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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How does your garden grow?

We are not highly successful gardeners.  But every year we try again. This year we are going to buy some local produce and try to grow some of our own.  In an effort to get the most bang for our buck, we're planting vegetables that we can either freeze, can, or dehydrate (I can't wait to try some more dehydrating).  We started our seeds indoors... and I am hopeful they will be happy in the garden.

the frightening Tomato Hornworm

It takes more than hope to grow a garden, so we'd love any helpful tips. Our biggest problems have been squash (it just dries up and dies after a few weeks) and large tomatoes (which usually split).  For tomatoes, my reading says that I should be watering just the soil and not the tops of the tomato plants.  I think it's bugs getting my squash.

I would like to look into more natural ways of spraying for bugs and avoiding pesticide use (the warning label on Sevin kind of freaks me out).  Looks like soapy water, among other things, can be used to kill aphids and greenfly.  Somewhere I heard you can crush mint leaves over your squash plants to protect them against bugs (sounds too good to be true).  We just happen to have a mint patch... mint grows like a weed and is nearly impossible to kill, which fits my level of green thumbery.

This website helped me out with what the pesky insects look like.  Also includes helpful pest control tips.

Some of these other homemade insect treatments look too difficult or expensive to me.  It has to be easy if it's going to get done in this crazy household.  I'm trying to avoid solutions that require purchase of fancy oils we don't keep in stock.

This year is our first year to have our own compost to combine with the soil.  I'm not sure if the added compost is going to be the trick to a successful garden, but it's supposed to be great for soil and we like the idea of composting over landfilling.  Note to readers: compost can attract flies.  So don't put the compost bin anywhere near the back door that the kids leave open thereby allowing hundreds of compost-filled flies into your kitchen.  Lesson learned.    

Please share your tips!
~ Katrina

P.S.  What are you reading?  We're reading The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo.  Enchanting.  If you pick this one up, grab Because of Winn-Dixie by the same author.  We loved that one, too.

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Dynamite Diaper Deal

Everyone appreciates a good deal. Well, Amazon has been providing me money-saving opportunities lately. Not only is this the best diaper deal I've seen in a long time, but they are even delivered directly to your doorstep. Every mother's dream. 

If you are in the diaper season (the grossest of all seasons), you should check this out.  Savings are just a click away!  See my exemplary deal below.

Pampers Baby Dry Diapers Size 4 (176 diapers)

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Subtotal of Items:	$40.88
Shipping & Handling:	$0.00
Promotion Applied (Subscribe & Save):	-$12.26
Promotion Applied (Parenting Magazine):	-$8.18
Your Coupon Savings:	-$1.50
	------
Total before tax:	$18.94
Estimated Tax To Be Collected:	$1.14
	------
Total for this Order:	$20.08

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That's 11 cents per diaper!!  (17 cents per diaper is considered a good deal.)

Here's how it's done:

• Join Amazon Mom. You'll get 30% off diapers and wipes when you Subscribe & Save.  (You can always unsubscribe.)   Your membership includes 3 months of Amazon Prime free which gives you free two-day shipping on items sold by Amazon with no minimum.  (You get free shipping if your order exceeds $25 even without Amazon Prime.)
• Save an additional 20% with the coupon found in American Baby magazine.  Click here for a free subscription. (I'm not sure how long to expect these coupons but, as of January 2011, these coupons may also be found in Parenting or The Early Years magazines.)  
• Clip a coupon for certain diaper brands through Amazon.  Read the whole screen prior to checking out to make sure you clipped it.

To purchase diapers from Amazon, click here.  We make a little advertising money if you purchase from our link.  Wink, wink.

Thanks for reading!

~ Katrina

P.S.  A friend clued me in to this great deal at Babycheapskate--in case you'd like to bookmark that website for yourself.

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Sweet SunButter Savings

Found a great bargain today!  If you use SunButter in your home, you know it's not cheap.  Depending on where you buy it, you will pay $5-$7 for a 16 oz. jar.

Would you like to stock up?  It's on sale right now at Amazon.com! $20.58 for a pack of 6... PLUS sign up for Subscribe & Save to save an additional 15% (you can unsubscribe later if you'd like).  I will have 6 jars delivered to my house for just over $17.  SWEET!

Since I'm breastfeeding a baby with severe nut allergies, SunButter has been a great nut butter replacement.  I use it on sandwiches and pancakes, as a veggie dip, etc.

~ Katrina

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Saving money on groceries

As I mentioned before, we started a new budget.  Blah.  Well, that's what I thought anyway.  On the contrary, I've found real freedom in our budget.  That sounds silly but the idea is this: if you have money left in the food budget, there is not guilt in spending it.  If it isn't in the budget, we have to hold out for the next month.

Something I'm working on now is a comparison price list of the foods I buy at the stores where I normally shop.  We mostly shop at Aldi , Wal-Mart and now Sam's Club.

Just found out you can share a Sam's Club membership with a family member!  Check it out here.  Although it says "household member", they are more than happy for you to join their club and sell stuff to you even if you don't live in the same state.  I am now sharing a Sam's membership with my mother-in-law and we both only pay $20 per year to be a part of a wholesale club.

I will be happy to share my comparison results with you soon! Preliminary results are: buy canned goods and produce at Aldi; buy frozen chicken and vegetables and on-sale fresh meat and produce from Sam's Club; and buy household goods with coupons (price-matching when possible) at Wal-Mart.

I would LOVE for you to share your tips as I strive to save more money on our monthly grocery allowance.

As long as we're saving money, click over to my friend Meg's blog, 31 Fields.  I especially loved these money savings tips.

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