The Bathroom Experiment: The Set-up

Maybe it is just me and my dirty bathroom mind, but this is NOT about poop!

It is about Showers!!

I hate cleaning our shower, it is a tub shower... HATE IT!!!

Anyway, I still have to clean it. (Well, technically Wonderful Man cleans it... That is why he is so wonderful!)

I have seen for awhile those daily shower cleaning spray things, you know the kind you can just spray when you are done, or the ones that even spray for you with the touch of a button.

They have always scared me. Maybe it steams from when I was little, and mom would always warn not to use Comet and bleach, or is it Comet and ammonia together... (I can't remember! Vinegar and baking soda is always safe!)

To the experiment!

I wanted to see if these sprays I will make are going to make any sort of an impact. So this experiment is going to last 3 MONTHS!!! Yikes! But that gives them time to build up some grime!

First I got some picture frames from the Dollars Store, attempted to make them water tight, and them hung them in the shower. I also got some clear soap holders to use also.

Now to make the two sprays! I can not remember what site I got the recipes from, so I am a) not sharing, and b) hope to find them soon so I can!!

For the next 3 months the bathroom is going to be cleaned as normal, and we are going to bathe as normal, only adding in the shower spray to finish. We will also keep a record of the number of times we shower.

I hope you are excited to see results, I hope there is a difference!

What a Summer...

Last month, I promised to get those car maintenance post done... Well, if you noticed, that didn't happen. This has been a really crazy summer for us, and a very emotional one.

In the middle of June, my grandfather passed away. Then a month later, my wonderful mother.

Me with my Mother and Father, and my wedding.

This summer hasn't been all bad news, although it feels like it.

Some days, I consider it a victory if I get motivated enough make dinner. Yesterday, was defiantly a success.  With the help of Wonderful Man, we did a full load of dishes, vacuumed, and made lunch and dinner!

It is baby steps, and the grieving process is going to take time.

I am going to need to keep my self busy! I was planning on just a post or two a week until September, but I need to have a couple of goals for each day. You readers should feel proud, that y'all made the list!

The plan for this week is to for Homemaking Tuesday, start the Bathroom Experiment. I think I have everything, I just need to set it all up.

For Focus Wednesday, I have a bean recipe for you. This is one of three that I want to share.

Thrifty Thursday, I have a couple of chair refurbishing that need to be done. Re-purposing or refurbishing furniture is a great project, and if you know what you are doing, can save you some money!

Finished Friday, we will talk about how our garden has exploded this year!

Lastly, a Saturday post! I have been frequenting my farmer's market, and a friend said I should let people in on the secret of farmer's market shopping!

There is the plan for the week. I hope to get that all up for you. Thanks everyone for their love and support.

July!

The year is half over! And it is finally starting to feel like summer here! It is summer, and schedules changes some much. I have a couple of things I have been trying to get rolling to post about but, life keeps getting in the way! Not to complain, but sometimes I wish I had more time.

I hope you all had wonderful 4th's. We did! We smoked a ham and ate good food. We even watch fireworks will some super cute twin 4 year olds. They would go back and forth between loving the fireworks and being scared.

I have been training for a huge race that take place on the 20th and 21st this month, plus I want to get a few posts I have really been wanting to get out, and I have some huge projects around the house I want to do. So this month, will be a slow month. Actually, posting might be slow until the fall.

I like to take Monday's to align my week, but I am going to take today to align the month. I try to post my weeks goals for the blog, because I want you to keep me accountable. I really do feel like I am giving knowledge to people and I want people to feel like their opinions matter. So if you see a post and you want to see it go in a different direction OR you want more information, post a comment or Email me. There is a link on the side with my email. I want reader feed back!

So for this month, I want to finish the car maintenance series. There are four more topics that I feel are important and hopefully I can find time to do them!

I hope everyone is having a great summer and is enjoying some sun!

In other notes, I just made a little bit of heaven in my kitchen, and I might share...

The Magical Bean

If you don't care about your food, where it comes from or what is in it, then this post isn't for you.

But if you are like me and are a label reader, and when you start seeing things you can't pronounce on the label you put it back. (Which incidentally, I am an engineer and Wonderful Man is a scientist, we can pronounce a lot of those crazy things on labels. Since I do the grocery shopping, I limit it to two crazy multi-syllable additives that will preserve me before I die.)

No, I am not some liberal, tree hugger, organic wearing, hippie. Although, I do chose to buy what I CAN AFFORD organic. This means if I can get the same exact item at my local employee owned grocer for half the price as my local food coop, I go where it is cheaper!

Well, my shopping/spending/food habits are the point of this post, I want to point a few things out about food in general, and more specifically the BEAN.

Beans are great, we eat a lot of them. Mainly, because they are cheap and when mixed equally with rice, the two create the PERFECT PROTEIN!!!

Antioxidants are the real point of this post. Do you know what they are? I have a funny story (well, to me at least) about antioxidants.

But, first the definition given to us by The Mayo Clinic:  "neutralize free radicals, which are toxic byproducts of natural cell metabolism. Free radicals can also be introduced into the body by exposure to certain substances, such as cigarette smoke, sunlight or pesticides."

Time out for my Funny Story: When I took a nutrition class in college for my biology credit, we learned about antioxidants and "free radicals". It was the summer of my second year, and I was still overly political, very conservative and anti-anything-liberal (I have since calmed WAY DOWN). Now it was summer and the last thing I was doing in class was paying attention, but when the teacher said we should consume more foods which contain these antioxidants to neutralize the 'free radicals'. I had a mini panic attack thinking about how what food we consume could turn a person liberal. I thought this for about 10 seconds, when someone else in the class asked what a 'free radical' was. I felt like a complete idiot. Food can't change your political affiliations! Although, we are what we eat!

So, NO! 'Free Radicals' are not going to make you go all crazy tree hugger, anti-government on us. (We need people like that, though! They help to get our government to do things!) They can be beneficial in some bodily processes. Although, they tend to do more harm than good. (Mayo Clinic)

I am going to make an analogy here to explain how I understand 'free radicals' and antioxidants.

For example your body is a piece of Iron. And we all know that iron rusts. Well that rust is caused by oxidation. Rust can be prevented in a number of ways, one way is to coat the iron, so that water can not reach the surface of the metal. In this example, water would be the 'free radical' and the coating on the iron the antioxidant. As long as the coating is good, the iron will not rust. So, as long as we have a good 'coating' of antioxidants, we will be able to stop some of the affects of 'free radicals'.

That sounds simple enough, right? So, what foods have good levels of antioxidants?

Well, green tea comes to mind right? How about Blueberries?

According to the USDA's Antioxidant Scorecard (which I couldn't find how they scored the items...) Blueberries have the highest antioxidant properties! (1 cup of blueberries scored 9,019 while 1 cup of green tea scored 2,231) (Prevention)

So what about our magic beans?

1/2 cup of cooked pinto beans scored 4, 983
1/2 cup of cooked red kidney beans scored 5,569

That is pretty good. Next week I will have a recipe for beans to share with you!

Sources:
The Mayo Clinic Website (link)

Prevention; Beyond tea: Antioxidant stars; Feb2006, Vol. 58 Issue 2, p73

Homemaking Tuesday: Fruit Flies

If you have never had fruit flies you are one lucky clean freak!

It is not even summer yet, and the combination of poorly covered food in the worm box and bananas perfect for banana bread led to a breeding ground explosion in my kitchen.

The first solution is to fix the worm box. Done.

Then next get rid of the bananas. Done. We ate a lot of banana bread this week.

Lastly, clean the kitchen. So I clean it. Then we left for the weekend. I thought they would be gone.

Nope. While their numbers have greatly been reduced, we still have those pesky flies. So, I went to pintrest. I found a few good home remedies for fruit flies. So I pick three and decided to see which was the best.

Jar number one came from Musings of a Glamorpuss, Straight Red Wine Vinegar.

Jar number two comes from Home Your Way, Apple Cider Vinegar and fruit juice.

Jar number three, from Skruben, Apple Cider Vinegar and dish soap.

Fly Trap Jars, from left to right, jars 1, 2, and 3.

I made my jars, set them up in the heart of the breeding ground and walked away.

I checked them before bed, and I had caught 2... I checked then in the morning before my work out, 5... Not the miracle I was hoping for.

The flies were interested in every jar and I thought maybe the holes weren't big enough. So I made bigger holes and let them sit until after work.

And of course this whole time I have been thinking of that saying "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar"...

Well after having the jar sit out for almost 36 hours I am impressed and a little disappointed.

Jar 1 seems to have been doing the best.

Red Wine Vinegar Fly Trap Results.

Jar 2 is catching a few too.

Cider Vinegar and Fruit Juice Trap.

Jar 3, straight vinegar... Doesn't work, just like I thought.

Now, I am going to  put out a new jar with some honey water. Let's wee how that does!

After 48 hours, Not a single fly!

So, but now we have been living with these flies for over a week, and while the traps are working they are not working fast enough! So, I gave in to Wonderful Man's suggestions and we got some fly ribbon.

We set one up and let it hang over two nights, and changed it. Then hung another. Now we are on the third ribbon and the flies are mostly gone!! 

What is the lesson here?

Cover your worm box completely, and don't just throw stuff in.

Keep super ripe bananas far away from the box.

Sometimes, you have to give in and use a product that works fast!

*By the way: I did check the package of Fly Ribbon and it said Chemical Free!*

Mondays...

Mondays are probably the worst day EVER!

After a nice relaxing weekend, BAM! Back to structure and things you HAVE to do!

Mondays are not usually that bad for me, but lately I have not being looking forward to them.

Anyway, the last few weeks have been hard, but I have a surprise for everyone that I think won't be ready until September, but I know everyone will enjoy it! If not, it is because you don't have a heart. *Just joking!!*

Well, I have been thinking of a few things that need to be talked about, some are some MAJOR mishaps, and others are new things.

So for this week, I will post those posts that were supposed to be posted two or three weeks ago...

The Shower Experiment, is going to be postponed for a little bit, I am having a logistical problem!

So, Homemaking Tuesday will be about a worm box mishap and fruit flies. Wednesday, Beans and their Antioxidants; Thursday, My love for the Dollar Store, honestly, it is a GREAT store!! And Friday, we will see what happens.

How have you readers been? How were your weekends?

The Circle of Life

Life is always interesting. When looking at the big picture it is even more interesting.

It starts out even before birth, it is so fragile at this state. Take Birds for example. They must sit and keep those eggs warm through the cool of the early spring months. Leaving the nest to eat opens it up for predators to eat or steal the eggs. In humans, the risk of a miscarriage is so high in the first critical weeks many wait to announce to the world. There are even some who will never be able to experience the joy of pregnancy and those who will be lucky enough to never experience the sorrow of miscarriages or still births.

But we all experience the other end of the circle of life, Death.

Sometimes it is close, and other times it is far. Sometimes it is anticipated, and other times it is a great surprise and shock.

My first experience with death was in the 6th grade. My science teacher died of a brain aneurysm. The next was a family friend who died of cancer.

I was young and didn't quite understand.

I still don't.

A year or so ago a wonderful friend died from an inoperable Brain Tumor. She was much older, and many believed it was her time. I remember her smile. How she would always remember the little details. The last time I saw her, I remember the hug she gave me, the beautiful smile, and how she asked how I was doing. She always made time for me.

Then this last week, my crazy grandfather, who swore he was going to out live us all, died. The circumstances are still unknown, but he suffered a stroke a while back, and it is believed to be from complications. It has been much harder on my dad, than he lets be known, but I can tell. I will always remember the crazy ideas he had, and how he always ate salted bananas.

Also this week, a family I used to babysit for lost their oldest son.

Someone told me that you know you are old when you start hearing about more funerals than weddings.

I understand that as we enter into this life, we must also exit it. It hasn't been until just these last few months have I realized how fragile it all is. I want to keep all of my loved ones close so that I can watch over and protect. I don't want to lose anymore. I don't want any to lose loved ones anymore.