Life as a stay at home mom...

Today, officially marks a week of me being home with Jude.
I'm waiting for the excitement to wear off and it hit me. I have worked full time since I was 17, and have been working since I was 15, so this is so weird to me at times.

A few things that I've noticed in the last 7 days.

• Jude's mood has been incredibly different, she has her mommy around 24/7 now. I have never seen her this happy and content. I think she has been waiting for the last 3 years and 9 months for this. 
• I thought working a job and being a mom and house wife was hard because I could never get everything I wanted to do done before I passed out somewhere. Minus the job, it still feels that way. I go to bed at night thinking "I didn't get that last basket of clothes folded." or "I should have done the dinner dishes." "Did I get the laundry out of the washer?" and so on...
• I have to cook or make all 3 meals, 7 days a week... When I was still working and my husband was working there were some meals when neither of us were home. Sometimes I feel like every time I turn around it's meal time again and can't help but think "Didn't we just eat?".
• My husband is happier. He comes home to a cleaner house, a happy child and a happy wife. A happy husband makes my life a little easier. :)
• The other day, I dressed up a little and put some make up on. Because it dawned on me, despite getting my daily shower, I was not having to "Get ready to go anywhere" and was feeling kinda... Blaaaah. I couldnt even remember if I had brushed my teeth! 
• I'm not as tired! My last 2 jobs always scheduled me such crazy hours, closing some nights and having  to open the next morning. It really can take a toll on you. So far I'm getting the same amount of sleep every night and don't have to wake up at 6am anymore. 
• Lastly, I've noticed how unique and smart my daughter is. She is constantly looking for something to do and is so eager to learn. I lose count how many times she's asked me "What is that? Why does it work? What does that mean?" She's smart as a whip and is a huge huge huge help when I need her to be. She definitely is keeping me on my toes!

I am so happy and thankful for this opportunity to be able to stay home with my daughter. I hope when she's older  and she looks back, she will feels the same way.

Pumpkin Pies for Thanksgiving 2012

Every year, on the eve of Thanksgiving,  me and my Mom get together and make pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving day. We make the exact recipe every year. I had my camera handy, so I snapped a few pictures of the process and wanted to share them with ya'll!

The recipe per pie is:
1 can (15oz) of Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can of (12oz) of Evaporated Milk
1 unbaked 9 inch deep dish pie shell
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground clove
2 large eggs
Preheat oven to 425F



Sorry for the poor quality pictures, I was being lazy with my camera cause I let someone borrow my camera and all my settings were changed and I didn't feel like messing around with it.

                                       Getting all the ingredients together.

                                      We use glass pie plates, but disposables work too. :)

                                       This is the brand pie crusts we used.

                                       Pumpkin and evaporated milk. :)

    

             Mix Sugar, Salt, Ginger, Cloves, Eggs and Pumpkin together in large bowl.

                                       Then slowly stir in Evaporated Milk.

                                       Pour into pie shell.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350F and bake 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.

                                      Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

We are Paper Free!

Okay, so not really paper free. We still have books, notebooks, school books....and toilet paper.

What we mean by paper free is in the kitchen.
If  for a whole year you write down the amount every time you buy paper towels, paper plates or paper napkins and go and add it all together, your jaw would hit the floor when you see how much money you have literally thrown away. 

We try to a lead a simple, frugal life. So I saw this as a necessary thing to change.

So we said GOODBYE to paper plates. Every plate we own is reusable (mostly glass at that).
We said GOODBYE to paper towels and napkins.
For the last 2 years in place of paper towels or napkins, we use a different assortment of rags or cloths.
I took pictures of half of my stash and wanted to share it all with you all so you can see what works for us.

 We don't have a dishwasher, so everything is washed by hand. We use these for dishes to reduce sponge usage (which can get pricey too!) Most are made by my self, and a few were made by my brothers girlfriend.  Here is a sample of what they look like , mine are the top two hers are the bottom two. We have 7 of these, one for each day of the week.

We use standard washcloths for cleaning up small messes, dirty hands and faces, drying hands and faces... Ya know, small things! We have about 30 of these and they last us anywhere from 4-7 days.

 

 Next, we have cloths recycled from old towels cut into sections. These are quite a bit bigger than the standard wash clothes. We use these for cleaning, big messes or spills or pot holders (when I can't find mine! Haha!) If you are recycling towels, a neat thing is the ability to cut them into whatever sizes you want or need. Below is 3 different sizes from big to small. Some people add a stitch around the outside to prevent fraying, but I'm not worried about that. :) We have about 14 of these.

 

 This is the difference in size between the standard and the big ones I cut my self. 

Last, we have the dish towels. We use these only for drying dishes. Nothing else. Easy Peasy. We have 10 of these.

 In place of paper towels we also use cloth. It's so nice doing all of this because about the same time every week, I can throw all of this in one load into the washer and wash them and be good for another week.

We have a small laundry basket that's kept under the kitchen sink cabinet, so when something gets dirtied we can just toss it in and it's out of sight and not piled up somewhere else.
So yeah, that's how we went paper free and save a ton of money!


If you have any questions or comments please share them! I'd love to hear from you!
 

Our Homemade Laundry Soap and Fabric Softener

                                      Fabric Softener and Laundry Detergent!


I get SO many questions about this so I'm actually quite excited to have it in one place so I can just share the link with whoever when I need to. :) We have been using these about a year and it has saved us so much money it's ridiculous! This big batch of laundry detergent can last 5-10 months depending on the size of your family and it costs no more than $30! Bear with me as this post may be long!

For the "Laundry detergent" what we use is:

20 mule-team Borax Laundry Booster


Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda


4lb Box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda


2 bars of Dr. Bronners Castile Soap
You can actually use a few other kinds of soap. The most popular for homemade detergent is Fels Naptha. You can also use Ivory. Anything else, I haven't tried so I can't recommend it.

Oxyclean
Again, you don't have use the actually oxyclean brand, there are organic alternatives and store brands as well. This last batch I made I used the Food Lion brand All Fabric Bleach instead and I love it.


And lastly you'll need a Large Container...
This is the exact one I bought, but they are sold individually at walmart and not in sets... It was only about 6 bucks.

To make it, you will need to either grate the bars of soap down with a cheese grater or put it in a food processor until it's broken up and almost powder-like. I have tried both ways. I like the results of grating it better, but it's WAY more time consuming... I normally have the Hubs do one bar and I'll do the other. If you do choose to use a food processor, it's alot faster but the clean up is a little harder.
Whichever way, you'll want the soap to resemble either grated cheese or a thick powder.

After you've  done that, you just combine all the other ingredients (the whole entire boxes!) and mix it all together for 5 minutes. You want to make sure you mix it good and well so everything gets evenly distributed. When you're through you can take some from the large container and put it in a smaller one for easier handling.
The BEST thing about this recipe is, it only takes 1-3 TABLESPOONS a load. For me it varies depending on what I'm washing. I use 3 tbsp for towels, bedding and work clothes, anything else just depends on what I feel like using! :)

So that's about it for the detergent....Next time I make it I'll take pictures.





The whole making a fabric softener was so crazy to me. At first I was scared, then I wasn't sure if I liked it! Buuuuut, I stuck it out and I will never switch back. The difference is amazing to me. I can not believe how crazy soft my clothes are and I dont worry about the icky chemicals from "parfum or fragrance" in traditional fabric softeners.


For "Fabric Softener" we use:

3 cups of White Distilled Vinegar
BEFORE you freak out and think that your clothes are gonna smell like vinegar, think again... This was my biggest fear, and I was completely shocked when I realized that you can't smell the vinegar at all! Use organic or not, lately I've been using just regular kind as it's cheaper. :-/

6 cups of hot water

2 cups of hair conditioner
I loooove Renpure Organics! For this and for my hair! Again, you can use whichever kind you like when we are in a pinch financially I use Suave, just make sure you have atleast 2 cups for it!


You will need to make sure you have a container that holds atleast 15 cups (you need room to stir).

In whichever order you please, mix the 3 ingredients and let it set overnight.

Whatever you do DO NOT SHAKE THE CONTAINER!  I learned this the HARD way... You end up with a nasty foam that will not mix together with the remaining liquid...

So just stir it! It won't take long! I reused a empty Dr. Bronners liquid bottles and use that to squirt the softener into my Downy ball using the same measurements as you would a normal liquid fabric softener. This batch lasts me about 4-6 months depending on how much I use and how often I actually get around to laundry (hehe).

If you have any questions about either of these let me know!!!

Cleaning Supplies!

For my first post, I just want to share with everyone the cleaning supplies we use and the cleaners we make and why we have chosen to switch to a "greener" way of cleaning. I've had a lot of questions about this over the last few years so I'll have all the info in one spot to refer to. :)

We had an incident that changed our minds about what cleaners would be kept in the house and we wanted to avoid as many chemicals as possible.

When my daughter was almost 2 she got into a cabinet that was supposed to be locked, and sprayed 409 house cleaner in her eyes and had to be rushed to the emergency room.  She ended up alright, just eye irritation, but like I said it was a big eye opener and didn't want any possibility of that happening again. After a lot of research and trial an error I finally found what works best for our house and family. All of the cleaners we use are homemade and most of the ingredients you can find around your house and they are SO easy to make!

Some basic supplies you are going to need are:

24oz clean spray bottles
I recycled most of mine at first but eventually switched over to brand new bottles so I could label them according to what I was using them for.
I found some similar to these at Walmart for about 2 bucks.


White Vinegar
Any kind will work honestly. I prefer as organic as possible.
I found this brand at the Food Lion next to where I work.

Dish Soap (liquid) 
Again any kind will work, but I prefer 7th Generation because it's the most organic chemical free dish soap I can find. I have also used Dr. Bronners liquid Castile soap but I don't recommend it because it has a reaction with the vinegar and it's slightly unpleasant (trust me on this).

Add 1 cup of warm water to the clean empty spray bottle.
Add 1/8th of a cup of dish soap to the warm water and gently swish the bottle around until the two are mixed together.
Add in 1 cup of the vinegar and swish the bottle around again and you are done!

Another thing I learned is NEVER shake the bottle after the soap has been added or you will have a big bubbly mess. 


Just with these 3 things you can make an all-purpose cleaner that works good on anything! Just last week I cleaned my oven top with that mix and it worked perfectly!

For a good disinfecting cleaner I make the above and add in Tea Tree Oil which is an amazing disinfectant that is an essential oil. It has been shown to fight not just bacteria but various fungi and viruses, too. Tea tree oil is commonly used on bacterial and fungal health conditions such as acne, blisters, warts and insect bites. I just add 3-4 drops in the bottle after the water but before I add the soap.


The latest cleaner I have tested and tried out is Glass cleaner since all of our living room tables are now glass topped.

Just mix 2 cups warm water

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 tbsp cornstarch

Works like a charm!


Lastly, an awesome carpet deodorizer that is pet friendly!

1 cup of baking soda

8-10 drops of essential oil or your choice. I prefer Lavender or Orange... Something sweet, relaxing and uplifting. Put in an old Parmesan Cheese shaker and shake and generously sprinkle over the carpet and let sit for 2-3 minutes and vacuum like normal!

We have being using all of these for the past 2 1/2 years  and I will honestly never switch back. It's not only safer but it's way cheaper as well. 

That's all I can really think of right now, but If I can remember any others I'll come back and update this post with them then.


If you make any homemade cleaners or have any questions I want to hear from you! :)

(11/8/12 UPDATE)
I took this picture while I was cleaning my kitchen today, so that you can see my own personal bottles! Whenever I run out and need to make more, I'll take better pictures!

                         Disinfectant (left) and All Purpose with Dr. Bronners (Right)