A community garden is being created in my neighborhood! I can have my own little plot. If you live in an apartment like I do, check into community gardens in your area, or start one. Check out http://www.communitygarden.org/ for some ideas.
landofoz
is trying to tread lightly on the earth. It's tough.I moved my 10k to a September race. I took my time, pretty slowly building up mileage, but still managed to hurt myself a little. I’m taking a little time off to heal. I might start swimming to stay fit for a couple non-running weeks.
I volunteered again yesterday at the beginning English as a Second Language class for refugees. We worked on the names of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, as well as count and non-count nouns. I’m seriously considering getting an ESL certification when I go to grad school for my teaching certificate in English and Spanish. It is a really rewarding field, from what I’ve seen so far.
I’m not sure if I’m ready to mark this as done or not. I think I might wait a while.
I need to turn everything in soon. The application process in my field at the school I want to go to is actually really simple. I just need to ask for some letters of recommendation. I think I will stop by my university and pop my head in the different offices to see if anyone is willing to write me a letter. I need 3. I was actually kind of a suck-up and a good student, so it shouldn’t be that hard to get letters. I’m just paranoid that my professors have all forgotten about me.
Soap. I’m using all my various face-washing products (scrubs, peels, washes, and other assorted potions) on both my face and my body, now that my tea tree oil liquid castile soap ran out on me. I think I will be good on soap for a long while yet. Once all that stuff is gone, I will create my own cheap, simple, all-natural concoction to keep me clean.
Lotion. I ran out of facial moisturizer; I’ve been using a not-too-scented little sample of body lotion for now. Once that’s gone, I think it will be time to create my own all-purpose body-and-face lotion. I will continue to use the body lotion my mom gave me a couple months ago on my body until it runs out.
The baking soda/apple cider vinegar routine is working well on my hair and scalp so far! I’m going to keep up with that for a while. I still have a ton of deodorant, conditioner, and toothpaste. I have half a pretty big bottle of hair gel left, too.
I think that it will be fairly easy to research each product as it comes up. I am going to try to streamline as much as possible. I want to use as few products as possible. One all-purpose wash, one all-purpose lotion, some hair gel (I’ve got super curly hair here, or I’d try to forgo it), and deodorant. I may still buy/acquire commercial toothpaste and sunscreen, though.
I believe that there are awesome people in every party. I even have a good friend who is a Libertarian, for cryin’ out loud! I would sit down for a chat with anyone and talk about anything, and I am confident that we will come out of it better for the discussion and with new common ground. So it’s not that I’m leaving the Democratic Party in disgust. I’m not switching teams or sides. The adversarial, us-vs-them attitude you see in politics sometimes is disheartening. I’m going to register as a member of the party that has the platform that best represents my own beliefs and hopes for this country, and that party happens to be the Green Party. I think that I should reflect that in my voter registration. When I get my new driver’s license, I’m going to switch.
See all of the films listed on the American Film Institute's Top 100 American Films of the 20th Century (read all 3 entries…)
Yankee Doodle Dandy was a good movie. I would love to analyze the statements about patriotism, war, and nationalism. Or the feminist implications of the wife’s role. Or maybe make some statement about art vs. entertainment. But all of that would take time and energy and make my brain hurt. I’ll just say that both my husband and I thought it was a good movie, and we have pretty different tastes.
We watched Heat last night, which is most definitely not on the list, and I thought it was just okay and needed some good editing (despite having brilliant and sexy actors Pacino, De Niro, and Kilmer), and hubby fell asleep! So maybe there’s something to this whole watching-good-movies thing.
My friend wrote me back, and I wrote her back that day! So my goal hasn’t even started, and I’ve already written two letters. That’s pretty good for me.
They have a huge yard and don’t garden. My mom offered me their yard when I was talking about container gardening on my roof. This would be good; I could grow produce and I’d have to go over to their house at least once a week to tend to everything, so I would be reminded to spend time with my family. I think I should do this in the spring! This someday goal could be a sooner-rather-than-later goal!
I have all the recipes written out with little drawings. I still need to do the front and back covers.
I absolutely love the work that Farm Sanctuary does. ( www.farmsanctuary.org) I would like to do something similar on a small scale. Not now, while I’m an apartment renter! But someday. I would eat least like to rescue a few turkeys and chickens, some goats, and some rabbits. I don’t know if I could take care of the big animals like pigs and cows on my little micro-farm, but I could do my part.
My husband kind of put the kibosh on this. My snake-killing miniature poodle might eat the critter, that’s his thinking. It’s probably true. Maybe if I wait until we have a house, or until the naughty poodle is no longer with us.
We’re planning to spend it with my husband’s family in the cold, snowy upper Midwest. I am excited to see them and to share Christmas with them, so I don’t really mind that we won’t be in Tahiti or Hawaii this year. I still plan to do this some day!
Also, I’m planning on budgeting an hour or so of Skype time with my side of the family on Christmas. How cool is that!?
I’m living my life smoke-free still. Not one puff – ever. I still jog and drink green tea (my coping mechanisms and detoxification strategies), but I haven’t been listening to the hypnosis sessions for a few weeks. Maybe I should give those a try again.
All in all, despite normal life stressors that I would normally use as an excuse to smoke, I am nicotine-free and loving life!
Super easy, insanely cheap, good for the environment. Not sure if I love it, since I used it for the first time this morning and my hair is still wet, but here goes:
1. Mix baking soda and water together until they form a paste. That’s it. That’s the whole recipe. Make a paste, and use to scrub. Rinse well.
2. Follow up with a solution of apple cider vinegar. 1 part ACV to 4 parts water.
The routine? I have curly dry hair, so first I got my hair wet and put some conditioner through it. While my hair was wet and covered in conditioner, I combed out the tangles. (A tip I learned from Lorraine Massey’s book Curly Girl.) Then I rinsed out the conditioner, scrubbed with the baking soda paste, poured the ACV rinse over my hair, rinsed it out, and put a tiny bit of conditioner in my hair to cover the little bit of ACV smell, then one more quick rinse. I put some gel in after. I will keep up with this for a while, and let you all know how it goes! If it goes well, this is a great discovery for cheap green people everywhere!
Ok, so there are witches and creatures in my noveling, but it’s a completely different take on the whole magic phenomena. We’ll see if I can stick with it; I always imagined myself writing Serious Fiction.
Phew! That’s a lot of conditions. I still want to be clean and pretty, but I’m sick of spending tons of money on fancy-dancy organic stuff. Plus, the packaging and the waste, all the questions I ask about animal ingredients and animal testing… I’d rather just make it all myself. I like crafts!
To start:
Shampoo
Conditioner
Hair gel (I’ve read some people use aloe vera or flax)
Lotion
Soap/Shower gel (NO animal products or funky stuff)
Facial products (Exfoliants, moisturizer, masques, etc)
Makeup? (Is that even possible?)
