make your own all-purpose cleaner

I really like this all-purpose cleaner. For one thing, it smells really good and then there is the really great price. Finally, I like that it doesn't irritate my eyes or lungs. Oh and just and case you haven't noticed, it is green!!


By the way, if you make it don't bother with a spray bottle, just use an old dish soap bottle and squirt it directly on your rag.

cold frames

We live where we can get snow as late as early May. These photos were taken on April 26. So, if we want to enjoy a green harvest of abundance, cold frames can be very helpful in getting an early start.

I love gardening. Nothing beats a fresh tomato (especially on a Tex Mex dish or on a BLT) and Zucchini Soup is delicious. Home grown cucumbers are always sweeter and my daughters love Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

I preserve everything I grow that we can't eat fresh in order to defray the cost of food throughout the other nine months of the year when I can't garden. One of my favorite ways to preserve tomatoes is to dehydrate them to use in soups, stews, and Sundried Tomato and Onion Chicken a super easy Crockpot recipe I came up with (which unfortunately does contain the more expensive ingredient (but oh so yummy) balsamic vinegar).

Every year I garden, I go greener. I currently vermicompost and I am anxiously awaiting my tumbling compost bin which will not only recycle grass-clippings and garden waste but which I also plan to use to compost untreated paper and other household waste that is suitable for compost thus diminishing the amount of trash we put on the curb.

I also kill my dandelions (which if it weren't for my husband, I wouldn't even bother killing) the green way.

making what is old, new

Children are inundated with products that tie into a particular person or television show or movie or series or...

Children do not need more plastic toys that incorporate a ready made plot and charcter. They need toys that open the door to imagination.

Use a recycled skirt and other scraps of fabric to make a personalized superhero cape for your child and save money, raw resources, and more importantly, your child's imagination.

obsessively turning off the water

The container on the left shows how much water is used if one turns off the water while washing their hands. The container on the right shows how much water is used if one lets the water run while washing their hands.


Green is obsessively turning off the water. By obsessively turning off the water, you save water which makes for a green, healthy planet and you save on those green slips of paper we all like to accumulate. Read my Suite101 article "How to Save Water in the Bathroom" for a better way to wash your hands.