Thanksgiving will be here before you know it! One of my favorite ways to decorate for the different seasons is to use printable wall art. It doesn't cost much of anything in terms of money or time, yet it adds an instant seasonal update. I especially like using Scripture verses to keep God's Word as the main focus in our home. I purposely created this printable with a white border around it. There were 2 reasons for that: #1. It looks classy, but I didn't have a frame with a mat, so I just created the mat right on the printable. #2. My printer doesn't print all the way to the edge of the paper, so it works better when my printables are white at the edges. Hopefully you'll find that to be helpful to you too! Get the entire wall trio free when you subscribe to email updates! Just enter your email in the form right below this post. Please note: This freebie will only be available through November 9th, so be sure to get it while you can! [wp_eStore_free_download_squeeze_form id=2]

Anti-Procrastination: Using What You Have

This dirty little platter sat at the indoor yard sale for a good long while. I know that because I saw it there on several different occasions. It always caught my eye, but I always passed it up because I was trying to not to spend money needlessly, and I didn't know what in the world I would use it for.

One day I was there and I had a number of things that I was planning on purchasing.  I saw this poor, lonely platter still sitting there, unclaimed.  Since nothing is priced, whoever is running the store at the time will often just throw in any odds and ends that you have for free.  I knew this was my chance to snatch it up, and sure enough, they ended up throwing it in for free.

I still didn't know what I was going to do with it, so I just stuck it up in the attic.

Last Saturday I was at another thrift store and I kept seeing all sorts of pretty things that I knew I could find some use for, but I couldn't bring myself to spend any money and bring more stuff into the house until I was using all the stuff I already had stuck up in the attic.  (That platter was not the only thing I had shoved up there for future use.)

I passed up on all the things I found Saturday and determined that I was going to use all the beautiful things I already had.

I got down the platter, scrubbed it up, made a little printable, and stuck it on with glue dots.  I was going to put clear contact paper over top of it, but I thought it ended up looking fine without it, so I just left it off.  Plus, that way it will be a whole lot easier to switch out the printable if I want to use it during different seasons.

What do you have that you're not using?  It's time to pull out those treasures and put them to good use!

If you're just joining the Anti-Procrastination challenge, be sure to subscribe to email updates or follow me on Facebook so you won’t miss a thing!

5 Minute Friday: Look

I am writing this post as part of 5 Minute Friday.

Today's prompt is: Look

When I saw today's word I realized that the Bible has a lot to say about Looking.  Rather than writing my own frail words today, I would rather let God's Word speak for itself.  All I've done is organize it into sections.

1. Look to Jesus

Numbers 21:5-8  And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.  6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.  7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.  8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

John 3:14-15  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:  15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

2. Look on the fields

John 4:35   Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

Matthew 9:35-38  And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.  36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.  37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;  38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

3. Look for the Blessed Hope

Titus 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Luke 21:28  And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Hebrews 9:28  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

2 Peter 3:13-14  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.  14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

1 John 3:3   And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

How does using all natural laundry detergent, with no harmful chemicals added sound?  How does washing your clothes for $.007 per load sound?  (Yes, that's less than a penny per load.)

If you like the thought of that, keep reading and I'll tell you how I make my own laundry detergent without a lot of time or trouble.

There are a lot of different recipes out there for making your own laundry detergent.  As far as I know, they're all pretty easy to make, and extremely inexpensive.  Since I just got done making a batch, I thought I'd share my particular spin on the process.

Ingredients:

1 bar Kirk's Castile Soap

1/2 cup borax

1 cup washing soda

Most recipes call for Fels Naptha soap, but in my experience it doesn't do as good of a job cleaning our clothes as the castile soap does.  Plus, I don't know what's in that stuff, but I can't stand the smell of it!

Most of the recipes I've seen for liquid detergent call for you to make a humongous batch and store it in a 5 gallon bucket.  I wasn't really interested in taking up that much space in my laundry room.  All of the powdered detergent recipes seemed to use a lot more per load, making it more expensive.

I went searching to see if I could find a way to make the liquid detergent in a smaller batch, and I found a site that had done the math and figured it all out.  I pinned it to my Pinterest account so that I can easily find it whenever I need to make more detergent.

I make a powder detergent, and in turn I make a small batch of liquid detergent from the powder.

To make the powdered detergent:

1. Finely grate the bar of castile soap.  *Warning: this will take forever, and you will feel like you will never regain the use of your arm.*  Relax; your arm will be okay, and now the hard part is done.

2. Add 1/2 cup borax and 1 cup of washing soda to the grated soap.  Place into your desired container, seal, and shake to mix.

To make the liquid detergent:

Combine 4 tsp. powder and 4 cups hot water.  Let sit 8 hours.  Use 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup per load, depending on load size.

I keep my powder in one container and my liquid detergent in another container.  When I'm out of the liquid I just use some of the powder to mix up another batch.

I suppose I could have made a cute label, and I definitely could have taken better pictures, but I've got a whole lot of important things to get done today, so this is all you get!  🙂

Have you ever made your own laundry detergent?  Which recipe do you use?

5 Minute Friday: Race

This post is being written for 5 Minute Friday at Tales from a Gypsy Mama.  I am writing for 5 minutes flat with no editing, backtracking, or overthinking.

Go

As the mother of three young children, every day feels like a race.  I race to get one on the potty before we have an accident, leave her there and race to pick up another one who is crying.  I race to eat a bite of my lunch before someone spills their drink or wants more food.  All day long the race continues, and some days, okay most days,  it is incredibly exhausting.  I wonder how in the world I can continue this race day after day after day.  But any runner will tell you that they could never race unless they have first prepared and strengthened themselves.  I must do the same for my race.  Purposeful preparation of my heart and gathering strength from God’s Word must be a daily occurrence.   I can never endure this on my own.   I need daily help from God.  He is the source of my strength.  Without Him I can do nothing (John 15:5).

Stop

Will You Say Hello?

Hi friends!

I'm so glad to have you here at Imperfect Homemaker, and I hope I can be an encouragement to you on your journey to becoming the person God wants you to be!

To be honest, I'm really curious to know who the real people are behind the numbers I see as site visitors.

Will you take a minute to leave a comment and say hello?  I'd love to know who you are, how you found this blog, and whatever else you'd like to share about yourself!

Also, if there's anything you'd like to know about me, ask in the comments, and I will post the answers as a separate blog post.

Please don't be shy!  I'd really love to get to know you!