Let's Start at the very beginning

Hi, I'm Erika, a married, stay-at-home mom to two AMAZING little boys. My life is so full right now, that I want to capture as much of it as possible to remember later. My babies are Benjamin who's 2 1/2years old, and Jaxton who is 4months old (I said my life was full lol). So, let's get to explaining the title of my first blog: Adventures in Crunchdom. In addition to everything that is going on in our lives, I will be chronicling my journey to becoming a "crunchy" parent. Let me just say first that I NEVER EVER thought that I would, or would want to be a crunchy parent. It started with wanting to save money. With two in diapers it adds up quick every month, and I saw how much money we could save cloth diapering the boys. The more I looked into it, the more disgusted I was by all the chemicals in disposable diapers, and how much money we were LITERALLY throwing into the trash every day. So, the more I looked at what I was putting on, in, and around my babies, the more determined I became to make the switch to green/crunchy parenting. But being a single-income family, I can't just throw everything out and start from scratch, so I will also be doing all this on a budget. Be ready for the longest sentences you've probably ever read in your life, and an immense amount of prepositional phrases(according to my dear husband- B.A. in English).

My Goals:
1. Eliminate as many toxins from our lives as possible.

2. Get a budget implemented and followed.

3. Switch entirely to cloth (diapers, towels, nursing pads)

4. Try one new healthy food a week.

5. Turn the whole family into healthy eaters.

6. Blog with a picture once a day (how awesome to have a year documented with a picture a day!)

Vinegar

I must spend hundreds of dollars a year on cleaning products. Bottles and bottles of bleach cleaner, shower cleaner, carpet-fresh, windex and so on. And then I'm always worried about making sure the babies aren't around the toxic fumes that I'm filling our house with. So I decide to take the plunge and try a tip I'd heard about but never had the guts to try: white distilled vinegar. Dollar Store spray bottle, $1.50 bottle of vinegar, some water, and we're good to go.

I'm a big believer in "go big or go home". So I chose a gargantuan task for my little spray bottle of vinegar : the bathroom. Sticky, slimy toddler hands mixed with a husband who always seems to leave hair, toothpaste, shaving cream everywhere. I had no faith that anything but bleach and windex would get the bathroom the spanking clean that I was looking for. Boy, was I mistaken. My mirrors were shining, heck, everything was shining. And after a little googling(is this officially a word yet?) I also found that vinegar would kill mold, bacteria, and germs. Hallelujah, I think I ran out and called my mother immediately. I am simply amazed. It does everything. I can clean mirrors, the stove, counters, floors, the shower all with this one economical, environmentally safe product. The one down side I'm looking to fix is the smell that lingers for awhile. But, hey, are the lingering fumes of bleach any better? I can't wait to try new uses for my new best cleaning friend vinegar. I think tomorrow I'll try cleaning the microwave by boiling vinegar and water inside of it (courtesy of VinegarTips.com). Until then, it's bedtime for this tired lady.