New Beginnings

Since taking a break from my Masters program a year and a half ago, I have stayed at home babysitting and taking care of our foster placements. Well that is all about to change. In two weeks I will embark on a new journey at my Alma Mater Oakland City University as the Administrative Assistant in the Financial Aid department. For a while now I have been thinking of getting out in the work force. Now don't get me wrong, I love being at home and the freedom that I have. I love the kids that I babysit for, but this is not my calling. I have felt out of touch and isolated staying at home. Then there is this big issue known as HEALTH INSURANCE, something that is non-existent in the Depoister household at this time. Which has really hurt us these past few months as I have had some health issues. To prevent this from happening again a change was needed. 

 So when I saw a few positions open at OCU, I had to try. No matter what complications could come from me applying. I couldn't let the fear of change hold me back. It all happened so fast. After talking it over with HIM, asking for prayers from our friends and doing A LOT of praying on my part I left it all in God's hands.

My favorite Scripture that has spoken to me all through out my walk with Christ is Jeremiah 29:11-12. And it has severed again as a reminder of God's promises and faithfulness. It has helped calm my fears and given me the strength to face the unknown.

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, 

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you 

hope and a future. 

12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

I applied, got an interview, and prayed for God's will. And I got the JOB!!! I am so excited to begin but also a little nervous. Now HIM and HER really has to work together to make our household run smoothly. We have things set up pretty good but with kids you just never really know what is gonna happen. It will take some getting use to that is for sure, but I know we will do great. Plus I have started browsing Pinterest for some crock-pot meals that will help make getting dinner on the table that much easier. 

 

I am just so thankful that I get to work at a place that has given me so much. I have always said that I would love to work for OCU at some point and glad that I have been given this opportunity. Plus it doesn't hurt that HIM and HER will be working at the same place either. There will be some things that I I will miss like the freedom that staying at home has given me especially in the summer time. And the one on one time that I have been able to give to Little miss S, but I know that she will have a great person taking care of her. So here is to NEW BEGINNINGS! May you never let the fear of the unknown hold you back from the blessing that the future holds. 

DIY Laundry Detergent

If you are like me, you have wasted oh I mean spent a lot of time on this little old website known as Pinterest. I have this love hate relationship with this site. I love it because it has given me so many great ideas from food to crafts to clothes and home improvements. And I hate it for all the same reasons. It seems like there is a never ending supply of new great  ideas that I just HAVE to try out. Some good and even more not so good. I can spend hours on Pinterest and talk about these great things I have seen. But HIM does NOT like Pinterest, not at all. He says that it is an evil site and there is a never ending supply of eye rolls when it is even mentioned.

Anyways on to why you are really reading this...for a while now I have seen and heard people talk about making their own laundry detergents. And have thought hum that could be useful....but do I really want to shred, cook, mix, separate and whatever else... It just sounded like a lot of work and way too time consuming. Even if it saved me money. Well with our ever growing household there comes the never ending mountain of laundry...yes mountain(I will take pictures so you will believe me). Last week I did 13 loads of laundry....granted we washed bedding as well but still 13 loads is A LOT of laundry. I usually use Purex Natural Elements 66 loads for $6 with Snuggle's white lavender and sandalwood fabric softener 50 loads for $4.50. For a year doing about 8 loads of laundry a week I can easily spend $80.50 on just detergent and softener. And with our new additions that price was guaranteed to be a lot more.

After reading several blogs on homemade laundry detergent I settled on a dry mix (howdoesshe.com) that is suppose to last a year for a household that does 6 loads a week. I only spent $31.16 for everything and didn't even use all of the items. So the next batch will cost even less. Here is the items list:

1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax- Found in the detergent aisle

1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda- Found in the detergent aisle

1 (3 lb) Container of OxyClean- Found in the detergent aisle. (This is optional, I only used half of it)

5 (5.5oz) bars of Fels Naptha - Found in the detergent aisle (could also use zote soap)

1 (4 lb) Box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda- Found in the cooking aisle (You could also get two 2 lb box, we couldn’t find the larger 4lb box when we went)

1 (55 oz) Bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener- Found in the detergent aisle

I forgot to take a picture before I started but here they are after

So armed with all the ingredients, an old school hand grater, bowl and large container to mix it all it, I was ready to get started. Unfortunately I still had to grate/shred the Fels Naptha, but it really wasn't as bad as I anticipated it to be.  It looked a lot like cheddar cheese and Little miss S would come up to me saying cheese, bites please and getting mad because I had to tell her no. She is such a mess...but back to the detergent....after all 5 bars were shredded I started to add a little bit of the other items and mix with a spoon. But that didn't last long at all. I ended up just dumping everything in the bucket at once and used my hands to mix it all up. The spoon just wasn't getting it all mixed up so I just dug right in. It took me about 30 minutes from start to finish and that was with me taking some breaks to check on dinner. And to sooth Little miss S...she has been an emotional mess these past few days. I wasn't thinking about how I was gonna store it when I was at the store, so I filled the Purex bottle up with some and just covered the bucket with a blanket until I can go back and get something to store it in. I was thinking that I will just get a medium sized Rubbermaid plastic container the next time I went to the store. 

I made this batch on Saturday but didn't get to use it until Monday. I don't think I have been this excited to do laundry in my life. I figured I would test it out on my towels first since they are the one that I expect to look, feel and smell clean no matter what. And it PAST the test!!! I used the cap off of the Bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener and it worked great. I will not be going back to store bought detergent any time soon. I am now excited to see how long this will last our ever fluctuating household. So now I have to say a big thank you to Pinterest and to howdoesshe.com for this recipe!

Growing

Our household just keeps on growing! We started fostering in September of 2011 with this desire to provide a safe a loving home for children in need. Since then we have had the pleasure of having 11 children in our home. There is training before becoming foster parents and then training every year which is good for us non-parents. But even with this training we were not quite prepared for the roller coaster ride we were willingly strapping ourselves into. And boy has it been a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs and twists and turns. There were even those times when we felt like we were failing at everything we tried. But we would not take any of them back for anything. 

We know that God brought each child into our home for reasons we many never understand. And we trust that he will use their time with us as an example of a better life. It has been a blessing and a growing experience for both HIM & HER. Each child has forced us to grow in areas that we would never have thought of before and has given us a different outlook on life.

We still have Little miss S who is now 20 months old and 8 year old A. But on February 1st we added 14 year old miss K and 11 year old T. I was a little nervous about having a teenage girl. Little miss S has been the only girl we have had. And as many of you know teenage girls are an unexplainable and sometime scary force of nature. Even though it has only been 11 days, I don't see us having too many issues with either miss K or T. Both of them are such good kids they seem to just fit right into our little family. Both Little miss S and A love having them here. 

The scariest thing that we have to deal with is having only one bathroom, yes i did just say ONE bathroom (Gasp). We still haven't quite figured out a good schedule for everyone (if there is even such a thing). But we have found a way to make our morning mayhem work for us. It just means earlier mornings for me and a lot more coffee to get the day started.