“Where society is rightly ordered children are regarded, not as an encumbrance, but as an inheritance; and they are received, not with regret, but as a reward.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon
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Author Archives: Lisa @ Me & My House
Healing IBS
New video today with Ann Malkmus and how she beat IBS (and other things) through juicing, veggie smoothies, cooked veggies, probiotics, digestive enzymes, and walking. View below and read more at Hallelujah Acres. See also books by Paul Nison, who also healed his IBS through nutrition.
Food Friday: Coco Balls
These are one of my good-goodies, meaning they taste great and are a great treat, but are also Good for You-Naturally!™ These are a great holiday treat, taken from Good for You-Naturally!™ Weekly Menu & Recipes ~ Level 1 – with over 60 recipes and complete menu for transitioning to whole foods that are Good for You-Naturally!™ – and Holiday Delights.
Coco Balls
Yield: about 20 1″ balls
- 1 cup Raw Almonds
- 1 cups Dates
- Purified Water, to cover Dates
- 2 Tbl. Raw Carob Powder (or Raw Cacao Powder)
- 1 teaspoon Real Vanilla
- ¾ cup dried Coconut +
- ¼ cup dried Coconut
- Optional: 2 Tbl. Raw Honey
- Optional: 1/2 tsp. ground Cinnamon
1. Soak pitted Dates in Water to cover for 1-2 hours.
2.Remove Dates from Water. (You can save the water and use it in a Smoothie or other sweet recipe.
3.Grind Almonds to a coarse powder in food processor or blender. (Processor recommended if you have it.)
4.Blend in Carob Powder, and Cinnamon, if using.
5.Add Vanilla, Honey, and Dates,. Process till smooth. In the Food Processor, this will form into a ball after adding Dates
6.Add 3/4 cup Coconut. Stir (squish) or process in.
7.Roll into approx. 1” or so balls.
8.Roll balls in remaining Coconut.
9.Refrigerate or eat.
Tip! If you prefer a non-Coconut version, leave it and the honey out. Make a very simple version with just Almonds, Carob Powder and Dates.
Tip! This can be done in the blender, but I’d recommend doing your Almonds first. Removing them from blender. Then blending your Dates, Honey, and Vanilla (along with any of the soak water needed to make a paste.) Then mixing Almonds and Dates together by hand (truly by hand, kneading together.)
Food Friday: Cream of Broccoli Soup
Creamy soup for cold nights. A family fave with whole wheat bread straight from the oven, and a veggie tray. As always, a quick and easy, family friendly recipe that is Good for You-Naturally!™
Cream of Broccoli Soup
Serves approx. 3 (we triple this for our family of 8)
- 3 cups veggie (or chicken) broth
- 1 head broccoli, diced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 3 Tbl. real organic butter
- 3 cups milk, homemade almond or raw goat
- ⅓ cup whole wheat flour, fresh ground
1.Prepare veggies.
2.Cook broccoli in broth.
3.Saute onion in butter.
4.Blend above with 1 cup cold milk, till smooth.
5.Add to one more cup of milk and heat until bubbly.
6.Shake flour with last cup of milk.
7.Whisk flour and milk into soup. Cook until thickened.
If you like the cheese thing, grate a little on top of each bowl after dishing up.
Food Friday: Apple Crisp
It’s getting cold and that means some mornings we want more than just our fresh juice or green smoothies. We want warm belly. One of our favorites is Apple Crisp. I say this recipe makes 4-6 servings; we double it for our family of 7-8. But that’s for eating it by itself for breakfast, not as a dessert after supper, which you also could do. Recipe from Good for You-Naturally!™ Weekly Menu & Recipes ~ Level 1 – over 60 recipes and complete menu for transitioning to whole foods that are Good for You-Naturally!™
Apple Crisp
- ⅓ cup Raw Coconut Oil or Organic Butter
- ¼ cup Raw Honey
- ⅓ cup fresh-ground Whole Wheat Flour OR **fresh ground Oat Flour
- 1 cup rolled Oats
- ½ teaspoon ground Cinnamon
- 2 – 2 1/2 cups Apples, cored and sliced (about 1/4” thick) (or other fruit)
Cream Coconut Oil and Honey Lightly cut in Flour, Oats and Cinnamon (with fork – or mix with hands) Spread Apples evenly over bottom of 2 qt. rectangle baking pan (about 7×11) or square cake pan Crumble Topping over Apples Bake at 350° for 25-35 min. until Apples are tender.
Tip! Oat Flour is simple to make with Rolled Oats. Just toss Oats into the blender and blend until flour.
Tip! Double or Triple this recipe will fit in a 9X13 pan.
Tip! Make very cute individual servings, by dividing ingredients out into 1/2 pint, wide mouth canning jars to bake and serve.
Bon Appétit!
Holiday Scents
Tis the Season
ThanksGiving (as a Holiday) is over and everyone is shifting to the Christmas mood. Our son has been asking since September to sing Christmas songs and I’ve told him all along, “Not till after Thanksgiving.” Well, it’s here.
The fragrance of the holidays is one of the top things that I think make it seem like the holidays. But artificial fragrances do me in. I can’t handle too many candle brands, and no “air freshener” brands. I just don’t tolerate chemical smells well (not even perfume and cologne, and certainly not in cleaners and such.)
But I do love natural scents, such as whole food goodness baking in the kitchen, spices simmering in a pot of soup or such, and 100% pure therapeutic grade essential oils diffusing throughout the home.
Holiday Joy and Christmas Spirit are favorites. In fact, another son has been diffusing it for over a month, any chance he gets. It’s obviously one of his favorite essential oil blends.
Others that will get you in the holiday mood are White Fir, Wild Orange, Cinnamon, and Clove.
Of course, we can’t forget Frankincense and Myrrh either.
Order your holiday essential oils now to get in the mood with natural holiday scents from 100% pure and natural, therapeutic grade essential oils. And don’t forget a Diffuser to get the scent-sational fragrances in the air.
See our essential oil website for more info on Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade™ Essential Oils.
My disclaimers: Neither the FDA nor any other entity has endorsed any of my content. I make no claims for healing, and do not advise, diagnose, prescribe or any other such thing. I only share our own personal experiences and those relayed by others. It is your right and responsibility to educate yourself and make decisions for yourself in matters of health.
Does it Grow on Trees?
This is the biggest shopping weekend of the year, from “Black Friday” to “Cyber Monday”, with Small Business Saturday sandwiched in-between. Sadly, the day after ThankGiving (and now this year, on Thanksgiving itself!), when people are hopefully taking time to Count Their Blessings and give thanks to God for all He has provided, many are shopping long and crazy hours just to get more stuff.
For some, this is a way to afford gifts for others. Some wait and save for months for something that is considered a need, that they know will be coming at a more realistic price this weekend. But many just buy more and more “stuff” – toys for both little and big “kids” – because it’s “cheap”(er) this weekend, and it’s “bigger and better” than what they have.
Whatever your shopping habits, we want to encourage you not to spend money on just “stuff”, but rather to invest in a much smaller amount of truly worthwhile products for the wellbeing of your family – spiritually, educationally (mentally), and physically; products that will truly be helpful, not just “stuff”. Although we are pleased to offer so many resources that fit in the category of worthwhile, helpful products that truly contribute to the wellbeing of your family, we never want to encourage you to spend money when you shouldn’t be. Although it’s green, it is not as plentiful as leaves – and doesn’t grow where they do.
But when you’re ready to buy, whether this weekend or some other time, we hope you’ll consider purchasing from Me & My House, both our Exclusive Resources and those that we have carefully chosen from our partners. We also ask that you consider supporting Small, Family, and Home Businesses (like Me & My House and many others) when you do shop.
IF you are shopping this weekend, consider some of our Partners’ great offers that I’ve shared over the last few days/will be sharing on this blog and our Lifestyle Education through Discipleship blog.
But for one of the best investments you can make for your family’s well-being, watch for another post later today announcing our own Small Business Saturday – Cyber Monday FREE Bonus Gift we’d like to give to YOU.
Bone Healing at Our House
Broken bone healing support at our House – before and after proper medical attention, setting and casting. (Not med advice, claims, or any such. Just what we do. And not everything at the same time.)
General important foods: green leafy veggies for calcium and trace minerals, bananas for potassium, easy to digest proteins-good whole foods. Sounds like a Green Smoothie to me. 🙂
Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils: Lemongrass, PanAway/ Deep Blue, (need to re-order or find quickly) Helichrysum, Peppermint (especially at the beginning, and for tummy after anesth).
Supplements: Calcium, Magnesium, Vita D, Vita C, chlorophyll.
Herbs: Echinacea Goldenseal (for detoxing fro anesthesia), Nettles and Oatstraw (for bone healing), Astragulus (healing support – if I can find more, we’re out.)
Homeopathic: Arnica (pain and healing support), Phosphorus (for anesth detox) (Didn’t have Nux Vomica in my purse for immediately after awakening. He didn’t get sick, but it helps for the detoxing too.)
Thankful for God’s original natural healing helps, and His design of our bodies to self-heal with proper support.
See our essential oil website for more info on Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade™ Essential Oils.
Day in the Life of a Homeschool Mom
While other homeschool mommy’s children were making lapbooks and preparing Pilgrim plays (which we many time do) our day/week went a little different.
This is how it looked on paper (well in my head).
Monday-Tuesday: Get all household chores finished.
Wednesday: Children work on ThanksGiving fun projects, I get things ready to have an Essential Oils vendor’s booth at Support a Soldier Fundraiser on Friday and Saturday. If I wasn’t totally ready on Wed., it wasn’t going to happen, because I wasn’t going to stay up all night Thursday, nor stress out about it.
Thursday: Children watch Thanksgiving Day Parade while I begin cooking. Then they help out a bit, set up the tables and dishes and touch up floors and toilets, for a fairly stress-less day before our Family Dinner here with 21 people.
It almost came off without a hitch but ….
Mon. and Tues. went as planned. Wed. went as planned–pretty much. Children didn’t do fun projects–related to ThanksGiving, but rather built a fort and finished up their chores. I had everything ready to go for my EO showing.
Thur. began as planned, parade and me in the kitchen. Turkey on. Potatoes on. Whoops dd who put them on for me, after I peeled and she cut, may have thought I was watching them. I thought she would. They got a bit over boiled (falling apart.) Oh well, a bit soupier mashed potatoes than usual, but plenty of time in the crock to firm up a bit.
2nd turkey on. Yams in the oven. Onto Pies. Perfect crust–till I overcooked it during pre-bake. 2nd try–way to “gluten-y” (oh, I didn’t put full amount of butter in.) 3rd time’s the charm, right? (I hate that saying, but) Yes. 3rd try turned out perfect. Dinner rolls made into cute little bow-knots and raising. Pie crusts pre-baked and ready to fill.
“Mom! E’s wrist is broken!” What? No screams. No cries. What’s going on? Boys horsing around together. He fell back and landed wrong.
Yep. One look. No guessing. It is definitely broken. Take a moment checking on him. “Get ice on it. Check EO drawer for Helichrysum.” None. “Put a bit of Peppermint on it.” Oldest daughter sits with and holds him.
” Take the yams out. Put the pies in. Then the rolls should be ready. Call your dad to meet me in Urgent Care.” And I run to get dressed and run a quick brush through my hair.
Urgent Care is closed. On to ER. His dad will figure it out.
He’s still not uttered a cry. Only a wince when we went over bumps in the road.
Get settled in an emergency room. IV started. (Only time he came close to crying.) Call from home. “Mom, when do we turn the turkey on?” “It’s been on since noon. Should be about done.” “No. It’s not on.” “Turn it on now! ”
Call to all our guests to fill them in on what’s happening and tell them to plan on dinner at 6-6:30 instead of 5. Hopefully we can be out of here by then. Or at least that’s the plan we’re shooting for.
X-rays (and still no dad there.) Yep. As ugly on the X-ray as the outside looks. Both bones broken through. One totally hanging out there. Nasty. ER doc says they’re calling in the orthopedic surgeon. So much for a simple set and send you home. Surgery scheduled for about 6.
Nasty break.
Waiting. Daughter heads home, and plan will continue as planned–without us there. Now praying he comes through it well and can go home instead of staying the night.
Many calls and texts to and from family as we just sit and wait and wait for surgeon to get there. E just lays quietly. Says he doesn’t hurt, but just tired. And not wanting to talk.
Anesthesiologist comes. Surgeon comes. E starting to get a bit nervous. First tears. He’s concerned he won’t be able to eat. (Right hand.) I assure him that I’ll feed him–and that he’ll probably learn to do lots of things with his left hand. His sister did. We talk about getting to eat turkey dinner after surgery. About sibs bringing it up to him if he doesn’t get to go home right away. About everyone coming to see him after dinner if he has to stay the night. He’s afraid he won’t be able to go to sleep fast enough for the surgery. I assure him that the medicine the anesth gives him will put him to sleep very quickly. He won’t have to go to sleep himself. And he won’t feel or remember anything while they work on him. He’ll wake up and have his cast on and his wrist will be straight again.
Back to surgery. More waiting. We play dots and boxes to pass the time.
Calls from home. Turkey still not done. Waiting on it and one family. No calls or texts for a while. More dots and boxes. More waiting. That 45 minutes lasted several hours.
Surgeon comes out. Went very well. They’ll come get us to go see him in recovery as soon as they wake him. We can take him home if he comes out of anesth OK. Surgeon leaves the hospital. More waiting.
And waiting. And waiting. The next half hour lasts several more. OR nurse comes out. He’s doing well. They’re waking him slowly, so he doesn’t freak out. She leaves the hospital. More waiting.
And waiting. Anesth comes out. He’s doing well. Not wanting to wake fully up, but doing fine. He leaves the hospital. More waiting.
Doctor comes in again. It’s now been twice as long for the waking up as for the whole put him to sleep, set the bones and cast the arm. “He’s awake. They’ll come get you in a minute. You can take him home.”
Finally back to our boy. He’s up. Eating a bit. If he can get up and walk around a bit he can leave.
A little wobbly, but OK. No getting sick. I start to dress him. Oh yeah. They cut his shirt off. “That’s OK. He can wear the hospital jammie shirt.” Oh, yeah. You didn’t wear shoes and socks. “Here’s a pair of hospital ones he can have. Does he have a jacket?” No, it was really warm at 3 when we came. “No. Let us wrap a warm blanket around him.” I’m thinking Cha-ching$ Along with the urinal that didn’t get used because after saying yes he had to go before surgery he decided he didn’t.
First smile since the fall.
Into the wheelchair, car, then headed home. Very pleased with the care we received, with all the staff. Thankful for quality emergency care.
Half our guests are still here. YEA!! Turkey wasn’t getting done, so they ate without it and gravy. Done now and turkey and full fixings dinner awaiting us–and more importantly, people we love.
The other children have pulled it off, and even cleared the table and ran a load of dishes. We are blessed. Thank you my loves! You’re the best!
A night in the recliner for me and E. Me waking every hour, moving his fingers and applying ice.
No EO booth today. Just oiling up my own little trooper. Dr. Mom steps in when emergency skill is complete. And back to another Day in the Life of….
Blessed Thanks Giving
Happy ThanksGiving, my dear friends.
May the day be filled, for all of you, with faith, family, and friends (in thought if not in person), for the most important things we have to be thankful for – are not “things”!
Remember Who we are Thankful to ~ the Giver of All Good Things,
God Almighty, Creator & Lord!
