I Feel For Ya, Garfield

Monday. I hate Mondays.

Being in ministry, the weekends never feel much like weekends for me and Luke.

We don’t sleep in, we don’t rest and enjoy each other’s company, we don’t goof off and play Donkey Kong Country for exorbitant amounts of time. But I’m not about to complain.

Yesterday was a rare Sunday that we were caught up on what we needed to do (for the most part) and were able to spend some time lounging in bed after church and a nice lunch. We were back at the church at 4:00 to prepare for youth group and not home again until 7:30, but we both love the youth group kids and wouldn’t change anything.

All this to say; Mondays are the worst. Either 1) you do get a nice relaxing weekend and come Monday everything’s piled up and you so aren’t ready to tackle another week or 2) you had a productive weekend and worked steadily and you’re not rested enough to tackle another week. At least that’s how it feels to me.

So, to get to the point, today won’t be a super-involved post. I did want to share something I’ve been putting a lot of time and thought into, though.

As you know, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to live more naturally and healthfully. One of the ways I’m doing this is by kicking out chemicals and beginning to make my own hygiene, beauty and cleaning products. I decided to start with beauty products as that seemed like the most fun and immediately rewarding (something I need to keep myself motivated). I wanted an easy recipe to start with, and not too expensive. I found this free Kindle book on Amazon and am going to try out the Spicy Powder Foundation.

For detailed ingredients and instructions grab the Kindle book. If you’d rather try a recipe out first, you can follow my instructions and check back for pics and further tips later this week.

Ingredients: arrow root powder (or cornstarch if you KNOW your skin isn’t sensitive to corn or are willing to give it a try), cinnamon, cocoa powder, nutmeg, turmeric, ground ginger

Instructions: Pour about a tsp arrowroot or cornstarch onto a paper plate. Slowly add other spices (about 1/8 tsp at a time) until you’re happy with the color. Test frequently on the back of your hand. Use your current makeup as a quick comparison. KEEP TRACK of how much you add of each spice. Write it down as you go. When you’re finished, save the recipe, give it a shade name and keep it for future use. Store it in whatever little container you have/prefer and apply with a kabuki or fluffy brush.

(this is a kabuki brush from a brand i like)

You can double the batch and use half for a creamy foundation. We’ll tackle that later on.

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I’ll be doing that later this afternoon (or maybe later this week… my day is already getting away from me) and taking pictures to share the results with you, but for now I thought I’d share the recipe and see if you’d like to make this attempt with me. I also want to try out a super simple body scrub made from three kitchen ingredients.

click the pic for the original post for this scrub

As the author of “Kick Chemicals to the Curb” said, “If you can’t eat it, you probably shouldn’t be putting it on your skin.” 

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So what do you think? Maybe it seems a little odd and hippie-dippy to you, but keep in mind there are so many benefits of living naturally and no real reason not to. We’ll definitely be spending more time on this subject, but in the meantime have fun researching and experimenting with all the ways to live more naturally by diy-ing and making things your own (I love that you can make all of these look cute and it feels good knowing you made it yourself. They also make great gifts!)

Hopefully this makes your Monday a little better 🙂

Love always,

Tara

UPDATE: Apparently the Kindle book now costs $2.99 but it is well worth it!