Tomato Staking

I'm often the last to hear about a new resource, but just in case I'm not, here's a great book my mom recommended to me yesterday: Raising Godly Tomatoes. I read quite a bit and left hopeful that this season of intense discipline will be a lot shorter if I am absolutely faithful. I like the way she says it: You have to be consistent 100 times- IN A ROW. Not for the same thing necessarily, but I love the way she (and God's word) simplifies parenting. It is a huge task of training and loving souls and hearts, but it is not some mysterious complex process. (The mystery is not in the how-to, but that God uses such sinful, broken mothers like me.) The greatest appeal for me is her subtitle: Loving parenting with only occasional trips to the woodshed. That's what I long for...I'm off to stick close to my kids and be 100% consistent.

His and Hers

Date nights, that is.

Last week's menu: Deborah Madison's Beet and Kale Risotto with artisan bread and white wine.
This week's menu: Hot wings, homemade french fries, and beer. (After the risotto I needed to make it up to him.)

Both meals took a little more prep and time to make, and both were delicious. (Okay, true confessions: I made myself a chicken breast. I'm not in to spicy foods.) Both also seemed like another side would have completed the meal. We needed a salad with the risotto. When I asked WH what else you eat with hot wings at a restaurant he said, fries and beer. When questioned as to what would round it out better he suggested another kind of beer.

So for those who argue there are not many differences in males and females, here is a case study.

Natural cleaning helps

So about that all-natural soap. Here's my recommendation of the day, and my new natural go-to product for all things cleaning: Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds. I've been perusing health food stores for years so I'm not sure why I've never seen this product, but I really do think this biodegradable product is the perfect all-purpose cleaner. I bought one gallon at $32 from my local natural foods store, and by my rough estimates it should last me 10 months if I use it for my clothes detergent, my dishwasher detergent, and my all-purpose cleaner.

I make my own liquid clothes detergent from it using this recipe. It is quick to make (no grating soap and dissolving) and works well, although I do end up using the full half a cup for large loads and diapers. She said she wasn't pleased with how it cleaned her diapers, but I have used it for about two months and think it works well. The only thing I would add to her directions is to consider making half a "batch." I put my detergent in an empty one gallon vinegar bottle, and the recipe makes one gallon, so there's no room to shake it up (once it gets foamy with bubbles) if you put a full recipe in there. I don't really own any containers that hold more than a gallon, so this was an issue when I tried putting in a glass jar as well.

I used the soap in a spray bottle- highly diluted (1/4 teaspoon for a large bottle)- as an all-purpose cleaner. Great for the kitchen and bathrooms. I use it to spray down the counters and to clean the floors. I still use vinegar and peroxide (in separate bottles) in the sinks and toilet as an antibacterial cleaner. I haven't found anything effective for cleaning soap scum out of the tub, but I still have some soft scrub tucked away in the cabinet. For now, I'm using that up with the hopes of not replacing it. Edited to add: This just in...I sprayed the tub with my all-purpose cleaner and then sprinkled the tub with baking soda. The tub had to be mostly dry (the wetter it got the harder it was to get the soap scum off) but it worked great. Good-bye, Soft Scrub. I had tried just vinegar and soda and I think the tub needs some sort of degreaser; I guess that's why this combo works.

I used this recipe for my dishwasher detergent. The first time I made the recipe I didn't measure the tea tree oil, but the three drops in the recipe really means three drops. It's an oil so I think that may have contributed to the spotty dishes. We used up that full jar of soap (spots and all) and it took about a month. My husband was super patient. At one point he suggested we get a sign for our dishwasher that said "Clean" or "Dirty" because he couldn't tell. Nice. But we stuck with it through the second batch because we knew the dishes were actually clean, just spotty. If I wipe them with a dry towel they look great (which I do before we have company). WH wonders if it took a month to clean out the junk in our dishwasher, because I can honestly say I am really pleased with the soap now. I will usually have an item or two that needs to be hand washed after it's gone through the cycle, but that is almost always due to not getting the chunks of something off (and it's usually silverware).

Here are my observations:

• I've decided that the automatic dishwasher is somewhat of a farce; there is no way to get your dishes "spotless" without heavy-duty chemicals. You'd think hot water and soap would do it, but even the dishwasher repair man says not to load your dishes full of food particles, because they just get ground up and sprayed all over your dishes again. I guess the chemicals break down some of this food, so if you aren't using those you can imagine the mess on your dishes. I should add: I may be in a stage of life at some point where I need the convenience more than I want the chemical-free soap, but for now the latter is my priority.
• Using this soap requires me to rinse my dishes fairly quickly so nothing hardens, or keep a sink full of water to throw the dishes in until I can load them. This is not such a bad habit anyway, so I don't mind.
• My dishwasher foamed (as in, soap spilled onto the floor a little) the first few times I used this natural soap. The author of the blog link above suggested it was the result of my dishwasher getting some residual junk out of the system. Who knows...but it only happened a few times, and on those days my floors were especially clean.
• Coffee, peanut butter, and lipstick residue will not come off without a good pre-scrub. FYI.
  
• The soap is so concentrated and has some sort of pine oil in it. I've noticed that when it gets on my hands (at full strength) it irritates them a little so this has kept me from using the soap as hand-wash dish detergent. Maybe I need to dilute it more.
• I still purchase a big box of Oxyclean (which I'm fairly sure is not natural :) ) for soaking items that are stained.
  

I'm new to all of this, so if you have any other cleaning suggestions, do tell! If you've tried the soap and found it frustrating, I hope this will help. If you haven't tried it yet- but want to- maybe this will save you some annoyance. If you never wanted to try natural cleaners in the first place I'm sure you find all this amusing. To each his own!