Home-made Laundry Soap--A Sensory Experieince

I have been making our laundry soap for about a year now and I LOVE it!  This was the first time I tried it with liquid soap--and it takes way less stuff to make it and takes less room--awesome!  I'm all about saving space and having enough for like 6 months at a time.

This is my recipe:

1 Bar Pink Zote Soap (or FelsNaptha)
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Baking Soda

• Grate bar of soap--from what I've read you can use about any soap for this part, but I wanted to try out the Zote Soap--it's PINK!   
• Melt soap in a large sauce pan with at least 4 cups of boiling water.  If the water is boiling and then pour in, you'll get fewer suds then if you try to bring it to a boil before adding it.  I did this by boiling it in my tea pot and adding it as I stirred the soap. (I know I should have pics of these two steps, but I honestly wasn't expecting to blog about this today...)
• Add Dry ingredients--stir till dissolved. 



Before setting overnight.

• Pour into 5 Gal bucket and let set over night.  If you have a lid, don't put it on tight--just set it on top.  
• After it sets it will be super thick--thicker then I expected.  I tried to break it up with a spoon a little, but found it worked much better to reach in there and squish it by hand--so I called in my team of highly skilled squishers!

After setting overnight it looks and feels like Jello!

"I'm squishing under the pink sea jellyfish into angel barf!"

•  It will be lumpy--my three boys each had two turns and took as much time was they  wanted per turn and it still took a while. It was also super fun!
• After all the big lumps are broken up, just add pour it into and old laundry soap container--fill container half way, add 4 drops of essential oils if you like.  I used 2 Rosemary and 2 Tea Tree oil (I'm still loving the DoTerra oils!).  Finish filling the container with hot water, shake and use.  
• Replace lid on the rest of the concentrate and store at room temp.  Easy enough?  and I don't have 20 bottles of this stuff all over my house! 
  
  The cost of the whole thing was under $6 and it will make 10 gallons of laundry soap!  Not bad for a days work!  Should last about 6 months. 

My boys were super proud of their soap--Izz wouldn't turn around so I put a smiley face on the back of his head.

 That's all!  Thanks!

DoTerra to the Rescue Today!

So I ran out of my DigestZen sample and my new shipment isn't supposed to be here till tomorrow.  Do I even need to say here that I got sick?  I went out for a run yesterday and got HORRIBLE cramps and nausea and the whole nine yards--it was BAD.  I was digging though my little baggie of samples and found out that I have just a tiny bit of DigestZen left.  I stuck it on my tongue and smeared the bottle on my tummy in the hope that it was enough to help out...  Here I am a few minutes later and I'm feeling WAY better--still a headache (didn't notice the headache the nausea was so bad) but I am not having the extra saliva pouring into my mouth that is a precursor to puking.  I am feeling my better--doTerra worked today!

My doTerra Experiment

As all my family knows, I have this phantom digestive ailment that's been around since the birth of my first son 7 years ago.  Every year I go into the doctor and they tell me something different, I saw a chiropractor until my pee turned YELLOW and my poop turned GRAY--NOT cool!  I had a my gall bladder out--that didn't fix it.  I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and lived gluten-free for over a year--that was fun.  Most recently I had a full Colonoscopy and Endoscopy (for those of you who don't know what that means--I was THOROUGHLY scoped out from both the front and the back) after a few weeks of recovery from that, I was told I have Colitis.  A diagnosis of Colitis is like a diagnosis for migraines--they can tell something hurts, but they can't tell you why.  They gave me meds and now I'm supposed to be on medication for the rest of my life assuming it doesn't get worse.  My symptoms came back and they gave me another medication and told me to scale back on my other medication...   And that they now think I have something called "Sphincter of Odi" disorder, they can operate to see, but there's a 15% chance I'll get pancreatitis from the procedure.
The short version of the story is that medical science isn't really sure what's wrong with me and wants me on drugs for the rest of my life. 
Enter in my awesome friend Jennifer, she sells these doTerra Essential Oils and says that's what I need.  To be honest, the first time I heard her talking about it I thought she had lost her marbles--as I'm sure all my friends and family that have heard me talk about it since have though of me.  I did a bit of research, asked my mom and my sister-in-law who is a massage therapist, got some samples and gave it a try.

• DigestZen--ginger, peppermint, tarragon, fennel, caraway, coriander and anise--I started putting in my tea and strawberry water to help nausea and constipation and my other digestive symptoms.  So far it seems to help.
• Balance-- spruce, rosewood, frankincense, and blue tansy with fractionated coconut oil--I put in the bottoms of Izz's feet for his ADHD.  (See Serenity for effect.)
• Serenity--lavender, sweet marjoram, roman chamomile, ylang ylang, sandalwood and vanilla--Also put on Izz's feet for his ADHD.  My husband is convinced that I could rub peanut butter on their feet and it would have the same effect.  However Izz doesn't actually want me to rub his fee--he throws a fit each time I do, but I think it helps him be able to control his emotions and get over this quicker, which is a HUGE improvement.   
• DeepBlue--wintergreen, camphor, peppermint, blue tansy, blue chamomile, helichrysum and osmanthus--I put this on my aches and pains.  I am a runner and I'm training for a half marathon in two weeks, this winter I've had a series of injuries and pains.  In short I used it all up!  I went for a 10 mile run last weekend--the run was horrible, hurt and tired from the first step, and when I got home I used up the last of my DeepBlue and did not feel sore at all.  I'm pretty impressed with it.  

I am not ready do say this stuff is awesome, a miracle, or everybody should try it.  But I am impressed enough to invest in some of it and see it if helps me not to use the medications that seem to be the only answer I can get from my doctors.  The way I see it, if all I will be able to do is manage my symptoms for the rest of my life anyway--I'd rather manage them naturally then by using medicines which will eventually give me serious side effects from kidney failure to diabetes to cancer.  
So I bought the book and have been learning everything I can about this stuff!  There is a bit of education that come with it, but I am willing to learn what I need to know to be able to be off the sentence of drugs for the rest of my life.  I'll keep you updated on it as I get my kit and keep using it all. :-)