Road to Shampoo-less-ness

I have been trying to remove the chemicals from my house for the last year. The next step is Shampoo and conditioning products. I have been scouring the Internet for shampoo replacement ideas (an ongoing process). I started making my husband’s “shampoo” about six months ago with oil, water, tea tree oil and castile soap. It works great on his hair, but didn't really cut it on my thick, long and curly locks. I used the same mixture for about 10 days before I gave up on it. I understand that there is a hair detox period, but my hair just got dryer and dryer.

I dreaded the idea of using baking soda.

I started entertaining the idea of a shampoo bar, like the one on Frugally Sustainable. I am not quite ready to make it, though. Then, I found a soap that just might be what I was looking for. I thought I would give it a chance.

African Black Soap is made with coconut oil and/or palm oil, Shea butter, oats, aloe leaf juice, plantain extract, vitamin E, vegetable glycerin, and essential oils. It has a reputation for fighting acne, detoxifying and healing skin conditions. I also read that it works miracles on curly hair… let’s see!

Although I was going to buy a bar from Butters-N-Bars.com, but decided to order the Nubian-Heritage bar from Vitacost since I was making an order anyway. I even read all the reviews; most of them mentioned how soft their skin was and a couple did say that they used it on their hair. I’ll take that as a good sign.

I decided that taking out shampoo chemicals should coincide with taking out conditioner too. I took a small spray bottle and filled it with ½ Apple Cider Vinegar and a couple drops of lavender oil. After washing I sprayed my hair with the ACV and left it in while I dried before I wrapped my hair in the towel and let it sit a little longer before combing it out.

My log:

Wash #1 – So glad the vinegar smell goes away fast. My hair feels dry but combed out easily enough.

My skin feels awesomely soft from the lather!

Day 2: The next day the hair in the back of my head, close to my scalp was really oily.

Wash #2 – Soap seemed to lather more in my hair than before. Still felt dry when I combed it.

Day 3: The next day I could tell there was some improvement. It wasn't as oily, but still feels a little thick and sticky.

Day 4: (usually wash my hair every other day) I woke up with a head of nappy hair. There is no other word for it. It was nasty and sticky dread-lock like; though it didn't look bad when brushed out. And was not frizzy either, like it normally would be if I brushed my hair when dry.

Wash #3 — I was thinking that the stickiness of my hair could be because I have not been rinsing the vinegar out. So this time I let it sit, combed through it with a wide-tooth comb and then rinsed before getting out of the shower. It seems less sticky. We shall see.

Day 5: Every day seems to get a little easier. My hair is still stiff/sticky (which really is a bummer!). BUT the hair by my scalp is soft and easier to run my fingers through. So that makes me think that I need to stick it out until my hair grows out.

Day 6: Wash #4 – This time I used barely any vinegar and caved in a little by using some stay-in conditioner spray. I don’t really think it helped though. I might go back to the chemically-rick Suave if my hair doesn't improve soon!

Day 7: Blah.

Wash #5 – I think and hope that my hair is getting better. I would hate to quit and go back to Suave.

Day 8: I went through the whole day with my hair up again.

Wash #6 – My hair felt a little oily at the roots. Funny how light and normal my hair feels when it’s wet…

Day 9: Wash #7 – I know I shouldn't wash my hair 2 days in a row. But I have a meeting tomorrow and I can’t look like this! So I decided to switch it up (couldn't look worse than it does…) I used Baking Soda mixed with water in a squirt bottle first. Then added a little bit of the African Black Soap before rinsing.  This made my hair dry! But the ACV made it easy to comb through. Wow! I can feel a difference, but since it was still a little dry so I put a little coconut oil on my fingers to comb through my hair when I got out of the shower.

Day 10: I might just stick to last night’s routine! My hair feels much better today and looks better too. Not perfect, mind, but getting there and I feel encouraged.

Day 11: Wash #8 – I did the same thing, minus the coconut oil. Next time I buy the Black Soap, I will buy the kind without the oatmeal, which feels great on my skin but my hair tends to stick to it.

Wet hair. It does dry much faster!

Day 12: My hair is less dreadlock-thick feeling. Still a little sticky but getting better

Day 13: Wash #9 – After letting my hair down it feels dry on the end and oily by my head before I washed. Same wash as #8.

Day 14: At least my hair looks a little better than it did a week ago. But I am still unsatisfied. I hope this continues to get better or I might have to start testing more methods. Blah.

Day 15: I woke up looking like I was balancing a nest on my head. This seems to be the norm lately. I had to comb my hair which made it look like a frizz ball (typically I can only comb it when it is wet so the curls stay intact). Luckily it looks great when it is up and hidden from site.

Wash #10  - Baking Soda. Soap. Vinegar.

I am going to stop there and post an update again in a month or so since I don’t have much else to report in the encouraging department. I am just hoping that this whole icky hair business goes away and I get my silky feeling back (without resorting back to the chemical stuff). We shall see.

Any words of encouragement from people out there who have taken shampoo out of their routine?

Shared at Tip Tuesday, Cheerios and Lattes and Frugally Sustainable.

Freezing in Portions

One of my goals the last couple months was to start freezing in portions when I put food in the freezer. It’s all well and good to have a HUGE batch of soup in there, but if I want some soup, the entire family gets some and it takes too long to thaw for a quick meal.

I was seeing other bloggers freeze soup or pasta in cupcake tins. But I think it would be difficult to take the food out once it was frozen. Maybe silicone would be great to freeze in and easy to pop out – but I wasn’t able to find any! So I came up with the idea of using plastic wrap.

Very simple. Just take a strip of wrap and pour soup/stew/whatever into the cupcake portion. 

Cover. Repeat.

Stick it in the freezer.

Then the next day (when it’s frozen) pull out pieces and put into a ziplock. I just left them in the plastic wrap. It isn’t difficult to unwrap them but I figure it is a little more protection from freezer burn.

These pictures were from a batch of stew in my slow cooker. We ate it for dinner and I was still able to freeze another meal on top of the 12 servings. I think my chili would work for dips or if I want a little flavor in another dish, I can toss a serving in. I like the flexibility and this will help my family eat from scratch rather than eat from a can.

I also did the same thing today with some cupcakes. When my sweet tooth needs satisfaction I need something quick and yummy.

What else do you freeze in single servings?

Shared at Shine on Friday, Frugally Sustainable and Cheerios and Lattes. 

Chocolate Sauce from Scratch

This is the second time I have made this recipe and once again it turned out perfect. I know you can make chocolate powder for chocolate milk from cocoa and sugar, but I decided that by making syrup it was a little more versatile because it can be used on ice cream too.

My kids didn’t mind the switch to homemade and I feel a little better about making their milk extra chocolaty. The original recipe did not have vanilla in it, but I think vanilla should be in every recipe. =)
I really like it too… and I have always been more partial to Nestle Quik than Hershey’s.


3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup water
1 ½ cups sugar
Dash salt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

In a saucepan mix the cocoa and water with a whisk. Heat, stirring occasionally, when it begins to boil, add the sugar and stir until sugar dissolves.
Bring mixture to a boil for 3 minutes. Remove syrup from heat. Add the salt and vanilla. Stir to blend. Let cool, and then pour syrup into a container. Store in the fridge.


When we ran out my husband chucked the Hershey’s bottle but luckily I had another container I could reuse. I think I like the fact that it’s clear. Note: this chocolate syrup is not as thick as store bought stuff so it actually mixes into milk really well. This should keep for a couple months in the refrigerator, I haven’t had problems with it crystalizing.

Enjoy!

Shared at Make it Pretty Monday, Frugally Sustainable, Lil Luna, Shine on Friday and Little House Recipe Exchange.

Making Disinfecting Wipes

I finally used up all of my Clorox and WannaBe-Clorox wipes. I love these things! But I have been waiting to go through my supply so I could implement a greener wiping method in my house. There are two reasons for making my own wipes: (1) to make my house a less wasteful place and (2) because I hate spending money on items that are meant to be thrown away. Are you with me on this one?

I have seen other's replace their wipes with a soap solution and paper towels. But, instead of wasting the paper, I have decided that instead I am going to cut up some fabric from old T-shirts. I have to do the laundry anyway... I decided to keep the solution simple rather than use a bunch of essential oils:

2 tbsp. Liquid Castile Soap
1 ½ cups Hot Water
½ cup Vinegar

I had some lemon-marinated vinegar on hand, so that’s what I used to get a light citrus smell.

But I regress…
First I cut up the fabric into rectangles.
I folded to stagger the rectangles.
(It will pull the next rectangle up the hole of the container like store-bought wipes. And it works! Which makes the minutes it took to fold these worth it.)

Stick the wipes in the container.
Mix the solution and pour it into the container.

So I have used them and they work just fine. Even better, they smell like soap. I added a bag under my sink for the used wipes. When it's full, I will wash them.

Shared at Frugally Sustainable, One Creative Weekend, Cheerios & Lattes, Make it Pretty, Tip Tuesdays, Positively Splendid and Living Green.

Space Birthday Party

I had a space-themed water-play park birthday party for my now 5 year old boy. It was great! 

From the cake, decor, food and water activities, I tried to stay with the theme and a budget. In the end, the kids had a great time!

Connor requested a water party and I have to admit that mid-August is the perfect time to have a water party! This party would have been a lot easier in a backyard, but since my mom's yard is grass-less at the moment and I don't have one, the park is the place. I sent out an evite. I have discovered how awesome evite is since it collects RSVPs and reminder emails. Technology is wonderful. On to the lists. 

I have Lots of lists when I plan a party. Lists of ideas and internet links to pictures and anything new that pops into my brain while putting it together. 

This picture was taken before
everything was done

Decorations:

•  Cut out stars from poster boards. String together groups of 3 and 4 to hang from the streamers.
• Streamers (green and blue). In the end, we used a lot less hanging decorations because of the wind.
• Use green balloons to make alien heads by drawing faces on them.
• Streamers (green and blue) 
•  Happy birthday sign for the cake table
• On the tables I had space stickers, little space shuttles for the kids to toss around and alien masks for the kids and cut out confetti for stars. I didn't end up putting out the confetti because of the wind.

Food:

-      Space Debris (green colored candy popcorn)
I used the recipe I found here, but used blue food coloring to get a darker green color once it was mixed with butter. I also didn't need to use very much. My kids had a blast making and eating the popcorn the night before too!

-      Grape and pineapple spears

-      Carrots and broccoli with onion dip

-      Pizza Planet pizza

-   Star and Moon sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly)

-   Cake! This turned out great. It is my first two layer cake. Cupcakes are compliments of my cousin (she has helped me with another party before; we make a great team), she had the frosting and eyeballs left over from her son's toy story party. They go great together!

Kid Activities:

-      Tie die T-shirt. This was also a favor to take home. They turned out to be out-of-this-world! I have some pictures below

Kids like cleaning when it's not the parent's idea.

-      Water balloons

-      Flying Saucer Toss. I found these neat Frisbees at the dollar store that look life flying saucers. I bought a wooden stake at Home Depot for 30 cents and wrapped it in bright green tape for a kid friendly ring toss.

-      Water squirt bottles and sponge meteors for a great water fight. I bought 5 oz water bottles for each kid at the dollar store and filled them ahead of time. They were a big hit and the adults enjoyed the spritz too. The kids had a great time with the sponge meteors, and even decided to use them to clean the park bench... so thoughtful.

-      Tubs of water on a kid table for little kids filled with misc water toys.

-      Bubble bucket with cups and giant bubble wands. I also bought individual bubble containers for the kids who want to walk around with bubbles. The wind actually worked in favor for all the bubble blowers. These bubbles were great! And the solution is so easy to make I never want to buy pre-made bubbles again.

Kid tubs ended up on the ground. Always a hit!

Water Balloons are in the bucket.

The T-shirt favors I mentioned were great! The kids had a blast coloring with the millions (ok a little exaggeration) of Sharpies. I learned about this from a gal in the education department at Joann's Fabric Store. I cut out cardboard to stuff inside the shirts, saved metal hangers to hang up the finished product and attached masking tape to the top to write the name of the artist. I bought kid's small and extra small T-shirt sizes. The process was super simple:

1. Color the T-shirt

2. Drip rubbing alcohol on the ink

The ink will spread and look tie died. 

Later, put them in the dryer for a couple minutes to let the ink set. Or, you could use a blow dryer.

Birthday boy coloring with daddy.

TaDa! They turned out looking spacey!

 Since this party, my daughter has been singing Happy Birthday To You around the house and asking me for a birthday. I guess now that this party is over I need to start planning the next birthday party.

Shared at Cherios & Lattes, Six Sisters, Nap Time and Frugally Sustainable!

CPP - Part 2

Always be prepared… Last week I prepared for our three day camping trip in the Camping Preparedness Program post. Here is what I did with that advice.

The Meal Plan:

Dinner 1:              Hot Dogs, Apple Sauce, coleslaw

                            Smores for desert

Breakfast:             Eggs, sausage

Lunch:                  PB and J or Egg salad sandwiches, fruit, chips

Dinner 2:              Hamburgers, Beans, Corn

Breakfast:           Bagels, fruit

Lunch:                BLT sandwiches, carrot sticks, and leftovers

Snacks:                

The Chef

Chips, salsa, bean dip, cottage cheese, pretzels, grapes, apples, granola bars, cheese sticks, graham crackers, popcorn

When I put together the meal plan, I went shopping in my pantry first and decided what I needed from there. Which was basically—hamburger buns, begals, fruit and smore fixin’s.

I wanted to bring just the right amount of food, but it’s better to have too much rather than not enough. We also invited some friends with kids to join us for a day or night, so I wanted to have enough snacks in case we had company.

What I made ahead:

-         Stuck fresh gapes, hot dogs, and hamburger patties in the freezer. They should be thawed in time to use them.

-          Hard boiled eggs and made egg salad

-          PB & J sandwiches

-          Lightly cook bacon

-          Make Coleslaw

-          Cut up carrot sticks

We are staying at a campsite that does not allow wood fires, so I packed some charcoal and durmaflame logs to cook our food and enjoy. It is a hot summer, so we would only have a fire at night.

Cooking/Dish washing station.
This camp did have a place to wash dishes by the bathroom, but I like my set up better.
Boil water and add it to tubs of water then put soap in 1 tub. 

For the kids I made sure to have bicycles and sand toys. I also bought them new flashlights (they love these things!) and light sticks to play with at night.

Because we weren’t going far or staying a long time our campsite was very simple. The more people the more complex, but not much. With more campers you basically, you need more chairs, food, and tent space. Which translates to the same amount of preparation. Ever notice that a party takes just as much work for 10 people as it does for 20?

We opted not to put up a shade since there were some nice trees. And our family of four fit nicely in one tent. We might need another in the future, but this works great for now—I might even splurge on one of those 10 man 2 room tents when the kids are older.  

Tired kids enjoying the outdoors before dinner time.
Not a great picture, but you can see the tent in the background and their little table.

What do you do when camping?

Camping Preparedness Program

We are going camping. (Way to state the obvious!) We have only gone camping one to two nights with the kids so far to try it out. They LOVE it! But luckily, my hubby and I are both seasoned campers and between the two of us had all the necessary gear before we were even married. I am guilt of being a long time Girl Scout and my hubby is an Eagle Scout. Since we don’t have a camper (on the wish list for the future) we set up a couple tents, a shade and a stove and call it a campsite.

This isn’t exactly a program. More like a checklist and my method of preparing for the great outdoors without pulling your hair out or missing essentials. There are several things you need regardless of whether you have kids or not, but I’ll list kid stuff separately. I began writing this just for myself because I didn’t want to forget anything. But I think other people could benefit from this too!

The thing about camping if you have never done it; there is dirt everywhere outside. Campsites are plotted parking spaces of dirt with a BBQ, fire pit and picnic table. Make sure you pick a site next to the bathroom; it will make the experience much nicer. Most bathroom houses also have showers.  Find out what the amenities are ahead of time. Basketball court? Swimming pool? So you can plan.

I am a list person. When preparing for any trip I use up several sheets of paper on lists. Maybe I should make a master to save me the trouble… 

I have a list for camping gear, clothing, shopping list for non-food items and food. First things first.  If you know about the trip there are a couple things you can do to prepare.

1.       Save your laundry lint. This stuff is great (and FREE!). My family of four creates a huge amount of laundry lint. When you take it with you camping, you can use it as a fire starter rather than kindling (or with it) to get your fire started quicker. I found it easy to create portions  by stuffing it in toilet paper rolls.

2.       Save stuff that will come in handy that you can toss before coming home. I save a couple empty gallons containers for dish water. Save soap pieces (you know the stubs left when you use a bar?); you can cut up an old pantyhose and stick the old soap in the foot for easy hand-washing—this can be tied to a gallon jug of water.

3.       Take inventory. What do you have? What do you think you need as far as a “camping gear”? Kettle? Sleeping Bag? Tent? Rope? Old pans? Outdoor chairs? Shade or big beach umbrella?  Also, if you want to use paper plates make sure you have them. You will want to either eat off of metal, paper or plastic (metal and plastic need to be washed). This is a good time to start a grocery list.

4.       Meal Plan. Think easy to make on a fire (kids love holding a hot dog on a stick), things you can make ahead of time (like coleslaw, salsa & chex mix), and things don’t require a lot of time. I don’t usually buy individual servings of apple sauce or juice boxes but they come in handy here. Take another inventory of what you have and then another grocery list of what you need. I separate my lists into stores Walmart, Trader Joes, Costco and Farmer’s Market.

On to the Lists.

Basic necessities to bring:

Toilet paper (not fun when they run out)

Bug spray

Dish soap

Food and Water (bathing suit if you are going to be by a lake/stream/ocean)

Sunscreen

Lighter

Charcoal and/or firewood

First aid kit

Towels

Cards or other games

Camping Gear:

Tent, tarp and mat (set the tarp under the tent and the mat for the ground outside of the tent to catch dirty shoes)

Shade - if necessary

Kitchen items—Propane stove, kettle, pan, utensils, ziplock bags, foil

Fire sticks (really long wire hangers to cook hot dogs or marshmallows)

2 tubs (for washing dishes—one for washing, one for rinsing)

Clothesline for towels—use towels to dry hands and dishes also if you are taking showers or swimming

Table cloth 
Folding table - it helps to have one table for eating and one for food & dishes

Sleeping bags & pillows

Gas or solar lanterns and flashlights

For the kids (and you):

Clothes

Extra clothes

Sweatshirt (not a nice jacket. The smoke from the fire gets makes everything smell)

Diaper wipes (great for dirty hands before snacks and dirty feet before bed)

Outdoor toys (trucks, sand toys)

Food:

Snacks

Meals

Condiments

Water and other drinks

Next in Part 2 I will post about how we set up the campsite.
Did I miss anything?

This post can also be found at Cheerios and Lattes, frugally Sustainable , One Creative Mommy and tatertotsandjello .