I know. I used to mention Vision Forum (VF) all of the time, but, I haven't talked about Vision Forum (VF) in a long time, so no one should be complaining. Anyway, I feel that this is important. This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary of his work On the Origin of Species. Many, many secular movie companies and television networks are producing specials that will continue to indoctrinate our children in Darwin's false views of evolution. Vision Forum is one of the only companies that have gone back to where it all began - The Galapagos Islands - to produce a film to counter Charles Darwin's mistaken theories. The Galapagos was where Darwin began formulating his evolutionary theories but VF goes back to the same islands and viewed the same things and came to a very different conclusion. That they prove the theory of creation. Just click on the above banner to go to the Vision Forum website and check it out.

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The detergent was a success! It didn't gel as well as I thought, but it works. After reading my original post, I realized I didn't give credit where credit is due. I mentioned that I combined detergent recipes to make my soap, but one of the main recipes that influenced me was one that I got from a fellow TOS Homeschool Crew member. And, she's a fellow Tennessean as well! And, her blog is nominated in four categories of the Homeschool Blog Awards. Her blog's name is Raising Olives. Just press on the name or on her button on the right and go visit her blog. She has a lot of really neat money saving ideas! While you're there, click on one of her categories to vote for her blog. Don't forget to vote for Families Again in the "Best Homeschool Dad Blog" category as well. Just click here and it will take you straight to the voting page.

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Thank you cousin David, Uncle Kelly and Uncle Daniel for your service to our country.

From, John Allen, Joshua and Jacob

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These pictures were taken during a recent three day "field trip" we took to "the grandma's house" (grandma and great grandma-both widows).

Mayfield Dairy's Corn Maze

Hay ride and Pumpkin Patch

The Race Is On!

                                          Jacob's Not So Sure                                                                           One Tired Grandma

                         Mom Got Into the Act                                                            We Had "Sand Mountain" All to Ourselves

Trunk or Treat at Aunt Phene's Church

          "Ninjas Don't Smile You Know"                                 No Words Needed

                                             Michael Jackson (aka Aunt Phene)                          The Mummy (aka cousin Olivia)

Cade's Cove in the Beautiful Great Smoky Mountains National Park

 God's Creation

Joshua was fascinated with the old, historical graves. He took the above pictures himself. Could we have a budding photographer in the house?

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If you have been reading my TOS Homeschool Crew reviews, you know that recently I wrote a review for Virginia Soaps and Scents. They generously sent all of the great folks on the crew a packet of ingredients to make your own laundry soap. We loved it, but soon ran out. I had seen other people's recipes for homemade laundry soap, but had never tried it. So, today I did. I kind of combined a couple of the recipes, took pictures, and decided to invite you to come along on the Tinkel's new laundry soap making journey. Here are the pictures and the original Tinkel recipe - a patent is on the way!

1. You take a bar of soap and grate it. We are very blessed to have a friend who makes and sells soap. A couple of years ago she gave us some of her bad soap that came out discolored and was unsellable. We passed out most of it to the families that we work with in the low income housing area but had a few bars left over. So, we grated one of them. You can, however, use whatever soap that you choose.

2. You put the soap in a small pot, cover with water, and slowly melt it. I made the mistake of putting it on high and leaving it. Joshua called to me a few minutes later to tell me it was boiling over. I caught it before losing too much, but next time I will put it at a lower temperature and stir occasionally as I go.

3. I then poured the melted mixture into a large pot that we had. I would recommend a bucket if you have one handy. I added one cup of borax and one cup of baking soda. Some recipes suggest washing soda, but others say that the extra expense isn't needed - baking soda works fine.  I also added two gallons of water and stirred the whole mixture and let it stand for a few minutes.

4. I then cleaned out a couple of old liquid laundry soap containers that we had ready to throw away and poured my new laundry detergent into them. I plan on using 1/2 cup for regular loads or one cup for more soiled loads. The mixture should thicken into a gel after time. There may also be some hard pieces. Just give the container a good shake before measuring the soap. 

The first load came out great. We'll see how things work in time. Next up on our new money saving experiments - dishwasher detergent. We'll keep you posted!

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