It’s a Quilt! It’s a Pillow! It’s a Quillo!

Greetings from Me and My House,

Today I’m moving on from nutrition teaching to a simple sewing project. Keep up your Good for You-Natural! lifestyle of eating though.

Quillos are a favorite around our home. Each child has their own for wrapping up in to take a chill off or laying around on. They are super for taking on trips. A quillo is a quilt that folds into a pillow, that is simple to make.

Quillo folded into Pillow {sewing instructions} ~ from Me & My House

You will need 4.5 yards total (after preshrinking) cotton print fabric. Homespun plaids work great, as do any type of novelty print, quilting fabrics, or flannels. You can use all one fabric if you want, but I prefer to use differing fabrics for the front and the back. The pillow/pocket can be made with both sides the same as the one of the other fabrics. If you want the two sides to be different, you will need another 1/2 yard fabric. The instructions here are for an adult size, aprox. 45″ (the width of your fabric) by 72″. (A child/smaller size is the width of the fabric by 60″, and a smaller “pillow/pocket” is made. A baby size can also be made – 36″ by 45″.)
This one is child’s size:

Quillo {sewing instructions} ~ from Me & My House

Supplies needed:
So for your adult size quillo, you need:
2 yards preshrunk fabric for the back
2 1/2 yards preshrunk fabric for the front and pillow/pocket
These should be compatible prints – different, but look good together.
2.5 yards batting – any batting that does not have to be quilted at small intervals. I prefer an all cotton or wool batting.

Thread that blends with both your prints.
Scissors/Rotary Cutter & Mat, Pins, Sewing Machine, yardstick, removable fabric marker.

Instructions:
Blanket:

Square up the ends of the fabric and cut (I prefer to use a rotary cutter) the front and back blanket pieces each 72″ long across the width of the fabric. Cut 1 piece of batting the same size.

Layer (by spreading out on a large flat surface) the batting, then one of the fabrics, wrong side down on the batting, then the other fabric right side down (on the right side of the first fabric). Smooth all layers and pin around all edges.

Sew around all 4 edges (I prefer using a walking foot) leaving a 10-12″ opening in the center of one end to turn. Clip corners. Turn right side out and press seams, including pressing the opening seam edges in.

Pillow/Pocket:
Cut 2 18″x18″ squares for the pillow/pocket out of the remaining front fabric (or one square from each fabric, if you are using both). Cut one piece of batting the same size. Layer and sew exactly the same as the blanket part, only about a 6″ opening is needed.

Alternative pillow/pocket:
You may also use an 18″x18″ quilt block as one layer and your front fabric as the other layer. After sewing the edges, turning and pressing, quilt your block before attaching to blanket in next step. When attaching to blanket, be sure to sew with the quilt block side facing the blanket side, otherwise when you fold your quillo into a pillow your quilt block will be inside and unseen.

Quillo folded into Pillow {Click for sewing instructions} ~ from Me & My House

Attach Pillow/Pocket:
Find the center of the open end of both the blanket and the pillow/pocket parts, and match them up. Make sure the center of the other end of the pillow/pocket is lined up with the center of the blanket. Pin the ends of blanket and pillow/pocket together and pin the sides of the pillow/pocket to the blanket. Stitch a narrow seam across the ends of both, attaching the pillow/pocket to the blanket, and closing up the open ends of both.

Lay quillo out flat. Measure in from each side of the blanket onto the pillow/pocket about 1/4″ onto the pillow/pocket. With removable marking (disappearing or wash out marking pen), mark this distance the entire length of the quillo, on both sides of the pillow/pocket. In other words, you are going to sew on the pillow/pocket sides, but you are going to extend these seams the entire length of the quillo. After marking, pin through all layers along each line while quillo is still laying flat. Stitch along both lines.

You’re finished! To fold quillo as a pillow, fold into aprox. thirds along the stitching lines you just made, with the pillow/pocket facing down and your folds on top. Then fold the top down twice to a point just above where the top of the pillow/pocket is, then fold again, over the back of the pillow/pocket. Turn over and reach inside of the pillow/pocket, grab through all layers of both bottom corners and flip the whole thing inside out. Your folded blanket is now inside your pillow/pocket. Smooth and you have a nice pillow.

Simple, but pretty, and certainly practical.

For Me and My House,
At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa

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New Year – New You

Greetings from Me and My House,

Perhaps you are one who wants to take a faster journey. You don’t want to just add something good to your eating habits right now. You want to get off the junk – NOW. You’re tired of the way you feel and perhaps look, and are ready to go all the way to get the junk out of your house and out of your body.

It’s not too hard to get it out of the house, just throw it out – all of it. Don’t think about the money you are throwing away. It is more harmful in your body than in the trash. If it isn’t yours to throw away (perhaps your dear spouse isn’t ready for this journey to good health), perhaps you can relegate a certain shelf (preferably up high and out of the way) as their “junk shelf” and keep all items “off limits” to the rest of the family shut away up there.

As I mentioned in our Transitioning post, going cold turkey does give you faster benefits, and sometimes this is needed to keep you going. One of the not so pleasant initial benefits for some though is going through the physical effects of getting the junk out of the body, detoxing.

I’ve transferred 3 articles on detoxing from my old list over here. They can be read at:
Ditching the Junk and Detoxing – 4/28/02
Detoxing 2 – While Pregnant? – 5/3/02
Detoxing 3 – Going all the Way – 5/7/02

Would you like to know more about transitioning to Good for You-Naturally!™ for Life! Check out our Online Courses to enroll in our FREE Preview course or see if we have a full Good for You-Naturally!™ for Life! course and community currently being offered. Also click on over to read our Good for You-Naturally!™ section of our website.

For Me and My House,
At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa

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Good for You-Naturally! ~ Transitioning

Greetings from Me and My House,

Welcome to 2007! Did you set a goal of eating more healthily this year? For the next 7 weeks I will (Lord willing) give you 7 steps to take on this journey to a Good for You-Naturally! Lifestyle of Eating.

How many times have you set this goal before, only to fall down and give up? Good for You-Naturally! is a Lifestyle of Eating not a diet. It is not something you “go on” for a while, then go back to your “normal” ways of eating. You never stay healthy or keep the weight off when you yo-yo back and forth between ways of eating. Aren’t you sick and tired of being sick and tired – and overweight?

Good for You-Naturally! is a lifestyle change that will take time to become habit. It is about developing good habits of making the best choice available at the time. This is not the Garden of Eden, and we don’t always have the perfect, purest choice available at all times. But here in America, we most always have some choice. Make the best available choice. And when you don’t, then next time do. Work at it. Make it a habit.

Going “cold turkey” really produces the best benefits. You really notice that the change was worth it, right away. But for those of you that want to slowly wean off your old ways, I present these 7 weekly steps.

WEEK 1
This week your goal is to add more living food to your way of eating. Begin by adding a big fresh vegetable salad to your lunch and or supper every day. Eat it before the rest of your meal (or you’ll be tempted to not finish it.)

Your best choices will be to use a dark green lettuce as your base, such as Romaine (not iceberg) and add a good variety of other vegetables to it, especially much cruciferous ones such as, broccoli and cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, radishes, green pepper, etc. Get as many of the vegetables as possible organic. Romaine lettuce and carrots are both pretty readily available and not overly expensive. Vary your ingredients each day/meal.

For those of you wanting to go all the way, including vegetables with the highest nutritional benefits, you will want to include at least 1 cup of raw power vegetables each day, particularly cruciferous vegetables, those known to have anti-cancer and other health benefits. These are Arugula, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Watercress, Bok Choy, Turnip Greens, Mustard Greens, and Collard Greens, Mizuna, Tatsoi, Rutabaga, Napa or Chinese Cabbage, Daikon, Horseradish, Radishes, Turnips, Kohlrabi, and Kale. Some of these I’ve not ever seen or tried, (and I don’t even know if all of them are eaten raw) but there is enough variety there for everyone to include raw cruciferous vegetables daily. (I found out over 25 years ago that turnips and kohlrabi are delicious raw. I’d never heard of turnips eaten uncooked before that, and had never even tasted kohlrabi.) If you don’t include a cup everyday, try to get at least 3 cups a week, either 1 cup every other day, or 1/2 cup per day.

In addition to cruciferous vegetables, dark green and bright orange ones generally have the most nutritional value. Avocados, though really a fruit, are excellent nutritionally also.

Is this already a part of your way of eating? You can begin adding Sprouts to your salads at each meal. Growing them is cheap and easy. Get our Gardening for Wimps guide for all the help you’ll need to get started.

Would you like to know more about transitioning to Good for You-Naturally!™ for Life! and our 7 steps for getting there? Enroll in our full Good for You-Naturally!™ for Life! course and community. Check it out at our Online Courses. We also offer a 2 week, FREE Preview course that is available anytime. Also click on over to read our Good for You-Naturally!™ section of our website.

For Me & My House,
At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa

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New Beginings for this Blog – for a new year

Greetings from Me & My House,

It’s time for a new beginning for this blog, as this year comes to a close. I began it a little over a year ago, posted a few things with no real direction, removed them, and gained a new focus.

This blog is my musings and random ramblings as a Christian Keeper at Home. It’s the one to check out for recipes & nutrition insights and ideas, home keeping, organizing, and managing insights and ideas, Christian womanhood insights and ideas, and just plain general Christian family insights and ideas.

I have no catchy saying like, Living a Mary life in a Martha world, or anything like that. But that is what Christian life is all about, giving God our all – all our heart, soul, mind, and strength to do His will & serve others, in particular our families. It’s about resting at Jesus’ feet to gain strength to be a Christian maker of a home, do your husband well, and love your children and bring them up in the nurture and admonition – discipline and instruction – of God’s Word, then letting that light shine forth to others.

It’s all about “the very God of peace [sanctifying] you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

See my other blogs: on Christian home education at Lifestyle Education through Discipleship, and Christian contemplations at my Clear Vision blog.

For Me & My House,
At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa

In Memory of … my Grandma

Greetings from Me and My House,

Thursday night, the same day that Terri Schaivo (and more here) passed away by slow murder in hospice care, my last living grandparent, and my children’s last living great-grandparent, also passed away in hospice care. My grandma would have turned 92 years next month. Her health has been steadily deteriorating, and hospice did all they could until the last minute. My mother was at her side at the time of death.

Honor is given to this life, that brought forth the life, that brought forth mine. May we meet again on the other side.

These pictures of my children and my grandma were taken two years ago.

At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa

Detoxing 3 – Going All the Way

Greetings from Me and My House,

A list member wrote that they were “taking the plunge” and asked for more info on fasting to detox.

Congratulations!!!! YES, shoot for 3 days! Obviously, we can’t totally detox in that time, but it gets us off to a start and the key is to not go back to the junk afterward.

The time it takes to detox depends on what you’ve been eating wrong (and toxins exposed to), how long you’ve been eating and exposed to those toxins, and your own personal constitution (make up) – AND that you don’t keep adding to the problem (eating/ exposure to more junk/ toxins). For most who have lived on a SAD diet their whole lives, it will take a long time to undo. Dr. Joel says at least 1 year of right eating to counteract every 7 years of wrong. Obviously, fasting and juicing help cut that time down – AND every 3-day fast we can go on – inbetween eating right, – the quicker our body will respond.

If you are able, get Barley Green [links updated: now Barley Life – if you have trouble with the link, click here, and then in the table of contents on AIM Juice Powders], since you don’t have a juicer(and aren’t planning to get one at this point?). Also a good help in cleansing the system is “Herbal Fiberblend” – from the same company that makes the BG. BUT don’t wait until you can get these things to start. I’m just saying if you want to do a complete detox and cleanse, they would be very helpful, especially if you aren’t able to do the fresh juices.

I’ll also suggest, if you’re serious about complete detoxing, that you consider fasting 1 day a week. It’s a discipline I’ve not been able to uphold all the time – with pregnancy and nursing – but it has great benefits.

A couple of years ago, we had many in our church that went on a 40 days fast.
Some went the whole time, or nearly so on lemon water only.
Others added BG/ fresh juices.
Some used the Herbal Fiberblend and saw GREAT RESULTS, complete cleansing, healing of various ailments of the body, and feeling better than they ever had in their lives.
The fast was for spiritual reasons, but they reaped many physical benefits.

GRANTED, I am talking WHOLE HEARTED FASTING here.
Don’t let this scare you off.
I’m just giving some examples for further fasting.

START WHERE YOU ARE TODAY!!
If you go 3 days GREAT! If you start with ONE DAY, that’s a start. Go for 2 next time, 3 the next, etc. YES, anything is better than SAD. Start where you can. Take as big of steps as YOU think you can right now, and just keep heading in the right direction. And when you slip up, turn around and start again!

One more comment on water fasting for those that are extremely toxic, this may happen in SOME PEOPLE. By cutting out ALL intake (except water) your body may begin to throw off toxins rapidly, and you may FEEL it. You will be going through withdrawal. You may have headaches or jitters, etc. – such as you normally get if you “don’t have your morning coffee” or whatever. Giving into the withdrawal will stop these symptoms, but won’t help you any. IF your detox is progressing too fast (on a water fast) for you to deal with the symptoms, drink some fresh juices or Barley Green, to slow down the detox process and provide nutrients. These “symptoms” are usually worst on the 2nd and 3rd day of a fast, but deep seated toxins may show up later in an extended fast.

The info I have on fasting is in books/ on tapes I have, mostly, from Dr. Joel Robbins. I really don’t know of any internet info (Christian perspective, detoxing) except this one – http://www.billbright.com/7steps/index.html

Bill Bright’s 7 steps to fasting is on the internet. It has some good tips, but is more for extended fasting, and spiritual reason, although it gives physical info too.

I’ll be praying for you, and will check in through email and write when I can, but no guarentees. I’m about 1 week past my EDC (estimated due date) so anytime now I’ll be off the computer for a few days, and enjoying our new baby.

For more information on Barley Green and Herbal Fiberblend – AND to order them direct to YOU – check our website resources and click on AIM Juice Powders in the table of contents.

At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa
Me and My House

Detoxing 2 – While Pregnant?

Greetings from Me and My House,

A list member asked: “Can this (detoxing) be done during pregnancy?”
Personally, I have no problem detoxing, and even fasting within guidelines, during pregnancy. I believe pregnancy is a most important time to be sure we are not toxic. Baby needs as healthy of an environment as possible to develop in. Ideally, we and our husband would thoroughly detox and build our health up before conceiving, but that just doesn’t always happen.

I know some people are fearful of detoxing and fasting during pregnancy and while nursing. (In fact, in our society, many are fearful of fasting even a meal or two ANYTIME! You wouldn’t believe the stories I could tell from people who have come to my nutrition classes.) Anyhow, some mothers’ concerns are that the baby will be overladen with toxins during the process. I don’t see this as a valid reason, as baby is ALREADY overladen with the toxins in mom’s body and continuing to add more toxins is certainly not going to help the baby.

I’m not in anyway “prescribing” what would be right for anyone else to do, but I will tell you what I do and what my Dr. says. My Dr. believes that moring sickness is the body’s way of trying to purge itself of toxins to create a healthy environment for baby. So he recommends a 3 day fast for it, drinking plenty of pure water with lemon. He says when you are extremely nauseated and throwing up and your body is saying that food/eating sound horrible, why do we force ourselves to eat. Our body is saying DON’T EAT! So from an MD’s perspecitive, not all believe fasting during pregnancy is dangerous.

Anytime you fast or detox you need to be sure to get plenty of pure water, aprox. 1 gallon per day. In fact, lack of pure water ALL the time is a major contributor to health problems for most people. Toxins build up in our bodies even faster because we aren’t flushing them out. The general rule is to take your weight, divide it in half, drink that many ounces of pure water per day. For a 120# woman that comes out to aprox. the “8 glasses a day” we’ve always been told. 120 divided by 2 = 60 oz. Obviously, people over 120#, need more. AND, as I said above, when fasting or detoxing you want to almost double that.

OK, back to detoxing when pregnant. As for the first way I mentioned, just cutting all junk and eating only healthy foods and juicing, this can AND SHOULD be done by all, anytime, pregnant or not. As for fasting, let prayer be your guide, without allowing fear to rule. As I mentioned above, some Drs. believe it is beneficial to short term fast during pregnancy for detoxing purposes. Personally, I’ve never had a problem with it. I do use common-sense too. No extended fasts – I personally wouldn’t go over 3 days. Pray about it – there have been times when our church has called fasts when I was pregnant, that I felt I was NOT to fast at the time, but I don’t let pregnancy (or nursing) be my excuse for NEVER being able to fast. Jesus called us all to fast, and for us “quiver-ful” moms pregnancy or nursing can be all the time. Know your body – don’t try to push a water ONLY fast when pregnant. Utilize Fresh Juices and/or Barley Green whenever you feel you need them. They are loaded with readily available nutrients that will ensure that both you and baby are getting all you need. In fact, Barley Green is the most nutrient dense food known to man and contains all nutrients needed for long-term sustenance. So technically there shouldn’t be a problem “fasting” even longer on Barley Green and Fresh Juices, except perhaps caloric (depending on how much juice you’re drinking). This would be my only concern, if just drinking small amounts of Fresh Juice/ Barley Green and you didn’t have the calories to spare and it was later in your pregnancy or when nursing when baby needs the extra calories.

That “getting enough” to provide the necessary calories is actually a Juice DIET, not “fast”. A Juice Diet is drinking high quantities of fresh juice that provides the calories too. If you drink under 1/2 gal per day, your body will go into “fasting mode” (metabolism) – (I’m sure there’s variance in that amount for different people). If over 1/2 gallon, it won’t, and up to a gallon or more per day may be needed to provide the calories and nutrients needed. Although for a short-term FAST (1-3 days) for detoxing (or spiritual) purposes I don’t drink these amounts.

As I mentioned in the last post, I felt the need to detox to be ready for the labor and birth of our baby expected anyday now. Well, this week I got my involuntary chance, to not just detox, but FAST. God must’ve felt I needed that too before baby comes because I’d allowed toxins to build up AND (according to my husband) I’ve been overdoing it and not getting enough rest, my body was ripe for letting the current “bug” in. And it hit HARD! I did nothing but sleep for 32 hours, and downed honey/lemon water and Fresh Juice and Barley Green everytime I woke up for a few minutes. I was able to sit up Tues., but still felt like I was hit by a truck, and still not up to eating. By Wed. I was able to eat just a few bites of fruit and “good stuff” and by yesterday I was HUNGRY. My dear, sweet husband took my stir-crazy (from being down 4 days) body out to a local restaurant that has several vegetarian selections for lunch. I had a great fresh fruit salad and a tremendous 7 veggie sandwich on 7 grain bread. Even after that, I was back to “grazing” by mid-afternoon.

I know I cetainly wouldn’t have voluntarily gone on a complete fast druing my “due” week, but even though I’m still not *completely* clear of the congestion and coughing, I know that the FAST, the PRAYER, and the extra amounts of BARLEY GREEN have all helped to restore my health and strength before I go into labor, AND will help my body provide healthier milk for my little one when he/she comes.
For more information on Barley Green check our website catalog [if you have trouble with that link, go here and then in the table of contents click on AIM Juice Powders] Or go to the AIM site where you can order it direct to YOU. [Barley Green is now called Barley Life [If you have trouble with the link, go to AIM, then click on Product Store > Shop Product Groups > AIM Barley Life > traditional powder ] There is a lot of information you can get while you are there.

At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa
Me and My House

Ditching the Junk and Detoxing 1

Greetings from Me and My House,

I would venture that most of you are like me and the hardest thing about getting started – or re-started! – eating right is the detox process. Our appetites have gotten addicted to whatever our downfall is – sugar?, meat?, dairy? and those things are all very addictive – and it’s so hard to make it through those first few days without it. The only way I’ve seen it work is COLD-TURKEY. As long as you keep feeding an addiction “just a little bit”, it won’t go away. We tell ourselves “this is it, just a little” but then our body continues to crave it, and we continue to feed it, and the cycle goes on.

I find one of the best ways to aid in staving off the addictions is to make sure that I’m eating PLENTY of the good stuff, that I’m not allowing myself to become hungry. When I become hungry AND I’m craving the junk, it’s just too easy to give in, because somehow the junk is usually easily accessible. Which is why a cardinal rule at our house is the junk doesn’t come in the house. (OK, my dear sweet husband breaks it sometimes.) Anyhow, eating lots of the good stuff isn’t going to make you fat, and I believe in the “grazing” principle of eating – i.e. throughout the day rather than 3 strict “meals”, we do eat 3 meals but we also allow snacks of good for you foods available at anytime. Have them on hand and ready to eat! A piece of fruit or a handful of nuts can satisfy a sweet tooth or fill the protein pit. They may not give you the emotional satisfaction of the junk, but they can help you overcome the craving and when coupled with PRAYER!!!!!, they can do the trick. I also find that Fresh Juices and Barley Green [now Barley Life, also Barley Max] really help in overcoming the cravings. When you are pouring a lot of concentrated nutrients into your body, it doesn’t cry out as much. Another tip to getting through the detoxification process sooner, and with less stress, is to drink plenty of pure water with fresh lemon juice in it, or Lemon Essential Oil. It really helps your body make it through detox. The Lemon juice speeds up the getting the toxins out of the body, and a non-toxic body desires the good stuff.

The other way, is just the opposite, and usually works faster, but requires a special grace. That is to fast. It is the quickest way to detox and get over cravings. But it’s usually harder emotionally on us. For some people though it’s easier to not eat ANYTHING, than to only not eat what they are craving. Using the Lemon Water, and possibly the Fresh Juices/ Barley Green [ now Barley Life] for a 3-plus days fast will do wonders for our bodies. And give us a fresh start when coming back to foods, only the GOOD ones. When going into or coming out of a fast have your last meal before the fast and your first meal after the fast be a fresh veggie salad (no heavy dressing, preferably only lemon juice). Watermelon or *organic* grapes can also be used to break a fast. Have your next meal be a baked potato with a salad, or some plain brown rice with a salad. You want fresh and easy to digest foods to reawaken your digestive system. Whatever you do don’t eat a heavy meal, and don’t break your fast by eating the junk foods you just went off of. Your body will thank you.

Detoxing is not a pleasant experience, but it is a GREATLY rewarding one. One you will be VERY GLAD you did. Victory feels SO GOOD.

Well, plenty more on this topic, but enough for now. A 2 year old needs her momma.

At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa – who’s needing to detox – again – before this baby comes in the next week or so!!

Greetings!

from Lisa @Me & My House! This blog is the everyday application of my foundational teaching on family and home, found on my website, in my seminars, and Me and My House exclusive resources. See also my everyday applications for Christian growth, biblical home education, health through nutrition, and 100% natural healthcare. Enjoy the journey of Discipleship for Life!™  {Not all articles have been moved from my old site to here.}