Blogging Challenge: A Product, Any Product That You Love

My favorite product du jour is undoubtedly...drum roll, please...








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(That's me playing a roll on a snare drum. Could you tell?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry about the glare.

 

 



 

 

TADA!

 

 

 

 

 

I know organic coconut oil is a hot product right now. It's all over Pinterest and on tons of blogs and on store shelves. I'm not really saying anything new here, but this stuff makes my skirt fly up. This stuff is wonderful. On any given day, I use my organic coconut oil...



...in my breakfast smoothie. It's supposed to aid in thyroid function. It also makes my smoothie creamier, and -- most importantly -- I like the taste.

...to cleanse and moisturize my face.

...as lip balm.

...as hand/foot/body cream.

...in place of olive oil in my homemade lemon sugar scrub. Talk about soft hands. Mmm.

...as a deep conditioner for my hair. Though I'll admit that didn't work out too well. Maybe I did it wrong?

...in a miniscule amount to tame my thin, frizzy, fly away hair.

...to make stove top popcorn. I also melt a spoonful and pour it over cooked popcorn in place of melted butter. Dee. Lish.

...in place of oil or butter when baking a cake or sautéing stir-fry.



Like I said above -- TADA!


I have even read that you can use it to polish your shoes, whiten your teeth, apply as a first aid ointment, and use it on squeaky door hinges instead of WD-40. Is there anything coconut oil can't do?

If you don't have any organic coconut oil to call your own, then go pro cur yourself a giant jar. You'll be glad you did. And hey -- if you plan to use it in or on your body, especially on your pretty face, get the good organic stuff.

Blogging Challenge: Revive/Resurrection

I love that I live in an area where it gets bloody hot in the summer and frigidly cold in the winter. I truly enjoy each and every season. I don't look at the autumn shades of red, orange, and brown and wish they were the first green and yellow blossoms of spring. I like to take a walk in the icy snow of winter as much as I like to take a swim in the cool ocean during the heat of summer, and when I head out either into the first snow of the season or into the ocean I haven't visited since the summer before, I inwardly (and rather giddily, I might add) think to myself, "Geronimo!"

Right now my jonquils are in bloom, and bless their delicate petals, temperatures have been at or below freezing this week. But still, every day they stand steadfast and tall, reaching for the light. I feel like those jonquils. Last year I turned forty, and while I do NOT consider myself "old," I acknowledge that I've entered a different season of my life. I've been taking stock of all the Goods and Bads and Uglies I've experienced. For a long time -- years, even -- it was easier (so I thought) to hang on to all the bad things. I felt I had more control over that. It was like, yeah, I'm down and sad and depressed, but at least I know what I'm going to get and how I'm going to feel each day. I found a sick form of contentment in choosing to let my depression, self loathing, and lack of confidence lie underneath my civil, and at times cheerful, façade. For if I tried to seek the good in life, I might not reach it, thus opening myself to rejection and disappointment. That kind of outlook can go on only for so long. Either you stay that way and sink, or you change your attitude and climb out. So like those persevering jonquils that lie under the cold, damp earth, I came to a place in my heart, mind, and spirit where I had to brave the cold frost and choose to rise up and stand steadfast and tall, and reach for the light. Now I better appreciate all the good things from my past, and I welcome and even seek out all the good things that surely are to come. There will be bad occasionally mixed in with the good. And that's OK. Hopefully I will take the good things gracefully and the bad things in stride, and somehow give both the respect they need, for such is life. Geronimo...

Blogging Challenge 2014, Day 2: Tell Us About Where You Live

I live in Arab, Alabama. It is a small town situated on a small mountain.



Arab is nice enough, I suppose. We have a small-but-rather-excellent school system. We have a quaint and thriving downtown area where the older buildings are located. We host the Poke Salat Festival every spring, along with a tornado or two. Our own City Park is pretty darned righteous -- it has a lovely walking trail (my favorite place to exercise), historic buildings, ball parks, playgrounds, tennis courts, pavilions, swimming pool -- and each winter it boasts one of the nicest Christmas lights exhibits I've ever seen. Some of the nicest people I know live here. My pharmacist knows me. My neighborhood is quiet. 



Good grief, have I just gone native? I'm not originally from Arab. I never wanted to live here more than a couple or three years. But here I am, twelve years later...and I think I like it.