5.21.2010

A Time and A Place To Be Crazy

I need to learn to keep my mouth shut. I really do.

I found myself sitting poolside on cold metal bleachers last night, watching the kids practice synchronized swimming, and unintentionally revealing just how crazy I might be to a fellow synchro-mom. My love for our chickens. Our three different composting systems. Living without garbage service. Shampooing with baking soda and vinegar. Homemade deodorant and laundry soap. The reason I had toothpaste on my arm (poison oak relief - it really does work). Making a salad with all homegrown ingredients. Etc., etc.

These are things you already know about or expect from me if you visit my blog, but I think I took this synchro-mom by surprise. She had no idea just how far on the fringe I was, yet because I know so many people on a similar fringe here in blogland, I don't often consider myself that different from most folk. I either inspired her or totally freaked her out - I'll know which when we extend an invitation to her daughter to come over and play.

But for all you friends who already know the extent of my crazy (and hopefully wouldn't hesitate to say yes if I asked your children to come over and check out our composting worms), I have yet another homemade cleaning product recipe to share:


Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

For best results, add vinegar as a rinse agent. If it works for your hair and salad dressing, it will work for your dishes too! Though I have to say from recent experience, vinegar doesn't work nearly as well as toothpaste on poison oak breakouts.

And this, my friends, is one of the many reasons I love blogging. It's a safe place to let my crazy flag fly.

53 comments:

  1. wow thanks for sharing this one, will be trying it out laster today, Oh and being on the fringe is good, would be a boring place if everyone was in the middle ;-)

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  2. We're always saying we wish we would meet some of "our people," and wondering where we'd find them. I'd be thrilled to hear all that from a mom I'd just met! Thanks for the recipe; can't wait to try it.

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  3. Oh Molly! I'd sit next to you during swimming! People from my clinic have recently been introduced to my blog and now know I'm "no poo". I dare say it took them by surprise.

    The chickens they already knew about but thought I was a bit "country" when caught reading a Backyard Poultry Magazine.

    I must say I'm intrigued by the no garbage service. How does this work? Did I miss a post?

    You are not crazy lady. In fact you are perfectly sane!

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  4. oh please NEVER stop waving your crazy flag, the rest of us crazies need to know we are not alone :)

    I am excited to try this recipe!

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  5. I just found your blog tonight and am enjoying your beautiful photography and writing. Thank you!

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  6. if you're satisfied with the toothpaste relief then great. but i will say that uncle harry's poison ivy/oak relief is the best thing i've used (besides steroids, but you don't want to go there!)

    thanks for the new recipe.

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  7. I've learned not to talk to people about certain things, baking and cooking from scratch (they don't understand how I possibly have the time), living rural (don't you feel isolated?), and using mayo on my hair as a conditioner (you do what?). lol

    And the fact that I'd rather have chickens as a gift than fancy jewelry (hubby recently suggested this to me and I said....ooooh chickens!!!!). lol Someday I will have them (weather permitting so we can get the dang barn resided)!

    We don't have garbage service either, a. because it costs too much, and b. because we recycle everything we can, and we haul what's left away ourselves. It's less expensive, and we only have to do it once every couple of months.

    I'm getting fed up with the dish washing detergent I buy, so maybe I'll have to give this a try.

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  8. I meant to add in my two cents on the poison oak/ivy relief too (like you asked). ;-)

    If you ever find that the toothpaste treatment doesn't work, Technu is a product that I swear by.

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  9. wave that crazy flag high and proud, sistah.

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  10. Yes, yes, and YES. Blogs are fun for waving our "crazy" flags, but...tend to give a false sense of security ;o) I'll have to give this a try- I currently use a mix of salt, baking soda, and borax.

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  11. Oh my gosh, does this detergent work?! Please tell me it works! I have been searching for good dishwasher detergent, and wishing there was a good natural one that is worth a hill of beans and doesn't cost me my first-born child (or equivilent).

    And I hear you on the crazy bit. My family and friends have been giving me strange looks. I'm afraid to talk to strangers now...

    :)

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  12. awesome! I love hanging out on the fringes with you.

    btw, any hankering to meet me in the bay area next weekend? We arrive Wed. morning and leave Monday morning.

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  13. ok, molly. i didn't know you were that weird. i don't think we can hang out anymore. haha just kidding, i think you are awesome! but now i know that we have even more to talk about. i'm not no-poo but i'm super interested in it. i just LOVE scented things and i would so miss my mint conditioner.

    i feel very fortunate to have lots of weird real life friends. please come to park day more often. we are weirder than you think!

    and i'm def trying your recipe. this looks great!!!

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  14. Not weird - just interesting and doing what we all should be doing if we want to raise our kids healthily and save the environment around us! The more crazies the better if you ask me!!!
    best wishes, Helen

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  15. Haha! Amen! Thanks for the recipe. I am going to try it. I love reading about your deep ends.

    FYI - I just finished reading the little book "Clean - The Humble Art of Zen Cleansing". It has some great ideas in there.

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  16. I love this!! I have been wondering about a way to make my own, every time I squeeze out the other!!! Thanks, crazy lady!

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  17. rosesmamaMay 22, 2010

    In talking to an "out there" friend, I was sort of moaning about how long it had been since I had done a sinkful of dishes. She turned to me and said, "I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but isn't it pretty easy to just put the dishes into the dishwasher, where you can't see them?" Then I had to tell her that we don't have a dishwasher and that I don't want one, because of the energy savings. She gave me a look like I'm *really* out there. SO I guess I can't use the dishwasher soap recipe.

    As a trade off, though, I can't have chickens because of the covenants in this neighborhood. Also, when I talk about the performance group that I sometimes work with that does "water ballet", many eastcoast eyebrows go up. At least synchro is normal out west.

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  18. I ~kissfist~ your blog. Kissfist is used in American Sign language, meaning LOOVVVEE in English.

    ;-P

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  19. people would be surprised at how fringe I really am. I mean, I certainly LOOK like a conventional volvo-wagon-driving slightly preppy arty mama. Whose goal in life is to have a self-sustaining urban pocket farm, complete with bees, on our .35 city acre!

    xo

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  20. AnonymousMay 22, 2010

    so can relate.

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  21. Blogland just rocks, doesn't it. I love the community and the opportunity to reveal our true selves without fear.

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  22. um...have i told you lately that i love you?
    (that ought to creep somebody out!)
    i know for a fact later today i am going to think about the term "synchro-mom" and laugh out loud.
    xo

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  23. Are you going to add your homemade cleaning recipes to your sidebar list of recipes? That would be handy for those that can't find their list of ingredients they need to buy. I live in a shuffle of notes!

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  24. I feel the same way here where I live -- a bit of a 'stranger in a strange land'. I go ahead and fly my freak flag anyway, but I do get some strange looks and reactions now and then - oh well . . .
    And thanks for the dishwashing detergent recipe. Look forward to trying it.
    Blessings,
    G

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  25. I have a "crazy flag" as well. I often let it fly. If it lands on someone's doorstep and they don't care for it, they can send it airborne down the road. I say "let it fly!"
    Brenda

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  26. Molly, I love your posts and am right there with you in crazy land. I recently went back to baking soda/ACV on my hair after going water only for 6 wks. I do that same that you do and love it. I am lucky I have real life friends with similar leanings, but every now and then I see that mystified look in someone's eyes whom I have newly met when I regale them with stories of our thrift, our green living or our non-mainstream life.

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  27. what a lovely post. :) i, for one, am glad that you did NOT keep your mouth shut. stretch her mind a little. get her thinking. maybe she laughs you off as crazy, but maybe one little thing seeps in.

    i think you're just right! ;)

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  28. AnonymousMay 22, 2010

    wow, never thought to make this myself!

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  29. AnonymousMay 22, 2010

    Oh, you just live in the wrong town. Move on down to Davis--everything you've mentioned here sounds entirely normal to me. And I don't mean "normal for blogland." I mean "normal for people I hang out with or run into every single day." Some weekend soon (maybe this very one?) Davis will be hosting the "Tour de Cluck," a bike-ride around town to see various households' chicken coops. This is a ticketed event, and I believe it's sold out. It's also the tip of the Davis iceberg.

    No one here would look twice at you for any of the things you've mentioned (they'd want way more detail so they could integrate your various practices into their own lives.)

    Amy (Only an hour away! But to be honest, your house looks nicer than anything here in Davis, and it's a *lot* hotter here.)

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  30. Fly your flag high and proud!! Good for you!! Knock their socks off..!
    : ))
    This makes me smile!

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  31. I totally get what you are saying! I excitedly told my friend at work that I have gone 100% homemade bread from now on. I bake whole wheat bread every few days...no more store bought...she cracked up and said "I love it!". I'm still a little confused on how I should take that comment. I really think she thinks I might be off my rocker a little! Rarely do I find someone that makes everything from scratch! Oh well, I am proud of myself!

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  32. You abso-flipping-lutely rock, Molly! I get this all the time--I suppose that I'm sharing some infinitely useful tidbit with the person ahead of me in line at the grocery, and they look at me like I've suggested they sell off their children for beer money. Sigh...

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  33. Have you read Make Your Place by Raleigh Briggs? It's a tiny little book published by an even tinier publishing house but it is awesome and probably right up your alley. It's full of recipes for homemade cleaning products etc. You should definitely check it out!

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  34. I am proud to "know" you.

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  35. psyched for this. AND I just mixed up our first batch of your laundry soap recipe! let the fun begin.
    I had a similar experience as you recently, and I only mentioned the soda/vinegar hair care. My girls can come play at your house any day. How does this afternoon sound?

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  36. Thos post really made me laugh molly. I have vowed to no longer mention such things as eating beans, growing food, making clothing, baking bread, buying organic, or sewing clothes to people I don't know that well. Once, I remember another mom looking at me like i had a horn growing out of my head when i mentioned the words 'mortar and pestle'.
    It is cool to have a safe place to indulge in these simple beautiful ways of living isn't it?

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  37. AnonymousMay 23, 2010

    Molly - you have an interesting, varied life which is why so many people visit you! Don't ever think you're on the fringe. You're a trend setter!
    In the 1970s my aunt set up a health food shop in Bordeaux (she's French). Everything was organic, she insisted on us eating lots of vegetables, nuts and dried fruit. When she met her husband they bought a small holding where they grew their own apples (for Normandy Cider - it's alcoholic) vegetables and delicious rabbits (sorry!).Some of my fondest childhood memories stem from spending time with her. At the time, she was seen as on the 'fringe' and slightly eccentric. Now the rest of the world has caught up with her, but she is so much better at it!
    If that synchro mum doesn't join you yet, she will one day, wait and see...
    a-m x

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  38. Really pleased to belong to your crazy group! All sounds perfectly sane to me xxx

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  39. AnonymousMay 23, 2010

    I'm so excited to try this! Do you use 1/4 vinegar w/ every cycle? or fill up the rinse aid compartment w/ vinegar? or mix w/ rest of ingredients?

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  40. This reminds me of a discussion I had the other day with a friend. Our group of friends is a little quirky, a little 'weird,' but we are used to these differences. We really like them and are used to them. They make us unique. Outside of our group, we feel a little uncomfortable because others just seem 'normal.' Outside of our group, people are predictable. I celebrate the differences. Be proud of living on the fringe!

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  41. Does this have to be for the dishwasher (we don't have one or have room for one) or can it be used as regular old dish soap?

    In the meantime, stay 'crazy', that's why we keep reading! I love to surprise people with my Baking Soda/ACV hair routine. I can afford to get my hair cut at a salon because I'm not spending ALL my money on their multitude of products! ~H

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  42. I say, be who you really are and let the chips fall where they may. Anything else is just...exhausting? pretending? etc. :)

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  43. Wave it high and proud, my sweet "crazy" friend! If I was closer I'd not only happily let my children come check out your bins... I'd want to hang out all day with you, too. but you know this already.

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  44. Chris actually read this post in my inbox before I did and when I came in he wanted to talk about the no-garbage service. We've got it where we have our bin nearly empty each week - but I am not sure how we would do away with that last little bit.

    We'd love to hear more about what you do.

    And as for crazy - I love your kind of crazy and wish these conversations were the sort I heard at sporting events. Let's get together and swap some crazy soon - it's been too long!

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  45. white vinegar works pretty good for a sunburn too.

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  46. I have to say I think of you every time I pick up shoes now.

    And will try the soap, thanks!

    Is the craziness spreading? Gosh I hope so.

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  47. So happy to read this today and realize I'm not the only one who runs into this situation. Fresh off of having to notify our neighbors (52 certified letters!) of our intent to keep backyard hens (and hearing their concerns and complaints,) I am quite aware of how different we are in these parts. Factor in the homeschooling and walking everywhere and trying to grow a lot of our own food and we seem downright strange to most of our peers. (The older folks seem to understand, but the parents of children the same ages as ours don't seem to know how to talk to us. Either that or they just don't have time to try.) I'm starting to feel pretty lonely around the 'hood. I'm glad I can come to your blog and read what you are up to and stay inspired on this journey! Thanks...

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  48. go ahead, fly that flag. :)

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  49. It's nice to hear that I am not a lone ranger out here...although I have not begun the blog. There are friends and some family who think I am off my rocker for our "life style" and there are some who ask questions about what new thing I am trying. I had convinced my children to stay silent about our "no poo" experimet. We loved it, but didn't go public until a few weeks ago and only with a few people.
    Your recipe for dishwasher detergent came at just the right time...my sweet son who has the job of any dishwasher dishes forgot to inform me that we needed soap. Fortunately, I had all the ingredients except the tea tree extract so we were back in business. Keep your flag flying!

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  50. Love this Molly!
    This was such a huge issue when we moved and I had to "shop" for friends! Canada never seemed that different when I was living in the US but once I was here I realized that there were some cultural differences that I had to take into consideration... on top of our "crazy" lifestyle! Lucky for me I only need a few friends and finally found some great ones!

    Thanks for the recipe... good stuff!

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  51. i feel this way just talking to my family sometimes (especially the in-laws)!

    i have every reason to believe you inspired her. how could you not? it's what you do.

    can't wait to give this recipe a go!

    flying the freak flag with you : )

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  52. you're brave. i've been keeping most of my "freakiness" on the downlow at work. i work in the public school system and my coworkers are still freaked out that i don't eat the "free" school lunch, opting instead to bring a salad and fruit from home. i've brought up composting and chickens once or twice and people act like i'm a leper. i did go to a great workshop a few weeks ago and met some great locals who share our interests. i was so inspired and a little relieved to know that there are people who live mere miles away that share our beliefs and lifestyle.

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