Natural Cleaning.

I was a bit nervous about how my husband would react to my exclamation, "I'm cleaning the dishwasher!"  I mean, doesn't the dishwasher clean itself when it runs?  Not according to Pintrest and not according to these pictures...take a look.      Oh relax, that black gunk is just bacteria infested Ovaltine. 

 

Week One:  NATURAL CLEANING

Clearly I needed to step in and wash what the washer couldn't wash.  I turned to Pintrest for a solution.   One of the pins said to arm yourself with warm soapy water, a toothbrush and a cup of vinegar. Easy.  I cleaned the dishwasher as best I could by hand, set it to extra hot and ran it empty with only a cup of vinegar on the top rack.  The vinegar is supposed to disperse and clean the rest of the machine.  Mission accomplished.

I figured I should do a few more things from my Fresh and Clean board just to kick off the week.  I threw baking soda in my toilette bowl and let it soak there for a while before brushing it away.  And no....you may not have a picture of my t- bowl.  I also took my already made spray bottle of vinegar & water and added a dash of dish detergent, lime essential oil and olive oil to make a homemade who-knows-what to clean my cabinets and wood floors.

Check out my clean dishwasher!  And why was I nervous about Luke's reaction?  Because he loads it like a serious game of Tetris and actually cares too much if it is not completely full. Running it with just one cup made him a bit dizzy but he supports my pintrest mission (I think he thinks he'll be fed better when all is said and done.)

Here is what I learned:
-I liked cleaning my T.Bowl with baking soda and probably will continue to do so.
-I rather clean with plain vinegar and water as I kept wondering if the dish detergent would create some sort of scum.
-As I cleaned, I thought of the term 'scum bag' and wondered who came  up with that awful phrase.    

Pintrest

In July my brother and I tried to do one new thing every day for 31 days.  I called it "31 Things" because I wasn't feeling too creative when I started the challenge to call it anything else but the obvious.  In fact, I was feeling a little over whelmed.  How in the world was I supposed to do 31 new things in 31 days with a five month old.  The answer was actually pretty easy: just do it.  (must give Nike some credit for that brilliant one.)

The truth is, I have never gone/done/accomplished so much in such a short span of time EVER.  I am the queen of starting something and then trailing off in hopes that everyone forgets my big declarations.  Remember that time I said I was going to write a book of poetry?  And the time I said I was going to learn how the play the guitar....in San Francisco with a monkey on my shoulder? And how I was going to be a runner who actually liked to run? I hope you forgot because I didn't accomplish any of those goals.   31 Things was different off the bat because I was doing it with my brother and he's actually quite annoying.   He would call multiple times a day to see if I'd done my "thing" yet and then talk to me for 20 minutes about how he was spending his day.   And this is why he's annoying....because his day consisted of being awesome all the time.  Oh yeah...my brother was painting roofs in Harlem, zip-lining in NY, running races in VT, survival camps in the woods of NJ..you name it...he was doing it and so I had to find at least SOMETHING to tell him.  


But eventually, I stopped.
31 things came to an end and instead of continuing my quest to be awesome- I sat back down on the couch and started watching 24 and using Pintrest during my sons naps.  What I noticed is that Jack Bauer looks like a rabbit and does more in 24 hours than I did in 31 days.  And Pintrest....well, Pintrest is a waste of my time if I'm not actually DOING any of the things I pin.  

My 8 1/2 month old kid has recently traded sleep and food for crawling and cruising.  I am on guard most of the day but there is time here and there for me to be me. My new challenge:  DO my pins. 

I tried to get people to embark on this quest with me but they all replied, "I already do many of my pins." My face turned a little red because I thought we were all in this together- just pinning to pin. I actually had one person say, "I do many of my pins many times a day."  ok annoying. 

I am not going to do many pins a day.  I am only going to do one pin a week.  I'm not trying to reinvent my life...I'm just trying to add a little flavor.   Some of my pins will be recipes.  Some will be crafts.  Some of these crafts will benefit my house, some will be presents for friends or people who need them.   But the point it...I'm doing it. 

If you want to do it with me....let me know!

Happy Pinning