Bye Bye Shampoo!

Gosh it's been forever since I've been on here.  I had big plans when I started this blog, and didn't follow through with any of it.  Sheesh.  Some blogger I am!

I'm inspired again to try and pick this back up, by friends and honestly out of selfish reasons for just having stuff to say.  I like having a place I can house my thoughts.

So I'll just jump right in, with randomness - which totally fits my life anyway.

I've been on a journey for the past year or two to get back to nature so to speak.  Back to where I feel God wanted us in the first place, a place of trusting Him and not something man made.  At this point in time, that area for me is the food we eat and the man made products we use.

I finally made the jump and became shampoo free ('poo free as you'll find online, but I have a hard time actually saying for obvious reasons....yuck!).  It started out of the desperation of running out of shampoo and ended with enjoying how my hair looked and felt afterwards.  I have always had an issue with my hair being really dry, and I hated how my hair would look if I didn't take a shower on any given day.  And after I got my hair wet at the pool?  Forget it.  Hot mess.  I have been pleasantly surprised with how my hair looks the day of a shower, the day after a shower, and even after it dries if I've been at the pool.  This is all new and very shocking for me, so I'm sure you can understand why I've decided to stick with this routine!

Day after my shower! 

Aside from that, there's the financial aspect of it all.  Because of all of the junk - chemicals, parabins, dyes and God knows what else in traditional shampoos and conditioners, I moved initially to making my own shampoo with Dr. Bronner's soap, coconut milk and olive oil.  I liked it, but it's pricey.  Then add all natural conditioner on top of it - ouch.  It doesn't last long either between the girls and I.  It would eat up a portion of my grocery budget that quite frankly I'm a bit too greedy to give up.  I like my fresh produce, ok?  By going shampoo free I've really cut down on the amount of money I'm spending in this area.

So what exactly does one need to go shampoo free?  Stuff you probably already have in your pantry.  Baking soda.  Apple cider vinegar.  Coconut oil.  That last one isn't necessary, but because I have dry hair I like it as an extra.  I buy my baking soda and ACV in bulk, saving me tons of money.  The coconut oil is pricey, but a little goes a really long way and I use it for so many things it's worth it.  Aside from in my hair I use it as lotion and to cook with too.  Don't worry, I have separate jars :)

Last night I decided to test it all out on the girls' hair, because that's where the real financial gain is going to come in.  Admittedly, I had to deal with a lot of "OWWW MOM!" and "EWWW, IT SMELLS", but I love the results.  Their hair is more manageable now than it has been in the past, and it's really soft.  I even tested out the oil in their hair, just to see who would benefit from it.

Following in their crunchy mama's footsteps :)

I know that not everyone is going to be as thrilled about this idea as I am.  That's ok.  But if you've ever been concerned with the amount of chemicals going in to your body, you need to stop and consider what's in your cosmetics, shampoos, lotions, deodorants, sun screens, toothpaste....the list is long and daunting.  Pick one.  Play with it.  Try new things.  You just never know what you'll end up enjoying.  You may be surprised how much you like your new hair if you choose to go shampoo free.  And I promise you'll like the extra $$ you save doing it!  :) 

**Disclaimer - if you do decide to try going shampoo free, you will need to give your hair about two weeks to get used to it before you make a decision.  Your hair may have some spastic moments trying to rid itself of the bad before you can actually see the good.  Don't give up, just keep at it!

Major Changes Do That to You

It's been forever since I've blogged here. The biggest reason was because I had made the decision to homeschool my girls, but I wasn't ready to announce that yet to anyone. With that really being what was consuming the majority of my time, I didn't have much else to talk about. Once I made it public, I then didn't have time as we were adjusting to our new life. I still don't have time, but I figure it's now or never.

I decided to homeschool as an answer to a calling by God. It's been a major roller coaster emotionally for me. While most of the responses I've had were positive, there were also well meaning friends or family that made remarks of their "concern" for my children. Which is really ridiculous if you ask me.....you've never been concerned about my kids' well being up until this point, and I've been a mother for 10 years.

Right now we're struggling to find our rhythm. We've got our daily routine down, and that's great. But figuring out how to teach in a way that all 3 love learning has been a challenge. And the even bigger challenge for me is that because there are endless possibilities on how to homeschool your child, there hasn't really been one person that fully understands me and how I'm choosing to go about this. I'm struggling to remember that everyone does this journey differently, so I don't have to hold stock in anyone's opinion on the matter.

I love having my girls home. Nothing beats that. Looking back I really should have known this was the direction I would end up taking, based on my reaction every new school year. I missed my girls terribly while they were at school. It just didn't sit fully with me. I love knowing that it doesn't have to.

With all that being said, it's obviously not all flowers and rainbows and puppies. We have struggles. Daily, at this point. It's a learning process for all of us. But I have noticed positive changes in all 3 of their personalities. There are still things I struggle with in terms of doubts and feeling inadequate, but I also know that is a part of being a mother.

So through my babbling, here is my main point. There are going to be times that I am down, times that I'm going to be stressed over what we're doing. Please, please - I beg you - please don't try and "fix" my problems. I know there are many people that are solution-minded, but unless I ask you for advice that is the absolute last thing I need. In your attempts at trying to help me, I end up feeling even more alienated, alone and frustrated. All I need from you is an ear for listening, a shoulder for crying, and encouragement that says "I love you. You are doing the best thing for your kids. You are answering God's call, and He will not let you fall." I need to feel stronger and in a mindset of feeling ready to tackle my issues before I can accept all of your well intentioned words of advice, links, resources and thoughts on the matter. If you're not sure, you can always ask me. I won't hesitate to let you know.

All in a day's work

About a year or so ago, my husband brought home a diet book that he was excited to try. Always leery of anything telling me to cut food intake (I will CUT YOU over some food. Don't mess with me), I resisted. I gazed at the recipes, which consisted of about 80% of the book, and was surprised at how yummy they looked. So I started to read, and was appalled at the information I was gaining. The book talked about the amount of sugar that can be found in packaged foods. Shocked at how much sugar was in things I considered "healthy" like pasta sauces, crackers, even milk; I went through my pantry and threw out at least half of it. I couldn't believe what we were eating. It was a huge eye opener for me. This just kind of snowballed to where I am today - packing as much real, whole, natural foods into our diets as I can.

Recently I stumbled across this great blog that was written by a girl who revived my spirit to eat more raw foods. I think the biggest trouble with "healthy eating" is that I feel like I can't eat sweets, which is my downfall. I feel like a failure if I make something that isn't quite good for us. But a girl just NEEDS a cupcake sometimes! This girl has the same problem with sweets being what she craves, and she's come up with brilliant solutions to curbing them and eating healthy at the same time. Because frankly, telling me to replace my chocolate with broccoli is crazy. (I WILL CUT YOU!) Sorry. It doesn't fit.

With the girls in school, I find that I have more time to make food that I wish I could have made before. Which is nice, considering they are getting awfully picky where their lunch is concerned and I refuse to buy processed foods.

So the other day I made these little gems. Raw peanut butter "cookies". Oh me oh my. They are so yummy and really do hit the cookie spot. My girls gobbled them up. Ok, they aren't technically completely raw, but raw enough! You could easily replace the peanut butter with almond butter and leave out vanilla.

In her blog post I believe the girl says she was snacking on them "all week". They didn't last 24 hours at my house, but I'm counting that as a good thing. :) If you're looking for a good for you treat that is really yummy and tastes like dessert, definitely try these. You can make them in about 5 minutes flat (bonus!) and they are so good for you (double bonus!).

Now I'm off to finish putting the sweet potato crackers in a container and the black bean hummus in the fridge.

Look what I did!

I need to admit something. Something REALLY embarrassing. I made the decision this summer that spending time with the girls was far more important than cleaning, and my house has gone to the dogs. Ew. My decision's not embarrassing, but the state of my house is. The girls have been back to school for one week and I am slowly but surely gaining my house back. Well, aside from the huge pile of donations that is growing in my living room and taking over, but that's another story (for business) and totally acceptable.

I've decided to tackle one room a day. Well, I work on it until it's done or my brain is done. Whatever comes first. So far, it's been as the room is done. Weekends don't count by the way. Everyone needs a break.

The other day I redid my mud room. This is our catchall room that houses the girls' shoes, coats, winter paraphernalia, random things that belong to The Mister (why?), games and art supplies and tools that don't have homes. We have a closet in there, and then one of those standard white wire shelves. I am sooooo proud of me. I filled a huge trash bag full of stuff to toss (who knew I'd have THAT much crap in a room that didn't look like it had that much crap to throw away?). I donated 2 grocery bags of things using my favorite easy donation process, freecycle.

The games are now neatly stacked. The shoes are neatly put in bins, where they will stay for - oh, about one day. I went through the coats, hats and gloves and donated a good amount that we don't need. I reorganized the closet. It was feeling pretty good. My Debbie Downer was the annoying thing I call "useless junk you need for school". Bookbags and lunchboxes will probably be the death of me. Because in the past 4 years, I have never really been able to figure out what to do with these things. I've always settled to have Angel's and Bean's bookbags hanging on the two doorknobs in the mud room and the lunchboxes tossed in the pantry. With Bug starting school this year I now had 3 bookbags and 2 knobs. Hm.

A while ago, while browsing around on Pinterest, I stumbled across this CUTE idea of using drawer faces and knobs as wall hooks. Um, stinkin' cute right? Well, I really didn't want to have to go thrifting and pay for a piece of furniture only to tear it apart and toss 90% of it and then have to buy new handles on top of it. So I wussed out and went to Walmart to buy wall hooks instead.

I found some pretty nice brushed nickel ones in the bath aisle for a few dollars each. I needed three, and these happened to have 2 hooks per piece. Awesome! Solves my lunchbox AND bookbag woes in one shot. I brought them home and told The Mister I needed his help to put them up. Well, The Mister likes to take his time with projects (ahem - wait until I've asked him 2.3 billion times), and I'm really impatient. Hmfph. I could totally do this.

I whipped out his screwdriver and hung those hooks like a pro! Lookie!

Forgive the really cruddy quality of these, I used my trusty iPhone. It is just far too much work for me to get out my big girl camera to take pictures of these things. (Just one of the many curses of the professional photographer)

You can see the two rather convenient hooks for both lunchbox AND bookbag!

Yay me!!! I am sooooo proud of me, I really can't tell you. I know what you're thinking. Aside from being really proud of me too, you're thinking "Congratulations. You know how to turn a screwdriver." I just want to remind you that I do not do these things. This is "mans work" to me. I'm new into this area. I likey. I need my own pink screwdriver now. :)

Knock me to the floor kind of amazement!

When we first walked into this house 7 years ago during our attempt to buy a new home, I remember walking out onto the deck and saying "What is going ON in this backyard?" There were vines and all kind of vegetation madness growing up the semi steep hill that made up much of the property. The realtor tells us that the homeowner was going to rip it all out and put down sod. Phew, I think. It'll be done before we move in. It was a relief to know it wasn't my headache.

Fast forward a few months later, and the work still hadn't been done. So I asked the realtor "umm, whatever happened to the sod in the backyard? When is that going to be done?" Oh, no - they were only going to do THAT if no one wanted to buy the house, he says to me in a slightly "duh you dummy" tone. Silly me for thinking realtors never stretched the truth!

And here we sit today, with enough lush vegetation in our backyard to hide at least 1,000 small children. Or I should say SAT. Because our hill is consumed with vegetation no more! The Mister's parents have been working their tails off cutting it all down and digging it all up. And today, for the first time in 7 years, I can see what my hill looks like. "I've never seen you in this light before, you're stunning!" I tell it. Oh, and no I'm not lazy....I did help the first time they came out to conquer the hill. But after a vicious case of poison ivy that forced me onto steroids to get rid of it....I wasn't touching that place with a 10 foot pole.

So today, I took some pictures. Because I can't get over how amazing it's going to look once it's all finally cleared away!

For those of you that have actually been to my house, this is a never before seen sight! There used to be a bush there on the corner that was overcome with honeysuckle. Which we found the root ball for, by the way. Someone obviously planted it there on purpose for ground cover. Way to go in that brilliant move, who ever you are! This was an all summer long project getting this mess taken care of.

A better shot of down that part of the hill, can you believe it? I can't. And all that gorgeous dark soil....I so can't wait to get a garden started back there.

Another spot on my property that I had never seen before. I can't believe it! It's obviously still a work in progress, but we have come oh so far this summer. In my dreams I've already got loads of strawberries, spinach and lettuce, beans galore and rows of carrots, beets, peppers and potatoes. And a few beautiful fruit trees dripping with goodies and a lovely stone path leading down to it. Expect to see hard evidence of this dream in oh, say 2020.

A new season of life

Bug started Kindergarten today. My very last baby is now in school. To get a better idea of how I feel, today is the first day in 9 and a half years that I have not had a baby at home. Oh my heart! Talk about hurt. I enter this new season of my life a bit begrudgingly.

I had to get the customary pictures of her this morning too. All decked out in a new outfit, new lunch box and new book bag, all picked out by her! She's bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning folks, up before 7 to get ready for her school day. Let's see how long that lasts!

Check out that lunch box! She was SO excited that it was so huge hahaha. She kept telling me that she was going to have the biggest lunch box in school. She's hilarious. You can see why I miss her.

That little devilish grin. She's either going to be the best or the most devilish student this teacher's ever had.

The Mister was sad to see his baby go too.

In the end, there was a lot of crying, whining and whimpering. On my part. And a lot of running, jumping up and down with excitement and waving goodbye without looking back on hers. I'm just glad I waited until she was inside of the school to start my meltdown, because she really fed off of my excitement for her in her brand new season of life.

Back into the swing of things

2nd day of school, and already I'm enjoying getting back into a routine. I still miss my girls, so much - but the routine is something I really enjoy. This year I've added 2 more kiddos to the mix. I'm watching a friend's girls before school, which actually is quite helpful for me - so far my girls are so excited they're here they get up on time haha.

This morning we walked to school. It's seriously gorgeous outside. Low 70's, and it's August! I love this time of year when I can walk to school, get some exercise and it's not too hot yet. There's nothing exciting about it - it's an ordinary walk in an ordinary neighborhood on an ordinary day. But if you look, you can find really beautiful things. One of my favorite things as a photographer is the gift of being able to see things that others don't typically see. It's not a gift that I had before photography, it's a gift that photography (and God) gave me. What I see is what drives me in my work, and really it helps me slow down my daily routine and stop and actually SEE the beauty that God has given us in things we've grown accustomed to.

I'm also finding a real freedom in using my iPhone as my every day camera. So many posts will have images from my iPhone. If you want to see my real work, you can always check out my photography blog.

Every time I step out of my house in the morning, I am always struck by how amazing wet grass looks in morning light. It's seriously stunning. If you've never noticed, take a few minutes one day to check it out. Just look at how they glow like jewels and it's like every single blade is bathed in light.

I don't know about you, but sunlight makes me really, really happy.

It was about this point in the trip that I was really consumed with the beauty surrounding me (thank you Lord!). And it was also about this point in the trip that Bean realized she forgot her homework and threw an all out fit/temper tantrum rivaling any 2 year old. Stomping of feet, crying and unreasonable thinking all included. The Mister and I have been trying desperately to teach our girls responsibility, and this was one of those moments I had to make a tough call. No, I wasn't going to go back to the house to get it. No, she wasn't allowed to run the half mile home "real quick" by herself. No, we weren't all going to go home so she could get it and drive back up to school so we won't be late. And I was sorry that she might get in trouble and that her teacher might be REALLY mad at her and that she wouldn't get to use her crayons today (haha what??). See? Unreasonable thinking.

So after calling her bluff on her staying "right here forever", we moved on and kept going.

Gracious I am in love with how the sun just lights up their hair. I was so tempted to run back home, grab my real camera and take them to a beautiful field to capture it before I missed the chance. Hmm. I suppose Bean isn't the only one thinking unreasonably!

I dropped them off, kissed lips and in Angel's case, cheeks, goodbye. I comforted Bean once more and assured her that no, her teacher wouldn't be SO MAD at her and that it would all be ok. Then I took off with my Bug and one of my little charges (who does not have school today) back home.

That's my Bug on the left with that amazing shadow hair. That's my charge in the middle, looking up at me and holding my hand, being oh so sweet and making me wish my kids would do those things haha. And that's me on the right with a rather deformed looking shadow. Not sure what happened there. But at least theirs are cute!

I'm anxious to do this again tomorrow :) Well, aside from it being Bug's first day. I've got the jitters. *sniff*