Trying to avoid harsh chemicals in your cleaning products? Replace the rinse agent (ie “JetDry”) in your dishwasher with vinegar. Vinegar will leave your dishes shiny and spotless with no chemical residue. It will also help prevent mold from growing in your dishwasher. (And, no, your dishes will not smell like vinegar).
Any kind of vinegar will work in theory (well, maybe not balsamic), but I prefer to use white vinegar for cleaning.
Just one more small step you can take to live a little more sustainably. Fewer chemicals down the drain, and fewer chemicals in your family.
I’m sorry I’ve been so absent lately. We’ve had 1,000 things going on, especially on the weekends. MacGyver put together a huge charity event for our town; we went to a couple other charity events; there was a highway clean-up and a river sweep. Of course there was Halloween – costume making and trick-or-treating. I wrote and led the Samhain ritual for our Earth-centered spirituality group. There were two different harvest festivals and two or three potluck events. The weekends have been at least as exhausting as the work week.
And work has been as crazy as ever. I’ve been given more personnel, which is a blessing, but they’re also tearing apart my building, so I don’t really have a place to put, nor can I effectively use, my new personnel. Still, work is rolling right along and some really amazing things have been happening on that front. To detail it would be pure bragging, but I will say that high ranking individuals are currently fighting over me. Work is fast paced but good.
Then we went out of town to take the kids to Harry Potter world and Disney. Eating ethically on that trip was definitely a challenge, but we managed. Now, with MacGvyer’s birthday and Yule right around the corner, we really need to focus on saving money.
A member of my immediate family was also diagnosed with cancer again, but it was caught very early and the Dr. believes he removed it all. So that is just a waiting game right now.
The long and short of it is that I have been beyond busy. Nearly every waking moment is taken up, but the majority of it has been wonderful. The list above barely even scratches the surface. I could not be more thankful for my life right now. My husband and children are amazing. We have incredible friends near and far. Our community is fun and supportive. The list is never ending.
And I have a mountain of picture and post ideas related to nearly every event I’ve listed above, but I’m not sure those posts will ever get written. If you want to keep up on our day-to-day sustainability and antics, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram (UrbanEarthworm).
I will be working to get more posts up more regularly between now and Yule. If you have any post ideas or requests, feel free to post them on the aforementioned Facebook page.