Author: The Urban Homemaker

Improving the Quality of Life

When March rolls around,  the temperatures are a little warmer and the air smells like Spring I know it’s time to get started with Spring Cleaning.

If you start with the plan I devised , and clean one room  at a time you will have success.

Below I have outlined what needs to be done in each room of the house to make the room shine, and sparkle!

Note: The only cleaning products needed are Norwex micro-fiber cloths and water.  No paper towel, or chemicals. However, if you invest in the Mother’ Helper, you will have an Enviro Cloth, Window Cloth, and Dust Mitt and be ready to get started.  The rest of the items described are optional, but listed to show you environmentally friendly, alternative ways to clean safely and effectively without chemicals.

Living Room and Dining Room

Start at the room that gets the most use and public exposure. Do all the dusting in both rooms, then windows etc for that economy of scale efficiency.

1.  Dust and De-clutter– Use the Norwex Microfiber mitt or Enivro cloth dry, to thoroughly dust the entire room. Clear the clutter as you go. Use the 3 box system- give-away, throw-away, and put-away. Use the Norwex mop system to wipe down walls and remove cobwebs, if desired.

2.  Curtains and Drapes – Curtains can be machine washed with Norwex Ultra Power Plus Laundry Detergent . It only takes 1 tsp in a front loading machine. Line dry if possible for that really fresh and clean scent. Dry Clean only drapes can be tumbled in a cool dryer to remove dust. Re-hang.

3.  Windows – Next wipe down all the windows with a damp Enviro Cloth and then polish with
the Window Cloth. You won’t believe how quick and easy the window polishing goes with a dry micro-fiber window cloth.

4.  Upholstery – Spot clean using an Enviro cloth and water. Vacuum cushions, backs, under cushions.

5.  Vacuum – the room thoroughly including under furniture around the edges.

6.  Air the Room – If it is warm enough – open the windows!

7.  Re-Arrange furniture for a seasonal change if desired. VOILA – you are done!

Bedrooms

Repeat the same steps above: Dust and De-clutter, Curtains and Drapes, and Windows.

1.  Beds – Wash mattress pad, blankets, and other bedding in the Ultra Power Plus Laundry Detergent. Hang out to dry if possible. Turn mattress. Spray with Mattress Cleaner if desired, it only contains enzymes. Make up the beds.

2. Vacuum the room thoroughly including under furniture and bed around the edges of the room.

Kitchen and Pantry

This is probably a big job if it hasn’t been done lately. So allow plenty of time – or take it a few cabinets at a time or use 15-30 minute time segments daily until the job is done. Getting started is the hardest part.

1.  Cabinets – Clear everything out of the cabinets. Purge unused, and out-of date items. Wipe down the inside and outside cabinet surfaces with a damp Enviro Cloth. Apply lemon oil to wood cabinets if desired.

2. Refrigerator – Clear everything out of the refrigerator or do it shelf by shelf, drawer by drawer. Purge unused, moldy, and out of date foods. Wipe shelves and exterior of refrigerator with a wet Enviro Cloth. Polish with dry window cloth. Plastic drawers should be removed, washed and dried. Re-assemble everything neatly and you will be amazed at how much more room you now have!

3.  Floors – I like to use the Norwex mop system to get the floor dry mopped, and then wet mop. It only takes water and does a very thorough job without getting on hands and knees..  Or use what you have to mop thoroughly.

4.  Oven – If you do not have a self-cleaning oven, water and spirinettes with lots of elbow grease will do the job or consider the Norwex Oven Cleaner – it is enzyme based.

5.   Cook Top – Smooth top and conventional electric ranges can be maintained and polished with an Enviro Cloth and window cloth. If you have tough burned on food use the cleaning paste with a damp Enviro or the Micro-pad.

Bathrooms

Surprisingly, you can get most of the bathroom cleaned up very well using an Enviro Cloth and water. Since the Enviro clothes are anti-bacterial no disinfectants are needed.  Here are some additional steps and products that you may enjoy trying.

1.  Toilet– Sanira Toilet System – Both cleaning solution and brush are produced from environmentally friendly raw materials. The cleaning solution is vegetable based with coconut oil and a naturally- occurring sugar surfactant. The brush does not contain any metal parts. Using only ¾ tsp a week, this solution will last about a year. Compare to 2 Tbsp of traditional cleaner and save.

2. Throw Rugs – Wash with Ultra Power Plus Laundry Detergent and hang out to dry. Replace.

3.  Mirrors – Wipe with a damp Enviro and polish with dry Window Cloth for a streak free shine in seconds.

4.  Floors – Use Norwex Mop System to dry and wet mop.

5. Shower & Tubs – Maintained weekly with an Enviro cloth and water you won’t have much extra work. Wash out shower curtain liners and shower curtain with Ultra Power Plus Laundry Detergent and rehang after the shower is cleaned up.

6.  Shower Doors can be descaled the safe non-toxic way with De-Scaler a wonderful gel that removes lime scale easily.  If there is a heavy build -up it will take several applications to get bright and shiny.   The netted dish cloth can also be used to remove soap scum.

Halls and Closets

Apply the above products and principles of de-cluttering, wiping down, mopping and/or vacuuming to closets and hall ways. Wash and dry throw rugs and replace.

When you get everything done, email me and I will enter you into a drawing for a Norwex Cleaning Kit to include one each of the Norwex Cleaning Paste, The Bathroom Scrub Mitt, a Spirisponge and a Promotional Window Cloth.  This package has a $60.00 value.

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Although the government is claiming unemployment is at 9- 10%, it doesn’t account for people who have given up looking for work, self-employed people who have seen a drop in income, or people who are underemployed.

Duane and I were unemployed for about 15 months before he found work.  During that trying time, we didn’t have any savings or unemployment to fall back on,  so I do deeply empathize with any family facing unemployment or underemployment.

I offer the following article, written by Kathy Brodock of Teacher of Good Things, as food for thought for your family to consider about adult children living at home.   I don’t necessarily agree with everything, but I do think there is a lot of valuable insight worth your consideration.

I personally would be delighted to have my older children living with me (since I’m a widow), but living in a small town there are few jobs, and no community college means there are few opportunities and social outlets here for recent high school graduates.

I hope you will read Kathy’s insights on why she thinks it is cost effective for adult children to live at home.  I also would love to hear how your family is addressing the economic downturn in creative, practical ways in the comments section below.

Why Living as a Family Makes Good Cents by Kathy Brodock

Auto Insurance – Our adult children can be on our auto insurance as long as they live in our house. They pay their portion, which is a lot cheaper that getting their own.

Family Phone Plan – We have 5 phones on our plan, one belongs to my mother, who also lives here, we each pay a share and divide minutes. Our girls are allowed a smaller amount of minutes because they don’t ‘need’ as many, so they pay less. If they abuse the privilege of the family plan they are removed and can get their own plan and pay more!

Health Care – Our adult children can stay on our Samaritans Family plan until they are 22, as along as they live at home. Yes, they (over 18 years old) pay a portion of this.

Gym Membership – We can get 2 adults and 4 children (until age 22 or 23?) on one family plan. Our gym allowed my mother to be part of our family plan since she lives with us and is a senior. So we split the gym cost each month which comes out to about $18 a month each…can’t beat that!

Groceries – Sometimes our girls (16 and 20), will buy groceries needed for a special meal they want to prepare or for an event.

Rent – When our son lived at home he had to pay rent, a small amount each month to cover his room, meals, laundry, water, etc… This is called being a man! We do not require our girls to pay rent, but when they wanted a pool, they paid for the water to fill it, if they want things built in the yard for their domain they help pay for materials.

Vacation – We always share vacation expenses with our adult children, we usually pay the bulk of it, but they always chip in. When we take long trips they will offer to fill the tank once, or buy breakfast, etc… Our last trip our 19 year old paid for a separate room (one night) for her and her sister to make it more comfortable for all of us (Grandma was traveling with us too).

Saving for the Future – This is the perfect time for our older children to be saving and investing. Because they share expenses as a family it allows them to build up savings for their home one day.

It is TIME effective to live together and share:

Work Load/Chores – One of the greatest advantages of living as a family is that the more strong, skilled hands there are, the lighter the work load. When all of us are working in the yard it is amazing how fast things get done. When there are three of us cleaning this house at one time it is done in a flash, which leaves more time to ‘play’.

Trips and Outings – If one of us needs to go to the store we try to combine trips. I prefer to send a list and debit card and not go, I spend less money that way! ;o)

Education and Ministry – When adult children are still living at home and sharing expenses and responsibility, they have MUCH more freedom to focus on continuing their education (academically and skill wise) and searching out ways to minister to needs in the community. When one person has an apartment, paying rent and utilities, doing all the upkeep themselves, it really limits their time of learning, ministering and playing. 🙂

There is a LOT of give and take.

Because we live together as a family we have to be considerate of each other. This is not a hotel where people come and go and do as they please, we are a family. We let each other know where we are and what we are doing. When we make plans/spend money we have to consider how it will effect the family as a whole. Big decisions need to be discussed with Dad, house rules need to be honored.

Living as a family, even when the children are ‘of age’, is not always easy, it’s downright hard some days. Parents need to learn to let them be adults yet keep house rules and order in the home. It is a constant balancing act. Throw in a grandparent and it becomes even more tricky.

If your adult children are used to living as a family, used to considering others first, used to compromise and loving people, they will adjust to being married and parenting much easier than children that can’t wait until they are 18, to get out of the house and be totally independent. Most people that live by themselves, only seeking their own happiness and net gain for 10, 20, even 30 years will most likely have a hard time adjusting to living as a family.

Living as a family not only saves money, but it also brings safety, accountability, support, encouragement, sacrifice and LOVE.

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Ed Note: The following article, authored by Deborah Taylor-Hough, is a great way to use up leftovers, clear the cupboards, or shop your pantry instead of the grocery store.  Some of the ingredients may not be real food friendly – so substitute what works for your family, your budget, your time schedule, and your pantry.  This is a very practical, helpful article.  Read on!  In fact, I would suggest printing this out and saving it in a convenient location.

Mix and Match Meals

The following recipe is one I prepare regularly to use up leftovers or clear out the cupboards. I keep a copy of this taped to the inside of my pantry door at all times. I’m always amazed at the meals I can create from this simple, basic formula. I also save money by choosing ingredients I have on hand. Sometimes I even surprise myself with a delicious nearly-gourmet combination or two! This is also an excellent way to use up leftover turkey, pot roast, or ham from big family dinners.

Choose one (1) food from each of the following groups:

Breads and Cereals:

• Macaroni

• Spaghetti

• Rice (long grain, white, or brown)

• Noodles

• Bulgar

• Any pasta

Sauce (1 can soup plus 1.5 cans milk, broth or water or make your own cream sauce from real food ingredients)

• Cream of Mushroom

• Cream of Celery

• Cream of Chicken

• Cream of Potato

• Tomato Soup

• French Onion Soup

Protein (1 pound or 1 cup cooked)

• Chopped beef

• Chopped pork or ham

• Ground beef or turkey

• Chicken

• Turkey

• Tuna

• Salmon

• Mackerel

• Cooked dry beans

• Frankfurters

• Keilbasa

Vegetables (1.5 to 2 cups canned, cooked or raw, clean out the fridge or freezer)

• Carrots

• Peas

• Corn

• Green beans

• Lima beans

• Broccoli

• Spinach

• Mixed vegetables

• Celery

• Green Pepper

• Whatever you have around

1/2 to 1 cup cheese (any kind) can be stirred into sauce at the end of the cooking time. (Optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Choose one food from each of the four groups above.

2. Stir together in skillet.

3. Season to taste with salt, pepper, soy sauce, onion flakes, garlic, or whatever spices you enjoy.

4. Bring to a boil.

5. Reduce heat to lowest setting.

6. Cover pan and simmer 30 minutes until pasta or rice is tender.

7. Stir occasionaly to prevent rice and pasta from sticking.

8. Stir in cheese, if desired.

9. Serve.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

To bake in oven: Mix all ingredients in casserole dish and cover tightly; bake at 350 F for one hour.

One of my family’s favorite Skillet Meal combinations is something we’ve started calling International Sausage Skillet.  Follow the above recipe using sliced Keilbasa, penne pasta, French onion soup, and Italian-style stewed tomatoes.  Yum!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Deborah Taylor-Hough is the author of a numerous popular books including the bestselling Frozen Assets cookbook series, Frugal Living for Dummies®, and A Simple Choice: A practical guide for saving your time, money and sanity. She also edits the Simple Times email newsletter. To visit Debi online, go to: www.SimpleMom.com

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New Contest  – Free Registration to Get Cultured!  How to Ferment Anything eCourse by Jenny McGruther of Nourished Kitchen

$150.00 Retail Value!

This contest CLOSED on Tuesday, February 22, and the winner is #10 Jill.  Jill, please contact marilyn@urbanhomemaker.com to claim your prize.

There are up to five ways to enter the contest!

You get one contest entry for each of the following steps you take and you post that you did it in  the comments section of this blog page below:

1.  Post this article to your Facebook page and tell me you did so in the comments section below.

2.  Post this article to your Twitter page and tell me you did so in the comments section below.

3.  Sign up for receiving The Urban Homemaker blog posts by email above, and tell me you did so below in the comments.

4.  Mention this contest in your blog posting and link back to this page and post your blog link in the comments section below.

5.  Sign up to receive The Urban Homemaker Enewsletter, and tell me you did so below in the comments.

Essential to health, naturally fermented foods can boost immunity, improve digestion and make the foods we eat taste great.

Real Baby Food

The time is rapidly approaching when Job can partake in his first meal of solid foods.  So I began looking up information on the subject, knowing from other moms that it can be a somewhat tricky field to navigate.  Also, I despise most contemporary nutrition advise as I find it is often filled with errors, so I wanted to research this topic on my own.

I read the book Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck and I stopped with this book because everything in it-or mostly everything-made so much sense that I did not feel the need to look further.  I share this information with you now in hopes that it will be of value and that it will open up a whole new interesting world of when and what to feed baby.  Of course, I am not an expert on this subject, I am simply sharing what I have learned.  Proceed at your own risk;-)

Job is not yet sitting up on his own, but I figured that he could at least start exploring foods. I peeled and washed a whole carrot and let him taste and gum it. He looks bored in this picture, but he had lots of fun exploring his new chew toy!

This book is filled with inspiring information, and I must resist the urge to simply recite the whole book.  I have tried to highlight the things I found most helpful.  But I highly recommend checking the book out for yourself.  You will find yourself refreshed by Nina’s wholesome and commonsense advice.

Nina Planck begins with the assertion that the best time to start feeding solid foods is when baby is sitting up by himself.  This indicates a strong control of the trunk portion of their body, presumably so that the baby will be more prone to swallowing rather than spitting out food.  Certainly you can start baby before he is sitting up on his own, but this gives an idea of when to begin.  Job is not yet sitting on his own, I think because his head is still about 2/3 of his body!

Nina is an advocate for a food movement called “real foods.”  This movement centers around eating the traditional foods of our fore fathers, basic foods like eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats like lard, butter, and olive oil, and meat.  FYI, when she refers to eggs, milk, and cheese she is referring to raw milk, free range eggs, and raw cheese, and grass-fed beef and free range chicken.  However, if these are not readily available, the products on the shelves at Wal-Mart will mostly do (minus a few exceptions such as fake cheese and yogurts laden with sugar).   The foods in their natural state however, like raw milk, is the most beneficial, filled with vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and beneficial fat.  For more information on this subject refer to Nina’s book, www.westonaprice.org, or possibly even a future blog posting if I can be so amazingly organized (crossing fingers!).

Gumming a banana! Yum!

So what foods are best to begin with?  According to Nina, begin with any and every fruit and vegetable you like.  She has found very little evidence to support that you should feed certain foods (like citrus and eggs) at certain ages.  Especially if a baby has been breast fed for the first 6 months, their propensity towards allergies is greatly diminished.  That aside, armed with real foods and common-motherly-sense, Nina recommends what she deems the “scientific feeding method.”

This method involves: 1) placing baby in highchair, 2) setting out foods in front of baby such as sliced avocado, pieces of banana, cooked sweet potatoes, or cooked egg yolk, 3) allow baby to explore the foods on his own-according to Niles Newton author of The Family Book of Child Care, babies are capable of feeding themselves at 5 months, 4) repeat once or twice daily and gradually baby will learn to place food in mouth, gum it around, and even swallow!

I have yet to decide if I’m brave enough to place in front of my baby chopped, rather than pureed, food, but according to Nina, it works-of course be sure to always supervise baby (hence the motherly commonsense).  This saves the time and effort of pureeing and freezing foods, purchasing baby food, as well as trying to force food down a baby only interested in spitting it out.  If baby is hungry, he will eat!  And of course the greatest hope is that you can enjoy your own hot meal while baby eats along with you.  Depending on your diet, you can also share your hot meal with baby being careful to stir clear of anything refined, such as refined flours and sugars.

Oh la la! An apple!

Here is a list of foods that Nina finds perfectly acceptable for a baby of 6 months: ground beef and lamb, chicken (cut into long thin pieces), fish, bone jelly (soup stock made from chicken/beef/lamb/turkey bones), eggs, applesauce, bananas, oranges, pineapple, peaches, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, peas, steamed beets, baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, avocado, fresh coconut, coconut milk, and dairy products (however, dairy products should be things like raw milk and raw cheese).  Grains, including rice, should still be kept until the baby is about a year old because the gluten in these products can still be difficult for a baby to digest.

Mix into babies food things like olive oil, butter, and coconut oil.  These are healthy fats and aid in baby’s (and ours, we should also consume these nutritious foods) digestion, building cell walls, immunity, helping bones create calcium, fight inflammation, and much more.  Also, don’t be afraid to season with salt so long as it is unrefined sea salt.  This salt is very nutritious for the body, refined, iodized salt, however, is devoid of nutrients and unusable to the body.

So there you have it!  This is condensed information on how to feed your baby, but you have all the steps and the highlighted details from my book.  But again, I highly recommend this book for more specific information on foods.  This book also discusses real foods for fertility, pregnancy, and breastfeeding.

I look forward to using the “scientific feeding method” on Job and seeing for myself how well he can learn to feed himself.  I also feel much better equipped for growing a healthy baby and hope that you do too.

For the record, Laura has nursed Job 100% since birth and pumped when he was in the NANIC (Neo-natal intensive care).  That is a HUGE accomplishment.

Thanks for allowing me to share pictures of my grandson Job, almost six months old. Marilyn Moll, The Urban Homemaker