Yesterday, I didn’t get much writing done. I figure I’m not trying to write seven days a week anyway. Did I specify? Didn’t I say five days a week? That’s more manageable if I didn’t say so before …
Instead of writing yesterday, I got to see a Major League baseball game with my daughter. I can’t say we’re huge baseball fans or sports fans in general for that matter. But it is certainly fun to go to an actual game once in a while.
It was a gorgeous day! While the weather forecast called for possible thunderstorms late in the afternoon, rain missed us entirely. The O’s didn’t win, but we saw them score a point. Yay. Camden yards is a beautiful ball park. We had lovely seats thanks to extra tickets from a nice co-worker. There was food — crabcakes! My daughter ate two and a half along with an entire plateful of fruit and numerous cups of ginger ale and Spirte. Then, cookies and brownies and the peanuts we purchased on our way out.
We left the park shortly before the game actually finished. We’d just about reached the car when my kiddo said, “I have to go to the bathroom.” Parents have been experiencing this, probably, since the beginning of parenthood in general. “Why didn’t you go back at the stadium?” I asked. She said that she didn’t know she had to go then. I’m pretty sure I said the same to my mom more than once. Payback, right? So instead of walking to the car we shot past it and went to the Visitor Center at Inner Harbor. They had a bathroom. It has moodlighting.
Then instead of walking back to the car, since we were already there, we walked around Inner Harbor. There were paddle boats which my daughter absolutely loves. We didn’t rent a paddle boat during the cherry blossom festival this year — the lines are crazy long for that. There was zero line, so I caved and we got a paddle boat. Weren’t we just going to the car?
I paid for a regular paddle boat. They also had dragon paddle boats that look cool, but they’re more expensive, and I figured we can see the green and purple dragons that other people are riding better than the one we’d be in anyway. But they had no regular paddle boats ready. Apparently the ones tied to the dock weren’t ready for people. So they upgraded us. Which was pretty cool. Being a little larger, the dragons are harder to paddle. I got exercise.
The space in front of my car looked unusually clean and tidy. A lack of dirt did not make it that way. I could see the usual specs, a dust bunny, and a little sticker stuck to the concrete. But it seemed uncluttered. Not normal. And it wasn’t until I got to the car to open the door that the reason seeped into my consciousness. It looked so blank because my daughter’s bicycle was gone.
It had been her big birthday gift from less than a year ago. Not expensive, but a beautiful not-too-girly hot pink Huffy Trail Runner with a spring in the middle which was supposed to absorb the shock as she road, giving her a smoother ride.
Nothing absorbed my shock.
I walked to the exact spot as if that would make it reappear. It didn’t. Gone too was the cable lock that should have held it securely to a small section of the fenced area in front of my car. All gone. Who steals a kids bike?
The little sticker semi-adhered to the concrete was from one of the lights we had attached to the bike for safety. The sticker told us where to put the batteries. Lights gone. Batteries gone. Bike gone. Bell gone. Bastards.
I realized a bike two parking spots down was also gone — the green one that had been covered in a thick layer of dust. A blue bike, just as dusty, was still there — held securely with a D lock.
Why did it have to be my daughter’s bike? We should have had a better lock, but I never imagined we’d need it.
We put up signs for her beautiful missing bike. It made us feel a little better. Finally we purchased a used one from a neighbor.
The blue bike with the D lock is still there now a year and half later. Still covered in dust. It hasn’t moved. I think the people who owned it have moved away and forgotten it.
Updating to add that the sticker actually tells how to operate the light. I checked. It’s still there in our building’s garage in front of my parking space. And I was really proud of how my daughter handled all this. She was sad, but very grown up.
So I’m trying a WordPress: Writing 101 thing to write every day which was my original New Year resolution this year. We know how that went. The first W101 assignment is to write for 20 minutes. Just write. I hate to say it but that option is not available on Mondays between the hours of 6:30 AM and 10:30 PM.
I mean are we talking twenty minutes all in a row or can I break that into smaller increments? Because smaller increments are a lot more likely to happen. Twenty minutes in a row of writing on a Monday? I’ll be lucky to make midnight. Oops, see that, I shot directly past midnight and slid right into Tuesday morning. So I’m going with 20 minutes within a 24 hour period of the assignment. 20 minutes not in a row, but I am trying too keep track and make this an actual 20 minutes with the last section being a large chunk of 10 whole minutes in a row. This may or may not be breaking the rules. But, generally speaking, Mondays are crazy days.
I work full time out of the home, and I’m a mom. And I’m the only driver in our house which is probably a whole ‘nother story though not nearly as interesting as it may sound. But, hey, Ray Bradbury didn’t drive either. And I remind myself of this so that I think it’s somehow cool and exotic when I’m feeling the pains of being the only driver in the house.
On Mondays, I take a late “lunch hour” from the office to pick my daughter up from Chess Club and drive her to her dance classes then drive back to work for about 1.75 hours when I turn back around and pick her up again.
Then we’ll need to manage to eat dinner which is usually going to be something quick because by dinner time I’m pretty well starving, and I don’t usually feel like cooking. Though I recently discovered these Meal Bars that have made the process a bit more tolerable. Oh, I do a lot of my writing on my phone or old iPad because I can’t always sit in front of an actual computer, but it is pretty slow going that way because I make a lot of very small typos.
And now I’ve lied because I got interrupted and these last 10 minutes are not, in fact, all in a row. But, hey, I tried.
And … time!
Editing to add:
I originally just started this post on my phone on Monday, but didn’t finish it until Tuesday morning. Once published, it appears that I published it on Monday.
Generally, it’s better to remove a Band-aid with one big, swift tug and be done with it. Sure it stings, but it only gets better from there (unless you accidentally pulled the scab off). But there’s often that urge to pull it off slowly as if it will hurt less that way. Inevitably, though, it hurts with the first millimeter and every little one after. That’s kind of how getting out of bed feels. To some extent it has always been like that, but now it is especially so since it is darn near pitch black in our home 24/7.
After my daughter was born more than 11 years ago, unless I was sick with plague, I’ve been waking at the crack of dawn or earlier. I’ve had almost no need for an alarm clock — I’d just get a ping from my internal clock and, BAM, be awake.
Now as repairs continue on our home and windows are completely covered, it’s dark inside when I get home from work and dark when I awake to a gently blaring alarm clock in the morning. My body feels like it should be hibernating. So not only do I often need an alarm right now, I’m having a painful time getting up once it rings. The “snooze” button has become an evil and seductive friend. It’s not any easier to get up to after hitting snooze four times than it would be if I got up in one swift movement. And it only prolongs the pain. But there’s that little voice saying, “it won’t hurt so much if you do it slowly.” I hit the button. I know it’s a lie. Then I get the challenge of waking my daughter.
In a battle of laundry bar soaps, which one is champ? Didn’t know there was a battle of laundry bar soaps? Or didn’t know there even where laundry bar soaps? I didn’t exactly know until recently either. And they don’t fight each other, but they do fight tough stains and dirt!
Both Fels Naptha and Zote are bar soaps made specifically for laundry, though you may find other uses. From washing dishes or treating poison ivy to catfish bait. I kid you not.
** Note that the English version of the Zote website seems to be either down or gone for good. All links that went to the English version of the Zote website no longer work. Sorry about that. I’ll update all the links, below, as time allows (if posssible). In the meantime, here’s an English translation of their current website. https://alightningbug.org/2016/09/23/zote-soap-in-english/**
The Winner
Because of its simple ingredients, amazing size, and low price, the winner in my court is Zote. Both Fels Naptha and Zote put up a good fight and cleaned extremely well. Using these for laundry has me questioning why other types of detergent were ever made in the first place. Expensive liquids and powders left behind several spots and stains that both bars have busted. I’m really impressed!
Zote is a HUGE bar — more than twice the size of Fels Naptha for the same price.
Zote is all natural with very few ingredients and no fillers. Check out the ingredient list, below. I find the fragrance to be fresh and pleasant. It’s citronella, but not like a patio candle. Fels Naptha doesn’t specify its fragrance.
Zote was easier for me to find in local stores, and I found the softer consistency was easier to work with. My arm muscles got a nice mini workout from grating Zote, but it doesn’t feel like they’re about to fall off. Fels Naptha is much harder like really hard parmesan cheese.
Both soaps can be used to spot-treat laundry stains, as a laundry detergent booster, or as a component of homemade laundry detergent itself. Find my recipe for Homemade Laundry Detergent here. Both bars do the job surprisingly well! Individual results may vary. You may find one bar works better for your needs or preferences. Details below.
You may have trouble finding one or more of these bars in a grocery store near you. If you don’t find them in the laundry section, check near the other bar soaps used for washing your body. You might also check hardware stores. Can’t find either, try regular ol’ Ivory soap. It actually works too. Or if you don’t want to use an animal-based** soap look for castile soap like Kirk’s Castile.
SIZE: 5.5 oz, 165 g
COST: from $0.97 (at a Walmart, only price I found so far)
COLOR: yellowish, semi-transparent
CONSISTENCY/TEXTURE: hard, grates like a hard Parmesan cheese (mmm, cheese)
RESIDUE: none noticed when grated, pulverized, or powdered pieces are used. Larger slices may not dissolve all the way, but they’ll be transparentish. May depend on water temperature used and water conditions in your area.
WHERE MADE: USA
AROUND SINCE: 1894
FRAGRANCE: soapy, clean, similar to Dial soap
INGREDIENTS: “Soap (sodium tallowate*, sodium cocoate* (or) sodium palmate kernelate*, and sodium palmate*), water, talc, coconut acid*, palm acid*, tallow acid*, PEG-6 methyl ether, glycerin, sorbitol, sodium chloride, pentasodium pentetate and/or tetrasodium etidronate, titatium dioxide, fragrance, Acid Orange (CI 20170), Acid yellow 73 (ci43350)
*contains one or more of these ingredients”
VEGAN: probably not**
HOW IT WORKED: Useful for spot treating. You’ll need to either moisten the end of the bar or the area of the stain before you can rub much soap onto the stain. Rub firmly and thoroughly to cover the stain with a film of soap and let sit a bit before laundering. Since this bar is yellowish it will likewise leave a yellowish spot where you rubbed it. The stain will probably look worse, eeks, but at least you can easily see where you put the soap. Wash. Spot comes clean. Works especially well for oil-based stains like the greasy chicken I dropped down the front of my shirt.
To use in your laundry as actual laundry detergent you’ll need to grate it with a cheese grater or pulverize it in a blender or food processor (cut into medium small chunks first). You can also put smaller slices into the microwave and zap a couple minutes until the soap foams up. It will look a lot like shaving cream is growing out of the piece of soap. It’s way awesome fun to watch! (Maybe a little too much fun for some of us.) Let the foamy mound cool completely, then just crumble it to a powder with your fingers. Add to laundry per directions or use in an online recipe for homemade laundry detergent.
SIZE: 14.1 oz , 400 g
COST: $1.99, $1.27, $0.97 (prices from Home Depot, H Mart international grocery, and a Walmart respectively )
COLOR: comes in white and pink, both semi-translucent (The two colors have identical formulas with the exception of non-staining color added to pink. The white is natural and free of added color.)
CONSISTENCY/TEXTURE: firm but pliable, like slightly warmed candle wax
RESIDUE: None noticed when used grated, pulverized, or powdered. Larger slices may not dissolve all the way. May depend on water temperature used and water conditions in your area.
WHERE MADE: Mexico
AROUND SINCE: 1970
FRAGRANCE: clean, soapy, citronella***
INGREDIENTS: for white: “sodium tallowate, sodium cocoate, fragrance, optical brightener.” (And that’s it. Which is pretty cool if you ask me.)
For Pink, all the above plus “violet 10.” And that’s it.
OTHER INFO: 66% fatty acid. Alkalinity of 0.04% (bath soap is 0.02%) Website claims some folks use it to bathe. Everything but the optical brightener is just soap, right? Maybe it will impart a bright, glowing complexion. Who can say?
VEGAN: no **
HOW IT WORKED: Useful for spot treating. Fresh out of the wrapper you can squish it with your hands like firm clay. It was soft enough to rub directly onto the spot or stain with no water. It leaves a wax-like film. But the bar seems to get a little firmer once opened for a while so you may find it helpful to either moisten the end of the bar or the area of the stain. Rub firmly and thoroughly to cover the stain with a film of soap and let sit a bit before laundering. White Zote leaves a cloudy colorless film, while pink Zote leaves a pinkish film where you rubbed it. Let sit a bit. Wash. Spot comes clean. Like Fels Naptha, it works especially well for oil-based stains.
I was able to remove some exceptionally tough stains by adding a little hydrogen peroxide to the stain along with the Zote treatment. There were some really hideous stains at the underarm area of a cream-color, short sleeve sweater I rather like. How did I sweat that much? Maybe it was some icky brand of deodorant that left the stain? Anyway, I tried several commercial spot removers as well as pre-treating with conventional laundry detergent and adding a small amount of bleach to the laundry. But those stains did not budge until I rubbed liberally with Zote and added a little peroxide. Then I let it sit a bit and laundered with a homemade laundry soap (made with Zote, washing soda, and borax). The stain was darn near 100% gone except a small streak right at the seam which probably didn’t get as much Zote.
To use in your laundry as actual laundry detergent you’ll need to grate Zote with a cheese grater. A blender or food processor might work, but because it’s softer it may also clump unless you let the bar cure and firm up first. You can also put slices into the microwave. Cutting into manageable slices is especially important with Zote since the bars are HUGE. So, really, cut maybe 1/16 off and then zap that. It would take forever to heat the entire bar all the way and even if you managed without destroying your microwave, the resulting foam would take up more cubic inches than can fit in a microwave. Maybe more than a whole kitchen! This might be amusing for some, but it would be bad. Just bad. So smallish pieces, okay? Zap a few minutes and it will also look like shaving cream is growing out of the piece of soap. It’s also way awesome fun to watch! Who needs a TV? And it leaves a fresh scent in the microwave for a little while. Let the foamy mounds cool completely — they’ll deflate some. Then crumble. Add to laundry per directions or use in an online recipe for homemade laundry detergent. Zote’s website also offers a recipe for making liquid Zote by cooking it with water on your stove until it dissolves. You can let it cool to a gel for future use. Check out the list of other uses for Zote! Wacky. Use per directions.
***OF NOTE: Neither Fels Naptha nor Zote is fragrance free. I thought they were before I purchased them. Lots of recipes for homemade laundry detergent for sensitive skin call for one of these bars. Perhaps the bars are already more skin-friendly as they’re really just classic soap and not not a blend of strong detergents. I find that the scent in these bars is not overwhelming and doesn’t stay with my laundry for long. Neither bar irritates my skin or causes itching. If you have very sensitive skin you may find that one works better than the other for you. On their website Zote specifies citronella oil as the ingredient used to fragrance their bars. It’s natural and diluted citronella oil is skin friendly for most people. Plus it can keep mosquitoes away! Though I don’t find that the fragrance stays on the clothing for very long. Fels Naptha does not specify anything other than “fragrance” as far as I can tell, but it smells more like a blend of somethings to me. I’ll update if I find out.
Can be good at removing the oil of plants like poison ivy. Use before rash shows up for best results.
**Neither bar is vegan — both do or probably* do contain tallow / tallowate which is usually derived from cow fat. Presumably the tallow is a secondary product of the meat industry and cows aren’t actually slaughtered for the exclusive purpose of making laundry soap. Because yeah. The same could be said about most commercial body bar soaps on the market. Which is pretty creepy if you ask me. I’m glad they use as much of the animal as they can if they’re going to slaughter at all. But it kind of gives new meaning to body bar soap, no? Ack. I’ll probably get over it for laundry purposes for now …
Looking for a vegan suitable bar? Kirk’s Castile Soap is made of mostly coconut oil. Castile soaps are, by definition, vegetable-oil based soaps. Other tallow-free soaps include Dr. Bronner’s, Kiss My Face, Burt’s Bees, and Zum Bar. Amazingly you should be able to use any of these on laundry, but A.) They usually cost way more, though I found Kirk’s Castille soap for only $1.29/4oz bar at MOM’s Organic Market — not too bad, really. B.) Be careful to use a lighter-color bar as darker ones may have clay, charcoal, or other ingredients mixed in. Those could potentially stain your laundry.
Copyright 2014 Debora Kapke
Updated 8/10/2014 to add a link to my recipe for homemade laundry detergent (above).
Updated 09/23/16 to add a link to a temporary English translation of the Zote website and some notes.
No windows at all now. I knew, when I saw the scaffolding go up outside my daughter’s window, there was a chance the workers would put up a temporary “security” wall in her room too. But I was really hoping we could avoid that. We had not had the same obvious and extreme long-term problems with leaks in her room as we had on other parts of the condo. But we knew that what we saw was probably only a small piece of the whole. So it happened. There are enough problems in her room too to warrant the walls. All of our windows have now been replaced with temporary pink walls of gloom. Made of 2x4s, pink household insulation, and clear plastic on the inside with plywood on the outside, they block out nearly all daylight and a good chunk of our living space. We feel like the walls are closing in on us. And they are. We wake up in near total darkness. My biological clock is not running smoothly. It’s like living in a cave or maybe a submarine. Perhaps I should try to make it fun and think of it as a bat cave and get some high-tech crime-fighting equipment. We really do feel kind of batty. It’s as if we’re encased in a strange and surreal cocoon. I’m hoping for some stunning wings when all this is done.
That would be me. I’m exactly the kind of freak who uses laundry bar soap.
Seriously, isn’t laundry bar soap like from the olden days when women slaved over washboards or river rocks to clean their family’s clothing? That is what I thought for a long time. I’d see Fels Naptha once in a while at stores and wonder, “who uses those things?” Is there a population of folks around here who hand launder? With rocks or washboards? Maybe for delicates? Because hard bars seem like they’d be so much more gentle than silky liquids or powers, right? Or do you put the whole bar in the washing machine and it devolves just enough but not too much? Remove it before the rinse cycle starts?
Then one day not long ago, I got a freakish rash over more than 30% of my body. Conveniently it only showed up in places that were covered by clothing so I didn’t look nearly as freakish as I felt. After self-diagnosing every skin disease under the sun via the ever-so-helpful Internet, a doctor diagnosed my rash as allergy-induced dermatitis. At least this made me feel better about being around other humans. I wasn’t entirely sure that I hadn’t been spreading the plague to my family. But the diagnosis was only vaguely helpful since it didn’t give me any info on what was causing the allergic reaction.
I started eliminating anything that might cause a reaction. My mom has eczema and my aunt, psoriasis, so I took some laundry advice. No scented laundry products including dryer sheets. We’d already been using mostly unscented laundry detergent since my daughter has some sensitivity issues, but I’d still pop half a dryer sheet in the dryer to combat static cling.
I turned again to the Internet for more information on skin allergies. A number of recipes for homemade laundry detergent turned up. These called for, you guessed it, laundry bar soap – usually Fels Naptha but also a bar soap called Zote. These recipes claimed not only relief for sensitive skin and skin allergies, but also clean, fresh laundry for pennies a load. Sold!
Now, until I actually started looking for it, I swear I saw Fels Naptha readily available several places, several times. Really! Remember earlier when I wondered who used that stuff? But I couldn’t seem to find it anywhere once I actually wanted to purchase a bar. It’s like it was wielding revenge for my previous thoughts on its usefulness – “no soap for you!”
I finally found Zote at the local Korean supermarket. Instead of in the laundry goods section, it was with the regular body-washing bar soaps. Okay then. At least laundry and bath products were the same isle at that particular market. They even had both pink and white Zote. Yummy! At $1.27 per bar I picked up both.
A week or two later I found Fels Naptha at a Walmart which also carried Zote as did the Home Depot. So I actually get to compare.
Walmart had the lowest price. Both Fels Naptha and Zote were under a dollar at 97 cents per bar. It turned out Home Depot had Zote for $1.99, but only the white version. A bar of Fels Naptha is less than half the size of Zote, so depending on how you use these, Zote is probably the better value.
Both bars really excel at spot-treating. Moisten an end of the bar and rub it on a spot. They’re also easy to use instead of laundry detergent to clean a whole load. No, you don ‘t pop the entire bar in the washer. You can shave off some with a cheese grater; put a chunk in a blender or food processor & pulverize; or zap a small piece in the microwave* and let it foam up, cool, and crumble with your hands.
Making your own homemade laundry detergent and looking for a recipe? There are many versions out there, you need only Google it. I’ll post my recipe soon and include comparisons on which bar I like the best.
(Oh, and the rash is gone now, so yay. I later came to the conclusion that it was a reaction to a krill oil supplement I’d started taking. But once there my skin was extra sensitive to everything else too. Watching scented laundry stuff helps!)
*Caution when microwaving soap. Use only small chunks at a time and allow to completely cool before handling. It is awesome to watch it foam up – like a mini science experiment! Fun for kids and those who are kids at heart. Makes your microwave smell fresh & clean too.
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I’m fearing I have unleashed a scourge upon the land for allowing my child to set up her own Minecraft server. But also secretly looking forward to the potential parental bargaining tool. (And it’s not a server on our network, so there’s that.)
Will this be a learning tool and encouraging responsibility? Or am I being an indulgent parent by giving in to the chant of her whims? “Can I have a Minecraft server? Can I have a Minecraft server? Can I have a Minecraft server?”
For years now I have heard from both moms who work out of the home and those who don’t that slow cookers, or Crock Pots, are da-bomb. But I resisted getting one. I would not be assimilated. My thinking being that I have no room for one of those monstrosities. I already have a pot and a stove, thank you. I don’t usually like boiled chicken, etc. And I like my veg cooked with a bit of firmness left. Call me picky.
Necessity broke me down. Working full-time out of the home (and in) plus having an active kiddo meant we sometimes ate dinner at ridiculous o’clock. We’d be one lesson or meeting away from dinner that was practically bedtime. I hate to have fast food all the time, so I started asking more questions about people’s experience with slow cookers. I looked up a few recipes online and tried them in a pot on the stove instead of a cooker, etc. Not too bad. Maybe worth trying if just for the sake of eating earlier.
I checked out the local thrift store, but for USED Crock Pots that might not even work, their prices are nuts! $20 for USED? I could get a new one for that. I purchased a pair of jeans instead. But when I saw the wee 2-Quart Rival Slow Cooker for about $10 at a local Wally World, I decided it was time to give it a try. Small enough to stow easily in a cabinet and actually fits enough protein for a good dinner plus a small amount of left overs for my little family.
I worried a lot about burnt, over-cooked food with such a small pot, or any slow cooker for that matter, but on the low setting this little critter does an excellent job cooking meat or veg all day long. Meat is tender enough to fall off the bone. Veggies aren’t cooked to mush! This part amazed me. Even the lowest flame on my stove would render veg into mush within a few hours. This little pot was really SLOW cooking. It even made yummy broth for soup later. I have been adding at least some water or similar liquid when I leave it all day. It might still burn a dish that is just meat and no liquid or something with a really thick sauce. I’ll have to test those on a weekend.
Result. I am a convert.
We’ve now had Cornish Hen, chicken tacos, pulled BBQ, soup, baked chicken, veg stew, and more!
This morning’s yumminess was steel-cut Irish oats with brown sugar, cinnamon, and gobs of fresh chopped apples. My skinny kiddo is not much of an oatmeal eater, so I had to keep my fingers crossed. But she had three servings. Smallish servings, but this is something! Recipe below.
Slow Cooker Apples & Oats That My Daughter LIKES
3/4 C. steel-cut Irish oats
2 apples (cored and chopped, peel if you like, I peeled one of ’em)
3 T. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 T. coconut oil
1-1/2 C. water
1/2 C. milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Spray inside of crock with non-stick cooking spray. Put in apples, dry ingredients, then liquid ingredients. Stir a bit. Turn cooker on Low and cook for 4 to 7 hours. At 4 hours the oats are edible but still quite chewy and the apples are cooked but firm. It’s all a lot more tender at about 7 hours. Stir before serving. This recipe makes fairly thick oats (which didn’t burn, but eventually got a brown crust at the edges). If you like your oats thinner, add more liquid.
We topped with a little extra cinnamon, brown sugar, and a thin pat of butter. Some of us poured milk over the oats too. It was all yummy! I was expecting leftovers, but we had none.
aLightningbug 