All things natural...

I have found that I am slowly becoming what is affectionately known as a "crunchy" mama. Why this term... I have no idea. What does it mean? It means that I am doing my best to be environmentally friendly and live as naturally as possible.

My discovery has been a multitude of cleaning agents and food items that have become a welcome addition into our household and leave me feeling satisfied with what I am putting into our bodies, especially my 1 year-old daughter's body.

This is my newest addition:

Toothpaste for Emma. Why, you ask? Because last night as we were brushing her teeth, I happened to glance at the toddler toothpaste that I had purchased for Emma, which was the only flouride-free toothpaste in the store at the time, and noticed the ingredient list was in some strange language. It was English, but I could not pronounce the majority of the ingredients. On top of that, I saw that it uses fake sugar agents to sweeten it. I am opposed to fake sugar of all kinds because it tends to make me sick, which makes me think that maybe it's not so good for me if my body can't seem to process it.  Anyway, I digress....

A lot of "natural" items on the market are designed based on the extracts from plants. This toothpaste is included in that. I am excited to try it and I hope that it will be a welcome addition to help us prevent cavities and institute good oral hygiene without pouring a lot of man-made chemicals into her body. :) 

*editors note: This is only my personal journey to living healthier and more "naturally", I am not a pushy salesperson for all things natural and have nothing against anyone that does not use "natural" products!*

Loss of time...

A huge part of the domestic life, is the lack of available time for blogging and maintaining a social (media) life. Most of my domestic duties lately have been shifted outdoors now that the weather is finally warm. I will update again with pictures of what we I have been doing to our yard.

This is my first spring/summer at home full time. Last summer, I had a newborn and no time for anything besides nursing and sleeping. This year, I have a one-year old and it is much easier to spend time getting things done during her nap time. This month, it has been the yard. In previous years (7 to be exact) we have tried to throw some mulch and some plants into the landscaping just to make it appear as if we tried to keep it up. However, it always looked like our house was in foreclosure as the weeds sprouted into weed trees and the grass overgrew the mulched areas. Needless to say, it was quite embarrassing to be known on the cul-de-sac as the house that never did anything about their yard.

Since beginning my outdoor project, I have had two neighbors walk over just to thank me for doing something about it and complimented me on how nice it looked. I am definitely not a gardener, nor a landscape designer, so the fact that they would compliment me on how nice it looks only leads me to believe that it looked pretty desolate and trashy to begin with. I love working outdoors, if I could just find a way to make sure no bugs and creepy crawly's (especially spiders) lived in the dirt.... I would love the outdoors even more.

So, this is my current domestic project, with slight delays here and there in order to deal with the ants in my kitchen.... but that is another post for another day.