Friday Recommendations, 6/6

1. Persil laundry detergent. I spent the last two years looking for non-toxic laundry alternatives. I found some good and okay ones. I really like the ones that utilize lemon, vinegar, and essential oils. We've never used Tide because Scott has an allergy to it so mostly it's been All Free and Clear for over a decade. However, a homemaker I respect on Twitter recently posted about "you think your natural alternatives work, you wait til you try Persil to clean your clothes and you'll never go back". I was intrigued. I had been feeling lately that our washer isn't doing what I want it to do. I've added vinegar, etc trying to soften things up and deodorize. So I bought Persil. I don't care and I'm never going back. Clothes get brighter. They smell good. I switched without telling anyone and there's no allergies or irritations popping up. If you want your clothes c-l-e-a-n, try it. 

(I still use All Free and Clear dryer sheets. Don't @ me.) 

2. I've really struggled with an inability to make rice over the last 6 months. I've destroyed pots. The rice cooker would overflow for no good reason. I went from being able to make rice for dinner to...not being able to make rice for dinner. It's like that part of my brain stopped working. Anyway, after buying bagged rice to cook in the microwave for 90 seconds for months, I found this recipe for coconut rice the other day and I tried it with this Korean beef. It was very good. We had something similar from Dinnerly last year and it's one I recreate often! Wells ate two bowls. I let Sutton help me cook it so she'd maybe try it but she proclaimed it "smells really bad" and ran away crying when I gave her a (very small) bowlful. 

3. Here's memes and the books I've been reading over the past few months. I also wrote a post about math instruction, if the overall decline of educational strategies is your kinda thing. 

4. Lastly, I recommend going outside. I was starting to feel like I was actually suffocating, being in the classroom all day. We've been walking dogs, at splashpads, and at parks almost every day. While I'm also convinced that having a potty-trained 3 year old instead of a disgruntled 2 year old is what makes this possible :), I'm enjoying June more this year than I have in years past.