What belief do you have that governs your life decisions?

What belief do you have that governs your life decisions?


This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you. 


What is a belief that grounds you? One that not only defines you, but governs your life decisions? Most of my core beliefs center around God and what He has said, about life. 


I’ll share two of those with you. The first is that life is precious. God has a high value of human life. As you read through the Bible you can begin to see how many of the laws He set in place in the Old Testament center around the value of life. Some of these are consequences for ending life, some are consequences for harming another person. But they center around God guiding us on how to love and respect each other. 


The second belief, I want to share with you, is one I have come to learn little by little in my own journey. God designed our bodies beautifully. They are intricately woven together and function beautifully. Sometimes things go wrong. We live in a fallen and sinful world. Our perfect design is now flawed by sin. However, God still designed the body to preserve and heal itself, if it is given what it needs. 


Sometimes this is eliminating things from your life that are slowly poisoning or disrupting your body. Sometimes it is adding key nutrients in, to let the body rebuild. Sometimes it is using nature to simply rebalance the body, giving it what it needs to clean itself. Sometimes it is specific exercises or movements to help the body do what it is designed to do. 


There are many different ways to promote the body and care for it. Most of the time it can be accomplished with things God already gave us in nature. The key, as it was for me, is learning how and what to use. And believe me it is a continuing learning process. That is why digging to the root cause is so important. Have I found all the WHYs? No, but I’m still digging and learning. Because for me, just letting something unnatural or not normal go, is not ok. 





Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Courageous + Purposeful Mommas group! This community is for the Mommas, mommas to be, in the midst of raising, and kids grown, looking for tips on building your family up and providing for them through natural methods. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious, and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.

Join the Free Community

 

Click here to get the stories straight to your email:

Sign up for the Blog

 

For more on wellness tips click here:

Sign up for Wellness tips

 

For more on homesteading on your budget click here:

Sign up for Homesteading Tips

 

For more simple DIY updates click here:

Sign up for easy DIYs 




Plants, Extracts, Salves and Essential Oils

Plants, Extracts, Salves and Essential Oils

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you. 


Saving plants to use during the winter is vital. If you are going to use them for cooking or teas, you can simply dry them down. But if you are wanting to use them for more medicinal preventative use, you need a different method of storage. 
 
Tinctures, Vinegar, Glycerite, Honey, and Oil Extracts
Liquid extracts are made using the bark, leaves, or berries of the plants and soaking them for 4-6 weeks in liquid. This pulls the active plant ingredient parts into the liquid, concentrating them. When making a liquid extract decide what the use will be and find the quality herbs that fit for that use. 

  • Tinctures are made with alcohol. This is a great way to store the plants for medicinal user, as it keeps for several years when stored in a cool dark place. The concentrated liquid is also easier to get children to take when needed. 
  • Glycerites are made with glycerin.  These only store about a year but are sweeter than a tincture.  So, children may take it easier.
  • Vinegar is great for making a oxymel, which is a probiotic.  You can take these as is or add them as a dressing to salad or seasoning to vegetables. 
  • Honey infusion is perfect for a little sweet treat that is also beneficial to your health. Raw local honey has great benefits anyway. Infuse with something like elderflower and you have an immune boosting treat!
  • Oil is the best to use when making the extract into a salve.  Olive oil is the preferred oil for most skin care salve.
Salves
Salves are excellent for wound or rash care. Let the herbs soak in oil for the desired time (varies depending on the plant), strain off the solids, warm to melt bees wax and pour into jars. I will occasionally add essential oils, if I am making the salve with a specific purpose. My personal favorite is the calendula salve. It is great for healing the skin and promoting tissue growth. Another good salve is pine, which is good at drawing infection out. 
 
Essential Oils
Essential Oils are extremely concentrated and keep for nearly forever, IF THEY ARE PURE. They are very tricky to make however as slight differences in pressure or temperature or time can make a big difference in what active ingredients are pulled out. When an essential oil is made, it also pulls from everything the plant has gathered and stored. This means if there are chemicals in or on the plant they’re coming too. When making essential oils for medicinal use the minor constituents are very important. These constituents are also dependent soil health (more on that next week). 
 
Whatever you decide to make, be sure to label what it is and what you intended to use it for if your memory is full like mine is. 

Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Courageous + Purposeful Mommas group! This community is for the Mommas, mommas to be, in the midst of raising, and kids grown, looking for tips on building your family up and providing for them through natural methods. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious, and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.

Join the Free Community

 

Click here to get the stories straight to your email:

Sign up for the Blog

 

For more on wellness tips click here:

Sign up for Wellness tips

 

For more on homesteading on your budget click here:

Sign up for Homesteading Tips

 

For more simple DIY updates click here:

Sign up for easy DIYs 



Plant with Purpose: Home Remedies

Plant with Purpose: Home Remedies

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you. 


A recent interest I have found is using plants for home remedies. The first book I purchased that has been very helpful and remains my favorite is “Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide” by Rosemary Gladstar. It lays out how to know the plants, grow them, and use 33 plants. What I discovered is many of the “weeds” were beneficial! All I needed was to be able to identify them and know where they were naturally growing. If I knew that area was not going to be sprayed, I could just harvest them there! Win!! I didn’t have to take care of it! The best part is most of these are easy to grow and maintain once they are established. I like to get any seeds I can from Seed Savers if I cannot find them there, the next place is Amazon.  I try to get heirloom varieties, as they seem to start from seed and grow the best. They also are great for saving seeds for next year. 

This is still a growing area of my yard. I started collecting the information and trying plants when I was pregnant with my second, not thinking about the fact that having a baby in June greatly limits my ability to take care of the new plants. So I am still working on starting that flower bed….

Here’s what I have so far:
Aloe Vera – gel from the leaves soothes burns, wounds, and skin irritations. This one lives in my house and able to survive toddlers!

Calendula – has so many uses! My favorite is for wounds. It has amazing ability to stimulate cell repair and keep infections at bay. It is also a great for yeast overgrowth, it’s astringent and antiseptic which is great for gastrointestinal problems, and great at nourishing and cleansing the lymphatic system. I love this one! Super easy to grow and re-seeds easily. I keep this on in an old tank by the house.  

Dandelion – the leaf is a mild diuretic and can be used for bladder or kidney problems and is high in potassium. The root is a liver tonic and stimulates the production of bile. It does taste very bitter though. The flower can also be eaten.   You can find dandelions everywhere but make sure, wherever you harvest them from, they have not been sprayed!

Lavender – The flower is the mainly used, but the leaf can be as well. It helps to alleviate migraines and headaches, reduce tension, stress and insomnia. This is one I got going good last year from seed and then it was killed on accident…

Lemon Balm – calms nervous and digestive systems. You can add it to chamomile for nervous exhaustion. It is also great as a spice to flavor food! Also, easy to grow and will spread. 

Peppermint – best known for its digestive aid and relieving nausea and gas. It spread to wherever it is allowed, so keep it contained.

Plantain – I didn’t know about this one, but it is everywhere! I don’t plant it because it comes up wherever there is blank dirt. It draws toxicity from the body and has properties that help check bleeding! I mix this one with calendula into a salve and use it on all cuts or rashes. 

Spearmint – milder than peppermint, but just as easy to grow. It is great alternative to peppermint for children and tends to have amphoteric properties (it moves the direction the body needs, stimulating and relaxing).

Yarrow – antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and astringent properties. It is well known for healing wounds, bruises, and sprains. Make sure you find the wild version not a colorful hybrid. I found this one in my horse pasture!
 
Here’s the list of what I have coming:
Chamomile – anti-inflammatory and anti fever

Echinacea – aids in immune function, has antifungal and antibacterial properties

Elder – Rich in vitamin C! Great immune enhancer

Marsh  Mallow – Great from soothing inflamed and irritated tissues of the respiratory, digestive, and skin systems. 

Mullein – the leaf is antispasmodic and an expectorant (get rid of mucus). 

St. John’s Wort – strong antidepressant, antibacterial, antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties. Made into an oil, it is one of the best herbs for trauma to the skin, relieving pain and promoting tissue repair. 

Valerian – used for stress, tension, insomnia and nervous system disorders. 

Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Courageous + Purposeful Mommas group! This community is for the Mommas, mommas to be, in the midst of raising, and kids grown, looking for tips on building your family up and providing for them through natural methods. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious, and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.

Join the Free Community

 

Click here to get the stories straight to your email:

Sign up for the Blog

 

For more on wellness tips click here:

Sign up for Wellness tips

 

For more on homesteading on your budget click here:

Sign up for Homesteading Tips

 

For more simple DIY updates click here:

Sign up for easy DIYs 



Plant with Purpose: Herbs

Plant with Purpose: Herbs

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you. 


Another way I chose which plants to start growing regularly was what do we consume the most of (excluding garden plants). HERBS!! I love to season food with home grown herbs and spices. So naturally I decided to grow them. The easiest accessible place for my herbs was right off my front door, but how to keep the dogs from destroying them? Old mineral tubs!! Or you can use any old container really. This allowed me to be able to move the plants as needed too! So what do I grow?

Basil – several varieties are available with slight differences in flavors. This is one that is an annual, BUT it does readily re-seed. In Nebraska it is difficult to get going from seed outside, but it is easy to take the seeds from the plant in the fall and start them in a pot inside then transfer outside once it is warm. Harvest the leaves as the plant grows, leaving leaves below so it will continue growth.

Parsley – This on is a biannual. IF YOU GET THE CORRECT VARIETY. Harvest from it the first year by continuing to cut leaves as they grow. The second year let the plant go and mature to seeds, as the leaves are bitter tasting. This does mean you will need 2 plants that will alternate years. I finally found the correct variety last year, so this spring I’ll let you know if it overwinters in the pot. 

Oregano – I have yet to get this one to come back in the spring, but I have it in a large pot above ground. It is however easy to get a cut going from the mature plant, for the next year. Oregano spreads very easily, so make sure it is contained. 

Sage – This does well in a pot and comes back! I was shocked honestly. It will grow to a bush size if it has the space. 

Rosemary – This one might overwinter if you have the correct variety and have it in the ground. It has also proven slightly difficult to start from seed, so I’ll get back to you on the specifics to make this one the best….

Thyme – Again so many varieties! Also still perfecting the growing of this one…. It does start fairly easy from seed but needs hot weather before it really takes off. 

Dill – Annual, but self-seeds so easy! Harvest what you what for the seeds but leave a few to drop back into the soil for the next round. I will often have 2 batches per year. 

Cilantro – Another annual that readily self-seeds. Only cut 1/3 of the plant at a time when you harvest the leaves. Leave a few seeds at the end to let them fall back to the ground. I will often have a spring and fall harvest with this one as well. 

Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Courageous + Purposeful Mommas group! This community is for the Mommas, mommas to be, in the midst of raising, and kids grown, looking for tips on building your family up and providing for them through natural methods. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious, and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.

Join the Free Community

 

Click here to get the stories straight to your email:

Sign up for the Blog

 

For more on wellness tips click here:

Sign up for Wellness tips

 

For more on homesteading on your budget click here:

Sign up for Homesteading Tips

 

For more simple DIY updates click here:

Sign up for easy DIYs 



Plant with purpose: Pest Control

Plant with purpose: Pest Control

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you. 


Anything I plant or attempt to grow must have a purpose, other than looking pretty. As a busy mom of two, and a side of extra farm/cattle hand, I don’t have the time or space to care for things that are just pretty. A good part of homesteading is being purposeful with your resources. Your time, your space, and in some places your water, are all valuable. Make sure you are using them the best you can. 

Is that useful?
Most of my plants and herbs have come from either (a) I sure use a lot of “x” I wonder if I can grow that in Nebraska instead of buying it. Or I heard (b) could be useful for “y” I wonder if I can grow that to have on hand, so I don’t have to rely on (c) when “y” happens. I would then look to see if growing whatever it was, was possible in Nebraska and if it was annual or perennial. Remember the time part? If it can come back year after year or readily reseed itself, I’m in! If it was an annual, can I trick it by bringing it inside, or take a cut of it to start next years plant from, or are the seeds easy to collect and get started? It’s not saving me much $$ if I constantly have to buy a new plant. 

I started with two main types of plants ones my family could eat or ones that repel bugs or snakes (I hate those). We spend a lot of time outside and I disliked putting bug spray on, so what plants do mosquitoes not like. 

Here is what I found for the pests
Citronella – It is related to geraniums, but has a much stronger scent, that is given off whenever the leaves are rustled. I love the smell of it and the misquotes hate it. This is a perennial in tropical regions, but not in Nebraska. If I ever build my greenhouse, I could move the large pots in for the winter and they might overwinter. 
The good news is you can start new plants from cuts. When the plant is in active growing stage take a cut and dip in water for 24 hours then stick in the wet soil. I have not successfully accomplished this though. The batch I had going good, my 2 ½ year old helper decided to pull them all up right before the killing frost. ☹ I will be trying again this year however, as these are the best but not very cheap to buy. 

Geraniums – much softer scent, but still repels mosquitoes. These are easier to bring inside over the winter, but they need warm and plenty of sunlight. 

Cat mint – I love this on and the butterflies do to! This one is super easy to grow and will fill its space. I have mine in an old mineral tub. It can take the full sun and dry of forgetful watering (I have seen the leaves start curling, soaked it and it came back)! The best part is it over winters even in a large pot. 

Lavender – so many uses for this! I have it right by my tack room door, not only for mosquitoes, but also its calming scent for nervous riders. This one is a perennial if you get the correct variety but will not do well in a pot overwinter.

Lemon balm – can be perennial in the warmer regions or if is in the ground. Bonus is you can also cook with this one! Use the leaves for tea or seasonings. 

Lemongrass – I have this one not for mosquitoes, but for snakes! This one is also a perennial in tropical regions. You are supposed to be able to take a part of I the plant root, soak it for 24 hours the plant in soft soil, and it will restart. I did not have luck last year. A few got started with a small root, but never matured enough to plant. 

Peppermint – This one is a must if you want to keep bugs, mice, snakes away from an area. Grow it in a contained area though because it will take over. It will come back year after year or at least reseed itself, even in a large pot or old stock tank, if you can keep the dogs from digging it up or smothering it. We have snakes everywhere at our house and one pot of this and the snakes avoided the front porch. I’m adding 4 pots this year to surround the garage door openings. Plus you have peppermint tea!

Marigolds – Many bugs don’t like the smell of these and will avoid them. I plant them around my garden and have seen a decrease in some of the common garden pests but misquotes don’t seem to care. These also readily re-seed!

Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Courageous + Purposeful Mommas group! This community is for the Mommas, mommas to be, in the midst of raising, and kids grown, looking for tips on building your family up and providing for them through natural methods. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious, and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.

Join the Free Community

 

Click here to get the stories straight to your email:

Sign up for the Blog

 

For more on wellness tips click here:

Sign up for Wellness tips

 

For more on homesteading on your budget click here:

Sign up for Homesteading Tips

 

For more simple DIY updates click here:

Sign up for easy DIYs