Method Cleaner Follow Up

I actually received my first comment back about my Method post from last week. A friend of mine asked a question about coupons for Method cleaners. I went to their website: http://www.methodhome.com/ and this is what it said under their FAQ section:

Who doesn't love a little free method? The best way to receive the latest promotions and coupons from method is to sign up for our mailing list. You'll see a box at the bottom of the homepage that states "get clean emails for a change." Simply enter your email address and you'll be registered!

I think I will be signing up as well!

Yesterday I went to clean a house that provides cleaners for me, and in the cupboards, I found several of the Method cleaners I had written about last week. I know that this particular cleaning client is another close friend of mine, just like the one who asked the question about the coupons, but it feels so great that people are actually reading my blog! I feel flattered and excited! My hope with this blog is to share things that people want to read about as well as leave a bit of a legacy for my kids and maybe make a little money with it someday. When people actually took to heart what I wrote about, it makes me feel like I am beginning to accomplish my goals.

So thanks to all of my readers out there. It is nice to know you are listening!

Method Cleaners

When cleaning I try to use as many natural cleaners as I can that actually get the job done. My favorite brand is the Method line of natural cleaners. I use them in my own house when cleaning. If I bring my own cleaners to someone's house, they are the ones I use. Some of my clients even buy them for me to use at their houses. Cleaners are as individual as the client and some want specific ones only, some want me to use what they provide, and some don't care either way!

Their version of glass cleaner is now called Glass and Surface cleaner. It used to be called Best in Glass, which I thought was really adorable. It works as well as any of the chemically-laden glass cleaners out there and has a nice clean, pepperminty smell.

This is their Daily Shower spray, which you are supposed to just spray into your shower after each use. However, I use it as a regular bathroom cleaner. It works just as well as their Tub-N-Tile, and it comes in a refill size, so is a much better bang for your buck. I will show you in a future post how well it works on this one shower I have that gets bad soap scummy. It is amazing and natural without harsh chemical smell.

Method's abrasive cleaner, similar to Soft Scrub, is called Le Scrub. I don't know why it has the French name, but it does work well. It is mildly abrasive, so is not all scratchy, but has enough abrasive in it to get the deep down that you need like to get marks out of the counter top or to scrub out a sink or a bathtub ring. It also has a nice clean smell. It does not have any bleach in it like Soft Scrub or Comet. 

I like their dusting spray, Wood for Good. It has an almond smell and is good at moisturing wood and does not leave a waxy residue, so it is not all slippery if you accidentally get it on the wood floor. It is actually fairly thick, but because it comes in a spray bottle, you can dilute it with water to make it last longer and does not seem to decrease its effectiveness when you dilute.

I love, love, love their AntiBac. Most natural cleaning lines do not have a disinfectant spray. This one works just like Lysol in killing 99.9% of household germs. You can use it on your countertops to kill salmonella after chicken or meat juices have been on there. You can spray it on your toilets to kill all those germy germs. The original flavor has this sweet spearmint scent, which I just love. They also have two new flavors, clementine and lime verbena. I have smelled these and they are nice as well, but the original is my favorite. After we have all been sick, I have even been known to walk around spraying this in the house and wiping down doorknobs and light switches with it.

Method also has dish detergents, hand soaps, laundry detergent, a granite top cleaner, wipes with their different products, and all-purpose cleaners. I have used most of these other products with as much satisfaction as the above. The one thing of theirs that I don't love as much is their toilet cleaner. It just is not as effective over time as keeping the bowl fresh and germ free. If you want to use a good natural cleaner for your toilet, I recommend the Clorox Clean-up Brand.

One word of caution in using natural cleaners if you have tree nut allergies: A lot of times these cleaners such as the Wood for Good use tree nut oils in them. This is true for non-Method lines as well. For instance the Clorox Clean-up Brand uses coconut oil for its base cleaner. If you have severe tree nut allergies and use these in your house, you could make yourself quite ill! Make sure to read the labels.

I always buy my Method cleaners at Target. They are on sale this week until Sunday. If you buy three of the selected products, you can get one free, so $12 worth of cleaners for $9. I believe I have also seen them at KingSoopers/Kroger grocery stores. That is one last nice thing about the Method cleaners is that they are not overly expensive. They are not as inexpensive as some of the regular chemically cleaners, but they are not exorbitant like others can be.

So run out this week and pick up some great Method products at Target. It really is a great deal!

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day. Confessedly it is not my favorite holiday. I do not have the best relationship with my father. It has been strained for my whole life, and currently he is not even speaking to me. He is one of those men who never really seems to get it or have any propensity for growing up. I have visited several counselors who have told me to talk to him about those things that make our relationship not the best. I have tried this in the past to no avail. I have tried speaking and writing and ignoring. He is a man who lives in his own world and own reality. He is unable and unwilling to see my point of view and wants only forgiveness without reservation or without reliving or talking through the issues at hand. I have come to the point in my life where this is the best I can do. I can live my life looking forward and having no regrets. I have tried to say my peace in the past and it has only fallen on deaf ears. I will never be able to measure up to the unknown measuring stick he holds for me. I will never be the pride of his life or receive the unconditional love of which he is incapable. In short, I am done with that relationship.

As you can imagine that type of relationship has most definitely affected the rest of my relationships with men. Even though I tried very hard to choose a mate that was different from my father, I ended up choosing exactly the same. Even after my divorce, I seem to keep choosing the same and that is probably why I feel done with even trying to date anyone at this time. A friend of mine compares it to eating something you don't like but continuing to do it over and over anyway. She says if eating Corn Flakes makes you nauseated then stop eating Corn Flakes; in essence choose a different cereal! I joke now when I encounter the same type of man as just another box of Corn Flakes!

My ex-husband now even lives out of the country so I find myself being both mother and father to my two beautiful children. I feel ok about this with my daughter, but it has been a source of angst for me in raising my son. I want him to grow up to be a responsible, caring man full of integrity. I recently read a book, Boys Should be Boys by Dr. Meg Meeker, that has put it into the correct perspective for me. I will review this book in another post, but it has given me the courage and the plan and the sense that I can really do this in the raising of my son.

You might think that with not always having the best relationships with men that I might not like them or put them all into the category of "men suck." However, that really isn't the case for me. A college roommate of mine once told me that everyone is an individual whether male or female and we should approach each person as such. She was right and while I think I knew that deep down inside, her saying it out loud really solidified it for me. I do try to look at each person based on their own merits or lack thereof!

I have this little list of men that are not Corn Flakes. Unfortunately for my relationship life, they are men who are either related to me or are married to some of my best friends. My love for them is purely platonic!

I lived with my maternal grandparents for the first year of my life while my mom finished nursing school. It has been told to me that my grandfather was kind of a hard man with his own five children. Yet, when I arrived on the scene, he melted in a way that only a grandfather seems to be able to do. Sadly, he passed away when I was a little girl. I am certain that he is my guardian angel and looks out for me regularly. I feel his presence in my life everyday. I am reading a book about World War II in the Pacific right now. He served as a corporal in the Pacific, and I have found myself wanting to ask him so many questions. I also wish I could ask him other questions about his life and his life with my grandma. I suppose I am just going to have to wait to get to heaven to be able to have all of those questions answered!

My uncle Allan, my mom's only brother, is another of those wonderful men. He is a father to his own daughter's, but I consider myself an honorary daughter. He was still living at home the year I lived with my grandparents. He also lived with my family for a while when I was in junior high. He is the sweetest of souls. He is the one that does so much of the housework in his own home now. He was the only boy in a house full of four sisters. The sisters now said they purposely made sure that he was domesticated and knew how to treat women properly. I think they did a right, fine job with that.

My sister ended up marrying a man on the list. My aunts used to tease her about being the dismisser when she was dating. She had a knack for being able to see the red flags in a relationship fairly early and sending a would-be suitor on his way. In the end it served her quite well as she was able to choose the right man for herself and now their son. He is a kind, caring, sweet man who has some of the best integrity I have ever seen in a man. Even on his wedding day to my sister, he mentioned that I looked pretty, knowing that I would be self-concious about it since I had just given birth to my son two and a half weeks earlier and my husband was leaving me at the time. He has always been willing to give advice and counsel about things in my life if I ask. He never acts like I am stupid or imposing.

Of course, my mom is the parent whom I choose to celebrate on this holiday every year! My parents didn't even marry until I was two and a half and then were divorced by the time I was eight. She was a single mom even when she was married. She did it all for us and raised us to be strong, independent women. People tease about not wanting to turn out like their mothers. I always take it as a compliment when someone says I am just like my mother. If I had to pick someone to be like in this world, I really can't think of anyone better!

So here's a Happy Father's Day to my grandfather, my uncle, my brother-in-law, and MY MOM! And to those others on my short-list of men who know how to be good partners and best friends to their wives and wonderful, caring, supportive dads to their children.

 

 

Giving Myself a Name

I knew I wanted to blog, as I had things to say, long before I came up with a name for it. Naming things is not as easy as it seems. You want to name it appropriately and try to make sure it won't be twisted around, or with naming children, you don't want them to be susceptible to bullying because of their name. My last name is pronounced "stain;" it is often mispronounced as "stine" or "steen." It was my ex-husband's last name, and I kept it because it is the same as my children's. It is South African, and there it is as common as Smith is here in the United States. When you have a last name that is an actual word, then you have to be careful about how things will be pronounced later on. For example, when we knew we were having a son as our second child, my ex suggested Phillip, which is a fine name, except I nixed any first names starting with the letter p. I did not want our son to one day be known as pee stain.

After I had my daughter and knew that I could not return to work at the library and leave her with some stranger, I started working all of these odd jobs. I kind of fell into the housecleaning about a year after she was born and I have been doing that ever since. My cleaning business is simply Heather's Housecleaning Service. My mom says she named me Heather simply because she liked the name. I like being named after a flower, as  I really love flowers and gardening.

I have my little Love and Logic business as well, but again I am just an Independent Love and Logic Facilitator. There are others out there who have catchy names like Head and Heart Parenting Classes (Shelly Moorman here in Denver), but I could not come up with anything as cute as that.

So when it came time to choose a blog name, I wanted it to be a good one. My sister had chosen Patchwork Pony because she makes these adorable stick horses. It suits her so well and I love it. I just could not think of something so inventive and interesting. We brainstormed many names one day together. I really liked MammaShine from that list to go with the mom and cleaning business, but there is already a MamaShine out there. I could have done the double m, to distinguish mine from hers, but that didn't seem like a huge distinction.

I went through all of the others on that list and other lists and checked them against other blogs. I had always thought that one day I might write a book of all my mom and business experience and call it The Business of Being a Mom, but again that one was already taken. Then I thought of This Mom's Business. It would work for me because no one else had already registered it. I also really like it because it is a bit of a play on words since I will be blogging about being a mom and having a business, plus it is about my personal business as well. So I guess now I can't say it's none of your business if I am going to post it on here for anyone to see! : )

Saint Anthony's Central Hospital

One of our area hospitals is moving this weekend from its location in Denver to Lakewood. To me it is not just a local hospital; it is THE hospital around here. Saint Anthony's Central was where my mom worked all of our growing up years, and now it is moving from its location near Sloan's Lake right into the backyard of where we lived during those years. It will be just minutes from the house where I was raised. My sister and I joked with our mom the other day about how great her commute would have been all of those years if it would have been where it will be now. My mom said that Saint Anthony's has been wanting to be along the major corridors for years and years. Now it will be along the busy and bustling and growing Sixth Avenue corridor.

The old building holds so many memories for me. My mom started out at the Saint Anthony's North campus, but moved to the Central location before too long back in the 70's. She worked as a floor nurse for many years on 4 West, which was a post surgical floor. I cannot even tell you all of the horrible stories she used to regale us with at dinner time. Conversations that were so not fit for the dinner table! She worked part time for a while on 2 West B, which was a cardiac unit. I remember when she was learning how to read the EEG printouts. Then she worked in utilization review, eventually becoming its manager. She worked under the doctor who was one of the team that started the whole Flight for Life program. Saint Anthony's was the first hospital in Denver to have helicopters to use for emergency services.

I worked there one summer when I was 15 as a volunteer; it must have been the summer of 1986 right before I turned 16. Yes, that's right, a candy striper. I wore the uniform and everything! The picture above is one from clip art. I don't even think I have any pictures of myself in that old uniform. Mine was actually striped, and I wore the white shoes. I am glad to not have a picture of that time with my big eighties girl mullet hair! I worked in the radiology department every Thursday. I mostly helped the receptionists with filing and looking up of information on the old microfiche system. Ocassionally I would take patients back to the changing rooms and tell them what to do before the radiologists came in to get them for their x-rays. My mom and I would have lunch together each of those days. It was a nice bonding experience with her.

I remember that before my volunteer time, they used to have smothered burritoes every Thursday. Sometimes in the summers or breaks from school, if my mom would have off on a Thursday, she would take us down to the hospital and we would have those burritoes. I remember them being so very good. I wonder if they will still serve them at the new hospital?? I don't think they have had smothered burrito Thursdays for a very long time!

My youngest sister, Nellie, was even born there. She had to stay in the NICU for ten days for pneumonia, GI bleeding, and jaundice. Those NICU nurses were so kind and caring!

Maybe someday my kids will want to volunteer or work there. It is much closer to us now, even though we don't live in that old Green Mountain neighborhood anymore, we are only about 15 minutes away from the new location. Godspeed to them this weekend as they move patients from the old to the new and open up the emergency room. And farewell to that big old building that holds so many memories for me and my family!

The new Saint Anthony's Central in Lakewood

The old Saint Anthony's Central in Denver off of Colfax and Sheridan

Getting Started

I have been contemplating this blog for a while now. Inspired by my sister who launched her blog in January, I have been dabbling at getting started since then. (She has an excellent blog for viewing at patchworkpony.blogspot.com.)

I have reached a point in my life where it seems I have things to say and share. I am not always one to just speak my mind in all situations, however. Although people who know me well may disagree with that statement! I tend to only be openly opinionated with those whom I feel safe. I figure in this venue I can share some of those things that are always on my mind.

As a self-employed housecleaner, I hope to share cleaning tips and tricks. I also have opinions about products and brands.

As a full-time single mom, I always have stories to share! I often get asked how I do it all. I mostly don't know if there is a hard and fast answer to that question, but there are lots of anecdotal stories that can be applied.

I am stepping out into the world of online educating. I have one job in my pocket that will be starting soon, and I have been applying for others.

I continue to be very content with using Parenting with Love and Logic. I have said many times before that it has saved my sanity and my life, maybe even the lives of my children! I am sure I will have things to share and advice to give.


As for life in general, I sometimes just have thoughts, feelings, or opinions about things. I do a lot of work around my own home and hope to share about some of those projects and events.

I look forward to taking this journey with my followers, maybe you all will have things to share with me too. I see this blog as a voyeuristic diary that I can share with family, friends, and the online world in general. Thanks for taking the time to read about my world.