The Great Honey Experiment (With a Bonus Oatmeal Mask)

In the interest of working on my bucket list in regards to my scar removal item, I have done an experiment using this link that suggests using plain honey as a face mask. I applied it three times a week for a month in May and now it is time to pull out the Before and After pictures.

To be honest, I don't see much of a difference If anything, in the course of the month I gained more blemishes. At face value, this is not encouraging. Fortunately, I have come to the conclusion that my acne is diet related and, therefore, controllable.

How have I come to this conclusion? I've already mentioned how I'm planning on doing another Whole 30 because I had noticed the skin clearing effects I experienced before. I controlled what I ate and my face healed itself. I am very much in favor of this healing inside and out result.

So, what I need to do different this time around is to do better with the Reintroduction phase to perhaps pinpoint exactly which things make me break out. I am thinking it is grain or refined sugar related, but we will find out for sure in August and September. So look forward to those posts.

(I think I'll mention briefly that I thought it was a good idea to wear the same outfit in my Before and After pictures. For continuity, it looks ok. For making sure I get them in the right order chronologically, it made for a bit of a headache. Thank goodness I was less exact in straightening in the After phase. Yeah for learning curves!)

Now for Bonus Features!

My idea with doing an oatmeal mask after a honey mask was to use the oatmeal to lessen the slight inflammation I experienced with the honey mask. Oatmeal by itself would have done this. I made the mistake of choosing an oatmeal mask that had cinnamon in it. The cinnamon made the inflammation worse. My face was red for at least a full hour after I removed the oatmeal mask. It at least looks pink in the photo. And the redness did fade back to normal levels...eventually.

This was the oatmeal mask I used. My link from Pintrest was broken, so I'm just using the image itself.

As a scar removal mask, this is my next experiment: to do the full four month program. My hope is that using this in conjunction with the Whole 30 will show more and better results than the honey mask did in the short time that I tried it.

Leave a comment and let me know if you've had any results using natural masks like these.

5 Things I Don't Do Anymore

Last month I did a bucket list. It seems a trash list is also appropriate for my Improvements category. These are just a couple of things that have changed over the years and I feel they have been changes for the better. Some are more serious than others, but all have a level of deliberateness behind them.

1. Sheets

We haven't stopped using sheets on our beds, but we have switched which kind of fabric they are made of a couple of times.

We tried silk sheets when we were first married, mostly just for kicks and giggles because it seemed kind of sexy at the time. Unfortunately, Charles has really rough heels and he tore through those in no time. Plus, I never really liked how they were kind of cold when we first got into bed at night.

Next, we went with just normal cotton sheets that everyone has, I'm sure. Those lasted longer than the silk, but Charles' callouses still ripped through them eventually. We still use cotton sheets for the kids beds and for my massage table sheets, just not on our bed.

We now have the jersey knit sheets that feel like T-shirts. Surprisingly, they have lasted much longer and I have yet to see signs of wear on them. So if you too have rough feet and you've noticed that your bed sheets are getting ravaged, jersey sheets might be for you too. And they feel softer than the cotton sheets, which I like.

2. Heels and Contacts

Growing up there was kind of a rule of sorts as to the height of the heels I was allowed to wear at certain ages. Basically I didn't wear really high heels until I was at least 16. I think I got my first 6 inch heels for prom my senior year of high school. That all seemed perfectly reasonable to me and my girls will probably have similar guidelines.

Like any other woman, I still enjoy the aesthetic appeal of beautiful shoes, but I hardly wear much more than flats anymore. Although I still own several pairs of heels.

This began when I was doing my massage training and I became more aware of body mechanics and the strain that wearing heels can do to a body. Then I became pregnant and now have babies to carry around. These things tend to discourage the wearing of heels on any kind of regular basis.

I'm still quite proud of the fact that I can carry my babies and wear stilettos, I just don't do it very often anymore.

My experience with wearing contacts is quite similar.

I've worn glasses since about 3rd grade but I didn't get contacts until I was 16. At that time and up until a couple years ago I wore contacts most days.

But now I have awesome frames that I love and with being a mom I don't see much need for wearing contacts very often. I basically only wear them when I'm feeling like I'm having a really good makeup day where glasses would diminish that. And I now have prescription sunglasses, so I don't need to switch to contacts when I know I'll be out in the sun.

So I feel a little grandma-ish wearing my flats and prescription sunglasses, but it feels practical and works for me, for now at least.

3. The Shampoo/Conditioner Swap

In an effort to start using what I pin on Pintrest, I tried something a couple of months ago. I read "How to Wash Your Hair the Right Way" and it seemed a good place to start.

When I remember, I still try to brush my hair out before I shower to help with breakage. For about a month I did do conditioner before shampoo. But I hate cold showers so I've never done the cold rinse unless I'm just washing my hair in the sink.

The swap was an interesting experiment. It's supposed to help give your hair more volume because you wash the excess conditioner off to not weigh your hair down unnecessarily. In a way that was my result, but not how I wanted.

I'm assuming I have a different hair type than Amanda and then there is the fact that I don't use any other products when styling my hair. So I ended up feeling more static-y than voluminous. Besides, as a T4 I don't feel a great need for volume in general, so I've switched back to conditioning last to achieve my signature sleek look.

4. Un-DYT

Speaking of being a T4, I can't/don't not dress my Type anymore. (The double negative is on purpose.) As a Type 4, once I agree with something, I go all in. Such has been the case with Dressing Your Truth.

In most of the testimonials that I've seen, women tend to describe their DYT experience as freeing in some shape personal to them. I'd have to agree. For me it has been freeing to not have to be guessing my way through fashion. As a T4, it has been freeing to not have to wear brown anymore because I always hated how the brown pieces I had never matched exactly. It has been freeing to not feel shame for the amount of black in my closet but at the same time feeling truly feel free to wear colors I hadn't been wearing before.

I feel better when I am dressing my truth. I feel like DYT helps me avoid being/feeling under-dressed because I know how to be pretty all the time. Now I only get slack in my lounge wear (heaven forbid, I have some gray leggings I wear as PJ's).

I did actually buy some shorts at the beginning of this summer that were not my Type, but I was trying to find some shorts because I only have capris in my Type. I packed them for our road trip, but (surprise) I never wore them.

5. Media Selective-ness

Now, don't go reading that heading and think that I have stopped being selective about my media diet. On the contrary, there are some things that I have decided I don't ever need to watch again for my own reasons.

There are two shows that, although fascinating in some way, just stick with me in ways I have grown uncomfortable with and so have pruned them from my consumption.

The first is "Law and Order; Special Victims Unit". I got caught up in this show before I had my own children. In most cases, I enjoy the mystery genre. But SVU showed me more of all the terrible things that can happen that I wouldn't have imagined on my own. Now that I have two little ones, thinking of any of the trauma shown on SVU happening to them leaves me feeling terrified which is not a pleasant feeling. It takes a long while to talk myself out of the mental tree I end up in when I just remember certain episodes that I can't seem to un-see. So SVU is out.

"Supernatural" has had a similar but different effect on me. I only recently watched the first season on Netflix because I had seen the memes about the central interpersonal relationships on Pintrest. I was intrigued and tried to stick it out to see if Dean and Sam get any kind of happy ending, but horror is not my cup of tea. I soon found that I could not watch this show for very long before the dark in my own house became frightening. I consider a fear of what can be in the dark to be quite rational and I thank evolution for that. But when I begin to fear demons in my own house at night when I know they are not present in the day, I knew that was enough and have stopped far before the happy ending in whatever form it comes. As a Finisher this has been hard, but I have no regrets.

Most of the changes I have made seem to aid in my comfort in one way or other. I'm more comfortable in my sheets and flat shoes and the other changes make me comfortable in my own skin and in my head. I'm happy and a bit proud to say these have been lasting changes.

To each his own. What changes have you been able to make that you are happy to have made? Please leave a comment.

My Favorite Capsule Wardrobe Posts

As promised, here are the links I found on Pintrest that were the basis of my pre-purge research.

I'll admit that I haven't really followed through on using any of these religiously, but I found quite a few nuggets of gold that I'm keeping in the back of my mind for now.
 
First there is Project 333. There were several "rules" that I already do. I already go through my items on a regular basis and put what I don't currently need in storage, I donate what I know I don't like anymore, and try to only wear what is in good shape. But I haven't actually done a count of what I have left or done much serious listing of my inventory, not yet at least. If I had to guess, I'd say I have closer to 40 hangers in my closet right now where the idea here is to have 33 items out.

The Pinch of Yum blog had some good pointers on having a base wardrobe that is separate from the capsule wardrobe (to cover lounge wear, work out pieces, etc.) and focusing on making your capsule appropriate for your actual daily activities by having a straightforward criteria for each piece: Usefulness, Fit, and Ease of outfit creation. That criteria was my favorite part of this site. However, I'm not sure I'm quite ready to fit so tightly to Lindsey's count of pieces in her categories, probably because I'm still working on the outfit creation phase.

This guest post on the Organizing Junkie blog shared similar rules:

Only clothes that I love (and wear).
Tops and bottoms that GO together.
Overall less clothing, but more outfit options, with quality pieces.

I'm still working on upping the quality of my pieces. I feel like I need to zero in on what pieces I really love before I go looking for the higher quality version of them. And the concept of only having pieces that really go together is what got me into capsule wardrobes to begin with.

My favorite capsule wardrobe posts were from The Vivienne Files. I got to know this blog pretty well because when I went looking for the original link that I fell in love with, I couldn't remember what the post had been called so I just went combing for it. This lady really resonated with me. She focuses on color combinations and packing for trips which are too things I'd love to do more writing about myself, but with more of a DYT outlook, of course.

I felt like the 4 by 4 template was a great place to start where colors are concerned to create a foundation to your capsule. You pick one or two neutrals to build off of (mine are black and white) before adding in some color and pattern to really get you going.

I think the Clusters worksheet is a great way to get visually organized when creating outfits and listing our your inventory. Her Start with Art concept for finding a color scheme was also really interesting.

But my favorite template (that I finally refound) was the All Occasion Whatever's Clean 13. It was my packing inspiration for our road trip. I still didn't follow it exactly, but having a spectrum of dress levels covered was really great for me. Knowing that I had lots of options to choose from without being overwhelmed with lots of items made for lighter packing.

I really only strayed on the number of second layers that I packed because it is summer and we were coming to Arizona and I knew a cardigan is not what I'd be reaching for. And I completely skipped scarves. I also packed more jewelry just because I could. I think Vivienne is usually packing for just short weekend travels, but I was packing for a month-long road trip, so I think I still did pretty good.

To be sure, I have lots more pages on my Pintrest board, but these were my favorite. I hope they inspire you as they did me.

Why Do We Send Missionaries Out Into the World?

(First, let me apologize for this being late. We are on the road and I wasn't as on top of things as I was hoping to be. That said, Enjoy!)

Life is exciting right now. It's summer and that means vacation time! For us that is looking like a month-long road trip in four phases. Phase 1 is complete and now Phase 2 is underway.

Phase 1 was going to see my family. The stars aligned and my step-sister got back from her mission the same week my brother graduated from high school, so we got to go to both parties. And, bonus for me, I got a double interview opportunity.

I usually like Before and Afters. This was more of an After and Before. RaeAnn is the After as she just got back from her mission in New Zealand. Tyler is the Before because he has his call to the London South Mission and reports in August.

Now why do we send missionaries out into the world? Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave an excellent answer back in a message to mission presidents in 1992:

The purpose of our missionary work is to help the children of God fulfill a condition prescribed by our Savior and Redeemer. We preach and teach in order to baptize the children of God so that they can be saved in the celestial kingdom instead of being limited to a lesser kingdom. We do missionary work in order to baptize and confirm. That is the doctrinal basis of missionary work.

This is the broad purpose of missionary work. But it is the experience of so many individual missionaries that they do not end up baptizing great numbers or any converts at all. Is their time in the field still worth it?

The answer, of course, is yes.

[Baptisms] are not the only measure of a successful mission. Equally important are helping to fellowship new members of the Church, encouraging less-active members toward full activity in the Church, giving Christian service, planting for a future gospel harvest, helping companions, and deepening your own conversion. 

(emphasis added, Ensign link here)

Oftentimes the mission is more like a crucible for the missionary themselves, regardless of whatever else happens. This is where the refiner's fire is turned up a couple notches and the boy or girl that goes in is not the same person on the other side.

In point of fact, if I were to go back in time and meet my husband before his mission I would not know that boy because that was not the man I married. From what I can tell, the mission made Charles a kinder, stronger man and the leader he is today.

RaeAnn is fresh off her spiritual high of an experience. I tried to jog her memory of what she had previously expected her mission to be like. Mostly, she was jumping into the unknown. She knew it was going to be a lot of hard work, but she didn't really know what that was going to look like.

"At first it felt more like banging my head against the wall. We were doing things, but it didn't seem to be going anywhere. You can't immediately see any fruits from your labors. But I learned that it's more than immediate results. Of course something so eternally significant will be hard. I learned I could feel satisfied with my work as long as I was doing what God expected me to."

 So she was able to learn patience, greater trust in God, and gain a stronger testimony for herself. There are things that will stay with her and give her strength through the rest of her life more than the fact that she helped one person get baptized near the very end of her mission.

Tyler on the other hand is still the pre-mission boy and gave me facetiously short answers. I asked him about his expectations in general and how he thinks he'll change.

At first he just said that he expects to spend two years in England and to get taller. I wasn't about to let him get away with that. He was a bit more serious the second time around.

He anticipates he'll be two years away from home teaching the gospel. And he expects he'll come back with a firm testimony of the Spirit and "some killer calluses on [his] feet".

I'll have to get more from him in two years when he gets back.

While serving a mission was not the path I chose for myself, I still see the value in serving. I feel my duty is to be raising the next generation of missionaries and that is its own refining experience, as I talked about last month.