Gritty Grills = Pearly Whites

I brushed my teeth with charcoal today.

 

... yeah. I did.

The abbreviated history of my nutritional life growing up:
I was adopted and raised by a homeopathic mother. My sister is now a vegan and a dula. I drank unpasteurized goat milk as a baby and teaspoons of flaxseed oil as a teenager. The word Organic in my house simply meant food, because rarely do you need to distinguish raw, natural product from something that isn't even in your house. My halloween candy disappeared as soon as I got it, and I knew the fundamentals of muscle connectivity as it pertained to reflexology pressure points before I graduated high school. The gap between taking so much as a Tylenol [aside from major surgery] ended this year when I took an Aleve and thus broke that dry spell of 16 years. I know the value of balancing nutrition, the dangers of crash dieting and several quirky natural tips & tricks that often outdo commercialized solutions to every day problems.

Charcoal is one of those. First, no, I'm not talking about the stuff you put in a barbeque. There will be at least one person out there who thinks that is interchangeable. I would not suggest that. Second, I'm still somewhat of an average human being, in that I am a] NOT a licensed physician, so if you're tuning into this rantish blog for the first time, please know this is my personal diatribe and reflects only my own experiences & insight. If you need medical advice, find someone who's probably still paying off a student loan for the accreditation they've earned...... and b] I still cheat on the strictly-organic lifestyle. There will always be someone out there who's more earthy than myself, and I'm okay with that. I'm still part of the minority in our population, believing that holistic lifestyles carry an absolute benefit.

thank you, amazon

A lot of people use charcoal tablets to help digest food and cleanse their systems after eating. In emergency situations, charcoal is used to help counteract drug overdose victims. Like I said, I'm not a doctor and I've never ingested even the recommended dosage of charcoal for that whole post-meal thing.

So yes, today I brushed my teeth with activated charcoal.
Here's where those quirky natural tricks come in. Activated charcoal has a natural property that can help whiten teeth. Didja know that? It of course takes a bit longer than bleaching or strips or even baking soda soaks, but it does work and ultimately does the job without reducing tooth enamel or density. Oh, and it's not a pretty process. You basically brush your teeth with activated charcoal powder and a toothbrush. It's black. It's gross looking [although entirely tasteless!] and will serve to show you how much you actually do splatter if you're one of those who denies getting toothpasted on the mirror.

If you're interested in doing this, there are a few things I would recommend, after my first go at this this evening.

empty capsules

First, the capsules I chose are the tubular gelatin ones that split in the middle. They're clear; the activated charcoal is a powder contained inside the capsules. I obviously over-estimated the adhesive properties of this powder with water - it does not gel up or become pasty with water. It just.. gets wet. Basically, don't split the capsule and attempt to dump or sprinkle it onto your tootbrush. You'll just create a huge mess. I would suggest either a toilet paper square or paper towel: open [also, I suggest scissors] the capsule and empty half of it, then dab your toothbrush on it. It's way easier to clean up and you won't have black powder everywhere.

Notes on the toothbrush: I used a new [cheap] firm-bristle brush for this, thinking that I would stain my regular toothbrush. After brushing for the recommended 5 minutes, I would strongly advise that you use whatever toothbrush you're comfortable using on a regular basis, because my gums... are sore. Hopefully your everyday brush has softer bristles. I was all about scrubbing, which I know even with regular brushing, really isn't recommended.... especially for 5 straight minutes.

Other FAQ's I knew I'd probably just answer by doing it myself:
- No, this stuff will not stain your lips, face or toothbrush.
- I don't have any artificial caps, teeth, veneers or braces, so I don't know how this would work on any of those things.
- Yes, I'd do this again and recommend it to someone else. (:

scrub-a-dub.... yuck.

^ Shmexy, right?
No... no... I spent the last few seconds before I plunged a charcoal-covered brush into my mouth wondering if in fact this would be the tasteless experience other users promised. Good news, IT IS. Seriously. I can't possibly be alone in knowing that whenever I focus specifically on NOT swallowing, my mouth inevitably produces an exorbitant amount of drool to irritate me [how's that for clinical reasoning?]. I was cautious not to swallow this mess, even though I know such a small amount really wouldn't do any harm. It just didn't look or sound like the best choice. So.... brush, brush... drool... spit... brush.. brushhhhh... repeat... for 5 minutes.

And yes, this is what I envisioned the entire time I was doing this:

[clip is from Bridesmaids... for all the copyright wolves out there: NO, I did NOT contribute to that scene and it's not my original material in any way shape or form... so don't go saying I said otherwise, eeerkay?]

The difference I saw between the pre and post wasn't dramatic like that after a white strip or a bleach or something, but, my teeth felt exponentially cleaner all the way around and I did notice a small adjustment in the hue. I compared against a piece of white cardstock..

top: before
bottom: after

Like I said, not a drastic change of shades, but for what it's worth, my mouth feels cleaner and my teeth definitely look a little brighter. I'll do this a couple more times over the next few weeks and see where I am then.[And you may not have noticed it, but it makes me crazy that my bottom teeth became crowded after braces corrected them in my elementary years... wisdom teeth are mean! These puppies are on the list of things that will be corrected soon.. very soon.]

Don't believe me that this works? That's fine. Don't do it. I don't get paid for this stuff; this is my personal blog and I would've posted this whether it did or didn't work. I'm all about trying something at least once, and if it works, I'll do it again. A couple folks I know have tried this as well: One of them saw no results until somewhere around the third or fourth time she tried it, and another one swore she noticed it immediately. I'm kind of right in the middle there, but I'll keep to it and see what happens.

So yeah. What little trepidation I did have about doing this was leveled first by the core understanding of charcoal's benefit to the human body [again, thanks Mom & sister for the early lessons] and tested by just doing it for myself. Everybody's body reacts differently to stuff like this, so who knows - it may or may not work for you right away. Give a shot though, if you don't mind looking like you've just eaten a block of coal for a few minutes.

Here's to dental health in 2014! (:

xo | cmd

Growlers & Beanies & Friends, Oh My! [Rhinegeist Wednesdays]

There's really no better way to celebrate a mid-week than a breather from the routine.

Tonight, that took the form of a trip to Rhinegeist with some of my favorites. I needed my fix of hilarious antics, spontaneous decisions and even some souvenirs.

It's a photo-kinda-story.

holy hipsters, i love this girl... haha

my best friend.

'don't you dare ruin my cougar [ale]!'

photogenically-deficient society (:

Oh, and there was the arrival of Becky!

two of the greatest friends ever.

Aaaaand, timeout.
In the midst of all our silliness, I didn't notice when Rob slipped away.. until he came back with a fresh drink and something else tucked in his back pocket for me....

this. just.... this!!

^ I've had my eye on a shirt from here for a while now... and Rob bought it for me tonight. He. Is. The BEST, ever. How I landed this guy is beyond me, but I'm keeping him, keeping the shirt and keeping my word to always stay grateful for having my best friend here in Ohio with me. Thank you, thank you, lumberjack!! ♥♥

 more spoils...

^ I wasn't the only one who walked tonight with some charms of RG; we snagged a growler, too. Chad chose the medicine jar size and Rob of course bought my amazing shirt (: When we go to RG, we go ... to RG. Haha.

beckyyyyy

We snagged one final shot of us all at RG before the night wound down. This... is how I wanted my Wednesday to go.

love 'em.



We're home now, after a diesel dance party on the way back and some light unwinding at the house. Kalyn lives about one whole mile from here, so I'm guessing she'll be home before this is even finished. Haha.

Good night, friends - have a wonderful rest of the week!

xo | cmd

Thundersnow & Icenadoes .. What?!

C'mon, Midwest...

..... calm down?!

We all knew, if we'd heeded at all to the predictions of the Farmer's Almanac, that this winter would be pretty brutal. At least we were warned.

Today I heard a new term: thundersnow. I wasn't exactly sure what that meant, although it's pretty self-explanatory in all of its unofficial existence as a real thing. Sadly enough, it's a preeeetty accurate description of exactly what's going on in the Midwest this week. At least it is in Ohio.

We woke up today to roads that looked wet, at most.
Nope. Wet-looking roads this week are actually panels of ice disguised as drivable surfaces. Traffic everywhere was a jumbled mess of brake lights and dormant speedometers, dotted with flashing police lights to mark all of the fender benders. You win, winter.

icy roads. everywhere.

To compound the slick roadways, Cincinnati is presently suffering a plague of potholes. Between the ice and the giant tire-hating gaps, the traffic map I found of just our area alone looks... awful.


looks legit, right?

Need a street view of that?
No problem:

potholes, aka road acne

It's like a game of Frogger out there trying to navigate any local streets without bouncing in and out of these stupid things. Our poor cars :(.

Fortunately, I spent most of my day indoors with the office staff, away from the debachle that is driving around here. Lizzy even bought us lunch, because she's super sweet and generous that way.

perfecto!

^ So maybe that wasn't the best choice considering my fitness goals, but in my defense, I think I managed to at least neutralize the threat at the gym tonight. I'm feeling it for sure today, but in that satisfying way that reminds me this will all be worth it.

Staying off the roads is my mantra today, so tonight it's just relaxing with Rob & the pups.

Be safe out there, drivers!

xo | cmd

Happy Birthday, Elisa!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELISA!!!!

happy birthday!!

Elisa's birthday is TODAY! I have the pleasure of working with this girl, and I must say she's pretty awesome. Coincidentally, I knew her brother from college, long before I ever met her, and then when I did finally meet her, we realized both of us are part of adoptive families. Pretty cool. (:

Anyway, birthdays are great excuses to indulge on things that otherwise have no permissable justification. Erego, meet the box of cupcakes from The Sweeterie that Nancy brought to help us celebrate Elisa's birthday and our blatant disregard for healthy eating.

hello, ya gorgeous thing, you!

I assumed that, since it's also Michael Jordan's birthday today, that anyone sharing such a momentus birthday would be watching this gem to celebrate:

boom.

^ We discussed this movie here at the office today and how, when we were kids watching it, it was one of the classics of that time. However, to watch it now means realizing that MJ really just... isn't a good actor, nor is this movie nearly as entertaining as it was when I was what, 10... 11? If anything else, it's almost more creepy than anything else, but even then I still relish this as one of those staple movies from my middle childhood years.

That being said, happy birthday to both MJ and Elisa!

I still feel behind from the weekend; tonight's supposed to be producing some nasty weather again, so instead of heading to the gym like I was supposed to, I'm here at home working out in my living room and avoiding any extra time on the roads. It's nuts out there.

Happy week, blogbots!

xo | cmd

Farewell, Weekend

Church this morning was a cold little jaunt, but as always, totally worth it. We are still in the process of exploring churches in the area. We're praying for some solid direction in making a choice, but I think we're off to a good start.

speak to me!

After church, we said our farewells to Jesse; he took off early afternoon back to Illinois and we took to cleaning up a little from the weekend. Rob, Syd & I spent the afternoon relaxing, eating lunch and finally tackling our weekly grocery shopping. It was nice having both of them with me tonight, since grocery shopping is usually a solo mission of mine.

Sasha didn't mind the evening of relaxation. She parked herself in Sydni's chair [after beeing shooed off the couch] for the night and enjoyed the rest of Sunday with us.

regal beagle! ;)
.. or pittie.

What an awesome weekend. I needed this reminder to step back from the little hiccups in life  and just.. enjoy everything I've been given and the people put here to experience it with me. I'm blessed in ways I don't deserve, but I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Hopefully I can carry some of this love into this next week.

xo | cmd

Snow Day Saturday

Saturday morning met us with tons.. and tons.. of snow. FINALLY!
- What? How is she excited about this snow?!
Well, let me re-phrase that. I'm not particularly excited to have been hit with another knockout from Mother Nature, but, Sydni is here and today marked the first weekend that we've been able to get out and play together in the snow at our new house! We were suuuper pumped up about that.

But first.. breakfast, which ended with a last minute adventure to try and find sleds. We knew there was outdoor fun to be had today, but weren't exactly sure of what kind. When we couldn't find a sled, we settled on some plastic snow brick molds and headed home.

And the afternoon went like this: 

loved seeing her and her two helpers [not to be confused as any other way]

Sydni became a building contractor today. Who knew?


hands-on management approach
"mommy, stop taking pictures and work!"

The three adults busied ourselves with building the foundation for an igloo, only realizing halfway up the walls that we hadn't angled any of it, so putting on a roof likely wouldn't happen. Instead, we shoveld the yard up into piles around the outer base and turned it into a fort.


jesse & sydni - snow fort building!

Before long..

captain sydni! of the snow fort..
... & her "prisoners"

With our snow fort complete, we decided to build a guard for the property. Ya know, because you can never have too much home security, right?

i again appear to be doing nothing productive.. :/ haha

Rob's enthusiastic response to being drilled by Jesse with a snow block the size of a bucket...

yay, winter! ;)

We constructed our snowman using rubber tubs and buckets; today's snow was more powder than anything else and rolling a ball was just not happening. So we improvised, and then shaved them into spheres [sort of]. In the absence of the traditional carrot and coal, they entrusted me with spray paint to give our snow guy some features.

my job of decorating the snowman

Ok, so he looked a little creepy. That's what happens when you let me do things like this. Haha.

meet our 1-dimensionally-decorated snowman.. haha

Sydni agreed apparently, because within seconds of spotting him, she rubbed off all the spray paint that she could, leaving only the eyes and some grayish colored snow shavings. She named him Olaf [from Frozen]; we topped him off with a hat & scarf.. and he became our yard's new mascot.

jesse & me with syd & olaf!

We have no clue how much time we actually spent outside, but within 20 minutes of going back inside, Sydni and the dogs were both down for the count and napping away.

sweet dreams, meatball ♥

Fast forward through naptime to our second wind, which was visiting Kalyn at work down at Main Street.

main street!

Today's been one of the best Saturday's we've had in a while! It's great having Jesse in town; Sydni has a new best friend now [she's told me at least seven times now that he is her best friend and that she has more friends than me]. Jesse and Rob just left to go explore the town for the night; Syd & I are having some good old fashioned mama-Syd time with the pups.

 

This.. is.. perfect. (:

 

xo | cmd

Valentines Day 2014!

Awww, it's Valentine's Day! Happy, HAPPY Valentines to you and yours!
... Or... Happy Singles Awareness Day, to all of my single lads & ladies out there. (:

There was definitely enough love to go around today. We started at work, with the traditional Friday office lunch. Coincidentally, it was Naked Pizza. Fully clothed, we chowed down in less-than-graceful fashion. We are spoiled..

naked pizza!! (:

The weather reports showed that we were due another bout of wintery stuff today, so we closed down the office right around 3pm and called it a week.

not bad for a commute home!

Nobody was complaining. (: I even took the opportunity to stop off at a little corner store I've been eyeing for a while but never actually visited, until today. It's a resale place that is apparently part of the Plato's Closet family, and managed to score some leather boots for a $20 before getting back on the road home.

I'm glad I did get moving homeward when I did. By the time I picked up Sydni in Milford and got halfway back to Beechmont, the sleet was in coming down in waves and 1 of every 4 drivers had panic attacks like they usually do in inclement weather around here.

We finally made it safely home, and Rob came in not far behind us. We had already voted a BIG negative on going anywhere for Valentines, 1] because we're really not that into sappy stuff, 2] the roads were junk, 3] Sydni's with us this week, 4] it's more fun when we all just stay home and play or read together and 4] Jesse was en route to visit for the weekend from Illinois. Needless to say, we promised each other we'd show some restraint this year, and kept it a humble little celebration. Really though, it turned out better than any fancy shmancy dinner at an over-crowded restaurant ever could have.

♥♥♥ it's the small things, really (: ♥♥♥

As a joke, I bought Rob a case of adult spirits for Jesse and him to enjoy over the weekend for Jesse's visit. He in turn bought me a new sherpa throw and some coconut macaroons. Sydni got a Valentine's bag of Hello Kitty goodies: jewelry, stickers, coloring books and crayons. She and I curled up with my new blanket and a macaroon each to color some pictures, and Rob busied himself making the first fire in our new place. The entire cast of our house was captivated by it.

it's fireside time!

^ And that, folks, is where all five of us spent the rest of the evening: in front of a crackling fire, listening to Sydni tell a story about the picture she was coloring and playing with the dogs. I couldn't have imagined a better evening to put real love on display than us being together tonight.

I'll have to say my hello's to Jesse tomorrow; he's still on his way, apparently crawling now through the traffic that's built up because of the weather :(. It's been a long week.

Happy weekend, friends!

xo | cmd