Just a few contests and promotions around the web...

This is by no means a deals/reviews/contest/freebies site, but I like to win things, and get a good deal.  A few contests and freebies around the web I saw today:

Craftaholics Anonymous is giving away a cool WorkTop from the Original Scrapbox.  She's also got tons of organization advice going on this week.  

Mother Earth News is offering the Wiser Living and Country Skills Resource Set 

At 100 full-color pages each, these six topical guides include tips and how-to information straight out of MOTHER EARTH NEWS. Packed full of information, these glossy guides combine to teach you all you need to know about organic gardening methods, choosing an energy-efficient car, preserving your fresh-from-the-garden bounty, living a self-reliant lifestyle, baking delicious breads, and so much more! 

You'll receive 6 Wiser Living Resources for Living on Less and Becoming Self-Sufficient for $10.   Use the promo code  MMEEMD17.

And enter to win a year's supply of from My Patriot Supply here

This Giveaway will contain:  NON GMO – No Added MSG

Almond Coconut Granola
96 Servings

Whey Milk
32 Quarts

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
96 Servings

Cheddar Broccoli Soup
64 Servings

Creamy Potato Soup
64 Servings

Chicken Alfredo Pasta
64 Servings

White Cheddar Sauce Pasta
64 Servings

Cheesy Chicken Rice
64 Servings

Vegetable Beef Stew
64 Servings

Seasoned Mashed Potatoes
64 Servings

Potato Cheddar Soup
64 Servings

Pasta Fagioli Soup
64 Servings

Minestrone Soup
64 Servings

Tortilla Soup
64 Servings

Beef Stroganoff
64 Servings

Chicken Noodle Soup
64 Servings

Au Gratin Potatoes
64 Servings

Chili with Dumplings
64 Servings

Tropical Fruit Medley
16 lbs

Here is a peek at the year supply of food.

How I store a year's worth of laundry detergent.

I'm not sure where all of our dirty laundry comes from because it seems like I am doing  laundry day and night, and there is still someone scrambling to find a pair of socks or their P.E. clothes.  I am not a laundry detergent snob.  I know people who will only use Tide detergent, or certain fabric softener, or whatever.  Because Natalia had sensitive skin, I have always used fairly mild detergent, but not the expensive kind, I go for the cheap stuff.

Last year when my sisters were here visiting I told them about the homemade laundry detergent recipe that I'd run across on another blog, so we decided to whip up a batch.  It was simple.  It was so easy that my kids can do it, and Natalia usually helps me throw a batch together.

Everything that you need should be available at your local Wal-Mart or grocery store.  Our Win-Co grocery store carries them all, but I haven't checked any other stores.

Grate the whole Fels-Naptha bar and put into a medium to large sized pot.

Add 4 cups of hot tap water.

It will look like you're trying to boil some shredded cheddar, but the scent is way different.  The Fels-Naptha soap has a strong, clean scent to it.

Heat on a medium-low until the soap is dissolved into the water.  It will take about 15 minutes or so.  Stir a couple of times.  When it is mostly melted (there will be some teeny pieces that don't seem to melt) pour into a five gallon bucket.

Add 1/2 cup Borax.  You can add up to a cup of Borax if needed, maybe if you have especially grungy clothes that you wash.

Then add a cup of Washing Soda.

Stir well and fill the bucket up with hot tap water.  Stir again, then cover with lid and let sit overnight to thicken. 

The liquid will turn into more of a thick gel.

Just stir it up again, and it will be a watery, clumpy gel.  Now you have 5 gallons of concentrated laundry detergent.

Then fill an old laundry soap container HALF full with the detergent and fill the rest up with water.  Give it a good shake, and shake before each use.  I use a half a capful for each load, a little more for an extra-large or extra-grungy load.

This batch will last me 3 months doing laundry for 6 people and a dog.  To make it even easier to make another load I printed off the instructions, put it in a cut-off clear sleeve and used packing tape to tape it to my bucket.  No searching for the recipe needed.

And here is how I store a year's worth of laundry detergent.  On half a shelf, too!

A couple of notes on how I do laundry:

• There are recipes for powdered laundry soap, too, but I've almost always used liquid.  When we had some plumbing work done on a house we lived in there was powdered detergent clumped up in the pipes.  Ever since then I've used liquid detergent.
• I wash everything on cold
• I use a pre-treater when something has a stain.  You can also use a Fels Naptha bar for pre-treating.
• I pour the detergent in with the water, before adding the clothes, and don't pour directly on the clothes. My mom tried this soap and had problems with spots on her laundry.  She didn't know if it was caused by her hard water or what, but I would recommend making a 1/2 recipe and splitting with a friend to try it out if you're not sure about it.

A rough cost estimate of the laundry products:

• Fels-Naptha Heavy Duty Laundry Bar Soap - $1.00 (x4 for a year's supply for our family $4.00) 
• 20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Booster - $3.38
• Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda - $3.24

Grand total for 1 year:  $10.62, plus the cost of water, which is pennies for us.


Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap
4 Cups hot tap water
1 Fels Naptha or Zote soap bar
1 Cup Super Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)
½ Cup Borax powder
5 gallon bucket
1 grater
Empty Laundry Soap Dispenser (save your last one)

Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water.
Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water.
Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax.
Stir well until all powder is dissolved.
Fill bucket to top with more hot water.
Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

• Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
• Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
• Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

I'm linking up here:  TidyMom   Crystal & Co.  Three Mango Seeds

Just Can It! My "Little House on the Prairie" moments...

There has been a plethora of peaches around here!  I love peaches, and since they have been plentiful and cheap, we stopped and bought a box of them for eating and canning.

I'm not sure why I feel the need to "can".  It might be because I helped my mom and grandma with many-a-batch of applesauce and rhubarb sauce when I was growing up.  It might stem from my love of everything "Little House on the Prairie" and Laura Ingalls' scrumptious descriptions of the food that they grew, ate and preserved.  For the Ingalls family, what they preserved for the winter literally meant survival.  For us, what we preserve is an inexpensive way to add to our food storage and for every day eating.

There are instructions on how to can all over the internet.  If you have never canned before and would like to try, here's an Intro To Canning pdf file from Ball.  I've collected my canning equipment over the years and just have basic enamel canners in a large and small size.  That means I can only can acidic foods since I don't use a pressure canner.  I've been looking for one for a while, and I'm coveting my mom's find of a pressure canner at a garage sale for under $10 since they cost over $70.

The other three canning tools I use are a jar lifter, a magnet on a stick (not sure what it's really called!) for getting the lids and bands out of the hot water, and a jar funnel.  I have a plastic funnel, but found this lovely black enamel one at a thrift store!

Suggested supplies are

• Sauce pan 
• Measuring spoons
• Measuring cups 
• Cutting board
• Kitchen knives 
• Ladle
• Large spoon 
• Non-metallic spatula
• Dish rags
• A water bath canner
• And of course, your jars, lids and rings.

I fill my sink with cool water and then put the peaches in and give them a quick wash.  Especially since they come straight from the farm they might be a little bit dirty.  Then they go in batches of a few at a time into the boiling water for a minute or two.  This was Natalia's job.  It's nice to have a helper.

The peaches went right from the boiling water into a bowl full of ice water to shock the skins off.

Then I grabbed the peaches suffering from shock and slip or peal the skins, remove the pit, and cut in half.  Then the halves went into another bowl with a mixture of water and FruitFresh to keep the peaches from getting too dark after canning.

We made a simple light syrup with 4-1/2 cups sugar and 10-1/2 cups water and kept it hot, packed the peaches into the jars, then ladled the syrup into them.  This part is Hot, Hot, Hot!

Then we ran the plastic handle from a spatula down the edges of the jars to work out any air bubbles.  No fancy tool needed. The rims are wiped with a clean, damp, towel and the hot lids and rings put on...

Then those beautiful jars are popped into the canner for a little bath. 

Aren't they gorgeous?

Linking here:

A well-stocked pantry

In the home that we live in right now we are lucky enough to have a back-porch/utility/laundry room area that includes some upper and lower cabinets as well as another sink.  I use these cupboards for most of my canned food and "extra" food.  I buy things on sale, and if I find a good sale, pair it with a coupon, then I'm really a happy girl.

I keep extra canned food and baking items on hand and rotate them through.  When I buy something new to restock I try to move it to the back of the cupboard.  Items that I think will not be rotated as quickly I will jot down the month/year with a sharpie on the top so I know to use the oldest first.

The lower cupboards hold my canning equipment and water storage.  We fill up gallon sized water jugs, 2 liter bottles and clean juice bottles, plus a 5 gallon water tank.  I'll be adding some more water storage little by little.  We've actually had to use our water storage a couple of times when the city pumps were down for a short amount of time.  So glad we had it!  I also keep my empty bleach bottles and fill them up with water to use for household cleaning or laundry.

When I do my menu planning I take into account the items that we have stored for short-term and for long-term.  We have rice, beans, pasta, oil, sugar, flour, milk and some other basics in our long-term storage.  We also buy some fruits and vegetables in #10 cans.

This week's menu includes 3 Bean Salad made from canned beans.  I used regular rice from our storage instead of Basmati rice for the Cilantro Lime Rice from Monday night and it still had plenty of flavor.

Some things that are must-haves in our storage?  Cocoa powder, mayonnaise (I've discovered that the Kirkland brand mayonnaise from Costco is very inexpensive and pretty tasty) olive oil, Jell-0 and pudding mixes, lots of different types of canned tomatoes, and yeast for baking.

This is just a peek into how the household runs (sometimes it's a little bit touch and go!) and how we are trying to "Be Prepared".

The Times In Which We Live...

I've been reading this article "The Times In Which We Live"  after hearing the talk again on the internet radio station. I remember well the feelings I had while listening to these words the first time, just weeks after the attacks on 9/11.  I can still feel my heart jump to my throat when I heard these words:  "a U.S. missile attack is under way."

These words reassured me:  "We are people of peace. We are followers of the Christ who was and is the Prince of Peace. But there are times when we must stand up for right and decency, for freedom and civilization."

They made me think:  "As we have been continuously counseled for more than 60 years, let us have some food set aside that would sustain us for a time in case of need. But let us not panic nor go to extremes. Let us be prudent in every respect. And, above all, my brothers and sisters, let us move forward with faith in the Living God and His Beloved Son."

 They lifted my spirit.  "Are these perilous times? They are. But there is no need to fear. We can have peace in our hearts and peace in our homes. We can be an influence for good in this world, every one of us."

I agreed with them, and still do:  “Religion offers no shield for wickedness, for evil, for those kinds of things. The God in whom I believe does not foster this kind of action. He is a God of mercy. He is a God of love. He is a God of peace and reassurance, and I look to Him in times such as this as a comfort and a source of strength.”

They gave me counsel:  "As we have been continuously counseled for more than 60 years, let us have some food set aside that would sustain us for a time in case of need. But let us not panic nor go to extremes. Let us be prudent in every respect. And, above all, my brothers and sisters, let us move forward with faith in the Living God and His Beloved Son."

And I am thinking about these things again as the people of Japan are struggling to make sense of their new reality. I am amazed by the dignity and  We feel helpless, like we can't do much, but we are going to send some blankets here to be sent on to Japan to hopefully warm some hearts along with some feet. Contact Juli at julinewman@gmail.com if you can help.

One more quote:  "Let us be prayerful. Let us pray for righteousness. Let us pray for the forces of good. Let us reach out to help men and women of goodwill, whatever their religious persuasion and wherever they live."

The people of Japan are in my prayers, as are my brother-in-law Mark, who is over there, and Elder Voss who is serving a mission from our ward.  Be safe.

Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance

Be Prepared.

Almost every time my family goes on a trip I am the last person out of the house. I stop and look around, just to make sure I am not forgetting anything. I want to be totally prepared for whatever we might encounter. Do I have extra water bottles? It never fails that a mile or two down the road Monkey will be "so thirsty!" Did I remember to pack the toothbrushes, the hairdryer, and extra socks?

Preparation is so important, no matter what we are doing. In order to do something right, we need to have all of the proper tools. One of my Grandmother's sayings was "Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance." If we didn't have something fully planned out and it showed, she would say, "PPP!" And we knew what she meant. And she really had a point!


I recently read an article that recommended starting with an emergency water supply and a 72-hour Emergency Kit.  That really is common sense stuff, so why hadn't I thought of it that way?  The most important thing we will need in an emergency is water, then food and other emergency supplies.

The earthquake in Japan yesterday just drove home that point to me.  If there was an earthquake, fire, or any other kind of disaster (Katrina ring a bell?), are we prepared to evacuate our home on a moment's notice?

We have 72-hour Kits.  They are stashed in the hall closet.  Each of the kids has a backpack with supplies, food, clothes, and water.  We go through them twice a year and rotate the food out, packing new items in their place.  There are ready-made kits available, but ours are morphed together from my original Emergency Kit that my parents had for me and things that we've added along the way.

Some things we have in the kids' packs:

• change of clothes and shoes (shoes can be tied onto the outside of the backpack to save room)
• small first aid kit
• toiletries including:
• small bottle of shampoo
• small bar of soap
• toothbrush and paste
• toilet paper
• whistle
• flashlight with batteries packed separately
• waterproof matches
• emergency blanket
• poncho
• food to last 72 hours*
• a book and a coloring book and pens or crayons
• multi-tool or pocket knife
• some hard candy or fruit snacks (in an emergency you need something feel-good, too!)
• several water bottles, plus two 2 liter bottles of water

*The food we pack is VERY simple.  I buy boxes of Protein bars at Costco and divy them out.  I'll also add things like trail mix, fruit leather,  regular granola bars and jerky.  I even have cans of peanuts, cans of sardines and small tins of beans and franks (they have pop tops to eliminate the need for can openers.)  I try to keep it to food that does not need to be cooked.  We've packed hot cocoa mix and oatmeal packets, but those would require hot water to prepare them properly, even though they could actually be eaten cold or even dry.  I don't think beggars will be choosers. I also like to keep a combination of carbs and protein to keep energy up.  If there is an emergency, chances are calories will be burned with the adrenaline that is pumping!

Some things I want to add:

• a rope
• garbage bag
• plastic spoons
• a paper or tag with contact information and phone numbers for home, cell phones, and family in another area that may not be affected by the emergency.
• travel pack of baby wipes (always handy, especially when you don't have a lot of water available)
• a couple of matchbox cars for the little boys

Other things to pack for young children (of which I have none anymore):

• diapers
• baby food/formula
• medications
• small toys
• extra extra clothes
• receiving blanket 

Can you think of anything else that should be added to a Kids Emergency Kit?

I hope we never have to use these, but I feel better knowing they are ready and available.  And I don't want my grandma shaking her head and saying, "PPP!"

Here are some more links for 72-hour Emergency Kit information:

Ready.gov

72hours.org

The American Red Cross

Article from TheProvince.com