Wordless Wednesday:From head, to toe

Body painting.

Covered in paint. From head, to toe.

I have a feeling I'm going to be finding paint in his ears for quite some time.

linking up with these ladies for wordless wednesday:
and then, she snapped, baby baby lemon, the paper mama

Homemade laundry soap {eco-friendly & cheap!}

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Laundry soap is expensive. Like, whoa.

Especially if you try and buy an all natural eco-friendly brand.

I always talked myself into buying it.

You know, better for the environment, and better for our skin and it's not like we use 5 gallons a week or anything.

Still, if there's an easy way to make an all natural product for less, I'm all for it!

I researched lots of homemade laundry soap recipes (there are lots out there) and kind of picked the one I thought would work best - and be the easiest!

I tried to take some half way decent pictures of the steps that I was slightly confused about while reading the recipes, so I hope they help.

It really is easy.

Here goes!

For the entire recipe you'll need:

Water

An old laundry detergent container

1 bar Fels-Naptha soap

1 cup of washing soda (it's different from baking soda)

1/2 cup of borax

5 gallon bucket & funnel (make things easier)

The first step is to grate the bar of fels-naptha soap into a pot.

(I was surprised that it was yellow...I guess I was expecting it to be white??)

It will look like grated cheese :)

Add about 4 cups of water to the pot and melt the soap over medium-low heat, stirring every few seconds.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full with warm water.

Once the soap is all melted, pour the liquid into the bucket.

Then, mix in the washing soda and borax. Stir that up until it's dissolved.

Add warm tap water until the bucket is full.

Put the lid on and let it sit overnight to 'gel'.

When you open the bucket the next day, the mixture will be thick - notice the spoon is standing straight up!
We added another 4 cups of warm tap water and attempted to stir some of the large clumps out...it actually helped.

And then it's time to pour!

Notice my lovely assistant?! :)

This is when a funnel comes in handy.

Our mixture was still a little on the chunky side, but we used the back end of the spoon to help it get through the funnel.

Fill your container 1/2 way with the soap mixture.

Add warm tap water to make the container full.

Give it a good shake and you'll have your very own laundry soap!

And Ta Da! Make yourself a cute little label, and be proud of the fact you just helped the environment and saved your family money...aahhhhh, I love multitasking.

You'll have lots of soap mixture left over in your 5 gallon bucket. Just pop the lid on and save it. When your soap runs out,  add more of the mixture and more water. The 5 gallon bucket will make 10 gallons of detergent...and all for only a few dollars :)

For those who like their laundry to have more of a scent, you could add a few drops of essential oil to each container you make - lavender would be amazing!

Cheers to doing laundry!



Our Week {in cell phone pictures}

I can't tell you how great it feels to be back in the swing of things.

I even got excited about documenting our week in cell phone pictures!

We went to Kid Time with Isaiah's cousins, and it looks like my son has a very bright future as either a construction worker, or grocery store attendant. Honestly, I'm fine with either.

We headed home for baths and cuddles. Definitely the best part of the day.

Marinated portabella mushrooms. A-Mazing. 

Home made dog treats {recipe here} 

Roasted veggie enchiladas, sooooo yummy! Recipe coming soon!

We finally made our own laundry detergent! It was super quick and easy, not to mention eco-friendly and CHEAP!

Flowers for no reason :)

Lenny decapitated his ducky toy. Doesn't it look sad?!

Hubby got sick.

Don't worry, I got all the essentials to nurse him back to health.

Isaiah used water colors at school...

And peed for the first time like this!

{probably daddy's proudest parent moment}

I got to bust out another bar of this soap!

It's one of my favorite organic, locally made soaps.

We worked on a big-boy dinosaur puzzle.

Made pizza dough,

And pizza.

A great way to end the week in my book.

I'm linking up with

A good life.

visit her blog to find out how she and her family have survived snowmageddon.

Yea. It's a real thing.

Homemade dog treats - and a happy Lenny

If you follow me on facebook, you already know how much I've appreciated all of your kind words, thoughts and prayers. You really don't know how much it means to me.

(And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can click here for the story)

I've been in a bit of a susie-homemaker mode here lately, so I have lots of tutorials and fun recipes to share with you! Here's a fun one for your furry friend!

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Quick & easy.

My two favorites when doing...well, anything!

These homemade doggy treats definitely fall into that category!

The real reason I wanted to make these treats is because I got a suuuuuper adorable alligator cookie cutter. I desperately wanted to make sugar cookies, but knew I'd end up consuming far too many...I have good foresight like that.

So I resorted to making doggy cookies instead, and I wasn't even tempted to taste the batter.

Okay, I did take a small taste - I'm a sucker for peanut butter...what can I say?!

Though I didn't tase the finished product, the batter was pretty good.

Your pooch will thank you for making them.

And if nothing else, it'll give you a good excuse to bust out your most festive cookie cutters.

Let's get started.

Ingredients:

1 banana

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 cups whole wheat flour

First, place banana (I gave mine a little pre-mash) and peanut butter into mixing bowl.

Next, add in milk.

Give it a mix.

Add in baking powder and whole wheat flour (only 1/2 cup or so at a time) until a dough forms.

Flour your work surface (again, with wheat flour), roll out and cut into shapes!

Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes!

Your 4 legged friend will enjoy :)

We also packaged some up for one of Lenny's friends...he likes to share :)

Recipe via.
Plus, check out her blog for sewing projects, adorable crafts and lots of other inspiration!

These definitely got the Lenny stamp of approval.

Our Loss

Source: tumblr.com via Alex on Pinterest

I've been pretty MIA these past few months - that's no secret.
Lots has happened here and it just feels awkward to get back in to blogging without talking about what's been going on.

On November 13th we found out we were pregnant, and on December 20th, we found out we lost the baby.

The first bit of my absence was to blame on extreme fatigue - growing a person takes a lot out of you! :)

And the second part of my absence was just...a rest. Time to think about things, reflect, and to come to peace with the way things ended up.

We were so excited for this new addition to our family and couldn't wait to share the news with everyone on Christmas.

Needless to say, things didn't exactly go the way we planned {though I did have an odd feeling from the start}...but that's okay. I can now say that I truly find peace in knowing that it was meant to be.

There were tears.
There was anger.
There was frustration.
There was disbelief.

But there was also hope.
And joy.
And love.
And happiness.
And finally, peace.

There's a greater picture that we're not capable of seeing, and I just have to trust that it will all make sense later.
In my humble opinion, everything happens for a reason.
I have a whole new understanding of what it means to experience a loss.
I can relate to mom's who may be going through the same thing.
I appreciate those close to me SO much. Time is precious.
I know I'm going to have a whole new appreciation and love for our next little bundle.

It still feels good to share, and celebrate the little life that we created. I have complete faith that we will have another baby, and that someday Isaiah will be a big brother - the timing just wasn't quite rite.

Honestly, we're all doing fine. If anything, this has only helped us to examine our life and figure out what means the most to us.

We're so thankful to our friends and family who have been an outpouring of love and support for us. We appreciate it.

I've become a bit of an open book, so if you'd like to know more about this process, have gone through this yourself or have any questions, feel free to ask :) alex.heater@hotmail.com

Source: redletterwords.com via Alex on Pinterest