The Pokey Soap

By bedtime Monday, I was cranky. It was one of those days that seemed like everything went wrong. But as I lay in bed late in the evening, thinking on it, overall the day went pretty well. It started off smashingly, as another looper (Cheryl) was nearby vacationing, so she and I met early for coffee at Paneras. Oh, boy, that was a great start for a bright-looking day. As the day progressed, we seemed to fly through schoolwork, accomplishing a lot, without much belly-aching (not from the kids nor me).

I decided that I was going to reserve part of the schoolwork for the afternoon, and do it while I stirred soap. I had made a trial batch of homemade soap last spring. Too many of us here are allergic to the regular grocery-store soap, and [sorry, Jane and LaRena] the Melaleuca is out of my budget. The homemade soap was wonderful. It lasted longer. It lathered well. It left our skin comfortable and un-itchy. So, every week for the last sixteen weeks, one of the high-priority things on the to-do list has been to make another batch of soap. I want to get several batches made while the weather is still okay for working with the lye outdoors instead of in the kitchen.

Okay, so it took sixteen weeks. Did I ever claim to be speedy on my to-do list? Hmmm??? Did I? Oh, by the way, yesterday I bought my first planner ever. It's entitled "Do It Later: A Planner (or Non-Planner) for the Creative Procrastinator." And going off further on my tangent, I should probably admit that I procrastinated three weeks on buying the thing in the first place.

Okay, I'm done procrastinating on soap-discussion now. Getting back to the point...

The first time I made soap, the instructions said I was going to have to stir the slimy concoction of fats and lye for 30-40 minutes. But you have to watch (!) because it could be as little as 5 minutes or as many as 60. The first batch took 100 minutes of stirring. I was mad. I could've watched a movie. But no, I sat there bored, stirring, and stirring, and stirring, thinking that blasted soap was going to saponify any minute now.

So I was ready this time. I planned for an hour of reading aloud from our current history book. I planned to do trigonometry with Paul. I expected a long stir-time, and was going to multi-task like a good female-human. And I did. We finished off everything on the school to-do list while I stirred.

And then I stirred some more.
And then I stirred some more.
And it wasn't done.
So I kept on stirring.

It took THREE and A HALF HOURS for that soap to get finished. Three and half hours! Now, come on! Who wrote these instruction books that told me to expect half an hour, but that the stirring might take "up to an hour"?

Well, once the soap was set in molds and I was fuming over the amount of time this project took, I thought it might behoove me to take a gander at some websites that discussed trouble-shooting for soap-making. And you know what I found? It matters how fast you stir. Nobody told me that. In fact, several books told me the opposite. So did one real-life soap-maker at Old World Wisconsin.

Somehow, the waste of those three and a half hours seemed to take all the "good" out of what started as a good day, and turn the day upside down, out of control, messy, and disappointing. And all for want of a little correct information.

I'm buying a hand-held blender to use on the next batch.