Greenery

It's funny that I enjoy plants now.  As a child I couldn't stand them.  My mother had and still has a ton of them and they were always blocking the windows.  However, things have changed and I grew to appreciate them.   This is one of the "mini-gardens" in her place.

I love this space and look to it for inspiration.  One of the things I didn't inherit was my mother's green thumb.   It's crazy but I even manage to kill succulents, which is supposed to be one of the easiest type of plants to maintain.  I have about 7 plants and they have been the lucky bunch that have survived living with me.   They are mostly tropical plants and I have found that putting them outside until the temperature dips helps to rejuvenate them.  One plus for our yucky east coast heat and humidity!  I water them every few days or so, weather depending.  

I wish I had taken before shots, so you could see how they looked before.  I will probably be adding two more plants soon, a snake plant and something else that's hard to kill! 

Do you guys have any tips to share?

Home again

We have finally returned from our trip and like always, its bittersweet.  I love California!  Its beautiful, its laid back and the light there is unlike anywhere else I've been, not to mention, I will thoroughly miss my family.  However, its so nice to be back in my own home and easing back into our routine.

I didn't have a good internet connection while there, so I decided to forgo adding looking for a wifi spot to my daily activities and skipped blogging while there.
This trip was quite a different one for me, which I will go into further detail in another post.  I don't like to be on a schedule per say, but I do make a list of things I'd like to do when I vacation.  That way I can usually get to most of them, as I please but also have chill days.  What I noticed to be a recurring theme on my list was choosing outings which allowed us to take advantage of California's greatest resource....the outdoors.

One of the places we visited was Muir Woods National Monument.

Oh my, it was majestic!.  The forest is located in Mill Valley (right outside of San Francisco) and is full of beautiful, huge redwoods.  They have several hikes you can take, which vary in intensity and length and can show you such locales as the coast.  We decided to take a short one hour hike through the forest.

I took photos, which as hard as I try, can't grasp the true beauty there.  Maybe its because while hiking you are inhaling the fresh, crisp air, and enjoying the forest sounds, which without sounding too crazy are intoxicating.  While walking we came across a sign that had this written on it:

In every walk with nature,

   one receives far more

      than one seeks.

                    -John Muir

This said it all for me!  If you are in the area, definitely check it out....

How to chose the perfect melon

One thing I love about summer is the large variety of my favorite fruits, like melons.  It took me a while to learn how to pick them, but I have it down now and thought I'd share!


Cantaloupe
Color-should be tan-yellow, avoid the green ones
Firmness-should be slightly soft overall, avoid ones with soft spots
Smell-smell where the stem would have been, it should smell like cantaloupe

Honeydew
Color-Light green-yellow
Firmness-should be slightly soft overall, avoid ones with soft spots
Smell-When you smell at the stem area, it should smell like honeydew

Watermelon
Color-Green, with a yellow spot (that's where it has been lying on the ground during the growing phase)
Firmness-should be firm and sound hollow when you knock on its rind
Smell-I haven't noticed a significant smell

Also, if they're really ripe, they can almost smell like they've gone bad, but will be super sweet.  Once you've chosen your perfect melon its time to cut it up.  Here's my method:

If you go to the store and there aren't any ripe melons, you can still get one and let it ripen on your counter for a few days!

Enjoy!

Natural Review #2

So the mosquitos are out and about!  I always get eaten alive, so I normally carry a bottle of repellant in my bags during this season.  I used to use OFF, but it contains an ingredient called DEET, which can have side effects like rashes, hives, muscle spasms, seizures and death.  Children are more susceptible.

So I tried out Jason quit bugging me! natural insect repellant spray.  The active ingredients are Soybean oil and Geranium oil.  It is DEET, PABA and paraben free.  What I like is that it isn't greasy, it has an easy to use pump-spray nozzle and while it doesn't smell great, the scent is tolerable and of course it doesn't have the chemicals.  I have used it 3 times and the first 2 times it worked great.  This last time I got 2 mosquito bites.  I am going to give it another try and if that happens again I think I will try something different.  On my rating scale of Bad-Fair-Good-Excellent, I give this a Good rating.

Going Natural

Growing up my parents encouraged healthy eating and living habits.  We didn't have a television until I was 7 or 8, we ate things like bulgar wheat burgers and whole wheat donuts and my mother practiced yoga. Throughout my teen years, I completely rebelled against that life style.  I would spend my money on bad chinese take-out and pizza.  As a young adult, thankfully I never fell into the Ramen noodle pit, but I was barely a step above! Its funny how things always go full circle, because now I am trying to have as many healthy and natural foods, gardening, cleaning and beauty/hygiene supplies as possible.

I decided to make these changes for a variety of reasons.  First, my son has really bad seasonal allergies and asthma. He has a reaction (itchy throat and ears) whenever he eats certain fruits and vegetables like apples, pears, carrots, celery, kiwi, etc., unless they are cooked.  As you can imagine our produce bill is ridiculous in the winter.  Since many of the other fruits fall on the Dirty Dozen, I am trying to buy organic.  I feel like everything is so contaminated and is a cause of a lot of the ailments that we have.  In addition, I think that in our attempts at trying to get germ free and have convenience, we are killing off some of the things that are helpful to our bodies.  Things like bees, which hurt when they sting, but also make honey, which has good vitamins and minerals and helps in building immunities through its anti-oxident properties.  We are destroying good bacteria and creating a lot of free-radicals which are recking havoc in our bodies.  There appears to be an increase in the number of cases of cancer, adhd/autism, heart disease and neurological problems, like Parkinsons.   I am not saying that going natural will completely eliminate these things but I do believe that it helps in decreasing the numbers and the severity.

This is a large undertaking for me, so I am doing it in baby steps.  I think lifestyle changes are better absorbed and become a part of your routine when you gradually make changes instead of eliminating everything at one time.  So instead, each time I run out of a product, be it food, cleaning or hygiene/beauty product, I am replacing it with its natural counterpart.  Since we will be trying out new products I thought it would be cool to do a review after.

To start things off, we tried out Jason Pure Natural Deodorant Stick  in Soothing Aloe Vera.

It costs around $5.99.  The smell was pleasant and fresh.  It felt wet when it was applied but I fanned it and went about my day.  Shortly after I noticed that I felt sticky or tacky is probably a better descriptive.  It felt like I had glue in my armpits!  Within 3 hours I didn't feel so fresh.  I tried it for a few more days and had the same results, so needless to say, I am back to using Dove until I find something better. There are a few more that I want to try and also some DIY's I've heard about, so I will keep you posted.

Do you or have you tried natural deodorant before and if so, did it work?  Which brand?