The miracle of vinegar

Today I caught a glimpse of a show on HGTV, in which the host gave a hint on how to clean a microwave- put 2 cups of water and 1 cup of white vinegar in a microwaveable safe container on high for 3 minutes. Leave for a few minutes in the microwave, then take out the container and wipe the microwave clean. I have yet to try this cleaning technique, but I've heard rave things about cleaning with vinegar so I will try it tomorrow if I get the chance.

Also, I came across this website about 131 uses for vinegar. I'm not sure how many of them are effective, but I'm interested in trying them out!

Cleaning with green cleaning products is always a good idea, as they contain far fewer chemicals than most cleaning products. This means they are better for you, your family, and the stuff that you are cleaning! Natural cleaning products are even better than those marked as "green." Using products like baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, and essential oils can be very easy and effective. Tomorrow, I will start using vinegar to clean as many things as possible, mostly because I have a ton of it, but also because I'm curious to see how effective it can be! Stay tuned for my vinegar experiment! 

A random thought about juice

I have an unnatural love for fruit juice. Not just any fruit juice, however. It has to be freshly squeezed fruit juice.

My favorite type of juice that I have made with my juicer was orange and apple. The apple was surprising in that it tasted entirely different from store-bought apple juice. I would highly recommend it.

I need to try to use my juicer more. If you have any juices you especially love (preferably natural or organic juice recipes), feel free to share them in the comments section! 

A plastic panick

I find now-a-days that I am much more easily stressed about things that never bothered me before. Before I learned why they were dangerous, and before I was responsible for the life of another human being.

We were sitting down at dinner, and everything was served in plastic tupperware containers. Hot food was in containers that were not intended to hold hot food, were never tested for their ability to leak toxins into hot food, and were not even intended for re-use (ie: Cool Whip containers). All I could think about was how much BPA and who knows what else was leaching from the plastic into the hot prepared meal, and I got scared. 

Scared because I realized how dangerous it can be to use plastics for everything, scared because people I care about were ignorant to the dangers and voluntarily exposed themselves to it for the sake of convenience, and scared because I don't know what to do about it. 

Trying to explain to people why they shouldn't put the dinner they just spent their time preparing into plastic containers comes off as rather offensive. Really, it is not my place to bring up such issues, but the reality is, I can't just sit quietly and watch my family ingest toxins. And even though those toxins may not even affect them right now, knowing that some day they or their children could suffer consequences from their over-use of plastic makes me feel like I should say something. 

Is being a good global citizen about educating others, even when it comes at the expense of someone's happiness or a potential argument? It's hard to know what is right to do in these situations. 

I have decided that I want to minimize plastics in my home. I have far, far too much crap (and by crap, I mean crap, it really isn't necessary for anything but convenience). I'm not about to throw out all of my kitchen accessories, but I want to make sure that what I purchase in the future is more environmentally sound. This means that I want re-usable or recycled materials, tote bags (my secret love!), glass or stoneware, and sustainably harvested wood in my home. I am willing to "sacrifice" the daily loads of crap I encounter in my home for the health of my family. 

Sometimes, simple and minimal really is the way to go.