My Mother's Mother's Mother's Mother's..........

Repost: 

For an activity at church, us ladies were asked to follow our family line through our mother's mother's mother's mother etc. back as far as we could go and then bring something to share or show that we learned about her. Through FamilySearch.org I was able to go back 7 generations and found Jacobine Olsdotter who lived in Norway. There was a little information about her but I also researched what sort of foods she would have eaten in the 1800s. Then I learned how to make Norwegian Potato Lefse and took it to share with the group. 

It's been a fun way to feel connected to my great x's 4 grandma. 

P.S. A few days later I went back to read up on Jacobine's husband and realized I could have gone back 4 more generations! Sheeesh.

P.P.S. This activity was a total hit. Our attendance doubled. I think because it was personal, and it invited each woman to talk about herself and her family is what made it appealing.

Overstocked Eggs

Did you know stores THROW OUT exra stock? Things they can't sell at deeply discounted prices? Yeah. They do. It's a tax thing. But a lady who is employed by such stores tries to save these items and donate them somehow somewhere. That's how our Relief Society (the women's group in the LDS church) ended up with HUNDREDS of plastic easter eggs. Ummm...I never thought I'd have to solve this kind of problem.

After some research I realized we could use them to mold soap. Each woman could keep one for herself and we'd package and donate the rest to the local women's shelter.

NONE of us have done any kind of soap making. Melt and pour soap seemed SO EASY that we decided we'd be able to wing it! (Scary, I know.)

For my part, I brought ingredients for two kinds, cinnamon vanilla oatmeal—which smells good enough to eat—seen above—and citrus grapefruit. I love food scented soaps.

I grated three lemons, two oranges, and one grapefruit (made enough to share) and put the rinds in the oven on the lowest setting to dehydrate. It took around 3 hours.  Too bad the color variation didn't come through. But the smell was wonderful.

I then bought a tiny vile of grapefruit scent at Michael's to make the soap delicious to the nose. During the activity I added all this to my little cup of melted goat's milk soap with some coloring—which had been donated too—and dribbled it into my egg to set. Below is the cute result. (It's not a whole egg shape because...well, I was distracted.) This is the one I kept, which I'm excited to use.
(Don't you love the masticated fruit in the photo background? Now I have to figure out what to do with THAT. Heh.)

Below are all the donation eggs before unmolding. We twisted the pointy end of a pair of scissors into the top to create the a hole (much easier than drilling which we also tried). And taped the bellies of the eggs to prevent leaking. We each had mini cups to fill with melted soap and used popsicle sticks to stir in the other ingredients. Then poured our soap from the cups into the eggs.

I hear we should have sprayed the inside of the eggs with witch hazel for an easier release from the form. The next day I was able to get the tops off easily but the bottoms were FRUSTRATINGLY STUBBORN. I had to set them in hot dishrags from the microwave to melt them a touch. With 40 eggs to do, it took too long. Lesson #1 learned.

And oodilallie! Didn't they turn out beautifully? So many scents and colors. Among them were: Gingerbread, Maraschino cherry, Rain, Orange blossom, vanilla etc.

But the tops of the soap came out messy and unprofessional looking and many of them had pieces of plastic stuck in them from hole-making. Eee. So I just sliced them off. I've convinced myself it gave them a sort of branded look. Lesson #2 learned.

When we packaged them, I decided to throw together a little pattern for the inside of the folded tag to make their shape feel even more purposeful.

(Next time I'd fill them upside down. Then if we have to do any slicing, it will be the bottoms and they'd sit upright quite nicely.)

We wrote the scents on the back of the tags.

Melt and pour soaps are as easy as everybody claims. Plus they're fun. I'll probably make a few more just for the heck of it. I'm glad we could make this a service project as well. That is one of the main goals of Relief Society after all.

But there are still hundreds of eggs left. Bath bombs anyone?