Aargh! Cabin Fever!!

I haven't posted in a few because well, frankly, I've been feeling down down down in the dumps. I am pretty sure I am sick and tired of not having any transportation. Well, the wait is almost over! Yippee!! Friday, my hub gets a bonus and we can go out and remedy the non-transportation issue. Yippee!!! *dancing for joy*  So, how did I cope with the lack of car? Ok, I guess. Basically, after home school I would attempt to ignore the fact of no car by playing video games or making DIY items. Being able to rent a car every other weekend did help but by the time the non rental car weekend rolled around, I would be mopey and stressing. Yes, I played a lot of video games, read books and made a lot of DIY items.
Like: glass cleaner (works great)
laundry detergent (perfectly clean clothes)
automatic dishwashing powder (pretty good)
hair detangler (works better than store bought)
chocolate peanut butter cookies (delish)
seasoned bread crumbs

Random picture of the day:

Leah, my daughter, and Michele, my cousin

Looking back, the two months of no car has actually gone by pretty fast. I will post a picture of the car once we buy it. Oh, one more thing, my birthday is Monday - the day after the weekend we'll be getting a car. Nice birthday present! Anyway, we've looked at several older cars like a 1987 Limo Caddy but decided not to pursue that one. No room in the driveway. La! Not sure how well it would handle our curvy neighborhood anyway.

Happy Belated St. Patricks Day!! We had a lovely meal of corned beef, mashed potatoes, green peas and rolls. No cabbage! No one in the house likes cabbage. Surprisingly, the kids enjoyed the corned beef.



Bobo

 That is an old picture of BoBo. His back fur has darkened since he has gotten older. I have discovered that he is a rather finicky cat. He believes that he owns our bathroom and will run into it whenever we head that way. He also enjoys sticking his head under the bathroom faucet and drinking. Recently, we acquired a feral female cat. I had been feeding her outside for over a year. She is now an inside cat because she became very ill and required veterinarin care at the tune of $400. Well, Bobo seemed to get along with her but he would scoop litter out of the litterbox and pee or poop in the pile. I put down another litter box. Nope. Still small piles of litter on the floor. I replaced one of the litter boxes with a larger box. Problem solved - for one day. I bought another litter box and shoved it in our bathroom. Problem solved for over a week and counting. BTW, those round dark spots are areas where he had been bitten or scratched and his fur hadn't grown back in, yet. He used to be a feral cat. He was not a good fighter and I would often see him with small wounds. He decided to come inside one day and never left.

DIY Liquid Laundry Detergent

Hello, I'm back. I was feeling sickly the past couple of days so I took a break from blogging. I have been testing out a homemade liquid laundry detergent and am quite pleased with the results. The ingredients call for Dawn Ultra dishwashing soap which I did not have so I substituted a generic brand without any bad results. I believe that the Dawn Ultra gives your clean clothes that flowery clean laundry smell. Our clothes are sparkling clean but have no perfumey smell. La! Still, no one in the house seems to mind especially since the clothes are fresh, clean and bright. Our clothes have never looked brighter (unless bleach was added with the store bought detergent). Anyway, ze recipe:

3 Tablespoon Washing Powder
3 Tablespoon Borax
Water (La!)
1 Tablespoon Dawn Ultra or whatever you have on hand
1 gallon jug

I used a cleaned milk jug and poured finished product into a smaller old laundry container. I emphasized "cleaned" because I don't want anyone assuming that I used a milk jug that was dirty.

Add washing powder and borax to jug. Add 4 cups hot water (hot tap water is just dandy). Shake to dissolve the powder mix. Add dishwashing liquid. Add cold water until the gallon container is full, gently agitate and voila, all done. Use at least 1/4 cup per load. (BTW, this makes a watery detergent)

As you can see, I am not only being thrifty but eco-friendly as well. I have recycled the milk jug and laundry container. Plus, no phosphates. La!

This detergent has passed our most difficult test - - - the smelly cigarette smell stuck in the kids clothes when they come back from a weekend at their dad's - - -  we don't smoke but he and his roommate both smoke. Somehow, their clothes always come back smelling like smoke even after he washes them. I used the homemade detergent on the stinky things and surprise, surprise, they came out smoke free. La! I was worried that the detergent would FAIL!
Random picture of the day:

"mew"

Lotus is no longer a little gray kitten even though we still call her "the grey baby". I had forgotten how tiny she used to be until I saw this picture of her. I will be back tomorrow (hopefully). I started this post over the weekend but didn't finish. Monday was a little rough for some reason. Home school seemed hectic and busy. Hmmm...  Trying to remember why it was a little hectic. Nope, no can recall, I must be tired and in need of coffee. Yes, I need coffee. That'll help. Adios, peeps.