crunchy

i admit it. 

sometimes i just bite my tongue and don't always share things about myself on the internet.

you know, the different things. 

pathetic, i know.

it's sorta like hiding my light under a bushel i guess.
 

the crunchier(more natural) i get, the weirder and weirder i become. 

but whatever.

today, i decided to share something i learned when my dear friend angie asked on facebook,

"Ok granola girls out there...I have been reading Dr. Oz's books You the Owner's Manual and You on a diet and learned about how the ingredients in antiperspirant are not good for you. Links to hormone mess-ups, breast cancer, alzheimer's ...on and on. The problem is...I don't want to stink! I tried a tea tree oil typ...e-no luck. I can handle the soggy armpit feel, but not the b.o. factor. Any suggestions?"

here's my reply....

many, many moons ago i had heard enough junk about the junk (like aluminum, parabens and propylene glycol) in antiperspirant/deodorant that i began a quest.

the quest to find a natural deodorant that actually works. 

the quest was long....and stinky because, well, i realized that bottle after bottle, that i all i had acquired was a LOT of barely used bottles of deodorant stashed under my sink and flowery smelling b.o.

i'm here to report to you from my own experience that NONE of those natural deodorants worked very well...

for some unknown but dumb reason {probably because i intended to return them SOMEDAY} i have chosen not to part with a portion of my experimental purchases. here they are. several years later.

can you imagine the dismay i must have felt when time after time, my quest was thwarted?!? 

(o.k. i'm probably being a bit melodramatic about deodorant, but i spent a pretty penny on this little quest of mine over the years.)

i do know that what i decided to do back in 2008 has changed my life forever.

fed up, i began searching online for a recipe to make my own deodorant, when i found a good recipe, compliments of an angry chicken. 

only problem is that even with the best of intentions,i never got around to making it. 

too forgetful to run to the store and buy shea butter i suppose?

another good intention gone to waste, right?

oh contraire. 

when reading her recipe, i realized that the main deodorizing agent was something i had in my very own kitchen cabinet. 

yup, you guessed it.

good ol' baking soda.

the other ingredients seemed to simply be a catalyst for applying the stench fighting sludge. 

sooo i created my own "recipe" for homemade deodorant:
1-slightly wet the tips of your fingers
2-dip them into dry baking soda
3-smear it on your underarms.

fancy. i know.

 
i've been hooked ever since.

true story.

here is where i list some of the perks to using this pretty white power:

1-COST- a 99cent box will last for a full year {as long as you don't drip too much water in it and make it turn into a rock like i do periodically.}that's cheap!

2- AVAILABILITY- ever been to a grocery store or corner market that didn't carry baking soda? i think not! 

3- IT FIGHTS ODOR- even when i forget to wear it all day and i start to smell not so fresh, i can put it on and the not so fresh is gone in a matter of seconds.

4-IT IS NOT TOXIC- you can eat the stuff....and of course it's all natural. it's baking soda by golly! 

5- IT WILL NOT STAIN- my white textiles have been yellow and buildup free for years.

here are some of my experiences from over the years.

*it's weird, but my when i first switched from conventional d.o., my armpits turned black. it was a bit shocking, but i kept on using it and it shortly went away....which i imagine happened AFTER the toxins from the other junk were pulled out of my armpits. 

**baking soda is NOT an antiperspirant.you will sweat. it's something the body is SUPPOSED to do {even if it's not all that cute.}

*** the only time it fails to work for me is when i have failed to put it on....so, if you've smelled my b.o. before that's probably because i'm one of the most forgetful creatures on this planet.
**** when my diet is squeaky clean perfect i don't even have to use deodorant...but i'm not so good at that as a pregnant lady.

so that's my 2 cents worth (as opposed to my 5.99 cents worth which is a common cost for natural deodorant}... for angie and for anyone else out there ready to stop clogging your underarms with chemicals.

c'mon, all you've got to loose is a few pennies (and maybe a friend with a sensitive nose or two) if it happens not to work for you! :)

why not give it a try (or not,) and let me know what you think ?!

already!?

I know everyone says it. 

But it's true. 

I don't know where the time went! 

I just can't believe that

Dallin is 2!

----------------------------------------------

 It's seems like yesterday I was so excited for him to be here....especially since he waited 40 hours to come out after my water broke. 

Dallin, 30 minutes old, and some proud, exhausted parents.

 He was born at 11:07 p.m. on August 15th, 2008

15 hours old meeting the sibs. :)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

To celebrate his arrival, we started the day out with our traditional birthday breakfast:

cold cereal.

It's a bit unusual, but boxed cereal is a special treat here.
The kids spend months trying to decide which kind they want. 

He loved my cornflake choice...boogers and all. ;)

 Dallin didn't know any different so he just got what I was craving as I walked the cereal isle....cornflakes of all things. Dang they were yummy!

----------------------------------------------

It was Thursday and I figured I should do something for Dallin's birthday. My poor 3rd child.

I threw a last minute gathering together. We had some in town family there + good friends whom live close by, the Salazars, since I knew they'd be o.k. with a same day invite.

Dallin thoroughly enjoyed himself and was shocked to realize that he was finally allowed to eat the cake Patrick had made the day before.

I loved to see his excitement opening a few gifts. His favorite gift was a fake birthday cake set.

I am just glad Angela could help me take some lovely pics. :)

To make his big day even more special, he kept underwear dry all day for the first time ever.

That's a big to do around here because he has been potty trained for 2 months.....

{BUT}

Underwear usually only stays on for 20 minutes because he just treated it like a diaper.

Consequently, he's usually neeked OR wearing pants commando style.

Yeah, that gets awkward for folks.

I'm so pleased he's ***HOPEFULLY*** done being the underwear-less wonder! ;)

Happy Birthday

to my sweet little Dallin!

sunday morning science

i confess. 

i have a strong affinity towards bugs.

surprised?

 not me.

sure, they can be nasty.

there are times past when i wish my kids would NOT have touched them.

but then there are are the other times when i get all excited because i have found one.

a dang cool bug.

{isn't he "cute!"}

i get excited because i know how much my kids love them....

and i get excited for what they can learn from observing one of God's amazing creatures for a brief amount of time.

he was one huge grasshopper that looked as if he was a warrior plated with desert armor equipped with the coolest velcro feet ever!

what a fortunate thing to be able to watch my children wonder and learn and then set the marvelous creature free to once again ravage my tiny tomato crop.

i know.

not the smartest thing to free the predator of vegetables,

but it's the least we could do for all he did for us. ;)

what an amazing creature.

just one thing still perplexes me. what on earth is that large spine thing protruding from his abdomen??? the cool thing is that he can bend it and bring it all the way to his mouth and he uses it when climing. it's quite a site to see.
 

Sweet Fruity Fun

I had driven past them half a dozen times on the way to the park. Two trees, heavy and full of goodness were calling my name.

Then finally, one day I did it. 

I wrote the note and it went something like this.

I was noticing that you had a large amount of fruit on you tree. If you are not going to use it, I was wondering if I could pay you for any you might not use. Just call me and let me know. 

Thanks for your consideration,

Julie

Two days went by until I got the message.

He said I could have them.

FOR FREE!

The next Saturday morning, I gathered my buckets, a ladder and a large jug of water and headed off for my adventure.

I found the "perfect" place to park.

Then I got to work.

First task: Sampling of the goods. 

We discovered that even warm grapes and nectarines are absolutely divine!!! 

Next, the fun started. This is how it went.

Pick, sweat, sample.

Pick, sweat, sample.

Pick, sweat, sample.

REPEAT

The fun lasted for over an hour and a half.

All the while I sang the song...

"Millions of Nectarines, Nectarines for Me. Millions of Nectarines, Nectarines for Free."

And I was happy.

I only had to escape from the 105* temps once in the air conditioned car.

It was a hot, sweaty, exciting, YUMMY morning.

I got lots of long looks from curious drivers.

Hmmm....Roadside fruit picking isn't all that common in these parts I suppose!

Then, as if there wasn't enough excitement for one morning, the cops showed up just as I had full buckets of sweet deliciousness in my hot little hands on the way to the van. One of those curious drivers had even called the cops for me.

There were lectures and threats of the confiscation of the fruits of my labors.

It's pretty sad when the most exciting thing for a couple of arrogant cops to do on a Saturday morning is to protect produce and be rude to the pregnant fruit crazy mom. They treated me as if I had just robbed a bank and was loading up buckets of gold coins instead of over ripe golden fruit.

Silly cops. 

I'm just thankful the nectarine tree owner was home to verify my story....

AND that I wasn't ticketed for parking on the curb.

AND that I didn't speak my mind and tell them how ridiculous they were behaving.

It was a fun fruit filled morning for sure!!!

It was all worth it to enjoy that real, yummy, drippy ripe fruit for days on end. 

And the dried stuff is pretty dang wonderful too!

do the math.

Start with a little cabin an hour away

ADD

  

 + rocks to throw. lots of them

 

 

+ a cute big sister OR brother

  

+ hands for holding
+ lots of room to roam and GORGEOUS weather for an early morning walk. 

 + Grandpa and Grandma Julie
+ blocks 
+ a tiny barn  
+lots of little piggies.

+ the soon to be weds.

 + a bunch of trees to climb  

+ a carefree daddy  

+ his buddy 

 

+ oil pastels 

+ 1970's stationary  

 + the perfect amount of sunlight

 + 1 deliciously juicy, drippy watermelon  

+ 3 VERY sticky children

+ plenty of time to relax

+ lots of laughter

+ some very comfy retro chairs.

TAKE AWAY

-

daily chores

-
computers

- 

the usual fighting and teasing

-

110* heat

it equals

=

tHe mOsT pErfeCtesT DaY eVeR!

  i'm just aching to go up again. 

you would make the perfect addition.

wanna come next time?

today's "great" harvest

quality....not quantity. right????

yum. 

quantity does sound attractive, but this will do for now. 

i did it too!

I know that this is all over the internet, but I'm going to add my 7 cents since someone asked me about it. 

My sister is getting married and is going domestic on us so it was a nice treat when she invited herself and my mom over to make laundry soap. I bought the ingredients several months ago and was glad for the company to complete the task.

I found recipes in several places but decided to go with the one that Tina shared on her blog because it had less Fells Naptha. When I first bought ingredients at Smiths I just bought random amounts of the ingredients and hadn't bought enough Fels Naptha for my other ingredients. 

This picture is of the ingredients in a large batch.
(6 cups Washing Soda, 6 cups Borax, 4 bars Fels Naptha)

BUT I doubled it and made and EXTRA Large batch because if I'm going to make the effort, I'm going to go BIG! 

(My doubled list of ingredients) 

1 4lb. 12 oz. box of Borax  (that has 12 cups)

2 3lb. 7oz. boxes of Super Washing Soda (that has 6 cups).

8 bars Fels Naptha.

Measured out, the recipe is

12 cups Borax

12 cups Super Washing Soda

8 bars Fels Naptha

 (I found all of the ingredients at Smiths on Nellis/Stewart)

"Making" the soap is dang simple. The term making is used loosely because all you are actually doing is combining 3 ingredients. There are only 2 steps.

STEP 1: Grate the soap

This is the most time consuming step by far. 

You can do it BY HAND or WITH A STRONG FOOD PROCESSOR

We did both ways.

My sister and mom got the most exercise and grated their 6 bars (since they were splitting a large batch following a recipe that used 6 bars) by hand.

It's kind of tedious.

See?

 BUT:

If you add a bit of singing, it makes the time pass quicker....even if the 3 year old thinks it a bit strange.

Since I was grating 8 bars,  I used the food processor and 3 very "helpful" children. I had to empty the processor 3 times.

Yes, I we made a BIG mess.

The soap worked my machine hard and made an awful racket at the end of every bar, but it saved me lots of elbow grease. Washing it was a pain so If I was doing a 1 or 2 bar batch I would grate by hand!

My processor doesn't grate on a fine setting so after the initial grating I ran the processor with the "S" blade to grind it up a bit more.

Then it was perfect.

STEP 2: Mix

I used a massive bucket because I made an extra large batch. It needs to be mixed well to distribute the soap as evenly as possible.

It made A BUNCH which will last just about forever, especially since you just use 2 tbs. per load.

I just use a heaping coffee scoop.

Here it is in my soap jar:

I enjoy the light yellow color...

AND the swirly look from the side. 

Here's my review after doing 5 loads:

So far, so good. 

 *****I give it  5 STARS *****

I LOVE that it is dang cheep. I don't remember how much I spent since I'm not so good at keeping receipts, but Tina did a cost analysis and said it came out to only 7 cents per load.

I enjoy the light smell especially since I usually use scent free detergent.

I have a front loading washer and it is working perfectly! It all washes out of the little tray even.

I like that my clothes came out clean for a fraction of the cost.

I will definitely be making this again when I run out. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a while though!

I like that I know exactly what's in it and am using less harmful ingredients next to my families skin.

For my next batch I am considering using Dr. Bronners Castille Soap like my friend Ashley and Soul Mama did since Fels Naptha isn't all that natural (I had already bought it and it's way better than your average detergent goes.)


Has anyone else tried this yet? 
What did you think?