Highlights Reel

Here's a few things from this week of my life.

Sigh.  I did not win the chili cookoff (at church).  Out of 20 chilis, I did get an honorable mention, and I thought it was the best chili I've made.  One of these years, I am determined to win.  Here are my reflections on it.  I have a very strong competitive nature.  I am not one to upset a gameboard and stomp out of the room if I lose (some guy I knew did that in college.  Really?  Are you 5 years old?!).  But make it into a contest, and I really will do much more work than reasonable to try and win.  I was thinking though, why are chili cookoffs so popular?  Besides Bobby Flay throwdowns, it's really all chili.  Why don't they do other mass cookoffs.  Stirfry?  Cream puffs?   I'm not sure what.  Just something more interesting than chili.

Okay.  My first video of blogland.  It's like 2 seconds long; I'm starting small.  But he's been quacking this week, and it was just too cute not to share.

And here's my first mean-ol'-mama chore chart.  I'm excited about it, and it turned out pretty fun looking, but we start tomorrow.  We'll see how it goes.  They earn a dollar a day (except Dylan) if they do both chores, and they get bonus mystery chores if they want.  I am determined to keep my house clean, and so far, I would lose any contest on that...

And while we're on cleaners, I've very recently become a little obsessed with less-toxic cleaners for body and home.  There are many more hippie folks around here who I usually just smile at in a loving but skeptic way, but I actually jumped on this bandwagon.  I attest it to the combination of getting hives last month that went away when I switched to a hypoallergenic laundry detergent, an enrichment night on natural cleaners, and Tanner having a rash that the doctor says is a sensitive skin rash from soap or something.  And since my boys pretty exclusively do the windows and dusting, I was excited about having them use something they could actually eat instead of call poison control.  So, I made a nice vineagrette for dusting, and a spray for windows from water, vinegar, and castille soap from the care2 website.  I wasn't sold on the dusting and so will continue my search, but the vinegar mix worked great.  Try it if you don't trust me.