Tag Archives: sustainable

Thanks so much for following this new segment, Natural Living Tips which you’ll find here on Tuesday’s. My friend Rosemary Nickel (Motivating Other Moms) and I have paired up to bring you these weekly tips on living a more natural life. They will be fun, quirky and informative, just like us, ha. We hope you join us here weekly for a new Natural Living Tip! Enjoy!

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Finally, I made laundry detergent, yay! Part of my delay is that I wasn’t completely satisfied with the recipes I was finding on-line. Most of them called for either a bar of Fels-Naptha, or the use of Dawn dish detergent. These products do not sit well with me. Why?  I did, in my excitement to purchase all the products, purchase two bars of Fels-Naptha. I was in and out quickly without thought (this is bad), and I hadn’t even returned home when I could smell the overbearing perfumey odor in the car. UGH! Yep, the Fels-Naptha. It says it right on the label, Perfume. Nice. Well, I knew right away that wouldn’t work for me, my head was already swelling with the ickiness of the fake chemical scent. Since then I’ve also found out that the Dial Co. says it should not be used directly on the skin, it’s an irritant. It also contains some ingredients which are known to contaminate the oceans, lakes and to harm wildlife. Not my thing. You can read more here.

The other recipe I was seeing on-line was non-grate version which calls for Dawn dish soap. Nope, can’t do it. It comes in plastic, (you know I’m trying to eliminate plastic as best I can) and is loaded with cra*, like the sulfate sisters, and It’s owned by Procter & Gamble, a company that I don’t particularly approve of (trust me, I have enough trouble with arm & hammer, still test on animals, but can’t yet find an alternative), lol. So…. Anyway, many of you won’t be quite as picky as me, ha.

Armed with this information I knew I needed to slow down and get the right bar soap. I wanted something a bit more natural. I found this soap called Verve at Whole Foods. It’s vegetarian (no tallow or other animal ingredients), cruelty free, fragrance free, no BHT, comes in planet friendly packaging, perfect, and the price was right too, $3.99/3 pack.

*No Whole Foods nearby or don’t shop there? Many of these recipes I’ve seen use Ivory Soap as well or you can use a natural herb bar soap found at many farmer’s markets.*

So, natural bar soap it is! Here’s my recipe:

1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Borax
1 bar natural soap (grated)
75 drops essential oil (I used 50 drops sweet orange, 25 lavender) You can have so much fun creating new natural fragrances here.  (I did find that I didn’t smell this upon drying, so I may eliminate the essential oil all together in future batches.

Mix together, viola!

Yields about 32oz. I placed the mix in empty  Charlies Soap (a wonderful alternative to home-made) containers, my previous laundry detergent.

Use 1-Tbsp per load or 2-Tbsp for heavily soiled laundry.

Note: I have a HE front loader. This recipe worked fine, it’s low suds and no problem. I’m also on a septic line, it’s fine for this too.

Peace!

This here is the Perfectly Flawed weekly round-up, so if you missed me on Pinterest & Facebook, this is where I’ll be sharing some of that LOVE on Fridays. Enjoy!

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Dinner, Produce Bags & Baby Steps!

Woo Hoo, got my cooking grove back this week! Love Pinterest, so many great recipes being shared. I’ve made Gingery Soba Noodle Soup, Shrimp in coconut sauce over rice, Roasted rep pepper & goat cheese alfredo and last night we made homemade chick pea veggie burgers with a side of Brussel sprout & Swiss chard salad!

Finally purchased our reusable produce and bulk items bags. I bought five of these from Flip & Tumble, I also got 6 of these from Kootsac on Etsy. I can’t wait to get these, another stride towards being plastic free!

I’ve been gathering information on making our own cleaning products. I already use alternative non-toxic products, but they come in plastic so…. Next Tuesday on Natural Living Tips I’m switching from Coconut Oil to Home-made cleaning products and I’ll be discussing them throughout April. It is time for Spring Cleaning after all!

Though I did manage to make home-made toothpaste this week, Gavin’s not thrilled, lol. He’ll get used to it.

Just a reminder to anyone trying to go green or make strides in that direction. The best way is baby steps. I’ve not arrived here quickly or without challenge and I’m still far from where I want to be. Here’s an article, from Almost the Truth,  I read this week about Baby steps and why it’s so important to celebrate every one of them. Please read it.

What Baby steps are you taking?
Peace!

Harry says "chill"!

Thanks so much for following this new segment, Natural Living Tips which you’ll find here on Tuesday’s. My friend Rosemary Nickel (Motivating Other Moms) and I have paired up to bring you these weekly tips on living a more natural life. They will be fun, quirky and informative, just like us, ha. We hope you join us here weekly for a new Natural Living Tip! Enjoy!

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Seems I’ve been a bit consumed with Coconut Oil lately, the differences, the benefits, the uses which are all plentiful & the information floating around on the web is endless. I’ve only scratched the very surface, but am excited to share with you what I’ve tried, what I’ve learned & also the the things that I plan on trying.

It was not my idea, BTW, to learn about coconut oil. The brain child for this adventure was Rosemary, my co-conspirator of Natural Living Tips, ha. However, I’m so glad we did this, I’m a transformed woman, I feel this research & trial period has really helped push me that much further into reducing unnecessary chemicals, preservatives & plastics, in my families life. How you ask? To begin with I’m making my own natural body butter, body moisturizer, salt/sugar scrubs, deodorant, make-up remover & coming soon, toothpaste. Yes, all from coconut oil. Think of how much poo is residing inside of those toiletries & most come packaged in plastic containers that I’m no longer purchasing, score!!

A few benefits that I’ve taken advantage of or intrigue me are:

Reducing the appearance of age spots.

Speeds up metabolism.

Apply directly to a bug bite, it can stop the itching & burning sensation & quicken the healing process.

Apply to burn immediately & continue applying until healed, it can reduce the chances of permanent scarring & aids in healing.

Affordable eye cream! apply under eyes to reduce puffiness, bags & wrinkles, use on lids in evening.

Wrinkle prevention/reducer!

Energy boost.

LOVE THIS: Use as an insect repellent! Mix coconut oil with peppermint oil extract and rub it all over exposed skin. Keeps insects off better than anything with DEET!
Tons safer too.

This is an itsy bitsy sampling of the benefits of coconut oil. One of the most extensive lists I’ve found is from Hybrid Rasta Mama. You’ll be amazed!
When cooking I’ve use coconut oil in place of all other oils and butter. If you don’t like the flavor of coconut but want the health benefits purchase a refined, expeller pressed coconut oil. If you love the flavor, look for unrefined or raw varieties, these retain the most nutritional value as well.

You can find coconut oil in most grocery stores these days, Spectrum Brand (refined) is found in most locations. Otherwise go to your local natural food store or Whole Foods and you’ll have a variety to choose from. Also found online at PantryParatus.com or TropicalTraditions.com, also a great place to learn everything you’d want to know about coconut oil & other coconut products.

I’m going to leave you with this video on how to make a exfoliating lip scrub, you guessed it, coconut oil!

Peace!

Coconut Oil Body Scrub

I have a friend, Rosemary Nickel founder of Motivating Other Moms. We met many years ago, once upon a time when I was a Pampered Chef Consultant. Yep, I was. We’ve paired up to bring you weekly Natural Living Tips or Tips on how to live a more natural life. Beginning next Tuesday I will be sharing with you tips Rosemary and I have learned on a particular topic.  Our first topic, which we’re very excited about, is Coconut Oil and other coconut products. There will be beautiful photographs and video too. So please check in next Tuesday, I’ll be showing you how to make this Coconut Oil Body Scrub, I know you all want in on that action!!

Peace!

I haven’t yet used any Fadra’s optional topics of the day, but this one I can’t pass up: Where are you lacking trust in your life? (examples: church, government, work, family, etc.)

This past week I’ve been very emotional, mostly due to the rollar coaster ride of feeling of my cat Matilda disappearing for six days and my old man kitty having to be put down on on Wednesday. It would be an understatement to say I was a basket case.  Well, in this emotional state I talked to a couple friends and my hubby about the state of the country, mostly the state of our food supply because it at time enrages me.  I’ve educated myself for years about our food, it’s a really long story that I will only touch on, but it began with my passion for animals almost 20 years ago and I wanted to learn exactly how our food got from farm to table.  That was bad news….  A lots happened since then (the part I won’t get into here) but now there is so much more I know about food as  a whole and it sickens me what our government (FDA, USDA, etc.) allows in our food system.  I absolutely have NO trust in them AT ALL to feed us healthy food.  Right now heads of Monsanto are running the FDA and USDA, this is very sad and scary and we the people are going to have to take matters into our own hands by seeking out locally grown fruits and vegetables, finding our local farmers and ranchers for our grass-fed, free roaming meats and dairy products to ensure they are nutrient rich and not laden with chemicals, pesticides and hormones.  Many other countries have banned these things from their food, yet the US will not. I don’t know what the reasons are, we can speculate a number of things from lobbyists to big business to not wanting to change due to layoffs. Whatever.  I just feel that EVERYONE in this country should have the ability to walk into any grocery store and not have to worry about what’s in their milk, on their oranges. To me it’s very sad.

This is just a snippet of how I feel on this topic but you can clearly see that I don’t listen to the government about what’s good for us in the food department. Better re-think those Got Milk ads!

Times Up!
This has been my Sunday 5 minute Stream of Consciousness.

Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Since moving here to East Bradenton, we have really been enjoying the many local farms and ranches. One we’ve been to several times is Hunsader Farm which is only 10 minutes away from our home. We’ve gone to pick strawberries and tomatoes a few times now, once the kids and I picked 22 pounds of strawberries for our housewarming party. We freeze them for smoothies, eat them whole, make sweet treats. I took great pleasure making home-made tomato sauce twice now, blanching, peeling, squooshing, cooking… So many dinners to eat up the fresh sauce. Love it!

Thought I’d share some of the love!

If you want to find local U-pick’s or Farmer’s markets in your area, just click HERE and HERE!

Common site with today's agribusiness. Image from propankitchen.com.

Factory-farm chickens.

I don’t even know where to begin.  The state of our food today so deeply saddens me, and concerns me. I worry about the future of food for our children, their children, so on. I believe that it’s our responsibility to make the world a better place for future generations and I’m afraid we’ve failed and are moving too slowly to recover our mistakes.  We are in such a deep whole, it’s going to be a difficult climb out.  I know there are movements that are working hard to make strides in the right direction, thank goodness.  Here at home we’re doing our best and constantly moving towards doing better, a little at time as to not get overwhelmed.

I’ve always been one to educate myself about the environment, where our food comes from, etc.  Years ago I read everything I could get my hands on about Factory Farming, how the animals are treated prior to getting to our table, how this industry effects our planet.  It’s appalling. One book I really took a lot away from was Mad Cowboy.  To read a story about a man, a fourth generation cattle rancher turn Vegan, was uplifting & inspiring. I believe everyone should be educated in the process of how our food comes to the table. I also believe that we shouldn’t have to be worried about what toxic chemicals or genetically modified crap is in our produce, it just shouldn’t be there. The Americans’ need for low food costs have COST us plenty more in quality of life and medical bills. We need to WAKE the heck up and start nourishing our bodies with food, good food, whole food. Can’t tell I recently watched Forks over Knives can you? Most of the information in this incredible documentary wasn’t new to me. Though the statistics were jaw dropping. I had myself convinced prior that as long as I looked for sustainable, grass fed, free-roaming, humanely slaughtered, wild, etc., animals than I could still eat them. I was a vegetarian years ago for ethical reasons and caved after my kids were born out of ease. I beat myself up a bit about this and would like to head back in that direction, though I find my will power has decreased since then. My husband and I are finally in a place that we’re ready to begin the big changes. Though compared to the typical American diet, we’ve done good, eating very little red meat, mostly poultry and fish, lot’s of veggies, etc. This isn’t enough. We know that.

As a people we need to seek out our local sources, grow what we can. We have to be in control of this, no one else is watching out for us. The government is supporting big industry, like Monsanto, unfortunately it’s all about big business. The small farmers are suffering. Go to your local farmers market on weekends, they’re spreading rapidly and can be found in most large and small communities now (Click HERE to find one near you). SUPPORT THEM! Join a CSA. Do whatever small part you can. I’m not one to throw in the towel because it seems hopeless, it IS hopeless if you do that. We the people must demand changes!

If you’re interested in learning more about your food, the future of food and what you can do about it, here are some links to articles, documentaries and groups that can help.

Food Inc.
Forks over Knives
Ingredients
Food Matters
The Future of Food

Slow Food, USA
Non-GMO Project
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (School Food – demand better)

Mad Cowboy (links to books & documentary)

Current Monsanto article – Washington Post

Tell Obama to Cease FDA Ties to Monsanto!
Watch This!

Anything written by Michael Pollen!

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“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” ~Native American Proverb

Mother Earth Day is officially April 22nd.  It began in 1970 in the United States and was taken international in 1990, with organized events in 141 nations that year.  It is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year.

Since this issue has been forefront in my life for as long as I remember, I feel it necessary to use April as the month to post about all things GREEN:-). There are so many ways to go GREEN, from what you eat, water/electricity usage, what you drive, to what type of businesses you support. It can be a very overwhelming thing to ponder, and with many other concerns in ones life, sometimes the environment takes a back seat. What most don’t realize is, most of the time, saving money and supporting the environment goes hand in hand, but we’ve gotten so used to the ease that modern day technology has given us, we’ve forgotten or never learned how to do things more naturally.

Let me begin by saying that my current foot print on the earth is, in my opinion, very muddy and dark. There was time I was much more “Crunchy” and have been taking strides to get back there again. We will be taking a leap later this year with downsizing. We will be moving back into our other house, we’ve been renting it out for 8 years now. It’s only 900ish sq. ft. We are a family of 4 humans, 8 cats and 2 dogs, so luckily the back yard is good sized, for St. Pete, and there is a separate 200 sq. ft. unit out back as well. We won’t have a dishwasher and will be using our clothes line again, like we did the 2 years we lived there before, when we cloth diapered our new baby, I have pictures:-).

I’m really looking forward to it, the need to get rid of half our furniture to fit in there, less STUFF!

Anyway, this is the first of many posts about going GREEN. I follow many blogs on this topic and I’m excited to share them with you, hopefully they’ll be helpful to your journey in going GREEN too.

Well, somehow we survived the cruise. I’m not saying we stuck to our new Clean Eating program, we did not. But we didn’t go nuts either. I continued my herbal tea drinking, yes I gave up coffee to eat clean. You see, I was never an avid coffee drinker anyway, just my one cup in the morning and it had to loaded with cream and sugar. Well, no cream & sugar = no coffee, so done with that. I’m really enjoying the herbal teas, I have at least two a day, one with caffeine in the morning, at night a soothing herbal tea blend. For breakfast on the ship, we continued eating our egg white omelet filled with veggies, salsa on the side. I also found a wonderful whole grain bread I topped with lox, capers and a smidge of cream cheese (at home I use Greek yogurt cheese), squeeze of lemon, OMG, so yummy!

I tried to stick to a large salad most lunches, well, except those we spent on the islands when we ate local cuisine, I insist!

Here at the home front we are continuing to educate ourselves and experiment with healthy foods, super foods.  We have found that we all (PFkids included) really love some of the new items, and of course there have been those we don’t.  We are cleaning our produce upon arrival home from the CSE pick-up or grocery store and placing them up front & center in the fridge for easy grabbing.  The PFkids love ants on a log in their lunch, along with the Chobani yogurt.  Ezekiel bread products are a staple now, made with living sprouts, loaded with flavor and good things for the body.  We spread on a mixture of Chobani Greek yogurt combined with yummies like scallions, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, or herbs/spices, top it with sliced tomato and a side of egg whites scrambled with peppers and onion.  Or we load up our Steel Cut oats with cinnamon, warm skim milk and honey, maybe raisins or diced apples.  These are just examples of breakfast.  The kids are enjoying an Ezekiel English muffin with natural peanut butter, banana and honey.

Continuing to eat 5-6 small meals a day to keep our metabolism on high:-), lots of water with lemon and I just started a capsule a day to help cleanse my liver of toxins.  Gotta love your liver, it’s a work horse for you.

We’ll have to cover Mid Meals, Lunch and Dinner another time.  For now… Mangia!

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I’ve considered myself somewhat of a tree-hugger since, well forever. Unfortunately, this is one of the areas that I’m certainly Perfectly Flawed. This Going Green, is overwhelming. Where do we start, what can we do, can we really make a difference? The answer is YES, yes we can! Start small and be ok with the smallness of it, then add a little at a time, at your comfort level. Here in St. Petersburg, they are beginning recycling pick-ups again this October. So if you’re one of those that hasn’t been taking your recyclables to the drop off receptacles, now is your time!

Wish my fridge looked like this, ha.

There are many little things you can do, right now, to begin going green:

Turn off the water as you brush your teeth.
Change all your light bulbs to fluorescent.
Find local food by shopping Farmers Markets, etc.
Keep an eye on the thermostat.
Turn off computers at night.
Shorten your shower.
Use warm or cold settings on the washer.
Give things away.
Recycle. Reuse.
Go paperless (ex. pay bills online)
Plant a tree.
Inflate your tires.
Turn off your lights when not in use.

These are easier things, and no, I’m not doing them all (ha. I love a long shower), but I’m working on adding them to my daily routine. Don’t ever feel that you’re not doing enough. Every little thing counts. So regardless of if you only recycle or if you compost everything and are vegan, etc. What you’re doing is helping to make a difference.

If you’re really hard core, here is a list of 99 Skills for an Eco-Friendly DIY Lifestyle, Whoa. How many do you do? I have really good intentions but….

Here are some other sites if you’re looking to expand your Greenness.
Green Guide
The Daily Green
Care2
Planet Green
TreeHugger
Organic Trade Association
Eat Wild Find Local Food:-)