Fermentation is my favorite food process, hands down. Without fermentation we may not have an advanced species (debatable) and we certainly don’t have the many delicious foods we love like Pizza (not debatable). This whole week I’m going to focus my #MarchofGratitude posts on fermentation – that’s how much I love it, starting with pizza. This weekend I made […]
PLEASE NOTE: Due to rapidly changing conditions and recommendations from health and government officials, some of these tips may turn to be not recommended. I’m doing my best to keep up, but please check with the CDC’s recommendations and your local government before enacting anything. We’re seeing unprecedented action and reaction in the wake of […]
We were first introduced to the Alaffia brand when someone gifted Nicki some Alaffia shampoo. After looking into the brand, it was clear that they were a company that wanted to do good (read more about that here), but the products were equally as good as well. It didn’t take long for more Alaffia products […]
When you live in the upper Midwest, there are certain things that you have to accept at wintertime: snow, bone drying cold, shoveling, and road salt. I can’t offer much for the pain of shoveling, nor can I help you with the road salt (many car washes…), but there are a few things we’ve employed […]
As with everything made by Dr. Bronner’s, this pump soap is made with all natural and organic ingredients. The first ingredient is sugar (sucrose), but don’t be alarmed. While sugar wrecks the inside of the body by causing insulin spikes, irritation, and acidifies the bloodstream, it is actually really good for the outside of our […]
Initially, we made our own deodorant paste, concocted from Baking Soda, Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Beeswax, Arrowroot Powder, and Essential Oils. We jammed it into used deodorant tubes and went to town. I actually switched to chemical-free deodorant the week that we moved apartments in the middle of a hot July (which might be the […]
As with any shampoo/conditioner combo, this is the yang to the Acure Shampoo’s yin. Unlike conventional conditioners, Acure makes all of their conditioners with completely biodegradable ingredients. That may not mean much to you, but we appreciate that aspect, and it does help to know when you are putting that on your hair. If a […]
Acure’s list of ingredients sometimes read like a graduate level Latin course, but it’s just that they use the scientific name for each of the ingredients. You can rest assured that they only use 100 percent organic, ethically-sourced ingredients. And in an industry full of products made with parabens, SLS, phthalates, and synthetic everything, that’s […]
You can pretty much rely on anything in the Dr. Bronner’s product lineup to be chemical free (if there are any exceptions, we have not found them yet). Just about any DIY-er is going to have a bottle or many of the liquid castile soap for making shampoos, soaps, detergents, cleaning products, and more. The […]
The air inside our homes can often be more polluted than the outside air. As air is pulled into our homes, it can carry fumes, pollutants, dander, allergens, and more that will accumulate in our homes instead of pass through. Proper air filtration will grab and clean these elements and trap them in the filter […]
Many shower curtains and liners are manufactured with Vinyl Chlorides that give off toxic fumes from the moment you unpack it and will continue to leach out toxins when exposed to hot water and hot air. You know, like in showers… Vinyl Chlorides are a known carcinogen and can affect you when inhaled (that fresh […]
Salbakos is a Turkish luxury towel and bathrobe maker that we discovered after some late night googling after a minor panic attack I had when thinking about what chemicals are in the materials in our bathroom. Fortunately, most Salbakos products are made with cotton grown without the use of pesticides. These bath towels are woven […]
Conventional toothpaste has everything from triclosan to fluoride (not as good for us as advertised) to sugar in it. Why do we need sugar in our toothpaste? We don’t, it’s added for…taste? It’s widely accepted that sugar and sugary substances cause tooth decay. So, again, why does the product that’s supposed to help fight […]
I just wrapped up a personal challenge to post something I am grateful for every day for the month of March. I called it March of Gratitude because, you know, hashtags. If you didn’t see it, the posts are on my social profiles (primarily on LinkedIn) and I added them on the blog here as […]
When I started March of Gratitude I knew I would begin with my wife and end with my daughter, Raylen. I remember getting on a plane after Nicki and I were really serious and, for the first time, I felt some fear about what would happen if it crashed. I’d been on dozens of flights […]
When I was a freshman in high school I had the opportunity to travel to Mexico to build houses for families in need. It was a needed opportunity for a young kid to learn two key lessons: My life is pretty great compared to most people on the planet. Other countries and cultures are interesting, […]