Laundry Day!

  I remember my mother talking about Monday being her mother's laundry day, rain or shine!  She said her mother always cooked a pot of beans on Monday. (We were from the North and she made Northern beans!:) If it was sunny the laundry was hung outside, and if it was rainy she said their clothes were hung on the line that criss-crossed their small kitchen!  She said it was one of the sweetest memories of her childhood--something that they knew was going to be the same each week.    I remember the copper boiler in my grandparents garage that laundry was heated in.  We certainly have progressed when it comes to laundry!

  Their was a little quote that you sometimes see embroidered onto tea towels:
   Wash on Monday,
   Iron on Tuesday,
   Mend on Wednesday,
   Churn on Thursday, (some say Market on Thursday)
   Clean on Friday,
   Bake on Saturday,
   Worship on Sunday...
*Want to embroider some little tea towels to show this?  Go to http://tipnut.com/household-chores-towels/ and you'll find some beautiful ones.  Just download them in a file and save them for printing when you're ready to embroider!

  I believe in and love a life of order and so I like following the footsteps of homemakers before me.  My life is reasonably close to the little ditty above.  I do a large amount of our laundry on Monday.  I like to get as much done that day beginning with the towels used by everyone on Saturday. 
  Since our financial belt has been tightened in the last year I am making our own laundry soap.  I have found that whenever a change is required in my life if I embrace it I fall in love with it!  The other day I went by my laundry room and it brought back a sweet memory.  The smell of my laundry room was just like the smell of a laundrymat when I was a girl.  I would go there with my Grandma Nelle if she had a really large load and I loved the clean smell there.  Grandma said it was the Oxydol detergent.  Well, that's what my laundry soap smells like when the clothes are drying.  Other people might hate it but the Lord has given me a love for it!  You can wash 64 loads of clothing with one batch and it costs about .01 cents per load! 
  So, here's the recipe:
1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap (bars of soap like Zote or Ivory found in the laundry aisle of our Krogers)
1/2 cup washing soda (NOT baking soda)  This is also at our Krogers and it is Arm and Hammer but it's in a large box and is a white powder.  It will be on the laundry aisle, usually near your oxygen cleaners or other soaking powders.  This is a degreaser and removes dirt and other odors.  (I also use it on our bathtub drains when they get slow and it does a wonderful job!)
1/2 cup Borax (also found on the laundry aisle and it is a powder)  Our Kroger sells the 20 Multe Team box.  Borax us a whitener and a deodorizer. (It also will kill roaches!)

Here's what to do:
Grate the bar soap.  Make sure you grate it really fine.  Put it in a sauce pan and add 6 cups of water.  Heat it till the soap melts.  Then add the washing soda and the borax and stir it till it is dissolved.  Remove from heat.
Now pour 4 cups of water into a large bucket or a large pot.  Add your soap mixture to the bucket and stir.  Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir.  Let the soap sit for 24 hours.  It will become a soupy gel.  Pour into containers.  (I use ice cream buckets.) 
  Someone said that you shouldn't use your old detergent containers because you need to stir it before using and they will spill over and make a mess.  I just stir mine at the beginning of the day and then measure it out. 
  This soap is not meant to make a lot of suds but it will clean! 
  Use 1/2 cup per load of laundry.  Enjoy the savings!!

    I have always enjoyed hanging clothes on the line and for Mother's Day my children bought me a clothesline for our back yard.  Our sheets always hang on the line because I love the smell of a bed that is made up of line-dried sheets.  Even Martha Stewart encourages using a clothesline!  I have always said that hanging out clothes and kneading bread are as good as a visit to a therapist for me.  They both are very calming.

  Tuesday is my baking day.  I make three loaves of bread almost every week and we share some and eat the rest!  I love baking and I thoroughly enjoy baking the bread and baking goodies for my family  and friends.  I love being outside with the kids and stepping into the house right after the bread has baked....what a wonderful welcoming aroma!

   Wednesday is my ironing day.  I focus almost entirely on the basic chores on Wednesday so we have a stress free preparation for church.  Since we're getting everyone's clothing ready for church it's a good time to press two or three shirts for other days.

   Thursday is my sewing day.  I sew on other days too but it seems I sew clear through to the evening on Thursday.  Many times I'll use the evenings to do my fun handsewing.  I love smocking and I love shadow embroidery so Thursday evening I treat myself after sewing on the "have to" projects!  Right now I'm sewing five little nurse's costumes for my cousin's grandhchildren.  I hope they enjoy them as much as I've enjoyed sewing them.  I've also been sewing several teddy bears lately.  That's fun, too because it seems no two turn out the same.

   Friday is my "beginning to clean" day.  I used to do all my cleaning on Saturday.  My husband would fuss at me because I also cooked Sunday dinner, did all the handwork for my Sunday School lesson and other pastor's wife projects on Saturday.  I kept telling him that I didn't have time on the week days to do my heavy cleaning.  Then I realized I was really being obstinate and decided to pick one major cleaning project for Friday.  I have since learned that I can actually get two and sometimes three projects done on Friday and we now do our (the kids do their rooms) vacuuming on Thursday!  I save dusting and cleaning bathrooms for Saturday so they are polished and pretty on Sunday.  Works like a dream!
  Saturday is my "get ready for Sunday" day.  I like a big Sunday dinner but I cook it on Saturday.  Everything is oven ready when we walk out the door and all I have to do is heat vegetables and dinner is ready.  At the end of the week I like looking at my chore chart that I made on Monday with each thing crossed off!  It is a very satisfying feeling.

  How I love, love, love being what God designed me to be.  Woman, wife, mother, keeper at home, laundress, cook, teacher, seamstress, and the spirit of my home.   When we yield ourselves to God's authority and God's design a great peace and satisfaction dwells within us.  It spreads to our family too! 
  Whenever I read Proverbs 31 I am painfully aware that after over 37 years of using her as my role model I still need improvement!  Early in my married years I decided that she would be my guide and I would do my very best to become skilled at each area the Lord held her up like a beautiful ruby gem to be admired.  It's been a wonderful adventure and if I died today I am a deepy fulfilled woman. 
  It is my prayer that each woman reading this will kneel before the Lord and ask Him to teach them their biblical role and to give them great joy in it.  That is what I pray over the women on my prayer list because I desire them to find the joy the Lord has given me.  May God grant each reader that joy!

Love,

Mom