Fall is here, what am I up to now?

Fall is in the air, autumn that is, it's quite nice, the hot days are behind us, and for the third year in a row, we didn't have much of a rainy season (monsoons), it just didn't do much in the rain department. 

My sleep pattern has done its thing where I am waking up before the sun comes up and I'm falling asleep by 7 or 8pm, this is a typical pattern for me when the seasons change, I am usually a night owl except during the beginning of spring and fall. I'm not complaining, it's actually nice to be up early and doing things.

Floor maintenance 

Today, I decided I needed to clean out my vacuum cleaner, I guess that makes me a vacuum cleaner cleaner LOL.... Anyhoo, I vac'd the floor using up the last of the battery power, then disassembled the vac. It's fairly easy to take apart, it has 3 washable filters, the part that collects the dirt and dog hair, and the roller all got put in the sink and scrubbed. All of those parts are now sitting out in the sunshine to dry. I will reassemble everything before I go to bed. I'll also charge the battery so that everything will be ready when I need to vacuum again (tomorrow). Yes, I try my best to do a quick vac every day, I don't always succeed, but early in the morning, when the sun is shining in and illuminating all of the dog hair, I get motivated to want to get it vac'd up. 

Every couple of months, I grab a rubber squeegee on a long handle and a misting spray bottle of water, I lightly mist the rugs and go after it with the squeegee, it's amazing how much dog hair is brought to the surface using this method. I also use the squeegee to get into the corners and edges of the floor and other hard-to-reach areas (under the bed!!!) to pull out the dog hair that the vac can't normally reach.

Am I a clean freak?

Alas, no I am not a clean freak, I am pretty comfortable with clutter, until I'm not, then I go after it! I am looking at my shelves that hold my food, canned foods, and other foods, I need to clear them off, clean the dust, and put everything back in a tidy manner, more organized, I do know where most everything is, but it always looks so much better after a day spent organizing things. 

Mouse in the house...

I'll probably wait until after we catch the mouse that is living in there, it's really a cute creature, it's small and not doing too much damage. As soon as the mouse is dispatched, I'll go in and work on those shelves, I know there is mouse poo back behind things I can't see, and I'm also sure the critter has eaten into some things, I'll need to toss those food items. I noticed today that PB had set up a mouse trap, it will not kill the mouse, only trap it, the way it looks, I expect to have the mouse caught within the next couple of nights.

I have been putting my more vulnerable foods into big plastic totes with lids to protect them from said mouse. It's also going to be a good opportunity to throw out anything that isn't good anymore, out of date (seriously out of date) or just isn't something I am eating anymore. 

Over the last few months, I've pretty much given up all added processed sugar, including anything that contains it, so there are some food items up there that I'm not eating any more; I think the mouse has nibbled on some of it; I am OK with tossing those items. 

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Foods, why????

Recently I was at the dollar store in town, I was picking up supplies and had a hankering for something to snack on, looking around I spotted something I have not eaten very often but it sounded good, Nabisco Wheat Thins, I really thought they would be a healthy tasty snack. It says all over the box how good they are, 100% whole grain, no artificial flavors or colors... Once I got home, I opened them and began to eat, and wow, were they good, but much sweeter than I remembered? I thought it was because I haven't been eating sugar; it was fooling me into seeming sweeter than it actually was.

The more I ate, the sweeter it seemed to be. I turned the box over and read the ingredients; I was SHOCKED to see that it contained added sugar in multiple forms. It contains a toxic oil, and I discovered they put BHT in the packaging to maintain freshness. I looked that up, well let's just say it's not very appetizing, I'll not write here what it is used for in medical circles, but I'll say that is a disgusting thing to eat. Look it up for yourself.

I stopped eating the chips, I am now giving them to my dogs as treats until the box is gone, I'll not buy any more of those. I am disappointed in the food industry for touting something as healthy and good when it in fact contains toxic ingredients. I normally read labels before I buy something, especially if it's something I don't usually buy, as soon as my eyes roll across sugars, toxic oils, artificial sweeteners-colors-flavors, I tend to put it back on the shelf. 

Drunken Raisins

On the subject of health, I made up a batch of "drunken raisins" or gin soaked raisins, I haven't tried this before, but apparently, if you take golden raisins and soak them in gin for a few weeks, then you eat 9 raisins a day (not sure why 9, but that is what they say), it's supposed to treat joint and muscle pain. Pain caused by inflammation. I am going to see what happens, I'm also going to give some to PB to see if we can treat his daily pain. It was hard to find golden raisins that didn't contain added sugar, the best I could come up with was one that used sunflower oil on them, I put the raisins in a colander and poured boiling water over them to remove as much of the sunflower oil as possible. 

New home remedy works!

Speaking of PB, he often has stomach problems, and it can cause him to vomit for no apparent reason; I had read that smelling isopropyl alcohol can stop nausea and vomiting. This morning he was complaining about nausea and was about to start vomiting, I grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and sprayed it on a paper towel, I told him to sniff it. I went back to bed, but later on I asked him how it worked for him and he said it was successful. I suspect he will be willing to continue doing that as needed. We have some anti-nausea pills from the doctor, but he says it gives him a major cotton mouth and I can't get him to take one when he's having trouble. And honestly, I don't see that it really helps anyhow, the rubbing alcohol trick seems to work better with no side effects.

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Wretha,

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