This week I began a full time job. No, not outside of the home. I am now caring full time for a precious baby girl while her mama returns to work. I adore this little girl, she is seriously the best behaved baby ever. She adores her sleep and goes to sleep happy as can be every time simply by being swaddled and laid in the pack n' play. She takes her bottles of her Mama's milk like a pro. And when this little girl is awake, so long as she has one of my four boys near by to watch, she is just as content as can be. She is so cute.
Having her in our home full time 5 days a week is going to be a big change. When she's hungry, everything stops so I can feed her. When she's tired, the boys have to be quiet so she can nap. Obviously they will have these changes in four months, God willing, anyhow, but this time it's for someone outside of our family and came on with rather short notice. They are handling it beautifully and adore having her here. They are all now unanimous that they want the baby in my belly to be a sister.
So, we work to view this in the eyes of Christian service and think "this makes me rich in my vocation". We have yet another opportunity to serve our neighbor and a family in Christ and be a loving home for this sweet girl for the next few years during the day.
We are also working on a major home "renovation" and making 3 big room changes. The main floor master is becoming a study/play room/baby nap room. The second floor room that was home to our four boys is now becoming my husband's and my room. And the second floor play room is now the boys' room. This is a lot of furniture to move. This is also a lot of cleaning to do. The old boys' room is requiring a ton of work as a drop down ceiling needed to be removed, fake paneling ripped out, and then we discovered some mold on one wall behind the paneling because an air return had been covered. So, dry wall had to be ripped out, the insulation removed, and fresh insulation and new dry wall placed. We have to repair the other dry wall from the paneling, paint, refinish the wood floors in that room, and move our furniture from the downstairs bedroom up the stairs and down to hallways into our bedroom. Then we will move the toys that are in the guest room and basement down to the new play room. This will give us a definite sleep area upstairs (which will keep us from needing to use the upstairs during the day and give me better oversight over little ones) and a definite living and play space downstairs. The new play room has a door that can shut so it will also make a good school room for older boys as they need quiet with more intensive studies.
And just for kicks we decided to refinish our kitchen table and deep clean the basement this week, you know, since we don't have anything going on. :)
We have four months until this sweet baby is due. In that time we need to finish these projects, make a trip to see some dear friends about 12 hours away, and complete a few other home renovations before winter sets in.
Oh!!! And I just got some supplies in the mail today to finally give sprouting grains a try! I bought ancient Einkorn wheat that I'm going to sprout, dry, and grind to make into baked goods because I discovered my allergic son can have sprouted Einkorn wheat! We bought a barrel of berries so I need to get sprouting. I also bought some glycerin so I can make my own child friendly herbal tinctures for fall and winter illnesses. I want to get those made before October so we are prepared for cold and flu season.
Finally I've started my pregnancy work out regimen. With my 4th I began working out at 22 weeks in an attempt to make labor easier. It worked. I was in such amazing shape by labor that my ability to handle the pain, stay ahead of it, and not get exhausted was greatly improved. My husband was so impressed that he's been really encouraging me to get at it again and I know he's right. But it's hard going because during my year of miscarriages I was afraid to work out much in case working out too hard was hurting my pregnancies. We found a treadmill at a garage sale and I've been doing 45 min workouts on a high speed and decent incline doing different arm workouts while walking fast.
And of course, home schooling continues and the boys are all loving their new math books while we continue to work through Bible/catechism, reading, handwriting, history, and science.
Did I mention I have about 35 tomato plants that are mass producing right now? Anyone want to come help make ketchup, salsa, and spaghetti sauce to can? :)
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Monday, June 23, 2014
Food, Facebook, and Family
Recently I was listening to THIS. Actually, I have listened to it more than once. And one of the things that has stayed with me the most from this talk was something Pr. Weedon said in the second video, about 5 minutes and 30 seconds in. He says the process of theosis (divinization) is about God taking things away from you. It's not about your own "upward" progress as a Christian, but it is about God's taking things away from you one by one by one and in that taking away, causing you to realize that HE is enough. And then, lastly, He takes away your breath. But even then, He is enough.
Isn't that beautiful?!? Seriously, that is the most beautiful confession of the true Christian faith I have ever heard in my entire life. I want it painted around the top of my family's living room where I have to read it every single day.
Hearing Pastor Weedon's confession was like a slap in the face to several of my false gods that we all have and led me to repent of some of my unconfessed sins/temptations that I did not realize I had. It also allowed me to have peace in some areas of my life that have haunted me.
The first area is food. A friend of mine that finally became a face to face friend when I met her this week, after years of having mutual friends and being friends online, introduced me to a new term this week called orthorexia nervosa. Orthorexia is an eating disorder characterized by an unhealthy preoccupation with food that one perceives to be "unhealthy"......
Um...can we say 99.9% of American culture?
Americans ARE OBSESSED with food. Don't believe me? Head to any of the news websites or take a walk to the check out counter. How many articles will you find with all sorts of self proclaimed experts telling you what is truly "healthy" for you and what is not? And, after 9 years of thinking that in order to be a good mom and wife I had to figure out exactly how to be perfect with food I. AM. DONE.
Do you want to know the biggest most dangerous reason we, as Christians, need to let go of this food obsession once and for all?
The devil has us right where he wants us. He wants to disguise sin's effects on our sinful flesh and our need for Christ and have us call it something other than sin. How does he do this? By making you think your aunt has cancer because she didn't eat an all organic diet free from all gmo's. By making you think your baby has eczema because you didn't follow a paleo diet while pregnant/nursing. By making you think your sister is obese because she eats wheat.
Do you know why we have cancer, eczema, obesity and every other human flesh failure? BECAUSE. WE. ARE. FALLEN. That's it. We are fallen. We are infected with sin. We cannot save ourselves. Friends, you can go ahead and try. You can sprout your grains, soak them, sing to them. You can buy all non-gmo, all organic, heck grow all your own everything. You can take fermented cod liver oil with butter oil, drink all fresh spring water in stainless steel or glass water bottles, and refuse all sugar, grains, and legumes. WHATEVER. But I'm so sorry to tell you, it won't heal you. You will still get sick. you may even get cancer, or eczema, or even still struggle with obesity. You might still feel fatigued, still struggle with insomnia, or still have acne. Yes, God gives us wisdom to make choices that could make a difference in our health temporarily and help ease certain ailments. This is wonderful! But...
The devil delights in his distraction tactic. He wants us to call sin something else, to take control of as many areas of our lives as we can and say, "oh, this isn't a spiritual thing, this has nothing to do with church and God, this is a physical thing, something I CAN CONTROL (WHOOOPPEEEEE!!!!!!)" And suddenly we do our devotions hurriedly in the morning, grouching the whole way through in our heart, because of the stress of wondering how we will be perfect enough to cure our son or self or sister today. And eventually where is our need for Christ?
Enough. It is enough. Look to Christ. Feed your family what you have and what you are able and let it go. Stop reading articles, stop listening to the panic, refuse to make food your god. Food will not heal you, save you, nor add one day to your life. Honor the body God gave you by not pouring things into it in gluttony as God's Word tells us is wicked, but do not grant God's healing powers nor His salvific work to your food.
The next area Weedon's quote convicted me was facebook. The food issue leads into the facebook issue in the way that having SO MUCH input into my life on a daily basis was not only overwhelmingly distracting from my own family and vocation making me see so many things I didn't need to be adding to my day, but, it also, I have realized, really really hurts the relationships in my life. I am afraid to see what relationships will be like for the world in 10-20 years. And I wonder how many of our grown up youth will be depressed, on drugs, or who knows what because their relationships are reduced to a glowing screen that does not hug them, talk to them, or love them. Mothers, sisters, brothers, friends, you can't trade a "like" for love. For real relationships. For life. We are all going to be reduced to hermits living with our glowing screens and not experiencing the world and complexity of true human interaction if we don't wake up. I decided this time to not delete my account completely like I did October of last year for 8 months because like it or not, most email and several event notifications happen through facebook. I have pregnant friends that will post the first announcement of a birth with a picture on facebook. And I want to be able to call or send a card to rejoice with them when word gets out. But I will no longer be posting my own updates unless it is something like a birth announcement. If I have the urge to post something, a picture, a funny happening, a thought, I'm going to either share it with my immediately family/friends around me that day or I will call some friend or family member far away to share it with them. Because that is how we actually deepen our relationships. That is how we show we care. That is how we show real human decency instead of turning into a bunch of robots.
And, like the food issue, the facebook issue feeds right into the family issue. As I have mentioned before, I grew up in a home broken several times over. When I was being raised in public school where many friends had divorced parents, it didn't seem like a big deal to me. My church didn't make a big deal out of it either. And I remember thinking, what's the big deal, I have two Christmases! Two birthdays! Two houses I can switch between if one is annoying me! ....
It is a big deal. It is only now that I'm an adult with a whole home and a Godly marriage that I have been able to grapple with the brokenness I grew up with and my parents and step parents went through. It breaks my heart for them and for me and my siblings. It has also bothered me more and more as I have had so many friendships deepen with so many amazing Pastor's wife friends who come from amazing Christian families. Are we all sinners? Of course, but there's a difference between sinners that live out their entire lives in fear and love of God in a church that takes very seriously how Christian parents will raise their children (and parents who take that seriously enough to vow it to death), confronting them with God's Word and private confession/absolution when they err, and sinners that live out their lives breaking themselves away from God, divorcing their homes and their children from a Godly life by their choices, and calling it OK because "xyz".
I am not seeking to place blame here. In all of these ponderings, I am so very grateful for the way God has kept me. My mom and dad faithfully brought me to the font of Holy Baptism at less than two weeks old and saw to it, along with my step mom, that I was raised faithfully in the church. But as I grappled with anger and confusion over the continuing deterioration of my family as my Dad died and all of my siblings left for other Christian denominations or left the church at times, I struggled to not be one of those people that grows up to become angry and rebellious about their upbringing and despairing over how I would see to it that my own family was raised in a God pleasing way when I had so little left on the home front. I want to honor my family and be grateful to God for the way He provided. And I am. But the answer was found in Weedon's quote and the realizations about food and facebook. First, we have to call things what they are, be honest about the sin we experienced, forgive as we have been forgiven, and where there is unrepentance in others, use it as an opportunity to pray for them and continue to live in repentance ourselves. Second, to seek out my true vocation in my life NOW, not what it used to be, not what I wish it was, but what it is now, and to make the most I can out of the relationships God has actually given me to nurture NOW.
"God has assuredly promised His grace to the humble (1Peter 5:5), that is, to those who lament and despair of themselves. But no man can be thoroughly humbled until he knows that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, devices, endeavors, will, and works, and depends entirely on the choice, will, and work of another, namely, of God alone. For as long as he is persuaded that he himself can do even the least thing toward his salvation, he retains some self-confidence and does not altogether despair of himself, and therefore he is not humbled before God, but presumes that there is-or at least hopes or desires that there may be- some place, time, and work for him, by which he may at length attain to salvation. But when a man has no doubt that everything depends on the will of God, then he completely despairs of himself and chooses nothing for himself, but waits for God to work; then he has come close to grace, and can be saved." -Martin Luther
1. Soul, adorn thyself with gladness,
Leave behind all gloom and sadness;
Come into the daylight's splendor,
There with joy thy praises render
Unto Him whose grace unbounded
Hath this woundrous supper founded.
High o'er all the heavens He reigneth,
Yet to dwell with thee He deigneth.
2. Hasten as a bride to meet Him
And with loving reverence greet Him;
For with words of life immortal
Now He knocketh at thy portal.
Haste to open the gates before Him,
Saying, while thou dost adore Him,
Suffer, Lord, that I receive Thee,
And I nevermore will leave Thee. -LSB 635
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us your very self through the doorposts of our mouths that through your precious Body and Blood we may be strengthened in our faith to remain faithful unto death.
Isn't that beautiful?!? Seriously, that is the most beautiful confession of the true Christian faith I have ever heard in my entire life. I want it painted around the top of my family's living room where I have to read it every single day.
Hearing Pastor Weedon's confession was like a slap in the face to several of my false gods that we all have and led me to repent of some of my unconfessed sins/temptations that I did not realize I had. It also allowed me to have peace in some areas of my life that have haunted me.
The first area is food. A friend of mine that finally became a face to face friend when I met her this week, after years of having mutual friends and being friends online, introduced me to a new term this week called orthorexia nervosa. Orthorexia is an eating disorder characterized by an unhealthy preoccupation with food that one perceives to be "unhealthy"......
Um...can we say 99.9% of American culture?
Americans ARE OBSESSED with food. Don't believe me? Head to any of the news websites or take a walk to the check out counter. How many articles will you find with all sorts of self proclaimed experts telling you what is truly "healthy" for you and what is not? And, after 9 years of thinking that in order to be a good mom and wife I had to figure out exactly how to be perfect with food I. AM. DONE.
Do you want to know the biggest most dangerous reason we, as Christians, need to let go of this food obsession once and for all?
The devil has us right where he wants us. He wants to disguise sin's effects on our sinful flesh and our need for Christ and have us call it something other than sin. How does he do this? By making you think your aunt has cancer because she didn't eat an all organic diet free from all gmo's. By making you think your baby has eczema because you didn't follow a paleo diet while pregnant/nursing. By making you think your sister is obese because she eats wheat.
Do you know why we have cancer, eczema, obesity and every other human flesh failure? BECAUSE. WE. ARE. FALLEN. That's it. We are fallen. We are infected with sin. We cannot save ourselves. Friends, you can go ahead and try. You can sprout your grains, soak them, sing to them. You can buy all non-gmo, all organic, heck grow all your own everything. You can take fermented cod liver oil with butter oil, drink all fresh spring water in stainless steel or glass water bottles, and refuse all sugar, grains, and legumes. WHATEVER. But I'm so sorry to tell you, it won't heal you. You will still get sick. you may even get cancer, or eczema, or even still struggle with obesity. You might still feel fatigued, still struggle with insomnia, or still have acne. Yes, God gives us wisdom to make choices that could make a difference in our health temporarily and help ease certain ailments. This is wonderful! But...
The devil delights in his distraction tactic. He wants us to call sin something else, to take control of as many areas of our lives as we can and say, "oh, this isn't a spiritual thing, this has nothing to do with church and God, this is a physical thing, something I CAN CONTROL (WHOOOPPEEEEE!!!!!!)" And suddenly we do our devotions hurriedly in the morning, grouching the whole way through in our heart, because of the stress of wondering how we will be perfect enough to cure our son or self or sister today. And eventually where is our need for Christ?
Enough. It is enough. Look to Christ. Feed your family what you have and what you are able and let it go. Stop reading articles, stop listening to the panic, refuse to make food your god. Food will not heal you, save you, nor add one day to your life. Honor the body God gave you by not pouring things into it in gluttony as God's Word tells us is wicked, but do not grant God's healing powers nor His salvific work to your food.
The next area Weedon's quote convicted me was facebook. The food issue leads into the facebook issue in the way that having SO MUCH input into my life on a daily basis was not only overwhelmingly distracting from my own family and vocation making me see so many things I didn't need to be adding to my day, but, it also, I have realized, really really hurts the relationships in my life. I am afraid to see what relationships will be like for the world in 10-20 years. And I wonder how many of our grown up youth will be depressed, on drugs, or who knows what because their relationships are reduced to a glowing screen that does not hug them, talk to them, or love them. Mothers, sisters, brothers, friends, you can't trade a "like" for love. For real relationships. For life. We are all going to be reduced to hermits living with our glowing screens and not experiencing the world and complexity of true human interaction if we don't wake up. I decided this time to not delete my account completely like I did October of last year for 8 months because like it or not, most email and several event notifications happen through facebook. I have pregnant friends that will post the first announcement of a birth with a picture on facebook. And I want to be able to call or send a card to rejoice with them when word gets out. But I will no longer be posting my own updates unless it is something like a birth announcement. If I have the urge to post something, a picture, a funny happening, a thought, I'm going to either share it with my immediately family/friends around me that day or I will call some friend or family member far away to share it with them. Because that is how we actually deepen our relationships. That is how we show we care. That is how we show real human decency instead of turning into a bunch of robots.
And, like the food issue, the facebook issue feeds right into the family issue. As I have mentioned before, I grew up in a home broken several times over. When I was being raised in public school where many friends had divorced parents, it didn't seem like a big deal to me. My church didn't make a big deal out of it either. And I remember thinking, what's the big deal, I have two Christmases! Two birthdays! Two houses I can switch between if one is annoying me! ....
It is a big deal. It is only now that I'm an adult with a whole home and a Godly marriage that I have been able to grapple with the brokenness I grew up with and my parents and step parents went through. It breaks my heart for them and for me and my siblings. It has also bothered me more and more as I have had so many friendships deepen with so many amazing Pastor's wife friends who come from amazing Christian families. Are we all sinners? Of course, but there's a difference between sinners that live out their entire lives in fear and love of God in a church that takes very seriously how Christian parents will raise their children (and parents who take that seriously enough to vow it to death), confronting them with God's Word and private confession/absolution when they err, and sinners that live out their lives breaking themselves away from God, divorcing their homes and their children from a Godly life by their choices, and calling it OK because "xyz".
I am not seeking to place blame here. In all of these ponderings, I am so very grateful for the way God has kept me. My mom and dad faithfully brought me to the font of Holy Baptism at less than two weeks old and saw to it, along with my step mom, that I was raised faithfully in the church. But as I grappled with anger and confusion over the continuing deterioration of my family as my Dad died and all of my siblings left for other Christian denominations or left the church at times, I struggled to not be one of those people that grows up to become angry and rebellious about their upbringing and despairing over how I would see to it that my own family was raised in a God pleasing way when I had so little left on the home front. I want to honor my family and be grateful to God for the way He provided. And I am. But the answer was found in Weedon's quote and the realizations about food and facebook. First, we have to call things what they are, be honest about the sin we experienced, forgive as we have been forgiven, and where there is unrepentance in others, use it as an opportunity to pray for them and continue to live in repentance ourselves. Second, to seek out my true vocation in my life NOW, not what it used to be, not what I wish it was, but what it is now, and to make the most I can out of the relationships God has actually given me to nurture NOW.
"God has assuredly promised His grace to the humble (1Peter 5:5), that is, to those who lament and despair of themselves. But no man can be thoroughly humbled until he knows that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, devices, endeavors, will, and works, and depends entirely on the choice, will, and work of another, namely, of God alone. For as long as he is persuaded that he himself can do even the least thing toward his salvation, he retains some self-confidence and does not altogether despair of himself, and therefore he is not humbled before God, but presumes that there is-or at least hopes or desires that there may be- some place, time, and work for him, by which he may at length attain to salvation. But when a man has no doubt that everything depends on the will of God, then he completely despairs of himself and chooses nothing for himself, but waits for God to work; then he has come close to grace, and can be saved." -Martin Luther
1. Soul, adorn thyself with gladness,
Leave behind all gloom and sadness;
Come into the daylight's splendor,
There with joy thy praises render
Unto Him whose grace unbounded
Hath this woundrous supper founded.
High o'er all the heavens He reigneth,
Yet to dwell with thee He deigneth.
2. Hasten as a bride to meet Him
And with loving reverence greet Him;
For with words of life immortal
Now He knocketh at thy portal.
Haste to open the gates before Him,
Saying, while thou dost adore Him,
Suffer, Lord, that I receive Thee,
And I nevermore will leave Thee. -LSB 635
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us your very self through the doorposts of our mouths that through your precious Body and Blood we may be strengthened in our faith to remain faithful unto death.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Fresh start
Our Lord sure knew what He was doing when He gave us the seasons, calendars, the sun, moon, and stars. Isn't it funny how really each day is no more like any other day before it but because of the seasons and calendar we have this comfort, this familiarity to our days. And so with December and the start of Advent came a fresh start. How wonderful to start a year with a penitential season...to take time to cry, pray, and lament sin and death. But after a time of weeping comes the morn of song! Christ has come!
On Christmas Eve my oldest who is now a big 8 yr old said, "Mom, why do we have to go to church tonight AND tomorrow?" After chuckling my husband and I explained that Christmas Eve is when we sit in the darkness and penitence of Advent one more time and watch our sadness turn to joy as God's Christ comes. Christmas Day is when we enter in the light of His coming and He fulfills the reason of His coming: to give Himself to us. Jesus marks the door posts of our mouths with His Holy Precious blood and points us to the cross. Oh what a wonderous time is the season of Christmas!
On another note is the sickness that inevitably comes with the months of darkness and rich foods. For years now I have been studying natural healing through herbs and natural remedies. I have probably read enough herbal text books to become a certified herbalist but who has time for that? Besides, I do it for my family.
My biggest find has been bentonite clay. Haven't heard of it? Click here. Bentonite clay will be your new best friend during the months of not so fun stomach viruses! My family began coming down with it two weeks ago when my oldest dropped with a headache, fever, and then threw up. I ran for my bentonite clay and gave him 1/2 tsp in 5 oz of cold water. I also mixed in 1/2 packet of tangerine e-mergency. I whisked it with a fork hard and he drank it up....right after puking. Think he puked it right up? Nope! Instead an hour later he was up watching Duck Dynasty with my husband and me. :) The whole family took the bentonite and not one of us got it after my oldest!
As for colds my favorite go to for kids is Hyland's cold and cough. It can be found at Target, Walgreens, etc and works even better than non homeopathic cold meds. I know, I use it too. :) It comes in day and nighttime versions, both are great.
For adults my go to remedy is home made tinctures. Whaaaat?! Fear not! It's so easy! I buy pre-mixed combos from www.bulkherbstore.com. This is a young family owned business who home schools their kids and all of their products are wild cultivated or organically grown. My favorites are their "cough tea" and "double E immune". What I do is get some mason jars and fill them 1/3 full of herbs. Fill the rest of the way with vodka. Let sit in a cool dark place for 3 weeks, shake jars gently each day. Then strain the herbs out and keep tinctures in a cool dark place. My husband and I take 1-2 tsps of each tincture at the first sign of colds and if we're getting hit hard we take them up to every hour until symptoms improve. We also drink e-mergency and I make tons of home made soups, esp with home made bone broth.
What's bone broth? Save beef bones, lots of beef bones, esp marrow filled ones. If you buy your meat from a local ranch where the cow is grass fed, healthy, and all from one cow, even better. As your saving up keep them in a freezer safe bag in a deep freezer. When you have enough to fill a large stock pot about half way, put them in the pot and fill with water until the water level is about 2-3 inches over the bones. Add celery, onion, garlic, pepper, carrots, etc. bring to a simmer and keep a spoon with holes nearby for skimming off stuff that rises to the top. Let simmer for 3 days. Yup, THREE DAYS. At night you can turn it down so it's barely bubbling at all and then increase it a tad during the day. Keep a lid on and make sure you don't gave it going too hard/boiling or water will evaporate and you'll have to add water. Every so often you can lift a bone or two out of the water and be amazed as the marrow dissolves into your broth leaving the bone hollow! (See picture above.) I also added beefy soup bones to mine for greater beef flavor. At the end of three days, scoop out bones and discard and pour broth into mason jars. Let cool and then put in the deep freezer. If you have a pressure canner, canning is an option too. Now you have home made broth that can grow back a limb* and bring incredible healing. I thaw and make it the base for any soup with beef broth and a base for beef gravy, etc. I used the left over beef and veggies from the making of the broth to make chili for supper that night.
Now, if I'm really desperate...like...REALLY desperate, I've been known to do some crazy things. Once, while we lived in the middle of nowhere, 2 1/2 hours from any Walgreens, Target, etc. and it was near midnight and I was burning up with fever and felt like I was swallowing razor blades, well, desperate times called for desperate measures. I juiced an onion, got myself about 1/4 cup worth of the juice, added a tbs of raw honey, and threw it back like a shot. Then I sliced up a fresh clove of garlic and put it in the sides of my cheeks and slowly chewed on it while watching TV. An hour later I began sweating, got into the shower, swallowed the garlic with some e-mergency and woke up the next morning as good as new! I haven't done that since but I have been known to mince up raw garlic and swallow it like a pill with e-mergency or orange juice. I HATE being sick.
So here's to health in the new year and learning to bring healing to my family even more without the use of drugs. God has created so many amazing things in our world that help our fearfully and wonderfully made body heal itself and I'm so thankful to have access to them.
* OK, so it may not really grow back a limb and none of these statements have been approved by the FDA, so, you know, use your head and talk to whoever it is you see for medical help/advice/care in your life before trying anything new. I am not a doctor, I'm just a mama with four boys who prefers to strengthen and aid my body rather than drug it, whenever possible.
On Christmas Eve my oldest who is now a big 8 yr old said, "Mom, why do we have to go to church tonight AND tomorrow?" After chuckling my husband and I explained that Christmas Eve is when we sit in the darkness and penitence of Advent one more time and watch our sadness turn to joy as God's Christ comes. Christmas Day is when we enter in the light of His coming and He fulfills the reason of His coming: to give Himself to us. Jesus marks the door posts of our mouths with His Holy Precious blood and points us to the cross. Oh what a wonderous time is the season of Christmas!
On another note is the sickness that inevitably comes with the months of darkness and rich foods. For years now I have been studying natural healing through herbs and natural remedies. I have probably read enough herbal text books to become a certified herbalist but who has time for that? Besides, I do it for my family.
My biggest find has been bentonite clay. Haven't heard of it? Click here. Bentonite clay will be your new best friend during the months of not so fun stomach viruses! My family began coming down with it two weeks ago when my oldest dropped with a headache, fever, and then threw up. I ran for my bentonite clay and gave him 1/2 tsp in 5 oz of cold water. I also mixed in 1/2 packet of tangerine e-mergency. I whisked it with a fork hard and he drank it up....right after puking. Think he puked it right up? Nope! Instead an hour later he was up watching Duck Dynasty with my husband and me. :) The whole family took the bentonite and not one of us got it after my oldest!
As for colds my favorite go to for kids is Hyland's cold and cough. It can be found at Target, Walgreens, etc and works even better than non homeopathic cold meds. I know, I use it too. :) It comes in day and nighttime versions, both are great.
For adults my go to remedy is home made tinctures. Whaaaat?! Fear not! It's so easy! I buy pre-mixed combos from www.bulkherbstore.com. This is a young family owned business who home schools their kids and all of their products are wild cultivated or organically grown. My favorites are their "cough tea" and "double E immune". What I do is get some mason jars and fill them 1/3 full of herbs. Fill the rest of the way with vodka. Let sit in a cool dark place for 3 weeks, shake jars gently each day. Then strain the herbs out and keep tinctures in a cool dark place. My husband and I take 1-2 tsps of each tincture at the first sign of colds and if we're getting hit hard we take them up to every hour until symptoms improve. We also drink e-mergency and I make tons of home made soups, esp with home made bone broth.
What's bone broth? Save beef bones, lots of beef bones, esp marrow filled ones. If you buy your meat from a local ranch where the cow is grass fed, healthy, and all from one cow, even better. As your saving up keep them in a freezer safe bag in a deep freezer. When you have enough to fill a large stock pot about half way, put them in the pot and fill with water until the water level is about 2-3 inches over the bones. Add celery, onion, garlic, pepper, carrots, etc. bring to a simmer and keep a spoon with holes nearby for skimming off stuff that rises to the top. Let simmer for 3 days. Yup, THREE DAYS. At night you can turn it down so it's barely bubbling at all and then increase it a tad during the day. Keep a lid on and make sure you don't gave it going too hard/boiling or water will evaporate and you'll have to add water. Every so often you can lift a bone or two out of the water and be amazed as the marrow dissolves into your broth leaving the bone hollow! (See picture above.) I also added beefy soup bones to mine for greater beef flavor. At the end of three days, scoop out bones and discard and pour broth into mason jars. Let cool and then put in the deep freezer. If you have a pressure canner, canning is an option too. Now you have home made broth that can grow back a limb* and bring incredible healing. I thaw and make it the base for any soup with beef broth and a base for beef gravy, etc. I used the left over beef and veggies from the making of the broth to make chili for supper that night.
my broth with a little cutie-patootie. :)
So here's to health in the new year and learning to bring healing to my family even more without the use of drugs. God has created so many amazing things in our world that help our fearfully and wonderfully made body heal itself and I'm so thankful to have access to them.
* OK, so it may not really grow back a limb and none of these statements have been approved by the FDA, so, you know, use your head and talk to whoever it is you see for medical help/advice/care in your life before trying anything new. I am not a doctor, I'm just a mama with four boys who prefers to strengthen and aid my body rather than drug it, whenever possible.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
No Grains
One of my children cannot have any grains. Well, I should specify: no wheat, no oats, no corn. He CAN have rice and quinoa (which really isn't a grain but a seed).
Recently we began trying to reintroduce things one at a time to see if he had recovered enough for some of them. It seems the only thing he can have without having breathing issues or breaking out in eczema is rice.
But with all the experimenting he's been able to indulge in all types of foods that he didn't before and suddenly I can't remember what he was eating for snacks, etc before! So all of you grain/gluten free people, care to share your favorite snacks/breakfasts/lunch ideas??? We're good with dinner...we eat a lot of meat and veggies and potatoes/quinoa/rice, but I am totally stumped for breakfast, snacks, and easy lunches.
Some things we do:
breakfast:
muffins from www.elanaspantry.com
pancakes from above
scrambled eggs and sausage (they're so sick of this) or bacon
chocolate chip cookies made from almond flour (doubles as snack, but he's also very sick of these)
lunch:
rolled up lunch meat w/ fruit/veggies
peanut butter "boats" apple halves filled w pb with raisins or chocolate chips for on top
banana slices w/ pb and jelly
quinoa w tomato sauce and/or grnd beef
leftovers
pb and jelly sandwiches using almond flour pancakes
snacks:
potato chips
pickles
some of the above
fruit strips (organic dehydrated fruit strips) sometimes w pb on top
Annnnd that's about all I got. So, hit me, what are your favorites. On second thought, share your favorite dinners too, I can always use more recipes! :)
Recently we began trying to reintroduce things one at a time to see if he had recovered enough for some of them. It seems the only thing he can have without having breathing issues or breaking out in eczema is rice.
But with all the experimenting he's been able to indulge in all types of foods that he didn't before and suddenly I can't remember what he was eating for snacks, etc before! So all of you grain/gluten free people, care to share your favorite snacks/breakfasts/lunch ideas??? We're good with dinner...we eat a lot of meat and veggies and potatoes/quinoa/rice, but I am totally stumped for breakfast, snacks, and easy lunches.
Some things we do:
breakfast:
muffins from www.elanaspantry.com
pancakes from above
scrambled eggs and sausage (they're so sick of this) or bacon
chocolate chip cookies made from almond flour (doubles as snack, but he's also very sick of these)
lunch:
rolled up lunch meat w/ fruit/veggies
peanut butter "boats" apple halves filled w pb with raisins or chocolate chips for on top
banana slices w/ pb and jelly
quinoa w tomato sauce and/or grnd beef
leftovers
pb and jelly sandwiches using almond flour pancakes
snacks:
potato chips
pickles
some of the above
fruit strips (organic dehydrated fruit strips) sometimes w pb on top
Annnnd that's about all I got. So, hit me, what are your favorites. On second thought, share your favorite dinners too, I can always use more recipes! :)
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