magical mess

I love the Christmas season. It's cold out and you aren't sick of that yet. It still a novelty to light a candle and curl up with some hot chocolate. The Christmas music brings back great memories and it makes everything from untangling lights for the tree to rolling out cookie dough more fun.
The kids are excited and the holiday lights twinkle in their eyes. The tree and the gingerbread house and the baking make the house smell wonderful.
This year after making cookies with my almost 6 and 3 year old, was sweeping up the mess. As I scooped it all into the dust pan I realized, "I love this mess!". It was little tiny sprinkles shaped like snowflakes and a rainbow of glittery sugar. It looked like a mess little pixie elves would leave behind. I know I'll miss that mess when they are too old to make it.
I tenderly thank the Lord for the magical mess my kids make while experiencing one of the pure joys of childhood.

try restaurant.com

www.restaurant.com

This website is totally worth checking out. You can try all sorts of restaurants in your area for super cheap. It's a great way to make yourself branch out from the same old same old and not feel like you wasted money if it turns out you don't want to add the place to your list of favorites.
We had a great adventure one night trying this Indian place about 20 mins away. The people who ran the place were crazy. The food was pretty good but not worth going back and being forced to deal with their antics :-) Hey, you never know what you'll discover!

Homemade laundry detergent

So I read a little article about how the top laundry detergents are putting chemicals that cause cancer and damage to the nervous system in them. The article also said that they are NOT listing these chemicals on the box with the other ingredients. I took the $30.00 box of TIDE that I had just purchased from Costco straight back to the store and started researching how to make my own detergent at home. As it turns out it is easy and so inexpensive. I was pretty surprised. I am a couple loads into my first batch. It is working very nicely and the clothes feel like they also have been treated with fabric softener. I love the smell of it (you can't smell the vinegar no matter how hard you try)
I plan to experiment with several and stick with the one I like the best.
Here is the recipe for the 1st one. It is one of the only recipes I was able to find for powder.

1 cup Vinegar (white)
1 cup Baking Soda
1 cup Washing Soda
1/4 cup liquid castile soap

• Mix well and store in sealed container.
• I find it easiest to pour the liquid soap into the bowl first, stirred in the washing soda, then baking soda, then added the vinegar in small batches at a time (the recipe foams up at first). The mixture is a thick paste at first that will break down into a heavy powdered detergent, just keep stirring. There may be some hard lumps, try to break them down when stirring (it really helps to make sure the baking soda isn’t clumpy when first adding). Use 1/2 cup per load