I joined a second gym this week. Sounds kind of crazy but I badly wanted to try CrossFit and you typically need to find a specialized CrossFit gym or “box” for that. My other gym is pretty darn awesome and I still plan to go there three times a week but they are pretty vanilla and just don’t have kettlebells, rings, jump boxes, or medicine balls. I toyed with the idea of buying some kettlebells but heck good ones can cost $85 a pop. Plus I know myself well enough to know that I will not work out at home. It’s just not gonna happen.

So I joined a CrossFit box and today was my first workout. Facebook folks had me pretty darn scared about how tough it would be. In fact I was shaking as I drove there. I almost had a coronary when I discovered I would have to drive through a roundabout to get there. Those things terrify me! Anyway the roundabout was the worst part by far because the workout was awesome. No tears, I swear. :)

I am in better shape than I gave myself credit for and when I said those exact words to hubby he said “Duh!” I swim about 6 miles per week and lift weights 3 times a week. I also run whenever I get the urge so I am not exactly an exercise newbie but still I was worried because it’s CrossFit, notorious for being extremely tough. I have no doubt I will be a little sore tomorrow but I kept up and think I was probably one of the best in the class are far as strength and times.

The actual gym was a blast too. It was was very… er, rough with chunks of missing drywall, bars and rings hanging everywhere, uneven flooring with astro turf for carpet, and graffiti all over the walls of this big warehouse building. The atmosphere was very ghetto but for CrossFit it just kind of works. Plus they played AC/DC’s Hell’s Bells really loud and that equates to automatic approval for me.

I came, I lived, and I plan to go back two times a week. Booyah!

Have you tried CrossFit yet?

It is that time of year so I  have been posting regularly about greening the upcoming school year. I have been doing this for a couple years so it is habit now but yet even I need reminders and motivation sometimes. Going to Walmart and tossing the cheapest stuff in the cart as fast as you possibly can is certainly tempting when your to-do and  your to-buy list is super long. If it were easy all the time then it wouldn’t be called “making an impact” would it? Even green parents can start to run low on steam and that is why I am loving the Green Your School Year challenge from Recyclebank.

Recyclebank is a community I first discovered a year of so ago. It is a place where a community of 2 million members keep track of their goals and successes while keeping it green. This is facilitated by great information and pledges to do just a little more. For this school year they kicked off a challenge to help parents keep the school experience green. In the first phase you walk through a nifty tutorial for shopping for greener school supplies. Right off the bat they recommended carpooling with another parent or family so you are conserving resources just making the trip to your local store. This was a step that escaped my mind for sure. Pledge to carpool and you get your first 10 points in the challenge!

Next up… pledge to buy green, recyclable, or recycled school supplies for another 10 points. As an added bonus they also have a download for you with a checklist of items to check/consider when researching companies and brands that you may purchase from. I love, love, love that they encourage people to research the ethics, certifications, and integrity of the companies and products you want to purchase.

The next screen had two quiz questions.. which I got right. Ding, ding! No doubt this feature is designed to help educate us on what to look for in these products and also make us aware of trends in family spending. They should turn this into a video game. ;) A link follows this page and and it provides a resource for you to recycle qualifying electronics and they offer up to 200 bonus points in return. I saved this info for future use.

Further on there more polls and informative links for keeping school supplies sustainable, including the wardrobe. It was a VERY fun tutorial and I enjoyed participating. I think I got all the available points could, minus the extra credit recycling points but I may end up finding some stuff to recycle and claim some of those too. When the challenge concludes they will be awarding some great prizes to some lucky winners including Bodhi Electric Bicycles (Yowza!), a solar backpack, gift certificates to department stores and grocers, lunch kits, vitamins, etc.

The next phase, which starts in a couple days is all about the first day of school. So after you join up and claim your points for greening the school shopping experience, make sure to check back with Recyclebank for the first day challenge. Good luck!

This post is part of a campaign sponsored by Recyclebank.

A grand summer vacation or spring break may not be in the cards for every family. The costs for family travel seems to go up every year and you may not live close enough to an amusement park, so what do you do? Well, if you are like me I plan lots of small day trips instead and most of them revolves around free or low cost activities that take us outside to explore. This is all part of our family simplicity project. We work as little as we can, taking the lower pay with it, so that we can spend more time together. When we want to do special things that means we have to get a bit creative. A Disney Cruise is not in the cards for us, it may never be, but we can still have a lot of fun while staying close to home. Just think outside the box!

Explore Local Waterfalls – Finding local waterfalls and swimming holes is the BEST! When I lived in Arizona there was no shortage of stuff like this to find so imagine my surprise when I checked out the Go Waterfalling site and found there was a waterfall about 20 minutes away from me. It was a blast and the kids loved it. Plus we now know there are some more about 1-2 hours north of us. Sounds like a nice day trip to me!

National Parks - Most Americans live within a day’s drive of a national park. Ranger tours, hiking trails, campfire talks… sounds pretty nice to me and you don’t even have to sleep in the park if camping is not your thing, you can find a cheap motel nearby instead. Make it an educational event by identifying local plant life, trees, and wildlife, discussing survivalism, etc. Mom and Dad can bring a camera and work on their photography skills so they can make a National Park scrapbook when they get home. Check out your local library for guidebooks specific to any park you want to go to.

Look for Covered Bridges – My mother and I LOVE to go driving around Ohio and scope out the covered bridges. No doubt when I take the kids up to spend time with her this summer we will make several of these trips. The photo above was taken on one such occasion. We ran into our first Ohio rattlesnake on a covered bridge so the kids are always excited to see if we can find more.

Historical Site Exploration – Do a Google search and see if you can find local battlefields, Indian ruins, or other places of historical interest. Visit homes that were part of the underground railroad or check out famous grave sites. We are very fortunate to live close to an outdoor amphitheater to witness the epic life story of the legendary Shawnee leader, Tecumseh as he struggles to defend his sacred homelands in the Ohio country during the late 1700’s. When I was a kid we used to drive to it in a motorhome and camp there overnight during the summer. In Arizona we would make day trips to Tombstone… good times.

Explore Caves and Caverns – Does your state have caverns and caves to explore. It probably does. Do some searching and see what you can find. You can usually go on tours and learn all about the history of the cave and what it was used for in centuries past. We have been wanting go to visit Mammoth Cave in Kentucky (5 hours away) but there are also several that are closer.

Scavenger Hunt! - A nearby city puts on a scavenger hunt each year where you have to drive to all sorts of local cemeteries, landmarks, and historic places and get a unique stamp in your adventure passport. It is a lot of fun and can be recreated easily. Spend a few evenings outlining an adventure tour in your local area, the kids will love it.

Check Out a Day Trips Book – Most major cities have published books with fun things to do in your area or within a days drive. It was by perusing books like this that we discovered that there are honest to goodness Castles in Ohio. We had fun visiting a few of them and want to hit up more this summer.

Go to Local Festivals – The availability of festivals and fairs will really depend on your state. In Ohio we have TONS of counties so their is a county fair practically every week in the nicer months it seems. We also have a Bratwurst Festival, a Strawberry Festival, a Popcorn Festival, a Tomato Festival, the Country Music Festival… it goes on and on. They provide funs ways to get outside, explore local communities, and eat some tasty food.

Harvest Some Food - Summer to us means raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and sweet corn. We like to visit You-Pick farms in the area and pick our own food. The kids have a blast harvesting it and they are super excited to get home and eat, bake, freeze, or can our treasures.

Visit the Animals – Take a trip to the zoo, a wildlife sanctuary or preserve, local stables, anywhere where you can interact with the local wildlife.

What are your favorite family vacation day trips?

No doubt you are catching on to the fact that the “beauty industry” is actually code for “toxic crap you don’t need”. Never in a million years would you think women would willingly line up to slather noxious chemicals all over their face but guess what? They do! But we can green up our beauty routines and make them more natural and safe too. Here are some tips for greening up your beauty regime.

1. Read the ingredients. Look closely at the ingredients in your cleanser, shampoo, hair gel, make-up, and so forth. Look them up in the cosmetics database and read first hand about what you are actually putting on your skin. If you find a lot of suspicious chemical names, look for alternatives. All sorts of toxic substances have been identified in conventional makeup and other beauty aids but there are companies making alternative products. The more people that purchase better products the louder our collective voice becomes against toxics.

2. Keep it simple. It’s amazing what you can accomplish with just lemon juice, for example. You don’t need an abundance of elaborate, complicated beauty aids.

3. Use natural products, such as lemons, honey, oatmeal, avocado, and yogurt on your hair or skin. The beauty tricks of long ago still work! For more info on that check out Beauty Secrets of the Bible. Its not a religious book is just gives us insight into Biblical women and what they used for beauty. They were just as concerned about it as modern women can be.

4. Use baking soda instead of shampoo. It makes a wonderful cleanser for your hair. Mix about a teaspoon of baking soda per cup of warm water, and pour over your head while in the shower. Work it in to your scalp and rinse.

5. Use an apple cider vinegar (ACV) solution as a rinse following the baking soda wash. Mix a tablespoon of ACV into 2 cups of warm water and pour over your head and hair. Rinse with as cool a water temperature as you can handle.

6. Look for natural make-up. Many top cosmetic manufacturers specialize in more natural formulations. Avoid make-up that has aluminum, phthalates, formaldehyde, fragrance, and parabens.

7. Combine cooked oatmeal with mashed bananas and spread on damp hair to treat dry scalp and dandruff.

8. Cut out beauty products with petroleum-based ingredients. Some ingredients to look for include parraffin, Propylene Glycol, and Isopropyl Alcohol.

9. Look for the “not tested on animals” label to assure you are not supporting the harmful and cruel practice of animal cosmetic testing. Human beauty is NOT worth animal suffering.

10. Use reusable products rather than disposable ones in your beauty routine. Examples of common disposable beauty items are: razors, pre-packaged, single-use hair treatments, and cotton balls.

The two BEST books on this subject happen to be written by the same person, Julie Gabriel. The first is the Green Beauty Guide. That link takes you to my review. The second is fairly new, Green Beauty Recipes, and I have LOVED puring over the recipes. My daughter is ecstatic to make some of these and I feel good about letting her go wild with it because they are safe and natural. Carrot Cake Cleansing Cream, Milk and Olive Facial Toner, Breakfast Yogurt Scrub, Pumpkin Mask, Natural Clay Deodorant… its fun, practical, and informational.

Enjoy!

If you have been around any traditional foods / nourishing traditions enthusiasts then no doubt you have heard them sing the praises of Kefir. What exactly is it though and how do you make it at home?

Kefir grains are actually a gelatinous grouping of bacteria and yeasts that grow during the process of fermentation. The grains themselves look very much like tiny cauliflower heads but they can turn milk, or other beverages into a drink that is deliciously sour and sparkling, charged naturally with carbon dioxide. The grains can be used again and again to make a continuous supply of kefir drinks.

Kefir was discovered accidentally by shepherds carrying milk in skin bags. Over time the milk would ferment and create a tasty drink. Now foodies everywhere are buying and making kefir drinks from cow’s milk, soy milk, rice milk, coconut milk, juice, and even water. Fruit and other sweeteners can also be added to make a sweet sparkling juice, a drinkable yogurt style beverage, or a smoothie. If you want to try some before purchasing the grains, many natural foods grocery stores offer bottles of flavored Kefir but trust me it is yummy!

How to Make Your Own Kefir

The process for making kefir is actually pretty easy. You just add 1-2 tablespoons of the Milk Kefir Grains for every two cups of milk (or other liquid) to a glass mason jar. Fill the jar 3/4 with milk and let it sit at room temperature on your countertop for 12-24 hours. Keep away from direct sunlight. While the milk is culturing, gently shake the jar a few times to stir the mixture. The Kefir is done when it starts to taste tangy. Just strain the kefir grains out of the milk and set them aside to use again. You can also refrigerate them and the cold will cause them to go dormant if you don’t plan to use them for awhile. When stirring and straining make sure to use plastic or stainless steel utensils and kitchenware because certain metals can react to the acidic nature of milk grains and heavy metals can leach onto them. This is not true of water kefir grains, also called sugary kefir grains. For storage use glass, as it is an inert and non-reactive material.

The kefir grains will grow as you make more batches and if you mark your mason jar with a permanent marker you can tell how much they have grown and remove the excess. You can add the excess grains to the strained drink and blend to increase the probiotic value. You can also store them for future use, or you can donate them to someone who wants to try their own hand at making kefir.

Kefir is favored by health enthusiasts because it contains vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and strains of friendly bacteria and beneficial yeasts that help with digestion, immunity, healing, and the improvement of regular body functions. Many people swear that kefir has helped them to recover from serious illness and that it has anti-aging properties. The nutritional value of kefir makes it a beneficial drink for just about anyone and making it yourself is incredibly easy. So why not try it today?

For more info about live cultered foods I recommend: Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods and you can buy Milk Kefir Grains at Cultures for Health, eBay, or on Amazon.

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