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- Ningxia Red: A tasty juice puree, packed full of nutrients. I can mix this into a hot tea in the cool days or add some club soda for a fizzy drink in the warm weather. I order 4 bottles every month.
- Thieves household cleaner: I use this for everything! Counters, floors, mirrors, stain buster, de-grimmer, laundry booster, and I’m sure more I’m forgetting. I buy the big bottle about 1 once per year.
- Shampoo and Conditioner: I prefer the Copaiba Vanilla shampoo and conditioneror Lavender Mint Shampoo and conditionerfor me. And the KidScents Shampoo for the kids. I buy 1 bottle a year. The stuff lasts forever.
- Body Wash: For me I like to use the Bath & Shower Gel Base, then I can change the scent up using the oils I have. I buy 1 bottle every year and mix it into a foam pump bottle.
- Laundry soap: I split this bottle into 4 and buy one every 6 months or so.
- Hand soap: I prefer the thieves soap and buy the refill bottle every 6 months or so.
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At some point you will injure yourself or get sick. It is part of life. You don’t need to run to the doctor for everything, and you don’t have to run out and buy an over-the-counter salve or medicine. There are several remedies you can grow, forage, and make yourself. This will be a brief overview, as each category could be an entire blog itself. Read all the way to the end for my best owie slave recipe.
First prevention is the best medicine. Feeding your body what it needs to fight off and heal itself before you become symptomatic ill. The best way to do this is to eat good food that nourishes your body. Avoiding processed foods and sugar is the biggest tips. Eating a much of a whole food diet as you can is the next.
Herbals are my next line of defense. This includes essential oils. Essential oils are essentially concentrated versions of the herbs. Quality matters here, especially when using them for medicinal purposes. I use the essential oils to help build and support the body fighting off whatever infection and assist in the healing process. A favorite in our house as well are hot teas. Perfect herbal remedies to sip on when feeling sick.
I buy my essential oils. I do not have the knowledge to properly distill them, so they have the most effectiveness. For my top pick on essential oil company for quality and experience, click here. The herbals for tea are a mix of purchased and home grown. Many herbs I simply do not have the ability to grow. So, I just need an easy button an buy a pre-mixed herbal blend. Top herbs to keep on hand for illness, cinnamon, lemonbalm and lemongrass (bonus these also repel bugs when alive), clove, rosemary, and lemon.
Tinctures I often use in conjunction with herbals. A tincture is a plant soaked in alcohol, then strained off. The benefit to these is they last nearly forever, where a dried herb is only good for 1-2 years. To use the tincture, a small amount of liquid is placed under the tongue and then held there for a few minutes. The herbs that are harder to acquire, or spoil quickly are made into tinctures for long term storage and use.
The part I’m sure most of you have been waiting for! My homemade owie salve. I use this salve on all kinds of owies, from cuts, to abrasions, to diaper rashes, to burns (after it has cooled off and the outer skin is healing. The best part is it is easy to make and grow. The two herbs in this salve are Calendula petals and Plantain leaves. You’ll also need olive oil for infusing, and bees wax to make the actual salve.
Step 1: Pick the calendula blossoms and plantain leaves on a warm sunny day (the resin is strongest then). Fill a glass jar with the leaves and blossoms, I like to pick them in about a 1:1 ratio.
Step 2: Fill the jar with olive oil to 1 inch from the top. Run a butter knife around to remove the air bubbles. Place in a sunny spot and let it sit for 3-4 weeks.
Step 3: Strain the oil through cheese cloth and squeeze out into a sauce pan.
Step 4: Warm the oil slightly (DO NOT BOIL). Add most of the grated bees wax to the warmed oil (approximately ¼ c grated beeswax per 1 cup of oil). Stirring to mix.
Step 5: As soon as the wax melts, put 1 Tablespoon of the mix on a plate and into the freezer for 1-2 minutes, until cool.
Step 6: Check for consistency. For a firmer salve, add more bees wax, for a softer salve, add more oil.
Step 7: Put the salve into small jars or tins and allow to cool
Step 8: Once cooled, tighten lids and store in a cool dark place for 1-2 years.
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What is a fear you carry deep inside? One that not many may know about, but affects many of your everyday decisions? Me? That somehow there won’t be enough, and my family will be left short.
Why does this affect my decisions? Because the last thing I want is for my family to be short somehow. Short of food, finances, or simply time.
So what do I do? First, I try to not let the fear overtake me. I acknowledge that it is there, and then remind myself of all the ways God has continued to provide for us in the past. My heart calms, and I can clearly think towards my next step. I then thank God for His provision and ask that He continue to remind me when that fear comes up again.
This fear has also been a motivator for me. When I started staying home, our income was drastically cut. While we would no longer be paying for daycare or as much in gas, we now had to pay our own insurance and the grocery bill would be increasing. How were we going to offset the cost?
I looked around. We already lived on an acreage. I had gardened some in the past, and was getting pretty good at it. Why not take it to the next level and have the garden provide as much of our food as we could!
And so it began, in more earnest. I planted more of what I knew we would consume and less of the extra stuff. I learned how to preserve our food supply for the winter. I also started learning how to grow more of the vegetables my family liked, so we weren’t buying as much at the store.
The garden is still expanding and growing. I use the winter to learn more about the next vegetable or fruit I want to grow. I take notes and perfect the methods for our farm. I’m playing with double cropping and starting a permaculture orchard now.
What started as a fear of not being able to buy enough groceries, has turned into a huge garden with the potential to meet 80% (currently around 50%) of our family’s veggie and fruit needs when it is all mature. All this from not giving into the fear, but stepping back and looking for the opportunity in the fear.
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How do you learn to trust your gut? What does trusting your gut even mean? Trusting your gut is that small voice or feeling inside that says something is right or wrong. It’s a small feeling that can easily be ignored, but when listened to, more often than not, is correct.
We have been conditioned to think logically, ignore our feelings, and listen to the professionals. Here’s the problem with that. Professionals only know the average normal of a population. They do not know what your normal or your child’s normal is.
So how do you learn to hear that small voice of intuition again? One moment at a time. I find that I have the biggest gut feelings, when a big decision is at hand. So often I have ignored the feeling that something wasn’t right, because logically and using reasoning everything made sense.
I started learning to listen to and trust my gut again, by simply listening and tuning in. Did the situation feel right? Did something seem off, even a little bit. Does something seem to be missing? Many times it is a feeling that something just doesn’t seem right. I can’t put my finger on it or explain right away, but if I step back, investigate or wait, I find the answer.
When it comes to my kids or me and seeking medical care, I tune in carefully. I press for answers, not just “it’s normal”. A good example is this spring I started bleeding abnormally. Concerned for my baby, I sought the expertise of my provider. It was recommended that I go in to be checked, because the color and amount of blood was concerning. After countless hours in the ER, baby was fine, but they weren’t sure why I was bleeding so heavily. So the next day we had follow up appointments with an OBGYN. We discussed possibilities, and had another ultrasound which revealed a large subchorionic hematoma laying fairly close to my cervix. At least we now knew what was the cause, but no one was sure why it happened in the first place. We still aren’t, though we have some suspicions.
I pushed for answers, trusting my gut, which gave us answers and a direction.
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As mommas, typically we are also incharge of the food in our home. Although sometimes this is the dad’s responsibility. Cooking has generally been my job, even when I was working away from home. Part of that is being married to a farmer. He comes home when the work is done or it is dark.
One of my hardest week to week decisions is what to cook when. I have a few quick meals for when we’ve stayed outside too long, but those get old in a hurry if I don’t mix it up. So how do I mix it up and still keep everything spinning? Meal plan. Now how do you do that?
The best way I’ve found for me so far is a white board, cook books, and an inventory list (in my head usually or written), and 30 minutes. I’ve found the white board works great, because it is quick to look at and I can erase as I go or leave it there for next week if I didn’t actually make it. My meal plans are usually more like guides for the week so I have an idea what to make before everyone is hangry and we are eating rice again.
Step 1. Take inventory of what you have in the pantry, keep it in your head, or write it down on a running list.
Step 2. Grab your white board or planner (whatever to write your meals on), grocery list, cook books, and timer.
Step 3. Set your timer for 30 minutes, it's a mental game that helps to keep you focused.
Step 4. Open your cookbooks and start looking for recipes that stick out or sound good to you. Look at the ingredients. Make sure you have what you need or will be able to go to the store before you cook it. Anything you will need to buy, write on your grocery list. Write the recipe name on your meal plan with the page number.
I like to cook once and reuse it if I can. Depending on the day and recipe whether that is supper or lunch meal. I then use the leftovers to make into other food, or add together for another meal.
Simple and done for the week. The biggest help meal planning is to me is that I don’t have to think about what to cook when the time comes. I have my list and I can pull the meat the night before, so it speeds the cooking process up a bit.
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I wish everyone who has had a traumatic birth experiences birth redemption. I do not wish anyone to have a traumatic birth, but unfortunately it happens all too frequently. This is part one of two in Blog posts.
What happens during a traumatic birth? It is not just physical trauma, it is emotional trauma that takes a hidden toll. This hidden emotional trauma leaves scars that no one can see. It can change the way a mother views herself, her body, her baby, her life. When this hidden trauma occurs, the outside world does not see what is happening. To them all seems well, everyone is alive. They don’t see the internal struggle and the life that is not thriving, but only surviving.
Before the birth of my daughter I had a view of a strong and capable woman. A little nervous and not knowing what to expect of birth, but confidant I could handle it. After all my mom did, why wouldn’t I be able to.
I left my daughter's birth feeling broken, robbed, and used. My confidence was shaken to the core. I didn’t recognize my own body, didn’t understand what happened or why. Everyone was so happy, my daughter and I were alive. They didn’t see the struggle to bond, the hurt that went way deeper than the scar. The confusion, trying to figure out what went wrong.
Her birth left me with a view that my body was broken. That it was unable to handle a pregnancy, or birth. I spent the next year in physical pain, burying the emotional pain and swearing I’d never go through that again. How? I would simply not get pregnant again.
Over that year, I started digging into improving my health. I was tired of the pain. I switched jobs, because I physically and mentally just couldn’t cowboy anymore. The pain continued. I finally found help for the physical pain. I was blessed with an occupational therapist who understood the effect emotions have on the body. She led me to the path of emotional healing. Once those two pieces met, the pain, both physical and emotional, finally started to heal.
For more on what I did to heal, get the course here:
https://getoiling.com/CassandraRow/landing/recovery-from-traumatic-birth
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Some of the best advice around birth I received during my second full term pregnancy. First, during birth, leave well enough alone. Second, after birth do nothing. Both of these go against modern thought processes. But are actually extremely helpful and good.
The first, Leave well enough alone. Why is this against the norm? Mostly because birth has become so medicalized, that we have come to believe that birth is risky and requires constant monitoring, just in case. The truth is this constant monitoring, interrupts the birth process and can lead to unnecessary interventions.
When birth is left to happen on baby and mom’s terms, they are allowed to follow their natural instinct, and communication between baby and mom’s body is uninterrupted. When interventions begin to be used, it disrupts this delicate balance. In the case of pitocin use, the natural feedback from baby signaling the contractions is too intense no longer exists. When left alone, if baby needs a break from the contractions, their body sends a hormonal message to mom’s brain and the contractions decrease.
Leaving well enough alone means, not disturbing or interrupting the laboring mother unless absolutely necessary. A train midwife can pick out when something is not quite right and can then ask to check whatever is concerning.
The second advice, do nothing post birth, is completely against society norms. We have developed a view that women are supposed to just bounce back to where they were before pregnancy. This ignores the fact that a woman's body has physically changed and rearranged in the previous 9 months. The 6-8 weeks postpartum a mothers organs are slowly moving back to pre-pregnancy position. Her body is also healing from the stress and tissue damage birth caused.
The complete advice was 1 week of bed and baby snuggles, except bathrooming. This allows the mother to rest, her body to heal, and bonding with the baby. Week 2 was to take place around the bed, in other words more time up, but not leaving the sacred space of the bedroom. Week 3 was around the house, but not leaving the nest.
Did I follow this exactly? No. I was still in do it myself mode. I did well the first week, but then quickly wanted to resume summer activities. I paid for it a bit in that it took my stretched and weak pelvis longer to heal than it should have. This time? I fully intend to follow that advice and rest until I feel the energy shift in my body, signaling it's time to resume activity.
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