Botanicals...doesn't that sound nice?

I am a huge fan of anything organic, natural, botanical... Just the very words make me feel healthier and rejuvenated.

But then I look at the bottles of lotion on the bathroom counter, the little square containers of eye shadow, the jar of Miracle Whip in the fridge... and suddenly feel bogged down by a life where you can't just buy anything--food, cleaners, or otherwise--without getting those bad-for-you chemicals that pack along with them.

"Going natural" means carving out a whole new life for yourself. It means slowly getting rid of the normal, and branching out as we haven't in some 8 decades. To me, it's fun to slowly start seeing items on our shelves changing from packaged and processed, to fresh, dried, or canned from our own garden. I like to see my cosmetic products having ingredient lists short enough that I don't need glasses to read, and using words I understand, like "chamomile"..."aloe"... and "pomegranate." I like seeing our water bottles made out of glass instead of plastic. I like scooping out loose-leaf, organic tea into tea balls, rather than plucking out a pre-packaged bag from a box of Lipton. Seeing herbal names like Green, Bilberry, Mullein, Peppermint, Chamomile... Not something like Vanilla Chai, Raspberry Splash, Very Berry Blueberry, or something ultra-enticing in case we're not bought by the thing as it originally was. And I like to scrape my honey out of a jar, instead of drizzling it from a bottle shaped like a teddy bear.

I like that we don't use fabric softeners (dryer sheets) anymore, but hang our clothes on the line as much as possible, or use dryer balls to do the job. I like that I haven't touched a harmful chemical when cleaning our house in more months than I can keep track of, since we've discovered the power of baking soda.

I feel as if we've happened on a new way of life. A secret way that seems hidden unless you're really looking for it. A handful of years ago, I wanted to reduce the amount of my chemical intake, but I thought "natural people" smelled... well to be honest... "weird." =) Potent patchouli was not my idea of an ideal perfume. I wanted to be very critical in my "natural" choices.

What I didn't realize is how vast an array of natural products there are out there. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it's been a journey for my family as we step out from under the harmful rule of processed, chemicalized, genetically modified, tampered-with goods. We still have a long and fun road ahead as we try new things, test out the dependability of some things, and figure out what works, what doesn't, and what we may never switch from, no matter how bad it is for us. ;) I have learned so many things, and I would love to share the wealth with you, as the Lord seems leading.

So if you're interested at all in switching over a little bit, a lot, or full-blown, into natural living, then I would love to offer as many ideas, tips, how-to's, and references so you can get on your way to feeling healthy, and achieving a vitality most of us Americans don't know we could even have. Have a splendid and blessed day. And expect the next installment of our search for a more natural way of life soon!

Uncommon Existence

I live on a farm in a make-shift house that was built as a garage. I've lived here ten and a half years on concrete floors downstairs, plywood floors upstairs, with unfinished walls that used to be paper-covered insulation, but are now either plastic-covered, or have the newer addition of unfinished drywall. It's been an adventure to live this way, and I wasn't always pleasant about it as a ten year old or through my teen years. This has been a temporary dwelling, these ten and a half years, with the dream of our own real home always being the goal ahead for my parents, my two sisters and me. So as a kid who had left a normal home three hundred miles away, it was definitely a life adjustment.

Now at age 20, the Lord has taught me lessons and given me opportunities far beyond what I had ever imagined I'd experience, and He's blessed me with an extremely creative, optimistic mom, who has made the very most of our living in a garage. Sometimes I wonder now, how I will ever be able to live in a "normal" house, after living half of my life here.

For the first seven years we didn't have any walls upstairs, except for the exterior ones. How did we make bedrooms out of such a living space? We tacked sheets in any and every way we wanted. I can't imagine the fun we wouldn't have had, if we'd gotten our "real house" after the first year of living here, because we would never have had the freedom to change up our bedrooms in all the refreshing, inventive ways that we did. If us girls ever wanted our own rooms, we simply made them. If we wanted to share? We only had to expand and drop a sheet or two. It was such fun, and I will always have fond memories of those days.

Since then we've had one bedroom put in upstairs for us girls, which is much smaller than the rooms we'd made before, but I can't complain. It's a blessing we never had before. It did take us many long months before we could sleep well in such an enclosed area, without the breeze from an open window fluttering our walls, or sifting in the rich summer morning sunlight. Even now, over three years later, I don't think I sleep as well as I used to in the more open air.

And how did my parents handle it? I've never really asked, but I have an idea it's taken them a lot of patience and grace. But I do know that they are grateful for the temporary, but solid walls they have now, and especially for the old, heavy farmhouse door that they can shut if they like.

By this living experience, I have had the chance to know what it's like to wash my clothes outside in the sunlight, in big Rubbermaid bins, hanging them to dry on a clothesline stretching between the three huge balsam trees in the front yard. We didn't have running water during the first summer that we lived here, so baths in the lake were made as frequently as we needed them (which wasn't that frequent for us girls, since we were all under the age of 13 back then), or showers under a plastic solar shower bag that we let sit in the sunlight to get warm. We had a free-standing camp shower with blue tarp sides, and the bag would hang over the side, making a very practical outdoor shower that I'm grateful not to have to use anymore. :)

If out of curiosity you're wondering what we did for il bagno, my inventive, craftsman father created a box with a toilet seat, a back rest, and a hinged trap door in front, where a 5 gallon bucket would be slid in and out for dumping down the sewage pipe behind the house. As a little girl, this was all private enough, as we had 4'x8' polystyrene-sheet walls put up to make our own bathroom with a cotton sheet door, and a hand-painted sign that said DO NOT DISTURB when it was occupied.

Life didn't go on too long like that, since my grandpa (a co-owner of our 120 acre farm) built a bathroom and put in a flushing toilet, and running electric shower. You should have seen the thrill and celebration we all had, gathering around the toilet for the first time to see it flush! We did the same for the sink Dad put in, in the kitchen, leaning in close to watch with satisfaction and delight as he let the water run for the very first time in the garage.

Mom has done wonders to the kitchen itself, and since the early days we now have painted drywall, full counters (one built by Dad, and one given to us by a neighbor from a dentist's office, which had been newly remodeled), a solid wood table built by a carpenter friend, our stove and fridge, shelves for dishes, a black iron pan rack hanging above the table in the center of the room, and a myriad of Mediterranean decorations tastefully draped or hung about the room.

In short, everyone who has ever come into our unusual kitchen with concrete floors and uncovered rafters, has loved it.

The kitchen has become a centerpiece of the house, being the bearer of homemade bread, rich, abundant farm meals made from the produce of our land, and the place where countless conversations both deep and light have been held. Some of my best counsel has been received in that kitchen. It's a favorite room of the house.

It could take a full day to describe the rest of the house, but I should probably save it for another post. The kitchen is your only example for now, as to what my unusual home is like. Living in this building has taught me to be inventive in ways that nothing else probably could, short of living in a hut.

As you may have already guessed, I haven't lived a very... normal sort of life, and I suppose that's the inspiration for this blog. I was home schooled since 3rd grade, and graduated with a class of three in 2006 (the two others were friends my age who also home schooled). :) I've chosen not to go to college, and plan on making my living from the gifts and talents God has given me, coupled with the resources I find here on the farm and in the area where I live. I know lots of people who wouldn't fit into the typical mold of the classic American, and thus have had innumerable experiences in my short years. I have a wide range of interests, which I think will be conducive to the blog, and I hope that even if you don't have interest in all of the topics that I write about, that I'll be able to have something for you, and that you'll find it informative and helpful to the life you would like to live. I have a built-in need for living life differently than the average Joe and Joan, and I hope you do, too.

God bless!

John 3:16