Homemade Goodness

If I had my way, I very well may live on a farm...or be Amish.  I told Big Daddy more times than I could count that I loved the way the Amish lived and that I would love to try that life out at least for a little while.  Our recent business trip with Big Daddy didn't go all that well, but the day that we spent in the Amish country was pure bliss for me.  They aren't as primitive as many people think and most of them do NOT homeschool. (They have one room school houses.)

I LOVE the clotheslines that they have and I could have driven around all day looking at barns, fields of corn and clotheslines.  I do LOTS of laundry, but we do not have a clothesline.  The thoughts of having to carry laundry baskets full of clothes outside and then back inside is not appealing to me at all.

I DO make my own laundry detergent and cleaning supplies and I LOVE it!

This is the recipe I use for laundry detergent.  I started following How Does She? a long time ago on facebook and they share lots of neat things!  I have a large plastic storage container that I mix this in and then I transfer some to a pretty glass canister and keep it on the shelf in my laundry room.  The hardest part is grating the soap and it's not that hard!  I do recommend mixing this outside because it can create quite a cloud.  I do not add the Oxi Cle@n and it still cleans as good as any other detergent I have used.

Here are a few recipes (via pinterest) that I like for homemade cleaning supplies.  I am using the bleach cleaner and the window cleaner.  The only pre-made cleaners that I buy are toilet cleaning gel and window cleaner for our cars that is safe for tinted windows.

I have tried two different cleaners for tubs and showers.  I still like to put baking soda on a damp cloth to "exfoliate" my shower- I just do that after I have sprayed on a cleaner.  The baking soda really removes soap scum so well (with mild abrasiveness) and using with a spray cleaner makes cleaning the shower nearly effortless...yet I still procrastinate about doing it.  This is a good version and it uses less dishwashing liquid that some other cleaners and still works really well.  (via pinterest)

And one of my latest obsession is the homemade goodness that is...Kale Chips!  I had been interested in these and when Jo-Lynne posted her recipe I felt like they were safe to try!  I trust Jo-Lynne's opinions and have made several of her "Tried and True" recipes with great success.  We LOVE these and I had an entire pan of them at lunch today.

Happy Homemaking!!