In gratitude

… for moments of quiet.

… for my goofy girl whom I miss already.

… for the opportunity to get a world class education.

… for still occasionally having my Mom read aloud to my brother and I.

… for really funny physics books.

… for cafes where I'm on a first name basis with half the staff.

… for the opportunity to visit home.

… for the option to advance my own goals.

… for fuzzy housemates.

… for friends who struggle with the same challenges I do.

… for nourishing food.

… for the moments of overwhelming joy when I realize how much freedom I have in my life.

… for good weather.

… for advisors that will help me figure out the conflicts in my schedule.

… for the rhythms of life.

… for how much better life goes when we acknowledge those life rhythms.

…  for Saturday morning antics.

… for fuzzy beasties.

A clean happy hippy child

I had a semi-hippy upbringing. I would run around barefoot all summer (maybe spring and fall too), I helped Mom with her organic garden and we composted and such. Not a hardcore hippie upbringing, but enough to teach me the value of not wasting or demolishing natural resources. However, in my teenage years I started backsliding, getting caught up in consumerism and frankly being a bit lazy.

I heard recently some valuable words that reminded me of the importance of living lightly on the land. Pope Francis essentially said that disrespecting the planet and it's occupants is tantamount to disrespecting God, because God created all things. Now you can replace the word god with whatever deity you please to make it meaningful to yourself but the message is the same, the heavy handed way of living is hurting our relationship with our creator (again feel free to substitute your own beliefs, maybe Mother Earth is your creator, not my business to tell you what to believe), and damaging our spiritual selves. I had never really thought about it that way, but it makes sense to me. I feel more grounded and happy when I make things for myself and know they aren't hurting anyone or anything else.

To that end I have started using homemade shampoo and conditioner. I actually tried it for most of my time in Europe when I had to find more heavy things to get rid of and my friend recommended I share her haircare stuff. I agreed and I'm glad I did, it was much lighter and got the job done just as well. It also made my blonde tresses a bit lighter which I don't mind at all. :) I stopped using it when I came home since I didn't have to worry about carrying heavy weight around, but after hearing Pope Francis' point of view I changed my mind.

 

Here is the very simple recipe:
For shampoo use 1 heaping TBLS of baking soda dissolved in 3 oz of water. Kim taught me to put the baking soda in a 3 oz container right before my shower then add shower water to make it liquid. It's easier to carry and much nicer than dumping cold water on your head. Let that sit while you do all your other shower things, then rinse it out at the end.

For conditioner use a spray bottle of apple cider vinegar and spritz your hair top and bottom when you get out of the shower. You'll smell a bit pungent for half an hour or so after your show then the smell goes away. If you can't stand that then spritz in the shower and wash the vinegar out.

The other part of this system is the soft bristle brush. Brush your hair on all sides for a total of 100 strokes. That spreads the oils on your scalp out for more equal coverage on your hair and allowing the baking soda to get down to the roots. You can do this again whenever your hair looks a bit greasy, but not bad enough for a shower.

Because most shampoos strip too much oil from your hair it will probably take a few showers to start feeling really clean. Your scalp needs time to realize it doesn't need to produce so much oil.

In gratitude

One of my favorite blogs right now is Hullabaloo Homestead, and the author has this great thing of posting some things she's grateful for. I think that is a wonderful idea, so I decided to follow her example.


…for silly Mom's making bread.

… for job hunt buddies.

…for computers and kitties.

 … sleeping in with the dogs.

…for fresh homemade bread.

…for "my" mountain that can be seen anywhere in the city on a clear day.

 …for warming tea.

 … for cuddly puppies with pretty eyes.

 …for naughty cats that happily sleep where they aren't supposed to.

… for each day being an opportunity to start again.

Satisfying Endings

Haha, it seems this blog gets design makeovers more often than new posts, doesn't it? Making images works is easier for me than writing. Besides the graphic change you'll notice the title and tag line has changed. I felt the "Tazzi, Me, and (former) Guide Puppy makes Three" just doesn't fit my life anymore. I haven't been involved with guide dogs for almost three years now and really my life isn't all about my dogs anymore. The old tag line doesn't work either because among other things the Reflux Disease isn't bothering me anymore. So I say a fond and loving farewell to that tiny snapshot of my life. Don't worry though, all the posts are still there.

What else has been going on besides the blog title change? Well I just got back from four months spent in Europe. I spent 2.5 months in Croatia studying abroad, went to Venice twice, visited Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then Rome, Paris, London, Barcelona, and Frankfurt. In total I was gone for just shy of 4 months. There are many stories, but it's too much to write in one big chunk, but I'm sure they will come out one at a time as life reminds me of them.

The other ending that can't come fast enough for me is the end of school. This is my very last semester of university for a while, thank goodness! It's been fun, but I am so ready to move on to something else. Don't remind me of any of this six months after I graduate though since I'm sure I'll be mourning the student life.