Winter Scrub

Written by Jessie

Wintertime weather, compounded with hot indoor air, can drain vital moisture from our skin and cause irritations. Here is a simple recipe for a luscious body scrub you can make at home to help restore and retain the moisture in your skin through the winter season. 

Items needed:

Course sea salt 3-5cups

Carrier oil such as grapeseed or hemp (*amount will vary) 

Essential oil of your choice

Mixing bowl and spoon

Salt grinder or food processor

Small jar with lid

Step One: Grind Salt

Pour sea salt into processor and pulse until the salt is the coarseness you desire. Aim for a coarseness somewhere before kosher salt. Table salt would be too fine and may dissolve in the next step. (I used 5 cups of Bali Sea Salt for two small jars.)

When you have found your desired coarseness, pour the salt into a mixing bowl.

Step Two: Mix in Oil

Slowly stir in your oil a teaspoon at a time. There are no true measurements here so frequently testing the consistency with your fingers is key. You want the scrub to be dry enough to be scoopable but not crumbly, and just wet enough to leave a nice sheen of oily-goodness on your skin without being runny.  

*Note: If using saturated oil such as coconut, you will need to heat the oil to liquid form so it can be stirred into the salt. You will also need to use a tablespoon or so of unsaturated oil, such as grapeseed, to keep the mix from solidifying in the jar. 

Step Three: Add Aroma

This is where you can get really creative! 

Add your oil one or two drops at a time and stir. Give the scrub a full whiff before you add more. Essential oils go a long way and you want to avoid over infusing the salt. When you find the perfect aroma balance, scoop your scrub into the jar and seal the lid. 

Essential Oil Suggestions:

Grapefruit: Uplifiting

Lavender: Calming

Lemongrass: Balancing

Lemon: Energizing

Lime: Energizing

Ylang Ylang: Relaxing 

Patchouli: Balancing

Jasmine: Soothing

*Note: Essential oils have therapeutic qualities so I highly encourage you to do a bit of research in finding the best one. Always perform a spot test (one drop of EO to three drops carrier oil) on the inner side of your elbow to check for allergic reaction. Also, I refrain from using fragrance oils (different from essential oils) on my body as they are not 100% natural and can cause skin irritations.

Step Four: Enjoy!

Apply scrub to wet skin and use your hands or shower glove to lightly exfoliate. Always use before shaving and void using on the face. Pat skin dry with a towel. 

Feel luscious and hydrated and smell delectable! Scrub will keep for up to three months in a cool place. 

*Note: The oil from the scrub may make your shower or tub very slick. Be careful!

Happy scrubbing!

Seasonal Resolve

Written by Jonah Lisa

New Year’s Resolutions tend to get a bad wrap these days.  By the time we’ve got busy lives and kids and the thrill of a drunken night ringing in the New Year has long worn off, we’ve become cynical about making resolutions.  Most of us don’t even bother.  And if we do, we might do so with a sigh and half the feeling that resolutions are kind of silly.  Who really keeps them anyway? 

Let’s put that cynicism to bed for a minute and try to take back resolutions this year.  

After all there’s something really natural and incredibly useful about contemplating the past year and considering what we’d like to improve upon in our lives.  I’ve felt it strongly this year.  That sense of new beginning.  But I’m so culturally wired and the backlash is so strong that I still have that knee-jerk reaction against resolutions.  What gives?  I think I just need a paradigm shift.

I’ve spent some time noodling it and I think I’ve put my finger on follow-through being the problem.  While it’s great to look back and assess an entire year, thinking about the same goals for a year can be daunting.  Let’s be generous, most new year’s resolutions last until, what, March?  Well, instead of calling that a failure because we didn’t last the whole year, let’s just shorten the duration of the resolution and all it a success!   

Let’s focus on shorter-term, seasonal resolutions.  It’s a Win-Win!

We get to bask in that fabulous new start feeling, use the motivation of the calendar to make some changes and actually feel a sense of accomplishment by succeeding over 3 or 4 months.   Then we can reassess in March or April and make new resolutions right when the New Year motivation is waning and we’re starting to feel another natural beginning as Spring arrives!

For me those Spring resolutions will probably carry through summer, too and by September I’ll be feeling all different--ready to begin a school year and hunker down for the coming winter and change my focus yet again.  Time for new resolutions! 

This seasonal approach just feels way more organic to me and way less of a remedy for disappointment.  It also allows me to be more specific about the resolutions I set, which motivational experts will tell you is a key to success.  

Instead of being vague and saying I’m going to eat more healthy foods and exercise more--whatever that means--I can really target some specifics that feel right seasonally.  This year I’m resolving to cross-country ski more and learn to cook dried beans.  Doesn’t that feel way more doable?  In the spring I may aim for hiking to the top of some local mountains and drinking more green smoothies.  See what I mean?  

It’s really just a small mental shift but it takes resolutions back from “why bother” land and sets you up for success.  

The Place Where We Live: Bioregional Vacationing

Written by Karen

In wintertime, sometimes we begin thinking about an escape to another place. Whether because of the hectic nature of holidays or the shorter amounts of daylight, a vacation is welcome downtime. It can also be some of the only “unplugged” time families have with each other. These days, however, it can also be first on the chopping block of the family budget. But it doesn’t have to be.

In our family, we love to take our vacations right here. I call it the bioregional vacation. It can be an extended time of up to a week (or longer) or just a day or two (Unplugged Sunday). Taking the time to really see your own place the way a tourist might see it is so satisfying. It takes a little planning to take a vacation in your own area since the temptations of work, meetings and everyday tasks can beckon, but it can easily be done. 

Tips for the local vacation:

• Travel to a nearby town or even somewhere in your own, but pack as if you are traveling far away. Do not bring a computer. Do not schedule any day-to-day tasks or meetings during that time.

• Tell colleagues or clients you are going on vacation and not to call unless it is an emergency.

• Do not go home until the vacation is over.

• Consider a house trade with local friends or enjoying a bed and breakfast that you have actually stopped by to inspect ahead of time. 

• Make a list of the places in the area that you would like to experience.

• Notice the prominent natural landmarks of your area. Here, it is the river. Often, my husband and son take a boat out on the river for the afternoon, giving me a much-loved break of alone time, creative time, or tea-time with a friend.

• Call a friend for tea or lunch out. So often we see a friend, say we’ll connect soon, and then never do. Use this time to enjoy your friends along with your family!

• Spend time at a local farm; kids love this. Take a tour, wander around the farm, and stop for produce at the end. You could even volunteer on a work day.

Local vacations offer some special things that faraway vacations do not. 

• Friends can come along with you. One year, during my birthday, we rented an off-the-grid forest retreat cabin for a week. It was located 30 minutes from home. Then we invited a few friends to stay a couple of days with us and celebrate.

• When you enjoy a specific activity or place, the experience is repeatable. No need to say, “We’ll have to come here again” and then never make it back.

• When your vacation ends, it is a short trip home. You can enjoy the entire last day, head out in the evening, stop for a leisurely dinner and then be home.

• No airline or rental car costs means saved money and a longer or more involved vacation. Especially for families with children, this can be huge.

• Kids grow up knowing their local landscape.

The place where we live.

The more we explore our local native area, the more we find to appreciate and love. Making it a vacation gives us an excuse to enjoy it without feeling like we should be doing something else. 

What began out of financial necessity has become rich and sustaining. My husband and I are tuned in to our local issues, largely because of our focused interactions with the landscape. We love and feel supported by our community.

We have stayed in: a yurt; a solar-powered mountaintop estate; an off-grid forest cabin and cottages near the beach to name a few. We enjoy a variety of parks and farms and even finally walked across the Golden Gate Bridge! 

Going deeper, finding more layers, and developing relationships, the place where we live becomes more than just a location; it feels like we really live here. And when winter comes, there is less restlessness, and a growing sense of anticipation for our area’s seasonal treasures and what else we might discover here. 

Where would you go if you were to vacation in your own place? 


With whom would you spend the time?

Remember Blue Laws?

Written by Jonah Lisa

Back when most of us were children, blue laws were in effect throughout the country to preserve Sunday as a day of worship and rest.  

Isn’t that quaint?  

In some areas, all stores would be closed but other places had arcane rules that allowed for the purchase of certain items but not others.  I recall the famous example used when Blue Laws were being dismantled of being able to buy a hammer, but not nails.  Or was it the other way around?  And even after blue laws were repealed, you still couldn’t buy alcohol in many places on Sunday because, well you shouldn’t be drinking on a Sunday anyway!  You should be in church!

But us liberty-minded Americans, we bristled at the idea of commerce being dictated by religious beliefs.  We didn’t like being told what we should and shouldn’t be doing on a Sunday.  I’ll hammer and nail things if I want to, damnit!  And even as a kid, I completely agreed.  So down came the silly blue laws and the people cheered.  YAY!  

And then they went to Piggly Wiggly for a soda pop.  And some nails.  

As the years passed more and more stores were open on Sundays until there was really no difference between Sunday and any other day of the week.  As an adult I got used to the idea that I could buy and do pretty much whatever I wanted to on any day of the week.   Ah, the freedom!  I never thought much about those old blue laws again.  They were just silly rules that got in our way.  

Flash forward 30 or so years later when I moved from New York (the city that never sleeps) to a small, rural, mountain town in far eastern Idaho.  And low and behold, all the stores were closed on Sundays.  

Grocery store?  CLOSED.  Drug store?  CLOSED.  Liquor Store?  DEFINITELY CLOSED.  The only things open on a Sunday were church and the ski hill.  

You gotta have priorities.  

At first, I was shocked.  I’d lived in Dallas, New York and Los Angeles.  I didn’t know this went on anywhere except for Israel, where everything is closed on Saturday, and Muslim countries during Ramadan!  I understood the reason.  Half of the population of my new home belong to the LDS church and no business run by an LDS member wanted to ask people to come in and work on a Sunday.  That’s a day to be with family, and yes, to go to church.  

But for some reason--maybe because I’d just moved from the hustle and bustle of The Big City, or maybe because I’d matured, or maybe because I was broke--I really didn’t mind.  And I started noticing something interesting.  Not many of the tree-hugging, progressive “move-in’s” that you’d expect to balk at a religion-based mandate seemed to mind either.  Everyone was A-OK with it. 

Sure, it took some getting used to.  You have to plan ahead a little.  But for very different reasons the people of this valley all seem to agree.  There’s nothing wrong with having one measly day of the week when you aren’t being tempted to consume.  Even more so this time of year!

It slows down the pace of life.  It alleviates the expectation of getting just as much done on Sunday as any other day.  It removes lots of self imposed expectations.  It means business owners and retail workers can get out and enjoy the day, too.  And sure, go to church if they want to, or head up to the ski hill, or take a hike, or just stay home and maybe even unplug.  Whether for religious reasons or not, it IS wonderful to set aside a day for rest, relaxation, or renewal in whatever form that takes for you.

And hey, if you find that you really need an egg or a cup of sugar?  Well, that’s what neighbors are for.

We have another, even more a-typical, kind of blue law here in the mountains as well.  On any given day, after a heavy snowfall, you may walk up to a shop or restaurant and find the door locked tight and a sign swinging in the window that simply reads:  

POWDER DAY.  

BACK TOMORROW.

Like the Sunday store closures, I’ve learned to embrace and appreciate Powder Days.  In my opinion, we’d be a happier, healthier society if we all took more of them.  

They Will Follow Suit

Written by Kiersten

Raising teenage daughters, I have quickly realized that coercion does not work. I am passionate about parenting and am willing to try new things, read new books and implement changes to our lifestyle that I believe will benefit us. 

When beginning new ideas, or introducing new behavior, I have to be subtle. I have to do it first. They will see me doing things, and they will follow suit. As parents, we are setting patterns for a lifetime.   

I started a blog a few years ago chronicling our new farming project and the beginning years of our home schooling. My mom started reading it. As my blogging became more inclusive I added birth stories from my midwifery practice and documented lots of arts and crafts.

My mom said, recently, “Gosh, Kier, you do all the same things I did while you were growing up! I keep reading about them on your blog.”

 “Like what?” 

“I gardened, I crocheted, and I embroidered. I sewed.”

I just barely remember my mom doing all of these things. If I spend time, consciously thinking about it, I can remember. I have blankets that my mom made. She made them for my daughters too. I remember her doing batik. She embroidered and we always had a garden. I never thought of that. I never realized that I was doing all the things my mom had done. 

She was (and is) an avid reader. So am I, so are my daughters. 

It reminded me that our children will do what they have seen us doing throughout their childhood. 

If you want your children to be unplugged, be unplugged yourself!

Make sure they see you:

• Reading. Have books and magazines around the house.
• Crocheting, knitting or embroidering. Use your hands. Spend time talking to your children while creating something.
• Hiking.  Even if they don’t join you each time, let them see you going for a walk with your partner, or friend every day.  (Or often!)
• Sitting still. Drink tea with each other. Drink tea with your friends. Let this be a normal way for you to spend time together with friends and family. 
• Garden. Grow your own food, or just grow some herbs on your windowsill.

Do the things you want your children to do! 

What are some of the things that you do that you remember your mom or dad doing? 

Bliss and Bravery

Written by Chloe

I'm not too late for confessional, am I? Because our Sundays have been taken over by football. And our evenings have included a lot of television. And both of those have sometimes meant a laptop or smartphone out at the same time. Electronics have outnumbered the people in the room.

The truth is, I have a really hard time with being away from the distraction of media.

We've talked a lot in this space of 'unplugging.' But the difficulty in this is that it requires us to plug in, to completely engage in real life. And engaging in what you really love without distraction is weird. Counter-cultural, even.

When my family is unplugged I have nothing to keep me from facing our reality.

My husband has dreams that are bigger than a 9-to-5 job.

My political views make me uncomfortable with the Big Bank that holds our mortgage.

I often choose to shop a large retailer instead of a mom-n-pop.

I spend a lot more time reading about other people pursuing their goals than I do actually working toward my own.

Unplugging makes me uncomfortable because I long for a life completely different from the one I find myself leading.

“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.” -Joseph Campbell

This late fall and early winter, you’ll find me attempting to follow my bliss:

• I am turning off the computer and lowering our grocery budget.
• I am spending less time on blogs and more time in books.
• I am finally reading my camera’s manual.

Those sound so exciting to me. Life is easier in bullet points, I think. But the heart of the matter is that those bullet points are paving the way for the really hard Unplugged Reckoning at our house.

By limiting my aimless online time, I am hoping to work out the logistics of a big move. From the suburbs to a rural lot. From a mortgage with a company I loathe to a very small rent check that we pay to a man who lives in our community. Half of our current square footage. Four times the flexibility in our monthly budget.

This move, one that we already know some of our closest friends and family do not understand, will require me to be the bravest I have ever been. And this bravery has been brought on by unplugging from normal and plugging in to my bliss.

How could taking Unplugged time help you to follow your bliss?