Many Hands

 

How do you clean miles and miles of neglected tile, tile that probably hasn’t seen a mop in many moons?

The tile on the bottom middle of the picture, has been cleaned, the others around it are filthy, this picture doesn’t do it justice.

Why, lots of littles of coarse!

Each child got a section and got to work scrubbing.
This is Boo working on her section

Lou doing hers, she was the best helper and had been working on little sections all week.

Sassy, my little neat nick, her tiles sparkled

and Monkey, always wanting… no insisting on helping, so she got her own scrubber

…and she helped

…and when she got bored she tore up the scrubber

silly Monkey

 

Lent: 40 Garbage Bags in 40 Days

I have never done (or would the right word be celebrate?) Lent before, but this year I am going to do it.  I got the idea for Lent here: http://www.memoriesoncloverlane.com/2011/03/one-week-from-now-40-bags-40-days.html

Basically you fill a garbage bag a day for the 40 days of Lent, and either throw it out or donate it to charity.  I am excited, there is plenty for me to throw out or give away and to work a garbage bag at a time sounds very do-able.  The only modification I will make is that Sunday I will not be cleaning out anything, Sunday is a day of rest where we only do the work necessary, so I will do two bags on Saturday.

Do you celebrate Lent?  What do you do?

Little Bit of Early Spring Cleaning

Winter this year has seem particularly cold and long.
In Northern Utah we get temperature inversions in the winter.  Basically a high pressure system sits over the valleys, trapping cold air, pollution and water vapor in the valleys.  It will just sit and sit until a storm system, strong enough comes along to clean everything out.  We can easily go several days or weeks with out seeing the sun or blue sky, everything is grey and foggy and down right gloomy!
This year has been colder than normal and the inversion seems to be more tenacious.  We have had several storms move through, but while the fog and smog will clear out for maybe a half day, the inversion comes right back.  I don’t know if it has to do with being in the yucky first trimester, where I am normally tired and sick, but this year seems so bad!
About a week ago my Brother-in-law came and painted my bedroom and cheerie shade of green.  I took the opportunity to “spring clean” my bed room, moving furniture and washing curtains, something about a good deep clean seems to raise my spirits a bit.  The next day when I ironed the curtains and hung them back up, we had a rare sunny day with blue sky, it felt like a breath of springtime and I was reminded that we are only about 6 weeks away from the first breaths of real spring!
Ironing my curtains, by a sunny window, I couldn’t help but admire how pretty it all looked.

 

Curtains all hung up in my sunny bedroom window, the cradle has already found its home, between my bed and the window.  I can’t wait for baby to fill it.

The sunset from our backdoor, yesterday and today are proving to be beautiful and warm, and nice break before we head back into winter.

 



Smelly Pickle Jars

I am a bit of a collector

of glass jars.

I know, kinda strange, but I love glass jars in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  I have been known to purchase a product, not for the food inside, but for the shape of the glass jar.

I use my glass jars for storing all sorts of dry goods: beans, rice, special grains, flours and herbs.  Some jars I use to store milk, yogurt, cream and butter.
Of all the jars I have collected, I think I have more pickle jars than anything else.  They are a good size for storing all sorts of things.  The only problem with pickle jars is that they retain the pickle smell.  Nothing ruins a good cup of chamomile tea faster that the smell and taste of pickles.
The smell comes from the lid of the jar.

The inside of the lids are lined with plastic and rubber, to help keep the lid from rusting and to maintain the seal on the jar.  The pickle smell gets into the plastic and is almost impossible to wash out.

But, there is a way….

All you need is the special odor fighting power of Baking Soda and a plastic bag.
Place washed lids in a plastic bag with some Baking Soda and let sit for a few days.  Then wash.  Now you have clean smelling, virtually free, storage containers!