Living out Ephesians 5:33

"Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband." (Eph. 5:33 NASB)


A little over a year ago, I was 6 months into my "underemployment." I had lost a full-time job (which, to be truthful, was a bad idea for us in the first place), and found myself babysitting about 10-20 hours per week, and (during tax season, January-April 15th), I was getting about 15-20 hours a week working at H&R Block, just as I do every year. 


While we had an abundance to keep us afloat - physically, financially and otherwise, we endured a great financial loss during 2011, after having lost my job in October 2010, as my income was previously our primary income. 


However, I will say that after I lost my job, my wonderful husband really stepped up to the plate in so many ways! In addition to his regular shifts, he volunteered for twice as many, as well as staying late and covering for other people. Because I was pretty numb for about a week, he even took over a lot of my responsibilities around the house. The ones he couldn't get to or didn't feel like he could do, he assured me not to worry about it, and just let it go until I felt up to dealing with it. 


Trust me when I say that we were both in a state of shock. But it helped so much that I could just take a week, relax, not worry about the house and just focus on the rest I needed. 


Anyway, after that week, I snapped out of it. I figured out how to maximize my time at home. I looked for full-time work, but couldn't find anything. I was "over-qualified" for everything. 


So, we change our perspective. We embraced the circumstance we were in. I found resources to help us make the most of the limited income we had, and one of the ways I did that was by making our own laundry soap. 


I used the Duggar's Recipe to make it, and I made sure to buy an extra Rotary Cheese Grater from Value Village, so I didn't ruin the one we use for food. (The one pictured is very similar to the one I got for $1.99, and is still fairly inexpensive). 


  So, after I made it, Robert wasn't completely sold on it. He was a little leery, and I wouldn't expect any less, as I was very particular about the laundry soap I used to use. (We used to use Gain Apple Mango Tango). Additionally, I used a particular fabric softener. (Downy Vanilla Lavender). 


Below is a picture of the board I use to keep track of our laundry expenses, and have had since we started making our own laundry soap: 

On the far left, I initially started keeping track of how much homemade laundry detergent saved us (monetarily). On the right, I used a tally to keep track of how much I could stretch our fabric softener for our dollar. I bought it last May, and it advertises 167 "medium-sized" loads. I didn't believe it, since I used to use about 1/2 a capful of softener with our old detergent. I didn't think there was any way to make it last through 167 loads.


But now that we make our own (less-sudsy) laundry soap, I use far less softener. (Fabric softener reduces the amount of suds in the wash, so a less-sudsy detergent will keep the softener usage low). I never could have guessed just how much this would save us in the long-run. As you can see, the tally for the softener on the right shows when I had used 167 loads, and how many more I've gotten out of the bottle since then - 84 loads more than 167!


One of my jurisdictions is laundry here at our house. Robert really doesn't do it unless I'm sick, or specifically ask - and he's always happy to help me with it! 


About a week before Ashley & I left for Wyoming (another blog post on this is forth-coming, I promise!), he saw me switching loads one evening. He watched me make a mark on the tally, and said, "So, what is this little chart for?" I explained, and he said, "Oh! So...really, you've used a whole lot less by now than you thought, right?" I said, "Yeah, and it's gone so much further and longer than I expected it would, too. See when I bought the softener?" He looked and then looked at me. It took him a minute, but then he said, "I'd say that is definitely worthwhile investment!" 


It made me feel SO good to hear my husband say that he was proud of my efforts, and affirm that I'm being a good steward of what we have. :) Love & respect - that's what it's all about.