Guilty Confession

I was kind of laughing to myself that I was doing this blog entry right after my Mean to Green (er) post, but oh well. It just goes to show that I am not perfect. I know, I can practically hear you all gasping in shock and horror. My name is Jenna and I am not perfect. (Although please don't tell Andre that, I have been working on keeping up that illusion for over the last 6 years.)

Although I like to do things that are more environmentally friendly I am guilty of doing many (many) things that are not. For instance. I use deodorant. True granola's would shun me for sure. But I am comforted by the fact that my pits smell like yummy cucumber and green tea. Theirs...not so much.

My most recent guilty obsession is the antibacterial soap from Bath and Body Works. I love their scents, especially in my kitchen. We're using this one currently. Andre picked the scent out. All you have to do is google Triclosan and you'll come up with a million and one hits about how dangerous it is for us and for our water ways. It also happens to be the main antibacterial ingredient in B&BW's antibacterial line of products. I just can't help myself. I blame it on the fact that I can finally buy this stuff in Canada after long last, and the recent H1N1 hype in the newspapers that is making me paranoid about killing germs.

Hopefully by the summer I will be back to using our regular non-antibacterial hand soap. Until then my hands will be smelling like Kitchen Lemon.

Mean to Green (er)

I have always hated mopping floors. I would rather clean my shower, clean my toilet, pretty much anything instead of mopping my kitchen floor. It's just a pain (literally a pain in my back) and it always takes FOREVER to dry. So you're either stuck in a corner or another room anxiously waiting for the floor to dry so you can move everything back.

I tried the bee mop:

But the bee mop takes forever to dry. And I would be using an all purpose or floor cleaner that would leave horrible streaks all over my floors.

I then moved on to the Swiffer Wet:

Let's face it. The Swiffer Wet is a good idea in theory, but not only is the scent a little over powering sometimes, it can leave horrible streaks all over the floor, and you're throwing out a one-use pad every time you clean your floors!

Then this wonderful invention hit the market:

This is the Bissell Steam mop. There are a ton of different varieties. The H2O Mop, The Shark Steam Vac, you get the picture. But I own the Bissell variety. Why do I love this product? It makes washing the floors simple. There is no cleaner needed, just plain old tap water. The cleaning pads are reusable, just throw them in with the dirty towels. Just regular steam cleans your floors. And as long as your husband isn't obsessed with pressing the steam button constantly, your floors will dry fairly quickly.

Now there is still no substitute for getting down on your hands and knees to scrub a floor, but for cleaning up food spills and everyday dirt, this thing is great. It even has the Mr M seal of approval (this mainly means there is minimal grumbling from him while completing a task with said product).

Hello out there!

I have not disappeared off the face of the earth. Nothing too exciting has happened to prevent me from blogging. Unfortunately it's just boring life that got in the way. Crazy work hours combined with fighting off a variety of viruses that clients have brought into the office I have just been too pooped in the evenings to do much more then have a quick dinner with Andre and then hop into bed.

I know, you are all incredibly jealous of my routine!! I do promise that at some point this week I will do an update, along with another Mean to Green(er) post. I don't dare give you a date though, so you'll all just have to wait patiently!

So Sad

Have you ever had one of those days where you have heard something that has stopped you in your tracks? Heard something that made you close your eyes and say a silent prayer for the person(s) involved, and then another one in thanksgiving for all that you have. I had one of those days today.

I have posted on a few message boards on The Nest for a couple years now. It was on one of these message boards that I came across When October Falls . You can read about their story here. They found out that their unborn child had a very rare chromosomal defect. The blog follows their journey. This morning I read that she felt the little angel kicking away at 5am, and by 10:30 that morning the doctor could not find a heartbeat. Their angel had earned their wings.

I'm sharing this so that anyone reading this can pray for this family. Pray that they have the strength to get through the labor, and the peace to get through the coming days and weeks.

Mean to Green (er)

Happy Thanksgiving my fellow Canadians! I hope that you all are either sitting back relaxing from your feast yesterday, or gearing up for all kinds of yumminess today.

In h0nour of the holiday today, I opted not for a product review for this edition but a tip that you could easily do if you were hosting your Thanksgiving dinner. It is simply really. Switch out these:

In favour of these:

It's that easy! Since we bought the house we have hosted two big family dinners, Easter and Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Each of those times we have opted for our formal china vs paper plates. Would we use actual plates if we didn't have a dishwasher? Probably not. The thought of standing over a sink of dirty dishes for hours after dinner doesn't appeal to me.

For all of you that are sitting there thinking I am absolutely crazy for not using paper, there is something you can do too! Do not put those paper plates in the trash bag so they can linger for years and years in your landfill. Instead, put them in your household compost pile, or put them in your municipal compost bin. That's all you have to do to try and be a little more green this Thanksgiving.

That's all for now. I must get back to the mountain of laundry I have to complete today!

Helen

That was my great-grandmother's name. Yes, I got to know my great-grandmother. In fact, I even got to know my great-grandfather as well. I was 21 when she passed away. She never got to meet Andre, even though her wish was to see me married off. I believe she was with me though when Andre and I said our vows.


The reason for this trip down memory lane is that I've been thinking about her a lot lately. I've been burning the candle at both ends so to speak lately and I've been paying the price. It seems like every weekend my body has enough and I start to feel like I'm coming down with something. This past weekend was the worst. As I was doing my best to do nothing on my day off on Monday all I wanted was my great-grandma. I knew that she would give me a hug and make me a pot of her homemade chicken soup.


See she was the type of grandma that believed that the common cold or flu could be cured with chicken soup. The moment she found out that anyone had come down with a cold she would immediately hit up her arsenal (the freezer) pull out some chicken and in just a few hours you would be seated in front of a steaming bowl of homemade chicken soup with the biggest (and best) egg noodles. Her soup was the best. And all I wanted this weekend was her soup. It would make me better, I knew it would.

Instead I had to settle for copious amounts of water, COLD FX and sleep. It seemed to do the trick for the time being. But last night when Andre and I went to the grocery store, I picked up an extra whole chicken, they were on sale. I had big plans for this chicken. So last night after we had finished the roasted chicken dinner when the slow cooker had barely had time to cool I threw in the required ingredients for chicken soup.


Here is my recipe:
1 chicken carcass, pieces of chicken, whole chicken. whatever you have
1-2 carrots chopped in three
1-2 celery stalks (with leaves) chopped in three
2 bay leaves
1 onion, chopped into quarters
2-4 cloves of garlic (I love garlic, I added 6)
6-8 cups of water
salt and pepper
sprinkle of paprika (I've been searching for that little something extra, I think this might be it)

Throw everything into the slow cooker, and let simmer on LOW for 12 hours. She wouldn't be happy that I'm not standing over a simmering pot for hours, but lets face it, I just don't have that much time. I like to let my soup simmer overnight.

Take out the chicken and strain and compost the vegetables. Let the broth cool and skim off the fat. Chop up the chicken and add to broth along with cooked veggies of choice. Cook egg noodles, rice, whatever you like and add to broth. Voila! You have soup!

Now I am prepared for whatever the fall throws at me. I know that I can handle it as long as I have some soup just waiting in the wings (my freezer).

Here is a picture of my great-grandparents:


I hangs in our dining room. It's them in their garden in their home in "the city", because all of us that lived on the escarpment lived in "the country". Together with the picture of Andre's departed grandparents that resides underneath, they watch over us. Making sure that we eat our chicken soup and take care of us every time we get sick.

Things I love about Fall

I know many people out there aren't that thrilled about the change of seasons, but I'm not one of them. I big puffy heart the fall. I think the only negative part of this season I think would be the fact that in just a few short months it will all be over and it will be winter. Urgh. I don't big puffy heart the winter. But we'll save that for another time.

So some things I love about the fall:

~The crisp fall air. It's like Mother Nature just sucked up all the gross smog that hung over the city all summer and replaced it with mountain fresh air.

~Pulling my favourite sweater out of the rubber maid bin of fall/winter clothes.

~Coming home from work and walking into a house smelling of beef stew that has been simmering in a slow cooker all day.

~Cinnamon candles. Could there be anything that smells more yummy?

~The sound of fallen leaves crunchy under my feet as I walk down the sidewalk.

Mean to Green (er)

Welcome to the new feature! From here on out whenever you see a blog entry with the Mean to Green (er) title there will be a little tip, or product review from yours truly. This will hopefully happen every week!


First of all lets start off with a disclaimer: First of all I am not an environmentalist. I am not an expert on all things environmentally friendly. I am just a person like you trying to do my part to help this planet that we all share. Some of you that may read this blog may be thinking "this isn't green! There is something else that she could be doing that is better!" My answer to that: There definitely could be! My belief is that if everyone did just one little thing that was better for the environment then we could make a huge difference. Not everyone has to become all granola and buy only organic or second hand clothes, slap some solar panels on their roof and bike to work to be more environmentally conscious. You can start slowly with a few little things around your house. These are the things I am going to share with you. Do with them what you will.

Now for my first Mean to Green (er) entry!

Today I thought I would start with something that I have been doing around my house for quite some time now. I originally got the idea from the Hyper Homemaker Blog. Don't bother going to google it. It sadly doesn't exist anymore. She does however have a cooking blog Good Things Catered . Check it out!

The first little recipe that I am going to give you can replace this nasty product:


Oh Comet, I don't even want to know how many nasty substances are in there, but you are no longer welcome in my home!

You can use these two little products to not only effectively clean your sink, but deodorize the drain, as well as keep the drain running clear so you do not have to use other nasty things like Drano.

That's right folks, just a little white vinegar and a little baking soda is all you need!

First start off with a dirty sink. (I can't believe that I'm posting a picture of my dirty sink, but here it goes!) I thought I would make it as dirty as possible and leave some flour in the bottom from baking.

Then pour in some baking soda:

Then you're going to add the vinegar:

This should happen:

Use your handy dandy little cloth or sponge, scrub your sink with that foamy baking soda and vinegar mixture. The baking soda is a mild abrasive, so it will gently scrub all the dirty grossness in your sink, and the acid in the vinegar disinfects and kills the bad stuff in your sink. For a quick little article about how effective vinegar is go here .

Then you are left with this:

Ta da! A beautifully clean (disinfected) sink and all you needed was some ingredients from your kitchen pantry. Who would've thought that our grandmothers all those years ago had a good thing going?

Now go and clean your sink!

Two years and counting

That is how long Andre and I have been married. We celebrated our second anniversary this past Monday and Tuesday. Monday was our official anniversary and we celebrated with a romantic dinner of tacos in front of the tv, exhausted from the work day. Tuesday we both had the day off and celebrated with some shopping (for a new sofa bed for the guest room), a new coffee table/storage for the living room (pictures to come later), a couples massage at my favourite Aveda salon/spa, then a nice dinner at Milestones that evening. It was a full day, but a good day.

The entire time I couldn't help but think to myself about our wedding day. I can't believe that it's been two whole years since we did this:

Sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago, but most of the time it seems like it was just yesterday. This year I had the sudden urge to rip my dress out of it's little acid-free box and put it on, but I didn't.

So much has changed over the last two years, and God only knows what is in store for us over the coming years, but one thing hasn't changed; I am so blessed to be sharing my life with my husband.

On again, off again.....

On again!

In January my middle sister, along with her boyfriend, his 9 year old daughter and their 100 pound black lab moved in with my parents. I know, insanity, trust me, I know. Their plan was to save in the hopes of buying a home in a year. You don't even have to ask, that didn't happen. The good news is that everyone is still alive and kicking to tell the story. Honestly, that is a miracle.

About a month ago they decided after a major blow-up, that they were applying to rent a townhouse, and they were moving. They applied, were approved, were set to move November 1st. I was so excited. We have been storing a ton of their stuff and some furniture for almost a year. About a week after their announcement that they were moving, they said that they didn't have enough money, and that they weren't moving. ::insert unhappy face here::

Fast forward a few weeks later. There is a house in the complex that we all live in that had been rented out. The tenants had left (with the help of a sheriff), and the owner was undecided about whether she wanted to go through the hassle of renting out the house again. My sister tells the owner that if she is renting, that they would be interested in renting the house from her. The owner jumps on the offer. Now they're moving again. The owner has been working like a maniac trying to fix up the mess the previous tenants had left behind, and they are set to move in November 1st.

They seem to be going about this in a responsible way and have asked me what our utility bills are like so they have a good idea about what their budget is going to be like once they move in. I hope this works out for them, and that everything happens this time.

So our next project is the guest room. As soon as the queen bed that is currently residing in there is gone, we are going to repaint and rip out the carpet. Our plan (fingers crossed) is to have the change-over complete by the time Andre's parents come to stay with us at Christmas. I think this is a realistic goal.