Naturally Healthy & Beautiful (and Cheap!)

Every single time, about once per month, I'm standing in the health/beauty aisles in the discount retail store feeling guilty for my desire to purchase the $29.99 shampoos and $16.99 facial cleansers that come in 2 oz bottles and not the $0.99 ones that come in gallon jugs. I've tried repeatedly to use the $0.99 products, and now I have a cabinet full of partially used jugs all because they don't work very well. So in the end I return to the store to buy the shampoo that costs $19.99 because it works relatively better than the $0.99 but cheaper than the $29.99 ones. My expectations for a shampoo that costs more than $20 is way too high. It should be a bottled miracle. I haven't found that yet. So, just for fun, I decided to try a technique called no-poo. It's going shampoo free and only uses all-natural ingredients (three to be exact and one of those is water). It's supposed to help retain your natural moisture and reduce hair washings. And while I was researching no-poo, I came across a blog that spoke about the oil cleansing method for facial cleansing. I was instantly intrigued. What?! Wash away oil and makeup with oil? That's ground-breaking!

So as soon as BJ returned home today from work, I whisked out the door to head to the grocer to obtain my beauty products: castor oil, safflower oil (they didn't have sunflower seed oil and sunflower and safflower sounded close enough), EV olive oil, coconut oil, baking soda, and apple cider vinegar. I'm sure the cashier thought I had some really unhealthy eating habits, and the castor oil was probably the clencher (castor oil is best known as a natural laxative).

Today has been my first day with these "new" products and I promise to report back on my findings after a trial period. I started with the following recipes, but I bet they'll need to be tweaked as I go.

No-poo recipe: 1 T baking soda mixed in 1 cup water. I cheated and just poured about 1 T baking soda into my palm, wet it in the shower and then massaged it onto my scalp and hair. I let it sit for the duration of my shower...don't know why but thought it couldn't hurt. Then, after I rinsed it out with water I did the recommended rinse with 1 T apple cider vinegar in 1 cup water. I followed these directions because I didn't want to end up smelling like a pickle. And then I went an additional step and conditioned with cocunut oil. If you don't know, cocunut oil comes in a solid form but turns to a liquid when it heats up. I let it sit under the running water while I showered and by the end of my shower it was liquified.

The oil cleansing recipe: Blend 30% Castor Oil with 70% Safflower Oil (Sunflower Seed Oil or EV Olive Oil is recommended) , massaged onto my face, and then placed a warm, wet washcloth across my face to let the steam and water remove the excess.

So far I have nothing exciting to report. The oil cleansing method was surprising in that my face didn't feel like an oil slick afterwards. It actually felt clean and moisturized. And for the hair, I will probably not condition with cocunut oil as it's not weightless and it just made my thick, limp hair seem even limper. Only time will tell if these products work in the long haul. I'm skeptical.

Shelter

God has led me to some awesome, much overlooked books of the Bible lately. I usually tend towards the writings of Paul in the NT, but lately I've been spending some time in the minor prophets - Malachi and Zechariah to be exact. The themes of these books are "'Return to me and I will return to you,' says the Lord Almighty" (Mal 3:6) Yesterday God gave me a very clear visual of what that looks like. Imagine a shelter with a strong roof and foundation - that's God's word. Everything under that shelter is protected from destructive elements. Outside of his shelter there are forces ready to destroy and kill. I shouldn't go wherever I want hoping that God's shelter will be with me, and I shouldn't get distracted and wonder outside of the shelter. No, his shelter does not move and it does not change. He says in Zechariah "Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices. But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the Lord" (Zec 1:4). Sometimes I wonder if we don't even know that our ways are evil or that we have evil practices in our lives. Maybe we've had well-meaning intentions or we've gotten caught up in a popular belief circulating in our culture. We've traded God's strong shelter for a weak umbrella. For too long we have not listened and paid attention to the Lord. We have aimlessly wondered outside the shelter making us vulnerable to the destructive forces of the storm.

Dear Lord, thank you for your shelter {your word} and providing safety under it. Please reveal to me where I am exposed to storms in all areas of my life - my marriage, motherhood, emotions, finances, and everywhere - and guide me back to your shelter. You have promised that once I return to you, you will return to me. Thank you for your promises and for fulfilling all your promises through your Word {Jesus Christ}.

Crazy Praise!

You wanna know why I've been praising God like crazy for the past 2 days? Check this out.

Little Man, Big Personality

Little Big Man's nickname has grown to fit him perfectly. Schaeffer is a little man with a big personality. At bedtime we read a few books together in his rocking chair. We squeeze into the chair side by side so we can both see the pages of the book. Last night when we finished reading, I got up to put the books away. I turned around and Schaeffer was lying across the chair with legs tossed over one arm of the chair and his head propped up on the other arm. He then said, "Ahh, much better." He cracks me up!

Schaeffer's language skills are quite quirky and funny. He says things like "oh, sure!" when asked to do something. And he copies his big sis all the time. My least favorite is how he has picked up from her the word "FINE!" when he's mad at us for telling him no. I love to listen to him do make-believe play and making his action figures talk to each other. Most of the time it sounds like a bunch of garble-de-goo, but it's so conversational I know he must be deep into meaningful communication.

Being the middle, sometimes he gets overlooked. But he is still my baby boy! I still rock him like a baby in my lap at naptime and bedtime. It's snuggle time and I think we both really love it. I sometimes imagine what it might look like when he's 18 and we are both trying to fit into the rocking chair.

Construction Zone - Unzoned

Earlier this week BJ and I pulled the plug on the new house venture. I'll just say this...things began to get complicated with the sellers and we decided to walk away. We felt it was God's way of leading us in a different direction. Until we know what direction we are to take next, we are happy to be staying in our current home.

One Up for Lily

Today, Lily had been asking (more like begging) me to play with her and Schaeffer outside and push them on their swings. I explained that I needed to do laundry because if Mommy didn't do laundry today then none of us would have any clean clothes to wear. Her reply, "but if you don't come outside then none of us will be able to swing." So true...

Construction Zone (update)

We continue to be extremely busy working our plan to purchase our "get out of debt house," as we lovingly refer to it. We have met with three contractors and have collected their ideas. We will be gathering their project estimates next week. We pray they treat us gently considering the amount of work needed to update the house. Then we will have everything we need to get the construction loan to move forward with the project and be on target to close on Nov. 20.

We met with the owner of Wildwood Cabinets today to review our plans for the kitchen. I'm very impressed and very pleased with their work. He and his precious wife attend our church. They will be unveiling the proposed plan for the kitchen next week and I'm very excited to see it! We sat down with him and his wife to review our dreams for our kitchen. He showed us lots of samples and photos. I truly feel like he understands exactly what we are looking for and I can't wait to see what designs he presents next week. Until I have more concrete examples, here are some photos that have inspired our kitchen. I call it "cottage style meets sleek and modern."