Honey Wheat Bread

I made two loaves of this bread today and it was amazing! I used the "medium" recipe but doubled it so it would make two loaves. I used buttermilk in place of the milk, added two tablespoons of wheat gluten flour. I used two packages of rapid-rise yeast and made it in my kitchen aid mixer. This one is a keeper!

I also made my first batch of dough using a sourdough starter that I began last week. It only took 4 days for the starter to ripen and be ready for use. The dough is slowly rising as we speak. I plan to let it rise until around bed time then divide it in two and shape it and cover it well on greased cookie sheets then bake it first thing tomorrow morning. I made my starter with King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour which is my absolute favorite flour for any baked goods, even pancakes, cakes or biscuits!

It's been a productive day, now I am off to make a grocery list for my shopping trip this weekend.

Have a blessed evening!

Making Use Of The Summer Months

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

Titus 2: 3-5

I belong to a few different email loops and local homeschool groups. It's so wonderful to have like minded people to fellowship with and to share ideas with. Over the past couple of weeks most of these groups have been winding down for the summer as many take the time to take a much needed vacation or embark upon projects other than the normal school related grind.

I was kind of surprised, however, to hear several people saying that they would like to know who would like to participate in different activities on a daily basis this summer to "get out of the house" because they don't like to "sit around all summer." HUH??? :0(

Don't get me wrong, I am not one for idle time either. I don't enjoy just sitting around my house either doing nothing. But there is SO MUCH to do at home that I can't imagine being bored. For my family once or twice a week is plenty of time to get out of the house. The rest of the time we spend doing activities at home.

So what IS there to do during the summer? Well, whether you homeschool your children or they attend school away from there is much to be done at home during the summer. Here are a few ideas...

Gardening - depending on where you live, it's not too late to start some plants for the summer. What about a vegetable garden? That is not only a nice fun activity for you and your children, but it's healthy to go outdoors and get some sun every day. The fruits of your labor will also help supplement your family's grocery budget.

Sewing - it's a great time to make some nice decorative items for your home or some clothing for yourself and your children. Older children can also be taught to sew. Even boys should know how to mend or sew on buttons!

Cooking - stock up your freezer! Take the time to make a recipe you have been wanting to try. If you don't like to cook or don't' know how, it's a great time to learn or practice your skills. Baking is a great all day activity for children, they love to make things that are good to easy. If you have a garden, use the end of the summer to do some canning or freezing of your summer bounty.

Organizing - sort and organize your closets, drawers, shelves, etc. You'll feel like your home is brand new. If you find a lot of items that are still good that you don't use any more, have a yard sale or start an Ebay store.

Clean - if you didn't get a chance to deep clean your home in the spring, now is the perfect time. Give everything a good scrubbing and get your kids to help.

Read - Take a weekly trip to the library or order some favorites from an on-line book seller. Read books that you have been wanting to read and haven't had time for or better yet read out loud to your children from a well loved classic. When you finish the book have the kids make up dress up and act out part of the story.

Play a game - break out those dusty board games and have some game time each day. Your children will thank you :0)

Exercise - put on some fun music and get moving as a family. This is great to do early in the day so that the little ones will have a nice sound nap in the afternoon.

Practice hospitality - have friends over for the day. Have lunch together and enjoy a visit. Have friends over for dinner on the weekends. Host a tea party for your children and their friends. Have an ice cream social. Have a BBQ. Invite out of town friends or relatives to visit with you for a few days this summer.

Swim - if you are blessed with a backyard swimming pool take the time to use it. Better yet, host a pool party.

Plan for school - if you are a homeschooling mom, now is the time to order your items for the next school year and make a daily school schedule. Plan your activities and field trips. Do your on-line research. Ask your kids what they would like to study next year. If your kids go to a traditional school, start planning what supplies and clothing you will need to get them for the next school year.

Write a letter or make a phone call - get in touch with friends and family members that you haven't spoken to in a while. Encourage your children to do the same.

Charity work - see if there is any way you can serve your church or your community from home. Make baby blankets or baby hats for a local woman's shelter or Right To Life organization. Pack up canned goods or other items for a local food bank or other charity. Make hand made blankets or quilts for a local homeless shelter.

Do some crafting - if you have a craft that you enjoy spend time working on it. If you make a lot of hand made items, consider starting an Etsy store.

Watch a movie - It's pretty hard to find a good, quality movie any more but there are still some out there! Instead of going to the movie theater, make a nice cozy pile of blankets on the floor in your living room, pop some popcorn and watch a movie as a family. Not only will this save you a lot of money at the theater, it is much more realizing for younger children to enjoy a movie at home where they can doze off if they get sleepy.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. There is so much to be done at home. When you do go out for grocery shopping, errands or just for some away from home fun, make good use of your time so that you can be at home the majority of the time. Spending too much time away from home can cause exhausted kids, frustrated mothers, undone chores and too much money spent. Remember that God calls mothers to be keepers at home and we should take pride and joy in our calling. Let's honor God in all we do this summer!

Homemade Laundry Detergent Update

I made the homemade laundry detergent today. It works great! I did a little more research and found out that since we have hard water there were a couple more ingredients that I needed to add

Here is the final recipe I came up with after further research after my last post.

Homemade Powdered Laundry Detergent

1 cup Borax
1 cup Arm and Hammer baking soda
1 cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
1/3 cup of Oxy Clean (I used a generic brand, not the high priced name brand stuff)
One bar of Zote or Fels Naptha soap (grated then processed in a food processor - or you could use a box grater for this)

Mix everything very well then put it into a storage container. Use 1 to 2 Tbsp. per load.

(Updated to add, I now always use only 1 Tbsp. per load or 1 1/2 Tbsp. for a highly soiled load. I use the Zote soap now, as it seems to work better.)

For my first load which was a very large load of very dirty white clothes I used 3 Tbsp. of this mix along with about 3/4 c. of bleach. I washed with hot water on a 12 minute cycle and they clothes came out wonderful.

I was a bit skeptical at first because not only did 3 Tbsp. seem like a tiny amount of detergent, I was worried that I would not be able to tolerate this detergent. I am highly allergic to perfumed soaps and the Fels Naptha has a strong scent. Normally I buy Arm and Hammer Dye and Perfume free detergent or ALL FREE detergent because they have no scent and clean our clothes very well.

This homemade detergent worked better than our normal brands. Everything smelled fresh, nothing needed to be rewashed which is sometimes the case with the store brand stuff. There was no trace of a scent on the washed clothes. They smelled fresh and clean but not perfumed.

I think the ingredients (container included cost about $10 and I have plenty of everything left except for the Fels Naptha bar, which was under $2. I can make several more batches of this if I buy more soap bars. The batch I made should probably wash about 40 loads.

If you want to save some money on your laundry I highly suggest giving this recipe a try!

We are blessed, we are blessed!

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

Lamentations 3:22-24

God is so amazing, he never ceases to put me in awe. I guess that is not surprising, LOL! I just wanted to share about how much God has blessed us as a family as of late.

I mentioned a few weeks ago about how my husband had hurt his leg and was off work for a while. It was only about a week or week and a half that he was off but it took a nice sized bite out of his check. This wasn't really good because we had just bought a vehicle and had that additional payment to make. The loss of pay put us behind on several things and instead of being ahead of the game we were in a position of struggling on figuring out how to balance everything in time.

We had a moment or two of stress, but then just turned it all over to the Lord. He is after all above all, especially our finances. We chose to tithe as always and even chose to stick with eating our new healthier diet instead of cutting our food budget back in order to make ends meet. We feel that after all, if we are not healthy they we can't function properly because then we don't feel well physically.

Now, fast forward a little bit to today. Not only did my husband get the extra days of overtime that he wanted to make a little extra cash to catch everything up, he also found out that he will be receiving a check that we did not even know was coming AND he is getting a bonus check from work! Is the Lord not good? :0) Not only are we back on track, we are ahead and will have extra to add to savings.

Praise God for his provision and His goodness!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Ive seen recipes all over the internet for homemade laundry detergent and have wanted to give it a try myself for some time now. Every time I looked for the ingredients I needed, my grocery store only had one or two of them but never all three at once. However, today I finally came across all three so I picked them up as well as a container to store the soap once I make it.

There are a lot of recipes out there, some call for water and others only the dry ingredients. I think the dry will work best for us as far as the space we have as well as the tools needed to make it. I am posting the recipe I found that I like best here but as I try this and make changes if needed, I will post updates as to how it works and how well I like it.

If it works out well it should save us about $25 a month! Sounds good to me :0)

Homemade Laundry Detergent

1/2 cup borax
1/2 cup washing soda
1 cup grated soap flakes (Fels Naptha, Zote, Ivory or similar soap bar- approximately 1/2 of one bar is one cup of flakes).

Stir to combine. Use 2-3 tablespoons per regular load of laundry.