KIOS: Cleaning, Part 3: My Baking Soda Scrub Recipe and Using Essential Oils

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Laura

This post is part of my series, “Kickin’ It Old Skool: Why and How We Are Old-Fashioned” or KIOS for short.  If you’re new to the series, please read my disclaimer before continuing on.  I’m keeping a table of contents to this series here so you can see what I’ve already written about and what more there is to come.

Last week, I promised you my baking soda scrub recipe.  It was perhaps a bit grandiose of me to call it a “recipe” – so let’s just call it “a vague set of guidelines” for making your own baking soda scrub.

Ingredients:

  • baking soda
  • dish soap
  • water

Directions:

Fill a container (with a lid) about 2/3 full of baking soda.  Add a few squirts of dish soap on top.  Add water.  Stir, adding more water as needed, until the mixture is the consistency of soft frosting.  (*Note:  This really is NOT edible so don’t eat it!)  You’ll need to stir it every so often as you store it because the baking soda settles to the bottom.

Note:  Other recipes I’ve seen for this kind of scrub call for using the soap to moisten the baking soda without using any water but this results in a scrub that takes FOREVER to rinse off.  I’ve found that just a little soap with mostly water works just fine and is much easier to rinse off.

This particular batch is a little on the watery side but you get the idea.

How to use:

I use a spoon to drop the scrub onto a washcloth, sponge, or pan.  I don’t put the washcloth directly into the container, not wanting to contaminate the whole container of scrub with whatever I’m cleaning.

For not super dirty things – Rub the scrub over the pan/tub/sink/toilet/whatever you’re cleaning and scrub until clean.  Rinse.

For very dirty/crusty/stubbornly dirty things:  Cover the offending item with a good layer of the scrub.  Leave on for several minutes (or a long time is fine too if you forget about it).  At some point, come back to it and scrub it off.  This particularly works well on the bathtub if you haven’t scrubbed it in weeks (not that I would ever do that, of course *ahem*).

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Here are a couple more things that I know are great to use but I just haven’t managed to get my act together to use them.

1.  Hydrogen peroxide:  Hydrogen peroxide combined with vinegar is a great disinfectant.  You need two spray bottles, one which must be dark so the peroxide doesn’t degrade.  You spray one on, then the other, and then let them sit for a bit before rinsing.  This works great for fruits and vegetables too.

2.  Essential oils:  Here are a few essential oils that are supposed to have disinfecting properties: cinnamon, clove, lavender, lemon, lemongrass, lime, oregano, rosemary, sweet orange, tea tree, and thyme.

I also recently read about thieves oil, which is a blend of cinnamon, eucalyptus, lemon, rosemary and clove essential oils that is supposed to have really strong disinfecting qualities.  I’d like to start using essential oils, incorporated into my baking soda scrub and also by making some kind of all-purpose cleaner to spray, rather than just using straight vinegar.

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A little more about disinfecting with hydrogen peroxide and vinegar

In particular, essential oil of oregano has been extensively studied and found to be highly effective against many crazy bacteria.

A little more about thieves oil

Posted in cleaning, KIOS | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Tutorial: Simple Angel Felt Ornament

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Laura

This year, when we decided to have an angel ornament as part of our annual ornament sale, I was surprised by the lack of simple angel ornament tutorials available.  All that I could find were either extremely cutesy and stylized or very complicated.  So this felt ornament is my attempt to merely give an essence of an angel.

We don’t know exactly what angels look like.  But there are definitely references in the Bible to angels dressed in white, some with gold sashes, and some flying and with wings.

So this ornament is my attempt to represent some of that, in a simple, hand-sewn ornament.  I hope you enjoy making one or many, as I have!

Supplies you’ll need to make one angel

  • small amounts of cream and white felt (I prefer premium acrylic felt for making ornaments.  They end up feeling much nicer.  Wool felt would be even better)
  • metallic gold embroidery thread (I used DMC Metallic Pearl #5282.)
  • one 8-inch piece of metallic gold ribbon
  • the angel template and cardboard to make the template, if desired (Click here – angel template – to download the Word file that has the template in it.  You can modify the size for a bigger or smaller angel.)
  • permanent marker, needle and sharp scissors

1. Using the template, cut out one angel in white.  If you’d like, you can trace the shape onto the felt using a permanent marker.  If you do this, be sure to cut just inside the marker line so that the marker doesn’t show on the ornament.  Otherwise hold the template to the felt and cut out the shape.

2. Put the white angel onto a rectangle of the cream felt.  Remember to leave space to cut a border around it.  Then, use two strands of gold thread and a running stitch to sew the angel to the backing felt.  This stitching will act as a decorative detail so try to get the stitches as even as possible.  The stitches on the back of this will NOT show in the final product.  Knot off your thread at the end of this stitching.

3.  Put the finished front piece onto a second piece of cream felt and cut around the outer perimeter of the angel.  At this point, it’s easier if you pin the two pieces together.

You could stop here if you want for easier cutting and just sew around the shape!  Also, ignore that one stitch missing from the angel’s head.  I ran out of thread but fixed it later!

Then cut out the spaces around the head and wings.

4. Take the two pieces apart.  Put a new piece of thread on your needle. (Use a relatively long piece so you’ll be able to sew all the way around the angel without needing new thread.)  Fold the ribbon in half to form a loop and sew the two cut ends to the inside of the front piece of felt at the top of the head.  Don’t go all the way through to the front of the angel when you are doing this.

5. Now finish the ornament. Put the two angel pieces together perfectly, with the ribbon emerging from the top. Put your needle through the back angel piece and begin using a running stitch to sew the angel together.

Then sew all around the outer edge of the angel.

Tie off your thread and you’re finished!  You’ve made a simple, easy, beautiful felt angel that looks perfect from the front and the back.

If you want, you can even make a heavenly host of angels!

Posted in sewing, tutorial | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

All My Political Posts, Conveniently Collected in One Place, on Election Day

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Laura

This has been a difficult political/election season for me, as I think it has been for many people.  I even woke up up tears early one morning a few weeks ago because it seems as if there is no civil discourse left in America.  I write blog posts in my head all the time about political issues.  I never actually write them down because the truth is that I’m too liberal for the conservatives and too conservative for the liberals.  I know that no matter how hard I try to craft perfect sentences, the nuance of what I’m trying to say will get lost.  I’m just not willing to engage in (and invite) the vitriol that’s all over the Internet.

I actually just wrote a list of much of what I’ve been thinking about (politically) over the past several months for this blog post.  Then I reconsidered and took it out.  I’m frankly not even willing to list even a hint of what I’m thinking about.  I saved the list though so if you want to see it, let me know and I’ll email it to you.  If you’d like to discuss politics with me in person or on the phone, bring it up.  I’ll probably cry because well, I cry easily anyway, I’m pregnant, and these things often make me sad more than anything else.  But if you can put up with the tears, I’d be glad to talk to you.

I think we’ll probably all be grateful when this is all over, regardless of who wins.

Posted in politics | 4 Comments

Why I’m Glad It’s Election Day

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Laura

1.  Baba is home!

I promise we put socks and a sweatshirt on her this morning.  However, let’s just remember that now, she’s two.  One of her favorite words is, “Off!” and she insisted on wearing that shirt, rather than a warmer one.  So we just tell her that it’s her own fault if she’s cold!

2. The unceasing junk mail for all these crazy referendum issues will finally stop.  If I get one more “Vote No on 7” or “Vote Yes on 7” flyer, I’m going to scream.

Posted in Ellie, politics | 4 Comments

How to Figure Out if Your Belly is Getting Bigger (In Two Easy Steps)

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Laura

For Anyone Out There Who Might Be Pregnant: 

1.  Try to close a closet door and ram the door into your tummy.  Or try to walk past your husband in the hallway and run right into him.  Both will be a good indication that you’re wider than you think you are.

2. Try not to get in the way of your husband taking a cute picture of your two-year-old.  Get in the way anyway.  (Here’s your 32-week belly shot, in case you’re interested.)

Posted in baby, Ellie | 8 Comments

Fall Beauty and Bounty (and don’t forget to set your clocks back!)

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Laura

Although, really, does anyone need a reminder about Daylight Savings Time anymore?  Cell phones reset themselves.  Even our bedside alarm clock magically talks to satellites and resets itself.  But regardless, Ellie will still wake up at the normal time, which will be 5:30 instead of 6:30 so I’d better get to sleep.  Good night everyone!

Posted in gardening, just for fun | Leave a comment

KIOS: Cleaning, Part 2: Cleaning with Stuff We Can Eat

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Laura

This post is part of my series, “Kickin’ It Old Skool: Why and How We Are Old-Fashioned” or KIOS for short.  If you’re new to the series, please read my disclaimer before continuing on.  I’m keeping a table of contents to this series here so you can see what I’ve already written about and what more there is to come.

Several years ago, health reasons prompted us to eliminate all harmful chemicals (as much as possible) from our house.  This meant that basically all commercial cleaning products had to go.  We also eliminated anything that had dyes or fragrances.  The question then became, “Well if we don’t use any harsh chemicals to clean with, what will we use?”

The answer?  Baking soda and white vinegar.  (Here’s where my “technically edible” comment from last week comes in.)

That’s pretty much it.  We use those two products to clean just about every room in our house.  I use a baking soda scrub (recipe to come next week) for cleaning just about all the surfaces in our bathroom and kitchen.  I also use it to scrub our pots and pans.  We use vinegar (sometimes diluted, sometimes full strength) to clean our floors and as a disinfectant for the toilet and anything else that needs disinfecting.  We also use it for cleaning our windows.  I use either a microfiber cloth or just a damp cloth for dusting (that extremely infrequent activity in this household).

We still buy laundry detergent (Country Save), dishwasher detergent (7th Generation), and dish soap (7th Generation).  But other than that, baking soda and vinegar are our closest friends.

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Here are my top four reasons why I love using baking soda and vinegar for cleaning:

1. They seem to work better than commercial cleansers.  For example, I find my baking soda scrub to be far more effective and easier to use when scrubbing off soap scum from the bathtub than any commercial products (like Ajax or Softscrub).

2. Ellie love to help me clean the house (particularly the bathroom) and I don’t have to worry one bit about having her around dangerous chemicals when we’re cleaning.  (That’s also true for me being pregnant right now as well as for anyone else in our house.  Basically, it’s not good for anyone to touch or breath toxic chemicals.)

demonstrating her superior cleaning skills

3. I hate wearing rubber gloves.  I don’t feel like I need to wear any when I’m cleaning with these products because they don’t have any detrimental effects to my skin.

4.  They are CHEAP.  We buy 13.5-pound bags of baking soda and 5-liter jugs of white vinegar and they last a really long time.   This helps balance out the more expensive products that we do buy.

Next week, I’ll write more about what I still want to do in this area (such as using hydrogen peroxide and essential oils for more disinfecting).  I’ll also share my recipe for the magical, all-powerful baking soda scrub!

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It’s hard to summarize in a short post why we don’t want to use bleach/chlorine, ammonia, solvents, phosphates, dyes, or synthetic fragrances in our household.  There is conflicting information all over the Internet about how/why these things are/are not bad for you.  In all the researching that I did (primarily in 2008/2009), I became convinced that it was detrimental to our health and to the environment to continue to use them.  I’d encourage you to read more for yourself if you’re interested in this topic.

These books were particularly helpful to me:

  1. Green This!, Volume One: Greening Your Cleaning by Deirdre Imus
  2. Green Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck
  3.  Easy Green Living by Renee Loux

This post is a compilation of a lot of posts related to eliminating toxins from your household/life.

One tip:  When purchasing cleaning products, look for these words: plant-based, biodegradable, chlorine free, ammonia free, solvent free, phosphate free, no synthetic fragrances or dyes.

Like our food, we also prefer all our cleaning products to only have ingredients that we can understand and pronounce.

Posted in cleaning, KIOS | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Growing Old Together

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Laura

You thought this was going to be a sappy love post about Nik and me, didn’t you?

Instead, today we’ll feature Ellie and her little friend, P!

P is just three months older than Ellie.  It’s been fascinating to watch how differently they are hitting their developmental milestones.  For example, P is amazing verbal (vast vocabulary, really well-developed grammar, etc.) yet doesn’t seem to care much yet about dressing herself.  Ellie, on the other hand, is insistent on doing almost everything for herself but still uses relatively limited vocabulary and the rare two-word sentence here and there.  They are the perfect example of how children develop so differently and yet both so well, each in their own way!

In May 2011, both of them well under one year

in August 2012, P already two and Ellie getting close!

P’s family lives very close to us and we’re blessed by having someone close by who we can call up and play with on a moment’s notice if we’re bored or need some companionship.

Today, I had the fun of watching P, Ellie, and another friend, A (seen here) play Ring Around The Rosy in the nursery at our church’s moms’ group.  I’m so glad that Ellie is growing old together with these great friends!

Posted in Ellie, faith, friends | 7 Comments

[Mostly] On The Other Side

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Laura

Hello friends and family far and wide,

We made it through.  That was a lot of rain and wind but thankfully our house is fine and we didn’t even lose power, other than many nerve-wracking flickerings.  I think the storm generally was less severe in Maryland than forecasted.  We’re exhausted from a long, relatively sleepless night but other than that, we’re fine.

On a positive note (perhaps our silver lining to the storm), Nik is home today to help me process (peel, cook, puree, freeze) the gigantic mound of neck pumpkins waiting for us on our dining room table.  I’m grateful for that!

One other positive from the storm is that we got all our outdoor furniture and other yard stuff put away for the winter.  So it’s nice to have that done!

There’s some rain and a little wind still here but the storm is basically gone and for that, we’re very grateful.  Thanks for thinking of and praying for us.

Love,
Laura

Posted in weather | 2 Comments

Here We Go Again

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Laura

Last August, it was Hurricane Irene.  This time, it’s Hurricane Sandy, which is likely to combine with a winter storm coming from the west and create a “Frankenstorm” that has the potential to be really terrible.  There are states of emergency already declared in Maryland and many other states.

So as with last time, we’re checking the gutters, putting everything away outside, putting extra water in our freezers to make ice before Monday, feeling grateful for all the food we have put away in the house, and mentally preparing ourselves to be out of power for some time.    We’ll fill the bathtub Sunday night, get a lot of drinking water set aside, and plan what to eat first out of the refrigerator.  Generally, we’re trying to “batten down the hatches” and be as prepared as much as we can be.

And what my friend Julie said last fall is true again this time:  we’ll be glad if this is all for naught.  But if not, we’ll be glad we’ve done it all.

Thanks for your prayers.

Posted in house/neighborhood, weather | Leave a comment