Shower 'em

The weather seems to have finally stabilized around here, and the birds are chirping full steam ahead. Tulips have come and gone, and our pansies are about to pop. Spring has sprung! I'm lovin' it!

Normally my thoughts would be geared toward seed starting, prepping my garden containers and improving the soil with compost to prepare for a full on veggie garden. With our impending move, my plant thoughts are limited, and mostly directed toward our houseplants who have worked hard all winter long to improve the air-quality in our crappy little rental house.

Jake knows I'm struggling each time we pass another garden stand at the super market, and he's been sweetly trying to appease me with a gorgeous planter of flowers for the front porch. Right now, it just feels like one more thing we'll have to move though. So I'll probably hold off until we're settled in our new place, and then I'll have to cave and get a little something green for our new front porch-something to look forward to!

Did you know that you can shower your houseplants with a little extra lovin' each spring to ensure they'll stick around for the long haul? 

A few weeks ago, I gathered our small collection of houseplants and placed them together in the bathtub. Then I simply turned on the shower head and gave them all a quick rinse to cleanse the leaves of the dust and debris they'd been collecting.

I left them to drip dry for several hours before returning them to their places in our house. I've got them semi-strategically placed around the house for optimum air filtration (at least in my mind, I'm no expert).

My last step to refresh all the houseplants was to turn to my favorite green fertilizer- epsom salt. I simply add a few pinches into the watering can and mix with water. If you don't have epsom salt you can try a flat bottle of club soda or any of these other green gardening tips.

Do you clean your houseplants? Have you ever thought of putting them into the shower? Anyone out there clean each leaf individually? (You might have the patience of a saint!)

Crazy for Coconut Oil

Today I'd love to know if you have any particular thoughts on coconut oil?

If there's one thing I've noticed about it, coconut oil sure is controversial. Ya either love it, or ya hate it. And that seems to about sum it up. Not a lot of in-betweeners on this one.

You can consider me a fan! I dunno about you, but I happen to think coconut oil is just about as close to a miracle as they come (and Dr. Oz agrees with me!) One of my favorite bloggers, Crunchy Betty, has a post covering the vast number of ways to use coconut oil for health & beauty. She's even got a post dedicated to using coconut oils (and others) as a hot oil treatment for your hair. Tropical Traditions (my favorite source of oconut oil) has a list of their favorite uses as well. I recently read that coconut oil is even said to help with the symptoms associated with Alzheimers disease.  Which is pretty kick-ass if ya ask me! 

Now wiki will tell you that some people are against it due to it’s high saturated fat content.  I'm sure that's a valid point, but it's personally not a concern of mine. To each his own. All I can say is that I highly recommend you do your own research (about this or anything!) to form your own opinions of what’s right for you and your family.

However, after doing masses of reading, I've concluded there are three main categories in which coconut oil can help improve your quality of life in a few simple ways:

   Cooking

   Health

   Beauty

Here’s how we use coconut oil most often around our home:

 Cooking:

Great for stir fry

Use in place of other cooking oils

2-3 TBS added into smoothies

      Health:

       Boosts metabolism

Increases energy

       Helps body absorb vitamins

       Heart health  

       Organ & Immune System Support

 Beauty:

Wonderful cuticle cream

Deliciously scented hair hot oil treatment

      Face mask/wrinkle reducer

      Taming those hair flyaways

Perhaps you’re more of a visual person.  Maybe all those words and bullet points up there don’t mean much to you. For you, I have these lovely infographics. They're probably hard to see, but you can click through on the links to read in more detail. 

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We personally use and prefer Tropical Traditions brand coconut oil. They're typically running a sale in which I can benefit from, and their coconut oil has a wonderful pure taste (I love to lick the spoon!) I think I clicked on an affiliate link way back in the day and the rest was history. 

You can learn all about the differences in coconut oils here, as well as connect with Tropical traditions on facebook.  I bet you didn't know that coconut oil is also great for your dogs!

If you happen to be interested in ordering some coconut oil of your own, we'd love for you to do so through our special link. Right now, for any new customer who from Tropical Traditions, a free book on coconut oil will be included with your shipment.

Just 'cause I'm a fan of coconut oil, doesn't mean I think it's for everyone. I'd love for you to weigh in with your thoughts and preference sin the comments!

Disclaimer:

I bought my first two bottles of coconut oil from Tropical Traditions with my own money and loved it. I found out later that they had a blogger affiliate program and signed up. I was not paid to write a good review, or a review at all. 

If you order by clicking on any of my links and have never ordered from Tropical Traditions before, you will receive a free book on Virgin Coconut oil, and I will receive a discount coupon for referring you. See my disclosure policy for further details. 

Pfister Faucet Wrap-Up

These past few weeks have been pretty exciting around here, so how about a re-cap to summarize all this bloggy-goodness.

First we were selected as Pfister's Featured bloggers and once we recovered from a major blush-fest we almost immediately had the huge Pfister Faucet giveaway going on. (Check out the full feature here)

I'd also like to take this opportunity to officially congratulate BILL FISH who was our big Pfister Faucet winner. His facebook 'like' of JWW is what won him a sparkly faucet of his own. Congrats Bill! And feel free to send us a photo of your new faucet in action!

Just as the giveaway wrapped up we received our own dream faucet (which was on back-order) from Pfister which totally made my day! We're not installing it in our (crappy) rental house, but will be taking it with us when we move next month and installing it (and enjoying the heck out of it) in our new place. I can't wait!

We also managed to re-home our hens, as well as selling their coop & tractor on craigslist. Major relief.

Jake is graduating with his masters degree in Landscape Architechture from Kansas State University this weekend. We just found out he'll be graduating with honors! I am so proud of my man, and I can't wait to see where this next chapter in life takes us.

We're in that awkward 'in-between' stage right now. Life involves a lot of bated breath, and practicing our patience while we wait for applications on jobs to be submitted and reviewed and (hope) for a call back.

At least I can honestly say there's no one else I'd rather be sitting around waiting anxiously with. Thanks to everyone for your sweet questions and concerns about our next destination. We'd certainly share more details with all of you if we had them. But rest assured, we'll be sure to share our plans as soon as we figure out what they are ;)

{Feathered Friday}: What's a chicken box?

I wondered the very same thing when one was offered to me to transport the ladies to their new home. A 'chicken box'...whattheheckisthat??

But yes, you read that right...their NEW HOME! :D Thanks to the connections of a few good friends from the animal shelter, I was able to get my ladies an extreme upgrade in their living digs-and couldn't be happier about it!! Regular readers will know that we didn't want to get rid of the ladies, but an upcoming move across country is forcing our hand in the matter. Once I accepted the fact I had to re-home them, it was GAME ON to find them theeee absolutely best home I possibly could. I hand raised these babies two years ago after-all! 

When 'hen moving day' arrived, I borrowed the chicken box and headed home to load them up. The ladies' new home is full of seasoned chicken keepers who have all the right 'stuff' to take care of an entire flock. Their chicken box was a home made affair, and couldn't have been more perfect. You can think of a chicken box as a pet-a-porter for chickens. It's made of lightweight wood, so it's nice and movable and then there are three separate 'runs'. Each run has it's own lid to keep things safe and secure. 

Since there were three runs for four hens, somebodies were gonna have to share ;) But as you can see, the chicken box was much more desirable than our backup option (cat carriers and/or large cardboard boxes). 

Suzy and Bertha both got their own compartment in the chicken box, which left Matilda and Dorothy together. Luckily they didn't seem to mind, and settled in quickly for our car ride across town.

For never going through such a thing, they were very calm about it. I had crazy visions of feathers flying around in the car while we drove away, but luckily they kept themselves contained. ;) I barely heard a peep the whole 30 minutes we were in the car. 

When we pulled into their new home, a farm, a huge smile plastered onto my face. This place was perfect! I saw hens free ranging in the yard, even more hens dust bathing under a tree, and the most gorgeous rooster I'd ever laid eyes on. He was HUGE. He was happy to see I'd brought him a few new girlfriends (as if the 15 he had already weren't enough!) and began pacing in circles begging us to let the ladies loose. His name is Chewbacca. Love it! 

Chewbacca is even more handsome than faux-rooster Monty! 

The family was prepared for our arrival, and had a separate pen wired off from the rest of the flock. My gals will be hanging out there for a week or so to acclimate them to their new surroundings before they're mixed with the rest of the flock. The families youngest son cares for most of the fowl (they also had ducks, and a couple turkeys + some bunnies) and I was lucky enough to receive a personal tour of all of his charges. He was passionate about animals, and I loved the way he cared for all his critters. He even asked the names of my girls so he could remember them later- swoon! 

I've had a lot of emotional turmoil lately surrounding the chickens, and can honestly say that I was very happy when we pulled away, knowing I'd left the girls in a literal chicken paradise. Their new set up is far and above anything I'd be able to provide for them. They have unlimited space, which was the cause of all our fighting issues in the first place, as well as a whole gang of other hens to hang out with. And their very own rooster is just the cherry on top... oh I'm a sucker for happy endings :D

Psst: I've been promised updates & photos in a few weeks. You KNOW I'll be back here to share them as soon as I've got them in my hot little hands! I did hear already that they've survived their first night OK, and three of the four of them laid an egg (good sign!) but Suzy's egg was the size of a marble...guess our car ride was a bit stressful for her?

Green Livin'

It's been 18 months since I created our original Eco Goals List. Since then, we've happily crossed off a majority of the tasks and goals from that list. I'm a list lover, so I figured I may as well get to crackin' on another list. Version 2.0 if you will.

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Last years list was more of an overarching 'life improvement' list, while this year's list focuses more directly on our eating habits and how that is affecting our health & moods. Now that we've gotten some of the 'basics' covered from our first list, we're ready to step up our game and take things to the next level. 

This year we have both been very focused on improving our overall health and eating habits. We've come a long way in the last few years from our undergraduate days, but we still have a lot to improve upon. We're not really un-healthy people, but we'd still like to be healthier than we currently are. 

Here's a taste of what we're focusing on right now:

Cut out pop/soda

Eat more fruits & veggies

Eat more beans & legumes

Out with the plastic

Eat whole/real foods

Cut out pop. We switched from regular to diet soda about a year and a half ago. That was our baby-step, and now we're both feeling ready to cut out pop almost entirely from our diet. We both agree the occasional pizza dinner wouldn't be complete without it. ;) #keepinitreal

More fruits and veggies. Sorta a given that this one is always a good idea...we've been incorporating fresh fruit smoothies, and seem to always have a veggie tray prepped in the fridge for pre-dinner snacking. These have both been critical in ensuring we're also having healthy dinners- we're snacking on veggies before dinner these days instead of something like a rice krispie treat or little debbie snack that we might have chosen last year.

I've also decided to stop buying canned veggies completely (except for the pets). I've never been a huge fan of the taste/texture of canned veggies anyway, and after reading this article my mind is made up completely. We much prefer fresh fruits and veggies, but their frozen counterparts will be our go-to source when fresh isn't available or in season. What's your take on all that??

Eat more beans. This ones not only great for our budget (beans = cheap protein) but good for our guts as well. That's a win-win that I can't help but get on board with. We'll probably start with easy ways to incorporate them like: adding to tacos, adding as salad toppings, & bean based soups. I know my friend Jodee makes a mean lentil soup that I've been dying to re-create in our kitchen. 

Out with the plastic. Pyrex glass storage and mason jars will be our go-to for food storage now. Most of our plastic leftover containers had been phased out over the last few years and we were left with a small collection of the 'safe plastics', but I still didn't feel too good about using them. We were both constantly reminding each other not to be heating leftovers up in the plastic, so we decided to just get away from it completely. Katie from Kitchen Stewardship has a great info-filled post if you're wondering why plastic isn't the best option for storing your food.

At this point we've recycled nearly our entire collection of plastics, minus a few Ziplock brand BPA-free containers with the locking lid. I'll eventually phase them out, waiting until I find a glass version to replace them.

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I've also been trying to take more of my lunches in mason jars lately. Not only does it make me more excited to be eating leftovers for lunch (they're cute!), it's also a much safer way to transport and re-heat my lunch in. I've had this set of pyrex bowls for years now, and we still love them so we knew adding a second set of pyrex would be perfect for us. We settled on this set for storing our leftovers, and now that we've used them for a few weeks I think we could stand to pick up another set. I love the small round ones the best, so I've currently got my eye on these. I think I'll wait until after we move though ;)

Eating whole foods. Sure this one sorta goes along with #1-3, but it's worth mentioning. We're trying to avoid any food products that come out of a box or package as much as we can. Our subscription to Nature Box has been helping us in this department, because snacking is one of the areas we both find easiest to get off track with our eating goals. (If you're interested in ordering a NatureBox of your own, be sure to click on the ad in our left sidebar to save $5!)

I'm also trying my hardest to steer clear of those frozen bagged dinners, or box dinners that can honestly be such a saving grace on a busy night. We very rarely rely on these now, so I think this will be an easy transition for us. It can be so nice to have a quick meal like that every now and again, but when they leave me feeling crummy by the next morning it's SO not worth it. This particular goal requires my time and diligence to make sure I don't slip up and get into bad habits again.Using PlanToEat will help me keep on track with our meal planning so I don't have an evening with nothing ready to go, but planning ahead and freezing meals is another habit I need to get into my schedule regularly to save our butts on those busy nights. 

If you're clicking over here from your email, you may have noticed some new ads and banners on our side bar. I've been busy behind the scenes setting up affiliations with a few new companies for things we're already purchasing anyway, and thought you might enjoy too! I'll have some posts specially dedicated to these affiliate companies and the various products and services they offer to further explain why I've chosen to team up with them in the near future! Stay tuned. 

Certain links within this post may generate referral credit or commission for Just a Whimsical World. See our disclosure policy for full details.

National Arbor Day

Today is National Arbor Day, and while Jake & I won't be planting any trees this year, there are still plenty of ways to celebrate this earthy holiday in your own way.

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If you're the type to get physically involved, try to find a volunteer organization near you here on their website where you can pitch in planting trees in an area that needs it.

One of the easiest ways to get involved is to become an Arbor Day Foundation Member. Memberships start at just $10, and you can get 10 free trees to plant with your membership!

For more information you can download your own copy of the 2013 Arbor Day Guidebook here. If you have plans for Arbor Day be sure to drop us a note in the comments!

Pssst: If you haven't already, be sure to enter our giveaway for a chance to win a Pfister faucet of your choosing! (Up to $300 value!!)

{HUGE Giveaway} Pfister Faucets:

Last week I told you it would totally be worth your time to pop back in on us this week. I even spilled the beans that we'd be hosting our very first giveaway...and a massive one at that! 

We were chosen as Pfister Faucet's Featured Bloggers of the week, and part of that amazingness translates into an incredible giveaway for all of YOU! Read on below for details on entering. 

The Kenzo faucet is one of my absolute favorites!

Giveaway details:

THE PRIZE: One (1) Pfister faucet of your choosing (up to $300 value)

TO ENTER: Please complete the rafflecopter prompts below

BONUS ENTRY: See the rafflecopter widget for full details

GIVEAWAY RUNS: Wednesday April 24th-Wednesday May 8th @ 12AM Eastern Time
That's two whole weeks of giveaway goodness :)

NUMBER OF WINNERS: One (1)

PRIZE SHIPS: United States only (sorry to my international readers!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click here to see the rules & official terms & conditions.

This post is sponsored by Pfister Faucets, I am a Friends of Pfister Blogger but was not paid for this post. Jake & I WILL receive a faucet of our choosing for being selected as Featured Bloggers of the Week-stay tuned, you know we'll blog about the install and super shiny-ness!