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!

THE LAUNDRY QUEEN REVEALS HER SECRET!!

Yes I am a self-proclaimed Laundry Queen! Believe it or not I can not count the number of times I've been asked how I keep my boys' clothes stain free! Honestly my boys' clothes do NOT have stains! In 7 yrs of being a mother, I can count on my hands the number of stains I could not get out of the boys' clothes.

"How?" you ask.

My boys are not allowed to play outdoors, in water, mud, sand, snow, climb trees, on playgrounds, play on grass or in dirt, no running/wrestling/climbing or anything that could cause an injury resulting in bleeding. No wiping after using the restroom ~ we just invested in a baday (I have no clue how to spell that and apparently spellcheck doesn't have a clue either) to prevent those nasty"skid marks"! And last but not least all meals are eaten in their underwear! Works for me!

Sounds reasonable, right?

Not if you are sane or a mother of three boys ~ take your pick!

You've obviously NEVER met my children if you believe that tall tale!!

Here you have it ladies and gents.....

Now I don't want all my blog hits to shut down the Internet so keep the praise and mother of the year rantings to a minimum and only let the secret out in dire circumstances......

My Laundry/Stain Removal Secrets

by none other than the Laundry Queen herself

1. I only use liquid Tide and NO my attempt at "going green" will in NO way change my perfected laundry routine!! In a pinch I have also used Gain but I love Tide ~ any formula!
2. I inspect ALL clothing for stains before they enter the washer.
3. ALL STAINS get sprayed with Dreft Stain Remover! I have used it for years and love it! If I could buy it in bulk, I would! I don't know what is different about it, but I swear by the stuff and those who have tried it are true believers! It will get out chocolate, mud, grass, spaghetti/pizza sauce, blood, poop, vomit, red drinks of any kind and those pesky soy formula spit up stains! (FYI: You can use Hydrogen Peroxide for blood stains; however, it will "bleach" out colors! WD-40 will get out auto oil stains but use SPARINGLY! Hairspray will get out pen/marker! BUT I USE DREFT FOR EVERY STAIN!)
4. I only wash clothes in cold water!
5. I inspect all badly stained clothing before they go into the dryer! IF (rarely occurs) a stain still remains, I air dry that item and repeat the stain/washing routine!

Not really anything profound or earth shattering just simple Tide and Dreft Stain Remover ~ that's it! I do about 4-5 loads a day so once I found something that worked I just stuck with it. I don't have the time to fool with my laundry routine ~ it is too easy to get behind and too hard to catch up! Now only if the people who have asked me could just find my blog ~ lol!!

Until next time blog land......

WHAT DIDN'T I DO ~ SHOULD BE THE QUESTION!!

My friend asked tonight, "What did you do this weekend?"

I think the question should have been "What DIDN'T I do this weekend?"

Anyway here was my answer,

"Let's see I vacuumed, dusted, cleaned the bathrooms including toilets and showers (my "boy" tends to leave that out), cleaned the windows, cleaned/revamped the boys' closet, blogged about their amazingly organized closet, cleaned my closet, blogged about Hub's shoes, washed all shower curtains and bathroom rugs, went to see the Harlem Globetrotters with Hubs and my parents, launched my first blog giveaway (launched like it is a new business hehe), put Isaiah in time out, redecorated the boys' bathroom, found new shower curtain I bought months ago for my bathroom so I washed and hung it also, mopped boys bathroom ~ really mopped on hands and knees (If you know how to get rid of the boys urine smell in their bathroom let me know!), cleaned the carpet in our bathroom/our bedroom/Tez's room, took down the Christmas tree, put Isaiah in time out again, put away all Christmas decor, put Isaiah in time out again, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the refrigerator, two loads of dishes in the dishwasher, washed ALL sheets and comforters then remade the beds, cleaned Lucy's cage, got rid of a ton of crap, washed blankets in linen closet, vacuumed again and put Isaiah in time out yet again, cleaned off computer desk and used the can air to clean the computer (that stuff is so fun!), then of course I had to read some blogs, cleaned the oven (I NEVER do that!), cleaned the microwave, cleaned the washer and dryer (inside and out!), cleaned under all beds (amazing what you can find!), finished the hooks for the boys' towels and hung them up (which also means I had to charge the drill!), scrubbed the dog feeders (dried drool is disgusting!), mopped the floors (quite a feat since our entire house with the exception of the bedrooms is wood floors!! It kills my back), laid out clothes for boys' to wear tomorrow, read 20 books for Elijah's book it program b/c of course I put it off until the VERY last second of his two week break, couple trips to Wally World AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST I literally did (washed/dried/folded/put away) about a KAZILLION loads of laundry in between each and every chore.....wait in between I did manage to feed the kids....I think!!!!" (All of this in 2 days! I told you guys I was seriously sick of my house being a pig sty and I was going to take back control!)

Her reply, "Did you clear ALL the scrapbook stuff off of your kitchen table?"

Well....."NO".....but all I have left is.......clear off the kitchen table, sort through the old "laundry" room area, sort through the pile in the corner of my room (papers to file) then in time I need to repaint the entry way, repaint the hallway, finish painting the baseboards white, paint the main bathroom cabinet white and repaint the bathroom, paint my kitchen cabinets white, put recessed lighting in the kitchen and paint ceiling, change out the fan in the dining room, call the guttering guy, clean out the garage completely, call the pest control guy since he is late and I will flip if I see a giant spider, fix my bedroom fan....I could go on forever. Is it ever truly done? But at least now it is clean so as long as I keep up with the cleaning I can tackle the other "jobs" over time! Wish me luck! Hey and now I won't be embarrassed to have company or drop by visitors!

ORGANIZATION IS KEY FOR ME

I used to be a great organizer then the kids got a little older, my stepson came to live with us, Elijah started school and got involved in sports. All of these things plus hubs adding a part time job and coaching Elijah's football and basketball teams cut back on time spent at the house and an even bigger need to get organized. The house has hit an all time messy, unorganized record for me and besides stressing me out it depresses and overwhelms to the point that I give up far to easily. You know what they say "a disorganized house is representative of a disorganized life"! Well I am here to tell you I can no longer handle it and I definitely don't need anymore stress so I am taking back control.

Last night I went shopping at Wally World. Besides buying stuff for the Mean Green Giveaway, I discovered they had a wild stash of new organizational items probably b/c of the New Year and everyone saying they are going to get organized.

Note: This honestly has nothing to do with the New Year for me!

I just can't take it anymore!!

The boys room is officially done as of this evening!!

One room down ~ closet and all!!!

Before today's organizing fest the boys' closet look like this:

Many bags to Goodwill (like always), a box of clothes to a friend, a couple bags of toys to go to my Mom's, plenty of trash, some new cute canvas organizing bins from Wally World (2/$10) with labels made by moi and this is their closet now:

The space under the TV stand which is normally filled with DVDs, tapes, larger cars and games that once looked like this only worse

Now looks like this:

Then onto our closet to tackle hubs pile of shoes! I personally think he has a shoe fetish and often comes home with off the wall, ugly, crazy looking tennis shoes but I just laugh and get really embarrassed when he wears them. I will often say what in the world are you going to wear those with and he responds with "I'll just have to find a shirt to match!" I guess it is better than him being a porn crazed maniac so I deal although it was quite funny how nervous he got when I told him I was going to organize his shoes! He knows how much I hate some of them and he thought I was going to throw them away! Sorry back to the point ~ see Janelle I ramble too!

This was his shoe pile before:

and after

Notice the orange, pink and purple pair on the second row!

A new hideous pair I discovered for the first time while sorting! Ugh!

FRIDAY FUN

Today was my day OFF and the first Friday I have done something for myself and by myself in a VERY long time. Although exhausting, it was nice!! Normally I take Tez to school then go to my Mom's to drop Zay off and sit for 30 aka finish getting ready before taking Elijah to school then going to work. Last week on Friday instead of going to Mom's I took the boys to Daylight Donuts to eat INSIDE and they loved it. I decided instead of going to my Mom's on Fridays since I take Zay to school Friday I would give her a break from us and start "Breakfast with the Boys" on Fridays. I will take them to eat breakfast aka probably weekly trip to the donut shop each Friday. However, my mom called still wondering where we were for the second Friday in a row so I guess she wasn't too bothered by us coming by when we didn't really need to!! Have I ever mentioned I just LOVE my Mom!! Anyway I took Elijah to school then went to Big Lots to waste time before Zay had to be at school. Bad idea and good idea! Good idea b/c I bought some of the stuff needed to complete the many projects I plan to do from being addicted to certain blogs! Bad idea b/c we ended up wandering and he was 30 minutes late for school ~ oops! I took Zay to school then unfortunately I heard the sad cry from Hobby Lobby ~ why does it have to be SO close to his school ~ wondering why I hadn't been there in forever. Yet another hour, maybe more, spent wandering getting more supplies for said projects when the darn scrapbook aisle SCREAMED my name! Sad sad day! Then I ran home to rescue my debit card from yesterday's jeans (Thank God I had cash on hand for my Hobby Lobby venture) and ran other errands - two party supply stores to look at Halloween costumes for the boys and baby shower decor for Chai's shower on Monday - when low and behold my car drove to Scrapbooks Galore n' More. Actually I HAD (called my sister and invited her) to meet my sister to give her a guided tour before she becomes an addict after she starts cropping with me! I just love her too! Then onto my two hour journey picking up 3 boys from 3 schools at 3 different sporadic times (not enough time in between to go home but far too long to sit around waiting in a hot car with current gas prices) - ugh! I am glad I only have to do the pick up routine once a week! It is daunting, however, we are going to have a chat about that since I spend almost 4 hrs on my day OFF just doing the drop off AND pick up routine when I don't have to!! Wow! Next I went home, fell asleep then went to eat with Chai and my boys! Yummy! Then a Wal-mart trip that only reminded me of WHY I DON'T TAKE MY BOYS TO GET GROCERIES!! Then onto looking at my current hopeful home on the internet and falling madly in love. Next, of course, you guessed it onto BLOGGER! More about the hopeful home after I see it this weekend!!!! Well I need to go to bed.....football tomorrow....

TEZ'S NEW ROOM

I AM FINALLY DONE! I feel like I was on Trading Spaces - two days, one designer (myself) and $1000 (I spent nothing even remotely close to that!)! I think I did rather well considering the last minute planning. You can't really tell in the pictures but the walls are gray. The room is black, white and gray with touches of blue. I was able to use an old TV & TV stand (the TV is much larger than I had planned for his room but I already had it so I used it) and Isaiah's old dresser. My mom made curtains out of the sheets (they aren't hemmed yet so I don't have a pic). I found a new cherry twin bed on clearance with rails and slats for $46..........YES you read that right!! I actually bought two for when we get a bigger house who can pass up a deal like that. I bought two new nice beds for $92 and the original price of just one was $389 + the cost of rails and slats!! Either I am bargain shopper extraordinaire or I am really lucky!! Really my only cost in the room was the comforter set, the bed, the nightstand and lamp. I already had the Dallas Cowboys pictures and I made the T-E-Z canvases. I am pretty proud of myself mainly because I did it so fast and now Tez finally has his own room!!

You can't tell but the really bright stripe is actually gray. I took a billion pics of it and it appeared on everyone. Oh well!

I forgot to buy him lightbulbs. I got him a loud alarm clock so hopefully he will start getting up on his own.

I think he likes it!

YOU ARE KIDDING RIGHT?!?!?

3 colors later and finally I have Tez's new room painted!! Gray is a hard color to get...........too light first of all (they said it was grey but honey it sure looked white to me) then the second one was painted all on two walls when Elijah walked in and said did Tez want purple walls Mommy. I thought NO THIS IS NOT PURPLE!! I decided to leave the room and return to get a fresh look and sure enough it looked purple to me too. I then compared it to all kinds of gray items and sure enough it WAS purple so off to the store we go!! Finally we found a good gray and I finished painting the entire room!! More about this tomorrow when I am totally done onto the subject at hand.............

Today was Elijah's first football scrimmage. Yippee! I am not a football fan but love to watch him in sports so hopefully I will find a copy of "Football for Dummies" soon!! I was a little upset when I found out the scrimmage did not start until 8pm. Hello these kids are six years old and my kids are in bed AT 8pm during the school year. Since it was the weekend I let it slide but seriously why couldn't the older kids play that late. The scrimmage was going well and then after two little scrimmage games I thought it was over which was A-O-K with me since it was raining off and on. Coach Hinesley's wife yells, "hey where are you going?" I said "HOME!"
Then I was informed this was only a break and there were two more left! You are kidding right? Nope they were serious! Lightning and thunder fill the sky with my six year old kid running around in his armor of metal......I am almost positive there is metal in the helmet , right!? I was not happy to say the least!! The only positive was that his team was doing really well. They had NO touchdowns scored against them and they scored several. I was shocked they did so well so early on. Finally at 10:40pm it was over, woohoo! Just when they finished the flood waters came. Seriously we were in a downpour and I had to take my shoes off and grab Zay and run the freakin' mile to the car!! Of course, I was wearing flip flops and they are too slippery when wet!! My umbrella broke in three places and sliced my thumb open b/c of the high winds. I couldn't even see to buckle Zay into his car seat after the jerk next to me made me wait while he stuck all of his coolers into his car. Let me think "worry about the coolers getting wet or let the soaked woman with the young child get into their car?" No brainer for me but I guess some people have NO BRAINS! I finally had to just toss him into the car while he was screaming then I got into the car and climbed to the back to buckle him up! Total chaos! I couldn't really see to drive and pulled over twice THEN I actually had to wring my clothes out when I got home now that is some SERIOUS RAIN! Fun times! Good night! Here are a few pics of the scrimmage:

A SAD DAY

Today was hard for me! I had decided awhile back that I would redo a room for Tez but not until the custody crap was completely over in case at some point she changed her mind and made everything harder. I didn't want to redo an entire room until he was ours for good! He has been sleeping in Elijah's room and that just needs to end. They are just too far apart in age and although they are good together they are on different levels. Isaiah kept his room. I absolutely LOVE Isaiah's room. Actually I just LOVE his crib! Thanks Lisa! Isaiah has a red crib.......I know you are saying WHAT but yes it is a country red and he has a western room. It is too cute for words!! I realize Isaiah is 3 now and he needs to move out of the crib but really I would have moved him out of it a LONG time ago but he likes his bed. He has only crawled out twice and I kind of like him in it in the morning!! It keeps him out of a little trouble! My friend Shan keeps giving me a hard time about my three year old in a crib but my response is well it isn't my fault he hasn't figured out how to keep getting out. Elijah only lasted 18 months before he would NOT stay in the crib so he got a cool car toddler bed but hey if Isaiah will stay in it then why not!!?? Since the custody stuff ended Monday my sister has been trying to convince me to do his room before school starts which meant this weekend. I decided she was right and I tried to arrange for Tez to go to his mom's house for the weekend so it could be a surprise but alas that didn't pan out for me. This morning I woke up and started packing up everything in Isaiah's room. It was really sad for me! What do I do with it all? I HAD TO KEEP THE CRIB that my wonderful sister painted for me all because I saw a red crib in a picture that I fell in love with! Why do I need to keep it? I just told you I love it and I am having a hard time letting go of the fact that he is my last baby.........sob..sob... boo hoo......! I don't know who to give it to that I KNOW will take care of it and who knows maybe I will just keep it forever and use it for my grand babies. I am just sooooo sad mainly for me but I am still just sad! I got everything cleared out and prepared so tomorrow I can start painting. Major pain in the butt I must say! I had to move all of Zay's clothes into Elijah's room which meant I had to rearrange Elijah's drawers to make everything fit since Isaiah has more drawer stuff than Tez did. I had to move Tez's stuff into Zay's old room. Isaiah came in his room at one point and said sternly, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I tried to explain it on his level however he still looked puzzled but moved on! My day was filled with Goodwill bags, drawer cleaning, toy box cleaning, closet cleaning, vacuuming baseboards, moving furniture, putting stuff into storage.........the list could go on and on. Then this evening I had to go ALL over town looking for a comforter and room accessories for a 14 yr old boy who has never had his own room. This is my weekend challenge! Wish me luck!