Oranges Poranges.......

Happy New Year Dear Ones!!

We have been out of town and are getting settled back into our groove - I should have all my laundry caught up by sunset today (can I get an hallelujah?!). We spent a wonderful time of fellowship and refreshing in Buchanan, MI at a family camp retreat event called Resolution hosted by Life Action Ministries. What made our time there even more special was that WonderBoy and I were able to meet 2 of our pen pals in person!! We were so blessed to be able to spend time, share meals and fellowship with our friends - so much so that it was a very teary goodbye! It is so wonderful how God knits our hearts together in friendship - our families share a new bond and for that I am so grateful.

So.... we are home and working toward getting organized and on track for 2011. I LOVE a New Year and all the promise it holds. The Principal and I have been having some wonderful conversations over the past few days - 20 hours of driving time over 3 days makes that very possible! There are many things I will share with you as they unfold, but for now let me just say that I am so excited and anticipating all the amazing things that God has for our family for 2011!

Today what I really wanted to share with you was a fun and easy peasy craft/gift giving idea. It is frugal and natural to boot! It is orange season - we just purchased a 40 lb. box of organic Texas oranges that are so sweet and delicious we are going through them pretty rapidly. I was very pleased by an email this morning that our buying club is trying to put together a second order - count us in - all that wonderful fresh organic vitamin C is a great way to keep our family healthy and ward off the winter bugs that are rampant (if you are local and are interested let me know I would be happy to order a box on your behalf - email me for pricing and details).

On to the craft......the Principal scored another bulls eye in his Christmas gift giving with the latest Homestead Blessings DVD - The Art of Crafting. If you are not familiar with The West Ladies and their wonderful ministry Homestead Blessings I am thrilled to be the first to send you to their site and introduce you to them - you will love them - I promise. Their DVDs are a treasure trove!! Last night we watched the Art of Crafting and I was thrilled with the segment about making your own potpourri - I have at least 4 gallon sized freezer bags in the garage filled with dehydrated apple peels, cores, peach pits and orange slices that I had dehydrated for that very purpose - making potpourri...... once I figured out how. I am now one step closer ;-) I will do a separate 'how to' post when I do actually make the potpourri but for now you can get started and prepare along with me - get some oranges, eat them, enjoy them, build your family's health and save the peels!! You can do this one of 2 ways - slice the oranges in rings or quarter them, after you have eaten all their yummy goodness twist your peels and set them in something pretty, add a candle or some pine cones to jazz it up and let air dry. They look great, they smell great and once they are dry they will be beautiful in a wonderfully fragrant potpourri made by your very own hands! This would make great hostess or thank you gifts......for now get twisting sister........I have to be honest and tell you - this kind of thing makes me almost a little too happy ;-)

Homemade Laundry Soap Tutorial

This is one of those posts that I have been meaning to get around to for some time now, the delay has been that I don't have to make laundry soap often and so, the window of opportunity is small. One of the many wonderful things about homeschooling is it offers so many opportunities to teach Life Skills on a daily basis. So while I set WonderBoy loose to make his first batch of laundry soap I was on hand to oversee and guide and captured the process to share with you ;-) I have to admit, the idea of making my own laundry soap was for a long time, intriguing but a little bizarre and even intimidating. I have not purchased laundry soap now for 2 plus years and cannot imagine any reason why I would at this point. The benefits of making your own laundry soap far out weigh any reasons to purchase it for me. I know what is in it, I can add the fragrance I like to the degree to which my family enjoys it, I reuse the same containers over and over again and it costs pennies to make as opposed to the $15 per bottle I would be paying at the store for the same amount or less - pretty much a no brainer!! For me the most difficult part of making homemade laundry soap is finding a store locally that carries the ingredients. I can sometimes get borax at Walmart but have a hard time finding washing soda, when Kroger had it last week I bought 2 boxes - I am good to go for a while now.

Ingredients

1/3 to 1 whole bar soap

(this is preference - I have used as little as 1/3 of a bar with good results, but I tend to use a whole bar most times - I live with guys who work and play hard - any kind will do)

1 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

3 gallons/4 cups warm water

Directions

1. Begin by pouring 4 cups of water into a medium sized pot to boil.

2. While waiting for your water to boil grate as much soap as you plan to use, this can be done by hand or in a food processor - your choice. If using a hand grater watch your flesh!!

3. By the time you are finished grating your water should be boiling, add grated soap to pot and stir until dissolved fully. This will take a few minutes and some pretty consistent stirring, the smell can be very strong at the point so if you are sensitive to that kind of this you may want to seek the aid of a designated stirrer ;-) The mixture will be cloudy and milky looking when all the soap is dissolved.

4. Now using a small pail or drink pitcher add 3 gallons of warm/hot water to a 5 gallon bucket. The bucket we use is perfect for this job and used exclusively for laundry soap - it has measurements on the bucket and a foam grip to make moving the heavy full bucket no big deal - look for one like this - you will be glad you did. We probably got it at Home Depot, maybe Lowe's.

5. Now add your pot of soapy brew to the 5 gallon bucket. You will have a bucket of milky soapy water, not to worry this is how it should look - the magic comes later ;-)

6. Next, add 1 cup of washing soda and stir for 2 minutes with a large long handled strong spoon - you need to get the bottom of the bucket and edges in the stirring process so a small serving spoon won't work.

7. Once your washing soda is dissolved and well mixed in, add 1/2 cup of borax and stir for 2-3 minutes to dissolve and mix well.

8. At this point you can add your fragrance if you so desire. We love good smelling things at our house and so I like to add a little extra yummy smell - this time I chose a sandalwood amber fragrance oil that I got at the Dollar Tree - you can use essential oils but that would drive your cost up considerably - for something like this I am perfectly happy using Dollar Tree fragrance oil - it's up to you ;-)

9. Give it one final really great and wonderful stir.

10. Pop the lid on tight and let it sit overnight.

This is where the magic happens. In the morning you will open your bucket to 3 gallons of gelled glop - it will smell great, it will clean your clothes but the consistency will be a little watery and a gloppy - that is perfectly ok!

I transfer mine to a pour spout container that I keep above my washing machine for easy peasy dispensing when it's laundry time. Use 1/2 cup per load or the measure out in the plastic cup that came on one of those expensive store bought laundry bottles that you will never have to buy again - they work great ;-) I have used the same one for years and take great satisfaction in knowing that I will never buy another one again!!

So there you have it! Easy as can be, fun to make and best of all it's frugal and it works....what are you waiting for? Check your hair, jump in the car and run out and get the ingredients that you don't have on hand now!! If you have what you need to make this you should not even be reading this part!!

Frugal Romance

The Principal and I recently celebrated our 4th Anniversary - wow - what a whirlwind 4 years it has been. When we married I was a full-time working Mom preparing my 3 year old to start school the following year. Thank goodness God is so gentle and has such a wonderful sense of humor and timing for, if not for those things we certainly would not be where we are today - it is as always by His Grace Alone that we are who we are and doing what we are doing. I am now a full-time homeschooling Mom learning to care for family and home in ways I had no knowledge of a few short years ago - Thank You Abba Father !!!

In light of the changes that we have made in our day to day circumstances, many other changes have followed both out of need and desire. One of the things that I try to do as much as I possibly can is continue to "earn" an income at home by being a good steward of the provision with which we are blessed. There are so many ways that I have learned to make money go further (future post perhaps?) and some of them I wouldn't change now even if there was an endless supply of money. The Principal earns a good living and I feel it is my responsibility to put the deserved value on his hard work by not spending it carelessly....SO....with that in mind I approached our anniversary with the best of intentions and rather than focus on what could I buy him I focused on what could Igive him. Take these ideas and use them as you wish - it is my prayer that they inspire you to romantic genius!!This year I found myself thinking back to so many moments of our trip to Jamaica where we were married barefoot on the beach and so decided to go with the "Jamaica" theme for showing my sweetheart how much he means to me on this anniversary. The Principal wakes the roosters in the morning so I knew he would be up before me - after he was sleeping sweetly the night before I snuck into our bathroom where I had all the "props" stashed and set the scene for the morning. I gathered together a thank you card that had a wedding picture on the beach, a conch shell with a great story (for another time), a bathing suit wrap and hat I wore, sand and shells from the beach where we were married and our wedding rings. I set it all up in our bathroom by draping the wrap over the counter top and making a display of sorts - this was what he would be greeted with at he started the day - it was a huge hit by the way - he loved it and it set the tone for a wonderful day of romance. We made arrangements for Wonder Boy for the day and after getting him situated, we hit the road to do what we love and do best....letterbox and adventure!! We drove to a town a few hours away where there were several letterboxes that we had not yet found and enjoyed the day hiking and exploring - it was a crisp sunny day and we we had the best time. We decided to fore go the pricey restaurant meal instead deciding on a wonderful gourmet pizza at home while we relaxed by the fire. I made the best pizza I have ever made with authentic Italian type dough purchased from the deli counter at Whole Foods Market, topped with prosciutto and fresh basil and thinly sliced Roma tomatoes - it was divine - and only a fraction of what a dinner out would have cost! After dinner we exchanged small gifts and just hung out and talked in the comfort of our living room, in our comfy clothes without interruption from wait staff or child - it was heavenly.

This is the card I made for The Principal (I now make all the cards I give to both The Principal and Wonder Boy because well....they love them and I have issues with Hallmark (yet another post) and it's hard to find cards made by anyone else.

By the way - as an aside - Wonder Boy was so taken by all my plans he worked one up of his own - the morning of our anniversary he presented a gift to The Principal and I that he had put together himself. It was a beautifully wrapped ;-) journal with 2 pens - one red and one blue(so we could each have our own color to use) for us to write love notes to each other in, with a note from Wonder Boy written on the inside cover wishing us Happy Anniversary - how's that for homeschooling ? Not too mention precious!! Just to let you know - we keep it on the dresser in our closet and I usually read a note/leave a note when I am putting socks and t-shirts away.....it has turned out to be such a sweet sweet gift.

Let me share one last thing with you....the box. I bought this beautiful wooden box on sale at Hobby Lobby for 50% off several years ago now and filled it with 365 notes of love, thoughts, memories and thank yous to give The Principal for Christmas. I have since filled it for different occasions when it is empty - The Principal takes a note our randomly each morning before leaving for work and keeps it in his pocket to glance at throughout the day. I re-stocked the box for our anniversary - it had been sitting empty a while - I feel like a better wife when the box is filled ;-) I keep an excel file on my laptop and add things as they come to mind so that when the box needs filling I have something to print off, trim and fold. The Principal tells me this is easily one of the best gifts he has ever received. Different colored paper makes me happy......

I hope a peek into our romance will give you some inspiration to look outside the "norm" and return to the joy of gift giving with creativity inspired by love - really and truly you will save some money, but more importantly you will be beautifully packaging up the real gift that we all want .....love.....I don't think it gets any more priceless than that !

Learning as I go,

Leisha