Okay so I have been working on going green with my household cleaning products. I am using borax and washing soda for the laundry and I guess vinegar in the winter for fabric softener. For dishwasher detergent I am also using borax and washing soda. The first couple loads it was obvious we had put too much powder in it because there was film on the glasses and you could feel the dust on the plates. So third load I cut way back on how much borax and washing soda, but still yucky residue, so what do I do..... of course I turn to google. Turns out vinegar is great for a rinse aid, so I am trying vinegar in this load to see if it cuts through the residue. I just checked the glasses and they look great! I tell ya the uses for vinegar are endless! I am using it to clean just about everything. My hubby and H aren't too fond of the smell, so now if I could just find a way to mask the smell a bit all would be great in my world.
Do you have any tips on going green with household products. So far I have gone with the easier things to change, I think dishwashing liquid is going to be more of a challenge. Any tips or suggestions...?
Friday, June 13, 2008
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
friends...where I fit in....the kind of mom I am....
My son needs friends...
maybe it's just me worrying too much, but he wants me to play with him, and yet I know he would have so much more fun playing with friends. He tried to make friends with some neighbors here, but it didn't work out. I encouraged him to try again, that maybe it might work this time. But he doesn't want to. He says they hate him. They only played together one time, so not sure how that works. All he wants to do is watch tv and play video games and he gets mad at me when I don't want to play video games with him. I want to be his play mate and yet I also know that a friend is so much better.
He is such a social kid and yet, when it comes to one on one time with other kids he just doesn't know how to initiate it or what to do. I don't recall having this problem, but then I went to school where I could talk to my friends about what we would play after school all day! I know he wants to go back to school for the friends aspect. I was very social as a child but not so now. In fact I am almost reclusive, I enjoy being around others, I just don't really have any close friends, or even friends that I talk to on a regular basis. I keep thinking if he wants it he will go for it, but yet, he seems to see so much in his life as out of his control and that this is one more thing that he has no control over. He wants his old friend from 3 years ago. I can't get him that friend back, we've moved on and he has too.
Now that it's summer and it's just the two of us, we are going to drive each other nuts, and I guess it's more my uneasiness with him always spending time with just me. He needs my guidance to find things to do.
Why do I get this way whenever our schedule changes. I remember this happening last summer, me freaking out. I just need to relax and stop worrying about it and just be encouraging and get him out where he might meet friends. I guess I feel a lot of pressure to keep him occupied, and yet that isn't my job. I want to enjoy the summer too and do things that I want to do. Some things we will do together and some things we won't.
I guess I am also worried about next school year. I am unsure of my methods again. This past year, I just let him do whatever he wanted to because I was busy babysitting the 2 year old. Well he watched tv and played video games and that is it. He didn't really do anything else with all that free time. The little voice inside my head is saying, "he needs to learn his multiplication tables, he needs to be able to read chapter books and he needs to be able to write." He has no drive to do any of that schooly stuff. No desire. He hates writing, he will read picture books and likes it when I read to him, and hates anything that sounds like math. I suggested that we start summer journals, not diaries, just journals, to keep memories of this summer. I got really into mine and encouraged him to do the same, well he made a beautiful cover but hasn't done anything else because "he just can't do journals because you have to write and he can't write." So negative, he's so negative. So I suggested that maybe he could find ways to keep track of stuff without writing, or maybe finding the words in magazines and cutting them out, or just drawing pictures or taking pictures, or cutting out pictures and putting them in there.
We just don't work well together. I try to remain positive and helpful, but he wants me to affirm his lack of ability and won't let it go until I do. I just don't know what to do, anytime I try to help him with something he gets so defensive, like because I am trying to help him I think he is stupid. I struggle between to poles, on the one side I want to be nurturing and loving and playful, and on the other I just want to distance myself and be the teacher/slave-driver so he will just do it. We are constantly having battles of the will, or power struggles. We don't ever argue it's more about who can put the other one down. I get so sucked into it, and it never ends well. It's like we both push each other, and push each other. I just don't know what he needs most of the time, or rather I don't seem to do what he needs me to do, but I can't read his mind.
How can I empower him, how can I help him to feel like he has some control, that he can do whatever he wants and be successful at it. That is what I want for him, it's why I thought unschooling would be such a good idea. Now that it's been a year, and I still see him fighting any type of learning. I just worry.....
maybe it's just me worrying too much, but he wants me to play with him, and yet I know he would have so much more fun playing with friends. He tried to make friends with some neighbors here, but it didn't work out. I encouraged him to try again, that maybe it might work this time. But he doesn't want to. He says they hate him. They only played together one time, so not sure how that works. All he wants to do is watch tv and play video games and he gets mad at me when I don't want to play video games with him. I want to be his play mate and yet I also know that a friend is so much better.
He is such a social kid and yet, when it comes to one on one time with other kids he just doesn't know how to initiate it or what to do. I don't recall having this problem, but then I went to school where I could talk to my friends about what we would play after school all day! I know he wants to go back to school for the friends aspect. I was very social as a child but not so now. In fact I am almost reclusive, I enjoy being around others, I just don't really have any close friends, or even friends that I talk to on a regular basis. I keep thinking if he wants it he will go for it, but yet, he seems to see so much in his life as out of his control and that this is one more thing that he has no control over. He wants his old friend from 3 years ago. I can't get him that friend back, we've moved on and he has too.
Now that it's summer and it's just the two of us, we are going to drive each other nuts, and I guess it's more my uneasiness with him always spending time with just me. He needs my guidance to find things to do.
Why do I get this way whenever our schedule changes. I remember this happening last summer, me freaking out. I just need to relax and stop worrying about it and just be encouraging and get him out where he might meet friends. I guess I feel a lot of pressure to keep him occupied, and yet that isn't my job. I want to enjoy the summer too and do things that I want to do. Some things we will do together and some things we won't.
I guess I am also worried about next school year. I am unsure of my methods again. This past year, I just let him do whatever he wanted to because I was busy babysitting the 2 year old. Well he watched tv and played video games and that is it. He didn't really do anything else with all that free time. The little voice inside my head is saying, "he needs to learn his multiplication tables, he needs to be able to read chapter books and he needs to be able to write." He has no drive to do any of that schooly stuff. No desire. He hates writing, he will read picture books and likes it when I read to him, and hates anything that sounds like math. I suggested that we start summer journals, not diaries, just journals, to keep memories of this summer. I got really into mine and encouraged him to do the same, well he made a beautiful cover but hasn't done anything else because "he just can't do journals because you have to write and he can't write." So negative, he's so negative. So I suggested that maybe he could find ways to keep track of stuff without writing, or maybe finding the words in magazines and cutting them out, or just drawing pictures or taking pictures, or cutting out pictures and putting them in there.
We just don't work well together. I try to remain positive and helpful, but he wants me to affirm his lack of ability and won't let it go until I do. I just don't know what to do, anytime I try to help him with something he gets so defensive, like because I am trying to help him I think he is stupid. I struggle between to poles, on the one side I want to be nurturing and loving and playful, and on the other I just want to distance myself and be the teacher/slave-driver so he will just do it. We are constantly having battles of the will, or power struggles. We don't ever argue it's more about who can put the other one down. I get so sucked into it, and it never ends well. It's like we both push each other, and push each other. I just don't know what he needs most of the time, or rather I don't seem to do what he needs me to do, but I can't read his mind.
How can I empower him, how can I help him to feel like he has some control, that he can do whatever he wants and be successful at it. That is what I want for him, it's why I thought unschooling would be such a good idea. Now that it's been a year, and I still see him fighting any type of learning. I just worry.....
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