Various and Sundry

*Heard around the JunkHouse recently:
JM - Daffodils, tulips, what's the difference? They look just the same.
Me - [dumbfounded look on my face as I try to formulate a response to that]

*Poor JunkMale is going to have to do the majority of our shopping for the next few weeks at least. :-( As I learned from my last few visits to the grocery store, anything more than a quick trip in to grab one or two items leaves me dizzy and fatigued for the rest of the day. Not only is that not fun for me (and perhaps not healthy either), it also means that I come home and completely crash in bed for the next few hours. In other words, next to no housework gets done. I'm lucky if I even get all the groceries get put away. But if I stay home and do all my work in little 5 or 10 minute spurts, I feel great and energized all day long.

*I spent some time out in the garden today, sowing carrots, transplanting lettuce, and watering peas and tomato, pepper, and flower seedlings. It really is lovely to be outdoors. I wish I could get some good shots of our garden on the camera, but no matter how much I play with the settings, my pictures never turn out as good as JunkMale's. Something about sunlight and my photography skills don't mix. So until he has some time to take pictures, you'll have to be satisfied with the following shot, taken after I had just come inside, looked at myself in the mirror, and burst out laughing. I assure you that I had no idea I looked so festive. Apparently our peach tree is dropping blossoms:


Pretty, no?

*I finally made some homemade laundry detergent! I've been meaning to do this for ages. I used a recipe I found online for powdered detergent (I have been so afraid to try making my own liquid, I think that's what caused me to put it off for as long as I did). I only made a tiny bit, just to try it out, and so far I can't really tell how it compares to the store-brand free and clear detergent I had been using. But I've only done one load, so there is still plenty of time to tell. I used the following recipe: 1 cup fels naptha soap, grated + 1/2 cup borax + 1/2 cup washing soda. But I didn't want to make too much, so I cut it down to 1 Tbs: 1/2 Tbs: 1/2 Tbs, which is just enough for two loads (1 Tbs should be enough for a front-loader like my machine). If this second load comes out well, I intend to make a full recipe. I used the fine side of my microplane grater, so the soap was in very tiny shreds that dissolve easily. The only concern I have is that fels naptha soap is perfumed, and we had been avoiding any additives in our detergent. Well, that and the fact that borax is poisonous, but I've discovered that you're going to find nasty stuff in just about any detergent you use.