Reading, Writing and Resting

Someone asked me what I'm writing- it's named "Totally Committed- My spiritual journey up the rocky dirt road of life". Partly my life history, but mostly about what it's like to consciously have a spiritual path while working on a marriage, kids and career. I've read a lot of books about taking a spiritual journey somewhere else in the world, learning and growing and finding love, but I've not read much about the real world- how do you live a normal life and have a strong spiritual life as well. I know, a lot of people do it, but very few write it down. We'll see how it goes. I'm about 65-70 pages in. I'm currently reading 'A Secret Garden'. It's an old book, and quite good. I know it's a high school English favorite, but somehow I never read it then. Although I was a reading snob, if it wasn't over 350 pages, it just wasn't developed enough. Oh brother, so naive!

Yesterday I hit the wall, and literally couldn't move most of the day. I really don't understand what happens, but it's like my muscles stop working; fatigue, weakness, weird. Today's much better!
I'm also working on an index for the Haines/Cramblit Chronicles, the family history book about my mother's family. We tried to get an index together before it went to print, but Word 2003 wouldn't create it, and I hadn't used 2007 much yet. Several of the books' covers were messed up, the ink was coming off the beautiful picture of my grandparents on the front. I talked to the publisher, and they told me I could bring in the books that are bad and they will recover them, so I'm hoping that I can give them a couple pages of index to include in those books. We have distributed all but 8 of the first 50 books we published, so I'm planning to print another 20 or so. The hope is to put them on the internet somehow, to let other family members know it's available. The Cramblit line goes back to the late 1700's in it, as does the Chamberlains and it might be useful for other family lines besides the Haines' clan. Any how, I'm really proud of it, and I want to have enough copies available for the future.

Today I made laundry soap- it's surprisingly easy. I found a recipe on the internet for a liquid gel type. You take a bar of Zote soap, or a large bar of Ivory, grate it in a food processor or by hand, then mix it in 12 cups of water and cook it until the soap is completely dissolved, stirring regularly. Add 1 cup of Washing Soda- Arm and Hammer makes it, and 1 cup of Borax and 8 more cups of water, heat that until everything is completely dissolved, cook it on low/med for another 5-10 minutes until it's well blended, stirring regularly. Using a 5 gallon bucket, carefully pour the soap mixture into the bucket and add another 40 cups of hot water, stirring to mix completely. Let it cool and use it! It takes about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of detergent per load, a little more if clothes are heavily soiled. The first time I made it, I only made a third of the recipe, and it made just over a gallon of detergent, and worked very well.