Spring Cleaning Homemade Products

This past week the sun has been so kind to us. We have had perfect weather with just the right amount of rain.  My seeds are planted, outside, and all have already produced shoots above the ground, yippee. I moved indoors to do some spring cleaning, I looked at some of the cleaning products JJ had around his house and I knew I needed to once again create, simplicity.
Pregnancy and toxic house cleaners, don't mix.  In several of my books I have read a thing or two about avoiding certain cleaners while doing the nesting routine. Our skin is our largest organ and we absorb everything into our body from its lovely pores.  Toxic cleaners also put out fumes that we smell and absorb into our lungs and bloodstream and for those who are growing new life, it goes right to their precious growing body.  Everywhere I look there are toxins ready to jump out and get me.  From the basic window cleaner to toilet scrub. Even daily dish soap is filled with the toxic devils that I end up putting in my mouth and swallowing... YUCK!
SO...
I headed to a spring cleaning seminar and got some homemade cleaning advice. Little did I know how easy and CHEAP making your own cleaning products are. Even much cheaper and less ingredients then the green brands you see on the shelves and you can use the same bottle over and over again reducing your carbon footprint, oh what joy to rid that footprint.  I have made RAW all-purpose cleaner that smells awesome (JJ even used it today to take the mildew smell out of his wristwatch, yes he likes the vinyl band watches), I made laundry detergent that is great and makes the clothes soft and bright. I made mouthwash, shampoo for dandruff, disinfectant, window cleaner, carpet deodorizer, etc.
...and now I am going to share them with you!

First off, you need some basic products that you can find and your local grocery store or health food store. Keep in mind that once you buy these staples you can make batches and batches of products saving sooo much money and all are toxic-free...ahh, that just sounds so good to my body!

For your start up shopping list:

-Distilled White Vinegar-baking isle
-Borax, 20 mule team (that says it all)-you can find this in your laundry detergent isle.
-Washing Soda (NOT baking soda) arm and hammer makes one-also in laundry detergent isle.
-Baking Soda (the kind in the orange box, yeah the real stuff)-in the baking isle.
-Bronners Castile Liquid Soap-at health food stores and some natural sections in the grocery store.
-Dish Soap-this goes a long way get a good green brand I have one pictured on the right with 5 ingredients only. The Seventh Generation brands have way too many ingredients, I've found this true for all their products.

-Bar Of Handmade Soap or Fels-Napha-again less ingredients the better, soap should be made with a fat, a fragrance of oil, and maybe some healing herbs all the other stuff is CRAP. You can find homemade soap at any health food store and fels-napha in the laundry detergent isle. (Remember soap goes directly on you skin or in this case on your clothes that go on your skin)
-Hydrogen Peroxide-I use a food grade 35% with no preservatives or impurities and dilute it but a simple 3% over the counter grade in the grocer pharmacy will do fine.
-Lemons-With the fruit, silly.
-Essential oils- I choose peppermint, rosemary, tea tree, lemon, sweet orange, lemongrass, lavender. For reasons i'll discuss later.  Found at health food store. These cost the most but go very far!!
-Funnel, recycled bottle, or any spray bottle and storage containers.



From here we CREATE!!! I will show you how to make many products from these basic ingredients and what they all work best on.

The "DIY Tutorial" up top has all the recipes and methods listed there.

I am separating them in different pages so when I get my blog better organized they will all have their individual links. Thanks for your patience.

~t

Southern Springtime

The middle of march and already Tennessee has wet rainy, 80 degree weather. I am feeling a sort of love for the longer warmer seasons and realizing that my blood is made for warm weather. I have soo much more energy as my vitamin D increases with the suns love and my spirits are much higher, then the difficult winter southern months. 


I am coming to realize that when JJ and I relocate we will have to find ourselves a place with a longer growing season and a short winter. I really would rather have healthy RAW food for my family year round and spend time showing them how to grow food and heal with food and love the earth, that is what motivates me.


 This springtime, I have really enjoyed
 the southern thunder/lightning storms...oh so cool!! 


The sound of rain is like a soothing meditation of a tropical paradise, I just need to close my eyes and I'm there. 


 I am loving that my body is going through this marvelous change in the spring and summer time. This morning I woke up and rolled out my yoga mat outside in the morning sun. As I practiced and breathed I listened to the birds singing songs to each other and I smiled. During my practiced I watched a wild turkey spread out its beautiful plumage for the ladies gathering bugs in the grass nearby, 
I often gazed up at the large tree that I was under and noticed all the lovely blossoms and early buds opening to soak in the sun. While in my own tree pose, I was overcome by this feeling of everything is beginning once again. 

I am surrounded by new life and I too am participating in this new life cycle creating my own new human body, inside my body! WOW, what amazing creatures we animals are to fully be conscious of what it is we can do and what we really are! I had so much gratitude on my mat this morning and I own it to the magical universe and the great Divine energy that fills me, and everyone else who takes the time to recognize them, with these gifts of beauty. I was feeling so fulfilled and proud of myself for loving myself enough to accept all this love and beauty around me that during my ending shavasana pose (laying on my back in full surrender), Sekoya came up to me and licked my face then she laid down beside me with the biggest smile and the highest little puppy moan, oh it was so perfect! I know that whenever I see life for all it's goodness, I am surrounded with so many amazing moments, I can get lost in the mix of temporal chaos just like everyone else, looking outside myself for the perfections of life, but the truth I've found is that the only perfection is inside us and whenever I go there, I instantly see the greatness that is around in the outside temporal world. ~t

First Visit With A Midwife

I finally got myself to go visit a midwife this week. I wasn't sure about seeing one this early, I'm 13 weeks and I feel great. I know that sometimes medical professionals, even midwives can discuss information to their clients and it can create some fear thinking.  I do believe that I am becoming so strong in my mind that it is hard to penetrate these perceptions about pregnancy and birth to me anymore but I almost didn't even want to take any chance. JJ talked me into going to see the BEST midwives in the country who truly practice the same mindset about birth as I, so I made an appointment.

We drove an hour and half to "The Farm" in middle Tennessee. Now The Farm has been around since 1971. It was started by some California hippies who wanted to start a new community living off the land and working together in a new conscious environment. It has about 200 members who live on about 2,000 acres. They run their little community on solar panels. They have a store, a school, a medical clinic with a very popular midwifery school, a huge garden that produces their own soy production company, they even have many other small business that help bring in their revenue.
They have delivered 2,200 babies naturally.  Some breech, twins, etc.

Ina May Gaskin and Pamela Hunt started the midwifery clinic. Ina May Gaskin has written many wonderful and incredibly helpful books on childbirth and breastfeeding that every pregnant woman should read. She is the Gospel when it comes to natural birth. Ina May is so busy that I was only able to meet with Pamela.

I was instantly impressed with her curvy old figure and her long grey hair parted right down the middle and pulled into a low slung bun. She took me in the clinic. It had black and white photos of naked, birthing women all over the walls, beautiful! JJ and I sat on a cozy couch and we talked like friends about my pregnancy. She gave me the basics of a healthy pregnancy and then asked me about my diet. We discussed my diet and she was very proud of how I was eating.  Here is some things she said to continue doing.
-eating green smoothies with kale, spinach, fruit, bee pollen, chia seeds, spirulina, wheat grass powder, and flax seeds. 
-eat protein 3 times a day the size of my fist.  Being a vegetarian, beans, tempeh, eggs, and I occationally eat fish. All which are PERFECT!
-eat good fats, cook everything in olive oil, have avocadoes, nuts, lowfat cottage cheese is good and kefir yogurt but AVOID other dairy, especially milk and butter products because these create LARGE babies. I don't drink milk, I use almond or coconut milk, I don't use butter so no worries there. 
-yoga and meditation are ideal and I do those both almost everyday, sometimes I start practicing yoga and then I end up meditating for the entire hour.
-take 1200mg of calcium daily, 600 mg magnesium daily, and 2000 units of vitamin D daily, Prenatal pills simply don't give enough of those.
-drinking herbal tea of raspberry leaf, dandelion, and nettle is very safe.
-take naps and relax whenever my body asks me to...no problem there, I love relaxing!!


After the visit she walked JJ and I around the grounds to some of the cabins that we could stay and birth in if we decide to birth with them. We aren't sure where we will birth yet, depending on our home (if we have one at that time) I want to birth at home. If we are in limbo I will birth in a cabin on The Farm.

What a great experience. I am so thrilled that I was so close to this magical place. After the appointment we went to the cafe and had organic, vegan chili and tea. MMM MMM GOOD!
~t

Beachtime

Spring fever has set in and JJ and I are sooo ready for the sun. Tennessee has had some tornado warnings and after taking shelter underground we knew we needed a get away to some sun! We took a weekend trip to Southern Carolina to a beach called "Edisto Beach." 

I have never been to S. Carolina before so I was excited to see another new state and beach. It was so interesting to see all the southern homes and plantations along the way. Neat trees with spanish moss hanging wildly down over the streets. The south is full of new surprises. 

JJ took care of everything; drove the entire way there and back, booking the sites, food, setting up camp, and a two hour massage the first night. He consistently asked me "can I get you anything" I am soooo taken care of. I went through a super low energy spell before we left and was feeling pooped everyday, it became hard to even cook and practice yoga so this get away was 'just what the doctor ordered' if I saw a doctor. 

We enjoyed walking the beach and getting some fresh vitamin D. I practiced some yoga on the beach while JJ tended to the furry children.

I am sooo blessed and incredibly thankful for this man, he is the Love of my life and he treats me like gold.

This pregnancy has been very connecting for both of us as well as for me with my body. I am carefully watching my body change and my bump grow.  I am getting much more of an appetite back and still haven't thrown up from the morning "awareness" that comes within the first few weeks. I am so excited to lay out in the sun with a large belly, it will feel so good!