Clean House, Clean Planet

One of the most used books in our house!

I heard about this book from a friend. When I began reading it, I learned a lot as to what was in a lot of the cleaners we bought from the store. Let me tell you - there's some highly toxic stuff in what you buy. And the other thing that really got my attention is that the packaging and water make up a significant portion of the price.

There are many different ideas of natural inexpensive items that you can use in your household cleaning and most of them are either simple to obtain or create. It isn't hard to do at all.

Did you know that you can use the juice from a squeezed lemon as an alternative to bleach in your laundry? I use it for my whites and it does an excellent job! That's cheap and it doesn't harm the world we live in.

And how about a quick, simple and cheap room air freshner for like the bathroom. I use a little open jar with baking soda and the peppermint essential oil. Works wonders for headaches (sniff the peppermint) as well if you have one but it keeps the bathroom smelling nice. And you just keep adding baking soda or essential oil to it when it needs freshened up! Baking soda is a natural substance so it doesn't harm the environment either.

I try to mix up my cleaners so that I don't have too much on hand but I've got enough that I'm not mixing it every time I clean the house.

Another thing that she talks about in the book is using "GOOD", "HIGH QUALITY" essential oils. Not the ones you buy in some local store that are on sale or are made with essential oils. I'm talking about good ones. Since I'm a Young Living Essential Oil distributor now, I buy all mine through them. You can not beat the quality and part of the quality is in how the essential oils are processed and harvested. If you want to know more, just email me on that. I use several but peppermint and lavender are my favorites along with Pine and Eucalyptus. It only takes a few drops because these things are concentrated.

Note:  I now use Ananda Essential Oils.  Better price, excellent quality and they are much nicer to do business with than Young Living.  Young Living screwed me over pretty good and never reconciled it with me.  Go to http://www.anandaapothecary.com/ and check this place out.  They are very nice people.

Here's another little tip I learned from the book and my own experience. I use Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds for my laundry, for general cleaning and for some of the cleaning recipies. It costs around $8 for a 32 oz bottle but it lasts a long time because it is so concentrated. I use less than a 1/4 cup for a load of laundry or when I mop our floors. The best thing about this stuff is that it washes out and doesn't cling to your clothes like regular detergent. It is natural substances so it is good for the environment. But the best part I like about it, is that it seems like our floors don't get as dirty as they once did. It is like the regular pine sol, spic and span cleaners almost attract dirt and this doesn't. I like that! Plus I add essential oil to the mop water and it leaves the house smelling so nice!

I'd tell you what I use to clean glass and windows which will amaze you because it is so cheap and readily available (no, not water and soap either). But I'll just tease you enough so that hopefully you'll read the book. *smile*

The book has so many recipes and ideas and tries to give you the ins and outs about each one. They are not hard to make and everything she has in the book is practical. It came out of what she used in her own house.

So check this book out (link is at the top of the page) and save some money on your cleaning supplies while you are more gentle on mother earth. She'll appreciate it to.

I'm not sure when the last time was we bought a commercial cleaner in the store. We just make our own now.

Connected To Source

There are many people that will tell you that when connected to source, things happen quickly, easily and come together in ways that no one can imagine. If you want to understand what "Source" means, check any of Dr. Wayne Dyer's works such as The Power of Intention. Source is not about religion, it is about the source energy living within ourselves.

So anyway, back to the story.

I was given an idea for a project by someone I know. It always amazes me just where some of these ideas originate and how I come to be acquainted with them. Sometimes they are like this particular method and sometimes they are just thoughts that float into my mind almost as if they are being whispered into my ear by an angel. This idea sounded good but at first I thought, this is going to take a lot of work, a lot of time and then the detailed questions of how to make everything happen filled my mind. I knew though that if I took each thing a step at a time, it would all come through.

So as I'm out walking in the park a couple of weeks ago, I was taking pictures and one of the pictures I took hit me like a ton of bricks. As I focused on it with my camera, I thought this could be a CD cover. At the time, I had not totally put it together with the project that I was working on. The two thoughts had not completely connected.

So then I sat down at my keyboard to do the recording part of this project. Usually in the past, this part of the process takes considerable time. Not only do I need to create the actual music, then play it so that it sounds right and record it so that it comes out correctly as a digital file. A process that one little mess up sometimes yields the work useless for a finished piece. This particular project though came together the quickest that I have ever seen and without too much difficulty. It wasn't completely ease free but not like some projects where you struggle to get the right sound. It just all flowed together easily and nicely.

Once this was done, I was sitting there wondering what type of artwork I was going to use and then the picture of the park popped into my mind. The songs came around and formed the right image. But as part of the artwork, I needed a special graphic which I had no idea what I was going to use. Within about 5 minutes of searching on google, I had found the right image, purchased it and was able to get it into my graphic artwork I was creating. That's no easy feat for me either as my expertise in using graphic art software is limited.

The complete package came together in a very cohesive way and I was beginning to see that maybe this project had some outside help and assistance. The next step involved uploading it to the digital sites which again can go easily and painfree or it can be excruciating and a long drawn out process. This time, it was up on all the digital sites within about 8 days. That's just unheard of.

And so I can't help but think the "idea" of this came from a connected source and was perfect for me in this moment. Of course if I would have just heard it and done nothing, than nothing would have happened. However for something to happen, I had to act up on it. Where the project will go or the results I will get from this project, I do not know at this time. I'm anxious to see what happens!

Once again, I'm reminded that if we stay connected to source, than all we need and all we desire is there at our fingertips. We need not look any place else because we will not find it any other place.

The Little Moments

When we do something that seems so insignificant and almost as if it was nothing more than a blip in our day but we touch the lives of others around us, we then have accomplished so much.

I'm reminded of this thought today as one of my writings found its way to touch someone's life and most likely the lives of many more.

A lady I met in a conference a few years ago was in my relaxation workshop. She remembered that I had written many poems and knew of the one “The Hope To See It Through”. It was in a collection I have published called "A Journey Through Words" available through lulu.com . She is working with some people in to get an organization off the ground which helps address youth violence and the problem these kids are facing. I don’t know too much about it but it sounds like a very worthy endeavor.

Anyway, she wanted to use my poem and asked permission to use it in their organization. I sent her the copy and she wrote me back saying just how much it touched her and how she feels it will really touch those she is working with but more importantly the kids. It was one of my poems that I really like and a very powerful one in my view.

It just warms up my heart to know that my words have touched someone in a very deep way and that where those words may end up, I’ll never know. It feels good to give to others and the universe and maybe some good will come out of the horrendous situations I lived through. That would be one of the greatest joys I could ever have, I believe.

I just had to share this with you today because it makes me feel very joyful just thinking about it.

Here's a few lines of the poem

The Hope To See It Through (first 4 lines)
(c) Don Shetterly - Jan 2000

The courage to face the impossible,
The strength to fight the fears,
The risk to take the chance,
The hope to see it through.