This little guy is just too AMAZING

The joy of accomplishing the simplest task. I look at him in awe...

He's on wheels

Mr. J has always been e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y careful, so it didn't come as a surprise that he hadn't mastered the bike yet. Firstly in our old apartment there was very little space to bike, secondly he just wasn't interested. When we went to Finland he tried once (while I was supporting him) and even though I told him he is very close he blatantly said "no, I can't, I won't", and switched back to kick biking.

So we agreed we will practice when we get back to Tanzania. Few days after we arrived he wanted his bike. I gave it to him and told him I'll help once I get back from the shop. I was back within 15 minutes and he happily came to greet me saying he can BIKE! What? You, Mr. "I can't/I won't"? Awesome. He was ready. And he did.

This is from those first special days. We can now go for a bike/run and he can keep going for 10-15 minutes easily (after that mama needs a rest :P)

Awesome my little dude! Could not be more proud of you! Can't believe this is the same guy who learned to turn (read fall) around just yesterday...

Saying Goodbye

One of the hardest things that I have experienced here was losing my grandmother. Not to be able to say goodbye and be there at her funeral broke my heart. That is why it was extremely important to arrange a special moment where we all got to say our goodbyes.

Last Friday, few hours after her funeral we picked up the kids from school and drove to the beach. There is a beautiful location off to the beach where you can stand on the cliff and see the amazing blue ocean in front of you. We each had a rose, said a few words then sent the roses into the oceans while Whiz Kalifa sang on the back ground. Then we came home, ate some Fazer chocolate she bought for us. It was special. Our goodbye. I'm still waiting for a visit though Mummu if you are reading :). She was extremely special and I know she's smiling down on us every single day.

Love the people around you. Love them so hard that when they are gone, you know they felt your love. That is all that matters. Love. <3 p="">

our minimalist life - chemicals: the health factor

Sorry this is going to be a long one.

Two years ago I had a wake up call.

They say things happen for a reason and looking back now it seems that there was always a plan. For some reason on our first family trip to Tanzania I happened to find Jessica Alba's book the Honest Life. I was not looking for anything in the category, I don't even remember how I found it on Amazon. Now the fact that it was written by Jessica Alba was crucial. I don't know if I would've noticed it otherwise, and beyond that the message in that book was simple enough for me to understand and to start applying to my life. She wrote about all the aspects of honest life, living in sustainable way, as chemically free as possible. And she did it nicely, no guilt, no pressure, no "throwoutallyouhaveandbuyallnewstuff".

So when little J over night woke up with a HORRIBLE rash all over his body I already had some data to help me through that chaos. I believe that had I not read that book, I would've just rushed him to the hospital, gotten a load of meds, cortisone, antibiotics etc that might have fixed that situation but I would've still been treating the effect, not the cause. I spent one night with google. I figured out that we had been in Tanzania for about a week and that means our clothes had been washed. With OMO. Now I have nothing against it, except that it makes us all sick, but with J it became pretty much life threatening. You can imagine that in the morning when I announced that ALL of our clothes and sheets and towel have to be washed at least 5 times with REAL soap and vinegar. There is no washing machine at my in-laws. They had to do it by hand. Pole sana. But within two days J was doing ok. He is massively allergic to detergents.

I still struggled with this in Finland, because by the way detergents are everywhere. Our own soaps and bed sheets and towels to day care. Cleaning the house, with soap, but hey you can't use soap for laminate floors, or that there is no detergent free dish soap available in Finland... Trying to visit the best allergy doctors I could get my hands on, only to discover that most lotions have a from of detergent in them. I hate chemistry, and I guess I should've paid attention at school, but all those words in the INCI lists just make my head hurt. He was not feeling better and we tried everything. By the way, after re-introducing the foods, he is not allergic to them at all.

Fast forward we move to Tanzania and lo and behold: he is healthy here. And my hair is curly and my skin (that I have struggle my whole life with) is clearing up. I actually started to wonder that maybe he just grew out of it until my mom came to visit and we took a trip to Zanzibar. I didn't even think to bring our own bedding or towels, that is how healthy he has been. But after a couple of days, his face started to swell, and skin got itchy and then the coughing started again. I am glad that we have been able to reduce the chemicals from his life so well here that he can be healthy, and none of us is exposed to those nasty chemicals.

This has made our life very simple too:
We have laundry soap: a very basic olive oil based soap that we use for laundry, cleaning, dishes etc. I costs about 10 cents a bar. Then we have some beautiful handmade soaps (mainly clove, but some variations) that we use in the shower and I clean my face with. They cost about 30 cents/bar. Then we have vinegar and baking soda, to be used as hair conditioner, or to disinfect or to clean or to shine or to scrub. And then we have coconut oil to moisturize, shave, treat hair, cook etc with. And that's it. All of these can be eaten so what is safer than that.

At the same time we have been slowly turning our closets into more sustainable ones, which is not always easy, living here. My next step is my make up. This is something I can't do here. Organic cosmetics just don't exist here yet, but I am anxiously waiting to our Christmas trip to Finland to replace my make up with non-toxic versions. While at the same time I am terrified to see how J will manage in the land of chemicals :(

I would recommend anyone with constant runny noses, rashes or itchiness or even asthma to take a look and see if it could be caused by detergents. By the way neither T or I can even walk into the detergent section in the shop without sneezing or getting an itchy nose.

It is a headache in the beginning but hey, what wouldn't you do for your child???

from sick, always in pain with the torment of itchiness he turned into a happy healthy kiddo!!!

School is out for summer

The cutie monkeys finished their school year last Friday and to keep them busy I try to provide some activities. Today's challenge was junk-storage-make over. While I have embraced the new minimalist life style and we keep a very few items in our home there is still some of things you need to keep around even though they don't bring any added value to my daily life. Like tools - I hate that I have to keep my hammer close by, but I do need it every once in a while. Other one being medicine. You need it couple of days a year but it needs to be in the house. Don't want to be looking for a pharmacy while sick. Sewing kit, cleaning supplies finally some shoes that don't get much wear. It is not much but definitely enough to create chaos. And the thing is that I'm not that kind of minimalist that just wants to have less stuff and everything organized. I want everything to look beautiful too. 

So back to the chaos. Originally built for kids toy storage (under a bed when we were living in one room at the inlaw's place). The shelf unit was pushed into our back corridor to hold said items. But it would get messy and definitely became a catch all for all things random at our house. I forgot to take a before picture of the chaos but here is a "we just started" picture of the little helpers sanding the old paint off.

When it was a under the bed unit, it didn't need a top, since the bed was acting as a top. Also the finishing was not very well done. We sanded it down, painted it with a couple of coats of fresh whiteness and added two pieces of wood to act as a side table/folding table etc. 

I was really wonky and I feel like I wasn't able to finish it perfectly but it serves it's function and looks kind of pretty too :).

Maybe now that it is pretty I won't be crowded with stuff.

At the final location. The shoes found baskets at the bottom. Middle baskets hold tools, cleaning supplies and meds. I'm looking to purchase two small boxes for the meds and sewing kit that I can now place on the top. To be out of sight but still one step away. 

The top shelves host soap and cat food. Both used daily. I'm so pleased with the results and it was a fun and easy activity for us.