New Year :: New You

Well, actually, that should read, "New Year, New Me" and I really want to add disclaimers
like "hopefully", but I wont, because I know the odds are stacked against me and I can even
see my inner me sort of nibbling her fingernails with that irky face she makes just before
someone takes a right tumble.

She can sod off.


Recently I became involved with Dettol's Healthy Homes campaign. 
I joined with a view to some Spring Cleaning, and I love to tell people what I really think
( ho ho! ), but as i've made some life changes in recent weeks, I realise the term
"Healthy Homes" can be taken a step further.





The kids went back to school this week.  TWO kids at the one school, full time.

It's been a long time coming for me, and it's definitely time.  Last year was HARD. 
I felt out of the loop with friends who had been childfree for a while, and juggling work
and the sporadic session times of public kinder is tricky.  It was time.

I've put on a tonne of weight in recent years - we used to walk everywhere, but once the
younger mister dropped the pram, my world fell apart. 

He can't walk that far, he wants me to carry him, he's just going to sit on this sidewalk
stubbornly until the police come and take him away.  So we got used to driving. 

Everywhere. 
Or not going out at all.

It was simply too hard, and he's such a sweetie at home.
Not.throwing.a.tantrum. 

Life slowed, then stilled. 


Mama no longer excercised, and mama doesn't like exercises to begin with. 

Walking was always my champion.  With walking I can indulge in my favourite pursuits -
checking out the neighbourhood .. ooh, I like that house .. what a gorgeous street, what do you
think that plant is?, what a beautiful garden.. 

I'm also unplugged.  And I say hi to people if they are out the front. 
It's awfully good for your heart in more ways that one. 

And I miss it.  I miss the freedom of me. 

So this year has started well - I drilled it into them from Term 4 last year that this year was
going to be different, more healthy, and we WOULD be walking to school each day again,
and home when after-school commitments allowed. 

And on that first day, after drop off, I walked home, got in my car, drove ALONE to my
nearest shopping centre and used some giftcards to buy a food steamer .. and a juicer. 

Healthy.  Hopefully.

Not that I think food is the problem, I think it's age+genetics+wine+no exercise.
 
Mainly no exercise. 

But at my age, it's time to stop pretending i'm 20years younger and that the upsized
fries will not stick.

Because they do.  They most certainly do.

Ok, so after the steamer and the juicer, I got to work de-holidaying the home. 
Put a load of laundry on, started to clean.






I did the whole kitchen with the Dettol Power & Pure .. from the S/steel cooker to the
caesarstone benchtops .. it works really well and has a fresh fragrance that I would
describe as "Clean" and Dettol would describe as "Oxygen Splash" ..

Either way, gets the job done! :D


Well, this is embarrassing .. hardly the pic I want to display, but the bathroom grout
was well overdue O_o ..





GAH!  UGH!

Sprayed a little Power & Pure Bathroom and grabbed one of the many toothbrushes
the males in my family discard in the cabinet as putting them in the bin seems a bit like hard work.

Spray, Stay, Quick Scrub, Rinse.  Sweet.





I did the countertops with the Multi-Purpose Wipes. 
Although, more often I grabbed one of the floor wipes from the flat/soft-pack and used that. 

Purely personal packaging preference, they did the same job equally fine.





Floors done in a jiffy - no mop, no slop....






Leaving more time for this:

:D






Healthy Homes, Happy Homes!

2014 - Here's to greater balance & happier days.


Xx

Related articles

• Today, I Be Cleaning..
• The Bathroom .. Now with a Touch of Green ..
• Where the Wild Things Are.
• Garage Finds

Garage Finds

Another year, another skip.

But i think this may be our last!

When we moved here 8years ago there was a lot of clearing to do .. and it's been ongoing ..
we've pulled up rocks and ivy and slabs of concrete that may have been garden borders in
the older days (?) ( http://house-n-baby.blogspot.com.au/2007/03/what-lies-beneath.html )

This time it's post-renovation leftovers .. bricks .. random bits of wood and crap the
builders left citing 'oh hold onto that, you might need it'. 

Um no, we're not hoarders, thanks, this is trash.

There's also the random boxes of things you pack up and then never look at again. 
To be truthful, I didn't think I held on to anything any more, but it seems I do.

First up, last night, an old copy of Epicure Traveller, the Spanish issue!  ( Oct 2008 )
Only last week I was perusing some Spanish cookbooks online and hover over the
"press buy' button .. so this was a fab discovery :D





Then the wedding dress.  This box has moved house 6 times and been through 2 renovations. 

The top of it got crunched in when it became a cat-bed at one stage, and to be honest,
after 8yrs in the garage, i've been too scared to pop open the lid lest a plague of
pestilence rushes me.  Quelle horreur!
( or, to keep with the Spanish theme: ¿Qué horror )

BUT!

it seemed ok?!






Maybe it's whatever they clean the damn things in, but there was no evidence of bug activity,
no poops, no chomps.  The horrid stains ( not evident after the wedding ) were caused by a
reaction of champagne with drycleaning fluids, so even the stains are well preserved. 
I was pretty impressed actually.


But now, what to do with it??






I googled the designer, she's still frocking on and I liked her new stuff too, which was nice :)





I also found some old Print Award books .. I thought I threw all those out too. 
Seems i'd used the couple i'd kept to file away old drawings and poems.

Most of the poems are very deep, and some .. not so much, and more like ditties.





I wasn't a MJ fan, btw, so i'm thinking I was being tongue-in-cheek witty here. 
Such a laugh, chortle, chortle, chortle, ho!


.. and a drawing of my feet. 





I used to draw my feet a lot ( and cats! ). 
The reason being is because i'm not very good at watching movies unless i'm doing stuff ..
so with my feet propped out in front, or a handy cat lounging nearby, I could sit still long
enough to watch a movie, and add to my 'drawing of my own feet' collection. 

Random photograph is one of AB's old rellies.  We think.  Nothing written on the back.


There's also a heap of my diaries naturally, and letter and notes.  I tried to tease AB with
a note I found from another dude with fabulous handwriting and yet bad spelling
( apparently I have increadible eyes ), but he knows my days of being a temptress are
long gone and no-one's gonna come knocking to steal me away any time soon. 

Old age is a Poo-bah to foiling my teasing.

Today, I Be Cleaning..

As I mentioned earlier, 2013 was a whirlwind. 
We moved into a tiny flat during a heatwave and I think I fried off several thousand
braincells.  We renovated, we moved back.

The plan was to take the year off work, and I did for the 6 months we were out of the house,
but there were splashbacks to investigate and lighting to buy, and return, and buy more of. 
Paint samples to obsess over. 

On top of this the regular kiddy-party-playdates / kindy-drop-off-pick-up routine that
just about did my head in ( long daycare had spoiled me I think ) and everything else,
we kinda moved back in and got busy working again to pay for what we had spent.

Thus it is only now, in these Summer holidays, that I feel I am finally home,
and discovered I had a "junk drawer" already. 

The builders started it. 

We got new doorhandles, so they popped the old ones in the 2nd drawer down. 
Excess screws and warranties, 2nd drawer down. 
A caulking gun, and some weird bits of metal with stickers on them warning me
not to throw them out.  Err, ok, weird excess bit of metal.  You can stay for now. 

In the 2nd drawer down.

So today I be cleaning, and tomorrow we be getting a skip to sort out the garage
( where all the bigger post-reno junk went ).  We love a good clean out.

So when Dettol's people called my people ( err, that would be me, I dont have people )
and asked if i'd like to trial some new cleaning stuff, I was all 'um hello, yes please'.





 Also, Dettol is really into a green theme atm, and so am I.  Call me vain ( i'm ok with that )
but I like the pretty, even with my cleaning products.  Dettol matches my house. 
I only buy the Dettol handwash in my bathroom because it's a pretty Lime colour/scent
( I used to decant into refillable fancy containers, but have never found one of those suckers
that ever worked properly, so have given up )






Also, I have two boys.  One was born nice and clean and tidy.  I could take him anywhere
and people used to remark how I ever got around without a nappy bag, or really, any bag at all. 
He just never made a mess.  Other babies were always gooby and ikky, but not mine.

But then I birthed the other baby and this one was the Anti-Clean. 

Seriously, even now at 5 1/2 yrs old, he's still perpetually grotty.  He will eat one tiny little
thing and manage to smear it all over his face.  No-one wants to sit at his place at the
kitchen counter as there is food EVERYWHERE .. spills, splatters, crumbs. 
The floor beneath his seat is usually repulsive and as I type I find my nostrils flared and
my mouth pursed in disgust.

Lucky he's also very cute and witty and fun and cheeky, but By God I hope he learns
where his mouth is soon.. or at least has the good grace to clean up after himself.  Ugh.





So the new Dettol Floor Cleaning System is perfect for me.  I find mops rather gross
to be honest .. especially those string ones.  I have a sponge-mop, but I always end up doing
most of the work on my hands and knees with an old towel anyway as they always seem
to leave streaks - or dull my floors.  I hate dull floors.

Floor Wipes are easy, hygienic and clean really well without leaving residue. 
Pop one on, and once done, pop it in the bin and admire the mess-free result.






Mmm ... fresh Lime & Mint!
Especially fresh for around the toilet  ( boys remember.. I have boys .. )








Are you cleaning the house too for the fresh New Year?

I have another pack to give away that includes:

1x Dettol Floor Cleaning System ( plus refills )
1x bottle Dettol Power & Pure Kitchen Spray
1x bottle of Dettol Power & Pure bathroom Spray
1x Dettol Power & Pure Surface Wipes.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good Luck and Good Cleaning! x

Easy Pleased!

I bought a Chef's Pan!


OMG, *squeal* .. this simple kitchen utensil has been something i've wanted for ages. 





So the story is .. every time i've wanted to buy one, i've also technically needed other pots,
so i've walked in, price checked, wavered, worried, nail-nibbled, and ended up buying one
of those bulk home-starter packs with a few pots, a steamer, roaster, frypan etc. 

For the same price.  ish.

Those sets never, ever come with a Chef's pan. 


If you're friends with me on facebook, you'll know the Drama of the Gift Cards ..
basically a little stockpile of cards we'd been saving for housey stuff, that I lost, then
presumed threw in the bin (  I actually dumped the contents of our outside recycling bin
on the grass in our backyard and fossicked through it ), and felt sick and stupid for a
few months. 

Then I found them wedged between some CD's as I was packing up the flat to move back
a few months later.. 


Plastic money.  Yay!



I waited for the David Jones Half-Yearly Clearance and whacko.
Chef's Pan.  Mine.


I've cooked with it most nights this week - we've had Spanish Paella, and Spag Bog,
and an asian-style chicken & veges.  I love it! 

None of my pans are as deep or solid or come with a lid.  I know it sounds weird,
but this one pan RRP's at $250.  That's a lot for one saucepan.





I'm pretty basic in the kitchen .. I like things like .. pots .. and .. pans .. knives.. spoons..


I don't own a breadmaker or a  Kitchenaid or a food processor or an icecream maker or juicer
or any of those other things a Thermomix replaces.  Ergo: I do not own a Thermomix. 
Do not get that particular brand of hype.  I also don't like Tupperware. 
But I like home demo parties for some reason.  At other people's places, not mine. 


Probably because of the wine. 




So what have I been doing?

Moving house, and cleaning the flat etc, and then sorting through boxes etc .. SOLO,
because my husband like, left town, conveniently, and I was starting to feel like one of
those peasants from Horrible Histories, spotted with dung and the pox.

Then it was green bin night and I started on 6months of weeds and raked all the autumn
leaves until that bin groaned.  I've been making trips to the Salvos, filling the new fridge
and pantry, and sleeping with the lights on as I revisit old Stephen King novels. 
I've been washing clothes only to donate them to charity ( honestly, I still have skirts
I wore to a desk job a DECADE ago that don't even fit anymore? ), and trying to sort
the crap in the garage.


And i'm pretty well tired :)
But happy, very very very very very very happy  ( and tired )