Great resource

Funny thing... I got an email from the Environmental Working Group (I love their cosmetic lists and amount of toxic ingredients!), about green cleaning! I'm posting the link here so that you can read it if you're interested...

http://www.ewg.org/healthyhometips/greencleaning

I think my favorite tip is using baking soda on toilets... that was my last cleaner that I just couldn't figure out. However, I have really hard water... and we get deposits in the toilets really bad... so that I end up using the pumice stone on it. I'm going to hope that baking soda can help with this... and I'll let you know what happens... and in the meantime... if anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear it!

Preservatives in food...

I found this article online about preservatives in food... not necessary to read it unless you're interested, but it sure made me think about some of our food.
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/8045/8045sci2.html

I like gardening, and I like to grow our food, we get a box each week during the spring/summer/fall from a local Community Supported Agriculture farm, and I buy organic whenever possible. But I've also taken a liking to the idea of preserving a bunch of our own food. This is new for me, but I like the strawberry jam we're still using from last year, and we recently made applesauce. I think I'll take a class on canning over the summer!

I did find this great online tutorial for making your own applesauce if you're interested...
http://www.pickyourown.org/applesauce.htm

For now... here's our applesauce from our family canning adventure a few weekends ago...

Fresh air!

Ahhh... gotta love spring! I opened my windows today and was happy to have the fresh air flowing through! It's still a little cool, but it smelled so good I couldn't help myself. I like it when things smell good, but because I've heard so much lately about the potential hazards of artificial air fresheners, I decided to try out a tip a friend gave me.

I put a couple of drops of lemon essential oil on my vacuum cleaner bag when I was vacuuming today. It was really nice while I was vacuuming, but it didn't hang around for long. Maybe next time I'll use a little more... at the very least it was a nice fragrance while I was doing the work.

Next up, the wonders of vinegar... but I need to go to the store and get some more first...

Microwave

My first cleaning project was my nasty microwave! I don't know what happened... it never really looks that bad (no, really!)... although I will admit that there were lots of times that I used it and said "oh dear... I really need to clean that"... and then once I was done using it I promptly forgot. My mom even came over, noticed how dirty it was, mentioned it to the kids, said she was going to clean it... then promptly forgot. I guess that's what happens when you close the door... maybe that's the problem with my refrigerator. But, I digress... I heard somewhere that a good trick for the microwave was lemon and water.

Fill a mug 3/4 full of water
squeeze half a lemon into it
microwave it for two minutes

It steams the inside of the microwave and makes it easy to get all that gunk off. It's TRUE! It's my favorite new trick!

Next time I clean something like that I'll take before-and-after pics! :)

Introduction and goals

Hi, my name is Jill and I am a stay-at-home mom with two children, ages 5 and 3. I have never been much of a housekeeper or a cook. About 10 years ago I started to teach myself to cook, and mostly I enjoy it. I've learned a lot over the years about organic food, eating locally, and the importance of small farms. I am now trying to teach myself to be a better housekeeper as the organizational demands of the belongings of two children and my increasing awareness of the potential of chemical exposures in the home are changing how I see the products that I use.

I'm no expert, and I don't ever intend to sound like one... this is just a blog of one mom educating myself about the stuff I use in my house, and trying to make my home a safe-haven from chemicals for my family. Honestly, I'm also using this blog to motivate myself to keep moving forward to reduce the harmful chemicals in my house and to organize all the info in my own mind.

So, welcome... thanks for joining me on my journey!