you will notice that i am actually quite scientific

here i will share with you how i have organized my summer with a simple formula:

day off work + sunny morning = one hour at the beach

this means we are going two or three times a week nowadays, since the gray days have mercifully been less frequent. today was a GORGEOUS day at bacara; we were able to arrive there by 10 am (i like to go in the mornings before my shower and before the big heat and crowds of the day). it was seriously perfect: pristine, practically tar-free, amazing smooth round rocks scattered about, the perfect tidal level, the perfect amount of haze in the sky, and the perfect temperature: breezy, yet warm in the sun. and no one else to be seen. it made me sooooooooooo glad that we still live in santa barbara, despite the craziness of rent. i had my travel mug of fresh gourmet coffee with me, which improved my outlook even more. sparrow was great the whole time and played in the sand without insisting on going down to get tumbled in the water. although she does have quite the affinity for tossing sand onto the blanket... we went on a walk down the beach, we picked up some interesting shells, she face-planted in the sand, she laid on top of me as i was getting my vitamin-d intake, she played with dogs running by, she knocked beach rocks together, she tried to pick up boulders, she gave me sweet little kisses under her ladybug hat, she destroyed all the sand towers i made... sparrow is perfectly content when she is outside. once i figured this out, i decided to make my life a whole lot easier and developed the summer formula given above.

it also helped that i became free of sunscreen: yes, i don't believe in it anymore, and it has sure made it a lot easier and funner (and better-smelling) to go down to the beach. it is crazy enough trying to get everything ready for a baby to hit the sands without having to add to it the sunscreen burden. she's become quite the little brownie, but i am telling you: we have been to the beach for an hour each at least 4 or 5 times without sunscreen now, and she has NOT gotten a sunburn. she must have really good nutrition to build up that natural internal sunscreen mike adams talks about on newstarget.com. i have started taking spirulina and chlorella for this purpose, but i still got sunburned the other day cause the nutrition takes a month to kick in. (side note: i tell thomas we are naming our first set of twin girls spirulina and chlorella. sounds like evil stepsisters.) sparrow on the other hand eats either kale or broccoli every single day, not to mention super porridge and fruits and carrots and most everything organic. i love feeling great about the sun. i love basking in it and tangibly noticing that it's doing my body so much good. that the vitamin d is sinking in to fight cancers and lots of other potential ills. i even had a cold the other week and all i did was drink loads of water and lie in the sun. the throat ache lasted not one day longer after that.

barnaby told me today: "well they say that even one bad sunburn can increase your risk of cancer." right. A) i think pop tarts, croutons, and boxed soups increase your risk of cancer. B) who are "they" and WHY are they not ALSO telling people that using frikn sunscreen increases your risk of cancer too!? HMMMMMM? got a hunch that these "sun causes cancer" studies are being SPONSORED by the sunscreen industry... in my book, the vitamin d obtained from the sun exposure probably more than cancels out the increased cancer risk but no one is going to mention that. more formulas i've come up with to illustrate the dang truth of the matter:

sun expossure = vitamin d
vitamin d = cancer risk plummeting!
sunburn = cancer risk slightly increasing
plummeting + slightly increasing = still remains significantly decreased!
sunscreen use = cancer risk greatly increasing
sunscreen + probably getting sunburned anyways = cancer risk extremely high!

and oh yes, once the twin sisters nutrition boost sets in, it looks like this:

sun exposure + spirulina + chlorella - sunscreen = no sunrelated cancer risk + decreased risks of all kinds of other cancers too, due to vitamin d!

now i have to say something about people who wear spf 8. if you're gonna smear a cancer-causing chemicals on your largest (absorbent!) organ, you might as well use spf 45 and at least take the SLIGHT decrease of cancer risk by avoiding sunburn for sure. they know deep down that they DO want the sun to get to them, but are paying their token homage to the all-powerful sunscreen industry ANYWAYS, sooo.... it takes slightly longer for them to get their desired tan, but they feel good about themselves for at least putting on SOME sunscreen. and in my opinion they are worse than an unbeliever cause they're getting free cancer over here, AND actually PAYING for cancer over there! cancer over here + cancer over there = stupid people. ok maybe just misled, brainwashed, ignorant... as i was once myself. sigh.

i have become so anti-parabens that i even made my own shampoo and conditioner today. so ambitious, yet it left my hair oily and stringy, much like on days when i don't wash my hair at all, but perhaps even oilier and stringier. must have been that oil i put in it. hahaha hehe. i still use "california baby" brand shampoo on sparrow, as i have from the day she was born (johnson's "no tears yet i cause multiple other ills" shampoo has never touched her) but i cannot justify spending $10 for a shampoo bottle for my own use, since with my hair i would use up the lot of it in 2 weeks... i will just have to keep experimenting with food products until i get a good FORMULA which i will subsequently share with the world!