Things I've learned about Afghanistan (so far)...

1. They are 9.5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

2. There are a lot of mountains.

3. You land at Bagram AFB. If you click the map, look for the city named Charikar (just north of Kabul.)

Somethings I will never understand...

There is a little girl named Hannah who was born a couple weeks before Caroline. She has been very sick; one week before her first birthday, she was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called MPS-I.

Basically, Hannah's body is lacking an enzyme necessary to break down molecules called glycosaminoglycans (long chains of sugar carbohydrates in each of our cells that help build bone, cartilage, tendons, corneas, skin and connective tissue.) Over time, these glycosaminoglycans collect in the cells, blood and connective tissues. The result is permanent, progressive cellular damage which affects appearance, physical abilities, organ and system functioning and in most cases, mental development.

She's been through so much...stem cell transplants and chemotherapy. She has had to fight off numerous bacterial, viral, and fungal infections that she's contracted. This little girl really wanted to live, but her body gave out on her yesterday.

Her mother wrote a beautiful story about Hannah's final minutes, and it simply broke my heart.

You might be wondering why I'm writing this here (because I am, too;) I don't know Hannah, and I will probably never meet her mom. But, there is just something about her; I can't stop thinking about her, and I can't even begin to imagine the pain that her mother and father are going through.

I know Hannah has taught me some lessons that I will never forget, and there are things that I am more aware of and more thankful for than ever before...

Follow Me!

I added the "Follow Me" gadget. Add yourself, please!

Take III

Now, I'm on a mission. I am going to figure this out! The second batch looked like the first...just a bunch of water with some white specks in it. So, I changed my strategy. I googled "thick homemade laundry detergent." I found a blog (with pictures) that had a recipe that produced *very* thick detergent. In fact, it was so thick that I thought I would be able to water it down at the end. D.U.M.B.

I consider myself to be fairly intelligent, and I can most certainly follow simple directions. Why is this haunting me? Right now, I have another big bucket of watery detergent sitting in the laundry room. I guess I will hold off my final judgement until the morning, but I'm certainly not getting my hopes up.

For the record, this is the recipe I used tonight:
Ingredients (Are these starting to look familiar??)
1 5-gallon bucket with lid
1 bar soap
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
soup pot
water
cheese grater

Instructions
Dissolve soap shreds into 2 quarts of warm water over low heat. Stir until completely dissolved. Add washing soda and borax. Continue stirring over low heat until mixture thickens (kind of like pudding.) Pour thickened mixture into 6 quarts of cool water in a bucket. Stir thoroughly. This will fairly quickly become a giant mass of jelly like substance. Use 1/4 cup of mixture per load.

***I cooked the soap mixture for 30 minutes, and it never really thickened. Certainly not to pudding consistency. Could it be the soap I'm using?***

Take II

The batch of homemade laundry detergent didn't turn out too well in my opinion. I will admit, though, that perceptions are key for me when evaluating products. For example, I *hate* face wash that doesn't foam. Do I know that it's not the suds that do the cleaning? Yep. Do I feel like my face is clean without the bubbles? Nope.

The laundry detergent that I made with the original recipe looked like a big bucket of water. It smelled nice, but I just couldn't convince myself that pouring a cup of it into my washer would produce clean clothes. Megan had made some, too, and her batch looked just like mine, so I know I didn't screw it up. And, it just didn't seem like there was enough "stuff" in it.

Upon further research, I made another attempt using this recipe:
Ingredients
1 5-gallon bucket with lid
1 bar soap
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
soup pot
water
cheese grater

Instructions
Grate soap in a saucepan with 3 quarts of water and heat until dissolved. Stir in washing soda and borax. Stir until thickened and remove from heat. Add 2 quarts hot water to bucket. Add soap mixture and mix well. Add another gallon of boiling hot water and 3 additional quarts hot water and mix well. Set aside for 24 hours, or until mixture thickens. Use 1/2 cup of mixture per load.

To me, it seems like the ingredients get much hotter using this recipe and that it should gel more as it cools. I guess I will have to wait and see. I am not going to determine the cost per ounce for this recipe until I see if it works.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Inspired by Megan, I decided to make my own laundry detergent. I have not been overly impressed by the products I've been using and after trying several different brands and combinations, I thought this was worth a shot. So, I followed Megan to the "Green Group" on babycenter.com and found this recipe:

Ingredients

1 5-gallon bucket with lid
1 bar soap (this attempt...Kirk's Original Coco Castile Soap)
1/2 cup borax
1/2 cup washing soda (Arm & Hammer; not baking soda)
soup pot
water
cheese grater

Instructions

Pour 4 gallons of warm water into 5 gallon bucket and set aside. Pour 4 cups of water into soup pot and start simmering. Grate your bar of soap into pieces and add to simmering water. Do not let it get to a rolling boil, it will make a mess. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes to let all the soap dissolve. Add 1/2 cup borax and 1/2 cup washing soda to 5 gallon bucket and stir. Pour in dissolved soap mixture into 5 gall bucket. Give it a good stir and pop the lid on. Tomorrow you'll have a snot-looking homemade laundry detergent that is earth friendly and it smells like your favorite soap. Use 1 cup per load. Make sure to stir it every so often because the slime sinks to the bottom and makes the stuff on top less effective.

This literally took Aaron and me 15 minutes to do! The only thing that takes any time at all is melting the soap.

Being a math teacher, I wanted to do the calculations on this to see how much it *really* cost.

Kirk's Original Coco Castile Soap: $3.39 = $1.13/bar

Arm & Hammer Washing Soda: $2.99 = $0.05/ounce

20 Mule Team Borax: $3.99 = $0.05/ounce

The soap was $1.13; a half cup of Washing Soda is 4 ounces, so that was $0.20; and another $0.20 for the Borax. That's a grand total of $1.53 for the batch I just made. (No, I'm not including the water or tax.) Since it made 5 gallons, and it takes 1 cup per load, that's 80 loads for a whopping $0.02 per load! (Or, $0.002 per ounce.)

To compare, I just looked on target.com, and Tide is on sale this week for $14.99 for 100 ounces. That is about $0.15 per ounce.

If you ask me, this is a huge cost savings. Now, to see if it works...

Nap Time

Caroline is very good about going to bed. She takes her milk, and then is ready to go upstairs to lay down.

I put her down for her morning nap today, and I could hear her talking for a little while before she actually fell asleep, but I didn't think too much about it. She ended up sleeping for a really long time, and I had to wake her up because I had an appointment. (It was a really important appointment...to get my nails done.)

Anyway, I went upstairs to get her, and I went into her room to find this:
It was completely dark, and I thought, "OMG. Where did all those blankets come from?" Then, I realized that there was a bin full of clothes sitting right beside her crib. It was filled with clothes that I was packing away because they no longer fit. I guess that's what I get for letting it sit there!