I have food storage but medicinal storage?!?

I found a book that was recommended in a group I participate in and I have loved it.  I know how important food storage is.  So when I heard about this it made total sense to me that we should have medicinal storage too.  I mean we are bound to get sick in an emergency just from stress alone.  Then as I started reading this it just seemed like something I needed to do.  So as I was reading through this book I started to search out and find out about new natural ways to treat illnesses.  This got me started on a whole new phase of Natural healing.
She goes into detail about how she had to find and was lead to find new natural ways to treat her Lyme disease.  She said she had to write is all down and make a book out of it because she had found so much stuff that could benefit so many other people.  She was also lead by the spirit to write this book and share her knowledge.
I am glad she did because she has so much good information in this book. I will always keep this on hand to have in an Emergency or if we come to the point where drs aren't available.  I will have somewhere to go, to know what to do.

She talks about Hauns Mill,  If you are LDS you will know this story.  This woman Amanda Smith was lead to know what herbs and natural things she could do to heal her sons blown out hip.  I'm sura a lot of faith went into this experience as well.  But she took the things around her that she was inspired to use and his hip healed and a gristle grew in place and he was never crippled in life.  Amazing.  The way she explained it though made so much sense.  God knows what plants will heal our body he put them here so we can use them.  I am just amazed at how much he put here and we just need to learn how and when to use them all.
After this story she says there are some important steps we need to take

1.  Turn to the Lord first.  He knows all and will help us
2.  We need more than simple weeds or food to help us treat the illnesses that may lie ahead of us.
3.  We need to store remedies in our home.
4.  Use more than one remedy or treatment
5.  Use remedies with diligence.  

She goes through and talks about how we can prevent sickness in a disaster and what precautions we can take.  She then goes through some diseases and what they are virus or bacteria and what you can use to treat it.  She has a top 20 things she would recommend everyone has on hand for a medical emergency.  They are pretty basic things that can be used for multiple sicknesses or just in our daily use.  So you can rotate through your medicine storage just like you would your food storage.
I found so many helpful things to use for when we get sick and get a common cold or flu.  There are so many different ways to treat it.  It depends on how our body reacts to that certain treatment too.
So I love that she explains each one in so much detail.  Its such a good book I highly recommend it for anyone.  I know that I will continue to use it for years to come.  I will use it for a reference book for so many things.

This got me researching other balms, salves and tinctures to have on hand.  So I made a little kit that I take with us when we go on a trip or camping.  Wherever we go.  I got this little bag for cheap.

I filled it up with your basic first aid bandages

Then I added Silver in a spray bottle for sunburns or other skin problems. I love silver I don't know how I lived without it before. 

I have a neosporin type salve, suncreen, a vicks like salve and an activated charcoal mix.  

Its so nice to just have this in the car and have it when we go places.  I have really gotten into making new more natural things for me and my family.  I will share more later but it has inspired me to research and seek to learn more about the plants that have been put here on earth and how to use them.  One day I might have to use them to save us or just help us out. I want to be prepared and know what I can do.   I also just love anything natural lately that is my passion.  I want to learn all I can.  

The More of Less

I have been trying to minimalize for a while now.  I know I have posted about it before but this book "The more of less" is amazing.  I did pretty good at getting rid of a lot of stuff.  This book is different though.  It does more explaining WHY you would want to minimalize.

He tells his story about how he came to realize how much stuff he actually had.  He woke up and said that he wanted to spend more quality time with the things and people that matter.  Instead of spending so much time organizing and cleaning the junk he didn't really need.

His main idea in this book is to live intentionally and he talks about finding our purpose in life.
What do I need to own to accomplish my purpose.  Does everything I own have a purpose and do I use it regularly?  These are good questions to ask when we are trying to get rid of stuff.  Why do I want to minimalize?  Then write it down and put it somewhere I see it everyday so I am reminded why I am doing all of the cleaning out.  It will keep you motivated.

One of the hardest things I think is with the kids.  They had so many toys and my kids have been pretty good about letting me get rid of them or not even noticing they are gone.  I love it.  I have put it down to the toy box.  I just read something that said we shouldn't just have a big box of toys because then they dump it all out instead of getting just one toy out and playing with that so I will have to work on that one next.

He did talk about having boundaries with kids.... you can keep as many as fit in this box or or dresser.   Then they can choose but they still have limits as to how many.  This lets them have their part and opinion on what they keep.  I think this will come in handy when my kids are older.  Right now they are too little to care too much.  Giving them a limit will help though.

He talked about how with less toys they became more creative, cooperative, and have more imagination.  They are forced to use that imagination that they love to use when they are little.  I love to see my kids make things up and fun games they play.  They learn to use one toy for many things, they can be creative in their play.

Minimalism is more important when you have kids  you can teach them they don't need stuff to satisfy their needs.  They need to be outside playing.  My childhood memories is all playing outside and not wanting to come inside.  Being creative.  It teaches them that spending time with loved ones is more important than managing and organizing our stuff we don't need.

This leads us into gift giving and receiving.  Its quality over quantity,  needs over wants, experiences over possessions.  Go do something fun and have a fun experience with them that they will remember forever.  Memberships somewhere... zoo, treehouse. gym consumable presents.... food or coloring pages, Piano lessons paid for.  I love this idea of experiences over things.  We love to go places and the kids are always asking to go fun places.  We can use those as gifts and then we don't have more and more toys floating around and cluttering up my now clean spaces.
I don't really remember toys from when I was young but I do remember things we did, experiences we had.  Those are where the good memories are.

The last part of the minimalism that I had never thought of is that when you clean out and you find that you can donate those extra 10 towels you had to a homeless shelter or a womens shelter.   That will meet their basic needs where they were an excess in our home.  Our extras can meet their needs it makes me realize that we don't NEED those and someone else does.  It makes you feel good.  Then as you look around at other areas of you life you will see how much you don't need.  How much other stuff you can get rid of and it will be so much easier knowing that it will really help someone else less fortunate.   Generous people realize they have enough and that is why they can give.

This is going to be hard for me because I know that I like to buy things.  I need to work on it and I know it will be a process but that is ok little by little we will get where we are going.

Positive parenting

Every parent can benefit from this book. I know I sure have learned a lot from it so far.

I heard about this book in a mom group on facebook.  My kids are like most kids and throw those tantrums that you are embarrassed to see yourself.... What do you do? Sometimes I just want to walk away and pretend they aren't my child.  haha.  I would never do that ... beyond 10 feet.  So when I learned that this book had some good suggestions I was all over it.  I ordered it off Ebay.  Books are surprisingly well priced there.  That is where I get a lot of my books from.  It came quick and I jumped right into it because I was at a loss of what to do to help me keep my sanity and help them as well.  I'm sure its frustrating as a child to not get what you want.  But I am realizing that I need to teach them these principles.

I am only about 100 pages into it but I have learned a lot and most of it is about myself and how I react to their tantrums.  I have a lot more to learn but here are some interesting things I have liked so far.

"Research has shown that the most effective way to reduce problem behavior in children is to strengthen desirable behavior through positive reinforcement rather than trying to weaken undesirable behavior using aversive or negative process."   The international Encyclopedia of Education 1988

The main thing he talks about is that we need to give the kids the positive attention when they do good things.  To start out we might have to point out the smallest positive things.   Everyone likes to be praised for things.  If we continue to point out the good things they are doing they will strive to do things that we will say good job for.  We as parents need to have as many positive interactions with our kids EVERYDAY.  It takes some work to get used to.  Some days I feel like all I do is say No or Don't to the kids.   We need to point out all of the good things they are doing.
One thing that he said is to complement them when they are playing quietly with their siblings.  I thought no you can't interrupt their quiet play time.  They will get distracted and stop playing nice together.  But its important for them to know that you appreciate that they are getting along and sharing.

When we have to stop some bad behavior like hitting we respond in a non emotional way.   This is soooo hard for me.  I am quick to anger and frustration when it comes to this.  Like I said I have a long way to go.  He says Its not simply enough to stop the bad behavior but we have to redirect it to something appropriate.  Show them something they can do that is good.  This is not only teaching them a good thing they can do but also distracting them from focusing on the inappropriate things they were doing.     We have to teach appropriate behavior.   We must be teachers of behavior not punishers of behavior.  This is so good to learn that kids learn good behavior but they need to learn it from us.

This is all new and hard for me haha.  When they are fighting about everyday stuff just ignore it and don't give it any attention.  Don't react to inconsequential behaviors.  They will find that it doesn't work.  They will stop fighting and trying to get attention that way.  As we give them good attention hopefully the fits will stop and the good behavior will grow.  Once again this is hard to ignore those fits, since they seem to happen all the time.  I know its a process to work through.  I have noticed that after a while they stop and will come talk to me and usually they have calmed down enough to talk and reason.  Any small step I am glad for.  I am working on breaking that habit of reacting and giving attention to that and I need to look for more positive ways to encourage them to be good.

When I first started pointing out the positive and good things the kids were doing it was good.  I would tell them how nice it was that they were sharing or that they listened the first time I asked them to do something.  I was good for a day.... then I found myself slowly slipping back to threatening and punishing them.  Its a habit that needs to be broken.  I haven't been very good but I keep trying to remind myself to do it.  I know it will make life easier and it will help my kids so much.  I will keep trying and let you know how it goes.

Update on Natural deodorant search

So after that last deodorant post I had some suggestions and so I explored them.  The first one was this Arm and Hammer one.  It is  very reasonably priced for a "natural" deodorant and easily accessible.  Walmart carries it.  I did like it and used it for a while but it does feel wet when you apply it and I don't really like that feeling.  It worked a lot better than any of the other ones I had tried up to this point.

I then heard about Schmidt's and found a sale so I got a few.  I didn't really like the smell of the cedar wood and juniper one.  The rose vanilla is divine... and charcoal magnesium is my favorite.  I feel like the charcoal magnesium one is softer. I do love it because I know that the charcoal is good and it removes any toxins that are in my skin.  I know I have plenty because I have used commercial deodorant for 20+ years.    So charcoal is a substance that absorbs toxins and poisons. I had heard and read about them using it in the ER's with patients that had swallowed household cleaners or other poisons.  I hadn't really heard about using it besides that until I read the Medical storage book.  She goes into a lot of detail about how she uses it in daily life.  Its wonderful and great to have on hand for medical emergencies.

Magnesium is a mineral I have been trying to up in my diet its hard though because I don't know a lot of food that has magnesium.  I have been taking magnesium baths and I even have a supplement for magnesium. It plays such an important role in our muscles and digestive health.  So I thought this was a great combination for a deodorant.

Plus I feel like all of these Schmidt deodorants work well and I don't feel like I stink.  They don't go on wet. So they are just what I was looking for and it has all the natural healthy stuff I wanted.  Yay.
I finally found my deodorant that works and smells great.

I made sunscreen because of this...

 I have been slacking at the Blog lately.  We have just been so busy with Spring and yard work.  Getting our house ready for the crazy remodeling stuff.  So needless to say the blog has taken the back burner.  Here I am though ready to share some fun new stuff I have experimented with.



The more I learn about being natural and using plants, the more amazed I am at what has been allowed to be put in our "stuff"  I can't believe what is in our food, our beauty products.   We are surrounded by all of this bad stuff that has been put in.  No wonder we have so many health issues.

Anyway.....

Our skin is our largest organ and we put so many things on it.  Lotion, soaps, sunscreen just to name a few.  I went and looked at the ingredients in our lotion and sunscreen and besides the fact I didn't know what more than half of them were the other half I did know weren't good things to be putting on our skin to be absorbed into our bodies.
 So I went on a search of home made sunscreen and lotions.  I have recently loved making my own salves and I figured there would be one for lotion and suncreen. Sure enough there is.    Good old Wellness mama.   She is amazing  here is here post and recipe for the sunscreen.  I had most of the ingredients I had to get zinc oxide and red raspberry seed oil.  So it was pretty easy for me to make.


We were going on a trip for spring break so I wanted to make it before we left so I could test it out.  I just put them in some containers I already had from previously ordering a bunch of containers.


I used it on our trip and it worked the kids did get a little red one day because I am not in the habit of reapplying sunscreen. Normal sunscreen usually last all day.  I think if I would have reapplied it they wouldn't have gotten that little red.  It worked great though.  I felt so much better knowing exactly what was going on their skins too.   I will be using this all summer and hopefully it will work great and I will get in the habit of applying it again and start a new habit.  Its pretty cheap too once you add in all the ingredients.  So much better for your skin because I add vitamin E so I know they are getting good lotion as well while they are being protected from the sun.