Winter time is famous for dry skin. Even though I am venting my dryer indoors and the windows are usually all steamy my youngest and I are still having dry skin issues. If you have dry skin, you know that it’s not just annoying and kinda gross looking, it can also be incredibly very uncomfortable. Your face feels tight and your lips may get chapped and your body itches. Moisturizers are a waste of time usually, in my experience at least. The reason may be that the moisturizers simply makes your skin oily or irritates the problem even further and they are loaded with unsavory ingredients as well.

The best way to avoid this is by going natural. 

Drink plenty of water. This is the area where my son and I are lacking I think. When it is cold we don't drink as much and we don't eat as much raw, hydrating food. This remedy is totally simple, and often overlooked.  Your skin needs water to stay soft and smooth.  While putting water on your skin will dry it out, putting it in your body is essential for keeping it hydrated. Plus, drinking enough water just makes you feel better too!

A really good way to get itchy dry skin quickly is to use soap.  Over cleaning your skin is often unnecessary and can really dry it out. In the winter we tend to take long baths and showers, particularly with very hot water and this is extremely drying to the skin. I know I like to do this too, I need to stop. Quick showers are the better option, for our skin and the environment. Use a natural mild soap like Dr. Bronners, sparingly. And follow up with all natural coconut oil to seal in the moisture. You can get 100% natural organic coconut oil which is used both for cooking and moisturizing at most health food stores and online of course.

If you have especially dry skin on your face, the best treatment is also probably the simplest and least expensive one around: honey.  Honey has been used for centuries to moisturize, and you really don’t need anything else.  Just apply honey to your face like a masque, let dry for 30 minutes, then rinse off.  Your face will feel fresh, hydrated, clean and healthy.

Good old fashioned oil does the trick to. Coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil are great for moisturizing and treating a variety of skin conditions.  You can even mix in some honey and heat it to soften it and make it easier to go on.

We have to remember though that natural remedies are about fixing the cause as much as they are about treating the problem.  It’s best to protect your skin in the first place.  Be sure to protect your skin from dry, cold winter conditions by using scarves, gloves, and avoid long exposures to severe cold when possible. Drink lots of water, humidify your home if you can, and remember that forced air heating systems will only dry skin more so if you can put on a sweater instead of turn on the heat, do it!

I am doing a honey mask myself  tonight and I will do a mini-one on my son as he sleeps. I am also going to make sure we drink more water and green smoothies… even if the cold makes me shy away from them. And even though I might look ridiculous picking up my kids in a ski mask… I am seriously considering THAT to!

Also a really cool book that shares time tested beauty practices from days loooong ago is Beauty Secrets of the Bible. Its a very interesting read. Women a long time ago were concerned about this stuff to and they used natural ingredients with great success. 

Today is my little guy's 4th birthday! I am soooo emotional today, sob. Since he is the baby of the family and always will be this hits me especially hard. Mostly though I am just so overjoyed that I am lucky enough to have this special boy in my life. I remember the day he was born with so much clarity. I was alone for most of the process because my husband was out of town and my mom had to watch my other two kids. After his birth I got up from the bed and stood with him by the window. It had snowed overnight and I just stood and looked at the snow covered landscape and breathed in that baby smell. I wasn't lonely that no one else was around, I had my buddy with me. To this day he is till my buddy… always with me. 

Soon he became known as Paku (Paw-Koo)… my daughter's name for him since she couldn't say Parker. I still call him Paku.

This year has been momentous for him. He started preschool in October, going to a public immersion program for kids with disabilities and developmental issues. I guess it took me until he was almost 4 to finally accept that he was developing slower than most kids his age. He didn't talk much and his voice was still baby-like, much about him still seems baby-like but I figured he would catch up eventually. Then a call out of the blue by the school district in our new city, saying that by accident they received paperwork from Parker's old speech therapist (the one we disliked and quit going to). A very nice lady asked if Parker wanted to attend school and offered to have him bussed when I explained I didn't have a car during the day. I felt like it was a sign and it has turned out to be the best thing for him. He loves school, he is talking up a storm now, and in general he is just growing up so fast now… like it was all bottled up in there somewhere and is now exploding out. I never doubted that he was intelligent and that he understood what was going on around him… he just couldn't verbalize. Now he is learning to.

I remember being sad that he hardly ever said "mom" and then last week he jumped on me while I was on the couch and said "Oh mom, I love you, you so pretty". Oh, melt my heart into a big gooey pool already!

Now I need to go and make him some black bean brownies and raw banana ice cream for his birthday celebration tonight!

It is a sad reality that for many adults acne is not something that went away along with those awkward teen years. It can plague skin for years after puberty and those hormonal years. Many adults find that acne returns when the hormones do, as with pregnancy. Others find that it may be less dramatic than when they were younger but it never went completely away. This condition can make you feel awful and can put a real dent in yourself esteem and social life. This is made even worse when you’re let down over and over again by yet another “miracle” product that you discovered on an infomercial or from a well meaning friend.

The “miracle” is usually all in the marketing… as in “its a miracle if they don’t fall for this!” The sad fact is that most mainstream acne treatments make the problem worse and can even be harmful to your overall health because they are packed with nasty chemicals.

Why not try something different and use natural options to help alleviate and even get rid of your acne once and for all?

Natural Solutions for Acne

A Healthy Diet: A healthy diet is the very best thing you can do for your acne. The skin is an organ so if an organ is unhealthy you need to consider what is making it unhealthy in the first place. Our skin is used to eliminate toxins from the body. What are those toxins doing to our skin and how are they getting there?

Sugar is catastrophic for acne sufferers. It has been proven to cause an inflammatory reaction in the skin which makes acne worse (or even helps it develop in the first instance). Reduce or better yet remove all sugar from your diet and you will see a HUGE difference in your skin.

In addition to getting rid of sugar, eat a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Opt for an array of colors so that you can get the most antioxidant power in these foods into your system. Raw foods, green juices, and green smoothies do wonders for healthy skin. Uh… just look at Sarma. Whenever I stop drinking green smoothies I notice it in my skin… it gets dull and dry. When I start drinking green smoothies again… my skin plumps like I got Botox or something.

Reducing dairy or even eliminating it can also make a  huge difference in regards to acne. Many experts believe that a vegan diet is the best way to keep the skin clear from acne. Many vegans swear this is true and have healthy skin to prove it.

Eating less meat and avoiding red meat, no dairy, and no caffeine are great first steps. And although chocolate on its own may not cause acne, it contains caffeine which can make acne worse.

Whole grains will give your body much needed fiber which will help flush out toxins and keep your system running smoothly. Drinking water does the same.

Natural Remedies for Acne

Green tea: You can drink green tea to help relieve your symptoms, but you can also apply the tea directly to you skin.  There are green tea creams available over the counter, but if you’re looking for a cheaper, easier way, just brew tea bags, then apply them directly to your acne.

Egg Whites:  Applying egg whites to the face as a masque is a great way to treat your acne and immediately close your pores.  In addition, it also gets rid of redness caused by your acne and can reduce the appearance of scars from previous breakouts.

Tea Tree Oil:  While many people disagree about the causes of acne, or how to treat it, pretty much everyone agrees that it’s an infection or inflammation.  And tea tree oil has long been used as a natural way to kill bacteria and treat skin infections.

Zinc helps strengthen your immune system so you’re better able to heal and even prevent your acne. Good sources for vegetarians include dairy products, beans and lentils, yeast, nuts, seeds and wholegrain cereals. Pumpkin seeds provide one of the most concentrated vegetarian food sources of zinc. Vegans can just ignore the dairy sources.

The absolute best part about natural acne treatments is that they also improve the general quality of your skin without damaging it or drying it out like traditional products can and do.  Many of them have few or no side effects and they are safe.

Avoiding makeup is another important step. Your skin needs to eliminate toxins as it was designed to do. When we clog our pores up with makeup and oils it can’t do its job and it will protest with flare-ups.

Lastly, stress can cause big acne flare ups. Why else does a bride breakout before her big day? Try meditation or yoga to keep your stress levels low. This will not only help your acne symptoms but your overall health as well. I like to listen to meditation CDs or natural sounds CDs like waterfalls and birds singing when i am stressed.

Acne can be devastating but by using the tips above and starting a plan of attack you can start to see improvement. Use diet as your first weapon, reduce stress and apply a few natural treatments as necessary and you’ll see a difference in the overall health of your skin very soon.

Recommended: The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances

Over the weekend I dived into a book I have been meaning to read for the past few weeks. I guess with all the holiday activity recently it didn't seem like the best time to read it, just in case I decided to act on any of the action plans contained in the book. I am glad I waited until I could give it my full attention because it is a rare gem.

The book is Simplicity Parenting – Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids. I assumed it was a book about voluntary simplicity but focused on kids and it is that but also so much more. The author, Kim John Payne is a therapist and he worked for many years in war torn areas of the third world helping kids with post traumatic stress issues. Ironically when his career changed directions and he came to practice in the US he noticed something strange about the children he was now treating. The children in this New England town that he was hired to help also showed the classic signs of post traumatic stress. But how could that be? These kids didn't live in a war ravaged country or have to fight for their very survival. What did they have to be so stressed about?

Basically he found that all the stuff going in on their lives was taking away from their childhoods and that they were becoming stressed. Many of the quirks that all kids have were becoming full blown disorders because of the stressful lives they were living… ADD, ADHD, OCD, ODD, etc. Some kids dealt with this stress and overabundance of activities and things in their lives by regressing into their own world (ADD, ADHD) and some would struggle to get control (OCD, ODD) but usually it all stemmed from the same problem, stress brought on by the life and lifestyle of the family. This particular therapist created a very successful practice and became Internationally renowned by helping parents to change the way they lived and parented by getting back to simplicity. These families and kids had too much stuff, too many choices, and too little time.

The book has basic action plans for simplifying the family dynamic.. decluttering the environment, establishing comforting rituals and routines, scheduling breaks, and scaling back on media and parental "hovering".

I especially liked that the chapters on decluttering the home had lists of things to look for in toys and entertainment to either qualify or disqualify them as something we should have in the home. It brought up many things I hadn't considered and yet many were things that I have considered already in my drive to parent "naturally". It compliments natural parenting very well in fact. One statistic that was horrifying to read is that the average American child has around 150 toys. Even more horrifying is that before I adopted a more natural and green lifestyle I am positive my kids had double that number. How can a single child possibly play with 150 toys and be responsible for keeping them tidy? That is overload. One area that I hadn't considered is book overload and I think my kids are nearing or past that point. The book made a lot of great points about why we should not have more than half a dozen books in our kids rooms and wow it REALLY made sense. It made a case for how we might actually be impeding their love of reading by giving them access to that many books and several real life examples were shown.

With toys and books it is recommended that we store the majority of the "keepers" in a place out of their reach and use these collections as sort of a lending library. The book has motivated some BIG time decluttering in this house, specifically in the kids rooms. In my daughter's room for instance all her toys now fit in two small baskets under her bed. My oldest son's are in a chest in his closet and it is not even a 1/4 full. Just as promised by the author… they never even noticed the change. I also loved the idea of creating a small art center in each child's room… just a table, chair, and art supplies.

Another suggestion I loved in the book had to with routines. I like to keep the mornings peaceful and unhurried so I loved the idea of one the author's clients to light a candle at the breakfast table instead of turning lights on. Awhile back the light over our kitchen table malfunctioned and not wanting to deal with expense of an electrician we opted to eat by candlelight and I really miss that so I am inspired to bring that back (even though our light works). I have to have 3 candles, one for each child to blow out, so there is no fighting over this honor, LOL.

It had great information about the importance of family dinners and simplyfing that whole routine as well. The author's family does a moment of silence to set the mood for the meal and that didn't interest me so much but I loved the alternative suggestion to spend a moment giving thanks even for secular families like mine. Aka thanks to the farmers who grew these vegetables, thanks to Nana who who passed on this delicious recipe to us, and allowing the kids to express what they are thankful for. I like rituals like this that have no religious overtones.

Also good was the chapter on TV and media. I read it after reading a blog post on a mom blog about the benefits and joys of TV and how parents who try and restrict TV are being fear mongers. The week before I had visited a blog that is dedicated to helping parents avoid "hovering" and let heir kids have more meaningful and freeing experiences while learning self reliance. I was dissapointed to learn (after a recent post) that these concepts were not so much the result of the author's dedication to child development but rather the desire to have her kids out of her hair and not bothering her, so the electronic babysitter was a big hit in their house. It seemed almost the exact opposite of what her blog represented so I felt kinda tricked and thus discouraged about TV and media.

Simplicity Parenting was refreshing and helped to reinforce that lots of TV exposure over all can be very damaging. Kids don't have meaningful experiences in front of the TV and they don't learn self reliance from it either. More often than not they learn to sit and be entertained instead of creating exciting real life experiences. More often than not they learn to be consumers and feel that they don't have enough and that their lives are not enough. TV is designed to impart those messages… otherwise why would 16 billion be invested annually in using the TV to market to children??? If it wasn't working EXACTLY as they intended than they wouldn't be spending that much money. Think about it.

I do believe that the TV can be a window to exciting possibilities. I love the show Man Versus Wild for example and various Discovery Channel programs are wonderful. BUT the TV can also be a window into adult content and ideas that kids are not mature enough for and it can easily replace real life adventures and that is truly sad. This book has confirmed for me that we need to do even more in regards to discouraging TV viewing.

Other areas addressed in the book are parental hovering and also overscheduling our kids. Particular attention is paid to sports and it has much to say in regards to the argument you hear from many parents that sports have all these important life lessons to teach and that they help keeps kids out of trouble. It is not anti-sports, rather pro sports with some much needed perspective.

Overall, a great book with really helpful ideas for addressing one of the biggest issues we are facing… the fast paced, highly stressed, materialistic, overwhelming nature of today's childhood and what we can do to help create change. The advice stop notch and the real life stories of how families and children applied this advice and benefited was very heart warming.

Some other reference books mentioned by the author include: The Hurried Child, The Power of Play,The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoiding the Hyper-Parenting Trap

I was reading an article last week on The New York Times about this subject. It chronicles the life of several families who were impacted by the economic recession and found they couldn’t live the lifestyle that they used to. They got creative and found ways to make their lives even “richer” with less money. This is one of my favorite topics because I truly do believe that we can all live a lifestyle of frugal luxury, a term I fell in love with after reading this amazing book. Here is a blurb from that review:

A mental image from one of the chapters has always stuck with since I first read this book over a year ago. It talked about a family living in an abandoned wood shack. A group of charity workers heard someone was living in it and decided to stop by and leave food for the family. When they went inside they were stunned by what they saw. The wood floor was scrubbed until it gleamed and was covered with wood wax. A fire was burning in an old river rock fireplace and on the hearth sat a pot of simmering apples and cinnamon that made the place smell divine. A spool discarded by the cable company served as their table and it was adorned with floor length green and white checked gingham cloth. Simple curtains made from the same fabric covered their windows and hung from willow branches. A garland of evergreen and pine cones hung from the ceiling like a wallpaper border. They sat on fruit crates topped with red cushions and their guests were treated like royalty when they stopped by.

My own family has greatly simplified over the years and become quite content with those frugal luxuries. As do many young families we started out in debt because we didn’t feel the need to start from scratch as most young couples used to do. When we struck out on our own we used credit cards to accumulate all the “stuff” we had when we lived with our parents. We never stopped to think that our parents had worked years to accumulate all that they had… for some reason we felt we needed it all right away. Our kids were showered with toys… I never once (seriously) went to a store with the kids and failed to buy them something. They got used to getting whatever it is they wanted. I had a very “disposable” mentality and even then it drove my husband kinda nuts. If the kids destroyed something or something got really dirty I would propose we just go buy a new one. I would throw CDs down on the floor of the car and just think that if it got scratched and started skipping, I would just go buy another.

Were were drowning in stuff, creating massive amounts of waste, we were deep in debt, and big surprise we weren’t really happy because we wanted more.

Things changed when I quit my job to stay home with my kids (only two then). We simply had to make do with less because we were a one income family and I was also pretty much a single parent since my husband’s job was as an over the road trucker driver trainer. Ironically we both work now and still make way less than what he made alone back then and it seemed like such a hardship to manage to get by, LOL. I started a cloth diaper business for play money and that lead me to attachment parents (who were a big part of my customer base). Being a marketer I knew I had to understand my customers and I guess I drank the koolaid because I found my tribe. When I re-evaluated the coersive parenting style that I had originally fallen into (and was unsatisfied with) I found that I had to model the behavior I wanted my kids to learn and frankly I was selfish, wasteful, greedy, and ignorant. That wasn’t the role model I wanted to leave for them. I didn’t want them to grow up thinking that “things” made you happy and that our lifestyle choices had no impact on the people and planet around us. So I had to learn to embrace those things myself. Getting cancer helped that process along as you can imagine… simply being grateful you get to live can be an eye opener to the things that are truly important.

Adopting a more simplistic life and attitude has literally been the best thing that ever happened to us. Our recession moment didn’t hit last year. It happened the year before that when we decided my husband had worked on the road for too long. He quit his job and came home to a new one which paid him half as much. He works a 9 to 5 job now and I work at home. We make less money (about 30 grand less) but we don’t struggle. We eat better than we ever did back then and the kids have far less toys (at least new toys) but they have more of our attention and more “experiences” than they had before. I don’t have a brand new car car anymore, instead I have a used model that is ten years old and my husband drives that every day so I have been borrowing an old truck to take the kids back and forth to school on super cold days. I shop at thrift stores now for clothes, toys, and furnishings. I search Craigslist for bigger items that I think we need but 8 times out of 10 I end up deciding we don’t NEED the stuff after all.This week I was trying to organize my daughter’s books which have always just sat piled up on the floor in this house because our old house had built-in bookshelves (I miss them). I wanted to buy bookshelves but our local thrift store had nothing so I shopped in our garage hoping to find cinder blocks and planks of wood. Instead I found this:

This is a baby doll crib I bought for $5 at a yard sale and my daughter broke one of the rails off and both doors off. She also marked all over it with permanent marker. So it has been sitting in our garage for months. I looked at it and suddenly saw a rolling bookshelf. I painted it ballet slipper pink and put it in my daughter’s room for a bookshelf. We also decided that if this thing gets filled we will need to start donating books.

Does it look as nice as store bought shelves? Uh.. no but it is functional, cute, and it has a story. I think the $5 was well spent.

Its been a long journey but most days I feel truly rich. We have everything we need. The only thing I miss from days gone by is travel. I have fond memories of trekking around with my oldest son in a sling on my back as we hopped subways in New York City, rode the waves in Miami, or explored museums in Chicago. We want to add travel back into our lives and plan to do so as my income grows since I can do my work from my home office or a rented condo in Costa Rica. My parents will also be retiring soon and will be traveling and we want to accompany them when we can. But of course now we want to travel modestly, simply, frugally, and as sustainably as possible. But yet we do still go to amazing places.. state parks, waterfalls in the city, covered bridges, historic monuments, etc. We aren’t missing out on seeing amazing things.

There is a whole new world of possibilities when you decide that you can do more with your life even if you don’t have much money.

What do you think?