Archive for August, 2009

Sunburn Free Without Harmful Sunscreen!

August 28th, 2009

I want to share with you a VERY awesome trick I learned from this book. I’ve tried it on myself and my family multiple times and can say, without a doubt, that if done correctly, it ABSOLUTELY works!!

I’m against sunscreen. I believe the sun has been demonized in recent years and that slathering chemicals all over your exposed skin is NOT the answer to preventing sunburn. I believe that the sunscreens are more harmful to our health than the sun is.

In this book, Beth Greer suggests mixing straight ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in a 10% solution with water and spraying exposed skin for sunburn prevention.

It is SO true!

We spent an entire sun filled day at our local amusement/water park and no one was even PINK! We’d all turned a light brown, but there was NO burn anywhere!

Since then, when the kids are getting dressed to go outside in the morning, I lightly mist them with the Vitamin C solution and allow it to soak in. Then I apply another misted layer and once it’s dry, they dress and go outside and we’ve not had a single sunburn this summer season.

It’s totally water proof because the vitamin C actually soaks into your skin. They go in and out of the pool all day and stay protected.

In a pinch, I used several chewable vitamin C tablets in a pint of warm water, but that has pretty big drawbacks. The first of which is that, chewable vitamin C has sugar in it and it’s not fun being sticky and tasty for bugs.

I went on Amazon and purchased sugar free powdered Ascorbic Acid. I dissolve it in water and apply. It’s awesome.

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Conscious Living, green living

Random Acts of Kindness

August 16th, 2009

♥ Happy Spirit Day! ♥

Well, we were all ready to rent our rental house to a group of 3 couples. They were in their early 20s. The guys all worked full time and the girls were all in school. While we were waiting for them to call and say they’d take it, we got another call about it.

Scott was a little uncomfortable with the idea of having six young people living in our house anyway. Kids in their twenties aren’t known for being irresponsible partiers for no reason. I’m pretty laid back and was ready to go wherever the flow told me to in spite of his worrying. As it turned out, the flow was sending us somewhere else.

I got a call from a housing corporation. They’re working in conjunction with an insurance company to find temporary housing for a woman and her two teen aged children because theire house burned down and they’re living in a motel room.

My heart immediately went out to this woman. I met with her to show her the house and found out that, just over a year ago, masked men walked into her home in the wee morning hours and shot and killed her husband right in front of her and her kids. Then, over the past year she’s had to have multiple surgeries on her ankle. Now her house has burned down. This woman has had one rough year.

It has become very important to me to help this woman any way I can. I went out of my way to have the water turned on in the house. It’s her responsibility, but if I did it, it would go on immediately. She’d have had to wait til this coming week when she has the signed rental agreement. So it was easier and faster for me to do it for her.

I also went back over to the house yesterday to open the door for the furniture rental company so they could get in and furnish the house for her. Our standard procedure is to not allow access until the lease is signed and money has been exchanged, but this poor woman is living in a motel. I feel that anything I can do to help her get moved out of there and into a real home is unique unto me and it’s up to me to share this caring and empathy with her and her family.

I have to go back over there at 8am Monday morning to be there so they can turn her gas on. The lease takes effect Monday so once I let them in to turn the gas on, I should be able to turn over the keys so she can move what few things she still has, into her new temporary home.

I feel so grateful that I’m able to help this woman so much. I even have a TON of leftover yard sale stuff from last month’s yard sale. All the women’s clothes I have are HER size, if you can believe that!! I told her I’d bring them all over for her. She can keep and wear what she wants and give or throw away the rest.

The furniture rental company REALLY hooked her up. She even has dishes and sheets and towels. What they DON’T have, however, is simple things like cleaning supplies, toilet paper, feminine products (both teens are girls too), laundry soap, dish soap, cooking utensils, soap and shampoo, etc…

I want to appeal to my readers for help and I’m going to think positive thoughts and expect the best. I’d like to take a collection to help them get these stupid little household things that they don’t have yet.

If only 20 people read this and donate a simple $2, that’d be $40 in household supplies. That’s not a ton, but she doesn’t need too much and just $40 would help her tremendously. I intend to MATCH every donation received so dig deep, be generous and help me go broke please! Let this be your random act of kindness for the week. I can tell you that no one would appreciate it more than this woman.

Thank you all for your attention and empathy.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

∞

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Conscious Living, Law of Attraction, Manifestation

A Bandit Stole My Heart

August 15th, 2009

Well… it happened again. We went to the shelter yesterday and came home with a dog.
Abby’s been sleeping a lot. She seems bored, lonely and maybe a little depressed. Charlie’s been gone 2 months now. If he comes home, we’ll just have 3 dogs. In the meantime, I believe Abby needs another companion.

We were at the shelter on Thursday and we walked and played with this adorable brown boxer/pitbull mix. He was so docile and calm. No jumping or extreme behavior. I wasn’t sure, so i told the kids that we need to sleep on it and we went home.

Yesterday we went back to get him. I was still a little unsure so I said a brief prayer on the way. “Please give me a sign that this is the right dog or not. I don’t want to have to ever take anyone back to the shelter, so please show me before we leave with him.”

We got there and put a leash on him and went to take him for another little walk, but this time as we entered the front desk area, the boxer suddenly and quite viciously lunged at the big cage full of cats in the corner. It was all I could do to hold him back. That was our deal breaker. He didn’t do that the day before, but with two feline family members at home, whoever I bring home has to respect that.

We were a little sad as we took him back to his cage but when we got there, the dog in the cage NEXT to his was sitting calmly just looking at me. It’s a dog that the kids had been eyeballing the day before but it was on the other side of the building. They must’ve moved him Thursday night after we left or Friday morning.

Kev said, “Mom? Can we pleeease just take him outside for a walk?!” I agreed and he willingly put his head in the loop of the leash and we went outside. We adopted him 15 minutes later.

Here’s the funny part. When I got Charlie back in January, one of my signs was that his name was Copper. Copper was a dog we used to have several years ago.

This dog’s name was Patch. That’s our current cat’s name.

Of course we had to change his name. He’s so beautiful with his longer hair. A good dose of husky has given him 1 1/4 white/blue/icy looking eyes, and he has spots. Abby has stripes. I think it’s TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME that I now have a stripped dog and a spotted dog.

I took immediate leadership the moment I allowed him out of the cage and he responded perfectly. We came home and he and Abby were introduced in the yard because that’s a more neutral territory. She was immediately smitten.

We took a good walk together as a pack to help him blend right into our family and then we came home and did a bit of a psychological workout. It helps him accept discipline and me as his pack leader. He did REALLY super well. Then I fed him a big ol’ scoop of food. Poor thing is all bones.

We had him for 8 entire hours before we went to bed and HE DIDN’T PEE ON THE FLOOR EVEN ONCE!! I think this one actually CAME housebroken. Which is REALLY surprising. He was at the APL for 2 entire weeks and he was brought in by the dog warden. He’s SO skinny. It’s way more than only 2 weeks of being hungry. I don’t imagine he’s been in a home for a month or more.

Usually they forget to pee outside after that much time. Of course, there’s nothing I’ve ever seen a dog respond to so readily as being dominated by a pack leader. So maybe it’s a good dog / good pack leader combo! Either way, a dog that’s pees outside is my favorite kind.

So anyway, I posted some pics of him on my site if you’d like to see him. He has black around his eyes almost like a mask, and from the moment I saw him, I thought his fluffy tail looks like that of a raccoon. We tossed out loads of names and we didn’t all agree on any of them. Then it hit me… “Bandit!” SO… We dub thee, Bandit the Dog.

He’s a Catahoula Leopard Dog/Husky mix.