Original Blue Dawn Dish Soap is a major cleaning staple at my house. I use it to get set in grease stains out of clothing, in my recipe for all purpose cleaner and recently I found it removes set it stains in carpet.
My husband and I teach an adult Sunday School class at our church and the room that we use has light blue carpet. Since we have taught this class there has always been this dark, almost black stain on the carpet - about the size of a large coffee can. Every now and then somebody makes a comment about it so last week I took a bottle of Dawn Dish soap to the church in hopes that I would at least get most of the stain out. Wrong!!! It totally removed this stain. All I did was squirt some Dawn soap on the stain and work it in with a clean wet rag. Then I rinsed the rag and got all of the soapy residue out. I was amazed that it was that easy.
You can get a small bottle of Dawn at Dollar General stores for around a $1.00 and many times I see coupons for 25 cents off. When the large bottles are on sale, I stock up as this product is my go to for a lot of things.
Next up on making my cleaning job easier, I purchased one of those pull carts that you use to carry your groceries home from the grocery store. It is a medium sized cart and looks like this:
I purchased this as a birthday gift for myself. This cart holds all of my cleaning supplies plus I put a garbage bag over the handle and load it with trash as I go. I keep this cart loaded and in my basement. When it is time to clean I carry it upstairs and wheel it from room to room in my house as I clean. When I used to dust before, I would set the dusting spray down somewhere and dust and when I would need some more, I couldn't find where I set it down. Now everything goes back into the cart. This has saved me a tremendous about of time and frustration and yes, I loved using birthday party to buy it for myself.
It's the little things that make my life easier that I enjoy. Especially when it means I can cut down on cleaning time so that I get more sewing time.
I have deliberately not posted for a while as I wanted to make sure that I was mentally okay. No one wants to read a bunch of ramblings about things, and I can now say that I feel 95% great. Why not 100%? Because no one feels 100% all the time.
I am taking Celexa and I don't feel drugged, I don't feel sleepy, I don't feel euphoric, I just feel like I should feel - happy with my life and able to cope with whatever comes my way.
Enough about that. I have been spending my time cleaning my home, getting rid of stuff we don't need and organizing closets. I finally have energy and the desire to keep my home orderly. I have also been doing a lot of sewing. I love to sew and the one thing I have learned lately is that I need to make time to do the things that I love to do - including holding that beautiful grandson of mine.
When it comes to making things for babies you can't go wrong with homemade receiving blankets. I made 3 for my daughter in law and I made them double thickness.
These blankets beat anything store bought. I purchased two complementary fabrics 1 1/4 yards in length. This makes a perfect square. I might add, that these are large receiving blankets. Then it was just a matter of preshrinking the fabric (very, very important), sewing right sides together leaving an opening to turn the fabric inside out, ironing it and pinning the opening shut and then edging the fabric with a decorative stitch. Easey peasey and they will be used a lot.
I also made a few single thickness blankets for warmer days and I simply turned the edges under twice and top stitched with a decorative stitch.
Now fabric is not so cheap these days but it is a waste of money to purchase store bought blankets. The store bought ones are thin and not very big. These blankets can be used for a long time as the baby grows.
I have also made those bone shaped burp cloths out of flannel fabric - double thickness. These are the best things out there for a burp cloth. They are soft and perfectly fit under the baby's chin for feeding time.
I have been able to purchase a lot of flannel fabric on sale and I am making receiving blankets and burp cloths for ladies in our church when they have baby. I am having a ball doing this.
Next on my list is sewing an Easter dress and sewing a few aprons.
I am so over the top blessed with a little grandson, Ryan Michael. The look on my face shows it all. To those of you who have entered this phase of your life as a grandparent, you understand what it is like to feel "Over the Moon" with love.
I am off today to Des Moines to do so baby shopping. I have a Kohl's gift card I have been saving for a long time and they are having some really great sales - bargains, bargains, bargains are what I will be looking for today.
Here is a quick post and I will be posting more this week. Three weeks ago I began being weaned on Paxil, an anti depressant that I had taken in the past without any problems. This time I had the most horrible side effects that I just thought I couldn't take it anymore. For 11 days I suffered through anxiety and panic attacks that lasted for close to 18 hours a day. I experienced total irrational thoughts and fears and I spent the majority of my time on the couch trying to sleep, trying to force myself to think rationally and basically just gripped in fear. My husband took time off from work to be with me during that time and the wonderful ladies from my church brought food to our home.
Finally on the 11th day, a Saturday, I called my doctor and told him I just couldn't go on - not meaning I was going to kill myself - I just couldn't handle the stress of the side effects. He immediately consulted with the Psychiatrist on call and I was taken off Paxil, given Valium and started on a different anti-depressant, Celexa. Within 12 hours I was feeling wonderful and able to cope and actually feel happy again.
The best part was that the Celexa kicked in, without any side effects, the day I became a grandma - on February 27th.
As I write this I am thinking of one word "Chemistry." Yep, Chemistry. That is what it is all about when it comes to our body and prescription medications. The Celexa is working without my feeling sleepy - I am focused and while not euphoric, I am just plain happy and blessed and truly feel like I feel during the warm sunny summer months.
In the meantime I am loving my grandson and have enjoyed entering the life of grandparenthood.
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