Monday, Monday

...does that phrase start a tape playing in the back of your head, the Mamas and the Papas, singing in harmony? (showing my age... our girls know what cassette tapes are, though we've pretty much transitioned to CDs now -- I think there's only one working cassette player remaining in our house)

We're still fighting this laryngitis bug. Bought some thyme oil-based wipes last weekend, and Youngest has been wiping doorknobs and computer keyboards and other surfaces to try to kill bugs. We also need to soak our toothbrush heads in hydrogen peroxide, to try to kill any germs so we don't reinfect ourselves. It's on my list for today.

In other news, Monday is laundry catch-up day, King's Meadow lecture day (listen to a George Grant lecture, outline the material together, and have the girls write summaries from the outline), bathroom-cleaning day, and more. Can't overdo, though, or I might relapse.

Still, the prognosis is better than it was last week. Last week, we were disinfecting with Lysol spray, something my mom used to do, and so I've followed in her footsteps. To me, it's the smell of "clean". (Do you have a product that makes you think "clean" when you smell it? For dh, it's Murphy's Oil Soap. Come to think of it, I'm low on that and need to add it to the shopping list. But I digress.) We were getting low on Lysol, so while shopping I picked up a new can and read the ingredients.

...there's ammonia, or something like ammonia, in Lysol. Did you know that?

No wonder I kept getting sicker. Shades of deja vu. Much like my 6-month stint of bronchitis a few years back, I'd start to feel better, do some cleaning, and wake up sicker the next day. A few years back, I discovered it was glass cleaner (many of these have ammonia) that was making me sick. Some time before that I'd had to give up products containing bleach -- they gave me chemical-based pneumonia.

I never would have guessed that there was ammonia in disinfectant sprays...

...anyhow, I researched natural disinfectants and discovered thyme oil. You can buy thyme oil-based sprays and wipes at the store, nestled amongst the more conventional cleaners. The brand we're using right now is Method Antibac for the spray, and Scotch-Brite™ Botanical Disinfecting Wipes.

The smell is kind of strong, but the stuff is supposedly food-grade, meaning you don't have to rinse food preparation surfaces after spraying. We don't mind the smell, actually -- it's less choking than the conventional sanitizing sprays we've used.

So what does "Monday, Monday" mean for you?