Why I closed my Facebook

I have been off Facebook for about a month....I think. I honestly don't remember when it was. People have constantly been asking me why, and honestly it is not really a simple answer. It is a combination of several things that God has really been laying on my heart lately. It was an act of conviction for several reasons.

DISCLAIMER: These are merely my thoughts and opinions. I do not condemn anyone who is on FB. (That means I am not judging you). You are not allowed to get offended at anything that I say, unless you fall under my #3 and then maybe you should take a step back and do some self examination...just sayin.

1) I wasted too much time.
 I was neglecting things and people that are more deserving of my time and should have been a higher priority. Having the app on my phone made it too easy for me to be constantly sucked into it. I know myself too well and knew it had to go away completely for me to be able to change my priorities.

2) I have "Friends" that I barely even know.
I knew more about my friend's lives from what they posted on Facebook than from actually having conversations with them. It was starting to creep me out. In the same regard, there were people who thought they knew me because they knew a lot about me. I decided that I wanted to start investing in face to face relationships and getting to know my "friends" more from actually spending time with them instead of virtually stalking them. 

3) Drama
Everyone has that one "friend" (or maybe 10) who just cause drama. You can't delete them because then you will become their drama, and they will know instantly that you deleted them. Facebook likes to make you think that you can control how much of their "stuff" you see, but it doesn't work. You still see every single comment they post on someone else's stuff. Also, maybe it was just me, but I felt like those people were the ONLY ONES who filled my news feed! What the dang!? How can I ignore you if I can't make you go away?!

4) It made me crabby
If I was already having an "I feel like a failure" kind of day, getting on FB and seeing that today a "friend" cleaned her house, taught her kids Mandarin, knit a scarf, made her entire dinner from scratch (and Organic!), wrote her husband a list of 101 things she loves about him, planned the perfect kid Birthday party, worked out for 3 hours, showered (alone), did her homework for the 11 Bible studies she is in, and still had enough energy for her husband when he got home from work.....yeah, that didn't help me feel better. Totally my issue, I acknowledge that for sure. I should not be comparing myself to others, but knowing that it is something I struggle with and that there is no way to not see that stuff, I chose to remove the temptation. God is working some stuff out in me and I am trying to focus on how He sees me and not on how the world sees me. Doing things for His glory, and not the praise of men....that is my goal.

There are several changes I have made in my life over the past few months and this was just one of them. I am not saying that I will never go back on Facebook, I am sure at some point I will, I just don't know when that will be. For now, you will have to "follow" my blog to get the crazy stories and pictures of my kids and to see the yummy things that I make or what project I am working on this week. My goal right now is to try to blog once a week. We shall see! :)

I'm addicted

So I have been obsessed with Pinterest. If you don't know what it is, you should check it out. It's the most amazing "social bookmarking/idea sharing site" which is how I have been describing it to people. It's like a special club, you need to be invited to join. So if you want to join the coolness, let me know, I can send you an invite. Anyways..... back to my obsession. I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew I had to try it. I was in the middle of making a quilt for my sister (a post on that to come soon) and as I was sewing the quilt, all I could think about was that cute little dress. I had to do it. I raided G's drawers and found a purple tshirt that I figured we could sacrifice and then I went to my stash of old tshirts and found some colors to match.

About and hour later I had this:

Grace was sleeping when I made it, so I had to wait till morning for her to try it on. She was thrilled when she saw it. "Oh mommy! This is such a beautiful dress! Did you make it just for me?!" This little girl LOVES dresses and especially fond of "super comfy" ones. I have a feeling I will be making more!

(please excuse the pictures, they are from my phone. I will try to take better ones later. Oh and also the blueberry muffin on her face :)

This little guy wanted to get his picture taken too. 

He was snuggled up in Auntie Brittany's quilt that I just finished.

Such a little ham. I love my kids.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

So I have had all of these "recipes" bookmarked for homemade laundry detergent and it's just been one of those projects that I have not gotten around to. I had a nice stockpile of Tide that I got for pretty cheap so I really wasn't in the need for more detergent. Why make something I don't need? Anyways. I finally gave it a shot this week. I read many, many recipes, reviews and opinions and got very overwhelmed. The most widely known recipe is from the Duggars which you can find here. That one just overwhelmed me because it made 10 gallons. Whoa. I really like the Duggars, and it would be awesome to have 19 kids, but I don't. I have 2, therefore I don't need 10 gallons. The other recipes I found were almost the same amounts on the ingredients but they made half as much. Weird. I gave up and just decided to try my own thing, and if it worked then great, if it didn't oh well, at least I had some fun!

So here is what you need. 

~2 gallons hot water

~2 clean empty gallon jugs (I used random sized Tide and Downy containers and just measured everything out)

~Pan that will hold at least a gallon

~Spoon to stir (either metal or one that you do not intend to use for food again) 

~1 bar Fels-Naptha

~1 box Borax

~1 box Washing Soda (make sure it looks like this, not baking soda) 

I bought all 3 of these at Pick n Save. The Borax and Washing soda were by the other detergents and the Fels-Naptha was I think by the dish soap or other soaps. I don't quite remember, but they were all at PNS. I know it was less than $10 for all 3. 

I used 1/2 of the Fels-Naptha bar

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

1) Grate the Fels bar with a fine cheese grater. Yes it is a pain and takes a while but you want it to dissolve in the water so the finer the better.

2)In a pan that will hold at least a gallon, bring 6 cups water to a boil. Add the grated soap, stir till completely dissolved.

3) Turn off the heat and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir till completely dissolved. 

4) Slowly add 10 cups of hot water while stirring.

Now for the last step you have to add another gallon of hot water. I just filled my containers half full with hot water and then poured from the pan into them. Shake them a bit and then let them sit for 24 hours before using. It will get kinda chunky and gross but you just shake it good before you use it. It only takes 1/4-1/2 cup per load.

So here is my feedback so far.

1) I don't mind the smell (its not very strong). I would like to try adding some essential oils just for the sake of trying it. I do normally LOVE the smell of clean laundry. I have still been using Downy with the laundry and that seems to be enough. Did a couple loads without it and the clothes still smell clean. 

2) It worked amazingly on towels. I did a load of not only bathroom towels but dish towels. Not sure about you but I feel like I can never quite get them to smell clean, they always smell kinda funky. They came out of the wash smelling pretty clean! Someone suggested adding vinegar to the rinse cycle, will have to try that sometime. Apparently that will work as a fabric softener as well, of course without the scent.

3) I saw a suggestion to add a cap full of Tide (or whatever detergent you use) to a gallon of the homemade to help with the chunky-ness. Mass produced detergents have a anti-coagulant in them so that they will stay liquid otherwise they would chunk up just like the homemade. I did try this with one of my gallons and it worked marvelously! Its not all chunky anymore and pours great! 

Sorry I don't have more pictures, lets just be excited that I actually got a post done! ;)