Window Washing Winners

 

            Today's Snack: You're going to need protein for all this window washing, so let's make Personal Pizzas!

First, with adult help, brown ¼ pound of ground beef in a skillet. Drain the grease into a disposable can or glass; don't ever let grease go down the kitchen sink because it stuffs up the plumbing. Some people say you should put the browned meat into a strainer and run cool water over it, to REALLY get the grease gone.

Anyway, once it's browned, put it back into the skillet and add ¾ cup of tomato sauce, ½ teaspoon of oregano, and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Heat.

Meanwhile, open a can of refrigerated biscuit dough. Put a little flour on your cutting board or counter, and put a round section of biscuit dough on top of it. Sprinkle a little more flour on top of the biscuit, and then roll the biscuit out with a floured rolling pin, back and forth, side to side, until it is five inches across.

Put each flattened biscuit on a cookie sheet as you get them prepared.

Now spread the ground beef mixture on each biscuit.

Sprinkle with ¾ C. grated mozzarella cheese.

Bake in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.

Enjoy! Now that your hunger's cleared up, you can . . . SEE YOUR WAY CLEAR to do some window washing!

 

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Supplies for each two-person team:

two empty spray bottles

water

white vinegar

baking soda

cleaning cloths

old newspapers

trash sacks

 

 

            Washing windows is one of those everyday jobs that goes so much better and so much faster when you can work in pairs.

 

            It's also an opportunity to practice your nonverbal communication skills. Because you'll be standing apart with a pane of relatively thick glass separating you, you won't be able to hear each other. So you'll have to find nonverbal - non-talking - ways of communicating with each other. Basically, it'll come down to gestures - one will point out where the other might have missed a spot. The more "in tune" you are with each other, even though you can't hear one another, the faster and better your window-washing task will go.

 

            Note that it's best to wash windows on a day with mild temperatures that isn't too sunny, because sun shining on glass will tend to dry it too fast and leave streaks where you've cleaned. Also note the weather report, and if it's going to rain in the next day or so, don't wash windows, because it'll make you sad if it rains and spots your beautifully-polished windows hours after you've finished.

 

But when the time has come to wash windows:

 

Put ¼ of a cup of vinegar and one tablespoon of baking soda into the spray bottle - it may fizz a little bit -- and then fill it to the top with water. The vinegar is an acid, which will help dissolve dirt, and the baking soda has mild astringent properties that help gently scrape dirt off without scratching the glass.

 

            These ingredients are very organic and Earth-friendly, and do a fine job cleaning bathroom counters, kitchen appliances and other things around the house, too.

 

            But let's concentrate on windows. You might need chairs, stools or a ladder if the windows go over your head. Be careful not to fall!

 

One person on the team should go outside, and the other remain inside. Each person should have a spray bottle, a cloth or two, a pile of old newspapers and a trash sack. The outside person should perhaps set a rock on top of the newspapers to hold them down if it's windy out. The trash sack is for the old newspapers, when they're used!

 

            Now start washing the glass! You can use the cleaning cloth to get the "big" stuff off, and then give the glass one more light spray, and polish the glass with crumpled-up newspaper.

 

            Throw the newspaper "polisher" into the trash sack when it gets wet and yucky, and tear off a new, dry page whenever you need to.

 

            Communicate with each other when you see a spot missed or a streak still standing. You can joke about who did a better job, the "inside" person or the "outside" person, but the point is, glass has two sides, and it took a TEAM to get it looking this good!