"Mom-ism Monday # 3: Thrift shop stop, DIY projects, Making laundry soap, and Garlic!

It's been a week end of special very beautiful feast days! I love the feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Sunday we celebrated the feasts of St. Peter and St. Paul.
     I hope that you are well and happy and enjoying the summer thus far. Prayers for the folks in tornado areas.

1) In case you haven't seen my recent post about my newest television series on EWTN called "Catholic Mom's Cafe" premiering this fall, you can see it here. I am excited to report that we finally have dates for the series. It was filmed about a year ago. I hope and pray that the new series for Catholic Moms (and GrandMoms) will serve countless people. I'll keep you posted about fun contests and prizes as we get closer.

2) What are the nine things in your refrigerator that you need to throw out? Check out this article. You might be surprised.
     It's a good time to think about food safety now that summer is here. I am especially careful when grilling at barbecues. I am always cautioning my husband or oldest son (I know, I can be a pain about it!) not to use utensils on cooked foods that might have raw meat juice on them. I wash the utensils a few times during the grilling.  
     Also, please don't ever place grilled cooked food on plates that had contained the raw burgers or other raw meats, fish, or poultry prior to grilling. Not to put a damper on this post, but sadly, people have died of various food poisonings (e-coli, salmonella, etc) because of carelessness and accidentally contaminating foods with raw foods (meats, poultry, etc). We need to be mindful of food safety especially in hot temperatures.

3) On a happier note, my daughter came home for a visit again! She'll be home longer this time. Part of the reason I am late in posting my "Mom-ism Mondays" is because I had to get her from the train from NYC and then we got busy with doing a few errands.

We made a stop at the local thrift store and I bought three sweet glasses for fifty cents each!

Here in my china cabinet--the green one on the left.
The light blue "hour glass" shaped one to
the right of the green one, and the cool shaped light
green one on the right--50 cents each!

My daughter Jessica was in the Do It Yourself mood when she got home so our kitchen smelled of pretty scented candles as she busily melted and poured hot wax and mixed lovely scents into unique glass containers she bought at the local thrift shop on our way home from the train. It looked and smelled like a candle factory!

Bowl of shaved wax, candle scents, various candle containers
bought at the thrift shop, and wicks

Finished candle in Jessica's bedroom

Another finished candle in Jessica's bedroom. Isn't it pretty?
(Don't worry, she's in her late twenties and can handle candles and matches!)

We were getting low on our liquid laundry detergent which we had made some months ago so Jessica decided to make some of that too! We made six gallons of laundry detergent!

Our ingredients minus the large bar of laundry soap.
I forgot to take a photo of it before
it was used up in our laundry detergent making!

Mixing the ingredients

Working on breaking down the soap

Hot steamy beginnings of laundry detergent

3 gallons so far in this pic. It gels overnight and is
then diluted with water to double the recipe

Here's the laundry detergent recipe we use:

4  Cups - hot tap water

1  Fels-Naptha soap bar*

1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda**

½ Cup Borax

Directions: 

-Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

You can see more here.

And on the outside of the house...

About 260 organic garlic plants!

My scapes on my organic garlic plants are ready to harvest. Taking the scapes off the garlic plants allow the energy of the plant to go to the garlic bulb rather than the flower that is trying to bloom on the top of the plant. Without the scapes, the garlic will then grow another month or more under the ground for harvesting late summer.

Scapes are really good in pesto sauce. So, I know what my daughter and I will be making tonight for dinner. I'll post a recipe of our pesto sauce soon.

On another note, I'll be WAY down at the bottom of Texas in August participating in a "Marian Summer in South Texas" and again in October. Here's news about the August event.

IT'S YOUR TURN!

Check out the link-up link below to add your link.

Share your three "Mommy Moments" (photos and/or text) from the past week (or from any time). Add its URL by clicking the "Add your link" (above). Include the "Mom-ism Mondays" image from the top of this post in your post.
1) Please submit the blog POST URL and not your main blog URL.
2) Include a link back to www.catholicmomscafe.blogspot.com (in your post).
3) I'll use #MomismMonday on social media. You can follow there if you'd like.
4) HAVE FUN and celebrate your MOTHERHOOD all the time (especially on Mondays)!

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