Guilt

Why are we, as mothers, so given to the guilt?  We feel guilty when we are the bad cop because we have to be "mean", but also when we are the good cop because we might be too permissive. 

We feel guilty when we give our kids junk to eat, but also when we deprive them of what "everyone else" is having. 

We feel guilty about having to leave our kids to go to work, or when we don't contribute to the family finances. 

We feel guilty about spending money on ourselves but also when we aren't taking care of ourselves.

We feel guilty about not being that fun-loving girl our husbands married but also worry about the mountains of things we have to do.  AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!  To much guilt.

That is by no means and exhaustive list but there is something in there for everyone.  While I can't help with those things, I can help with one thing. 

STOP FEELING GUILTY ABOUT NOT HAVING ALL HOMEMADE AND NATURAL STUFF FOR YOUR FAMILY!!!

I cannot tell you how many moms I talk to who ask me questions about the things I make for my family and then end the conversation feeling guilty because they don't make weekly bread or homemade laundry soap.  They lament about not being able to do those good things for their families.  Maybe they work and have little time for these baking bread or maybe they just have no idea where to start.  Living a more natural lifestyle is not an all or nothing thing.  It takes time to work these things into your lifestyle.  So no more guilty okay? 

Do we need to be worried about the pizza we ordered last week or the bakery-made cake that our kids had at a party yesterday?  While we have no idea what is really in that pizza and the cake is probably loaded with hydrogenated oils and artificial colors, it is not our everyday food.  So chill out and have a piece of cake. 

Remember that anything new you do for your family is one more than you did yesterday.  You don't have to replace everything in your kitchen and all of your cleaning supplies in one day.  Find something that makes sense like eliminating as much processed food from your home as you can.  Look for the products with the least amount of added ingredients and make sure you recognize what is in them. 

For example, we love to have chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese as an easy meal.  Sometimes I am on the ball and can get the soup made myself.  Other times, I just want to open a can and heat it up. However, most of the cans are loaded with MSG or yeast extract and are packed in cans lined with with BPAs.  So as an alternative I found an awesome dried chicken noodle soup that has great ingredients and is easy to make.  And it doesn't cost any more than the cans.

If you manage to find alternatives for just a few things in your home that you eat often, think of how much good you are doing for your family! 

Another example is with cleaning supplies.  Replace your everyday chemical cleaner with a simple vinegar and water spray.  You can save yourself a ton of money and use a safe and effective cleaner on a daily basis.  If you want to keep your regular cleaner for deep cleaning or for stubborn messes, that's okay.  You are doing a lot of good using the vinegar most of the time.  (FYI, there are lots of great natural cleaning products that can replace the chemical ones if you are really motivated!)

 If you do feel the tug of the back-to-basics way of life, start small. If you start with something that doesn't overwhelm you, you will be more likely to stick with it. I started 10 years ago with a few cherry tomato plants in pots and a bread machine. The only thing I knew for sure is that I liked the way it felt to provide these things with my own two hands. I knew nothing about BPA's, chemical preservatives, or the horrors of our meat industry. That came later with much questioning and research.  

Just remember, the longer you live with the awareness of what is good and bad for your family, the easier changes become.  You get used to one change and implement another.  NO GUILT!

There is enough guilt to overcome in life.  It doesn't belong in our daily care of our homes and families.  Do the best you can with what you have, commit yourself to the Lord, and pray for discernment about what is really important.

 I will post some links to easy recipes and idea that you can implement in your home.  Just remember to take a balanced approach to these things.  Pick one and start there.  See if it fits, use it for awhile and then move on to another.   Much love and blessing to all of you!

Weekly bread

Laundry soap

Deodorant

Natural cleaning supplies

         (As a disclaimer, I will be posting more in the future, about what I have learned about food safety and the health of our families.  Please remember this post and do not use the information to beat yourself over the head.  This is a very important subject to me and the main reason that I do everything I do in my household.  It is my passion.  And you know how annoying people with a passion can be.  :)  So I am hoping to be understood as informational and not judgemental.  )

Updates...

I wanted to update you all on how much we are loving our homemade laundry soap and deodorant.  I was not sure what to expect.  I thought that maybe the laundry soap would stay with us but I was pretty sure that I would end up not liking the deodorant.  It turns out that I really love both! 

The laundry soap has been wonderful.  It cleans thoroughly and smells great.  It even removed some stains that had been left behind by my other detergent!  I have been pleased.  I have also started using vinegar in a Downy ball instead of chemical fabric softener.  It softens and freshens the clothes without leaving the slick, highly-fragranced coating.  I hated that every time I folded clothes, I was left with that on my hands and I didn't like that my kids were wearing that on their bodies every time they put on clean clothes.  I am converted.  The soap is easy and cheap to make.  It's a keeper. 

The deodorant was my biggest surprise.  It is so easy to make.  It takes me less than 5 minutes to mix everything up and pack it into old deodorant containers.  It is a bit different than using the store-bought stuff.  For one, it melts easily.  I found that out on a trip.  I opened the stick of deodorant to find that it had melted into the the lid.  It was an easy fix and I know better for next time. As for how it works, I have not been stinky since I started using it.  It is awesome!  Now remember, this is not an antiperspirant so you will sweat.  I am kind of a sweaty person and end up with pit stains even when I use antiperspirant.  So I sweat but I don't stink.  I smell like lovely lavender and roman chamomile.  Matt has even started using it and loves it too.

I have had a few days where the under wire of my bra rubs at the bottom of my arm pit and makes a tender spot.  It hasn't happened in awhile so I am guessing my skin had to get used to the abrasiveness of the baking soda.  I did read that you can use arrowroot powder instead if it bothers you.  Other than that, I have been happy with it.  I am extremely happy that we are not slathering our bodies with aluminum anymore. 

Hope some of you are inspired to get back to basics.  We don't need to use all of the modern chemicals that are in most store-bought products.  There are great alternatives that are often cheaper!  If you don't like these, research and find something that appeals to you.  You will be thankful and feel good about taking away one more unknown out of your family's life!

Prepare your pits!!

I know it sounds crazy and difficult but making your own deodorant is possible!  Now I am talking deodorant, for the smell factor.  This is not anti-persperant which keeps you from sweating, in theory.  I am not the type of person to see a monster around every corner but I have been concerned for awhile about slathering my armpits with aluminum.  For you sweet friends who don't know, that is the active ingredient in antiperspirant.  This has been connected with risk for breast cancer, Alzheimer's and is not safe for people with kidney disease.

Now this homemade deodorant will not keep you from sweating.  It is simply meant to keep you from stinking.  Our bodies were meant to sweat.  It's part of how we thermoregulate and release toxins.  Sweat is not the enemy.  Bacterial growth in the warm moisture of your armpit is.  So this homemade product is great for controlling BO. 

I do notice a bit of dampness but nothing extreme.  I  LOVE my new stuff!  And there is no stink.  Even the next day.  I think this would be great for those of us who have children who are starting to wear deodorant.  They surely don't need the yucky stuff and can start off right using a product that is healthy for them. 

Are you ready?  These are all of the ingredients.  I am not kidding.  That's it.  Coconut oil, corn starch, baking soda and essential oil.  I got the recipe from Homestead Revival!  Love that blog!

5-6 tablespoons of coconut oil.

1/4 cup of baking soda and cornstarch.  I used my mixer to blend it all together until it was smooth. 

Homestead called for optional tea tree oil.  I opted for this oil blend.  It's great because I need a chill pill at least 3 to 600 times a day.  Now I carry one with me wherever I go!  I used about 7-10 drops of this yummy stuff.

I had a empty Toms container that I packed the blended product into.  It works great!  I did have to stick it in the fridge for a few minutes to let it set.  Now I keep it in my bathroom cabinet.  I put it on like regular deodorant.  I am converted.  And I feel good about the fact that it is so natural that you could eat it!  Not that I would, but I could.  I have seen many antiperspirant alternatives but this one beats any I have tried.  I know it's a strange concept but if you can get past the idea of sweating a little, it's worth it!



It's pink, good smelling and hard working...

Can you guess what it is?  I bet you can't!  I read many frugal, natural, homesteader blogs.  I have seen this made several times and always thought about trying it.  I went so far as to buy the ingredients a couple of weeks ago but I just put them on a shelf in the utility room. 

This week my kids are home for spring break and we have been in need of entertainment. So imagine their joy when I said, "Hey, lets make some laundry soap!" Maybe joy is not the right word. They were a bit confused but were happy to have a project.

We started with a bar of Zote soap.  We got ours from the laundry section at Walmart for less than a dollar.  It is a mild soap with a clean fragrance.

We followed a recipe from Homestead Revival that said we should grate the soap.  Zaddok is demonstrating here.

Jolie put some muscle into it.  It is a very soft soap so it's not hard to do.  The kids kind of enjoyed it!

We then mixed the grated soap with 1 and 1/2 cups Borax and 1 and 1/2 cups washing soda.  You have to make sure you get the washing soda not baking soda!  We found ours in the laundry section of our local grocery store.  Our Walmart did not carry it. 

We had to half the batch to put it through the food processor.  Don't worry.  We washed it thoroughly after we were done.  But don't kid yourself.  The dishwasher soap we use in our dishwasher is probably far more corrosive and toxic than this stuff.  We still would not want to eat it or to have it flavor our next batch of salsa.  So we wash.

I have come to really love essential oils.  Fragrance usually makes me sick.  I can't stand candles and air fresheners.  But these oils smell wonderful and don't make me feel like I am breathing chemicals.  I used this grapefruit to enhance half of this batch of soap.  Matt is weird about smells too so I did not want to do the entire batch in case he didn't like it.

I use my canning jars to store just about everything.  They are good for that.

Here they sit in the utility room.  I have done this weeks washing with our new soap and it seems to do great.  I use a tablespoon in wach load!  I might use a bit more if I had seriously dirty stuff but so far the TBS has done fine.  I peeked during the washing cycle and the water was nasty and brown.  That's a good sign.  I prefer the scented detergent.  It just adds a little something.  Bottom line, this was easy and cheap.  The store-bought natural detergent I was using was 15 dollars for about 90 loads.  This stuff is about 3.  I can handle that! (If you add essential oils that will raise the price a bit but you don't have to have them.  The Zote smells quite nice on it's own.)

A little update.  My seeds are now sweet little seedlings.  All of my tomatoes are sprouted.  The peppers are taking FOREVER.  I always start to panic.  But God is the grower of things so I will not worry.

Tomorrow, homemade deodorant!  Yes it's true!

Metabolism anyone?

Tonight for dinner we had some yummy oven baked mesquite chicken with wild rice and roasted asparagus. It is one of those healthy meals that my family loves. I also had made two beautiful loves of whole wheat cinnamon-raisin bread which I was looking forward to enjoying this evening. Then I went to my metabolism class. And courtesy of my lovely friend and slave-driver Angela, I found out I have to stay away from sugar this week. *sob sob* I will miss you my cinnamony-raisiny yummy lump of deliciousness. I will forever remember you but will not retain you on my butt!!!

Seriously, I never had to think much about metabolism before in my life. My weight fluctuated naturally through high school sports (skinny), college (plump), falling in love (skinny), marriage (skinnier) and eventually loads of babies (fat, fat, fat and fat). I always put on lots of weight during my pregnancies but never considered it might one day be a permanent condition. Today, it feels like it will never go away!!!!!!!! So I am taking a metabolism class from my dear friend who is a darn good personal trainer. This class is helping me remember that my choices matter. This fourth baby has changed my body and not in the I want to wear a bikini kinda way. (It's more like the I'd like to hide in a mu mu kinda way.) I now have to choose to not stay like this. I have to choose to exercise when I don't want to. I have to choose to put redeeming things in my body and not the crap I think I want. I have to choose to turn to the Lord for my comfort when I am stressed instead of feeling like I have earned a pigday.(thanks Erin Lunn for that word!) It's hard but it is a choice.

On the bright side, I have discovered again how good it feels to be active and to use my muscles for good and not evil :). I am not the skinny size 2 kind of girl but I sure am the I can open a can of whoop-it on you if I need to kind of girl. I like to be strong. Heck, I come from good German stock. Obviously, I birthed 4 children in a combined time of 15 hours. (insert wide-hip jokes here please.) What I am trying to say is, I will never have the perfect bod but I can be a kick-butt mom who can keep up with her kids and can keep her husband happy! Woo hoo!

Now excuse me while I go sniff my cinnamon-raisin bread and then drink a big ol' glass of water.