Making Soap

My husband is enamored with the agrarian lifestyle. He reads Every Thought Captive every month along with blogs with names like Kansas Milk Maid and TN Farm Girl. His dream is to own a dairy farm of Jersey cows where he can sell raw milk and organic produce. A lovely dream.

I grew up in a suburb of Pittsburgh. It was the first suburb outside the city, and I lived about a mile from the city limits. To say I grew up in the suburbs is a bit of a stretch. It was really an urban neighborhood. I could walk up the street to hop on a bus and be in downtown Pittsburgh in less than 20 minutes. When I went to Grove City College (in a small town an hour north of Pittsburgh), I experienced some culture shock. I had never seen so many cows or cornfields in my life. There are times that I look wistfully at the old city neighborhoods and think how much fun it would be to live there. I am, though, happy with my suburban, minivan driving, life. I think it is safe to say that living on a dairy farm is not my dream.

Now my husband keeps sending me links to his favorite farming blogs with directions on making your own herbal remedies as well as making your own soaps and shampoos. Don't get me wrong, I am all for the simpler lifestyle and making as much as you can from scratch. I am the first to go off on a rant about why organic food and whole foods are the only way to go. I'm just not sure where to fit the making of the soap into my daily schedule. After homeschooling the 5 year old? Before potty training the two year old? In between taking the dog out 50 times a day in the rain? Perhaps while I am cooking dinner, baking bread, or making granola, I can have a pot of soap cooking on the stove as well.