Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

I make a lot of things from scratch because it's usually easy, cheap and better for the earth and my family. It's taken me a long time to find an easy dishwasher detergent recipe that I was happy with because I didn't know where to find citric acid and didn't want to mess with my own essential oils. Lemi-Shine has solved my problems with this. 

This recipe is super easy- only four ingredients that you can find at most stores. I'm pleased with how safe it is for my family too. I'm not too worried if my little ones were to decide to break the child lock & get into this stuff since reading that Crunchy Betty's neice ate some of this detergent with no ill effects.

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1 cup Lemi-Shine
1/2 cup kosher salt

Mix it all up in a small bowl and store in an attractive bottle from Goodwill. To Use: fill your dishwasher soap well with it each time you do a load of dishes. Fill your dishwasher rinse aid with white vinegar to avoid water spots.

You may notice I paid $1.48 for this triangle glass bottle from Goodwill. I bought it years ago for a different project and it sat unused on a laundry shelf. It now fits just right under my sink holding my detergent.

Weekly Menu 7/15-7/21

Zane & Luke at the beach

My husband and middle son Braden (7) are away at Camp Paradise until Wednesday night so I'm finding fun things to keep Zane(10) and Luke (3) busy. Today I took them to Three Oaks beach & splash pad for a couple of hours. Tomorrow I'm going out to lunch with my mom and Zane and perhaps some antique shopping (if Zane doesn't object too much). Tuesday we're going raspberry picking again at our favorite organic farm and then shopping at our favorite farmer's market.  

Zane picking raspberries

I'm cooking a bit less until my guys return. I'm still making dinners though. Pasta is Zane's favorite so that's first up for the week.

I've got some beef liver in my deep freeze from the quarter of beef I purchased in January from the Riemer Family Farm. I've been scared to cook (& eat) it so while we've eaten most of the beef the liver is still waiting. I know organ meats are super healthy but I'm squeamish about such things. I've finally found a recipe that sounds pretty good so I'm going to keep my expectations low and give liver a try.

Weekly Menu 7/15-7/21

Monday: Pasta with homemade marinara & tossed salad
Tuesday: Baked Tilapia, rice, steamed green beans
Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken with carrots and potatoes
Thursday: Marinated Liver with Honey Glaze, steamed veggie

Friday: Tacos

Saturday dinner: Pizza
Sunday:  Chicken Noodle Soup & Leftovers

Snacks: Skin Clearing Green Smoothies, Honey Muffins

You can find more menus at Menu Plan Monday at I'm An Organizing Junkie.

What's on your menu plan this week?

Fun With Our Homemade Sprinkler

Let me start by saying this homemade sprinkler is not my own invention. I was unfortunately not blessed with much of a crafty gene. I found the idea for this sprinkler over a year ago on Pinterest but I can't remember what blog it came from. 

My eldest, Zane loves playing with water so when I mentioned making our own sprinkler out of a 2 liter bottle he was very excited. 

It's really quite simple. You poke holes with a push pin all over the bottle and then use duct tape to attach it to your garden hose. Turn on your water and the bottle will fill up and spray water out the holes.

My younger boys were happy to run through the water but not Zane. He was not content to leave our sprinkler in one place and kept moving the bottle around the yard.  He really wanted it to spray him while he was swinging so he worked hard to balance it above the swing.

The bottle sprinkler stayed above the swings for a while but eventually kept falling. It's not so easy to keep a bottle full of 2 liters of water balanced on a board. Zane was still pretty happy when the bottle was hanging down as it was still spraying the swings.

Simple, frugal and easy- just how I like my kid projects!

Menu Plan 7/9- 7/15

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

Another week, another menu. I'm finding with the hectic-ness of summer that I'm struggling to stay disciplined with planning what to buy and eat. Planning takes time and while I know it's worth it, my unorganized, fly by the seat of your pants personality is rebelling against the work of planning out the meals for the week. Ugh, it's summer can't we just eat whatever? It's supposed to be vacation time- well it should be but I'm a mom so there's no such thing as relaxing for vacation. Or summer.

I forced myself to plan out something to eat this week and here it is!

Weekly Menu Plan 7/9-7/15
Monday: Crockpot hickory smoked brisket
Tuesday: Baked Pollock, rice, veggie
Wednesday: Grilled Burgers, salad
Thursday: Pasta with homemade marinara sauce
Friday: Tacos
Saturday dinner: Pizza
Sunday: leftovers

Snacks: Green Monster Smoothie, Simple Vanilla ice cream, English Muffin Bread

You can find more menus at Menu Plan Monday at I'm An Organizing Junkie.

Am I the only one struggling to plan meals this summer?