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!