Eventful Summer, 2017

I love looking out my kitchen window while I sip a cup of coffee and enjoy the beauty of this mountain. Early spring, March, is yellow time. Forsythias, daffodils, are abundant. Soon they are replaced with Dogwoods and Red Buds, creating a pink and white scene. Around the first of June, the Mimosa's are in bloom. And by later June, the Crepe Myrtles are giving us a brilliant showing of pinks, lavenders, reds and whites. We are just beginning to loose these now, the rain last night seems to have started the flowers falling off the trees. Every season has a color, always something to marvel at. Earlier this spring, my starter in the car gave out, requiring replacement. That was followed by needing new tires, and a few days later, the brakes failed. Spent a lot on repairs, some of which I ma still paying off. Somewhere in this time frame, my daughter Laurie and her son Paul came to visit. Paul designed a great website for my products. Thanks Paul The first of July, my son Brian and his little gals, Erin and Samantha came to visit. We had a wonderful time. Went to Grill 73 for lunch the first day, and after that we went to Bybee, then Dandridge to lunch at a new restaurant there, then Pigeon Forge to the Pottery Barn, their food was good and we watched pottery being made. Went to White Pine to the Burger Bar, and then the next day to Hot Springs N C to the Iron Horse. Whew. One afternoon late into the visit we came home to a backed up septic system. Total yuck, nasty thing to share with guests. Thank goodness my plumber is fast and reasonable, he came and got the tank pumped, but sadly had to take out the pear trees that had grown roots into the system. I have been making pear butter, and pear sauce and canning those pears for a good many years. No more. I am grateful for Brian's help with the clean up and disinfecting, we had a real mess. And the kids kicked in to help me pay the damages, now I am paying them back and grateful for their help. Just 2 days after the Nebraska kids went home, I was canning dill pickles and someone knocked on the door, by gosh, it was Dave and Kim, my son and wife from S. C. What a treat, I rarely get to see them. It's a little cooler today, we finally got some much needed rain. I am also pleased with the orders I am getting from Etsy, and my website, joyfulbodycreations. Each order helps me pay of some of the debt. Will be glad to get it all square again. School has started in some areas around us, and by the end of next week, most of the kids will be back at it. Summer sure flew by. Hope you had a good one too. Take care, stay well, enjoy the beauty around you. Til next time, stay well.

Do it Yourself

Finally, more people are waking up to the dangers of our food, water, cosmetics and what we are doing to ourselves and our environment. I started my journey about 8 years ago when I began to wonder why the tomatoes grown around us were being sprayed with deadly poison all summer. I began a journey through the world of herbs, which I now grow a good many of, and my son has more in his area that I can latch on to. Guess most of you know that a great many drugs that are handed out do not heal anything, just mask symptoms and give side effects. Way back when, the Indians and our grandparents knew much more about healing with herbs that were abundant around them. Feverfew and Willowbark are great ones for headaches, if you ever watched Dr Quinn, she used willowbark for migraines. I have been making salves from pine trees and plantain and comfrey for sometime now. My next venture is into soaps, the first being one that repels insects when you are working outside. The molds I ordered arrived yesterday so will be trying my hand with them in the next few days. I also love my Mother Earth Living magazine, always has so many new things in it. Well worth subscribing to if you are interested in healthy living. Did you know for abdominal cramping and pain, you can put 3 or so drops of peppermint oil into into a teaspoon of organic oil, like sunflower or olive, mix and rub into your belly? The yarrow I grow is good for skin, heals wounds and can be added to facial products to help create a lovely complexion. If you want to make a great toner, boil a cup of water, add 2 teaspoons of yarrow, steep for 15 minutes, strain and add 1 Tablespoon of witch hazel. Apply to your face with a clean cotton ball. If your hair needs a little TLC, boil a quart o water, add 3 6 inch sprigs of fresh Rosemary, steep for 20 minutes, cool, strain and keep in frig. Spritz a little on your hair daily to improve condition. For achy joints, use 2 tablespoons of carrier oil, jojoba, grapeseed, almond, olive, what you have, add 10 drops of lavender essential oil and 10 drops rosemary essential oil, use as a rub to achy places. If you have age spots, use fresh lemon juice several times a day. See, getting natural is easy. The Crepe Myrtle trees are starting to bloom, soon the mountain side will be filled with purples, pinks,reds, and white. Most of the time something lovely is blooming here. I love the delicate Mimosas, tho Iam told they are a "weed" tree, they are still beautiful. Despite the very warm days, summer is my favorite time, not fond of cold weather. I tend to head out and do my gardining and outside work very early when its the most refreshing time of the day. Something about gardening is just good for the body and soul, there is an old saying, One's nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth. If you haven;t, please visit my website on Etsy, joyfulbodycreations, I will be adding things as I learn more. Enjoy a safe Fourth of July, hard to believe we are already this late in the summer. And the eclipse coming up in August. Have a great week.

What's in your personal products

It really bugs me when people say they only live once and will eat/drink/use what they want because life dis short. Having been the caregiver at the end of life for several of my family, I can not imagine wanting someone to have to fee, diaper, clean, bathe, dress me etc. It takes so little to make the changes that make your life healthy. I make a good share of the things i use, all my face creams, medicines and salves. But there are some things that just work better when you buy them. Last week I found a wonderful volumnizing shampoo. It's made by Nature's Gate, and has Holy Basil, ginger and Awapuni in it. After the first use, my hair was so much thicker and nicer I could not believe it. I also found a wonderful deodorant, all natural that smells like almonds. It's a roll on so no earth damaging spray . And of course the one thing I had the most problems with was a sensitive tooth paste. I just could not come up with a recipe that really worked. Tom's of Maine makes great organic toothpaste, including my sensitive. And I like Healthy Mouth mouthwash, tho that can be made with distilled water, clove and cinnamon oils. I just started a whitening routine that you might like. I mixed a teaspoon of turmeric with 2 T of salt and 2 T of organic baking soda, mix well, keep in an airtight jar. Also mix a bottle of half water and half hydrogen peroxide. Dip a damp toothbrush into the powder, an brush away for 5 minutes, then rinse for one minute with the water/peroxide rinse. After that, rinse your mouth well with straight water or your fave mouthwash. My teeth feel like I have been to a dentist, so smooth and slick, wow. Not sure if it will whiten but hopeful, I drink too much coffee and it stains. I am also using an immune boosting oil at night on the bottom of my feet, hoping to get my grand daughters to try it and maybe avoid so many ear infections and bouts of flu next fall. Once you start the study of staying healthy, there is so much good information on line, I spend a lot of time reading and learning about taking better care of me, and others. Since I am 80 and have no health problems, it must work. I did get lucky and leaned young(18) that you can alter what your parents had and avoid the same ills. I do avoid doctors, and will not take meds, they all have dire side effects. My vitamins and organic diet do well to keep me feeling good. I have been eating flat bread sandwiches lately with tomato, lettuce, avocado and onions, all but the avocado from my deck plants. Tasty. If you want organic laundry products, try a line called Meyers. I use their hand soap(liquid) and now am trying their dryer sheets. Love the Lemon Verbena scent, but they have many. All these and so much more can be found at Swanson Vitamins, and are sent right to your door in a few days. I still make my own laundry soap, so easy and effective, a big box of borax, a big box of baking or washing soda and a bar of grated Fels Naptha, enough for over a year for pennies a load. My stain spray is half dawn and half hydrogen peroxide, let sit over night then wash as usual, takes out even old stains. I do hope you will start looking at healthy alternatives, and keep your kids, grandkids and yourselves well and pain free. I have a line of products at joyfulbodycreations on Etsy, and will be adding eczema cream some scrubs and other things shortly, have them brewing now. Have a healthy summer, see you soon.

What are you doing to your home?

Last time we talked about your effect on your body with the food you eat. This time, lets get into the world of household products. The stores have many aisles full of caustic products. Clorox causes damage to your lungs if inhaled, takes color out of your clothes etc if spilled, not a good thing to use. When you shop, go to the laundry section and find a LARGE box of baking soda , I think they are 4 pounds, and an equal size box of borax, then get a gallon jug of vinegar. Altogether this should run under $10.00. Your house can be cleaned from top to bottom with these and a few essential oils, a bit of dawn and some salt. To start, scouring powder is easy, equal amounts of salt and baking soda, mixed and used in a shaker can. I have old Parmesan cheese containers, from before I knew that it was cut with sawdust to make more money for the company producing it. Sprinkle on damp surface and scrub, stains etc go. Laundry soap, well that's equal parts of borax and baking soda with a bar of Fels Naptha grated into the mix. Store in air tight container, I use old plastic shoe boxes. A heaping tablespoonful does a load of clothes, and costs about 7 cents per load. To clean your counters, sinks, tubs, use a mix of half vinegar and half water with a good spoonful of tea tree oil, spray away. This will disinfect your surfaces as well as those caustic things, kills 98% of germs. I use this for shower walls, tough spots on the floors etc. If you have mold on the outside of your house, spray a mix of vinegar and water(equal) with a teaspoon of Dawn mixed in, spray on and leave, the next rain will take the mold away. If you have pets and have boo boos on your carpet, dampen well with white vinegar, sprinkle with baking soda and let dry, then vacuum. Soft scrub can be made by making a paste of Dawn and baking soda, keep in a tightly sealed jar. For ants, boil 1 cup of water, add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, stir well, cool a little then use cotton balls soaked in the solution to apply to window and door frames or anyplace you see ants. For air sprays, use distilled water and your favorite essential oil scents, just a few drops, and use to spray air, fabric etc. You can make it smell however you like it. We had a 13 year old cat that got sick, and had to be put down. I was upset as he was an inside baby, and asked the vet how he got so sick. She said she thought it was something I used in the house, turned out to be Febreze. Most harmful to pets. The internet is full of recipes for safe home made cleaners, and none are going to hurt your health or your kids or pets health. You can make a spray of orange peels or lemon soaked a week in vinegar, strained, and use that on surfaces too, or add citrus scents to your vinegar sprays. To clean your toilet, dump a cup of baking soda in the bowl, and add a cup of vinegar. Let set overnight if possible, then brush and flush. Hope this gives you some ideas about green living, and safe cleaners. Next time lets talk about your personal care items. Have a great week.

What ARE you Doing to your Body?

Did you know that 80% of your health is directly related to what you eat? The rest is due to home and environmental issues. I hope you have passed the area of saying, I will eat whatever I want, whenever I want. Yes, you can, but you will pay. Most of the food grown in our country is affected by the Big Six growers, Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, Dow and Dupont. Their ever growing list of chemicals sprayed on our food, is killing us all. And the bees, butterflies, birds etc. When you buy processed foods from the store, you are consuming Glyphosate, agent orange, hepatitis C, and a long list of ch3emicals including a new one Trump signed on as ok since he took office,Chlorpyrifos. THis deadly new one is known to cause brain damage in children and adults. If you are pregnant and eating this, you likely will cause ADHD, Autism and other seious brain problems. Many other countries are now backing out of buying our tainted corn, wheat and soy products. They care about the health of their citizens.I get a wonderful magazine called Mother Earth Living. This month the article I am reading is called 5-Step Plan to Eating well. Those of you who are meat eaters, do you know that 98% of beef is contaminated with cow feces? And of course the growth hormones and GMO grown feed they eat. Seafood? Well, they eat the poop of all the other sea creatures. Fish has become suspect because of the contaminated water we now have, mercury, and who knows what other radiation etc .Unless you buy boxes marked with a Butterfly and the words, USDA organic, you are eating disgusting food. Go back 20 to 30 years, do you remember hospitals full of babes with cancer? Or wards full of older folk with Alzheimer's? Or so many with arthritis, allergies, aches and pains? The charts show a direct correlation with the increasing amounts of sprays used on our foods. I started looking into this long ago, when I watched what was being done to tomato fields at the bottom of our mountains. Scary, Never buy tomato, corn or potato products that are not organic. My past blogs are full of facts and articles on what we are being fed. Way back in the early 80's I gave up milk products. Soy milk is my fave, tho I have tried cashew, almond etc. I also buy only Silk, as it has the butterfly and organic symbol on the package. For a long time I ate Kashi, but Kellogg's makes that, as well as Bear Naked and Krave, and other products that are organic, but they still push their tainted stuff at kids. I really cringe when I see Cheerios showing darling babies, and saying to feed them Cheerios. No no no. It takes some serious searching, but stores are getting so much better at putting the true organics out there. Once you have found them, shopping is easy. I get the same things every trip to town, and order all my baking and cooking supplies on line to get organics, love Bobs Red Mill flour, baking soda and powder oatmeal etc, all sent right to my door at great price. I like eating out but always have a couple of days I feel different after, my body is not used to eating standard foods, and I can tell the difference. Learn to look out for your health, you can reverse a lot of lifes aches and pains just by changing your diet. You all must have seen the articles out the last week or so saying even one soda a day can cause strokes, heart attacks and memory loss. Shop the outside aisles at the store, avoid the processed foods, cooking from scratch is easy and can be fast. In closing today here are a couple of items I ran across this week. If you have gout, your body is in an acidic state, should be alkaline. To change this and take out the uric acid causing the gout, drink a glass or warm water when you get up(before coffee) with either organic apple cider vinegar with Mother or organic lemon juice. Sometime during the day, drink another cup of water with a teaspoon of baking soda stirred in. This helps get your body into an alkaline state, and avoids a lot of health issues. For kidney stones drink more fluid, eat less salt, drink green tea, make dandelion leaf salad and ear citrus fruits. Next week, lets explore ways of detoxing your home, that's also easy, and so much cheaper than all the chemicals you are buying. Looks like summer has arrived, 90 degrees today. Stay cool, stay healthy, watch your food and feel better. Put a tomato plant on your porch.

Things to try, Carrot soup, Spring on the mountain

It's that wonderful time, when you look up the mountain, it's glorious with dogwoods blooming and redbuds, all against that lovely pale green of spring leaves. This morning it was 28 degrees in Seveirville, not sure what it was here, no sign of frost but feels so cold. We had a warm winter, so this is not feeling much like spring. I love watching the earth come alive, we have had something blooming since late February this year. I don;t watch it often , but caught a part of the Home and Family show on HGTV a while back, they had some ideas to try. If you want those popular pouty looking lips with out botox, try this. Mix some liquid lip balm with 1 tsp cinnamon and a good sprinkle of cayenne powder. Make it into a paste, and apply it to your lips with a cotton swab. If you don't have liquid lip balm, you could melt the solid stuff, adding a little carrier oil to it for the right consistency. Not sure I would try it, but it might be interesting. This one I can say would work. When we were in the Phillipines, for 25 cents American money I went every morning to the neighborhood hair salon and had my hair done, it was long and they did a beehive, french twist or other fancy do. And they always used beer to set and hold and make it shiny. So here is the next tip - Mix beer, maybe 1 cup, with an egg yolk. Apply to clean wet hair , cover with a shower cap and leave on for 30 minutes, rinse well and proceed. You can use beer that's gone flat as a hair set by itself. How about some healthy spring soup? IN a large pot, saute one chopped yellow onion in a little olive oil, when slightly browned add 2 chopped cloves of garlic and 2 inches of grated fresh ginger. Cook 1 minute, then add 2 lbs of cut up carrots, a pinch of red pepper a pinch of salt 2 t honey and 4 cups of chicken or veggie stock. Simmer til carrots are tender, puree with immersion blender. When you put it in bowls, grate a little lime peel over the top and put a spoonful of Greek yogurt on top. This may become my second favorite soup, I also love split pea. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and the Cantata at church. Looking forward to an inspirational morning. Wishing you and yours a Joyous, blessed Easter season. Til next time, enjoy spring and the fresh veggies that are in the stores.

Spring, and cleaning and refreshing naturally

The winter was warm this year, only a few cold days. Now its early March and the fruit trees are blooming as are some of the ornamental trees. Bradford pears have been showing their white gowns for several weeks now. We are already in a drought, which is sad and scary as we are still recovering from the nasty fires in our area of late. At least there is a lot of cleanup going on to remove old leaves and debris that help fuel fires. Lesson learned. If you are getting ready to do some spring cleaning, here are a few easy recipes to help you out. This is a carpet refresh, does not clean but leaves the room smelling fresh. In a shaker container put 1/2 cup of cornstarch, 2 cups of baking soda, 1 T ground cloves, and 4 to 5 crushed up bay leaves. mix well, sprinkle over entire carpet and let sit one hour, then vacuum well. I keep a huge container of this on hand and use it on my mattress every few weeks. 1 cup baking soda, 1 T homemade fabric softener, mix, sprinkle over mattress, leave an hour and vacuum off. I make my own fabric softener with 3 cups white vinegar, 2 cups hair conditioner, and I like Suave, pick a nice scent, its cheap, and 6 cups of hot water mixed together. If you want to avoid the conditioner, use 1 quart of white vinegar, 25 drops of lavender oil and 1 teaspoons of rubbing alcohol, adding 1/2 cup to final rinse water.While you are cleaning to make the whole house smell nice, put a pot of water on the stove, add a few sprigs of fresh rosemary or a good handful from a jar of dried, a sliced lemon and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and simmer. My new Mother Earth magazine says that thyme oil is as effective as any antibacterial you can buy, so to make a cleaner for you bathroom and kitchen surfaces take a gallon of hot water and add 1/2 cup of pure liquid castile soap plus 10 drops of thyme oil, shake and use to clean. And last today, if you are fighting spring allergies or stuffy noses, make some tea by boiling 2 cups w3ater, and adding 6 T of fresh oregano, brew 10 minutes, strain and drink as needed. Here's hoping you are having a lovely spring, enjoy the longer days.