Last night I went to the grocery store by myself. Isabella was devastated and wrapped around my leg screaming...this is a new phase, usually she's pretty happy to get away from me.

 

But I went, and it was glorious.

 

While I was there I picked up the three ingredients I needed to make my own laundry detergent, I got my recipe here  and I found that recipe on Pinterest. Of course.

 

I'm addicted to Pinterest.

 

I find it very...pinteresting.

 

I'm pinterested in many things.

 

Yuk Yuk Yuk.

 

Sorry, I'll stop.

 

 

When I got home and declared to my husband that I shall make my own detergent and it shall cost pennies. He gave me his skeptical-math-professor-I'm-calculating-the-odds-in-my-head face.

 

I hate that face. I'm usually proven wrong pretty swiftly after I see that face.

 

I was never a math girl. I doodled on my tests.



So anyway, I came home and I declared: "tomorrow I shall make my own laundry detergent for mere pennies thus saving this family money with my keen sense of thrift!"
 

 

 

The Face

 

We began making laundry detergent at 10:30 at night.

 

That's him up there grating soap. Actually it's his hand, but he's attached to it.

 We made 2 gallons of laundry detergent, used about 1/8'th of our ingredients and my math professor calculated that 2 gallons of home made laundry detergent cost us 1.50 per gallon.

 

Sure, but does it wash well? He says.

 

 

Always gotta be doubtin' me, man!

 

 

We did a load of Isabella's dirtiest school jeans at 11:00 at night.



 



 

Smug Face.*

 

I will be making a batch of this domestic gold once a month.

 

*This detergent has been Skeptical-Statistician-Husband Approved.



Wanted to share a few things that are making me happy on this gloomy December afternoon.

 

 This is what our kitchen table look like these days...Isabella and I have been doing a little Christmas crafting.

 

We listen to Bing Crosby and Eartha Kitt. She loves to sing along and I love to listen.

 

She begs to use to the hot glue gun and steals all of my favorite embellishments out of my embellishment boxes. David found a mason jar of my snowman ice cubes hidden on the floor by the couch.

 

 



 

I let her have this little paper mache house to decorate. I love it and it will be a staple decoration in this house every year from now on. 

Our Elf On The Shelf, Sparkle, made snow angles out of powdered sugar on the kitchen island this morning. Isabella is crazy about Elf On The Shelf...this is my first year doing it, I always thought it was creepy until Pinterest...and now there are so many cute ideas that David and I have to take turns hiding the elf every night :)

 



 

By far my favorite ornament she has made this year! A gingerbread man covered in pom-poms...that girl shares my love of pom-poms.

 

We have had such a good time crafting together this year...it's a magical year. Our last year together with her as the only child. She is so excited about the babies and is going to make the sweetest big sister. But even still, I am trying to drink in the moments of just the two of us...I hope that when times are hectic next year, and needs surpass my ability, she will remember sitting at the kitchen table with mommy, eating candy and gomming her hands up with glue and paint.

 

Happy, special times these are!