Spring Cleaning 101

Its spring and its time for the yearly clean up and spruce up of the house. Get out the old jeans tea shirt and tie your hair back. Find a big basket to hold your tools and cloves. Tackle one room at a time top to bottom. That way if your like me doing this as awe watch the kids feed the dog etc we will have at least one room clean.


Kitchen

Into the basket goes, a botanical germ killer, cloth wipes, sponges, glass cleaner, duster, vacuum (little one), all purpose cleaner. I love the MelaMagic and Tough & Tender but there are many other great products out there.  See link for ideas.  Contact me if you want more info on what I use.

Climb on the couter top and with the little vacuum, vacuum all the tops of the cabinets. I line the tops of my cabinets with newspaper. I change it every year and use the old one to stop weeds in the garden. Put fresh paper. Take down the décor and wash it . Wash down the cabinets. Look inside the cabinets and take out all the stuff you never use. Do you need to save it ? Yes wash and put back. No, then pack for a donation or to sell.

While up there clean the windows and the exhaust fan and hood.

Take a break and have a cup of tea as you look out your clean windows.

Check the cupboard for expired packages of dried food. What you can compost do. All else throw out. When in doubt throw it out. Organize your cupboard. What treasures have you found? While you are doing this spritze the inside of the stove with water and backing soda. This natural cleaner will clean without the smell.

Clean the counters and all the storage areas. Clean the fridge inside and out. Clean the coils and underside as best you can.

Now finish up by chasing all the little ones and pets out and cleaning the floor.

Now how many rooms do you have???

Email Woes

The change of an email address is no easy task. Unfortunately, you use your email to access all sorts of websites and accounts. It is not a simple thing to change once you change a provider. Now that I think of it I should have gotten one of the free emails not tied to a provider and had all my accounts registered to it. I fear not being able to change it latter or worse having them bounce me out for an invalid email.


I just created my Amazone associate link and now find that I must change a provider. Not to change would cost me $100’s of dollars and right now things being what they are we must watch every penny.

From a marketing point of view I want users with valid emails. From a customer point of view I want to be able to change my email and transfer my history and info to another username if needed.

What do you think about this? Please comment and let me know.

Take time to recharge

Can you believe it? We are already at St. Patty’s day this year. Time is sure moving fast and we need to catch up. So what have you done for yourself today? As a Mommy, I always do stuff for the little ones the school, work, my hubby and the dog and never get to me. But we need to take care of ourselves or we cannot take care of our families.

If you enjoy working in the garden then that’s a great release. It has to be done and yet it can be your escape. You can still watch the little ones play while you tend to the garden and slip into the world of nature. Smell the soil, work the earth, smell the plants, see the butterflies.

If you like horses, then steal away and mount up. The weather is bright and crisp, a good day to steal an hour for a good ride. It is expensive but it sure beats paying a shrink. At least a horse is my therapy when I can get away for a bit.

If cooking is your passion, then make a meal or a cake for no reason that the love of the art. If we put off for tomorrow then it may never come. Make the meal for yourself for your family. Make the special cupcakes your daughter likes with the sparkles just because you have fun making it. Or make the cookies the boys like because they are so fancy when Mom makes them and you love to escape in the process.

If you are like my girlfriend, she looks at my Arbonne webpage and orders some Spa things to escape for an hour and be spoiled. Her husband even calls and asks me to send some of her favorite stuff just because he knows she needs a bit of down time. And yes by the end of the bath, her littlest one plunges in to take advantage of the bubbles. But by then Mommy has had at least some time to recharge.

Now once you are recharged lets talk about spring cleaning. That’s my next blog. I am going to help you be organized, ready and able to take on the world. Follow me to a better you, more informed and happier.

Egg Shell Gardening

Why should I even bother to plant in an egg shell? The answer is quite simple:

1. it is a cheap pot and very good for the soil. You can have pots that go right in the soil lessoning the transplant shock to the plants.
2. Egg shells provide calcium which is needed for fast growing plants. It is quickly depleted from the soil so egg shells are a good way to keep the balance.
3. Egg shells can be used on the bottom of pots to help with drainage instead of stones. They are lighter and give nutrients back.
4. Egg shells also deter the slugs and cutworms that love tender plants such as; peppers tomatoes, broccoli, and cabbage . Just place the egg shell around the stem of the plant.
5. Tomatoes, these are fast growing plants who tend to suffer from blossom end rot. Egg shells help prevent the end rot. Either grow the plant in a shell and then add more egg shells near the soil .

Where do we start?

1. When you bake, make eggs, save the shells. You can use them one of two ways in the garden , either as pots or an additive.
2. Wash the shells out well with water. VERY IMPORTANT
3. Moisten the starter soil or medium. It is easier to work with this way and less is loss. I use GreenSoil’s tea listed below since it gives the seeds an extra boost.
4. Fill the shell with the medium and press one or two seeds down to the depth the package recommends.
5. Finally mist with the water or “tea”.
6. Place the eggs in an egg carton and cover with a clear top. Plastic bag or cover or glass work well.
7. Place in an area where you can control the temperature and light the seeds will receive. The closer you match the recommendations on the seed packet the better.
8. Make sure that the soil is moist but not water logged. Look for signs of life.
9. If two seeds have sprouted in your container remove the smaller one and plant in its own container. I use one seed and if nothing sprouted I plant another seed and mark the date. I try to have seeds started 10 days apart to extend the growing season, when one ripens another is still a wk away.
10. I use the “tea” every 10 days to ensure proper growth.
11. Transplant your seeds when you see three sets of leaves. Water your plants. Carefully squeeze the shell. You want to break the shell but not the membrane. The membrane will help keep moisture around the seed. It’s okay if it breaks. The broken shell will break down easier into the soil. Place at the proper depth in the soil wither in a garden or a pot.
12. Crush up other shells for you tomatoes plants.

There is how you do it. Leave me a comment please. What other info can I give you?

What do we plant?

I have washed and saved the egg shells of our eggs for a month. They are needed to plant little seeds in. They make great organic containers for little seeds and are away to individually plant the plants without worrying about the netting in some other seed starters. I also just saw a wonderful tool that I think I will purchase. It is a wooden tool to make newspaper pots. They are great to start the plants and then transfer to the garden. I will test this out and see how they hold up to watering.

My family has picked out the seeds that we want to plant. The parsley in the window is growing very nicely. I picked some for an omelet already. The parsley has a nice strong flavor not like the kind from the grocery store. We are expecting a Nor’easter this weekend and planting the seeds will give my children something to do.

I have prepared @Greensoil’s tea and that is waiting to water the seeds. The blog below explains more about her wonderful tea. Check out the link on the right for more info on her tea.

We will plant tomatoes, basil, peas, carrots and peppers. We have no idea where pumpkins will grow this year, but they seem to come up all by themselves. I think Baron, our dog has something to do with this as he loves to run around with one in his mouth after Halloween and then we can’t find it. What are you planting?

Looking to Spring

Now that Valentine’s Day is over and the snow is on the ground, we start thinking of Spring. Yes, that time of year when the green of plants pushes up and out f the soil. When the sun once again warms us and the smell of flowers fills the air. But for there to be flowers, plants and vegetables, there needs to be good soil. Oh no! Now what can we do?
If you are like me, you did not get the compost going and are not good with crawly things. Maybe you are but the time just got away from you. You can still have a wonderful garden. And yes my secret even works for window plants and potted vegetable plants.
My secrete weapon came in the form of a Twitter friend, GreenSoil. We started tweeting (that is talking on the internet about growing plants.) I have a spot of garden in which I grow organic veggies and fruit for my family. I do not like to use commercial fertilizer as I don’t like all the chemicals that adds to my food source BUT I want beautiful plants and an easy way to take care of them.
That’s when Greensoil stepped into the picture. You see, GreenSoil is really Annie Haven of Authentic Haven Brand Natural Brew Soil conditioning tea. She graciously reached out and told me about how easy it was to make this tea for my garden and how I can try it out. I even received a sample packet of the tea and have tried it on my indoor plants. It is easy to put the bags in a 1-5 gallon containers, fill with water and leave them alone for up to 4 days. The tea comes in small gauze bags that are compostable. They have a soft sent of freshly plowed earth. I then use them to water my plants. Even a mom of two active little ones can doth is and the result is incredible.
How do I know that the animals that this manure tea comes from don’t eat and ingest chemicals and hormones? Ms. Haven harvests the manure right from her own animals that have been free of chemicals since 1924. Her farm was ahead of the game and wanted to produce good clean livestock. We know to compost but how many of us take the next step to make sure our compost is natural and contains nothing unnatural? When you find a source of good fertilizer for the plants it’s a good idea to keep it and continue to use it.
My plants are growing beautifully and my husband wants to know why I have not killed this lot of plants. Now you know my secret but please do not tell my husband.

Contact Annie Haven at annie@ahavenbrand.com

http://www.authentichavenbrand.com/

St. Valentines Day is on the Way

Winter is upon on and we long for a bit of warmth. So February brings in St. Valentines Day . In many cultures, the day is not only for love but also for friendship. It is a day when acts of kindness towards friends are often done.

So you have little ones and they want to do a craft. My all time favorite is to get plain pink cards with envelopes. Cardstock would work well but for little ones the pre-made cards are easier. Then I buy glitter pens in bright colors and a package of foam or paper hearts.

Clear the table and put down newspaper or brown paper. I get mine from the boxes of product that I order. Let the little ones go and watch as they decorate the cards each with a special person in mind. This can keep them busy for quite a bit of time depending on how many cards they want to make.

My daughter has a special teacher and she wanted to give her something as a keep-sake. She wanted to make the perfect gift. I had a little red clay left over from Christmas. With that she made a beautiful heart and made a design on top. This went into the oven to harden and now the teacher has a home- made paper weight for the classroom.