its hard to sweep without a broom (and other things I hate about moving)

I hate rain.

I mean, okay, sometimes its nice to have a stormy day so you can so you can stay in your pjs and watch sappy movies without feeling guilty about it ... but after nearly 9 months of drizzly, uninteresting, northwest rain (minus the wild beauty of a mid-western storm) I just don't think I can take one more day of it. C'mon, Seattle...people live here for the balmy, perfect summers...this is the one 'season' of the year its not supposed to rain. UGH.

Ahhh...well I am moving in THREE days...so it'll be over for me soon enough and then I will be in Ohio- and while that's no paradise island- it IS hot and sunny and evn with the crazy humidity, my parents have a pool, so Cohen and I won't mind a bit.(now that is a run-on sentence if I have ever met one) And wouldn't you know (the weather is on the news right now) that Thursday (the day I leave) is going to be the nicest day of the week? Figures.

The thing I really hate about the rain, is that I have dogs. Just try to keep your floors clean when you have four dogs running in and out of the rain to go potty. Its impossible. Here we have spent the last few weeks deep cleaning and preparing to sell our house only to have all of these 'so called' summer days full of rain ruin our hard work (okay, its not truly ruined, but..go with me here....)

Anyway, yesterday I went to sweep and mop and I opened up the pantry, where I always have kept both of those things, and found the swiffer looking very lonely.. I walked around the house and looked in each room but...no mop...no broom. I went back to the pantry, half expecting the broom to be there this time. We have lived in this house now for 26 months (that's 2 years, 2 months for all of you non-mamas *grin* I thought I would try applying the 'baby age rules' to other numbers just for kicks)...anyway, for as long as we have called West Seattle home, I have kept the broom and mop in the pantry. But....still not there. After looking and looking and eating up nearly all of my 'oh look the baby is sleeping, I should do some housework' time, I decided to go ahead and try to swiffer anyway.

Now, I am no great housekeeper and I hate housework as much as anyone I know, but even I have some basic rules about cleaning. One of which is, never do any mop-like activity before you sweep. Doing these tasks out of order can be...well...gross. Mopping without first sweeping only serves to push wet dog hair and dirt around your floor. The only thing more icky than dog hair and dirt is, you got it, WET dog hair and dirt. Still, I had to get the mud and paw prints up. So I swiffered.

There are a few things I would like to say to the Swiffer people... One, your product is not as great as it looks in commercials. Two, I have a rather small kitchen and I went through about 5 of those wet pads you apply to the swiffer just to get paw prints up! 5! Are you serious? That whole refill package only has like 20 of them and I just had to use 5 in one cleaning. (and no, my floor wasn't that dirty) Not only do the pads not go very far, but they aren't very tough either so there is no way you can scrub a floor with that thing... I only bought one cause my aunt Jen convinced me to when she was here helping me clean when I was waxing great with child and too tired to argue with her over cleaning products. (As a side note, my aunt Jen is a brilliant housekeeper and I am sure the Swiffer works well for her since she has no children at home any more and no animals..heck, I doubt her house even gets dirty..she has the cleanest house you have ever seen.)

. Anyway, I ended up on my hands and knees with a towel. I used to watch my mom clean the floors that way and while it was hard work, they actually turned out really nice...anyway...I still haven't found the broom or mop, but then again I only have THREE more days here, so I guess the Swiffer and I will just have to make do. I will say, it does smell nice... so if you have perfectly clean floors and just want to add a nice smell to them that requires being mopped on, the Swiffer is for you! But otherwise, a good old mop and bucket will do the trick. Oh, and don't forget to sweep first, friends!

Wow..that was a long tangent.

In other news (cause I know you are just dying for more amazing hot topics i.e. my mopping practices) I have finally figured out Cohen's diaper situation! Did you even know we had a diaper situation? Well, we did. My rad friend, Cara, told me about G Diapers (ww.gdiapers.com) right before Cohen was born..she's very environmentally conscious (and I am trying to be) so I was glad for the heads up. Did you know that 2/3 of what is in landfills are...diapers? Those sick things take 500 years to decompose...nasty. After learning that, I felt very convicted to use something a little more earth-friendly. We have been using G Diapers for months now and originally when you buy the diapers, they send you these flushable inserts that only take 30 days to break down. When we ran out of those, I decided I would just use the old-school regular cloth diapers as inserst and just launder and re-use them. BUT since we started doing this, Cohen has been peeing through the diaper, like seriously, every hour or so . So by the time I was washing all of those diapers and panels AND inserts (not to mention, peed on clothes), I am sure I was using enough water to obliterate my earth-friendly intentions. So yesterday, I picked Shawn up from the airport and we went to BAbiesRUs in search of a solution. We found some cloth diapers that were "4-ply, extra-thick and absorbant, and quick-drying"- everything I had been dreaming of! And I am proud to report that we have now gone 12 hours without a leaking diaper! Its pure magic, I tell you. I can almost hear the earth sighing in relief.

Speaking of earth-friendliness... I have been thinking a lot about that issue.,..about being good stewards of the wondrous creation God spoke into existance...and I am wondering what all of these issues mean to me? as a Christian? Its ironic to me that so many believers and maybe more so, the 'machine of christianity' seems to oppose the green movement. I don't get it. If we are the ones who believe the earth with its vegeation and inhabitants was purposefully created by the God we serve, why are we dragging our feet rather than leading the march to respect it? Hmm...something to think about. I imagine there will be more mosts about this soon...feel free to throw in your two (or more) cents.

Well, since I only have THREE days left and since Cohen is napping in his swing, I think I had better quit typing and get to working.

Have a lovely day, y'all. Hope its not raining where you are.