SEVENTH GENERATION GIVEAWAY!!

Cheapskate Mom is doing her first giveaway today!

In my effort to go green, I think it would be a great win for me so I am posting to promote her giveaway and to get me more entries....hehehe!! Hey give a girl a break I NEVER win ANYTHING!!!

She is giving away a Living Home Starter Kit by Seventh Generation!! OOOoooo Awwww!

WRITER'S WORKSHOP WEDNESDAY

Time once again for Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop Wednesday

Being that I am deciding last minute to go ahead with this post, I chose the easy way out and am listing my "Five Most Recent Favorite Things". Here we go:

#1

In my quest to become environmentally friendly as mentioned before and mainly to please a certain 7 yr old nagger nature lover, I began recycling when I noticed just how many plastic bags accumulate at our house. WOW!

Also while being an idiot and opening my big fat mouth starting a recycling program at his elementary school, I learned that sometime in the near future Wally World will no longer offer bags. WHAT? you ask. YEP, you heard it hear folks. Just like Aldi's you will have to pay for your bags or bring your own! Sad but honestly I think it will be a good thing.....maybe they can roll back some more prices once they are paying for bags! Yeah right! SO I decided to start buying bags periodically now!

Although the Aldi's bag is large compared to most of the cloth shopping bags and they have a great slogan ~ It's all about saving green! (earth and money if you didn't catch on!), I think they are too big. They get really heavy once they are full.

Wow I am really making this longer than necessary....too bad!

I took Elijah to Toys 'r Us because he had some birthday "change in his pocket goin' chang a lang a lang" and well I love to shop when I found these

little cutie patootie shopping bags! Aren't they cute! You wanna know what makes them even cuter........they are normally $1.49 to $1.99 and I got those little boogers for FIFTY CENTS a piece! So what did I do......I bought like 6 of them. Could've kicked myself the next day when I went to get some more and found out it was just a one day special offer! Next...

#2

Palmolive pure + clear

Sparkling fresh scent

This stuff smells so good! I rarely use dish soap but I am finding myself looking for things I can clean it with just so the wonderful smell fills the room. Sadly I am not lying! I find myself squirting it all over the sink just to rub around and clean even though it might be clean! Hey if I am doing that then it must smell good!

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT hand wash dishes! Wet food is repulsive to me and if left sitting it will make me gag so every dish goes straight into the dishwasher. I hate it and only do it when ABSOLUTELY necessary......about once a month....well honestly if that! Telling you this because I do not know how it really stacks up to other dish washing detergents but it smells good so who really cares, right!

#3

My homemade cleaner!

Smells alright ~ fresh

Zay helps me clean because he is just weird like that and he says, "oohh Momma it smells dood!"

Super douper cheap

Cleans everything although I don't use it on glass or mirrors because the oils in it leaves streaks

I got this little bottle at Wally World for 99cents but it looks amazingly just like an empty water bottle with a squirter dealie and yes that is a technical homemade cleaner maker term there so don't feel bad if you don't what a "squirter dealie" is ~ it will all come in time!

I got the guts of the recipe from The Toby Show but I tweaked it and experimented with it until I got what I wanted. You can find my recipe here.

#4

I won't lie and say I love this book because I haven't actually opened it yet......hold on I am laughing at myself

..........still laughing.........

ok.....so I haven't opened it but the mere thought of sneaking vegetables to unsuspecting children sounds like fun to me so I am going to try it someday soon! I'll let you know what I think!

#5

By far my most favorite recent thing is

Hubs new 14 day avg blood sugar is 192 ~way down from his 60-90 day AVERAGE of 443! Did you see that.... his AVERAGE was 443 so that means he got into the upper 600s! Wow! But thanks to his amazingly smart, loving wife who nagged him for 3 months that she knew he had diabetes, he finally gave in and got checked only to find out his amazingly smart, loving wife was right yet AGAIN! Not trying to take credit here at all folks...........well maybe just a small pat on the back! Yes he still has some in the upper 200s but it is occasional tests like this

AND THIS

that are bringing my baby's life and glucose back down to normalville.....as normal as it can be in our household anyway!

Thanks for stopping by!

Come back for Friday High Five!

To see more Writer's Workshop Wednesday posts go on over and visit Mama Kat plus she is really good for a laugh. Oh wait, you ALL need to watch her What's in my purse? video! Too cute!

For more of MY Writer's Workshop Wednesday posts go here!

FRIDAY HIGH FIVE

Wow it has been awhile since I have done a Friday High Five!

I am going to add a Mr. Linky at the bottom to see if I can get anyone to join in ~ saying this with fingers crossed! If it is anything like the Mean Green Giveaway, I won't have one participant but I love reading all kinds of blogs so I will at least try! Pick any topic for your High Five that you want, post about it linking back to my blog then sign Mr. Linky with your name and the URL of the High Five post not your entire blog URL.

Hint for the newbies: Write the post, publish the post, go to edit posts, VIEW the high five post then copy the address at the top of the page THEN paste on the URL box of Mr. Linky.

Sounds complicated but it isn't!

Here we go:

TOP 5 REASONS TO MAKE YOUR OWN HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS

5. Having a home FREE of toxic chemicals!

4. Do your part to protect the environment!

3. If your child or pet gets into the cleaners, then they will not be harmful!

2. They are easier and cheaper to make!

And the NUMBER 1 REASON to make your own cleaners:

Let's say you can't sleep because you keep hearing music so you get up to blog. You decide to eat the KING SIZE Snickers your Hubs bought the night before and become very thirsty. The homemade cleaners you made might not be as toxic as the mini Windex bottle you just sucked on thinking it was your drink! Sad but very very true!

Join in the fun!

For more of MY FRIDAY HIGH FIVES, click HERE

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES

In my effort to "go green" and again no I am not a "tree hugger" I decided to make my own household cleaners. I don't know about you but I get sick of buying the household cleaning needs and spending a hundred bucks. You know the toilet bowl cleaner, the bleach, Clorox wipes, Pledge, Windex, shower cleaner, paper towels, dishsoap, dishwasher detergent, laundry detergent, stain remover, oven cleaner, floor cleaner and some magic erasers (I don't know if I can give up the magic eraser!) goes in the cart and you gasp at the total! I know most of the time you don't have to buy these all in one trip since some last longer than others but they get expensive. So far I have discovered that making my own cleaners is not only a LOT CHEAPER but easy plus the best part is they work just as well. I am sharing a couple of the "recipes" I used that I found on The Toby Show Green Cleaning Series ~ Green Cleaning 101, The Arsenals and the Extras ~and various other "green clean" websites. Most of the websites have the same basic recipes but I tweaked some of them to my satisfaction.

Here is a list of supplies found in most of the recipes:

1. Distilled White Vinegar
2. Baking Soda
3. 20 Mule Borax
4. Essential oils (lemon, orange, tea tree, peppermint or whatever you like ~ available at health food stores)
5. Corn starch
6. Washing soda
7. Club soda
8. Castile soap or other vegetable based liquid soap (I can't seem to find this one!)
9. Olive oil
10. Mineral oil
11. Lemon juice

You do not need ALL of these to get started! I bought 1 gallon of white vinegar, baking soda, 20 Mule Team Borax, tea tree oil, orange oil and lemon oil on Saturday and spent $27. Once you see how much you have and how little you have to use in each recipe you will realize how little you spent and how long it will last!

Here are the "green clean" recipes I have tried feel free to tweak them to fit your needs:

General All-Purpose Cleaner

3 tbsp white vinegar

2 tsp borax

2 cups hot water

1/8 cup liquid soap

20 drops lemon oil

20 drops tea tree oil

Add all ingredients in bottle except the soap, shake, add soap then stir. Spray away! Tea tree oil is a natural antiseptic but since I am not especially fond of the smell I used the lemon oil to cover it up but you can use whatever oil you like.

Toilets

Many of the recipe measurements for this didn't work for me so I just dumped some of both in!!

Scientific, I know!

Vinegar

Baking soda

I must admit this one surprised me. Some call for using borax and I have yet to try that. The vinegar really does a good job of whitening the bowl. I let the vinegar sit for as long as possible in our house since it seemed like everytime I poured the vinegar in I would hear the toilet flush within 5 minutes until I said DO NOT FLUSH THE TOILET UNTIL I TELL YOU!! After you let the vinegar sit for the desired time, dump in some baking soda. This combination will fizz and foam but I wanted it to foam more so I added the baking soda then sprayed some more vinegar over it. I also read about just dropping in denture cleaning tablets but alas I was all out! lol

Isaiah's old cloth diapers which we used as burp rags are now my cleaning rags and I no longer use paper towels. I like using the them and have for awhile now especially for dusting but I am really missing my paper towels.

That is it for now but more green clean recipes will be coming soon I promise! I get to experiment again tonight. What did I learn from the last experiments with the general all-purpose cleaner? Do not just add baking soda to any concoction unless you feel like cleaning up a foamy mess! Learn something new everyday but I should've known this would happen but I was having so much fun experimenting that I got a little carried away!

NEW YEAR'S MEAN GREEN GIVEAWAY

It's time!

The one all ten of my readers have been waiting for with baited breath!

MY INAUGURAL BLOG GIVEAWAY

THE NEW YEAR'S MEAN GREEN GIVEAWAY
My goal is to get more people to recycle. I JUST started and it is very simple! First read here to get the basis and fuel for this giveaway besides traffic!! Ha!

I included a couple of links on my sidebar.

This link:

will take Tulsa County residents to the city website for info on recycling within the county and the city's curbside pickup program that is only $2 per month added onto their water bill!

This link:

is for anyone anywhere looking for a recycling center or curbside program. Towards the top of the page you can do a search using your zip code ~ very easy! Centers will pop up with addresses in your area and if there is no address it will say "curbside program"!

It is a very easy to navigate website so go check it out!

Back to the Mean Green Giveaway and the requirements

Don't panic you have until Jan. 14th at 11:59pm to complete the list!!

Elijah is the reason for this particular giveaway so he will be drawing the winner's name on his birthday Jan. 15th!!

He is very excited so please don't let him down and please spread the word!

1. First "follow me" and if you decide I am boring later then stop following once the giveaway is over and learn to deal with my wrath! lol
2. Go to your blog and create a post about the Mean Green Giveaway linking it back to this post:
3. Sign Mr. Linky! If he works for me! Please use your Mean Green Giveaway post and not your entire blog post! **It's easy ~ go to edit posts, view your Mean Green Giveaway post, copy the address in the address bar then paste it on the url portion of Mr. Linky (I wish more people relayed those instructions when I was a newbie!)**
4. After you have completed steps 1-3, sign up for a recycling program in your area and post about it with a picture of your bin! If you plan to take them to a center yourself, then take a picture of the bin you will be using (bought or handmade) and create a post about recycle and how easy it was for you! **Hint: Wally World has their Green "Christmas" Rubbermaid containers half off right now so hurry!! Send me a comment on this post once step four is complete so I can read your bin post too. OR If you absolutely do not plan to recycle, then you will need to send me a comment with three "Green" home cleaner recipes that you use!
5. Last but CERTAINLY NOT LEAST if you know how to get the word out on blogger then do it or let me know! Have fun! It really is a whole lot easier than it looks! Go ahead and at least try! You have until Jan. 14th at 11:59pm!
   

The winner will be receiving an 18gal Rubbermaid Tote FULL of green goodies and items to make "green" household cleaners PLUS a gift card! Sign up now and tell everyone you know!

WHO KNEW? RECYCLING IS SEXY!

Wow!

While looking for a nifty little recycling symbol for my blog I found this

Who knew?

So I guess I am sexy merely because I started recycling! With me in the house being my sexy recycling self, I don't know how the hubs handles it, looking at ME as well as this

AND THIS

There is no way I can also let him know I have a pile of paper to recycle b/c the sexy status in this house would send him all a tizzy!!

I put this graphic up on my sidebar as well as the beginning of my post with a link to the Tulsa recycling website! If you want to be sexy and you live in the Tulsa County, then click the image and it will lead you to the Tulsa website for info or to sign up for their recycling pick up program. It is only $2 amonth added to your water bill and they bring your bin within a couple of days and they pick up the items twice a month from your curb!! Go ahead and click away then come back to read about the Mean Green Giveaway!

If you do not live in Tulsa County, then click on this

also located on the sidebar (or above) and you can search for a recycling program or dropoff by simply entering your zip code!

STAY TUNED FOR MY FIRST GIVEAWAY

I am hosting my very 1st giveaway! My nieces who read my blog are saying, "Ooo....what is she talking about! She's finally lost her mind!" For those of you new to the blog world ~ read on! For the obsessed bloggers ~ remember this is my first giveaway! Yes in a since this is a ploy to get more traffic to my blog and I love comments so this could go one of three ways ~ I get a ton of feedback and have a successful first giveaway, my family will be the only ones to join in and my nieces will win or absolutely no one will join in on the fun and I will end up keeping my very 1st giveaway!

First of all I want you all to know I am in no way a extreme-green-tree-hugging-environmentalist, HELLO I might get a splinter or worse a tick; however, my six year old son might end up this way in fact he will be the boy-who-lives-in-a-tree-with-his-pet-monkey-headline-news-at-10! He loves everything about nature and constantly watches Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel! He is always telling me about saving water, using paper not plastic and recycling. I know there are many people out there that do not believe all the global warning hype, but can you truly discard ALL of it when children still have so long to live in this world. I know I've noticed major changes in weather for many parts of our world. Have you? I decided a while back I was going to attempt the whole "green" thing. Not to the extreme but at least to do what I can! Well that attempt only saw the new-expensive-energy-saving-but-haven't-noticed-a-lower-electric-bill-like-promised-lightbulbs and water saving tips! Sad I know! Quit mocking me!!

Here's a little chuckle for you ~ I bought some environmentally friendly stocking stuffers for the boys from The Stubby Pencil Studio and totally forgot about them because they were "stuffed" away and I felt like an idiot when I found them a couple of days after Christmas. I also bought myself the eco friendly highlighter pencil since I go through a million highlighters at work. I like it, it is eco-friendly, it doesn't bleed through and I think it will last MUCH MUCH longer than a normal highlighter. Good thing Elijah has a birthday coming really soon so they can still be a gift!

Recently at the urging of my child I looked into recycling and little did I know our city offers a recycling program complete with a bin and twice a month pickup for only $2 a month added to our water bill. I signed up and had my bin with all the info within TWO DAYS! My Mom says I could drop it off for free; HOWEVER, I would have to buy my own bins and drive them there which I am sure would be more than $2 a month just in gas and the exhaust fumes would then harm our environment.....ok ok I am just lazy extremely busy and the pick up is more convenient! Long story short I signed up for the recycling thinking it would probably take me the whole two weeks to fill the bin with plastics, metals and glass b/c I didn't realize how much we use. WOW the bin was overflowing BEFORE the end of the first week and that didn't even include ANY paper. I got to thinking about what all the statistics say and thinking about how I could possibly help. Recycling is so easy anyone can do it and the kids even help. If we use this much, then think about how much we could recycle at work, school and the homes of family and friends. I am still trying to think of a way to get the boys' schools involved in some recycling contest but I have some details to iron out.....hint hint....I am requesting ideas!

I am also looking into switching all of our household cleaners to homemade "green cleaners"! I know, I know I've said that before but this time I mean it ok! I don't know if I am doing that more for the enviroment or because the bill to stock up on cleaning supplies just ticks me off! So this year instead of the usual "I want to lose weight/work out!" resolution, I have decided to be a mean-green-recycling-house cleaner making-queen! I will be looking for "green" household cleaning recipes to experiment with, recycling ideas and getting everyone I can involved since merely switching out the bulbs probably hasn't done a bit of good!

Stay tuned for the rules, particulars, requirements, prize info for the

"New Year's Mean Green Giveaway"!

Cool name huh! Hey if this doesn't build any traffic then at least the 10 people who read will have a better chance of winning!

ENVIRONMENTAL ELIJAH

I can't even remember a time when Elijah hasn't been in love with nature. Most children watch cartoons and yes he does too BUT mostly if Elijah is watching television he is watching the Learning Channel, The Discovery Channel or Animal Planet. He is my little tree hugger always warning me about using too much water and killing the dolphins. Funny how he forgets this fact when I have to scream or should I say lovingly remind him to get out of his 20 minute steaming hot shower! Well yesterday while helping him aka cleaning his room he sternly says, "Mom did you rip up any paper today or throw away your plastic water bottles? Hmm...hmmm...did you...huh...huh?" My flustered response, "I don't know probably. Well no I didn't 'rip' paper, why?" "BECAUSE YOU ARE KILLING THE TREES!!!" THEN BEGAN THE SPIEL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ELIJAH.

All this to say today I visited The Stubby Pencil Studio and purchased some ecofriendly stocking stuffers for the boys. Plus we can use them during crafts while all shut up from the freezing winter weather that I loathe!! I also signed up for our town's curbside recycling program today which I said I was going to do a year ago but kept forgetting. Now it is done! The majority of our bulbs have been switched to the energy saving kind...you know the bulbs that cost more but in the long run are supposed to save money. I actually did that a year ago and haven't noticed any savings so it must just be pennies!! I am gradually switching my household cleaners as I run out of the normal "bad" cleaners. I plan on trying to make some cleaners too.....that could be funny so stay tuned! Until next time America........