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In August we took a narcissistic look at eating lunch at work. Today’s edition of How I Roll examines how i roll when it comes to personal hygiene.

How I Roll: Personal Hygiene

1. Let’s start with showering, how many days per month do you NOT shower?

I’d say there’s probably 1-3 days a month where I don’t shower. These are always saturdays. I’ll shower every day that I work (sometimes at home, sometimes at the gym at work), and I’ll shower on Sundays when we go to church. On saturdays, if I do anything outdoors that requires me to get dirty or sweaty, or if I just feel like I need a shower, I’ll take one. But some saturdays I just sit around the house with the kids and we play Wii and card games and go out to the mall and I never shower. I hope you are still my friend.

2. Do you shave with an electric razor or a blade? And how often?

I’m a Gillette Fusion guy. I made fun of the 5 blades until I was sent one in the mail. I tried it and loved it. Definitely the best shave I’ve ever had. I’ve tried to do electric a few times in my shaving career, but it never works. If the face hair is too long, it pulls like a bugger. And the neck, forget it. I try to stick to the same shaving schedule every week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday mornings. Erica doesn’t like me looking like grizzly adams, so I usually don’t get too creative with the facial hair. At some point I may need to shave every day, but for now I can get away with every other.

3. Do you have any product loyalties with dental products?

Not really. I like to buy nice toothbrushes. Like, the ones that cost $3.99 instead of 99 cents. I figure, whenever you can go for the cadillac and it still costs less than 5 bucks, go ahead and indulge. I’m not picky about my toothpastes. I usually go with a white/blue/green mint flavor, but I’ve tried the cinnamon and orange mint flavors and didn’t mind them. I do try to floss every day. I have those floss picks in my car, and I try to do that on the way home from work. Is that gross? picking and flossing your teeth in the car? I don’t know. If it is, then I am gross.

4. Any other product loyalties?

Deodorant - I’ve been using Sure Invisible Solid, Unscented for a good 5 years now. I’m pretty loyal to that. I used Degree before that but I got major deodorant clumping in my pits. The Sure has reduced clumpage quite a bit. (OK, the clumpage talk has sealed it - I am gross.)

Soap - I use Ivory bars exclusively. All other soaps smell like flowery chunks of perfumed chalk after using Ivory.

Shampoo - anything that is a shampoo/conditioner mix. Pert plus or Fructis or whatever is on sale.

Mouthwash - Listerine hurts my mouth. I know I’m a wuss, but it just doesn’t feel good. I use it anyway though. Then we run out and don’t buy it for 3 months and then I try to kiss Erica after eating garlic triscuits and she pushes me away and then I go out and get more the next day. Or Scope. But usually Listerine.

5. The Biggie: Do you Soap or Shampoo first in the shower?

I soap first. It just feels right. Your body is more important than your hair, so you deal with that first. Get it nice and clean, then you can worry about your hair. Besides, I usually won’t even get my head wet until I’ve finished with the soap portion of the shower. If you wash your hair first, you have to get right in there and get your head wet right off the bat. No thanks.

What about you? If you’ve got a blog, post your own answers to the How I Roll: Personal Hygiene Edition. It’s ok, you can let them know it was my idea and they won’t think you’re full of yourself. (Yeah, I’m looking at you Geof, Ron, Jason, Chris.) At the very least, chime in and let me know if you also soap before you shower, the ONLY way to go.

In fact, vote in the poll over there on the top of the sidebar and let your voice be heard!

Tags: How I Roll

I just bought 2 pairs of shoes for someone who needs them. It cost me $5. And about 3 minutes.

You can too. Actually, you should too. It’s all a part of a fund raising campaign started by blogger Anne Jackson and Soles4Souls founder Wayne Elsey. They are trying to get people to buy 50,000 pairs of shoes in 50 days. Impossible? Maybe. Maybe not.

I could give you some GOOD reasons to do this, but just to mix things up here are five BAD reasons:

1. Because it makes you feel better about yourself to give.
2. Because you can tell everyone you donated to a charity and make them think better of you.
3. Because it is your good deed of the day.
4. Because it’s only $5 and you’re so stinking rich you would wipe your butt with 5-dollar bills if it didn’t hurt so much.
5. Because I told you to, and you do everything I tell you to do.

Wow, those are some awful reasons. The best reason to do this, of course, is because there are kids and moms and dads out there who need shoes. Here’s what Anne said on her blog:

over 300 million people around the world don’t have shoes and are forced to walk around unsafe and in potentially life-threatening conditions. not only is it unsafe physically, but having to look down all the time causes these people to also live without dignity and confidence.

So yeah, if you have 3 minutes and 5 bucks, go buy 2 pairs of shoes for $5 for someone who needs them.

And the next time you try to decide which of the 10 pairs of shoes/sneakers/boots you’re going to wear, be thankful for what you have.

(and if you do donate, let me know in the comments so I can give you a thumbs up and a “way to go”!)

Tags: 50000 shoes, Anne Jackson, Soles4Souls

We signed Kylie up for an art class at Millersville University this fall. Today was the first of the four classes, and she really enjoyed it. They studied some of Frida Kahlo’s art and then worked on their own self-portraits.

It’s fun to see her getting into art and enjoying it. Some day it could be her career…or just a creative outlet. Either way, we try to encourage the kids’ creativity whenever we can.

Whatever your creative outlet is, I hope you make time for it on a regular basis. We serve a creative God, and I think it’s so important that we exercise that creativity. It can be a great way relieve stress, show our individuality, and glorify Him.

Tags: Art, Parenting

Musician Shaun Groves and a handful of bloggers are in the Dominican Republic right now with Compassion International. Here’s a video of a 23-year old marketing major at the University of Santo Domingo. Her name is Mariolvi, and she was a Compassion sponsored child from age 5 to age 18.

It’s only a 2-minute clip. I DARE YOU to watch it and not be moved.

You know all the details, but here they are again. You can sponsor a child for $32/month. And you can go here find a child to sponsor (or check out the widget in the sidebar of this blog).

Tags: Compassion International