I'm a happy consumer

I'm not one of those "my house is clean all the time" kind of girls, so it is a mystery to me WHY I love the CLEANING aisles of stores so much. Honestly, I probably spend 50% of my time in Target or Walmart just in the aisles that have mops, brooms, sponges, wipes, buckets, and Windex. I love those aisles. I also love the art on the labels and the look of bottles of cleaner, especially the cute ones like Mrs. Meyers and stuff - I love when companies want their product to look retro and simple and clean.

I got this new mop at Costco, but I think they also have it Target. I saw my friend Michelle's mop with its velcro on and off pads, and I loved it. So I had to find one like it. I thought maybe this spray bottle apparatus on it would stink, but it's GREAT! So now I feel like making a commercial for the O Cedar Pro Mist.

It is SO fun to use the sprayer on it (which I have filled with a mixture of a teeny bit of pine sol and HOT water) that even Jack likes to help me clean the floor.

Note: I am a HANDS AND KNEES floor cleaner...I have linoleum in the kitchen that looks like tile (but doesn't act like tile - I've dropped glass on it and it hasn't broken...many times!) and it does hide a lot of dirt. I was raised watching my mom on her hands and knees on our REAL tile, and then realized there really was no other way for me to get my floor as clean as I wanted it (which is only attained by testing with the feel on the bottom of my feet. I can't SEE if the floors clean as well as I can FEEL it - you know what I mean....you don't slip and slide, and you don't stick. It's somewhere in between).

SO I'll still HANDS AND KNEES clean my floors for the big cleanings, but I LOVE this mop.

I was introduced around Christmas time to Lindt's Touch of Sea Salt chocolate bars - they are the BEST. Salt and chocolate - yes please. Sounded strange to me at first, but I have fallen in love with this chocolate, and now buy it for anyone and everyone I can, trying them to share my addiction. (by the way, Target often has these babies on sale for 2 for $4 - instead of the 2.99 I usually find them at Target and elsewhere)

I have tried OTHER chocolate brands to see if they came close to Lindt on this sea salt endeavor. They don't. Ghiradelli - nope. Some other one I can't think of the name of right now - not even close.

But then my better half came home with THIS chocolate bar from The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Fleur De Sel (that means sea salt) Dark Chocolate, and I have to say - Lindt, you have some competition. I'm still going to say Lindt is the best, because I have had about 20 more of those bars than the Coffee Bean ones, but to me they're almost completely interchangeable. Yup, I just wrote paragraphs about chocolate. It's come to this.

Another recent discovery is the Irish Soda Bread from Stater Bros. Not ALL Staters, just the ones with the LOADS of bakery breads in baskets - usually if I find this loaf, there are only about 2 or 3 loaves in all. Someone brought it to Bible Study recently, and had strawberry cream cheese to top it, and it was the perfect breakfast. It's now my new favorite bread, for a while at least. The fact that I can't always find it keeps me wanting more. And those giant sugar crystals. Mmmm.

I think we all know I'm happy when I purchase these - then I'm sad the rest of the year, when they're gone.

FRESH and EASY - you make my day. I've long been HAVING to add your store to my list of musts, because of a few different items - but the one that first kept me coming through your doors was the Wild Blueberry Muffin mix. Then you changed it, but only a little bit - you didn't add the streusel topping, and now I have to make it myself. But that's fine. It's still wonderful, and I applaud your wonderful blueberry muffins. I buy one tin EVERY time I visit your store, which is often, since my little sister works there. :)