New discoveries

I finally made my own deodorant. For quite awhile I was just using baking soda as a deodorant; it works but it's messy. I previously mentioned buying coconut oil for my daughters yeast infection. It worked wonderfully but I had my husband buy some refined coconut oil because we needed it for immediate usage.

I wanted some unrefined coconut oil as well so I ordered from Amazon and to get free shipping I went ahead and padded my order with arrowroot powder, a couple of essential oils and some deodorant containers. The day I received my shipment was hot as blazes. Coconut oil has a melting point of 76° and my thermostat is set for 78°; it didn't take long for the coconut oil to be in its liquid state instead of its solid one. I popped the coconut oil in the fridge to make things a bit easier. Once it was solid again I mixed 1/4 cup each of coconut oil, arrowroot powder and baking soda together. I spooned it into a deodorant container and popped it into the fridge because it was back to a semi-liquid state. On the bright side I know my containers aren't going to leak all over!

I had enough of the first mix I thought I'd get at least 1/3 of another stick from it. I opted to added a little more of the above ingredients and some orange oil. I put a lot of orange essential oil into the mix but the coconut overwhelmed it completely. I went ahead and put some tea tree oil into the mix and that wasn't worth it at all. My tea tree oil bottle doesn't have a dropper or the type of cap that lets out one drop at a time. Nope, I had to pour it out and it's such a crappy bottle that it just drizzled right down the side of the bottle instead of actually pouring. Got it all over my hand and a pretty fair amount of it into the deodorant mix. Still over powered by coconut! So goes it. I notice a very slight orange/tea tree smell but I wouldn't use it again with this coconut oil because I know how powerful the smell will be.

The deodorant works fairly well. It's a bit gritty so maybe less baking soda next time.


This post has been a draft for quite awhile. It's been perhaps three/four weeks since I made my own deodorant. It's quite nice. The tea tree/orange oil one has finally developed a slight scent besides coconut oil to it. So you definitely just need to give it time and apparently a LOT of EO to give it a very subtle scent. I've read blogs where they use just a few drops to a lot of CO and I'm just assuming they've used a CO with little scent or they've become immune to the smell of coconut.

I realized I've been washing my hair without the traditional shampoo/conditioner since May. Most of this time has been water only. Not to shabby. Don't hate it but I don't love it. I've been using water only to wash my hair and it seems to work fairly well. My scalp is less irritated. I think part of why I don't love water only is because of the length of my hair. So, earlier today I was hot and irritated and chopped off about four inches of hair. I didn't do to bad either. Sure, it's not styled but it's not bad for an irritation cut! My head feels lighter and I'm not sitting on my hair any more. Very happy lady right here. I left it shoulder length (ish) just so if I ever do get around to having it styled there's actually something to work with. Plus, with thick hair it's nice to be able to pull it into a ponytail. Scariest moment was holding the scissors to my hair and trying to figure out the correct angle. Urgh, sick little bear has awoken!

Coconut oil to the rescue!

While I go the more natural route, I still adhere to some modern traditions for my kids. If my kids have a fever for three days I take them to see a doctor. Sure it could break on the evening of day three but for my kids I suck it up and take them. Little bear had a fever a few months ago that may have been caused by an ear infection but could have just been a little red due to the fever. I prefer seeing the old school doctor who errs on the side of nature vs shoveling kids full of antibiotics. That trip the only one we could see was a semi-retired nurse (one of those near doctor type nurses) that checked Little Bears ears and said, "They look a little red." and with no other symptoms present prescribed some meds. Now I'd just had Little Duck seen a week before for a mysterious fever and the doctor said the slightly red ears were probably due to the fever instead of the other way around. How I wish he had been available. I was like well maybe it'll be okay. Follow up appointment showed clear ears.

At this point I had started watching two kids of a friend. They had colds and all three of my kids picked it up; at least we assume it was a cold. My youngest two developed ear and eye infections. Bears second round of medicine and I regretted that previous round. Luckily we had a well baby visit the next week before we went on vacation. Our regular pediatrician said neither kids' ears looked like they should after being on medicine for six days. So she prescribed something slightly stronger and it worked.
Anyways we went on vacation and used disposables on the bear because we would have no access to a washer/dryer for four days. During this vacation we noticed bear developed a bit of a rash. At first the rash responded to calendula cream (a little) but not like we hoped it would. Then we tried the strongest version of Boudreaux's Buttpaste and it kind of seemed to help but not at night. So I was pretty sure Little Bear had a yeast infection due to the scratching, the buttpaste not working and the look of the rash. Urgh!

Previously when Little Bear was smaller the pediatrician thought a rash might look yeasty. (Any rash bear develops looks like this while using disposables.) She recommended that if diaper cream didn't work that it was probably a yeast infection and to try monistat 7. We went to Target before we left the city to pick some up just in case and only found Monistat 3 but I hate using something for adults on a toddler and especially when it's not the exact one the pediatrician said was okay. So we went home empty handed and at that time the rash cleared up the next day when I put bear back in cloth and used California Baby diaper cream which is safe for the types of cloth diapers I use. 

This time we're 99% sure it's a yeast infection. However without it being seen by a doctor for verification I was extremely hesitant to buy and rub Monistat 7 on it. Unless you've had it verified that it's a yeast infection then I'd hesitate to rubber stamp that diagnosis. But I was armed with knowledge given by the pediatrician about this and I decided to try something natural that would cover a broad range of possible issues without creating superbugs. I remembered that coconut oil was supposedly a treatment. Dozens of articles later I've found that for external use a refined coconut oil is fine. That's good since the only coconut oil available around where we live is refined. >.< I bought cold pressed, unrefined coconut oil online but I didn't want to wait a week for Little Bears treatment options. My husband picked up the refined coconut oil and while I was skeptical, I knew it wouldn't hurt anything. After One diaper change we saw a difference. Wow I was astonished. The redness was down to pink and the bumps were down a bit. The scratching was reduced as well. Day two it was looking way better; little bears legs were still splotchy but only where the diaper couldn't keep the coconut oil from rubbing off. Day three the main area is not bumpy at all and just a bit pink in spots. Today is day 4 and I'm just amazed at how quickly this stuff is working. Even bears legs are looking less bumpy and red due to tighter pants and/or shorts that seem to be holding the coconut oil in place. Honestly if this is the refined stuff I wonder how awesome unrefined will be. I'll use the coconut oil until every suspect area is gone.

I've held off on putting Little Bear back in cloth diapers because I didn't want the infection to linger on the inserts. At this point Ill give it a shot since coconut oil is cloth diaper safe and a few extra hot washes will make sure the cloth diapers are clean.

I'll make my own natural deodorant when I receive the unrefined coconut oil and other supplies I bought online. I've been using baking soda but I want something I can roll on and not make a huge mess with. Plus baking soda after shaving = poor unfortunate souls.

Now Ursula is singing in my head and I'm wishing we owned The Little Mermaid movie on DVD. That's my favorite movie. 

Ninja Lefties

As I was reading the section about a funny blogger she mentioned ninjas. There were a lot of other things but obviously Ninjas stuck out. I love ninjas. Naturally I can't stop thinking about them now.
So anyways I started thinking about lefties... Why don't all lefties just write backwards? Mirror image writing and reading is simple. It comes naturally to some/most of them so why don't they just Teach lefties this? I hate seeing lefties forced to write with their hand held at some awkward angle all the time. It takes me an extra beat to read mirror image but I can do it. If I did it regularly it would be as natural as forward text.

In any case after reading about ninjas my inner thoughts took off with 'HoooOooYa' and TMNT scenes and Power Ranger's mad fighting skills. What would it be like to be a left "handed" turtle?
My brother-in-law is left handed. I wonder if I could get him to be a TMNT for halloween...

Squirrel is awake... Sort of. Squirrel bait likes to get out of bed in the middle of the night and cuddle. Probably says to much about my night owl tendencies. Those are hereditary dang it! No, seriously, look it up; they've done a study and have actually found a gene that causes it.

After being awake for 18 hours I am beat. I'm sure little squirrel is as well. Zzz

Just another day

Yesterday was the first dry day we've had for awhile. The dump was open but we didn't make it out. Little bear was being a BEAR and I was going crazy. As soon as my husband got home I handed the screaming monster to him. The lawn didn't get mowed. The trash didn't get hauled to the dump. I left the house and went to a 31 party with other adults. Classic life - today it rained. The lawn can't be mowed. The trash can't be hauled to the dump. *sigh*
At some point in the middle of the day my husband looked up and noticed water in the dome of our ceiling fan light. He took a bucket into the attic and put it on top to catch future drips but there was still water running down so we took the entire fan down and GUSH. Oofta! There was a lot of water in the fan left so I'm glad we took it down. I used the opportunity to give the glass parts a good wash and wiped everything else on the fan off with a damp rag. Lets just say the fan hasn't been taken apart since we put it up five or so years ago and the most I've ever done was a quick dusting. Yuck.
I already knew I would be dealing with water in the basement; I just didn't realize how much. Wowza there was far more than I expected. It must have rained quite a bit last night. Vacuumed up what I could with the little shop vac; had to empty it twice. Then I emptied the dehumidifier. Now I'm just praying that tomorrow will be a nice sunny day.
The lumber yard will be closed of course so there won't be any new shingles ordered until at least Monday evening.
All in all it's just another day. It sucks but it is what it is.

A tentative difference

It's the middle of the night. Why am I awake? Partially because this is the only alone time I get, a good part because of a bothersome rib and partially because I keep thinking of things I'd like to change in my life.

The changes I'm making are small but will eventually make a big difference. One such change is opting to forego traditional shampoo. Many out there are terming it "no poo" but I'd prefer not to. Convincing my friend to try this with me gave me the moral support I needed to jump right in; thank you for that. I'm two weeks in and not hating it. This small change has led to trashing the traditional deodorant as well. I'm trying to lead a healthier life with fewer chemicals.
I'm also slowly trying to stop drinking anything besides water or tea. That's hard when I'm so tired from staying up late; some times a little caffeine boost is required. Pop is probably my booze equivalent. I'm not big on alcohol... It tastes like alcohol! There are a few things I don't mind but I honestly think God had a pretty good reason for giving me sensitive taste buds.
There are so many thoughts rambling around in my head yet I'm finding it hard to grasp any of them firmly. Going to sleep is required for possible coherence tomorrow; a day which I failed to fully grasp will be a long one before opting to stay up late.