Call the Kids! They Can Have FUN with this Blogpost!

B'SD

26 Adar, 5775

Call the kids and seat them in front of your monitor. 

Share some quality time as you learn how to create a cleansing (and Passover-friendly), non-allergenic volcano in the kitchen, bathroom and other drains. You can use the recipe all year long, too.

Fill a kid-friendly bucket with the following supplies:

    A plunger (NOT the one you use on toilets, a new one for the kitchen sink!)

    Several packets, or a box, of bicarbonate soda (mei shtiya  מי שתיה in Hebrew)

    A slim container of 5% yellow vinegar

    Paper toweling

Now you're ready for fun. But first, open a nearby window.

Kids, take charge. Grab a paper towel and wipe out all the gunk from the kitchen sink. Toss that into the trash. Yes, you. Don't worry, this is gonna be fun in a minute.

Take a new piece of paper towel and remove all the hair in bathroom sink, shower or bathtub drains. Trash that, too.

Okay, back to the kitchen. Sprinkle a packet or several tablespoons' worth of bicarbonate soda into the drain. Boring, huh? Well, add some fun with a generous dollop of vinegar and watch your kitchen volcano go into action. PU! Stand back for fresh air and let the drain goo dissolve on its own.

Add a bit more powder and/or vinegar to keep the action going. When the bubbling stops, you should, too.

Use the Kitchen Sink-Only Plunger and pooka-pooka over the drain with all your might. You're using basic chemistry and good housekeeping skills at the same time.

Adults, after the drain stops bubbling and it was pooka-pooka'ed loose of remaining debris, have the kid chemists stand far away from the sink as you pour boiling water down the pipes. That washes the loosened debris to the sewer. Mention that this is a dangerous task and that you'll teach the child/ren how to do it after they're taller and stronger.

After you're sure that the drain is cleared of all obstructions, store the kitchen plunger where it belongs. Hide the water kettle and treat the stove as a No-Fly Zone.

Thank each other and double-check that the flame on the stove is OFF. No need for more boiling water.

Head on over to the bathroom and do the same vinegar and bicarbonate soda thing in that sink, and in the tub or shower drains. There's NO NEED to follow up with boiling hot water down those drains. A simple pooka-pooka with the bathroom plunger will suffice. Flush the toilet and run the shower to chase away loosened soil.

The job is done. Teamwork is terrific.

Thank each other again and have fun figuring out why that chemical combination worked so well. Check out Kid Chemistry and be sure to share Sneaky Uses for Everything. Your inner MacGyver will have lots of fun with those resources.

PS - If you're cleaning for Passover, do not torture yourself and take the fun out of the holiday or its preparations. Dirt is NOT hametz (leavened food remnants). Rabbi Scheinberg shared that life lesson.

PPS - Today is Israel's election day and my tummy is in a knot. I'm keeping in mind that Nissan begins this Shabbat. It's a month of miracles. I'm praying for several. May this be the year of Geula B'Rakhamim (global rescue by GOD). Politicians have sure messed up countless lives.





Cheer up someone who's sick, even yourself. Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fill your life with fun. It makes doing chores more bearable.

Non-Allergenic Pesakh Prep #3 - Give the Kitchen a Panic Attack, NOT Yourself

B'SD

21 Adar, 5775

How are you feeling after using the non-allergenic cleaning tips I've shared with you so far?

Allergic people celebrating Passover/Pesakh need them, too. Allergies tend to knock us out as we need maximum strength to get ready for the 8-day holiday in a home absolutely bare of leavened food and crumbs.

One of the ways I minimize my efforts and maximize my remaining strength as I prepare for Passover is to do the heavy jobs early in the prep season, weeks before sitting down to the Passover seder. That lets me enjoy a more spiritual experience, with better focus on the meaning of Jewish history and on the reality that GOD wants genuine peace in the world.

Okey-doke, seriousness aside, let's have some fun!

We're gonna give YOUR kitchen a panic attack

so you won't suffer from one 
as Passover approaches.

The most laborious jobs are cleaning out the oven, stovetop and refrigerator. It's a sloppy job that takes up space, with oven racks, refrigerator bins, burners and what not all over the floors and counters you want to be clean.

Here come cleaning tips that your allergist would approve.

Breathe in strongly through your nose, hold it in a moment, now release your breath with your mouth for a few seconds longer than you breathed in. That releases negative energy. Repeat as necessary.

Oven cleaning: Stack the racks neatly outdoors, or in the sink. Pile them onto a thick stack of newspaper purposely arranged on the floor if necessary.

Place the burners neatly over the racks, and separate them with a junky magazine to prevent entanglement.

I know, you're feeling tired, scared of the cleaning tasks ahead and self-conscious that you are so, SO not having a spiritual experience.

The fun fact I can share with you is that indeed, you are being spiritual every time you breathe. Life's a work in progress. If not, humans wouldn't live much longer than animals. GOD gives us do-overs. It's our choice to use them.

Each time your temper rises and you're struggling not to explode on somebody, remember this song

Keep in mind what loved ones and other people will think as they recall your outbursts or someone else's.

Breathe in strongly through your nose, hold it in a moment, now release your breath with your mouth for a few seconds longer than you breathed in. That releases negative energy. Repeat as necessary.

I'm on your side. It's tough job to prepare for Pesakh and that separates the beginners from the early-finishers. Stick with me and you'll be ready a week or so before the holiday without trips to the ER or a need to wheeze. 

I'm keeping the cleansing information 

non-allergenic. 

You can use these tips any time of year, 

minimizing itching and sneezing.

Okay, don your protective gloves and take out the cleansers and cleaning cloths, paper towels (remove the plastic NOW), scrubbies, etc.

Wipe down the inside of the oven plus the entire stove top with Astonish creme. Let it sit a bit, then scrub out the stubborn stains and gunk. The hardest part of the job is officially over.

Wipe off the rest of the stove top and oven, then wet your paper towels or rags. Wipe every surface until it shines clean. Deal with tough areas one at a time, dolloping Astonish creme on each spot, wipe, rinse, repeat as necessary.

Do the same thing with the racks and burners. Actually, creme them over before you start scrubbing the oven. That gives the cleanser time to work before the oven sparkles. Wipedowns will be easier.

Now that the oven and stove are GORGEOUSLY clean, you can cook as usual with calmness. Simply clean up well after each meal, preventing buildup. You can do a much easier top-down clean-up before kashering the stuff. The gunk will already be gone way before the last minute, simplifying the process.

On to the 'frig... Yes, the gook under the bins could scare you or the kids, but be brave. Let's lose it right away. Place a damp, soapy cloth or paper towel over soiled areas, and let it sit there a minute as you wipe out crumbs from the refrigerator seals on each door. Or use a spray bottle filled with soapy water to loosen hard stuff in those tight areas. Wait for it to work, wipe away the mess and toss it in the trash along with any negative thoughts.

Okay, now that job is done and I bet you're feeling more confident that you'll have a clean kitchen earlier than expected.

Um, want a 2nd opinion on how to clean your kitchen and all your glassware in another EZ Shmeezy manner? Andrea Kornfeld LMT, C-CST wrote the introduction to

and she has a recipe for an easy cleaner that does all the Pesakh cleaning without endangering anyone - provided that you're careful with the first ingredient:

   1 PAIL/BUCKET of almost boiling WATER
   1 LG squirt of KITCHEN DISH SOAP
   2 -3 Tbl. of BAKING SODA
   1 C clear white (cheapest one out there) VINEGAR

MIX by filling your cleaning cloth

Begin with glassware and windows (using cloths or paper toweling/newspapers) and continue on to cleaning the greasy stuff (kitchen scrubber is as strong as you need.)

Redo bucket as needed.

Psst! Please click here and nominate this blog for a prize. Pretty please? 

You can choose Best Writing or Best Special Interest, and explain why you made the choice. TIA!



Ready to clean up some messes in your medical life? Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 

   

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Figure out which strategy works best for you. Life's not a 1-size fits all situation.

FAST, Affordable Perk-Me-Ups You CAN DO at Home or in the Office!

B'SD

12 Tishrei 5771


The new Jewish year is progressing and WOW some of us can party hearty! Here are some fast, affordable Perk-Me-Ups that I shared on Facebook a little while ago:

Apple Cider Vinegar makes a great body cleanser! Add ¼ cup in a full tub, then soak away yuk (GREAT after inner body cleanses!) that exits from pores of your skin.

Suddenly ITCHY eyes? Mix a drop of apple cider vinegar in a handful of water. Rinse eyes clean. Do this a few days & they'll sparkle!

Don't bring lots of apple cider vinegar to the eyes. OW!



Want more recipes for a healthier, happier life? Quick and convenient: E-book EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. BUY it TODAY at http://www.booklocker.com/books/4244.html

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.





(sorry for the delays/restarts at creating this post. Blogger's apparently having some issues today)

Can your Kitchen Cleanser KILL Someone?

B'SD


27 Adar 5769



Mmm, the scent of freshly cleaned and aired-out closets fills our happy noses. But WHAT is filling little mouths and tummies as we scour our homes and businesses for the tiring rite called Spring Cleaning????

Ladies and gentlemen, as you shine your environment for the neighbors and inner taskmaster to admire, be sure to use child-safe cleansers. I've worked in emergency rooms and met children (some adults, too) who had been drinking Drano, bleach and other dangerous to life-threatening stuff on purpose or by accident.

DO NOT put cleaners in cups, mugs or glassware someone normally uses at mealtime.

DO NOT mix chlorine and bleach.
It causes a killer cloud of
invisible danger to everyone
who tries to save
the unconscious victim!

DO NOT keep cleansers and rags, sponges, or other items
used in your cleansing efforts
near children or pets.


Here's a terrific idea:

Make Your Own

Home Made Cleanser

that Can't Hurt Anybody:

Set a large pan (wide and deep) on a steady surface such as a counter top. Fill it with 3-4 liters or so of very warm water (depending on how much you'll be cleaning and how thick a paste you prefer)

Add 4 or more tablespoons of baking soda (yep, the simple stuff you put into cakes or add to washing machines when you need to freshen body-odor affected clothes)


Add a drop of dish washing liquid


Now soak soiled items (including silver), then rub with a sponge or soft cloth until the dirt lifts off.

Rinse well under hot water, and let them stand upside down upon a dish-dry rak or towel.

Dip a clean cloth into the mixture and scrub your COUNTER TOPS to a brilliant shine. Wash off the cleanser and buff dry with fresh towels.

Want to clean WAXY CANDLESTICKS? Soak rags in the mixture and cover the candlesticks with the cloth. Rub vigorously, then rinse under hot water. Dry them immediately.


Finished with the kitchenware? Great. Now add hot water to the leftover soda-water-soap cleanser and load OVENWARE and/or GREASY POTS into the mix. Scrub with a rough sponge (or plastic wire balls for dishware sold in many supermarkets). Rinse off your sparkling stuff with hot water.

(Hint: make smaller batches of the

mixture for cleaning smaller amounts of dirty goods

on different days.

Keep an old toothbrush handy for
cleaning out hard-to-reach gunk)

Want to lose that carpet spot? Mix some watered-down vinegar with warm or hot water. Soak the stain and rinse it well.

Pour vinegar onto yellowed areas of your clothing and toss the laundry into the wash machine. Remove your restored clothing in one cycle!

OK, even if the kids sample some of your hardworking home made cleaning goo, they won't die from it. They'll feel awful, but a visit to the doctor should make things better quickly.

And watch how nicely this recipe treats your hands!

Need more people-friendly tips? Click on Read Yocheved's Book and Learn Many More.


To your good health,

Yojeved Golani
Coping with a Medical Crisis?
Make the Changes You Need in Your Life

PLAY with Words: B FUNNY

29 iYaR 5768


Some wistful E-mail writers and neighbors who read yesterday’s post complained to me that they have no idea how to be funny. Some of them proved it. So today’s message is a quick primer on how to have heaping helpings of humor to share around the hospital room or even in the privacy of your home when you face a medical - or ANY - crisis.

Issue an ALL-POINTS BULLETIN for Whatever Doesn’t Fit! For you non-Americans, an APB is a police term designating dedicated searches for criminals, missing children (usually napping in the closet or hiding behind mommy as she frantically searches the whole house) or stolen merchandise. In short, spot the item in a list/series of things that seems out of place and joke around at the expense of a thing without feelings. I prefer not to make jokes about people whose feelings can be hurt. Stick it to the inanimate and leave the neighbors alone. This means family members, too ;^ )

Pun, pun, pun. Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham is a genius at this.

Play with words as you seek out the ones to convey the depth of your situation (I've done it several times on today's message). The surprising use of worn-out words gives them fresh new perspective that can enter and remain in your audience's heads. And yours!

Alliterate. All of us kind of crumble from hearing boring lectures. Attract attention with verbal allure. Say the same sounds again and again so they'll s-s-s-scintillate.

Timing. Poets and songwriter/singers succeed with rhythmic patterns (Garth Brooks does this well). Practice puffing your pronunciations with pregnant pauses. Allow listeners to think, to expect something routine, then WOW them with the unexpected!

Triples. The late comedian Steve Allen wrote about triples in one of his books about how to be a comedian. Build up a joke with three possibilities, the last one being a surprise ending to the lull building up in your listeners’ mind.

Turning the Situation on its Side with Laughter. Treat the problem at hand as if it were a naughty puppy or a friend with a wicked sense of humor.

Poke Fun at Pain. Pain is a universal, part of everyone’s lives. Prove that emotional and physical pain do not control your mind. Let everyone around you know that your responses to pain and to painful circumstances come from your sense of willpower and your desire for better times. Your attitude will invite people into your wonderful world of coping mechanisms.


Here, I’ll try to illustrate with some non-medical situations:

GOOGLE kinda lost it for a while yesterday. Several bloggers couldn’t update their messages. Not good news for those of us selling something. I E-mailed a writing colleague several times to find out how she was coping. Here’s how that went as I Turned the Situation on its Side with Laughter:

ME: Nuts! I can’t access my blog.
Is Google goin’ ga-ga?

JEAN: Yes! And I’m kinda peeved at the mo’!

ME: I need to correct a typo before my readers catch it. I have a “can can” in the middle of a sentence. French dancing is NOT on my blog's agenda ;^

JEAN: LOL!)

One more illustration before I leave you for the day:

A different colleague asked a professional writers' listserv for a solution to dirty mirrors and windows for an article she’s writing in WASHPOST. Hmmm, my chance to make it into a prestigious paper. So, here’s our cyber-dialogue (I hope it helps to hoist me into journalistic fame and sells my book by the truckload):

FREELANCE WRITER: I'm working on a story for the Washington Post Real Estate Section on cleaning windows, mirrors and glass...

How do you clean yours? Looking for your successes AND failures. (Grandma's technique anyone?)

And/or professional (or not so professional) window washers you have used and any stories (disasters) you'd care to share.

Please reply off-list to +=+=

Here’s my respone to that journalistic research effort:

ME: I use 2 methods:

Newsprint and vinegar (works like a charm and WOW is it cheap!) for total surface cleansing and brilliant shine.

A soft puff of air followed by a wipe-down with clean flannel cloth (usually an old shirt or nightie that saw better days) whenever I spot wispy-looking smudges (WHERE do those come from, anyway?).

Happy house-cleaning!

But the unexpected happened (use it for more humor) and I was ready for it, using Humor with a Twist of Utter Silliness:

FREELANCE WRITER: Those wispy looking smudges are part of the problem...

Me: They come from cooking, humidity and outer space. I kinda wonder which evil aliens are sending those smudges down here. Slobs! Go back to your own galaxy (or is it too messy for even you?)

FW: do you have a preferred newspaper? (City Paper works better for me).

ME: I live in Israel so I use whatever's handy, although I remember City Paper as quite helpful when I was in the DC area.

FW: could this "soft puff of air" be you blowing on the surface or is there some thingus that you use?

ME: Me. Does that make me a Me-ngus? ;^ )

FW: Is this approach one you discovered yourself or was it handed down or read about?

ME: The air puff was my idea. The newspapers with vinegar trick is older than than the Flintstones.

FW: There are over 1 million glass cleaning references on google. Could it all come down to newsprint and vinegar?

ME: Yep. Merchandisers take advantage of unaware consumers willing to pay for something to solve problems for them.

I first learned to make fun of life with its weird twists and painful turns from a grade-school friend I used to play with in downtown Detroit. Her dad sold a business to my father, and we little girls relieved our boredom from business discussions by wrapping towels around our trunks or sticking towels in our T-shirt collars, then pretending to be Wonder Woman or Super Girl as we leapt off tall buildings and rescued endangered animals (bouncy beds and stuffed toys, actually).

Aw c'mon, it was fun to pretend to be pretty and strong, not goofy girls as awkward as we'd been.

Readers, YOU CAN COPE with the vagaries of life. A neighbor, loved one, book (MINE for instance!) or your favorite blog could prove helpful to you. Seek out your solution. As Roseanne Rosannadanna would have said, "It just goes to show you, it's always something."

To my first mentor for funny frou-frou, here's to you Gilda Radner. May you rest in happiness.

~*~*~*~

To your good health,

Yojeved Golani
Coping with a Medical Crisis?
Make the Changes You Need in Your Life.