Healthier You - Something I'm Going to Try

I am always looking for greener alternatives to use personally and around my home.  I use organic as much as I can...despite the price.  I have even turned to organic skincare...my face is healthier, but the lines are definitely creeping in!!! I need to do more research into something healthy for my face that will also melt away (not literally) the years. 

As skin covers our bodies, and also is a wonderful organ for soaking up any ingredient we put on it, I have been looking for a fairly priced and effective soap that the whole family can use.  With glee I checked into one of my favorite BIG blogs The Simple Mom and discovered some pearls of wisdom and a must try product from Tsh Oxenreider. Please check out The Simple Mom for even more great ideas.  This is my next purchase:

Whole Foods - Castile Soap

ALL PURPOSE – REAL SOAP! TONS OF USES! EVERYDAY GENTLE CLEANSING. BIODEGRADABLE / VEGAN / NO ANIMAL TESTING

Sold by: 16 FL OZ (473mL)

Ingredients: Organic pyrus malus (apple) juice, saponified oils (organic cocos nucifera [coconut] oil, potassium hydroxide*, organic helianthus annuus [sunflower] seed oil, organic sesamum indicum [sesame] oil, organic simmondsia chinensis [jojoba] seed oil), aqua (purified water), organic cyamopsis tetragonoloba (guar) gum, organic mentha piperita (peppermint) oil, organic aloe barbadensis (aloe) leaf juice. *Used to turn oils into real soap.

A similar product is available at Walgreens.

Dr. Bronner - Castile Soap

 

Ideas for uses - straight from Walgreens

• For facial packs, scalp & soothing body rub, add dash on bath towel in sink of hot water. Wring out. Lay over face & scalp. Massage with fingertips. Repeat 3 or 4 times 'til arms, legs & all are rubbed, always towards the heart. Rinse towel in plain hot water and massage again. Breathe deeply! Health is wealth. Within 9 minutes you feel fresh and clean, saving 90% of your hot water & soap
• Concentrated. Clouds when cold. Put in warm room/water: clears at 70°F

Here's to squeaky clean and healthy!

I am not being paid for this...just blabbing on about things I like!

Special Partnerships

As September looms, I am so grateful for the wonderful teaching team I belong to.  We are three teachers whose names begin with K.  We were part of a trial looping program within our school; we would have the same children in fourth and then fifth grade.

We became known as Special K!  The looping was a huge success: the relationships we developed with the children and their parents was amazing.  Our summer between the grades allowed us to focus on planning instruction for each child...we knew them so well, instead of thinking about how to get to know a new group of children before planning the best way teach each one effectively.

Personally, the second year of looping coincided with a family illness that shook my world.  Yet I loved going to school, being with these children and working with my partners.  Special K rocked that school....everyone commented on it.  Those were my most precious years of teaching.

The school district decided to discontinue the looping as other schools in the district did not want to do it.  So now we are back to one year with our classes.  Special K ended too...we couldn't bring ourselves to use the name for another class....Special K were just too....special!

I Highly Recommend...and SPECIAL OFFER!!!

Discount Code at the end of the post!

I have lurked on Etsy for quite some time but made my first purchase just over a week ago.  I was delighted by my new picture which is delicate and pretty and adds to the two Fleur de lis hooks I have in my bedroom.

The Esty shop is owned by The Thumber over at Thumbin' My Way.  I love her blog and now I foresee a huge chunk of change heading towards the goodies in her shop.  

If you visit Thumbin" My Way, be sure to type in GEMS for a 10% discount!!!

Skills

We all have skills.  Some skills are worth putting out there, you know, in public.  Other skills are best kept to private or family only settings where you are virtually guaranteed a more sympathetic audience...or at least one that has to love you anyway!

I have decided to work on recognizing my own skills in an attempt to do something proactive with at least one of them.  The trick is deciding which one is worth pursuing on a "time-consuming, keep the kids busy with something else"...kind of scale.







The next challenge is to decide what the 'genre' the skill I develop should be.

• Fiction:  dancing...with a possible stage show in the mix - I am already doing this so does it count?  The fiction aspect is because I am more a Sugar Plum Elephant than Fairy :)
• Realistic Fiction: photography....learning more about it and then being arty with what I produce....may require many hours of adult education
• Historical Fiction: Scrap-booking and home accessory design as I did in a past life...some beautiful pieces created but no idea what to do with them
• Fantasy: Starting my own business - not sure in what, how to start, who to talk to etc...
• Sci-fi: Web design - again more hours of Adult-Ed to endure

Some of these skills I can claim amateur status with. Others, well, I have absolutely no clue about them at all but have always wanted to try them out.  

Next I need a purpose - the reason for me pursuing the skill...especially of it is going to cost precious family time. 

• to have a sense of fulfillment
• to become more than I am at the moment...long story
• to raise money for a charity very dear to me
• to challenge myself and face the wave
• just because....

There are many reasons people take on an activity.  The fact I have entitled this post Skills leads me to believe I want to develop a skill rather than just pursue a hobby.  This, in turn makes me think I am doing it to get something out of it...more than just fun!  My genres also suggest that I am not very confident about myself being able to do this.

So now I will take some time to think about the pros and cons of each idea.  I know I want to be productive in some way.  I need to plan, think, and live a dream.  Wish me luck people, and stay posted! If you have any advice or experience, please drop me a comment and help this wannabe out :)

xxx

You Are My Samshine!

It is time for Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus post.  This week her prompt touched my heart for many reasons.  Her original prompt is You Are My Sunshine, and I can write up to 50 words and add a picture, provided I include the prompt.  There is even a giveaway with this prompt so if you have not joined Saturday Centus yet, give it a go...this is a good week to start!

Being me, and that this prompt has a personal meaning to it, I am actually throwing away any chance of winning said giveaway as I want to adapt the prompt and plagiarize like crazy to make my point.

Background:  Many of you know my son has leukemia.  He is almost done with treatment and is doing extremely well, all things considered.  He was asked to create a picture with some words for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Kick Off Celebration for Light the Night.  My entry for this week is his picture and words because the song, You are my Sunshine, was always his song, I just adapted it to Samshine.  Sam wanted to draw a picture of the sunshine, copied from a picture frame I have:

Here is my Sammy's entry for this week: (sorry about the poor scan)

I had no idea how much this song would mean to me when I sang it to Sam as a tiny baby.  I now truly sing with all my heart - "Please don't take my Samshine away!"

3 in 30 - Friday Update

In an attempt to make myself a better person...or at least a more organized, healthier person, I am trying out a new challenge. I can be found at http://3in30.ashleypichea.com/ 


See here to view my goals in detail
See here to view my first day


Today's update on the three goals:

1. Get to bed at a reasonable time: Oh boy!  This one has been very difficult.  I have actually been better at getting myself into bed before midnight, but I have not been able to sleep at all.  I find that my mind is wandering all over the place.  I do have a lot to think about right now...some major events are happening in my life, (see here if you want to peek at my craziness), not to mention all the blogging ideas flying through my brain!  I have not been very good about the routine...no camomile tea, reading or calming myself down properly before bed...I must make more of an effort this week. 
2. Set reasonable limits on my blogging:  Um....what's reasonable?  NOT one hour a day, that's for sure!!!  I did try to resist logging into all the social media I have developed a habit for, but blogging alone takes so much more than one measly hour!  So, I am trying to schedule one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening for blogging, and some in between time for all the rest, as needed.  Goals adjusted...here's to a good week ahead. 
3. De-clutter my house: This one has started well.  My garage actually has a pathway through it so we can enter the house through it instead of getting the front hallway all messed up after a trip to the pool or beach.   I also streamlined my kitchen cabinets thanks to the extra storage space in the garage.  It is so nice having easy access to the items I use most instead of having to rummage around the cabinets trying to find things.  Some time was spent getting rid of clothes in my closet...mainly the ones that were too worn out to do anything with.  Organizing the clothes that can be donated will be next.  

3 in 30: How the First Day Went!

In an attempt to make myself a better person...or at least a more organized, healthier person, I am trying out a new challenge. I can be found at http://3in30.ashleypichea.com/  Today's update on the three goals:

1. Get to bed at a reasonable time: having had no sleep the previous night, I was pretty sure I would sleep well last night.  I decided to wrap up chores and blogging early enough for me to spend some quiet time reading ( a good historical fiction book) and then turn out the lights for a good, solid eight hour snooze. What I got, instead, was a strange panic about meeting my goal...I HAD to to it, I am publicly offering up my successes and failures and I CAN'T admit defeat so early on!  Tossing and turning was the order of the night.  I did not clock in the requisite amount of sleep to fully recharge my body and mind...humph!  But at least I did start the ball rolling..I am going to try to carry on the same routine each night.  Routines work for children, so surely they will help me, right?  Time will tell. 
2. Set reasonable limits on my blogging:  I DID NOT blog much at all day today!  I was very good about keeping my reading, commenting and posting to a single hour.  Unfortunately, I did spend a long time online...Facebook, Twitter, emails, browsing online shops, deciphering the world of Etsy to see if I can survive in it....hours went by!  So I need to rethink the goal:  Set reasonable limits to my online activity!
3. De-clutter my house: My goal today was to have the mammoth pile of laundry put away to make room for the even more gigantic pile awaiting me in the basement.  I intended to sort and thin out the clothing that my four person family owns.  Ha!  Somehow I know I just might fit into that top again, or peanut really needs sixteen pairs of shorts incase my washing machine packs up for several weeks and he can't wear the same pair two days in a row!  Too tired to worry about clothing now...but I did move the twenty pairs of shoes from my hallway and throw then in the back of my closet :)  Oh, just so you know, fifteen of said pairs of shoes belong to my husband!