Got Mold?

I am not a messy person. I keep my house quite clean, and organization and decorating makes me happy.

But I was having one heckuva time keeping my shower mold-free. I live in the master bedroom and therefore have a big walk-in shower, which I love. I spray the shower down every other day when I get out, but otherwise haven't done much in the way of cleaning. That was starting to be a problem.

I went to Target yesterday to buy cleaning supplies because we have a new housekeeper coming on Saturday, and I stumbled across this in the cleaning aisle:

I've never been one to peruse the cleaning aisle, but I might have to start, because I got home and followed the directions on the bottle. I sprayed it on the icky spots in my shower and let it sit overnight.

OH MY GOSH. When I got into the shower this morning, you nearly couldn't tell where there had been any problems. I was shocked, amazed, and THRILLED. So of course I did what any logical person would do and basically sprayed half the bottle all over my shower.

And now I'm blogging about it, and I'm really excited to go home and see if I can see myself in the reflection of my shower tiles.

This stuff may not be all natural and it may not be safe for children or pets but good grief does it work effectively. I'm stoked. So to those of you who are facing mold & mildew problems in your showers, run thee to the nearest store and buy buy buy. You'll be equally excited.

PS - Lysol didn't pay me. I wish.

The kind of explanation behind this whole Lenten Adventure

At the risk of sounding like I'm complaining (I'm not, I promise, just stating the facts), this Lenten Adventure thing has become quite the challenge.

At first it was fun. Fun to draw a slip of paper every day. Fun to challenge myself with giving up things I rely on for comfort or adding in things that will stretch me as a person. And then it started becoming exhausting trying to remember what I could or couldn't do. Justifying to myself why I ate pizza during a girls night I hosted when I had given up cheese. Trying to rationalize with myself as I contemplated riding my bike to work in the freezing temperatures (and in the dark).

But there have been some really pleasant surprises, too. The single most surprising thing to me is that this adventure is more than halfway over and I still haven't had to give up alcohol. I thought surely it'd be the first to go. I'm also surprised at how much I have enjoyed adding church back into my weekly routine. There was a time in the not so distant past that I was a regular 5pm mass attendee. But like other things, it was an easy thing to skip under the pressure of other commitments, and all the sudden I just wasn't going anymore. But now I am, and if I take nothing else away from this experience, I will be thankful that I have rediscovered something that has always been important to me.

It's not easy for me to talk about religion or spirituality. In fact, if you haven't noticed, in discussing this entire Lenten promise, I have avoided the real reason behind it. I think in part it's because I wasn't quite sure myself, and in part it's because I've never been one who is comfortable talking about my faith. I shouldn't say never, because there was that time when I was 18 and stood up in front of 500 strangers to talk about my personal faith journey... but that was a long time ago. Anyway, I digress. My purpose in starting this was to push myself back into a religion that I actually feel pretty strongly about. To force myself out of my comfort zones and into a stronger, deeper relationship with a God I believe in.

The best part is Lent isn't even over yet. I haven't been perfect in all of this, but the further down this path I get, the more I realize that wasn't actually my ultimate goal. My goal was to push myself away from 'earthly' comforts and towards the comfort that can only be found faith and belief. So am I running 2 miles every day? Nope. But have I shut off the TV every night and instead journaled for 10 minutes, focusing my thoughts and intentions on how I can be better, do better, live better? Yup.

And I've stopped using my cell phone while I wait so I can instead take in my surroundings and experience things like striking up conversations with the security in my building, only to find out that one of them works a double shift every Friday just so he can spend all day Saturday with his son. I never would have found that out, or would have appreciated him as much, had I been head down in a game of Fruit Ninja or whatever.

I feel more alert, more aware, and more in control of my path than I have in a long time. All this to say, I encourage all of you to make a concerted effort to find and be the BEST you that you can be. Even though the best me will always be a work in progress, it feels really great to be taking steps forward instead of standing still.

Reads on the Internet

I love perusing the internet, but I'm not very good at it. Other people hop from link to link and somehow stumble across fascinating articles, whereas I get stuck on CNN.com and can find no way out.

If this is also your plight, I'm here to help. Here's what I've been browsing lately:

• A story about men and women who were convicted of crimes they didn't commit and then later exonerated. It frustrates me just thinking about the lives these people might have led.  (Thanks for sharing, Claire)
• This HelloGiggles article about anxiety, which explains exactly what I go through multiple times a day much better than I ever could.
• I thought I was pretty much done with Thought Catalog telling me how to live my life and then I stumbled across this (which correlates directly to breaking up with bad friends) and so maybe I'm not quite so done as I thought.
• Obsessing over everything England/Scotland/London/Edinburgh/Lochness Monster related because my traveling, world-gallavanting best friend & I booked tickets last week and are Great Britain bound this spring
• I am such a sucker for stories with happy endings, especially when they are about kids, sports, or animals
• Making sure I know all the rules and etiquette around proper bike riding since I'm becoming such a green commuter (eventually)

So there you have it. A mish mosh of feel good, educational, exciting stories and tips and tricks that leave me thinking and inspired.

What are you reading on the internet?

I got sick. AGAIN.

Oh man. This week has been rough. As predicted, I gave up complaining, so this is statement of fact, not complaints. Hopefully. I've looked a little something like this since Tuesday night:

 
Wednesday was spent laying around kind of feeling crummy but quasi-working, quasi-napping and Thursday was just plain misery. I maxed out with a fever at 102.8, went to the doctor where I cried through the entire appointment and told the nurse I just wished my mom was here (yup, I'm almost 27, it's fine), was told that I don't have strep or the flu and sent home with antibiotics and painkillers while we wait for more tests to come back.

Meanwhile someone suggested I might have meningitis based on symptoms so.... there's that, which I'm not even sure what to do with.

And now it's Friday and I woke up feeling significantly more human than yesterday or the day before but I'm pretty sure that's 99% attributed to the painkillers I've been pumping into my system regularly so another day at home. At least today I'll be able to actually form thoughts and get work done, unlike Wednesday and Thursday.

So, there you go. My life this week. I don't know how I've managed to get this sick twice in the span of 3-4 months but man, it sucks. I used to be one of those 'I never get sick' people so this is kind of a shock for me.

To make things even better, this kind of reared it's ugly head again last night in the form of the words, "I'm done with you." So that was pretty awesome.

And just to keep you completely in the loop, here's where I am with giving up and adding things in:

Cheese, driving to work, close parking spaces, twirling my hair, driving to work, toxic relationships, running 2 miles every day, complaining, brushing my teeth every night, telling someone "I love you" every day.

How are YOU doing?