Week 1

I made my own laundry detergent last week.  I have heard equal amounts of good things and bad things about this adventure.  Some people say it works and saves them lots of money, others say they have tried and failed.  I decided to take this challenge on, I mean who doesn't love saving money....or failing..... :) 

Ok so anyway last week I boiled, grated, shook, stirred, measured, and mixed some stuff together and viola! Created my very own laundry detergent (Even gave it a name, but I am not quite convinced to share it yet). 

Doing laundry is VERY serious business in this house.  Luke needs to look and smell nice to impress all the potential students at his job, and I think his coworkers would appreciate his nice smell and neatness too.  I stay at home so I can look and smell like whatever.  At the end of the day I am usually wearing some amount of food, snot, heck even poop so I don't really count.  The most important thing about laundry is Grace's.  We use cloth diapers and they have to be washed and cared for a certain way for them to be effective.  I have never used any "special" soap when washing her diapers and we have been using them for over a year and I haven't had to strip them.  They are awesome!  I figured that they would be the ultimate test whether or not the laundry detergent really works or not.  I do laundry every other day and normally do the diapers by themselves.  This week I honestly think they have come out brighter and smell better then when I have used store bought detergent.  Seriously!  I was apprehensive about washing them in the homemade detergent, but glad I went for it.

Week one of my awesome homemade laundry detergent has been a successful one!  Now lets see if it holds up for week two!

Also, I posted on here about a "life overhaul" that Luke and I are embarking on and let me just say that we have been faithful to our plan and strategy and are bursting with thankfulness on how the Lord has provided and helped us through out first half of the month. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I am...me of little faith. 

Hippie

Luke calls me a Hippie.  I think it is cute, but do realize that he is totally mocking me :).  Since being a stay at home mommy I have realized that there are a lot of things I do and buy out of convenience that I can make on my own for a lot less the what I pay for in the stores.  There are a number of things I have done and are in the process of figuring out and will share them, but the first thing is laundry detergent.  (Oh, and may I add that I was baking brownies at the same time I was making laundry detergent!  Yup, that's right.  Although all I had to do was make sure they were not burning in the oven, but multitasking all the same).

I pay about $8-$12 on laundry detergent (The cheap whatever is on sale and gets me the most loads of laundry kind) every other month.  This may not seem like a lot of money, but on our budget that is 3-4 meals, or 1/4 tank of gas, or wipes, or Starbucks coffee (priorities right?).  So anyway, I embarked on the adventure of making my own laundry detergent and it works fabulously!  I am so excited.  Here is what I did:

Calculations:

I paid less then $10.00 for the following supplies:
10pk of Ivory soap
Borax
Washing Soda
Oxy Clean (not needed, but I like an extra boost for those pesky stains)

These supplies will make about 20 gallons of laundry detergent and I can do about 30-40 loads per gallon!  So that makes an average of 700 loads of laundry for less then $10 right?!?1  Don't hold me to that yet.  I have just started and haven't completed my experiment yet, but will keep you updated on that :). 

Instructions:

1. Grate 1 bar of soap (equals about 2 cups)

2. Bring 1 quart of water to a boil and add soap to the water dissolving it completely.

3. Pour soap mixture into a pail and add 2 cups of Borax and 2 cups of washing soda.  Stir until dissolved.  (I just added them to the pot and then poured it into the container).  
4. Add 2 gallons of water to the container and mix well.
5. Cover container and use 1/4 cup with each load remembering to stir/shake detergent before each use. 


This mixture will gel and become liquid detergent.  There are TONS of recipes for laundry detergents and mostly powdered.  I prefer liquid because I think it cleans and dissolves better.

And here is Grace having a snack while Mommy makes detergent.  She was not happy that I wouldn't let her "cook" with me this time.  Too many chemicals and hot stuff.....she quickly got over it once the gold fish came out :) 

Life Overhaul

We have been in Texas for about 5+ years now and I cannot believe how much life has changed since that summer day in July 2007 when Luke and I said "I do".  We had our plans, and God has directed us towards His plans, we had our ups and downs, our "we love Texas, we hate Texas" times, and of course our schedule. 

Our initial plan was to be done with Seminary in 4 years and then go to Haiti we would serve as missionaries until the Lord showed us otherwise.  The plan to go to Haiti is still on our hearts, but the time frame is just a bit delayed since we are still in Seminary.  Luke is in his LAST YEAR!!  Can you believe it?!?!  I am so excited and proud of my husband for his hard work, dedication, and accomplishments.  This has been a long, hard, faithful experience both being in Seminary and the events that have taken place these past 5 years.  I cannot believe we are almost at the end. 

So back to the "Life Overhaul" title:  We are going on child #2 and plan on having more (I say 4 more, Luke says maybe 2).  :)  Our expanding family along with needing to make a "next step" decision soon has Luke and I thinking about our life.  We basically came up with three areas in our life that we want to revamp and make considerably better.  1. Finances 2. health 3. dedication to God.  I think there is a time in everyone life where they go through and say they need to make changes, and if they are anything like me I say those things and maybe change things for a week, or maybe a month, but then I fall off the wagon.  Not this time.  Luke and I have really brought these things to the Lord and have teamed together to conquer this life overhaul we desperately need.  But what have we done?

1. Finances:  Luke works full time at DTS and we are so richly blessed to have a job that he loves, can serve, and get paid for!  I work at home as a stay at home mom, and also blessed to watch a friends baby who is awesome, and is like a sister to Grace.  I love it! Sometimes I have other children that I watch during the summer and when they have no school, they rock too! Needless to say these jobs are fabulous, but not your top paying jobs.  Going into marriage we knew that as a teacher and a pastor we were never going to be able to afford that house on the beach, awesome car, and luxurious vacations, and we are ok with that. 

Luke and I sat down and attacked our budget like hungry wolves.  We went through everything and came up with a plan for paying things off, and surviving on what we have.  I am in awe of the mad computer skills my husband has!  He pretty much computerized our budget so it does all the calculations and everything!  He is a genius!

2. Health:  We have started eating better for about a year now, and I am so proud of our accomplishments!  We haven't been through a drive through in almost a year!  We have made some big changes, and not only that, they are habits that are sticking.  Being at home I am in charge and can control the healthy snacks, shopping, and healthy dinners.  Now don't be fooled, we totally splurge once in a while and go all out on junk :)

3. Dedication to God: This is HUGE!  I cannot speak for Luke, but for me I have been in a dry place since Grace was born.  It was really difficult for me to find time to pray, read the  Bible, and just hear God speak.  It would always fill my heart when I would read, or notice a situation where I know it was God grabbing my attention just to know He still loves me and longs for me.  We serve a gracious God!  Going on with this life overhaul I realized that in order to make these changes and for us to be able to survive my focus needs to be on God.  It amazes me how awesome my attitude and day goes when I start my morning in prayer.  I have regular devotions with God (Not daily, but we are getting there).  And have signed up for our ladies Bible study at church.  I am excited!

So there you have it.  We are starting on a great adventure on transforming our life through our dedication and foundation in the Lord.  I cannot wait to see how this all plays out. 

Merging

We are merging blogs! I have a blog for myself, a blog for Grace, and Luke and I have a blog for family and ministry stuff. Do you know how hard it is to keep up with all that? So I have decided that we are just using one. Here you will find everything going on with our family and ministry. Whew...here we go :)

First Day

I spoke to Luke this morning and he said the neighborhood that he is staying in has been without electricity since last Sunday. They have inverters which they charge with a generator, but the inverter cut out around midnight last night...that makes for one hot night of sleeping without fans, and also leaves you to be a great target for mosquito's!

Luke said he did not sleep that well, but he only has a couple things to do today so maybe a nap later....MAYBE :). He has to drain the baptismal pool at the chapel because it is clogged. He started that yesterday, and will hopefully complete that project today. He also brought a computer down for a missionary and he needs to help transition him from a PC to a MAC, along with transferring files, pictures, and all that good stuff. Good thing Luke is so handy with that kind of stuff! Later one this afternoon he will go to another missionary house who had their house broken into (while they were all sleeping), and bring some supplies they requested, that were stolen.

I wish I could be there to squeeze everyone and fill my heart with a Haiti fix, but Luke is amazing and we are blessed with the opportunity for him to be able to go down there.

Quick trip next week

Just a quick note to say that I'll (Luke) be going to Haiti on Friday morning and coming back the following Thursday. This is a quick trip that has a couple of purposes:

1) I'm planning to take some time to sit down with an organization that has expressed interest in having Becca and I join with them. We're real excited about this and really need discernment we we begin talking with them.
2) I'm bringing a new computer to Pastor Karl and will be moving all the stuff from his old computer to this one. I'll also be spending some time with him teaching him how to use the new one.
3) I'll be delivering some donated sound equipment to Quisqueya Chapel.
4) I'll be checking in on a couple of business, income generating projects, that I started with a couple of men a few months ago.
5) I'll be arranging for the delivery of approximately 10,000 reading glasses that have been donated by some people from New England.

I'm excited of course to get back. Becca and I often say that we think about Haiti multiple times during the day and it feels more and more like home to us. We'd really appreciate your prayers for us while I'm there over this next week.

Newsletter

I just sent out the following email to our mailing list. If you did not receive the email and would like for us to put you on the list please email me at: perkins.luke@gmail.com

Hey Everyone!

Just a quick note to say thanks so much for your support of us and our ministry in Haiti. We truly couldn't do what we have been able to do with out you! We put out a last minute call for support and you responded so generously, thank you!

We've just finished putting together our latest newsletter that talks about some of the things we were involved in helping with while I was in Haiti after the quake. You can find that newsletter here: www.perkinsfamilyonline.com/Newsletters

As you can imagine, Haiti has been devastated. Please keep Haiti in your prayers in these next months and years while the rebuilding continues. There is a lot of work ahead.

We also ask that you pray for us as we begin conversations with missions agencies in preparation for full-time ministry there after seminary.

In Christ,
Luke and Becca Perkins