The Smell Coming From The Backseat

Girlie is involved in a local Brownie Troop. They are a great group of girls who lately has been learning about helping others. This month, the Brownies orchestrated a personal care products drive at their school. Apparently, the local food pantry is completely out of products such as soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, etc.

Just two weeks ago Girlie and I printed fliers to distribute to the neighbors asking if they would help contribute to the food pantry. Pick-up was on the day that Girlie caught the flu bug, so Little Guy and I hoofed around the neighborhood with the old jog stroller collecting from our very generous neighbors.

All of our neighbor's contributions have been sitting in the back of my car for the last nine days. Imagine having the entire cleaning isle from Stop and Shop in the back of your station wagon? The donations are appreciated, but oh the chemical smell!

I haven't been in confined quarters with household cleaners in years. Are they supposed to smell like a secret scientific laboratory blew-up? After not using them for so long, my sense of smell has come back.

Now I can't seem to get rid of all of the personal care products. The food pantry is an elusive one. I have been calling them for over a week with no call back. Their hours are missing from the town website and from their voice mail message. Aren't food pantry's generally in great need of donations? Don't they want my donation of smelly soaps that is just sitting in the station wagon? Is there some sort of treasure hunt game to find the food pantry hours that I don't know about? ~ This is turning into a rant for another day.

Here is my question, why do most Americans think that our cleaning products, both for ourselves and our homes, have to be chemical laden and dangerous? Why do we think that they have to burn to work? Why do we think that they have to have a strong smell to signal that they are working?

Everyday items have antibacterial qualities without being dangerous. Baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice are amazing and safe to use around kids, pets and adults. The best part is that they will really clean your home.

I have a few cheap, easy and SAFE ways that I clean/chase the dust bunnies from my home without poisoning my family and our air;

Tub Cleaner: Mix baking soda and laundry detergent into a frosting-like consistency. (How I dream about frosting.) The scrub will gently clean your tub without scratching.

Better Than Dryer Sheets: Add 1/2 cup of vinegar to your rinse cycle and kiss that cling goodbye.

Window/Glass Cleaner: One part vinegar to three parts water. Mix in a spray bottle.

Dr. Bronner's Soap cleans everything. One little bottle can wash your floor, counters, hair and even teeth. I have heard about some people who only own a bottle of Dr. Bronner's and nothing else to clean their homes and bodies. Personally, I love to add one squirt of DB into a bucket of hot water to clean my floors.


Happy cleaning...um do I have to clean my house too?

12:00

In honor of the beginning of February vacation and the kids having an entire week off from school, I thought that I would do a little show and tell. Thanks to Dolphyn for the great idea! Hopefully I will still be standing at the end of vacation week...a whole week in cold February.

I have been asked about how I pack Girlie's lunch for school. Is it green? Is it crunchy? Is it (gasp) prepackaged? Here it is;

My first goal is to pack a healthy lunch that fills Girlie up for the day. I want her to have the energy to learn and learn. (Do I sound like a commercial for breakfast cereal?)

Yesterday, I packed girlie a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on organic whole wheat bread (she is on a PB&J kick), organic apple juice with a splash of water, organic raisins, an organic apple and $1 to buy a snack from the cafeteria (a Friday treat).

Next, I try to be as trash-free as possible.

First, the lunch box itself wipes clean easily and can be reused. I am in love with Sigg water bottles so they always make a lunch box appearance. This bottle is their smallest model and fits perfectly in the lunch box. Then, I wrap the sandwich in waxed paper. Not perfect, but better than a plastic baggie. Then, the apple is easy. It comes in it's own edible container, so that one is a no-brainer. Next, I always pack a cloth napkin for Girlie to wipe her mouth and hands with. Her lunch neighbor once asked what that "cloth thing" was in Girlie's lunch. Finally, the raisins. Girlile is pretty good about bringing home the box so it can be recycled.

There you go. Lunch at the Gruppie house. When was the last time I had a PB&J?

Sickie

This weekend Girlie caught a nasty Flu. Little Guy caught the flu bug on Monday. For me, it was yesterday. This week is completely lost.

I'm not sure what day it is. I haven't spoken to any adults, except for Hubby. I have not done any cleaning or laundry. I have only worn sweat pants and comfy shirts. I haven't opened the makeup drawer.

A while ago I posted about why litigation is not green. That got me thinking about why being a sickie is not green.

In the last two days I have completely blown (pun intended) a box of Puffs Plus making lots of trash. I have stood in the shower on three occasions completely emptying the hot water tank. Wasting tons of water and energy just so I could breathe. After running out of books and magazines, I have watched hours of endless reruns of Will and Grace, Kate and Allie and other television pairs that are now are blurr. Think of my electricity use. Oh my. To top off all of the un-green-ness, I have only fed myself and the kids foods that are premade or microwavable.

Here is to spring. Wherever you are.

The Big Reveal

Does anyone else have a bunch of random skills that they have accumulated over the years and probably will never get to use? One of my random skills comes from my high school days as a radio DJ on WHHB. That experience has been completely useless....until now.

I'm going to be on the radio this week!

Dr. Gary Ginsberg, author of What's Toxic, What's Not called me a few weeks ago to talk about his new radio show. The show talk about a few different green topics each week. The new show is promised to be quick paced and interesting.

Gary's radio show will be on Saturdays from 4:00 to 6:00 on WTIC 1080. For those in the Hartford area, you can listen on your radio. For those who don't live in the Nutmeg State, you can listen online.

If all goes well, fingers crossed, Gary has asked me to come back as a regular guest.

Now, what to chat about? I haven't carried on a conversation for more than a minute at a time sine my Girlie was born. Will I remember how? Will I forget the mechanics of the English language? What if I talk so fast that I finish in 37 seconds? What if no one calls in?

If you are looking for something to do on Saturday afternoon, please tune in between 5:00 and 6:00 to hear me, Gruppie Girl, stutter, forget how to speak English, say inappropriate things and possibly get heckled. Hey, it's all fun and games until someone forgets to recycle.

Is There A Vampire In The House?

Did anyone else have that game "I Vant To Bite Your Finger" when they were a kid? Maybe not a good name choice for a kid's game in 2008, but it sure was fun in 1982. I think of that game and the two little "blood" dots on the loser's finger when I think of vampires.

What do you think of when I add the word "energy?" Vampire energy.

Recently Good Magazine published an article about vampire energy. Basically vampire energy is a cute phrase describing what happens when we are not using electrical appliances and they are still plugged in. Lots of energy us still "sucked" up by the appliances. Who knew?

After reading this article I started unplugging more around the house. Not just the toaster and cell phone, but the TV and lamps too. I started unplugging appliances at other people's houses. I even started showering with the lights off...if I don't know where all of the equipment is by now, I'm in serious trouble.

The kids must have picked-up on my new hobby because they gave me a cute "unplug" tee shirt for Christmas. I wear it proudly. One of Little Guy's playmates Grandmother, Grandma Margie saw the shirt and inquired. I gave her my little spiel. "Up to 40% of our electricity is consumed by appliances that are not in use. Unplug!" So she did.

Just this week Grandma Margie and I met for lunch with the kids. $40! Grandma Margie saved $40 on her electricity bill last month!

Grandma Margie has told everyone she knows about her money savings tip. Now it's my turn to tell everyone I know about this money savings and earth saving tip.

Just in case you aren't quite sure of where all of your equipment is located yet, turn on the bathroom light. Then you can UNPLUG everything else.

Show and Tell

Plastic freaks me out. I don't like what happens when it's being manufactured. I don't like keeping it in my house. I don't like the fact that it is going to outlive me...by a lot. One of my earliest stands against plastic was the plastic bag. A few readers have asked about my personal stash of bags...

Back maybe six or so years ago I started bringing my own bags to the food store. Huge, bulky canvas bags that I collected in my travels. The bags took up half of the cart. It took me a few months to start remembering to bring them regularly. Now, the bags are second nature.


Last year I found a great bag company called Envirosax. They bundle five large bags into one small pouch. Much easier to tote around than my old bags. The cashiers watch me like I'm performing a magic trick when I pull them out.


The old bags went to Freecycle and two were slated to be snow pants bags for those snowy days when the kids have to bring their snow gear to school for recess.


Just over a year ago another light bulb went off in my head. Even though I wasn't using plastic bags at the food store, I was still grabbing bags at the hardware store, pharmacy, etc. So I found the cutest bag made of mattress ticking on etsy. I keep it in my car for those quick run-in trips that I don't plan for.


Finally, my bag dreams were fulfilled this Christmas when hubby gave me lightweight, mesh produce bags. No more plastic bags for my grapefruit.





Here is the "show" of the show and tell post.




Congrats to all of those readers who remember to bring their bags to the store! Congrats to all of those who are planning to remember in the near future!

Monkey Sea

My kids have some really green pets. The eat a drop of food every week. Their waste is so small that is is invisible to the naked eye.

As a kid I had sea monkeys. My mummy claims that they ate each other. I think that she forgot to feed them and they were just hungry.

In college I had sea monkeys. I went away for my month and a half on my winter break and my roommate forgot to add water. They evaporated.

This year Santa gave my kids a tiny, dried packet of their own sea monkeys. I think that Santa was probably thinking more of me. Those little monkeys are so darned cute.

Basically we started with what looked like one monkey. defying all laws of nature, two more monkeys appeared. Then ten tiny monkeys. Lately two of the monkeys have been, umm, attached to each other constantly. We are expecting new monkeys any day now.

The family also has a cat that we got from a no-kill shelter. Quinny the cat bathes herself. Therefore she uses little water. She has eaten organic food since our neighbor lost their cat to tainted food. Quinny has recently started using a no-clay litter. Is it strange that we are trying to green-up our cat too?

With all of the talk of green pets, how are your pets going green?