not a hippie

You know how everyone is going "green" these days? Well. So am I. Kinda.

I read a lot of blogs. Most are inspiring, some are foolish, and some are just strange. Don't even ask me how I find them, I have no idea. But lately, I have found some hippie blogs. Hippies that dig on Jesus. (I highly doubt they consider themselves hippies though) It's a strange combo for me, growing up in Utah, where hippie always means worshipping Gaia, smoking weed, wearing patchouli (shudder), speaking r e a l l y s l o w l y and generally having a low i.q. (the pot I guess)

None of the Utah hippies I have ever met were Christians. Well, maybe at heart they were, but they would never admit it. Let alone proudly proclaim I Heart Jesus. Also, I would like to note that growing up in city so submerged in Mormons, I have no idea what other Christians are like. Bubble, if you will. (I am not complaining, or trying to insult anybody. I am just owning up to my religious ignorance.)

I digress.

And back to trendy green-ness. I have been feeling it too. Ever since I quit my job, I have tried to fully embrace the job of Housewife. Cleaning your house everyday, dinner on the table every night. It's been a slow process. I found some awesome daily cleaning tips on Martha, where she states that simplifying your cleaning routine starts with getting rid of "a cleaner for every job" All-purpose really does mean just that. And you can make your own cleaners with baking soda and or vinegar. I don't know about you, but I freaking hate the smell of vinegar. I like my bright blue toilet cleaner thankyouverymuch. One step at a time.

You know, "back in the day" I was vegan. A big part of the vegan lifestyle was being green. Because animal friendly products are naturally green. I ordered my shampoo, toothpaste, soap, ice-cream, cleaners, etc. all through a "green" Costco like warehouse. I even made my own chap stick. Once Wild Oats (now Whole Foods) came to Utah, we could all buy our stuff from them, at prices twice as high.

Today, I recycle as much as I can. With the amount of Dr. Pepper I drink, I kinda have to. And I know I am a total hypocrite on some stuff, but one step at a time, right? One thing that really bothers me is laundry detergent. Such high water content, water = heavy, meaning high shipping costs for no good reason. So I buy Sun brand. It's a local company, and it's animal friendly. Recently I have seen the Method brand at Target. They have this new one that is ultra concentrated, it takes like one squirt per load. Nice! But the price? No freaking way! It's like 5 times the price of Sun. What to do, what to do.

So, since finding this one blog, where she makes her own like everything- I wanna try it all too. Because what I remember of being vegan, the giving up the usual grocery store brands wasn't hard, because the natural stuff actually worked better. If it works better, I am there. So as soon as I run out of my huge jug of detergent, I am gonna try it. And then blog about it.

Until then, I just had to try the natural deodorant. I have a love/hate relationship with deodorant. It's a long, stupid, and boring story. So, on to the natural goodness...

I have been using it for a week now, so I feel confidant to say- it works! Eureka!

(photo)

It's a coconut oil base, with baking soda and arrowroot powder (think cornstarch but better) I threw a few tablespoons of cocoa butter in the mix, just for fun. No, really it was for my lame sensitive skin. And to firm it up a bit, since it was the consistency of an icing glaze after mixing it up. I cheated and used my hand mixer, it was wonderful and a lot faster than doing it by hand. I stuck it in the fridge for about an hour to firm it up, and now it sits in it's cute little jar in the bathroom. If you decide to make some, and want to use cocoa butter too, just remember to grate it, as it is a lot harder at room temp than the coconut oil.

Yesterday I mixed one drop of pomegranate perfume oil in a bit of the deodorant, just to see what would happen. It's nice. No irritation, light pleasant scent. It's been blazing hot this week too! Great week to test this out. I am not a heavy sweater, so I don't mind sweating, I just mind the stink. My mom and I even went and picked apricots earlier, and I was pretty sweaty up in that tree. Yes, I climbed a tree today. But that is a story for another day.

I will keep you posted, in case it stops working, or turns my armpits brown. (I read in a comment that baking soda stains your skin brown. But after googling it, I found that using baking soda in your pits is actually a cure for dark spots caused by commercial deodorant. Huh.)

One other thing I found on her site was Soap Nuts. They are berries from a tree in India. You can boil them and concentrate their natural "soap" and use it everywhere in the house. A completely sustainable, no frills, no packaging (to try and recycle), all purpose cleaner. No chemicals, dyes, perfumes, animal testing, blah, blah, on and on, wonderful.

That grows on trees.

Crazy, right? I dunno if I quite buy it though. (says the American girl blogging from her Macbook whilst sitting in a huge puffy armchair with the air conditioning at full blast) Does it really work??? Maybe the idea will grow on me...

But for now, I have my coconut deodorant, and my Mrs. Meyers hand soap, gleefully diluted with water and cleverly topped off in my Dial foaming hand soap pumps. Victory!

Seriously, grows on trees. I like it.

8/8/10 UPDATE: (on homemade deodorant) it's waaay too hot in our house for the deodorant to stay solid. (coconut oil melts at 76F.) So I poured it into an ice cube tray, and now I keep the blocks in the fridge. It's easier to apply, and refreshingly cool. It's still working overtime- I only have to apply it every other day! I never thought I would say that!

light my fire, light my fire, ohohoh (only my mom will get that one)

Ask anybody. I hate the 4th of July. Always have. Every year, I REFUSE to go and see the fireworks. Why, you ask? (keep reading, I have a movie-of-the-week revelation at the end)

Fighting hordes of sweaty, ornery people of all ages to get a crappy snow cone and wait for dark only to be wowed (not) by loud pops and exploding colors? Not my thing. (notice how negative I am?)

It all begins with my memories of childhood 4th of July excursions. Being wound up all day long to "enjoy" the festivities and staying up past my bedtime made me and my siblings grouchy and spiteful. Driving in the car forever just to be late, and have to park on the side of the road, only to get out of the car and stand in the dirt and not see the fireworks in the sky due to the fact that we were still too far away from them (from being late) and being a child I was short and everyone else who parked on the side of the road and got out of their cars to see them were all taller than me, therefore blocking my view. Thankfully, I have a very tall father. But we only got minutes on his shoulders to sneak a peak, there were 3 of us, and we had to take turns.

(it sounds like I am blaming my parents for being late and missing the show, I am not, let me clarify)

It's ALWAYS so ridiculously crowded on the 4th. The only people with good "seats" were the crazy ass people that got there at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, just so they would have the best view. Sitting in the middle of nowhere, for hours, waiting for dark (and a million other people). And then it's over, and everyone is suddenly speed racer, hell bent on being THE FIRST ONE OUT. My parents did the best they could, with me, my brother and our handicapped sister. 3 kids, heat, and late nights? Not fun. And being late was most likely our (the kids) fault. I am grateful they were not the crazy asses that wanted us to have the best seats.

When we got older, and Loo-loo was harder to keep happy during long (30 min) car rides, we adopted the tradition of climbing on the roof to watch them. They were so far away, so they looked small, but still way better than the above experiences. And as I became a teenager, of course all the cigarette smoking losers I hung around with insisted in going to Sugarhouse Park. Ugh. SO many years of bad memories. Maybe if I even LIKED fireworks in the first place it would have been tolerable. But it pretty much just sucked.

And then my adult years. Suddenly, disliking the 4th is un-american. NOT donning the old red white and blue and singing the national anthem whist craning your neck to the sky and getting dripped on by some fat guy's melting snow cone is a crime. (I exaggerate about the singing and the clothing, but not about the smelly fat guy) I am not PURPOSEFULLY being un-patriotic. (I promise. My husband is a Veteran of our wonderful country.) I just don't like crowds and people and body odor and waiting for cars to move. Or fireworks.

This is my theory:

I got bored of fireworks as a happy-go-lucky kid. And they have not changed since. I have said this over and again, but if my toothbrush has advanced since then, why haven't fireworks? They get LONGER, but not BETTER. Therefore, they are not worth my time.

But as I was sitting in my house blogging that night, and I started to hear the booms get louder and closer together, I grabbed my husbands hand and said "Let's watch the finale from the driveway." I also grabbed my camera, because for the first time, I was willing to experiment with photographing them. (since switching to digital; no wasted film, instant gratification) But no tripod, sorry about the somewhat blurry photo.

I was taking to my friend about her weekend today, and she shares my distaste for the holiday. (not nearly as negatively, actually, not negatively at all) but this year she said that it was quite enjoyable. Why, I asked. Her and her husband took their 17 month old daughter to a small parade, and their child was in heaven. Entertained by every single minute. And then the family got in an afternoon nap, followed by a mellow dinner and of course, fireworks. All in all, she was impressed that she enjoyed a holiday that she previously didn't.

And so a light went on for me. I won't enjoy this holiday until I have little ones that will be dazzled with candy thrown by strangers, snow cones, cotton candy, the smell of excitement (not BO) in the air, with it all ending with the simple and traditional display of -fireworks.

(sorry to my friend if I got any of the details of her story wrong.)