I'm Still Alive!

Sorry, I've been too busy lately. It hurts me to not blog anymore about the things I love, i.e. finding ways to make natural living more practical and fun for me and my family, and motivating others to follow this way of life.

Nevertheless, I am on still on this crunchy path to being a mother who does not have to buy artificial chemicals for many of our everyday beauty, hygiene, and cleaning needs. I'm proud that I have maintained the good habit of using these recipes on my blog, depending on the hecticness of my schedule.   

There are a lot of setbacks in turning the leaf of natural existence. Costs, time, research, people who do not believe in you and would rather believe in commercial products that have questionable ingredients and so on.

But I will not be daunted.

I will persevere in my own ways.

My six-year-old daughter Zoe is the biggest fan of my homemade products and she uplifts me so much with her support. We both use my baking soda toothpaste recipe by the way. Check out her beautiful white teeth, thanks to baking soda.

She is my inspiration, and I hope that Achilles, my three-year-old son, will soon get into my bandwagon too when he's old enough. 

My husband supports me as well, but he's hesitant in using my recipes. That's okay. I never force anything on anyone. I will just keep on doing what makes me happy :)

I love this. This feeling of freedom from buying many things.
This feeling of empowerment for knowing that food and natural products are my beauty and personal cleaning products. 

That feeling that I nourish my soul too for being more connected with nature.

This is all I have for now :) See you around! 

The Green DIY Mama's Materials Checklist

Turning green, or pursuing an alternative lifestyle using eco-friendly, natural products, is not entirely inexpensive, as I already talked about in "The High Price of Natural Beauty in The Philippines." Apparently, being a green DIY mama (papa/person) is not as frugal now as it used to be in olden times when commercial brands were not yet existent and people can make their own oils from their gardens.

To help you out, I prepared a checklist of materials to help parents or people like me who want to invest on natural materials for their homemade products. This list is especially cut out for those who live in the Philippines or countries where some of the natural ingredients used in Western DIY or homemade-centered websites are not available locally.

Baking soda, for instance, is not a locally-available product and bulk amounts are not accessible in the Philippines, or at least where I live, which is Metro Manila. Buying small boxes of baking soda may be expensive for those who cannot fully adapt to using it for many health and beauty uses. Witch hazel is an imported product too, as well as cocoa butter and beeswax pastilles. Again, they're expensive when their U.S. dollar prices are converted to Philippine peso.

Nevertheless, despite these expensive natural materials, I've been doing some computations and I realized, that, though the initial expenses for the investment in natural products are expensive, I can still save money in the long run as long as I stick to local products or make some of them on my own. 

Furthermore, nothing beats the satisfaction of knowing that I'm making safer, natural, healthier, homemade products for my family, especially my kids, such as the DEET-free Homemade Natural Bug Repellent Spray that are safe for babies. Homemade products do not have artificial preservatives and coloring that other commercial brands have, which make them the best everyday products for me and my family.

Right now, I'm following homemade recipes from Wellness Mama, Simple Mom, and Crunchy Betty, among others, making some variations along the way, because local products are different from Western ones and I can't always buy or access some of their materials. 

A Checklist of Natural Ingredients for Different Homemade Products

At present, I've invested on the following products, while some of them are already staple kitchen products:

Some natural ingredients for many DIY products that will replace commercial brands

1. Baking soda
2. Brown sugar
3. Apple cider vinegar
4. White sugar
5. Raw honey
6. Virgin coconut oil
7. Castile soap
8. Calcium tablets 
9. Bentonite clay
10. Witch hazel 
11. Vitamin E oil
12. Essential oils: Lavender, eucalyptus, peppermint, and tea tree

I spent around Php 4,000 for these materials. I bought my essential oils from Casa de Lorenzo, and the rest are from supermarkets and Healthy Options at SM Mall of Asia (my source of Castile Soap, Bentonite Clay, Witch Hazel, and Vitamin E oil).

I just learned that you can buy very cheap baking soda from Divisoria at Tabora Street. Only Php 25 to Php 30 per kilo! 

The following below are the rest of the materials that I plan to buy. I'm hoping I can get them from local stores, before finally buying from an online site that sells imported products, Galleon. The products below are for making natural deodorants, lotions, beauty products, and several other DIY natural products.

1. 100% raw cocoa butter
2. Beeswax pastilles
3. Arrowroot powder
4. Beetroot powder

These products can reach Php 5000 to Php 6500 depending on the amount and brands.

Transition to Green DIY Living

Being a green DIY mama doesn't have to be expensive or difficult, but there is a transition stage. Transitioning includes believing in these products and being aware that they take time to make and getting used to. 

In addition, the transition stage also means being aware of some of the essential oils and materials that you may be allergic too (or your kids and other family members) and taking note of pregnancy, because not all essential oils are safe for pregnant people. 

Transitioning also includes preparing the mindset and changing the habits of our family members who are used to manufactured products and who, sometimes, believe in these products laden with toxic materials more than our own homemade natural products.

Also, we have to be aware of the time involved in homemade DIY living. Some of our homemade products are as easy as two general steps, (i.e. Baking soda soak for curing/preventing rashes for babies and kids), while others may take ten minutes or so, depending on the amount of product you intend to make and if you're making some of the natural ingredients yourself. This means that DIY is "effort-full" too because every minute preparing them adds up.

These transitions can be quite emotionally and time-management difficult at first, but we must not give up. Who else will champion natural DIY living if not us?

The Life of a DIY Natural-Living Mama

It will be almost two months since I've ventured into the green, DIY world of natural living. So far, it's been an exciting and mind-expanding experience. 

My creativity and resourcefulness are tested, as well as my time-management skills, because I'm blogging about it, while doing my usual research work and family duties.

It helps that I have an eldest five-year old daughter who supports me in some of my DIY tasks and a husband who is also supportive, but who have yet to embrace the natural scents and texture (literally and figuratively) of health and beauty that he's not used to.

All in all, I'm so happy in finding new knowledge and developing new skills by doing DIY natural products. Hopefully, I can contribute more directly to it by finding local alternatives to imported natural ingredients.

My first love has always been God and my family, and writing and DIY natural living are tied in the second spot.

I hope this journey to a green, DIY lifestyle becomes as satisfying and energizing as yours. 

How is your pursuit of DIY natural living? Do you also find it overwhelming, but satisfying?

Baking Soda Wars: The First Battle at Chapel Hill

The First Battle at Chapel Hill 

Photo credit: Sheldon

Clouds of dust mushroom in the battle-torn field. Clashes of spears and swords strike like lightning in a heavy thunderstorm. Groans of men with sliced arms and legs and heads abound.

Prince Theo, seventeen in form but thirty in war experience, draws his sword. He launches himself to his enemy, Duke Archibald, who has stolen his crown from him.

Jenny turns the TV off.

She is so fed up. Not with Prince Theo of Soda Wars. He's pretty cute, though her hubby is much more gallant. 

Jenny's 31 years old with two lovely kids, one five, the other is two, and a loving husband in the army, and it's a good life. 

She works at home, which is great, but not perfect. Not that she wants it perfect. What is perfect anyway? It's too much defined by other people, and she doesn't care for it.

She's just happy she has the skills that allow her to work at home and be with her children.

She's trying hard to be a hands-on mom, but to work enough, she needs a nanny. She once had one, but her nanny already retired, and so far, she's testing if she can survive for long without one.

Still, Jenny is so fed up. At least when it comes to herself and the products she buys for her and her family.

She's got sensitive body skin, combination of oily-dry facial skin, and dandruff. 

Her kids have rashes every now and then because of heat and sweat. Or perhaps also because of artificial chemicals in all these baby and kid products, as well as cleaning products. 

One time, Jenny checked the ingredients of toothpaste and insect repellent lotion she uses for her kids, and she is disgusted with the chemicals she found. How ironic. What's kid-friendly is not kid-friendly at all after knowing more about these chemicals. 

She's disgusted with herself the most. She should be more careful in what she uses for her family. She's got to learn more about harsh chemicals in everyday products and find natural alternatives.

Back to her kiddos' skin rashes, the Philippines is a tropical country, so it's hot most of the time, and rashes are expected. But there must be some form of damage control.

As for Mama Jenny, dandruff gets her really bad. When she's particularly stressed, she just wants to take off her scalp and beat it up like a carpet to take out the flakes. If only that's possible.

As a home-based researcher, Jenny's ready to delve into new knowledge. Being tired from writing for her research work, she sleeps. 

The Call and Multiple Personalities

Jenny's talking over the phone with her husband who's in a conflict-ridden zone somewhere in the south.

"Yeah, the kids are fine- ZOE DON'T LICK THAT- okay, so when are you coming home? -ACHI THAT'S DIRTY- I see. Well, we'll pray for you my love. ZOE! YOU'LL GET YOURSELF HURT! I'll check air fares later."

The call lasts for an hour. Jenny prepares for her bath.

No 'Poo Battle: Rough on Dandruff

Jenny is ready for battle. She's going to fight the mainstream filled with commercial shampoo and soap with harsh chemicals. If Tsh can go no 'poo and reap its benefits, she needs a good reaping herself.

It's bath time.

Jenny dissolves some baking soda in warm water and pours it into her old shampoo bottle  She shakes it up, and she uses that for shampoo. It doesn't lather, but she doesn't care. She just wants a simple way to clean her hair. Really clean her hair without the chemicals she researched were bad for her scalp.

She massages baking soda shampoo from her scalp down to her hair's tips. After a few minutes, she rinses everything.

Jenny follows up her shampoo with apple cider vinegar (ACV) wash. She puts one tablespoon of vinegar for every cup of water. She stores her new conditioner in her old conditioner bottle.

Her ACV wash does good for her scalp. One time, she'll try this dandruff remedy from Katie.

Apple Cider Vinegar can be very effective against dandruff. Mix with equal parts water and apply to scalp with spray bottle or cloth. Leave on for 1-2 hours with a shower cap and rinse. This can be done 1-2 times a week for best results. Katie of Wellness Mama

Jenny washes her hair well after.

Nowadays, she frequently does away with baking soda/ACV and just scrubs her itchy scalp with Dr. Wood's soap and then conditions her hair later while it's drying up with virgin coconut oil. 

For facial and body soap, she uses virgin coconut oil as soap sometimes, or baking soda in water, like the baking soda wash she uses for her kids.

When she uses body scrubs, she usually uses coffee grounds scrub or sugar scrub. She uses the same for her face.

Jenny has won this battle round. No more commercial soap and shampoo for her with different harsh chemicals she is not comfortable with. She's got the fate of her skin and family's skin on her hands. She is ready for the next battle.

Battle at Face Value

Jenny's got a new facial routine. She washes her face twice a day, if she remembers or if time allows her, to avoid pimples. 

When she wakes up, she washes her face with warm water that has a teaspoon of baking soda. If it's facial scrub day, she uses her sugar scrub or coffee ground scrub.

If there's some time, she mixes her facial mask day with reading.

Her facial mask is just egg white mixed with a teaspoon of honey and lime. 

She'd let the mask stay for 15 to 30 minutes on her face as she reads for pleasure or work on her phone.

She washes everything with warm water afterwards.

Jenny follows the mask up with apple cider vinegar toner. That's one teaspoon of vinegar for a cup of warm water. She doesn't wash after. 

She dabs virgin coconut oil on her fingers and swirls it on her face as moisturizer.

She doesn't buy soap and shampoo anymore. She stops buying lotion and moisturizer too. And she feels so free. 

Practicality beats hyper-materialism. 

Jenny yells FREEEEDOOOOM! the way William Wallace (Mel Gibson) does in Braveheart.

She does it in her mind though because Achilles is asleep.

Onward to natural living! 

Fighting for new mindsets on natural, homemade products! 

Let the slaughter of old habits begin!

The Future of DIY in WeArePracticalMoms

So many topics, so little time to do them all! 

I wish I don't need to sleep, so I can work on some of my DIY projects while my kids are asleep! I also yearn to read and learn more on DIY and homemade products! Aaaarrgh, sleep, why do you have to exist! 

Anyway, here are some of the DIY natural products I plan to do in the future, hopefully the nearest future:

1) Oregano oil- Because we have oregano plants and they are just wilting so needlessly. 

"Oregano is used for respiratory tract disorders such as coughs, asthma, croup, and bronchitis." Web MD

2) A more intensive and extensive discussion of baking soda's uses and risks/limitations

Is Baking Soda Truly Natural?

3) Making my own natural shampoo, soap, and insect repellent spray (done).

4) Making DIY products for Christmas (not done- sadly).

5) Writing about fluoride, do we really need it to have healthy gums and teeth? 

Any other suggestions? I am quite busy with family and research work, so I may not be as blog-productive as I want to be. 

But I will continue writing. 

In the name of DIY love, natural beauty, natural living, organic products, healthy lifestyle, and practical, positive parenting.

The Surprisingly High Price of Natural Living in The Philippines and the Gaping Business Opportunity Behind It

What is "organic" or "natural" is expensive.

It's amazing and puzzling really, but it's true. 

As a citizen of a developing country, my transition to natural living is not as simple and affordable as I thought it would be.

Since my journey into DIY-natural living has started, I've come across some price and resource access difficulties. And I thought it was as easy as going to the supermarket and buying them like other groceries!

Also, since I've been a DIY convert, I've also opened my eyes to wonderful business ideas that can result to social changes.

Shocking Prices and Dismal Availability of Materials 

The first problem in my natural living journey is access to materials/ingredients. I cannot get many of the supplies I needed initially. Where can I buy bentonite clay and raw cocoa butter, for instance? SM does not sell them, as well as the local wet and dry market.

I'm in the Philippines and I thought I can order some of the organic products from Amazon.com, but sadly, these companies with the materials I need do not deliver to the Philippines.

I was depressed for a few seconds. Depression is unheard of in the Philippines, even if many of us do get depressed. We Filipinos are generally happy people who like enjoying the present, so depression is not, well, enjoyable, so it lapses too swiftly.

To learn more about where I can buy these natural products, I asked my friends through Facebook about these products and they said that I should go to Healthy Options at SM Mall of Asia. Some suggested Rustan's and Glorietta. Who knew that looking for bentonite clay (et al.) can be so hard?

As for the price of natural living, oh the agonizing price! Each of them range from P300 upwards, some are more than a thousand a bottle and they're in such tiny amounts, especially the essential oils and other oils. 

I was almost discouraged to continue my DIY-natural-living lifestyle. I wanted to be more practical in life, not practically penniless!

Whatever the price challenges, I still invested money (swipe you go credit cards, tsk tsk) on my new natural living lifestyle. I know that these small amounts would go a long way anyway.

I realized now why not so many people are willing to go natural and DIY. The time, money, and energy involved can be unnerving at first, but in time, it gets easier. 

With your stock of materials that you can use for many and different products, you'll soon realize that the investment is worth it, especially considering that you're doing this to promote good health and practical living for yourself and your family. 

For example, Vitamin E oil is expensive, but it can be used to make many products. You can also compare DIY projects to commercial products, and the latter are more expensive than the former. 

My long-term computations assert that natural living is still more practical than my former lifestyle. Yes, long-term is the way to go for us practical parents and individuals. 

On Purchasing Natural Products: Physical Places and Places to Click

I just went to Healthy Options at SM Moa, and thankfully I got some of the products I needed. They're, as expected, much pricier than those available online, considering import duties and their other expenses. I'm looking into Sulit.com for better prices and found other options, but I haven't bought from them yet because of budgetary concerns.

While looking for affordable local organic products, I'm so happy to stumble into Kikay Corner's website because she brought me to Liquid Castile Soaps by Casa de Lorenzo. They sell numerous kinds of oils and castile soaps. I can't wait to try local organic products! Hopefully, we can see more of these firms/people offering local products like raw 100% cocoa butter, beeswax pastilles, baking soda in larger packages and the like in the future.

I looked up Castile Soap, Witch Hazel, Bentonite Clay and Vitamin E oil at Galleon's website and theirs are quite more expensive than Healthy Options. If you're near a Healthy Options shop, they have cheaper products, but they don't have all the stuff. Galleon has numerous products that cannot be bought in the Philippines, so you can try their website too.  I'm planning to buy 100% raw cocoa butter from them.

Healthy Option's Castile Soap is also cheaper than Casa de Lorenzo's. I was quite surprised. I thought local products would be cheaper. Still, you can try their castile soaps because I heard they're great too, and they offer Calamansi Castile Soap, how cool is that! I also bought several essential oils from Case de Lorenzo, and they're a reliable supplier. 

As for baking soda, I'm so thankful I found Queen's Baking Soda. It's a lot cheaper than Arm & Hammer's but not so accessible. Even in SM Supermarkets, baking soda is hard to find and they only have Arm & Hammer's brand, at least during the times I went there.

Divisoria offers the cheapest baking soda at Php 25-30 though. Tabora street is the place to go for inexpensive baking soda.

Apple cider vinegar is expensive. I use Bragg's and I like it better than other brands. Too bad there's no better or equally good local version. 

Products Purchased from Healthy Options @ SM MOA for making Homemade Products like Homemade Natural Bug Repellent Spray

The High Price of Imported Natural Products: Opportunities for Local Natural Products

As for the other imported products, I'll find a way to replace them with local counterparts. That would take a good deal of experimentation, but I'm willing to do it. I've nothing against imported brands but they are very expensive and hard to find, and I want to support local products too.

Furthermore, I believe there's a large business opportunity for a natural-living market in the Philippines. Do you know that virgin coconut oil is available by gallons to Americans, but not here in local Philippine supermarkets? Do you also know where some of these virgin coconut oils are sourced? From the Philippines! But we Filipinos cannot buy in bulk because our local supermarkets don't sell them! 

At the same time, coconut oil can be made into many products, from shampoo to deodorant to lotions (the list is almost endless), but they're not being widely made and popularly used/marketed in the Philippines. 

Why oh why?

I see plentiful coconut trees here, even in the cities, and more so, in numerous provinces, but we do not have a thriving coconut-oil industry that can make different coconut products, including hygiene, beauty, and medical products! The government and business community are seriously under-investing on something so local to us, and yet has potentially striking local and international business potential!

Gaping business opportunity! My mouth is agape too!

Oh don't get me started. I can get so frustrated when I talk about this. Many coconut farmers and workers are dirt poor, when they can turn their coconuts into diverse products that can truly improve their lives. That they remain poor when they are middle-class-in-the-making breaks my heart. My mind screams: This is nuts! 

I wish I can do more for our coconut industry, as well as our agricultural industry, but this is all I can think of for now. Starting a blog that uses their products and pushing the demand for coconut oil and other local products through promoting healthy living. 

Hopefully, I can also motivate entrepreneurs who have the money and networks needed to invest in the R&D and marketing that can turn the coconut industry into one giant, middle-class-making industry.

Small Beginnings, Large Dreams

Natural living is mind-boggling pricey. 

Natural should be practical, not 

However, the high price of natural living in the Philippines can be reduced- through investment, R&D, and marketing that can increase the demand for these products and reduce their prices.

It wouldn't harm us to also dream that, one day, other changes will also happen in the Philippines- a wonderful transformation in the development of the local coconut industry and other agricultural industries, followed by more wonderful social transformations in the life of many of the poor.
  
How's your trip to organic beauty and living and DIY flying? Any similar challenges? How about DIY triumphs? Please do share them with me and let's exchange ideas and learn from one another!

Lovely Beasts and Distracted Beauties

You don't shampoo and condition everyday? How beastly!

You don't know the latest fashionable commercial products? How beastly!

You don't look like her and her and her? How beastly!

Beauty versus the beast. No longer a romance, but a saga of endless battles. 

Beauty versus the beast. Trending worldwide, even in developing countries.

Beauty versus the beast. Making nearly two hundred billions of dollars for the cosmetic industry in 2010.

STOP!

Why is there a beauty on the one hand and a beast on the other hand? Aren't they both beauties?

Beauties are Hot and Beastlies are Not

Aren't we all beauties?

No, there are golden standards and guidelines. Beauties are these and these, and the rest are beastlies. Conform or be destroyed.

But who defines whatever you said? Who defines beauty? 

Society. Society defines beauty.

What society? Society of commercial-beauty-corporations-sponsored medical industry and media? 

Uhm. Well. Not really no or yes.

A group of celebrities who may not even be using these products as regularly as they claim in commercials? 

Coughs. You're referring to?

Who defines beauty? 

You?

Yes, you. YOU.

Maybe we can have our own definitions of beauty.

Maybe we can start by answering our own questions regarding beauty.

Maybe you can tell me what beauty is, what natural beauty is, and maybe we can agree on something, disagree on others, and keep on redefining social terms according to our realities and aspirations.

And let's not stop this time. Let's ask these questions and answer them together anytime and anywhere we feel like it.

Beautiful Moms Who Hardly Sleep

Moms sometimes wonder, how can we stay beautiful when bills, marital matters, childrearing duties, and family issues keep us awake at night?

It's not even about looking fresh and flawless (do we really need to be flawless all the time?), but feeling deeply beautiful inside. Knowing beauty not from the mirror or the expectation of others, but from our own expectations of ourselves.

Your beauty is there alright. In your core. You don't even need a mirror to see it. You surely don't need others to confirm it. You just need your assured affirmation.

In a world where commercialized beauty and hygiene products rule, it's hard to find the meaning of "natural beauty." Natural beauty is like one of 'em crazies locked up in a looney bin, the keys thrown away by society's " beauty standard" gatekeepers.

Is she gone for good? She is if you say so. 

You can free her. You can awaken her. You can be your natural beauty. 

You only have to open your mind. You only have to close your ears and eyes to commercialized media and other social distractions that insist on a one-way road.

And you have to be willing to do tons of research and experimentation. 

You have to be willing to do some soul-searching too. 

Beauty is hard work. It is a "thinking," "doing," and "feeling" kind of hard work. 

But I can join you. I can and will help you because I want to be beautiful too. 

Beautiful moms, we can do this. We have to, if we want to change something that feels wrong. 

We have to, if we want to be able to look at ourselves inside and outside and feel better. Better because we're doing something. Better because we're doing it ourselves.

One Beast-of-Burden Journey

Natural beauty in the way of the old and some additions of the new is a whole new world out there, if you've been distracted as long as I have. We have to get down to business and be ready to work for it. 

More importantly, you cannot be naturally beautiful outside if you haven't accepted it inside you. You can't change behavior without changing your mindset. 

If you don't think you're beautiful and nature has simple products to keep you healthy and beautiful, then why are you still reading this? 

You must admit first that you're beautiful and confirm it from your soul. Now, beauty seems to fit with a simple life, don't you think? If you want a simple, practical life, then continue reading.

One of the best ways to change your mind about beauty, and indeed having a beautifully happy life, is to do research and to criticize research. Read, read, read. Think, think, and think even more about what you have read and its applications to you.

You also have to find others who are on the same journey and connect with them. Share ideas. Chime in your experiences. Try DIY yourself.

Now, back to the research element of beauty.

Want to know more about No 'Poo? Tap, tap, tap on your keyboards and research what it is and try them out until you know what's best for your hair and scalp.

Natural make-up? Tap-tap some more and find different natural selections to suit your skin and style.

Homemade remedies for children? Tap again and you'll find different selections of homemade medicine for the entire family.

Homemade aphrodisiacs? Tap those sexual blues away, for the Net is a net of DIY sexual-appetite inflators. You'd be blown away by the fruits and veggies that can blow you away really good.

Homemade self-esteem? That's one of the best homemade products ever. The product of giving yourself the empowerment you need to control your life, and to set the standards that shape how you see yourself and how you want to live.

No More Fighting, Yet We Are Winning

Call us beasts, but we are lovely beasts. And you who resist us and want to change us, you're distracted beauties. 

You're distracted if you doubt your own beauty because society's measures say you don't fit in.

You're distracted if you follow everyone else except what you really want.

Beauties, think about it. Come with me, let's walk together. 

Walk with me. Run with me. Fly with me. 

Let's live life in our own terms. 

Let's live life through learning and relearning.

Let's beast it out beauties, and roar that we are women in control, roar that we are evolving forevermore, and roar that we are beautiful because we simply are.

The Ghost of Deathly Follows

Goosebumps don't lie. You can feel it when someone is staring at you. 

When I saw her, a cold draft spilled into my spine.

She's been looking at me for a while, that pale-looking woman with dry, tangled hair, sunken bloodshot eyes, and blotchy-red skin. 

The horror! The horror!- Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

I'm beginning to get scared. I don't like strangers who stare like you're someone being judged for the gallows.  Like you're someone she'd bring with you to her gallows. 

I look at her closely. She looks so familiar and yet so unfamiliar. There's something sad and desperate in her eyes, like she's crying for help. Like she's crying for someone to save her.

I look closer.

I have to look closer. 

She looks back. She stares long and hard at me. 

Siphoning all the courage I have, even tapping my daughter's courage reservoir because she's braver than me on many accounts, I stand up. I walk slowly towards her. I am no longer afraid. 

I reach for her face. 

I see myself touching my face. That woman is me.

That's me and what I've become relying too much on commercial products. 

That's me, the Ghost of Deathly Follows, the woman who follows what's "in" because prime-time commercials say so, because celebrities say so, and because everyone else who don't really give a rat's ass about my true welfare says so.

I don't want to be possessed anymore by the Ghost of Deathly Follows.

Donned in a Ghostbuster's suit, I sat in front of my computer, flexed my fingers, and typed, "homemade shampoo" until I reached Simple Mom's "How to wash your hair without shampoo." I read her blog and numerous other articles on no 'poo.

The dam of knowledge exploded. I was washed away. I followed Tsh's advice on going 'poo less.  Baking soda shampoo followed by apple cider vinegar solution for conditioner. 

I was washed away the second time, literally, and it was the best washing ever. 

Since then, I wanted to be washed over and over again. 

From inside to outside. 

This is the reason why I started wearepracticalmoms.blogspot.com. 

Because following the most popular manufactured products in mainstream media is not always the best and the most practical option.

Because we all need a good washing every now and then.

Because we all have our ghosts to vanquish.

From now on, I vow to overcome the Ghost of Deathly Follows through DIY, natural living, and a simple, more meaningful lifestyle. 

From now on, I shall no longer be stared at during the wee hours of the morning by some sallow ghost!

Come! Help me! 

Let's vanquish these ghosts of what we were, so that we can be the goddesses we are meant to be!

Let's wash away our insecurities and floods ourselves with new and practical knowledge and skills that will redefine who we are in our own terms!

Let's break the gallows that haunt us because this time, we are the executioners- the executioners of our fate!

Next Chapter: Baking Soda Wars