Clean up the mess - the natural way......

I'm really wanting to start making my own cleaners and paring down on the chemicals I put in my house and flush out into the environment.   So I've become really fond - well infatuated - with baking soda and vinegar.   There is nothing this stuff can't do.  Here are some tips on using baking soda and vinegar for cleaning your home.

1. Use baking soda instead of buying Febreeze Sport.  My husband plays sports and his clothes get - well, really GROSS and smelly and wet.  I put a cup of baking soda in the wash and you'd never know a 42 year old sweaty man was wearing them.  

2.  Use vinegar and baking soda in the wash with your socks and undergarments.  The vinegar disinfects your clothes better than bleach and the baking soda gets rid of the gross smells from socks and underwear. 

3.  I use baking soda and vinegar in my wash with my towels.   Again, disinfecting towels is important to me after watching my kids dry their rear ends with a towel I might need to use at some point makes me feel so much better.  And watching the vinegar and baking soda fizz and bubble in the washer makes me happy happy happy.

4.  Using vinegar on dark clothes the first time you wash them keeps them from fading with future washes.   It locks in the color.

5.  Using vinegar and baking soda in the bathroom makes me happy, too.   Sprinkle baking soda in the sink and tub and using vinegar from a spray bottle spray the baking soda until it foams.  Then scrub.   You'll be amazed at how easy soap scum and grime comes right up.  Be sure to rinse well with hot water or the baking soda will leave a white residue. 

6  Use baking soda and vinegar in the toilet.   Sprinkle the baking soda and pour some vinegar in and let the foaming begin.  The vinegar kills the nasty germs.   Let the foam work for a few minutes and then scrub with a toilet brush.  Next, spray your toilet down with vinegar to kill nasty germs everywhere else and wipe clean.  It

7.  Everyone has heard of the ole' sprinkling the carpet with baking soda to soak up smells.  Well, it works!  Sprinkle, leave on for a few hours - even overnight - and vaccuum.

8.  In the kitchen, put a cupful in the dishwasher to make scrubbing dishes easier for your washer

9.  Put some baking soda in a pan with burnt on food, fill with water and leave overnight.  Easy peasy clean up the next day.

10.  Unclog hairy drains with baking soda and vinegar.  Pour a cup of baking soda down a clogged drain and chase it with some vinegar and let the fizzing begin!  Then chase it with boiling water.


There are many more amazing things you can do with baking soda and vinegar.   These are just a few of my favs.   Happy Cleaning!!!!!

Thinking of other things I could be doing.....

Sitting at work thinking of all of the things I could be doing at home instead! Laundry, NAPPING, mopping floors, NAPPING, vacuuming (I can never spell that word right) and did I mention I need a NAP! Anyways, I'm reading the bible in 90 days using the book The Bible in 90 Days - Cover to Cover in 12 pages a day. I'm only like 40 pages behind and I started January 1st. But I am not going to get discouraged - I read during my lunch hour and I'll read a read some extra pages over the weekend if I can. I'll even be happy if I read it in 120 days. I will get through it this year. Those people lived so long back then! I always wonder if our calendar year is the same as theirs was - back in the days of Abraham. He was reallllly old when God blessed him with children. Last night my youngest - Trevor - who is 4, woke up after only being asleep for 2 hours. I was just finishing up my reading and was about to turn out the light when I heard the patter of little feet heading for my room. He walked in my room and peeked his little face around the armoire and as soon as he saw me he started crying. He ran to me holding his right hand saying "It's getting bigger. It's getting bigger!!" So I examined his hand and could only hope that he didn't fall out of his brand new loft bed he's only slept in 2 times. I was thinking surely if he had fallen out of his bed I would have heard him - it's not like we live in a mansion. So as he was crying and complaining his hand was gettting bigger, it dawned on me that his hand was asleep. So I said "Trevs - your hand is asleep baby." He goes "Well, wake it up - it's getting bigger." And so he crawls in bed with me and Ray and falls peacefully right back to sleep. I swore with my other 2 that they would never sleep with us and I kept my word. Why with the last child you throw all of your rules out the window? I guess we realize how fast they grow up. Ok - I think I'm becoming ADHD. Now my thoughts are shifting to whether we need to wrap the pipes tonight. It has been said that it will be colder here in Texas than in Antartica tomorrow or Friday. WHAT?
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March madness

Well - just sitting here watching DWTS, doing laundry, helping with homework - you know - mom stuff. I had a pretty good day at work - went to lunch with my group. I was asked to post a new tip, if you will, each day for cleaning, organizing, etc. Right up my alley! Today I sent out tips on uses for vinegar. So great. Love it. Right now my kid's schedules are so crazy! Fridays Tyler has swim practice, Alysa has volleyball practices on Thursdays (but that can change - like this week it is on Friday!) and her games are on Saturdays. Trevor has 2 games a week. His games can be on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday. Just depends on the week. And this week I have Relay for Life from Friday - Saturday (7pm - 7am). Then Alysa's game is 9am. Whoo hoo for no sleep! Then Trevor has pictures and a game in the afternoon and then Ray and I are going to a Rockets game Saturday night. GoodNESS! I'm tired just thinking about my weekend. I feel like it's going to go by so fast. Trevor decided the other night to clean his legs with bathroom cleaner and then eluded that he had put some in his mouth. But he hadn't and so he lives another day. That is one crazy kid. I keep telling Ray that I'm not sure how we are going to survive him. Seriously. I should have started a log on things that kid says. I've forgotten some of them and he keeps us in stitches. And I'm sure stitches are in his future. He is a disaster on the baseball field. He runs afer the ball after he hits it and then once his coaches guide and coax him to the base - he chases the ball that the next kid hits. No wonder they only allow 5 runs per inning. He wants to play football, soccer, tennis and basketball. I'm excited to watch Alysa play volleyball. I'll want to get out there and play with her - or coach her!!

Hello!

Well, here it goes. My first blog entry. I as I am typing this I am sitting here with my 3 year old, Trevor, who is pulling on my hair very gently to see if he can find loose strands while I am listening to the wind howl outside the window. It is a Saturday morning, Jan 10, 2009. My husband left for work about 30 minutes ago and my other 2 children, Tyler and Alysa, are still sleeping. Today we are going to attempt to finish taking down our Christmas stuff. This is the latest my tree has ever been up. I refuse to take it down this year without cleaning out Christmas decorations that are still holed up in boxes in the garage and haven't seen the light of day since God only knows when!! This is the year I am going to organize my life and get back to the person I've been neglecting for years! I am normally a very organized person, so quoting one of my favorite movies - My Best Friend's Wedding - We will find her! A few things about me - I have been married to Ray for 17 years. We got married the year after I graduated high school. We had our first child, Tyler, in 1994. He is an 8th grader at Beck Jr. High. He was born with a heart defect and had open heart surgery when he was 13 months old. We planned on him being an only child since we were given such a high chance of having another child with the same problem. But we serve an awesome God and so we decided to place that decision in His hands. We were blessed with Alysa Cate in 1998. (Look at me rhyming so early!) When I was about 18 weeks pregnant with her, we were told that she too had a heart defect and if it was my choice, I could "do something about it now". Well, gullible me, I thought the dr was saying he could do surgery on her while I was pregnant with her. Silly me - he was telling me I could go ahead and terminate her life. Are you crazy! God got us through the first one and if this was His choice for our life, then we would survive it. So we went home and called everyone we knew and asked for prayers. I went back to the dr 3 weeks later and lo and behold, miracles never cease! There was no heart defect to be found. The dr was shocked and I gave birth to a healthy baby in Oct of 1998. She was born with an intestinal disease that was not fun to deal with for the first 10 months of her life. She couldn't hold any food down in her system so whoever held her, wore her food! That was fun. So fast forward 6 years - then came Trevor Riley in March, 2005. Here I was with a 10 year old and a 6 year old who was in kindergarten. That means no more daycare costs - right! Yeah! So let's have another baby so when he starts kindergarten, we'll have a 10th grader and a 6th grader! That sounds like a good college paying plan! Seriously, Trevor has been the light of all of our lives. He is truly one of a kind and I wouldn't trade him for anything. I'll blog about his birth when I have time. It was an adventure I sure would like to recount! So there you have it. A little about our family. So I am going to get up and make them some blueberry muffins and let the games begin on getting the decorations put away!