GETTING BACK TO BASICS

EARTH DAY

March 28, 2009

Hi everyone!

Today, being earth day is a great time to start a blog, don’t you think? I woke up this morning with bounds of energy and a feeling that Spring has finally sprung even though we still have several feet of snow in our yard.

I look after children in my home and for the past week we have been talking about earth day, doing earth crafts and singing ”This Little Planet of Mine”. Believe me, I can’t sing a note so by the end of the week they were getting pretty tired of me singing this song.

I have been respectful of earth day in my own way, starting first thing this morning by treating myself to a home facial of avocado and yogurt. Next, I used what was left and massaged it into my hair, wraped in in plastic and then a hot towel for a real deep conditioner.

While waiting for my home conditioner to work I started my laundry using detergent that I make myself…good for the earth and my wallet plus the advantage of not having that perfumie smell on my clothes.

The Recipe

Homemade Laundry Soap

1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap, as listed above (I always use Ivory)

½ cup washing soda

½ cup borax powder

~You will also need a small bucket, about 2 gallon size~

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load.

Sorry, I did use my dryer…I have a clothes line but access to it is difficult this time of the year…but I do use dryer balls instead of fabric sheets.

By this time my husband was up and ready for breakfast so we enjoyed a leisurely meal, he his Jeffro Bodene size bowl of ”high fiber” cereal and me a dish of yogurt…homemade…flax seed and fruit…strawberries and cantaloupe…sorry again…not local but when the only other option is apple…what’s a girl to do?

Before all that energy had a chance to take off and leave me I cleaned my entire house…well the upstairs anyway and this is where I’m feeling really smug. I did it without using any cleaning products…just my handy little ”Ultimate Cloth”. These things work great…just dampen with water, wring well and off you go. Great for mirrors, furniture etc….and faster too. I was done by 1:30 and now I can relax.

We had thought of going to a concert tonight …a new CD release show…but the artist is new to us and after checking him online have decided against it. In honor of earth hour, part of it is to to take part buy candle light from 8:30 - 9:30 which would be fun. By the way, we saw Steve Poltz at the Al Whittle Theater two weeks ago and if you don’t know him you should check him out. His show was fantastic. We first saw him last fall at the Deep Roots Festival in Wolfville and fell in love with him. He is a great singer/songwriter/comedian.

But I do intend to participate in earth hour some way…certainly turn out the lights and I am thinking a bath by candle light would be nice and I’m sure my husband will ”come up” with and idea …typical man that he is.