New job!

I've been missing from the interwebs.  I probably missed it more than it missed me. 


Why have I been missing, I'll pretend it asked?


Well, I started a new job/got promoted at my temporary job.  Kind of an in-depth explanation is required, but that's the gist of it.  Here's what has been keeping me so preoccupied:


I work for this company called Endorse. They are a startup in the Bay area that gives people 2% back for purchases at retailers and 10% back on products that you "endorse" on their Facebook app. They have only been around for about 2 months. Big name products and retailers are on their app. You mail in your receipts (think Netflix style system, here) and in a few weeks they mail you a check. It's basically a big rebate program.

The position they just promoted me to is kind of an efficiency manager, which might be WAY over my head... but I'm excited about the challenge (when I'm not panicking!). Basically I'm responsible for developing a system of data entry and mailing that is as fast as possible. Up until now I've just been typing in data off of your receipts and doing a very small amount of customer service.

It has some super interesting problems and, with the drive times included, takes up about 11 hours of my day.  If I have anything else going on in the evening, I'm often gone for up to 14 hours.  My husband and kitties have been feeling neglected.

I haven't had the greatest response to the change in my schedule.  I am a person who needs a LOT of down time to recharge, ponder, and keep myself at a basic functioning level.  When I don't have this time, my general reaction is to veg in front of the television.

NOT healthy.

And not the downtime I need.  Anyway, the last weeks have been my typical overwhelmed/tv flopping/rinse/repeat cycle that happens when my schedule changes.  It has been interspersed with a week or two of all-in, gung ho, everything is clean thrown in here and there (which is why I have clean clothes to wear), but generally speaking, I'm still in my adjustment cycle.

Time to watch more Star Trek?

The Basics of Christianity

I get Pat Robertson and Robert Pattinson mixed up all the time, but generally they both annoy me.  The "Christian" guy much more so than the tween love interest.  Let me explain why...

The harshest words Jesus ever had for anyone were the people who were super religious.  They were so concerned with following rules of their belief system that they became self-righteous, judgmental, and evil in their thoughts and actions toward others.  You know most of the verses that those Pat/Robert followers use to beat other people over the head with?  Those verses were generally aimed at religious people.  Not at soldiers, homosexuals, prostitutes, or other "sinners."  Based on what Jesus said, the guys you definitely didn't want to be were the people who said they followed God but didn't act anything like him.

Jesus said that you would know who really followed him because of the love they demonstrated.

Most of the "Bible verses" you hear on tv are completely made up.  I aim to set the general record straight.  Our parents' generation were required to go to Sunday School growing up, so they had at least the gist of what the Bible was all about.  My generation does not know even the basics.  So all the snide comments, the made up "Bible verses" in the media, the sensationalized misguided zealots, the scandals, the magic salvation prayer, the cults, the uneducated and immature, all of this adds up to make Jesus look really, really bad.  Not to mention awkward to talk about in public. And I hate it.

Here's why I hate it so much:  Society has turned Jesus' message upside-down and backwards.  There is a lot of ground to cover to talk about what's really included in Christianity.  And lots of debate even there.  But a simple religion wouldn't cover life.  A simple religion would be a mockery of the pain most everyone experiences. But we're going back to the basics, which means simplifying.  Fortunately for you, the Bible starts with one theme and builds on it.

There is a central message that Jesus taught.  And I love it.  And I love him for sharing it.  Ready?

Love.

Love God, love others.  Tell everybody about this love.

Then Jesus talked a lot about what would happen if everybody lived this way.  He called it the Kingdom of God.  Jesus also talked a lot about what would happen if you didn't live that way.  He talked about what love really looked like.  How nothing, nothing could trump God's love.  How nothing in human existence is more powerful than love.

We live in a society obsessed with love.  We are really obsessed with is the idea that another person can complete us, consume us, meet our needs, give us passion and zest for life and living.  And another person can do that... for a while.  Then those chemicals in our brain adjust to euphoria and we realize that we are still stuck in this space called life and another person cannot possibly provide or protect us from everything.  So where is the all-consuming love we see on TV and read about and all seem to be chasing?

I hope I do a good job at living out God's version of love.  I hope I can correct some of the damage we've done to the name "Christ."  Because really, I'm crazy in love with God.

Toothpaste

Just so you did not start to worry and think I had decided to act like a normal person, I have spent some time looking into all natural toothpaste.  Yes, that's right.  This all natural craze has gone that far!

It seems like just about everybody knows about all the studies linking sodium laureth sulfates (not to be confused with lauryl sulfates!) to cancer.  What I bet you didn't know is that your toothpaste is chock full of them.  Unfortunately, laureth sulfates are what give your toothpaste, shampoo, and other detergents those nice, fun bubbles.  These bad boys are in all the major toothpaste brands.  Even the "healthy" brands like Tom's.

Not only are your toothpastes full of laureth sulfates, but they have another offender:  fluoride.  Now, I know we all grew up hearing that this was good for you.  A lot of places even add various forms of fluoride to the water supply to help prevent tooth decay.  I'm going to give you a nice bullet-pointed list of reasons to avoid fluoride.  Or, if you want to read a good article that nicely summarizes the research on fluroide, click here.

• Fluoride makes a lot of little kids sick to their stomach, and may even cause gastrointestinal distress in adults.
• Research has not shown any significant effects of tooth decay prevention from adding fluoride to water.  Oh, actually, in New Zealand, kids living in areas with fluoridated water actually had worse tooth decay.
• Fluoride has been shown to decrease your thyroid function, and is one of the leading suspects in the rapidly increasing number of cases of hypothyroidism in the U.S.
• Fluoride accumulates in your body over a long period of time, even if you only get it in low doses.

Because your body cannot dispose of fluoride, even small amounts of it (like what is in your toothpaste) are cause for concern.  There is a lot more research about fluorides, but those are the highlights.  Anyway, to avoid sodium laureth sulfates and fluoride, I embarked on a toothpaste quest.

As usual, I started by trying ot make my own toothpaste.  This was a horrible, horrible mistake.  While baking soda is good for your teeth, it tastes like you're brushing your teeth with salt.  Nasty!  I headed to the stores.

After much whining and reading, I could not find a single toothpaste in store that did not have fluoride or sodium laureth sulfate.  If a toothpaste didn't have one, it had the other.  Now, I don't know if there is enough laureth sulfate in toothpaste to effect you.  I may have been making this a lot harder on myself than it needed to be.  But since I'd rather be safe than sorry, I eventually ordered a TON of Burt's Bees fluoride free toothpaste.  This stuff tastes MUCH better than Tom's (which was almost as bad as the baking soda experiment). 

The all natural toothpaste does not foam as well as my old Colgate did, but that is to be expected sans laureth sulfates.  In addition, the Burt's Bees toothpaste is not mint flavored, since whatever it is that cleans your teeth comes from cranberries.  I sometimes think I might have bad breath sooner after using this than I did when I used Colgate (a common problem for us heavy coffee drinkers) but I compensate by using a mouthwash more often, which is probably better for me anyway. 

Fall cookies!

Fall officially starts tomorrow!  In order to celebrate, I made a new kind of cookie.  Yes, it was just an excuse to make something pumpkin.  No, I do not feel bad.  At least, not once I tasted these!

These cookies are not very sweet, so don't skimp and skip the glaze.  Trust me.  The glaze sets off the cookies perfectly.


Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies with a Maple Glaze

Ingredients
1 can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!  gross!)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsps cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves or allspice
1/2 tsp ginger
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup chopped nuts  (I used pecans)

1 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup warmed pure maple syrup

Directions
1.  Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl.  Set aside.
2.  In a larger bowl, mix the ingredients up to the rolled oats.  Once your spices, flour, and risers are well mixed, add the oats and the nuts.
3.  Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.  This dough will be dry, so you may have to mix it by hand.
4.  Place parchment paper on cookie sheets.  These cookies do not rise much, so roll them into balls and flatten.  This makes ~3 dozen cookies, depending on the size.
5.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
6.  In the meantime, warm the maple syrup.  Mix the last three ingredients in a separate bowl to make a glaze.  Drizzle over cooled cookies.

The Food Bandwagon

You know how certain foods are not only in season, but mysteriously become suddenly "nutritionally trendy?"  These foods drive me crazy.  In the past it's been cranberries, acai berries, green tea, broccoli, to eat or not to eat eggs, turkey versus chicken, is coffee good or bad for you, etc...  Right now the nutritionists' are all about kale.  Kale, kale, kale.  All the health articles that have been popping up on my screen have been about the nutritional benefits of kale.

This time, I decided that instead of AVOIDING the trend, I'd jump on it.  I've never tried kale.  Sure!  Why not?  Maybe it'll become a new favorite.  Maybe, since there is all this hype, there will be tons of delicious recipes to try that explain how to use kale.  Right?

WRONG!

My kale-tastrophes have included kale chips, kale smoothies, kale in soup, and more smoothies.  I have, to date, found two things to do with kale that were edible.  One was delicious.  The other is meh.  And let me tell you, my bag of kale seems infinite.

But it you're interested in jumping on the food bandwagon, here are my two recipes:

Kale Smoothies


2 cups kale
1/2 cup orange juice
3/4 cup coconut milk
1 banana
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (optional)
ice

Directions:
This is going to be a thick smoothie.  There is no avoiding that with kale.  You do want to make sure that you remove all the stem pieces, because no matter how long your kale is in the blender, those things will give you a chunky smoothie if you don't avoid them.

Blend the kale first.  Then add all the other ingredients.  For a more delicious, colder beverage, freeze your banana ahead of time.

This does NOT keep overnight.  No, of COURSE I'm not speaking from experience.  *pull out cup, uncover, sip, gag*


Potato & Kale Soup
(I'll come up with a more creative name for this later. :P)

1 bag fingerling potatoes (or 3 large potatoes cut up)
2 baked and cubed chicken breasts
1 can garbanzo beans (also called chickpeas)
1 can black beans
2 cups kale
1 packet onion soup powder
water or chicken stock
garlic & pepper to taste

Directions:
Throw things in crock pot until your potatoes are soft.  Add as much water or broth as your prefer (I like my soups heartier, so I do this sparingly).  Add the kale during the last hour or two of cooking.  Eat, enjoy!


P.S.  It's the soup that is delicious.

The Super Lazy

Sorry for not writing for a while!  Once I figured out how to go all natural, I ran out of interesting things to tell you about.  Life has consisted of normalcy.  Normal chores, applying for jobs, normal kitten antics...  I did meet with a few people to talk about volunteering opportunities through our church, and have gone out to coffee with a few gals to try to make friends.  I had forgotten how obnoxious it is to start over in a new place!  Anyway, I didn't want to bore with with the doldrums of all this, so I put it off for two weeks!

On the upside, my prayer life has been fantastic!  God has really been doing some cool things lately, and I've been pretty content and at peace, even though it's pretty tempting to go crazy with frustration &/or boredom once in a while.  Gotta give him the glory!

Bay Area Beaches

We have been living in the San Francisco Area for roughly three months.  Every free weekend we've had has been spent going to various beaches.  Curt is completely addicted.  Keep in mind that most beaches are small and windy, unless otherwise noted.  Here are some of the most recommended beaches versus our favorites, and what we like about each one!

Most Recommended


Half Moon Bay


The Good:   Very easy to find, lots of cute shops all nautically themed, piers, easy parking.
The Bad:   Very touristy.  That means lots of people.  Also, where was the beach!?  Only found piers.
The Ugly:   SMELLS.  Rotting fish smell is not my favorite.

Baker Beach

The Good:   Gorgeous view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Nice sand, clean beach.  Can watch enormous barges coming in with all our junk from China.
The Bad:  Parking is awful.  Find a spot to park on Google Maps and plan to walk a ways to get to the beach.
The Ugly:  This is a clothing optional beach.  That means lots of naked old guys.  To make this even funnier, they were sunning themselves ONLY on the part of the beach where all the tourists were trying to take pictures of the bridge.  Hello, exhibitionists!


Santa Cruz Beach

The Good:   Also gorgeous.  There is a boardwalk and a mini theme park.  It is a good sized beach with lots of walkways around the area and good views.  Very touristy, but there is tons to do!
The Bad:   SO. MANY. PEOPLE.
The Ugly:   They keep this place pretty clean, but with so many people and activities, it tends to be a little trashy.  Also, touristy flashy colors painted on everything.

Favorite

Bean Hollow Beach

The Good:  TIDEPOOLS!  I don't need to tell you anything else, because that's the best thing about a beach.  Okay, fine.  It was also pretty, had nice sand, blah blah blah.  Tidepools!
The Bad:   Who cares!?  There were tidepools with critters!  Oh alright, it was extra windy.  But that just made giant crashing waves that contributed to the tide pools!  Huzzah!
The Ugly:  Moot.


Grey Whale Cove

The Good:   This little treasure has a fun hiking trail going into the hills above the beach.  Really neat views.  The beach itself is tucked away, cut out of a cliff.  Nice and remote, and not very windy.  Not very many people.
The Bad:   There is a nifty stairway walking down to this beach.  Unfortunately, at the end of said stairway is a gross pond of... muck.  Walk past, THEN enjoy pretty beach.
The Ugly:   This is also a clothing optional beach.  Stay away from the north end with the ugly naked dudes.


Ocean Beach

The Good:   AMAZING parking.  Nice sand.  HUGE.  Usually has a lot of people, but it's so big that it's not a problem.  You can usually see a volleyball or frisbee game happening.  It is right next to Golden Gate Park, so if you fancy some trees you just have to turn around 180 degrees.
The Bad:   This is also a popular tourist stop.  It's also very windy.
The Ugly:   Nothing of note.


We've been to other beaches, like Pacifica and Pescadaro.  We have driven by even more.  These are just our favorites!

Chicken Salad Wraps

I am eating one of these right now.  Oh my, oh my... tastebud heaven.  Whenever I make this, it's all I eat until there are no more leftovers.  Here's whatcha do:

Filling
10 oz bag of shredded cabbage
2 eggs
3 oz (approx 1/3 of a bag) pecans
4 oz dried cranberries
1/2 cup mayo
3 chicken breasts

Dressing - Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 Tbl honey
2 Tbl dijon mustard
mustard seed & celery seed to taste

Directions:
1.  Put the chicken breasts in a crock pot with 1/2 of the dressing recipe.  Cook on high for 4-5 hours or until completely cooked.  Your house will smell heavenly and drive your cats insane with desire.  Drain the chicken and allow to cool completely.
2.  Boil the eggs.  Allow to cool completely.
3.  Shred chicken (it should fall apart), dice eggs, and mix all of the remaining ingredients, including the last half of the vinaigrette, in a large bowl.  Refrigerate, and serve on tortillas.

The pictures are bad because I was too busy eating to get a proper camera. 

Do you see how beautiful this is!?

On it's way to my mouth!  (Make a plane noise! Pbbbbb!)

Cleaning with Basic H

I cleaned my tub with Basic H cleaner yesterday.  I hate cleaning tubs.  You actually have to scrub them.  Apparently now that I use real soap instead of detergent (e.g. shampoo) I am going to have more build up in my shower.  Soap reacting with water leaves salt = shower scum.  Wonderful.  Did I mention I hate cleaning tubs?  The scrubbing.

But!

Basic H works as well as Clorox with Bleach (my old favorite tub cleaner), only without me accidentally bleaching something.  I'm clumsy and absentminded, accidental bleachage happens all the time.  Seriously.  I spray on Basic H, wipe out the tub (wipe, not scrub) and leave.  Huzzah!

If you are determined to clean your house with "safe" ingredients, but don't want to buy anything extra, use a combination of castile soap, baking soda, and vinegar.  That will get anything clean with a little hot water and some scrubbing.  Trust me.  Just don't ever mix the vinegar with the other two ingredients, unless you happen to be conducting a first grade volcano science experiment.

Using a cleaning process with three ingredients seems like too much work, though.  If you want to know more about it, read about someone who cleans that way here.  Her instructions for using baking soda, vinegar, and castile soap are what all my other hippie friends have instructed me to do.  It might be super cheap to clean that way, but I'd rather buy time.  Or, at least buy time that I don't have to spend cleaning.  The extra pennies per squirt to buy something a little more traditional seem well worth it to me.

This is why I use Shaklee products.  They're still super safe, environmentally friendly, yadda yadda yadda.  But easy to use.  One squirt and I can move on with my life!

I have used Basic H to clean my stove, spots in the carpet, the bathroom, the counters.  It hasn't met anything we've thrown at it yet that it couldn't clean!

Three Roads to “Clean”: Thermal, Mechanical, and Chemical

Three Roads to “Clean”: Thermal, Mechanical, and Chemical

This blog about cleaning methods is useful, even if you don't use all natural products.  Some of it is stuff you already do and know, but maybe not consciously.  I don't use the same all products this gal does, but her points are informative no matter what you use. I'm going to start adding more "thermal" methods to my cleaning. Should make for a little less "mechanical" frustration.

Natural Hair Care :: Round 2

I think I figured out why my hair freaked out when I used a castile soap hair shampoo (no poo?) recipe. This blog helped put the puzzle pieces together.

Since the 'cones (dimethicone, etc.  Go read your conditioner bottle, it's in there) in traditional conditioners coat your hair shaft, your hair does not absorb moisture.  When you begin using a product without the 'cones, and you use a natural soap to strip away the coating on your hair, your hair is revealed as the dry, dull, limp frizzball that it really is.  Without traditional conditioners to weigh your hair down and coat the hair shafts (you know that nice, slippery feeling conditioner gives you?  It's bad!) your hair, or rather, my hair, stood up all over the place as a static-filled, ratty mess.  Apparently it takes a month or so for your hair to become healthy again.  That must be why my hair loved (LOVED) that deep conditioner recipe and soaked so much of it up.

Aside from the frizz, though, my hair has been a lot more manageable since I've made the switch.  I'm really stuck on this all natural stuff.

I am not picky about using gel, hairspray, or leave-in conditioners that are chemical free.  They don't touch my skin, so I don't care.  At least, that's what I am trying to convince myself.  A person can only handle so much change.


*Update:  I now use conditioner only every other time I shower.  During the intermittent times I use the vinegar water trick to detangle my hair.  I can't even use traditional conditioners anymore because they just make my hair look greasy now.  Having to use so much less product on a regular basis is saving us a lot of money!  Huzzah!

Natural Plant Care

Once I decided to go all natural here at home, I realized that I have not been extending the same courtesy to my plants.  Of course, as soon as I decided that all chemical care was not an option, I got bugs in my plants!  Argh!

Fortunately for you, my trials and errors led to the following plant fixes:

Fungicide
Hydrogen peroxide.  My friend Becky put me onto this trick, and once I started doing my homework I found a LOT of uses for this stuff!  It's fabulous, and has worked much better than any store bought chemicals I tried.  Granted, I used a lot more hydrogen peroxide than was recommended... but still.  It works, okay?

Insecticide
Peppermint Castile Soap.  I put some in a spray bottle with lots of water, and coated the little suckers with soap.  Bugs suffocate when you do that.  They don't have a cardiovascular system and get their oxygen distributed by having a hollow middle where their blood swishes around to coat their cells in whatever O2 was in their blood.  That's also why bugs will never get any bigger than they are now.  I know, it's a relief, right!?  There won't be a Mosquito apocalypse after all!  Um... yes, I might've seen that movie.  Once.

Flying Bugs
These are the hardest to get rid of once they get into your plants.  I hate them.  There is one flying around me right now.  Here's how you get rid of them:

Spray the plant with the soap I talked about above.  It will kill any larvae or bugs on the plant.  Then move the plant, and any other plants in the vicinity, out of that room for a week to starve any little flying bugs that weren't on your plant when you spritzed it.  Annoying, but unavoidable.


Soil Bugs
Change your soil.  Wash the pot AND the uprooted plant extensively with soapy water before repotting.


Soil Enhancer
Plants that haven't been repotted in a while need their soil oxygenated.  This usually occurs in nature when it rains, but your potted plants don't have that luxury.  Oxygenating your soil will give you stronger, disease resistant plants.  Add a smidge of hydrogen peroxide to your water when you are watering your plants.  For more info, click here.

I haven't found a good fertilizer yet because I haven't needed one!  I'll update this post once I learn more.  Any suggestions?  What works for you?

All Natural Me

Nearly two months since I started my search for all natural products, and really only a week or two since absolutely everything has become chemical free, and my skin looks all new.

Even the redness on the backs of my arms is nearly gone!!!  I've had that my entire life!  This experiment has been totally worth it. 

Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

I love oatmeal raisin cookies.  But my love for cookies doesn't come anywhere near my love for muffins.  I decided to have the best of both worlds and concoct oatmeal raisin muffins!  The results were delicious!

1 1/2 cups oat bran
1 cup buttermilk (or one cup milk + 1 TB vinegar)

1/3 cup apple sauce
1 egg
1/2 cup agave nectar OR 2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup raisins

Instructions
This recipe makes 12 perfect muffins.  They don't rise much, so don't be afraid to use all of the batter in the tins.


1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line muffin pan with paper muffin liners or grease the pan.
2.  Mix the oat bran & buttermilk.  Set aside to let stand for ten minutes.
3.  Beat together the applesauce, egg, agave nectar/sugar, & the vanilla.  Add this to the bran & buttermilk mixture.
4.  Sift together the flours, baking soda & baking powder.  Add to the bran & buttermilk mixture.  Stir in raisins.
5.  Bake muffins for ~18 minutes.

It Pays to Be a Pest!

We have had huge, major, ridiculous problems with AT&T since we moved.  The guy who installed our interwebs apparently wrote down that he installed everything.  People at AT&T couldn't read his handwriting and wouldn't believe we didn't have all of those services.  Major charges and made-up fees later, I had a cow.

I called this gal literally twice a day for two weeks, then started texting her so she could remember what I said, until the problem was (mostly) fixed.  There was still an extra $55 charge that shouldn't have been there, but compared to what the bill was originally, it was almost a win.  So I growled a grumble and decided to move on with life.

Then AT&T decided they were really, really sorry.  It has been AWESOME.  Hello, ridiculously high rebates, discounted service, more rebates, coupons in the mail, and a "Thanks for being our customer" letter from the V.P. of the company.  I know his secretary probably did a bulk mailing of those, but whatever.  They have made up for my weeks of frustration and I am still a happy customer.

Plus, we all know AT&T is way better than Verizon.

Pestering companies has become a recurring theme.  I long ago learned it paid off big time to politely bother companies when something didn't go right.  They want to know.  For example, a manager at Home Depot closed down a section of their store 30 minutes early, wouldn't unlock the gate for me to load up some trees (Seriously?  I knew exactly what I want.  Big purchase, I need five minutes of your time), and I knew from experience this was a HUGE, MAJOR retail no-no.

So I wrote a very polite letter to Home Depot about it.  You know what happened?  Half of my trees were free.  FREE TREES!

The moral of the story is to be a polite pest.  Tell people what you want!  Your companies will thank you.

To Sing or Not to Sing?

Once upon a time there was a little toehead who loved to sing.  She would dance around the house singing opera at the top of her lungs, and force those around to listen.  The little girl would demand an answer to the question, "Do I sound good?"  This little girl's mother believed in frankness and truth, so the mother would always reply, in fairness, with "No."  She was probably hoping the little girl would give up if she were honest.  One's ears can only stand so much opera, after all.  Especially the 10 year old version.

Even those of you lacking an imagination have probably guessed that I was the little girl.  Strange music tastes aside, I have never been a good singer.  People have always said that voice lessons really helped the music impaired.  I never believed it would help me.  Seriously, an entire life of being embarrassed to sing in front of people (after I outgrew my opera voyeurism, anyway) is not something a few voice lessons could erase.

I remember singing my heart out in church once as a tween when a friend (who was in her school's choir) turned to me and said, "Wow.  You're a really bad singer!"  In fairness to her, she did try to coach me a bit before giving me up as a lost cause.  Something about singing through my nose.  I have since learned to sing softly to myself.

Groupon undid all of this societal suppression of my voice, however, and now you must all live with the consequences.  I got 3 voice lessons.  My instructor wanted me to open my mouth more and to sing more loudly.  I usually leave the lessons singing at the top of my voice in my car on the drive home.  In class, however, I was afraid to peep.  You know how little girls giggle when they're embarrassed?  I did that in class.  Whenever I messed up, the embarrassment got worse, and then so did my performance.  Vicious cycles.

My poor, exasperated instructor finally made me sing in front of a mirror to see how I wasn't opening my mouth.  I hate my mouth.  Why would I want to show it off to someone?  Coffee on the way to lessons was a bad idea.  Nonetheless, I persevered through the embarrassment and the bad breath.  I swung wildly back and forth between being too petrified to sing and not caring one whit what people thought.  The results are humorously (and unsurprisingly) mixed.

Mostly, I think people are happy or at least amused when they see someone bucking societal norms and living fancy free.  It's the reason you grin when you catch someone singing in the car, or absentmindedly dancing to some music they're listening to.  It's why you are cheered up a bit when you catch some unadulterated, unbridled bit of joy bursting forth.  A child's squeal of delight, a gasp, an arms-flung hug.  Those moments are powerful, inspiring, and brought on by things that are worthwhile in life - music, art, expression, family, your cat.  Erm, maybe not that last one.  That might just be me.

The people who weren't so happy were the ones who had to listen to me fumble through for any length of time, repeatedly, day after day.  Oh well, I'll get better or they'll learn to "tune" me out.  Punny!

In class I was too busy worrying about singing correctly and was being so hard on myself I forgot why you sing - because it's fun!

The point is, go sign up for some lessons you're terrified of.  You might just bring someone a bit of joy one day, or at the very least become less worried by what other people think and find some moments of joy for yourself.

The Best Homemade Shampoo

There's a new craze on the internet.  Okay, well, not new, but new to me.  No-'poo.  Apparently there is a whole wave of people who have decided NOT to shampoo their hair.  The internet's a funny place.  Which is really just a covered-up way of saying humanity is.

Anyway, keeping with my trend of chemical free cleaners, I decided to see what these no-poo folks had to say.  I tried a few things, but ended up with a clear winner.  Look out nostrils, this is the best smelling stuff EVAR.  Eeps!

A friend linked me to this website.  I modified the shampoo recipe a bit for my tastes.  If you're into that sorta thing, have at it.  If not, here's what I did:

1/4 cup Dr. Bronner's peppermint castile soap
1/4 cup water*
2 tsps jojoba oil
1/4 tsp tea tree oil

I accidentally went a little crazy with the tea tree oil.  I'll cut it down next time.  And add chamomile tea instead of water!  It you don't know where the chamomile came in, you clearly aren't one of those people who sees a footnote and must run, immediately, to the bottom of the page for an extra tidbit.

I had tried using straight castile soap once before.  Do NOT do this.  Hello, frizz.  It is much too drying to use by itself.  Make sure you dilute this if you're going to go the no-poo route.

Wanna know the crazy thing about this experiment?  I still have a bit of Pantene Pro-V left.  Every time I use that instead of my no-poo castile stuff, my hair is a grease ball the next day.  Seriously, you'd think I hadn't washed my hair the night before.  My body must really be reacting to chemicals now that I've been cutting them out so completely.

*Side note, you can substitute camomile tea for a natural lightener.  Do NOT mix lemon juice with the soap, like some recipes on the internet say.  Here's why.

Homemade Conditioner

I can save you some time, some reading.  Skip to the last recipe on here and just do it.


Because I have replaced just about everything in our house now to something chemical free, it was time to find a substitute for the next common household product: hair conditioner.  I looked everywhere online for recipes, and only found one not-full-of-super-weird-stuff recipe for your day to day conditioner.  But it's still pretty weird.


Basic Conditioner
2 cups warm water
2 Tbl apple cider vinegar


Now, I know that sounds... smelly... but I found that all over the internet.  All over it.  So I figure it must be worth a shot.  Some people said it made their hair feel waxy, so I'm not sure how this will hold up long term.


The first time I tried this, I forgot to warm up the water.  That's right.  I dumped smelly, cold water all over myself in the shower.  I was not pleased.  I was pretty sure I'd never do this again.  My husband told me I smelled like his favorite bag of chips.  I whined about this online, and a friend of mine with gorgeous hair told me she only uses vinegar to condition her hair and baking soda to wash it.  So not buying it.


Nevertheless, I persevered.  The apple cider vinegar WAS an amazing detangler, if nothing else.  I tried, tried again.


The vinegar rinse left my hair a wonderful static ball.  It also burned since I had shaved first.  Because it's so runny, it's really hard to get through your hair without turning upside down and dumping it on that way, too.  This means it's hard to keep off of your face and out of your eyes.  Basically, this was just a bad experience.  No matter how many times you try it.  And you smell like chips. 


Oil
There is no "recipe" for this.  Smear some on your hair, comb through, and rinse out.


This made my hair greasy, and ultimately had the same long-term use problem that the vinegar rinse had. After using both of these conditioners for a little while, I quickly realized they were lacking one major ingredient to keep hair strong:  protein.  I cannot use vinegar long-term because very, very quickly my hair started to get brittle and frizzy.   The oil kept my hair smooth and fantastic, but only after I washed my hair again.


Now, because it was fun to have nothing on my hair for a day and the vinegar was a fun detangler, I might use this once in a blue moon anyway.  Unfortunately, though, vinegar and oil aren't something I can use regularly. 


Deep Conditioner
2 Tbl mayonnaise
1 egg
2 Tbl Olive Oil
1 1/2 Tbl Honey
2 Tbl Sesame Seed Oil
*You can put essential oils in this to make it smell nice!


This makes a fair amount of conditioner.  You'll have to beat it to get it smooth and blended.  Keep it refrigerated between uses.  It comes out runny, so put it in an appropriate bottle.


At first I was surprised by how much this recipe made (runs to grab larger bottle), but I was even MORE surprised by how much my hair kept soaking this up.  Seriously, my hair just kept absorbing it even though I'd already gotten it wet!  I left this on the whole time I scrubbed and shaved, then rinsed it out and washed my hair like I normally would.  I couldn't stomach the idea of leaving egg in my hair without washing it...  But when I got out of the shower, hello shiny!

See?  Shiny!

I was very impressed with this mix.  My hair has been dull and super dry since I started using the castille soap recipe for my hair.  Most gals recommended doing this once a month on various sites online. I will be doing this once a week or more, with my long, dry hair.  


You can still buy all natural types of conditioner for your everyday use (I keep a bottle of Burt's Bees in the shower) but you will probably still want to do this deep conditioner once in a while during your switch!

Replacing Deodorant

Now, before you are seriously grossed out and run holding your nose and screaming away from this page, you should know that I have tried all kinds of ways to stay among the ranks of the unperspired.  I kid you not, it was deodorant that started this whole chemical-free quest.

Toward the end of last year I started getting hives in reaction to everything I put onto my skin.  Now, this happens to me once in a while.  I am not sure if it happens because my body gets tired of the same old thing, or maybe it just wants a little vindication for not exercising regularly.  Either way, I end up having to completely repurchase all of my hygiene products.  Sucks, huh?  Or should I say, "itches?"  Ahem.  Moving forward.

This happened with my deodorant. 


That was new.  I have not had trouble with deodorant since I was a prepubescent smelly tween.  And lemme tell ya, itchy armpits are the WORST.  This new dilemma soon moved beyond itching, though, right into the hurt.  And we are NOT going to talk about shaving.  So not going there.

I quested forth to find a suitable deodorant for my prima donna pits, and lo and behold, I found... nothing.  The all natural ones were just sticky messes.  The store bought ones all made the hives worse. The expensive online ones worked for a few weeks, and then I would have to start all over once a new round of rashes hit.

So then I tried nothing.  That's right, folks.  I stopped wearing deodorant.  You know what kept the smell away?  Oil.  I've already had a post about this, but my shame was too great to tell you about the 'pits.   Actually, at first I was putting fragranced lotion on to fight the case of the smellies, but once I gave up on lotion I thought I'd try my fragrance-free sesame seed oil.  Booyah.  No more rashes, and no B.O.!  Now I don't have any problems and I don't think I'll be going back to deodorant.

Update:
My oh-so-clever friend Katie gave me this recipe for homemade deodorant.  I haven't tried it yet, but for those of you who aren't brave enough to share your natural scent with the rest of the world, you might want to give this a whirl:

1/4 cup corn starch
1/4 cup baking soda
6 TB coconut oil

Update to the update:
That recipe for deodorant is the BEST.  You might want to cut down on the cornstarch, though, because it can make the paste a bit gritty.  You should also know that I didn't have coconut oil, so I used Gold Bond lotion instead.  I also added a few drops of tea tree oil for the smell.  You can customize your own way.  :)

If you make this with coconut oil, Katie suggested putting it in an old deodorant container and refrigerating it.  That way it will get hard, like store bought deodorant, and you can apply it the same way.  I don't mind putting mine on with the softer lotion.  It's really easy to smear on and absorbs right away.

Oh, and bonuses about this?  I can make it smell however I want.  No more white streaks on clothes.  No gunked up stuff under there (yes, that's gross, but you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about).  This is basically the best stuff ever.  And...

I'm back among the Wearers of Deodorant!

Oil? I'm already oily!

For those of you who don't know me well, I'm a pasty, oily-skinned, fine-haired, acne-prone (oh yeah, even the backne) white person.  Everything on me turns red, red, red, from hair dyes and makeup to having too much iron in the water.  I have red bumps all over my arms and legs, and usually have a rash or five somewhere due to something unknown.

At least, that used to be me...

My whole life I've looked for the magic facewash, 3 step program, bodywash, etc. that would clear up my ridiculously finicky skin.  I believe I have tried almost every product under the sun, all natural stuff included.  Then someone put me onto parabens.  (Thanks, mom!)  I've been avoiding those nasty suckers for 3 weeks now, and my skin looks the BEST it's ever been! Look at my brand new face!

Parabens are loaded into your cleaning products.  They are mostly in moisutrizers, but they have a nasty habit of sneaking into your laundry detergent and other soaps, too.  I even found it in my face powder!  Eeps!  So, as things have been running out around the house (sometimes with help into the garbage can), I've been replacing them with sulfate and paraben free products.  Okay, I've been going a lot farther than that... they're as chemical free as I can get them!  And the results speak for themselves.

I chose sesame seed oil because it is fairly cheap, but still better for your skin than mineral oil.  I've actually just started coating up with this in the shower to replace my lotions altogether.  Seriously.  Best.  Skin.  Ever.

That's right, I have replaced ALL of my lotion with oil.  Even my face lotion.  At first I was using sesame, and my skin soaked it up.  While that initially actually cleared my skin of acne, I started getting it again after a few weeks.  My brother recommended jojoba oil, and I've started applying that with a cotton ball. On days when my face is drier, I just don't rinse the excess oil off.  My face looooooves it.

Some of the oils I've tried are coconut, mineral, Alba (it's a mixture, and heavenly, but too pricey for regular use), sesame, olive, canola, and jojoba.  The sesame for my body and the jojoba for my face were the most economical options that didn't give me acne.

Switching to oil was... weird.  I like the thicker consistency of lotion better.  To help facilitate the change, I started using Gold Bond Ultra Healing lotion.  The stuff is wondrous.  Not as chemical free as I'd like, but free of the big offenders that are in most store-bought brands and way, way better than any of the natural brand products I've tried.  Anyway, I used Gold Bond on days when I didn't want to be bothered by oil or forgot to put it on in the shower.  Now that I've adjusted to oil, though, I hardly use the lotion any longer.  The long winded point I'm trying to make here is this:  Make this change as easy on yourself as possible.

Dr. Bronner's Soaps - 'Cuz everybody's doing it

Did you know your skin absorbs three fifths of what you put on it?  Now go read what's on the label for your lotion, shampoo, and body wash.  Eeeeew!  Time to change.

Every site I've visited mentions Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps.  They are the ultimate in multitasking, granola products.  I have purchased one of their body bars before out of curiosity more than for any health-conscious reasons, and I remember my reaction being "meh."  However, since apparently lots of all natural, super healthy, safe, plant derived, blah, blah, blah stuff doesn't actually work, I figured I'd take the safe road and try this first as a body wash and as a shampoo.

I got a bottle of peppermint castille soap (it was soooo hard to choose between peppermint and citrus!).  Most websites suggested diluting the soap to half soap, half water before using it.

Now, Dr. Bronner's products are famous for being versatile.  Unfortunately, since I already bought all of the Shaklee cleaning products (which ran about the same price as Dr. Bronner's would break down to for their laundry detergent, and their Basic H multipurpose cleaner was actually even cheaper) I did not plan to use the castille soap for housecleaning.  I did, however, need some me cleaners.


Body Wash
I squirted a few drops of this on my loofah and scrubbed like I normally would.  I was surprised that the soap lathered a bit as I thought soap only did that with artificial whatevers added.  The peppermint made the soap tingly and wonderful!

I had heard that castille soap can be a bit drying, but that was not the case.  New favorite body wash!


Shampoo
This is coming out in a later post.  Click here.


Shaving Cream
This stuff was FABULOUS as shaving cream!  I've been using oil like my mother before me, and this was so much better!  Don't dither or dally... run, run to the store.  You will never shave with anything else.  Evar.  It is not like shaving with other kinds of soap that leaves your skin irritated.  I was serious about running to the store.  Why are you still reading this?


Shower Cleaner
After a fun scrub-a-dub bathtime with my new soap goodness, I thought I'd try to clean the tub with the soap.  This failed miserably.  I even left the soap on for a while to see if it would do any better at cutting through the accumulation on our tub walls  (I later learned that soap moves dirt around, while detergent and baking soda cut through soap for scrubbing!).  Shaklee products will still be my cleaning products.  However, Dr. Bronner's body products have far surpassed Shaklee's body products for effectiveness.  I'm ridiculously pleased.

Overall the castile soap was a winner.  It's very economical because of all the things it can do.  Plus, the peppermint smells fabulous!  There are a gazillion "recipes" for all of the possible uses for the stuff online.  Buy a bottle, have some fun, and no longer worry when your cats or kids eat things they shouldn't.

Going Granola?

We all have those friends who do things that are just plain strange.  With the advent of social networking, the strangeness can become pervasive.  Seriously, every time I open my browser one of said friends has recently been posting about all the stuff she ISN'T using... diapers, shampoo, conditioner, chemical cleaners, and so forth.  She gets a lot of interesting comments from other strange folks who are doing the same thing.  Now, I've tried to use all natural products here and there, with limited (okay, no) success.


Recently, some health concerns have me ready to try, try again.  With that being said, I'm not brave enough to buy all the strange ingredients to make my own, well, everything.  So I started off by buying Shaklee housecleaners and laundry stuff.  I love their vitamins, so Shaklee's homecare line should be good too, right?  I mean, how different can they be?  Actually, this little chemical-free endeavor went really, really well!  I was inspired, and continued on my quest to eradicate unpronounceable ingredients from my house. 


At the end of this "going granola" experiment I plan to post a page with all of my favorite recipes and what works the best!


Update:  Said page is done!  Click Here.