Having a Small Town Heart

Yesterday I actually wrote something of substance. Something not about refined sugars, cleaning products, or baby gear ;)

But right before I posted it on here I thought It would be better to post it on my church's blog which I contribute to when the urge strikes. You can check out my post, Having a Small Town Heart in the City over at the GrassRoots Blog. 

Another Crazy Homemade Product

Brian is out of town today which means I am double sleep deprived and bored out of my mind. One can only clean a 900 square ft. apartment so much. I need another adult to talk to like I needed a double shot latte this morning. I do silly things when I'm alone and bored. Like rinsing my hair with vinegar. 

Yes, I did it. I read on Pioneer Woman that it saved her hair. And I'm here to tell ya, I think it saved mine too. You can read her explanation of it here. Basically, she says it removes build up from your hair the same way it cleans your coffee pot. And I must agree. My hair feels great and it looks pretty good too. See?

And while I'm waxing on about hair, I want to let you know that washing your hair with baking soda is not all I said it was a couple posts ago. It was full and clean feeling on day one, but on day two it felt nasty, just nasty. I know no other way to describe it. 

While I've gotcha here let me update you on the detox. I'm no longer offering to give up my first born for a cookie after dinner. The intense dessert cravings have passed. And just to be on the up and up, Brian and I did have birthday dessert at our brother-in-law's birthday party last week. We agreed ahead of time that it was okay. 

Cloth Diapers take two

As soon as my friend Stevie found out I was expecting, she started hassling me about cloth diapering. I was adamant that there were a lot of "natural" things I was going to for Ava like breastfeed, stagger her immunization schedule, make babyfood from scatch, use natural medicines and health products, but cloth diapering was not one of those things. 

Then I watched the HUGE bag of diapers being taken out to the trash a few times a week by my Diaper-Genie-handling husband and I felt a little guilty. About the landfills. If you know me, you know that being "green" is a little lower on my list of priorities, but even my environmentally stone-cold heart was starting to twinge at all those diapers. 

So I ordered a couple cloth diapers (gdiapers to be precise). They are adorable ... and leaky. My other friends who use them say they don't leak for them so I'm sure it's a user error. Even so, I'm a little discouraged. All my efforts to save the planet and make my baby's bottom even more adorable have been met with poop, leaky poop. 

I got a Bum-genius brand diaper in the mail today so I'll give it a shot before I officially throw in the towel. I'm pretty sure I'm going back to Pampers though. They are so absorbent and soft and easy and not leaky. And I can Subscribe and Save on Amazon and get them so affordably. 

If you have any suggestions for better cloth diapering, I'd love to hear them. 

Sugar Detox Day 3-What we do instead

We're still hanging in there :)

The more I've thought about my detox, I've realized it isn't actually a sugar detox so much as a "sweets" or dessert detox. It would probably be beneficial to cut all sugars out of my diet for a period of time, but like I said yesterday I'm just not that hardcore. 

I've found that when I'm trying to stop doing something, it's not enough to just eliminate a bad or undesired behavior. I also need to put something good or better in it's place. 

The last three evenings after dinner Brian and I have gone for a long walk around our neighborhood in place of having a several cookies. We load Ava up in the stroller and take a loop that runs through the park. At the park we watch people play frisbee with their dogs and dad's teaching their kids how to ride a bike. I noticed last night that we see the same people over and over again and that really gives me a sense of community, of being connected to the people around us. 

We've even been playing on the playground a little ourselves. Is that creepy or youthful? I'm not sure. Either way, it's been a really sweet time for our little family. Last night while we played on the monkey bars (no, I'm not kidding) we reminisced about our elementary school playgrounds. It turns out we had very different playground equipment even though we were in school at the same time. 

In giving up dessert we've found more energy than we previously thought we had in the evenings, more time to make memories instead of cookies, and found out new things about each other. So far, this is a win-win. Or if you're an Office fan, a win-win-win. ;)

Sugar Detox

Every week I make a big batch of whole wheat chocolate chip cookie dough. And every evening after dinner Brian rolls six cookies into balls and puts them in the oven. I have been convincing myself that they are a "healthy" dessert since they are whole wheat and I use less sugar than the recipe calls for. And I really do believe they are relatively healthy, in moderation. Three cookies every evening is not what I would call moderation. (Not to mention my occasional afternoon cookie pick-me-up.)

One night last week when I asked Brian if he was going to make cookies, he said "we don't need cookies every night."

I was horrified. "What? Who told you that? They're a liar whoever they are!" 

So I got up and made my own batch of cookies. And you know what? He ate some. 

The next day I got to thinking about my crazy irrational reaction about the cookies. Maybe we didn't need cookies every night. The problem was that I really did. I was addicted. So I decided that as of Sunday, yesterday, I was going to go on a sugar detox so that I really wouldn't need cookies. I want to have them and enjoy them, but I don't want to need them. 

Yesterday was day 1 of the sugar detox and it was hard. I think I said "I want a cookie" 600 times. It didn't help that yesterday morning we made a huge batch of my favorite cookies for our church picnic but since we were an hour late to church (read: completely exhausted and cranky) decided not to go. So the cookies sat on our counter all day and called to me. 

I am not being hardcore about what defines sugar. I will still put honey in my muffins and if we have french toast for brunch on Saturday, I will still use maple syrup. I'm not however, putting sugar in my coffee or eating "sweets." I also will not be using any "sugar-free" products. I never do and never will knowingly put an artificial sugar substitute in my food. The calories and fat you save using these products are more than cancelled out by the health risks of using these fake substances, IMO. 

Brian is doing the detox too. He's such a team player. Any time I want to do something like this for health reasons, he's quick to join me. It would be a different story if I said I was doing this to lose my last 10 Ava pounds. He would refuse to join me, tell me that he doesn't know what 10 pounds I'm talking about and that I do not need to lose weight. Do you see why I love this man? But since this is about health and not weight, he's happy to oblige.

Today is the second day of my detox and I'm feeling pretty confident after making it through last night with those cookies on the counter. I'm planning to detox until my birthday on September 9th. Then I shall eat a big piece of Baskin Robbins ice cream cake. 

I'm posting this more for me than for your reading pleasure. If I make my detox public, I'll be more likely to stick with it. So I'll keep you updated on my progress and what strategies I'm employing to stay sugar-free. 

Simplifying My Household Cleansers

I'm slowly working to simplify my list of household and personal cleaners. Rather than having one product that cleans the floor, another for the counter, another for the bathroom, and another for mirrors I'm trying to move toward one or two products for everything. At the same time I'm trying to move away from toxic cleaners to more safe products.

I have a few reasons for this. My first reason is simplify our life. The more products I use, the more likely I am to run out of something and need to make a trip out. Anyone with a baby knows running to the store isn't as easy as it used to be. In fact, it's a real hassle.

The second reason is to save money. I've found that I can buy a HUGE bag of baking soda for less than 5 dollars and use it for many, many things. I use it to clean my bathroom, wash my hair, freshen my laundry and soak my dishes. I know washing my hair with baking soda sounds  a little extreme, but I love it! My hair has never had so much volume. Another way I've saved money on personal products is reading the labels of the things I currently buy and figuring out what I can make myself. I buy natural toothpaste and mouthwash. Well, after reading the mouthwash label I saw it has a lot of essential oils like tea tree oil. So I did a little research on tea tree oil and found that some people use a few drops of it in water and use that for mouthwash. It doesn't taste as good as my store bought mouthwash, but it works great and costs almost nothing!

My third reason is I truly do want a less toxic household. As soon as I brought Ava home her presence in the house limited when and how I use toxic cleaners like bleach. I hate when I clean the bathroom and find the fumes have lingered into her nursery. I also get freaked out by how close she is to my super high aluminum count deodorant when she's nursing. So I switched to Arm and Hammer natural deodorant, and I'm not lying it's worked just as a well as my clinical strength antiperspirant.

I also realized it didn't do a lot of good to wash her clothes in baby detergent if I was washing everything else in Gain. So when I ran out of her Dreft rather than buying more expensive baby detergent, I researched non-toxic detergents for the whole family. I found Charlie's Soap and I love it! It's the same cost as what I was buying at Costco but we all can use it.

I'm not obsessed with having a non-toxic home and I certainly don't judge other people who clean with Scrubbin' Bubblesa and Mr. Clean. I've gleaned a little here and there for a while now and I'm feeling more adventurous about trying the things I've learned. I'm not throwing away my old products, only replacing as a run out. As I make these changes for our family I want to take baby steps that actually save us money and make our lives easier. 

My goal is by the end of 2012 to have simplified to as few natural products as possible.  I know that's a long way away, but I set the goal out there for a reason. I want this project of mine to serve our family; I don't want to become a slave to this project. I figured if I set it farther out than it would actually take to make the changes, I won't do anything frivolous to accomplish my goal.

I know some of you are probably thinking, "just buy some Lysol and get a life." And maybe you would have a point :) But I feel pretty empowered by understanding how cleansers work and making educated choices about the products I use in my home. I'm also in a season of life where I do have time for this kind of stuff. Days are coming when I won't, so I'm taking advantage of it! 

Baby Lilie Update

Please continue to remember Lilie's family today. We got this update from our pastor just a little while ago:

It is a very sad day, Family. Robby and Jenna are saying their goodbyes to their beautiful daughter Lilie. Words can't express the sorrow we feel for Robby, Jenna and family. We mourn for them and can't understand "WHY?" 

Lord Jesus in our confusion and pain we take comfort knowing that Lilie will be in your arms. Lord Jesus, we ask that through your Spirit you would overwhelm Robby and Jenna with your Love, grace, mercy, strength and comfort. Comfort that can only come from you during this time. 

I have no words of my own today. They all fall very short of the reverence due Lilie and her family, but I wanted to share this update and say thank you for joining us in praying for Lilie and Robby and Jenna.