Welcome

I would love to invite you into my home to have a cup of tea with me. We could sit in my sunny kitchen and talk about all the things that are going on in our lives. I could share with you the news I hear from my grown daughters. How my grandkids are growing. We could laugh together over the funny things that they have said. It would be fun to share the ins and outs of our family life, and talk about our latest creative projects. We could share what God has been teaching us, in our personal lives, and encourage each other on this walk of faith. We could pray together, laugh together, and even cry together. Since most of us will never be able to sit down together face to face, I would like to invite you to join me here. So come on in and have a cup of tea with me.

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Joy

Joy

About Me

Crossville, Tennessee, United States
Hi, I'm Joy! I'm the creator behind Memory Mosaic. I believe every life is a beautiful mosaic, built from moments both ordinary and extraordinary. Thanks for stopping by—I hope you'll find inspiration here to celebrate, preserve, and share your own stories.

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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Homemade Laundry Stain Remover and Pretreater Recipes

Lots of ideas! :-)


Homemade Laundry Stain Remover and Pretreater Recipes | ThriftyFun:

'via Blog this'

I've been reading a lot lately about saving money, by making your own laundry detergent, etc.  I got interested in this, when we were having trouble finding detergent for our dishwasher.  Oh there is some you can purchase here, but the National powdered brand is running about $3.00 a bag, and doesn't dissolve in our dishwasher.  The other brands that are imported from the US, is costing over $10 a box, and I just can't bring myself to pay those amounts, so I've been on a search to find something else.

In my searches, I found several recipes for laundry detergent, and since I'm paying almost $10 for a bag that lasts us about 2 weeks, I decided it was worth a try.  I had to do some searching to find ingredients here that would work, since I couldn't just go and buy a box of Washing Soda or 20 Mule Team Borax at my local Walmart store.  :-)

This morning I made 3 different recipes.  I know I couldn't make up my mind which one to try, so decided to try all 3...I figure we will use these and once we've worked through them, and by the time we finish, I should be able to choose the one that I liked the best. :-)

So here are the recipes for the ones I tried....

Liquid Laundry Detergent #1
1/3 to 1/2 bar of laundry soap, (I used "Lava Todo")

1/3 a bar of nice smelling soap, (I used Johnson's Baby soap, Lavender.  This is for the smell, so you don't have to do it if you don't want to.)

1/2 cup of washing soda, this is "Carbonato de Sodio". I made my own, today, by putting baking soda on a  cookie sheet and "baking" it for 45 minutes in a 400F oven. You can find Baking Soda here at small stores that sell spices.

1/2 cup of borax, this is "acidio borato", Tony found it at place that sells chemicals for cleaning. 2 Cups cost $4.00. We're going to check at the same store for the "washing soda" next time. ;-)

( I thought about using some cleansers like "Tips" that is "Carbonato de Sodio" but it also has Carbonato de Calicio, which is "lime" and my water is already very hard, so I don't need to add lime!)


1. Grate soap into a sauce pan. (I used one that I don't use for cooking, but, it is soap, so I think if you washed it well afterwards it would be fine. ;-)

2. Add 6 cups of water, heat until the soap melts.

3. Add the washing soda and borax, stir until dissolved

4. Pour 4 cups of hot water into a bucket. Add soap mixture, and stir.

5. Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water. Stir.

6. Let set 24 hours. Stir and pour into 2 gallon jugs. (I'm going to be using Tampico jugs. :-)

Use 1/2 cup per load. The recipe said it might get lumpy...to just shake before using...and that the lumps don't bother the cleaning power.




Liquid Laundry Detergent #2This is a "no-cook" version.

You need 1 gallon jug, (again, I used a Tampico jug)
To the jug add:

3T borax
3T washing soda
2T dish soap, (Dawn was recommended, but the lady making it said, she had used something else)
Then pour in 4 cups of boiling water.  Swirl until dissolved.   Let cool, and fill the jug with cold water.  Said, that soap bubbles would overflow, but that was ok...

Use 1/2 to 1 cup per load.
(This one is very watery.  Not sure how it is going to work.)

Powdered Laundry Detergent 
1 Cup of grated bar soap (again used the baby soap, lavender)
1 Cup of  grated laundry soap bar (used "Lava Todo")
1 Cup of Borax
1 Cup of Washing Soda

Mix together.  I put about 1/3 to 1/2 a cup at a time in my mini food chopper and processed to make a finer powder.

Store in an airtight container.  Use 1 to 2 tablespoons per load.

I will post back in about a month, and let you know which one we liked the best! :-)
  

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The Journey of Waiting

This is my latest post..."What happened and why?"  Hope you enjoy it!

The Journey of Waiting:

'via Blog this'

What's been happening?

We thoroughly enjoyed our last week-end! It was a such a blessing to have Stacey and Andy Meyers visiting us.  They are in Ecuador for their honeymoon.

The kids really enjoyed all the extra attention.  We had fun showing them around and just visiting and playing games.

Sunday we had a great attendance again.  With 151 in the church service.  In the Ladies Sunday School class we had 37!!  We had a special "fellowship time" with rolls and coffee, starting class about 15 minutes earlier than normal. This was just idea I had, to see how it worked.  They ladies had a wonderful time, and we are going to be doing this once a month. :-)

2 people talked to Tony after services to let him know that they were interested in getting baptized this next month.

We are getting ready to start a contest in the Ladies class.  There are so many ladies that come to church but  don't make it to Sunday School.  So my idea, is to try to get them involved.  I am thinking to start this Sunday, and anyone who isn't present in Sunday School, will be considered a "visitor" the next week.  The ladies are going to get 5 points for each first time visitor and 10 points for each time that "visitor" returns...so the idea will be to try and get some new people in the "habit" of attending Sunday School!  

The kids have done really well in school this week.  We just have one more week left and then we will be on our "Summer Vacation".  Our school year is running a little longer than normal this year, because we took some extra time off for different things throughout the year.  We are all looking forward to our "vacation"... not sure who is more excited though, the kids or the teacher! ;-)

We have some more exciting news in our family.  Our oldest daughter and her husband announced this week that they were expecting, in February.  That will be 2 new grand babies for us this coming year!!  Also our middle daughter and her husband will be moving this week, to work in a church in Ohio!  We are very excited for all of these blessings.

Thank you so much for your prayers for our family and for the ministry here in Ecuador!

Blessings,
Joy