olive cleanser and lemon almond hand cream

On the left is the Lemon Almond Hand Cream, on the right is the Coconut Olive Cleanser. I used the cleanser last night, and liked it. We'll see how it goes after using it several times.

Organic at Home

I just re-borrowed an awesome book from the library - Organic at Home by Dr. Judy Macleod. It's full of recipes and tips for everything from face cleansers to compost heaps. This evening, I made a bunch of things from it:

Simple Shampoo (I'll let you know how it works, Jen! It smells amazing!)
Lemon and Almond Hand Cream (Beeswax-y, kind of like the Burt's Bees hand salves)
Coconut and Olive Cleanser (My skin is combination and likes to be contrary)
Eye Make-up Remover (equal parts light olive and castor oils - super easy!)

Also, I used olive oil last night as a moisturizer on my face before going to bed. I found that just dipping the pad of my finger in it and then spreading it on gave me just enough and I wasn't greasy at all. And my cheeks felt lovely this morning!

no expectations

On Sunday afternoon, I learned from a 2 1/2 year old that the way to enjoy life is to have no expectations. We were out on the lawn enjoying the sun, and Ben was playing with a glider plane. Us adults had assembled the planes and when we threw them, were expecting the planes to fly at least halfway across the lawn. We ended up disappointed when they went a few feet and then nose-dived into the ground. Ben, however, would use his whole body to throw the plane, and his reaction was the same whether the plane went somewhere or fell at his feet. "Yaaaaaaaay!" he would squeal as he jumped up and down. Then the whole process began again.

I had a wonderful time enjoying other people's children on the weekend, and had one of my favourite meals ever at the Dockside Restaurant in Lunenburg. I don't mean the food, although that was excellent - the bacon wrapped scallops far exceeded my expectations. There were 3 young-ish couples and three children at our table - Ben, and two fabulous 7 month-olds. They totally dictated everything that went on, and it was great. We were noisy and laughed a lot and the kids threw silverware on the floor - it was the best warm-fuzzy feeling.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day to all! Of course, every day should be Earth Day, but it's still lovely to acknowledge it today. Rather than focussing on all of the negative issues of global warming, pollution, blah blah blah, I've decided to take a positive spin on today. I've been thinking about it lately, and there are so many opportunities we have to choose to look at issues from the positive side and we still take the negative. I do, anyway. For example: grumble, grumble grumble about the price of oil. Negative 'solution': continue grumbling. Positive solution: find alternate sources of energy (we're buying a wood stove - I'm excited!), drive less, put on sweaters instead of cranking up the furnace, etc. I believe that rying to do what I can a little bit at a time (buying environmentally friendly cleaning products, drying clothes outside as much as possible, using a reel lawn mower) to be kinder to the earth is better than being defeatist about the whole thing. I'm trying to take that approach to work as well - doing all that I can and knowing that I've done that much, rather than thinking "Well, it probably wouldn't make a difference if I did that anyway." So, in the spirit of my positive spin, here are some links to some earth-friendly and interesting things:

Straw Bale House links:
The Last Straw
The International Journal of Straw Bale and Natural Building

Strawbale house links

Yurt links:
Rainier Yurts

(This article is a little out there, but interesting anyway) Yurts: Round & Unbound

Cleaning and house stuff:
Seventh Generation

Natural Home and Garden Magazine (my new favourite - it takes a pro-active spin on everything related to the house and garden, is beautiful to look at and a great resource)

Simply Clean A line of Canadian, fragrance and phosphate-free, biodegradable household cleaners which I love - the laundry detergent is amazing and has gotten out stains that I couldn't remove with Shout. They're available at our local Superstore and health food store.

And because there's always plenty of negative and saddening news everywhere, check out happynews.com and Cute Overload. Guaranteed to make you smile!

Happy Earth Day!

dreamy daffodils

Two of the many types of daffodils in our yard. It seems so miraculous that these bulbs just sit underground all winter without any intervention, and in the Spring, without any fuss or bother, emerge the most beautiful flowers imaginable. I'm especially taken with the first one; I don't remember seeing any like it anywhere else.

This blog seems to have morphed into a photographic record of what's in our yard. That seems to be what I'm spending much of my time on these days... cleaning the yard and planning what to do next with the flowerbeds. I love it! And the sun's out, so I want to get outside!

fave

I think this is my favourite of all my pictures. Easter lilies are beautiful, and I think they represent the triumphant nature of Easter quite precisely.

Easter weekend

A couple more photos I took at Ad's parent's when we were there for the weekend.

easy being green

I thought this picture turned out well. More precisely, it turned out pretty much how I expected it to. The leaf (it's a peace lily leaf at my in-law's place) seems to have these tiny holes in it that let the sun through and make it look kind of grainy, but I don't mind. I love anything green, grainy or not.

spring has sprung

Spring has sprung! It's an amazing day outside, and I just did one of my all-time favourite thing to do in the summer - hung out laundry on the line while in bare feet. Ahhhhhh.

person-powered mower

Our big purchase of the summer was made today - a reel mower! We assembled it and tried it out today, and it's great! It's loud (in a strange, high-pitched kind of way) but it cuts the grass very nicely and kind of flings the cut bits up in a jovial sort of way. And it's certainly not louder than a gas mower. So we don't need gas or electricity to cut the grass - this is great! It has a 20 inch width and 4 wheels for stability, and it was 64.00 off at Canadian Tire. And it's nice and light with a cushy padded handle for easy manoeuvring. I'll keep you posted on how it goes once the lawn really starts growing.

snail's trails

Periwinkle's trails, actually. "Snail's trails" sounds much better. Husband and I went for a beautiful sunset walk on the beach this evening, and there were thousands of trails in the sand, most of them seeming to not really go anywhere, but with no periwinkles in sight. Perhaps a mothership beams them up after they've made a requisite length of trail in the sand.

lazy saturday in the carrier

I'm enjoying my first Saturday without any assignments to do! Truthfully, I feel a little lost. Virgil seems quite content, though.

the 'I'm done my MEd' fairies

I finished today! It's all done! I wrote a pretty terrible exam this afternoon

(*note: transcribing print math into Nemeth code requires a great deal of patience, pickiness, and attention to detail. These traits form about 1% of my total repertoire of characteristics. The rest of my composition is mainly hurried-ness and getting things done quickly, along with a good dose of cheerfulness and love for my cat. Thus, my transcribing efforts are usually riddled with errors. When I locate these errors, I'm too impatient to re-braille the page, so I flatten them down which looks messy and frustrates me.)

and I didn't have enough time to finish within the time allotted, but I'm done. I don't think it's really hit me yet... I'm done school for the forseeable future. I can't imagine. No papers, assignments, classes, readings... my free time will seem HUGE! And with all of the cooking I'll have time for, hopefully I won't become huge, too. Ahhhhh...