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The best homemade laundry detergent recipe

Homemade Laundry Detergent

 

On our quest to save money, stretch our dollars, we decided to make our own laundry detergent. I have tried and tested many different recipes and this one,is the best homemade laundry detergent recipe.

There are many reasons why I enjoy sharing this recipe.

1. It saves money! Who doesn’t love that? I pay about $29 each time I make it and it will last 8 months+ (I will update when I run out to see exactly how long it lasts)***UPDATE***It lasted 11 months! And that was through potty training! This will all depend on family size, loads, and personal needs to how long this will last but this by far outweighs the cost of store bought brands. I store most of it in a 5 gal bucket and another in a plastic canister on top of my washer.
2. It works! It cleans the clothes efficiently and well.
3. Limits toxin. Before making the switch to homemade laundry detergent, I was using a more natural product (not 100% natural but definitely better than name brand products) called Mrs. Meyer’s (which I still love the smell but needed something cheaper) and before trying to eliminate toxins, I was using the toxin-loaded Tide! Everything in this recipe is toxin free (except the Downy Unstoppables which is completely optional and I am currently looking into alternatives.) Last year, my hubby’s parents invited us to stay a week in their timeshare by the beach. I forgot my laundry detergent so my mother in law let me have a travel size bottle of Tide. I washed a few loads of clothes at the timeshare but each piece of clothing only made it into the washer for 1 load. When we came home, I could smell the heavy Tide fragrance on all the clothes. I didn’t think much about it until it took me about 3 loads for my clothes to start smelling less Tide like. And when I say less Tide like, I mean the smell was still there but just more faint. And that was only after 1 wash!!!!! Can you imagine how much buildup is on your clothes when continually doing your laundry in what we call detergent???
4. HE friendly. It is low sudsing and can be used in any HE washer.
5. Easy to make. I have made the liquid version which is kind of a pain to make and does not work as well. All you do is grate the soap and mix into 5 gal bucket. 

 

About the ingredients

Borax- I have heard both mixed articles about borax being toxic or non toxic. I would stray away from Borax because of the bad rep it had gotten until I understand what is was, how it was derived, and what all the confusion was about.  While I could set here and explain why it isn’t, here is an article that pretty much sums it all up and explains it far better than I could. Is borax safe?

Why use borax in laundry?

It whitens your whites, softens hard water, neutralizes odors, aids in stain removal, and disinfects.

Super Washing Soda- It is a natural occurring mineral also known as sodium carbonate.

How does it help?

It helps whiten your whites, softens hard water, and neutralizes odors.

Baking Soda- Your probably familiar with baking soda also known as Sodium bicarbonate. The science and information is quite lengthy but if you want to know more about baking soda, check out this link. What is baking soda?

How does it work?

Baking Soda is a odor neutralizer, softens clothes, and cuts through dirt and grease.

Oxi Clean- I have seen mixed reviews on Oxi Clean and if it is safe or not. I’ll let you research it and let you decide. If you’re concerned, you could leave this ingredient out. Another alternative would be homemade Oxi Clean. Check it out Jille’s OxyKleen.  I haven’t personally used the homemade Oxi Clean but I have curious to know how it works. So if you try it out, let me know how it works and if it is safe on colors!

How does it help your laundry?

It helps brighten colors, whiten whites, and helps remove stains.

Fels-Naptha- It is a bar of soap specifically made for laundry. I haven’t been able to find a ton of information on Fels-Naptha. I have heard it is a natural product but I usually won’t vouch for that until I have researched it enough to back it up. If you are leery, you could use another type of soap such as Dr. Bronner’s. I have used the Zote and while many have claimed it is natural, the smell alone makes me think Zote isn’t natural.

Downy Unstoppables- The fact that this is made by the same company who makes Tide and the other heavy laden toxic laundry detergents, should probably tell you this is probably not natural. The ingredients listed is perfume dispersant, perfume and dye. Perfume can disrupt your hormones, worsen allergies, linked to cancer and is just bad news. The Purex Chrystals has an even longer list of ingredients so I chose the lesser of 2 evils. This ingredient is completely optional and has no cleaning power. It just gives your homemade laundry detergent a nice smell. I am currently trying to find alternatives. Usually, essential oils are the natural alternative but I have used it with a homemade fabric softener mixed into my homemade laundry detergent (Epsom salt and essential oil) and by itself in the washer and dryer. From my experience, the smell is completely gone by the time I pull it out of the dryer.

Recipe

 

Ingredients

1 box (4lb 3 oz) box of borax

1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 (3 lb) Container of OxiClean

2 (5.5 oz) Bars of Fels-Naphta (You can use1 bar of Zote but I don’t like the smell and I don’t think it cleans as well)

1 (4lb) box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda

1 bottle of Downy Unstoppables OR Purex Crystals (optional)

*****I recommend using the Downy Unstoppables out of these 2. Downy Unstoppables due to the ingredients. While both are not 100% non toxic, I feel Downy Unstoppables is the better choice. I have also seen others use Scentsy Whiffers but I have no idea how many bottles you need, price, or the ingredients list. I have tried the fabric softner using essential oils and Epsom salt but it does not give a smell so I am seeking other alternatives.

Directions

1. Grate your bars of soap. You can use a hand grater, zester grater, or food processor. I personally prefer to use my food processor since it is easier and shreds it into little pieces. I first run it through the shredder. Then I put the chopping blade in the processor and let it chop the soap into smaller pieces of soap.
2. Combine all ingredients. I dump everything into my 5 gal bucket, put the lid on, and I let the hubby do the heavy lifting 😉 He then rolls and shakes the bucket until all ingredients are evenly mixed.
3. Store away. I store a smaller amount in a plastic container that I picked up at Wal-Mart. The rest of the detergent, I leave in my 5 gal bucket.

To Use

I use 2-3 T per load depending on size and soil level. I use a coffee scoop and store it in the top of the plastic canister. 1 coffee scoop=2 T *

***(T=Tbs) (t=teaspoon)

 

Let me know if you like this recipe, how it works for you, and if anyone knows of natural ways to get a nice smell without using Downy Unstoppables.

 

Why our family does a daily devotional

Give us this day our daily bread

Feeding our spirit

Jesus told us to ask for our bread daily and while some might think this is talking about bread you can make in the bread machine or bread you purchase at the store, there is a deeper meaning.

Give us this day our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11)

Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness and he was very hungry. The devil tried to tempt Jesus with food and this was his reply.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)

The word of God should be our daily bread that we eat daily. To strengthen and feed our spirit. We know that if we do not eat food for our body, we become weak, we don’t think clearly, it is easier to fall into temptation (grab the bag of chips instead of snack on something healthy), and become tired. I think the same happens to your spirit. If you do not feed it daily, it becomes weak, it is harder to fight temptation, it is harder recognize right from wrong, to apply the teachings to our self, and it is hard to get to know the Lord.

Diligently Seeking Him

I was reading an article earlier and it stated that the majority of Christians do not read their bible. This is a sad reality. I cannot boast that I have read the entire bible nor can I boast that I have always read it daily. And while I was raised up being taught the word, there is many parts that I do not know or need refreshed on. It took me a long time to realize this but you have to seek the Lord daily. You have to diligently and patiently seek him. Sometimes in the English language, we tend to throw words around without the full meaning behind the word. The definition of diligent is; in a manner involving great or constant activity. A few synonyms for diligently is actively, laboriously, vigorously. 

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Many are going to think reading the bible daily is hard to fit into your schedule but we always make time for things we want to do. Many of us spend countless hours on Facebook, YouTube, watching TV, texting, talking on the phone, or whatever we decide to do. I am fully certain that there is a way to fit in 30 mins into our daily schedule to spend some time in God’s word. Even if that may be downloading the Bible.is app and listening to the bible in your car.

Why it is important to read as a family

Our children learn by example. We can tell them all day long that they need to study the bible for themselves but unless we set an example for them, they will not always take it to heart. Our children are constantly learning the good and the bad examples we set for them. There are times when I lose my temper and then later on, I see my children mimicking this behavior. Or I can ask them nicely to clean their room and then I will see my 6 year old politely asking her sister if she will help pick up the room. Why? I believe it is instilled in a child to seek guidance from their parents.

If our children see us diligently studying the bible and making it a priority in our life, they will learn that the bible is truly an important book. That there truly is words of wisdom in this book and we can use it daily to apply it in our own life.

And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 11:19)

Where to start

Decide on a good time to read or listen. For us, we have decided as a family to read after supper. We gather in the living and even our 6 year old follows along.

On most days we read a chapter a day. If the chapter is a little longer, we will split it up. We feel a chapter a day isn’t overwhelming. It is just enough to learn and truly absorb the lessons. It easily fits into our schedule. (If you read my previous posts, are schedules can be hectic with my husband working full time and full time college, a 6 year old, 2 year old, homeschooling, and all the daily chores.)

Who does the reading?

My husband reads on most days. Since he is the head of the household we feel it is only appropriate for him to lead the readings but we aren’t completely strict on this. I have also read the chapter if the hubby isn’t feeling well or is extremely tired. My 6 year old also reads the last verse. This is how we do it but you can do this however you see fit. If you have older children, you could have them take turns reading.

After the reading, our 6 year old usually has tons of questions and we take that time to answer any questions she has. Then we go over the chapter and explain it to her.

I think this is a given but our 2 year old doesn’t participate in the reading like the rest of us. She usually colors, draws, does a foam puzzle, or plays like she is reading a bible. Remember what I said about mimicking our behavior?? Our 2 year old has to have a bible when we start whether she flips through it or not. She wants to participate in our readings. She feels involved by having a bible by her side or flipping through it.

We also sing songs of praise before and after the lesson. We each pick a song and we ALL participate in this. LOL. Both of our daughters love this part!

What do you need?

You do NOT need to go buy anything. I actually strongly encourage you to only use the bible. We can learn many things from other people, there is also those who can lead us astray. So I say stick to the bible. All you need is your family present and a Bible. If you do not have a bible, there are tons of FREE Bible apps. I recommend the YouVersion Bible App (www.youversion.com). It is completely free and supported on iPhone, iPad, Android devices, Blackberry, Windows, Kindle Fire, and on the web. I really enjoy the app, but sometimes I want a book to hold in my hand. If you don’t have a Bible, you can generally pick them up at Wal-Mart for $10-15. Lifeway and Christian Books often have sales on bibles. I have seen them for $5-$10 for the nicer bibles. If you don’t have the money for that, I have seen them at the dollar stores for about $5. I have even seen them at Dollar Tree for a $1! And if your super tight on money, most local churches would love to give you a bible for free.

I would rather listen to the bible

There are some that would rather listen instead of read the Bible. Often, many feel intimidated by the bible and can get tripped up over words. And that is OK but if you just really want to listen instead of read out loud, or maybe the time you can dedicate is in the car, there are ways to do that.

The Youversion Bible App allows you to listen to the bible if you’re online. If you have unlimited data plan on your phone, then this may the option for you. If I am home, my phone and iPad is connected to my wifi but if I’m in the car, this isn’t an option. It could easily blow my data if I did it often. So if you would like to listen to the bible when your not connected to wifi and do not have unlimited data, here are your options.

Bible.is app allows you to download chapters  or the books of the bible. They have drama and non drama audio files. You just have to make sure you click on the downloaded files (they will be blue) and are not streaming the files if you do this from your phone.

There is also a Podcast you could download called “You’ve got the Time” or “Faith Comes by Hearing.”

Reading Plan

You don’t need to find a fancy reading plan to begin reading. The best reading plan I have followed was FREE. Begin with Mark. It is one of the shortest of the Gospels and it won’t seen so daunting to start off with. Then move over to Matthew. Matthew is lengthier and has more detail. Read John next. Then Luke. After you have finished the gospels you can start working your way through the rest of the New Testament. Going straight through from Acts to Revelations.

Or a reading plan that I think might work a little better is to read Galatians after you finish the gospels. Galatians tells why we do not follow the Old Testament Laws anymore. Then move through the rest of the New Testament.

Then tackle the Old Testament. Beginning in Genesis and work straight through Malachi.

Reading Plan 1

1. Mark
2. Matthew
3. John
4. Luke
5. Read Acts- Revelations straight through
6. Start the Old Testament in Genesis and work straight through to Malachi

Reading Plan 2

1. Mark
2. Matthew
3. John
4. Luke
5. Galations
6. Acts- Revelations (skipping over Galations since you read it before)
7. Genesis-Malachi in order

My recommendation on a translation

There are so many translations so which one do you choose? I highly recommend the King James Version. I won’t get into a whole lot of detail right now (that is to come in a later post). You might be thinking, well the King James Version has all the “thees and thous” in it. I promise, after reading for a little while, you it won’t even notice it. Another argument for the KJV is that it is hard to understand. Actually, the KJV uses less complicated words than many of the other versions. The KJV uses 1 and 2 syllable words while the other versions use multi complex syllable words. The KJV also has a lower average reading level score when compared to other versions. If you would like more information about how the KJV isn’t harder to understand, jump over to this site (http://www.greatpreachers.org/KJV_harder2read.html)

My husband and I have often questioned which translation to read and after lots and lots of research, we always come back to the KJV. When you first pick it up or have slacked for a while and pick it up again, it may seem hard to read but you quickly get back to understanding it.

I can’t remember all the resources I have over the subject but you can head over to http://www.ahappyhomemedia.com/. On the right hand side under Happy Home Links, Kerrie Mae has listed a ton of sites that have information about the matter. Oh and check out a happy home media podcast and the site.

Sam Gipp has a lot of historical information about the KJV vs the other versions and how they came about.  Here is a short clip http://youtu.be/OIOUN6GJlJI He has more in depth videos about the subject.

While I know many are probably going to feel strongly about the translations issues, and this can often cause a heated debate, I strongly encourage everyone to do their own research on the matter and above all else, pray about it. I am not saying everyone has to agree with me on this matter but please be kind if you leave a comment.

Hope this helps!

I hope you all find this helpful! I hope it encourages others to start a family devotional, start back up, or encourage others to start one. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

All knowledge and wisdom comes from the Lord. And the only way to learn God’s word is to study his word. To gain understanding, we must study God’s word.

For the LORD giveth wisdom:out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 2:6)

Behold: the two absolutely worst arguments against homeschooling

Wow! I don’t have any words! Just read! I’m pretty sure guy who wrote the letter, Dan, will be speechless when he reads this.

The Matt Walsh Blog

Here’s the email I received last week. I was saving it for today, as I’ll be speaking at a homeschool conference tomorrow:

*The subject line of this email was: “Not all public school teachers are the devil.”* 

Hi Matt,

I’ve been a pretty decent fan of some of your writings, and while I don’t always agree I find that you sometimes have an entertaining way of presenting your opinion. Anyway, all due respect, I find myself having a hard time continuing to follow you now that I’ve gone back and read through your views on education.

It doesn’t so much bother me that you seem to be PROUD of your lack of a college education. You seem to be of the lucky few smart enough to get away with having no real education to speak of (congratulations). What I can’t reconcile myself with is your vitriol and hatred for public…

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11 reasons why I make my own Flax Seed Hair Gel

I am here to tell you about a well kept secret called flax seed hair gel. It does wonders for your hair and is super easy to make. I’ll get to why it is awesome in a few mins but first let me tell you why and how I learned about it……

About 2 years ago, we watched a documentary on Netflix called “Chemerical.” The family began ditching their toxic household products for health friendly products. In the beginning, the mother seemed like she was lethargic. After she ditched the toxins, she was brighter, more alert, more energetic and even her skin looked so much better. I thought it was just me, but even my husband noticed the change. She even tells you of how much better she feels. I already knew that our environment exposes us to many toxins but this women was enough proof begin evaluating our cabinets. One of the products they decided to ditch was their hair gel. I think they were using a different recipe but it made me curious to look into alternatives to my own hair gel.

At first, I decided to purchase gel from the health stores but they are always crazy expensive on everything! I then found Vitacost. Vitacost is typically about half the price for their products when compared to my local health stores  but the hair gel I prefered was still $6 for a 7 oz bottle. (I order a lot of my products from Vitacost and love it. I’ll leave a link below for $10 off your first order) I have lots of thick long hair and it requires a lot of product to cover all of my hair. I just couldn’t afford or see myself forking over this much for hair gel of all things.  I actually went all natural for a while but my waves needed some life. And then I found flax seed hair gel.

The Benefits of Flax seed hair gel

1. It’s cheap. I buy my Bob Mills brown flax seeds at Big Lots for $2.00 for a bag. For a 24 oz bag, it will make at least 12 batches of hair gel. I say at least because many people use the flax seeds more than once. You can buy distilled water or use water from the faucet. You only use 1/4 c of flax seeds per batch so that’s a whopping $0.16 for the flax seeds if you choice to use them once and discard. Even if you buy distilled water at $1 a gal, your total cost for the first batch would be $0.28!!
2. It’s super easy to make. If you know how to boil water, you can handle this. It takes maybe 15-20 minutes of your time, depending on how fast water comes to a boil on the stove.
3. It’s toxin free. Have you looked at the ingredients in your hair gel recently??? PEG, alcohol, propylene glycol, PVP, hydrogenated castor oil, synthetic fragrance and probably a lot of things you can’t even read. Flax seed hair gel has 2 ingredients (3 if you add essential oils) and all of them you can pronounce!
4. It doesn’t damage your hair. A lot of the ingredients in the normal hair care products contain a nice chemical smoothie for your hair that causes split ends, breakage, thinning, and it can dry out your hair. Flax seed hair gel does exactly opposite.
5. It improves the health of your hair. It helps promote hair growth, adds shines, nourishes your hair with omega 3s, repairs split ends, and improves your overall health of your hair.
6. It doesn’t dry out your hair. Like I said above, I have wavy hair. The worst thing you can do for curly/wavy hair is to use something that dries out your hair. Almost all of the hair gels I have looked at contain alcohol. Alcohol dries out the hair which leads to split ends, breakage, and dull hair. It also does nothing for your curls.
7. It doesn’t leave your hair crunchy. Every hair gel I have ever used has left my hair crunchy. It might look good but then you would touch it, and it would be hard.  Flax seed hair gel, once dried, leaves your hair soft. After having it in my hair for a day, it is still soft to the touch. It’s almost as if I didn’t have anything in my hair.
8.  It works with my hair and not against it. I used to  blow dry, straighten, and curl my hair because on day 2 of scrunching my hair, there was no way to spritz my hair with water and re-scrunch it because it would make one big tangled mess. After going to bed, it would be so tangled and it would hurt to try to run a comb through it. It would be frizzy, and just horrible. Now, I can work with the beautiful waves God has given me without rewashing or using heat. And it looks just as good as day 1.
9. Long lasting hold. Many days on day 2, I will just run a comb through my hair since a lot of my wave has held after sleeping on it. It gives it almost like a soft beachy waves look. If it has some frizz, I will take a small amount of the gel and use it as a frizz serum. Coconut oil also works well for a frizz serum. Just remember a little goes a long way!
10. It’s all natural. It’s so natural you can eat it, although I don’t recommend it. It probably wouldn’t taste great and you definitely don’t want to go eating it if you add essential oils to it.  You don’t have to read the long list of ingredients making sure they don’t have toxins added. Nor, do you need to spend tons of time researching each ingredient to see if it is harmful to yourself.
11. You can customize the recipe to your specific needs. If your familiar with essential oils, different ones have different benefits. If your not, a quick Google search can help you out. Or you can simply pick a scent that you like. I have seen that many people will add other things such as aloe-vera gel, avocado oil, Vitamin E, and whatever else fits their needs. I personally used the gel with nothing extra added until recently. I have started adding essential oils just for a nice smell and it also helps preserve the gel a little longer.

What you need

Spoon Pot Fine Mesh strainer (or some use panty hose. if you use panty hose, you will need tongs or something to squeeze the gel out of the panty hose) Container ( I use a chip dip glass jar) Bowl to strain flax seeds into if your not using a glass jar that withstand the heat.

Ingredients

2 cups of water from the faucet or distilled water (I have used both and I prefer distilled water or drinking water better but the water from the faucet works fine) 1/4 cup Brown whole flax seeds 2-3 drops of Essential Oils of Choice (OPTIONAL)

Recipe

1. Add water and flax seeds to your pot. Bring to a boil. Stir from time to time to keep flax seeds from sticking to bottom.
2. I usually pull mine off as soon as it begins rapidly boiling and has foam on the top. Remove from heat and strain into bowl or container. Use a spoon to squish the gel out. You can use panty hose instead of a strainer but I prefer using the strainer. If you go with the panty hose method, use tongs to squish out the gel into your container.
3. Discard the flax seeds or store in freezer to reuse for another batch. Allow the gel to cool and add essential oils.
4. Store in fridge for about 2-3 weeks. Mine usually lasts about 2 weeks but there is safe natural preservatives you can add to extend the life of your gel.

Here is a Youtube video that shows how to make the gel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWaH8GIbLrM   Vitacost coupon- $10 for you and $10 for me. (https://www.vitacostrewards.com/LGaL3XL) I hope you guys like it as much as I do, please comment and let me know what you think, have any questions, or any suggestions!

How I became a Christian …

 

First, if you don’t know who I am, I am Jeremy, Melanie’s husband. She set up this blog and I felt compelled to share some of my story as well, starting with how I became a Christian.

History

            I was not really raised in a Christian environment per say. This is not a slandering of my parents by any means. However, I just really didn’t know that much about God, Jesus, and the Bible. I knew some guy named Noah built a boat, David hit Goliath with a rock, Jesus was the son of God and died on a cross. I was “baptized” and that was about it. I had no real biblical understanding past Genesis 1:1 and John 3:16. I was brought up in the public school system and naturally, there was definitely some scientific claims that made the bible seem like a fairy tale. I didn’t really care about reading the bible as I felt I was guaranteed into heaven. I was as 2 Peter 3:5 says “willingly ignorant.” As Kent Hovind put it, that means “dumb on purpose.” I really didn’t know, and I really didn’t care. If you were to ask me, I would tell you I was a Christian. Most people will do the same. But no one ever asked me why…

Turning Point

            My turning point in life was at a time when I was at my lowest. I had recently got back from being deployed to Afghanistan, the marriage was rocky, I hated the world, and I’ll be honest, it didn’t seem like the marriage was going to make it. Then came The Love Dare. This was a book that has a 40 day journey in it if your marriage is in shambles and close to the final mark. It’s only 40 days. Without really going into that, let’s just say it worked. It brought me closer to my wife, it brought me closer to God, and it helped me realize how a biblical husband is supposed to act and treat his wife. I highly recommend this book, and I’ll probably write a separate post just for it when I get a chance.

Immersion

            After I came to realize what God had to offer, I began to do what I highly recommend all new Christians do. SURROUND YOURSELF IN IT. Matthew 5:29 “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee…” I changed my music style from AC-DC, Rob Zombie, and Metallica to Christian rock. Thousand Foot Krutch, Disciple, and Skillet are good ones to bridge this gap if you really like the heavier rock and want a Christian influence. We have completely switched over to Christian music. We listen to Air1 in the car all the time, I can’t remember the last time we changed the station. My 6 year old knows lyrics to music that praises God rather than lyrics that promote sex, drugs, violence, etc. I still have my hard drum beats, screaming guitar solos, and head banging rhythms, but to a style that brings glory to God and makes me realize how good we have it here on earth. I have to admit, God knows how to rock out better than the devil! I also highly restricted myself on the internet, and even cut off my Facebook account for almost a year. (You will find out who your true friends are when you do that.) Television wasn’t really too much of an issue because we had already switched to the Roku. (See my wife’s blog on that here.) I started reading books that had Christian influence such as the Left Behind Series and Ted Dekker’s Circle Series. (There are some critical accuracy issues with the Left Behind Series, but that will be another post.)

Questioning

            Finally, those questions from back in public school started to bubble up. How does the Big Bang fit into the bible? How old is the earth? Somehow, (I really don’t remember how) I stumbled across this article called “What really happened to the dinosaurs?” by Ken Ham from the Answers in Genesis Foundation. I will go in depth on several creation science topics in other posts but that was the one that really started it all. The bottom line is I was willing to seek the truth, no matter where it led. It led down a journey that questioned everything I thought I knew. But more important than that, it actually made more sense than what I had been taught all those years.

The Church

            Next, we found a church that taught the bible. I mean really taught the bible. Not some guy up on a pulpit explaining how he thought the scripture applied in a way that would benefit himself or the church. We were very shy in this church for about a year. We sat at the back of the church, did our little bit, and booked it as soon as possible so we would not be interrogated by “church people” as I used to call them! The surprising part, this church was very patient with us. They never really pried, the let us do our thing and they did their thing. However, I started to notice that this church was not a church, it was a family, I mean literally a family of Christians that knew each other on a personal level, they encouraged each other for triumphs, and they sorrowed together in failures and deaths. I mean these people truly cared. I never felt judged, I never felt like I wasn’t part of the group. After that we started opening up to them. Come to find out, you couldn’t hardly tell them apart in terms of monetary value, or possessions, or other types of cliques you see in churches. This is extremely important I think, for a new Christian, to find a biblical church and get deeper with them. Let them get to know you, get to know them, and if they aren’t willing to do that, find another church. Find a church that follows Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”

The Bible

            Driving on, I started reading…the Bible. I read the new testament in its entirety two years ago and I’ve already forgotten some things. I believe you have to follow the verse “STUDY to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” -2 Timothy 2:15. We have recently started a nightly reading with our oldest (she’s 6 right now) and it’s been going great. We only read a chapter a day, and we have to paraphrase some things for her, but I feel like we are getting a greater understanding as a family, and I believe it is extremely important to teach children the word of God. A chapter a day doesn’t seem like much, but that means we will read the entire bible almost 4 times before she turns 18 years old. That’s only reading one chapter a day! I’m sure we will raise the bar a little bit as she gets older.

Final Thoughts

            This post is not meant to build me up in any way. I simply thought it would be a good idea to give readers a background on me before I continue to post on other topics. I don’t like to judge people by what they believe, I simply ask them the same question I constantly ask myself. What do you believe and why? I will go into my why’s more in other posts. I came to Christ evidentially. I will admit that I am weak in the blind faith department, and I used to consider that a bad thing. However, many people are evidential thinkers and therefore, if we can explain to them the evidence of God and Christ, it can become a logical reason to become a Christian for them. More to come!

-Jeremy

How I became a Christian…

First, if you don’t know who I am, I am Jeremy, Melanie’s husband. She set up this blog and I felt compelled to share some of my story as well, starting with how I became a Christian.

History

            I was not really raised in a Christian environment per say. This is not a slandering of my parents by any means. However, I just really didn’t know that much about God, Jesus, and the Bible. I knew some guy named Noah built a boat, David hit Goliath with a rock, Jesus was the son of God and died on a cross. I was “baptized” and that was about it. I had no real biblical understanding past Genesis 1:1 and John 3:16. I was brought up in the public school system and naturally, there was definitely some scientific claims that made the bible seem like a fairy tale. I didn’t really care about reading the bible as I felt I was guaranteed into heaven. I was as 2 Peter 3:5 says “willingly ignorant.” As Kent Hovind put it, that means “dumb on purpose.” I really didn’t know, and I really didn’t care. If you were to ask me, I would tell you I was a Christian. Most people will do the same. But no one ever asked me why…

Turning Point

            My turning point in life was at a time when I was at my lowest. I had recently got back from being deployed to Afghanistan, the marriage was rocky, I hated the world, and I’ll be honest, it didn’t seem like the marriage was going to make it. Then came The Love Dare. This was a book that has a 40 day journey in it if your marriage is in shambles and close to the final mark. It’s only 40 days. Without really going into that, let’s just say it worked. It brought me closer to my wife, it brought me closer to God, and it helped me realize how a biblical husband is supposed to act and treat his wife. I highly recommend this book, and I’ll probably write a separate post just for it when I get a chance.

Immersion

            After I came to realize what God had to offer, I began to do what I highly recommend all new Christians do. SURROUND YOURSELF IN IT. Matthew 5:29 “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee…” I changed my music style from AC-DC, Rob Zombie, and Metallica to Christian rock. Thousand Foot Krutch, Disciple, and Skillet are good ones to bridge this gap if you really like the heavier rock and want a Christian influence. We have completely switched over to Christian music. We listen to Air1 in the car all the time, I can’t remember the last time we changed the station. My 6 year old knows lyrics to music that praises God rather than lyrics that promote sex, drugs, violence, etc. I still have my hard drum beats, screaming guitar solos, and head banging rhythms, but to a style that brings glory to God and makes me realize how good we have it here on earth. I have to admit, God knows how to rock out better than the devil! I also highly restricted myself on the internet, and even cut off my Facebook account for almost a year. (You will find out who your true friends are when you do that.) Television wasn’t really too much of an issue because we had already switched to the Roku. (See my wife’s blog on that here.) I started reading books that had Christian influence such as the Left Behind Series and Ted Dekker’s Circle Series. (There are some critical accuracy issues with the Left Behind Series, but that will be another post.)

Questioning

            Finally, those questions from back in public school started to bubble up. How does the Big Bang fit into the bible? How old is the earth? Somehow, (I really don’t remember how) I stumbled across this article called “What really happened to the dinosaurs?” by Ken Ham from the Answers in Genesis Foundation. I will go in depth on several creation science topics in other posts but that was the one that really started it all. The bottom line is I was willing to seek the truth, no matter where it led. It led down a journey that questioned everything I thought I knew. But more important than that, it actually made more sense than what I had been taught all those years.

The Church

            Next, we found a church that taught the bible. I mean really taught the bible. Not some guy up on a pulpit explaining how he thought the scripture applied in a way that would benefit himself or the church. We were very shy in this church for about a year. We sat at the back of the church, did our little bit, and booked it as soon as possible so we would not be interrogated by “church people” as I used to call them! The surprising part, this church was very patient with us. They never really pried, the let us do our thing and they did their thing. However, I started to notice that this church was not a church, it was a family, I mean literally a family of Christians that knew each other on a personal level, they encouraged each other for triumphs, and they sorrowed together in failures and deaths. I mean these people truly cared. I never felt judged, I never felt like I wasn’t part of the group. After that we started opening up to them. Come to find out, you couldn’t hardly tell them apart in terms of monetary value, or possessions, or other types of cliques you see in churches. This is extremely important I think, for a new Christian, to find a biblical church and get deeper with them. Let them get to know you, get to know them, and if they aren’t willing to do that, find another church. Find a church that follows Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”

The Bible

            Driving on, I started reading…the Bible. I read the new testament in its entirety two years ago and I’ve already forgotten some things. I believe you have to follow the verse “STUDY to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” -2 Timothy 2:15. We have recently started a nightly reading with our oldest (she’s 6 right now) and it’s been going great. We only read a chapter a day, and we have to paraphrase some things for her, but I feel like we are getting a greater understanding as a family, and I believe it is extremely important to teach children the word of God. A chapter a day doesn’t seem like much, but that means we will read the entire bible almost 4 times before she turns 18 years old. That’s only reading one chapter a day! I’m sure we will raise the bar a little bit as she gets older.

Final Thoughts

            This post is not meant to build me up in any way. I simply thought it would be a good idea to give readers a background on me before I continue to post on other topics. I don’t like to judge people by what they believe, I simply ask them the same question I constantly ask myself. What do you believe and why? I will go into my why’s more in other posts. I came to Christ evidentially. I will admit that I am weak in the blind faith department, and I used to consider that a bad thing. However, many people are evidential thinkers and therefore, if we can explain to them the evidence of God and Christ, it can become a logical reason to become a Christian for them. More to come!

-Jeremy

How we are still saving money

 

In case your have never heard of the little box called the Roku, I’m here to tell you all about it. And how you can begin saving some money.

Money got tight

2 years ago, money got very tight. My husband’s job cut out all the overtime, the once a month drill paycheck was gone due to his fulfillment with the military, and FEMA deemed our little home in Texas in a high risk flood zone (even though we are almost always in a drought) requiring us to have flood insurance that we feel we didn’t need, our property taxes went up along with a lot of other things. We were barely making it paycheck to paycheck so we started evaluating our bills. What could we cut off?? How could we lower bills? How could we save that hard earned dollar? And how could we stretch that dollar? We found many ways to save some $$$ and one of those ways was ditching the $120 a month bill that we really didn’t watch all that often.

What is the Roku?

The Roku is a little black box that hooks up to your tv. You connect it to your wifi or you can have a hard line (ethernet cable) plugged into it. It connects to the internet and allows you to stream movies, music, and photos to your tv.

How much does it cost?

The price for the box ranges from $49.99-$99.99.  There is no recurring monthly fee after that. You pay for the box and that’s it. There is TONS and TONS of channels that you can download. A lot of them are FREE and some of them cost a small one time fee.

About the channels….

Some of the top channels include; Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video (included in a Prime Account), Spotify, Angry Birds, Crackle, TBN, PBS, Air1, Youtube (only available with the roku 3 as of right now), and too many more to name. They have 193 channels just in the Movies and TV section. They have 100 Music channels. 369 channels in the Religion and Spirutality section. There are many other categories but this gives you an idea of how many channels they have available and they are always adding more. Like I said above, most of the channels are free to download but some of the bigger names require a monthly subscription. The subscription depends on the company that owns the channel. After you purchase the Roku, there is no fees from Roku. The subscriptions is where you will pay. For example, Netflix costs a whopping ….Wait for it….. $8.49 per month for the streaming only plan. Amazon prime is a yearly subscription of $99. That breaks down to $8.25 per month. If your a student, the price is cheaper. Last year, we paid $39 for the year subscription but this year it has been upped to $49 per year. I can’t remember exactly how much Hulu is but I know it is somewhere in the ballpark of $10 a month. Channels like TBN and PBS are FREE download and have no subscription. You can watch christian movies for free.

What do you need?

• Roku box (price varies depending on which box you choose)
• Internet connection (Since your reading this, I’m assuming you already have this)
• TV (this one is probably a given and you probably already have this one)

The cost breakdown

Here is what we pay per month. I’m not including our internet price since I already have that with or without the Roku….

$3.25   —–Amazon Student Prime Account (based off of last years price of $39 per year)

+$8.49  ——Netflix streaming only account

$11.74       TOTAL MONTHLY CHARGES 😀

That’s a grand total of $108.26 SAVINGS! For a year, you would be saving $1,299.12!!! Are you ready to start saving money?

Try it before you buy it

You could go out a buy the little box if your ready to take the plunge but I can understand where it all seems too good to be true. We were the same way when we first heard about it. Our internet/cable company had them for lease for a small fee of $5.99 a month with no strings attached. If you didn’t like it, you were only out $5.99. So check your local internet and/or cable company first. Once you get the box, you may want to try trials to some of the top channels.

Free Trials

Amazon Prime offers a free 30 day trial. So check out this link. Amazon Prime 30 day trial. By the way, the Amazon Prime account includes more than just the streaming content. They include The Kindle Lending Library (borrow free books for your kindle) and free 2 day shipping on tons of their products. In my opinion, the free 2 day shipping alone if worth more than they charge. Netflix has a 1 month free trial. Check it out here to set up an account. Netflix trial. Hulu Plus has a 1 week free trial Hulu trial. If there are any other channels that require a subscription, make sure to google it to see if they offer a free trial.

Was it worth cutting off the cable/sattelite??

From our experience, ABSOLUTELY! We do not miss that $130 bill and we enjoy saving money! We don’t feel like we miss anything and not having to watch commercials (this can vary depending on which channels you use but Amazon and Netflix is commercial free) is just an added bonus. Not seeing commercials has dramatically helped not wanting the newest, bestest, shiniest toy or that mouth watering, heart clogging fast food. Yes, advertising does work and no, your not excluded. Before I had our oldest, I completed 90 credits towards a Bachelors Degree in Advertising and because of moral reasons and wanting to be the stay at home mom, I decided it wasn’t the path for me. But back to the Roku… We loved the Roku so much we bought 4 Roku boxes. And they are so light and easy to hook up, you can take them with you if you travel. Almost every hotel has wifi. I have to mention, if you are an avid sports or news watcher, the Roku may or may not be for you. There are sports channels but unless you pay some hefty sports subscription, you will not get to see the game live. The news channels that are available only offer 3-4 minute clips of the news, no full length broadcasts on the Roku. So you may want to google it and do some research if you are not one that wants to miss game night or your news broadcasts.

Last but not Least, homeschooling and the Roku…

There is literally tons and tons of educational content on the Roku. Last week we studied butterflies. I was able to find a ton of documentaries on Amazon and Netflix to watch for the subject. There are websites and facebook pages dedicated to homeschooling with the Roku, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. One of them is; Homeschooling with Netflix. The fawesome.tv channel  is also another good channel that is FREE that offers educational content. It is a channel packed with channels. ieducation can be download separately or it can be viewed through fawesome.tv

How we $aved some dough by ditching our satelite for a little box called the Roku

In case your have never heard of the little box called the Roku, I’m here to tell you all about it.

 

 

Money got tight

2 years ago, money got very tight. My husband’s job cut out all the overtime, the once a month drill paycheck was gone due to his fulfillment with the military, and FEMA deemed our little home in Texas in a high risk flood zone (even though we are almost always in a drought) requiring us to have flood insurance that we feel we didn’t need, our property taxes went up along with a lot of other things.

We were barely making it paycheck to paycheck so we started evaluating our bills. What could we cut off?? How could we lower bills? How could we save that hard earned dollar? And how could we stretch that dollar? We found many ways to save some $$$ and one of those ways was ditching the $130 a month bill that we really didn’t watch all that often.

What is the Roku?

The Roku is a little black box that hooks up to your tv. You connect it to your wifi or you can have a hard line (ethernet cable) plugged into it. It connects to the internet and allows you to stream movies, music, and photos to your tv.

How much does it cost?

The price for the box ranges from $49.99-$99.99.  There is no recurring monthly fee after that. You pay for the box and that’s it. There is TONS and TONS of channels that you can download. A lot of them are FREE and some of them cost a small one time fee.

About the channels….

Some of the top channels include; Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video (included in a Prime Account), Spotify, Angry Birds, Crackle, TBN, PBS, Air1, Youtube (only available with the roku 3 as of right now), and too many more to name. They have 193 channels just in the Movies and TV section. They have 100 Music channels. 369 channels in the Religion and Spirutality section. There are many other categories but this gives you an idea of how many channels they have available and they are always adding more. Like I said above, most of the channels are free to download but some of the bigger names require a monthly subscription. The subscription depends on the company that owns the channel.

After you purchase the Roku, there is no fees from Roku. The subscriptions is where you will pay. For example, Netflix costs a whopping ….Wait for it….. $8.49 per month for the streaming only plan. Amazon prime is a yearly subscription of $99. That breaks down to $8.25 per month. If your a student, the price is cheaper. Last year, we paid $39 for the year subscription but this year it has been upped to $49 per year. I can’t remember exactly how much Hulu is but I know it is somewhere in the ballpark of $10 a month. Channels like TBN and PBS are FREE download and have no subscription. You can watch christian movies for free.

What do you need?

• Roku box (price varies depending on which box you choose)
• Internet connection (Since your reading this, I’m assuming you already have this)
• TV (this one is probably a given and you probably already have this one)

The cost breakdown

Here is what we pay per month. I’m not including our internet price since I already have that with or without the Roku….

$3.25   —–Amazon Student Prime Account (based off of last years price of $39 per year)

+$8.49  ——Netflix streaming only account

$11.74       TOTAL MONTHLY CHARGES 😀

Try it before you buy it

You could go out a buy the little box if your ready to take the plunge but I can understand where it all seems too good to be true. We were the same way when we first heard about it. Our internet/cable company had them for lease for a small fee of $5.99 a month with no strings attached. If you didn’t like it, you were only out $5.99. So check your local internet and/or cable company first. Once you get the box, you may want to try trials to some of the top channels.

Free Trials

Amazon Prime offers a free 30 day trial. So check out this link (https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200444170). By the way, the Amazon Prime account includes more than just the streaming content. They include The Kindle Lending Library (borrow free books for your kindle) and free 2 day shipping on tons of their products. In my opinion, the free 2 day shipping alone if worth more than they charge.

Netflix has a 1 month free trial. Check it out here to set up an account. (https://www.netflix.com/getstarted?locale=en-US&start=start)

Hulu Plus has a 1 week free trial (http://www.hulu.com/plus). If there are any other channels that require a subscription, make sure to google it to see if they offer a free trial.

Was it worth cutting off the cable/sattelite??

From our experience, ABSOLUTELY! We do not miss that $130 bill. We don’t feel like we miss anything and not having to watch commercials (this can vary depending on which channels you use but Amazon and Netflix is commercial free) is just an added bonus. Not seeing commercials has dramatically helped not wanting the newest, bestest, shiniest toy or that mouth watering, heart clogging fast food. Yes, advertising does work and no, your not excluded. Before I had our oldest, I completed 90 credits towards a Bachelors Degree in Advertising and because of moral reasons and wanting to be the stay at home mom, I decided it wasn’t the path for me. But back to the Roku…

We loved the Roku so much we bought 4 Roku boxes. And they are so light and easy to hook up, you can take them with you if you travel. Almost every hotel has wifi.

I have to mention, if you are an avid sports or news watcher, the Roku may or may not be for you. There are sports channels but unless you pay some hefty sports subscription, you will not get to see the game live. The news channels that are available only offer 3-4 minute clips of the news, no full length broadcasts on the Roku. So you may want to google it and do some research if you are not one that wants to miss game night or your news broadcasts.

Last but not Least, homeschooling and the Roku…

There is literally tons and tons of educational content on the Roku. Last week we studied butterflies. I was able to find a ton of documentaries on Amazon and Netflix to watch for the subject. There are websites and facebook pages dedicated to homeschooling with the Roku, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. One of them is (http://simplehomeschool.net/homeschooling-with-netflix/)

The fawesome.tv channel  is also another good channel that is FREE that offers educational content. It is a channel packed with channels. ieducation can be download separately or it can be viewed through fawesome.tv

Referral Links

After your have tried the free trials, make sure to come back to use the referral links. Amazon Student Prime Account (http://www.amazon.com/gp/student/signup/info?ie=UTF8&refcust=QT2EHRJEYYT6MRMRM5BSNFIVUQ&ref_type=generic)

Why homeschooling was one of our best decisions

Why homeschooling was one of our best decisions we have ever made……

This is our first year to homeschool and we don’t think we will ever choose any other way. When I say we, I am also speaking on my husband’s behalf. At the beginning of the year, we had every intention to send our daughter to public school. Homeschooling had been brought up in the past but it was always a passing discussion and when it got down to crunch time, we registered her for kindergarten. We even participated in the parent meeting on what to expect when sending your child to school. Can you believe they don’t take naps in kindergarten anymore?! **GASP** I wish I could take full advantage of those scheduled naps that I wanted to pass up in K. Anyways…

Fast forward to about 2-3 weeks before the first day of school. We got the nudge to look into other options. There was 2 Christian schools in our area but we most definitely could not afford them. Again, homeschooling was brought up but my doubts would creep up. I never doubted if I was intelligent enough to teach.  There was the issues of; if I could handle never getting a break even though I have been a SAHM (Stay at home Mom) the whole time (yeah I know I have my brilliant moments), I didn’t know how to homeschool, how would others react, how can we afford the curriculum, and the big one; socialization. (I won’t go into the socialization part in this post, let me just say homeschooled kids are not doomed to only have their parents and siblings as friends) We were to a point where we didn’t know what to do. So we prayed.

And even after we were pushed towards homeschooling, we prayed some more. Finally, we listened. 🙂

Looking back on it now, it was a leap of faith. We felt the Lord tell us to homeschool and even though we had our doubts, we followed his lead. And we are sure glad we did.

Now that you know the how, lets get to the why…… Why homeschooling is the best decision we ever made?

• True Knowledge– We can teach her about the Bible. I am reminded of this verse. “For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.”( Proverbs 2:6) If true knowledge and wisdom comes from the Lord, then what would be a better curriculum to teach than the Bible? In my personal opinion, most schools are missing out on the true wisdom that comes from above. 
• Custom paced schooling -My daughter already knew colors, letters ,numbers, shapes and was even reading before Kindergarten. With homeschooling, we could move forward and expand her learning so she wasn’t bored. Now, I know this may not be the case with everyone but you can go at the speed of your child. If they need longer to focus on a subject, you can take as little or as much time that they need. Homeschooling is a customized approach to school.
• Not stuck in a classroom all day– We don’t spend 8 hours to school our kindergartener and she is so far ahead. Now, the older they get, the more time it may take but for now, 1-2 hours is more than enough to get the materials covered.
• A closer bond between me and my daughter-For 1-2 hours, we are one on one with each other. I am the teacher and she is the student. She can ask tons of questions with my undivided attention (except minor distractions from the little one).
• Respectful-She respects me more now than she did. She realizes momma has some knowledge and even though she is bright, there is a lot of things she doesn’t know.
• Flexibility. Right now, our schedules can be very hectic. My husband works full time on the weekends so he can attend college full time during the week. If we need to homeschool in the morning, we can. If we need to homeschool in the afternoon, we can. If we need to have some family time and go fishing, we can.  And not only can we have a blast fishing, we can learn about fish.
• No Doctor’s Note-If she’s sick for 3 or more days, we don’t have to drag her to the doctor just to get a note confirming she was sick. We can let her rest up and give her natural and/or over the counter medicine without paying for an expensive note and visit to the doctor that told us to do exactly what we already knew to do. And during this time, she doesn’t miss a beat of school. The schooling waits for her to get well and pick back up where we left off.
• NO HOMEWORK
• There every step of the way-She doesn’t come home with some foreign new concept that I have no clue how or why they are teaching this concept to her. I know, this probably doesn’t happen often during kindergarten but my point is, I am there every step of the way so I know exactly what is being taught and how to teach it.
• Sowing seeds– Seeing her learn and grow is AMAZING! It is hard to put into words the joy you get when your child absorbs the materials you present to them.
• Fun Learning for everyone-I learn new things.  No, that’s not a typo. I had no idea that there was a lizard that could run on water. They nicknamed it the Jesus lizard. Or that butterflies only live 2 weeks or less. Or the monarch butterfly migrates  from Mexico to Canada .The female monarch will only lay her eggs on milkweed because the monarch caterpillar eats the milkweed after it has hatched and by eating the milkweed,  it keeps its predators from wanting to have it as a snack since it tastes like milkweed.  Some of the butterflies wings look like their predator’s predator such as a snake and an owl. I find that fascinating and awe at God’s wonderful creation. You may or may not know some of this but my point is I learn new things all the time and I actually enjoy it.

I could probably go on an on of how great I think homeschool is but the bottom line, it is one of the best decisions we have ever made. Don’t think it is always exciting, cheerful, and glorious. We both have our days. Some days she hits a brick wall and we just have to take a break. Sometimes I get frustrated and think how much easier it would be just to send her to public school. Or how much cleaner my house would be if I didn’t have to make lesson plans, research curriculum, figure out fun ways to present certain ideas to her, or all the hard work that goes into homeschooling. But at the end of the day, I sit back and can see a seed is sprouting. Right now, it’s going to take some hard work to nurture and take care of this fragile seed. And eventually, it will grow into this beautiful tree that puts off good fruit.