Coconut Oil + Coconut Sugar Body Scrub

Is anyone else's skin looking rather gray and chalky? Do you get the urge to take sandpaper to your feet and dip your entire leg into a lotion bottle this time of year? Just me?

Last week I continued my tireless search for a chemical-free golden ticket that would keep my skin soft during these moisture sucking winter months.

I thought I was onto something last year with the coconut oil-as- moisturizer. It worked pretty well and was economical and chemical-free. A few of you mentioned that you tried it and you kind of liked it, in a "Well, I guess it's better than rubbing petroleum products into my skin" sort of way. I confess that I, too, grew weary of the coconut oil's oiliness. There is a reason why commercial skin care products tout their "absorbs quickly with no greasy feel!" magic. Coconut oil works pretty well, and the lotion bars were handy and fun to make, but I haven't been able to shake the thought that we can do better.

On a whim, I bought some Coconut Sugar from Trader Joe's a couple of weeks ago. Most interweb sources assert that it is one of the most environmentally sustainable sweeteners around (Kitchen Stewardship has some great info about it), and I thought I'd add it to my grain-free baking experimentation. It is fairly coarse but not as clumpy as regular brown sugar.

All the DIY Christmas gift pins with homemade bath products inspired me to try the Coconut Sugar with water or honey as a scrub for my crusty feet. And then it hit me: Coconut oil + Coconut sugar = Natural Moisturizing Body Scrub?

Friends, let me tell you, I've been using this concoction every few days for two weeks now, and I am really amazed by how well it works, how un-greasy it is, and how my skin actually feels soft for days. Days!

Les even commented that my skin is "much nicer than usual" all of a sudden.

Our two star ingredients.

It's ridiculously easy to make this scrub. 

1. Scoop a heaping spoonful of coconut oil into a small dish. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, so you can get a nice hefty glop of it with a regular spoon. 

 2. Dump a roughly equal amount of coconut sugar into the oil and mash it around with the spoon.

Here's the best part:

3. Take your dish of coconutty body scrub into the shower with you, and give your limbs a good scrubbing with it after you've finished your regular washing and hair doing and ballad singing. Yep, slather this stuff right in the shower just as if it were a body wash. I use my hands, but you could put it onto a washcloth or poof if you prefer. You're wet, and you're sloughing off dead skin as you go so it absorbs in a totally different way. Plus you're rinsing off any excess oil as you finish up your shower.

4. Get out of the shower, dry off, and get on with your day with your soft and lovely skin.

I find that my skin only needs this extra step every few days, but if you want to do it everyday, go for it.

One word of caution - your feet will be really slippery if you use this scrub on the bottoms of your feet, so be careful in the shower! You could also just use this as a treat for your feet after your shower if you don't want to risk a slip.

Let's review the awesomeness of this scrub.

1. All natural ingredients = No nasty chemicals being rubbed into your skin.
2. Slather it on right in the shower. No need to stand shivvering in your cold wintery bathroom rubbing lotion or coconut oil into your skin until it absorbs. 
3. Smell like sweet coconut! Your chihuahua may decide he wants to lick your legs and hands, but that's not a problem, right? 
4. Soft skin that lasts for days. 

Bonus:  Edible shower scrub! No commentary. Just pointing that out...

Cup of Happiness

Our coffee machine broke down a few months ago. Coincidentally, my Starbucks habit kicked back in right around the same time. I am loathe to admit it, but I am addicted to caffeine. Like, for reals. I tried to give it up for Lent this year and made it exactly 4 days before my headaches and general Rage Against Humanity weakened my resolve and I went back to the dark side.

I immediately felt that I had a Green Living problem to tackle. What's the best way to get my fix with minimal waste and maximum awesomeness?

Factors to consider:

• I don't want ANY waste - No filters, no pods, no pouring half your French Press pot down the drain because I can only really handle one cup at a time and the mechanics of the Press make me create at least 2 big cups worth.
• When it comes right down to it, I really want a LATTE. Not coffee. Yes, I know, I'm a snob. Whatever. When I have good, excellent-tasting espresso and steamed milk, I don't even want any sugar OR honey. At least half of the reason I go to The Bucks is because I want the steamed milk. Lovely, frothy milk.

So I didn't want to buy a new coffee maker. Coffee makers don't make lattes, and latte makers cost $$$. I did a bit of internet searching, and decided on these two little old-fangled lovelies:

To my left, a stainless steel milk frother. To my right, the iconic Bialetti Moka Pot in the one-cup size. Just enough for ONE latte in the morning! 

Yes, they are not as fast or as fancy as the Pod coffee machines or the spendy espresso machines. And yes, the Bialetti would be a more energy-efficient choice if we had gas burners, but someday I WILL have gas burners, so help me!

How do these thrifty little metal contraptions produce a foamy latte? Observe.

This round fan-looking thing is what aerates the milk. It's attached by a metal rod to the knob on the lid of the frother When you pump it, it turns this little splash of warmed-up soy milk (see left) into this voluminous cup of foamy soy milk (see right). About as close to steamed milk as you can get without a fancy espresso maker OR a lot of attention and patience at the stove top.

And what about the espresso part?

Espresso goes into this funnel-shaped filter.

Which fits into the bottom part....

that holds the water.

When you twist the two halves of the Moka pot together and put the pot on the stove, you can lift up the lid and watch the espresso percolate up into the little pitcher.

Bubbling goodness.

Now imagine this is a TV cooking show and I skip to the finished product:

Perfecto. One latte, no waste. I can use organic, fair trade beans and whatever pretentious milk I want. And if I ever get my act together, I could even put everything together at night and just turn on the heat in the morning.

So there you have it! The solution to my latte addiction for about $40 of durable equipment. No waste, and far fewer trips to The Bucks. Come on over and I'll play barista for ya.

And Heaven and Nature Sing

That's a little clip-on bird ornament, in case you're scratching your head.

I'm gonna be honest here. Christmas is not all candy canes and mistletoe for me. It is hard. I miss my mom in every carol, every cookie we don't bake together, every mint M&M that I will never dig greedily from the candy dish on the sofa table when I come into her cider-scented house. In fact, this is the first Christmas in the four without her that I have even bothered to decorate beyond a tiny table-top tree.

But we're staying in Raleigh this Christmas, and I decided I was ready to make our own family traditions. When we returned to NC after Thanksgiving, we packed up the car with the ornaments and stockings and lights and tree stand that we had packed away at Les's parents' house. So I had the loot. There was just one problem: No space for a tree.

Ok, actually, there were 2 problems. No space for a tree, AND I felt conflicted about the eternal "Real vs. Fake" Christmas Tree Debate.  A live tree may be greener overall, but I still cringed a bit at the thought (and expense, and mess, and the hassle of having to bolt our loveseat to the ceiling to make room) of squeezing a tree into our little apartment.

So I'm finally ready to be festive, but couldn't quite go so far as to buy a tree.

What's a girl to do?

Well, a crafty girl marches out into the back yard (We live in NC! We have a yard!) and drags a fallen branch over to her deck, slaps down some scrap cardboard, and spray paints that sucker white. So now I have a Big White Stick! Perfect. The Christmas Stick gets plunked into a tall white ceramic vase with some white tissue paper crammed in to keep it upright and Auggie-proof. Then it gets wrapped with white lights and adorned with all the bird ornaments I had stashed away.

You see, 5 years ago, Mom and I decided to pillage Target on the Day After Christmas. I pushed her around in her wheelchair as she clutched a basket in her lap. I had decided I needed some of my own ornaments, and I had a vision. A theme, if you will. "Let Heaven and Nature Sing!". Only animal and bird ornaments, with red and gold do-dads mixed in. Some order to my Christmas Chaos. So, I loaded her up with a couple dozen clip-on birds, red and gold glass spheres, and faux-berry garlands.  And that Christmas, I convinced my then-roommate to get a ridiculously big tree and I festooned it with birds, berries, and balls. It was glorious.

And so this year, Les and I have The Christmas Stick. I love it. And it inspired me to just rock on with the bird theme.  Birds and Words:

Our mantel birds (who perch there all year) were joined by a tiny poinsettia and a canvas wrapped with burlap and some stick-on letters.

Some hand-felted "snow birds" that I bought on etsy a couple of years ago hang out with a little penguin figurine that Mom gave me in a stocking a zillion years ago. Chillin' with the NOEL letters.

Ok, I know this is crazy, but for some reason I thought that because it never really got cold in North Carolina, there wouldn't be any cardinals here. That made me really sad when we first moved, but guess what? They are everywhere. I love them. They are just harder to see when there is no snow!

Our Christmas mantel. A little crowded, but totally awesome. 

There's even a funny little bird in our Nativity: check out the silly chicken on Joseph's back! I can't imagine a creche without some animals. Les and I bought this one in Portugal right after we got engaged. I love it. It is made out of this sandy clay stuff. And the calf and the donkey look like they are singing.

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her king
Let every heart prepare Him room
And Heaven and Nature Sing

Let my mom, in heaven, sing
Let all the animals and birds, and trees and stars, all of God's creation, sing His praise

They do a better job of it than we do sometimes, don't they?

When A Good Deal isn't a Great Buy - Choosing Stuff That Will Last

It's Boot Season again - Hooray! That means I get to bust out my mom's circa 1975 Frye Boots. Believe it or not, boots are hard to photograph in an interesting way. But these boots ROCK. And I get complements on them every time I wear them. They are creeping up on 40 years old, and they still look awesome. Mom actually had TWO pairs of Frye boots in her closet, which seemed Way Way Over the Top for my mom. My Mom didn't spend lots (any) cash on herself by the time she was my mom. So knowing what I know about how much Frye boots cost now, I'm sure these were a save-up purchase. And judging by the re-soled wear, she wore them a lot. And here they are, on my feet, rocking my jeggings and Dress Over Pants concoction in 2012. So an excellent cost-per-wear investment. Plus, I get to wear my mom's boots. The best hand-me-down ever.


Most of my clothes are cheap. Seriously cheap. Not just "Bought on J Crew clearance", although there are some of those. Cheap like "bought from Target/Old Navy/TJ Maxx and barely make it through one or two seasons before I start eyeing them with scissors to repurpose their raggy fabric". I own maybe 3 or 4 items that I could consider "investment" purchases. Clothes that I love and wear regularly, cost a bit more, and are holding up really well. Most of my stuff, however, has little to commend it into the "Excellent Stewardship of Resources!" category. Most are items that I just thought were cute and within my budget and ended up in the cart.

I'm starting to see improvements in this area. Maybe it's getting older. It's much easier to stick my fingers in my ears and sing LALALALALALAAAA over the siren song of trendy clothes. I also have a job where jeans and a t-shirt are just about requisite 3 out of 5 days a week.

Obviously we all need clothes to wear, and I'm not advocating for sackcloth and ashes. I also do not think that it is an ethical affront to look cute. I could actually use some more lovely in my life. I am usually loathe to spend big money on clothes, but I'm beginning to realize that disposable trends aren't as much fun as they used to be. The standard fashion mag refrain is to buy "the essential 10" (or 15, or 20) items in classic, flattering cuts and then care for them meticulously so they last for years. I'm down with that, but how do I start? Buy one piece per year for the next ten years? That's not a terrible idea, actually. As least I can be classically fashionable by the time I'm 45.

So what do I do with all the other stuff? And how many items of clothes do I really need? "Purge the Closet and Dresser" has been on my To-Do list for several weeks now. I was dreading it at first, but then I read this post  from Jamie The Very Worst Missionary and I got some mojo going for PURGE THE JUNK! I'm interested to see what is left after I donate anything that doesn't fit, doesn't flatter, or is just plain ready to be demoted to "fabric".

Ok, really this whole post has been my round-about way of trying to process whether or not I should consider doing something I swore several years ago that I would NEVER do: Should I FINALLY buy a classic, well-made leather  bag that I will just use and use and use and use rather then the "please please make it one more season" pleather or canvas bags that I keep burning through like birthday candles? I love me some purses. I used to have a lot more energy for wearing them like accessories, but the reality is that I pretty much use the same bag every day. Until it crumbles and shreds into sad little vinyl chunks. I'm researching recycled leather bag companies, which I feel sort of OK about, but I just cannot bring myself to purchase new, fresh-off-the-cow leather. Even though those Frye boots are a testament to the longevity of a well-made and virtually timeless slab of hide.

I have leather shoes, even other leather boots. And I do own a couple of small leather purses that have been gifted to me over the years. But now I struggle to put my cash into leather, or to wear it as if to say "Yeah! I'm totally cool with this!".

So if you have a vintage leather bag that you never use, or a suggestion for a great place to get some repurposed leather goods, or can help me with this clash of values (animal-free vs. durability and fewer disposable faux-leather accessories), shoot me a note. I'm gonna head over to Etsy and Ebay and see what I can find.

Steady Progress Towards Major Change

On August 1, I announced to myself that I was going to stick to a "More with Less" vegetarian gluten-free diet. A few days later, I upped the ante and decided that I was going to purge my diet of all eggs and dairy as well. That would have made me some kind of grain-free vegan locavore or something. I was convinced that Sweeping Change was the way to go. Cold Tofu-Turkey, total elimination.

But guess what?

It did not work. Not even a little bit. I didn't really know what I was doing, and 3 days into spinach salad for every meal I revolted and went right back to cheese and polenta and sordid affairs with buttermilk biscuits. If I had been a little more self-aware, maybe I would have remembered that GRADUAL progress has served me pretty well, whether in training for and running a marathon injury-free, or waking up every morning, gazing at my painfully gray haired reflection and deciding to stick with my decision to NOT color my hair. Success from small decisions and small disciplines made over and over and over.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, I thought maybe some of you are feeling like I sometimes do when I think of all the BIG changes I want to make in my diet, my consumption, and my life. I feel overwhelmed. I start to despair and think that if I can't change everything, why bother changing anything? Not true, my friends. Don't listen to the haters in your head.

Just choose something, make the change, and then keep at it. You don't have to start with food. Here are some things that I have changed in my daily routine that have made small but hopefully appreciable dents in my chemical exposure, for example:

1. Home Made Mouth Wash

Which consists of a tongue scraper coupled with a gargle-and-swish of warm water with sea salt and a few drops of peppermint oil. I was skeptical, but this works for me! Just a little freshening boost. Husband approved, BTW.

2. Coconut Oil for dry skin

I thought this would be kind of gross too, but I LOVE IT. I smell faintly of Almond Joy all day, and it makes my skin feel smooth and soft. It is a little oily when you first slather it on (right out of the shower seems to work well for me so far), but it dries really nicely. No more nasty lotions. You're rubbing that stuff into your skin, people! eeeek. I may experiment with a few drops of essential oil mixed in to the coconut for a different scent. It makes me hungry to smell a little like candy.

3. Mechanical rather than chemical exfoliation

I confess that I don't use my dry brush every day. I should, though, because I really like that I can see the dry skin flailing off me in every direction. You use this stiff-bristled brush before you get in the shower. My English friends say that it is also excellent for reducing the appearance of cellulite, but I don't think I've used it often enough to see a difference. Doesn't hurt to try though, right?

4. Salad Dressing As  Oil Method Face Wash

Castor Oil + Extra Virgin Olive Oil makes a surprisingly effective face wash. Yes, it feels a bit like rubbing salad dressing on your face. And yes, I was scared about it because of my persistent adult acne, but I think it works as well if not better than any of the commercial face soaps I have tried. Our current apartment's bathroom sink does not get quite hot enough to make the requisite steamy washcloth used to steam up your pores and wipe off the oil, so I do sometimes use commercial face soap when I'm in a hurry in the morning. I can make the steamcloth work in the shower, but prefer a leisurely night time routine where I can wipe the grime of the day off with something ultra natural and not at all drying. Check out my whole post about the glories of the Oil Method.

5. Mason Jars for Everything!

We wanted to get away from storing stuff in plastic right around the same time that I started buying things in bulk whenever possible. We had repurposed some salsa jars and pasta sauce jars and love them very much in the cabinets. But if you have things out in the open, or need to freeze something, Mason Jars are the way to go. Plus, they only cost about $12 for a box of 12. Way cheaper than Pyrex. And unlike most glassware, many sizes of mason jars can be used to freeze stuff as long as you leave an inch or so of room at the top when you fill it up. I LOVE jars. I use them to take food to work for lunch, to store stuff, and even as portable mugs. Vessel + secure lid = endless possibilities with NO plastic.

Next up, hopefully, will be to permanently switch to natural toothpaste, home-made deodorant, Dr. Bronner's soap in the shower, and only replacing cosmetics with totally natural versions. I keep saying I'm gonna do that, but I keep not doing it.

Here's to baby steps! What are some of your small changes that have added up to big differences in your home, habits or budget? 

Put On a Frowny Face for Starbucks

Ok y'all - time to bust our your trombone to play a big Debbie Downer "Whaaah-Whaaaaaahhhhh".

I know knowledge is power, and we can't make better choices if we don't have accurate information. But don't you sometimes wish you didn't know? Wish for a do-over so you cold proceed in blissful ignorance? I've found out all kinds of routine-shaking, life-altering info on this quest for a healthier, greener, more responsible path. But THIS info goes into the category of "I kinda wish I didn't know."

100 Days of Real Food just posted this article about the nasty side of Starbucks.  And it is nasty, my friends.

I had already heard that the coffee you get from your smiley-faced Barista is NOT organic or fair trade, even though you can buy bags of organic fair trade coffee to make at home. And I know that Starbucks has been touting their "Trans Fat Free" stuff and "All Natural Ingredients" for a while now. I've even gawked in slack-jawed horror at the nutrition info for the stuff I occasionally noshed on while picking up my latte (no organic milk available BTW). But I really wasn't ready for the hard truth: that stuff is SCARY. Scary. Read the article and see for yourself. Spoiler alert: One of their Frappuccino ingredients requires a "substance known to cause cancer" label in California.

KNOWN.

To cause cancer.

Well this revelation couldn't have come at a better time for me, since our No Buy July scheme has succeeded  well enough from a "stuff" standpoint, but failed miserably from a budget point of view. We suspect that in our quests to avoid acquiring more stuff, our tendency to want to purchase things just shifted to categorize more things (ie: lattes and "healthy" snacks for me, other food/beverages for Les) into the NEED category. Our stuff purchases have been practically nil so far, but our overall budget hasn't shown much improvement because we've compensated for the magazines and cool new eco kitchen scrubbies (oh, the things we overbuy) by shopping for loads of food. And going out for burritos.

So Starbucks, now would be a good time to part ways. I can't afford you and you are killing me softly. And I never did bring Sock Bottle back to the counter. Whaaaah-Whaaaaaaaaahhhhh.

No-Buy July: Some Parameters

We're 4 days in to this year's No-Buy July, and so far so good. That might not sound like much of a feat to you, but I've already kicked down the impulse to buy several things that I would have otherwise tossed in my  actual or virtual cart.

I'm excited to see that a couple of you are up for joining us on this adventure, and we've already had some questions about the boundaries. Where is the line between "need" and "want"? What's the difference between buying something this month versus buying it on August 1? What if something I've wanted for a long time goes on sale? What about yoga/tennis/knitting/basket weaving lessons that I pay for every month?

First let me go on record with a disclaimer: I'm not a financial expert, I've never seen your family budget, and I don't know where the line between need and want will be for you. The line is wobbly, and I for one can rationalize just about anything.

This ability starts young. At my previous job, I helped arrange for volunteers to participate in a program called Junior Achievement. JA teaches grade school kids about money, the economy, and job skills. Adult volunteers to go into classrooms with visual aids and fun activities and help kids think and talk about the hard skills and soft skills of financial responsibility. I've accompanied volunteers on some of these classroom visits, and one 1st grade classroom exercise stands out in my memory as a TERRIFIC example of how early we start to recognize that the line between need and want is a blurry one.

The volunteer holds up a big card with a picture on it, and the kids are supposed to vote "NEED" or "WANT" with their own little cards. Some of the cards are straight forward, like a plate of food. But others can start up some pretty complex cultural debates, even among the Crayola set. For example, the picture of a car may be an obvious need to a suburbanite child, but inevitably in Chicago Public Schools, lots of kids will recognize a car as a WANT. They and their parents are getting along just fine without one. A home is a need, but the standard line drawing of a single family house with a fence and a yard is, in reality, more of a luxury than a need, especially to a city kid. Then you get into some rationalization. The picture of a Dog, for example. An adult can pretty easily talk a kid into recognizing that a dog is a "Want", but every stinkin' time I have seen this exercise, kids will come up with all kinds of reasonable arguments for Dog as Necessity:

• A guard dog keeps us safe.
• Some people need seeing-eye dogs to get around.
• Our dog makes our family happy. We need her.

And of course, now that we have Auggie, I put a pup into the "Need" category. But you see where I'm going with this. I can't really tell you where the line will be for you.

That said, Les and I have talked a bit about what we will and won't buy this month. For one thing, we're teetering on brokesville, so there are practical limitations. But this month is also supposed to be challenging, and reign in our impulse control. Here's the simplest way I can illustrate the parameters we are going to try to keep this month:

Things we need to pay for/spend money on this month:

• Fixed expenses: rent, car insurance, student loans, cell phone bill, internet, donations, etc.
• Food: a pared-down, realistic, well-thought-out menu of food we will cook at home, with a few limited but inevitable restaurant meals. No more than one "out" meal per week.
• Personal care necessities: we'll replace tooth paste, shampoo, dental floss, etc if we run out.
• Limited personal habit cash: I have my $15 Starbucks card, Les has a limited budget for wine and beer. Because we really weren't prepared to go cold-turkey on these liquids.

Things we will forgo:

• Stuff: new clothes, books, magazine, iTunes, notebooks, kitchen gadgets, craft supplies, garden stuff, pretty much anything one would buy at Target.
• Tennis Lessons: we had planned to sign up for the next round of classes, but we straight up can't afford it, AND I'm a bit wary of committing to twice/week classes for the next 6 weeks of inferno heat. If we budget for it, we'll sign up for the fall session.
• Food that we just "want" but is not on the meal list. No ice cream, random snacks, etc.
• Eating out more than once per week.

That's just where we are right now. If I were, say, taking zumba classes every month, I probably wouldn't skip a month if I felt that the classes were essential to my well-being and physical/mental health. But even if tennis classes were cheaper, I could probably still talk myself into a break from formal teaching and just try to commit to playing with Les twice a week. Still good exercise, and keeping up our newly-learned skills for free. But you'll have to look at your own lists and make the necessary tweaks.

If I learned one thing from trying this last year, it's that I buy WAY MORE CRAP than I ever realized. It honestly did not occur to me how often I let myself just buy things until I feel like my checking account has dwindled past the comfort zone. That's not a great way to live, and certainly not simple, green, or really even within my values.

So, there you have it. The beginning of some boundaries. Let me know what you think, how you're doing, and if you have any advice. Only something like 4 weeks to go :)

Blast You, Green Washing!!!

I feel like an idiot every time I tote something home full of greeny, earth-happy confidence, only to discover I have been duped yet again by packaging.

Here's a run-down of some recent goofs and semi-goofs.

* Remember that on the Good Guide, a high score is GOOD. A 10 out of 10 would be a perfect score and the site averages a score of Goodness for your health, the environment, and society. Conversely (and annoyingly, if you are using both to compare) on the Environmental Working Group website, a low score is better. A ZERO would be perfect, and the higher the score, the more toxic the stuff.

OK, let's begin.

Tiny orange bottle of Kiss My Face sunscreen, purchased with a coupon at Whole Foods:

It only scores a 3 or 4 on the Good Guide, meaning that it really is not that awesome for me, the earth, or the people on the earth. BUT, the Environmental Working Group rates the ingredients with a low score of 1, meaning quite non-toxic.  Boo, and weird, for conflicting information. I guess maybe the ingredients are relatively safe, but perhaps KMF doesn't have a great track record of environmental or social stewardship. OR, maybe they just don't make a lot of that info public. Either way, Kiss My Face is a pretty well-regarded brand, so I'm disappointed.


Next up is one of the most bone-headed impulse buys I have made in a while. A long long while. I was at the salon, feeling good about my new hair cut and wanting it to stay cute. So I perused the ridiculously overpriced salon products and was drawn to these bottles of Bamboo Shampoo and Conditioner from Alterna:

The labels were full of suuuuuuper exciting words like "Eco-Certified Ingredients", "Grown Responsibly and Traded Ethically" and a long list of bad things that they were "Free!" of (parabens, petro chemicals, etc). Hooray! So exciting. Took them home and they worked like a shiny-haired dream.

But alas, I should have known better. They score only 4.6 and 3.9 on the Good Guide, respectively, and a shockingly TOXIC 9 out of 10 for the Environmental Working Group. Oh and they cost $15. Each.

Please hear the sound of my palm smacking my forehead repeatedly.

I've grown to trust, perhaps OVERTRUST my local Whole Foods with helping me to narrow my purchasing decisions. At least some part of me thinks things like "Whole Foods wouldn't stock really bad-for-me stuff, right?" Well. Maybe that is at least partly true.

I love love LOVE the Everyday Coconut Conditioner from the Alaffia brand.

Read the back of the bottle and you can read about Alaffia via headings such as Handcrafted and Unrefined, Gender Equality and Community Empowerment, Certified Fair Trade, and ingredients that include an impressive list of Certified Fair for Life and Social and Fair Trade components. Gotta be awesome, right?

The Good Guide didn't have a listing for this particular product, and their line had a lot of great high scores. The closest I could come to this conditioner, however, scored a mediocre 4.0 on the good guide. The EWG didn't have a listing for any Alaffia brands or products. So I guess we'll have to go with the packaging for all our info.

Good ole' Burt's Bees is made right here in Durham, which I love, and their products run the gamut from Rock Star to Craptastic on both the GG and EWG. This particular body lotion scores a 6 on the GG (decent) and an "Eh" 5 on the EWG. Not strong enough to keep buying it. I'll use it up and look for an alternative.

Yesterday I finally bought a couple of bars of this "CP Soap" at the Farmers Market that I had managed to walk past every time. But I'm out of my bar soap, so I gave them a sniff. It's hand made in Raleigh, and wrapped simply in some brown paper. It's made with 95% organic ingredients, and most of the varieties were "100% natural" (which I now know of course can include nasty things that occur in nature, like petroleum and phalates). BUT, this bar was listed Phalate Free. And even though I have no idea what "Hydrogen fragrance oil" is or what hydrogen is supposed to smell like or why it is good to have in a soap, I love the silky texture and the rosemary and "hydrogen" scent.

Of course, there are no listings for this home-made beauty bar on either site, but the ingredients sound like things I could eat: saponified organic olive, coconut, and palm oil, hydrogen fragrance oil, and rosemary oil.

SO. I still make biff after biff on the stuff-buying. Which sucks. Because we have limited dollars and I have limited tolerance for stupidity.

I finally took the next step and downloaded the Good Guide app to my phone. The EWG doesn't have an app yet, but you can donate $5 and get a Pocket Guide to safer shopping. I haven't done it yet. I might. I'm tired of doling out cash for fake-green products that are killing me softly behind pretty packages.

Super Unrelated Aside - It is June 24, and I haven't had ANY pop this entire month. The tiny but solid feeling of accomplishment may spur me forward to tackle a much bigger addiction next month....

7 : A book Review with a warning label

I just finished the book 7: an experimental mutiny against excess by Jen Hatmaker.

I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I have ever prefaced a book recommendation with a warning:

If you like the clothes in your closet and the food that you eat and the way you spend your time and money or the way you interact with media, don't read this book.

I first heard about this book via the Flowerpatch Farmgirl blog, which I linked to via my friend Roxanne's blog. You know, one of those "Let's see what's new on the interwebs" ramblings that accidentally changes your life.

Jen Hatmaker lives in Austin, Texas, where she and her husband planted a funky little church in 2008. She has written a number of Bible study books and a couple of other books about their life of faith. I had never heard of her until I wandered through the Flower Patch Farmgirl blog a few months ago and read her review of the book, but as soon as I finished reading the review, I emailed co-conspirator Jackie and told her we should read the book ourselves.

And I did, and now I can't sleep. Thanks, Jen Hatmaker!

Each month, Jen focused on one theme (clothes, shopping, waste, food, possessions, media, and stress) and did crazy stuff like eat only 7 different foods for a month or wore only 7 articles of clothing for a month. It sounded a little gimmicky to me at first, but I resonated with the idea that she was trying to explore. She wanted to get a better handle on how all the excess in her life was distracting her from the Lord, and to see if by cutting away the junk to get back to core necessities she might make space to hear Him, and for His work in her life.

I laughed and cried and prayed and got really really marvelously uncomfortable reading this book. Because even though I could lounge back and say "I've made good progress on the green stuff! I'm buying less junk!" Blah blah, the truth is, I have a long way to go. Especially on the Grace part of this G3 experiment. If I'm just buying less stuff to feel better and lighter and to have more space in my apartment or more money for something else, but my heart hasn't changed, then what good is it?

I'm going to be lazy and use the same excerpt that Flower Patch Farmgirl used in her review, because it really sums up the heart of the book and why it shook me so deeply:

7 will be a tangible way to bow low and repent of greed, ungratefulness, ruined opportunities, and irresponsibility. It's time to admit I'm trapped in the machine, held by my own selfishness. It's time to face our spending and call it what it is: a travesty. I'm weary of justifying it. - 7 Jen Hatmaker

Yes. Weary. This book gave hope to my weariness. The months of simplicity and fasting were all challenging and energizing, but the chapter that really smacked me hardest was the chapter on Stress. I wasn't sure how she would approach it through the 7 theme - if I tried to set a limit that I would only engage in 7 stressful things per day, I wouldn't get past 10am at work. But her Stress month was beautiful and dazzling in its simplicity: she practiced a weekly Sabbath and the Seven Sacred Pauses, also called things like the Prayer of the Hours or Liturgy of the Hours. Pausing seven times per day to pray:

The Night Watch

The Awakening Hour

The Blessing Hour

The Hour of Illumination

The Wisdom Hour

The Twilight Hour
The Great Silence

I honestly think I might print out the whole chapter and re-read it every day. It felt like a stack of heavy boxes sitting on my chest as I tried to squirm around in this chapter last night. I cried at least twice. Because I have been wondering what happened to prayer in my life lately, and it was one of those joyful/angsty moments when you sit up and realize that your prayer for a way to get back into prayer has been answered. With a set of prayers written right out for you. And a list of times to pray them.

You want to get in shape? This chapter on stress actually swooped into my life like a hand-delivered meal plan and exercise schedule for my flabby faith. I couldn't sleep last night because I wanted to get started. With prayer.

Now that I've read this book and Radical, I'm a little afraid of what might happen. Les is going to start 7 next if I ever let him have the book. Even now that I've finished it, I want to carry it around and read it again. Beware, friends, what could happen when you read books that scramble your lazy brain and slam you into reading the Bible and praying. Crazy shit could go down.

I'll keep you posted.

Stress Junk

Some people "stress eat" when they feel twitchy and angsty. So do I, actually, but most of my preferred comfort foods are grain-based, so the discomfort associated with eating them sort of takes all the fun out of that bad habit. I guess I "stress waste" and "stress toxify" when I'm wigging out, which, let's face it, has been much of the time since we moved.

Making good choices and eschewing waste and avoiding toxic junk is HARD WORK. And when I'm stressed I just feel like I don't care. I do things I don't even want to do.

Like....

Reviving my Diet Coke relationship. I had been fairly soft drink-free for quite a while (LaCroix fizzy water not included), but now I have one from the pop machine almost every day. Yes, I said pop. You can take the girl out of the Midwest but you... Anyway.

Diet Coke. In a single serving, toxin-loaded can (yes, even highly recyclable pop cans are coated with BPA).  Something about the cold beverage and the caffeine. Even (gasp!) not bothering to bring the Sock Bottle with me to Starbucks for my latte fix. Not even a once in a while. Give me the cup. The paper one, with the #6 plastic lid and the corrugated cardboard sleeve. Just give it to me! I need it.

Or maybe I need some Online shopping. Or to go to Target "just to walk around and look at things".

Bleh.

On Thursday I went to a yoga class for the first time in over 8 months. I am still sore. But that happy kind of sore that reminds you that your body can do some pretty amazing things. AND it reminded me that getting back into healthy habits can be painful, but the payoff is big. Photos remind me that I used to be pretty fit, and yoga and running made that happen not sitting around and whining.

So it is almost June, and I need a goal to work towards to stay focused. Baby steps are called for. I'm going to start with this: NO soda for the month of June. Yoga at least once a week. Calling a friend instead of driving to Target.

We'll see how that goes while I try to keep my garden alive, get our apartment ready for out of town guests, and keep my cool when stressed.

Up with Veggies!

Several Mondays ago, I whipped out my hammer and hodge-podge of random upholstery tacks and nails and went to town on a pile of natural burlap and a plywood scrap (from our friendly neighborhood Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $3) to make my Vertical Garden dreams come true:

My wonky little scrap of plywood.

Supplies: nails, hammer, burlap.

Technique: eyeball your burlap strips (double thick) into thirds and tack up some pockets.

Editor In Chief supervised my lazy math and reminded me that a  ruler or tape measure would have been handy.

I tacked up my vertical garden slab, but none of my plants were robust enough to plunk them into the burlap. Remember my little basil and tomato sprouts?

They were sweet little munchkin nubs when I built the Vertical Garden.

I waited impatiently for weeks (over a month!) for them to get bigger. And today I decided they were finally ready. But I had 6 pockets in my vertical garden, and only one tomato and 2 little basils had actually survived my ignorance and instruction-non-reading, so Les and I went to the Farmers Market to get them some friends. 

This afternoon, I gave Tomato his own room and transplanted his basil brothers to one of The Pockets.

My how you've grown!

Yay! You were just seeds a couple of months ago! And now you look like food!

Here's my Vertical Garden with all of her pockets stuffed with herbs and stuff!

1. Upper Left: The only 2 green bean sprouts to survive the Heat/Rain/Rain/Heat/Bugs of the last couple of weeks.
2. Upper Right: 3 different types of thyme
3. Center Left: The Basils!
4. Center Right: Rosemary and I think Lavender (crazily, I can't remember, and it smelled more like Rosemary to me than Lavender when I planted it)
5. Lower Left: Mint
6. Lower Right: Feverfew - pretty little flowers, and good for drying and mixing into tea for headaches, which we sadly get a lot at our house.

I'm hoping that by making this garden tall rather than low, it will get a lot of sun. I moved the whole operation to fit under the roof overhang, because I noticed that my tomato and basil leaves were turning a bit yellow from a little toooo much water. I want to be able to have a bit more control of their moisture.

Now, I'm sure there is a proper way to plant these bad boys. I know several of them spread like mad and may need to be moved into bigger containers. But I wanted to try this, since the whole thing cost a whopping $8 ($3 for the wood, $5 for on-sale burlap). It's an experiment, like most of these endeavors.

Oh! I also bought a 6-flat of green peppers at the Farmers Market, and planted them in halves of the Trader Joe's coffee cans I've been hoarding (with holes poked into the bottoms/lids for drainage.) I knew they would come in handy for something.

The other little starter pots are the beans that I haven't quite been able to give up on yet. They have slim signs of life.

I did have to give up on the peony bulbs I planted. Sad. They just never came up. So I assuaged my grief with these lovely little dahlias, grown by a more capable farmer, and transplanted into the pot I bought for the peonies.

In addition to my joy at finally filling the Vertical Garden, adopting some flowers, and using the coffee cans, I ALSO skipped to the car with this little beauty tucked under my arm:

My long-dreamed-about Meyer Lemon tree. Yep. I'm going to grow lemons on the porch. The grower assures me that they will fruit even at this sprouty age. She can grow up to 5 feet tall, and needs to stay indoors in the winter, but during the spring, summer, and fall, she should make us some lovely sweet lemons. Oh, be still my heart. If that actually works I am going to freak out with joy. Living in the Midwest for so long I forget that people actually grow fruit in their yards in our very own country.

Last but not least, I also gave my own dahlia bulbs a late-starting shot by planting this little guy who had courageously sprouted inside the bag that I was planning to wrap up and put into storage until the fall.

Come on up and join the Porch Party!

I'm super excited about these new plant friends! Keep your fingers and green thumbs crossed that they actually do their thing and I don't kill them off before they bloom/fruit/veg.

Laura Ingalls Does Laundry

Or, "Getting Greener By Default"

Our clothes dryer decided to retire unceremoniously in the middle of a load of clothes on Friday. Oh, and there as another wet ball of laundry in the washer waiting for its turn. Oh, AND we were going away for the rest of the weekend.

After a small panic and a gaze at the mid-day sun just beginning to slink downward, I grabbed my purse and announced that I was going to the hardware store to buy clothesline.

Blog Editor in Chief Auggie supervised the installation of the line anchors, and kept a lookout for any neighbors who may decide to report me for some sort of city ordinance violation.

I have to say, I felt pretty crunchy granola as I toted my basket of wet clothes down the line, pinning up shirts and dishtowels and soppy socks. I thought I heard the "Little House on the Prairie" theme song playing somewhere in the distance. I felt a bit nostalgic, too, remembering my mom hanging laundry in our yard on hot days, and how everything came inside a bit stiff, but smelling warm and clean and just like summer in the farmland. A happy smell.

We probably will have to replace our second-hand dryer, if for no other reason that because I'm not sure I can handle wearing clothes that have been blowing around in our pollen clouds all day, but I actually really REALLY liked using the clothes line. I like living in a place where we have enough sun, space, and anonymity to pull this off.

Why is it that so many old-school energy saving practices are so maligned? Rhetorical question. It's because they are associated with poverty and the have-nots. Obviously, anyone who could afford a dryer or a trip to the laundromat would opt to use electricity. Honestly, I would too if we had more than two people's laundry to do. But I hope that enviro-nerds like me can help change that stigma. Because there is a weird sort of satisfaction from letting the sun and the breeze do some housework. And a great inner smirk from watching your neighbors watch you clip your socks one by one to a piece of rope in your backyard. I highly recommend it.

Woot!!

Look!!!

A basil sprout!! My first sprout! My very first vegetable-related sprout. And I didn't even use a Simple Garden Dome! I put my Simple Garden pot out on the back deck, and have been faithfully checking it every day. And today, lo and behold! A tiny bit of green in each of the quadrants where I had planted my basil seeds. Yesterday, nothing. Today, micro-bits of sprout. Of course, it has also been 80+ degrees here during the day for the last couple of days so I'm sure that helped. And my peony pots are still just bowls of dirt, and my strawberry seeds appear to have been dug up by some local critter. But in ONE of my 4 pots, some hope.

Green, Gray, and Grace: One Year Later

Happy Birthday to Me!

Co-Conspirator Les, Blog Editor-in-Chief AugDog, and me in the closest we could get to a family self-portrait.

One year ago today, I started this new blog with a grand scheme and big goals. The gray hair got the most attention, but that turned out to be the easiest goal to keep (Um, just didn't dye my hair. Pretty easy). A year later, I can honestly say that I'm surprised by the changes that came easily, and the changes that are still grinding away in fits and starts. I thought it would be really traumatic to Embrace the Gray, but it was fun, and I kind of love my hair most days. I thought I would get really into cooking and expand my culinary repertoire and make a bunch of things from scratch. And, naively, I thought the spiritual stuff would sort of magically align as I set goals and mini-goals and plugged away at "being a better person". Laugh with me now: Hahahahahahahahhhahhhaaahha!

Let's check in with what I set out to do last February:

My Goal: By Feb. of 2012, I want:

- To produce fewer bags of trash AND fewer bags of recycling

Reality: I've definitely cut back on a lot of single-use and disposal stuff, but the dent hasn't been huge. Wastefulness was one vice that I really thought would be easier to overhaul once I declared my intent.

- Cook more, buy fewer packaged foods (put more FOOD in my food)

Reality: Yeah, this one was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. Even now that I know that I need to be even more careful about what I put into my body, making the time and space to cook has been a huge challenge.

- To be slimmer and fitter - back under 10 min miles for a 10K

Reality: Turns out, I am no slimmer or fitter than I was in Feb. 2011, and I have probably not run more than about one mile since I wrote that goal. But weirdly, despite my deleterious sluggishness all year, I feel better about my body than I ever have. Hmm.

- Give my gray hair a chance to really rock (let myself be myself)

Reality: I'm rockin the gray, and I love it a lot more than I ever thought I could.

- Re-energize my spiritual life by focusing on gratitude, abundance, and loving my neighbor

Reality: So, um, yeah. I think I have seen some spiritual changes over this year, but not how or where I expected. I thought about Gratitude and Abundance a lot more, but if they only come to mind when you're holding yet another pair of shoes in your hands at Target while you try to talk yourself out of them, I wonder how much spiritual maturity is shining through and how much is just a reality check from your wallet. I certainly put this goal into some sort of passive hope rather than an active pursuit.

- Scrutinize my purchases for their impact on my health, the planet, and my spirit

Reality: I'm pretty satisfied with my progress on this one. I've definitely made some bone-head impulse buys this year, but I've learned a lot about what things are actually made of, and where those ingredients/components/materials come from. It is far easier to put something back on the shelf when you can conjure up a fairly accurate picture of everything that went into it, from the thing itself to the packaging to the shipping to my cart. Still room for improvement (and impulse control), but a marked difference from this time last year.

So... What?

I'm glad - really glad - I took this year to intentionally regroup. I haven't blogged 3 times per week, and I couldn't keep up with the time required to research and write about all the things I really wanted to post. I didn't make it through even half of the projects I hoped to attempt this year, and I can honestly say that I haven't had any seismic shifts in lifestyle or habits. But little things. Ah, those million little things. They add up. They change you. Slowly, maybe, like a steady drip. Some of the biggest changes I have noticed are things that it would be really difficult to blog about. Not difficult to share, but difficult to articulate. Making peace with my body is a Big. Fracking. Deal., and it arrived quietly and uneventfully by way of a thousand drips of acceptance. I guess the hard edges of my body image have softened right along with my thighs. I don't mean to say that I don't care about being in good shape. I do care, and Les and I are setting some goals to get back into running. But whether or not I end up in smaller sized pants by my next birthday is about the farthest thing from my mind. Maybe all of those little gratitudes and gray hairs have taken up the space where my skinny-envy used to live.

And there's a strange kind of freedom and even joy that comes along with scrapping some convention and running face-first into Doing It Your Own Way. Things like the Sock Bottle and the oil method come to mind. When you don't have spendy face wash, body wash, or Pro-V and Silk Protein shampoo to replenish every couple of weeks, you can avoid Target all together. We get most of our personal care products from Whole Foods now, so no special trip for toiletries. And far fewer products in general, just by making a handful of tweaks.

Remember my shower at the beginning of the experiment?

Check it now:

Shampoo, Dr. Bronner's hair softener, soap, and razor.

And my makeup cabinet, Feb. 2011

Make up cabinet now:

Yay for fewer products and less clutter.

Of course, the other Big Reveal is the hair. I got it cut a couple of days ago as the last leg of this yearlong journey. Now my gray goes all the way to the ends of my hair - I had the dry split end part cut off (a good 2 inches), and now I finally do not have any bizarre brown ends at the bottom of my silver slabs. Ta Da! Full-out Gray from root to tip:

The State employee at the North Carolina DMV categorized my hair color as "Sandy", which was very diplomatic of her. I told her that I had just finished up a year of growing out my gray, and she said that it had turned out "a lovely salt-and-pepper. But mostly salt!".

I admit that from straight-on, it doesn't look that impressive. But the top of my head and the sides from my part are pretty remarkably gray...

And even more remarkable, I sort of love it.

I've grown out my gray, I've tried to pare down my products, I've learned a lot about the stuff I consume, but I feel like I'm just getting started! We're in a new place, I have some new Food Rules, and a much MUCH bigger kitchen. And a yard! And a deck just screaming for some vertical gardening. And a heart that is growing sort of weary of trying so hard to "be better".

Maybe 33 was just a ramping up year. Just the ground work for much bigger changes to come. Les and I have been reading a lot of challenging, terrific stuff about faith lately, and I'm excited to make prayer and service and the Bible a priority for 34. You know, the whole Grace part of the experiment that got a bit sidetracked. And I've got a whole new set of dietary considerations to embrace and some space for a garden for the first time EVER in my adult life. So I don't think 34 will be boring. If y'all want to come along for the ride, I'd be happy to have you.

Cheers, and thanks for reading and enjoying the ride with me.