Bounce Bar - Gets the bounce.

Ok, so a few months ago I thought I would try the new Bounce Bar. You affix a plastic holder to the inside of your dryer, slide the Bounce Bar in and don't have to use dryer sheets.

I thought this was a great idea for several reasons:

1. Not having to remember to put a dryer sheet in every load.
2. Not having used dryer sheets roaming all over the house.
3. It is supposed to last up to 4 months.

That being said, I can't say I was that happy with it. I liked not having to put a dryer sheet in every load. I liked not having used dryer sheets roaming all over the house.

BUT:

It did NOT last 4 months. I tried it several times and none lasted a month.

The other thing is that I didn't feel it softened quite as good as the dryer sheets.

The final straw was when cold weather really hit. It did NOT control static at all.

So, out of frustration, I went back to Bounce Dryer Sheets. I noticed that our clothes were MUCH softer and the static was gone.

Oh well, live and learn.

Why I May Never Go To Wal-Mart Again

Ok, I will still probably go to Wal-Mart. But, I've just discovered an amazing way to avoid it as much as possible.

I subscribe to www.flylady.net for home/life organization. Today, the post was how planning can save you money. For instance, if you plan your shopping list carefully, you won't forget something and have to make a second trip to the store.

I was scrolling thru the comments (not something I normally do) when I saw a pattern. Several people mentioned www.alice.com. I had to go check this out.

IT IS FREAKING AMAZING!

You sign up for a free account. Choose some categories of items you typically purchase (very much like your Wal-Mart list) and then you can go thru, check the category, look at the items offered and order from them. If there is a coupon for an item available, they will automatically tag it and deduct it from your total.

The prices are around the Wal-Mart price range . . . and, here's the best part . . . SHIPPING IS FREE!!!! No minimum order!

I had started a Wal-Mart list this morning and went ahead and tried www.alice.com with my list. Altho there were a few items not on it, the bulk were on it and it will cost me no more than Wal-Mart would. And, I won't be spending gas money or buying 5 things I saw in the store but really didn't need.

HOW COOL IS THAT?

I figured that shipping would take 2-4 weeks since this was such a good deal, but the checkout showed 1-2 business days.

If this really works like it says it does, I'm in love!!!!

The Start of Something New

I'm always for starting new projects. I just never seem to finish them because of my short attention span.

But, for several days I've been seriously thinking of "going green" in household cleaners. I'm not doing it to save the world. I'm doing it because I have over a dozen different bottles of cleaners in the house. It makes remembering what I need to buy hard to keep track of and it can get expensive.

So, for the last few days I've been researching non-toxic and "green" cleaning products. I pulled out several that I want to try. In the meantime, I'll keep my store bought stuff to finish it up (so as not to waste money) and just in case the green ones don't do the job.

It's always best to take baby steps so I started with just that. Lately, my dishwasher hasn't been cleaning the dishes as well as I would like. And there tends to be a greasy feel to the dishes even when there wasn't anything greasy in the dishwasher.

The proposed solution? Vinegar. Yup, plain white household vinegar. It's a disinfectant and degreaser. So, I gave it a try. I poured about a cup of white vinegar in the bottom of my dishwasher (with no dishes in it) and ran it.

The next load of dishes I had included a greasy pan so I thought this would tell me whether or not the vinegar worked. Not only did the dishes come out completely clean, there was NO greasy feel to them.

The BBC show "How Clean Is Your House?" suggests doing the "vinegar treatment" on your dishwasher once a month. Apparently the trap at the bottom collects bacteria and grease and the vinegar disolves it.

Ok, one experiment down and it was successful!

The REAL 12 Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
The worst cold I ever did have.

On the second day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the third day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the fourth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the fifth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the sixth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the seventh day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the eighth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Eight off-color comments
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the ninth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Nine disagreements
Eight off-color comments
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the tenth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Ten accusations
Nine disagreements
Eight off-color comments
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the eleventh day of Christmas
My true love gave to me Eleven silent curses
Ten accusations
Nine disagreements
Eight off-color comments
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Twelve nasty looks
Eleven silent curses
Ten accusations
Nine disagreements
Eight off-color comments
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

(Which is probably why we’re not talking to each other right now.)

Adios Broom!

Along with following Fly Lady to organize my life and get my house clean, I'm working on "downsizing" things. My cholesterol, my weight etc.

So, I've been taking baby steps to improve my general health. Most days I walk between 1.2 miles and 1.5 miles in my 20 minutes of exercise. I eat oatmeal most mornings for breakfast. And, I try to eat smaller portions of healthier food in general.

So, I'm excited about that . . . but I'm more excited to say Adios to my broom! Last week, I looked at the Fly Shop and couldn't resist ordering some of the tools. Of course it took me a while to decide what I wanted because I'm skeptical of new-fangled stuff and indecisive a lot of the time.

But, one of the things I DID order was the Fly Lady's Rubba Sweepa. I got my order in about a week or less even though they said to allow 2 weeks. I immediately assembled it because I was so excited. They have a video on how to assemble it on their website but I found it to be fairly intuitive.

So, today I decide to take this baby out for a spin. I sweep my kitchen, entryway and mud room floors pretty much every day. But, I could not believe the dirt that this thing pulled up! And, the cool thing was that when you "swished" it towards your pile, it didn't go flying everywhere. It was much more controlled. The only downside I saw was that it felt "weird". It felt kind of rickety but that's because of the soft rubber bristles giving way as you sweep. It wasn't anything to do with the construction of it and I'm sure I will be used to it in no time.

At the current price of $9.99 (plus s&H) it's not really that much more expensive than a decent broom. And, it works so much better.

I'm hooked now!

The Journey

Yesterday I did pretty good with my "downsizing".

I had my oatmeal for breakfast. It took a little less time to eat it. It probably took 20 minutes and didn't seem quite as bad as the day before.

For lunch I had an apple with peanut butter.

I did my 20 minute walk. I got to my goal that I had tried the day before and still made it back right at 20 minutes. On the way back from town, I clocked the distance. It was .6 miles. That means round trip I did 1.2 miles. Not bad for starting out. I really enjoyed yesterday's walk even though I almost didn't do it. I really didn't feel motivated. But, once I had done it, I felt fired up!

For dinner I had a hot dog and a little bit of cheese dip and chips. And yes, I had my 4 Oreos. That's ok though. Rome wasn't built in a day. Maybe tonight I will skip the Oreos. We'll just have to wait and see.

I also started reading the book called Body Clutter yesterday. It seems to make some sense. It approaches your weight not just from a physical point of view but from your emotional state and mental state as well.

I must really be open to life changes recently. Not only am I enjoying www.flylady.net and doing my Baby Steps, but I feel ready to start making those small changes in my diet and exercise to help my general health. I have really felt a little better the last few days.

Right now I'm having a detox smoothie to give things a jump start. I thought I would really hate it, but it's actually not too bad.

Here's the one I made:

1 banana
1 handful of frozen berries (I had some in the freezer)
1 small orange (no peel, but with the white stuff on it)
1 small apple with the peel
2 T. of ground flax seed (I obviously had to go buy this the other day)

I put all of that in the blender and added a little bit of water. Blended until it was smoothie consistency.

Then, I added a pinch of sea salt. It's supposed to help detox. You have to add the sea salt AFTER blending or the smoothie will taste really salty.

That's it. It made a nice full glass of smoothie. I think tomorrow I'll add a little baby spinach to it for some extra vitamins.

Why I Fly

In my previous post (and don't worry, I'm not going to post multiple times a day) I mentioned FlyLady. I need to explain it.

FlyLady is a system of life/home organization. The website is www.flylady.net. I looked at this (probably ran across it looking for something else and got sidetracked) several months ago. At the time, I didn't see the beauty of it. But, a few weeks ago,I went back to it prompted by a friend saying something about it on FaceBook. And, I decided to give it a try. I'm now on Day 17 of it and I'm addicted. I feel like I'm in a cult.

FlyLady starts you off with baby steps. For instance, on Day 1, the assignment is to empty your sink and clean and shine it thoroughly. I thought it was kinda dumb, but couldn't hurt anything. You know what? I LOVED my shiny sink. That made me clean the counters and backsplash. . . . and the top of my stove.

Anyway, you can see the baby steps on her website. But, here is what I like about her. She says several things that really got to me.

The first is that we often don't clean or get organized because we feel we don't have enough time to do it "right". So, we do nothing. Her answer for this? It doesn't have to be perfect, just do SOMETHING. And, 15 minutes of cleaning or organization is better than nothing. Right? RIGHT!

The other thing she reminds us is that our house/car/office/life didn't get this way in a day or a week, why should we expect to get it back to perfect in that amount of time?

She also points out how much time we lose in life by being disorganized or worrying about the state of things. It's amazing.

One of the other first suggestions she made was to establish an evening routine that included laying out your clothes the night before and organizing the things you need to get out the door in the morning. She calls the place you put your stuff your "launch pad".

I can tell you that I'm not a morning person. But, since I started following this routine, getting ready in the morning and out the door is a breeze. Everything is where it's supposed to be and I know my clothes (and Wyatt's) are clean, matched and ready to go. and I know where my purse and keys are. That's pretty amazing considering my lack of observation and my short attention span.

So, this lady's attitude is why I FLY. I finally found an organization system that I can follow and that I actually enjoy. It's basic ideas really touch home with me. Maybe it's not for everybody, but I think everybody could take a little something away from it if they tried it. Each morning, I get an email with reminders about where I should be in the routine, what I should be getting done that day and then I go to the website and check to see what "Baby Step" I'm on. She makes it so easy. She just adds a little more each day and so many of the assignments are 15 minutes or less. Sounds too simple, but it REALLY works.

Resolutions

Ok, it's been almost a year since I posted. It's been a hectic year actually.

But, forget that, let's start with now.

So, I went to the "woman" doc earlier this week. I was expecting the normal check under the hood but got SO much more. Apparently, I am completely abusing and neglecting my health. I'm not sure why that's a shock. But, when she listed all the issues, I felt like someone who had taken their car in for a tuneup and found out that $2k worth of repairs needed done.

The first issue is my weight. Yeah, I know. I've put on some weight this year, not counting the weight that I didn't lose after Wyatt came along. So, here I am, just this side of the "normal" weight range. I will admit I am "curvy" in all the right and wrong places right now. We discussed that I have no diet or exercise plan other than planning to have 4 Oreos every night after Wyatt goes to bed. I was aware of this and had done some thinking. But, being a fantastic procrastinator, had put the issue on the back burner.

Yesterday morning began the diet modification. I prefer to call it the downsizing plan. I went to the store (because it was errand day according to FlyLady) and bought some instant oatmeal, Banana Nut Cheerios and some apples along with the other regular groceries. When I got home from the store (I managed to skip my beloved Square Donut from the gas station) I made myself a bowl of the instant oatmeal. I tried blueberry first since it seemed the flavor I would like best. I made it with water, not milk and didn't add anything to it. It took me at least half an hour to eat. I hate oatmeal.

For lunch, I had a handful of baby carrots (nothing to dip them in) and a small apple. I cannot say the last time a raw carrot (or maybe any carrot) passed thru my lips because I hate them. But, I ate them and didn't disguise the taste with anything yummy like ranch dressing. Right before the last few bites of apple, I was craving something sweet. So, I put peanut butter on the last two pieces and it was yummy. It seemed like dessert. I had a brat for dinner, no side dishes and I wasn't hungry afterwards. Oh, but I had my Oreos after Wyatt went to bed. It was my first day and I did good so I gave myself a little treat.

I starting off with a very minor and simple plan for getting a little exercise into my life. I know not to go overboard and to start gradually. Yesterday, I started off with a 20 minute walk. I figured I'd walk 10 minutes down the road and 10 minutes back. I did. And, I got further than I thought I would, but not quite as far as I really wanted to.

I even (gasp!) drank a bottle of water after my walk. I wanted to drink more water but couldn't really get around to it. Besides, I had made some positive steps in my life and didn't want to throw my body into shock.

I have to admit, I sat and stood up straighter after my walk and felt better in general. The exercise, sunshine and fresh air did me some good.

Now I have to continue on with my water drinking, lowering of the cholesterol and exercise as well as taking vitamins. She gave me the things to look for in a vitamin and I bought them. Didn't take one yesterday, but I bought them. Baby steps, right?