As of late, I've noticed that when I smell chemical cleaning agents I get an insta-headache. I know this is because, after having used those same chemicals for years, I stopped using them a few years ago. I've gradually cut down and now I mainly use baking soda and vinegar with essential oils for all my cleaning. I just can't believe how quickly we build up a tolerance for all those chemicals! They never bothered me before, but now that I no longer use them they do. Weird. And scary.

I've gotten even stranger lately because I no longer shampoo my hair. Now before you start picturing stanky, lanky dreads I'll admit that I do wash my hair, just not with shampoo. I use, you guessed it, baking soda and honey followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse. Yeah, it smells at first but as my hair dries there's no vinegar scent. And I'm loving this! My hair is shiny and soft and...best of all...it's not freaky anymore! My hair used to have parts that were wavy and parts that were stick straight so it was really hard to manage; even with a straightener there were still parts that wanted to curl up and when I tried to scrunch it there were parts that wanted to stay straight. But now I have this great wavy-ness throughout my hair. I'm thinking the shampoo was just weighing it down, hence the straight parts. I also use the baking soda and honey (plus whatever oil I want to add for scent) for a body scrub. It works as an exfoliant plus leaves my skin really soft.

So I'm really enjoying switching to a chemical free home...I'm not stuck with giving up quality for purity. Still using natural products, but getting fabulous results! I'm liking this...

A quickie post from work since my home computer is being de-virused as I type...I hope anyway.

The big news at Chez Cheryl?

- My five year old (almost 6!) just lost her first tooth!

-Scott and I are tentatively getting along...after a touchy weekend I think we're back on solid ground.

-We're starting year 3 of homeschooling our oldest and this may be the last. I feel him needing more of an outlet away from us and I'm finally accepting the fact that I'm really not that great at homeschooling. Par for the course with me, I start out with these grand intentions but suck on the follow through.

-My two year old is a frenzy of activity and I keep hearing myself saying " were the first two this ACTIVE?!". I'm assuming they were, it's just that now I'M not, so it just seems like crazy town all the time.

-I'm finally at the point where the thought of more kids totally skeeves me out...I'm much more diligent with my temping and charting and making sure none of the guys make it past the goalie...of course, we play short seasons around these parts :-( We may be surgically subverting the "guys" in the not too distant future.

- Remember my post about working on my health? Well, I'm down about 6 lbs since then. It's a lot slower in coming off this way, but I don't feel like I'm on a "diet" or anything. It feels like just small changes here and there and they really DO add up. I'm not obsessing over the scale, I'm not denying myself good things...I'm just finally starting to treat myself a bit better. And slow and steady wins the race, eh?

-We're so broke it ain't funny. Scary things might end up happening if we don't do something soon...oh well. There just aren't lots of jobs around here but we do have a few possible options that might pan out in the not too distant future. We shall see.