Bad allergy day

I don't know what happened, or where this allergy attack came from, but halfway through the afternoon, my eyes and nose started itching, I started sneezing and it was just downhill from there.

Even after I took my Allegra and Singular, plus the nasal allergy spray, the attack continued.

I haven't had such a bad allergy flare up, in many many months, so something must be aggravating me, just wish I could figure out what and remove it.

For now, I'm just sitting, trying to contain my sneezes, stopping myself from scratching my nose and eyes to oblivion, and listening to a crime documentary on YouTube.

I started my day with driving Jasmine to work, and then came straight home to get started on my housework.  More clothes were washed and set out to dry, I'm taking full advantage of this warm breeze heat we've been having.

The clothes go on the line and within 10 minutes tops, they are fully dry.  Isn't that something?

My soapberry tree is producing hundreds upon hundreds of these beautiful little green balls. Soon they will start changing color and that is when I'll collect a ton and use them to make all sorts of homemade soap.

I'll have to do a post on that when the time comes.  I'm all about using things at your disposal and this tree in the back yard, sure provides a HUGE amount of beautiful soap berries which will be turned into dish soap, shampoo, multi purpose cleaner and many other things.  Did you know you can even wash your laundry using these???  Crazy!!!

But, I'm very excited to dive right into the world of soap nuts and their amazing cleaning and medicinal properties.

I was able to catch up on my reading for about an hour this afternoon.  This is the next book on the review list and I'm enjoying it a LOT, can't wait to tell you all about it.

In the meantime while I wait for my soap berries to turn color, I'm resorting to simple tried old fashioned ways of cleaning the most stubborn of stains, especially in my white kitchen towels.

All I do is get a big plastic tub, fill it with boiling water, add in vinegar, baking soda and some powder detergent, pop the towels in and give it a quick swish then set it out in the warm sun for a couple of hours.

How to whiten kitchen towels in the sun:

One big tub
Boiling water, 1 gallon
Baking soda, about 4 heaping tablespoons
Vinegar about 500ml  (2 and a half cups)
Powder detergent, 1 cup
Plastic bag to cover


Mix the baking soda, vinegar and detergent well, then pour in the boiling water.  Carefully add in your kitchen towels, be careful not to burn yourself.  I use a big wooden spoon to stir the towels into the water.

Place a plastic bag over the tub to cover. You're basically going to give it a nice steam bath, or a sauna if you will.  You don't have to cover with the bag, if the sun is hot enough, you can leave it as is, and that is what I did today.

Let it sit in the sun for a couple of hours.  It's best if you place them out in the morning and leave them until later in the day, or even overnight.

Ring them out really well, then throw in your washer.  That's it, simple and again, we are letting nature help us out.

I am going to do another bunch of towels tomorrow and I'll show you the whole process and maybe even do a separate post to help you.   I'll also show you how much cleaner and whiter the towels turn out.

That is it for today.  I worked on the budget.  I actually sat down and wrote out any debt that we have, the amounts still owing and then went month by month until it was paid off, rolling over money from one paid off debt to the other and so forth.  I'm going to snowball the bejeebers out of our debt and we will be completely debt free in 2 years.

Definitely looking forward to that.

I'm about to enjoy a latte and watch some Star Trek with the hubster before bed.  I hope you've had a fantastic week so far.  Mine has been pretty quiet and I've enjoyed that, sometimes no action is the best thing you could wish for, right?

I'll be back tomorrow with the kitchen towel post for you all, have a good one :)