i guess i'm a bit crunchy

Crunchy. 

This wasn't a word I would've used to describe myself with…and then I had a baby.  

In case you didn't know, "crunchy" to me means natural, home-made, plant based, eco friendly…

I guess the baby can't take all the blame.  Cooking became a passion of mine a few years ago, and with that came the notion that so many things could be handmade.  When cooking I wanted to use more organic produce, so instead of spending my whole paycheck at the store I found an affordable CSA that we love!  The next thing I knew, I was cooking swiss chard, collard greens, kale, broccolini, and fennel.  The CSA led me to want to do more things "organic" but in a cost-friendly way.  

When I was pregnant I started reading Jessica Alba's book The Honest Life.  I quickly wanted to replace every cleaning product in my house.  Instead of forking over a ton of money I decided to start making my own cleaners and also ordered some from the Honest Company (which we love).  

The next thing to get a "makeover" was my make-up, and I've slowly incorporated more and more plant-based products with ingredients I can actually pronounce.  

Then I found myself researching essential oils, chatting with my good friend about Young Living, and found ways in which I needed them in my life.  I immediately knew that I wanted to try out oils for Daniel's sleep.  For years we've struggled with him not being able to stay asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, or just tossing.  There's been so many times we've thought he should go to the doctor, but we also were kind of tired of constantly having to take a pill.  So we made the investment, and have had amazing results since.  

Our little Nathan broke out with a horrible rash a few weeks ago.  Immediately Daniel grabbed the bottle of lavender and I grabbed the coconut oil, we made a little concoction, and within a few hours he was good as new!   

The other night I was sitting down with my sister in law who has mastered the art of crunchy in the most beautiful way.  I was sharing with her how I've used my oils to clean my classroom, our stank towels, relieve stress and anxiety, cure canker sores, and then we started talking about cloth diapering.   I'll never forget the look on her face, asking her all these questions about the life she believes in passionately.  And in that moment I realized, I was crunchy and I liked it.  

I like making things myself, using minimal ingredients, treating the wellness of my family with pure products, and knowing what is getting into our bodies.  It still surprises me a bit, because this isn't necessarily how I saw myself a few years ago, but I'm pretty pleased with this lovely transformation.