Mind Numbing Simpleton Games

I had a rather good weekend. Good drum circle at Shepard's Park in Stuart. Caught up on a lot of things including sleep. Get into work and realize that for the most part the employees behaved over the weekend.

On the way home I get a call from one of the employees ... someone was telling the employee off over the phone. There is really nothing I can do about this situation, so I tell the employee to do the required form.

So I finally get home and start my usual routine. Finally ending at the computer originally to do some paper work that just keeps lingering from the accident. Afterwards for whatever reason, probably habit, I start in on the games. Now some of them require some strategy to play, but for the most part they are mind numbing simpleton games.

While staring at the computer I get a bit of a dizzy spell and then it hits me ...

When did I pick up this habit? I have now wasted about an hour staring at my computer and accomplishing nothing! Hun?!?!?!

There is so much that still needs to be done around the house. Books that I am ready to let go of, crocheting to do (or yarn to give away), general cleaning, weeds in the planters... All things that require the same level of brain power as these games I was playing, but would provide a greater since of accomplishment and pride.

It does not compute.

Well, ok, I have a valid reason to not do the outside work. My neighbor, nice guy, loves to talk and I am just not in a talk mood. The reason is valid to me :P

So that is how much being held responsible at work and not having the power to actually do anything has. Folks, listen to that sentence, read it again. Then read this whole post from the top again. When we are being held responsible to such a standard and do not have the means to effect meaningful change we look for escapes. This is where our scape goat tendencies come from. This is where depression comes from.

I am a millennial and I am here to tell you while there is great opportunities out there, the level of responsibility you are held to for a lot of them is horrid in comparison to what you can actually do about it.

• The employee mentioned before, did not cause the issue, but was getting yelled at all the same.

• As the Boss I will be expected to do something about it, yet I really can not do any thing to effect a positive change. The client will be unwilling to back me and my employees if we are not 100% in the right and I know something messed up somewhere so that they will blame it on my people.

• We had a piece of equipment go missing today that I will undoubtedly be given a "stern talking to" by the client over it going missing even though it was deployed as requested by the client. 

• Why the client didn't take precautions to provide better methods of keeping it secure will be blamed on me or my company.

Seriously this is why #vanlife is so appealing and why it is so hard to not accept the seriously under cut amount for the house. But I have a goal; get at least 1 Auto CAD class in before I leave, preferable all 5 for the certification.

We will see how long this lasts.

Mrs. Meyer's Multi-Surface Cleaner - Product Review

We all like a clean place to live and work, but some of us have problems with the actual act of cleaning.

I say try changing your cleaning solutions.

Now hear me out a bit. Most people will use the cleaning supplies they are exposed to and that is about it. That exposure normally comes from their parental unit(s), friend(s) or work place. This happens because we know those products will get the desired results. Cleaning is already work, why add more work to it by trying new products that may not do as well of a job?

So why did I pick up Mrs. Meyer's today from Publix? I had products that I knew would get the job done. I had been messaging Ashley of Beauty All Day on Facebook about various things. One was about cleaning products. With my recent aversion to a lot of processed foods, my not liking when my coworkers clean at work (makes me sneeze), and the combination of the conversation with Ashley I went intentionally hunting for a new cleaning product. (I have known Ashley sense High School, shoot her a message for some awesome make-up products that you can't get in a store)

I must have spent like 15 minutes in the cleaning products isle at Publix picking up a product, reading the label, and cracking it open when able to stick my nose in it. If it was packaged in a manner that I could not open it with out breaking some seal or another it got put back on the shelf; I was not willing to do that just to find out what my nose thought about a product.

Then I got to the Mrs. Meyer's Multi-Surface Cleaning Concentrate. Now concentrates bother my nose. However when I stuck my nose at the top of the Mrs. Meyer's  ... nothing ... Ok well I did completely enjoy the smell, but there was no tickle sensation. You know that sensation you get before you sneeze. So I bought a bottle.

Once home I realized that I had over looked one thing; the directions to un-concentrate the solution. The directions are for a gallon of water. Sorry not going to make a gallon at one time as I don't typically go through that much. So I made a guess on the dilution, yes I could have done the math, but meh I got lazy what do you want. So I mixed it 1 tablespoon per 8 ounces of water in a spray bottle.

The First thing I attached was the kitchen; using my spray bottle of Mrs. Meyer's and a wash cloth from the stack of them I acquired for cleaning the road rash earlier this year... It Worked! ... Cleaned the entire kitchen, every hard surface, floor included with it. I had to get a second wash cloth to finish the kitchen. The Mrs' Meyer's apparently was working better than my old cleaning solution.

Which means ... I just had to clean every where! Bathrooms, Doors, if it was a hard surface it got sprayed with Mrs. Meyer's and wiped down.

Down side is now I have to do another load of whites, but a clean house is a happy house!

AND I don't feel all worn down. Most bizarre thing of this whole cleaning experiment, I am not exhausted. Cleaning is not easy again for my yet, it still takes a lot of forethought and thought in general in order for me to clean everything because of the limitations set by my knee still recovering. Before I would clean just the Kitchen and be wiped for the rest of the day. Today I cleaned both bathrooms, the kitchen, and wiped all the doors down and I still can go more.

There is one thing that I found the Mrs. Meyer's could not clean; soap scum in the shower I use. Everything else, mirrors, counter tops, tile floors, all cleaned nicely, just not the soap scum in the shower. Oh Well I will take it!

Bullet Journal Eco-Friendly by Lemome - Product Review

Click Here to purchase and let me make a few pennies from Amazon Affiliates

I have noticed this whole save the world theme in my product purchases ... Yay! Me! ... ? ... But that is not the original reason I purchased this notebook. I went for this product because of the texture of cork. I wanted something in my hands that I would enjoy. Added to that I knew already that no matter what I planned it would end up in my lunch box traveling from home to work (to home) so the exterior had to be something that could handle the little dampness from temperature changes.

For me journalling is difficult. For what ever reason I just do not like laying my inner most secrets out where others might be able to discover them. This blog, while allowing  you access to my thoughts, is not my inner most self. It is my opinions, but filtered.

What I will do is keep to do lists, note what/where events I am interested in, and that sort of thing. Enter the Bullet Journal Trend. Oh God I am being trendy! But seriously. It is functional, it allows me to use my creativity, and gives me the ability to be flexible while enforcing some order. Prior to Bullet Journalling I would keep all the notes in my phone; which annoyed me as much as it was convenient. 

Now I also use this to keep track of my food and help me with my food prep by allowing me to write in each day what is planned for food.

And then keeping my weekly spread sheet as well,

Knorr Liquid Concentrated Base Vegetable - Product Review

So with the new Veggie Focused eating idea and the need to reduce my weight I had to find a means to make things taste better.

To be honest this was not my idea, but sprang from a friend giving me a free trail of Hello Fresh! i opted for the vegetable meals and in those meals they had vegetable stock concentrate that was used in place of just using salt. Cooking pasta? Add vegetable stock concentrate. Steaming vegetables? add vegetable stock concentrate. Making rice or Farro? add vegetable stock concentrate.

With this Concentrated Vegetable Stock entered my life.

It was a pain trying to find it in my local grocery store so I went to my trusty Amazon account and found ...

Click here to purchase and let me make a few pennies from Amazon Affiliates

Note: the picture is for the Chicken Stock, the link is for the Vegetable Stock

I have had the bottle for about a month now and am about a quarter the way through it. 

One thing  you do need to note is that all of these stock concentrates are going to be high in salt, so if you are sensitive to salt, or have to monitor your in take, be sure to read the labels. That being said the Knorr brand was the biggest bottle, with the least amount of salt per serving I could find at the time.

Flavor wise I like to mix it "rich" or instead of using the recommended amount per 8oz of water, I add more. Something along the lines of 1 to 2 extra tablespoons. For me this is about my only source of add salt, so not that worried about adding more than recommended.

I haven't found anything about this product that I don't like and do not have any buyers regret in any shape or flavor.

Ethique Shampoo Bar - Product Review

Click Here to purchase this item and let me make a few pennies from your purchase through Amazon's Affiliate program.

In considering the #vanlife you have to start researching ways to achieve the same things you are accustom to in significantly less space. Part of this for me is finding ways to clean myself using less produces. I was already familiar/comfortable with using shampoo for body wash from camping, so I went looking for a solid bar style shampoo.

One of the brands I came across is Ethique. I liked the sales pitch and figured I would give it a try.

To use the bar it is easiest to wet your hair then rub the bar directly onto your hair in the direction you normally comb it. This will get the needed amount of soap on your hair to get it clean. I tried wetting my hands and suds-ing them up then applying them to my hair, but it just took so many trips between my hair and the bar to get enough soap!

I am at about 3 weeks of use now and I can say that my hair and skin are responding very well to the product. There are less fly-away/frizz issues for me to contain. My skin is clearer than it has been in a long time.

The down sides for me are the shape of the bar. While I can understand why one would want to make it square, easy to shape, storage works better. Using a square bar is difficult. Now that the edges have worn down a bit it is easier to use, but square is not my favorite shape for this.

I was feeling rich when I got this Shampoo Bar so I also got their container.

You know the Drill Click Here to purchase and let me make a few pennies from Amazon's Affiliate program.

The container will fit 2 of their bars easily. It does not latch shut, but it does allow the bars to dry as advertised. Place this in a spot where it won't get bumped into. I suppose if I decided to use this in the setting I am researching for, #vanlife, I could use rubber bands to keep it shut.

Reusable Produce Bags - Product Review

One way we can all participate in the reduce-reuse-recycle mind set is to have reusable produce and other bags. We are all familiar with the reusable grocery bags, pretty much every store has them, but there are also produce bags out there as well. I have tried 2 different types of reusable bag and like them.

Click here to get the above pictured bags and let me make a few pennies through Amazon's Affiliate Program

These bags are great for items that are not too small as the holes in the mesh are about a quarter inch. They let the veggies breath and dry out if needed. I prefer to use these bags when going to open air fruit stands as the produce there tends to be damp early in the morning.

My only complaint was not understanding the sizes until I had them in hand. The X-Large bags can easily fit an entire 5 pounds of potato's. The mediums will fit about 6 apples. Doesn't mean I don't use the bigger bags for items that take up less room, but as a person buying for only myself switching out the 2 XL bags for 2 more of the mediums would have worked out better.

These bags can be washed in the washing machine, but I like to put them in a zipper bag to keep other items from hanging up on them. Also keep them out of the Dyer as they shrink.

Click here to get the above pictured bags and let me make a few pennies through Amazon's Affiliate Program.

This set of bags is great for getting grains as the holes are as small as you find in shirts. I am fortunate to have a bulk buy store near me called Jar the Zero Waste Store that requires me to bring my own containers. These bags make it really easy to fill up and weight out at the register with the weight on the side of them. However I have found that unless you are buying something like coffee which has a significant dollar amount per pound it is really not necessary to have them confirm the weight of the bags prior to filling as the bags only create a variance of a penny or two.

Again I didn't understand the sizes until I had them in hand. The X-Large bags can easily fit an entire 5 pounds of potato's. The mediums will fit about 6 apples. Doesn't mean I don't use the bigger bags for items that take up less room, but as a person buying for only myself switching out the 2 XL bags for 2 more of the mediums would have worked

These bags can be washed in the washing machine, but I like to put them in a zipper bag to keep other items from hanging up on them. Also keep them out of the Dyer as they shrink.

...........................

Or you can just take old T-Shirts stitch the arm, neck holes shut, snip a hole into the hem at that waist for a string and use that.