Experimental soap

 Not much to report this week.  

The intense heat is back, and our back lawn is so thick and tall that we needed to hire someone to come mow again.  They're coming this afternoon.

There's supposed to be another rainy cold front later this week, though, and we will get a few days' respite again, before we are back in the sauna.

And then the grass will grow like crazy again, HA!

My two days in the office last week went okay.  I still don't know exactly why I have to do it, but whatever.

I got to attend two meetings in person, which was so much better than zoom.

Last weekend, I decided to finally try to make laundry soap out of English ivy leaves.  

We have the ivy growing all over the back of our house, and it's literally coming through the walls around the windows, so we tore a bunch of it off of the house.

I thought... "hey, here's my chance to try making that soap!"  

I'd known, for years, that you can make laundry detergent (or soap for cleaning, etc), out of ivy leaves, simply boiled in water, and steeped.

SO, I looked up the recipe on line, plucked a bunch of leaves, and made the soap!

It was so easy, and it's free!

My first load was towels, and they came out clean, and soft, so I did a bit more laundry, and was pleased with the results!

This past week, I had Dave go out and gather more leaves, and I made a bigger batch, and have done all of my usual weekend laundry with this soap.  I've added some lavender oil for a nice scent.

We shall see!!  I am not convinced 100% yet.... if it starts to build up on the towels, and make them stiff and icky, I will discontinue this experiment.  

That will take some time, though, so I'm willing to keep going until I decide that something about it isn't working.

Our 16th anniversary was Friday, so we took the day off.  

Dave had his last physical therapy appointment early in the morning, so we went out for breakfast afterward, and then did some running around. 

Got new sandals at an outlet store, stopped at a couple of little boutique type shops.

The 16th anniversary is Wax, which I find odd, but I wanted to find a single dedicated candle to burn as sort of a ceremony to mark the occasion.  I found it at the big "witchy shop" on 23rd St.

Then, we went out for a fancy dinner, and I did the candle blessing that evening.

Yesterday was a normal Saturday.... Dave got the front yard mowed early, and then did errands, and I did all of my chores.

I made sloppy joes for dinner, and we were in bed by 9:30. SO tired.

Today, I'm hoping to have some Spiritual connection time, and will do another load of towels. The summer blanket off of the bed is being washed right now, because one of the cats threw up on it.

We had hoped to get out to the woods at SOME point this three day weekend, but it's just been too hot, even in the early part of the day, for anything more than a short walk.

I've been feeling a lot better, for a lot longer, where the low back pain and leg numbness is concerned, so it would have been nice to get out, but it's not meant to be.

We DID get out and walk this past week, on morning breaks, a couple of times... when it was "only" in the 80s.  Just for a block, though.

The "sunrise steps" thing hasn't started happening yet... it's so hard to get up any earlier than we have to!

Dave has started to do his "due diligence," to start the wheels rolling for his retirement next year.

Lucky bastard.  

Have a lovely week!