Those Brits

I have a great friend named Kim. Kim and I met back when we both had sweet baby girls and were living in the same Rhode Island neighborhood. Kim has always been a great resource when it comes to books, recipes and TV shows. We have similar taste.

Kim called me up this week and asked if I had heard about the BBC America Channel. I hadn't. With all of the endless reruns coinciding with my endless colds and flu's, I was willing to watch anything once.

I programmed my best friend, the DVR, and waited until I was stuck on the couch clinging to my tissues. Here are my two favorite shows;

How Clean Is Your House is a great show staring two thick-accented British women who find people who live in have dirty houses. Not just clutter, but actual flesh-eating, stomach-churning filth.

Aggie and Kim (the show's stars) arrive at the flats (that's British talk for apartment) complete with high heels and pink, feather rubber gloves. The ladies send samples from the bathrooms and kitchen to a lab. You should hear the gross bacteria that are found.

What I really like about this show is that the ladies use lots of natural cleaning solutions that really work. Meat tenderizer for nasty pots and pans. White toothpaste to wash silver. Washing soda in a tub for disgusting, old grime.

You Are What You Eat follows a no nonsense Holistic Nutritionist, Gillian McKeith. Gillian tracks down unhealthy couples and does things like look at their tongues for health clues (cracks in the tongue are bad) and she give the overweight guests colonics and diagnoses their poo. In either eight weeks or just one half hour in our time, guests are on the road to good health.

Gillian is hysterical and talks straight about s**t. (S**t must not be a swear in England) She advocates lots of fresh organic fruits, veggies and whole grains. She shuns proceed foods. She is a straight talker.

WARNING: Do not eat while you are watching either of these shows you will feel sick because the shows can be graphic and odds are, whatever you will be eating will not be included in Gillian's plan. My handful of chocolate chips were for medicinal purposes. Yeah, that's true.

Radio Update

After a few comments and quite a few emails I thought that I would update everyone on my radio debut.

Here it is;

Because I am such a worrywart/spaz, the kids and Hubby went out to my in-law's before the show started. The house was quiet. I even called the phone company to figure out how to suspend call waiting. I didn't need a beep right in the middle of my radio debut. (*70 if you were wondering) So I paced around the house trying not to think about the radio show. I succeeded in not thinking about what I was going to say, but my nerves failed miserably.

Greener living with Dr. G. premiered with a bang. It took me five minutes of hitting redial to get through for my chat. Gary wanted to talk about the time when my mummy sprayed furniture polish and Lysol and the carbon monoxide detector went off. I segwayed (because I am such an old pro. wink.) into talking about how my parents who rarely eat organic and use chemical-laden cleaners are probably greener then me. It's all about consumerism baby.

I was able to get through the hello fine. Hopefully the listeners couldn't hear the weird giggle/gasp right afterwards.

My time on the radio zoomed by. I maybe talked to five to seven minutes.

The show is online here. I am in the second hour about 20 minutes in counting commercials. I am not sure if the commercials were recorded too. Personally, I don't even like having my picture taken so I don't have plans on listening.

Thank you to everyone for their support! I will let you know if Dr. G. calls me for another Gruppie Girl segment.

They're Baaaacck!

It's Rectangle time at Girlie's school. Can you hear the disgust in my typing?



The Rectangle people have PTOs all over the country in the palm of their hands. "Buy our products and we will give money to your school." We need the money, so we buy their products. Oh the humanity!

The parents at this otherwise idyllic school still have not learned how to clip on the dotted lines. The picture of the scissors must not have been a big enough hint. Again, I lost feeling in my right arm while endlessly clipping.

I would like to send a big, sarcastic thank you to the parent who sent in a slimy hot dog wrapper in with their rectangles. I enjoyed having my stomach lurch. Another thank you to the family who sent their rectangles into school in a baggie that still contained snack. Yummy.

The rectangles are due to corporate headquarters on Wednesday. The school is $50 short of our goal. Think that I can beg to make-up the $50 by tomorrow?

As much as the PTO does wonderful things for all of the children at the school, I can no longer abuse myself as the official rectangle clipper and counter. I have given my notice to the PTO Grand Po Ba. Some poor kindergarten parent is in for a real surprise when they step-up next year.

I Made It Through

Just checking in to let you know that I have indeed (almost) made it through February school vacation. The kids are now taking out the trash and recycling to the curb. They still have to pick-out their clothes for the week and try to find their backpacks, then it is off to dream land. Ahhhhh.....

This week the family was supposed to be sitting in sunny, WARM Florida with my parents at their beach side timeshare. A few months ago we were uninvited and friends that my parents see twice a year were invited. I guess they are more fun than hubby and myself. Excuse me if I sound bitter, but my mother's repeated phone calls from the beach didn't help.

Over the week we have managed to keep ourselves busy. A trip to the food pantry to drop-off the food Girlie's Brownie troop collected. A just so-so movie with smuggled-in popcorn and Sigg bottles filled with water. OK, OK....So I also smuggled in a big bag of Reeses Pieces. (Don't tell the kids)

A trip to the local McDonald's with some friends before the building is bulldozed in the next few weeks. (Don't judge me. It's February in Connecticut...we were cold and bored) Two birthday parties at indoor gyms. A very bad library puppet show.

Lots of backyard sledding. Two trips to the food store. Cross country skiing. (twice!) Too many bad DVRed movies.

Here's to two months until April school vacation!


PS Spell check is back!!! I can spell again!

Olly, Olly Oxen Home and Free!

Apparently I have been tagged by one of my favorite bloggers. Erikka over at The Extra Ordinary has tagged me to write an archive meme. Basically, it sounds like I need to go through my old blogs and pull out five that fit into certain categories. What fun!

#1 Family
I Heart Squash Pie is a good example of a post about family.

#2 Friends
Field Trip talks about my friend Mary and how hard she is working to make green changes in her life.

UPDATE: Today Mary's youngest daughter had a birthday party. (Happy Birthday Sasha!) The favor was a pencil made from recycled newspapers. Who knew pencils could be made from newspapers? Mary has out-greened me.

#3 Me
This was a tough one. I haven't talked about too many personal details as of yet. I will have to work on that one. September Resolutions did reveal that I was a teacher in my past life. About that resolution. It isn't going too well...

#5 Up For Grabs
Come Visit My Compost Bin is about my love for cheesy television. Remember when there were first-run television shows on?


Now, I get to tag five more bloggers that I am interested in learning more about.
Katis at Un-Named Blog
Michelle at This is Framingham
"Bean" at Green Bean Dreams
Dolphyn at Verbose Means I Ramble
and here is a blog that is different from the rest;
Michelle at Ghost Hunting Secrets




Here are your Archive Meme Instructions: Go back through your archives and post the links to your five favorite blog posts that you've written. ... but there is a catch: Link 1 must be about family. Link 2 must be about friends. Link 3 must be about yourself, who you are... what you're all about. Link 4 must be about something you love. Link 5 can be anything you choose. I think this is a great way to circulate some of the great older posts everyone had written, return to a few great places in our memories and also learn a little something about ourselves and each other that we may not know. Post your five links and then tag five other people. At least TWO of the people you tag must be newer acquaintances so that you get to know each other better....and don't forget to read the archive posts and leave comments!

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?