Cleaning Lady Tells All!

Yes that's me! We recently had to let go of our cleaning lady due to the new job role I have taken on.  (insert your spoiled rotten comments here). It was a sad day but we remains friends and she was very understanding. That being said, those dirty job duties fall back on me. As I was mixing up my favorite cleaning solution yesterday, I thought it would be nice to share my secret with others b/c who doesn't like to save a buck here and there right?

It's a little product called Simple Green. I learned about it from technicians in my previous job who used this to soak parts that were covered in old dried up ink and was always told it worked miralces. I found out that the all-purpose cleaner was available in 1 gallon bottles at Home Depot, so I tried it. The mixing instructions are listed on the back for the job requirement. General cleaning is 1oz to 1 cup of water per the instructions. Now I will admit that I do 2 oz to 1.5 cups water b/c that what fills my empty Lysol Kitchen Cleaner bottle. I've been using it for a couple of months and happy with the results. It works great on dried up food on the counter and smells great. Recently I ran out of Scrubbing Bubbles for the bathroom and switched to this as well, and have even used it on my toilets.

I know it's early but let's do the math: Paying $10 for a bottle equal to 128 oz, I'm essentially only paying 15 cents for my new cleaner as opposed to $4 or $4.50. One gallon could make up to 64 bottles of cleaner which could save me around $250 over time! That's a steal! This product can be used with laundry and tougher jobs like lifting grease and oil which is listed in the instructions as well I just haven't tried those yet. Another great thing is that there are no harmful chemicals used so it's better for the environment and will not agrivate those with allergies.

This mom wins again!

Day Off = Pay Off

Yea yea yea. Once again I haven't posted since May. Just to bring everyone up to speed; quit my job, stay at home mom, best decision I've ever made in my life, Sam turned 2, we get to play all the time, hope to do this more often, yadda yadda yadda. So my original intent was to work part-time but decided against that. For the time being, my son still goes to the sitter's two days a week to be with his friends and get away from me. Now I know that many people are wondering what the hell do you do with your time two days a week with no kids and no job, right?
The first few weeks I spent catching up on many projects I neglected for three years. I also became reaquainted with my kitchen. MostlyI'm doing all my chores those days so that when I'm with my son we have nothing to do but play, learn, and meet new friends. Today, however, I've started the first of many DIY projects. I have a passion for that as well as organizition, creativity, being a mom, and blogging about it of course. So today I was able to put them all together!
My son is a lover of books and we frequent the library. Unfortunately it was starting to take over his room. I went on a search and found a way to get a stack of free pallets and then turned to etsy and pinterest and was able to find this link with some simple instructions to take back his nighstand.

DIY Pallet Shelves

After a little blood and sweat, but no tears, I think they turned out great!

Mountain of Books

BEFORE:

 

FREE GIFT FROM MY PALLET FRIEND:

 

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS AN ELECTRIC SAW!

 

FINISHED PRODUCT 

 

 

The reclaimed wood gives them more character which fits well in this household. Eight cuts with a hand saw took up most of the morning but it was totally worth it. Most importantly, it was TOTALLY FREE!!!!!! Can't wait to see what else I can make. Stay tuned for more ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle......



 

Chores

Once upon a time, there was this super excited new mommy that couldn't resist spreading the joys and accomplishments that accompany parenting, so she started this wonderful little place to share her stories. Well then, she returned to work and it took a backseat. Then she started recording and spending time making these ridiculously cute movies to cherish forever and ever. Then she picked up fairly nice camera and started dabbling in some photography spending every spare second clicking and reading and reading and clicking. By spare time we're talking about an average of about 2 hours out of an entire week.

What I'm trying to say here is that I haven't forgotten about this little space. I still enjoy writing about a bunch of nonsense, but I'm just too busy playing outside. Maybe if I'm lucky, one day Mister Maternity Leave will return and we can spend some more time together.

In the mean time I've trying to get past editing videos as well as photos and just share some raw footage. There is a little boy in this house that is always eager to help. He honestly has chores to do each morning which consist of simple tasks like feeding the doggie, giving dog and cat treats, and putting Elvis in the kennel. He loves to help with the laundry, get the mail, and even insists on flushing the toilet for you. Something I probably shouldn't share is that he really enjoys putting the adult beverages away in the fridge and it's really helped him learn to count. He currently is obsessed with mowing the grass and learning about the people in our neighborhood that mow their lawns. He has all the names down of all the men who do yard work around us and where they live and talks about them usually every day.

So I've learned that any time I need to get anything done I turn to my beloved leafblower....

Happy Festivus!

We hope everyone had as much fun throughout the holidays as we did. Christmas and New Year's had us running all over the place, skipping naps, eatting way to many sweets, and mommy and daddy endulging in a few too many glasses of wine. Worth every second as we had so much fun. Having one year under our belt now and a Christmas to compare too......... this year was soo much better. Last year around this time we were on breathing treatments and sleepless nights. This year the Samster was Rockin & Rollin'!

Once again, to save the time of writing I've compiled the home videos to make yet another Rademeyer home movie with some highlights. Happy New Year to you all!