Whatever would apparently make a great crime solving tool! Three year old dancing on the dining room table?

BUSTED.

Now, for today’s giveaway post…

When Mr. Frowzy and I bought this house 5 or so years ago we needed to supply it with a refrigerator.  Our house was a total gut rehab (as in was condemned before a man, whose name has become an epithet in this house, gutted and then used the cheapest materials possible to pretty it up.) and the fancy new kitchen was complete with all stainless and black appliances, except, of course, there was no fridge.

If we were more experienced and wiser parents at the time, we would have gone with a black fridge. Or perhaps like the salesperson suggested and I pressured, gone with one of the Clean Steel finishes that doesn’t leave every fingerprint and smudge visible. But no, Mr. Frowzy was wooed by the Ding and Dent sale model of a ginormous brushed stainless steel finish refrigerator. From the beginning I hated that fridge and all the other stupid stainless appliances in that kitchen. And of course, I grumbled about Mr. Frowzy every time I cleaned them.

In the Frowzy house we don’t just get fingerprints, we get yogurt fingerprints, we get butter smears, we get sticky globs, we get dried drips of jam, we get Humphrey drool (from him licking at the other various smudges).  A little water isn’t going to clean up this bad boy. Again I tried my best to get a picture at an angle that would show all of this, but this is the best I could do:

Up until now, I have always used those stainless cleaning wipes. Easy peasy. So, when I read the directions on the label of Einshine about spraying it on a cloth and rubbing it on and then buffing it off, frankly my lazy butt actually groaned a little about it being too much work. Yeah, I’m like that.

I got out my microfiber cloth folded in fourths, shook the bottle and sprayed it on the rag.  I wiped it on with the grain and then flipped the cloth over and wiped it again with the dry side. First of all, it wasn’t really that much work. (Shocking, I know.) But more importantly, it was super clean and shiny and streak-free.

What I had been mistaking for clean when using those wipes didn’t even come close. The dried jam handprint just wiped right off. The butter too, without any streaking. I was so impressed that Mr. Frowzy began making fun of me because I just had to show him and anyone else who came into my house.  My oven, my dishwasher, my microwave all shined like new. I’m not easily impressed and certainly not by cleaning products, but I gotta tell you, Einshine is what made me start blogging for Better Life. I was amazed. And whatever the magic is in this stuff, it helped repel fingerprints and smudges for days. It used to be covered again within hours. And the grumbling about Mr. Frowzy and his stupid refrigerator…stopped. Another marriage saved. The transformation is so dramatic that it is one of my kids favorite chores.  They love seeing the finish come out so beautifully.

So, if you would like to try a bottle of this little miracle worker, leave a comment on this post before Wednesday the 23rd and we will pick three winners to receive a free bottle.  I promise to announce on Friday! If you aren’t one of our lucky winners, you can buy Einshine with our special coupon here and if you click the pink share button under the coupon to share it on Facebook, your coupon doubles to a dollar!

I live in an urban area and therefor gave very little thought about drain off. The water goes into the sewer, the sewer goes to the treatment plant, the water gets cleaned, the water goes out to the world. That is how my little naive brain saw the whole process. Environmental water pollution through drain off comes from those big, bad industrial farms. Not little old, well-meaning me innocently washing her van.  I certainly can’t be responsible for all those poor, deformed amphibians. I live in the city! There are no amphibians around me!

Well, not only does my crystal clean treated water fantasy not pan out, but when I was out walking Humphrey I saw this:

That is on the lid of the sewer at the bottom of my street.  This is the sewer where all the run off from my hose and all the cleaner used to wash my van goes after it runs down my street. It goes, well…directly to the stream. Turns out virtually all street sewers do. In this case a rather large stream. You know, The Mississippi River.

ugh. poor little frogs.  I didn’t have a bottle of the stuff I generally use to wash the van, so I can’t tell how bad the damage is, but I’m thinking pretty darn bad. But, even if I use those so-called “Green” cleaners, I’m still hurting my little salamander friends. Remember this chart?

The Ethoxylates are the bad mamma jamma endocrine disruptors. Look at that list! Look at all the cleaners with Ethoxylates in them! How “Green” is that?!

Enter Whatever. I know I can safely use Whatever to clean all the grease and gunk off my van and still protect my little fishy friends because Whatever all-purpose cleaner was just approved to be used in professional cleaning kits being sent to clean up the Gulf Coast’s most fragile ecosystems. And because there are no solvents in it, I don’t even have to worry about the finish on the van. Not that I do. But one doesn’t have to worry about it.

Really, to be extra eco-nice, you can just wet the car down and spray it on and wipe off with a microfiber cloth. That’s the method for people who may wash their cars regularly. We are not such people. Behemoth, our van, has not been washed since…probably February. Maybe longer. And we went on a mud-ilicious camping trip a few weeks ago. I couldn’t get a good shot to do the dirt justice. This was the best I could get:

(Pay no mind to the big dent in the driver’s side door I may or may not have been responsible for when backing out of a parking spot at the local tavern. I wasn’t even under the influence, it was just a very sneaky light pole.) I diluted some Whatever in a bucket of water and put the kids to work. Because it’s safe for the kids, too!

Some didn’t stay on task quite like I had hoped:

But, when all was said and done, Behemoth was looking pretty spiffy.

Didn’t get the stupid dent out, though. And when we emptied the bucket, there were no worries about what was going directly to the stream.

scene: Dinner time at the Frowzy house. This scene plays itself out the exact same every single night. We eat dinner at 5:00p. At 5:30p every night Oliver excuses himself from the table and goes to the bathroom to take a poo. every night. And then every night Oliver calls Bob from the dinner table to come wipe his butt. There is no variation in this scenario. And I admit, that I encourage none.

Oliver: Daaaaaaaaaad! Could you come wipe my butt?!
Bob: Are you serious?! Why?! Why can’t you wipe your butt?!
Oliver: Because. I neeeeed you!
Bob: But why does it have to be me?! Why can’t Mommy come wipe your butt?!
Oliver: (clearly confused.) But. It’s your job.
Bob: How is that my job?!
Oliver: (exasperated.) Because you are the Buttwiper!

yeah. so get to work.

hee hee. Buttwiper.

So, what does one get the Best Buttwiper in the World (other than a coffee mug that says, “Best Buttwiper in the World?”)  Well the Mother Nature Network thinks Better Life’s Starter Kit is the perfect gift for Dads!  I love this on many levels. But, then we shouldn’t be so surprised. After all, it was two rockin’ awesome dads who invented this stuff and started the company!

And while the occasional playground is nice, it doesn’t keep the children’s attention the way OUTSIDE does.  But, remember we live in an urban area.  Where can a kid find OUTSIDE in an urban area?! Well, luckily for us we live in a city that planned for lots of green space. So, even at our neighborhood park where there are two playgrounds and an awesome fountain/wading pool that we get plenty of use out of, there are also acres and acres of green space and little alcoves and trees and a small creek.  At Forest Park, one of our favorite places is not the zoo (though we are there at least once a week!) but this little spot with a creek to wade in

and rocks to climb on.

They last maybe 45mins at a playground. At the creek? 2-3 hours, easily. With fallen sticks they build dams, they catch crawdads, they fill jars with grasshoppers (easy there, we let them go.) And I do a lot of this…

That’s not to say that we don’t also spend a lot of time at the Zoo and the Botanical Gardens, we have memberships to both.  And at these places and even at playgrounds unexpected kid fun can show up. I don’t like to say “No” unless I have a good reason, and “because you’ll get wet/messy,” to me, is not a good reason.  That is why I have just assembled the 2010 Frowzy Family Summer Survival kit that I keep in my van all summer long.

And what is in the Frowzy Summer Survival Kit? Well, in addition to the well-stocked first aid kit that I always keep in Behemoth (our van), I have added a big old quilt and this seasonal tub.  In the tub is a change of clothes for every child, a cruddy old towel, a package of baby wipes, a (gasp) emergency disposable diaper, another container (so it doesn’t spill all over the clothes. Learned that the hard way.) that has bug spray and sunscreen, and what is that? yes, a bottle of Whatever (you never know when you need to spray down the car seat after ice cream, or a picnic table, or frankly a barfy public toilet seat. done it!) and a roll of paper towels. With this survival kit I never have to worry about saying “NO!” to summer fun for all the wrong reasons.

So, get your survival kit together and get OUTSIDE!  Throughout the summer I’ll post about some of our favorite activities. If you have some ideas on what your family loves to do, email me. We love to try new things!

Enjoy your summer and enjoy your family!

You’re probably going to notice a trend in many of my posts.  They’ll start with, “I left the room for five minutes when…” Eleanor is a year and a half old and hand to God, the absolute biggest menace we have ever encountered in the Frowzy family.  She is ruthless in her enthusiastic messiness.  The entire house has basically had to be Menace proofed, meaning put in a box and put in the attic and doors locked at all times.  She can’t hurt herself, but she still manages to create a lot of chaos in a day.

On the one hand, her industrious independence is refreshing because she goes about her own business most of the day without the need for constant entertainment.  On the other, we have three cabinet doors that she has ripped off the hinges trying to foil the baby-proofing device.

This is one of the many reasons I became a fan of Better Life products.  They cannot harm her.  But an even bigger reason that I’m a fan is that they can clean up after her.

So, the other day I left the room for five minutes to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer. When I came back I realized I had made the fatal error of leaving the diaper cream on the table after changing her diaper. She’s been unscrewing lids since she was nine months old.

Have I mentioned how creative and artistic she is?

For those unfamiliar with diaper cream, Boudreaux’s consists of zinc oxide, mineral oil, and castor oil. It’s greasy stuff.  Was it any match for Whatever?

not even a little. No residue at all.

Your kitchen sink
Kitchen sinks are dirtier than most bathrooms. There are typically more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch in the drain alone. Plus your sponge, basin and faucet handles are crawling with bacteria as well.

And if that doesn’t gross you out, how about this?

“Most people don’t realize that in our studies of homes we find the greatest number of fecal bacteria actually in your kitchen sink, and the least number in your bathroom,” says Gerba. There are actually 200 times more fecal bacteria on a the average person’s cutting board than on a toilet seat, he notes.

So, I don’t think I really need to go into what this means for our food preparation and health, right? We need to get rid of all that grossness before it effects us and our families.  And what should we do? KILL KILL KILL! Well, that’s what we are led to believe anymore, isn’t it? We have to use harsh chemicals to KILL the bacteria so it won’t kill us. And what happens as that KILLING chemical goes down the drain? Does it just magically disappear? No, it goes out into our world where it continues KILLING many things we never intended to kill.

The other problem with these KILLING antibacterials is that they are raising alarm in the medical community because of the increasing evidence linking their use and the sharp rise in childhood allergies, asthma, and eczema AND the mutation of bacteria as it grows resistant to these products.

Well then, how do I protect my family from these very real and serious food borne bacteria?! What if we just remove them? It turns out that Better Life products use safe non-toxic ingredients that create CLEANERS. Yeah, that’s right. They simply CLEAN the bacteria away. Are you too brainwashed like me to believe that is possible? Take a look.

Most days and nights, after I’m done washing the dishes I spray down all my counters AND the sink with Whatever and wipe them all down. A couple of times a week, I’ll use Even the Kitchen Sink to get a nice scrub and shine. My sponges go in the dishwasher with every load and a couple of times a week I cut up a lemon and toss it down the garbage disposal to freshen it up.

Naomi, a Better Life customer, brought to our attention how Even the Kitchen Sink saved her favorite pot she inherited from her grandmother.  After a bittersweet chocolate pudding scalding, she boiled some soapy water on the stove and scrubbed to no avail. Her ever-helpful husband put it in the dishwasher where the burnt stuff got nicely baked on.  As a last ditch effort she grabbed some Even the Kitchen Sink and gave it a scrub and voila! Pot saved.

After hearing this story, I decided to go after my own burnt pan from when I pan seared a flank steak last week. (I really need to get a cast iron skillet.) I had also tried the simmering the soapy water trick and was able to get a good deal of the burnt crud out. But this was left.

So, I gave it a whirl. Even the Kitchen Sink and scrubbing pad and sure enough, Voila!

I was impressed. You want to try it? Leave a comment and you’ll be entered to win one of three bottles we’re giving away! And if you want to blog about this give away, we’ll give the blogger with the most clicks to this post a free Starter Kit! Comments open until 5/26.  Not lucky enough to win a free bottle? You can buy it here!

To read the full article click here.

This week’s Whatever Wednesday promises to have no poo in its post.

Soft insulated lunchboxes.  They can really start to stink.  I combat the stale food odors with a spray of Whatever and a wipe with a damp rag. Keeps the lunchboxes clean, sanitary, and smelling fresh. (Can anyone see the clue that Gin and Tonic Season is in full swing at the Frowzy house?)

As I keep saying, earth-friendly and pocket book-friendly generally go hand in hand.  In this case it goes for lunches.  Our school is striving to have 100% waste free lunches.  Those little plastic bags have been called an “environmental scourge.”

The plastic bag is an icon of convenience culture, by some estimates the single most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, numbering in the trillions. They’re made from petroleum or natural gas with all the attendant environmental impacts of harvesting fossil fuels. One recent study found that the inks and colorants used on some bags contain lead, a toxin. Every year, Americans throw away some 100 billion plastic bags after they’ve been used to transport a prescription home from the drugstore or a quart of milk from the grocery store. It’s equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of oil.

Only 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled worldwide — about 2 percent in the U.S. — and the rest, when discarded, can persist for centuries. They can spend eternity in landfills, but that’s not always the case. “They’re so aerodynamic that even when they’re properly disposed of in a trash can they can still blow away and become litter,” says Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste. It’s as litter that plastic bags have the most baleful effect. And we’re not talking about your everyday eyesore.

But, you use those reusable plastic containers, you say? Well, you might want to check those out.  Many contain BPAs which are chemicals in plastics that mimic estrogen and many studies are linking to accelerated puberty in girls, a huge increase in genital abnormalities and low sperm count in boys (American 18 year olds have close to half the sperm count of 18 year old boys 40 years ago), and new studies are showing a link to a slew of cancers from testicular to breast cancer.  Even #1 plastics that were once thought safe (think bottled water) are now showing endocrine disruptors in the urine of study subjects.

So, here at the Frowzy house we use reusable sandwich wraps. The linings of the wraps are BPA free, lead free, and phthalate free.  We bought a few Wrap-N-Mats, a few homemades from Etsy, and if you’re crafty you can really save some dough and make your own like my neighbor does with super cool Elvis material.  We even have reusable snack bags for chips or carrots or what-have-you. I bought these in August and have used them daily with no real sign of wear.  We’ll probably be able to use them all next school year as well. When we empty the lunchboxes after school I spray with Whatever and wipe the wraps and hang them up to dry on the line on my back porch.  (Dolphy went for a real swim.)

If they get really messy I just toss them in the washing machine and hang to dry. It’s really quite simple. Because Whatever leaves no residues and is completely safe,  I don’t have to worry about chemical condiments with my kids’ sandwiches.

edited to add: For those wanting to make your own (God love ya’) I have found that the most useful of our wraps is the wrap-n-mat because of its size (13×13) and the one strip of velcro extends off the side for greater versatility. The others aren’t big enough for a 1/3 of a sub sandwich. They are only good for square or hamburger bun size sandwiches.

I had been outside taking pictures for a future Whatever Wednesday while the two youngest Frowzies were eating lunch. I was outside for all of 5 minutes. Can you guess what they were having? Yep. Peanut butter sandwiches.  Humphrey, God love him, decided to help by cleaning up the mess.

Well, it did help frankly. (I still can’t imagine how people have children without a dog around to help with the preliminary cleaning.)  Which left me with this. A smeared, oily mess on top of older dried, crusty hand prints and dog snot.

Enter Better Life.  Can a window cleaner without ammonia or even vinegar clean this to a streak free shine?  It can. and it did. (Though to be fair, the peanut butter part needed a second spray and wipe to get all the oily smear.)