Dishin’ It Out
A pious and wise person once advised praying with your list of intentions while doing the dishes. You either have your intentions list in your head or written on a piece of paper and placed by the sink where you can see it while washing the dishes. It’s a strategy that gets the dishes done and the intentions prayed for at the same time.
I’ve always thought of that advice as one of the most practical and useful gems I’ve ever come across as a housewife and mom. Who doesn’t want a prayer corner all to herself and a non-negotiable prayer schedule? Sometimes, though, the practical aspects of living the faith do not converge in a frictionless manner, so Plans B surface. And they are not at all bad. It’s the purity of intentions that count in the end…
“A married woman must, when called upon, quit her devotions to God at the altar to find Him in her household affairs.”
What if I don’t do the dishes because I have a dishwasher (actually, I don’t)? Well, there are alternative scenarios, like folding laundered items, reshelving books, or mopping the floor. Any chore that involves repetitive action and does not require too much “technical thinking” so that I can actually dual-task it with my intentions list, will do.
The intentions list can also be the gratitude list, the praise list, or even the text for memorization for the month!
Everything that we do can actually be turned into prayer.
“Let us work. Let us work a lot and work well, without forgetting that prayer is our best weapon. That is why I will never tire of repeating that we have to be contemplative souls in the middle of the world, who try to convert work into prayer.”
And healthy and balanced doses of verbal or mental prayer and “action prayer” are always good prescriptions, right?
How do you keep up with prayer
when everyone in the family
demands your attention the minute you get up
(or even before you do)?
Marcia has five reasons to wake up in the morning — the man of her dreams and the four children that God gave them. She constantly wishes for a cleaner and more orderly home, but understands that this goal needs constant tweaking. One day, she will devote a lot of time to her sewing. She just hopes that she is not yet half-blind or arthritic then! She blogs at Imperfectly Living a Dream.
Why I bother cleaning
Theresa/my desert heart
…the bathroom was clean…sparkling faucet, clean sink, white tub, toilet wiped, clear mirror…
I realized, standing there at 6 pm, that I hadn’t been in the upstairs bathroom since I cleaned it at 9:30 am.
And it looked it.
Did I clean the bathroom today or was that yesterday? I look at the children’s books on the floor along with pieces of toilet paper, an empty toilet paper roll, smudges on mirror, toothpaste in sink, linen closet left open as well as the shower curtain thrown carelessly aside…and oh yeah…hair in the drain. What’s the point? I ask myself…why do I bother? *sigh*
I have been tempted to think that as I walk out of confession, after confessing the same fault for the umpteenth time. What’s the point Lord? I am just going to do it again. It’s just going to get dirty again.
Good thing I don’t give into that thinking with my bathroom…or my soul. Imagine the filth!
Regardless of the fact that my soul may be smudged again within a few hours of confession, there has to be a determination to begin again…even if it means a weekly cleansing in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. There has to be hope and perseverence that we will do our best with God’s grace not to commit the same sin again.
We must repeatedly say Nunc coepi…Now I begin.
Some day, my soul won’t get quite as dirty as quickly as it does now. I have hope.
To Pray, To Love, To Teach
Some years ago, Husband and I worked, breaking our backs to pay steep tuition fees, missing out on family dinners and weekends to do overtime work, aghast at what our children were learning — or not learning — and wondering whether indeed that was the way to live.
No, it was not. So I resigned from my job, signed the mandatory quit-claim, and went home. We started our homeschooling journey.
Eldest Daughter is now in the university. Only Son started attending high school outside the home last year. Second Daughter decided to continue being homeschooled until she finishes high school. Hopefully, Youngest Daughter will make the same decision.
These days, I am preparing again for another school year. Curriculum, book lists, planners, records, school supplies, sports activities, and so on. The preparations are not just for the homeschoolers. Eldest Daughter discusses her choices of courses with her father and me, and we give her non-academic advice, such as how to manage her time and maybe, that it is about time for driving lessons? Only Son is also coached on academic and non-academic matters. There is the delicate need to maintain the quality of attention devoted to all of them regardless of how they are schooled.
Did our children learn enough? Will they be at par with other students? These were paramount in our early years of having our children educated or educating them ourselves. They are not anymore. Curriculum, courses, and charts are not the compelling concerns.
Today, I am being led to sit back as I haven’t done so in the past years, distance myself from our home situation, and ask myself other questions.
Are my children happy? Do they feel loved? Have I instilled in them that God is a Father who loves them unconditionally? Will they grow up to be responsible and well-adjusted adults? Will they be faithful to their vocation? Will they merit eternal life?
Honestly? These questions scare me.
In my myopia and narrow-mindedness, I upheld academics in the homeschool over faith in God and growth and serenity in the family. Aware but unmindful that my children needed me as a friend, confidante, and gentle guide, I, instead, played the role of taskmaster. Compliance with checklists and rubrics prevailed over acceptance and encouragement. I was convinced that staring down my children will bring peace and quiet in the family, and when there are peace and quiet, checklists could be ticked off. So I stared them down when I could have lifted them up.
In my pride and arrogance, I thought that as long as I did what I believed was the right thing, God could not not make things right. So I insisted on my ways and negotiated with God on how I had thought my children’s present and future should pan out.
You could have guessed it.
Not all checklists were ticked off. Those that were took so much longer than planned. Our family atmosphere was not even a shadow of what I had dreamed of as a young bride — easy banter, laughter, warmth, fun, acceptance. Today, I can only thank Husband for his valiant balancing efforts.
So while I am sad that I learned my lessons the winding, wasteful, and painful way, I am nevertheless grateful that I learned them.
I learned that it was God who gave me my vocation, so it was to Him that I should have clung to from Day One. The children that He generously gave Husband and me were for loving dearly. And love is patient, kind, and everything else that the Apostle to the Gentiles said so to the Corinthians. If I pray and humbly ask for a true mother’s heart, God will give it to me. A mother’s heart loves and loves unconditionally and untiringly. And only when I truly love will I be capable of teaching my children. Teach them to read, write, and play with numbers, yes. But always and above all, teach them of a God who provides for, guides, and loves them like their mother can never love them.
I learned that with faith and love, parenting and teaching — and learning — will come naturally, as they should indeed come.
When I die and face my Creator, He will not ask me how many checklists I have ticked off, if I chose the toughest curriculum there was, or if my children did well in the SAT. He will ask me if I loved my children, if I spoke to them of a caring and faithful God, if I made their lives on earth a glimpse of Heaven, and if I passionately and relentlessly led them to Eternity.
And because in the very end, it is just me and my God, uh-ah-uum answers will not suffice. It’s just a yes or a no.
So today, I resolve to live in the here and now, beg God in complete trust and humility to steer the course for our family, ask the Blessed Mother to be a companion for our journey, deliberately make our home environment as nourishing, comforting, and edifying as it should be, encourage more and chastise less, give more hugs and avoid dagger looks, laugh more and lecture less, and just rather plainly love my family.
And then — yes, why not — things will fall squarely and snugly into their rightful places.
Marcia has five reasons to wake up in the morning — the man of her dreams and the four children that God gave them. She constantly wishes for a cleaner and more orderly home, but understands that this goal needs constant tweaking. One day, she will devote a lot of time to her sewing. She just hopes that she is not yet half-blind or arthritic then! She blogs at Imperfectly Living a Dream.
Book Club::Holiness for Housewives and Other Working Women
Good Evening Ladies. Habemus Papam! God Bless Pope Francis! (Am I the only one who cannot say “Pope Francis” without saying “Pope Saint Francis?”)
Have you started reading our book club selection for the month yet? I remember reading Holiness for Housewives: And Other Working Women
In the introduction, the author states this book is for women, “…although burdened with the cares of the household, are anxious to serve God seriously and advance in the practice in of prayer.”
Hmm…”…anxious to serve God seriously…” I have to say that stopped me quick. I am anxious about many things (Just call me Martha).
But am I anxious to serve?
Am I anxious to serve God?
Am I anxious to serve God seriously?
I am telling you all, this book is coming along at the right time in my life. Have I told you I’m tired? See I can do that here. I don’t have to put on my Walmart face in front of you all. I can tell you I’m tired and your response is not going to be, “Well, you know what causes that (meaning children) and there are ways to stop that you know!” No, your answer is going to be about grace. And I’ll take your grace and raise you some grace and not one of us will fold in this wonderful game of life will we?
“If the mother looks upon her children as obstacles to the prompt response to grace, she is missing the whole point.”
Holiness for Housewives: And Other Working Women
And thanks be to God there is this awesome community here at Suscipio that will make sure to gently remind each other, what exactly the whole point is.
“The only thing that really matters in life is doing the will of God. Once you are doing the will of God, then everything matters…So if God wills that you should be bowed over the sink instead of over the pew in your favorite church, then washing dishes is for you, now, the most perfect thing you can do.”
Holiness for Housewives: And Other Working Women
WOW! How does that change things sisters?
So since God wills I should be changing a diaper–it is the most perfect thing I can do…unless I complain and act grumpy and then there is no perfection in that menial act. Oh get this! My attitude towards the Will of God can either sanctify (Definition:hold in highest esteem Synonyms:absolve, anoint, bless, cleanse, consecrate, dedicate, deify, enshrine, glorify, hallow, purify, set apart, worship) my actions or make them a menial task to begrudgingly get over with and move on to the next unhappy chore of life.
When Emily mops, her act of submitting to the will of God to mop her apartment, glorifies God.
When LuAnne prepares her music, that task becomes worship of God.
I hope we make it through this book in a months time, but it seems like the next sentence is better than the last!
“The whole business of serving God becomes simply a matter of adjusting yourself to the pressures of existing conditions. This is the particular sanctity for you. You will be tempted to say that it is impossible to serve God while worrying about the upkeep of a house; you will tell me that you get so irritable that you cannot see this principle of substituting your present duty for the envied prayer time; you will point out your inability to direct your intention toward God when you are so exhausted that you cannot think; you will quote your repeated failures, your bitterness, your manifest decline from what you were before you came to be overwhelmed with household cares. You will say you are unsuited temperamentally, physically, spiritually, by training…But none of these things disqualifies. It can only be repeated that your whole business is still to look for God in the midst of all this. You will not find Him anywhere else. If you leave your dishes, your housekeeping, your telephone calls, your children’s everlasting questions, your ironing, and your invitations to take care of themselves while you go off and search for the Lord’d presence in prayer, you will discover nothing but self.” (emphasis mine)
Holiness for Housewives: And Other Working Women
Ok, it’s getting late. So, what do you think about the book so far?
Share your tips on sanctifying your work.
Book Club:: Hallowed Be This House
The last chapter of our February book, Hallowed Be This House: Finding Signs of Heaven in Your Home
As a married woman, mother of 7, my thoughts on the bedroom will look differently than Emily’s and I would hope that Miss Emily would please share all her wonderful thoughts with us in the comments or in a post I can link to. (Yeah! Emily took the bait and wrote about the bedroom from a single woman’s perspective.)
This total self giving, or at least the supposed self giving, can take many forms in the bedroom. Howard begins with talk of conception and comes full circle to talk of death. Both are a laying down of life…or a beginning of a new life. And so the bedroom is rightly called a place of beginnings and ends.
This total giving of self, hhmmm…How many times does our gift of self dissipate before the door even shuts behind us? And our husband, well, he’s left with the crumbs…Oh, and we want the lights out even though we’re already covered by an old gym shirt and years of insecurity?
And when we do have the lights on, what do they reveal? Is our bedroom junk drawer of the house? Laundry scattered, toys strewed, papers stacked here and there and a night stand with a tower of dusty books reaching higher and higher as if infused with the same magic Jack and his infamous beanstalk were?
The saying goes the kitchen is the heart of the home. I contend the bedroom is the heart of the family. If there is discord in the bedroom…there will be discord in the family.
Right before Leo was born I started making my bed regularly, turning on some soft Gregorian Chant and using a candle warmer to set the mood for our bedroom. Now, Chris could care less about any of the stuff. But for me, it made my bedroom a sanctuary. Now, since Leo’s birth, my bed is not made regularly, some days I forget the music or candle warmer…and the bedroom loses its oasis like qualities; it has just become another room in the house. It is not set apart as a mysterious sacred space in which the whole family benefits.
And your bedroom is a sacred space. It is in the bedroom we become co-creators with God. (Without being vulgar, I realize there are other rooms in the house in which intimacy can be achieved.) The bedroom most clearly express the reoccurring theme of laying our life for another in two very distinct ways.
And in the rite of conception, we can see, as we have seen in a dozen other exchanges and acts around the house, the whole story in one little act. Here, life is “laid down” quite dramatically, in order that the life of love may be born anew, and that literal new life may come into being. The exactness of the picture is astonishing, not to say amusing: both bodies laid down, like the corn of wheat; both laid open, like the corn of wheat. Vulnerability, defenselessness, giving and receiving–nay, giving and receiving wholly indistinguishable from each other, for who will keep tally in these blissful exchanges to make sure the score is even? My life laid down for you; our two lives laid down, becoming one life, and in this laying down and union, lo, the springing forth of new life. My service to you turning out to be joy. Your life laid down for me turning out to be joy. Your acceptance of me being itself your gift to me.
Hallowed Be This House: Finding Signs of Heaven in Your Home
And the two distinct ways our life is laid down? One, when we lay down our life, we do so with the least shred of pride. There is not time to think of self, only of the one whom we are willing to sacrifice our very life for. And yet how often do we shun a compliment from our husband? Dress quietly behind the bathroom door or wait until it’s dark? How often do we never fully relax and enjoy the most intimate of moments–two bodies becoming one? And so we have not truly laid our life down…we’ve covered it in thick blankets of wool and darkness. We’ve kept a part of ourselves hidden so as not to be hurt, laughed at or scorned. We assessed the risk and figured it to be of too great a price. The sacrifice of our life has not been made. We kept a part of ourselves back.
We may not be willing to splay ourselves in front of the body we vowed unity, but we push ourselves wide open to bring forth a new life…the second way we lay our life down in the bedroom. Each new soul that enters a family brings its own special set of graces…it also demands its own special set of sacrifices. This pregnancy may demand the physical sacrifice of the very food we eat; nine months permeated with bouts or days or even months of nausea. And yet another pregnancy may seemingly demand very little but the colicky baby more than makes up for the nine months of expectant bliss.
We easily see the need a child has for us to sacrifice all: sleep, comfort, self…in order to care for the defenseless. But what about our husbands? They have the same need of us. They need our complete sacrifice as well. And they are just as defenseless. Just as defenseless as we are when we slip under the sheet in the skin we came into the word. The baby and the grown man, both vulnerable in the skin God gave ‘em. Our men are at their most vulnerable and they cry…only silently. They want to be completely accepted. They want to be totally needed. They want unconditional love. We do not deny these things to a creamy white skinned baby, why deny them to the grown man?
Well, “He can hurt me like a baby can’t,” we may contend. And yet we carry that same power. Our wicked tongues compare them or tear them down as they lay naked next to us. Or our own bodies stiffen as they approach. The “closed” sign slapped in their face.
Each sacrifice, one of laying with our man and one of laying down to bring forth man–none the more sacred than the other. The process of bringing new life into the world emanates from the sacrifice of being totally known. It is no coincidence the Bible says “Adam knew his wife.” And that one little word brings me back to my initial thought…the bedroom is the heart of the family. This “knowledge” must be rightly ordered or the family will suffer various forms of disorder.
I almost hate to bring this up…Years ago when I would watch Dr Phil, he said something one time that made so much sense. I will paraphrase to make it less crude. Basically, if things are going fine in the bedroom, that part of your marriage equals about 10%. If things are going poorly, it’s about 90%.
The bedroom is the heart of the family.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic, this chapter on the bedroom. I’m sorry this post was so late in coming up, I couldn’t quite get the words together. Hopefully I did now.
Why Bother Keeping Home?
Several years ago I read a life changing post written by Elizabeth Foss, “Tell Me Again Why Bother?” Well, it at least changed my life that day. And then like so many life changing posts, it was soon, life as usual. Except I printed this life changing post off and stuck it somewhere for safe keeping. Every so often through the years I get a great big surprise when I come across it again…and it convicts me each and every time I read it. And I put it somewhere safe, because the gold nuggets of homemaking wisdom are of such value. And then the cycle repeats itself over and over again. I tuck it away only to forget about it and then come across it when I need to read it…put it away for safe keeping…you get the point.
Reading that introduction would make me think I was a highly unorganized person. In reality, I try so hard to be neat and organized that I am forever looking for and trying the next great method or philosophy of keeping a home. I stand up straight and tall like Washington crossing the Delaware, boldly and rather proudly declare, “This will get me on the right track and keep me there or my name is not momma!”
Our housekeeping routines are crucial to the smooth functioning of our days, our weeks. Life in a well-ordered home does shine. Radiance streams into our lives like the grace of God. Ordering a home isn’t something you do once and it stays that way. Instead, it’s a continual commitment. ~Elizabeth Foss
I love lists and color coded papers and felt tip pens and spirals and binders and I’d rather look around the office supply store over a clothing store any day. Each shelf is bursting with the possibility of organization. And organization is what this momma likes to see.
There are entire websites and Pinterest Boards dedicated to the beauty of organized living. And it is beautiful. God is a God of order and this life is a valley of natural disorder. Thus the constant struggle…bringing order to disorder.
So I try my best and lots of days I fail. How do I know I fail? Well, other than the obvious clutter; when I tell my children we need to clean up the house really well and they ask, “Who is coming over?” that’s a pretty good sign I have taught them we clean up or keep a clean home for the wrong reasons.
Cleaning up for company is a good. But keeping things neat and tidy for the souls that live and move and have their being here everyday…that’s better.
The Flylady talks about CHAOS–the “Can’t Have Anybody Over Syndrome.” Certainly, it would be a shame to not be able to have anybody over. But a greater shame, I think, is to neglect the people who actually live in a house by being a poor steward of both time and treasure. A greater shame is for a hard working man to have to pick his way around the mess as he makes his way to a disheveled bedroom. A greater shame is to throw a meal at the kids and run to work on an outside project while they eat. ~Elizabeth Foss
Elizabeth goes on to quote Sir 26:1-18, also known as the “Blessed the Husband of a Good Wife” verses. She states,
I cannot reconcile these beautiful verses with the idea that being busy with other projects excuses us from welcoming our husbands into well-ordered homes. I’m not talking about a mom with two toddlers and a baby who is struggling to keep up and feels like she’s losing the fight. That’s a season during which both husband and wife will grow. I’m talking about the veteran mom with a range of ages of children who makes choices every day to neglect her home. That is simply the fruit of bad habits and misplaced priorities. ~Elizabeth Foss (emphasis mine)
I am so glad I came across this post as we finish out our focus for February, the home. This is also a very timely post to reread each Lent. Holy Mother Church is so awesome. The cleaning of spiritual cobwebs in preparation for Easter happily coincides with a natural desire to clean our homes in anticipation for Spring.
I want to close with what I consider to be the heart of Elizabeth’s “Why Bother” post.
I want to be a gracious wife, not just a gracious hostess. Not just a lovely face to the public, but a comfort and a blessing to my husband. So, why bother with homemaking? Because God call us to be virtuous wives and He tells us that virtuous wives live in well-ordered homes. ~Elizabeth Foss
Book Club::Hallowed Be This House
Jenny | Big Family Small Farm
So now we’ve made our way into the kitchen. Isn’t it funny, how even in a home where the lady of the house feigns “domesticity,” the kitchen is still where people congregate? All it takes is for one person to head into the hallowed heart of the home, and people follow.
The heart? Of course! The kitchen is the life of the home just as the heart is the life of the body.
When you come in here, you are welcomed into the very bosom of the life here. We do not keep you sitting stiffly on a plush chair in the hall. Welcome to the inner circle.
Hallowed Be This House: Finding Signs of Heaven in Your Home
Thomas Howard is very clear about the function of the kitchen…charity. Where else does one serve so willingly I wonder? It’s not like the service of washing the laundry. No one in my home has ever “MMMmmmed” over clean socks, or “AWwwwed” over spic and span undies.
But make a meal with attention and intention and people take notice. Even a quick weeknight meal is met with appreciation.
“Well, your family may thank you, but my family snorts it down like hogs and leaves me a mess to clean up!” you may be thinking.
But let me ask you this, does the attention and intention you put into a thing depend on the admiration you get out of doing the thing?
HHMmmmmm…
If so, you will not find the sacred in your everyday. It will remain elusive and you will squat right down in self pity.
Preparing food for the table and cleaning up afterward are, like the tasks of the Virgin and Joseph and Christ and the Holy Spirit in the Drama of Charity, obscure and menial.
Hallowed Be This House: Finding Signs of Heaven in Your Home
And without taking note of the sacred, we miss the virtue of charity we could be extending to each person we feed and clean up after. We also miss the opportunity to offer our Lord our joyful sacrifice; an exchange of “My life for Yours” a theme Howard has continued through each chapter.
The bathroom, a sacred place in the home? Of course!
For there we are engaged in tasks that reveal our total vulnerability and mortality, and these things we cannot, in the ordinary run of things, share with everybody. We are precisely too vulnerable…It is too taxing to be totally open, all the time, with everybody. Dear God–I need to get alone!
Hallowed Be This House: Finding Signs of Heaven in Your Home
How many women, and I can only speak for the women, go into the bathroom, close the door behind them, and let it all hang out? I’m not talking about unfastening the garments we mercilessly squeeze ourselves into, letting it all “literally” hang out; I’m talking about the click of the lock signaling the floodgates, “Now it is safe to open.” And open we do.
The day’s thoughts, words and deeds come rushing out, a veritable Niagara Falls gushing down the mountainous cheek bones and furrowing into the crevices of our face. The day has done us in and it may only be 9 a.m. But in the bathroom, where time and eternity seem to meet over the porcelain, we let it all out, suck it all up, dress it up with a smile and make our way back to the other side of the door.
We have let ourselves become the most vulnerable in our own “Come to Jesus” meeting. There on the cold tile, held in place by straight lines of grout, we have regained our direction, solidified our focus and remembered why we do what we do and we offer it up in the name of charity…”My life for theirs.” The constant theme Thomas Howard has interlaced room to room.
I would love to discuss this book with you all. I regretted having this book for so long and not reading it. But I understand the purpose in this was so I could read it along with you and we could discuss.
How’s the book so far? Even if you don’t have the book, don’t let that stop you from sharing your thoughts on Hallowed Be This House: Finding Signs of Heaven in Your Home
?
Do you recognize your home as a holy place? How do make it so or keep it like that?
Natural Cleaning Products
Theresa | My Desert Heart
I was more than happy to write a post for Suscipio on some of my favorite ways to naturally clean our home…and ourselves!
When my husband and I began to take our nutrition a bit more seriously over a year ago, with great results, it naturally led me to start wanting to experiment with some organic, homemade cleaning products. Part of the reason is that it is just better to use natural products especially with little ones and pets around. The chemicals in many of these products are just downright toxic and to be honest, dealing with nausea after I bleached my bathroom was not appealing in the least!
Also, we have had to make some major financial changes (still in that process) and I realized how much money we were saving by making some of our own products.
My main advice would be: don’t feel like you have to do everything overnight! I can’t stress this enough. Start with one product and focus on it and make sure it’s working for you then gradually add another and another until it becomes second nature to whip up a batch of your fave cleaner. I found that I really enjoy experimenting with different ideas and it has become a *hobby* of sorts. I feel like a chemist and I like the challenge since I have very high cleaning standards. With six family members sharing one shower/bath (five which are adults), I don’t have a choice.
There are two lists: one for household cleaners and one for personal cleansers. Most will be links to my favorite websites and some will be recipes from Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living
Household Cleaners:
My fave glass cleaner and all purpose cleaner are from Simple Homemade. I like to add a little lemon essential oil to my glass cleaner (helps cut grease) and lavender essential oil to my all purpose for a lovely scent. I purchase my oils cheaply from Puritan’s Pride. You can use paper towels. newspaper or even a microfiber cleaning cloth. I also use the all purpose cleaner on my ceramic tile floors.
For cleaning the toilet, I simply shake in some baking soda and pour in some vinegar which foams up and is great to scrub the toilet with.
For a bathtub or sink scrub, I have been using this homemade scouring powder from Wellness Mama. I am pretty happy with the results so far.
For the bathroom tiles I have been using the all purpose cleaner listed above. I spray on and leave for a minute then I rinse and wipe down with clean cloth.
My challenge? Trying to find a cleaner that works around the grout and tub edges where all that nasty soap scum and mold gathers. I tried oxygen bleach with no luck. My next experiment is hydrogen peroxide (yes…it is natural!) I am still using a spray bleach in those areas until I find one that works.
For dusting, I just use a microfiber cleaning cloth sometimes dampened. If you need a shine, you could use a little olive oil.
I have been using this powdered laundry detergent recipe from Wellness Mama with great success. For my grated bar soap, I use Trader Joe’s tea tree oil natural bar soap. The clothes have a fresh scent without a strong perfume smell. I use vinegar for my fabric softener. I do not currently use dryer sheets. I have been eyeing up these at diyNatural as a possible idea. Right now, we just deal with the static.
Two recipes I have on my *waiting list* to try: this one from diyNatural for powdered dishwasher detergent and this one from Frugally Sustainable for liquid dish soap. I also want to craft an old mason jar for a dispenser.
Personal cleansers:
Shampoo-less…that is what I am thanks to this simple idea from Tsh at Simple Mom.
Also over at Simple Mom: a wonderful facial cleanser made from extra virgin olive oil and castor oil. I have been using this for well over a year and LOVE the feeling. It works great for removing makeup and makes your skin unbelievably soft.
In addition, in the colder months when my skin feels dryer, I use jojoba oil for a moisturizer on my face. Some women use coconut oil which smells yummy.
This month, for the very first time, I made a leap of faith and made my own deodorant So far, so good…but we will see when the summer hits. This recipe is from, Organized Simplicity
Empty deodorant container
1/8 cup baking soda
1/8 cup cornstarch
3 tbsp. of coconut oil
Essential oil if you want (I find the coconut is a nice scent alone.)
Mix all in a bowl…I find that it’s just easier to mash with my hands and yes, it it messy.
I spoon it into empty container with some sticking out of the top and then pop in the fridge for a tiny bit.
After I pull it out, I smooth the top with a spoon.
*If you have temps of over 75 degrees the oil may become liquidy so you would have to store in fridge or somewhere cool.
For soap, we have been using natural almond honey soap from Trader Joe’s. I immediately noticed the difference between using Dove and the natural soap from TJ’s.
So…the search continues…the lab is open…what is your favorite natural cleaning recipe?
Hello Sisters! Jenny here. I made you a free Scouring Powder Label to print out. I made this label with the recipe and directions for use included on it after Theresa sent me the recipe she uses. I use this label on a Ball® Plastic 16-Ounce Freezer Jar
. Print the label and cut it out. Cut out a piece of clear contact paper bigger than the label. Lay the front of the label down on the sticky side of the contact paper. Wrap your printed label around your Natural Scouring Powder.
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