Three steps forward, one step back

I thought about titling this "Shh! Don't Tell" but I realize that would generate some rumors flying about me being pregnant or something (I am Not!). I do have a dirty little secret. I stopped using baking soda and apple cider vinegar on my hair. "You lasted THIS long??" "Thank goodness, you have some common sense." I am sure that is what some of you are thinking.


Baking soda and apple cider vinegar are actually supposed to be very mild ingredients to use on your hair to get away from needing to shampoo every day (stripping natural oil from your hair) and from the chemicals (some possible carcinogenic) in shampoo especially. I do a lot of reading of other natural/health-centered blogs, and this is actually pretty common among those "treehuggers" as my husband's manager now refers to me. I am probably one of the least tree-hugging people I know, but I would like to avoid unnecessary, harm, and possibly dangerous chemicals.

Photo credit

Well, the baking soda and vinegar just was not cutting it. I did it long enough to get through any adjustment phase, and my hair still was very different. It works for a LOT of people (even Lee did notice much of a difference) but it depends a lot on hair type and texture. I decided to go back to an organic brand of shampoo that was not crazy expensive but did not have most of the chemicals I was trying to avoid. I tried Kiss My Face the Whenever line. Giovanni was also on sale so I stocked up on it too. Both of these are fairly safe. Kiss My Face scores a 3 on the Skin Deep Cosmetic Database . It has one ingredient (cocamidopropyl betaine) that scores a 5, and the majority score 0-1. Giovanni scores 2-5.

I love that I have probably spent a total of $8 on hair products in the last 8 months between Lee and myself. I hate that it made my hair feel so rough. I absolutely love the way my new shampoo made my hair feel. It was instant bliss to which only another woman can relate. I hate that it cost $8, just for the shampoo (Lee WILL flip when he reads this). I love that taking babysteps sometimes mean that you still take steps forward even if you have to backstep for a moment.

Christmas ornaments

My friend, Raegan, gave me a great idea for a craft idea for kids. Guess what?! The ingredients are all natural and can be entirely organic. I would say they are non-toxic but I suppose if you ingested several of them, a cup of cinnamon could be toxic. I did not buy organic cinnamon and organic applesauce, but there was no funky “Crayola” or “Playdough” smell. My friend did give me a really good safety tip. Start slow with the cinnamon. Her daughter apparently had a sensitivity to cinnamon and Kai’s hands were a bit red in places where the dough had been sitting in his skin for awhile. Cinnamon is an herb with potent uses so it would be prudent to either test it in a small spot or wash hands quickly.

Here’s the idea:

Mix 1 cup applesauce with 1 cup cinnamon. Mix into a paste and roll out to desired thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut ornament shapes. Use a straw to poke holes in each ornament for stringing. Bake at 225 degrees for 1 hour or let air dry for 3-4 days.

It was a little tricky transferring the “dough” to a cookie sheet. I finally discovered that it worked best to press down on the cookie cutter while sliding a spatula under it, and then sliding the cookie cutter off the spatula onto the cookie sheet. I also forgot to spray the aluminum foil so I was very carefully peeling it off the back of the ornaments. The ornaments were still a little soft after 1 hour of baking but I did not want to over do it so I flipped them over on my stove to finish air drying. One or two were too thin and cracked but the rest of them look beautiful and smell amazing!! I also added some nutmeg and clove powder to the mix. This was a perfect activity for little hands!!

Format change

This is your chance to impact this blog!  Take a second to let me know what you like, dislike, or want to hear about.  I am going to be spreading the posts out over the Holidays and changing the format slightly.  I would love to hear your ideas.

Eating Organic

I was asked to write a guest post about eating organic for one of my favorite mommy blogs. Valerie is one of the wisest moms I know. Child rearing comes so naturally to her so she has written a blog based on a book called Babywise. She recently asked if I would contribute a post on some of the babysteps we have taken. Here is an excerpt:


I did not grow up eating organic. I especially did not eat organic or sometimes even relatively healthy particularly in the early years of my marriage. There were many nights we just ate a box of angel hair pasta buttered with Country Crock. Sometimes it was burritos with canned refried beans. Oh, the memories!

It really was not until after I had my second child that I truly started paying more attention to what we were eating. Even with my son, my first child, I thought we ate pretty healthy. While I was pregnant with my daughter, I kept hearing more and more about a book called the Makers Diet. I actually heard about it from two good friends in a Babywise group on BabyCenter. It was written by Jordan Rubin, and it focuses on eating whole foods, organic if possible, in the best form possible. What intrigued me the most was the results my friends saw after changing their ways of life (it is much more than a diet!). One friend was relieved of her migraines and lost weight even though it was not planned, and her husband regained his sense of smell and was cured of insomnia. The other friend was cured of severe, unrelenting, disabling GI distress. I too struggled with severe chronic insomnia so I was captivated.

Check out Val’s blog to read the entire post: http://www.babywisemom.com/2010/12/eating-organic.html

Makers Diet: Grass-fed beef

Grass-fed organic beef is not always affordable for our family. I am really trying to incorporate it as much as I can but often it is only organic ground beef that I buy. Jordan Rubin is a huge proponent of grass fed organic beef as are many health experts. My ultimate goal is to eat primarily organic meat but it will be awhile before we get there. A 2009 study between the USDA and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina (Go TIGERS!) found many reasons that grass-fed beef is better than grain-fed. Here is their analysis:


o Lower in fat

o Higher in beta-carotene

o Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)

o Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin

o Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium

o Higher in total omega-3s

o A healthier ratio of omega-6s to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 to 4.84)

o Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer fighter

o Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)

o Lower in the saturated fats linked with heart disease.

Know Your Ingredients Answer #14

Weight Watchers Beef Broth Mix

Know Your Ingredients #14

Salt, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, sugar, monosodium glutamate, dehydrated onion, maltodextrin, dextrin (with beef extract and partially hydrogenated soybean oil), caramel color, autolyzed yeast, corn oil, dry malt syrup, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, natural flavoring, not more than 2% silicon dioxide added as an anticaking agent