A Wednesday list

1. Recently finished At Home in the World, by Tsh Oxenreider. It's a travel memoir about a family of five who spent a school year traveling around the world, and I really enjoyed it. It's conversational, thoughtful, and full of gratitude. It made me want to travel, but also made me feel like it's okay to be a homebody sometimes. And it's not just a travel log or list of cool things the family got to see and do. It's more about self discovery, family, relationships, stepping out of your comfort zone, and longing for the familiar.

2. I'm a big Date Lady fan (my cousin's wife owns the company, but I'd be a fan anyway. It's delicious, award-winning stuff), and today tried one of their new products for the first time: Coconut Caramel Sauce. I am in LOVE. Y'all. I can't even with how good it is. The coconut is subtle, and the date-sweetened caramel is not too sweet. It's good on fruit, on ice cream, in coffee, on a spoon.

3. Apparently today is Global Running Day! I ran 3.18 miles to celebrate. Don't know if it's the humidity or what, but the runs have felt hard the past couple of weeks. I'm hoping my body stops rebelling soon.

4. I've been trying out new personal care products by Akamai Basics. The idea behind Akamai and their products is "personal care, radically simplified." Plus, everything is natural and organic and full of ingredients that are good for your body. Anyway, they have three products: a 3-in-1 bar, toothpaste, and skin fuel (an oil-based moisturizer). It's a subscription based company, so you get your box of goodies every two months, and you can customize the box as needed. I love the toothpaste. It's pretty reasonably priced for that kind of all-natural, organic, etc. product, so I'll probably keep buying it. It tastes a little weird at first, but it makes my mouth and teeth feel amazing. The skin fuel is nice and light. Right now, I use it in my hair, after I shave, and basically how I'd use lotion. The 3-in-1 bar I am torn on. 3-in-1: body/shave, face, hair. I like it as a soap/shaving cream replacement. My skin feels clean, but not dry, and it really does work well in place of shaving cream. It's fine on my face too (see: not dry). But it's the hair that I can't decide on. My hair feels clean but...different. I think it's the feeling you get if you don't wash your hair often, or don't use shampoo when you wash (people who wash with baking soda or other non-shampoo washes). Basically, I think it's just my hair returning to a more natural state. So, it feels clean...but also dirty? I think it LOOKS fine (at least, no one's told me it looks dirty), and I can go longer between washing, it, which is awesome (except, that when I'm running I wash it anyway, because -- sweat). So again, I'm torn. One day, I love it, then next, I hate it. And honestly, I'm overthinking it, which is ironic, since the whole idea is to make my life SIMPLER.

5.  I've got a library book sitting on my table and a stack of old advanced reader copies I've been meaning to read since I worked at the New Hanover County Public Library. My goal the next few months is to make my way though those and a few other library book sale purchases that have sat on the shelf unread for several years. I admittedly tend to get distracted by shiny new things (see: library book sitting on table), but I recently read one really good one, and put one unfinished in the donate pile that I just couldn't get into.

Happy Wednesday!