Homemade alternatives

Lately I've been inspired by friends to look for homemade versions of some of the products that we use around the house (check out these recipes for homemade laundry detergent, shampoo and dishwasher detergent).  These homemade versions are usually a lot more environmentally friendly and cheaper too!  Here's a few of the things I've been "concocting" lately:

Homemade oatmeal milk bath (sort of like the Aveeno stuff)

1.5 cups oats (any kind), ground to a very fine powder
1.5 cups instant skim milk powder
1 cup baking soda

Mix all ingredients together.  Keep in a sealed container.  Add about 1/3 cup (for kids' bath) to running bath water.  Watch kids closely in the tub, as it will make the tub a bit slippery.




I found this recipe on the blog What a Sweet Life, but it was a little different.  It included 6 cups of epsom salts and 20 drops of lavender essential oil.  Since I don't like scented stuff, I omitted the lavender right away.  I tried it with the epsom salts, but I think they bothered the kids' eyes.  I noticed both the kids rubbing their eyes and when I asked Annika about it, she said that they hurt.  Since her shampoo is tear-free, I figured it might be the stuff in the water, so I tried a version without the epsom salts (could've also been her soap...).

I don't ever take baths, but the kids do, so I've been adding this to their bath water lately.  The oatmeal is great for soothing itchy skin (from mosquito bites, eczema, poison ivy, chicken pox, etc), and the milk and the baking soda are good for moisturizing.  Since both kids have dry, sensitive skin, it seems to be beneficial for them.  Make sure to apply lotion immediately after drying off, to lock in moisture.


Homemade daily shower cleaner

1 cup water
1 cup vinegar
Juice of half an orange
1 Tbsp dishwashing soap

Pour into a spray bottle and shake gently to mix.
~ from eHow






Cleaning the shower is one of my least favorite tasks, and while I love the idea of the daily shower cleaner spray, I don't love the idea of spraying around chemicals on a daily basis.  I found a "green" daily shower cleaner at the store, but it was heavily scented so I didn't like that either.  So I found a recipe to make my own.  I just started using this, so I can't say how well it works yet.  If you click on the link to eHow there are lots of different recipes for a daily shower cleaner - I chose this one because I had all the ingredients on hand.  We'll see how I like it.

And so I ran

It seems strange, but after I wrote last week that I wasn't going to start running on the treadmill right now, I almost immediately had this strong desire to run.  I wasn't that I wanted to run to try to lose weight or to restart my Couch-to-5K program -- I just wanted to run.  For the sake of running.  I wanted that feeling that comes with running - hot, sweaty and exhausted, but energized and exhilarated.  I wanted a "runner's high."  I wanted to spend half an hour just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.

And so I ran.

And it felt good. :) 
I think I may do it again.

Wordless Wednesday: watercolors at the lake

See more Wordless Wednesday here.

Greenwashing

I just read an article that made me feel a bit disappointed - you can check it out here. If you're too lazy to click the link and read the article for yourself, I'll give you the gist of it. It's about a CBC investigation into some of the big-brand "green" detergents and their ingredients. Turns out some of them are not as green as they claim. They had an independent lab analyze Clorox GreenWorks, Purex Natural Elements and Sunlight Green Clean and both the Purex and the Sunlight detergents contained petrochemicals. This disappoints me because I've been using Sunlight Green Clean for the last while, and I thought it was a good, affordable "green" choice. However, since there aren't very strict regulations on companies using terms like "green" or "environmentally-friendly", turns out there can actually be quite a bit of other stuff in these products and they can still use those words to advertise their products. I'm not sure if there are Canadian regulations, but the article states that the "U.S. Department of Agriculture allows any laundry detergent with 34 per cent or more of bio-based carbon content to be categorized as a bio-preferred product." That means it can be 2/3 non-natural ingredients and still be advertised as a natural product. Seems a bit deceptive to consumers, if you ask me. :(

The test showed that the Sunlight Green Clean detergent contains 62% bio-based content and 38% petroleum-based content.  So it is still somewhat "green", but just not as green as I had thought.  Although, I had my suspicions about it even before I read this article.  On the bottle it says "includes plant-based ingredients", which, like the article says, is a bit of a tip-off that it's not entirely plant-based.  Also, when I looked at the ingredients list on the back of the bottle, there were several non-natural sounding ingredients. 

Even though it's not entirely natural, I think I will still continue to use the Sunlight Green Clean.  Even though it's not quite what I thought, it does have quite a few things going for it:

• I find that it works really well.  I've tried several other all-natural detergents and some of them didn't do a very good job with stains or keeping whites white.  I even use this to wash Emmett's cloth diapers, as I find it gets them clean, gets out the stinkies, and doesn't leave much of a residue (I seldom have to strip his diapers). 
• I like that there's a scent-free option (which really is scent-free!), and it contains no drying alcohols, dyes or phosphates.
• It's low-sudsing (although I don't have an HE washing machine, so that's not much of an issue, although maybe that's why it's good for washing diapers), and it works in cold water.
• It's biodegradable after 28 days.
• It's convenient.  I tried making my own laundry detergent for a while, but I found it time-consuming to grate up the soap for it (I have an aversion to graters - I tend to end up grating my knuckles).
• And perhaps best of all - it's affordable and available in stores.  A lot of the other natural detergents are only available through online stores or by special order (like Norwex), and they cost quite a bit (plus more if you have to pay for shipping).  I buy Sunlight at Sobeys when I do my grocery shopping.  I think it's regularly $7.99, but it goes on sale for $3.99 every now and then.  Plus I usually have a coupon for a dollar off, so that's only about $3 for a bottle that lasts about 30 loads.

So, although I'm disappointed, I think this may be one of those cases where "good enough" is good enough for us.  However, I hope as more and more "green" products come onto the market that the government will create stricter regulations for using those terms, so that consumers can be better informed about the products they're buying.

No interest in Pinterest

For the last while I've been coming across links (or "pins") to this website Pinterest on different blogs and on Facebook.  Finally my curiosity got the best of me, and I checked it out and signed up for an account.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Pinterest, here's the description from the site:

What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.  People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes.

Sounds kind of interesting, doesn't it?  A place to catalog all the neat things you come across and see what other people have been discovering.  I could see myself really getting into it, except for the fact that I've decided to de-activate my account.  Why am I doing that?  Well, there are two reasons.

First of all, this looks like it could become a giant computer time-suck, and goodness knows that I've got enough of those already (Facebook, my blog, reading other people's blogs, etc).  I'm sure I could spend hours looking through other people's pinboards, or surfing the web looking for things to pin to mine.  Sure it would be fun, but do I really need that?  No.  I don't need another reason to spend time on the computer.  If anything, I need to shut it down more often and spend more time "in real life."

My second reason for wanting to avoid Pinterest is that I can see my pinboards quickly devolving from "things that I like" into "things that I want."  Sure, it's fine to dream, and look for inspiration for your own life, but for me (and I'm just talking about me here, I'm not judging anyone who likes/uses Pinterest), I can see that it would just lead to envy and dissatisfaction with what I have.  I don't have a designer living room, I don't wear cute/interesting clothing ensembles, I don't make gourmet recipes.  And you know what?  I'm okay with that.  I can see Pinterest being helpful if, like the description says, you were planning a wedding or redecorating your house, but I'm not doing anything like that right now.  Right now I need to spend time "pinning" the things I have in real life to my own "mental pinboard."  I need to count my blessings.  I would rather spend my time looking at what I have in my life, and being grateful for that, as opposed to looking at what others have.

So I've decided to start my own "1000 gifts" list instead - a list of the little things in life that are worth noting and giving thanks for.  Here is the start of it:

1. dirty dishes on the counter - no lack of food here, even if it's not gourmet
2. homemade baby food
3. little toys under foot, carefully arranged, a sign of a great imagination at work
4. the sound of a guitar and a sometimes-off-key singer (that would be me), a kazoo and a tambourine - my little family band making a joyful noise
5. sidewalk chalk
6. a tea party on a Sunday afternoon with some lovely ladies
7. a sweet, little girl in a white dress
8. chubby baby thighs
9. warm summer days
10. warm summer nights

Faith like a child

They say that love can heal the broken

They say that hope can make you see

They say that faith can find a Savior

If you would follow and believe

with faith like a child

~Jars of Clay~

More of him, less of me

From the title of this post, you may think that I'm going to write about some deep, spiritual stuff.  But I'm not.  The title is literal - I'm talking about size here. 

First off, "him" - Emmett.  This kid is growing like a weed.  He's not quite 8 months old yet, and at 21 lbs and 29 inches, he's already bigger than Annika was at one year.  He's still wearing some 6-12m size clothes, but mostly 12m stuff!  He has wonderfully round cheeks, plentiful chins, and thighs that would make a grown woman shudder (but they're adorably cute on a baby).  I don't know what it is, there's just something about a chubby baby that I just love.  I'm actually really glad that he seems to be a "big boy."  Since he's a December baby, he'll always be the youngest in his class, but hopefully if he keeps growing like this, then he won't be the smallest.  I think it's harder for boys to be the "little one" in the class.

So, with Emmett getting bigger and bigger, it seems to be having an effect on me, physically.  I've actually lost a couple pounds in the last few weeks, and I think he's the reason.  He is heavy.  He's only about 10 lbs less than Annika right now, but he seems so much heavier to carry around, because he's just like a big sack of flour.  Annika will at least hold on when I carry her, which makes it easier.  He's my weight-lifting routine.  Especially carrying up the stairs or in his bucket seat!  I also wear him in the Boba or the wrap almost every day when we go for a walk, for about half an hour to an hour.  We don't walk overly fast, but just having his weight strapped to me is a workout, and it's definitely been working my core muscles to keep eveything balanced.  I think my attempts at healthier eating have also been helping.  It's only been small changes, but it's enough to make at least a little difference. 

I'm now about 4-5 lbs away from my pre-Emmett-pregnancy weight.  Initially the pregnancy weight came off quite quickly, and then around April I got kind of stuck (and like I blogged back then, I was okay with it).  For a while, I stayed in the range of about 6.5-8.5 lbs left.  Then about a month ago I noticed that I was staying more at 6.5 rather than fluctuating back and forth.  And then the scale started to gradually move down.  It's not a huge loss, but I really wasn't trying to lose weight (just to be healthy and active), so it's a pleasant surprise.  It's also encouraged me to perhaps try a bit harder to get rid of those last few pounds.  I don't think I'll be making any other changes now in summer, though.  It's too hot to start sweating to workout videos or running on the treadmill - I'd rather be outside sweating while playing with my kids while I have the opportunity.  And on a hot day, I want to enjoy the occasional ice cream cone or Slurpee without worrying about my diet.  So maybe by fall I'll get back into the "weight-loss mode" (if I don't lose any more just by doing what I'm doing now).  Who knows, by then I might even feel up to getting up at 6:30am to exercise again (which I used to do on a regular basis!).