http://www.lavera.com/education/ingredient-watch/synthetic-sunscreens
Check out this site! I don't use commercially made anything on my skin or on my children, but this site provides some additional information that I did not know about! When my kids go outside, I just slather them with raw coconut oil (SPF of 10) and make sure they stay hydrated! I did find a site http://frugallysustainable.com/2012/03/a-recipe-for-natural-homemade-sunscreen/ that has a wonderful homemade sunscreen that I can use (and that I AM going to make and use:-) on all of us that will give excellent UVA/UVB protection when we need to be out in the sun for longer periods of time. The sun is not a bad thing! We get our Vitamin D from the sun and we need that desperately! What we don't need is sunburn:-) A poor diet contributes largely in one's sensitivity to burning as well, but that's a whole "nother" story:-) The key is to choose your going out in the sun time carefully, stay very hydrated and use some healthy oils on the skin to protect it from the inside out!
There is just too much stuff in US Cosmetics and body care products that is cancer-causing, endocrine disruptive, and damaging to the nervous system for me to even use it a little bit. Did you know that there are currently 10,500 ingredients used in the US cosmetic industry and only 11% of those have even been tested for safety?!!! YIKES! These toxins are messing with our children, causing them to have health problems and reproductive problems that they should not have!
Does your child have a continuous runny nose, cough, watery eyes, or skin rash? Might want to check your labels on products that you are using! I know that I'm going to be even MORE diligent in checking ingredients of the things that I use. I buy only organic shampoo, but I still read the label very carefully, but I now know the names of more toxic chemicals so I need to go back and read again:-) I have found that RAW COCONUT OIL is pretty much a cure all for anything skin related. We use it for dry skin, bug bites, stings, sunscreen, cuts, and also use it in our hair so we don't have to use highly toxic conditioners that bind to our hair shafts, seeping sulfates into our system on a daily basis.
I am always excited to find more information about what's being used in either food or body products and I think I stumbled upon a good one! This particular company, Lavera, has very good reviews on Skin Deep for their products. So go out there, enjoy the sun, but don't get sunburned!!!
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Need I say...OUCH?
Well, today it finally happened.
The day I've been working so hard to avoid finally got here.
I picked up Caleb and weellll, his weight and my rib problems did what I've been trying to avoid.
The day I've been working so hard to avoid finally got here.
I picked up Caleb and weellll, his weight and my rib problems did what I've been trying to avoid.
SNAP!
Yep. I've had a problem since his pregnancy with a rib that dislocates periodically and it had been giving me trouble this last week and I did not go have it adjusted. Well, I can now not move my left arm more than an inch or so away from my body because the muscle tension from the shifted rib caused something to pull from my hip clear up to my collar bone!
Doesn't that just sound fun! It has swelled up like a balloon and I had to resort to taking Ibuprofen. I HATE medicine. It makes me loopy....yes, even ibuprofen. Disgusting stuff. It was either that or go to bed due to not being able to coherently function with the pain. And we all know that mothers cannot go to bed when fathers are not home from work yet...well, and hardly even then!! lol!
Oh the joys of motherhood:-)
So, my challenge for this week will be...how to do everything with my right arm...hmmm...how does one pick up a 23 pound 15 month old with one arm?? LOL! What a week! YEEHAW!
Well, I guess I'll get some "ebaying" done that I've needed to...lol! Happy Day!
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Faith is the evidence of things not seen
I was reminded of this principle in Scripture last Wednesday on a new scale. I speak for myself when I say that I struggle when it comes to trusting things I cannot put my hands on.
I am self-sufficient by nature:-) That is my personality:-) I've been through many different things in life and God has always brought me out so many times that I sometimes fall prey to self-reliance. I feel confident in things around me whether they be man or God-made.
God shook that up a little last week:-).
Out of the blue *literally*, Caleb woke up early Wed. morning last week unable to breathe. He sounded like he was blowing bubbles in his lungs. We rushed him to Valdese first thing in the morning where he was diagnosed with an acute asthmatic bronchitis attack. We either had to have a steroid shot immediately or admit him. We felt the single steroid shot was the LEAST invasive compared to what we knew would happen if we took him in. His doctor knows my stance on drugs and such, but we all felt this was the best way to go first. I firmly believe that we should "First Do No Harm". The steroid shot would buy us 48 hours to see drastic improvement. If not, then he would have to be admitted.
I felt helpless. I had never encountered any type of this with my girls. I think the worst they've ever had is a runny nose! This was different. Way different. This was scary. Caleb was literally gasping with his entire body for every breath he could manage.
You know what the scariest moment was in all of this? Just a brief one, but still scary...I went to God first. I had a few moments in the car ride home where I wrestled hard with the "socially acceptable way of treating this" versus God's way. My mind knows what God's way is capable of doing, I've seen it work in me, in others, and my other children. Yet once again God was calling me to trust Him first. You see, I like to trust in things that I can see. The Doctor in his expertise, the sterile office, the prescriptions, the medical instruments are all things that I can see. They look so safe and the words are so promising, but is it what is best? God says to come and He'll give rest, to knock and the door will be opened, to call and great and mighty things will be shown to us. What is the key to making the right decision?
FAITH.
Faith is blind. It cannot see the tangible. It is not human. It is Divine.
We got home, began the treatments that I know how to do with what I had on hand and began to pray. God opened a door by allowing my MD friend to be at home that evening. She assisted me with dosages of certain herbs that I am familiar with, but not dosage amounts. Within two hours of beginning the herbs, Caleb's breathing began to return to normal and he fell asleep for the night, waking up only twice to eat a little bit. The next day he was pretty perky and Thursday night he slept all night waking up only once. In a weeks time he is now back to his normal self other than an occasional wet cough. Nothing strenuous, loose, and non painful. This is good because I had bronchitis as a child, went the typical route with it, suffered tremendously, and still have problems with it occasionally now as an adult. I KNOW how bad bronchitis can be. You don't sleep, don't eat, wracked by coughing that cannot be stopped, you gag and choke on mucous, and are in awful pain for several days.
Where am I going with this? Well, I shared this because I want others to see that faith in God's way works. I want to share how God grew my faith again through yet another trial. He says in James 1 that "the trying of your faith worketh patience...let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing." Many times God's way doesn't have immediate effects like it did in Caleb's case this time. Maybe it takes a little longer, but the Great Physician knows the timetable. He has the perfect cure. What does He require? Faith and the willingness to do things His way.
So many times I know that I've come to God as a last resort. I've tried everything else, I've worked it and worked it, I've rearranged and rescheduled, but it just doesn't work! Then it hits me. I've gone to myself and others first, not God. God allows little things to come into our lives, not to frustrate us or wear us out, but to draw us to Him in faith! He has the answers. He IS the answer!! His way is perfect. He did not leave us Comfortless, spiritually OR physically. As a Christian I understand that God has given us His Son to meet our spiritual needs, but I think many times when it comes to our physical bodies we see God as our "genie in the bottle". When all the human doctors run out of ideas and don't have any more answers, rub it and maybe God will work a "miracle".
Now, this does not mean that I do as I please to my body and then come to God and say "alright God, I'm having faith, I'm not taking any legalized drugs, so heal me!". Nope. Doesn't work that way either:-) God made a way for our bodies to heal themselves and we must follow that way, so that when we do get sick, the remedies that He has provided in nature will be able to work synergetically in the body.
I witnessed something last week that I've not seen before. I saw God's way begin to heal in a matter of two hours. It helped me to understand the importance of developing the immune system and when that immune system is fed and maintained in the right way, herbs work! It was truly an amazing experience (well, on this side of it;-) It was scary when we were right in the middle of it!)
I think I will begin a little journal of making remembrances of these times of faith so that as each new trial comes I can look back, see God's hand, and be encouraged to have faith to do things God's way. Let go. Let God have His perfect way. Have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed and God will move mountains. We pray "God, give me faith!", yet when it comes to our bodies we trust in man, not God. I'm speaking for myself on this:-) The more things that God allows to come my way, the more I'm learning to trust. He is my Father and has not left me Comfortless!
I am self-sufficient by nature:-) That is my personality:-) I've been through many different things in life and God has always brought me out so many times that I sometimes fall prey to self-reliance. I feel confident in things around me whether they be man or God-made.
God shook that up a little last week:-).
Out of the blue *literally*, Caleb woke up early Wed. morning last week unable to breathe. He sounded like he was blowing bubbles in his lungs. We rushed him to Valdese first thing in the morning where he was diagnosed with an acute asthmatic bronchitis attack. We either had to have a steroid shot immediately or admit him. We felt the single steroid shot was the LEAST invasive compared to what we knew would happen if we took him in. His doctor knows my stance on drugs and such, but we all felt this was the best way to go first. I firmly believe that we should "First Do No Harm". The steroid shot would buy us 48 hours to see drastic improvement. If not, then he would have to be admitted.
I felt helpless. I had never encountered any type of this with my girls. I think the worst they've ever had is a runny nose! This was different. Way different. This was scary. Caleb was literally gasping with his entire body for every breath he could manage.
You know what the scariest moment was in all of this? Just a brief one, but still scary...I went to God first. I had a few moments in the car ride home where I wrestled hard with the "socially acceptable way of treating this" versus God's way. My mind knows what God's way is capable of doing, I've seen it work in me, in others, and my other children. Yet once again God was calling me to trust Him first. You see, I like to trust in things that I can see. The Doctor in his expertise, the sterile office, the prescriptions, the medical instruments are all things that I can see. They look so safe and the words are so promising, but is it what is best? God says to come and He'll give rest, to knock and the door will be opened, to call and great and mighty things will be shown to us. What is the key to making the right decision?
FAITH.
Faith is blind. It cannot see the tangible. It is not human. It is Divine.
We got home, began the treatments that I know how to do with what I had on hand and began to pray. God opened a door by allowing my MD friend to be at home that evening. She assisted me with dosages of certain herbs that I am familiar with, but not dosage amounts. Within two hours of beginning the herbs, Caleb's breathing began to return to normal and he fell asleep for the night, waking up only twice to eat a little bit. The next day he was pretty perky and Thursday night he slept all night waking up only once. In a weeks time he is now back to his normal self other than an occasional wet cough. Nothing strenuous, loose, and non painful. This is good because I had bronchitis as a child, went the typical route with it, suffered tremendously, and still have problems with it occasionally now as an adult. I KNOW how bad bronchitis can be. You don't sleep, don't eat, wracked by coughing that cannot be stopped, you gag and choke on mucous, and are in awful pain for several days.
Where am I going with this? Well, I shared this because I want others to see that faith in God's way works. I want to share how God grew my faith again through yet another trial. He says in James 1 that "the trying of your faith worketh patience...let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing." Many times God's way doesn't have immediate effects like it did in Caleb's case this time. Maybe it takes a little longer, but the Great Physician knows the timetable. He has the perfect cure. What does He require? Faith and the willingness to do things His way.
So many times I know that I've come to God as a last resort. I've tried everything else, I've worked it and worked it, I've rearranged and rescheduled, but it just doesn't work! Then it hits me. I've gone to myself and others first, not God. God allows little things to come into our lives, not to frustrate us or wear us out, but to draw us to Him in faith! He has the answers. He IS the answer!! His way is perfect. He did not leave us Comfortless, spiritually OR physically. As a Christian I understand that God has given us His Son to meet our spiritual needs, but I think many times when it comes to our physical bodies we see God as our "genie in the bottle". When all the human doctors run out of ideas and don't have any more answers, rub it and maybe God will work a "miracle".
Now, this does not mean that I do as I please to my body and then come to God and say "alright God, I'm having faith, I'm not taking any legalized drugs, so heal me!". Nope. Doesn't work that way either:-) God made a way for our bodies to heal themselves and we must follow that way, so that when we do get sick, the remedies that He has provided in nature will be able to work synergetically in the body.
I witnessed something last week that I've not seen before. I saw God's way begin to heal in a matter of two hours. It helped me to understand the importance of developing the immune system and when that immune system is fed and maintained in the right way, herbs work! It was truly an amazing experience (well, on this side of it;-) It was scary when we were right in the middle of it!)
I think I will begin a little journal of making remembrances of these times of faith so that as each new trial comes I can look back, see God's hand, and be encouraged to have faith to do things God's way. Let go. Let God have His perfect way. Have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed and God will move mountains. We pray "God, give me faith!", yet when it comes to our bodies we trust in man, not God. I'm speaking for myself on this:-) The more things that God allows to come my way, the more I'm learning to trust. He is my Father and has not left me Comfortless!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Farmers Market Goodies and Family Fun in GA!
I wanted to share all these pictures because I wanted people to see what I bought for $65. Now, all this fed a family of 5, plus seven more on vacation, with some leftover to put up for the winter. I made casseroles, started sauerkraut, we're still eating on the cucumbers:-), still eating on the cabbage, and used some of this to put into this.......
Now, here's a few pictures from our little three day excursion to the GA mountains with my family!
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