Recipes for getting rid of TOXINS!

Shampoo, soap, deodorant, toothpaste, lotion, household cleaners...What do these all have in common?? TOXINS!!!!

I'm teaching a very eye opening class on TOXINS--how to recognize toxins in body products and cleansers, household cleaners, food, and more. We discuss how to get rid of toxins and how to replace common body products and household cleaners with non-toxic safe homemade replacements. Why get rid of toxins??? They reek havoc on our body and cause many of the problems with our health. Feel free to message me for more information on specific toxins. 

Our family has seen too many of these ill effects from toxins and have decided to Spring Clean the toxins out of our life by cutting sugar, eating only whole foods, using natural body products and health remedies,  cleaning with only natural cleaners, as well as detoxing our bodies. 

Here are a few of our favorite recipes:

Body Care and natural products:

 Wellness Mama has a few good homemade deodorant recipes 

(the first one is my favorite). 

Lavender Rosewood is my favorite for face and body!

I add Gentle Babies oil to Whipped body butter for an awesome Diaper Cream!

Household cleaners: Instead of using toxic and poisonous chemicals to clean my home, I use safe natural essential oils that work even better than the toxic chemicals!

Detox: There are several great methods to use when ridding our body of toxins. Adding Citrus oils to drinking water helps clean the junk in our water and helps maintain health and flowing Lymphatic Systems. Here are a few great recipes for drinking oils! Applying Purification oil or Juva Cleanse over Liver or on feet is another great method. One of our favorites is an Epsom salt bath. Add essential oils to epsom salts (not directly to water) and pour salts into bath. Make sure to get out of tub when the water cools, not staying in and adding more hot water (this will cause your body to reabsorb the junk it just released). Lavender, Lemon and Stress Away are a few of my favorite oils in baths!

The Chemical Free Home book, and The Chemical Free Home, vol 2 have tons of great recipes!! I have extra copies of these if anyone wants one!

 If you're interested in learning more about oils, you can check out these EO blogs, message me or follow this link.

How to order Young Living Essential Oils

Disclaimer: This blog and information is not meant to diagnose, prescribe or treat any disease, illness or injury. 

My favorite "Crunchy" Drinks!

While we drink a lot of water in our home, we also drink 

a few other yummy drinks that have great health benefits! 

GGMS, also called by Trim Healthy Mamas, "Good Girl Moonshine" is consumed daily in our home and served at all of my essential oils classes. My boys affectionately call it "Mommy's Special Lemonade". This drink of water, apple cider vinegar, citrus oils and stevia, is a great cleansing, detoxifying, refreshing and energizing drink! The Citrus Oils can help flush out toxins from our bodies and get rid of bloating and excess fluid. The only brand of oils I would recommend ingesting is Young Living, because YL oils are steam distilled and 100% pure, unlike many brands you buy at the store, which are distilled with solvents that are terrible for your body. Raw Apple Cider vinegar has numerous health benefits and is great for building immunity and balancing your digestive system. Stevia is an alkaline natural sweetener. I always use glass or stainless steel containers when using essential oils, not plastic.

GGMS Recipe:
1 Quart purified water (in glass)

1-2 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar

1-3 drops of Young Living Essential Oil
(Lemon, Citrus Fresh, Grapefruit, Lime are a few favorites)

Stevia to taste (I use about 1/32 tsp)

Ice

Our Strawberry Slush is very similar to the GGMS, but made in my VitaMix blender. I add all the GGMS ingredients, plus frozen strawberries and ice. It is an amazing summer treat that tastes like a strawberry limeade!

Thieves tea has been a soothing helpful drink for me many times!

Another variety of Thieves Tea!

For a simple healthy detox drink, you can simply add essential oils to your water! Adding orange oil to a glass of Iced Tea is a yummy treat too!

Fruit Smoothies (called "Shakes" in our home) have been a family favorite since our boys were little! I blend all the ingredients in my VitaMix, adding Coconut or Almond milk as I blend to get smoothie consistency.

Smoothie Recipe:

1 banana, 1 cup of frozen blueberries, 

1-2 cups frozen strawberries, 2 handfuls of spinach, 

1 scoop of Pea Protein powder, 1-2 TBSP acerola cherry powder

a cube of pureed butternut squash (optional), 

2-3 cups unsweetened coconut milk and ice

Peppermint Chocolate shake:

2 Cups Unsweetened Almond or Coconut Milk

1 scoop of Pea Protein Powder

1 heaping TBSP cocoa powder

1 drop Young Living Peppermint Oil

Stevia to taste and Ice

Kombucha
One of my favorite drinks is probiotic rich kombucha. I make my second ferment with elderberry juice from Azure Standard. I make mine at home very easily with Oolong tea; here is a recipe. This has helped with everyday wellness and immunity; it is great for an upset tummy!

Several of these recipes contain Young Living Essential Oils. If you're interested in learning more about oils, you can check out these EO blogs, message me or follow this link.

How to order Young Living Essential Oils

Disclaimer: This blog and information is not meant to diagnose, prescribe or treat any disease, illness or injury. 

Good reads

Many of you know that I am very intentional about what we put IN our bodies (organic/real food) and ON our bodies (essential oils, natural products), but I also realize there is much more to us than what we consume and touch. My boys are growing up quickly; my oldest devours a novel a day and wants to read anything he can gets in his hands! I want to be careful and intentional about the things we are putting in their hands and minds. We want the things they read, listen to, and watch to produce spiritual fruit, grow their minds and imaginations, and encourage them to follow Christ. Over the past few years, I have asked older and wiser parents for suggestions and help. Here are a few of our favorites...

Missionary biographies

The boys and I just finished Nate Saint's biography and all I can say is WOW! I've read several books on Jim Elliot and other missionaries, but to walk through that story with my boys was incredible! I loved seeing them on the edge of their seat wanting one more chapter, hearing their excitement as they built paper model airplanes, and seeing them process the missionaries' sacrifice of their lives. I pray the Lord will give my boys a heart for the nations to know Him, as we read these biographies!

Some may think it's too violent or sad for their kids to read stories of missionaries or martyrs. However, this generation seems to be old enough to process the battles in Star Wars and video games; let's give them examples of a real and worthy spiritual battle on the mission field. 

Hero Tales  and Missionary Stories with the Millers are great compilations of short missionary stories with great lessons!  Window on the World is a great book that discusses people groups and how to pray for each of them. We also like the Trailblazer books, by Dave and Neta Jackson. My boys are already excited to start reading about George Mueller next week! 

Bible

We want our kids' favorite story, to be the story of God's love and redemption in Christ! We desire them to know God, love and follow Him, So, we desperately need God's Word! Here are a few of our favorite Bibles, from infant to older boy.

Toddler - The Gospel Project Big Picture Interactive Bible for Toddlers, consists of two board book Bibles, an Old Testament and New Testament. My husband reads this Bible to our 1 and 3 years old boys each night. 

Preschool to Young Elementary - The Gospel Project The Big Picture Interactive Bible Storybook. My 7 year old loves keeping up with what he's learning in Sunday morning small group with this Bible! The Jesus Storybook Bible is a great Bible for a wide range of ages! We've read through The Jesus Storybook Bible several times and love it!

School age readers - NIV Adventure Bible My 8 year old loves reading this Bible on his own!

Books and CDs

My older boys have enjoyed Adventures In Odyssey audio stories for years. We love the Bible Eyewitness set that takes listeners back in time to experience each Bible story.

Jonathan Park is another great audio series for kids!

My oldest discovered the Adventures in Odyssey Imagination Station novel series last year and can't get enough! We love the books because they take him on a reading adventure back in time to different significant historical events. He's learning history while enjoying a great adventurous book! 

A few other favorite books are Little Pilgrim's Progress, Kingdom Tales, Chronicles of Narnia Series, and The Boxcar Children, Magic Treehouse. Other fun books our sons have really enjoyed are: Origami Yoda series (Inspired by this series, my boys have made over 100 origami Star Wars characters!), Frog and Toad Series (lots of funny voices and laughs), I Love You, Goodnight, A to Z Mystery Series, God Found Us You, and Geronimo Stilton books and videos. We gave our oldest son The Dangerous Book for Boys for Christmas this year. 

I would love to hear about great books and resources 

you are using with your families!

Our Crazy Crunchy New Year!

As the New Year approaches, I'm reflecting on this past year and all of the changes our family has made this year. This bread making, Creole cooking, food loving city girl went crazy crunchy!!

Over the past couple years, our family has gotten rid of processed food, tried to buy organic, made most things from scratch, and tried to find natural remedies for injuries and illnesses. For a variety of reasons, food intolerances, allergies, and wanting to rid toxins from our home, our family made some big changes and started eating and doing new things that I never would have imagined five years ago! Buying raw milk (especially goat milk) and pastured eggs from a local farm, replacing our medicine cabinet with essential oils and natural remedies, making homemade baby formula daily, and losing over 40 pounds were not on my radar, but have all been part of Our Crazy Crunchy New Year!!

Upon learning of several food intolerances within our family, we've made radical changes to our lifestyle, changing what we eat and where we get our food. Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post on where we get our food. It discusses local food sources, milk from a farm, organic food co-ops, farmer's markets, gardening, and even what we buy at Sam's Club.

After seeing major side effects and injuries from several OTC and prescription medications, we began searching for more natural remedies. I wrote a previous blog post on our big organic switch in our medicine cabinet. We are thankful to find, learn and benefit from Young Living Essential Oils! My family has loved using remedies that the Lord intended for our bodies, and don't have any of the nasty side effects! Young Living Essential oils help with fighting off nasty germs & bugs, bring relief to all of our cuts/scrapes/burns/bruises, and help with everyday owies! We also found an incredible naturopathic physician, who has helped us learn how to eat for our health, while teaching us what to do to bring healing to our damaged guts and body. Many of these remedies my physician recommended can actually be purchased from Young Living! Here are a couple of my physician's recommendations for my family, probiotics, food enzymes, and a natural cleanse (to fight a nasty bacteria found in intestines).

While I began cutting dairy and grains for our family's health, I began making other changes for my own health and diet too. I was not pleased with the number on the scale last January, or the way I was feeling, lacking energy and full of aches and pains. A couple friends told me about their positive experience with Trim Healthy Mama, a healthy eating lifestyle, with no supplements or extra costs (other than the awesome and helpful book). 45pounds and 4-5 sizes later, my blood sugar is balanced (no more crazy highs and lows), I have so much energy and am so thankful for Trim Healthy Mama!! Here's a great explanation video from the authors of Trim Healthy Mama. Here'a link to a quick start guide too! Here are a few of my favorite drink and shake recipes that have helped my journey!

We are definitely still learning how to balance our health, feed a family of six, and well... life. However, I'm really thankful for the positive changes that have helped my family's health this year and look forward to another great year!! I wonder what we'll learn about and change next year??

Disclaimer: This blog and information is not meant to diagnose, prescribe or treat any disease, illness or injury. This is my opinion and I'm sharing the recommendations that were made for MY family. 

Homemade gifts with oils

Many of you know how much I enjoy making things from scratch... food, bath and body products, cleaning products, personal care products, and gifts. As I learn more and more about Young Loving Essential Oils, I'm enjoying making many types of products and gifts "from scratch". Here are a few of my favorite homemade items that would make great Christmas gifts!

Lip Balm - This recipe was inspired by another blogger's recipe, but I tried a couple other oils and will only use glass containers for storing lip balm. I find my glass containers for many of these homemade concoctions at Abundant Health.
3 TBSP beeswax
3 TBSP coconut oil
2 TBSP shea butter
1/4 tsp raw honey
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
8-10 drops of Young Living Lavender, Peppermint or Lemongrass (some people may like Orange or other Citrus oil, but Citrus oils can cause your skin to be photosensitive in sun exposure)

• Over a double boiler, heat (until melted) beeswax, coconut oil and shea butter.
• Once melted, remove from heat and add honey, vanilla and Essential Oils. 
• Pour quickly (before hardened) into 1/4oz glass containers. 
• Seal, label and give away (or enjoy for yourself)
• Makes approximately 10-12 1/4 oz. containers.

Luxurious Body Butter
This is my absolute favorite lotion! I use daily on face and body!!
1 cup shea butter
1/2 cup unrefined coconut oil
1/4-1/2 cup almond or grapeseed oil
1 tsp Vitamin E oil
10-12 drop Essential Oil-- Great oil choices are Lavender, Lemongrass, or Peppermint, I also like Lavender with a couple drops Frankincense or Lemongrass with Cypress).

• Over a double boiler, heat (until melted) shea butter and coconut oil.
• Once melted, remove from heat and add almond oil, vitamin E oil and EOs.
• Chill a few minutes in refrigerator (over over a bowl of ice water) and whip with a mixer to get a wonderful creamy luxurious body butter!!

Bath Salts are super easy to make and a wonderful gift!!

Mix 1 cup of Epsom salts with 6-8 drops of Essential Oil. My favorites are:

• Lavender - calming 
• Peppermint - refreshing
• Lemongrass - great for circulation and detox
• PanAway - awesome for sore muscles!
• Stess Away - exactly how it sounds!

Sugar Scrubs are great for face and body! 

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup sea salt

1/4-1/3 cup Almond or coconut oil

5 drops Essential Oil

Great YL Essential Oils are: Peppermint, Orange, Lemongrass, Lavender, Lemon, Citrus Fresh

Super Easy Youthful Face Cream

4 oz unrefined coconut oil

12 drops Lavender

3-4 drops Frankincense

Combine--that simple! You can also whip with mixer for a whipped lotion.

Interested in ordering Young Living Essential Oils? I would love to help!

Here's a link to order Young Living Essential Oils.

Creative Gift Ideas for Boys

With Christmas approaching, many parents and grandparents are searching for the perfect gifts for their kids. Many get tired of the same noisy toys or video games. Here are several ideas that I've found (and links that others have compiled) of great gift ideas that grow kids' imaginations, minds and love for the Lord!

Here's an awesome link by Megan Spires, with a list of 100+ battery free Christmas gifts for kids! From building toys, paper airplanes and Star Wars Origami to creative toys I would have never thought of... this is a great list!

Looking for gifts that grow kids' imagination and love for the Lord? Check out this post!

Ann Voskamp, author of The Greatest Gift, talks about how to have the greatest Christmas! She has beautiful family devotions (for grown up kids and littles) in her Jesse Tree Advent books.

My boys get excited every year when we pull this out of the attic! I love hearing them act out the Christmas story as they play together!!

Do you have a history lover? Or trying to foster an appreciation for American History? This inexpensive CD set would be a great gift!

Looking for family devotional books? Hero Tales is a family favorite with our boys! There are several volumes in this series.

My favorite gift for our oldest son this year is The Dangerous Book for Boys!

My son's favorite book from library, because what boy doesn't LOVE Legos!!

Snap Circuits has been one of my boys' favorite gifts!! They (and Grandpa) spent hours playing with it together!

I would love to hear your creative gift ideas!!!

Disclaimer: There are NO affiliate links. Just sharing my opinion and ideas that I liked!