Update...

Thank you all for your patience as my blog as been very quiet as we adjust to life with a newborn and three year old!  It's a precious time, but exhausting!

I am so grateful that I was able to have another natural birth.  This birth was amazingly fast.  I had mild cramping for a few hours and then only 50 minutes of intense labor pains.  Our little girl was almost born on the side of the road.  Thankfully, my husband was amazing and kept cool and we made it to the birth center and I had her on a stretcher as I was wheeled into the room!  So, obviously, no pain meds and no interventions!  Yay!

Me with our precious daughter

My labor with my son had been much different, lasting 11 hours, with 3 hours of pushing.  I had a completely natural birth with him, as well.

I was very blessed to have the world's best doula with both my births.  Kayti actually is the reason that our little girl was not born on the side of the road.  I highly recommend hiring a doula to be present at your birth.  It was the best decision I have ever made.  My doula was amazing with both births and having her support really helped me have the natural birth experiences that I wanted and was also very helpful for my husband, as she was able to give him lots of tips before and during the births about how to best help me.

You can read more about doulas HERE.

I love hearing about natural, positive birth stories and hope that my story is an encouragement to any woman out there who is seeking to have a natural birth experience.

I find it sad that the US has a C-section rate of about 33%.  This is unacceptable and dangerous; the World Health Organization stating that a rate of 5-10% is acceptable.

There are so many things that you can do to help prevent C-sections and I hope to blog about these things in the coming months.

Thanks again for sticking with me through this "quiet" time!  Hope to be back to more regular blogging in the next weeks.

Please Join Us in Welcoming Our New Baby Girl!

This blog has been a bit quiet over the past few weeks and for good reason!  I am happy to announce the birth of our daughter almost 2 weeks ago.

We are thrilled with our little girl and I am quite busy adjusting to life again with a newborn.

Thank you in advance for understanding if posts are few and far between in the next few months ahead.

I do look forward to sharing some of my herbal brews and remedies and are greatly assisting in the healing process as I recover from the delivery (I did a completely natural birth again) and adjust to a newborn.

Einkorn Grain Cookies...

Let's face it!  Sometimes life just gets too busy to be able to cook everything ideally or to cook everything, period!

I am definitely in one of those seasons of life.  I try to chose the best alternatives and keep my eyes open for great options.

Photo Credit:  amazon.com

We have been in the potty training season for a little while with my son.  I have not had the time to bake little rewards for him, but was not super happy with the store cookies and crackers, even the organic ones, until we tried Jovial's Einkorn Grain Cookies.

I love these cookies for several reasons.  First being, they are not super sweet.  Made as a traditional European cookies, they are packed full of flavor, but low on sugar.  Second, they use einkorn grain.  You can read more about this heirloom grain HERE.  We have recently almost exclusively switched over to this grain as a family.  Third, they use organic palm oil, which I highly prefer over oils like canola and sunflower that are often used in organic processed foods.

While this has been a great "potty treat" for my son, I have to confess I've been enjoying them too!

(Disclaimer:  I am an affiliate for amazon.  Any use of the link here is a little "thank you" for the work I do to keep this blog running!)

Green Spring Cleaning Recipes...

My favorite place to buy all my herbs, Mountain Rose Herbs, has posted some fabulous green and healthy spring cleaners that you can make yourself.  I am looking forward to being able to whip some of these up myself.  You can look HERE for the recipes.

If you have never checked out Mountain Rose Herbs, be sure to do so!  They are my favorite place to buy almost all my herbal supplies!

(I am an affiliate for Mountain Rose Herbs.  I recommend only places that I personally buy from.  Using their link from my website helps to support this blog.  Thank you!)

Soaked Granola

 We are in a very busy season of life right now.  I'm always on the lookout for healthy, whole foods recipes that can be fast and used on busy mornings.  I found THIS RECIPE from Passionate Homemaking for soaked granola.  I've taken the basic bones of the recipe and adapted it to what supplies I have on hand.   It has come out delicious!  We can grab this in the mornings and have with raw milk or homemade yogurt and fresh fruit.

This granola has become such a hit in this house that I always double the recipe.  It makes a LOT, but I freeze it and the time I spend making it is more than paid for by having an easy breakfast my husband can grab on early mornings or when I just need a break.  I like the fact that I'm not having to stock the house with store bought granola (which is SO expensive!) or cereal.  Even the organic ones are full of rancid oils and additives that I prefer my family not be eating.

Here is my little helper, helping with the first stage (soaking) of the granola.  As you can see, I tried twice to get a real smile, but I guess these are a three year old's "real" smiles!

Making the granola is some work, but it is doable, as the recipe is broken into stages.  I have tweaked the recipe by drying my granola in my dehydrator (which can hold a double and even triple batch) and then using what I have around the house.  I like lots of nuts, seeds, and coconut in our granola, so I have doubled or tripled what the recipe calls for, keeping the dried fruits about the same.  Some things I have added to our granola are pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, hazelnuts, raisins, and hemp.  One time I ran out of my raw honey (big bummer!), so I have subbed in some sucanat or increased the maple syrup.  With lots of extra seeds and nuts, this is a great source of proteins and healthy oils (especially since I use nuts that I have soaked and dried).  Would love to hear what kinds of things you would enjoy putting in your granola!

Crock-Pot Oatmeal

I wanted to share this recipe from my sister Christy, over at Whole Foods on a Budget.  Crock-pot oatmeal has recently become my "go-to" breakfast for Monday mornings.  Prepping the night before and having breakfast ready and waiting on Monday morning is such a treat and helps me get a good start on the week, in this busy season of life!


You can read the recipe HERE.  I have found that this makes enough for me, my husband, and three year old with enough left-overs to warm up with a little water on Tuesday morning, so it's actually two days that I don't have to do any breakfast prep.  To get 2 days worth out of the recipe, I have tweaked it just a bit for us:

*I do a heaping cup of oat groats, probably closer to 1 1/4 cups and therefore add about 1/2 cup extra water.
*I add three apples, chopped into bite-sized pieces and place them on the bottom of the crock-pot, along with 1/3 cup raisins.
*With the apples and raisins, I have found that we need no extra sweetener.
*I like to add walnuts or pumpkin seeds to the oatmeal AFTER it is done cooking and just before we eat it.
*Every crock-pot is different and I found my oatmeal sticking a lot, so I have found that if my husband starts it cooking around 11, it does not stick as much.  Also, placing the apples in the crock pot first and then putting the oats in has helped reduce sticking.
*I also like to soak my oats to reduce phytic acid, which inhibits mineral absorption.  To soak, I place the oat groats in a bowl and cover with water.  I add 1 T apple cider vinegar and then I let it soak 6-8 hours; which means I usually start soaking around 4 in the afternoon.

The Olive Curing is Done!

Better late than never!  I realized I forgot to post about my finished home-cured olives.  These were pretty easy, (though a bit time consuming), to do, and they came out absolutely delicious!  I bought my organic, raw olives from Chaffin Family Farms (who also sell all kinds of other yummy things!).  You can read my post HERE about how I salt cured my olives.

Above are my finished olives.  I rinsed the salt off and they have a delicious mildly salty taste unlike any olives you would find that have been lye brined.  I'm sold on salt brining olives and look forward to doing this again - maybe adding some herbs and spices to them next time around.

If you are new to curing olives, I would recommend starting with black olives and doing the salt cure.  It was a very easy process, great for beginners.

Below is some sourdough ciabatta I made with the olives - so good!

Sealogica Availability...

Due to some very busy months ahead, I am taking a temporary break from selling Sealogica and hope to resume around August.  I will take orders until the end of the week (maybe next week as well), so if you would like to order, this would be the time to do it.

Thanks and I hope you give it a try!

Onion Poultices

Have you ever used an onion poultice?  This used to be a "go to" by our great-grandmothers and their mothers before them, but with the advent of modern medicine, these valuable poultices were left behind.

I was happy to rediscover them about a year ago when my son had croup.  I used onion poultices on him and was very happy with the results.  They really helped with his congestion and cough.

Recently, I stumbled across THIS post by Bear Medicine Herbals all about onion poultices and onion syrups.  This is a keeper post for sure!  Kiva Rose, the author, is an amazing herbalist!  Check out her post HERE and give her recipes a try.

Photo Credit: eats.com

(Featured on the Prairie Homestead Blog Hop)

Garlic "Citrus-Aide"

This batch was made with lemons and blood oranges.

We have been enjoying various forms of garlic lemonade, a recipe that we picked up from one of my favorite herbalists, Aviva Romm.  

As you can see from the above picture, my son is a big fan and we drink this almost daily these days to help keep away those cold and flu bugs.  This can be given to kids age 2 and above.  It usually takes me and my son two days to get through a batch of this yummy drink.  These can also be made into yummy popsicles for the kids.  

Here is my adaptation:

*6 cup ball canning jar

*3 large garlic cloves or 4-5 medium cloves ( you can use less if you prefer)

*2 lemons

*1-3 other citrus fruits (we have used regular oranges, blood oranges, and grapefruits)

*raw honey to taste

*5 or so cups of hot water

Place 5 cups water on stove to boil.  While water is heating, chop up garlic and place in canning jar.  When water has come to a boil, pour over garlic and cover with lid.  Allow to cool (usually takes at least an hour) so that jar is warm, not hot to touch.  Juice your citrus fruits and add to jar.  Stir in raw honey to taste.  Enjoy!

*Due to the raw honey, I do not recommend giving this to children under the age of 2.

Great Co-Sleeping article

I recently read a great article on the benefits of co-sleeping and want to pass it along.  We jumped into the co-sleeping a little late in the game (you can read about my experience HERE), but are still going strong!  My son recently turned 3 and we are all still enjoying all the benefits of co-sleeping.

I liked THIS article so much because it describes 5 main benefits of co-sleeping PAST infancy.  This is a great read for everyone!  I hope you enjoy it and pass it on to anyone you may think is interesting in co-sleeping with their little ones.

Fermented Cod Liver Oil

I know, the name is not the most appealing thing in the world.  It took me a little while to jump in and decide to give it a try.  But, I am SO happy that my family is taking it consistently these days.  I have noticed since starting it, that we have stayed healthier as a family and when someone has started to feel sick or has come down with something, the recovery time is much quicker.

Thankfully, since this winter has started, we have only had one cold (the hubs) and his recovery has been super speedy; even he was surprised at the difference.  I know that it is not entirely the cod liver oil, but I think it is a big player!  We have also focused on taking frequent doses of elderberry syrup, LOTS of handwashing, keeping sugar consumption low and none when we are out in public (sugar lowers your immune system for about 4 hours after consuming), and taking our daily Sealogica.  I also throw in some Green's Mix for the whole family along with Herbs for Kids herbal supplements as needed for my son, along with a few other things.

I would highly encourage you to give the fermented cod liver oil a try.  It comes in liquid or capsules, and you can get the liquid flavored.  My 3 year old actually gets excited to take his every day.  I give him his with a little spoonful of jam.  My husband takes the capsules, and I brave the plain liquid.  It's really not that bad (just hold your nose and have something to eat right after).

You can find the fermented cod liver oil HERE.  (I am not an affiliate, I just really like this product.)

I really liked THIS post by Balanced Bites.  It includes a lot of information about the benefits of fermented cod liver oil, along with recommend doses.