Friday Book Report: Clean House!

My older son, after the usual extreme messy phase around middle school, became a very tidy human being.  When he moved out, he left behind Alison Haynes’s book Clean House!.  I hope this was not a commentary on my personal housekeeping skills.

The book could be a useful gift for a kid moving out on his or her own who did not have regular chores, or even as a reference for a kid who did.  It covers the basics of household management in a readable style with many handy charts.  Better, it does all of this from a more ecologically sound perspective than some of us may have learned growing up.  There are even recipes for non-toxic cleaners of all sorts.

Our environment can make us healthier or it can make us sicker.  We can choose.  This book could be the tool some of us might need.

Breathing

I believe in multi-tasking.  I’m a parent; it’s a survival thing.  That said, there are limits to its usefulness.

Lately I have been focusing on yoga and swimming as my exercises of choice.  “Choice” in this context, as Lemony Snicket would say, means “It has been pointed out to me that continuing to bike and lift weights with my current physical situation is harmful, so it would be a good idea to do something else.”  Not that I don’t like yoga and swimming.  I love both.  I am also not particularly good at either one.

What happens, as a result, is that I have to focus.  There is no music in swimming, just the rhythm of breathing and splashing.  My brain quiets, eventually, when all there is to do is count the lengths of the pool.  In yoga, the whole point is to connect the mind to the body, to use each to enrich the other.

It’s simple, but it’s profound.  Where else can we find that deep and basic space?

Be helpful...

Yesterday I posted some thoughts on eating less.  Today I have a few on moving more.  And, no, I am not going to make the usual suggestions about parking at the far end of the lot.

• Be helpful.  Be the one who jumps up to refill everyone’s water.  Choose to be the one who takes out the trash or brings in the trash cans.  Go check to see if the mail has come yet.  Offer to watch the neighbors’ dog and walk him or her while they’re gone.

• Make walking the new coffee.  Want to spend time with a friend?  Go walk!  The conversation will be just as lively and you’ll both sleep better.

• Get out from behind the desk.  This is kind of like the last suggestion.  If you need to talk with a coworker, head over to her or his desk instead of texting or calling.  If there are things to discuss that don’t require lots of screens and charts, take it outside around the block; you may find that your ideas are better!

• Drink more water.  If nothing else, adequate hydration means that you have to get up to use the bathroom every hour.