Problem-Solving: Helping Your Loved Ones Help You Crunch
“My family thinks I’m crazy!”
“My husband’s threatening mutiny if I replace the fabric softener!”
“I’ve been locked out of the house with unshampooed hair, waving a bottle of lavender essential oil and a jar full of baking soda like a crazy lady at pointing passers-by!”
All of a sudden, this is a common theme around here.
The family just doesn’t understand. We want to be healthier, we want to be more frugal, and we want to be more in touch with the products we use on our bodies, our children’s bodies, and our household in general.
They just think we’re nutso, following a new “fad” that’s overtaken the estrogen side of the internet. They love their brand names. The Speed Stick is comfortable, and the Lysol bathroom cleaner smells like what a clean bathroom should smell like.
Until you learn that it’s not.
I mean, it has been – for 50-some-odd years. Ever since Dow Chemicals introduced their infamous slogan: Better living through chemistry.
After that moment, as fast as the scientific world could scramble, they took apart natural ingredients, down to their tiny individual particles, and reassembled things in a new way. Then, they just started making stuff up as they went along. And then we just started putting that stuff all over our homes and bodies, because, well, it was there, and they told us it worked.
Some of it does work. Some of it is dangerous – in ways we’re still just beginning to understand. And some of it … well, some of it’s not so bad at all.
That being said, how do you convince your family to take the journey with you into this “new” (and mostly old) realm? How do you get them to believe that, maybe, the way people did things 200 years ago – at least some of it – is not only healthier, but just as effective as the stuff on the supermarket shelves?
Here’s where I suggest you start.
Ladies, Grab Your Girls, Grab Your Food, Grab Your Faces!
This is my friend Ashley and her little sister Alizea.
(Or, as I like to call her “The girl with the most mesmerizing name in the world.”)
These hot chicas stopped by on Sunday for a few hours of food, faces, and lotsa laughs.
And it really made me start thinking: a few of you have mentioned doing this with your children – and it’s SUCH a fantastic idea! There’s nothing like a little avocado on your face to help open conversations and make fantastically silly memories.
The holidays are coming up, and quality family time will be at a maximum. Grab your daughters, your nieces, your grandmothers, and a few pieces of fruit, maybe a little honey … and you’ve got yourself a rockin’ food-on-your-face time.
It really couldn’t be easier. All you need is a few pairs of hands, a camera, and some fruit. It makes it even more fun if you put the food in the air first, before you put it on your face.
See?
Crunchy Teens : Acne-Busting Aspirin-Honey Mask and Toner
All summer, I tried to get my kid over there to try the acne honey-aspirin mask. He refused. I watched, as blemish after blemish came and went, and promised him it would work. He didn’t care. I mean, really, a kid who forgets to change his underwear probably doesn’t flinch at a zit or two.
It’s his face. So whatever.
He DOES, thank goodness, use the toner I made for him (recipe below) on a semi-regular basis, and I can always tell when he’s using it often. There’s no doubt in my mind that if you use it daily, it will solve a lot of acne issues. But he still wouldn’t put honey on his face, no matter how many extra hours of Wii time I bribed him with. At least the kid’s got boundaries.
Crunchy Kids : Jessica’s Story
In The Book of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz, he postulates that the overabundance of choices in this day and age actually leads to more unhappiness with the decisions we finally do make.
Parenting styles are no different. It’s difficult enough to make up your mind about your own choices, let alone pass those choices and decisions on to your children.
Jessica, of Adventures with Three Girls, however, has made one very important choice. She wants to raise her three beautiful girls crunchily.
Wanna know why? Read on!
Crunchy Kids : Shoo! Spray Homemade Insect Repellent
Gotta admit, this is a new one for me. I live in an area where mosquitoes dare not tread, and ants basically mind their manners. Buncha moths, but I’m not afraid of them biting me much – the cat takes care of them before they get that far.
However, I’m off to the muggy depths of Kansas City all next week, where mosquitoes drain humans like renegade Nazi werewolves drain gentleman vampires (Sorry. I can’t think of a metaphor that doesn’t reference True Blood. Little obsessed here.)
I’m also going to see my two absolutely adorable, sweet, and perfectly behaved (right, sister?) nephews. If you want, you can see them here and here. They are precious. I want to give them fun things, like aunts are wont to do.
So in thinking about the Crunchy Kids this week, I went through a litany of options of cool, exciting gifts to bring and ended up with … bug spray. They are going to love their Aunt Leslie this time. What a dumb boring let’s go play with trains FANTASTIC present!
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Crunchy Shopping!
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