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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Cincinnati Heart Mini 2014

We did it!  We ran our first race of 2014.  Another goal met!  Our time wasn't that great but for us this race was all about getting there because we've had a busy taxing couple of months.  

Our overall time was 1:54:40 for a pace of 12:20/mile.  It wasn't really great but we ran the whole thing and with the chilly weather we really hadn't done any hill training and if you've ever been to Cincinnati you know it is called the city of seven hills for a reason.  

Next up for our race season: The Flying Pig 10k.  We will be running this as a part of our half marathon training program.  We are also excited to add that L & N will be running in the Kids Fun Run associated with the race.  They have become quite fascinated with our training and trips to the gym.  They ride in the running stroller when it is warm enough to run outside and when we go to the gym they ask how it went and tell us all about how they are going to start going to the gym when they are grown ups.  We bought them some athletic shoes this past weekend and they've shown them to everyone around and told everyone that they are going to run in a "kid race."  It is awesome to see them so excited about something we love! 


Monday, March 17, 2014

Batgirl and Robin

The girls are really into dressing up these days.  I got them these cute costumes for Christmas.  I wasn't sure if they would like them but man was I wrong.  Superheros are all the rage right now with the three year old crowd.  The girls love the costumes so much they wore them to school one day a couple weeks ago.  I brought the camera along and snapped some pics. 





Monday, March 3, 2014

Laundry Soap Recipe

A few months ago we started making our own laundry soap.  This was not only because we've become crazy natural hippies (a little) but also because it is much cheaper than buying laundry detergent at the store.  As you can imagine with two kids and multiple trips to the gym every week we tend to do one (sometimes two) loads of laundry a day to keep up. I did some research and found multiple recipes online to make laundry detergent so I combined them and created my own.  I thought I'd share for anyone who might be interested. 

Laundry Soap Recipe:

1-2 bars of soap 
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
3.5 gallons water

Grate up the bars of soap using a cheese grater.  I use two because in my experience it makes the detergent a little thicker.  I don't think this impacts the effectiveness of the soap, it's just my preference. 


Yesterday we used Fels-naptha and Irish Spring since that's what we had. We've used other bars as well.  


Bring 4-8 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan and add the grated soap. 


Boil until it melts and basically becomes soapy water.


While that is boiling fill a five gallon bucket with the remaining water and the borax and washing soda. 


Once the soap is ready, add to the bucket and stir well. 


Cover the mixture and let it set for 24 hours.  Then you can stir it up.  It will be a little lumpy.  I use a half a cup per load.  If you prefer it to be scented you can add essential oils.  I've not tried this yet so I don't have any recommendations on how much. 

De-clutter Mission March Days 1-9


















De-clutter Mission February Days 26-28

Quick pics