A Couple of Things I Forgot Yesterday (and I'll probably forget more today)

First of all, the initial estimate we got for replacing 20 windows (with 16 windows, 'cause... reasons) was: $38,999!!! And that's WITH a discount! It was more than $54,000 without any promotions. So. No.

Anyhoo, what I neglected to mention in the whole "we're gonna save the earth!" stuff from yestiddy is that I made a 5-gallon batch of homemade laundry detergent a few weeks ago. The recipes I'd seen before always seemed too involved, but this one was easy (except that I accidentally brought in a 5-gallon bucket that had holes drilled in it, so as soon as we'd poured the boiling hot liquid into it and realized we were losing detergent, I had to plug the openings with my index fingers while James went out and found a suitable replacement in our storage shed, and then washed the dried potting soil from inside and out of it... adventure!). It looks like egg-drop soup, and it smells like nothing. I might put essential oil in it at some point, but my kiddos both have super-sensitive sniffers, so this might be the best way to do it. It's cleaned every bit as well as store-bought, and in addition to being cheaper (maybe $2 for the whole bucketful -- we already had the bucket), there's less waste. I have to throw away the paper box from the laundry bar each time I make it, but will get a dozen or so batches from the Borax and laundry soda before I have to throw out THOSE paper boxes. Cool!

I also read that a dishwashing hack is to put this into the detergent hole: 3 drops dish soap, 2/3 of the rest of the space with baking soda, and top it off with salt. We've used it several times, and it's worked great! Again, no smell. And maybe a couple of cents per use instead of $.15-.50, depending on whether we'd used powder or pods, etc.

Pretty stoked about all of that.

Also, I'm saving my onion and carrot ends and any other tough veggies I might cut up in the freezer until I have a few cups full. Then I'm going to make my own vegetable broth. Store-bought isn't super expensive, but this is basically free. I mean, we have to pay a bit for the water, but that's negligible. And I'd just throw the veggie ends away, anyway.

I'm not normally a DIY person. I'm fully willing to pay for someone else to do things I either cannot or do not have the patience to try. For instance, I just had an Instacart delivery today. I'm perfectly capable of buying groceries, but for the effort it takes (ya know, I have a kid who thinks HEB is a toy store), I'm cool with helping another person make a living. But I'm working on being a little more thoughtful about the products we use and the things we do out of habit.

Now I have to go outside and take down our wind chime. It's noisy as heck and has been for over an hour, then tomorrow morning, the temperature is going to drop 20 degrees in 5 hours, so it's bound to get worse. Payce!