Oh productivity!

   This weekend my goal was to get white/wheat bread, english muffins, flatbreads, and flour tortillas made.  As plans go, I ended up sick and Sunday was so exhausted that I got nothing but housework done.  Mondays are our away from home days so Tuesday I played catch up some more and we did "schoolwork".  Toots worked on her numbers, alphabet and following directions, Lisey Bear worked on colors, counting, and matching.  Part of Toots' schoolwork was to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies so we made those late last night, lots of fun and very yummy!
  This morning, I finally got dishes and laundry caught up and got flour tortillas made.  They were a huge hit with the kids and tasted amazing, plus I know what goes into them!  We go through tortillas so fast at our house for burritos, rollups, quesadillas and part of several meals such as tacos, enchiladas, and king ranch casserole so keeping them on hand is my largest issue.  I found that the recipe is for the small tortillas and I really need to triple it to have enough large ones.
   I'm getting ready to put Bub down for a nap and hope to settle the girls down with some quiet time activities so I can get english muffins started and get my bread in the bread machine.  We will see how well it goes.  Thankfully tomorrow is also a stay at home day so I can get a flatbreads and possibly some poptarts done then.    All in all by making this at home with ingredients I always have one hand, I able to save $20-25 on shopping trips, that's a good chunk for me with our $350/month for groceries allotment.  I also made sure to order from www.bountifulbaskets.org this month, that usually holds us over for awhile, whatever we don't use right away, I find out how to freeze and save it.  We have a food saver that has more than paid for itself that makes storing things in the freeze simple and neat.  Almost everything can freeze flat so then we can stack or line up everything to keep it organized and under control.
  At MOPS the other day, a good friend to told us about her Vidalia Chop Wizard and I love the idea of spending less time chopping things up so I'm going to put that on my wishlist for this month so that I'm saving even more time getting things done.
  My to do list for next month includes a trip with the littles to see family so my goal is to get enough things made up and stored away so my love has plenty to eat without him having to eat out or run to the store.  That being said, I have a bunch of freezer meals to put together and hope kids allow me to get them.  Only time will tell.  Any recipes/pictures/cooking experiences are under recipes so please feel free to hop over and see what we've done...You will also be able to find out if I actually got everything made that I need to make today LOL!  Have a great day!  Blessings!

A few diy household items!

 

I typically try to get at least 2-3 loads of laundry done per done when I'm home, with that kind of demand for laundry soap I was beating my head against the wall everytime I had to buy laundry soap!  So I started making it at home, I tried the Duggars recipe that required you to grate laundry soap and discovered I just don't have the time or patience to stand around and grate soap or wait for it to set up overnight.  I tend to procrastinate on making things like this until I just really need them so I wanted something easier.  I found the following recipe and LOVE it, however, I like a thicker consistency and my love tends to use less when it's thicker, something about the thinner it is, the more you feel like you need to use.  That being said, I use this recipe but I use a gallon of water and 3 times the amount of the borax, dawn and washing soda.  You can add scents if you like but I choose not to, one more thing to buy and all that jazz.  I store mine in a large spouted jug from Gain laundry soap that a friend saved for me.  Let me know what you think!
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/no-grate-homemade-laundry-soap.html


Also having worked in Childcare for many years, I discovered that you can make baby wipes at home as well, I haven't done it in awhile due to the fact that I just like the thickness of the baby wipes I buy at sams but for those of you that don't mind the recipe is as follows.

1 paper towel roll, cut in half (name brands work best), 2 cups of water, 1 tbsp baby oil, 1 tbsp baby wash.  Mix the water, oil and baby wash together.  Place paper towel in a container that has a lid.  Pour water mix on top of paper towels, making sure to pour into the middle as well.  Let set at least 30 minutes so mixture soaks through the paper towel tube.  After it's set, pull tube out and ta-da!  You have baby wipes!


I have 3 youngsters that tend to stain clothes as well pretty good so I make a homemade oxyclean which consists of 4 cups of water, 2 tbsp hydrogen peroxide and 2 tbsp dawn dish soap.  Stir these together and soak clothes in this overnight.  Sometimes it takes more than one soaking but it works wonderfully!

My love works in a job that typically has his clothes covered in grease and oil, so I've found that chalk takes out grease stains, you just color away and soak and then wash.  I have yet to try this but I've also heard Coke takes oil and fuel out of clothes, makes me wonder what it has in it that makes this happen but who knows!