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Author Archives: Lisa @ Me & My House

A BarleyLife Weekend

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My mom and I spent the weekend chatting nutrition and drinking green barley juice. It was a good weekend. The weekend began at dd’s. We chatted a bit of nutrition too. But it really all began for me almost a week before.

It happened early last week. The counter and sink were covered with that green, staining fine powder. Mr. 3yo dumped the last 10 or more servings of my BarleyLife. No chance to salvage. Counter was damp, as well as sink, making a couple of really big globs of green barley paste. It is a good thing the countertop is already green, and sink is stainless steel. But it was hard not to cry as it washed down the drain. I could have had a sink full of juice. I hate good food to go to waste (like the 10+ pounds of brown rice that had to be thrown away last month because it had bugs.)

I haven’t been drinking BarleyLife all that often lately. We’ve been doing really good making fresh juice daily, so I’ve only made the BarleyLife occasionally. Evidently I’ve been making it enough though that Mr. 3yo decided that day he could make his own. I knew we were heading out of town this weekend, and didn’t plan to take the juicer since I figured I had enough BarleyLife left to cover it. –Until Mr. 3yo. Oh well, we could take the juicer.

I ordered more BarleyLife, expecting it to be here when we got back. It actually arrived before we left. I went ahead and got Just Carrots and RediBeets too, (powdered carrot and beet juices,) even though I don’t use them as much. Then I hid them all from Mr. 3yo and told him mommy would make it when he wants some.

I placed a Wholefood Farmacy order too. The convenience would have been nice for the trip. But that order arrived late Friday afternoon – after we left early Friday afternoon. So instead, the children loaded the cooler with dried apples, apricots, and dates, raw almonds, cashews, pecans, and filberts, grapes and bananas. I packed a couple gallons distilled water. I figured there wasn’t any chance of a blizzard, but if there was, we’d be ready to be stranded!

Here’s this car packed with all the nutrition we need for a great weekend – and what do we do? Head to Chuck E Cheese’s. Who gets these ideas – or was it the kids? The pop was no temptation (not even at my daughter’s later when she offered Cherry 7-Up, my only real pop temptation). But I succumbed to pizza after my salad. Oh well, we had a great time visiting with dd and family.

The next day we went to my mom’s and she was happy to chat nutrition. She’s been taking liquid chlorophyll for a few months at the recommendation of my sister. (Her Dr. had put her on iron for low blood levels and she immediately quit it after my sister talked to her.) She just had her blood recheck, and her levels were back up and pronounced OK. Praise to God for His natural foods ways.

She also told me she wasn’t drinking her BarleyMax. She was excited to have it, and the Hallelujah Acres resources, but just couldn’t get into drinking the BarleyMax. I had her try the BarleyLife. She liked it better. She also tried the beet juice powder in her BarleyMax and said that would do the trick for her. She could drink it that way and would order some beet juice powder. I had also suggested stevia powder, but she hadn’t bought any of that yet, and I didn’t have any with me.

It was an encouragement to me to be in a situation where I could encourage my mom. Mom doesn’t make all healthy choices (but — neither do I – the pizza – oh, and the cherry cheesecake dd made for other dd’s 16th birthday while we were there, and the …) But mom is open and interested to learn. I was encouraged that she has my sister looking for a good used juicer for her.

I’m also glad she grabbed the onion. Mom always has plenty of onions. I was glad I’d stopped for some raw honey and some lemons at the store. I’m also glad (and hope she is too) that she learned my adaptation to grandma’s recipe.

Mostly I’m glad for a chance to sit down and chat with my mom – and with my grown dd. Chatting nutrition was just a bonus for my soul. And doing it over a glass of BarleyLife a bonus for my body.

Cough Syrup?

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I just heard the latest. “They” are now saying, “Don’t give your children cough syrup.” Hmm, haven’t I been saying such things for years? But I’m sure my reasonings are not the same as theirs, nor my solutions.

Oct. 11, ’07 – “the voluntary withdrawal of oral infant cough and cold medications from store shelves.” Oct. 18-19, ’07 – An advisory committee “voted to recommend to FDA that cough and cold active ingredients should no longer be available for use in children under six-years-old.”

Anyhow, the news didn’t affect me in the least. I haven’t bought or given my children OTC cough syrup for decades. But I thought if any of you did, you might want to know my grandma’s recipe. She wasn’t a big herbalist or anything, so there’s nothing unusual in this recipe. It’s easy enough for anyone to get the ingredients and anyone to make.

My mom was raised on it herself, and used it for her 7 children. She found it especially helpful for my older sister who has bad asthma that the doctors didn’t diagnose right away back then. And I’ve used for our 10 children when we’ve needed it.

It’s onion syrup, and it does a great job of cutting through the phlem and soothing the cough. This weekend, after a night at Chuck E Cheese’s while we are on the road, a couple of my children started coughing at grandma’s house. She pulled out the onion and started chopping. Here’s how.

Slice one large onion into a stainless steel sauce pan. Cover with raw honey – a cup or more. Put the lid on the pan and heat on a very low burner. Stir occasionally. How long? Hmm, good qustion. Until it’s done? The honey will turn to the thin liquid. The onions will get limp and transparent – and the fragrance will fill the house. I figure the aroma begins the healing benefits before you even consume the syrup. Anyhow, a couple hours maybe? Maybe less, maybe more. Let it cool enough to take. Take a couple tablespoons full. You can keep it in a sealed container – glass jar with lid or Tupperware. If you won’t use it all up right away, you can store it in the refrigerator as is, or you can strain the onions out an keep in the cupboard for a while. Especially if you refrigerate, reheat gently, until a warm thin syrup, before taking each time. You may be able to heat it enough just by putting the container in hot water. If you don’t refrigerate and don’t have time to rewarm it each time, just use as is.

At home I generally will add fresh lemon juice too, either to the batch after it is cooled or just to the individual dose. When we aren’t able to cook the onion syrup, or if we’re dealing with a sore throat and not cough, we just mix raw honey and fresh lemon juice. If even that can’t be done, if we’re somewhere else, I just take a spoonful of honey and add a drop or two of therapeutic-grade Lemon Essential Oil.

I hope you find these beneficial real foods helpful when your family needs a health boost.

Fit and Fun – Clothes that Is

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This week I’ve been teaching dd15 how to make sewing patterns. So far she has made her slopers. It’s kept her practical application of math up with all the division, addition, subtraction and measuring.

It is really quite simple to make your own patterns. I’m not sure why more sew-ers don’t do it. Once you have your basic sloper, all you have to do is make any variation you can think of. Perhaps it more has to do with envisioning the finished project. Perhaps it’s just plain easier to follow old habits. I’m sure that is what it has been a lot of the time for me.

I have 2 different pattern making book sets. One is from the European School of Design. Our oldest dd and I took a class, when she was a teen, from someone who came to our town. That was many years ago, pre-internet days, and I haven’t found these books online. They promoted the Lutterloh system, but that isn’t the books I got.

The other is from Sew with Sarah. I got them a few years ago to learn more, (since I’d done very little with the first ones,) when I wanted to design some maternity and nursing clothes. I’ve got the Quick and Easy Pattern Making . She has several websites, but that is the best link I’ve found for ordering this online in either download format or in print. There are links to her other books there too. I plan to get the one for making children’s patterns.

I’m looking forward to getting dd into this as she is SO creative. I think once she gets started she will love it.

A Pop a Day?

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OK, that may be soda for you non-midwesterners – or is it "soft drink". Well, if you don’t know it yet, soft drinks aren’t soft on your body.

"Drinking just one soft drink a day — whether diet or regular — may boost your risk of getting heart disease, a new study shows. That is because a soda habit increases the risk of developing a condition called metabolic syndrome, according to the new research, and that in turn boosts the chance of getting both heart disease and diabetes. "Even one soda per day increases your risk of developing metabolic syndrome by about 50 percent," says Ramachandran Vasan, MD, professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and the senior author of the study, published in the July 31 issue of the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation." source

New! Improved! Really?

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I believe that the way God designed the foods He gave to man to nourish his body is perfect. I don’t believe man can improve in any way on it.

I don’t believe that "nutritional products" are what man needs to be healthy. I don’t like gimmicks that try to promote processed/ adulterated foods or non-foods as healthy.  I don’t think good nutrition is based on strange or special, secret foods. And I also don’t believe that eating what’s Good for You needs to be expensive. Good for You – Naturally! is a far cry from buying your potato chips and microwave dinners at the health food store.

Good for You – Naturally! is whole foods nutrition based on G.O.D., God’s Original Diet (as opposed to S.A.D., Standard American Diet.) Good for You – Naturally! is an eating lifestyle based on raw fruits, raw vegetables, raw nuts and raw seeds – and plenty of pure water. We, like most people, add to this (as God Himself did), but this is the foundation for eating Good for You – Naturally!

~~~~ So why am about to recommend a food "product"? Because most people don’t believe anything can be convenient or easy without coming in a bag or a can – or is that plastic tub now? And many people are willing to pay for convenience. Well, many people don’t realize that they are paying for convenience, they just don’t know their is another way – that really isn’t inconvenient either. And there is a food that doesn’t violate any of the Good for You – Naturally! principles, yet is totally convenient.

It most likely will not be for all of you – all the time. But it most certainly will be for some of you – all the time, for some of you – some of the time — perhaps for some of you –  none of the time.

Stay tuned for our announcement.

Lisa’s Simple Potato Soup

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I promised a Corn Chowder recipe about a month ago – ouch! – but I still haven’t found where the children hid the recipe card so here’s Potato Soup instead, for now. This can be made on the stove or in a crock pot.

Simmer in water to cover until soft:

3-4# diced potatoes
2-4 stalks chopped celery
1/2 diced onion
(optional: 2-4 Tb. “BacUn’s” dried bacon bit substitute)

If needed, drain off any excess water, so it just barely covers the vegetables.

Blend, until fairly smooth, 1-2 c. of the cooked potatoes/ vegetable mix with:

2 c. not milk (homemade Almond Milk)
1/2 stick butter

Return blended mixture to the pot. Reheat if necessary.

Life on the Lake!

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Here’s what it looked like an hour or so ago out the street from us. No, we don’t live anywhere near water. We live in the valley between 2 rivers. But our rivers are usually nothing but sandbars with a trickle flowing between them. This year they’ve gotten pretty high with all the rain we’ve gotten. But we’re a long way from flood stage.









Yes, this flood was a broken water main. Thankfully it didn’t flood the front or side road of our house. It was just starting to creep up to our neighbors to the west, and was flowing down the alley to our north and up their driveways. A big dip in the road to our west saved us. The pictures of our boys are on the corner to the west of us. The car – yes it flooded INTO the car – is on the street just west of us. We tried to knock on the door, but no one was home. They won’t be happy when they get home. That’s our daughter behind the tree, (in pink) with water up past her knees. The boat in the first pic is about 1 block west of us.

It took the city about an hour to get someone there to turn off the main! It had burst and raised one whole segment of the street – 1 side of the street about 1/4 of a block long and water was spewing out of both sides of the raised portion. (See first picture) The kids had a great time walking in it and riding their bikes through it. By bath time the water was receding and no fun anymore.

Now the backhoe and jackhammers are at work breaking the street up. Will that be the song that lulls me to sleep tonight?

Getting More Done

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How do you do it all? That’s the question I get asked most often. Answer is, I don’t. No one can. But as a mom of many I recognize that my primary role is management. I don’t have to “do it all.” God has given me many helpers to accomplish the family goals He has given us. Here are some basic tips for getting household things done.

Utilize your work force! Train the children to do household duties and assign them to them. They should know what needs to be done when and by whom, so mom doesn’t have to be constantly thinking of this. Use Chore Charts, if needed to help them remember. Utilize Routine.

Mom should not be trying to plan, teach, care for little ones, and do all the household cleaning, meal prep and clean up, laundry, etc. by herself. The children can handle many, perhaps all the household cleaning and perhaps even meals and laundry depending on their ages. I find teens love to go shopping, even if it’s just for groceries. 🙂 They can also prepare meal lists.

Older ones can play with little ones and even teach some things to younger ones when mom needs to work one-on-one with another one, or work on a household project.

Each child, by middle elementary age, can do their own laundry (and a younger one’s and the younger ones can help).

Even a younger elementary age can put juice and cereal on the table or make sandwiches for the family. And preschoolers can set and help clear the table.

This is not slave labor. It is everyone working together (including the “man of the house”, he lives there and is a parent, too) for a common goal – and training for adulthood.

Just a few tips – I’ll elaborate and give more another time.

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Keeping up at Keeping a Home

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The best home organization method I ever used was an adapted version of the original “Sidetracked Home Executives”. I think the popular fly-lady is based off of S.H.E. too. I recently heard they have a website now (doesn’t everyone) and saw that things have changed now. I’m not as impressed with the new stuff.

The biggest problem I had following the orignal S.H.E. was keeping the 3×5 file box organized. My little ones were constantly dumping it and I was spending more time organizing my box than cleaning my house.

For today I’ll just say having a system helps in getting it done. Having a rigid system – one of those written by a Suzy Homemaker by birth – will not. We free spirits that love living life need something a bit different.

I’ll post bits and pieces in this category as time allows.

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

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Spring Cleaning

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I’m faced with a toughy. Married dd #4 was hired by her grandparents to spring clean their house. She asked if dd#5 (teen at home) could help her and I could watch her son. We would split the money between the three of us.

At the time I said, “Or maybe I’ll let you 2 split the money, and then you could help me and your sister do our spring cleaning. We’ll see.” I wasn’t really wanting “paid” for watching dgs.

But the time of payment came. The job had taken much longer than they had anticipated. They were both tired of cleaning for the moment – and paid more than they expected. And my computer is overloading and no cash in sight for replacing it. I went for the money. My house isn’t very bad. We’ve kept up pretty well but have a few projects that need tackled. I guess if I need her help with the spring cleaning I will have to just pay her back.

Hmmm, which is more important a spiffy, shiny home or an effecient avenue of doing our school work and ministry? I’m not really wanting to get a new computer either, but it appears this one can’t be upgraded – parts are discontinued and “obsolete”. Maybe I’ll forget spring cleaning, spend the time writing more resources that will hopefully sell so I can get the money for the new computer. Hmmm. The decisions of life. To clean or not to clean. 🙂