Cleaning up a storm

I am sure I have said it before. I love cleaning. Most people think it sounds silly. But I find it so rewarding. Plus with all my allergies and auto immune issues i find it helps a lot to try and keep the dust and germs down. We have been working at getting the house as chemical free as well. As I am very sensitive to chemicals and also it's better for us, the dogs and the environment. I was more then surprised to find between my few norwex products and the young living cleaner I started using. I was blow away that the grease from cooking bacon etc that was so hard to get off came off in no time and I didn't even have to scrub between young livings thieves cleaner and the norwex kitchen scrub cloth. I was never able to get  the grease fully off. But it was a breeze with these products.  Another tricky area was the bath tub and shower. As it gets used 3-4 times a day. It use to take so much effort to scrub the soap scum and dirt away. Now with just water and a norwex bath room scrub mitt I can clean the shower in just minutes with minimal effort. I just spent the day making some DIY bath, body and cleaning items. I had a frying pan that never hit clean no matter how  I made some soft scrub cleaner and with it and my kitchen scrub cloth I got it looking like new in just a few minutes.  Also I used the cloth just with water to get the tea stains off in my mugs. I love that I don't have to use harsh chemicals. I loved spending the day doing this cleaning so much that I put in a decent sized order for more norwex. I can't wait! I am excited to have a dusting wand to get our tall walls. I was talking with some people last night and it was the first time I met someone who cleans their dishwasher as much as I do if not more! So many people think I am crazy that I clean my dishwasher. But with my allergies I find it a must plus once you see the dirt that gets in there you would be doing it as well.
Do you enjoy cleaning? Do you just do it because you have to? Or do you find it enjoyable and relaxing like I do? Do use chemical cleaners or do you try and do things more natural ?

Back at it again

After a taking a break one of my goals this year is to try and get back into blogging.
Once again this if for me. If anyone reads and enjoyed that's a bonus. Please don't leave negativity or hate. There is no purpose for that.

New kindle

So with my garage sale money I decided it was time to get a new kindle. Mine is about 6 years old and it's cover is cracked as well as the audio option won't work with head phones it cuts in and out and the screen freezes. So I ordered it at the beginning of May. I started browsing  free and on sale books. Not that I needed more! Lol. May came and went and my kindle case shipped and arrived but my kindle still never arrived. Now June is coming to an end and it's still not here. It says it should be here by this Tuesday. I hope that's the case cause 2 months seems way to long  to weight for something specially when it stated it should ship and arrive in 2 weeks. The excitement has worn off cause it kept saying it was gonna ship and never did. I will likely get excited when it actually arrives. It will be neat to see the new features and the size difference. It's also touch screen where as mine wasn't. Oh how technology changes so fast a few months and your phone is out dated so I can imagine with 6 year difference in technology. I'm gonna keep my old one to listen to audio books in the garden.

Read more in the winter

I always think I'm gonna enjoy the yard and sit out with a cool drink and read. But every summer it never seems to happen. Winter seems to be my high reading time. It's so cold and my body doesn't do well with cold so it's easier to stay in and curl up with a book and my heating pad. In summer I wanna get out with family, friends and the dogs enjoy the weather and summer activities. And to top it off I also love to garden and work in the yard. So when I am at home I like to get out and do that. And then I'm usually over heated and will come in and relax and read a bit. My plan is to enjoy and sit out and read at least once this summer. That is if the mosquitos aren't to bad. Otherwise I will have to wait for a day with a nice breeze to keep them away.
When and where do you do most of your reading?

From cane to walking 40 min

the past few years have been a huge struggle. Every day and everything I do has the ability to set me back. Going on vacation, being sick or doing to much.Something as simple as dishes and laundry can cause enough pain I'm sick in bed the rest of the day. The past year I have gone from relying on a cane and barely being able to walk from the bed to the couch. To being able to walk about 40 min a day. It's slow pace and knocks me down so I can't do much else for the day. But it's a huge deal. I never thought I would be able to walk my dogs again which made me so sad. The look on their faces when we get back and they are tired out from the walk is the best ever and warms my heart. I may be on the couch dizzy and in pain for the rest go the afternoon but it's worth it. It has taken a lot to get this far. I started with being only able to walk 30 seconds. So as silly as it sounds I walked at home in place and every few days I would add a little bit more. Eventually I was up to 30 min and spring was coming. I wanted to walk the dogs again. I started with one and would take it slow and do a short walk. As I said my muscles are sore from my health issues after doing anything that I get tremors and will have my legs and arms just give out. I'm hoping I can keep it up. I know I can through the summer but don't know what I will do once winter comes. Winter is horrible of my body and health issues so I might have to do walking inside again and it might be less. But I'm gonna keep pushing my self and trying to maintain what I have gotten back mobility wise. I know I won't ever be where I was  but I also never wanna end up back to where I was basically bed ridden. You take the simple things for granted. You don't know how lucky we are tell it's taken away. It's been a long road and I still have a long way to go. The key is not giving up on your self. Knowing your boundaries and leaning to adapt to your new situation.

The Caucasian chalk circle

I was lucky enough to get envited to see the play the Caucasian chalk circle. I had never heard of it before but am always willing to see and experience new things. Our friends son was in it. He was playing 2 roles one being a elderly women. Arriving it was sad to see that there were only maybe 20 people there to see the show. When I have been to see the schools musicals it's usually packed. Although it was opening night so I assume the other shows had more people. But also it might be people not knowing the show and it not being a musical people seem to like musicals more then plays now days.  It was interesting that there was an iron curtain (chain link fence) where the cast would change and get ready for the next scene. So you could watch them. There were 3 people who stood out for me and drew your attention that even the people getting ready for the next scene. One was our friend as well as the main guy and girl. They were both great. The main guy who was the judge was amazing. They all had amazing timing for the funny lines. The story of the play is a rich couple who when war breaks out accidentally leave their baby behind. A young poor women finds the son and takes him as her own and protects him. Soldiers search for her and the baby. The coustums were some what cyber goth style which was different and interesting. Definitely take a step out of your boundaries and go see plays and musicals that you didn't know about. You may find a new favourite.

Town wide yard sale and spring cleaning

i have always loved yard sales. You never know what hidden gems you will find. Our town has a town wide yard sale every year and I enjoy walking around and finding things and visiting with people from town. There are usually lots of yard sales as well as you can sell in the community club by buying a table. So this year after some massive spring cleaning. We ended up going through every thing in the house. Every paper every item and if we didn't love it or need it. It was gone. We started by posting some things on the local Facebook buy and sell. Which surprisingly with selling things for mostly $1 we sold $700 worth of stuff. But we still had quite a bit left. With not wanting to bring the stuff back in the house we decided to. Try our hand at a yard sale. Sadly there where not many on our street but our house this year so we didn't have as much traffic as we could. It was also raining the first part of the day. But in the end we still sold another $230 worth. We donated 10% to paws in motion which we are raising funds for coming up. Still having items left I didn't want them to come back in the house and clutter things up. So I packed up 2 garage bags for good will, 2 garbage bags and a box for a dog rescue that's gonna have a garage sale, we donated all the fencing etc from behind the shed to the local dog rescue in town and the rest of the hooks (200+) to the local school to sell for fundraising. We still have 2 boxes of DVDs etc that we can sell or donate that are in the garage. 

Boy it feels good to clean the house so good. We don't need all this excess stuff laying around to be happy. It was nice to make a little bit of money instead of just tossing or donating everything. I would much rather people be using things then me just keeping them for the sake of owning things. Did you do a big spring cleaning?