What I'm Reading

I have always loved to read.  Since I became a Mom I don't have as much time for it as I would like, but every now and then there comes along a book that makes me make the time.  The Unhealthy Truth: One Mother's Shocking Investigation into the Dangers of America's Food Supply-- and What Every Family Can Do to Protect Itself is one of those books.  Even though I am just up to page 27, it's a compelling read. 

Robyn O'Brien is a former equities analyst, whose life changed one morning over breakfast when her youngest child suffered an allergic reaction to the food she had eaten.  It sent her on a quest to learn everything she could about food allergies, and the types of things in the "food" we eat.  The forward is written by Dr. Kenneth A. Boch, who speaks of the epidemics we see of autism, ADHD, asthma and allergies.  Dr. Boch asserts that 1 in 3 children are affected by at least one of these new epidemics.  Autism has risen 1,500% in the past two decades.  The statistics are alarming to say the least, and I can say I know several people affected by each one of them. 

As I read about GM (genetically modified) foods, and how they are in every bite of processed food we eat, I threw the door open on my cupboard and started reading labels.  The big two offenders that I have learned of so far are corn and soy; if you eat anything with corn or soy in it that is not labelled "USDA Organic", you are being exposed to GM food.  I thought for the most part we would be good to go, because I don't really buy a whole lot of processed anything.  My eyes grew wide and my ears rang with climactic scary music as the obvious offenders jumped out at me.  "Corn Flakes", "Tostitoes", Canned Corn for my famously delicious corn chowder; popping corn that I had just bought, feeling slick and healthy, to replace microwave popcorn.  All the sudden my food stash seemed like chemical warfare, and the thought of eating it anymore made me sick.  I was just on the verge of throwing it all into the trash when I heard the voice of my Jarhead saying, "let's have popcorn."  I gasped in horror and said, "but it's been genetically modified!"  He said, "I really want popcorn, we'll eat genetically modified one more time." 

Mountain Rose Herbs

I wasn't feeling so great today; I had made up my mind to have a snow-day...minus the snow...and keep indoors.  As the day went on though, my thoughts kept turning to the essential oils I ordered last week; I knew there was a long-shot chance they would arrive today, and in the late afternoon the anticipation was just too much, so I loaded up and headed to the PO.  The box was there.  And I think I might have been a bit more excited than my daughter was, who thinks every package we get is a late Christmas present for her.  I opened it up in the car and took a whiff of everything.  Oh my; delicious. 

Except for the Tea Tree, which is not so delicious.  I was slightly unprepared for this.  My run-ins with Tea Tree have most often been in the form of cosmetic products that boast it as a main ingredient and smell just lovely.  The truth has come out; Tea Tree stinks.  Despite it's smell, it works as an antibacterial (among many other things), and is a great addition to many cleaners.  I have noticed that most recipes I've come across include equal parts Tea Tree and Lavender oils; do I smell a cover-up?  Perhaps, but Lavender also works as an antibacterial, so it's a great double-whammy.  And it smells nice too.  It's a cover-up.

Being my typical, excited self, I couldn't wait to add the essential oils to my cleaners, and check out the un-vinegar-like scent.  I dropped 8 drops of Lavender into my glass cleaner, and rushed over to clean our TV screen, which had become smeared by little handprints.  I had to wait; the Jarhead was in the midst of war, killing virtual bad guys on Call of Duty.  After the round was over, I set to work.  The Lavender sure adds a nice somethin'-somethin'.  I have never been so excited to clean!

I am particularly happy with the Sweet Orange oil, which was a bit of an impulse buy because it sounded pretty.  The Peppermint Oil I purchased because I have heard it works well to deter ants, which are a big problem here, and the Citronella I intend to use to make our own bugspray.  I will let you know the outcome of both.

I have nothing but praise for Mountain Rose Herbs, the company I ordered my supplies from.  Their shipping was FAST!  Their products are excellent, and economical.  Their website has great information, as well as their own cleaning recipes I can't wait to try out.  I will most definately be ordering from them again.

Clean Green Part 2 ~ Cost Comparison

Today I took yet another trip to the commissary, this time armed with pen and paper.  My purpose was to write down the cost of the ingredients for my homemade cleaner recipes from the book Green Up Your Cleanup, as well as the prices of the standard cleaners for comparisons sake.  Let me state right off the bat that the COST of green living is secondary to me; you can't put a price on protecting your family.  Is there really a problem with the chemicals in standard household cleaners?  Here are some statistics from the book The Naturally Clean Home: 100 Safe and Easy Herbal Formulas for Non-Toxic Cleansers

"According to a five-year EPA study, the air in an average American home has chemical contamination levels 70 times greater than outdoor air.  The EPA maintains that half of all illnesses occurring in the United States can be attributed to chemical contamination of indoor air.

A study by the Toronto Indoor Air Commission concluded that, due to increased exposure to household carcinogens, women who work at home have a 55 percent greater chance of developing cancer than women who spend the majority of their time outside the home.

The National Academy of Science estimates that 15% of all Americans are multi-chemically sensitive due to chronic exposure to household and cosmetic products.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has determined that more than 150 chemicals found in ordinary household products are directly responsible for producing cancer, allergies, birth defects, and numerous psychological disorders. "

Putting aside the safety issue for a moment, let's look at cost comparison.  The cleaners I would normally purchase for my home are:
Windex: $2.88
Pledge:  $3.42
Lysol All-Purpose Cleaner: $1.99

Oh I would buy a whole bunch more than those too, but I was just looking for something comparable to the cleaners I made up the other day.  I included Pledge since the All Surface cleaner, lightly sprayed on a microfiber cloth will replace it for me on "wood-like" furniture, and I will use just a microfiber cloth on real wood furniture.

The prices for the cleaner ingredients are as follows:

1 Gallon of Vinegar: $2.19
Borax: $2.79
Baking Soda: $0.59
Castille Soap, 16 ounces: $6.00
Organic Lavender Essential Oil, 1/2 ounce: $4.00

So the glass cleaner, after multiple calculations, broke down like this:

2 cups water = free
2 cups Vinegar = $0.28
1 tsp Castille Soap = $0.06
8 drops essential oil = $0.11
TOTAL: $0.45 per 32 ounce bottle 

That's a savings of $2.43 over Windex, per bottle.  Also, keep in mind the castille soap is not necessary after the waxy buildup is gone.

All Surface Cleaner:
32 ounces water = free
4 tsp Borax = $0.02
1/2 tsp Castille Soap = $0.03
TOTAL: $0.05 per 32 ounce bottle

A savings of $3.37 over Pledge. 

All Purpose Large Batch:
Gallon of water = free
1 Tbsp baking soda = $0.04
2 Tbsp castille soap = $0.36
TOTAL: $0.40 per gallon

I used to use Lysol All Purpose Cleaner for mopping my floors.  It's $1.99 for a 40 oz bottle, and the recommendation is 2 ounces per gallon of water, bringing the total per gallon to about 10 cents.  That slams the all natural cleaner by $0.30 per gallon. 
So let's say you make up 20 gallons of this, which is the equivalent of one 40 ounce bottle of Lysol All-Purpose cleaner.  The cost would be $8.00.  That's a big, massive point for the store-bought cleaners in this cost war!

Here's how it all plays out.

If we were to go shopping, and buy just the amount of ingredients we needed to make the 3 cleaners, the price would come to $8.50.

The cost for the three standard cleaners is $8.29.

The difference is 21 cents.  As my Dad would say, "Whoopdeedoo."

Clean Green

I've never much cared for cleaning.  I remember my mother telling me once, as I sat in the midst of utter destruction in my bedroom, that I had a certain amount of days to clean it all up or else she was giving it all away.  To six year old me, that was pretty heavy stuff right there.  I did what any reasonable child would; put away my two most treasured possessions, and played with the rest like they were about to be taken away.  And they were.  And once they were gone I had a spotless room without having to clean.  I thought I was pretty smart...until my mother grabbed even the toys I put away and shoved them deep inside that black garbage bag.  I cried bitter internal tears and said a quiet goodbye to my beloved toy typewriter, knowing I would never hear the *cla-ching* of it's platen again.  All these years later, I can still picture it exactly as it was...*sigh*

Though it's still true that I don't particularly care for the process of cleaning, I love a clean house; there is something so rewarding in the relaxation that comes as you sit and bask in the sparkliness of a tidy home.  For me anyway...it could be just one more thing that classifies me as weird.  Unfortunately it's a reward I haven't been able to partake in for the past couple of weeks.  You see, I gave all my cleaning chemicals away.  I knew if I gave away the old stuff, I would follow through with the effort of ordering the ingredients I couldn't find here, and not fall back into the comfort of the way I've always done it.  So out the old went, and I placed an order for the missing ingredients; castille soap and essential oils. 

Patience has never really been my thing, and today I decided I just couldn't wait for the arrival of my order anymore.  I went to the commissary hunting for substitutes, and found some Avalon Organics Glycerin Handsoap.  Jill Potvin Schoff in Green Up Your Cleanup suggested an organic soap as her second choice if you were unable to find castille soap, so I snatched it up.  Finally, I had everything I needed. 

I also picked up some microfiber cloths, which apparently are the holy grail of green cleaning; except for baking soda.  And vinegar.  And spray bottles. 

I made the All Surface Cleaner and Glass Cleaner recipes.  Thankfully my Mom had the foresight to be a Tupperware lady in the early 90s, or I probably wouldn't own a funnel.  Thanks Mom.  For the glass cleaner you need a blue spray bottle; yes it has to be blue if you want to even remotely compete with Windex.  Pour in one cup of white distilled vinegar and one cup water.

  I used distilled water too, because I'm a snob like that.  Or it could be because we were given a notice on our base along the lines of, "your water is full of lead; don't drink it or you'll die a horrible, painful death."  Something like that.  Thankfully I have a really cool Mother-in-law who just so happened to buy us a distiller a little while before we were sent over here.

Add 1/2 tsp liquid soap, and a few drops essential oils.  The essential oils are not really essential, even though my nose disagrees.  Vinegar and my sniffer are not the best of friends.

For the All Surface Cleaner, use a 16 ounce spray bottle, and pour 2 tsp Borax into it.  Be sure to get an exact measurement like I did *cough*

Fill the bottle with hot water, and shake until the Borax is dissolved.  Then add 1/4 tsp liquid castille soap.

Now I was armed and dangerous, and ready to see the fighting power of my concoctions. 

I set to work on one of the dirtiest surfaces in my house; the windows.  I have never cleaned the windows here, because everytime I have ever cleaned windows in the past, it's been an epic, streaky failure.  But with little fingers and little paws all over the sliding door, something had to be done.  I armed myself with the recommended squeegee, and set to work.  And the smell of vinegar filled ther air...hurry up essential oils, I need you! 

I was pleasantly surprised with the results, and while I can't honestly call it "streak free" I think that has more to do with my lack of squeegee expertise than the actual cleaner.  I used to be pretty magical with one of those things; back in the days of girlhood when cleaning the windshield at the gas station was the coolest thing on earth.  Somehow it doesn't seem quite as appealing anymore; or maybe I'm just too distracted by the maniacal laughter of the meter as it "ca-chings!" it's way through our hard-earned money... 

I was so excited the cleaners actually worked, that I went on a cleaning frenzy.  I organized my pantry.  I cleaned out my fridge.  I pulled my stove out and cleaned behind it.  Now I sit, basking in my reward.  A clean house.  And remarkably, it doesn't smell like salad dressing.

Try these out; they really work.  I will be doing a break-down comparison of price soon...

All Surface Cleaner:

16 oz spray bottle

2 tsp Borax

hot water

1/4 tsp liquid castille soap

Put the Borax in the spray bottle.  Fill the bottle with hot water and shake until the Borax is dissolved, then add the soap.  Spray on surface and let sit 1-2 minutes.  Wipe with sponge or microfiber cloth.

Glass Cleaner:

1 cup distilled white vinegar

1 cup water

1/2 tsp liquid castille soap

3-8 drops essential oil

Fill a spray bottle with vinegar and water, and shake gently.  Add essential oil.  Add the soap just to dissolve waxy buildup (from standard cleaners.  Once it is gone, you can leave out the soap).  You can also use sprayed on club soda.  Don't clean in direct sun as it will dry too fast and leave streaks.  Use a squeegee.

All Purpose Liquid Cleaner ~ Large Batch: 

 1 gallon hot water

1 Tbsp baking soda

2 Tbsp liquid soap

Fill a bucket with hot water, then add the baking soda and soap.  Add the soap last to prevent foaming.  Add 1 Tbsp of washing soda for removing heavy grease, or 1 Tbsp of Borax for disinfecting and killing mildew.

I also found that baking soda works great as a scouring powder today.  My bathroom sink had some gunky, grimy, nastiness in it, and the All Surface cleaner just wasn't doing the trick.  I grabbed a brush and some baking soda, and voila!  Sparkly clean.  And here I thought nothing would ever replace my beloved Comet.

Hello, Glimpse Of My Future Life

I used to love animals.  Alot.  Then I realized it was a love-hate relationship, with me doing all the loving.  For example...

A family friend got some pigs, and five year old me was very excited to go see them.  I had my cutesy wutesy, teeny weeny rain boots on, and walked into their crib, The Mud Hole.  I've blocked most of what happened on that traumatic day; I just know that my cutesy wutesy, teeny weeny rain boots got stuck in the manure.  Then the pigs came running towards me and trampled me down...face down...in the manure.   'Screams' don't describe it.  Years later my Mom ruptured her ear drum and I am convinced it traces back to that incident when my world was destroyed by pig poop.

My best friend had horses!  What little girl doesn't love beautiful, magnificent horses?  I was no exception, and longed with all that was in me to jump on the back of one and ride free across the world!  I was doing just that...well...actually it was more like being led around the yard by an adult walking the horse, but when you are young and have an overactive imagination, it's practically the same thing.  The wind was catching my hair gloriously and flinging it back as we galloped across the country, when my daydream came to an abrupt end due to the horse trying to bite my feet while I rode him.  Then another horse they had bit me in the shoulder when I was kindly trying to give him an apple.  I'm as sweet as horsefeed I guess.

When I was a teenager I got up the chutzpah to jump on another horse.  I told the girl running the stable I had horse experience with my chin held high...I just forgot to mention the details.  She didn't ask and let me ride outside the fenced area; just what I was hoping for!  Visions of riding free across the world came back into my mind, and that horse must've been telepathic.  In a second he was off!  And I couldn't stop him.  And it wasn't quite as magnificient as I had always dreamed.  Cover your other ear Mom, it's the only one you have left!

Then there was that goat that showed me which of us was in charge; it wasn't me.  I had a little boy I was watching at the time, and the ornery ol'e goat got loose.  There was no retreat.  I stood the little one up on the swing he had been joyously swinging on a second before, and blocked him with my body while Billy the kidd played with my legs with his horns.  Then Paul Bunyan came to the rescue, yanked him up by his horns and threw him 2 miles away. *swoon* It was actually my brother, and he wrestled him back to his post, but whatever the case he was my hero that day.

After all my run-ins with big animals, I wasn't the least bit trepidatious when my parents informed me we would be getting some chickens for eggs.  At last, an animal smaller than me.  They were so cute!  Fluffy little yellow chicks, aww.  Turns out fluffy yellow chicks turn into big stinky chickens, and big stinky chickens like to keep the company of mean and cocky roosters.  Mean and cocky roosters don't much like my kind.  Then there were the eggs.  ALL those eggs that my father insisted couldn't go to waste.  And to think, I used to like egg salad...

It would seem from all my previous experiences with animals, I would be the last one to want a farm.  And that's the truth.  I had resigned myself to owning a few evil chickens for farm fresh eggs for my family on one condition: no roosters.  Imagine my surprise then, when the Jarhead declared he would also like to have a few pigs and a cow.  I'm down with cows.  I worked at a dairy growing up.  I've been knee deep in manure, had cow pee splash on me, and cracked the ice on water buckets when it's been way too cold outside.  I've seen rat carcasses strewn in the dirt from barn cats, and I've pulled hay out of every article of clothing on my body.  A cow I can handle, the bonus of which would be not having to worry about mowing the ridiculous amount of acreage we would like to purchase when we bid the Corps a farewell.  But pigs?  The internet assures me they are very friendly and very smart. *eye roll*

Yesterday I went out with some friends to a tourist attraction.  They have chickens roaming free, goats you can walk, pigs you can feed, and water buffalo you can stare at.  Here's me walking a goat.  I wouldn't mind a little goat like this, unlike the massive Billy.

 

The roosters there weren't quite as plucky as the roosters we had.  Maybe my ice-cold stare offered the intimidation I hoped.

I kind of liked these goats....sort of.

Gotta tell you though, I didn't see smarts and manners from the pigs.  They were just kind of...pigs.

                                  There's the water buffalo; he won the stare down.

Maybe a farm won't be so bad after all...

Pancakes...By A Recovering Bisquick-aholic.

I love pancakes; they make me feel all warm and cozy inside, and bring back memories of when I was just a little Babs...staring in wide-eyed amazement as my Mommy made fantastic things like Mickey Mouse faces with the batter.  I still stare in wide-eyed amazement at that kind of skill; I hear it skips a generation.  That's okay, my daughter is low-maintenance. *whew* She does happy dances and cheers along the lines of, "YAY!  Pancakes!  I love pancakes Mama!" whenever the subject comes up.  She gets her excitement over simple things from me... and her mad, happy-dance skills.  My longtime friend in pancake making has been Bisquick; it's been by my side through good times and bad, whipping up not only pancakes, but quick and delicious biscuits, pot pies, and an endless list of last minute meals involving dough.  There comes a time however when we must sever certain ties, and that time is now.  I ran out of Bisquick.  When I went to the store, I walked somberly passed all the beautiful yellow boxes in the baking aisle, avoiding eye contact.  Then I found it; organic flour.  Baking soda.  Baking powder.  And a new, healthier friendship was formed, and more delicious pancakes were made.  Bisquick, I am so over you. 

My Mom must have known somehow that this day would come.  She made me an amazing book, full of delicious and "from scratch" recipes that I took with me when I married my Jarhead.  Lo and behold, there was not one, but two recipes for pancakes!  No tutorials on Mickey Mouse faces though...*sigh*

Pancakes:

1 1/4 C flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 C milk

1 T applesauce or canola oil

1 beaten egg

Mix together the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients.  Stir just long enough to combine well.  Then make pancakes like everyone knows how.

I should note, this doesn't make enough for my brood, so I double it.  Well....it might be enough if Jarhead didn't eat all the batter raw....or if we didn't have batter fights...  I won.  Nevermind, it's probably enough.

Giveaway Winner!

Thank you everyone for participating in the giveaway!  Congratulations to the winner, daer0n!  I have sent you an email requesting your mailing info, and  your prize will be sent as soon as I hear from you.  Please also let me know what bar of soap you would like.  If I don't hear from you by the end of this week, I will draw another random name.  Thank you!