Give a Truly Better Life

I  read an article today about motherhood. Or rather, I started reading an article today. I only made it to the third sentence, where the author talks about the guilt of motherhood, and that mothers want to give their children the moon.

Except that I don't. Want to give my children the moon, that is. (The guilt I DO get).

So I stopped reading and started thinking, about what we give our children. I have friends who say that they wish they could give their children "all the things that I never had." They worry and fret over birthdays and holidays because of the cost - both in money and time - of making those events "memorable" according to the material standards that they have set for themselves.

I don't want to imply that is wrong. We have enough guilt without criticizing each other. But I got wondering today, as I have in the past, "WHY?" Why do we think that giving our children MORE STUFF is the same as giving them a BETTER LIFE? 

Like many of you, money was tight in my childhood. We had to scrape by at times, work hard, save money for things we wanted, and buy many of our own things. BUT, through that, I learned discipline, sacrifice, delayed gratification, prioritization, the ability to choose happiness regardless of circumstance, consideration of others, teamwork, and gratitude.

I want my child to learn those lessons more than I want her to have a lot of things, so if giving her too many material things means that she loses some of those lessons, then I will pass. Moms have enough to worry about as it is. :)

Fight Hard Water in the Bathroom & Kitchen

I came across this recipe on Pinterest a month ago & gave it a try. It worked, but not quite as magically or quickly as I had hoped. Also it made suds F.O.R.E.V.E.R. when rinsing. It worked better than any cleaner I have used on the soap scum, the tub and the chrome, but I still had mineral deposits on the wall of the shower. We have really hard water here, so the original recipe may be just fine as a cleaner in your neck of the woods. However, our water is hard enough that if I didn't clean my shower weekly we might develop stalagmites on the bottom of the tub. As it is, we get orangish goo in the toilet and around the edge of the shower after only 2-3 days. I swish my toilet with a brush daily. So I was happy with the results I did get, I just wanted MORE. Because I am an American, and we like MORE.

I tried a version that decreased the soap by half to minimize suds. I tried a version that used cornstarch as a thickener so that the solution would stay where it was sprayed and work longer. Neither seemed to make a difference, and I was worried about the starch in my drains. I tried using the liquid along with a green kitchen scrubber on the walls, but nothing was cutting through the hard deposits. You'd think I would give up at this point, but there is more to this post, so obviously, I persisted. I used the mix of 1 cup vinegar & 1/2 cup soap in the meantime while thinking about what I could do to oomph up the cleaning power.

Then, while I was doing laundry one day, I happened to read the side of one of the bottles sitting there.

It was leftover from a previous natural cleaning spree I had been on and had been sitting there for a few years. Among other uses, it listed that it could be dissolved in water as a cleaner to dissolve hard water deposits... 

The wheels started turning, and I thought, I wonder if I dissolved this in the vinegar. Would it strengthen the cleaning ability? So, I heated 1 cup of vinegar, dissolved 2 TB Lemishine, added 1/2 cup of Dawn and sprayed it on the most mineral encrusted thing I could find: The water dispenser drip tray on our fridge.

I have tried every cleaner I can imagine on this baby. I have tried the toughest scouring pads, including steel wool on it. Nothing touched the crusty mineral layer in the grooves. I was sure that this would be the same, so I didn't even bother taking "Before" pictures. Still, I sprayed it on before bed one night and let it work.

 Imagine my surprise when I started cleaning the next morning and it wiped off. I didn't say scrubbed off - it wiped off. With a towel. After wiping out four of the grooves, the shock wore off enough for me to realize that I wanted pictures of this because it was a modern miracle. Lest you think I am exaggerating, take a closer look at that orange crud in the top groove. That was on the bottom and sides of every groove, even after I had cleaned it. It was hard. It was orange. It was ugly.

This is the after. White. Smooth. Shiny. Pretty.

Let's take a look at the area where the drip tray sits.

 I did get a "Before" picture of this.

 And "After."

The whole enchilada. Beautiful.

Shortly after trying this, I came across a similar solution at this link. I haven't tried it because I have a whole bottle of Lemi-shine to use, but it might be worth a shot before you go buy something you don't have.

I now keep this recipe in a spray bottle in my shower and spray it on the surfaces almost daily. The next morning, when hubby takes his shower, it rinses clean, no scrubbing at all. Weekly-ish, I wipe the tub portion and walls to get a little deeper clean.  I also spray it in my toilet to prevent the orange-ish slime layer from forming. And a quick spray and rinse of the sink keeps it just as shiny as everything else!

Now my bathroom fixtures stay permanently clean. If I could just keep my dirty cat from jumping on the counter to get his drink, things would stay so clean that I wouldn't know what to do with myself.

Analyze your relationship with food

Whenever I read about unhealthy eating behaviors, one of the signs of unhealthy eating is hiding food. Today, as I was hiding my specialty treat stash, I had the thought that this is not a symptom of unhealthy behaviors if you have children (or a spouse with a sweet tooth), it is a necessity. If you don't hide the food, it will be gone and you might never have tasted it, let alone eat it over time at your leisure. The only other alternative is binging, which is an even more unhealthy behavior!

So, my question for any of you out there is, do you hide anything (food or non-food)? If so, what?