Book 2 of 15 -- The Frog King

Specs:
Title: The Frog King
Author: Adam Davies
Pages: 316 pages
Rating: **/*****
Started: January 6th
Completed: January 14th
This book was so filled with curse words that I just wanted to hurl it across the wall.  It seemed trashy and screamed to the fact that it was written by someone young that couldn't afford to have any creative writing training.  Or, written by someone that has a large disregard to respect and using curse words as emphasis instead of a dialect of young adults.  But then again, I'm pushing 30, so maybe I'm just getting "old."
It was a story about a mid-twenties guy in a dead end job.  He has a girlfriend that he loves that he can't express his love to.  This is likely because he has such a huge drinking problem that he's out of touch with the real world.
I only awarded it two stars.  I would have given it 1 star, but I did actually finish the book so something about it must've posessed me to read on.   Although upon completion I'm not sure why I did.  I was grateful to be done with the book.  Save yourself some hours of your life and DON'T pick this up.  I didn't even think it was worthy of my taking time to snap and edit a picture, so I stole a stock picture from amazon.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

One of the things I do that I'm most proud of in this house is make our laundry detergent.  I've been doing it for a couple of years now and now that I've saved my family a BOAT-LOAD of money.  I make a five gallon bucket of it every 4-6 weeks.  It only costs about $1.00 to make and let me tell you: it.does.work.
Jason, my husband, throws garbage for a living and even though he likes to tell me that throwing garbage isn't THAT dirty of a job it sure is dirtier than a lot of them. It gets his clothes fresh and clean.


I got the recipe HERE.
4  Cups - hot tap water
1  Bar of Soap.  I've used Ivory, johnson & johnson Buddy bars and fels-naptha.  I usually get whatever I can find a good deal on.  Usually Ivory.
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super WASHING Soda (Note that I did not say BAKING soda.  Washing soda is mandatory and is in a yellow box.
½ Cup Borax
- cut up into small pieces (or grate) your bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.  This takes the longest time.  But it is necessary to stand there and keep stirring or it will bubble over.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. (This is the fun part.  My bucket is too tall to be filled directly from my faucet so I get to stand at the sink with my super slow sprayer and fill with that.)  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.  When you open it the next morning it will look like a bucket of something you made in science class as a kid.  Stir through the gel.  It will continue to separate and gel every time it is left.  This is normal and this is okay.  It will not affect the quality of the product.  Just make sure to stir every time you open the bucket.
- Use a pitcher to poor detergent into empty store bought laundry detergent containers. Shake before each use. (Like mentioned above, it will continue to 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.  I use liquid detergent and/or dryer sheets so I usually allow those to be my scented item to make my laundry smell great!
The duggars claim this will make 10 gallons and that you can add half a laundry detergent jug full of water and half full of your detergent mix, but I don't dilute it any further than it already is.
-I use a top load washing machine and fill two cap fulls of detergent and add it to the beginning of a cycle.
HAPPY LAUNDERING! 

Book 1 of 15 -- The Glass Castle

Have you ever been working on a long email, document, blog post and then {{{POOF!}}} it's gone?  Yeah, that just happened to me.  Can you see the thrilled look on my face???  Well, let's try all this again, shall we?
My second New Year's Resolution was to read 12-15 books this year.  On January 2nd I started The Glass Castle.  You can purchase it HERE.
Title: The Glass Castle
Author: Jeannette Walls
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 288
Rating: *****/*****
Started: 1.2.2011
Completed: 1.5.2011
I completed this book in just 3 short days.  It was a really simple and exciting read.  I hadn't even read the back of this book because so many people had told me that I just HAD to read it.  It wasn't until I was finished with it that I realized it was a memoir.  The details of the story are threaded together in such a wonderful way that I just found myself gliding from sentence to sentence, chapter to chapter, year to year in her life.  It tells the tales of living with her 2 sisters and 1 brother in a "home" full of uncertainty, raised by an alcoholic father and a mentally unstable, extremely irresponsible mother.  The bounce from town to town, house to house, lifestyle to lifestyle.  Lice, dirtiness, lack of electricity and heat, and empty pantries and refrigerators were the norm for Jeanette and her family.  This certainly makes me look around my home and my life and take an extra moment to be thankful and appreciative.  It's a story of great dedication to make something of yourself against all odds.  I'd highly recommend this book.