Today Honor started like this:

Add fifteen minutes of screaming like we’re pulling his hair out one by one and you get this:

Last night was date night. After we ate dinner on main street (mmm, fish tacos!), Jim surprised me with a room key to one of the fancy downtown hotels. We had a suite equipped with a kitchenette, living room area and separate bed room. The best part was, by far, the king sized tempur-pedic bed that we got to sleep in. Can I just say that $3k is totally worth it for that bed and I’m totally saving up for one now!

I am so thankful for my husband who works so hard for our family and who loves me FOR my flaws, not despite them. And I continue to realize how lucky and blessed I am that my 18 year old self knew to marry such a great man…. that girl, 8.5 years ago… she was kind of smart…

• Sunday, I traveled with some friends to the San Juans to soak in the clothing-optional hot springs. We all remained in our suits, but I saw more naked old men than I ever cared to. Afterwards, we sat outside on the picnic benches, reveling in the gorgeous light of dusk while we ate antipasto salad and snacked on veggies and hummus. I should have taken a picture, but I don’t think it would have captured how beautiful the snow-covered San Juans were.

• Eden’s on spring break, so I had both kids with me yesterday while I grocery shopped and ran errands for Tangle. I had to ship a package to Norway and left them in the car while I ran into the post office. When I came out, there were a couple people leaning up against the building, eyeing my car. When I got in, Eden reported that Honor had climbed out of his carseat and honked the horn a couple dozen times. What she failed to mention is that he can’t get unbuckled without her help. They both spent the afternoon in trouble.

• We just got the Spring issue of Rebecca in the store and I really, really, REALLY have to knit this cowl neck sweater. Immediately. Good thing we ordered the yarn too!

“Mom, I want you to buy that for my birthday when I turn 5. Because I would play with it all day and I wouldn’t whine all day.”

Since I began my quest to make our house more enviro friendly, I’ve changed out a lot of my cleaning supplies. I now use baking soda and vinegar for the majority of my cleaning (who knew that old newspapers and vinegar water were the very best window cleaner?). I switched from Cascade to 7th generation for my dishwasher detergent and I’ve also been using Method dish soap, hand soap and spray cleaners for several years. The one thing I never switched out was our laundry detergent.

Not only is the eco friendly very expensive, but I think I was most worried that it would have bad effects on mine and Honor’s skin. We are both SO sensitive, the only thing that I’ve found to work and have used for years is Target’s brand of baby detergent. (Even the name brand bothered me a bit!)

So when I ran across this recipe for homemade laundry detergent, I got all excited. Could I possibly make eco friendly detergent that would be tres cheap? Well, I did. And it works!

I’ve yet to wear the clothes to see how the effect my skin, but I can tell you that they came out of the machine perfectly clean. Here’s the recipe I used:

1 bar Fels naptha soap, grated in the small side of a box grater (be patient, watch your knuckles!)
1 cup Arm and Hammer washing soda (sodium carbonate as opposed to Baking soda – sodium bicarbonate)
1 cup Borax
10-15 drops grapefruit essential oil
Mix together well. (I used my hands to help break up the curls of grated soap.) Store in airtight container.

For “fabric softener”
2 cups white vinegar
10 drops grapefruit essential oil

Dump 2 Tbs. soap mixture in your washer. Turn water on on the hot setting. Fill with enough hot water to dissolve soap. Turn water to cold. Add 1/4 cup of vinegar to fabric softener cup of washer. Run your cold cycle as usual. Wonderful!!

Making my own laundry soap also got me thinking that I could make my own dish detergent and save a bundle (I’m currently paying about $5 every two weeks for 7th generation detergent! ouch!). I think I’m even more excited about the dish detergent than I am the laundry.

1/4 cup citric acid (I bought this at our local brew shop. It’s about $3 for a pound.)
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
1/4 cup salt
a few drops grapefruit essential oil (can you tell I like grapefruit?)

I disbursed 2 Tbs between the pre-wash and wash cups. The dishes came out way better than they do with 7th generation. My rinse cup is still full of Jet Dry and when that runs out, I’ll keep it filled with vinegar to keep the water spots down.

EDIT: After much testing, I’ve determined that the homemade dish detergent just doesn’t clean good enough. I am now mixing it half and half with 7th Generation detergent with awesome results. I feel like it’s a good money saving/green compromise.

Where to find borax, washing soda, fels naptha:
I found all of this at my local Kroger grocery store. The borax and washing soda were both next to each other in the laundry aisle. Washing soda was under $2 and the borax was $3.50. Fels naptha was on the same aisle but way at the other end. It’s just a bar of soap made for pre treating laundry (I will use this when my can of spray and wash runs out.) It was just over $1.

Monday
Tortilla pizzas with ricotta cheese and mushrooms

Tuesday
Turkey Chili

Wednesday
Thai Beef Salad

Thursday
date night!

Friday
Portobello/Avocado burgers

Saturday
Beef Stroganoff

Sunday
Southwest wraps or pizza as I may not be home in time for dinner

Saturday it was nearly 60º here and then we woke up to snow Sunday morning. But we took the opportunity Saturday to take the kids down to the Colorado River trail with their bikes. We’ve decided to take up letter boxing. Honor was convinced that he needed to look for the “X” that marked the spot for the treasure, but alas, no “X” and no treasure. Of course the first box we looked for had to be missing.

But I managed to snap a few photos before the battery on my camera died. I totally enjoy spring, but with it comes the dread of the miserable heat of summer. I tell you, I live in the wrong part of Colorado….

See? I definitely have to paint my new chairs rather than stain them. I’m convinced.

(I suppose posting a photo of the newly finished table and my new kick ass chandelier I got to go over it would help with the visual…It’s on my list for tonight!)

It’s Saturday morning. I wake up early-ish to Eden asking if she can turn the heat up. I can’t fall back asleep. So I get up, shower, get dressed, hair, makeup. I have to work, so I putz around a bit on the computer and decide to make breakfast. We’ve been getting these frozen beef breakfast sausage patties, but I tend to fill the house with smoke when I make them – they’re best when they’re crispy (aka slightly burnt). When we were stoveless I started cooking them on the grill and it worked out perfect.

So I run out in the rain, turn on the two outside burners, let them sit for a sec, and then turn on the middle one. The grill won’t light. I try again. Still won’t light. I open the lid, as I’m sure I need to actually SEE what’s happening. I try again. A giant flame rises from the grill and it’s lit. I smell burning hair. MY burning hair….

Great…

Luckily, it only got a small part of my bangs and part of one side in the front. And NOT any of my eyelashes.

I think maybe I’ll go back to filling the house with smoke when I cook sausages.

Stats:
-Pattern: Knitscene Spring 08
-Yarn: single strand of Blue Sky Dyed Cotton (3 skeins each color)
-Toggles: Quadriliteral toggles distributed by Rowan
-Needles: addi’s size 9
-Size: 41″ with some mods
-Mods: Even though I was on gauge, the sweater was HUGE after removing the sleeves. So I ripped back at least two inches of the raglan increases and then divided. I think that it fits perfect now! Also, used a single strand of BSA cotton rather than a double strand of Lily Chin yarn doubled on 6’s (I still can’t figure out how her model didn’t feel like cardboard knit that tight!)

I’m really happy with this one. Fer Sher.