Rest

I just got home from church.  The message that was preached confirmed some wonderful things I have been learning from the Lord.  The things I am going to tell you may seem small, but to me they are huge.  They are life lessons that have taken me forty some odd years to “get”.  God never gives up on us!!!

My Christmas decorations are 85% put away.  Any other year, I would have had them down, put up, and the whole house totally in order the day after Christmas.  This year, I am resting in the Lord.  Resting in the fact that He loves me unconditionally.  Having my house in order does not make me more loveable or a better person.  It isn’t the act of putting away or not putting away the Christmas stuff that was wrong for me.  It was my motivation for getting it done.  If I didn’t have it done, I would be stressed and think less of myself.  I don’t have to perform for God’s love!!  That is a freeing revelation!!!  This is rest.

I do not have my grocery list for our healthy eating plan written down.  I don’t even have “the Plan”.  This is laughable to me.  So many years I have made my own plan and tried to make changes on my own.  For me, God is not giving me an overall plan.  It will be a day to day, maybe even meal to meal, leading of the Holy Spirit.  Oh my humanity (flesh) wants to plan it, sweat over it, write it down and have it all neat and tidy.  God wants me to listen for his direction.  It’s a new way for me.  God’s way ALWAYS LEADS TO VICTORY.  This is rest

Some friends of mine have problems.  I cannot solve them.  I want to give them ultimatums and tangible steps for them to take to “fix” their troubles.  This is not what is going to happen.  I will be praying for them and God will lead me.  Maybe there will be a time to tell them something specific.  Maybe I will be praying for Him to send someone else to help them.  I don’t know, and I am okay with that.  This is rest.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know my relationship with God is very real to me.  I hope you have a relationship with your Creator.  If you don’t, ask Him to come into your life.  Ask Him to be your Savior.  Then find a church that preaches the Word of God and attend it regularly.  He will become real to you too and you can have rest, no matter if your Christmas decorations are put up or not.

Thanks for reading : )

Christmas Craftiness

I couldn’t post these until now because I was giving them as Christmas presents.  They are magnetic bulletin boards. 

I found some frames at A to Z, it is a huge store on each side of 71 hwy that has every imaginable kind of junk cheap stuff.  Tom painted the frames for me and cut the metal.  I covered the metal with fabric and made the magnets.  The girls I gave these to for Christmas like them!! 

Each board had matching magnets.  They were made from “gems” that you would put in vases, than I glued the matching fabric to them and then the magnet on the back.  I am happy with the way they turned out.  It was fun picking out the material for each person I was making the boards for.

I got this idea from Pinterest.  You should check it out if you haven’t already.

Thanks for reading : )

I’m on a Mission

I’ve been having problems with my bath towels smelling……….not good.  I knew my front load washer was the culprit.  It has been the strangest experience.  My washer didn’t smell; the towels didn’t smell when I got them out of the washer to put in the dryer.  They didn’t smell until we got them wet again, (i.e. when we were using them to dry off).  I was beginning to think I was losing my mind a little.  It seems a lot of other people have had the same problem.  I’ve read about it on the internet.   I can’t be positive, but I think my problem started after I had been using liquid detergent in my machine for a few months.  Before that, I had always used powder.

So I have been on a quest to remedy this problem. First I ran baking soda and vinegar through the machine.  It seemed to do the trick for awhile, then the smell was back.  So periodically, I would put some baking soda in with the towels before washing.  That helped a lot.

I found a recipe for homemade laundry detergent online.  I bought some of the ingredients, but never followed through and made it.  I found a second recipe that sounded better to me.  I mixed it up and have been using it for almost 3 weeks.  My towels are great .  The true test of its cleaning power was a pair of very dirty white socks; they came out bright white with one washing!!

This is my current mission…………….to tell EVERYONE I know about this wonderful detergent.  Here is the recipe.

1 large box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda  (when I say large, it is about the same size as the next item listed)

1 box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 box of Mule Team Borax

3 BARS of Fels Naptha laundry soap

1 tub OxyClean. (I used the store brand. It’s half the price)

I FOUND ALL THE INGREDIENTS IN THE LAUNDRY SOAP AISLE AT WALMART.

You have to grate the Fels Naptha with a cheese grater or food processor, then mix all the ingredients together.  I used a trash bag inside of a trash can to get it all mixed.  This makes a LARGE amount of soap.

I bought this storage jar at Walmart for $10.  I took the picture with the Shout to show you the size.  The small scoop sitting on top of the Shout can came from the Oxyclean tub. YOU CAN DO A FULL LOAD OF LAUNDRY WITH 2 SCOOPS!!!!  From what I have read, I should be able to get a YEAR’S worth of laundry from this batch of soap (if I quit giving away samples of it for my friends to try ).

The ingredients cost around $14.50.  You can’t beat that.

I’ve also learned that you can put white vinegar in your fabric softener dispenser and forgo fabric softener all together.  I use the vinegar once in awhile, but I still use fabric softener sheets in the dryer.

Hope you try it and save a ton of $$$!!!

It is safe for front load and top load machines.

I know this hasn’t been riveting reading, but I hope it helps someone.

Thanks for reading and Happy Washing (and saving $$)