It's A Crazy Life.....

Fly by post - this week has been totally crazy!!!!

*No meal plan for this week.  We had a snow day on Monday and then I'm leaving tonight and while I had a basic plan in my head, it never made it to paper (or blog for that matter!)  Plus, I'm pretty sure that Mr. CrazyLife will ditch the meal plan when he's home alone with four children in favor of KFC and pizza delivery!  =)

*Having a great time at work this week - we're playing games!!!  I love playing music games with my kids.  They learn and retain so much more.  Plus - well, it's fun!

*Tonight I hop on a plane and head to Florida!!!!  I cannot wait!!!!!  Both for the trip and for meeting my long-time online friend Meredith!

*I'm nervous about the Princess Half this weekend.  I know I can do it and I'm excited, but still a bit nervous!!!

*I've never flown by myself before, so I'm a wee bit nervous about that too.  I know it will go well, but still . . .

*When I kissed the kids goodbye this morning before leaving for work, Thing #1 asked me to bring her something back from Disney.  I sighed, expecting the worst.  Her request?  A picture of the castle all lit up at night!

*Still having school issues with Thing #2.  He's a challenge for sure, but we're feeling like his teacher is just looking for trouble from him now.  Mr. CrazyLife is calling the school this morning to head things off.  *sigh*  The challenges of having gifted children.

*Last night the little kids were asking for homework again.  So we did addition flash cards with Thing #3.  Color/Shape flash cards with Thing #4.  Then I had some valentine sweethearts left over.  We did an estimating sheet and then a color graph with them.  I have some pics that I'll post on a later preschooling post.  The big kids did them too.

*I almost forgot to pack my swimming suit for the trip!!!  Tragedy!!  Thankfully, I saw this morning as I was leaving the house and it made it into the bag.

*Working on party planning for Things #1 and #4.  The Dora post above is still going, although we may have to make some time changes as my SIL is planning on coming in for the party.  Thing #1 wants a slumber party - is it insane to have a bunch of 8 year old girls in for a slumber party?

*Gotta run. . . . my 5th graders are waiting!!!  See you on the flip side with a complete Disney and Race recap!!!!!

Here is the cake I am going to attempt

Since I'm on the subject of make-your-own cleaning supplies, here's a few others we've been using and having great successes with!!!  As mentioned before, it is a bit time consuming to set up, but once you see the results and compare the monetary savings, you'll totally be into it!

My homemade dishwasher detergent:

Equal parts borax and washing soda ( I used about 3/4 C each)
1/4 C baking soda
about a 1/4 cup citric acid
Mix
Use about 2 TBS per load

I've also used unsweetend lemonaide KoolAid (2 packets) if I'm out of citric acid.  Same difference, plus a nice lemony smell.  I always use white vinegar in the rinse cycle as well.

Also, you want to make sure you rinse well . . . borax left on dishes isn't healthy.  Although I'm sure it the's same with commercial detergents.  I will sometimes run a second rinse.

And I've read some conflicting things about combining washing soda with baking soda, but I've never had an issue with it.  Research.  Experiement.  Find what works for you!

As most of you know, we have been taking steps to "green" up and detoxify our home and lives.  Baby steps, for sure, but steps.  When the kids were babies, we used mostly cloth diapers.  I've already written about my choices for Mama Cloth.  We try to recycle almost everything and thankfully our waste management takes it all.  I now have a second grade recycling ninja, so we're recycling even more things.  =)  We use a lot of cloth napkins instead of paper.  We use mostly cloth dusting cloths and floor mops.  I just picked up a steam mop to clean the floor with so we would not have to use any chemicals.  We always garden and compost.  We eat only grass-fed meat and raise our own cows and chickens and pigs.

Little things, but they all add up.

My most recent step was taking a look at the cleaning products I use in the house and trying to "green" them.  Now, I mostly had been using store-bought "green" cleaners such as Greenworks or the store natural brands.  But I still wasn't happy with the chemical smell or the ingredients, not to mention the fact that they really didn't do the job.

So I branched out.  I decided to start making my own cleaners, for the most part.  I joined Shaklee and began using their products.  And now I'm addicted to making my own laundry soap, dishwasher detergent and shower cleaners.  Among others . . . .

Here is my laundry detergent recipe. It's quite simple to make, although a bit time-consuming.  I enlist the help of the above-mentioned second grade recycle ninja to help with the shredding of the soap.  =)  And the little ones help to make sure all the little pieces of shredded soap make it into the container.  A family affair!

1 C borax
1C washing soda (NOT baking soda!)
2 C Fels Naptha or other unscented soap
Mix
Use 2 TBS per laundry load

I find that this recipe gets me through one week of laundry - about 12-15 loads.  You could probably add some essential oil if you prefer a scented soap.  I've found that our clothes are so soft and just clean-smelling.  No real scent.  Just clean.  I can't wait to try this with hanging the clothes on our laundry line!

You can also make liquid laundry soap.  There are TONS of recipes out there on the good 'ole WWW.  Here is a page with lots of them to try: Tipnut - Homemade Laundry Soap

The lowdown on the cost of making this laundry soap.  The Fels Naptha soap was $1.25 for a 5.5 oz bar.  I used about half a bar in the recipe.  The washing soda was $2.75 for 55 oz.  The borax was $2.99 for a 75 oz box.  Doing the math, I figured a cup of washing soda to be about 4 ounces and a cup of borax to be about 3.2 oz.  So the washing soda is about 20 cents/batch.  The borax is about 15 cents/batch.  And the soap is 63 cents/batch.   Grand total of 98 cents/batch.  Divide this by the 15 loads I got done and it turns out to 6 cents per load!  SIX cents!

My regular laundry detergent was $8.79 and it lasted for about 35 loads = 25cents per load.  That's a difference I can deal with!

Now if I could only find a way to magically have all the clean, folded laundry weave it's way to dressers and closets without my taking it there . . . .

*I had this all typed out and then never posted it yesterday!  See, even when I try to plan ahead, I fall behind!  =) *

Meals - week of February 14th

Monday - school/daycare/packed lunches
                mac n' cheese w/chips, apple slices & broccoli
                popscle treat

Tuesday - school/daycare/packed lunches
                Sloppy Joes w/corn, peaches & chips

Wednesday - school/daycare/packed lunches
                     hot dogs for kids w/carrot and celery sticks, PB dip
                    adult Valentine's Dinner - steaks, baked potato, broccoli, salad, wine

Thursday - school/daycare/packed lunches
                  taco dinner

Friday - schoo/daycare/packed lunches
             homemade pizza w/breadsticks and salad

Saturday -  Bologna/PBJ sandwiches w/apple slices
                  kids - ramen noodles w/grilled cheese sandwiches
                  adults - date night!  Dinner out

Sunday  - do-agains for lunch
                pot roast in crockpot, potatos, carrots, garlic bread

A day late and a dollar short - that's about right for me!  We've had a crazy week with me having to take a couple days off work due to bussing issues and then we had 3 snow days in a row with 13ish inches of snow on the ground.  Then the weekend and yesterday a PD day and now it's Tuesday again all ready!  Where does time go??



So here's this week's meal plan:

Monday - lunch at daycare
                Speghetti w/corn and bread/butter dinner

Tuesday - school/daycare lunch
                BBQ Pulled Pork (Lloyd's quick cook type) with chips and beans dinner

Wednesday - school/daycare lunch
                     Breakfast dinner - pancakes, hash browns, toast, bacon

Thursday - school/daycare lunch
                  Pizza for dinner

Friday - school/daycare lunch
             Steaks on the grill, green beans, baked potatos (probably hot dogs for kids!)

Saturday - PBJ sandwiches for lunch w/chips & fruit
                 do-agains for dinner

Sunday - Soup (probably bean bacon or white bean chicken chili) for lunch
               pork chops w/stuffing & broccoli for dinner

As always, I'm linking to OrgJunkie's Meal Plan Monday!