Cleaning With Just Water

Are you enjoying your summer?  I've almost given up on blogging these days with three lovely boys, baseball, homeschooling and other joys of life!  But I interrupt your summer to present my new-found obsession and joy... cleaning!

I am not kidding.  I am loving these products.  So much so that I (not born a salesperson or a cleaning lady, let me assure you)  have decided to sell Norwex products because they sell themselves!  Once I show someone how they can clean their windows, walls, floors, sinks, mirrors and counter tops with only water, they are sold.  It works.... it reduces the use of chemicals, preserves the environment and saves you time and money.

Here is the cloth that started it all.  The Enviro Cloth can clean up to 90% of your home.  It lifts EVERYTHING off the surface, leaving a true clean instead of a residue that attracts dust.  When used dry, it creates an electrostatic charge that picks up all the dust off your surface.  When used wet, it will clean all your major surfaces with only water.

Here's what sets our products apart.  When you are done cleaning with the Enviro cloth, you rinse it out with hot water and hang it up to dry.  The micro silver inside the cloth goes to work with its self-purification properties against mold, fungi and bacterial odor and within 18 to 24 hours, your cloth is ready to use again!


Our Polishing Cloth also contains silver and is used to make your windows, mirrors, granite, stainless steel, faucets and more streak-free and shiny.  You can use a spray bottle of water to wet your surface, then follow up with a dry polishing cloth for amazing results.  I have never had my mirrors so clear and and my windows streak-free when the sun shines through!

My husband is so happy with how clean our house is since I've been using Norwex products.  It's fun and easy.  And saves me so much time.  I can clean our hardwood floors in half the time I used to spend vacuuming, sweeping and mopping by using the simple and wonderful Mop.  The dry pad dusts and polishes all types of flooring.  The wet pad (which also contains silver for self-sanitizing purposes) will clean the floor efficiently with ONLY water!  It dries quickly and streak-free and is much easier to push than a Swiffer.

And yes, all these products are machine washable so you can use them again and again!!  And you are saving money because of all the products you will no longer need to purchase.  The Enviro Cloth replaces paper towels and Clorex wipes and you no longer need dusting spray, floor cleaner, window cleaners, and more.

AND the cloths come with a 2 year warranty!

If you are in a two-hour radius of my hometown, I would love to have a show in your home.  You will be amazed at how generous Norwex is to their hosts/hostesses.  You can receive up to $200 in free product, just by hosting a party!  July and August are the Mop months, so you could have the Mop completely free.

Email me at fiveapplesaday@gmail.com or check out my website for more info.

Hope you're having a terrific summer.

~ Katrina :)

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Kitchen Tip

I was crying my eyes out and clearing the room when cutting a very strong onion at my son's birthday bash.  My sister's boyfriend offered a tip.  After peeling the onion, rinse it with water before cutting it for a no-tears experience.  I have now tried this several times... and it works.  Why didn't someone tell me this before?

Share it!
~ Katrina

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Home remedies... fun stuff!

I was at a baby shower recently and conversation turned from mastitis (use cabbage leaves!) to home remedies.  We could have written an entertaining book combining everyone's knowledge. How do you discern home remedies from old wive's tales, anyway?

Here are a few things for you to try at home.  Remember, I'm no doctor.

Jennifer found these interesting body tricks including curing brain freeze and clearing a snuffed nose.

Lauren says use garlic oil for ear-aches.  (It worked for her!)  Buy it or make your own by warming 2 cloves of garlic in 2 teaspoons of olive oil and straining out the garlic.

She also recommended checking out passionatehomemaking.com for other natural remedies.  I got stuck on this website...  Rabbit trail... She gives great gift ideas like making your own lip balm.  Or what about making your own deoderant?  I have got to try this.  Why does that sound like fun to me?

Lindsay told us a couple of her grandparents' natural remedies.

• Sore Throat Remedy.  Combine 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup vinegar, 3 Tbsp. honey, and 1 tsp. cayenne pepper.  Take a small sip every 3-4 hours.  Yum?
• Cobwebs and Turpentine.  She remembers cobwebs being used to stop bleeding and turpentine being used to help heal cuts. Has anyone ever heard of these?

She also shared a link to a list from The Doctors show that gives you 30 quick solutions to cure yourself without a doctor.    This is a good list, too, including treating headaches, sore throats, menstrual cramps, burns, blackheads and more.

I love this stuff.

Got some good home remedies?  We would love to hear them in the comment section below.

Stay well!

~ Katrina

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Gas Masks!

Occasionally, we struggle with flatulence in our family (by "occasionally", my husband would say "all the time" and by "we", my husband would say "just you, honey", but that's neither here nor there).  Gas is mentioned enough around our house (boys talk of little else) that my three-year-old yells "gas masks!" when he passes gas.  (To employ your gas mask you pull the front of your shirt over your mouth and nose to fend off sulfurous odors....every child knows this.)  We eat a lot of potentially gas producing foods - beans, broccoli, salads, fruit - so that's par for the course, I suppose.

However, I may have a remedy for painful, and potentially lethal, gas! A friend of mine gave me this recipe years ago when I had my second baby.  It has really been helping my little one cope with the broccoli I eat and it helps me, too.  Mostly, it helps expel it naturally.  Hope it helps someone (else).  See recipe below.

Fennel Tea

For a cup:
1/4 tsp. fennel seed
1/8 tsp. caraway seed
1/8 tsp. anise seed

For a lasting supply:
1/2 c. fennel seed
1/4 c. caraway seed
1/4 c. anise seed

Mix seeds together.  Add 1/2 tsp. of the mix to the tea strainer in a mug and pour boiling water over seeds.  Let steep 3-4 minutes. Remove strainer (or wait until seeds settle if you don't have a tea strainer).  Add sweetener, if desired.

For best results, drink soon after eating gas-inducing foods.  Nursing moms, drink a cup a day when you doubt your milk supply or when you indulge in broccoli.  Your baby will love you for it.

Note: If you don't like the licorice taste (anise seed), add a little honey to your tea.  I personally like the licorice flavor.

I've been drinking a cup a day since all my meals of late seem to include salads, beans, onions or broccoli!  It helps!

Enjoy your cup of tea.

~ Katrina (gas comments courtesy of Christian)

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Just a spoonful of honey

I was surprised and pleased to see a write-up in Parenting magazine about the value of using honey to treat "cold symptoms".  See a short blurb of the information they shared here.

Our family has been treating coughs with honey for two or three years now, thanks to a helpful idea from one of our pharmacy friends.  I remember my dad giving me a mix of lemon and honey for a sore throat as a child.  Does anyone else remember being given special honey teas or the like?

A spoonful of honey helps our kids before bed (or in the middle of the night - yippee) when they have a cough or a tickle.  Plus, they like it (suprise).  I'm afraid the kids have started asking for honey even when they are not sick at all.

A lot of folks in this area buy into the idea of using local honey for preventing seasonal allergies, as well.  Our allergist gives no credence to this idea, but we've been trying it anyway.  Never hurts to try and we're supporting our local beekeepers!

~ Katrina

Editor's note: Honey has been used for medicinal purposes for about a gazillion years.  Ancient Egyptians used it for a variety of things including binding wounds.  As you've likely noticed, honey doesn't spoil or require refrigeration; the reason being that several bacterial species/genera can't grow/proliferate in honey.  So we've "discovered" that honey is a good antibacterial treatment (sarcasm implied because well, you know, it's a really old idea that we are claiming to have discovered, but has been known since dirt was new).  It's good to know anyway.

--- Christian

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Other uses for a common dish soap

My husband introduced me to Palmolive as a degreaser, a cool trick passed down from his mom.  It is the only thing I've found that removes grease from clothing, but guess what else it removes?  Baby poo!  If any of you struggle to get those yellow stains out of baby clothes, struggle no more.  I know it's not all natural, but we use Palmolive as a dish soap so it's already on hand.  Christian also uses it for removing poison ivy oil from exposed skin after a romp in the woods.

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