Happy summer

Yesterday I gave away our son's stroller. Big big sigh. Time flies. Even bigger sigh. 

I'll be away from the screen for about 10 days. But before I leave I want to wish you a beautiful summer. Strawberries. Cherries. Lavender. Sun. Water. Fun. And mostly love and peace, compassion and non judgement. 

 

Y

You see this lady? She is how I imagine myself to be growing old. Laughing. Still fit. And having my hair exactly this way. I love the simplicity of it. I love the natural gray color. 

The only little problem is that my husband really does not like gray hair on women, especially not on his wife (me). He is a cool guy. I could wear a potato bag next to him and he would most probably not say a word. But he has got thing with the gray hair. Out of my love for him (or maybe it is the little ego voice inside of me 'you know that he doesn't like it and look at all these beautiful colorful hair of the other women' ... no need to say more...) I will most probably not wear mine, one day all gray hair, like this (even though I'm still considering ;-). 


You see, for now I have got very few of these gray fellows. They still hide quite well. I was told by the women tribe that gray hair are quite premature in our family. I cannot fight the genetics at this level. 
And out there, there is a huge business with so many beautiful hair dyes, promising us, the most and the best color ever. The problem, and this is a big one for me, is that I don't like chemicals. You would find very few if any in our household. The same goes to the cosmetics. I don't want to put on my head the PPD or PPDA. You might have heard about these. Para Phenylenediamine

Alternative names for para-phenylenediamine:

PPD or PPDA, Phenylenediamine base, p-Phenylenediamine, 4-Phenylenediamine, 1,4-Phenylenediamine, 4-Benzenediamine, 1,4-Benzenediamine, para-Diaminobenzene (p-Diaminobenzene), para-Aminoaniline (p-Aminoaniline), Orsin™, Rodol™, Ursol™, 2 - Nitro - 1,4 - diaminobenzene, Dye GS, Durafur Brown 2R, Fouramine 2R, 1,4 - Diaminonitrobenzol (German), 1,4 - Diamino - 2 - nitrobenzene, C.I. Oxidation Base 22, Fourrine Brown 2R, NCI - C02222, 4 - Amino - 2 - nitroaniline, 2 - Nitro - 1,4 - benzenediamine,  Fourrine 36, o - Nitro - p - phenylenediamine, 2 - Nitro - 1,4 - phenylenediamine, Nitro - p - phenylenediamine, 2 - Nitro - p - phenylenediamine, Oxidation Base 22, Ursol Brown RR, C.I. 76070, Zoba Brown RR, 2 - Nitro - 4 - aminoaniline)


So I'm left with another option. Henna. But as everything, even Henna became a  huge business. So you can find PPD even in there. A pure quality body art henna that you can safely use to dye your hair is possible to find, yet it is also quite pricey. 

Be sure that I'm very well aware that the hair part I mention above is not anything important. What I'm rather trying to say is how much we are exposed to the chemicals. And how important, to my eyes, it is to make the good choices without having to become the 'cave people'.

It's the same as with the organic food. For sure we may find a great organic food from a really good farm (even though the rain that falls from the sky may not be the cleanest one) but it's quite pricey. But it is a choice we make. Maybe to eat less and buy a better quality food. 
The other day I was really puzzled. Buying milk for my son. The industrial one was in a jar and the organic one in a plastic bottle ... omg which one is better then?

I wonder how you guys feel about the organic versus industrial? The natural versus the chemical?

Hope you all have a lovely weekend :-)

Memories

How was your weekend? Lovely one on our site :-) Lot's of kids in the house and in the garden, enjoying the nice weather. I like to watch these little ones to play. To discover the world :-)

This morning while preparing our breakfast I remember this little story from my childhood. I went to the same primary school where my mother was a teacher. It was a choice my parents made even though I asked them not to put me there ... sigh. Anyway, as it can go sometimes, I got bullied as a result of my mother being a teacher. Maybe it was also because I didn't know how to stand for myself very well at that time. It didn't last for too long, two months maybe. But it was very unpleasant and I was taking refuge in the nature and in the friends I had outside the school. For some reasons I remembered this part of my life this morning. And I had to smile at it. There are no hard feelings about it. Neither lessons that I think I would have learned from it. It's just something very far away that has happened to me. And today I can gently smile at it and let it completely go.

I wish one day I will be able to smile without any hard feelings at all the difficult times I have been through since then. Just a little smile, an understanding. No nothing else ...

Hope you all have a great week to come :-)

Walk in the woods

I love the woods. There where I originally come from we were surrounded by deep green woods and we spent so much time in them. Every holiday, every week-end, every season. It didn't matter. To be in the forest is such a primitive and empowering feeling. The fresh breeze in the summer. The softness of the ground.
It looks like our son is also a forest lover. He was asking me for such a long time to take him to the woods. 'Can we go today'? he would ask. We have got two reasonably nice woods nearby. The only problem is that there were several rapes and assaults and even one murder. So, the only way to go to the woods for a walk is when my husband comes with us. Otherwise I would have to be crazy to eventually  risk our lives ... 
Finally last weekend, the weather was beautiful and hubby had some time :-) So full of excitement we went to the big wood. It was so beautiful. The little one was jumping up high like a squirrel asking about the trees, the plants and fully enjoying the walk. The trees provided us with the shade, the birdies would sing out loud. Pure bliss. 
How sad that nowadays we have to be so afraid to do the most natural thing, such as a walk into nature ...

Lack of sleep and its effect

This morning we went to buy a little chair so that I don't have to hold my son (he is becoming heavy now) on my tight when he washes his hands in the sink. We found one, cheap and ok. I promised him to take him to the big garden center he likes so much. While walking in, suddenly he tells me "mommy I think we forgot the chair in the store" ... we went to the car to check if it was in or not (I could not remember) and it was not ... I forgot it in the store ...
 I like to sleep, and I need lots of it to function well. But with a toddler (who never slept well as a baby), it is not always possible to get the amount of sleep, I wish I would have. This shows in the daily life and here are just few of the silly things I can do when I don't sleep enough:

prepare coffee - put the filter in the coffeemaker, the coffee in, switch it on and come back later realizing I forgot to put the water in ...
let our dog out to the garden - forget him there and only later when I noticed something small and black running like crazy from one window door to the other, I realize it was our poor dog (not a big deal it was a sunny day but he is not use to that - he looked freaked out and a bit 'upset')
starting to search for my keys (omg I'm turning into my mother, help!)
going to the grocery store and forget what I need to buy, what do we have in the fridge and what we don't
putting my son in the car seat and realizing he still wears his slippers

The list could go on. The only problem is I don't remember all of it ... memory loss is the other disadvantage of the very short nights ... 

The wild life around

Huray! 2 weeks ago a truck came with a big cage on it. Our neighbors are back we screamed out loud in excitement. (You can read about their departure here). So we anxiously waited for them to get out. Baaa baaa baaa. To our big surprise these were different sheep. A mom sheep with two quite a grown up lambs. As excited as we were to have the sheep back we were also very confused about what felt like a 'mix up'. Where are 'our' two white sheep and the brown one? The ones who always came to say 'hi' every time we walked out of our door or went to the garden? My brain sends me a message that I don't like. Could it be that they just feed them here and then ... you know ... send them to the slaughter house? I'm chasing the idea right away. There must definitely be another reason to this. In the meantime I will find out what happened (yes dear Watson, we need to find out) we are welcoming our new neighbors here.
The first couple of days they really looked like in a deep distress running away each time we walked in or out of the house. Yesterday for the first time they did accept some bread from us. But we must be still, no sudden moves as they freak out so easily. Poor things. I'm already in love with them ...

Resisting

So early in the morning today. This has not happened in such a long time but today I cannot sleep anymore, unable to stop the river of thoughts in my head. 
Waking up with the sun, I feel the energy of the day, everything still so calm before exploding to the rush of the day. 
For the past few days I cannot chase one word from my head. Resistance. I realize how much energy I put into resisting. From the smallest and not so important stuff such as my first gray hair to the more important ones. What a waste of energy. The wise and the sage tell us to go with the flow or not to swim against the current. Deep in my heart I know they are right. I really do. Yet I seem unable just to let myself float on that river of Life and to take it all and accept it as it comes. Sigh. I know all about the relaxation techniques, meditation, prayer. I do it all. So why, why can I not let it all just go?


Lovely day to all.

For all the childern

Today I pray for all the children in need
For all the children that go through any form of suffering
may it be a physical or a mental one. 
Today I pray for all the innocent little Souls
May you all be loved
May you all have someone who will hug you
And tell you a good night story.
May you all know what it is to have a warm meal
And a clean water
And a warm blanket
A bed to rest on
May you know the joys of being a child.
I pray for you to have your happy childhood back
And that you can become a loving and caring adults one day.
I pray for you.