Making Disinfecting Wipes

I finally used up all of my Clorox and WannaBe-Clorox wipes. I love these things! But I have been waiting to go through my supply so I could implement a greener wiping method in my house. There are two reasons for making my own wipes: (1) to make my house a less wasteful place and (2) because I hate spending money on items that are meant to be thrown away. Are you with me on this one?

I have seen other's replace their wipes with a soap solution and paper towels. But, instead of wasting the paper, I have decided that instead I am going to cut up some fabric from old T-shirts. I have to do the laundry anyway... I decided to keep the solution simple rather than use a bunch of essential oils:

2 tbsp. Liquid Castile Soap
1 ½ cups Hot Water
½ cup Vinegar

I had some lemon-marinated vinegar on hand, so that’s what I used to get a light citrus smell.

But I regress…
First I cut up the fabric into rectangles.
I folded to stagger the rectangles.
(It will pull the next rectangle up the hole of the container like store-bought wipes. And it works! Which makes the minutes it took to fold these worth it.)

Stick the wipes in the container.
Mix the solution and pour it into the container.

So I have used them and they work just fine. Even better, they smell like soap. I added a bag under my sink for the used wipes. When it's full, I will wash them.

Shared at Frugally Sustainable, One Creative Weekend, Cheerios & Lattes, Make it Pretty, Tip Tuesdays, Positively Splendid and Living Green.

Space Birthday Party

I had a space-themed water-play park birthday party for my now 5 year old boy. It was great! 

From the cake, decor, food and water activities, I tried to stay with the theme and a budget. In the end, the kids had a great time!

Connor requested a water party and I have to admit that mid-August is the perfect time to have a water party! This party would have been a lot easier in a backyard, but since my mom's yard is grass-less at the moment and I don't have one, the park is the place. I sent out an evite. I have discovered how awesome evite is since it collects RSVPs and reminder emails. Technology is wonderful. On to the lists. 

I have Lots of lists when I plan a party. Lists of ideas and internet links to pictures and anything new that pops into my brain while putting it together. 

This picture was taken before
everything was done

Decorations:

•  Cut out stars from poster boards. String together groups of 3 and 4 to hang from the streamers.
• Streamers (green and blue). In the end, we used a lot less hanging decorations because of the wind.
• Use green balloons to make alien heads by drawing faces on them.
• Streamers (green and blue) 
•  Happy birthday sign for the cake table
• On the tables I had space stickers, little space shuttles for the kids to toss around and alien masks for the kids and cut out confetti for stars. I didn't end up putting out the confetti because of the wind.

Food:

-      Space Debris (green colored candy popcorn)
I used the recipe I found here, but used blue food coloring to get a darker green color once it was mixed with butter. I also didn't need to use very much. My kids had a blast making and eating the popcorn the night before too!

-      Grape and pineapple spears

-      Carrots and broccoli with onion dip

-      Pizza Planet pizza

-   Star and Moon sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly)

-   Cake! This turned out great. It is my first two layer cake. Cupcakes are compliments of my cousin (she has helped me with another party before; we make a great team), she had the frosting and eyeballs left over from her son's toy story party. They go great together!

Kid Activities:

-      Tie die T-shirt. This was also a favor to take home. They turned out to be out-of-this-world! I have some pictures below

Kids like cleaning when it's not the parent's idea.

-      Water balloons

-      Flying Saucer Toss. I found these neat Frisbees at the dollar store that look life flying saucers. I bought a wooden stake at Home Depot for 30 cents and wrapped it in bright green tape for a kid friendly ring toss.

-      Water squirt bottles and sponge meteors for a great water fight. I bought 5 oz water bottles for each kid at the dollar store and filled them ahead of time. They were a big hit and the adults enjoyed the spritz too. The kids had a great time with the sponge meteors, and even decided to use them to clean the park bench... so thoughtful.

-      Tubs of water on a kid table for little kids filled with misc water toys.

-      Bubble bucket with cups and giant bubble wands. I also bought individual bubble containers for the kids who want to walk around with bubbles. The wind actually worked in favor for all the bubble blowers. These bubbles were great! And the solution is so easy to make I never want to buy pre-made bubbles again.

Kid tubs ended up on the ground. Always a hit!

Water Balloons are in the bucket.

The T-shirt favors I mentioned were great! The kids had a blast coloring with the millions (ok a little exaggeration) of Sharpies. I learned about this from a gal in the education department at Joann's Fabric Store. I cut out cardboard to stuff inside the shirts, saved metal hangers to hang up the finished product and attached masking tape to the top to write the name of the artist. I bought kid's small and extra small T-shirt sizes. The process was super simple:

1. Color the T-shirt

2. Drip rubbing alcohol on the ink

The ink will spread and look tie died. 

Later, put them in the dryer for a couple minutes to let the ink set. Or, you could use a blow dryer.

Birthday boy coloring with daddy.

TaDa! They turned out looking spacey!

 Since this party, my daughter has been singing Happy Birthday To You around the house and asking me for a birthday. I guess now that this party is over I need to start planning the next birthday party.

Shared at Cherios & Lattes, Six Sisters, Nap Time and Frugally Sustainable!

CPP - Part 2

Always be prepared… Last week I prepared for our three day camping trip in the Camping Preparedness Program post. Here is what I did with that advice.

The Meal Plan:

Dinner 1:              Hot Dogs, Apple Sauce, coleslaw

                            Smores for desert

Breakfast:             Eggs, sausage

Lunch:                  PB and J or Egg salad sandwiches, fruit, chips

Dinner 2:              Hamburgers, Beans, Corn

Breakfast:           Bagels, fruit

Lunch:                BLT sandwiches, carrot sticks, and leftovers

Snacks:                

The Chef

Chips, salsa, bean dip, cottage cheese, pretzels, grapes, apples, granola bars, cheese sticks, graham crackers, popcorn

When I put together the meal plan, I went shopping in my pantry first and decided what I needed from there. Which was basically—hamburger buns, begals, fruit and smore fixin’s.

I wanted to bring just the right amount of food, but it’s better to have too much rather than not enough. We also invited some friends with kids to join us for a day or night, so I wanted to have enough snacks in case we had company.

What I made ahead:

-         Stuck fresh gapes, hot dogs, and hamburger patties in the freezer. They should be thawed in time to use them.

-          Hard boiled eggs and made egg salad

-          PB & J sandwiches

-          Lightly cook bacon

-          Make Coleslaw

-          Cut up carrot sticks

We are staying at a campsite that does not allow wood fires, so I packed some charcoal and durmaflame logs to cook our food and enjoy. It is a hot summer, so we would only have a fire at night.

Cooking/Dish washing station.
This camp did have a place to wash dishes by the bathroom, but I like my set up better.
Boil water and add it to tubs of water then put soap in 1 tub. 

For the kids I made sure to have bicycles and sand toys. I also bought them new flashlights (they love these things!) and light sticks to play with at night.

Because we weren’t going far or staying a long time our campsite was very simple. The more people the more complex, but not much. With more campers you basically, you need more chairs, food, and tent space. Which translates to the same amount of preparation. Ever notice that a party takes just as much work for 10 people as it does for 20?

We opted not to put up a shade since there were some nice trees. And our family of four fit nicely in one tent. We might need another in the future, but this works great for now—I might even splurge on one of those 10 man 2 room tents when the kids are older.  

Tired kids enjoying the outdoors before dinner time.
Not a great picture, but you can see the tent in the background and their little table.

What do you do when camping?

Camping Preparedness Program

We are going camping. (Way to state the obvious!) We have only gone camping one to two nights with the kids so far to try it out. They LOVE it! But luckily, my hubby and I are both seasoned campers and between the two of us had all the necessary gear before we were even married. I am guilt of being a long time Girl Scout and my hubby is an Eagle Scout. Since we don’t have a camper (on the wish list for the future) we set up a couple tents, a shade and a stove and call it a campsite.

This isn’t exactly a program. More like a checklist and my method of preparing for the great outdoors without pulling your hair out or missing essentials. There are several things you need regardless of whether you have kids or not, but I’ll list kid stuff separately. I began writing this just for myself because I didn’t want to forget anything. But I think other people could benefit from this too!

The thing about camping if you have never done it; there is dirt everywhere outside. Campsites are plotted parking spaces of dirt with a BBQ, fire pit and picnic table. Make sure you pick a site next to the bathroom; it will make the experience much nicer. Most bathroom houses also have showers.  Find out what the amenities are ahead of time. Basketball court? Swimming pool? So you can plan.

I am a list person. When preparing for any trip I use up several sheets of paper on lists. Maybe I should make a master to save me the trouble… 

I have a list for camping gear, clothing, shopping list for non-food items and food. First things first.  If you know about the trip there are a couple things you can do to prepare.

1.       Save your laundry lint. This stuff is great (and FREE!). My family of four creates a huge amount of laundry lint. When you take it with you camping, you can use it as a fire starter rather than kindling (or with it) to get your fire started quicker. I found it easy to create portions  by stuffing it in toilet paper rolls.

2.       Save stuff that will come in handy that you can toss before coming home. I save a couple empty gallons containers for dish water. Save soap pieces (you know the stubs left when you use a bar?); you can cut up an old pantyhose and stick the old soap in the foot for easy hand-washing—this can be tied to a gallon jug of water.

3.       Take inventory. What do you have? What do you think you need as far as a “camping gear”? Kettle? Sleeping Bag? Tent? Rope? Old pans? Outdoor chairs? Shade or big beach umbrella?  Also, if you want to use paper plates make sure you have them. You will want to either eat off of metal, paper or plastic (metal and plastic need to be washed). This is a good time to start a grocery list.

4.       Meal Plan. Think easy to make on a fire (kids love holding a hot dog on a stick), things you can make ahead of time (like coleslaw, salsa & chex mix), and things don’t require a lot of time. I don’t usually buy individual servings of apple sauce or juice boxes but they come in handy here. Take another inventory of what you have and then another grocery list of what you need. I separate my lists into stores Walmart, Trader Joes, Costco and Farmer’s Market.

On to the Lists.

Basic necessities to bring:

Toilet paper (not fun when they run out)

Bug spray

Dish soap

Food and Water (bathing suit if you are going to be by a lake/stream/ocean)

Sunscreen

Lighter

Charcoal and/or firewood

First aid kit

Towels

Cards or other games

Camping Gear:

Tent, tarp and mat (set the tarp under the tent and the mat for the ground outside of the tent to catch dirty shoes)

Shade - if necessary

Kitchen items—Propane stove, kettle, pan, utensils, ziplock bags, foil

Fire sticks (really long wire hangers to cook hot dogs or marshmallows)

2 tubs (for washing dishes—one for washing, one for rinsing)

Clothesline for towels—use towels to dry hands and dishes also if you are taking showers or swimming

Table cloth 
Folding table - it helps to have one table for eating and one for food & dishes

Sleeping bags & pillows

Gas or solar lanterns and flashlights

For the kids (and you):

Clothes

Extra clothes

Sweatshirt (not a nice jacket. The smoke from the fire gets makes everything smell)

Diaper wipes (great for dirty hands before snacks and dirty feet before bed)

Outdoor toys (trucks, sand toys)

Food:

Snacks

Meals

Condiments

Water and other drinks

Next in Part 2 I will post about how we set up the campsite.
Did I miss anything?

This post can also be found at Cheerios and Lattes, frugally Sustainable , One Creative Mommy and tatertotsandjello . 

A Dandelion a Day

After watching Cooking with Clara on youtube, I was curious about these plants. I also came across a really good information site on the plants.

I thought that if I was going to try it for the first time, I wasn’t going to go picking them in public. I felt a little odd picking weeds with the intention to eat them. It goes a little against the grain... I had some growing between the cracks in my patio. Perfect for this experiment!

 I gathered some up with my two year old helper.

Washed them. Soaked them. Rinsed them. 

There was a little separating involved because I didn't want any icky-looking ones in my salad.

Chopped them up into a salad mixed with Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, feta cheese, sunflower seeds and vinaigrette. 

I didn't tell the hubby and he ate it just fine. 

Took a bite and … yep tastes like salad to me!

Now I know. Don’t let those weeds go to waste! I actually have found myself nurturing my weeds and have added them to numerous salads since I first tried this.
It is a great way to get your salad lettuce to go even further.

Linked to lifeasmom.com/

Cooking without a Microwave

After my post about the demise of my microwave, I was asked to write a guest post about how to get along without the microwave to cook with.

Check out my guest post today on Random Recycling regarding Cooking without a Microwave!

Tomatoes and Laundry

I have been busy doing stuff and various projects. I have actually taken some pictures for some blog posts, so eventually I might just post some of them. Like the freezer jam and teacher cards.

Saturday I was able to take some items off my procrastination list. I was able to:

1. Reinforce the tomato plants.

I am jumping for joy. Take a look at these tomatoes!

I am the person who can kill any plant… and I have managed to grow some beautiful tomatoes and onions that are going strong.

I had some bamboo and decided to use them with some twine rather than buy tomato cages. Mostly because they look for rustic and neat, but it helped to save a couple dollars too.

 2. Laundry Detergent

There are several versions of the same ingredient recipes all over blogland. I first made this recipe a couple months ago, which made 3 gallons. Awesome! I really like this soap. It has no chemicals in it and it is super cheap. My cousin has the recipe on her blog you can check out. I prefer the liquid detergent.

Last time I made it, my brother and sister made fun of me. So I gave them a gallon of the stuff. Fast forward a month or so, my sis said to me, “Steph! I thought you were going overboard making your own laundry soap, but I was so surprised. My clothes are so soft and clean!” I thought that was pretty funny. She wants to pay me a couple dollars to keep her well stocked.

I got my son to shred a bar of Castile soap. Then I took over from there. Boiling water, borax and washing soda and another 3 gallons are made. This should last me about 3 to 4 months (I didn’t really keep track last time I made it).  I am glad that I finally got around to making this again because it is a little difficult to clean clothing without it.

3. Canned Tomatoes

I got a great deal from the tomato lady at the farmer’s market, a bag of Tomatoes for $4. I think I will be getting a couple more bags next week to can more sliced tomatoes, and also some salsa and marinara sauce.

This is my first go round with canning tomatoes (although I have canned marinara sauce before. Yummm!). I have decided to try this for a couple reasons, mainly because of the acidic quality of tomatoes. Did you know that they react with the metal in the cans if the cans aren’t coated, but the can coating contains BPA AND they also react with the epoxy resin that lines the cans. Yuck. I love using canned tomatoes so this is disappointing.

I had a conversation with my husband when I showed him my handy-work about why I decided to can chopped tomatoes. I don’t see how I can completely avoid using canned tomatoes unless I spend a week of non-stop canning and manage to fill a storage closet with the jars. But I figure that my family is better off if I can replace the cans for even a few meals.

When I looked up the process of canning tomatoes, I was happy to discover that it is a really simple process. But… Warning: canning is not for the faint of heart. It time consuming. This project took a couple hours.  It is also very messy.

The process:

Sanitize the jars.

I had 3 pots on the stove and a giant bowl of ice water in the sink.

Boil water in a little pot (for lids) and in a BIG pot.

To get the skins off the tomatoes, toss them into the big pot of boiling water, then (almost immediately) take them out with tongs and toss them in the ice so the skins shrivel and beg you to peel them off.

Peel  and dice tomatoes.

Stuff in jars.

I added Very Vegi Tomato Juice (from Sprouts this is a very tasty juice and comes in a glass jar) in the 3^rd pot to heat up. Added a tablespoon of fresh Lemon juice from my freezer to each jar rather than using citric acid and then filled the rest with warm tomato juice.

Stick the end of a spoon into the jar to get all the air out.

Add more tomatoes and/or juice until there is only ½ inch to the top.

Add lid from boiling water. Screw top. Add to hot water bath.

I let the jars stay submerged for about 40 minutes.

I did each bag of tomatoes in shifts. While the first four jars were in the boiling bath, the last batch was being peeled and stuffed in jars.

You will notice from my lovely pictures that I do not have a proper canning pot. I use a pasta pot. When I put the jars in the hot water bath, I put a hand towel at the bottom of the pot for the jars to sit on so they don’t clank or sit on the metal. Works great. The only investment in my canning supplies besides the jars and lids is the $3 I spent on the magnet to get the lids out of the boiling water (worth it!) and the jar tong lifter thing (without it you will stare at the jars in the boiling water wondering how in the world they are coming out).  

I was very happy to find that all my jars sealed well.

One $4 bag of tomatoes fit in 4 pint jars. Twice as much fit in a jar than a can. So I figure that if a box of 8 canned tomatoes at Costco costs $11, I can save a bit of money by canning the real thing (not to mention the health benefits!).