Recipes and more recipes, repellants, cleaners and more

Spring left this week, the hotter more humid days have come. Not a bad thing, I enjoy warmer weather, not 100 degrees maybe but winter is not my favorite season. We are being warned that Zika mosquitoes are in our area, to take precautions when working outside. Seems skeeters hate lemon in any form. We have lemon balm growing in the yard, and I have lemon verbena in the house. Tucking springs in your shoes, pockets, hat brims and even creating a lei of the leaves to go around your neck is great protection. If you don't have any of these, you might try cutting a lemon and rubbing it on your skin before heading out. Picked up a tip for lip balm this week, if you make it yourself and want color, try powdered dried raspberries. We all are becoming aware that toothpaste and mouthwash have things in them that are not good for us. I am buying toothpaste for sensitive teeth from Swanson now, but mouthwash is simple to make. 2 cups of water, 5 drops of clove oil, 5 drops of cinnamon oil, 5 drops of peppermint oil, and 5 drops of lemon or tea tree oil, keep in a bottle , shake before use.. From Grit magazine, a recipe for fly repellent, lavender, basil or mint all work, tie in bundles and hang in areas that are prone to flies, inside or out. If you are unfortunate enough to suffer migraines, try 1 cup of water, one lemon, juiced, and 2 teaspoons of Himalayan pink salt mixed, stir, drink, ahh, relief. Got corn on the cob? Have you tried this? Cut off the stem end, wrap in two layers of wet paper towels(leave husk on) and lay around the edge of your microwave plate. Nuke 1 and 1/2 minutes, turn over, nuke 1 and 1/2 more minutes, let sit 5 minutes and just slide the husk, silk and all right off. Easy. I found a good recipe for tub and tile cleaner on one of my favorite sites, DIY natural. In a spray bottle, put 1 cup white vinegar, and 4 T dish soap, swish, then add 10 drops tea tree oil, 10 drops eucalyptus oil. A dark bottle is best for this . Shake well before spraying on tub, tile etc, let sit 10 minutes and wipe off with clean towel. And last, I love this for freshening up carpet, it won't clean much but sure makes it smell nice. !/2 cup of cornstarch, 2 cups baking soda, 1 T ground cloves, and 4 leaves of crumpled Bay. Mix in a shaker can and sprinkle liberally over carpet, let set one hour, then vacuum as usual. I have old Parmesan containers that work really well for this kind of mix. In fact since I learned that Parmesan is laced with wood shavings to stretch it, I have quit eating it. Buy a chunk and grate it yourself so you know what you are eating, I can almost taste the wood now that I know about it, dumped out my last round. Been out early this am watering, cleaning the bird bath and enjoying the cool morning before the heat starts. Hope you are having great weather where you are, so much bad stuff right now, tornadoes, floods etc. Have a great Memorial day week end, see ya soon.

Help your diet help you

Your diet always needs your help to keep you well. The more studies that are being done, the more processed foods and junk foods, and fast foods are coming under fire. You need to eat rainbows. The brighter the color the better. Watermelon, blueberries, kiwis, greens, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes instead of white ones, and most whites are grown with a ton of spray, so not healthy. It's finally becoming evident that all the sprays are making us the nation of cancer, arthritis, allergies and Alzheimer's among other ills that plague us. But it will be a long time before major changes are made as the GMO crops are making big bucks for so many, even funding Hillary's campaign. She is promoting them on that account instead of being aware of health needs of our country. This political campaign has been the nastiest I can remember, and neither candidate seems to me to be honest, or caring or reliable. What happened to presidents like Lincoln, Washington etc. Those who knew our country was founded on religious beliefs and needed to follow them. Politics aside, they just make me crazy these days. On the rainbow, be sure to add whole grains that are organic, like quinoa, millet, wild rice. And oh, this morning on Facebook I see China is making plastic rice, yuck. Don't buy that. Did you know that 6 million kids die of diseases that could be treated for the cost of a cup of coffee every year? How sad. Using steroids or antibiotics for respiratory infections? Here is a better way, call 800-991-7088 and order Respiratory Relief, or go to mynaturesrite.com to order, this stuff kills bacterial inflections without harm to the patient. You can control allergies by following a healthy diet and healing your gut, taking away inflammation. Requires a lot of work, but better than meds. If you are taking stuff for reflux, heartburn etc, be aware of the side effects. They weaken your gut, and will cause kidney demise. Because they take out your first line of defense by making your gut weaker and weaker until all your good bacteria get out of balance. Adjust your diet, eat smaller amounts at night and quit eating 5 hours before bedtime to help. Found a new smoothie recipe I really like, 1 cup of plain organic yogurt, 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, or frozen ones, 1 small carrot chunked up, 2 T oatmeal, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 Tablespoon of honey. I did find it a bit thick and had to add a tad of soy milk to make the blender work. But its goooood. Spent yesterday in and out of the house, working on flower beds and garden, need to go back out before the day is over and sweep the debris off the porches, had a guy come clean the gutters this week. Now maybe the dirt won't wash out of the beds all the time. And wonder of wonders, no snakes, toads, frogs or salamander were under all the rocks and leaves I cleaned up. Yea. It's been cool, I like it, no need for heat or fans, just start out with long sleeves and slippers and socks, and shed them as the day warms up. They say we are due a really hot summer so I am enjoying this long spring time. One last spring cleaning recipe, if you have mold on the north side of your house or other buildings, mix 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup water and 1 teaspoon of baking soda in a spray bottle, spray liberally on mold, do not wash off, first rain will clean it all up for you. And it keeps it from coming back for a long while. Have a great last week of May, sure went fast. Stay well.

Blackberry Winter, and more recipes

Well, the weather has presented its own roller coaster lately, its been chilly enough the last few mornings to go hunting for long sleeves, sox and slippers again, but today should be the last cold for a while, back in the 80's by tomorrow. Yesterday we got a brief hail storm tossed in just to make it interesting, stuff bigger than a pea but smaller than a marble, made noise mostly. Had a good bit of rain along with it. It is doing the gardens good, things are growing nicely. Rain is ever so much better than watering. Our well water is hard, lots of minerals, and better than no water but the rain is welcomed. Saw a report on the news this week saying that the third leading cause of death in this country is mistakes made by doctors. That is totally scary, you feel like you have to trust them if you are going to them and yet they are prescribing wrongly and operating the same way and the stats on the number of deaths is really off the wall. I prefer taking care of my health and using my own home made remedies for things. When my sis had shingles, a salve made with hot peppers was given her, why would you want an irritant when you are already hurting? Makes little sense. She had good luck with my pine needle salve which is very soothing. About time to brew up a new batch. For a long time I have been making cough syrup from fresh ginger, horseradish, herbs and onions and garlic. It takes 8 weeks to brew, so not something available if needed in a hurry. Here is a recipe for some you can make and use right away: 1 cup of fresh pineapple juice, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 1 piece of ginger, about 1/2 inch, grated, 1 tablespoon of organic or raw honey and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder. Mix all together and use as needed, up to 1/4 cup at a time, 3 or 4 times a day. This does seem to work too, if you have Hemorrhoids and can not get to a store, soak a cotton ball with apple cider vinegar, place and leave on overnight. This is for external ones, if you have internal ones, in a small flat container freeze the vinegar and cut into slivers you can insert into the anus. Might need a drip catcher to save your undies. Also drinking a Tablespoon of vinegar in hot water every day may help prevent and cure the problem. This one I can't check as I am allergic to coconut, but mixing turmeric powder and coconut oil into a past and applying with a cotton swab is supposed to whiten your teeth. If anyone tries this let me know results please. Did you know you can easily make your own powdered sugar? Just put a cup of organic sugar and 1 teaspoon of corn starch in your food processor and whirl until powdered. I am not using corn starch as its too processed, almost all corn is GMO these days, I have gone to arrowroot instead. My peonies are blooming, the snowballs rapidly fell apart, rain really took those out. Hope all the mom's out there have a wonderful mother's day, I am blessed to have 4 remarkable kids, making every day Mother;s Day. Love them all, makes me realize how lucky I am. God had a most important hand in that venture, no complaints at all. Have a great week, stay well.