Finally!  After several months of tweaking, fine tuning, dumping out and starting all over and many, many soapy overflows onto the kitchen floor (one spill in particular comes to mind – sorry ’bout your ass babe!)….I have done it!  Well, at least I think I’ve done it.  I never had a dishwasher in my home until we moved here.  I just always felt like they were energy and water wasters.  We never really even talked about getting one in our old place and when we bought this house, I figured I’d do with mine what my Grandma did with hers.  She kept her booze in it.  But once I had the chance to fire that baby up and take her on a test drive…I was smitten!  I love my dishwasher and all that she does for me!  I make sure I run full loads (I can pack a dishwasher like no one else…trust.) and I only run it once a day and sometimes skip a day or two.  But what I hate the most is buying dishwasher soap.  First, it’s super expensive if you buy green-detergents and second I feel like I waste it.  I am a little, ehem, heavy handed so when I squirt the stuff in to the cup…I fill that sucker to the brim.  And the other little cup gets a full squirt as well.  I was buying Seventh Generation in bulk from Amazon and felt like we were saving some money..but there had to be a way to do it cheaper.  So I started my quest for the perfect formula for homemade dishwasher soap.  I think this one is the best by far so I wanted to share.  Feel free to try it out and let me know what you think!  If you come up with different ingredients or measurements, let me know cuz I want to check them out too!

Sals Suds Homemade Dishwasher Soap

1/2 cup Sals Suds

1/2 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup water

3 tbsp lemon juice

couple of drops of your fave essential oil  (I used tea tree)

How pretty is that?

I use about 1tbsp per load or two if I’m washing pots and pans.  Play around with the amounts and see what is best for your dishwasher.  You should be able to get about 48 loads if you use 1 tablespoon.  I also use straight vinegar for my rinse aid..no diluting with water.  It’ll get plenty of water with the dishwasher running!  Not only does the vinegar do a great job rinsing the dishes – it gives your washer a good cleaning at the same time.  Good luck and let me know how this works for you!

Naturally yours, Dallas

Just a quickie today.  Have you ever wondered what those produce codes on the fruits/veggies mean?  I was thinking about yesterday while in the local Harry Tweeter and though I’d do a quick scan today to see what I could come up with. So here goes:

• Organic produce stickers start with a 9 and have 5 numbers

• Conventional produce has 4 numbers

• GM (genetically modified) produce have 5 numbers like organic produce but start with the number 8 so be particularly cautious of those fruits and vegetables

I found this little gem of info on the Green Mom Review site.  I’ve never seen her site before but looks to be pretty helpful so be sure to bookmark and visit when you can!

Naturally yours, Dallas

I was digging around on the internet looking for info on the Clorox buyout of Burt’s Bees (for a wimpy $925M!) cuz I’m trying to find out if they changed the formula.  I had heard a rumor they did and before I put them on BLAST on my blog, I wanted to get my facts straight.  Anyways, during my search I came across this little beauty and knew I had to share.  Now from what I can tell these ratings are based on twenty years worth of data and not just merely the opinion of some gone-completely-off-the-grid-tree-hugging-dirt-worshipping-hippie. Although I do have a fondess and fierce loyalty to said gone-completely-off-the-grid-tree-hugging-dirt-worshipping-hippie…this doesn’t appear to be how these guys work.  This site is about calling companies out on their BS and then posting it on the internet.  I love it!

PS Did you know Clorox still uses 1% toxic chemmies in their “green” products but don’t disclose it because the law says they don’t have to?  LIARS!

Better World Shopper

Naturally yours, Dallas

I found this great list of herbs that can be used for natural remedies on the Mothering.com website!  Herbal treatments are my first resort when treating my boys for everything from diaper rash to coughs/colds and everything in between.  If you open up our cabinets you’ll find an arsenal of herbal remedies for the whole family.  Mullein for diaper rashes, wild cherry bark for coughs, essential oils, herbal teas…you name it, I’ve got it.  Remember, when using herbal remedies be sure to do your homework and use the herbs are suggested…meaning keep the “external use only” herbs on the outside and the “internal use only” on the inside.  Here’s to herbs!

Herbs for Natural Remedies

Naturally yours, Dallas

I’ve been following this BPA thing pretty closely for a while now. And yes, I was one of those mothers who tossed all of her BPA containing products out and bought new stuff. PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE ON SAFEMAMA.COM.

Here is a list of things I switched out to BPA free.

All of Kiki’s bottles, sippy cups, plates, utensils. All pacifiers and basically anything that is going to go into his mouth. I also threw away several plastic toys and switched them for BPA free or wooden.

If you want a more detailed list of what to buy see the SafeMama.com site for her cheat sheet.

Naturally yours, Dallas

OH MY GOD! I can’t believe I haven’t bought a single paper towel in one month. Have we missed them? NOPE. Not one single bit. But I will be honest and say that we pulled out leftover Christmas napkins to use for dinner. It’s a little weird using napkins that have pointsettias on them during the dead of summer..but it does make us laugh and think of the upcoming holiday season! Which..by the way…will be Kiki’s first Christmas.

So I think I’m going to invest in some good cloth napkins..maybe organic cotton if I can find them..or bamboo. I’m going to start researching today. I’ll update on my findings!

Naturally yours, Dallas

Ok – so maybe I was a little over ambitious with the whole only using vinegar and water to clean my house.  I mean it totally works for everything…counters, stove, fridger, bathroom, everything.  It’s just the damn floors.  Ok – I’m just going to say it.  And you can get mad all you want – I don’t really care.  I…miss…my…Swiffers.  Before you cancel your subscription to my site and trash me all over the net (or the playground) here’s what I’m up against.  I miss the convenience of pulling out a pre-soaked wipe that just slaps on to the end of a mop that will never have to be cleaned.  I miss the no bucket, no rinsing, no mess convenience of my said Swiffer.  I hate that I’m so weak and lazy when it comes to cleaning…but hey, when you’ve got a nine month old who learned to crawl like, during his last nap and is all over the flipping place…you want to clean your floors FAST!  So I’m still all for the vinegar-baking soda-warm water routine…just maybe like when Kindegarten starts.

I decided to product test Method stuff.   You know..the stuff that you can get at Target?  I bought the OMOP starter kit..came with dry wipes, mop, microfiber floor mop pad thingy and floor juice.  Or cleaner or whatever you want to call it.  Anyways – container was made of recycled materials, floor juice is made from natural products like soy, coconut oil and the like.  Plus it smelled really good.  Not at all chemie like.  Anyhoo – I tried it, I liked it and I just might to continue to use it for a while.  Oh  – once you’re done with the microfiber floor mop you just toss in the wash and reuse. Sweet.  I’m sure someone out there will have something negative to say about Method Products…so feel free to let me have it.  If you want to check them out for yourself here is their site…www.methodproducts.com.

Naturally yours, Dallas

Yep. You read it right. I’m boycotting paper towels. My husband doesn’t know it yet…I’m not sure he will even notice since he doesn’t really do anything that would require a paper towel. But I’m just not going to buy them anymore. I’m quitting cold turkey and I’m not looking back. It’s actually been almost a week since we ran out and I just haven’t rushed out to buy more. Did you know that one tree can produce around 100 lbs of paper??? WOW! And..get this…there is a whole like, movement out there called These Come From Trees dedicated to the reduction/elimination of paper waste. I found their website and it’s really cool so be sure to check it. Here is the link thesecomefromtrees.blogspot.com. I know it’s not going to be easy at first..but I’m willing to be a rat in this experiment! If you think about it, I’ve already given up Swiffers..but I am hooked on baby wipes. I read somewhere that you can actually wash your disposable wipes…sounds kind of disgusting if you want to know the truth. I think I’m just going to start with paper towels and see how that goes. I’ll be sure to keep you posted!

When you have a baby, you truly get to experience what dirty really is. I don’t mean like stuff all over the place messy….I mean poop, pee, food, throwup and all sorts of what I like to call, unidentifiables. 

Anyways – once Kiki started feeding himself full throttle ( AKA yanking the spoon out of my hand a flicking it’s contents across the room) I found myself cleaning my kitchen floors about three times a day.  Which is not that exhausting because my kitchen floor is like 10 x 6 feet and I was using…AHH!  GASP!!….Swiffers! Which we all know are super convenient.  I hate to admit it but I just haven’t been able to let them go.  I know their full of all sorts of lovely chemies but they’re SOOOOOO CONVENIENT and they make everything smell fab!  But the more time Kiki spends on the floor and the more I want to move towards a chemie-free home (like my new word for chemicals, yeah, I made that up ya’ll!),  I just knew I needed to cut the cord and get rid of them.  Sooooo guess what I came up with today that totally worked??  I took my swiffer mop and used a microfiber cloth instead.  I just wet the cloth, wrapped it around the bottom and punched the ends into those little holey things and  BAM!  Now for  a cleaner I used my vinegar/water mixture to spray on the floor and cleaned like normal.  Clean as a whistle and no chemies.  Those microfiber cloths are great because you can just toss them in the wash to clean them and hang them out on the line to dry.  BONUS – no trash because you using a reusable cloth.  I feel like I discovered fire or something…go me.

Ok – here are the facts.  Chlorine is defined on Wikipedia as the following:  ”Chlorine (IPA: /ˈklɔəriːn/, from the Greek word ‘χλωρóς’ (khlôros)(meaning ‘pale green’), is the chemical element with atomic number  17 and symbol Cl. It is a halogen, found in the periodic table in group 17 (formerly VII, VIIa, or VIIb). As the chloide ion, which is part of common salt and other compounds, it is abundant in nature and necessary to most forms of life, including humans. In its common elemental form (Cl₂ or “dichlorine”) under standard conditions, it is a pale green gas about 2.5 times as dense as air. It has a disagreeable, suffocating odor that is detectable in concentrations as low as 3.5 ppm,^[1] and is choking and poisonous. Chlorine is a powerful oxidant and is used in bleaching and disinfectants. As a common disinfectant, chlorine compounds are used in swimming pools to keep them clean and sanitary. In the upper atmosphere, chlorine-containing molecules have been implicated in the destruction of the ozone layer.”  Got it?  Good.  Ok so I must have been under a rock becuase while I was researching this topic, I found out that “bleach” is a verb.  I thought that ”bleach” was a noun..which I think the act of “bleaching” can be considered a noun…but according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it’s a verb.  So now everything is totally clear as mud right?  Sorry!  But hang in there with me for just a little bit longer and my point will reveal itself!  

I’ve been using Seventh Generation laundry detergent for quite a while.  In the beginning it was because my hubby has really sensitive skin and after a long process of elimination, we discovered that Seventh Genteration was the only detergent that did NOT irritate his skin.  Now I use it for that reason and because I’ve really come to love the company and what they’ve got going on.   You can read it for yourself their website, Seventh Generation.

Anyway – I’ve been looking more and more into the use of non-chlorine products vs chlorinated products and I have to say that the amount of household cleaning products that contain chlorine was pretty shocking!  I mean that stuff is everywhere!  And once I read up on chlorine and what it is and what it does OR can do in time….made me run to my cabinets and finally get rid of all the cleaning products that I had been holding on to that contained chlorine.  You just have to let them go!  Any cleaning product that contains chlorine that goes down your drains, toilets and into our water systems…you have to stop using!  Chlorine is a pollutant and a poisonous chemical.  It can cause skin and respiratory problems and can you even imagine what it does to our sea life once all that crap makes it into our oceans????  YIKES!  

But before you flip out totally – you can purchase non-chlorine cleaning products.  Seventh Generation has a ton of stuff, Mrs Meyers does too and BioKleen is another.  OR you can make your own.  It’s totally eff’ing amazing what vinegar, backing soda and Borax can clean in your house.  I was addicted to my Softscrub because the porcelin sinks and tub in my house are like 60 years old and it was the only thing that got them white…but I threw it out yesterday and used just straight baking soda on a wet spongs and BAM!  Super clean and sparkly white.  There’s alot of info out there about chlorine and non-chlorine products.  You can check out epa.gov  (although I find those science dorks a little hard to follow, but maybe you’re smarter than me) ewg.org is another one, and all sorts of other places.  Just google it if you want.  I’ll probably start a separate section on here with all the stuff I use to clean with and the ratios.  I’ll keep you posted!