Okay, so you guys have been asking me all about the laundry detergent and so I'm here as your personal guinea pig to give you all the goods and the info so you can decide for yourself if you want to join the inner circle of the homemade detergent hippie cult.

Does it work!?
Yes.

No, but I mean, does it really get your clothes clean?
Yes.

No, but like, I have a (toddler)(teenager)(pet)(insert other grimey things here).
And I have a Chris Tate and I am a painter who works outside.

Does it work with H.E. washers?
YES, and you still just use the one tablespoon.
 

You guys, in all seriousness. It works. You'll just have to try it for yourself! It's worth the 18.26 you'll pay to test it out, and if you don't like it..you can gift it away to someone you really like! I can't be the only one who would be super pumped to get 2 gallons of homemade laundry detergent as a gift.

So far, I've washed everything with just one tablespoon (even two sheet sets at once) and it comes out clean and smelling GOOD, but it's a mild, "fresh" kind of good, not like a whatever-fragrancey good. Make sense?

Trust me, people.

___________________________________

In other news: Jesus.
I love the spring. I love Lent. I love Easter. This time of the year is so sweet and bloom-y(?) and life-y(?) and just good for the soul.

I have found this quote to be true:
"If you don't leave room for the unexpected to express itself in your life, you close yourself off from the possibility of miracles."

Our lives are filled with miracles and just sweet blessings and I truly believe it's because, as a family, we wait in expectation for God to move. And He is and He does! In our lives and in the lives of those around us. 

Praise!

I saw this recipe a good while ago from one of the, I don't know, three bloggers that I actually follow (Raising Colorado) because I get overwhelmed easily but that's besides the point. I knew I wanted to start making our own laundry detergent because it's cheaper and greener and better for life BUT we had a HEAPING stack of laundry detergent that we somehow happened upon over the months and Chris said we had to wait until we used it all before we made some so it didn't look like we were stockpiling laundry detergent for the apocalypse.

So alas..our stock has run dry. Against my better judgment and my will, I was sucked into the vortex of Wal-mart because it's a half mile and one stop light away from my house. I should have assumed going into it that I would have to travel to more than one store...but if your luck is better than mine and you can escape Wal-mart with your sanity in tact, you should be able to find all the ingredients there. I had to make an additional trip to Target to find Borax since hell-mart was out.

Here's what you need:
[ONE EACH]
4lb. 12 oz. box of Borax
4 lb. box Arm and Hammer Baking Soda
3 lb. box Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda
3 lb. box Oxi Clean
1 bar of Zote Soap

Sorry it's been forever and a day since I've posted anything buuuuut we've been busy. AND. I don't have anything profound to talk about (ha. do I ever? no.) BUT lately I've been recognizing all these things that we use and love and I figured I'd share because sharing is caring!

COCONUT OIL.
I realize I just wrote a post about making toothpaste with this for Chris but seriously. No. The possibilities are way more endless than that. Lotion. Facial moisturizer (I know. Just trust me.) Deep hair conditioner. Treatment for burns (learned that one the hard way.) Cooking ANYTHING. So just go get some.
IMPORTANT: Don't get the "refined" unless you don't like the smell/taste of coconut oil. Why would you want to buy coconut oil if you don't like coconuts? I don't know. But refined coconut oil is deodorized and bleached. Why? I have no idea. We got some by mistake and we are disappointed.

OUR FRENCH PRESS.
So I thought these bad boys were pretty standard but a lot of people come over and ask us how to make coffee with them. We've had a french press since we've been married and clearly these things are far from new but I find that I get on these french press "kicks" and now is one of them. I literally want to hug our french press every morning. Problems, I know.

CERTAIN PHONE APPS (sorry. vague. read on.)
I've never been a smart phone advocate and we were UBER late to the smartphone game, but alas, I am just starting to appreciate the variety of awesome things it has to offer. I try to stay away from mindless apps like twitter..my one vice is definitely instagram...but people. I am literally using my phone to re-teach myself spanish. With a free app! FREE! That's crazytown! We'll see if my extreme type B brain can stick with it. If you know of any time worthy apps let me know! The app store is a confusing place and I'm not into games or time-wasting..but I'm just feeling so productive lately so why not learn a second language, right!? (Kidding about that productive part. I get stuff done but I mean..I can only be this passionate about a phone app for so long.)

RECORDING VIDEOS.
Totally not good at it but man...I am so happy we're finally getting into the habit of recording random clips from life because how fun is that? We're not professionals but I can hold a camera and attempt to capture Chris being weird allDAY. Again, we're mostly just practicing for when we have babies because we have large families and we want them to share in the baby glory in a way that > than pictures.

TRADER JOES.
I can't say enough how happy I am that we live 5 minutes away from this place. Everything there is good. That is all.

NOT THIS WEATHER.
Sorry buuuuut our closet is a hot mess because we can't put away our winter clothes if the winter doesn't stinking go away. Right now I'm wearing shorts AND a hoodie because my body is confused.

 OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU pandora radio.
Do it. Just do it.

FACETIME.
I am just thankful. So cool to be able to catch up with family and friends whilst staring at their actual face. I literally remember being super young (pre-cell phones) and hearing my super hip granddad talk about how "video phone calls" were going to be the norm one day and I literally remember being like. Psh. Whatever. BUT ITS TRUE AND ITS AWESOME. Hit me up on facetime, you guys. Don't even call me, just facetime call me. Because why not?

NOT HAVING A TV.
Still love it.

NOT HAVING INTERNET.
Still love it.

Andddddddddddddd, done.