homemade laundry and dishwasher powder

 This post was first written and posted to my original blog, Which Name?, on September 26, 2008. Even the photo is old!

 

we are still working on reducing...our consumption, our clutter, our spending, and our use of environmentally unsafe products. one of the biggest ingredients in my cleaning bucket is baking soda. there are more uses than you can count for baking soda. there are entire books about it. yesterday, i whipped up a new batch of homemade laundry powder (mine is a 4:3 ratio of soda and borax, where half the soda is washing soda and half is baking soda). i put half of the batch in an empty (now recycled) animal cracker container for the laundry, and the other half in this adorable IKEA jar, for use as dishwasher powder. yes, i discovered the same homemade powder works great for both. while i was at it, i cleared a slow tub drain by dumping a cup of baking soda down, followed by a cup of vinegar. when that finished sizzling, i poured a kettle full of boiling water after it. drain clear. next...find a replacement for my less healthy shout and zout stain removers.

edited in 2010 to add:
All these recipes specifying Castille soap are new to me. The recipe I use calls for grated soap (and back when I began making it, they often called for Zote soap of Fels Naptha, both old school laundry soap bars), but I just skip it due to skin sensitivities. It seems to work just fine without soap. I think Castille soap is now being used because it is more earth friendly and people friendly, so if you want to use a soap, just grate a bar (or half) and add it in. In fact, you can use any real soap you like.

 

one small act

                                                                 Eco friendly lending library

I have, mostly quietly, plugging along with our Creative Light Less year in the form of One Small Act...my version of response to and resistance to the negative downfall that this country seems to be spiraling into. It doesn't need to be that way and I have knowledge and experiences to share, but feeling increasingly uncomfortable with online sharing, particularly on certain social media platforms. Social media has come a long way since I began blogging. From here to Facebook, then Instagram. Twitter to X (neither, thank you). TikTok (again, nope). Now Blue Sky and Substack. These last two are pulling in "my" people, but I am hesitant to add another platform, so here I am, back to my blog again.

So I might pop up more often here now. One small act daily.

 

Warehouse used sale that supports local resources

 

 

Volunteer trail work

creative light less year

 

This blog is named Creative Light Less, because that is how my family has always tried to live; creatively, more lightly on earth (and with an outlook of lightness and positivity), and with less impact. M and I have long been frugal, sometimes from necessity, sometimes due to principles. We have been DIYers, blending together different skills and interests, and we grew up in an area long known for its environmental and earth loving, crunchy roots.

As social media has taken hold and in the changing climate (environmentally, politically, and socially) of our country and world right now, I am seeing more people striving to have low buy, low waste goals heading in 2025. Many of the tips I am seeing are long established patterns in our household (thanks to parents and grandparents for leading the way), but I am here for it and in support of anyone striving to care for our resources and each other better.

As we head into 2025, I have been considering what I can do to push back against the patterns of social unkindness, mass consumption, and environmental damage, and I have decided that I need to focus back in on what I am good at, what comes naturally to me, intentionally recommit to what I have drifted from, and draw my family in to live a Creative Light Less year (and longer), with intention, as a method of harm reduction and gentle rebellion.

So that is what I am calling this year; our Creative Light Less year. This will look like us leaning back into buying less, acquiring used if we must, strengthening and building community, choosing environmentally friendly options, spending less money, putting our money behind our social and political beliefs, and all those other crunchy sorts of things. It will look like continuing to make a lot ourselves, grow some of our own, conserve water, use renewable energy when we can, drive less, be creative, and more.

I don't think I will be one of those people on social media giving all the tips and I won't even promise to pick blogging back up more (although maybe I will re-post some oldies), but I have lots of knowledge to share and know when to say "I don't know" if I don't, so ask. I want to navigate the year in community.

 

Used books for our home library from the library bookstore

Pizza, homemade by a teen

Here is a post from early January 2010, posted on my former blog, reflecting on a year of "not buying new" in 2009. I may share more posts from that year and challenge along the way, but I am sharing the end of that challenge, first, because it is from there that the years have flowed and we find ourselves where we are now.

with each new year, my biggest wish is that it be better than the last. january first is such a marker of how quickly time moves and how important it is to be conscious of the moments, good and bad, as they pass.

last year, our goals for 2009 included #4, a no-buying-new year. this has been an amazing eco-eco living challenge. can one live economically and ecologically? we reported on successes and failures each month as they passed, but wanted to share about our journey on the whole, a text heavy post i hope you read in its entirety.

the end of this month marks one year since we began, in earnest, our challenge to buy nothing new. while not perfect, we have done remarkably well, perhaps because the concept of used was not new to us. it did not take long before seeking used alternatives became habit, we began planning ahead for needs, we chose to do without, and many of the difficulties of the challenge faded away.

one area that provided us the greatest challenge and often broke our goals, were home repair materials. much of what we needed was either not available used or not available used in a form that gave confidence in the quality/integrity of the materials. and in buying new, it was difficult to always support the local hardware store. in my mind, shopping at the big box hardware store was one of our biggest flubs. thinking on this, i find it interesting that our continued shopping at costco does not invoke the same feeling of failure.

what i didn't anticipate, though, was that so many other environmental, parenting, and health choices would feel woven into this process and change or be questioned during this year. as with frugal living, environmentally friendly living is something we have always practiced. while we do not live in a thrifty area of the country, we do live in one of the eco-living hubs, and in fact, grew up here, recycling and doing other "green" activities from an early age. i have always considered mike and myself to be healthy, earth-aware individuals and i was startled at how much i felt these fundamental self-beliefs were challenged this past year.

in the past two years, too many people i know have been affected by cancer. perhaps diagnosis of this disease has improved due to technology, but as a scientist (yes, that is my background), i feel certain that cancer is on the rise due to environmental factors. it is my job to do all i can, no matter how seemingly insignificant, to keep our environment and our physical health as "clean" as we can. we thought of our children in our environment often this year and the changes in choices we have made have often been centered around them.

how does this all tie together? so many of the blogs, websites, and materials i have read (and continue to read) about our environment incorporate physical health, and often parenting. these aren't separate paths for a young family. they are very much intertwined.

on several occasions, i had to make the decision between used or new, a direct challenge to our goal of purchasing only used items.

used items are less expensive. they save items from the landfill. they can be repurposed into useful things when no longer useful in their original state. they are sometimes better made than similar new items. but in some cases, the appropriate item was hard to find used or was made of a questionable material.

new items can be purchased to spec. they can be bought sustainably and humanely. they can be safe materials. but they use new production resources and are expensive, particularly when the most eco-friendly versions are purchased.

and, of course, there were many times that we chose to do away with an item and simply not replace it or figured out a way to use something else instead.

this year has been such an introspective journey for me. what started for one reason wound down to this one year marker for so very many reasons. so many of them fundamental to who i/we have always been and the way i/we have always preferred things, but with so much more knowledge of products, resources, communities, practices, and so many more fundamental pieces that make up what we use and eat, how they are made, and where they come from.

this journey has tangled tightly with a journey into more informed and conscious parenting and more natural, mindful eating practices. the focal point spread from frugality to a holistic approach that suits our family. so many times i read and learned and felt startled and displaced with feelings of uncertainty about beliefs i have previously felt so certain of. i started the year thinking i was ahead of the masses in my environmental beliefs and now feel like i still have so much to learn. but i remain steadfast in my belief that each family has to come to their own place on their own terms, with no judgment. i know most of you will agree with that, but too many times over, i read directed opinions in various places or heard criticisms with my own ears. too many times during this past year, i felt self-conscious, criticized, or blatantly told what to do or what is right. (and yes, i realize that may have been as much my own self-doubt as it was the way the informant was expressing themselves.) it is my hope that in verbalizing our journey, i don't unintentionally make anyone else feel insecure of theirs.

although i love all natural materials, i have come to a balance that works for our family and our finances. i will still choose used first, because i have come to realize just how many natural items are available used, if one just has the patience to wait for them to become available and the organization to know what one really needs. and i have found informational resources that make me feel a little more comfortable about the non-natural materials we are still using.

as my friend genevieve recently put it...the truth is, despite our need to live frugally, our family is by no means poor. if we really feel we need something (and in most cases if we really want something), our frugal habits allow us to simply buy those items. it is because we are careful, pick and choose, and (in the grand scheme of american materialism) we don't buy much, that makes this flexibility possible. if we had been 100% true to our goals, we would not have been as frugal (we would have paid a huge amount for some new, handmade, local items), so there would be far less of this financial flexibility. it is for this reason that i do not feel too badly about continuing to use costco for some bulk food and eco goods.

so it is with this first year behind us (and i say first, because, although we have concluded the 12 months we set out to do, we are by no means returning to where we were at the beginning) that we enter our second year with an acceptance (and honestly, an understood appreciation for) some of the plastics, chemicals, and other non-natural materials in our lives. it is as we start this year that i say this is where we are right now. one thing i already knew about myself is that i am open to changing my opinion and believe in learning every single day.

Our "backyard," for which we strive to be good stewards.

 

Discover

 Every year, since 2010, I have chosen a word of the year. Every year, I blog a little about it.

This year, not so much. I am posting the link to the post to my word for 2024, Open, and that starts a chain of links, backing up in time, where you can read more, if you so desire.

I am keeping it basic this year for this blog post, and am simply saying that my word for 2025 is

Discover

a gift from the sea: a which name? re-post

This post was first written and posted to my original blog, Which Name?, on July 22, 2010. I selected it to re-post now, in the midst of a conversation in a beloved mamas group about our need for alone, restorative time. One mama mentioned this book, I chimed in that I used to re-read it, and I remembered that I had blogged about it. Fourteen years ago(!) I was struck by its relevance and it is still relevant today. What does that mean about a mother's/woman's changing needs (or lack of change) over time? The time of our own lives, but also over the time since this book was written, nearly 70 years ago?

 

July 22, 2010

a gift from the sea

Summer brought a change in pace, activities, time, and energy this year. I've felt a bit pulled in multiple directions, feeling always "on" with my children, craving a vacation. Craving time alone.

I have always felt guilty with this need. After all, I am incredibly fortunate to be home with my children. There are days I send a very reluctant Mike off to work and I am reminded, again, what a gift he is giving me. Although they can be trying (I've given up attempting to keep my house clean this summer. I have been too busy on damage control), our children are also very sweet, are the best of friends, and I am blessed to have the time with them to truly know them.


But it can be tiring, giving of oneself to others without enough personal rejuvenation.

I have carved out time for creating, often with the kids, but I have had little time alone, to just sit and be. What time I have stolen (because truly, it feels as though I am taking time from someone else (my husband?) or something else (sleep, perhaps?) to make it so), I have been reading.

I have just finished A Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.


I have always considered myself a mountain and forest girl first, despite growing up by the ocean, but in recent months, it has been the sea and sand I have been craving for rejuvenation.

I cannot express how perfect this book was for me to read at this time. Set by the ocean, with the ocean as the theme, Lindbergh discusses being a woman. Perhaps what amazed me most is that this book was written in 1955, yet still managed to touch so many pieces of my own life today. How poignantly history is woven into the now. It will probably always be this way in some way.

I want to share with you with some quotes from the book.


"…Today, more of us in America than anywhere else in the world have the luxury of choice between simplicity and complication of life. And for the most part, we, who could choose simplicity, choose complication.”

“Every person, especially every woman, should be alone sometime during the year, some part of each week, and each day. How revolutionary that sounds and how impossible of attainment. To many women, such a program seems quite out of reach.”

“Moon shell…You will remind me that I need to be alone for part of each year, even a week or a few days; and for part of each day, even for an hour or a few minutes in order to keep my core, my center, my island-quality. You will remind me that unless I keep the island-quality intact somewhere within me, I will have little to give my husband, my children, my friends or the world at large.”

“Nothing feeds the center more than creative work, even humble kinds like cooking and sewing. Baking bread, weaving cloth, putting up preserves, teaching and singing to children, must have been far more nourishing than being family chauffeur or shopping at super markets…”

“Evening is the time for conversation. Morning is for mental work…Afternoon is for physical tasks, the out-of-door jobs. But evening is the time for sharing, for communication.”

“What release to write so that one forgets oneself, forgets one’s companion, forgets where one is or what one is going to do next…”

“We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror at its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life, as in love, is in growth, in fluidity – in freedom…”

“…each cycle of the tide is valid; each cycle of the wave is valid; each cycle of a relationship is valid.”

“My life…lacks this quality of significance because there is so little empty space. The space is scribbled on; the time has been filled. There are so few empty pages in my engagement pad, or empty hours in the day, or empty rooms in my life in which to stand alone and find myself….it is not merely the trivial that clutters our lives, but the important as well.”

With those words of wisdom, written 55 years ago and still so poignant for me today, I am stepping offline to spend some time at my "island." Each year since I was an infant, my family has spent part of the summer up in the mountains at a lakeside cabin, accessible by boat or foot only, with no power or hot water.

This summer, our lake time begins tomorrow. My mind, body, and soul cannot wait. While not alone, in the lack of space of the small cabin, there is somehow much more space being set in nature, and I am craving that now.

Have a wonderful week. I have some posts scheduled to appear in this space, but I won't be back with you all for a week and a half or so. Be well...

 

open 2024

 

2024 marks my 15th year of choosing a word for the year ahead. (My first word was Calm in 2010.)

Last year, I chose three words; strengthen, possibilities, and purpose. I had a hard time selecting one and I thought the three complimented each other, but that didn't work for me. I forgot my words and kept returning to older words when in meditation.

 

This year, my word is Open. I don't think it is the most exciting word, but it kept coming to me as we closed out 2023, and even a perusal through the thesaurus brought me back to Open. It is simple and I like simple. 

In 2024, I want to be Open to possibilities, growth, opportunities, growth, open spaces, bravery, and being open-minded.

This year, I have a beautiful new notebook to use, handmade by Lala Bug, complete with a handmade book cover, almost entirely from recycled materials. Something special. Wishing you well in 2024.

 

homeschool 2023-2024

 

 

We have entered our 12th year of home learning! 

This year, Brown Mouse is in 10th grade and Lala Bug has moved out of high school and declared her major in apparel design and merchandising.

After expressing interest in heading to a brick and mortar school for the rest of high school (a door we left open by homeschooling through a charter school), lots of conversations, visiting schools, narrowing down choices, and sitting in classrooms, Brown Mouse opted to continue homeschooling. He's got a full load with geometry, physics, English, U.S. history, life skills/transition, P.E., and driver's ed. He is biking (mountain and road), always, and is back in soccer after an injury, playing with the team he has been part of since he was 8. And he will be assistant soccer coaching with the skills coach he began playing with at age 6!

Lala Bug began taking college classes in high school and chose to continue, selecting math, pattern draping, and fashion sketching for this year, majoring in apparel design and merchandising. So far, we have been impressed with the program, the staff, and the disabled student services, and feel lucky to have a solid niche program so close to home. She has continued building skills and making beautiful items (knits, fashion, books, and more) and I am working with her on her small business and entrepreneurial goals. She is also mountain and road biking. 

That is our little nutshell as we propel into this learning year!