Wednesday, February 27, 2013

What smell?

It's been an interesting journey in this land of all things natural.  And before I go into it, I should probably just let you know up front that it took me forever to really make the organic leap, because every time I contemplated spending four (or more!) times the price on organic milk I got sweaty palms and dry mouth and had to turn and run.  I told you - I'm cheap.  And spending that much on MILK is just out of my realm.

But then I would look at poor Noodle (or smell her, which seems a little mean to say, but really is the truth), and resolve to load up on the stuff the next time I was at the store.  And eventually I did.  It took a while, but I did it.  And holy crud was it painful.  I am used to getting two gallons of regular old milk at Costco for four dollars and change.  I SPENT TWENTY DOLLARS ON THREE GALLONS OF ORGANIC MILK.

I need to do some deep breathing exercises just thinking about it.

**Sidenote** Did you know that there are people out there who have never even noticed that organic milk is so much more expensive?  They have always just tossed it in their cart and never really paid attention to the price because organic milk is important to them, and there isn't an option to buying it so you pay what you pay.  I know, I was flabbergasted too.  Because I pretty much had to be talked off a ledge just buying that three gallons the first time.

But it was totally worth it.  I bought those first gallons thinking, "well, we'll see what happens.  It's just once.  It won't kill me."  But would you believe that in the few weeks that I committed to buying the stuff, Noodle's little issue cleared up.  Pretty much completely.  It's astounding.  (Not familiar with Noodle's issue?  Click here to catch up.)  

No, seriously.  ASTOUNDING.

**Icky phone photo alert**


This is what three gallons of organic milk looks like.  Looks like a lot, yes?  We went through it in less than a week!


 So here's the thing:  It hurts right now, because Nugget drinks a massive amount of milk.  As in, we went through that first three gallons in less than a week.  So I am working out our own little twelve step program for getting him off his milk addiction (it probably isn't that good for him to drink that much milk anyway), and soon that three gallons will last us a whole lot longer and hurt a whole lot less.  And making the switch was completely 100% worth it.

As I was working up to buying the milk, I started looking into other things that I could do to start using more natural products.  I found a lot of neat things, and some not so neat things, and a lot of great people, and a lot of great blogs, and a lot of great ideas.  It started to be fun, finding all these new projects to try.  And I realized that I am lazy (we talked about this, right?), and would have to pick my battles because I am just not that person.  I'm about half of that person.  The other half of me really likes orange cheese flavored products.

But there were a couple of things that stuck with me, and I am slowly incorporating them in my life, bit by bit.  The first is essential oils.  Wow, these little things are opening up a whole new world for me!  Whether it's treating my body, or my kids' bodies, or cleaning my house, or just making things smell nice, essential oils are giving me so many options to traditional medicine, cleaners, fragrances, you name it.  By January I hadn't been sick since I started using them!  I have two kids in school.  Germ farms, that's what they are.  Yet somehow I have managed to keep us healthy.

*Stands back in amazement, nearly collapses*

This is unheard of for us.  Seriously.

*Also, in the spirit of full disclosure, I wrote this post a while ago, and then promptly picked up the little flu bug that Mr. T picked up somewhere jaunting around all 50 states, and was knocked on my rear for a bit.  But I stand firm in my conviction that I would have had it a whole lot worse if I hadn't been incorporating the essential oils into our routine so regularly.  So there.  Mature, I know.*

I have been using Doterra Essential Oils, because they are Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade, meaning they are safe for everything, even eating.  And I am all for things you can eat.  The amount of research that goes into Doterra oils is staggering, and I felt really comfortable trying them on me, not to mention my kids.  And even Mr. T, though it's unlikely he'll admit to letting me practice my hoo-doo on him at this point.

So in addition to spending ungodly amounts on dairy products, we are also having untold fun with essential oils.  And we smell good.  That is a plus.

I apparently need to get out more.

There are some other things that I have found, but this is getting overly wordy, so we'll save it for my next post.

Stay tuned for my upcoming post on getting bright red Sharpie out of my light tan couch.  It's impressive.