Sunkissed

I have a confession to make. We stopped wearing sunscreen this year. I was worried and nervous as we are all fairly fair skinned BUT I had a gut feeling moving me. Don't get me wrong, I educated that gut feeling and then stepped into it slowly.

Here's the thing: sunscreens have lots of chemicals in them that are not FDA approved. Fine and well since you don't eat the goo right? Wrong. Skin in your body's largest organ and it absorbs those chemicals, many of them KNOWN cancer causing and banned substances. Well, golly gee, sun causes skin cancer too. What's a girl to do?

Vitamin D is a known cancer fighter. Your body makes that when exposed to the sun, real sunlight. So does it make sense to slather on cancer causing agents to block out a cancer preventing vitamin? Right. Moving on.

I burn. I burn bad. When I take a hot bath or get overheated the burn lines from the summer I was 14 reappear. That's why I was nervous.

I read that eating berries helps build up your skin from the inside out.
I read that being hydrated properly will reduce your chance of burning.
I read that adding coconut oil to your diet and beauty regiment would help.
I bought hats.
I favoured shady spots.
I wore appropriate clothing.

It is August. I've gotten rosy a couple times. Yesterday Lil'Bug did not stop to take water breaks and played for 5+ hours in her swimsuit in a fountain. She got a little rosy too. I slathered her with Shea Butter before bed. Today, she has no evidence of tenderness or discomfort. Me either. We went to the Fair without slathering up. We've spent most of our time outside this summer. No burns.

Huh. The experiment continues.

NOT Back To School

Every year there is a Not Back to School gathering on the first day that the public schools are in session. We celebrate that the parks and cultural attractions are now less crowded, at least until field trip season kicks in. We celebrate education, community, and let our kids party all afternoon with their friends.

There was an injured butterfly that the kids took care of and much bug hunting. Lil'Bug has found her tribe!

Ah, Blueberry had a blast too!

Lil'Bug loves the sun!

I took more photos than this but I don't as a rule post pictures of other people's kids on my blog. I did post them to flicker and sent the link to our local group though, they'll only be set to public for a short while.

As a side note:

There was a guy we didn't know who brought his pet python to the park. I asked him some questions for Lil'Bug's benefit and told her all about the time we babysat our friends snake. The guy told me I didn't know what I was talking about when I explained to her what they eat in the wild: "In the wild these snakes eat gerbils. Some people have success feeding a finicky Ball python by giving it a pre-killed gerbil or two......." Hmph. Anyway, he let the kids take turns with the snake and it made for good photos. I didn't let Lil'Bug take a turn because I didn't know the guy and my gut told me there was something off about him.

Basil

First let me start out by virtually head-smacking myself and doing the big L sign on my forehead. I did a stupid thing. That's what this post is about.

This picture here is BASIL. I took the picture not to brag or document my lovely plant, but to email it to my husband to verify that it is basil so I could confidently add it to my first attempt at from scratch pasta sauce. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a noxious weed I was adding my lovely dinner. His co-workers got a giggle or two out of the overheard conversation. Hmph.nd

So, basil went into sauce and all was well.

Fast forward to today when the lovely Sarah and her clan visited and I was giving them the tour of the garden. My nervous habit of doing something while talking kicked in and I started pulling weeds that were among the plants as I pointed out the plants.

Guess what I did. Yup. I pulled up the basil. By accident. Gah. Oh and the spinach, the lettuce, and I left the weeds.

So I hung it up to dry thinking that I would get to it later. Yeah. No.

Found!

A year ago I participated in a garage sale and tried to sell Lil'Bug's outgrown clothes. At that point I had no confidence that we'd get pregnant again, so I sold all the baby stuff (but for a few wishful thinking items). Not everything sold so it was labled and packed up for the next group garage sale.

Fast forward a year later: I have a 3 month old and she's growing fast. I emailed the mama who I thought stored my bins and she did not have them. Agh!

But another mama did. Yay!

So I've been sorting through Lil'Bug's baby clothes, just like I did a year ago but this time with no tears. Last time my heart was breaking thinking we'd never get pregnant again since Lil'Bug was a miracle anyway. This time I am merely regretting all the cute stuff that did sell and sorting by size and wear and season. I'm feeling a bit emotional anyway.