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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Sue's Entry

My Entry for this week since I have the kids joining in on entering posts to our little blog and Zach was so happy to be such a huge hit I think I should title who the author of each post is

now wasn't that boring!!

The biggest neatest most awesome thing happened in this last week it was so fantastic and I am so happy I could just squeal with joy every time I think about it

WE Finally FINALLY have a working dishwasher

I know I know "how is an appliance earth friendly?" I have heard comments from older family members who say things like "that is an extravagant waste of energy"

well ..NO

A dishwasher uses less water and less heat than me washing my dishes by hand

I would wash dishes by hand at least 2 times a day spending over 30 minutes with running hot water over the dishes to scrub them clean. Because of the condition of our rust filled water we could not allow them to soak without needing to add even more chemicals to the water to remove the rust stains off the white plates

I would wash dishes till the hot water ran out and then wait to wash them again

NOW

(don't you hear those heavenly choirs singing??? AHHHHHHHH!!)

I just rinse the dishes lightly after a meal load up the dishwasher put in a tablespoon of the dishwasher detergent push a button

and CLEAN dishes

miraculous

now for the nitty gritty details of what my new lovely dishwasher does (this is the boring energy stuff now)

For the normal wash cycle (which I use most often) it uses only 6.1 gallons of water (WOW)

The dishwasher also has an econo wash setting that uses 4.9 gallons of water

amazing

I cannot find the information on it's electrical use but so long as you don't use the heat dry option on it I know that saves electrical use

I am waiting impatiently for our electric bill to show up we have taken some extra steps (for us) to save energy this month and I want to see what a difference they have made in our usage.

These are the steps we have taken this month
being broke as usual we have started this slowly we cannot just go out and buy all new compact florescent light bulbs right away we have to ease into this.
Currently Zach and Nik's bedroom is using only CFLs Zach wanted to be the first one to have his room ALL CFLs I also opened up his curtains to let in the natural light because we are finally out of the deep freeze so we have light that has heat in it pretty soon it will be time to take down the plastic tarp from his window.

We have CFLs in the dining room and CFLs in the kitchen there are still some lights in these rooms that need more bulbs but I must say I like that the light is bright I do wonder if I can use CFLs for grow lights as well...hmmmm I need to look into that .

We have told our oldest that he has to take faster showers so he has been very good about lowering the time he is in the shower it also helps that as it warms up here we don't have to have the space heater on in the bathroom.

CLEANING THE WINDOWS

who knew actual cleaning helps with the electric bill?? get out the vinegar and give them a good wash down they shine and let in tons of good light

I have my garden started and seedlings will soon be taking over every available spare flat surface I use long florescent tube lights and window sills to get my plants going my dining room and living room windows look like spring even if outside there is still 2 feet of snow(at least) all over the ground

my oldest two boys wanted their room painted so we painted it a bright green and made them new shades out of some old grass beach mats we had sitting in the back of a closet. they have sliding wood closet doors and wanted them to look different so we have painted the wood doors a dark forest green and are in the process of gluing old scratched and used CDs to the doors to make them reflect light in the room and look ...well shiny.

For the most part the boys have been good at turning off the lights this will be a hard habit to break I keep reminding them it will be worth it.

we have been unplugging non used appliances I find this quite the hassle and I want to get some power strips especially for the kitchen where as a short fat person I find it very hard to reach over the back of the counter to get to all the plugs.

We are still looking for a way to get a new better water filtration system set up and going here any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I want something that will filter out the rust not cost a ton of money , and not add chemicals to the water to do so!!

see I am easy to please LOL

Cloth diapering ..gee my reports on this my kids are not into it since I have my older boys help out a lot I have to remind them that the disposable diapers are for night time ONLY we have even taken the cloth on the road on short trips I have materials to make more and they work so well and are so darn cute I just need to take the time to make him some more covers and then be done with 'sposies

So many thoughts for spring on this day before Easter. So here is my tip for Easter baskets if anyone who reads this does them

DON'T waste your time getting cruddy baskets for the kids filling them with junky toys in my experience the kids love the toys for a few days then they are just junk filling up the house and eventually the garbage ..quality over quantity

My boys are simple boys they love simple things because I have trained them to. They love things like crayons and paper to color on they love to make things and they would rather have a board game or a neat nice toy than a stack of cruddy ones.

As for the candy I am a chocoholic I love it cant get enough of it the stuff is mother's milk to me so we buy some chocolate we buy a bag of jelly beans and some peeps for Dave we split up the candy in the plastic Easter eggs that get reused every year (saved by me may be dorky but the kids love it I save this stuff like I do Christmas ornaments) the eggs get filled the kids get the candy and everyone has a great time especially hunting eggs around the house

Another tip Don't buy the cruddy baskets buy something they can USE I personally LOVE the buckets they are cheap cute and the kids use them to store toys and cart stuff around as they break (we have one from about 6 years ago) we use them for feeding animals

WELL this was a LONG post hope it did not bore you I tend to ramble and often repeat myself repeatedly

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