Baking Soda Facial Scrub

Do you ever feel like your face just needs a good scrubbing? Occasionally my face will get a bit dry and needs a pick me up. Some people choose to pay lots of money to go get a microdermabrasion. Others go out an buy a facial scrub for a decent price and hope that it works well. However, there is one other option; a homemade facial scrub.

Whether you are crunchy or not, you will have everything you need for this recipe in your kitchen already. The only difference is that crunchy die-hards might have 5 lbs of it, whereas everyone else will only have one small box. What is this simple yet already on hand ingredient? Baking soda, of course!

Baking soda is a great scrub for cleaning the house as it does an excellent job but it is still gentle enough that it won’t scratch surfaces. This also applies to faces and skin! Baking soda works wonderfully at removing dead skin cells and letting your healthy skin come to the surface but at the same time isn't too harsh.

Another great thing about baking soda is that it is also great for acne. If you have any pimples or break outs a simple baking soda paste can do wonders.

Baking Soda Facial Scrub

1 tbs. baking soda

Water

Mix just enough water into the baking soda to form a paste. Use your fingertips to apply the baking soda paste to your lightly wet face and rub in circular motions gently. Be sure to avoid the delicate skin underneath your eyes.

Now you can either wash of the baking soda paste immediately after using it as a scrub or you can choose to leave it on your face and let it act as a facial mask and then rinse. The choice is up to you.

Who says you have to pay a lot of money for a great looking skin?

Pistachio Product: Carlson Vitamin D

I recently wrote about how up to 85% of people are deficient in vitamin D. Vitamin D is needed for so many things; it keeps your immune system high, helps bone development (for kids) and helps prevent osteoporosis (for those no longer growing bones), deficiency has even been linked to cancer!

With so many people deficient, it seems important that almost everyone makes a conscious effort to get enough of this sunshine vitamin. The sun is obviously the best and greatest source of vitamin D. You can get 10,000 IU of vitamin D with just 20 minutes in the sun (without sunscreen). 

However, some cannot rely on just the sun for vitamin D.

Those who live in northern climates cannot get enough sunlight particularly in the winter months.

Those with darker skin have a harder time synthesizing vitamin D due to melanin.

The elderly also have a hard time getting vitamin D from the sun because as we get older it is harder for our body to make vitamin D.

Those who slather on sunscreen may not get enough vitamin D.  I won’t get into the sunscreen debate today but no matter what side you are on, sunscreen blocks vitamin D. Therefore as more people wear sunscreen during their time in the sun, more people are not actually getting vitamin D from the sun.

Getting vitamin D is important and when we cannot get it naturally through the sun, we need to supplement. One way of supplementing is through an actual vitamin supplement.

I was first introduced to vitamin D supplements when the doctor prescribed my 2 week old daughter  vitamin D. I knew that even infants can be deficient in vitamin D so we picked up the prescription. It didn’t take long to see that my daughter hated taking a dropperful of this nasty tasting supplement. It’s not surprising that it tastes so bad considering most of the ingredients were artificial and toxic.

We stopped giving her that brand of vitamin D and started searching for a more natural supplement. That’s when I found Carlson’s. Formerly called Carlson's D Drops, they are now transitioning to Carlson's Super Daily D3.

Carlson Vitamin D3 has a lot of benefits.

It is vitamin D3 and not D2. Vitamin D3 is absorbed the best by our bodies.

Comes in 400 IU, 1000 IU, and 2,000 IU.

Free of soy, sugar, corn, wheat, gluten, color, and preservatives!

Just one drop provides the whole dose of vitamin D. Much easier to take then a dropperful!

Can be added to food or liquids.

One bottle contains a years worth of drops! (for one person) 

Only two ingredients: vitamin D3 and coconut oil! (although apparently the new versions also have a smidgen of vitamin E added in as well) 

It is nice to have finally found a vitamin D supplement that has only natural ingredients and only takes one drop! When my daughter was a baby I’d simply put a drop on her pacifier. Now that my daughter is older her vitamin D goes into her smoothies just like her brothers. Even I take vitamin D this way, just one drop onto the food that I’m eating and I’m set for the day. Carlson’s is definitely the easiest way to get vitamin D3, other than the sun!

Homemade Conditioner

Those of you who have read this blog for a while know that I am a big no ‘poo fan. I’ve been no ‘pooing for over 2 years now and I will never stop.

While I promote no ‘pooing with great enthusiasm, I realize that some of you can’t or don’t want to no ‘poo. Maybe it just didn’t work with your hair or water type. Maybe you would like to do a no 'poo version for your children but know that vinegar and squirmy kids do not mix. Maybe you can’t stand the smell of vinegar. Perhaps you are like my husband who can stand the smell of vinegar but not when your beard gets wet from the rain and you have to smell it all day at work.

As I said, I’m perfectly happy with my baking soda and vinegar routine. My husband however is not. He does use baking soda for his “shampoo” but he just couldn’t stand the previously mentioned vinegar reaction so he has been using store bought conditioner. We try to get the more natural conditioners but they are hard to locate and generally cost an arm and a leg! Recently he ran out of his conditioner and instead of buying another somewhat natural bottle of conditioner (which I wasn’t thrilled with some of the ingredients despite it being better than some other brands) I decided to search for a homemade conditioner.

I finally came up with a homemade conditioner that is easy to make and works great. My husband has been using it for a week now and we are pretty certain that it’s working even better than his old conditioners. Now, I know that some of you are wondering how it works on girl hair so I took the plunge and gave it a try myself. I’m happy to report that my hair did just fine with it. Granted, I still prefer vinegar for my conditioner but this is a great homemade conditioner for those who want something else.

Homemade Conditioner

2/3 cup Water

1 tsp. Coconut Oil –melted

½ tsp. Guar Gum

Essential oils – optional

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend away. It will only take a minute or so. Transfer to an old conditioner bottle or any sort of squeeze bottle. Can be kept in the shower. This recipe should last about a month, as it has no preservatives.

I used Tea Tree essential oil and Rosemary essential oil in my husband’s conditioner as he deals with dandruff and both are great for it. Peppermint is another great essential oil. Really any essential oil that you love should be great in this conditioner.

You can add more coconut oil if you have dry hair or less oil if you have oily hair.

You can also get creative and use cold tea instead of plain water.

What You Might Find In My Cart

I had plans on sharing a new recipe with you but my daughter got sick today and as a result I'm going to do this post instead.

Hopefully you will still enjoy it but if not, well remember I needed something easy to post due to my sick baby. I promise you'll get that recipe in a day or two!

I've mentioned it before but I love Vitacost.com. It is one of my monthly go-to online stores. The great thing about Vitacost is that they sell natural products and at incredible prices! I have an on going list on Vitacost's site that I can refer to in order to see my favorite items.

Here are some of the items that are on my list and which are often delivered to my house on a regular basis.

Rainbow Light Kids' One MultiStarts - $17.47

Bionaturae Organic Strained Tomatoes - $3.29

YS Eco Bee Farms Raw Honey - $7.40

Arrowhead Mills Organic Popcorn - $2.98

Nutiva Chia Seeds - $6.53

Nature's Alchemy Pure Essential Oil Tee Tree - $4.91

Twist Naked Sponge  - $3.32

Wisdom Natural SweetLeaf Stevia Extract - $10.28

Super Nutrition Simply One Prenatal Vitamin - $22.48

Biokleen Liquid Laundry Detergent - $10.05

Bob's Red Mill Non-Aluminum Baking Powder - $3.40

Dr. Bronners Peppermint Liquid Castile Soap - $15.29

King Arthur  Organic White Whole Wheat Flour - $7.52

Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil - $15.11

Yes there are many more items on my list but these are some of my most frequent items.

If you've never used Vitacost, I encourage you to check it out. They have tons of natural items both food, vitamins, and personal products all at great prices. If you've never used Vitacost before you can sign up through this link and you will get $10 for your order. There are no strings attached and you can try out vitacost free if you order a small item or you can use that $10 to lower a bigger cart order. Either way it's a great way to try out Vitacost.

Also I recently just found out that if you use Ebates you can (at least currently) get 8% back on every Vitacost order! That's a little over $50 a year for me! I just signed up but I can see it being a great thing to follow Ebates link to Vitacost  for that 8%! If you haven't signed up for Ebates you should check it out, they have cash backs for tons of stores! Also if you sign up, be sure to use my email (thepistachioproject@gmail.com) as your referral!

I hope you've enjoyed taking a peek at what can be found in my "cart" on any given month. I also hope you take advantage of both Vitacost and Ebates as they are great ways to save/earn money which is something we all can use especially since sometimes crunchy is cheap but sometimes it's not!

I'm Crunchy But...

There comes a problem with being crunchy; people think you are always crunchy. Many times people hear me spouting off about how we do this or that and they therefore think I am condemning them, playing holier than thou, or some other such nonsense.

The truth is that I do not condemn others for not living the same way I do. I am not looking down my nose at them when I see them do something “not crunchy”. There is no black and white with crunchy. Granted I obviously feel like the choices I make for my family are the best…for MY family. However that doesn’t mean I think that if somebody uses regular shampoo that they are a horrible person. I’ve said it many times before: Nobody is 100% crunchy.

Which brings me to my little dirty secret. Some of you might think I’m this extreme crunchy mom who never does anything “mainstream”. I’ve had plenty of people assume that was the case. I’m writing to share with you that this is not true: I am not crunchy ALL the time.

Yes, I breastfeed, co-sleep (occasionally), soak my grains, buy coconut oil in bulk, make my own personal products, and use homeopathic medicine.

But…

Sometimes I eat fast food.

Sometimes I use candy to get my kids through all my errands.

We drive an SUV.

We don’t keep cows, chickens, or bees.

I can’t even think about eating organ meats without getting sick to my stomach.

I sometimes hate having to soak my grains or make broth.

My kids watch television and play video games.

I’ve had a c-section, granted it was an unplanned emergency c-section.

I’ve gotten an epidural with both VBACs. However, I am getting closer to a natural birth as that is what I’d truly like…get rid of the Pitocin and I’ll make it!

I have my babies in a hospital.

I won’t breastfeed past 2 years.

My boys are forward-facing in their car seats. I didn’t know about extended rear-facing when we turned them around but it seems too late to try rear-facing them now. My daughter will rear-face until her seat’s limit.

We do a mild version of crying it out. We don’t start until they are 1 years old and like I said, it’s mild.

I never remember to bring my own bags to the grocery store.

I haven’t banned the microwave.

My husband’s late night meal of choice is cheap freezer pizzas with tons of trans fat in them…. And so far, I cave in and eat them too.

So you see, I am not crunchy all the time.  I strive to be but there are some things that I am just not ready for and there are some things that I do not see as the right choice for my family. Do not be ashamed if you are not 100% crunchy, we all have our crunchy confessions (whether they be secret or known).  Realize that it’s a part of your crunchy journey. Maybe some day you’ll be crunchier maybe someday you won’t but either way, you do not have to be perfect in the crunchy world in order to be part of it.