The shopping?
A dent has been made. A big dent.

The decorating?
I took down another Halloween decoration. Good, right?

The weather?
Rain, rain, more rain, possible flooding and wind. Lots of strong wind. Snow to come. The dog won’t even go out.

The status of trying to get the album I downloaded onto my computer?
Unknown. I’m still a moron.

Dinner?
Cooking. Doing much better than yesterday. Yesterday was Mickey-D’s.

The pot from yesterday?
Unknown. Still haven’t gotten it clean. Tried. But not finished.

The children?
Home and playing legos. Together. With no fighting. Yet.

Work?
On track and still fun.

My photography?
Do I own a camera? It’s somewhere I’m sure.

Holiday newsletter?
One last picture needed. Of the 4 boys together. HA! They may never go out.

Addresses?
Still don’t have them. You want a newsletter? Send me your address. This includes family and in-person friends.

The Good News:
Our smoke detectors work.

The Bad News:
Dinner is ruined. (and probably the pot too)

On a lighter, lovelier note… I received my copies of RULES by Cynthia Lord on Friday. Wait, you can’t buy them yet. She sent me a couple of proofs.

Say thank you when someone gives you a present (even if you don’t like it). (Except I LOVED it!)

I was blessed to receive them on Friday after our 2nd Thanksgiving – the one I had to prepare. So the timing was perfect. And let me say a HUGE THANK YOU to Cindy for sending me 2 copies. Alex grabbed one and was off before I had a chance to blink.

We both snuggled down to the sound of the dishwasher running and the smell of Thanksgiving still hanging in the air. What a lovely experience. You all MUST pick up a copy – in April – when it’s officially published.

Looking closer can make something beautiful.

I finished before bed and Alex is just about done. It gets two thumbs up from us both. Today I have the privilege of dropping off one of the copies to the town library. As soon as Alex finishes his copy it’s going to the intermediate school.

Not everything worth keeping has to be useful. (But this is so useful!)

Personally, I think the teachers should use it as a classroom book. Have the whole class do it as assigned reading. Alex had a lot of questions about autism when he first started reading. This was a great jumping off point – a great way to introduce a subject many kids don’t know much about. Also a great way to create compassion in our kids. Hello, any teachers out there?

You know I’ll be promoting it to the boys’ teachers.

If you need to borrow words, Cynthia Lord wrote some good ones.

Oh, and I almost forgot…

No toys in the fish tank.

**All rules were written by Cynthia Lord (with a bit of modification to the rule pertaining to borrowing words).

Ah, Carmi mentioned something in the comments of the last post that I’ve been planning on writing about – the fact that today there are so many products out there that we just use and toss away – and then buy some more.

As you can see from the last post there are areas that I’m all for this type of thing. The quick clean up is one of them. Especially when it involves things I have a tendency not to keep up on.

Now for the big but… BUT, some items seem just silly to use and toss and replace. I should qualify that by saying, in OUR home some of these products are just plain impractical.

The toss away toilet brush. Not working out for me. Yes, I tried it. But, no, I wasn’t thrilled with it. Yes, it cleaned the toilet. But I have 2 toilets and 4 young boys. So really not convenient or economically sound.

Some of you may recall that I use a cleaning product with Teflon to keep the toilets clean longer. Does it work? I say yes. With the disposable stuff? They seem to need cleaning much more often (2x’s a week or more vs. once). If I have to clean the toilets at least twice a week and the refills for the brush come in a pack of like 6 that would last me less than 2 weeks. Not economical and frankly, just plain annoying and gross if I don’t get to it.

Another disposable product I just can’t see the need for? The dish washing cloth with soap in it. I can only guess it was aimed at single people who eat out a lot. What family would find it economical or even practical? They say it makes your life simpler but how hard is it to squirt some dish washing liquid onto a cloth or sponge?

So, in closing, I’d say I still use the Swiffer products. I still love them for “between” cleanings (carpet) or the more rare cleanings (non-carpeted floors, dusting). As for the other disposable cleaning products? Not for me.

I’m apparently going through blogging withdrawal. I have so much to say. I must post again.

This time I must tell you about a wondrous gift that made my holiday cleaning (aka Quick, people are coming over – DO SOMETHING!) oh so much easier. It was a gift from Katheryn from MS&L (the Swiffer people). Seems she read my rave about the Carpetflick and wanted to thank me by sending some refills. She happened to ask if their were any other products I was interested in trying and well, **cough, cough** there was one I’ve been dying to try.

So Tuesday I get a lovely package delivered to my door. Inside are refills! and a new Sweep & Vac. Oh, how I love the Sweep & Vac.

It is the original Swiffer, with a little vacuum. So, when you Swiffer up the dust and end up with a pile of crap Perler beads, sticks, paper scraps from the kids and a pair of scissors, dirt, and various other stuff there is no need to fetch the broom and dust pan. Or the dust buster. (Not that I have one anymore. Damn thing died. Probably from excessive use.) You just push a button and it sucks up the pile.

So now? No need for a new Dust Buster. Between my Sweep & Vac and CarpetFlick, I’ve got it covered. The kids? Still fighting over wanting to use them both. But they’re MINE. ALL. MINE. Back away from the Swiffer products.

The sad thing is, I now own EVERY Swiffer product. And, I love them all. I almost don’t mind cleaning. (Yes, I said almost. If I could I’d hire a cleaning lady. But again, Back away from my Swiffer products.)

I do have to be honest and say I had trouble with one thing while using my new Sweep & Vac… Unlike the original, you can’t get under the furniture because the vacuum part is too big. BUT! I’m so ingenious that it is not a problem any longer… I just picked up my extended handle duster which was nearby (I was cleaning for company) and used that to get under the furniture. Then I just vacuumed up the pile. So really, no real problem.

Now that I sound like a total sell-out, product whore and an advertisement for Swiffer, I must say – too bad! I love my new Sweep & Vac. LOVE IT! So just back away and no one will get hurt.