Who are you?

If you are a believer in Jesus/Yahshua the Messiah, what do you call yourself? Who do you say you are? What does the bible say about you? What does the bible call you? Do you know?

You should.

This is the stepping off point. Once you grasp this fact, your life will never be the same. I promise you. Spend an hour watching the following video, PLEASE! If you call yourself a Christian, WATCH this.

Another Homemade: Toothpaste

The toothpaste looks rather gross all sloshy in the jars, as I look at them now. At the time, I thought this was the cutest pic ever. Ah well, it was late.

Regardless of the sloshy messy look of the toothpaste, it serves its purpose and is quite cheap! 

Here is our recipe:

8 T. coconut oil

12 T. baking soda

between 20-40 drops of the essential oil of your choice. 

Combine the coconut oil and baking soda and mix until the baking soda is fully incorporated into the coconut oil. 

Add essential oil, and mix thoroughly. 

Put a bit into individual jars or other containers for each of your family members. 

Remember, this is coconut oil, so depending on the temperature of the bathroom, your toothpaste might be runny or very solid. 

Homemade Face Wash

(Those are my little glass jars I got this past week on my thrifting trip.)

My skin is dry, it's oily, it cracks and peels, and then it produces way to much oil. I thought I was cursed with bad skin. No pimples, or anything like that, just crocodile skin around my nose, between my eyebrows and under my chin. That is, until I STOPPED using expensive store bought facial cleansers and decided to come up with my own. 

It's quite simple actually, on most days I just use a simple castile soap to gently cleanse my face. But, there are times, especially in winter, that I see that the return of the dreaded crocodile skin is imminent. So, a few times a week I mix together in my little Saki cup (above) a bit of organic course grained sugar, honey, baking soda, liquid castile soap and a tad bit of water, make a thick paste and give my dry areas a good scrub. The sugar scrubs away the dead and drying skin, the castile soap whisks away dirt and oil, and the honey softens my skin like nothing else. The baking soda...well, I have just become accustomed to adding it...I'm sure it does something good. :~)

Once a week or so, I'll make a bigger batch and scrub my entire body down with it. I love the feel of my skin after a good scrub down. It's so soft, and just has a glow to it. 

When my skin is extra dry and sensitive, I'll grind up a bit of oatmeal in the blender and add that to my mixture. If I'm out of sugar, I'll use cornmeal or salt. Sometimes a bit of lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar is nice to add to the mix. There are so many variations to a homemade face wash. Use what you have, and find what works for you. 

In the summer, as I become less dry and more oily, I use glycerin water to moisturize my face. In the winter, when I need a good thick moisturizer, I use coconut oil. Last year I used olive oil, but I find the coconut oil to absorb considerably better than olive oil. I LOVE it, and it smells like a mounds bar :~) I do have a stick of cocoa butter that I use when I need some serious, serious moisturizing, but other than that, there are no lotions of any sort in my home, something that I thought would NEVER be possible. 

I love my little glass jars. I can keep a tiny bit of my kitchen ingredients right there in the bathroom. It's so convenient and pretty. 

What's even better than convenience, to me anyway, is the frugality of it all. I love saving my husband money and finding creative uses for what we already have in the house. It's one of my favorite things. 

Thrifting Finds

I love laying out all my thrift store finds.

 clothes drying rack $1

5 wide mouth quart sized canning jars $.25 each

real military issued combat boots (for my son) $1

 half bushel basket $.50 

4 glass jars with glass lids $.25 each

spoon rest $.25

clay jar with cork stopper- over priced at $1, but I've been searching for one

The Joy of Cooking cookbook $.50 

Book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle $1

 8 glass spice jars $.50 for all

zebra print collar for my pooch Rufus $.25

 cheese grater which I needed for zesting $.25 

tongs-can't ever have too many tongs-$.25

barrette-free because she forgot to ring it up and just gave it to me

 spool holder for thread $1

 Crepe Cookery cookbook $.50

and one leather and wicker bag that is totally awesome $2.50

 (Not pictured here is the black hook dealy that is pictured down farther and I picked that up for $3)

All for under $16

 

I'm so excited about these. I LOVE containers. 

This was a little pricey ($2.50), but I just couldn't resist this. It is super sturdy and well, just cool. 

Here's that black hook dealy that I forgot to put in the picture above. 

I think it's going to go in my kitchen. I need something to hang our aprons from. 

I can't wait to use this, either for drying clothes or pasta! It's great, and for $1? I could not pass it up.

I have been wanting to make crepes and this is going to give me the motivation to do it. 

The Joy of Cooking? A classic must have that I didn't have.

I love to go thrifting and so do my kiddos. I hate spending retail for anything because I know sooner or later I'll find what I need at the thrift store. I love that my husband finds pleasure in seeing all the things I find, and that he never complains about this great love of mine :~) When I bring home a table full of useful things, he knows I've spent his money well. He knows I am happy and that we are well taken care of. Before winter I bought my youngest son and myself each a pair of nice winter boots at the thrift store for a total of $1.00. I saved probably $60 on that purchase because I didn't have to buy them new.

After moving to Wyoming with whatever we could fit in the back of our Explorer, I needed to replace a lot of stuff. Thrifting has made it possible for us to have "new" furniture, cookware, blankets, and other needful things. It is amazing to me that when we need something, the Father knows it, and more times than not, I find it at a thrift store. 

Homemade Laundry Soap

There are so many great recipes out there for laundry soap. I had some criteria that needed to be met while researching a recipe I was going to use for my own soap. It had to be cheap, super easy, have readily accessible ingredients and of course it had to CLEAN.

I first started using equal parts of borax, washing soda, and grated felsnaptha soap, but after two weeks of washing my clothes, they became stinky from the felsnaptha. So, since Ivory soap is so cheap I decided to go with that.

Here is my recipe:

1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1 cup powdered Ivory soap

Grate your Ivory soap with a cheese grater and then whiz it in a blender until it has a more powdered consistency. I find that if you leave the bars unwrapped for about a week before you grate and whiz, the soap is dried out and is much easier to handle.

Mix equal parts of the borax, washing soda,  and the powdered soap together and whiz in the blender. Do this again and again, a small amount at a time, until all your ingredients are blended together.

I store my laundry powder in an old coffee container. Use 1-2 tablespoons per load. Shake the container every once in a while as the soap is heavier than the rest of the ingredients and sort of settles a bit.

For an all natural fabric softener and laundry rinse, fill a downy ball half full with white vinegar and pop that into your wash. No need for any other fabric softeners and the vinegar will clean the soap residue from your washer and clothes! It's great. You can add a few drops of essential oil, like lavender in your downy ball as well.

I like the powdered soap because it's easy. Our clothes get clean and the Ivory soap makes them smell great. I am sure you could use any soap you wanted, but I like Ivory because its cheap and doesn't contain a lot of the harsh chemicals that other soaps contain. It's definitely better than felsnaptha in the chemical department! It's about $3.50 for 10 bars. That's an awesome price.

Enjoy!

Family Cloth

The alternate title of this blog post was "Mom's Crazy Ideas", and was probably my family's preferred title, since they definitely do think I'm nuts.

"What is family cloth?" you might be asking yourself. That was what my family asked, as well. They had an idea, but their idea was far from what "family cloth" actually is.

So what is it? 

Reusable toilet cloth!

I know...I know. It sounds crazy. But, I tell you, lots of people are doing it. I have been on a quest to lower our monthly budget and simplify, for quite a few years. We stopped using paper towels, paper plates and other such non-essentials and have not gone back. We have a stockpile of dish towels and rags and find them to be quite useful in soaking up messes. So, I suppose family cloth was the next logical step. 

We spend, on average, depending on the brand, no less than $1.00 a day on toilet paper. Maybe this is an expense you are willing to pay for the convenience of toilet paper, but my goal is to give you enough information that you will at least want to try family cloth. $365 a year is a lot of money to spend on something you are just going to throw in the toilet! We've been using family cloth for a little over two weeks now, and I love it. My family has stopped thinking I am crazy (well, at least in this area) and I actually heard from my 14 year old son, "mom, family cloth isn't so bad". 

It cleans better. Doesn't leave little paper dust behind. It's pretty. Smells good. Easy to use. Easy to make. Cheap. And is saving us money! 

So...how do ya do it?

Gather old cotton t-shirts or flannel shirts. Cut out seams and make large squares out of the material. Cut those large squares into smaller 5 x 5 inch squares. Sew two together to make an extra thick cloth. 

Get yourself a small plastic bin, like the one above. Mine cost about $2 from walmart. It has a hinged lid that clips down, sort of like a baby wipes container. You can use one of those as well! Anything will work as long as it has a lid as these are moist wipes and you don't want them drying out.

Place your finished cloths in the bin and mix up a cup of wipes solution. There are many recipes out there, but I am using this one at the moment.

2 drops lavender essential oil

1 drop eucalyptus oil

1 T. glycerin

1/2 t. Doctor Bronner's liquid castile soap

1 cup of purified water

You can find tons of recipes at this site that I just love. Makes me want another baby...well, everything makes me want another baby :-)

So...anywho, mix up your solution and pour over your wipes. Flip them over a few times to get them all saturated and then squeeze out any excess liquid. You don't want them sopping wet, just damp. Also, please note that I have only filled my bin about half way full. You don't want your wipes sitting in there wet for more than a few days. Only put about three days worth of wipes in, as you are going to want to wash these every three days. You'll find out how much solution and how many wipes are right for your family as you start using them.

Now for the part that makes people cringe. What do you do...after...?

I bought this 10 gallon garbage bin at walmart for $5. Add a few drops of tea tree oil, maybe 5 drops or so, I forget to count :-) and then fill the bin half full with water. This is going to be your "soaking" water for three days. Every time you use your family cloth, you are going to stick it in the bin after you use it. The tea tree oil inhibits the growth of bacteria, you can add a few drops of eucalyptus oil as well, as it does the same thing.

After three days, empty the water as best as you can in the toilet, being careful not to dump your family cloth in there as well! Wash the cloths in your washing machine with hot water. I soak mine in hot water first and then do a regular wash. They come out clean every time and do not smell. I don't even use regular store bought detergent, I use a homemade soap and they still come out clean and smelling fresh.

You don't have to dry these, just stick them back in the lidded bin and add your solution. Easy peasy!

I love family cloth and we will continue to use it. We still have toilet paper for company, but I think for the most part, my family is using the cloth, at least part of the time.

This might not be for everybody, but I think it is awesome after you get past the "ew" factor. Have fun, and experiment; just keep it by the toilet and see what happens. My husband and son both used it on their own volition and both liked it!

Mung Beans! Yum Beans!

Spicy Mung Beans with Tomato and Onions
This is one of my favorite foodie blogs. Vegetarian, simple, healthy, and creative. Lisa's Kitchen has tons of recipes that incorporate chickpeas, mung beans, and other legumes that I love. Eating biblically clean foods has forced us to eat more legumes and less meat, just because we can not find local, pastured, and affordable meats. Finding recipes like this one makes me happy! Thank you, Lisa's Kitchen, for once again giving me more creative ideas for the beloved bean!

Thanksgiving Day Menu

I am so excited about Thanksgiving, which has to be my most favorite American holiday. I love the smells, the season, the friends and family and the FOOD! Oh, the food...

I thought I'd post our menu plan for all to see and the links to some of the recipes. I LOVE www.allrecipes.com . It is my go to recipe sight when I am looking for something to make. One of my favorite things about it is the fact that there are photos of the food. I am a visual person, and if I can see the picture of how it is supposed to look, I feel like I can do a better job at preparing it.


Turkey
20 lbs. Brined and roasted by my dear friend over at Declared Unto Him

Mashed potatoes and homemade gravy
The recipe for the gravy will have to wait because I have no idea how much of what I put in. Basically, it's just a bechemel sauce, except you substitute the butter with drippings, and use stock instead of milk. I still use some milk, just to make it creamier.  I add chicken stock to the potatoes to give them more flavor without adding a lot of fat. I'm making my stock today.

Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing 
I am assembling this on Wednesday without the liquid so I can just pop it in the oven on Thursday. Just add the stock and melted butter before you cook it. Add a little more liquid if you are cooking it outside of a turkey. *Turkey sausage NOT pork, never pork :~)


Cranberry sauce
Two bags of cranberries
2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c orange juice
a smidge of ginger

Dissolve sugar and OJ in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in cranberries and cook until they pop. Refrigerate till cool. Garnish with orange peel if you like...I don't like. Making this Wednesday.

Roasted Russet and Sweet potatoes
Peel both sweets and russets and cube
Toss with olive oil, enough to coat. Salt, pepper, curry powder, a smidge of cinnamon and cardamom, a smidge of coriander, and a tad bit of brown sugar, and toss again. Roast on baking sheet lined with parchment paper @ 425 degrees for about 40-50 minutes. I'm putting these in the oven an hour before the stuffing (2 hours before dinner) and then tossing them in a hot crockpot till everything else is ready to be served. I'll have two racks of these roasting so the cooking time might need to be increased and trays might need to be rotated.

Grandma's Egg Custard Pie
Never done this before...we'll see how it goes. I made a practice custard this week, and it tasted great but was a little watery. Hoping the pies turn out better. I'm making these on Wednesday.

Pumpkin Pie
Your basic, back-of-the-can recipe. Nothing fancy :-) Making Wednesday.

My lovely friends are bringing apple pie, corn, cider and dinner rolls and the TURKEY!

We will be feasting! Then probably fasting...

This is our first Thanksgiving in a new place, away from all of our family. Wyoming is treating us well. I am beginning to meet people, but still miss home terribly. I am really looking forward to hosting this dinner though, and loving people in my most favorite way, and that is to FEED them. :~) 

Wow, do I feel better getting this all out and seeing it on the screen. I have made list upon list, but I finally have it organized and figured out to a T. Now, I just need to locate a few more chairs...

My to do list

Today I get to buy raw honey...I am pleased. 

I will sprout more mung beans, as these have become my most favorite food lately. 

I will sweep the wood floors throughout the house. We must all shed a lot of skin and hair...it's everywhere. 

I will clean my bedroom, which I totally despise doing. I will clean it and organize the closet. An act of dying to self :-)

I will paint the rest of my dining room trim white. Purple just didn't go. I thought purple went with everything...silly me. 

I will drink the kombucha that I brewed...no sense in brewing it if I'm not going to drink it. 

(which reminds me...I need fresh ginger to make ginger kombucha)

I will make the corn pie that I have been meaning to make. Something about making pie crusts...you think it is this huge daunting task, but then you start doing it and remember that it's simple and quick. I forget this often...

I will fix my husbands button hole he has been complaining about. I will learn that a safety pin is not fixing something...it is merely a temporary solution.

I will finish reading Ezekiel. I am afraid of this. It gives me nightmares. I have the worst dreams when I read it before bed. I dreamed about a man living in a pig barn, sitting in a corner filled with cat dung, and he would grab worms from the pit of the dung pile for his food. When he would squeeze them, they were filled with worms. Worms within worms...filth within filth. I dreamed about a small Chinese girl who was being sold to men, and when I arrived to save her, she had been lit on fire. In these dreams I can not do anything to stop the evil that is taking place. I could only comfort the girl and give her hope, but I could not stop the filth from happening. The man in the pig pen...filth within filth...it is the way of the world. No one cares, and I can't stop it. It's disheartening. These dreams have been haunting me all week.

I will pray more. Pray for that faceless, nameless Chinese girl. I know she represents multitudes of little girls and women all over the world that have been sold into the sex trade industry. They are broken and lost and without hope. I will pray that someone comes along to give them hope.

I will stop being so critical, of myself and others. Satan wants to kill and destroy. Destroy relationships, and I won't have any part of it, any more. I am called to love and we are called to have unity with one another. I will  recognize criticism when it rears its ugly head, and I will rebuke it and I will NOT walk in it any longer. 

And I will make bread. It's a simple task that yields so much fruit. My family feels loved when I bake bread. So,  I will knead my dough and pray. I will wait patiently for it to rise. I will knead it again and pray. I will shape it and form it and cover it softly with cloth. I will wait for it to rise again. Then, I will place it in warmth and watch it take it's true form. Then we will break bread together. 

 I know theres a sermon in there someplace...

You Shall Make for Yourselves Tassels

Tzitzit

Numbers 15:37-41 

 ³⁷ YHVH also spoke to Moses, saying,
 ³⁸"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue.
 ³⁹"It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of YHVH, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot,
 ⁴⁰so that you may remember to do all My commandments and be holy to your Elohim.
 ⁴¹"I am YHVH your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your Elohim; I am YHVH your Elohim."

Deuteronomy 22:12

¹²"You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.




While walking this pathway of obedience to YHVH, some things have been easier to obey than others. Not eating pork was a no brainer...pig=ick=don't eat it. Sure, I can do that. The food laws were the first things we started obeying, but in the beginning it did test us. We would just pick the sausage off pizza, or push the pork aside in soup, etc. I wouldn't even think about doing those things now, but we did do it at one time. Next came Sabbath, but even that tested our obedience. It seemed like every Sabbath, something would come up. We would just "have" to go to the store. Or I would compromise on my "no electronics" rule. Eventually we came into a place where  honoring the Sabbath made us feel set apart. It effected so much of our spiritual lives. We can say we are set apart, but what is there that is different about us? How can you tell that we are the children of Israel? How can you tell that we belong to YHVH? Each Sabbath we feel it. We see it in each other. It is truly a sign between YHVH and us, that we are His people. But we had to come into a place of obedience in order to get the blessing from it.


Well, tzitzit have been a place of disobedience for me. In turn I have caused my husband and children to be disobedient as well. I've been asked to make tzitzit, asked to wear them by my husband, and my children have asked if they could wear them. I made my husband a set, since he was the one convicted about wearing them, but I would not wear them myself. Why? I don't know. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't understand the point. Maybe it was because I didn't want to look weird or have to give an account to others as to why I wore these strange looking fringes and what they meant and what it was I truly believed in. Maybe I am just rebellious and stiff necked. I think all of those things are true about why I find myself in a constant state of disobedience. Most of all, I am rebellious and I need an answer as to "why" I need to do what I'm being told to do, before I actually do it.


I tell my children a story about a boy and his father who were fishing down by the river. The father forgot something in the truck, and had to run back up the hill to fetch it. The father told the son to stay put, don't go near the river, and that he would be right back. The son waited patiently, moving slowly up the hill in anticipation of the father's return. When the father rounded the hill and started down the path, he froze, with a terrified look on his face. He told the son calmly to NOT move, not even an inch, and that he would be right back. The father left, and returned with his shot gun. The son was obedient and had not moved at all. He stayed put even when the father raised his gun and shot the poisonous snake that was poised behind the child, ready to strike the child. Had the child moved, he would have been bitten, and he would have died.


That child's immediate obedience was the key to his life being saved. Had he questioned the father's command to stop, don't move, and stay there, and actually looked around to see why the father was giving the command, he would have died. It was through his obedience that he was kept safe.


I am not like that boy, but oh how I wish I were. I question everything, which at times is a good thing, but not when it comes to our Heavenly Father's commandments. He knows what is best for us. He knows exactly what we need. Like a weekly sabbath in order to stay healthy, refreshed, and always focused on what is important. But do we need to know the reason behind a command before we obey it? We do not. Our immediate obedience is required. THAT is faith. Obeying the father even when we don't understand why.


So, last night I made my entire family tzitzits. Today I will wear them, and each day after. I understand that they are there so I do not forget to obey the commands of my Father, but I shouldn't need to know that in order to just do what He says.


 "Wear the tzitzit, Monica"..."Yes, Father".