Simple, Natural All-Purpose Cleaner

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I have slowly but surely been eliminating the use of chemicals in our home. What pushed me to go for it was that, even when I tried to keep them up and away from the kids, they seemed to find a way to get them as soon as my back was turned. This homemade cleaner is easy, inexpensive, and very effective. The best part? The kids could drink it and it wouldn't hurt them at all! I use this in the kitchen and bathroom, as well as on all our floors. The ingredients make it a great germ-buster too.

All-Purpose Cleaner
1 part white vinegar
2 parts water
A few drops of essential oil such as OnGuard. Lemon and Orange oil are also great for cleaning. The amount of essential oil you use will depend on the size of your spray bottle.

Add all to spray bottle & shake to mix. The oils can separate a bit, so I try to shake or swirl it once in a while during use. Happy cleaning!

Slow Cooked Breakfast Cereal

When I was chatting with my friend the other day, she told me that she likes to make oatmeal in her crock pot overnight using steel cut oats. It sounded wonderful, so I thought I would give it a try. It's super easy and the best thing about it is that breakfast is ready when you wake up in the morning. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! And thanks to Kristin for sharing :)

Start out by finding a big enough bowl to fit in your crock pot. Put in 1 C of cereal. I used some 12-grain cereal this time, but steel cut oats are next on my list to try. Add 4 C water and a dash of salt and stir it lightly. Fill the crock pot with water up to the line of the water that is in the bowl. Cover and cook on low for 10 hours.

 When you get up in the morning, stir the cereal and it will look like this. So easy! This batch was enough for 2 medium sized bowls for hubby and I and 3 smaller bowls for the kids. If you have a larger family, just use the crock pot itself so you can add more. I liked this because of the easy clean-up ;)

 We try all kinds of things in our cereal. This goodness is ground flax, raw honey, raisins, and cinnamon.

Apple Cinnamon Buckwheat & Cornmeal Pancakes

The other morning before I took Dorothy to school, I was in the mood for some nice, hearty pancakes. I couldn't decide whether to make them with buckwheat flour or cornmeal, so I decided to try both, and I was really pleased with how they turned out. They were moist, fluffy, and delicious! I topped mine with natural almond butter, but they would also be wonderful with maple syrup, honey, or molasses. For a lighter topping, try yogurt or applesauce.


Apple Cinnamon Buckwheat & Cornmeal Pancakes
1 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 C buckwheat flour
1/2 C cornmeal
2 Tbsp agave nectar, honey, or raw sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1/4 C dried apples, diced
1/2 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 C buttermilk
3 tbsp oil

Stir together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry and whisk together until moistened. Pour by 1/4 to 1/3 C onto hot oiled griddle. Cook until bubbles form and begin to pop (under side should be golden brown), then flip and cook until other side is golden brown. 

Serve hot with your favorite topping.

Natural Foaming Hand Soap

Think making your own foaming hand soap is difficult or expensive? It doesn't have to be! I got a simple foaming hand soap at the dollar tree. When that soap was used up, I decided to make my own (more natural) soap.This soap is great because the essential oil in it is not only anti-bacterial, but anti-viral. And it smells amazing! Do you want to know another little secret? I sneak this soap into the shower and use it as a shampoo. My hair comes out clean and soft, no conditioner needed.

What you need:
*An empty foaming soap dispenser
*Water
*5 drops doTERRA OnGuard Essential oil (or the essential oil of your choice). You will see the retail price of the oil in the link, but you can sign up for a membership and get all of their oils at a discounted rate if you'd like.
*1-2 Tbsp liquid Castile soap

Castile soap is amazing since you can use it for so many things AND it is concentrated, so you can dilute it and it will last you a long time. I have done a lot of shopping and found the best price on Castile soap online here on vitacost:




First, fill the container most of the way with water, then add the soap and essential oil. Screw the pump back on and shake to mix. It's as simple as that.

Happy soap making!

Our Diaper Set-up

Being that William is our third child in cloth diapers, things have changed over the years that we've used them. I find that mamas who cloth diaper - or are interested in trying cloth - like to see how other people do things! So, for all you curious mamas, here is how we currently have things set up.

For a while, since we had more than one child in diapers, we had things set up out in the living room on a bookshelf and just changed the kiddos on a pad in the middle of the floor. Now that William is the last one in diapers (yay!), we have a changing table set up in his room.

On the side are clean wipes and fleece liners. The liners make it super easy to spray messes off of diapers. I use an old disposable wipes container for the wet wipes. Some people like to make a wipes solution, but I just wet a stack of wipes with water.

The top drawer holds a few disposables, extra changing pad covers, baby powder, cloth-safe diaper cream, lotion, and a bag of pins and snappies for pinning prefolds and flats.

The second drawer down is where we keep various sizes of wetbags for holding dirty diapers, as well as some extra inserts for pocket diapers.

The third drawer has our bumgenius "Flips". These are organic cotton inserts that go in a cover with flaps on either end to tuck the inserts in. We use these for our nighttime diapers, as they are super absorbent! 

The bottom drawer has all the covers to go over fitteds, flats, and prefolds. 

Behind the door are all the diapers. The top shelf has all the prefolds and flats (you need pins or snappies for these).

On the bottom are the pocket diapers and all-in-ones on the left (you don't need an extra cover for these) and fitteds on the right (you do need a cover for these).

 When we are out and about, we pack the diaper bag with a few all-in-ones or pocket diaper, a wetbag for holding dirty diapers, and a small case of wet cloth wipes. We also carry a few other basic essentials like a change of clothes, some hand sanitizer, and diaper cream.

In the bathroom, we have attached a diaper sprayer to the toilet, which makes dirty diaper clean-up a breeze. I would be hesitant to cloth diaper without one! 

 

When they are all sprayed off, they go in the diaper pail. Wet diapers get thrown directly in the pail. When the pail gets full, I dump the whole thing in the washer. The wash routine that works well for us is a cold rinse, then a hot wash cycle with half a scoop of powdered Tide original, some oxyclean, and a splash of vinegar for fabric softener. Dry on high heat. I choose to air dry covers and the outer shell of pocket diapers so they last longer. That's it!

Reusable Roundup!

As a frugal mama who also likes to reduce unnecessary waste, I have slowly replaced everything disposable with a reusable option. So far, here is what we use (and reuse)!

 Cloth diapers and wipes. Detailed posts on this coming soon!:

Facial tissues out of cut-up t-shirts that are getting too worn to wear. I found a pretty box from a Christmas present I got this year and cut a hole in the top large enough for us to grab tissues out:

Here they are all washed and ready to use. And oh-so-soft:

 Cloth wipes for messy hands and faces. I just cut flannel receiving blankets into the shape of wipes. I like to use separate wipes from the ones we use for bottoms, so these get thrown in with the regular laundry.

No more paper towels! We still use the occasional paper towel for really gross or greasy messes, but for the most part we use kitchen towels. Some of our kitchen towels are white burp cloths from when the kiddos were babies (think Gerber prefolds- not thick enough to use as diapers, but perfect for the kitchen). We also use smaller washcloth style rags to wipe the counters down after spraying them with vinegar and essential oil. No more expensive clorox wipes or kitchen cleaners! For dirty jobs like floors, bathrooms, and dusting, we have a stash of plain microfiber cloths under the kitchen sink: 

Cloth napkins! I keep these in a basket in the corner of the dining room for easy access. The basket that I got for $1 at Goodwill Outlet. Score! These napkins go with us in school/work lunches, too:

 Good old-fashioned handkerchiefs. Hubby and I both grew up with our Dads using these, so naturally hubby uses them, too. Now when they become threadbare, I sew a few more from a large white sheet that got a hole in it. We won't have to buy hankies for years, now:

 Ok, so I admit this might not be for everyone, but I find them to be comfortable and easy. Cloth pads/liners, which I just throw in with the diaper laundry. No more running to the store at the last minute for unmentionables ;)

Do you have any other items to add to this list? If you do, please share them!

It's All in the Jeans

Ever wonder what to do with those jeans that are getting a little too worn to wear? I try to get creative with things, so as not to waste them. I have also been building our cloth napkin stash so that we don't need to buy paper napkins. This project killed two birds with one stone!

Recently, when a pair of David's jeans wore thin in too many places, I took them and laid them flat on the ground. I cut the seams off each leg of the pants, getting as close to the seams as I could. Then I cut it into pieces of appropriate napkin length (this will be personal preference). I ended up with about 4 napkins from each leg; two from the front and two from the back. With each napkin, I turned it over, folded the edge down one time, and zig-zag stitched around the edges with my sewing machine. If you wanted a nicer finish and your machine could handle it, you could certainly fold the edges over twice. I didn't want to risk damaging my machine and we really don't mind the fraying for everyday use, so I just decided to fold it once. No pinning necessary, either. Just fold and sew!

Here is my neat little stack of napkins:

Mission accomplished!