed my stick blender (imersion blender).
Typically one would mix for a while and when the soap reaches trace (you pull the spoon or blender out, drizzle a little soap and it leaves a “trace” of itself on top), you add fragrance and anything else to make the soap pretty or nice. Well, my trace happened pretty much instantly and in a major way. I had to scramble to get everything in. One of my all time favorite lotions was from my mom in law and it was fragranced with sandalwood and rose. So naturally, I ordered sandalwood and rose fragrance oils from “thesage” and mixed them. I also ripped open a teabag of celestial seasonings raspberry tea and poured it in. Someone suggested it online to make the soap look neat, so I thought I’d try it. Once everything is mixed and traced, it’s time for molds. There are a ton of choises when it comes to molds. You can use a wood box and line it with freezer paper, loaf pans, actual soap molds, pvc pipe, sewer pipe – whatever. I’ve been using sewer pipe, but my aunt gave me one of those silicone muffin tins to try. I guess it’s not really a tin if it’s made of silicone. I greased that sucker up with petroleum jelly and poured my soap in. 
After the soap is in the mold, I cover it with plastic wrap. If it is exposed to air, it will get a white ashy layer. Next comes insulation. I wrap the molds a blanket to keep it from cooling too fast. OK, here is the part that I don’t fully understand yet. When the soap is in the mold, it actually heats itself up in what they call the “gel” phase. If the soap cools too quickly, it just doesn’t turn out right. That’s why it’s important to wrap it up. After about 18-24 hours, or whenever the soap feels hard enough and is cool, it can come out of the mold. This is also when I usually cut it, if need be. And here’s the finished product…
Soap has to cure in a dry place for 2 weeks or more, depending on the recipe. The longer it cures, the milder and harder (longer lasting) it will be.
So that’s my new hobby. Look’s fun, huh? Time for me to put my feet up.
I’ve decided to write about my experiences with cloth diapers. I know a lot of mom’s who have little ones and are about my age, meaning they didn’t grow up around cloth diapers and pretty much never even considered dealing with anything that icky.
I first started thinking about cloth after my friend Wendy handed down some Old Schoolhouse magazines to me. One article I read was about cloth diapers and wipes, and all the nasty stuff they put in disposables. That night was the first time I ever even considered cloth. Funny thing is that the whole point of the article was all the chemicals in disposables, which still doesn’t bother me, although it should. I thought mostly about the money issue. Yes, it makes the world go round. Jake was in the middle of a slow (pretty much non existent) work time. I was in “wifey help meet” mode, trying to figure out what I could do at home to cut expenses. That’s what got me started.
I asked a couple friends who used cloth for their advice and took it to heart. I then bought a small lot of homemade all in ones on ebay. I would not recommend this. they work fine, but arent made with great velcro. Also, they aren’t pocket style, so they take more wash cyles to come clean and double the dry time.
I guess I should explain the types of diapers, because there are a lot of choises.
Prefolds – the old fashioned rectangular ones that you have to fold into a diaper, pin closed, and cover with something that is leakproof. All In Ones – Contains the obsorbent layer (diaper or soaker) and the waterproof layer “all in one.” You don’t have to buy a separate cover for these. And no folding or pinning. Pocket/All In Ones – my favorite. These are like the other all in ones, but you slide and absorbent insert into the diaper through a slit in the back. You take the insert out while washing, making it come out cleaner, and dry a lot faster. You can stuff more inserts in at night, and less during the day to fit under clothes.
A couple friends handed down some various diapers to get me started and when I decided that I would stick with it, I bought some more on ebay.
Note about ebay – Name brand All In Ones can be very expensive! I’m talking $15 a piece at best. On ebay there are some sellers from China and other parts of the world that sell diapers that basically look like bum genius, which seems to be the favorite name brand. I was nervous about buying all the way from China, so I found a seller in Canada. Her diapers look the same. I think they all (the Canadian, Chinese, Hawaiian, and Korean sellers) get their diapers from the same manufacturer and slap their own labels on. The seller in Canada had competitively priced diapers, and gave two inserts per diaper. She also had free shipping and I got the package in less than a week after the auction closed. She also let me get all of the same color, even though it was supposed to be a mixed lot. I ended up with 12 diapers and 24 liners for $69.
I am very happy with these. They work well, and I really like having the snaps instead of velcro. My diapers that have velcro make a “diaper chain” in the wash. They have little tabs to fasten the velcro closed during washing, but they don’t really work. Oh, and another cool thing about all in ones is that they are size adjustable, so they grow with your baby. I use the same diapers for both my boys!
Ok, so here’s where I’ll get to the gorey details about what it’s really like to use cloth, and if the average mom from my generation can handle it You might want to stop reading here if this information won’t actually be useful to you in any way. So…the poop. My boys have exceptionally gross poo. In most forums I read when researching cloth, they said to just dump the waste out of the diaper and into the toilet. My boys RARELY have anything that will just fall out of the diaper. I have a roll of liners that look sort of like dryer sheets, only softer and lighter. ($8/100, but I didn’t shop around and I’m sure you could find them cheaper.) You line the diaper with that and it helps. I usually only use those with my non-pocket diapers because the pocket ones wash so much easier. When I don’t use a poo-sheild, I have a little routine -
Take diaper off, wipe baby, and put new diaper on. Go into bathroom. Carefully put cloth wipes into diaper bin, and VERY carefully remove inside soaker and place in diaper bin. (you don’t want to pull it out too fast and accidentally spill anything on the floor. Go to the toilet. Grab all four corners of the diaper in one hand while inside yucky part is facing down into the toilet. Shake whatever you can into the toilet. Sometimes it all clumps together and just falls in and that’s all you have to do. Sometimes it doesn’t. When that is the case, flush what did fall out down, and then dip the soiled part into the water and swish until all the big stuff comes out. Sometimes it takes a lot of swishing. Carefully put the diaper into the bin. WASH YOUR HANDS!
Most other people probably won’t have to go through all this. My kids just are very “healthy” and like all those fiberous foods. Yes, it is gross. I am also a mom and a wife and have dealt with much grosser stuff. It’s just what I’ve “gotta do” right now and I’ve gotten used to it. It really isn’t that bad in the whole realm of what a mom encounters. Really, I’d rather clean a dirty diaper than touch a bug.
The actual washing is pretty simple. I carry my bin out to the laundry room and put everything in the washer. Yes, your hands come in contact with “yucky stuff.” Just wash afterwards. I do a prewash with some baking soda – neutralizes the ammonia-ey urine and loosens any surface stuff left behind. Do this with cold water, as hot will set the stains. After that is done, I wash with hot water and turn on the second rinse switch. I use Charlie’s Soap, which is the best stuff out there for diapers (as far as I have read). Most laundry soaps leave buildup behind, making diapers less absorbent, and messing with the water proof-ness of the covers. Charlie’s Soap does not do this. I start drying the diapers on low, and after a while take all the waterproof pocket diapers out, leaving the soaker inserts in the dryer on high for a while longer. Drying on high can damage the waterproof fabric. That’s it – pretty simple.
Wipes – I had a huge stack of recieving blankets that I wasn’t using anymore. I just cut those up and used the G foot on my sewing machine to finish all the edges. I fold them into a normal wipey box and pour a mixure over them of 2C hot water, 1T olive oil, 1T liquid baby soap, and a couple drops of tea tree oil.
All in all, I think everything is going pretty well. We still use disposables when we’re away from home. I also have to use them at home sometimes because I don’t really have enough diapers right now to have a load in the wash and still have enough left over to get through the washing time.
One last thought – the environment. Yup. It’s crazy that I really never thought about the impact that disposables have on the environment. Really, I NEVER thought about it. When we were first getting started with cloth I was having trouble finding what works overnight. I then thought to myself “oh, I’ll just use disposables at night and cloth during the day. That will be 60 disposables a month.” I then had a mental image of what 60 used diapers looked like and was dumbfounded at how much landfill that would create, and how much landfill I had already created in the last six years. Now I’m not saying that it’s “wrong” or “bad” to use disposables. I just personally felt convicted to cut back. And just a side note – wanting to do my part to help the environment does not mean that I am part of any “movement” and I still think that the government should have no part, or at least very little part in environmental matters.
Hope this was helpful. Goodnight.
Yup, it’s true. I now have a hobby. Yay for me! How did I get here? Here’s the “in a nutshell version.”
I get pissy because Jake has cool hobbies and I don’t. Jake says “get a hobby.” I decide I would like to make soap (Inspiration from Uncle Tim and Jake’s beer making). I get online and look for recipes and ingredients. Hmmm. I ask Jenni (http://naturallycowgirl.com/) where I should get palm oil and other crazy stuff. Jenni has a toothache and stares in a daze. But she tells me about thesage.com. I make my first order and then my first batch = semi-success. Second batch – I try the oatmeal cinnamon recipe from thesage.com and scented it with honey harvest fragrance = success! Yummy!
A couple weeks ago, I gave my first “soap gift.” It was for my auntie (actually my mom’s cousin), Darlene. It was a blast to wrap and give. I’ve made a few more batches and am learning as I go. My toughest lesson was when the bottom of my mold came off and I lost a whole batch down the kitchen sink. Jim (my brother) and I remade that one and it’s beautiful. We also made the chocolate soap recipe from thesage.com and it seems to be coming out nicely – haven’t used it yet, but it smells so good that I licked it! It doesn’t really taste that great.
The picture is of the soap I gave to Darlene. My leftovers from my failed attempt at scrapbooking came in handy for making the gift tag. The other picture is of Zeke, because he is so darn cute.
middle child
