A Simplification of Life

In the last few years, I have become more interested in doing things in a more natural way.  This feeling started a few years ago when I purchased an indoor garden.  I planted a variety of herbs.  I had enough success with the herbs to buy another indoor garden, this time planting cherry tomatoes, which were very successful.

This newfound gardening success prompted me to plant an outdoor container garden.  I started off planting tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, herbs, and arugula.  The herbs flourished and I had enough peppers to delve into the world of pickling.

Unfortunately, while growing up I never actually learned to cook.  Don’t get me wrong, I had several scratch dishes that I could pull off fairly well, but for the most part, we ate a lot of boxed food.  Chris, however, is an amazing cook.  One of the side effects of growing our garden is that we have now gravitated towards eating mostly whole foods.  It’s funny to me that even though it takes more planning and preparation to eat this way, it feels so much simpler.  Instead of a quick fix from a box with little nutritional value or flavor, we eat good food that is good for us and has amazing flavor.  The beauty is that I am now learning to cook.

Once we started eating more naturally, I felt an urge to go a more natural route for cleaning as well.  I found a great deal and decided to experiment with products that are not so full of chemicals.  What did I have to lose?  If I didn’t think the products measured up to what I have used before, no loss, I would just go back to my original products.  I ordered a few items from Mrs. Meyer’s line of products.  The multi-purpose cleaner works as well as anything I have ever used, but the beautiful lemon scent left is just amazing.  I was very skeptical of the dish soap.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dish soap performed just as well as Dawn, which I have used my entire adult life.  I have absolutely fallen in love with the lavender-scented hand soap.  I now have a bottle of their body wash and am hoping I will like it just as much (I will keep you posted).  We have switched to a more natural approach for most of our cleaning.

With this more natural approach to life, I was happy to discover the joy of essential oils.  I started with a chakra bracelet and a Stress Away essential oil blend.  I have found that I am much calmer since I began using them.  I replaced our artificial, chemical-laden air fresheners with diffused essential oils.  I have also created an air freshening spray, bug spray, bug repellant candles, and make-up remover.  The bug spray smells great and is effective in a normal outdoor situation, but not quite up to par for the deep woods.  The make-up remover is just as effective as makeup remover wipes but costs so much less and makes my skin softer.

I like the peace that I feel with this simple, more natural approach to life.