2 cups distilled water
1/4 cup aloe vera juice
2 Tsp. baby shampoo (I used Dr. Bronner's)
15 drops of grapefruit seed extract (which kills bacteria... extract not essential oil)
2-3 drops of lavender essential oil
I also used cloth (receiving blankets I didn't need anymore) instead of paper but you can use paper towels and just cut the roll in half!!
Homemade Laundry Soap
1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other
type of soap
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.
**A few things to note about the soap**
~The
finished soap will not be a solid gel. It will be more of a watery gel that has
been accurately described as an "egg noodle soup" look.
~The
soap is a low sudsing soap. So if you don’t see suds, that is ok. Suds are not
what does the cleaning, it is the ingredients in the soap.
Optional: If you want your
soap to have some sort of scent you can scent this with ½ to 1 oz. of essential
oil or fragrance oil of your choice.
Liquid soap: ( I haven't made this myself yet.... I just found it online and figured I would share it!)
Here's what you need: Cheese grater (from the dollar store) 2 Tablespoons of Liquid Glycerin (found in the band aid section at any drugstore or grocery store) 1 - 8 oz bar of soap 1 gallon of water Step 1: Grate the entire bar of soap
Step 2: Fill a pot with 1 gallon of water and add the soap shavings. Step 3: Add 2 Tablespoons of liquid glycerin and turn the heat to medium/high
and stir until the soap dissolves. Step 4: This is what it looks like once it's dissolved, basically just soapy water. Step 5: Leave it alone to cool for at least 10-12 hours. It begins to cloud up after 3-4 hours. Step 6: After it has cooled completely around 12 hours later it will harden and look like liquid soap. Step 7: If the soap is harder than it should be you can take some beaters and
blend it while adding just a little bit of water until the consistency is more like liquid soap. Step 8: There you have it....Liquid Soap!!! Step 9: Now you can refill your 12 ounce bottle of liquid soap (that cost $3.99) with your
gallon of refill that cost around $4.99. That's some huge savings!!!
And one last one for you breastfeeding mamas:
MOMSICLES - Frozen Breastmilk On A Stick:
(my friends Miranda shared this with me! Lydia loved them!) Mini-momsicles Variations for Older Babies Have you heard of "Breastmilk Popsicles"? Lots of breastfeeding moms call them "Momsicles".
They are easy to make, and most babies love them. You can purchase a single Popsicle mold from
the dollar store (the ones at Target had a pretty long stick & handle, and it might be hard for
baby to handle), which holds 4 popsicles, for a dollar. After washing and rinsing well, pour expressed breastmilk
into the mold and freeze. You can store these in the freezer above the fridge and offer them daily, every other day,
every few days, or once a week. If you find the regular popsicle molds to be "too big" or "too much" you can try
the following to make Mini-Momsicles: 1) Freeze water about half way up on the popsicle mold, and then once it's frozen use wax paper,
or saran and "layer" so you can break the water part off once the breastmilk is frozen. Once you have the layer
poked in you can then pour the breastmilk and put the "stick" in & freeze. 2) Use the cap off of a Gerber bottle, and a pacifier. The one shown here (below) is an Evenflo "Natural Comfort"
- which has no hard parts. Fill the cap 2/3 or 3/4 of the way with ebm and stick the paci in.. then freeze.
To release the frozen "pop", run hot water over cap for just a few seconds, the milk will "melt" a tad and release.
Be sure not to hold under the water very long or the milk will melt too much 3) Freeze breastmilk in clean ice cube trays. Store the cubes in a heavy-duty FREEZER bag. Place a "cube" in a
Baby Safe Feeder and let baby chew on it. Using the Baby Safe Feeder keeps the "cube" from being too slippery for baby to handle.
Note that babies who have teeth may tear the net! For babies who are are not quite old enough for solids, but are showing interest in what's going on around them during meals,
momsicles are a great alternative to introducing solids too early. Teething babies really enjoy "chewing" on these, and it is also a
healthy snack and a good way to get a little more breastmilk into a baby who may not be nursing well due to teething, distractibilty, or not feeling well. Be aware they "are" a little messy as they melt so you may want to use a bib on baby and you may want to have a "splat mat" on
the floor if you have carpet in kitchen to catch the drips.
Enjoy!! Have a beautiful Friday!!
