Organic Skin Care

I never really thought about it too much before - just used whatever skin care products I got for the best price.  Then I heard something that made complete sense.  Your skin is your largest organ (learned that in school), and whatever you put on your skin will be absorbed into your body.  I even heard someone say that, "If you wouldn't eat it, don't put it on your skin."  I'm not sure I'll go that far, but I am pretty much convinced that I should be using Organic skin care from now on.

Now the question is where do I buy it, and where can I get the best deal?  I've been browsing EnviroProductsWorld where they carry some of the most popular lines of organic products such as One Love Organics, Kiss My Face, Antipodes, Sequoia Beauty, Antho, BeeAlive, Acure Organics and more!  I don't really know much about any of the brands or which ones are better, but I think it's a good place to at least start looking, and a good place to find all the different options available in one place.  There are many different products to choose from instead of being limited to the few natural, organic, and paraben free products available at the local drug store.  If you have any favorite brands, please let me know.  I'm open to any and all suggestions!

EnviroProductsWorld also carries hair products, cosmetics, deodorants, green cleaning products and natural pet products. Shipping is free on orders over $49, or just a flat rate of $5.95 on anything under that.

Oh, the Memories

In going through all these boxes of stuff, I found an entire stack of unfolded and unused invitations to our wedding.  Why did we keep all those? I think there's one in the photo album with all the wedding photos, but do we really need any more?  I kept about 5.  Just because.

I also found lots of little wedding favors and mementos from all the various weddings we've attended over the years.  Mostly I found matches, napkins, and bubbles.  I think the best are the bubbles, because they're just a fun diversion every once in a while.  Of course, the matches are handy for lighting candles and such, but do I really need to hold on to them for years?  Apparently so, but I did end up tossing some of the bubbles - without even blowing any bubbles, what was I thinking?  I also tossed any duplicate napkins or anything else that I had multiples of.  Any candy cones like the ones pictured here were long gone, because somebody always eats the candy, which is probably good because I wouldn't have wanted to find old nasty candy in my boxes. 

It's always fun to have cute little things to take home from the wedding reception, and I always end up keeping them, just for the memories.  Yeah, even though they're almost always imprinted with the names of the bride and groom and the date of the wedding, they're not at all handy for remembering when to send those anniversary cards - at least not when they're boxed up and tucked away and almost never looked at.  They do, however, bring back some nice memories when I do pull them out.  But it really only takes one for that.

And I really don't need an entire stack of wedding invitations from my own wedding to remember that one, or to remember when to send/give that anniversary card to the love of my life!

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I'm Keeping These Feathers

I feel like I'm being pretty good at getting rid of stuff I don't really need anymore, but sometimes it's hard know whether I should get rid of something or keep it.  You know how you don't wear something for years, get rid of it, and then it comes back into style?  Or maybe it's just something that you haven't worn in ages and then, as soon as you get rid of it, a reason to wear it suddenly comes along.  If only you'd kept it...

Anybody remember wearing those feathered roach clips in your hair?  I came across mine in a box last week, and while

there's very little chance I'll ever wear them again, or do anything with them for that matter, I just can't decide to give them away or throw them out.

Maybe there'll be an 80's party or something one of these days, and I'll need them.  Or something.

Besides, hair feathers and feather earrings are a hot trend right now.  Yeah, I know - not exactly the same, but you know what that means?  I can't throw away my old feathers, and I need new ones too.  Or maybe I'll just hang these from a lampshade or something, just for fun.

The Advantages of Getting Ready to Move

We took a whole trailer-load of stuff to Goodwill today and got rid of it.  Hopefully they can sell it, recycle it, donate it, or something else that will benefit them or somebody else.  We certainly didn't need all that stuff here.  The problem with having room for all the stuff is that we tend to keep all the stuff.

Until we start thinking about moving and realize how many trailer trips it would take to move it all and how much all that stuff weighs - and how much it would cost to have a moving company pack it all up and move it for us.  That's when we start thinking about getting rid of everything we don't really need, because why pay to move something that's just going to go and sit on another shelf?

We've also had our house completely inspected and know that everything is in good shape - not that we were worried about that, but it's still good to know.  I mean, we did have practically everything redone 2 years ago after the tornado, pretty much everything except closed cell spray foam ottawa. The only thing we had to get fixed was the water heater because it supposedly wasn't installed properly.  However, when we were going through things last night, Jeffrey found the packaging from the gas connector from the original installation, and it specifically says that it's for a water heater.  So I don't understand what was wrong about it.

Oh well, at least it was a fairly quick fix and wasn't something like insufficient insulation which would have required installation of spray foam insulation ottawa or something like that.  I know proper insulation helps decrease power bills, but still, that's more than we would have wanted to deal with.  And, thankfully, our house is nice and cozy - except sometimes our bathroom floor.  What I wish we'd done is put some heat in the floor when we had the tile done, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the inspection.

Knowing the house is in good shape is good, but I'd say the biggest advantage of getting ready to move is the purging, sorting and organizing.  Less stuff is better, right?  And if we're not using it, somebody should be able to.

I Still Think Marriage is a Lifetime Commitment

I was just reading a post I wrote several months ago over on my other blog.  Mostly it was just a 'conversation' I copied from my facebook page.  I'd started by posting something about the sorry state of marriage in today's society and how people don't seem to need much of an excuse to call in the divorce lawyer montreal, or their own local divorce attorney.  It's like nobody really sees marriage as a lifetime commitment.  It's not 'until death do us part' or 'as long as you both shall live' anymore.  Marriage is one man and one woman for a lifetime - and not just until they don't feel like being married anymore or they 'drift apart' and then move on to the next one.

Anyway, my comment sparked a whole storm of comments with at least one person letting herself become very offended by my opinion and then even unfriending me at the end of the day because I didn't come around to her point of view.  Or something.  I've read the whole thing over again several times, and I really don't understand what she was trying to say, and she wasn't inclined to explain.  I suppose I really shouldn't care, and I really don't think of it much, but I just happened to see one of her comments pop up on a friend's status the other day, and that reminded me.  So I read through it again.  Oh well.

Yes, there are legitimate reasons for divorce and needing a family lawyer montreal, including abuse and adultery.  Thankfully those lawyers are available for those who need them.  I was just commenting on the fact that it's sad so many divorces happen for seemingly frivolous reasons.  And I stand by that opinion.  If someone gets all bent out of shape because he or she got divorced for one of those frivolous reasons and thinks I'm judging him or her, then so be it. I mean, maybe I could/should apologize, but I'm not sure what I would be apologizing for.  Having an opinion?  Not agreeing with the other point of view?  Not even understanding what that point of view is?

Feel free to chime in with your own opinions of marriage and/or divorce.

What a Mess

In all the sorting, organizing, tossing, and packing, things are starting to look like a real disaster around here.  That doesn't sound a bit organized, does it?  It's just that there are piles of stuff here and piles of stuff there with everything being sorted out - what goes, what gets tossed, what gets donated, etc.  Along with all that boxes are starting to stack up and newspapers and packing materials are scattered everywhere.  It's quite a change from all that time I kept the house as close to perfect as possible just in case we'd have a showing.

I'm sure I'll need to clean everything up again before we leave.  And now I'm trying to figure out when exactly I'll have time for that.  Sometime after everything is packed up and out of the house I'll just have to do it.  I'm not sure exactly how much cleaning I need to do, but I'll have to at least sweep and vacuum and probably wipe down the bathrooms.  It would be a lot easier to just find somewhere I could Click Here and get someone to come in and clean the floors for me, but maybe that's what the buyers will do.  I just need to leave it decent.  I think.  I'm not really sure how much I'm supposed to do.

I remember doing the last-minute cleaning at our old house before I was ready to load the kids, the cat, the dog, and all the last-minute stuff into the car and head to Wisconsin.  I wanted to leave everything perfect.  And then that night we got to Wisconsin and got to the apartment we were going to be living in for the next several months - and it was a dark, dirty mess.  I'm sure the apartment complex was supposed to have someone clean before a new tenant moved in, but they didn't.  It was very frustrating going from my nice clean house to that.  I'd like to leave the house so that whoever comes in here won't feel like they have to clean before they can touch anything.  OK, even if I don't do any cleaning at all, it won't be that bad.  But I'll probably do it anyway.

At least one of the guys from the moving companies that came to give us an estimate added my vacuum cleaner to the inventory and included it in the list of items to be moved.  Nope, that's not gonna work...

What Says Love to You?

Apparently today was all about love - at least judging by all the status updates, pictures and posts on facebook, and all the commercials that have been running on television advertising gifts and jewelry.  And don't forget all those people who lined up at the courthouse to get married today.  I don't really get it.  Not love - I get that.  And marriage.

Lobsters (Photo credit: Foomandoonian)

What I don't get is all the emphasis and stress on this one day - like this is the most important day of the year for any relationship.  There must be something wrong with the relationship if your significant other doesn't make some kind of grand romantic gesture on this particular day, like sending 2 dozen red roses or having live lobsters Shipping in for a special dinner. (Is that romantic?  I read a book recently where the husband had lobster delivered every year on their anniversary.  I wouldn't want to see or eat those things, but it was a tradition they had.  The marriage was a bit screwed up, but I don't think it was the lobsters' fault.  Also, how about that?  Having lobsters shipped to anywhere isn't just a fictional book thing; you can really do that.)

It's not just Valentine's Day that I don't get.  It's birthdays, anniversaries, and pretty much any other 'special' day.  I mean, sure it's fun to mark our anniversary every year and to give Jeffrey a hard time about getting old on his birthday, but lots of times I forget my own birthday unless someone else brings it up. (With facebook now it is pretty hard to forget.)  I really don't expect anything from my husband.  Maybe a card.  I know he loves me.  Every day.  Or most of them, anyway.

And if we did care about Valentine's Day, we'd have to celebrate a day or two later - because why pay full price for the the chocolate or special Valentine's gifts when everybody knows full well they'll be marked down the next day.  I know he loves me more when he doesn't buy me something at full price.

What says love to you? 

Looks Like We Need a Plumber

Water Heater (Photo credit: rd76pag)

We had the home inspection done last week, and everything checked out OK.  Except that we have to find a plumber to evaluate and correctly install the water heater.  The home inspector thought Jeffrey probably installed the water heater himself because it wasn't done properly, something about the wrong materials used for the water and gas lines.  I don't really know, and the guy we paid to install the water heater apparently didn't know, or else he just figured that we wouldn't know the difference so it wouldn't matter.  Hopefully it won't be too expensive.  I kinda wonder if we can get away with sending the bill to the guy who originally installed the thing.  Yeah, probably not.

Thankfully we just had the entire exterior of the house re-done a couple years ago after the tornado, so we won't have to worry about roof repairs (réparation toiture montréal if you speak French), and the buyers shouldn't have to worry for a good long time.  Same with the siding, garage door, windows, etc.  And, really, we just replaced the water heater a few years before that, so it shouldn't have been an issue.  Once it's fixed, though, they shouldn't have to worry about that for a while either.

For anyone who does need roof repairs (in Montreal) be sure to check out these guys for montréal couvreur. They've got over 25 years experience, so I bet they know what they're doing, and they'll do it right in the first place - saving you money in the long run.

Moral of the story: Just because somebody says he's a professional and says he knows what he is doing, always do your own research.  According to the home inspector, a water heater must be installed by a licensed plumber - not just some guy who does construction or remodeling.  He may be a licensed contractor, but that does not make him a plumber. 

But It Won't Be the Same

I hope the library where we're moving is a good one.  I should probably research that...

Last week I boxed up a bunch of paperbacks that I'm planning to donate instead of move.  When I told my son Cory I was getting rid of those instead of taking them and that I could just get them at the library when I want to read them, he said that yes, I can get them at our library here, but what if I can't get them at the library there.  I'm not really worried about that, but I am definitely going to miss our little library.  Sure another library can give me books and programs, but it just won't be the same.  It's like if you always went to a certain day spa montreal and then moved to a different city.  You're used to the aesthetic and therapeutic services in the elegant and relaxing atmosphere, and you're sure no other spa can be as good.

Maybe it can, but there's something to be said for what you're used to, and if you're used to your montreal day spa the same way I'm used to my library, then it's going to take some adjustment.  Will the new spa be open 7 days a week?  Will they offer the same therapeutic massages, hydromassages, aesthetic care, and waxing?  Will my new library give me the same access to the books I want to read, access to great programs, and a feeling of community?

Or maybe I'm the only one who obsesses over these things.  Normal people would just go to the library or the spa in their new town, once they've moved, and see what they have to offer.