Vitamins vs.Whole foods

I have never taken vitamins.Well,I guess I did once in my first pregnancy.....I did for a little while because that was/is just the thing to do.In pregnancy,you take prenatal vitamins.Everyone does.I haven't taken any "vitamins" since then.I have heard that with the way the world is now,(pollution,depleted soils etc.) that we *can't* get enough vitamins out of the food we eat.I don't believe it.:) I believe that we *do* have to be extremely careful in our food choices.Grow/raise what we can,buy local and be very careful when we buy food from a store.In other words,Wal-Mart is out lol. HERBS are a great source for vitamins and minerals too! I believe that the further that you get away from God's original product,the worse off you are.

Raw milk  It is FULL of amazing  vitamins,minerals,good fats,protein etc.

Eggs  from free ranged chickens.ANOTHER absolutely amazing food that is just loaded with nutrition,*especially* the yolks.Funny that two of the most nutritious foods (raw milk and eggs) are considered *unsafe* and *unhealthy* by the "professionals".

Smoothies.......I use HM yogurt,frozen fruit,vanilla and kale.OJ concentrate is great for making smoothies good without added sugar.I don't use it much though as it is still a sugar.

Apple cider vinegar......A tsp or two a few times a day in water.

Bee pollen I hate the taste of bee pollen so I recently put it into capsules for my dh and I.

Spirulina I have recently started trying to get this into our diet but it really gags me.Capsules are real messy to do.I can stomach it in my smoothie but I sure like my smoothie better without it.Sooooo the other day I thought that I would just mix it with some water and down it THEN drink my GOOD smoothie.NO way could I do it....It was so disgusting lol.I think I will just have to do put it in my smoothies.

Herb tea...I have mentioned this before many times I know:).If you have never read it before,go read my blog post about Nettle and then do a little research on it.Amazing stuff.There are so many wonderful tonic herbs that are safe to take daily.Get educated and have fun making your own tea mixes.

So anyhow,those are our vitamins! :)

Delicious creativity with BUTTER

I LOVE flavored butters!!!! I thought some of you might too so here are a few kinds that I love making.

Garlic- Herb Butter

1 pound butter
4-6 TB minced garlic
2 TB paprika
2-4 TB chopped fresh (or 2 TB dried) basil,rosemary etc.
2 TB sun dried tomato bits

Orange-Honey Butter
(have not made this one or the rose one)

1 pound butter
2/3 cup honey
3 TB fresh grated orange rind

Pineapple-Rose Honey Butter

In addition to the ingredients in Orange-Honey Butter (above) add 2 TB crushed,drained pineapple and 1/2  cup fresh ,minced rose petals and 1 tsp vanilla.

Autumn-Delight Butter

1 pound butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
2/3 cup honey

Those are a few ideas but use your imagination!!! For every recipe above just mix all ingredients in a bowl and then I like to shape the butter into 2 logs and wrap in waxed paper.SO pretty for gifts and soooo delicious! Letting the flavors blend before use for a few days is great too.....

The home remedies I reach for first......

I love herbs.I have since I was a teen.I love growing them,gathering them,buying them and making my own teas,tinctures,salves,syrups etc.It is SO fun and satisfying.There are so many different herbs that I love and use but I thought I would post about the very first things that I reach for in almost every illness.

Cayenne/Ginger/Honey-Cayenne and Ginger both STIMULATE the body into high gear which is what you want to do when you are fighting of *anything*.You want your body working at it's best.Cayenne is great for big people.At any sign of *anythig*, pop a couple of cayenne capsules, get into a hot shower or bath and stay in as long as you can.Do that a few times a day.Ginger is a more mild stimulant but is wonderful! It is great for children and adults.A very easy way to give your children ginger is to mix it with honey.Give them a 1/4 to a 1/2 tsp mixed with honey several times a day.Ginger is also wonderful for stomach bugs.If you take enough and keep on it it can truly keep you from getting sick when everyone else is sick around you.It will make you feel hot!!I put it in the bath too.It will really heat you up! When my children are fighting something,one of the first things I do is get them into a hot bath with a stimulant.It really gets the body working well.

Garlic-I can't imagine life without garlic.Both for flavor and medicinal value.Garlic is one of the best natural antibiotics.There are many ways to take it but fresh is best.Chewing it or crushing it is supposed to be the best way to take it,Chewing up a garlic clove is really not as bad as you might think.Just have a glass of water ready.:) You can crush it,chop it,mix it with honey,put it on toast or you can even make a tea out of it.Raw is best but there are still lots of benefits in cooked garlic.My young children are not fond of chewing garlic so I chop it fine and mix it with honey.:) A couple of cloves,several times a day for adults.Less for little ones.Garlic is just fantastic for *everything*.

Echinacea - Another wonderful antibiotic! I love to grow my own echinacea and make tincture.I give a tsp or so of echinacea tincture several times a day.I will put my children on it for a coupe of weeks now and then during flu season just to give their body a boost.

Elderberry-I add fresh elderberry to my tinctures and dried elderberries to my teas.I also make elderberry syrup.They are just FULL of good stuff! They are supposed to be an excellent flu fighter!

HERB TEAS-Yarrow,Catnip,Peppermint,Chamomile and Nettle are a few of the herbs that I reach for first.It would be SUCH a hard decision but I think if I had to choose 5 leafy herbs,they would be the 5 I chose.I don't want to go into a bunch of detail about what each herb is good for as that is not what this post is about.(You can research/Google them and find TONS of info about all of the details.The Bulk Herb Store also has really good information.) BUT,hot herbal tea is wonderful for the immune system.I love to serve it to my children every morning.We go through a gallon some mornings!Yarrow is a powerhouse herb.It is very STRONG and BITTER. I don't usually use it unless I am really worried about an illness or am very serious about fighting something off.It is fantastic stuff though.Nettle (I have a blog post here about Nettle under "herbs") is a wonderful tonic herb FULL of vitamins and minerals.Peppermint is a stimulant, a decongestant,antiseptic (plus lots more!) and also makes yucky herbs taste good! :) Catnip is just a wonderful children's herb overall.Chamomile is delicious,soothing and settles the stomach.I make these herbs seperately or mix them sometimes.

Anyhow,I give my children ALL of the above stuff at the same stuff....:) Other than an occasional tylenol and one child that had antibiotics for Lymes,my children have *never* had ANY other medicine.(That I can remember)Oh,I did buy cough syrup once, years ago ,but only used it a couple of times.I use herbs for *everything*.They WORK!!!

Well done thou good and faithful servant.....

The other day my husband pulled me aside and said to me "Have I ever told you how GOOD you are with our children?" I told him that he had, but he continued to tell me *just* how good of a job I was doing training our children and how much he appreciated it.

I am sure you all can understand how that made my day.I mean,it MADE MY DAY! REALLY! My husband is pleased with me.He thinks I am doing a good job mothering his children.He is HAPPY with me! He says that I do a good job training the children!

It made all of the sacrifice and hard work seem like NOTHING.It just didn't matter.My husband was happy with me and thought I was doing a good job.Since there is nothing (next to pleasing the Lord) that I strive to do more in this life than please my husband,those words were precious to me.

This morning it hit me that it was sort of similiar to the words that I hope to hear someday from the LORD.

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant......" (Matt 25:21,23)

I have always felt that those are the ultimate words of all time.To hear those words someday is my entire reason that I do everything that I do.NOTHING else matters, or is important in the end.I think of all the trials I may go through in this life and they seem like NOTHING.Not when I think of the reward in the end.I don't even mean the reward of heaven.Just to have pleased the Lord with my life.For him to be pleased with me and think that I did a good job! "Well done...."

When I imagine hearing those words in the end it makes my sometimes overwhelming job as a wife and mother seem EASY.It makes me want to do my job 100% .Give it my ALL.I don't care how hard it is!

I want to be pleasing to him.Nothing else matters!

Now that is motivation.

Give away winner is...........

Janelle!!!!!!!! So Janelle,you can contact me on momys or email me at angiesessentials@frontiernet.net with your address and I will get them sent out right away! :)

Update on our romantic night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a total failure! :)

I got all the little ones in their rooms except the baby who was terribly fussy and coming down with a cold/flu.(My big children were getting over it and the 3 little ones hadn't gotten it yet)He didn't even seem anywhere NEAR ready for bed so I just decided to make our supper and we would eat with the baby.We sat in front of the fireplace that was soooo hot I coudn't wait  to get away from it and guzzle some water.(Somewhere in here my oldest dd threw up all over her bed because it came on so suddenly that she coudn't make it to the toilet.I had to go help her strip her bed down etc.)We also let our 3yo join us.He got his leftover eggs from supper  to come sit on the couch with us and eat with us lol.We would have glady shared but he wanted his leftovers lol.We had pork steak,garlic pasta and steamed brocolli.Anyhow......After supper I decided to get my bath atleast since baby was still not ready for bed.Get out of bath and it takes baby forever nursing/fussing to finally fall asleep.It took a 1/2 hour to be able to leave the room when I layed him down! Every time I moved a finger he would wake up! I was very frustrated poor little fellow.Hopefully he couldn't tell it.Anyhow,I finally get him down and horray! dh is still awake! :)I go in the bathroom, fix my hair and get all dressed up(Black skirt/sleeveless aqua colored shirt with a black sheer shawl and black gloves that went to my elbows.I did like the outfit  and so did dh and I will definitely wear it again!)......get the table ready.....get dh on the table.....turn some music on and get about 10 minutes into the massage(which he LOVED!) and guess who is awake? Yep....the baby.....I knew that there would be NO laying down for 5 minutes with him to get him back to sleep.We just said forget it......Started a movie and I nursed the baby while we watched.Well,about 15 min later a little boy wakes up crying/coughing and almost throwing up...I get him settled and we go back to the movie.Next thing you know,*another* little boy wakes up wet and coughing.I undress him and get him tucked into our bed.So,we finishthe movie and decide to go to bed....Dh says he is sleeping on the couch because there were 3 sick little boys in our bed .Well,I head to bed with the baby and when I lay down my hand rests in vomit.Upon turning on the lights I realize that my 3yo had vomited on the bed and was laying in it............I had to get that all cleaned up and then slept for about an hour before I had to walk the floors with my baby who was feverish and would not sleep any other way.Finally I was able to slowly lower myself onto the bean bag in the living room and pass out there with the baby and then a wandering 3yo and actually slept good for the rest of the night! lol

Yes! LOL!

I wasn't laughing last night I will tell you that.:)

Oh well..........my dh thanked me for the thought!

My first blog give away!

I made two extra Lady Liners tonight along with an order I had so I could give them away here.They are smalls.One has a PUL backing and the other doesn't.You can go to my DIAPER BLOG to read all about them. If you want to enter to win these just leave a comment and you will be entered! :) I will draw a name out of a hat on Monday.:)