Wednesday, October 24, 2012

House Cleaning and parenting

For a long time, before I knew I had Celiac's, which is a huge problem with gluten (ie wheat, rye, barley) I just got more and more tired, so to be the best mom I could be, I paid most of my attention to my children, and I had no energy left over for cleaning my house.  It wasn't a very good home, it was just a house full of mess, and mostly not nasty but it became nasty because I couldn't get things finished.  I was becoming a worse and worse mom because my kids and I were all frustrated with how bad the house got.  Here's a tip, part of good parenting is being able to keep your house nice enough that the children aren't frustrated.  I know.  Crazy right?  I mean, I'm not a stay-at-home mom, so I can clean my house all the time.  If I wanted to spend all day cleaning, I would pay someone else to watch my children all the time and clean other people's homes.  But, and (I very rarely start a sentence with but, but it's a big but!)  But, my children deserve a home where they feel like they can be and have a place to pull out all of the train tracks or spread out the legos.  They need a place to run and slide on the floor.  So, I did Flylady for a long time, and she worked really well before we moved here, but I could not for the life of me get it together here.  I still use some of her ideas, but I have noticed that for me, instead of shining my sink, I would rather have a couple dirty dishes in my sink, have my counters cleared off and wiped off, and have my dishwasher running.  When I am too worried about shining my sink, I stack up the dirty dishes on the counter and I don't necessarily get anything done.  My sink looks shiny but that's about it.  I have taken her principles to heart while deciding to tweak them for me.  Norwex® has really helped me to become better.  It makes things so much faster, easier, and more fun, so I clean more than I did.  Also, many of the products are safe for my children to use, so I don't feel bad about asking them to help me.  Jackie can go into the bathroom and clean the mirror in less than five minutes, and it's done!  It's so happy. My Daniel spills his milk and immediately asks me to get down a cloth so he can wipe it up.  He does it.  All by himself.  He's so proud.  I love it!  I sweep my floors and I mop them more than I used to.  The broom and mop work so well.  I am ecstatic!  I had not cleaned my windows since I moved into my house.  My friends might have when they came to help me while I was gone, but still that left a good year and a half of window gunk.  My windows (including my storm door) look beautiful.  My children are happier and more content, and they complain less about doing their chores.  I am so grateful for Norwex®, Flylady, and my children.  Not necessarily in that order.

Now, I do have to put in a plug for Norwex® while I am at this because this week, I am trying out a virtual party.  At the bottom of this post, I will do a short bathroom video, and you can check out my website at elinorrobinson.norwex.biz if you want to learn more.  ;)

Oh, by the way, I did figure out how to put in the Registered trademark!  See above???  If you are wondering like I was, and you have Windows XP, Vista, or 7, go to the start button, accessories, System tools, character map, and you can copy and paste it from there!  Voila!  It was a happy day for me.


See below if you want to see my cool videos of my Norwex® enviro cloth and then the second video is of the window or polishing cloth.  They are exciting.

 
If you want to look at my website to see the enviro cloth go here.
 
This is a cool video about the polishing or window cloth. It is a continuation of the previous one.
 
 
If you want to look at my website to see the window cloth, go here.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Norwex (How do you put on a Registered Trademark symbol?)

So, I haven't written in a long time, but something very excited has happened in my life!  I have become a Norwex (again, registered Trademark?) consultant!  It's so exciting.

How would you like to mop your floors, get rid of the germs, and use only your mop and water?  How would you like to actually, truly, clean your mirrors and windows streak free?  Check out Norwex.  Go see my website at elinorrobinson.norwex.biz .

Also, if you live near me and want me to come to your house and show you, I'd love to.  If you don't live near me and still want to learn, and you know me, call me.  We can set something up.  I will be going to my mom's sometime, and if you live near her, we can set something up then, too.  You can get really wonderful free products for hosting a party for me.

So, go check out my website, and let me know what you think!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Presidential debates, Birth Control, and other Miscellaneous

This is a PG-13 rated post.  Fair warning.  If you don't want to read it knowing that, then please don't.

So, after living in Georgia around my Dad-in-law, I can't help but be interested in politics.  If you have met my Dad-in-law, you understand.  So I watch the presidential debates and eat popcorn in large quantities (not much new there, but really).  On the February 22nd debate, birth control came up as an issue.  See Here to view the debate.  If you want to hear the part about birth control go to somewhere around the 42 minute mark. 

There is a question put up on the TV that essentially asks what the candidates' stances are on birth control.  (This is not a post campaigning for one opponent over another.)  Newt Gingrich's response is powerful.  He says, "I just want to make two quick points, John.  The first is there is a legitimate question about the power of the government to impose on religion activities on which any religion opposes.  That's legitimate.  But I just want to point out, you did not once in the 2008 campaign, not once did anybody in the elite media ask why Barak Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide."

OK, so the big question is should the government be able to legislate to religions that they have to pay for birth control or the morning after pill?  Should it be able to legislate to doctors that they have to perform abortions, or heaven forbid, to have to actually kill the babies who don't die during a partial birth abortion?  And really, coming from a criminal justice stand point, what is the difference between killing a baby actually born at 36 weeks and any time before that?  One who is actually living on its own???  So, the question on the table really is not, birth control.

This post isn't even about whether or not women should be able to use birth control.  If a woman wants to use birth control or not, that is her business.  This post is coming from a mother of four.  I have had two natural miscarriages and a D&C because I was bleeding to death.  Whether or not birth control is acceptable or not is not the issue.  The real issue is whether or not the Catholic church should have to pay for birth control when THEY think it's wrong.  The issue is whether or not I should have to pay for abortions when I think they're wrong. 

A hypothetical:  If Bob wants to kill Fred, Bob can do it.  However, it's against the law.  If Bob plans ahead to kill Fred and carries out his actions, that is first degree murder.  If Bob wants Fred dead, but he doesn't actually want to kill Fred, he pays George to kill Fred.  George kills Fred.  According to the law, Bob is still legally guilty of first degree murder along with George.  In some states, if George's girlfriend just drives the car to take George there and back and has any knowlege that Fred is going to die, she is also guilty of first degree murder. 

OK, you are maybe wondering by now why I talked about Bob killing Fred.  Well, if I truly religiously believe that killing someone puts my immortal soul in danger, then, I pay to have someone else kill someone, am I responsible for that.  Right now, in that case, our legal system upholds that issue. 

In the case of the Catholic church and having to pay for the morning after pill for people or birth control, that's where they stand.  They feel that they are paying to help someone kill someone else.  Does the government have a right to legislate that?  If so, where do we draw the line? 

In the end, on birth control, if a woman wants birth control, pay for it. The country doesn't need to make birth control pills illegal or legislate that people can't use a diaphram or anything other form you want to come up with, just don't make someone else pay for it.  Millions do.  If we want equal rights, great.  Men pay for their own condoms all the time.  We can pay for our own forms of birth control.

My big number one problem is with abortions.  Where is the line between having an abortion and having a live baby.  Babies are living at younger and younger ages every day, and the laws are letting people abort at later and later dates.  Here is an article about an oxford study about "after birth abortions."  Otherwise known as infanticide.  The logical, scientific arguements for it are just outright scary.  This article has nothing to do with my moral or their moral ideas on what is actually right.  They simply have taken society's generally accepted views on what is right and wrong and applied it to this issue and come up with a logical argument for killing babies after they are born.

If I pay for that, am I not morally responsible for some of the deaths? Now, we see why the government needs to stay out of the morality business.  We need a government to make laws to protect our freedoms.  Basically we have the right to choose to do whatever we want until it infringes on someone else's right to choose to do whatever they want.  Our problem is that we can't define what a "someone" is anymore.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Dating through the Alphabet

My sister-in-law is doing a blog about dating through the alphabet.  Every two weeks she does a date about one of the letters of the alphabet.  Rob and I have done it just to make sure we still like each other.  It should take about a year if a couple goes on a date every other week.  I am thinking it's a great idea.  We're on C now.  We started with Applebees, and we went bowling for Daniel's birthday.  It wasn't really a date date, but it was still fun.  I will start taking pictures if I can figure out how to download them to this new laptop and put them on.  My Mom-in-law will appreciate if I can make it happen, too.  :)