August, and Soap!

This summer is flying right by!  Our theme this week is “Good, Clean Fun.”  I have some fun projects in mind that will likely be more messy than clean, but they’ll certainly be fun!  Today’s project is a science experiment suggested by my friend Jenny: microwaving soap.

First order of business was to buy soap.  (Yes, we do bathe & shower here, but long ago switched to liquid bath soap (less soap scum to clean out of the showers) so there are no bars of soap in the house!)  The recommendation was to use brand-name Ivory to make this work.  (For more about the reason this works, I liked this site.)

Soap. On a plate.

Next step: cut the soap in half and place on a paper plate.

Poor, innocent soap...

We put the soap in the (rather dirty) microwave for 2 minutes.  It was clearly done expanding by 1:15, so we stopped it and checked it out.  Anna disappeared in terror – it apparently smelled unpleasant to her, plus it’s a texture and shape that doesn’t really appear naturally…

Mutant soap from outer space?!?

But Carolyn thought it was fabulous.  I had to ask her to stop using pieces of it to wash her hands!  (I bet there was a blip in our water usage this afternoon!)  So now we have a plate of foamy, crazy soap in our bathroom.  And 2.5 bars of Ivory soap to find other ways to use.

Look, ma, clean hands!

And my microwave (after a little extra elbow grease on my part) is now spotless.

Look, ma, clean microwave!

While I was performing science experiments in the kitchen, I whipped up some of the “ultimate” glass cleaner from here.  I have to say, it did an impressive job on the family room window, which the dogs love to cover with nose prints.  I think I’d have to agree that it’s the ultimate homemade class cleaner!