Getting rid of pesky fruit flies

One downfall and benefit to working somewhere that has a contract with a pest control company is that you get to see the 'bug guy' on a regular basis. This is a bad thing because no one should know their bug buy by his first name but is a good thing because you learn how to keep the bugs away.

The most interesting, and useful, piece of information that I learned was about fruit flies. Did you know that fruit flies breed in drains? And did you know that the average lifespan of a fruit fly is 24 hours? The most useful thing I learned from this is if you ever get fruit flies, just bleach all your drains. This will kill any fruit fly eggs and prevent any more flies from hatching. Also since they only live for 24 hours, any flies you currently have, will just die off.

Hooray for no more fruit flies!

There's an App for that!

Recently K and I got iPhone 4's and we LOVE them. It didn't take any time at all to find the games and other app's that we want and personalize our phones. Last week I did pretty good following my schedule for cleaning the house and today, in between baby K's short naps where I would clean what I could of the bathrooms, and watching TV on the couch so baby K could get a good nap in, I realized that there has to be a house cleaning schedule app. So I grabbed my phone, which is always within arm's reach, and searched the App Store and low and behold, there's an app for that.

So I downloaded the free version of Motivated Moms and set up what I could of it. It actually isn't bad. It has daily tasks, like taking vitamins, reading to the kids, sweeping the entryway and kitchen, and then other tasks that alternate every few days/weekly etc. You can hide some tasks that you don't use, like if you don't have a pet for example. So I'll use it for a week or two and if I like it I might try the full version. The only thing I don't see so far is the ability to add your own personal tasks, and when you want to do them, but the full version might have that option.

The great thing about an app like this, where all the tasks are scheduled ahead of time, is that it will remind me to do things that I don't normally think of. For example, it told me to check the filters in the furnace today and I think later this week is change the kids bed sheets. Normally we just change them when we have a leak overnight, but since potty training is going really well, it'll be great to have a reminder for things like that.

Oh technology, what would we do without you?

Product Review: Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel

One of the worst cleaning jobs in the house has to be cleaning the toilet. It is by far the dirtiest, most unsanitary places ever. So when a company promises to keep your toilet cleaner and extend the time in between cleanings, of course you're going to be interested. Scrubbing Bubbles made that promise with their Toilet Cleaning Gel and unfortunately, it doesn't work.

The Toilet Cleaning Gel is super easy to use. Clean your toilet like you normally would and then use the dispenser to stamp a gel disc onto the inside of your toilet bowl. This gel will gradually dissolve when you flush and will clean the toilet. Except that it doesn't. The gel disc is supposed to last a week but after only a few days I noticed build up on the inside of the toilet bowl and a rim appearing. At the end of the week, the toilets were disgusting.

To be fair, I made sure that we had used it properly. I didn't want to rush on here after the first week in case we hadn't done it right. So I made sure to bleach and clean the heck out of the toilets and reapply the gel. And the second and third weeks were the same. It almost seems like the toilets stay cleaner longer without the gel. I could buy another one and try some more variations, but it really isn't worth spending money on that.

Sorry everyone, it looks like for now we'll have to keep cleaning the toilets the old fashioned way. I'll invest my money on some rubber gloves.

Harder than I thought

So this whole two kids thing is apparently a lot harder than I thought it would be. Baby K is just now, at almost a month old, getting used to being put down. He's in the swing right now, but only started tolerating that a few days ago. Most of the time, he sleeps on me, which makes it hard to get things done. So I came up with a plan and so far it's working alright. Every time he falls asleep, I put him down, either in his crib or the playpen. Slowly, but surely, he's getting used to not sleeping on us. Although he does sleep best on my chest. This gives me a few minutes every day to get some things done. So far I've mastered dishes, laundry and feeding M and myself. And some days, I'll bust out the windex and clean windows, and on paydays, I've still been keeping up with the bills. Last week, I ventured out and took both kids to the waterpark, where we met a friend who has two little girls who are each a few months older than mine. It was an adventure, but we had a blast and I'm glad I did. I might not be supermom, my house might not be immaculate, but at least I can take the kids out to have a good time. That's what childhood memories are made of, not how clean the house is, even though that's important too.

I know I said that I'd get back to work two weeks ago, but I'll admit that I haven't. This week, though, I really am. Tomorrow, Monday, is bathroom day, but I'm going to do that today. That way, I'll be a day ahead of myself all week, so if I have a rough day, that's ok. Plus, since I haven't been doing a great job at keeping up with my weekly tasks, I'll probably need to spend a bit more time than I normally would to get them done properly, at least for this week.

So let me reiterate my advice to all moms. Don't be too hard on yourself. You will get it all done, it'll just take time to figure out a good system. And even though my system worked when I had one kid, it might need some tweaking now that I have two.