Why bother? Well, for us it comes down to three things:

1. I have sensitive skin, and standing in front of a class of teenagers scratching like mad is a bit disruptive to the educational process.
2. The husband has a rather sensitive sense of smell, and doesn’t like any of the laundry detergents that don’t bother my skin.
3. Cost! Rather Than spend $7 on a box of detergent, this costs us about $1.41 a batch, and lasts about the same amount of time. That is a savings of about $145 a year. That’s yarn money people.

There are a lot of recipes on-line that let you make a big gooey batch that you ladle out. That doesn’t appeal to me much, so we use a dry version. The final product will smell like whatever soap you use. You can add essential oils for scent if yo want.

If you have never used washing soda I really recommend it…works very well on greasy stains. I’ve been using it lately to pre-soak the kids socks and it work much better than bleach. Supposed to be a “Green Cleaner” if you are into such things.

Ingredients:

• 1 bar of soap, any kind will do, we use ivory, but a lot of people like Naptha.
• 1 cup Borax
• 1 cup Washing soda, NOT baking soda, it’s in the laundry aisle and it’s pretty cheap

Directions

• Grate the bar of soap
• Mix all the ingredients in a airtight container.

** Be careful with the washing soda, especially if the kids are helping. Avoid contact with the eyes, don’t swallow, etc.
To use just add 3 - 4 Tablespoons per full load of laundry, depending on how dirty it is. I find it works best if you add it while the washing machine is filling.

I used to love laundry. Before the kids-BFK. Laundry was the one chore I could start, finish and put away, and not have to think about for a whole week. And it gave me an excuse to watch bad TV. Of course most chores were more enjoyable, or at least less constant BFK. Plus there was more bad TV.

My current embroidery project
Monday = Laundry

For the first few weeks after big-sis was born laundry was a dream. In my memories I am sitting on our sofa in a sort of Doris Day haze, you know, fuzzy golden light flowing around the new mother. I remember folding all of the onesies, and washcloths and socks and thinking how perfect it all was.

For me growing with the girls has been fast trip away from perfect. Not that that things were ever prefect before, but I had all these delusions of the perfect environ the girls would be raised in. Hah!

Inevitably I woke up one day and looked around. She had a lot of tiny onesies and washcloths and socks. For the past seven years it has been a never ending stream.

me doing laundry in July-try not to stare at those shorts, eek!

Over the years our laundry habits have changed. We recently have started making our own laundry soap-I’ll post the recipe and explanation tomorrow. I try to dry as much of it outside as I can. Over the summer when I am home with the kids I can get by with doing just one load of towels in the dryer, thank you very much. Not perfect, but manageable. And definitely much better than BFK.

OK, this in no way supports our less-sugar theme this week. I am probably thinking about this kind of recipe more since we are off the “sauce” for a while. I’m revampint the front page, and this is something I’d posted there back in the spring.

We use Soy Milk because the husband is lactose intolerant. This also works with milk, or leftover egg-nog.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

* 3 large eggs
* 1 cup vanilla soy milk
* 2 Tablespoons sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon almond extract
* 12 slices stale bread (potato bread works well)

Note: The bread should be very dry. Leave it out overnight or toast it lightly.
Directions:

1. Mix the first five ingredients in a large mixing bowl. One at a time dip the bread slices into the mixture, coating both sides thoroughly. Let it soak in the mixture for a few seconds.
2. Cook over medium high heat in a nonstick skillet. Let the first side brown, then turn over.
3. Serve with syrup or honey.

I just got this month’s issue of Craft Magazine in the mail today.  This was a gift last year from my sister.

This has to be one of my favorite issues so far. Lots of recycled gift ideas and a quilt. Plus the website has tons of how-to type stuff.

Well the girls have survived the sugar slow down. They have actually been right good about the whole thing. Big-sis confessed she had a bite of brownie when the girls went to the garden with their grandmother today. They have gone to sleep better, and the wake up has been easier, but really it is more likely to be the time change. Not that I timed it this way or anything…

I have also been working on some embroidery. These are for the hangers I use to set out the girls’ clothing for the week.

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Here at the Casa Handmade we have been having some sleeping issues. The girls are in bed at 7:45, but over the last few weeks they have been falling asleep later and later.  I myself have to get to bed by 10 in order to function the next day, and now that is is taking the girls until 9:45 to drift off we are all suffering.

I do not do well without enough sleep. At all.

So we are trying a bit of an experiment this week. We are trying to cut out as much sugar as we can. Gone are the Cheerios with honey for breakfast. No more graham crackers after school. It is meaning a bit more prep work and planning to make sure we have enough alternatives, but I am hoping this means they won’t be so wired at night.

Overall our diet is not bad, but it is amazing how qwickly all that stuff will creep in. I’ll update you as the week goes on. So far the girls are OK with the whole idea. We’ll see today… the afterschool snack is the real test.

NY Times article on diet & nutrition