Mmm, Salty Fish Toothpaste

Remember when I said I was drying sage to mix with baking soda and make a kind of toothpaste? I made it. I've been using it for about a month now, so I thought you might like to know what it's like.

It's like brushing my teeth with powdered salt cod.

I don't know if you ever noticed this, but sage actually has a weirdly fishy flavor. I'm not a huge fan of sage, and this might be why, because I'm not a huge fan of fish. This flavor is not too pronounced in, say, a pork sauce that incorporates sage, but if you dry the sage and powder it up? That's pretty concentrated sage flavor, and then it tastes like fish.

Combine that with baking soda, and you have salty fish powder. For brushing teeth.

Then why, you may ask, are you still using it? I don't know. Because I made it and it's up there and I'm too lazy to bring the jar all the way downstairs to refill it with plain baking soda? Maybe.

I definitely don't want to start using commercial toothpaste again, though. It's kind of gaggingly sweet after getting used to the salty taste of the baking soda. I don't think the sage had any great beneficial effect, however, so after this mixture is gone, I'll just use straight baking soda.

Also from that same book that recommended sage we got a method for making soap. In the blender. Uh huh. There are all of two ingredients--olive oil and lye--both of which we always have on hand, and whizzing it all up in a blender is a lot more appealing than standing over a boiling cauldron of lye.

So we made soap. In the blender. Well, actually A. mostly did it because I'm kind of intimidated by lye. Basically, you blend the two ingredients, pour it into a cut-off orange juice carton to set, cut it into bars, and dry it for a month. And dammit all if it doesn't actually make soap.

We didn't add any essential oils or whatever for fragrance, so it smells like, well, oil when you're using it, but it doesn't leave any scent when it's washed off. And you know how I feel about fragrance in soap.

So I guess we'll be making our own soap from now on. Next we're going to try the recipe for coconut oil soap they recommend as the base for homemade laundry detergent. Which we already make, so we might as well make the base ingredient ourselves as well, right?

Right. We just get crazier all the time . . .

A.P.D.--The "F" Moments Edition

"F" could stand for fed up. Those moments when just one last irritating thing has happened to push you over the edge. Probably not a big thing; just a small thing, but a small thing on top of all those other small things that all add up to an "F" moment.

"F" could stand for fed up. But what it really stands for is another "F" word that I try not to say around my kids, but definitely think in these moments.

I had one of those moments this morning. We were getting in the car to go to preschool. I had already nagged the older children through going to the bathroom* putting on boots and mittens and hats and not hitting each other and actually getting out the damn door already.

So this was my admittedly negative state of mind when we emerged into seven degrees and six inches of snow on the ground. The older kids wanted to play in the snow. I made them get in the van. I got the baby in on his side, then trudged through the snow around to the other side to buckle Charlie in. Cubby refused to even try to buckle his own seatbelt, on the grounds that his gloves were too puffy and it was too hard. Probably true, but still kind of annoying, as I then had to trudge back around in the snow to buckle him in and shut his door.

And then, just as I was about to shut his door, about a cup of snow fell off the roof of the van and directly into my open purse.

I shut Cubby's door and had my "F" moment as I attempted to scoop out some of the snow without losing any of the contents of my purse in the snow on the ground. They didn't hear the word, but I said it. And it wasn't "fed," either.

Have you had any moments like this lately?

* We have two out of three out of diapers now! Hooray! And don't ask me how pathetic and cliched it makes me feel to devote so much thought and effort to other people's bathroom habits.