Soap Peace

Everytime I go to store to buy soap, I'm appalled at either the price or the ingredients. 

My skin hates me if I buy the wrong kind of soap. 

I make my own body wash from Dr Bronner's unscented bar soap, water, and glycerin, but sometimes I like a little scent. There are a lot of smells that go along with having small children in an old house...

That's actually a huge understatement. 

Small children. 

Old house. 

Hard working husband. 

Dog. 

So. Many. Smells. 

I like a little scent sometimes but buying commercial always frustrates me. So I like to buy local, handmade soap that have natural essential oils. 

There is a soap shop about 15 minutes from us that is DIVINE! Divine, but pricey. And rightly so. A good quality soap, with good quality ingredients takes effort, time, and money. 

How do I know this??

Well, my adventure buddy extraordinaire, Cecelia, and I embarked on, yet again, another crazy adventure in self sufficiency. 

I deeply cherish our friendship for many reasons. One reason is that she agrees to do crazy things and asks me to do crazy things. I most always say yes because I end up loving the craziness. 

So when Cecelia asked me if I want to make soap with lard we saved from the pigs we raised and slaughtered...(yes, THOSE kind of crazy things) of course, I said, "Yes".

Cecelia had been saving her wood ash from the very cold winter days with the bright hope of making amazing homemade lye. But after a serious effort producing little reward, we broke down and bought lye from the store to begin making our own soap. The wood ash idea hasn't died, just been temporarily postponed. 

Two pregnant women (yup both pregnant) with 5 kids (7 total if you count the belly babies) making soap for the first time...ever. 

That's just the way we do things. 

So we began. 

Homemade lard from the pigs we slaughtered ourselves, coconut oil, essential oils, water, lye, soap molds (one of which is a PVC pipe), gloves, stainless steel pots, and cinnamon tea for courage. 

After researching, Cecelia discovered the need to be very cautious with lye. It can be really harmful to skin, eyes, etc. It was a healthy fear that produced such pictures as this:

(Behind her is their beautiful orchard!)

And this:

Making the lye proved to be less eventful than we had originally anticipated, but the precautions were still necessary. And...we got in a hearty laugh or two. Or seven. 

So our first batch was the test. The test to see how we handled everything. The test to see if we could do it. Just...the test. We had low expectations. 

We made the lye, melted the lard and coconut oil, and began the cooking mixing process. 

And then...

Whoosh!! OUR SOAP STARTED BUBBLING OVER EVERYWHERE!!! 

Laughing and freaking out we moved the soap from the grill to the grass and tried to stir it down. 

It finally calmed down and our bewilderment lead to giggles and a drive to make the best of what we thought was a horrible situation. 

We kept going with the process, added essential oils, and made this:

Now THAT is a beautiful soap. It's eucalyptus and tea tree soap with Violet petals for eye appeal. 

We are very proud of the soap because we pushed on through a confusing and, what seemed to be, a bad situation.

We fed the kids and ourselves, put the little ones down for naps and made more soap. 

These are the little ones:

So cute :)

We made patouili and cedar wood soap and a rosemary salt soap, each double batches. And we did each batch a little more smoothly than the last. 

The soaps have a curing time of a few weeks so we can't use them right away, which is torture!!! They smell so good!!! 

I always enjoy trying new things, especially with good friends! 

I encourage you all to embark on your own crazy adventures and explore everything this life has to offer. 

Make things with friends! Hard work is often the most rewarding. 

Wishing everyone out there soap peace and...HAIR PEACE!!