lapsed hippy

i'm embarrassed... i try, i really do. i try to be environmentally conscious. i try to do the right thing. but, sometimes i need BLEACH

and CHEMICALS

So, here's the deal.  I try to clean with natural things - lemon juice, and baking soda, and vinegar, and salt, and in a pinch, oxyclean, but the truth is that sometimes, particularly if you are a lousy housekeeper like me, those just won't work. :-(

To tell you the truth, I use the healthy things first, but about two or three times a year, I get crazy and buy some stinking chemicals. I just did it and, as it turns out SoftScrub with bleach works great. (not sure how i feel about saying that...)

So this is what I use: vinegar and baking soda mostly, then Seventh Generation cleaning supplies and dish soap, then for Doug's work clothes, every few months I soak them in blue Dawn. If you have never had the pleasure of cleaning restaurant clothes, let me tell you, it's a treat. Then, I admit, some SoftScrub and when all else fails (trash cans and diaper pails mostly) good ol' bleach. In the background there is Dr. Bronners. We use that for hand soap and sometimes baby soap when the California Baby isn't handy.

Does this make me a bad steward of this beautiful planet? maybe. There have been periods of my life where I would absolutely hate myself for "breaking" and buying the chemicals and think I had irreparably damaged the earth and my family, but, now, meh. I'm okay with doing MY best, not someone elses.

Photos in the Round

I don't think I've ever acknowledged how much I love the eclectic, yet organized photo display that my reluctantly artistic husband created. If I were to plan this photo, I would place the pillows more carefully and have Doug put down his phone, but even ignoring that, look how cute our house is!

A Pretty Good Day aka I'm a Domestic Goddess

Fact: I am a lousy housekeeper
Fact: I'm pretty darn lazy
Fact: I'm a good mom
Fact: I can be fun to be around
Fact: I'm a pretty good cook

All of those things are equally true, I just didn't want anyone to think I was all depressed and down on myself so I added in some good things. :-)

The great thing about being a lousy housewife is that even the most minimal effort makes you look pretty good and from there, domestic goddess is right around the corner! My poor sister has to do something pretty spectacular to get the kind of appreciation the most basic act gets me. Take that, perfectionism!

Anyway, what did I do today? Went shopping and did things I love doing. Yeah, it's almost that simple! Goose and I went to the little local farmer store place (that, wonderfully, is just around the corner from our new house!) and bought yummy and delicious goodies. In addition to some lavender and rosemary to put in a big pot that I keep planting things in and then killing :

Goose helping - look there are even bugs and plants on her shirt, I totally didn't plan that, but boy, does it make me look put together!

I got veggies for a pasta primavera tonight and a whole box of "almost done for" peppers. I love having diced peppers in the freezer for quick meals, so I don't care if they are starting to wrinkle a bit.

Look at my beautiful bags of diced peppers!

Lucille also cuted herself to a couple of almost free peaches and a lime. (read: picked them up and started eating before I could stop her) The guy there was super nice and knowledgeable, I just can't tell you strongly enough how much I love friendly people!

I should mention that a big help in achieving the domestic goddess status came from the fact that Lucille slept until 10:00 today and then took a nap this afternoon after terrorizing Target and the market. So I was well rested AND had some alone time with the knife.

Now, just prepping and freezing peppers isn't quite enough, I also prepped all of the veggies for the pasta tonight, including fresh basil, thyme, and rosemary from my YARD! Oh yeah! (okay, fine, I just bought the rosemary today, but it's still a plant and I picked the leaves, damn it!) Seriously, look at those red and yellow tomatoes, aren't they gorgeous! Plus, there are some mushrooms in that bowl that the guy literally was selling to the market while I was there. He harvested them today, there were still bugs and dirt on them for heaven's sake! How can you not love this kind of stuff?!?

Not pictured is the penne I boiled in chicken broth from the freezer and white wine I'll add (and drink) later

Now, all that is pretty good, wouldn't you say? But, wait! There's more!

Look, almost all of the dishes are done and one side of the sink is clean!

This is the type of half-ass domestic goddess crap I'm talking about! But seriously, I put some baking soda in it and wiped it for like a second with a washcloth then dumped some vinegar and... ta da! clean!