Color me Clean

A few posts back I mentioned my handmade cleaner...great for everything (yes, even wood, but I would recommend a spot test, just in case). I've even found that when I clean a mirror, I don't have to use paper towels to make it streak-free. That's right, just a plain ole cloth....how green is that? Because of the generous gal I am, I'm gonna share it with ya (sorry it took me so long Ash). Send your thank yous to my 'I wanna better camera' fund. Checks and money orders accepted.

But before I do, I'd like to give you a little background on my natural cleaner, um, experience. I know you can't wait. It all starts with mirrors and glass. If you have kids you know that three feet up on any surface is, well, nasty. But on glass, it's yank. Yank, I say. But I wanted to not use chemicals anymore in my home. I'd tried vinegar, baking soda and everything in between and various mixtures thereof, but nothing worked on everything, especially not glass. I could never get something that would clean a mirror or window without making it look like someone spit on it and wiped it with their palm. So imagine my excitement when I used this cleaner and I could actually see myself in the mirror. Whewee. As a side note here, I still use a bit of baking soda in addition to the cleaner on my tub and toilet. Abrasive scrubbing action, right on.

Anyway, the cleaner.

1-1 1/2 cups water

2 1/2- 3 cups vodka (or grain alcohol)

1-1 1/2 tsp essential oil blend (see below)

　

~I give these approximates because you may want to be skimpier with the alcohol as it's more expensive than um, water. But I usually use the 1:3 ratio. As for the eos, 1 tsp is sufficient but if you just like more smell, than add another half.~

The disinfecting, deodorizing, grease-bustin', bacteria-killin', great smelling, rockin' essential oil blend I use is:

3 tsp lavender

4 tsp lemon

2 tsp eucalyptus

3 tsp rosewood

I mix these in a brown glass bottle, labeled ever-so-cleverly as...Cleaner Mix, and add 1 tsp to my cleaner bottle with each making.

Enjoy this very effective, natural cleaner.

Note: Rumors have circulated around my house about the possible selling of this ingenious remedy, if that should happen I will destroy all traces of this post, so get it while you can. :)

Bitin' the bit

I know you're all bitin' the bit...waiting for the next post. Where is she? You ask. Well, a post is comin' but for now how'd ya like the new look?

Zev

A little frustrated...

....now I'm okay.

Aperture Smaperture

It's biting me. This photography bug. It started awhile back, but I ignored it. But it keeps biting.

Bitten too hard one day, I called Ginger....my gloriously groovy photography friend (you hankin' rock, by the way!). She enlightened me with talk of aperture, iso, shutter speed, image files, and all other manner of camera garble that was as clear as mud to me. So she sent me a couple of really great and informative photography books (told you she was groovy...love that gal) and I'm reading. Yes, reading and learning.

It's always fun to learn something new, but the learning does something to me...it makes me want to use my knowledge, funny how that works. So I'm practicing with my Sony camera and realizing it stinks. Yep, stinks. I guess cameras are a bit like computers...technology is constantly improving and before you know it, your once Wow! camera is...uh...blah. The more I learn, the more it disappoints me. Urgh. I knew this going into this quest for knowledge...that my camera was lacking.

So, I'm ready for a new one. Problem is, quality cameras aren't cheap and so I'm praying that if this is something God wants me to pursue, he'll provide the $$$.

Now you may be asking, 'God wants you to pursue? What do you mean?' Right. Good. I'm glad you asked.

See, for a long time...years....I've had this creative drive if you will to, um, create something, anything. It began with curtains. I learned I could sew a thing or two, and made some rockin' curtains for my house several years back. (This sewing bug is biting me as well once again and I want to have another go at clothes making, but my machine gave up the ghost several months ago and has yet to be replaced. But I digress.) So next was painting, yes, aside from pretty walls, I wanted fun stuff in the kids' room. So I painted murals on the walls. Proud of it's beauty and mine own hands having done it, I called a friend to brag, ehem, talk about what I'd done. I said, "You know it seems to me that, the closer we get to God, the more we want to create." God's creative. Look around. All the variety of creatures, color and beauty. I love it. It's in me. I'm his. Thus I create.

Next was soap. A friend sent me some handmade soap. She told me how she'd started this thing and several of our other friends had jumped on the bandwagon to make soap. I refused. Nonconformist that I am, I didn't want to be another cog in the soap wheel. But as my last bar was becoming a transparent sliver, I knew I couldn't go back. Lever 2000 just wouldn't do for me anymore. So I caved and made soap. Well as with any new craft, it was fun and addictive, so I made more and more. Being overrun with soap, I sent it abroad to friends and family. This gave birth to a business.....which brings me to my next point.

I've used many of these creative tendencies of mine to make money. Our dream is for our family to work together. So we did not only soap, but a whole line of skincare. Most recently I've made cleaner and thought of just marketing that. It's natural, works great and I use it exclusively for ALL of my cleaning, even mirrors, glass and wood. So that's an option under my hat, because I want to help our family stay together, see I want a full time dad....and all day, by our side, working with us, full time dad. It's the God given desire of our hearts. So maybe the cleaner. And maybe the photography. Or maybe the?

Still biting.

Camera play with Cherish

I'm trying to learn to use a camera...the right way. I've got a lot to learn, but I'm already getting better. A good camera would really help. $$$ Cha-ching.

Cher was sitting at my computer desk trying to talk to me and I just starting shooting her (camera for taking her picture) and she is photogenic queen. Too cute.

A revelation

I like things clean. Don't particularly like to clean, but the end result makes the drudgery worth it. I live with six males, however, and this throws a curve in my desire for clean. But being the organized, training mama that I am, I make charts....chore, kitchen cleanup, zones (the house broken up into zones that each kid is responsible to keep clean on said day),etc. We have 4 such charts. So from the time Quinn could walk, I've had them cleaning. The chores go down to Thatch. But I noticed something a few weeks ago that bugged me.

Newsflash....boys don't like to clean. I know this. You know this. It's fact. But chores are chores and they have to be done and I'm sure as holly not cleaning up after everyone. No way. Over time, I've tried to come up with creative ideas to motivate the cleaning to be done to my standards. Hold up, let's rewind...you have to understand, I have great kids and they dutifully do what the chart says without complaint. Nar a time...yep, no complaining. But I know (and you know) boys don't like to clean. So I hate nagging but I hear myself doing it when they've done that minimal amount just to make it sorta look clean but it's not really clean. (I see you smiling.) Back to my creative ideas, we've done games to make it fun and keep me from nagging. It's fun and it works...temporarily. But I was after their hearts. I wanted them to look at cleaning a different way.

When I was a young girl, my mom worked, a lot. She had one clean day and it was Saturdays....if she didn't work. Well, I can remember loathing the cleaning, but what was loathsome was torture when I had to do it alone. I can remember once my step-dad correcting me about dusting the wrong way, he said, If you're not gonna do it right, don't do it at all. I thought, 'Right on, I won't do it all.' Sounded good to me. I mean, after all, we're all made of the same lazy flesh, right? But therein lies the problem, our spirit wars against our flesh and where my flesh wanted to do nary a bit of cleaning (who does? I mean, be honest.) my spirit felt guilty for doing nothing to help my mom while she worked. So when I realized this, my heart changed and I genuinely wanted to clean just to bless my mom. See, when it was expected of me, I hated it, but when I felt like I was doing some thing to help and bless my mom and make her proud, it was worth it. So here we are, years later.....

A few weeks ago, before breakfast I noticed that Quinn's zone was a mess...no problem, being a kid with his head in the clouds half the time, I allow for a little of this. A little. So when I called him back to clean it better for the third time, I saw his attitude waiver. Then it all changed. I felt myself nagging, again...yuck. But next, by God's sweet grace, wisdom flowed, like a river. I told them they no longer have to clean. WHAT???!!!??? Cleaning is optional at your choosing, I say. They were taken aback. I mean, really, aback. Way back. But the result has been unexpectedly GLORIOUS. God is so good to me. Now, they want (What the? Are you kiddin'?) to clean to bless me and as a result, I'm genuinely thankful. AND, (here's the kicker) when it's not done to my standards, I do it better, myself. Wow, what a novel idea! That was what the Lord put on my heart as I nagged Quinn for the eight thousand nine hundred and twenty-first time about not cleaning good enough. He (the Lord) said, If you want it done better, do it yourself. Ouch. I thought I was supposed to teach them to be thorough, sure but not at the expense of bad attitudes and lost hearts.

It's all around great, the place gets cleaned and we are serving each other the way Jesus intended, no one's nagging (ahhhhh). Hey Quinn, pass the cleaner cloth.

Eli & limes

It's dinner time.

"Eli."

"EEEEli."

"E? Elijah! Can you hear me?" [He was obviously engrossed in some activity because my kids would never hear me and not come...no, never. :)]

"Ma'am?"

"Could you make some limeade for me?"

"Sure."

Limeade in progress, good. As is customary with my 7 year old chef, lime and/or lemon halves are stacked in neat order. As I'm stirring the sauce for our spaghetti squash, Eli comes over to discuss limes.

"Mom, if we were a big family, I'd juice like 12 or 24 limes and I could make a castle out of them."

"If?" I say, thinking perhaps he doesn't realize we are a big family.

"Yeah."

"Honey, look around, we are a big family."

"Well, I know, but I mean, a real big family...you know, like a BIG family."

Wonder how many kids Eli will have?