A few of my cleaning ideas

Ooh, cleaning tips, I love sharing cleaning tips! I'm constantly cleaning, I mean CONSTANTLY. With a much less than tidy husband, two chihuahuas, one cat and a 13 month old (I also have my 9 month old nephew a couple days/week), my house gets destroyed daily. Here are a few of my tips:

1. The thing I'm most picky about keeping clean is the floors. I vacuum at least every other day, both the carpet and wood. I have a light weight model vacuum in the kitchen, which I use to clean up after meals and I use a steam mop on the wood and linoleum. Steam mops are great because they don't use any chemicals and sanitize with just water.

2. I make my own all purpose cleaning spray and disinfectant. Did you know that tea tree oil and vinegar are natural disinfectants? Baking soda and borax are also great for getting rid of odors and scouring surfaces.

3. I use the brush hand attachment on my vacuum to dust many surfaces. It's a lot faster than other methods and doesn't just stir up and move around dust.

4. Baby wipes are awesome, I use them to wipe down the leather furniture. They are also great for dusting and wiping off toys.

5. A pumice stone is great for removing marks left on the porcelain sinks and toilet. I also use it clean the burners of my gas stove (which get really gross).

6. Clutter makes a clean house look dirty, so I try to keep my house as clutter free as possible. I only put out a few of Emma's toys at a time and rotate them. That way she's limited with the amount of mess she can make daily. I try not to let things like plastic bags, mail, and laundry pile up but take care of them frequently.

7. Every night, before I go to bed, I make sure that the kitchen is clean. There are never dirty dishes in the sink. I always rinse and put them in the dishwasher immediately after use. I also try to clean while I'm cooking instead of letting things pile up. I try not to let things pile up on the counters and make sure they are wiped down. That way, when I get up in the morning I can make breakfast for Emma without having to worry about cleaning up the kitchen first.

She's using the sign language against me!

So, Emma is now pretty consistently using a few different signs. She uses the sign for "more" when she wants food, whether it's more or not. I don't typically give her cookies or junk food, but, my husband gave her a couple the other day and of course she loved them. Cirt was eating cookies last night and left the box out in the living room. When Emma and I came downstairs this morning, the very first thing she did was go directly to the cookies, bring them to her dad and sign "more". And, of course he gave her one. At 9am!!!! So much for all my efforts, he's such a softie!

I'm a Smarti-mom, are you?

Can I just say, I LOVE Smartipants! They are my go-to diaper all day long. They fit my daughter perfectly, the insert has just the right amount of absorbency and agitates itself out of the cover in the wash. Plus, you can't beat the super cute colors or totally awesome price of $14.95! Wanna win a three pack of these awesome diapers? All you have to do is become a Facebook fan of Smartipants, which you should do anyway!!! I just checked, and they are at 879 fans right now, so hurry up because at 900, the fun begins!!!!



SMARTIPANTS TO REACH 900 FACEBOOK FANS 3-PACK GIVEAWAY IS OFFICIAL! Here is how to enter....

1. becoming a facebook fan or if you are already a facebook fan is one entry
2. following us on twitter at http://twitter.com/thesmartipants is another entry
3. blogging about thi...s giveaway and then leaving a link to your blog on our fan page here is one entry
4. blogging about this giveaway and then leaving a link to your blog on our twitter page is another entry
5. Re-tweeting about this giveaway is a 3rd entry

We will choose a winner from OUR FACEBOOK FAN BASE based on the above criteria when we reach 900 fans or more! Let's get there and GIVEAWAY SOME SMARTIPANTS!

The great girl event at Happily Domestic, yay!

Do you have a little princess, like I do? Do you like buying really cute things for your little girl? Well, then, winning totally cute things for free would be even better!!! I'm so ecited about the great girl event over at Happily Domestic, one of the blogs that I follow. Not only is Beth an awesome mom blogger, she's hosting this totally cool event, during which, she'll be giving away some great prizes from some great companies. You should DEFINITLEY check it out:

Follow Friday Blog Hop

This is my first ever attempt at this, so please bear with me. Feedback accepted and greatly appreciated!

In the interest of saving time and money.....

Ever since becoming a stay at home mom a year ago, I've been doing everything I can to stretch our dollars and become more organized. A household runs much more smoothly if it's organized and neat. Of course, getting everyone on board is another task all together! I've always planned the weekly menu and made my shopping list from it, but now I'm going to try to take the extra step and actually PLAN out a weekly menu. What I mean is, I'll actually put thought into it, like: what would my family like to eat? how can I balance the meals so that they are healthy and yummy? I also have to plan around such things as days when I watch my nephew. I don't think I'll attempt to make beef wellington with baked Alaska on a day when I have two babies to take care of :) Another, important part of planning that I hadn't been doing is writing down the weekly menu. I think this will make me much more accountable and organized. So, here is the dinner menu for this week: I'd love to hear thoughts, advice and suggestions, I really would!

Monday: sloppy joaquins (a Rachel Ray recipe) and salad

Tuesday: chicken rolls (an old family recipe) and green beans

Wednesday: balsamic chicken (another Rachel Ray), french bread and sweet potato casserole

Thursday: Ziti with tomato cream sauce (my favorite vegan recipe) and broccoli
Friday: baked potato soup and salad

Saturday: basil cream chicken pot pies (another R.R.)

Sunday: probably leftovers, or if I'm feeling energetic then curry chicken with coconut rice

So, would you like to come eat at my house this week????

Rockin Green rocks my world

As most of you know, I recently started using cloth diapers exclusively. Well, in order to keep the diapers clean and in good condition, it's necessary to use a detergent without a lot of the ingredients in typical laundry detergents. I've experimented with a couple and my new favorite is: Rockin Green. It's so many good things: vegan, non-toxic, biodegradable, yummy smelling and guaranteed to get the ammonia smell out of the diapers. So, I got to thinking...if it cleans my daughter's pee, why wouldn't it clean my dog's pee as well. The little stinkers had peed on my daughter's pink princess tent and I was furious because I thought I'd have to throw it out. But...I just soaked it overnight in Rockin Green, rinsed and it's as fresh as can be. Thank you Rockin Green, I love you!