Waste Not Want Not ...

Oy! Talk about someone who wastes a lot of everything!! And I bet ya'll know who I'm talking about. Yup, the DIL.

I mentioned in a comment on my last blog that she used one steel wool pad to wash out the skillet she used for dinner and then proceeded to throw it away. It was still good!! Good enough to do some scrubbing of the stove top after she made a mess of it. Did she clean it up? Of course she did, but she used a second steel wool pad and proceeded to throw it away afterwards.

Okay, so my Irish genes are showing. Use it 'til it's useless. What's so hard to understand?

And just to add insult to the wasteful injury ... I'm emptying ashtrays last night. I never put them straight in the garbage (you read about fires all the time from smoldering ciggies) ... I dig into the garbage and pull out one of the plastic trays from the frozen chinese she made for their dinner last night to put the cig butts in so I can add water to make sure they're good and extinguished only to discover the tray is A THIRD FULL of food yet! Someone was too lazy to remove all the plastic wrap from the microwavable bowl to spoon the remainder of the food onto their plates.

Oh, and she's taken to using plastic utensils and paper plates for meals. Forget we have perfectly good dishes and utensils but ... wait ... those need to be ... gasp ... washed!!

We've gone from kitchen sized trash bag and a half a week to THREE large trash bags a week in garbage!!

The above were only two of the many examples I see on a daily basis. Surely my ancestors are turning in their graves with the waste she makes.

However, she lets the garbage go to overflowing when it's her turn to do the garbage detail, claims she's saving on plastic garbage bags.

What am I missing here?

I'm really trying to do the Fly Lady thing AND be more environmentally alert these days. I don't buy chemicals to clean anymore, not since I re-discovered the cleaning power of good ol' fashioned vinegar. But now the chemicals are coming back into the house thanks to DIL. Grrrrrrr ... and remember I am allergic to most cleaning chemicals. She's agreed to use them only on Wednesdays when I'm running errands for my folks, since I can't be around even the fumes for hours after she cleans. Then I still have to wipe down certain surfaces with vinegar (to remove chemical residue) before I use the bathroom or sit down to the kitchen table.

You'd think she'd have remembered all the issues I had with cleaning chemicals when they lived here the last time. Ha. Of course not.

I keep telling myself it's only been about a week. That it'll take time to adjust once again.

If not, well, I continue to be psycho mother in law from hell. It's a job I'm getting real good at. And I actually have a Mother In Law's license!! Really!

What I don't understand, she'll take "my side" when I was nagging Married Son about doing something I've been after him since Friday to take care of. She was standing right by my side, telling him that "look, if you'd do it Mom wouldn't have to nag and we could all get along in peace."

It took every ounce of strength I had to not give her "the look" and say ... practice what you preach, baby.

But maybe, for her, there is hope. She had to work early this morning and actually did all of the dishes from last night before she left. She even left me a "shiny sink" that even Fly Lady would be proud of.

Grandson, on the other hand, is a huge little helper. He absolutely loves doing dishes, sweeping, vacuuming, feeding the cats, and taking out the garbage. A momma's dream child, and Gramma's best boy!! Now if I could just get him to pick up his toys when he's done with them. But we're working on that. He'll make a good Fly Lady ... um, Fly Lad ... soon enough.

Baby steps ... baby steps. I'm sure we'll get to that cooperative place eventually.

In the meantime, enjoy the blogs.