Organic and Natural Body Care Summer Recipes Part 4

Anti-Bug Repellant

Can't you just smell that soap??? :-)

I love the smell of lemon and rosemary, especially in a soap...but that's not the point here :-)

Back before I left on vacation, I was hoping to get this post done, but time ran out on me so I had to postpone! We had a great time with family and friends, but I am glad to be back in my little spot and get back to a routine again.

I have a terrible time with insects and mosquitoes biting me this time of year, especially since we've been drowned with rain since the first of April! It has rained nearly every day since and though I do not complain about the rain, I do NOT like all the extra mosquitoes it breeds :-)

There are many different alternatives to using toxic DEET that though they have to be reapplied often, are much safer and healthier alternatives. Here's a few that we use around our house and how we apply them....

    1. Lemon Juice : I slice open a lemon and rub it all over everyone's arms and legs. DO NOT do this if you have just shaved your legs, ladies!! lol! Experience is speaking on this one....:-)

    

     2. Bar soap : We do not use commercial soap for bathing because of chemicals and sulfates contained, but keep a bar on hand for insect repellant. Really? Stop and think about that...something that is supposed to clean you can keep insects off you because it will make them sick. So, what does it do to you? Might want to research that :-)  Anyways, I slightly wet the bar and rub it all over exposed skin, but NOT the face. You never want to inhale the fumes of anything containing chemicals, not even bar soap. 

    3. Sage: I have two large sage plants in my garden that grow beautifully and interestingly enough, never suffer from bug infestation. The herbs that I plant near them never do either :-) Mosquitoes especially do not like the smell of sage. There are a couple different things you can do with the sage leaves....you can break off the leaves, tear them in half and rub furiously all over your body (you can do the face with these:-), you can steep the leaves in a bit of boiling water for 15 min., strain, and bottle in an old hairspray bottle and keep in the fridge for instant spray on repellant (this will go bad in a week or so), or you can combine the sage leaves with rosemary, lemon balm, and pyrethrum flowers in olive oil or another favorite body oil, infuse for three weeks, strain, add vitamin E oil for prolonged shelf life, and rub on every time you go outside! 

See, you don't have to use that dangerous rubber and plastic solvent DEET!! You don't have to compromise your brain cells and those of your small children for the sake of a few mosquitoes! In Nature we can find God's answers to so many of our day to day troubles if we will just take a little time to learn and apply what we learn. I am so thankful for the wisdom of our Almighty God in that He, at the beginning of Creation, made a way for us to be able to deal with the troubles of our sin-cursed world. Isn't He so good?? 

Learning about plants and herbs has been such a blessing to me as the more I learn, the more I see the hand of God in my world surrounding my day to day life. I see His provision in providing herbs for healing, wild and edible plants for eating, and others for just pure enjoyment because of the beauty that they provide for the eye, which in turn brings a smile to my face! 

CONSIDER THE LILIES OF THE FIELD

by: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

LOWERS preach to us if we will hear:--

The rose saith in the dewy morn:

I am most fair;

Yet all my loveliness is born

Upon a thorn.

The poppy saith amid the corn:

Let but my scarlet head appear

And I am held in scorn;

Yet juice of subtle virtue lies

Within my cup of curious dyes.

The lilies say: Behold how we

Preach without words of purity.

The violets whisper from the shade

Which their own leaves have made:

Men scent our fragrance on the air,

Yet take no heed

Of humble lessons we would read.

But not alone the fairest flowers:

The merest grass

Along the roadside where we pass,

Lichen and moss and sturdy weed,

Tell of His love who sends the dew,

The rain and sunshine too,

To nourish one small seed. 

 

I challenge you this summer to look about you as you go to and from your place of work or play, and take notice of all the wonderful things that God has placed in our world for you to enjoy either by sight or by taste. The Heavens truly declare the glory of God, and the firmament doth show forth His Handiwork! We just have to take time to notice and learn :-) 

Organic and Natural Summer Body Care Recipes Part 3

Coconut oil: natures natural sunscreen

As the days of "basking in the sun" are now here, many people run to their local grocery store and wipe the shelves clean of all kinds of "sunblocks, sunscreens, and sun enhancers ...tanning lotion:-)". I used to use regular sunscreen until I began to do some research and I came across this and many more like it. I encourage you to do some reading on your own and consider just what it is that you are slathering all over yourself.

Anyways, I began looking for alternatives and I came across several articles about using raw coconut oil coupled with, as always, a healthy diet. The skin is our body's largest organ and it's protection and health come from the inside out. How your skin reacts to it's environment is an indicator of the health of your insides.

Vitamin D is a necessary vitamin for our mental and physical well being. The best form of Vitamin D is sunlight and it has to enter the body through the skin and eyes. The typical individual when venturing into the sun does the "protect your body from skin cancer thingy" and number one, slathers their body from head to toe with cancer causing sunscreens, and number two, slaps on a pair of sunglasses. Whala! 98% protection from the sun = extreme Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D cannot be obtained through store dairy products either. Read more on that here.

Here's what I do with my family.....

1. We are not out in the sun much between the hours of 10am-2pm because of higher uva rays.

2. We have an extremely healthy diet, complete with raw milks, meats, vegetables, fruits, and herbal teas to promote a healthy skin that can withstand sun rays with no burning

3. I slather my kids in Raw Coconut Oil 10 minutes before they go outside and repeat a slathering every 1.5-2 hours... more or less especially if they are swimming :-)

4. If we are not swimming, we put on coconut oil and ball caps to shade our heads and faces. Nobody wears sunglasses :-)

If you would like to have a more portable and easier to apply sunscreen, then check out this recipe over at Frugally Sustainable ! Most everything you need for anything DIY you can get at Amazon...I buy lots of things there that are not readily accessible  to me due to the fact that I live in a small town that is an hour or more away from EVERYTHING...lol!

Stay tuned tomorrow for "Bug Bite Remedies and Natural Insect Repellants". Here's a challenge for you today to prepare you for tomorrow's post....look up and read about the dangers of using "Deet" and why it should never be something you have in your house, much less use on your body!

So enjoy this beautiful "Sun-shiney" Day and be glad that now you know how to get the most from God's gift of Sunshine without getting burned ! This is the DAY which the Lord hath  made, we (I) will rejoice and be GLAD in it! Psalms 118:23 **insert is mine**

Organic and Natural Summer Body Care Recipes Part 2

Lavender Oil Body Mist

I love Lavender :-)

I love the smell of it, the color of it, everything...

Lavender has been one of my best friends the past couple of years because it can do so many different things! You can add a few drops to your soap mixture if you make bar soap, you can use 20 drops to give a delightful scent to homemade laundry powder, it eases muscle aches and pains when rubbed directly on to the sore spot, and last of all, you can make a body spritz with it!!!

This body mist is A.W.E.S.O.M.E!! Here's what you do...

Take an empty hairspray bottle (make sure you've cleaned it out very good!!) and pour in 2 oz. of fresh purified/distilled water. Do NOT use city water, please! It's full of chlorine and you don't want to be constantly spraying chlorine all over your skin!
To the 2 oz. of water, add in 40 drops of organic lavender essential oil. Shake well. Spritz all over face and chest and pat in to absorb. Do this several times throughout your day and it will give you an immediate "pick me up" as well as calm you! It's amazing! **this can be doubled**

I do this every day and I love how fresh and bright my skin looks! It works wonders for problematic skin and will not clog your pores. Actually, it does the opposite especially if you spritz your face immediately after a workout and wipe it clean with a towel, and then re-spritz it.   

Now this is something that I came up with myself so I am not  diagnosing or treating problematic skin issues. I am just sharing something that I've had great success with! It has also helped me calm myself while dealing with stressful situations because lavender is a known stress reliever! aka....screaming toddler all day???!!

You can also make yourself a delicious stress/pain relieving tea from fresh or dried lavender flowers by either brewing the flowers in a coffee pot with a filter just as you would coffee, or by steeping them in hot water for 4 hours to make a stronger infusion. When finished, just add some raw honey and drink those stresses away! 

The Lavender body mist is great to spritz on bug bites or onto little baby bottom rashes...I speak from personal experience :-) Lavender is a healing herb so anyway that you use it...spritz's, soaps, salves...it is going to bring healing in a very safe and natural way! 

So get out there and try something new and be happy in the fact that what you are using is completely safe and chemical free and smells divine to boot :-) 

**tomorrow I will not be sharing a post because I will be helping my Dad process the family's meat chickens. I'm looking forwards to having a freezer FULL of delicious meat that is safe to eat because I know how they were raised and what they were raised on! But, that's a post for another day:-)**

Thursday I will be posting  a Natural Sunscreen recipe that I personally use for all of us! Stay tuned!

Organic and Natural Summer Body Care Recipes Part 1

Organic Body Care Recipes

When my oldest child was 5 (7 years ago), she developed several cavities. We, of course, did the traditional socially acceptable thing...went to the dentist. As a result she had to have over $3,000 worth of work, teeth pulled, and spacers put in. I did NOT like that and neither did she, poor kid! After we went through that, I began to evaluate the root cause of those cavities and what I could do to prevent future ones. I already knew about sugar, but what I didn't know is that eating sugar did not cause the cavities. Sugar consumption results in calcium depletion,which results in enamel loss, which in turn results in tooth decay. Most tooth problems come from the inside out, not the outside in! BUT, I then began researching toothpaste! Here's what I found...

5 Common Ingredients in everyday toothpaste:
   1.Sodium Fluoride - it is one of the main ingredients in rat poison and tooth paste.
Many people are probably aware that most toothpaste and many mouth rinses contain fluoride because that’s what dentists have recommended for years to prevent cavities. But did you know that most popular toothpastes contain enough fluoride in four ounces to kill a small child within 2 to 4 hours? (From “Fluoride Retained From Mouth Rinses and Dentifrices in Preschool Children.”
In children and youth, minimal ingestion of sodium fluoride causes salivation, nausea, vomiting, epigastric pain, and diarrhea. Large doses of the carcinogen may cause paralysis, muscular weakness and clonic convulsions, followed by respiratory and cardiac failure. (From “Commercial Toothpaste – Natural or Poison?”)
It’s no wonder that fluoride can cause death in humans! In addition to being one of the main ingredients in toothpaste as well as rat and cockroach poisons, sodium fluoride is also a key component in anesthetic, hypnotic, and psychiatric drugs and SARIN NERVE GAS! (From “Neurotoxicity of Sodium Fluoride in Rats” & “Dental Conditions in Workers Chronically Exposed to Dilute and Anhydrous Hydrofluoric Acid”)
Fluorides have been used throughout history to alter the behavior and mood of human beings. It is a little known fact that fluoride compounds were added to the drinking water of prisoners to keep them quiet and to hamper noncompliance with authority, both in Nazi prison camps during World War II and in the Soviet gulags in Siberia. (From The Cold War and the University)
Surprisingly, fluoride has NEVER been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Additionally, a 1990 study stated that fluoride has been shown to NOT reduce cavities and scientists are now linking fluoride to dental deformity, arthritis, allergic reactions and about 10,000 unnecessary deaths each year from cancer. (From “Fluoride an equivocal carcinogen. National Cancer Institute)
    2. FD&C Blue Dye #1, 2 - is synthesized from petroleum - really?? Colored gasoline?? How would you like your flavored gasoline this morning?? :-)
    3. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) - used clinically to irritate skin. It is used in laboratories to cause irritation so that other products can be tested for healing and yet it's foaming action is supposed to "clean" my teeth?
    4. Triclosan - a common pesticide - a known carcinogen
    5. Hydrated Silica - a whitener that damages enamel. - it scratches the enamel, producing the "whitened" effect but is in reality removing the enamel. 

GRACIOUS! No wonder my kid had cavities! Sugar consumption was removing calcium and minerals from the inside and the toothpaste was disintegrating them from the outside AND was filling her body with dangerous toxins and chemicals every time she brushed her teeth.

"So, what did you do? Buy "organic" toothpaste?"....you may ask.

No. :-)

Instead of buying expensive "organic toothpaste/powders" that more often than not contained many of the same ingredients just with the word "organic" in front of them, I made my own! Here's what I did....

  Tooth Powder for Healthy Teeth:
1. 1 Tablespoon Diatomaceous Earth
2. 1 Tablespoon Aluminum Free Baking Soda
3. 2 teaspoons Himalayean or Redmond Real Salt
4. A few drops of organic peppermint oil extract

Mix all ingredients together in a small glass container and sprinkle on wet tooth brush. Brush thoroughly for 1 minute and rinse well! Whala! No toxins, no chemicals, and have fresh smelling breath to boot! The Salt also acts as a cleansing agent to the gums, killing bacteriums which cause bad breath. :-)

Well, she began brushing with this mixture daily and it's been 7 years and we've had not one more cavity and the tiny ones she had between her teeth healed and disappeared. My middle child, who is 7, has never been to the Dentist, has no cavities, and has the prettiest whitest teeth ever! Of course she consumes large amounts of healthy foods, raw milk, and raw yogurt everyday to boot, but I firmly believe that what she brushes her teeth with plays a great part in the the health of her teeth!

So if you would like to give even your smallest children something safe and healthy to brush their teeth with, than this is for you! It's also great for adults too and helps eliminate bacterial buildup on the teeth which causes the yellowing affect. Now this is not a replacement for consuming healthy foods, because as I said before, teeth problems come 95% of the time from the inside out :-)

Get out there and give this a try  and watch those Pearlies Shine!

Stay tuned! Tomorrow I'll be sharing my Organic Lavender Body Mist Recipe!

May 2013 happenings

My goodness....I've been away awhile! :-) Things have been so busy, but I've been using my camera and now I can share what's been happening in our family these past weeks!

I was privileged to be able to decorate for the Going Away Fellowship for the Boylston Family at MBC

My bamboo candle holders...SOOOO cute!

Adalyn followed the Lord in Believers Baptism

We took the kids to a hotel for an overnight trip and let them swim in an indoor pool...Caleb got to try out his "swimsuit"...lol!

My big girl!

My "bigger" girl! lol!

We've begun potty training! **he's not too keen on it yet** :-)

Some of the cousins came over this month for a play/swim day...here they are taking a break to enjoy some yummy chocolate yogurt popsicles!

Me and my honey took a little two day trip over to the Gatlinburg/Cades Cove are of the Smokies...Happy 13th Anniversary to US!

We take this same shot nearly every year we've gone so I have about 6-7 of these :-)

The weekend we went (late May) turned out to be FREEZING! So glad I brought my hoodie! lol! Though I surely could have used some warm pants that day...oh well ;-)

So hard to believe that we've been together 14 years, married for 13 of those and have 5 children (two are with the Lord in Heaven but we still include them in our family!)

Memorial Day 2013....the three big girls...10,13, and 12...goodness :-)

Adalyn and Kade...the two "hoodlums" in our family! lol! Kade was just thrilled with this one :-)

The three little boys...Kole, Caleb, and Ethan

All the girls with the addition of a family friend :-)

All the cousins (except for the one who is due in November.....NOT MINE!!!!) lol!

The three babies....little Bream, little Taylor, and little Chicanteck...such cutie pies:-)

We've had a great Spring and start to the Summer and are now looking forwards to our family trip to Savannah TN here in the next few weeks. I've got a couple of new summer fresh recipes to share so stay tuned this week! Have a blessed day!