Jonah Lisa Land

Green Cleaning 101

Still shopping around for a New Year's resolution that you might actually stick with?  It's not too late! 

I've got a great idea...

GO GREEN WHEN YOU CLEAN!

I did this last year and actually stuck to it.  I can't tell you how good it feels to get to the end of a year and know that I actually did to something...anything...for 365 days.  That's certainly not the case most years. 

Making the switch to all natural, biodegradable and reusable cleaning methods is really easy (otherwise, it would have gone the way of my yoga resolution).  And not only is it easy, but in the long run it has saved me tons of money and I think the cleaning is better.  And then there's that added benefit of helping the environment and cutting down on the chemicals your kids come in contact with. 

I mean really, who wants to think of their baby crawling around on, eating off of surfaces cleaned with, or inhaling fumes from chemicals that have warnings like: "Whatever you do don't get this on your skin, but if you do call poison control immediately for a Silkwood bath?"  Okay, I made that up, but you've read some of those warnings.  They are insane!  I mean, I wouldn't eat a fucking hot dog when I was pregnant but I'm gonna clean my kid's high chair with something that says right there on the label that it's poison?  To each his own, but it's not for me.      

              PANTRY ITEMS FOR GREEN CLEANING               

• Distilled White Vinegar
• Baking Soda
• Twenty Mule Team Borax (though it is a natural mineral compound and a great simple cleaner, it is mildly toxic and should not be ingested or come in contact with eyes or open wounds)
• Olive Oil
• A mild liquid Castile SOAP like Dr. Bronner's (Keep in mind that most things sold as "soaps" in grocery stores today--Ivory, Dial, Dove, etc--are actually detergents and much harsher)
• Pure Essential Oils (not synthetics or perfume oils)
  
• Microfiber cloths, prefold diapers, washcloths or rags
• Spray & squirt bottles in various sizes

Essential oils are available at most health food stores, supermarket organic aisles and head shops.  I think that Tea Tree Oil (TTO), lemon, orange, lavender, peppermint, evergreen and eucalyptus are best for cleaning.  Most of them are just great for the "clean" smell but TTO has natural antibacterial, antifungal and disinfecting properties and eucalyptus is great for opening the sinus passages and preventing the spread of airborne viruses.  Yes, they are expensive ($6-$10) for a tiny bottle.  But they are super concentrated so you only use 3 or 4 drops per application and don't forget some of the other great uses for essential oils:

• Put a few drops on a cotton ball and stuff it in the vacuum cleaner bag to freshen the air while you clean. (Lemon, lavender) 
• Fill the little receptacle of the humidifier with water and add a few drops for a stuffy head instead of using the store bought kind. (Eucalyptus)
• Instant Air freshener--Put a pot of water on the stove with a few drops.  (Peppermint and evergreen are great in the winter.  I also like rosemary and sage for this.)
• A few drops in the tub for an aromatherapy bath (Any!).

             ALL PURPOSE CLEANER DISINFECTANT            

This recipe courtesy of my friend Kate who makes awesome diaper wallets and T-shirts--check out her stuff at Blue Turtle Baby!) 

You can clean kitchen counters, bathroom counters, toilet seats, weird spots on floors, high chairs and toys with this cleaner. It's great!

• 3-4 cups hot water
• 2 teaspoons Borax
• 4 tablespoons vinegar
• 15 drops of an essential oil
• 1/4 teaspoon liquid soap (if needed for extra cleaning power)
• Mix in a large spray bottle and remember to shake before each use to mix up the ingredients well

                           FURNITURE POLISH                            

I have tried the store bought "all-natural" furniture polishes and find that they just don't do as good a job as Pledge or Endust.  I thought I was just stuck with the yucky stuff for dusting until I finally found this homemade furniture polish recipe while searching online.  It's great!  The Olive Oil really conditions the wood nicely and makes things shine. 

• Start with a small spray bottle
• Add 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• Add 20 drops of lemon or orange essential oil
• Add 1/4 cup of white vinegar
• 1.5 cups of water
• As always with homemade cleaners, shake before EACH use.

                              GLASS CLEANER                              

This is super easy.  Fill a spray bottle with half white vinegar and half water.  If you don't like the vinegar smell (which goes away once it dries) add a few drops of your favorite essential oil.  I've also read that straight Club Soda is an amazing glass cleaner, but i haven't tried it yet.

                               GREAT GIFT IDEA                               

This idea is from my friend Jen and implemented beautifully here by Kate of Blue Turtle Baby.  It includes a bottle of vinegar, a paper bag of Borax, 2 essential oils, a spray bottle, some printer stickers and a little work on the computer.  She put her All-Purpose Cleaner recipe on a tag attached to the basket and as a sticker on the back of the spray bottle (nice touch!).  I'm going to make this my standard housewarming gift.  I think I'll do it in a cleaning caddy and add some microfiber cloths and a book on green cleaning to the set. 

SO those are the basics.  I guess I could offer an Advanced Green Cleaning Course at some point for those who've fulfilled the pre-requisite (let me know if you're interested, I guess) or you could just buy Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan instead.  It contains recipes similar to the ones I use, plus many, many more including non-toxic cleaning options for laundry, dish washing, floors, toilet bowls, leather, getting crayons off walls, polishing your silver (do people still have silver?) and, unbelievably, instructions on how to get rid of ants or roaches and clean your oven without commercial products.  She's also got a wonderful simple recipe for a tub and tile cleaner that I love called Earth Scrub.

*Just because this stuff is natural, biodegradable and non-toxic (except for the Borax) it should still all be kept out of reach of children and none of these cleaners would make a good salad dressing.

I'd love to hear some of your best green cleaning tips, too.  I'm always on the look out, so please share!

..............................................................................................

UPDATE:  After green cleaning for almost 2 years I've revised and tweaked the cleaners I use and found a core group that really work for me.  Check out the 11 recipes in these 2 detailed green cleaning posts:

Green Cleaning :: The Basic Arsenal

Green Cleaning :: The Extras

Subscribe to my feed!

The 6 dumbest children's books ever written

We are crazy book people.  I love so many children's books I could never name them all.  We have books all over the house--on shelves in every room, stacked on tabletops and in little piles by all the beds.  We have our basket of winter/holiday books out in the living room right now and always look at books with Huck as a way to learn about and digest whatever season, holiday or event is going on at the time.

But, there are a few books that just drive me or Stephen up the freakin' wall.  Since many blogs tend to write about favorites, I thought I'd write about the ones we think are absolutely ridiculous.

1.  We're Going on a Bear Hunt - This book should be subtitled, The Dumbest Family in America. 

Armed with a stick and with 3 small children in tow, they go looking for a bear in his cave.  The parents drag their kids into a cold river and lead them into a raging snowstorm, most of them wearing canvas sneakers and the baby still in his jammies.  Then they all venture into a dark cave by the sea with the tide coming in.  When their dog finds the bear in the cave, what do they do?  They turn their backs on it and run!  Dragging the kids behind them.  We live in bear country.  And though Huck loves this book it strikes us as an almost dangerous example of wild animal awareness.

2. Knuffle Bunny

I actually like this book but Stephen thinks it perpetuates the clueless father stereotype.  He likes to add an addendum when he's reading it to Huck.

"Now Huck, not all daddies are this stupid.  Just this one.  Your daddy would never, ever forget your Guy-Guy (French pronunciation).  But let's do remember that the daddy in this book is off doing the laundry with the baby while the mommy stays home doing who knows what.  Probably watching Dr. Phil."

3.  Good Dog, Carl

So, let me get this straight, the mom goes to run errands and leaves the baby with a Rottweiler?  Good plan.  I think there should be a sequel to this book called Bad Mommy, Joyce where CPS shows up, takes the stick of butter out of the kid's hand and finds a good home for the little fella.

4.  Love You Forever

I know, another classic that I just don't get.  When I see this book, I read the title in my head like it's a 70's stalker, horror film -- "I'll love you...FOREVER."   It just creeps me out.  The woman clearly has boundary issues.  Please tell me he's not still nursing.  I wonder what the dude's wife thinks of this set up?

5.  Max's Snowsuit

Like it isn't hard enough to get them in their snow gear already?  Now I have a cute book about a cartoon character who goes through the whole snowsuit shuffle then takes it all off just to be a pain in the ass?  What a fun game.  I can't wait.

6.  Goodnight Moon - Wait now, before anyone flips out at the sacrilege of including this book on my dumbest books list, I really only dislike one page. 

I've read Margaret Wise Brown's other books and I admit, she's pretty good.  But let's face it, this page is just lazy writing.  Sure, I've been tempted to just write in "Blah, blah, blah" for character dialog when I can't think of anything, but it just doesn't cut it with readers.  I can imagine her sitting at her typewriter, a little board, totally tapped out for rhymes, but damnit, she knows she has to wrap up that bowl of mush!  The woman was ready to be done with that little bunny and cash her check already and so we have "Goodnight Nobody."  I roll my eyes every time I read it.

I'd probably have a bigger list if I had the energy to go upstairs and look under the chair in Huck's room--that's where Stephen stashes the undesirables during story time when Huck's not looking.  Whatever it takes to get by, right?  Tell me we're not the only ones.

Notes from the Cholera Ward

CLUNK...that's the sound of the other shoe dropping.

Despite the heavy use of anti-bacterial soap (which I am generally against but desperate times call for desperate measures) the stomach bug our family brought us for Christmas finally made it's way around to me.  I'm just now coming out of the fog and it feels like everyone in the house is actually on the mend.  All our guests leave early tomorrow morning (and I mean 5am early) and then things will return to normal around here.  General health, a regular schedule and daily posts. 

I am really looking forward to the new year.  Everyone got their resolutions ready?  I'd like my resolution to be no vomiting or diarrhea in 2008, but frankly, I think I'd have more success with a daily yoga regime.

Norman Rockwell can kiss my ass

Well, we had a great Christmas, we really did.  Huck loved his kitchen and all the felt play food--whew! 

But all the great planned stuff went out the window.  The family that was supposed to arrive Christmas eve had their flight canceled and got in Christmas morning instead, bringing with them some funky Texas stomach bug.  Yee-haw.  So far we haven't gotten it but they've all been barfing their lungs up.  We're sort of hanging out and waiting for the other shoe to drop.  There's been no sledding so far and no hot cocoa.  Waa.

Maybe those will be our New Year's plans.  Stay tuned...

Pumpkin Cheddar Grits...Hallelujah!

Okay, even as I typed the words Pumpkin Cheddar Grits in the previous post teaser, I knew I'd probably end up back here one more time to post the recipe.  Sure enough, mere hours after yesterday's post I had emails asking for it!  Not all food from my childhood has gone the way of ambrosia salad and Vienna sausages.  I've hung on to a few of the country dishes I love, and grits is one of them. 

I'm not ashamed to say it loud and proud,

I LOVE ME SOME GRITS!!!   

It's not technically healthy and it's not organic but it's waaaay yummy.  And sure, you can use organic grits & pumpkin puree and organic butter & cheese, but last time I checked Horizon wasn't making evaporated milk so what the hell.  

*2011 UPDATE:  Great News!  Organic Valley, and several others, now make Organic Evaporated Milk!  Still doesn't make this health food but at least you can enjoy your rich, creamy pumpkin cheddar grits without hormones & rSBT!

Pumpkin Cheddar Grits

It's a great side dish with meat but it's also a nice warm breakfast.  For Christmas morning we're doing it with country sausage, a hearty raisin bread and an assortment of fancy spreads.

I use a medium slow cooker (3-4 Qt).  Recipe serves 4--I'll be doubling.

2/3 cup coarse, stone-ground grits
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp salt
1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin or canned pumpkin puree
a few grinds or pinches of black pepper
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

IMPORTANT NOTE: As I am with social issues, I take a very liberal stance with pumpkin and cheese.

1. Put grits in a bowl of cold water in a bowl so the husks will rise to the top.  Skim them off and discard.  Then drain with a mesh strainer.

2. Put the grits, 1 1/2 cups of water, evaporated milk, and the salt in the Crockpot and stir.  Then add the pumpkin and pepper.  Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 hours, or on LOW for 8 hours, until it's thick and creamy.

3. Stir in the butter and cheese, cover.  Turn off the cooker and let it sit for about 10 minutes until everything is melting in.   Serve hot & enjoy.

See you on the other side...

Merry Christmas!

I'm going dark for the holiday and just wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas.  We're in the middle of a full on blizzard up in the mountains and are nice an cozy in front of the fire. 

Getting the stuffing and pumpkin pies ready today and the turkey goes in tomorrow.  Also setting the crockpot tonight for a big mess of pumpkin & cheddar grits for Christmas morning along with raisin bread and an assortment of spreads (whipped cinnamon honey, fig spread, praline spread and NUTELLA!).

I'll be back on Tuesday with some more Normal Rockwell pictures of our white Christmas and the sledding.  Unless it's still blowing like this, in which case we'll just sit around in our pajamas and eat.  Not a bad back up plan if you ask me.

Enjoy your holiday.  May Santa bring you everything you asked for.

Two Haiku for you

My immune system,
a dormant tree in winter...
May it bud come spring.

A toddler's tantrum
blind rage and kicking, then gone
Very like my own

And I thought I'd throw this in for fun, too.  I've never been more than a mediocre poet, but I wrote this when I was about 13 and it's still probably my favorite of all the poems I've ever written.   

I think it speaks to our current toy climate.  And I get a huge kick out the nostalgic quality coming from a sage old pre-teen.

Beer Can Shoes

When I was a girl
I wore beer can shoes.
I wore them at softball games and in parking lots.
Coors was my favorite.
I loved yellow and my daddy drank that brand
(not lite, the regular cans).
You had to step on them just right, in the middle.
And your feet had to be the perfect size, very little.
Clank Clank Clank
Around the ballpark.
You could hear me coming a mile away.
Clank Clank Clank
Collecting beer tabs, too
So I could connect them each to each
Until I had a chain.
You can't do that with the new safe ones.
But when I was a girl
I wore beer can shoes
And beer tab necklaces
And played in cardboard box forts
With paper towel roll telescopes.
Back when kids could even have fun
Playing with garbage.

I guess I was kind of into homemade toys, even back then.

Sometimes a good tantrum is the only way to go

Unfortunately, I'm not talking about my toddler.  I'm talking about myself. 

After you've tried hints and petulance and going all eerily quiet with the lemon sucking face, sometimes the only thing that really has any impact, and clues your spouse in to the fact that you are at the end of your rope, is a hissy fit.

I had one the other night.  He'd been gone for a week on a business trip, had been back for 2 days and hadn't really noticed that I was at my wits end with Huck and...well...just everything.  The holidays and house guests were fast approaching, I was getting a cold, I had just started my period, and then I got kicked in the face by a toddler boot while he and Huck were rough-housing, leaving me with a real live, honest to God, black eye as we roll into the weekend of Christmas parties.  I am so relishing the chance to explain what happened a gabillon times over the eggnog bowl without it sounding like a sad attempt to protect my abusive husband.  There was all kinds of slack laying around and I needed somebody to help pick it up.  Preferably somebody who just had 6 night off of daddy duty. 

Not that I actually told him that.  Instead, I went the "with everything that's going on you should just know" route.  Why does that never work?  And why do I try it over and over again?  Oh, and why is my husband is so intuitive when it comes to how many inches our ski hill will get overnight but so incredibly UNintuitive when it comes to his menstrual, congested wife with the shiner who's been alone with a toddler for a week wanting someone else to handle bedtime?  Any ideas?

It wasn't preconceived, I swear, but I couldn't have planned it better.  Somehow it was just the right level of honesty mixed with recrimination mixed with tears and whininess.  He listened and he pitied me.  Which I suppose is all I really wanted in the end.

He put Huck to bed for me the next two nights and was an all around nice and understanding guy.  I'm feeling much better.  I find myself both ashamed of my childish behavior and thinking I need to remember this as a tactic for next time and just cut straight to the fitlet. 

Christmas Lights

I took this about 4 days ago and we already have 4 foot snow walls built up along the sides of our driveway now and a 7 foot pile at the back from the plow.  It's been dumping, as we say in the mountains. 

Should make for a perfect Christmas morning. After presents we're going sledding then back to the house for cocoa in front of the fire and a nap.

iTunes U

I know I've used this excuse before but I really do live in the middle of nowhere without TV hookup, so sometimes news items slip past me. 

Apparently, iTunes U was launched on Apple's iTunes Store back in May!  Well I just discovered it tonight via a New York Times article and it is truly amazing.  You have to check it out.

You can download lectures, even entire courses in some cases, on a wide variety of topics from respected professors and speakers at some of the country's top universities.  FOR FREE.  Some of them you watch, some you just listen to.

You can take Basic Physics through MIT, Intro to Non Violence or The Economy of WW2 from UC Berkley, Quantum Mechanics from Stanford or hear a lecture on The Art of Reading a Poem from Yale.

Duke, DePaul, Arizona State, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt.  Art history, environmentalism, political, social or physical science, religion, law, medicine & literature!  Want to get your feet wet in the well of Existentialism?  Or take a basic course on the Old Testament at a Seminary?  It's all there!

Of course, this isn't about building credits toward anything.  It's just about following your interests, about good old self-motivated continuing education.  But it's high quality and it's FREE!

It looks like there's a good amount of lectures and courses in health and education that might be of particular interest to moms, too.  I'm sure there are tons more but here are just a few of the titles I saw at first glance:

• Helping Children Manage Fear
• Screening for Autism in Infancy
• Helping Children Eat Healthy
  
• Children and the Influence of Television Advertising on their Food Choices 
• Raising Boys Without Men

And be sure to scroll down and check out the Beyond Campus section where you can download free tours of MoMA exhibits (MoMA Kids looks very cool) and even ongoing guitar or drum lessons from Little Kids Rock.

And as if all of this wasn't cool enough, you want to know the best thing of all about hearing lectures and taking courses this way?  You can PAUSE! 

I hope some of you are as amazed by this resource as I am.  Now I have to run, I'm off to start Intro to Biology at MIT and yes, I will be wearing knee-socks.