Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- with updated new recipe

 I am one lucky girl.  I am very lucky because my husband does most of the laundry in our house.  Because we have 4 kids ages 8 and under, we go through a lot of laundry.  He teases me because my pile of laundry seems to be the biggest, but with having pajamas, workout clothes, cooking and my kids slobbing on me all the time, it is no wonder that I go through a lot of laundry.  I figured since we go through so much laundry soap, and that stuff is not cheap, and son 2 and son 3 have eczema, I would finally give it a try.  I know that there are a few methods out there, but this is the one that I tried.  Next time I will try another method, and see which one I liked the best.  And, if anyone out there has a method that they love, or any tips, I would love to hear them!!

The stuff that you need is fairly simple.  A big 5 gallon bucket, I got mine at Home Depot, Borax, Washing Soda, Sunlight Bars, and Essential Oils (I am using Clean Linen).  The Essential Oil is totally optional, but I admit that I love that purfumey clean smell of laundry.  I got it at Michael's and it is Essential Oil used for soap making. 

You start off by grating 1 cup or 1/2 bar of  Sunlight.  It kind of looks like cheese, but I don't recommend eating it.  

Put your grated soap in a pan and add 12 cups of water.  Put on medium heat and stir until soap is dissolved.  Add 1 1/2 cups of Washing Soda, and 1 1/2 cups of Borax.  Stir until dissolved.  

Fill your bucket with 8 cups of hot water.  Add your soap mixture, and stir well.  Add 28 cups of cold water, and stir again.  Let sit for 24 hours. 

After 24 hours give it a good stir again.  I`m not going to lie.  It will kind of look disgusting and look like barf, but that is okay.  In the time that it sits it will gel-up.  

When you put in in your wash you will use about half a cup.  

So there you have it.  Your own soap.

So, I found a recipe I like even better!!  It is more gelly-like.

1.  Melt 1 bar of grated, Sunlight soap in 16 cups of water.

2.  Add 1 cup Borax and 1 cup of Washing Soda, and bring to a boil.

3.  Add 16 cups of cold water, and stir well.

You could still use something to scent your soap, but I ran out, and lately I haven't added anything.  I also do a double batch so that I'm not making soap all the time.  Oh, and I use 1/3 cup for a small load, 2/3 cup for a medium load, and 1 cup for a big load.  Let's be honest, I've got lots of kids, and I'm kind of messy, so it is usually a big load that I make.  

Happy Soap-making!!

Teacher Appreciation

I have a friend who is a teacher and when son #1 first started going to school I asked her what teachers like to get.  She told me to give giftcards or treats, because most teachers have too much "stuff".  I follow her advice, and usually for Teacher Appreciation Gifts I do something like a Starbucks giftcard.  This year I decided I wanted to change it up a bit.  

I found an idea to do caramel apples, and I thought it was perfect.  Who doesn't like an apple covered in sugar?  I certainly do!!   Plus, the apple is the iconic symbol of the teacher.  

First I started out with these gorgeous Granny Smith Apples.  I do not usually describe food as being gorgeous, but it is the best descriptive word I could think of to describe these beauties.  I went to a local produce store, and dug around in the display for the biggest ones I could find.  

The next part is to get all the sugary goodness.  I used Kraft caramels, and to cover these bad boys I used about 1 and a half of these smaller peg bags.  The other half of the bag went directly into the belly of son 3, and myself.

After I gave my apples a good wash, I poked a stick into the top.  I found these bamboo lollipop sticks and Michaels, and thought that they would do the trick.  They are nice and sturdy so I don`t drop the apples on the floor once they get all covered, and heavy.  

Basically, I melted the caramels in a smaller pot on the stove, and I added a few sploshes of milk, so the caramel melted better.   Then I dipped the apples into the caramel, and then I dipped them in Smarties to add more sugary goodness.  

The next step was to put them in a little cellophane bag, tie up with some cute ribbon, and add a cute little tag that said:

Thank You for helping me be a SMARTIE

How easy, and how cute!!