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!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
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!
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!
Friday, September 2, 2011
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.
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!
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!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
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?
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?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)