Make Your Own Laundry Soup (10 Gallons)

I have been going through laundry soap like crazy so I decided to go ahead and try the same recipe the Duggars use.  I took pictures along the way and wanted to share in case you are interested.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax

Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)


Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

*Arm & Hammer "Super Washing Soda" - in some stores or may be purchased online here (at Meijer.com). Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!!


Powdered Laundry Detergent - Top load machine
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax

Grate soap or break into pieces and process in a food processor until powdered. Mix all ingredients. For light load, use 1 Tablespoon. For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 Tablespoons. Yields: 3 Cups detergent. (Approx. 40 loads)


*Arm & Hammer "Super Washing Soda" - in some stores or may be purchased online here (at Meijer.com). I've found all 3 ingredients at a Fry's store near me. Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!!

TIPS FOR LAUNDRY SOAP: We use Fels-Naptha bar soap in the homemade soap recipes, but you can use Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zote bars. Don't use heavily perfumed soaps. We buy Fels-Naptha by the case from our local grocer or online. Washing Soda and Borax can often be found on the laundry or cleaning aisle. Recipe cost approx. $2 per batch.

Inexpensive Fabric Softener Recipes
Recipe #1

1 Cup White VinegarAdd vinegar to rinse cycle. Works great. Removes residue and odors. Also helps to keep washing machine and hoses fresh and clean too.
Recipe #2

1 Container of Name Brand Fabric Softener4 Inexpensive sponges, cut in half

Pour entire container of softener into a 5 gallon bucket. Fill empty softener container with water twice. (2 parts water to 1 part softener) Add sponges to softener/water mixture. When ready to use wring out extra mixture from one sponge and add to the dryer as you would a dryer sheet.

A Character Quality:

 Thriftiness vs. Extravagance

Not letting myself or others spend that which is not necessary.

Luke 16:11

Little Tidbits

Chaz had a great idea today when doing his homework.  He said, "Hey mom.  How about I do the first 10 questions and you do the next 10?"  I said, "Uhhh, let me think.  NO."

Tomorrow Ivy has a field trip to a farm and she kept asking me today how many more sleeps. I tried to explain to her that her field trip is tomorrow.  She thinks I'm saying TWOmorrow.  She doesn't get it.  Or if she asks me when library night is and I say Tuesday, she thinks I'm saying TWOdays.  Sometimes we just go round and round.  Even though it can be frustrating, we laugh about it because it's so funny.  Except when she starts crying because she doesn't understand why she has to always wait TWO more days.

Caleb has been really clingy lately.  Maybe because I've been doing so many projects around the house?  Not sure.  He has been wanting to cuddle with me a lot and I am just wishing I had some sort of comfortable sling to carrying him around in while I work.  I'm still trying to figure out how to manage all the work.  I used to go out all the time and hang out at friends houses.  But it's hard to explain to them that the larger the family gets, the more work is added and we don't have as much free time.  I HAVE to stay on top of things or its much harder later. By night time I don't like to leave my house because I'm so happy to just rest and be with my family.  Good thing I love my family so much. :D

Time For Serious Organization

I have four cups of coffee a day. 

Not for energy but just for enjoyment.

So that means I'm not a coffee addict right? 

On to my point. 

I'm not a good organizer or cleaner. I work super, duper hard but it doesn't come natural to me (being amazing in those ways) and I usually don't notice things till they get out of hand.

THAT is why I have to have so many lists and charts for my house. It's the only thing that works. Otherwise I would drown in it.  It's important for the kids to take responsibility for their part or I wouldn't be able to have 6 kids. The cleaning alone would be overwhelming.  The small part they each take makes a huge difference for our house.

Something funny.  Ryan said there are 15 chores total between all the kids.  He said he has solved the problem.  He said if I had 15 children, they would each only have 1 chore. Good idea for him.  Bad idea for me.  Ha. I'm not a supermom.  Only in my dreams.  BUT that was HILARIOUS!!!  You bet if I could financially have 12 kids it would happen.  Kids are the best and I just want to keep having kids till I'm somewhere in my 40's.  That is a HUGE desire for me. 

Anyway, last week during the kid's school break I got TONS done. I cleaned out 4 bags of broken or overused and rundown toys. I'm talking big garbage bags.  Moved the furniture out of girls room and did a complete wipe down.  Their room is all tile. Washed the walls throughout most of the house.  I did same thing in boys room except I need to get some stains out of carpet.  They are NOT supposed to have drinks in there but I think some have landed in there by a sneaky person. Otherwise those spots would not be there.  Then I emptied out all the cupboards in both bathrooms and medicine cabinet and wiped those down good.  COMPLETELY reorganized my bedroom and got rid of lots of so-so clothes I didn't care for very much.  So basically I guess it was all the back rooms. I am working on the office now.  Yippee!

Charles and I have an idea but we are so hesitant yet excited.  My mom did this often in our houses.  The office room is right next to the boys room.  We no longer use it because Charles doesn't work at home anymore.  Caleb's crib is in there with his changing table and the boys aren't happy that he's not in their room anymore.  They really want him back in their room. They just don't have the space.  Well, that room is unused so we are thinking about breaking down the wall to make one big boy's room.  But then I'm scared if I needed the room back someday I would have to put that wall back up.  Normally that is fine and easy except that wall is the boy's closet. They would still have a closet if the rooms were connected because the office has one. I just really like large rooms.  It would mean we would go from a 4 bedroom to 3 bedroom.  I just like my girls all sleeping together and my boys all together.  It's just something we've always agreed about.  We don't like to separate them.  The kids don't like to be separated.  Do you have any ideas or thoughts?

(Hopefully my mom is reading this post too.  She is a master at this.)

To The Feed Store

We love going to the feed store. This one always has chickens so we favor them most. Plus the cost of chicken feed is lower.  I question the poor man that works there all the time.  I was going to get a certain kind of chicken while I was there till I found out that that particular kind is very, very loud.  I could see what he meant because these were just tiny but very noisy.  My neighbors would not like that so I put the little one down.

It's a small store but we usually spend a good amount of time in there just cuddling any little furry creature we can.  Kyle is playing with a hamster here. It looks like he's really squeezing it here a lot but he's not.  He just begged and begged to take one home but I said chickens and a Great Dane was enough for us.

Kyle loves being my helper wherever we go.  He wanted to prove to me he was strong enough to carry to two bags of chicken feed himself.  He said "Mom, you just carry your purse."  Well, okay.

Where We Spend Our Sundays

This is where we are sunday mornings and sunday nights. :)  I could only get a pic of part of the church.  This particular day was pretty embarrasing.  Ivy passed gas really loud 3 different times. People kept turning around to see who it was.  Eventually, we could hear the giggling around us. lol

Below: Our church assistants being sent out to a different state.  We always sit in the back.  With 5 kids ( and one in nursery) we have to be able to get up sometimes.  I don't like to be distracting to anyone.  Ashley is a newly pottytrained one so I have to get up at least once to take her to the restroom.  The older 4 I make wait till after service unless it's an emergency.  Ivy had evidence of something coming though (heh heh) because she was tooting away.  LOL

My  mom is in choir also and she is directly behind me.  It's really fun going to practices and visiting with friends. We aren't perfect obviously but we have a lot of fun together.

It's really fun singing during song service.  It's fun to harmonize and stuff.  My friend to my right sings alto, I sing soprano or high soprano, and then of course the guy next to me does whatever he wants because he's multi talented.  :D  haha.

Are You a Nice Guy? 

Evidence That Demands A Verdict

<--- (Used books start at $6.  Click on book if interested.) A friend was recently telling me how he questioned things in the bible and it reminded me of this book.  It's a really powerful book that answers many questions.

A little bit about it (I love his testimony).  As an agnostic college student, Josh McDowell believed that Christianity was worthless. But a group of Christians challenged him to examine the claims of Christianity on an intellectual basis. Instead of succeeding in discrediting the truth of Christianity, Josh discovered compelling historical evidence for the reliability of the Christian faith. As a result, Josh accepted Christ as his personal Savior and Lord, and he found his life changed through God’s love and grace.

He has his own Youtube channel HERE if you are interested to look at some of his videos.  I really enjoyed hearing his testimony.  I also enjoyed his Website and was excited to see that he answers a lot of questions there also.

Fall Clearing

I have worked my patootie off this week. It was time to clear out lots of stuff and I started in the kid's room.  I was sick of the stuff.  They just had way too much and only played with a quarter of it.  It was making it hard for them to clean and making it stressful for me to keep after them on it. So my heart softened and I realized it was just too much for them.  The results were so wonderful I kept going.  Finished all the rooms but the hallway closet and the office. It's B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L.  Ahhhh....

So the weirdest thing happened while doing all that.  I would work from the time I woke up till the time I went to bed late at night.  I was exhausted.  My legs would be killing me.  I would lay in bed waiting for sleep and it wouldn't come. My husband said "I thought you were tired".  I was!  I guess my body just was in work mode. It took me 3 hours to wind down and go to sleep.  It happened to me again last night. I didn't stop working till almost midnight and I couldn't actually fall asleep till 4am.  It was really frustrating. It's not like I slept in at all.  I even got up this morning feeling great with only little sleep.  Don't know what's up with that.

My daughter asked if she could help me because she said she wanted to be like Cinderella.  I told her she was dressed too nice and to go get dressed in her "rags".  Heh heh.

P.S. While I was writing this my husband came in and told me he caught my daughter Ivy in the bathroom putting deodorant under my one year old's arms and putting gel in his hair.  Soooo cute.

Being a Crazy Cleaning Lady

I really meant it when I said I was gonna declutter yesterday. The next morning I hopped out of bed (not exaggerating), got my coffee and just attacked the clutter in the kids room. I know it's hard for kids to really clean their rooms when they are just overwhelmed. So I threw out (donated) 3 huge garbage bags full of toys that they no longer played with or was not in good condition. Brought in a big bookshelf (this one from IKEA) for toys. They only have in there what they really care about and actually play with which is not much. They only have one bin for their costumes which our kids are big on so costumes were staying. 

Then I attacked the girls room and did the same thing.  I removed all the toys that were of no interest anymore or just worn out.  She now only has one bin of toys and it's only half full.  I moved out all the furniture and really cleaned her tile floor.  Moved out the dressers from the closet and cleaned floors and baseboards in there.  She had some friends over and some pretty big messes were made so I had to really clean her play house and her play dishes. Her room looks fantastic and simple to clean.  That girl hates to clean her room but yesterday she said she loved it and it was so easy to clean.  So there you go.  :)  Make it simpler and cleaning isn't so hard.

Then I grabbed one of the Magic Erasers.  I am IN LOVE.  I've used them before I just completely forgot about it.  Well, when I got one on the mail I thought I'd try it. I was frustrated at my living room wall earlier because I tried wiping it down and getting some pen marks off (that Ashley did) but to no avail.  The Magic Eraser just wiped that stuff off so easy I was shocked.  After I finished that walls I wiped down all the doors in the house, walls in the hallway, the girl's wall in their room (where Ashley attacked with crayons also), in the bathroom.  I used that sucker till it was a tiny little thing and broke apart. My husband loved it so much he went out last night and grabbed a couple more!  Ahhh!  I am so excited to see what else that Magic Eraser can do. 

So today I have to wipe down all my fans around the house and there is one in every room (two in the living room), clean out my fridge, deep clean bathrooms.  Yada, yada.  Charles is home all week so I am taking advantage of the extra eyes and arms that can help with the kids while I am in cleaning bliss.  I have never cleaned so fast in my life as I did yesterday (I cleaned for 15 hours with only tiny breaks to eat).  I was just kind of like doing a spring cleaning.  Doing the stuff that I don't get to as often.  (Vents, under things, etc).  Today I have to take down the curtains and wash them.  No I'm not pregnant and having that nesting thing.

When You Pray, Who Does Most of the Talking?

Do you ever let Jesus get a word in? This was funny but really made me take a self check on how I pray.

Coffee with Jesus from Media Fuel on Vimeo.

Clutter Me Crazy

I'm the kind of person that doesn't realize clutter is slowing creeping into my house until I one day look around and scream..

"AAAAgh!  What IS ALLLLL THIS STUFF???!"

It really freaks me out.  I have to keep things very simple or I can't handle it.  I get to where I just go into circles cleaning and get NO WHERE.  So today I looked in my kid's bedrooms and just felt like I was drowning. They just haven't been doing a good job on cleaning their rooms.  Kids get overwhelmed too so if there is just too much stuff and no where to put it, it's gonna be confusing and it'll generally just get dirty.  I hate little small toys.  Those are my pet peeve toys.  Especially those McDonalds toys.  So I usually always throw out the little things.  Real toys like remote control cars, swords, play guns (had to attach "play" in case you got worried), big dinosaurs, and costumes. Those are cool. 

Check out HGTV 25 Biggest Decorating Mistakes.  Interesting.

Today Charles and I moved stuff around in the boys room and I stole a huge bookshelf out of his office that used to be in the kids rooms for toys.  While I was at it I asked if I could take his office too.......

It was a stretch...... but he said yes!  He has had a career change and didn't need it so it will be Caleb's room.  Whoo hoo!  He so needs a room for his baby toys, crib, and changing table.  So tomorrow I'm going into all the kid rooms and throwing out junk toys, broken toys, happy meal toys.  Whatever is annoying. 

Works for me.  I'd do it right now but the are all sleeping so it's not a good idea.  I'm just itching to do it.  Must wait till morning after my coffee.  :D

P.S.  Guess what?!!  After writing this, just for fun I looked up clutter in the search engine and it brought me to this really crazy website called Ugly House Photos.  People actually use some of these pictures to sell their homes.  The purpose of this is to also show us what mistakes are made in how they display their houses but some of the pics are just so crazy!  If you scroll down on the left, you get different rooms.  Like one is about hoarders.  In case you have a sensitive stomach, just make sure to avoid THIS ONE.

Soooo, after looking at some of the messy and clutter pics I started feeling pretty good!  I was like "whoa, my house isn't that bad after all!"  But those photos scared me so much that it really wanted me to barge in my kid's bedrooms, wake them up, and have us all start getting rid of some stuff.  That site really freaked me out.  :P

Happy 34th Birthday, Charles!!!

 Charles' 34th birthday is today and he chose to have a game day for his birthday.

I remember back when I was little (wasn't very long ago) when we could play outside all day long, ride our bikes, walk to the local pool.  In the city especially, I'm finding it harder to let my kids do that. I lived in the city also but some things have just changed.  I told my husband I want to make our house a place where we can just have fun in our own backyard or just inside. I think I made it too fun because none of us ever want to leave.  Heh heh.  We have so much fun just hibernating here.  Thankfully we have a zoo membership so we go there often. Here my kids are karaoking. It such a blast!

Guess Who's Walking?

My little Caleb!  As soon as he figured it out he just walked everywhere.  The FIRST day he walked he actually RAN!  Can you believe it?  I guess he figured now that he's on two feet, he might as well practice running away from mommy.  Heh heh.

This kiddo makes lots of messes.  We call him The Destroyer around here for stuff like this.....

But he's so cute so it's so worth it.  :)  Here he was just being cute going through the cupboards but usually he's pulling out every single Ziploc bag and they are all over the floor with pots everywhere.  But you know, it's okay.  Some day I'll have no messes and no little feet runing around.  :(

Well, What Do Ya Know?

Guess who's light bulb just turned on in the potty training department?  Yeah, it's my Ashley.  Golly gee.  Every single time I start to wonder if I should just MAKE them learn how to potty (even though I know it's more about when they are ready), their light just turns on and it's done.  When I wait for them to be ready, it only takes them one week to get it down pat.  Well, the post from yesterday I actually wrote a few days before yesterday.  Literally, the next day she walked to the toilet and went potty in it. Well, goodness! That was the first time and since then she has gone potty every time.  All my kids learn exactly after their 3rd birthday.  I really should stop worrying so much.   
I'm tellin' ya, it's awesome!  Just one in diapers. :D  <---- That is a very BIG grin.

How cool is the toilet seat too? My in-laws brought over this really cool toilet seat and I thought it'd be perfect for when Ashley decides to potty on the toilet. Now she just walks over to it and puts the little lid down for little butts. They couldn't have timed this better giving us this awesome toilet. It's so easy to clean too and I can put away her little potty training toilet.

Abortion Survivor

Gianna Jessen was aborted and lived to tell about it. She has since become a vocal advocate against abortion, even speaking to the US Congress and the British House of Commons. She has made a startling physical recovery; she was not expected to be able to walk, but she now walks with a modest limp. She entered and completed a local marathon in 2005, and the London Marathon in 2006. In her advocacy, she does not express anger or bitterness, but seeks to convince people that abortion is a violation of the human rights of the aborted person through the plain example of her story and her visible present identity; she even seeks to comfort women who regret their abortions and are suffering for them. Gianna also sings, accompanied by her friend Michael Logen; she has written and recorded songs.

Gianna identifies herself as a Christian. She boldly proclaims her belief in the love and mercy of God, as well as speaking in support of chastity. She has forgiven her birth mother for aborting her, despite that forgiveness being unwanted. Jessen gives credit to Jesus for her life, her physical recovery, and her joy

When Will I Be An Expert?

You would think that being I have 6 kids and I have potty trained four so far that I would be an expert. Am I? Nooooooo..... I am not. Ashley is three and she is still not understanding what it's all about. You should see how cool my toilet is. It's got 3 lids. One for an adult, then pull down the next and it's a child, and then the final lid on top. REALLY COOL. I even had Ashley try it. Nope. She is not being stubborn about it. She just doesn't get it.

Oh well, she is so cute in a diaper.  She even wanted me to put one on her head with her pig tails sticking out.

Found the Guilty Culprit

I found the pillow thief!! 

I was wondering who in the world has been stealing my pillow.  If this isn't evidence then I don't know what is.  It's a little more annoying because everytime I find him snuggling it, I have to go wash it.  Maybe I just need to buy him his own pillow.  Big baby.

Henry is such an incredibly good dog and well trained.  He is so amazing around the kids and gentle.

Kyle is his cuddler and he loves it.  If you look close you can see where Kyle just got his stitches in his chin.  He was in the bathroom at school when he fell and hit his chin.  They said he never cried when he first got hurt and when he was getting stitches.  Kyle is a tough little dude and a total sweetheart.

Ashley's 3rd Birthday Party

Looking back... Here I am 9 months pregnant with Ashley! :D

Ashley turned 3!!! She is my baby princess. She loved her Disney dishes. :)

My mom got her this little doll. Ashley definitely is a little mommy.  She is always trying to take care of her baby brother.

Below she is with her grandmother which is my husband's mom.

Destiny and I in the kitchen.

This is the coolest birthday cake ever.  It's a round cake in the middle but surrounded by cupcakes for the kids.

Dropping The Ball

After 3 months of false charges from my phone and internet company and a 3 hour phone call this morning, I finally got my internet again.  Can you believe I was being charged for 3 months of service I have not had?  They insisted I had internet.  Believe me, I know when I don't have internet.  3 hours of being passed person to person and FINALLY they drop all the charges.  They were basically calling me a liar and saying I've had it all this time.  Sheesh.  Turns out, someone just forgot to note on the records that I cancelled all my services with them 3 months ago.  No, I haven't had internet all this time, it just wasn't in their notes and they didn't mind at all continuing to charge me.  After getting several hundred dollars dropped and an apology, I'm happy. :D

Pretty Food

I love to cook. I'm not naturally as good as it like my big sister but it's just incredibly fun. Back in the day when I was first married we had lots of boxed complete meals. Pasta Roni with corn was a common one. Heh heh. I told him on our anniversary we should have that meal every day but like at lunchtime or something. Those are actually pretty yummy but not something for EVERYDAY! LOL.

I was making salsa and noticed how pretty the layers looked.

I wanted to make Pineapple Upside-Down cake the other day but then wondered how neat it would be to make it into cupcakes. So I had to trim down the pineapples and then put that and the cherry in the cupcake pan first and then batter. I left out the brown suger though to not have as much sweetness.  OHhhhhh, it was super good and actually really fun to eat.  In this family....it went incredibly fast.  Even my neighbor kids came over and took some.  Haha.

Next week I am signing up for some culinary classes so it should be exciting!  My friend is signing up with me so it'll be double exciting.