A New Laundry Recipe

I found a new recipe that another mom, Lisa Metzger, had found and brought to light, (and also found in the wonderful "New Harvest Homestead Newsletter" put out by Lisa Vitello), that originated initially from Michelle and Bob Dugger (who are a family of 20, so far)! I really wanted to share this with you...

It is a recipe that will make enough for a family of 11, to last for 1 year for $18.00 - $21.00. I probably use about $18.00 a month for all of us, or more. It only requires 4 ingredients:

4 cups of hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha Soap bar
1 cup of washing soda
1/2 of Borax


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

2. Fill a five-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.

3. 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. (It will gel.)

4. Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil
per two 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. Front-load machine: 1/2
cup per load.

A Very Sick Baby

Our poor grandson Kaden (who is 18 months old), has been very, very sick with an uncommon staff infection that he got from a mosquito bite that he got on his tiny little tush! He is allergic to mesquito bites, and when he got bit on his tush last Wednesday, he kept scratching and scratching it. Well it started to swell up terribly badly then on Thursday and he started to run a temperature, so I suggested that I that they take him up to the ER at the hospital in Onawa to have it looked at. Well the hospital staff told them to just take him in to his primary doctor in Woodbine the next day. So, they did. By the next day though when they went in, it had turned into a staff infection already. They put him on some very strong meds, Tylenol, Ibuprofen. etc. They were having him soak in Epsoms Salts several times a day and so forth. That was on Friday. By Monday it was still getting worse and spreading, despite the antibiotics and soaking. He had high temperatures of between 103* - 103.8*. So, we called the doctor again and she said "to bring him right in and she would fit him in even though she was booked full that day!" Niki picked up Saph and Kaden and took them right in. The doctor saw the severity of it and sent them to the hospital right away in Missouri Valley. They did blood work and other tests and ended up sending him to Bergan Mercy Hospital in Omaha which specializes in Pediatrics. They ended up having a surgeon come in that evening and doing surgery on Kaden to open the infection and drain it out. He has 2 holes the size of quarters in his tiny tush right now, and a drainage tube between the 2 holes. Poor boy! It had spread between his legs, and that whole side of his tush. His white count was 29 when he went in. The next day, they once again took him in to surgery and drained more infection out of it and packed it with gauze. His white blood cell count went down to 19 however. That was a good step. However, it needs to be between 4 - 10 on the average healthy person. He was connected to IVs antibiotics and fluids the entire time he was there. Plus the fact that Sapphire is due to have their new baby in 3 weeks or so, and is already dilated to 2 cm and was having contractions every 10 minutes for quite a while when we were there. However, Saph & Andrew stayed there with him the whole time, and I was up as much as I could to help out for hours at a time. I felt so bad for him!

PTL!! He got to come home yesterday afternoon late. He is still on some very strong antibiotics, pain meds, and having to have his holes packed with gauze at least once every day, if not more. He still has his drainage tube in also for at least another week. The holes are open and not sewn closed, so they have to be extremely careful not get it pulled out, dirty, infected, etc. Please pray for his full recovery! And thank you to everyone who has already been praying!!

Kaden leaving the hospital...