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As a child, I took baths all of the time! But as soon as I graduated to showering, it was years before I actually returned to the tub. Honestly, I just didn't understand why people took baths. I didn't have the time for that. Who wants to sit in a warm tub for a long time?? Turns out, it is actually pretty fantastic! Everyone has their own reasons for hopping in the tub for a nice relaxing soak. And if you use bath salts, you are upping the whole bath experience! Epsom salts, magnesium more specifically, is incredibly good for our bodies! Throw in some lavender and you have a truly relaxing bath experience!
But sometimes our bodies need a little EXTRA support. I know that I turn to a warm tub when I am feeling under the wellness line! There is just something about a warm tub that is just so soothing and comforting! Am I right? And then add to that some immune supporting bath salts and BOOM! The bath is now just what the doctor, or this momma, ordered!
Most recently I created some immune supporting bath salts with Thieves, Frankincense, and Taste of Italy! Taste of Italy? Really? Yes! There are some great immune supportive oils in there! Sometimes we all just want to support our bodies to be able to perform and function as they should! Supporting our immune system is just one thing we can do to keep our healthy bodies healthy!
So, next time you feel like your immune system could use some support, throw these immune supporting bath salts into your tub and take a nice long soak! It will do your body good! And perhaps your mind and soul as well.
Original article and pictures take ohlardy.com site
If Your Alternative Practitioner Doesn’t Know This, Be Wary
We’ve heard a lot of talk lately about using essential oils safely. And don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing! But somewhere along the way we seem to have lost sight of the fact that they aren’t the only thing for which we need to take precautions or obtain a little knowledge!
Something I’ve been meaning to write about for a while is natural practitioners who are recommending herbs without having the necessary knowledge to do so safely.
“N.D.” — Naturopathic Doctor, or Not a Doctor?
The first time I encountered this was about thirteen years ago. I went to see an “N.D.” (Buyer beware. At least in my state, that isn’t a regulated term, so it could mean anything from an actual naturopathic doctor who has multiple years of post-graduate school and hands-on experience to an MLM distributor of herbs who knows nothing beyond what’s in her catalog.) She recommended some items and I asked her if they were safe to take during pregnancy. After some not-very-confident-sounding stammering, she finally said that they should be fine because they’re “very gentle.”
Wrong answer.
“Gentle” has nothing to do with it — well, very little to do with it, anyway. My “N.D.” had just demonstrated a fundamental lack of understanding regarding herbs.
Fast-Forward a Number of Years…
…and a midwife recommended a particular herbal tea. This particular tea is a remedy that has been recommended by thousands of midwives over many years; however, I had read about a particular reason another expert recommended not drinking it during pregnancy, so I asked what the midwife thought about this particular line of thought. Her response demonstrated the same fundamental lack of understanding.
So what is that lack of understanding?
A lack of understanding of therapeutic actions.
If You Don’t Know This, Don’t Make Recommendations!
Let me be blunt: no one who lacks an understanding of what a therapeutic action is, and of the descriptions of some of the more basic, common actions, has any business making herbal recommendations. If you don’t, and you are still comfortable using them with your own family, so be it. But making recommendations demands that you have the responsibility to obtain at least a little bit of knowledge first. Otherwise, there is the potential to do considerable harm — like by recommending herbs contraindicated during pregnancy to a pregnant woman, or to a woman who may become pregnant, without fair warning.
Therapeutic Action
A therapeutic action is, basically, the specific effect an herb (or other substance) has on the body. Most herbs have more than one. In fact, I can’t think of an herb that has only one. There are a limited number of actions, but the great variety of combinations makes each herb uniquely useful. Therapeutic actions include things like the following:
diuretic (increases/promotes urination)
febrifuge (reduces fever)
stimulant (increases energy and activity within the body)
anti-emetic (reduces or prevents vomiting)
Why is this so important? Well, not only do you need to know what actions you are looking for, in order to find the right herb for your needs; you also need to know what actions you don’t want, so you can avoid herbs that have that action. One significant example is herbs which are “abortifacient.” That means they are capable of inducing miscarriage — probably something you want to avoid if you’re pregnant!
Other therapeutic actions have the potential to cause a miscarriage, as well, through less direct means. For instance, herbs that are strong intestinal stimulants can indirectly irritate the uterus and induce a miscarriage.
If you have high blood pressure, you’ll want to avoid herbs which are hypertensive.
You do not have to have all of these memorized! You can look them up when you need them. But any holistic practitioner who is recommending specific herbs needs to understand these concepts, or you cannot trust that s/he is able to safely make those recommendations.
If You Drink This Before Going To Bed You Will Burn Belly Fat Like Crazy
Belly fat can be the hardest fat to get rid of. It's esy to feel helpless, like nothing will work, but diet is so important in eliminating that stubborn fat. Just a glass of this drink before going to bed helps you immensely. This drink is easy to prepare and has proved efficient in bringing great results in short period as long as it is consumed regularly.
When you go to bed and fall asleep, the metabolism works slower than when you are awake. This drink will help you boost your metabolism and burn calories while you are sleeping and the best part is it's delicious and easy to make.
Ingredients:
Cucumbers are great for helping you reduce stomach fat. They are refreshing, high in water content, loaded with fiber, and very low in calories. One full cucumber contains only 45 calories, making it sexy stomach food. They also help detox the body.
Both parsley and cilantro are extremely low in calories, full of antioxidants and offer several vital vitamins and minerals that help to ease water retention without causing the bloating and tummy discomfort.
Lemon will flush out all toxins accumulated in your body and this will contribute to much faster melting of fat as fat metabolism will be increased once the impurities are out of the system.
Ginger will fire up metabolism, prevent constipation and melt unwanted belly fat. If you have flat tummy on your mind, make sure you regularly include ginger in your meals. All compounds in ginger work in synergy to prevent overeating and blast belly fat fast.
Aloe vera juice is considered really efficient weight loss remedy as it contains natural anti-oxidants that help to delay the growth of free radicals in the body and even to reduce inflammatory processes going on in the body. It stimulates the metabolic rate which in turn helps for the consumption of more energy. This process stabilizes and reduces the body mass index (BMI)
It's that simple. For an extra boost during the day you can pair it with this healthy detox water.
source Original article and pictures take www.lovethispic.com site
If I Had to Raise My Kids All Over Again, I Would Definitely Do This
I’m on year twenty of being a mom. TWENTY! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t know how I got here. One crusty sock and painful lego under my foot at a time, I suppose. What a ride. What a joy. What a lot of life lessons.
My kids always cooperated when taking pictures.
The regrets over all the mistakes I made and things I wished I could go back and do differently started washing over me during my oldest son’s senior year of high school. It was a painful time, thinking of sending him off after graduation, knowing I could have and should have done a better job. The Enemy was attacking and filling me with lies, making me forget all the good in our lives, keeping me from seeing the amazing person my son had become in spite of, and even because of me.
God’s grace has offered much healing from those days of swimming in regret as He overpowered the enemy lies and showed me His beautiful Truth. I am so thankful to be freed of that bondage!
Sure, I could have done many things differently through these twenty years. But that doesn’t mean I’m a parenting failure. It means I’m a human being. It means I need Jesus. It means my kids need Him too, since what I have to offer falls short of what our Savior offers.
Well with that, I want to reflect back on something I am so thankful we did, something God orchestrated in our family and helped us to do well – even though we had no idea at the time that it was such a thing of beauty.
From the time our kids were little, we made opportunities for our kids to think of and serve others.
It was something we saw happening within another family we respected. They always had their kids with them as they served the community in all different ways. We saw this and we thought, “We want that for our kids.”
I am so thankful for this family’s example of serving with their kids. It would have been easier to leave the kids behind so we could “serve more efficiently.” But what would our kids have learned? That serving was for grown-ups? That helping others wasn’t their problem? That they could learn to do that serving thing later on in life? That they could stay in their own little world and think only of themselves?
When our second son was three (he’s now heading into his senior year; I can’t even) – I started a fun “school” time with him where I taught him an alphabet letter each week. As he was learning the sound and doing activities to help him retain what he was learning, we started thinking of people we knew whose name started with that letter. Then we’d choose a fun way to show love to that person. For instance:
On Mm Week, we chose an elderly couple from church, Mabrey and Madge Miller (how handy that their first names started with M too!). We made and delivered them Mini Muffins, explaining to them what the boys were learning. Dearest Madge loved what we were doing and cleverly sent the boys a thank you note which read, “Mmmm! Many thanks for the marvelous, magnificent mini muffins you made!”
Do you know what a treasure this is? Others responded with equal joy and fun with our family as we delivered “a jar of jelly beans to John on Jj week, a tiny toy for Tina on Tt week, a flower to Felice on Ff week…and so on.
We worked our way through the alphabet this way with all of our boys when they came “of age” but what’s better is that all of our boys got to participate in the serving activities every single time.
Here’s our youngest, back when he was four,
delivering an Apple Pie to the Amick family on Aa week!
I look back on those precious times with our family with so much happiness, I can’t put it into words. Our boys learned to think of others and consider what might bring them joy – then they had the experience of delivering a treasure to a surprised recipient. They learned to talk to the elderly, consider the shut-in, and approach kids bigger than them.
It was a parenting move I didn’t even know would turn out to be such a blessing. But Ww is for win and this is a parenting move I thank God He inspired.
A few years after the idea originated in our home, my husband urged me to compile it all and create an actual curriculum to share. It was a huge amount of effort, but I got to re-live all the memories, which made it such a joy to complete. It’s filled with hundreds of ideas of activities to help your child learn letter sounds while learning to serve!
Many, many families have used this with their kids since it first came out, and this week, I’m highlighting it again for this reason:
Teach your kids to serve. Help them see people. Train them to notice other people’s needs.
I will never regret the time our family has spent caring for and serving others together. My kids have not always done this cheerfully; parts of this training have been hard; sometimes it would have been easier to do the task myself. But now I watch my kids spoon-feeding our adult handicapped friend, I see them hugging our disabled lady friend without reservation, I hear them talking sweetly to little ones – and I know this without a doubt:
Teaching my kids to serve at a young age is a parenting move I would cheerfully do all over again.
What’s something you’ve done as a parent that you feel great about?
Some of the links in this post are my affiliate links.
Original article and pictures take heavenlyhomemakers.com site
If I Had to Choose Just One Supplement to Give My Family, It Would be This One
Taking fish oil to supplement my diet was one of the very first things I did when I first started learning about real food and a natural approach to health eight years ago. Right around the time I finally liberated bacon and butter from their undeserved shunning. (Hallelujah and Amen!)
Although fish oil was the first supplement to win me over, it soon became the first of many. Understandably, with my deep dive into the world of whole foods and natural health came a very long and expensive list of changes I wanted to make in my buying habits. Fewer $1 boxes of mac and cheese, and more fresh produce and quality ingredients to make food from scratch. Less cheap white bread and chicken nuggets with filler, and more alternative grain options and local, grass-fed meats.
And of course – a growing list of well-rationalized natural supplements for various minor health issues that we were experiencing.
But we, like many other families, were on a tight budget. A very, VERY tight budget at times. And we still are today, as we work hard to pay off the debt we accumulated during those lean years of flight training for my hubs.
So finally, growing frustrated by the never-ending demands of healthy living, I decided to get back to the basics. Unprocessed food as much as possible, and very few, select supplements.
Today, after years of experience in this natural living world, if I had to pick just one supplement to buy for my family, it would absolutely be fish oil, without a doubt.
The scientifically proven truth is that the omega-3 fatty acids that fish oil provides are absolutely crucial to our overall health. Unfortunately, the majority of us are deficient in them thanks to our modern diets high in industrial oils (vegetable oil, canola, soybean oil, etc.) and low in sustainable seafood, which is the primary source of omega- 3’s.
Natural health proponents and western Western medicine alike now recommend fish oil for improved health. Hurray for healthy fats and nourishing our bodies with things that make sense, right?
What Does Fish Oil Do, Exactly?
Lots! The amazing benefits of fish oil are just too amazing to ignore. Fish oil is a significant source of both EPA and DHA – two fatty acids that are vital to a multitude of bodily functions.
Among other functions, EPA is extremely important to hormonal health in particular, while DHA is required for proper brain function, as well as nervous system function.
I find it fascinating that fish oil was once a standard supplement in traditional European cultures. It has since seen a drastic fall in popularity in favour of our highly processed food culture, deficient in essential nutrients and plentiful in disease and bad health.
I for one am grateful to the companies like Nordic Naturals (one of our family’s fish oil favourites for quality and affordability) that continue to spread this vital information.
Nordic Naturals manufactures a fresh and pure omega-3 fish oil that is backed by solid science and a passion for strong health. They’re committed to quality, purity, and efficacy – the three most important factors in deciding which supplements to buy for your family.
Here are some of the top benefits that fish oil provides:
Supports joint and muscle health
Supports gut health
Supports healthy brain function
Supports healthy hair, skin, and nails
Supports positive moods
Supports heart health
It’s no coincidence that the above-listed issues are extremely common complaints among our population today, yet traditional ways of eating (unprocessed, real food) and supplementing (like fish oil) have taken a dive.
Does it Taste Gross?
On its own, taken plain, it would taste fishy and oily. And rightly so! If the plain, unflavoured product tasted sweet and delicious, I would probably be suspicious. I might say that sounds rather fishy. (pun 100% intended.)
Food isn’t supposed to be neon in colour, your breakfast wasn’t meant to be shaped like cartoon characters, and fish don’t come out of the ocean tasting like candy. These are all rather immutable truths, I say. (Though the processed food industry would inevitably disagree.)
I generally prefer my food to be as unprocessed as possible, which means that fish oil will taste… like fish.
But wait! Don’t despair yet…
If you enjoy the straight up, unflavoured fish oil (like my weirdo children who beg me for it), then you go right on ahead with your bad self, and rock those weird tastebuds of yours.
For the rest of us normal people (who don’t salivate at the thought of fish-flavoured oil), thankfully, there are options. Excellent ones, even!
Nordic Naturals is a brand that I’ve personally used many times before, and they offer both flavoured liquid options and capsules, too.
My personal preference is the capsules, but my kids love the flavoured options so much that they actually beg me for their daily dose. Not kidding. (I actually think that their little bodies intuitively know that it’s what they need!)
Who Should Take It?
The benefits of fish oil are so diverse and holistic that I recommend it for the whole family. It’s especially important for couples looking to conceive, children, the elderly, and anyone facing any issues related to the above list of benefits (ie. cardiovascular health, gut health, joint and muscles, etc.) So in other words – everyone!
As I guide my family back to vibrant health and wellness (and a debt-free life!) I will continue to provide our best and most valiant attempt at an unprocessed and healthy overall diet, along with a daily dose of fish oil.
Does your family take a daily fish oil supplement?
P.S. Want to try Nordic Naturals for yourself? Order some today, and use the promo code CAFEMOM to save 15%!
Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Nordic Naturals, but opinions are all mine! When this opportunity first landed in my inbox, I totally jumped on it with excitement! I love writing about companies that are a perfect fit with my natural wellness values, and I love sharing them with you all. I only accept sponsored post opportunities that align with the high-standard values of Red & Honey! Thanks to Nordic Naturals for partnering with R&H.
Original article and pictures take redandhoney.com site
My family definitely fits into the “don’t like coffee” category of people. In fact, they really don’t understand why I’ve suddenly started loving the stuff. Okay by me. It’s the one and only food/drink in this house I get all to myself. Ha! It’s mine. All mine!! (she says, lovingly.)
So for all the “don’t like coffee” people out there, including my family, who thinks my Homemade Chocolate Frappe looks really good but tastes really bad – here’s what I’ve come up with as a delicious alternative. Icy Cold Milkshake Treats. Instead of starting out with coffee ice cubes, simply start out with regular ice cubes. Instead of adding cold coffee and milk, simply add cream and milk. Instead of adding chocolate…oh wait. We’re still adding chocolate. Unless you want straight up vanilla. That works too.
2 cups ice cubes
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Liquid stevia to taste (I use about 10 drops NuNaturals brand)
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (omit if you prefer a vanilla milkshake)
Blend ingredients together until slushy-like. Serve right away.
You’ll love how easy this is, how “real food” this is, and how it’s a treat completely void of sugar. It doesn’t get any better. (Unless you add coffee, but we’ve been through this already.)
Most of the ingredients in the list are in “give or take” proportions. You’ll figure this out if you actually try to measure 2 cups of ice cubes. Rectangle shaped ice cubes don’t cooperate very well in a round measuring cup.
In addition, you may want your shake to be creamier, smoother, sweeter, chocolatier, or with coffee. Oh wait. This one doesn’t have coffee in it. Well anyway, feel free to add more or less of any of the above listed ingredients to make this shake just what you want it to be.
As for me, I’m going to stick with the Homemade Chocolate Frappe. And I’m going to drink the entire blender of coffee goodness all by myself because no one else in my house likes it so I don’t have to share, so ha! (she says, with kindness.)
What do you think? Which will you like better? And which will your family members like better?
Original article and pictures take heavenlyhomemakers.com site
I’m Not Afraid to Use Essential Oils with my Kids Anymore
Sometimes, knowledge is power.
Other times, it’s just paralyzing.
When I finally started really digging into essential oils and learned that many of them aren’t recommended for kids, I freaked out a little bit. I had already used many on the list around and with my kids!
I felt like a horrible mom, like I might have hurt them while only trying to help. (I bet a lot of parents feel that way when their eyes are opened to Big Pharma and food processing realities, too…but that’s getting off subject here.)
My first instinct was just to pull back.
To quit, mostly.
I didn’t want to use any oils that might hurt my kids, so I didn’t use any at all for a few months.
Then I finally regained the bandwidth to read a bit more, and I added a few super safe oils back to my repertoire.
I ordered some White Fir to use instead of eucalyptus for congestion, and some Thyme for cleaning and antibacterial sorts of applications instead of the “hot” oil blends.
Now just this month, I finally feel equipped to really invest my time in using essential oils – and just in time, too, as cold and flu season is rapidly approaching.
The Boy Who Breathed Too Fast
Last year, whenever my then two-and-a-half-year-old would get a cold, it seriously affected his breathing – and even his heart rate.
Like, scare-the-parents-out-of-their-wits fast, inhaling about once every two seconds or faster. And his heart would just race like crazy, probably about 2 beats per second. You could hear him struggling to push out his breaths while talking, and while it didn’t hurt him and he didn’t complain at all – he pretty much acted like a normal boy with a little cold – it seemed really serious.
I could tell almost as soon as he got the sniffles if it was going to “go into his lungs” as I described it. What would start as a simple cold acquired from his sister would turn into a hot mess for this one.
I used whatever natural remedies I knew of for the first 24 hours of the cold and then felt compelled to take him to a doctor to make sure nothing uber-serious was going on. It was no big deal, and I learned what to watch for as far as breathing rate (over 40/second and we should call the doc so she can hear it herself).
I couldn’t help but wonder why this kid’s lungs seemed to be so weak – he had pneumonia twice as a toddler and whooping cough. So were those causes or effects?
Did any of the essential oils I had used in a steamy shower during his coughing episodes, some of which are not recommended for kids, permanently impact his lungs?
We had to delay a trip to Florida when my dad got cancer, and then we delayed our Disney day because John was breathing so fast…grateful we finally got to celebrate together here!
I had a lot of mommy guilt, even though I know it’s highly unlikely that his “weak lungs” could have been prevented or were caused by anything we did.
As we head into sick season again, I admit that I’m nervous for him.
I’ve found that if I catch the cold at its earliest, before it really digs its claws into him, and knock it out with heavy probiotics, immune boosters from TriLight Health, and immediate essential oil diffusion, I can usually “win” before anything sinks into his lungs. I’m sure I’ll get plenty of chances to test my theory since he’s starting preschool on Monday.
I’m determined not to let his heart rate get so high, so I’m going to have some kid-safe essential oil blends on hand – and I’m learning to make them myself.
I gained access to a 3-hour course on blending essential oils for cold and flu season (put on by the Aromahead Institute), and I admit I was hesitant at first. I saw the list of 5 essential oils to be used and instantly recognized one of them (eucalyptus) as a no-no for kids.
Do I really want to bother with this course? I thought.
I ended up emailing the instructor, certified aromatherapist Andrea Butje, and asked her how she addressed EO safety for kids.
Her answer was above and beyond.
She not only assured me that every blend in her course has a child-safe alternative (and now that I’m in it I see most have two!), but she also sent me an article she’d written all about aromatherapy oils and children.
That’s where I learned about hydrosols, which are healing aromatic water that’s a by-product of the essential oil distillation process.
Hydrosols have a lot of healing powers but they’re much gentler than EOs. Babies’ systems are very delicate and they don’t need a very strong substance to influence them to healing. Andrea uses German Chamomile and Lavender hydrosol – they can go on baby’s skin for a diaper rash or in bath water or on a blanket for aromatherapy.
She did say that one could use EOs with babies but that diffusing those same 2 very gentle ones for only about 15 minutes (before bed, for example) would be plenty. No need to leave the diffuser running overnight.
See below for a separate list and uses for EOs for children.
Did you know that essential oils have a shelf life?
Katie here, popping in to tell you that those essential oils that have been sitting in your cabinet for a couple years and are still half full may have expired. Read more about what I learned when researching this topic, and you can even have the handy printable I made to help me remember how long which oils last.
My New Wish List Oils Instead of the White Fir
Now that I’ve poked into Andrea’s course, I learned that Cedarwood is a better substitute for Eucalyptus in respiratory blends. It’s on my list for my next Plant Therapy order!
Want to see what I learned? I took a minute this morning to give YOU a sneak peek into the Aromahead cold and flu course so you can see exactly what you’re getting. Check it out:
If you can’t view the video above, see it on YouTube HERE.
More in Aromahead
If you’re wondering what you’d learn in the Aromahead course, here’s a bit more:
The Recipes
EACH recipe has an adult and child version!
No One Gets Sick in This House, daytime diffuser blend
Everyone Gets a Good Night’s Sleep, nighttime diffuser blend
Your Sinuses will Love You, daytime inhaler blend
Sleep Without Tissues, nighttime inhaler blend
We Love Being Germ Free! an aloe vera hand cleanser
Ready to learn more about using Herbs & Essential Oils so you can choose natural options instead of conventional ones?
My friends at Ultimate Bundles have put together an amazing package worth over $769 for only $47!
With 10 ECourses, 15 Ebooks and a printablethis is the ultimate resource to give you the skills, know-how and confidence to protect your health with natural remedies!
The Oils
If it seems like buying enough oils to blend your own would be too pricey, I have found Plant Therapy to be very inexpensive compared to other equal quality brands, and they have free shipping offered everyday. See for yourself:
Thyme ct. linalol (Thymus vulgaris ct linalol) (but I’m not positive this is the right one – it doesn’t say ct. linalol!)
Favorite Essential Oils for Children
I promised I’d share these tips from Andrea on essential oils that are recommended for kids under 10 and even some uses for them. It’s a chart I’m printing to hang inside my medicine cabinet!
Thanks to Andrea at the Aromahead Institute for permission to share this info with you!!!
EDIT: I’m surprised to see peppermint there because I’d always heard that it’s not recommended for little ones. In this post the note on peppermint says not to use it on kids under 6 in any fashion, so I’d stick with that! Always better on the safe side.
There’s a Vintage Remedies Course too!
If you wanted even more info, Vintage Remedies is also offering an essential oil class that is extensive – you’ll be amazed.
Vintage Remedies is well respected in the field for being a very balanced source of information, and in fact the entire first module is on how to properly find information. Love. That!
Wanna see inside?
If you can’t see the video above, click HERE to see it on YouTube.
This is the real deal – Andrea, Jessie and Amber, your instructors in both courses, are all certified aromatherapists.
I want to hear from you – what holds you back from using essential oils with your family? Or if you love them, why?
Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Aromahead Institute, Vintage Remedies and Plant Therapy.
Original article and pictures take www.kitchenstewardship.com site
