EO Series: What is an essential oil?

EOs come from plants!

If you read anything at all about living "naturally" whether it's cleaning, medicinal, etc., you've probably heard about essential oils (a.k.a. EOs). They are wonderful and amazing, but just because they're "pure" and "natural" doesn't mean they're 100% safe. Not everything in nature is safe, right? Think thorny bushes, cactus, and a multitude of poisonous plants! Even though these cute little bottles with beautiful labels and aromas appear safe, they're very concentrated forms of plants. I could probably have an ongoing series on this topic alone, and perhaps it will turn into that, so DON'T go out and buy some EOs today unless you've already done some extensive research about it. If you want to go do more research now, check out Learning about EOs.

My Picky Eater: Speech Delay and Early Intervention Assessment

Around 18 months old, my husband became concerned with our son's speech development. I thought he was doing okay though. But, a little over a month ago when we decided to take action with his eating habits, we read about the average speech development for a 2 year-old and I had to admit he seemed behind. Thankfully, the Your Kid's Table blog I had been reading about picky eating had a link to a mom/speech therapist blog called Playing with Words 365. I sent my husband there to do some research about how we could do more to help our son's speech development. Here are some things we learned:

My Picky Eater: A Reflection After One Month of Experimenting

My picky eater enjoying chips and salsa for his birthday

My picky eater primarily enjoys three types of foods: crunchy, mushy, and dips. This means that veggies, fruit, and meat weren't usually eaten by him, so he ate snack-type foods and baby food. But he's two, so we decided he needed to pushed into real table foods instead of gently introduced to them. It's been about a month since we started this adventure in transforming our picky eater, and we had about two weeks that went a little downhill because he was sick and my mom was visiting, so things weren't exactly normal. However, we actually have made great progress, but I'm beginning to feel stumped about what to try next.

My Picky Eater: Days 1 and 2 Videos

Not much progress was made today. I had eggs over hard, or fried, this morning, and he noticed some pieces were particularly crunchy, wanted to try it, and ate it. He ate two pieces that were more crunchy and wanted nothing to do with the rest of the eggs on his tray. Lunch and dinner went the same as yesterday: He ate one thing and played with the rest until he was over it. Joseph and I figure that he'll be quite ravenous and finally "get it" within the next couple days, so he'll start eating more of what's on his plate.

I want to chronicle as much of his progress as possible in eating, so I'm going to try to take videos and/or pictures daily. Follow us on Instagram or Facebook to see photo uploads there. Below is a video from today's short-lived sensory play, followed by the video of him yesterday during snack.

My Picky Eater

The end of day 1 lunch--demolished and largely uneaten

I'm a natural mama trying to make healthy food choices for me and my family by eating more raw foods, lots of vegetables, cutting gluten, cutting sugar and limiting dairy for me and the hubby. However, what's a natural mama to do with a picky eater?! This has been my dilemma since day one with this boy. We had a hard time getting going with breastfeeding, transitioning to baby food, and now, he barely eats any table food. He's TWO now, so this had to stop. Many kids his age are eating most of the stuff their parents and siblings are eating, but not my son! Until now...

Around the House Cleaner Series: Wrap Up!

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For a few weeks now I've been posting cleaning solutions you can use throughout your home. For your convenience, or in case you missed one, they're all listed here for you!!

• DIY Non-Toxic All-Purpose Cleaner
• DIY Non-Toxic Glass Cleaner
• DIY Non-Toxic Wood Cleaner
• Non-Toxic Disinfectant (Bleach not necessary)
• Vacuuming (the vacuum I chose and why)
• Stain Removal for Carpets and Furniture
• Leather Cleaner and Conditioner

Around the House Cleaner Series: Leather Cleaning and Conditioning

Leather furniture and accessories are more expensive, so is it worth it?! My daily-user purse is bright yellow leather, so you can imagine the dirt it shows!! It got to a point where it really needed to be cleaned, but I wasn't sure how to do so without ruining the leather, but I found an easy, non-toxic solution!

Around the House Cleaner Series: Stain Removal for Carpets and Furniture

If you live in your house, you will drop something unsightly onto your carpet or furniture, but you don't need to bust out an expensive and toxic stain remover to clean it up. Good ol' baking soda and vinegar will take care of most stains!

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Around the House Cleaner Series: Vacuuming

Many people have switched to non-carpet flooring because they don't want stained carpet or they like the way wood looks. However, we still have carpet and it's definitely the least expensive flooring option by far. Getting your carpet cleaned professionally can be costly and not very effective in the long run. If you don't have a good vacuum, you won't be able to get allergens out of it either. Therefore, I recommend a Dyson vacuum and treating your carpet yourself.

Around the House Cleaner Series: Non-Toxic Disinfectant

Has someone in your house had a cold lately? Have you had a summer party with lots of people? Sounds like you need a powerful disinfectant for those spots everyone touches, like doorknobs and handles. And all you need is two ingredients you already have (probably)...

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My First Experience with Maca

Recently the co-author of this blog, Candace, wrote about maca and how she uses it. It sounded like such an excellent product that I wanted to try some myself!! Last week we were on vacation in Penn Valley, CA visiting some good friends, shopping at an excellent co-op where I ran across the bag shown below for $15. I don't even know if that's a great price, but I got it anyway because I really wanted to try it. Plus there's about 91 servings in a bag, so it will last awhile, thus I figured the $15 would be worth it to try.

Feel Good Friday: AmazonSmile

Hello everyone, and Happy Friday! I know I usually talk about health and beauty things you can do for yourself that make you feel good, but today I want to share with you something you can do for others that can make a huge difference. The bonus? You’ll still feel extra good about doing it! Today’s Feel Good Friday features AmazonSmile, an awesome program that lets you give back to a charity of your choosing virtually every time you make a purchase on Amazon.

Around the House Cleaners Series: DIY Non-Toxic Wood Cleaner

Hopefully, if you've been reading this blog, you won't be surprised by the "junk" in your cleaners, including your wood cleaner and polisher. And, you should also know by now that you'll save yourself a bunch of money by putting a few inexpensive ingredients in a bottle yourself. But, just in case you're new here, you should know that Pledge (link to EWG database for brand) or other popular brands, aren't your friends.

Laundry Room Series: Wrap-Up

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I've finished cleaning another room without toxic chemicals, how about you?! In case you missed a post, and for your convenience, here are all my laundry room cleaning posts (plus some more!) in once place:

• Natural Detergent Options
• Natural Stain Remover
• Cut the Dryer Sheets and Your Dry Time!
• Cleaning a Top-Loading Washing Machine
• Cleaning a Front-Loading Washing Machine (from Clean & Scentsible)
• Detailing Your Dryer (aka: Prevent dryer fire!)

Feel Good Friday: Meet Maca

Have you ever heard of maca? I stumbled upon this mighty root the way I stumble on most things these days: social media. A friend had mentioned to another friend (yay, voyeurism!) that they took maca before a workout to help them push harder in the gym. As I was recently getting back into the gym at the time, my ears (eyes?) perked at the mention of this mysterious substance. As I am wont to do, I began scouring the Internet for anything and everything I could find about this “maca” the guy spoke so highly of. What I found turned out to be (for me at least) life-changing.

Laundry Room Series: Detailing Your Dryer

I know your "spring cleaning" chores are over since we're heading into sunny summer days packed with fun and vacations, but if you're going to be drying a bunch of towels from your long pool days in your dryer, then listen up!
 
Dryer fires accounted for 16,800 home fires in the U.S. in 2010, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Also, they say "the leading cause of clothes dryer and washer fires is failure to clean them." Detailing your dryer can also increase your dryer's efficiency. Duh?! If we clean out all the built up lint and gunk, our dryers will work better! I took the challenge myself last night with the used dryer we've had for about 10 months.

Laundry Room Series: Cleaning a Top-Loading Washing Machine

Your washing machine probably works hard for you, and rarely, or let's admit, never, gets a scrub of its own. It woks tirelessly, scrubbing, rinsing, scrubbing, rinsing, for you, and gets nothing in return. Oh, that sounds so sad! Seriously, though, your washer probably has some build up in places you can and can't see and could use a good cleaning a couple times a year. I just got a used top-loading washer that was all fixed up by my appliance guy, so I figured it was a good time to try this out. Here are instructions for cleaning a front-loading washer.

Laundry Room Series: Cut the dryer sheets and your dry time!!

Over a year ago I purchased and began using three different types of wool dryer balls.  What are wool dryer balls?  They're large balls of wool used with every load you throw in the dryer.  They replace dryer sheets and help reduce dry time!!  The latter is my favorite part, and they do work.  I can dry two sets of queen size sheets in one cycle if I disperse the balls throughout the sheets when I put them in the dryer.  It's recommended that you use about a dozen wool dryer balls at a time.  Also, if you're allergic to wool, you can still use these because the wool isn't being directly applied to your skin.  First are the Woolzies Dryer Balls.

These are the largest and best priced of the three types I got.  They're handmade from New Zealand wool, helping providing a sustainable living.  They seem to lose their density over time, which also makes them less effective over time.

A Natural, Manly Gift

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Father's Day is coming up, so I decided to share an excellent gift idea that promotes natural living, is cost-effective, and much appreciated by the men I know who use it! An old-fashioned shaving kit!! Isn't it "old-fashioned" for a reason? Such as, it's not effective, harder to use, irritating to the skin, etc.? Nope!! Quite the contrary!!

Why my husband likes his old-fashioned shave

My husband keeps a short beard, but has to shave the non-beard areas a couple times a week, and his old-fashioned shave gives him the closest shave he's ever had. His skin feels quite smooth afterward, and it's not irritating at all. In fact, the soap is very moisturizing. He fought razor burn when using other razors to shave his neck, but he never has that problem now.

Additionally, as noted on the Art of Manliness, an old-fashioned shave makes you "feel like a bad ass. It’s nice taking part in a ritual that great men like your grandfather, John F. Kennedy, and Teddy Roosevelt took part in."
 
There are several reasons that I, as a wife, also like the old-fashioned shave.

Laundry Room Series: Natural Stain Remover

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As I shared in my previous post on detergent, what I cleaned my clothes with was a huge concern for me after beginning to switch to natural alternatives. Detergent was one of the first to change. Last year, I discovered a wonderful natural stain remover, too, that I've put to use often with my active little man. So far, it has removed:

• Grass stains
• Blood stains
• Puke stains

What IS this amazing stain remover? One of the most simple answers on the planet...