Staying Cool when it is Hot Out

Today we are experiencing some unseasonably warm weather. 90 degrees in April anyone? But as you can imagine I am NOT  turning on the AC. Every so called sane person around me has probably done. But I have my standards, and April is just too early for me to turn on the AC, actually May is even too early for me to turn on the AC. So how does one keep cool when the thermometer is rising.

• Turn on the ceiling fans – but only when you are in the room. A ceiling fan will drop the temperature by 5 degrees by causing a breeze.
• Plan your cooking for the coolest part of the day, for some this is in the morning, for others after the sun goes down. While you are cooking, go ahead and cook twice as much. This will help you to not heat up the kitchen so much later
• Eat more uncooked foods. Raw foods like salads and fruits help to keep your body cooler.
• When the sun comes up close the curtains. Better yet get some curtains that are insulated, not only do they keep out the cold in the summer they keep out the heat in the summer.
• If you are lucky enough to have the temperature drop when the sun goes down, open the windows at night. Sometimes it is cooler outside then it is inside
• If it is only marginally warm, open one window downstairs and one window upstairs, at the opposite side of the house. This will create a draft effect and pull the cool air though the house. You can even use a box fan to help pull the hot air out of the house.
• Don’t run any appliances, like the dryer that will add heat to the house. Better yet use a clothesline if you can.
• Be sure to stay hydrated, when the temperature rises, we tend to perspire more. This is our body’s way of cooling us off. Don’t try to stop the perspiration, because it is a cooling mechanism, rather drink more and remember water is the best drink for hydrating.
• Get into some water – go for a swim, water the garden, wash the car or just take a shower. You will cool off your body’s core temperature in doing so.
• Wear a hat when you go outside, I know you are supposed to wear a hat to keep in body heat, but if you wear a loosely woven straw hat it will shade you and that shade keeps you cooler.
• If you can’t take a shower, just wet your hair, having wet hair will cool you down.
• Dress appropriately, think about it, people who live where it is very hot tend to cover up more than they expose. When the humidity is low this works because it keeps the sun off of your skin. I like to wear a light weight shirt over a sleeveless dress. Long flowing clothing will keep you cooler. Natural fabrics like cotton, silk and linen will breath.
• Run cold water over your wrists, this cools down your blood going back to your heart, and will cool you down very nicely.

What are your Favorite tips for staying cool when it is HOT out?

10 Things That Make Me Smile

Earlier today I posted over on Facebook 2 things that make me happy. That got me to thinking about so many other things I enjoy and that make me smile. I thought I would share some of them with you.

1. A Mowed Yard and Pasture – I actually took on this job a couple of years ago, and Monday when we did not have any gas in the gas can I was actually a little sad not to get to this job. Notice I said yard, we do not have a lawn. We have 5 acres of yard, pasture and woods. A lawn requires meticulous maintenance and usually chemicals to maintain it. We have clover, wild onions and wildflowers growing in our yard.
2. A Vacuumed Floor – we have removed the carpet from 80% of our house and replaced it with solid surfaces. We do have carpet left in our great room. Hopefully not for long. As you can imagine it gets very dirty, but looks so good vacuumed.
3. A good cup of a hot beverage and a good book on a dreary cold rainy day
4. A phone call from a friend
5. Listening to my kids play together in the other room
6. A bouquet of wildflowers picked by my kids
7. Spending time outside – whether puttering in the yard, playing with the kids or enjoying a glass of vino on the the verandah.
8. Watching my kids do something THEY enjoy and get joy out of, this can be participating in a sport or writing, directing, acting in and producing a stop animation movie for the family, or simply playing catch with their Dad
9. Seeing someone create something from their own mind. My kids love Legos, yes even the girls do too. They will usually make the kit the first time but then after a while will create something new from all the pieces. I love to see my kids or any talented artist, dream up something from nothing, whether it is a meal or a piece of art.
10. A husband who calls to see if I need anything on his way home. No really this is a big one people. Your see we live a good 6 miles from the nearest store of any type.

How about you? What makes you SMILE?

How Time Flies

My children are growing up! And much too fast in my opinion. Just last year they were little kids all of them, Look I have evidence. Here are some pictures of my kids one year ago.
 

Okay now yes they are adorable, not just my opinion either, people tell me that all the time. But a year makes a big difference in how a kid looks and behaves.

Can you believe those girls are the same ones in the pictures above? Mama’s don’t let your girls grow up!

Freeing Ourselves from More

this is part of our Less is More Challenge for May 



Less is More has been one of my mantras for some time now. Some may disagree with me, especially those who subscribe to an abundance philosophy. But less does not have to mean austerity.
For me having less stuff is a form of freedom. When we have less and desire less we are free from so much. I have been working on simplifying my life since the birth of my oldest (how is now 14). I was motivated because I wanted to be able to spend more time with this precious baby I was given, I did not want to spend my time cleaning and taking care of things. I am not a minimalist, though I do confess that life style does have a certain appeal to me. I have found that having less stuff is a form of freedom. When we have less and desire less we are free from so much

• We are freed from keeping up with the Jones’s – do you really want a boat and all it entails if you will have to to work more to afford it and then don’t have the time to enjoy it?
• We are free to enjoy what we really like, not what people say we should like and want.
• We are free to not pay for that storage facility when we have less, thus freeing up money for us to use somewhere else, or at least our time
• We are freed from taking care of our possessions, the more we have the more time we spend taking care of it.
• We are freed from worry, about my things.
• We are freed from the chaos of not being able to find things in the morning, because we have less it requires less time to find something
• We are freed from worrying about what to wear. I love clothes but I want them to work for me not me work for them.
• We are freed from worry that a closet door won’t close.
• We are freed from cleaning as much
• We have more free time to do what we want to do because we spend less time doing what we need to

In your experience how has having Less freed you up?

The Green Thing–Celebrating Earth Day

I haven’t given much thought to Earth Day this year. I know, gasp. I me I am supposed to be green, right? When I mention many of the green things  we do around our house my husband’s grandmother who is going to celebrating her 80th  birthday in May, says “Oh we used to do that growing up” My own father would have been 74 this May grew up in the same generation as my husband’s grandmother. Their generation lived by the motto Use it Up, Wear it out, or Do Without.
To their geneeration recycling was just plain thrifty and finding a way to reuse something instead of wasting it. My farther regularly used coffee tins to store his nails, screws and other small parts in his shop. I guess my parents passed on this way of living to me,
My mother practiced organic gardening not because it was trendy but because chemicals were expensive. She will tell you stories of the older immigrant ladies in her neighborhood growing up who would pick “ditch weeds” to make salads and teas in the spring,
We used a push mower to mow more than an acre of yard because it was what people did, no gas powered weed eater or edging tool either, we used a hand sheers and kid power.
My parents would find ways to fix things or use things until it could no longer be fixed. My husband and I learned these skill from our parents and grandparents, we do not go out and replace a TV because it is broken we may not replace it all.  If an appliance is not working properly we fix it ourselves, just like our parents did.
Now we recycle because if we don’t who will? We buy less because we don’t really need to keep up with the Joneses, we find ways to reuse or repurpose or upcyle clothes and old furniture because it is fun not because we have to.
I buy old furniture to save money but truth be told it is of a better quality – NO particle board, sold wood construction. The bonus is I have furnished my living room over the years for about $350, less than the price of one cheap couch.
Earth Day is not about planting one tree or making a craft with your kids one day then going back to “normal”. What if we made EVERYDAY Earth Day, and consumed less and recycled more?
Earth Day is a good time to reaffirm all those Green Lifestyle choices we make, and make new resolutions. I know that will be getting back to using my own bags and again and hanging clothes out to dry. What Earth Day Resolutions will you be making this yea?



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Less is More Challenge

"The more you have, the more you are occupied. The less you have, the more free you are.”     Blessed Mother Theresa
Last year I wrote about How we really only use a small fraction of what we own on a regular basis, most of us use 20% of our things 80$ of the time  I undertook a challenge to myself to reduce our possessions by 20%.  This year I would like to invite you to join me in this challenge. There will be a weekly focus/tasks to help you along. 
Think about it. Do you have a closet full of clothes yet wear the same jeans 3 times a week? How about shoes, don’t get me wrong I love pretty shoes and I used to have a closet full, now I can’t wear them anymore, but I still have a closet full of cute but comfortable shoes.
Now lets talk about the kids, do they really need all the stuff they have? I know even though I do my best, my kids possessions seem to multiply like rabbits, what started out as one bin of Legos becomes a whole tote full of Legos. One or two stuffed animals can now fill an ark.
What about your kitchen, do you have any gadgets in there that you have not used since  you got them? Some of us acquire kitchen gadgets because we think it will make us a better cook.
I am issuing you a challenge this for the month of May. Each week we will concentrate on a different area of our homes/life. Our goal will be to simplify by 20% in each area. Not a huge drastic change but a start. There will be ground rules. Number 1 is that whatever you decide to get rid of MUST absolutely leave the house, as soon as possible. no saving it to sell later on eBay or craigslist. If you decided to have a yard sale it should be done by the end of May. Believe me having a finite to end of the decluttering will be very fulfilling.
I hope you will join me on this challenge. We will have lots going on over on Facebook, so be sure to like Granola Catholic over there too.

Safe Cheap Natural Treatments for Lice

image credit

That itchy scalp, you know the symptoms. Scratch, Scratch, Itch, Itch. That creepy crawly feeling. You check, yup it is lice. Pediatricians say it spikes this time of year because kids are sharing helmets for bike riding and baseball. This week lice hit our household, and it wasn’t one of the kids it was me. One of the hazards of working with kids, I suppose..
Not wanting to use anything toxic on my head I looked to more natural remedies. It turns out that some of my favorite natural products; olive oil, tea tree oil, castile soap, and apple cider vinegar are perfect for treating lice.
Harvard did a recent study that found that lice submerged in olive oil for two hours die due to asphyxiation. Since I did not want to submerge my head in olive oil for two hours I poured it over my head and massaged it in and put a shower cap on before going to bed for the night.
Upon waking up in the morning I proceeded to wash my hair out with a mixture of castile soap, and tea tree oil. I actually had to wash it out about four times to get all the olive oil out. I followed up each scrubbing with a good dousing with vinegar. The vinegar actually helps to soften the glue on the nits.

• Olive Oil – slather your head in olive oil sit under a shower cap for a couple of hours , A test conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that lice submerged in olive oil for two hours die asphyxiated.
• I combed my hair with the a metal lice comb, no easy feat, given that my hair is long and thick. 
• Wash your bedding and clothes in HOT water to kill the nits and lice, changing the sheets frequently
• Mix some tea tree oil with another carrier oil like olive or almond and coat the hair, put a shower cap on and go to bed. In the morning wash it out with castile soap and more tea tree oil. Rinse it with vinegar. The vinegar helps soften the glue on the nits. I had to wash the hair out several times to remove all the olive oil.
• Heat is apparently a real enemy of nits and lice so I followed up all this washing with a blow dry and flat iron, this seemed a little foreign, to me since I have not blown dried my hair in months.

Other measures I took to insure that the lice would not make a reappearance I also made sure to wash all my bedding and recently worn clothes in hot water, with the addition of tea tree oil and dried them in the dryer. Again heat kills the lice. It is just as important to wash your bedding and dry with heat to eliminate the lice and nits.
Have you dealt with lice? What are your favorite natural treatments for taking care of lice and nits?


this post is being shared at Your Green Resource