Last day of NaBloPoMo

 I made it! The last day of NaBloPoMo!
While I think that I might have lost some of you along the way (FeedBurner says otherwise...), I am also weirdly proud that I did it, even while buying a house, renovating a house, moving in 10 days, finding out that we have an unbreakable lease, and the usual part-time work and full-time mom-ing to non-napping kiddos. And I still have most of my sanity (if not less money and sleep)! Woot!

I wanted to reflect on a few posts that I really liked from this month and therefore ignore the crappy ones like the one from last Saturday.

Posts worth reading:

• Safer hair products and a rant
• Packing with less plastic
• Old crushes
• Klout: I hate you, but I need you
• Budgeting with cash
• SAHM malaise: I do not haz it

What do you think? Are you still with me? Did you have a favorite post?
Are you as glad as I am that this is over?!!

Related: I am possibly going to take a few days off now, if that's OK with you.

Blogging from my iPhone

…sucks! I can't wait to get out internet back, hopefully tomorrow! So far, my iPhone has survived it's bath, although the music no longer plays. It's a good thing it did survive because the wait for a 4G is apparently still around 2 weeks, even though there are something like 4 Apple stores within 15 miles of my house. I've also tried Radio Shacks, AT&T stores, and Best Buy. Hasn't this phone been on the market for around 3 months?! Why the shortage, Apple?!

I dropped my iPhone in the bathtub

...again. You might remember that I did this once before. Only that time the toilet. So I guess this is better except that we don't have internet here at the new place until Wednesday so I've been blogging and doing my parttime work from my iPhone. And there are 2 days of NaBloPoMo left! Holy crap!!

Safer hair products and a rant

photo by Evil Erin

I recently had a friend and fellow blogger ask me what I "green" products I use on my hair. A good question but also a complicated answer.

The "ideal"
It would be nice to be able to go to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Database and select a shampoo/conditioner/hair product that gets a good rating from them. Unfortunately, I have noticed lately that their standards have become so strict that they give good ratings to fewer and fewer products and companies. The products they do recommend are a) very expensive b) very difficult to find (i.e.,  must be ordered online from Canada or something), and c) come in very small quantities. Since you must order them online, there's no way to try them out without spending some serious cash. Just not an option for me at this time.

Except it's not ideal
I have a dry scalp issue. There, I said it. Tea tree oil products do not work at all for me. What I need to use is a dandruff shampoo. In the past, Neutrogena's T-Gel and Head '&' Shoulders Classic Formula have received OK ratings from the EWG. Recently, that spontaneously changed although the formulas of the products did not change. What is going on, EWG? I can only assume that they changed their standards for what is safe. But if you delve into the site, you'll find that they don't qualify their ratings. They only tell you that the product is going to give you cancer, make you infertile, and cause neural damage. It doesn't say what they are basing these assumptions on. Are they saying that because it contains phthalates? Parabens? Formaldehyde? No one knows. All I know is that some guy at the EWG used to think Head '&' Shoulders was OK but now he's starting to think it's going to give me cancer. And he doesn't have to tell me why.

The reality
I got really frustrated with not being able to discern the EWG ratings and not being able to afford what they suggested anyway, so I started using GoodGuide, which is both a web site and an iPhone app. The ratings it uses are a little looser, and take into account the social responsibility of the company and the environmental impact of the corporation as a whole (not the environmental impact of that particular product). Both of those things are important to me when buying products.

One word of caution if you do use GoodGuide for determining the safety of a product: make sure you look at the breakout of the score. If a company has great social responsibility and environmental impact but makes a really toxic product, they can still get a good score because the overall score is an average of the 3 scores. So make sure you're paying attention to the "Health" score.

The result
Right now, I am using mostly Aveda products* because they use essential oils instead of phthalates for fragrance, and their products are salon-quality while also being natural. I use Head '&' Shoulders shampoo, but the rest is Aveda. I have to be honest, most of the "natural" brands I've tried leave my hair too dry. Aveda is also easy to find, I don't have to order things online from Canada if I run out - I just go to the nearest store or even the mall.

My advice
What I told my friend is this: pick what toxins are most important to you to avoid and focus on finding a product that works and doesn't contain that ingredient. For me, avoiding phthalates is the most important. For some people, it might be parabens or sulfates. Pick what matters to you, and base your search on that criteria. What works for one person's hair might not work for another. Or what hasn't worked for me (ahem, J.A.S.O.N. products from Whole Foods) might actually work for you!
Good luck!


*NOTE: Aveda did not compensate me in any way for mentioning them. In fact, I pay them. A lot. But if they read this: hey, Aveda, I would be more than happy to review your products!

Countdown whining

Oh my goodness, only 4 more days left of NaBloPoMo! I have never been so glad. What was I thinking, doing this while renovating a house, moving, and traveling for Thanksgiving?! I do not even have internet access right now, since they can't re-install our AT&T until Tuesday.

What I learned about renovating

Aside from the fact that the freaking renovations on our new place have (of course) cost more than we thought, there are other things that I have learned about constructor workers and contractors that I did not know before.

Here is what I have found out in the last week:

• Home Depot is usually playing very feminine pop like Celine Dion, Michael Buble, and whoever sings "How do I liiiiiiiiiiive without yooooooou? How can I breathe without you here in my liiiiiiiiiife?" or something like that.
• The 4 painting/remodeling guys also seem to enjoy some good power love ballads. I don't know for sure because it was all in Spanish, but the songs involved a great deal of strong feeling on the part of the singer. I would not have expected that.
• If you bring your kids to Home Depot, even if they act like perfect angels the entire time, the male Home Depot associates will ignore or patronize you.
• If you are a woman at Home Depot who is about to drop several hundred dollars on paint, but you are, nevertheless, still female - the male paint associates will still ignore or patronize you.
• If you are a woman and try to go into the insulation part of Home Depot because you will be dropping hundreds of dollars on insulation in the near future, you might get asked to leave because "this is a contractor area". It's not. It's insulation, anyone can buy it. What the guy means is "we think this is a male area".
• If one contractor doesn't agree with how another contractor is doing something, they get really girly and snippy about it. They will both call and talk to me about the other person, and then one went so far as to do some work anyway despite the other guy telling him not to, because he claimed that the first guy was going to do it wrong. Which also delayed a third guy doing a totally separate job. Am I in middle school again?!
• They will do totally amazing things to your house and then explain how great a job they did, and just as you get super excited about how awesome it is, they tell you that it cost several hundred dollars more than you thought it would. Then you kind of wish it was maybe a little less awesome.

So, lessons learned. Of course you know that I have also learned that some leases cannot be broken. Since that is still the case, I would still appreciate everyone passing on our Craigslist ad to anyone who might be looking for a house in Richardson!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am truly grateful for each and every one of my readers this Thanksgiving! I hope that you have a wonderful day full of love and family and gratitude!

This kid is saying "Oh turkey, I love you so much that my Daddy is going to chop off your head and we are going to eat your dead body with great thankfulness!"

6 Things - My Past

Since it is NaBloPoMo and I am pretty desperate for topics, I am going to take a cue from my Twitter friend LaurenACarlton and do "6 Things" which, as best I can tell, is 6 random facts about yourself that people possibly do not know.

These 6 things are about my past because I think some of those things are more surprising than anything from my present.

1. I have two tattoos and I still like both of them, despite the fact that they are faded and need to be redone, and one is in the stereotypical "tramp stamp" location.
2. The guy I dated in high school was eerily similar to my husband in personality, life experience, and even religion. I really believe that I was so attracted to him because I was looking for Christian and didn't know it yet.
3. There was a time in my life where I smoked a lot of weed, basically in lieu of antidepressants.
4. I also smoked menthol light cigarettes for 3 years. People were always surprised when they found out I smoked menthols, like that was hardcore or something but I thought they tasted good. Now cigarette smoke makes me nauseated.
5. I bailed one of my boyfriends out of jail for a DUI. He was driving less than a mile from the bar to his apartment, he could have walked.
6. In my 20's I had a job at a luxury automobile dealership where I got to take home a Porsche several times and once a Mercedes SLK convertible. I used to know a lot about performance cars during that time in my life.

Questions?

Old crushes

 Here's a NaBloPoMo writing prompt from last week:
Make a list of everyone you've ever had a crush on in your life, then choose one from the list and describe him or her in great detail. 

Instead of doing that, I would like to explain why I don't do things like that. Yes, part of it is that I am married and I feel like it's just not respectful to my husband for me to go around thinking about past crushes. And another part is that I can't even remember most of them because I was 12 years old. But mostly, it's because I don't really believe in looking back like that.

What I mean is that I don't really agree with the practice of looking back at something I "might have done" or I "missed out on". I don't think I've missed out on anything. Each one of the relationships I had ended for a good reason. Each one of the crushes that was never returned was for a logical reason. Sometimes it might have been fate - had anything turned out differently, I would not be where I am now. Sometimes it was because of incompatibility and I'm so thankful that one of us realized that and ended it. Sometimes it was because we learned what we were meant to learn from the time we were (or weren't) together, and we took that knowledge and experience with us, and it has formed us into the people we needed to become to find our ultimate life's partners.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't have a lot of regrets, even though I had some difficult and hurtful experiences. I believe that all of them were for a reason and they were all helpful.
I am thankful for the experiences.

The dangers of renting (help?)

 I've rented a lot of places in my life. In fact, since neither Christian or I have ever bought a house before, we've rented ALL our residences for the past 14 years or so. We have typically found all leases to be the same regarding the penalties for breaking the lease. Maybe we were lucky and we've always rented from good landlords, or apartment complexes that were well-resourced. But we have never encountered a lease we couldn't break by simply paying a fee. In fact, when I accidentally found myself being stalked by a crazy guy in my first apartment in Dallas, I broke the year-long lease there after only 3 months. Yes, I had to pay a fee equal to 3 months rent, but it was worth it to get rid of the stalker.

It turns out that the lease on the house we are currently renting is different. There is apparently a clause in this lease specifying that if we leave before the lease term is up, we are still responsible for continuing to pay the rent every month throughout the remainder of the lease period unless we personally find someone else to start a new lease. What?! Yeah. In this case, that means through May.

Needless to say, we aren't exactly resourced in a way that will allow us to pay both our rent and a mortgage for 6 months.

I am asking a little favor from my blogging friends who live in DFW or might know people in the area - please help us rent this house!


Here is a link to the Craigslist ad. I am changing the link every day so I can re-list the house at the top of the rental results, but I will also update this post to the new link. Please pass it on, and I appreciate your help!

Portabella Pizza Recipe

 The other day I found two portabella caps at the grocery store on sale, and remembered this simple recipe for portabella pizza!  We had it tonight and it's really yummy. I would recommend it!

Ingredients

• 1 large portobello mushroom, stem removed
• 1 tablespoon spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 tablespoon sliced black olives
• 4 slices pepperoni sausage
• 1 clove garlic, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Place the mushroom on a baking sheet, and bake for 5 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from the oven, and spread spaghetti sauce in the cup of the cap. Top with cheese, olives, pepperoni and garlic.
3. Bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and golden.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn

 On Thursday night I went to a midnight showing of the most recent movie in the Twilight series, "Breaking Dawn".

Let me preface this by saying that the only reason I read the books was because I was put on bed rest when I was pregnant with Little Sir in 2009 and that was the exact time the books were becoming so popular. Therefore, I ended up reading the books.

What did I think of the books? I will be honest with you, I found them pretty fluffy. The thing that bugged me most was how Bella got her ass kicked most of the time and had to have someone save her. The third book was my favorite because that is when she actually started kicking some ass herself. LOVE THAT.

So I have really been looking forward to the last movie(s) because I am thinking that this is when the female starts striking back and it's all awesome and stuff.

Not so much this movie. This movie was one long Edward-and-Bella lovefest with the usual Jacob drama and then a very unrealistic pregnancy thrown in. The thing that bothered me the most was that they kept showing Bella laying on her back while 8-9 months pregnant. WTF?! Anyone who has been pregnant can tell you that there is no way you can lie on your back past about 6 months without suffocating yourself or the baby. As the baby gets larger and heavier, laying on your back causes the uterus to rest on the major vein that supplies blood to the rest of your body. Laying on your back causes you discomfort but also lightheadedness and eventually you'd even pass out if you did it for too long. And as the movie and the book stated, apparently Bella's monster baby was much heavier than the usual human baby. Logically, every time she rolled even slightly near her back she should instantly pass out or cut off the baby's oxygen supply in the womb. But nooooooo she was laying on her back most of the time. Aaaggh!!

Did I like the movie? Well, it is of course visually stunning like the other movies. And I do enjoy the storyline, as I did with the books. I wanted to see Bella be a vampire for a significant amount of time so I was disappointed in that regard.

I will say this: I am just really looking forward to the third movie when the ass-kicking starts.

It's 9pm and still NaBloPoMo

...therefore I am posting. I don't have a lot to say except that I've spent the last 3 days over at the new house a good deal of the time talking to Jose, who is doing all the painting and handyman things, and the general contractor for the other work. It is insane the number of people I have to call and text all day long just to coordinate things. I even had my kids nap in the empty dining room today so we could meet with the carpet people since that was their only time slot.

It's iffy right now as to whether we will make our expected move date of Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. We can't delay it by one day because Saturday is the birthday party of our niece, Mazzie, and we can't wait to see her!

I did finally pick paint colors. Most I am satisfied with, but there was one that I picked out of desperation and exhaustion because I just wanted to have a freaking color for that room. Hope it works out!

Packing with less plastic

I have about 5 seconds to write this but I have to tell you that I dislike plastic bubble wrap, although it is often necessary when moving. Instead of using bubble wrap or even newspaper when packing delicate items, here is what I do: I use all my linens (towels, washcloths, bedsheets, blankets, etc.) to wrap vases, glasses, and to put between plates. Of course, I run out of linens eventually and have to resort to traditional packing materials but using the linens reduces what I use by about half!

We are homeowners, and I might go insane

We closed on our first house and got the keys yesterday! Then, later that night, we showed our current rental house to a nice lady who is interested in renting it. This is great news because if she rents it as of December 1, it will keep us from having to pay a month of double fees. It is also scary news because that means I will need to pack and move the entire house in 10 days or less. While we are packing we will also be coordinating all the remodeling that is going to happen in the new place before we move it. Paint colors, buying a dog door, buying garage doors, buying insulation, picking out carpet, picking out some new fixtures, babyproofing everything... Then I will also have to clean both houses from top to bottom.

Did I mention that neither of my kids sleep through the night yet?
And I work around 8 hours a week part time, which takes up all the times that they are sleeping and some times that they aren't.
Oh, and also it is still NaBloPoMo for the rest of the month.
HOLYCRAP. What was I thinking?!

Books: can't live without 'em, can't keep moving them

The picture above is one of our full-wall bookcases. As you can see, it's full of books except for a few shelves we had to clear because they're within reach of the kids. There is also an Ikea Expedit in the "office" that is half full of books, and the top of a bureau in the kitchen full of cookbooks.

You can imagine how fun it is to pack up all these books and move them. You can only put a certain number of books in each box before it gets too heavy to lift, so it creates tons of boxes just to move our books.

I have tried getting rid of books - only one shelf on this bookcase is actually my personal books. The rest are either Christian's from before our marriage (meaning they are off-limits to get rid of), or ours from during our marriage.

As much as I hate moving them, I am reluctant to re-buy the ones I love on Kindle. How am I going to lend them out to my kids when they're in high school if they're all on Kindle? Who knows how long Kindle will be the format, anyway? Plus, that is really expensive.

So I guess it's back to packing 100ish boxes of books. Sorry, movers!

We quit our organic co-op

photo by marioanima on Flickr

 You might remember that we joined an organic CSA co-op about a year ago. However, I'm sad to report that after putting it on hold when Little Lady was born, we haven't rejoined.

I really enjoyed it while it lasted! Things I liked about it:

• Fresh, organic fruits & veggies picked and assembled for me automatically
• Supporting farmers directly rather than through large (and expensive) distribution channels
• Experiencing new and different foods, being forced to learn how to cook new things!
• Having fresh organic produce on hand for the kids

Things I didn't like:

• The amount of food was often more than we could eat before it went bad
• Sometimes the food wasn't fresh, so it's shelf life was shorter than usual
• I did have to drive out to the location and pick up the bin every other week, which took away one of my "free days" (days of the week with no scheduled activity) with the kids
• The bins were set out for pickup in the direct sunlight, which caused a lot of wilting in the summer months
• Some of the food in the share no one in our family would eat - like lettuce. I am the only person in our family who will eat lettuce, and I was never able to eat 2 giant bunches we always got before it went bad in 4-5 days. I could put it in the bin for others to use, but I was still paying for all the things no one in my family would eat.

Because of the waste factors described above, the co-op cost became prohibitive in relation to what was actually usable for us. Instead, I just make it a point to go to our local organic grocer and by plenty of fruits and vegetables that we will actually use. Since I'm

I'd love to start it back up again maybe when we have more disposable income, or if I could find a co-op that would let me specify what kinds of produce I did and did not want to pay for.

I also have high hopes for the possibility of building a garden in the back yard of our new house in the spring!

Anyone else have a co-op they love? I'd love to hear about it!

What, I have to pick out paint, too?

We are officially closing on our first house on Tuesday! We're excited, but I'm also starting to get a little overwhelmed with the amount of things we have to do to the house before we move in.

One thing we'll be doing ASAP is having the whole interior and exterior painted. The exterior isn't that difficult, we only have to pick one main siding color and a trim color (which is currently the most horrible olive and poop green from the 70's and most of the reason that the house was on the market so long). It's the inside that's freaking me out.

At first I thought, hey, all I have to really do is pick a color for the living room and dining room and I'll just paint the rest a kind of off-white. Oh, but then there's also the kids' rooms...which I don't want to paint pink and blue because those are gender stereotypes that I don't believe in, but I want them to be bright and welcoming - not white. And also our bedroom, with new duvet and pillows in grey and yellow. Need to paint that so that it creates an nice soothing feeling... Then there's the new office/guest room of completely undetermined color scheme because we've never had a room like that before.

We have 2.5 baths now! So do I buy new accessories/towels for the new bathroom and coordinate the paint color to the new things? Or just pick something randomly right now because I don't have time to buy new stuff before we move? Aagh! I give up!

It's not that I don't care about the paint, but I kind of just want someone to come in there in and pick it for me. You know, like on HGTV! Only I need them to do it by Wednesday. Any volunteers?

The color I'm thinking of painting the living room: Benjamin Moore paints for west elm

Source: westelm.com via Jenny on Pinterest

Antibiotics! Antibiotics for everyone!

I wanted to write something really great and provocative and insightful today, but no. What you have is an update about my family's sickness. Sorry about that!

I caved and went to CareNow first thing this morning since my cough is progressing and I can't afford to let it turn into full-blown sickness while I am caring for two kids all day. Fortunately, I don't have bronchitis like Christian - only an upper respiratory infection. The doctor gave me antibiotics too, but not the insane amount that she gave Christian, just regular pills. She wanted to give me steroid cough suppressants also, but I declined those. So far, the homemade cough syrup works just fine for me.

We also went ahead and took the kids into our pediatrician's Saturday clinic this morning just in case. Little Sir actually seems fine but has a cough that I was afraid might be contagious. Poor Little Lady sounds much worse, but since she's only 8.5 months old, they can't really give her anything. It's back to humidifier/nose saline/Nose Frida and the Kick-It Immune drops for them, I guess. She can't have the homemade cough syrup because it contains honey. I do love our pediatrician and her partner doctors, because they never over-prescribe antibiotics. They told us that we could fill a prescription if we wanted to for Little Sir, but they'd recommend just treating the symptoms and letting their immune systems battle it out for now, since it's not a full-blown infection yet.

Well, gotta go - the kids just got home from the doctor!

Everyone gets sick

I am so out of random ideas due to NaBloPoMo that I can't think of 7 things for 7 Quick Takes Friday this week.

What's new here: for the first time since I have known him - including while we were dating and the last 6 years that I have been married to him - my husband got sick. Seriously, I was starting to wonder if he was Unbreakable or something because I have never seen him truly sick in all that time. But when the whole family got the flu mist vaccine (except the baby, she got the shot), it took down his respiratory system and ultimately turned into bronchitis and sinusitis. They gave him what is called an "antibiotic bomb" which is a small jug of liquid that you chug, it's pure antibiotic. Then they gave him something that is actually stronger than a Z-pack of antibiotics in addition to that, and then some high-power cough suppressant. Even with all that, he still sounds slightly like death when he coughs. It was a really bad infection!

Now you might be saying, "but Jenny, you are all green and stuff - why so many harsh meds?". For one thing, I draw the line at the point where someone is going to die or be hospitalized. You totally do need medication before that happens. But if you think you can beat it with homeopathic treatments, I say try those!

We did try some neat natural remedies before it got to the horrible scary phase.
One is that I made my own cough syrup and it wasn't half bad.

Source: redandhoney.com via Jenny on Pinterest

He also tried taking tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. And, of course, humidifiers, vaporub, and herbal tea.

Now that he's been diagnosed and treated, my main concern is that the kids don't get it. Unfortunately, they've both got coughs now. They were sent home from Mother's Day Out an hour early yesterday because Little Sir has random red dots on his chest (?). They don't seem to itch or hurt and they haven't changed at all in 48 hours except to get lighter. So I was actually kind of annoyed about that because I think he is fine.

Here are some things I'm doing to help keep them healthy:

• I bought these Kick-It Immune herbal drops from Natural Grocer and am trying to get them to take it. Of course, the baby doesn't know enough to protest but the toddler... he spits that stuff right back out.
• I brew Kids Cold Care herbal tea and refrigerate it to put in the toddler's sippy. He thinks it's "juice".
• Everyone is sleeping with humidifiers.
• Everyone is sleeping with vaporub.
• Daddy wasn't allowed to hug or cuddle anybody much the first 24 hours until his antibiotics kicked in.
• We are making Daddy use hand sanitizer.

Are there any other things you'd suggest to help keep the kiddos healthy?