All-Natural Green Cleaning - Laundry

As a family of five, with two dogs who shed enough to clean up oil spills and at least one nightime diaper leak a day, I wash a lot of laundry.  Note: I wash  it.  I do not claim to fold it.  Instead it rotates between the machine, the kitchen counter, the couch, our bed, the pack-n-play, our bodies, the hamper and back.  Occasionally there's a detour into drawers, but highly unlikely recently.  It's very helpful when Curly runs to the couch to find his clothes and offers Spike one of his shirts along the way.

During my pregnancy with Curly and my 25-week relationship with the toilet, I noticed that the smell of my toxic, vomit-inducing long-loved Tide scent was causing me to heave each time I dried my face with a bathroom towel.    Welcome to the start of my personal green revolution. (Can you hear the angelic music?) 

To avoid reliving those puke-filled days, I banished any artificial scent or chemically induced high from our house.  Bye-bye Tide.  Since then, I've gone back and forth between the "traditional" Borax/Washing Soda mix and Seventh Generation which I can get from Diapers.com.  After seeing the white residue on our dishes, I sai, "No, Hell No, Absolutely NOT" to the dishwasher recipes using Borax. Funny thing, my stomachaches stopped too... It still didn't sit well with me that such ingredient was sitting on my kids' skin.  So I went with Seventh Gen and their 6-pk delivered to my door.

I hate that I'm wasting all that plastic using 6 bottles each time I order and I'd like to save a few pennies here and there so I'm going back to making my own.

After ordering some more Dr. Bronner's - find it here and here - from Amazon, I'll venture out searching for Arm and Hammer's Washing Soda and try this recipe from Passionate Homemaking.  No interest in the Soap Nuts so far...there are enough nuts in my household already...

I'll let you know how it goes!  (What a great excuse to get a cute Mason jar for storing my detergent and scoop.  My MIL has one, but I have no clue where she got it....Mary?)

PS - I do have some OxiClean in the cupboard and I hesitate to use it but sometimes the stains from Poopgate are just too powerful and I quiver in their presence.
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Here's a wonderful way to make your own safe bleach. Except I don't know what to use bleach for. Dope!

Color Safe Bleach via Retro Housewife Goes Green

In a plastic Gallon Jug (I used a old laundry soap bottle, any clean gallon jug will do) add:
2 c. hydrogen peroxide
enough water to fill.

Store covered.

To Use: Soak items in this solution for 10 to 30 minutes.
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The detergent recipe below is a back-up. I found it on TipNut.

Recipe #10 – (Powdered)

1 cup Vinegar (white)
1 cup Baking Soda
1 cup Washing Soda
1/4 cup liquid castile soap

■Mix well and store in sealed container.

■I find it easiest to pour the liquid soap into the bowl first, stirred in the washing soda, then baking soda, then added the vinegar in small batches at a time (the recipe foams up at first). The mixture is a thick paste at first that will break down into a heavy powdered detergent, just keep stirring. There may be some hard lumps, try to break them down when stirring (it really helps to make sure the baking soda isn’t clumpy when first adding). I used 1/2 cup per full load with great results.

Family Happiness - can it be achieved?

Here's a great reminder of what's important and how to really live like you mean it. Zen Family Habits A reminder to get off the computer during daylight hours =)

Car Seat Safety - never too careful!

I'm seriously thinking about being certified. Here's your reminder about what you can do to ensure your precious cargo stays where they should =)

Are you prepared?

The Southland has been rocking and rolling and I'm getting a wee bit nervous. Hiccups are good for the fault lines, right? Uh....Great website to remind us all about how to prepare for an emergency.

Toxic America

The Hubsters hadn't seen Food, Inc. yet so we watched it last night while dining. Thank goodness we didn't have chicken...
I'm really happy to see that the toxic bandwagon is getting bigger. Less people are calling me crazy lately...
You may want to know what's in your stuff too. Check out this special on CNN tomorrow and Thursday nights. Great site for information too. Let's hope Sanjay doesn't goof this one up though, like he did when he called Dementia a form of Alzheimer's...

Saving the world. One plastic bag at a time.

Took my mommy (Hi Mommy) out to dinner last night for her birthday (didn't say how old, Mom.) The waitress paused a second when I refused the plastic bag for my take-out container. I told her that I was saving the world one plastic bag at a time. Then she brought me a NEW glass and NEW straw for my iced tea refill....

Sigh.

Anyways...when I can, I try to read Beth Terry at Fake Plastic Fish. Very motivating. And guilt-inducing at the same time.

Today's post about storing produce without plastic was especially relevant as I looked over this week's CSA stash (huge!). She has a great link to the Berkeley Farmer's Market which recently went plastic free. This awesome pdf file lists out recommended ways to store those coveted items like the kohlrabi that I had to call my CSA coordinator to ask what the heck it was...

Embrace life. Always wear your seatbelt.

My mom loves me. She sent me this.
Your kids love you. For their sakes, watch this.

Have you seen these helpful tips?

I've received this email a few times this month...if just one of the tips stick in my head...

Did YOU KNOW? ,
Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.
If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster. ?


Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil.
It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking. ?

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef.
It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of
spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream; then beat them. ?

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste
of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Reheat Pizza
Heat leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove; set heat to med-low
and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the food channel and it really works.


Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal; mash till they are all broken up Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy; squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done - easy clean up. ?

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in
a microwave next to a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food
moist and help it reheat faster. ?

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting torn newspaper in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers,
put layers around the plants, overlapping as you go; cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic; they will not get through wet newspapers.
?

Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.


Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.


Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... ta da! ... static is gone.


Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water.
Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient (peanut butter, honey, etc.) and watch how easily it comes right out. ?

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth! ?

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside,
just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.
?

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.
?

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2 with Apple Cider Vinegar
and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!


Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!


INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load of clothes.) He took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material . I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well .... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us
that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh - that's what burns out the heating unit.
You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your
clothes soft and static free. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box ... well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush ?at least every six months.
He said that increases the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?!

It's a thought...National TV Turnoff Week 2010

Start with just one night =)
My kids think that tv is for UCLA sports and nothing else!
For links and stats that make you sad, click here

Orange you glad you eat well?!

Ever since starting the CSA, I've had a new interest in making dinner. My mom worked full-time and still had the energy to put a four-course meal on the table every night. I loved eating her pasta sugu, her porkchops, stuffed artichokes and especially Breakfast-for-Dinner! I hated that she wouldn't let me drink my glass of milk until I was all finished with it, but I loved the majority of what she made. Except beef stroganoff. Yuck.

When I moved into an apartment with roommates in college, we set up a system where we each cooked for the 4 of us one week-night and didn't have to worry about anything but eating the other 3 nights of the week. Sweet!

Sour. Well, sheepishly sweet for me, but probably still sour for them. Their moms all stayed home with them while they were young and, for the most part, cooked from scratch. So did mine, but she still had a realistic relationship with Hamburger Helper.

(Our "Orange" meal from last week. We hit all the food groups - even had an orange jelly bean to show how little sweets we "need."

So one of my first presentations for my dinner debut was just that. Cheeseburger Macaroni. To this day, they tease me about how, um, healthy, and happy that meal was. I think 2 of them had never heard of Hamburger Helper. Or Pop Tarts.

For my birthday that year, they presented me with a hand-made cookbook with all their recipes written out on cards along with memorable quotes of our year together. I treasure that book. For the memories it brings, but also for the dinner ideas and simple ways to make something special for your family. Recipes calling for 5-7 ingredients and not a little time. I've added my favorites from my mom as well as a few from my mother-in-law and some close friends.

When I started cooking for Mr. P, I was so excited to use some of these recipes. He ate them. He also started insisting on cooking more and serving less. I didn't get his new obsessions with portion controls. And who doesn't want applesauce and a starch with their meal? My mom was an expert at providing a healthy-balanced dinner so I assumed I had to do the same. How dare Mr. P risk his health and my ego but refusing his carbs?

When I got pregnant with our first son, he started eating less of what I made, I started throwing up more of what I made and my cooking days were numbered. Mr. P gladly took over (for various reasons) and I let him. Happily. I'm embarrassingly admitting that up until last year, I probably cooked once or twice a month for almost 3 years...toddlers don't require "cooking" and most of my vegetables were frozen from Trader Joe's. Not unhealthy.

Enter the preschooler, the husband who isn't available to cook and time. Well, I don't have more time, just more motivation. I have two real eaters in the house now, besides myself and $15 a week going towards the most deliciously fresh picked vegetables in Orange County.

Even I am blown away by all that I've conquered in the past 3 months - kale, bok choy, swiss chard. The list goes on and on. So does my receipt from Trader Joe's where I do 99% of our shopping now. I cook with fresh ingredients, often using a "starter" from TJ's (whole grain mix, turkey meatballs, etc.) Lunch is rarely PB and J and can even be handfuls of samplings from each food group.

We've been talking every day about the 5 food groups and "eating a rainbow" each day. Something that I have taught first graders for over a decade but didn't take to heart until I was teaching it to and feeding it to my own precious boys. When the CSA box comes each week, I let them sit on the kitchen counter and help me sort, wash and chop up the "vegetibles" as Curly calls them. We've been to the farm twice, most recently for a strawberry tour. This past week, Curly asked me if we were adding "green onions" to our lunch as he pulled them out of the fridge! Green onions! My kid knows what a green onion is! Jamie Oliver would be proud! (Love that show, by the way. SO inspiring).

I also put handouts in a clear, plastic sleeve and we cross them off with a dry-erase marker each night. This one from MyPyramid.gov will personalize it based upon your child's weight, height and age. Brilliant. Here's another one.

The boys are benefitting and so am I. Healthier eating and a healthier relationship with food for a healthier LONG life.

Won't their roommates LOVE me? =)

Repurpose! Giving new life to old crap

If I'm lucky, the Three Musketeers will continue to nap until I finish typing this, but I'm not betting on it, so listen quick....

I'm "nesting." Not sure why. But the bathroom is the victim. I pulled down our travel basket that holds all the travel toothpaste, shower caps, etc. that I want to use before buying new stuff (obviously).

I came across these soap boxes from a fancy hotel Mr. P had a conference at in San Diego last January. Nice hotel. Nice soaps. Nice repurpose.

We never accept the crayons that come with the kids' menus at restaurants because I know they just toss them after you've eaten, whether your kids use them or not. Same with the plastic cups and straws. So we bring our own crayons and IF we forget the boys' Klean Kanteens and have to use the plastic cups I bring them home and give them to the grandparents for use at their houses when we visit.

I had been carrying our crayons in a bigger soap container from the 90's that was heavier and not so chic. We obviously needed an upgrade. Voila! If I was a tad bit cooler, I could use my imaginary Cricut and make a cute label for the box. (Incidentally, I found out this past weekend that it's pronounced like "cricket" not "Cry-cut." Guess I was thinking of Carl's Jr's crisscut fries when I thought about vinyl.
But I can't think what to use the other 3 boxes for just yet... Two are longer and could hold pencils or pens?

(The triangular-shaped crayons are from a Teacher Supply Store and are used to teach the proper finger hold for writing. I have my students put triangular -shaped grips on their pencils as part of an occupational therapy accommodation all the time. You can also get them at your nearest BJ's Pizza =)

Curl up with a good book and your best boy!

As a teacher for almost 13 years, I'm more than happy to get up on a soap box and preach about the importance of reading and modeling a passion for reading. Mr. and I started reading to Curly the first night in the hospital. I find such joy in overhearing Curly read to his bear, his brothers and himself. We have book baskets in every room of the house - paperbacks, hardbacks, board books, flip books, magazines. The boys even see me flipping through the Pottery Barn catalog in the bathoom (the only time I have to do so =)

My dad taught me to read when I was 4 using Little House on the Prairie books. Since I don't really remember, I take his word for it =) But what I DO remember is the feeling of comfort and encouragement I felt when we would have that special time together at night. I wanted him to hear me read, wanted to hear him do the character voices and wanted to fall asleep dreaming about myself in the action of the story.

Throughout my training as an educator and literacy specialist, I've paid special attention to the discussions about reading and boys. Fittingly, I have 3 future male readers of my own.

Here are some recent blogs and posts I've come across that you might be interested in too, sons or daughters:

Guys Read - a web-based literacy program for boys

Books for Boys

Big Guys Books - stunning photography and graphics

Education.com

Daddy's Heroes - a fun book for dads to share with their kiddos - I got his for my niece for Christmas. My brother LOVED it.

Starfall - an online learning game site - FREE and fabulous!

Reading Rewards

I've also shared my website from last year's class (updated mid-decision to take this year off, so please forgive its "crumbs.") I wanted the parents of my students to have everything they needed at their fingertips to support their child in all academic areas. I put a lot of time into the links page so please take a LONG look there =)

Have fun READING. Remember...it's not the quantity, it's not the book, it's the READING that matters.

Snack Attack

In an attempt to make our days more spontaneous, I'm searching for ways to ease the departure ritual. I've always re-stocked the diaper bag before putting it away when we get home. That takes 5 minutes off our out-the-door time, but it still can take up to 45 minutes from start to finish to get everyone dressed, shoes on, teeth brushed, snacks and waters packed and loaded into the car.

Mr. waits until I start loading the kids into the car before he hops in the shower. Mostly because he knows it will always take twice as long as I think it will. So much for the last-minute meet-up at the park. I do keep jackets, hats and sunscreen in the car for application at the park but there's nothing worse than pulling up at the roundabout just in time to see the other mom and her kids loading up to head home. Hi....Bye. My friend, Louise, has just started giving me a 15 minute lead time before we meet anywhere. So embarrassing.

I asked my Mommy Book Club friends for some suggestions and the most obvious and easiest one seemed to be keeping a pre-filled snack bag in 1) the fridge and 2) the pantry for grab and go access. I'm working on what to keep in each with this week's grocery run. Suggestions?

But now the NY Times runs this article that reminds me that preping to be able to force food down my kids' throats isn't the best use of my pre-planning time. That's all fine and dandy and I see the point, but, as it says in the article, what SANE mother would willingly want to attempt a park visit without food? Only one who knows the ice cream truck is coming by and tossing out fresh peaches, maybe.

Either way, I appreciate the encouragement to pack healthier items. The idea that snacks must be processed and have a shelf-life of my teaching career is old school. What if in my pre-planning free time, I make my own fruit roll-ups and baked crackers?

Sure...and we'll meet you at the park say around dinnertime?