Natural First Aid Kit

One night last week I checked email before going to bed and saw that I was drawn as an alternate winner of a mini first aid kit from Naturokits.  The first person drawn didn't respond to the notice, so they drew again and I won!  That's 3 online giveaways in 2012!

As I was showing my young son what would be coming for us, I noticed they sell an upgrade kit, to turn the mini kit into the full basic kit, so I asked if I could pay the difference and get the full kit instead of the mini.  Julie was happy to accommodate my request and even told me how to mark my order so that it would be shipped for free.  Two days later we had our kit!

I've mentioned it to my husband twice, listing the needs the kit can meet, so that if he needs it he knows we have that option.  I also noticed the company recommends taking off the protective wrap on each item in the kit so it can be used quickly in an emergency-good idea!

I hope to never need it, but I have a 6 year old son and a husband who is only slightly less fearless than our son.  In fact, it's my husband who experienced the worst injuries over the last 6 months...

I'm grateful to have won, and to now have a first aid kit filled with natural remedies!  Here's what comes in the kit, and i recommend taking a look around their site for your own needs.

The Basic First Aid NaturoKit® includes:

• Nine naturopathic remedies:
  • Activated charcoal
  • Apis 30C
  • Arnica 30C
  • Calendula succus
  • Cantharis 30C
  • Crisis Calm
  • Hypericum 30C
  • Ledum 30C
  • Wild Weed Salve
• An attractive, zippered, cotton canvas bag
• Full instructions for use with a detailed description of each remedy
• An alphabetical list of conditions - quick and easy to reference when you're in a hurry

Before and After

I read a guest post today from Kitchen Stewardship that reminded me a lot of my own food journey so I thought I'd share my story.

If we look at life about two and a half years ago, meal planning consisted of thinking it'd be good to have fish once a week and trying not to have the same type of meat twice in a row-in other words beef, pork, chicken, lather, rinse, repeat.  We ate out several nights a week, as well as every Sunday after church.  Fast food was a regular part of our diet.  I tried to make sure we got a variety of foods but that was about the extent of making healthy choices.

Had you told me then that just about everything we eat would be made from scratch-by me-I would have laughed literally out loud.  Yeah, I enjoyed cooking and baking, but not to the point of making bread on a regular basis or homemade crackers.  I baked cookies when we were in the mood, not because it was a better choice health wise.  Probably the biggest reason for my disbelief would have been that I just don't have the energy to do all that cooking and baking.

In January of 2009 my chiropractor suggested that I have adrenal fatigue.  I'd never heard of it, but a bit of research lined everything up.  A bit more research and we started applying a few changes:

1. Bought baby chicks so we could have farm fresh eggs (then added two adults because we didn't want to wait!)
2. Discovered how expensive raw milk is and decided to buy a couple of goats to have our own fresh, raw, milk.
3. Learned to make yogurt and chevre with the raw milk.
4. Eliminated HFCS and hydrogenated fats.
5. Added coconut oil.
6. Reduced sugar intake (refined white).
7. Cut back on fast food consumption.
8. Started trying to buy non factory farmed meat.
9. Learned to milk a cow that didn't want to be milked.
10. Began following the Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 system for buying produce.
11. Began trying to avoid GMO's.
12. Discovered son was sensitive to food chemicals and started avoiding them.
13. Learned that I'd have to make a lot of things from scratch to keep from eating foods with chemicals.
1. Cookies
2. Ice cream
3. Crackers (wheat thin style)
4. Bread
5. Sour Cream
6. Buttermilk
7. Graham Crackers
8. Granola type bars
9. Marshmallows (who can give up s'mores??)
10. Meatballs
11. Bread crumbs
12. Mayo
13. Ketchup
14. Tomato sauce
15. Granola
16. Toothpaste
17. Mouthwash
18. Laundry soap
19. Deodorant
20. Dishwashing soap
21. Insect repellent
22. Household cleaners
14. Stopped enjoying eating out-the flavor just isn't there when you no longer eat processed foods all the time.
15. Realized that I've come a long way when I cringe at nearly everything available away from home and when others point out how much I do.

No wonder I'm still tired all the time!

Repurposed Dish Soap

I have about 2 or 3 cups of ultra concentrated dish soap that in addition to being hard to rinse thoroughly, the scent is so strong I'm afraid it would flavor our food if used to actually wash dishes!  I don't want to just throw it away, and our hand soap dispenser in the bathroom is empty, so I searched for a recipe to make hand soap.  The ones I saw started with a bar of soap-I used 1 tablespoon of this in its place.  I added 1 teaspoon of glycerin and about 20 drops each of lemon and orange essential oil.  I mixed it with 6 cups of water and poured it into two dispensers.  I still have a quart of it left.  Eight tablespoons in a cup-is that right?  Or is it 16?  Bare minimum I have enough of this to make 768 ounces of soap!  That's six gallons!  Hmm, might have to see about selling it at the farmer's market...what do you think about that?

Update, as of 9PM the same day.  Even with just 1 tablespoon in 6 cups of water it's WAY too strong still.  The overwhelming scent isn't diluted or masked.  Guess I'll just see if a friend wants the soap!

Mexican Tuna Salad and Then Some

Anyone ever had it?  I was making tuna salad for lunch and saw the can of diced green chiles and thought they might be good in it, so along with them I added onion powder and cumin.  It was quite tasty.  We all agreed though, that it'd be even better in a quesadilla with green onions!

I made deodorant this morning.  I used the recipe from Passionate Homemaking.  I won't need to try it until tomorrow morning, and then it'll take a day of activity to see how it works.  Oh, I added lemon and lavender essential oils, just to give it a nice fragrance.

Spring is here, but not the frost free time yet.  Farmer's Almanac online shows my area frost free after the 21st of this month, so we'll wait until next weekend to plant our seedlings.  A friend has also given us several sunflowers to plant and another thing I think he said was a red hyacinth, but I don't recall.  This friend is an older gentleman from church that is always working on the grounds there.  One day I felt the urge to offer him a dozen eggs each week, so I asked him.  He was grateful and I could sense that he longed for more interaction, so I mentioned it to Tony, who had been interested in helping maintain the grounds too.  They spent a couple of hours that afternoon hoeing weeds.  Tony could tell he was glad to have some help and some company.  A day or two later Don shows up with a truckload of tree saplings and trimmings for the goats, and a bag of grapefruit for us.  Two days after that he came by asking for goat manure.  Obviously we have plenty and shared with him, and I was intrigued once again by God's economy.  We simply gave a dozen eggs from our excess, and got a new friend that brings treats for the goats (he even saved a bag of watermelon rinds for them) and plants for us!  Don is 82ish and works part time at the hardware store and is always at church doing some kind of physical labor.  His motivation is that if people think the outside looks nice, they'll be more likely to try coming inside.  Can't argue that.  Now we want to pick a night to invite him to dinner to find out more about him and learn from his life experiences.  What a treasure we've been given, and all because we're overly blessed with eggs too!

12 Days With No 'Poo

My last post I made a list of all the beauty/personal care items used most often by most women.  What I didn't share was that I'd already stopped using shampoo.  Not too long ago, but I did finally try it out.  I want it to work, and am willing to wait it out, but right now-it's just not working.  To see my hair, you probably wouldn't know it, but to feel it...yeah, I can tell.  It feels a little greasy-not so much oily as others have found, and slightly matted, even though it is combed and snarl free.

Tony agreed to try it too, and with his short hair I think it's working just fine.  His hair feels just as soft and smooth as it always has.  I'm wondering if I should get a blunt cut for a while?  I think my ends are dry and that's affecting things.  Sounds contradictory, but that's what's happening.  Now for a few details.

1. Prior to this experiment, I washed every other day.
2. My hair is fine, but I have a lot of it.
3. I'm using about a teaspoon of baking soda to about a half cup of water, every other day.
4. Until today, I hadn't used the vinegar rinse, as I didn't have apple cider vinegar, but tried white distilled today.  I think it made a slight improvement, but am withholding final judgement on that until I've used it again.
5. On Monday I used goat milk soap instead of baking soda, and took a shower instead of a bath.  Can't say either made much difference.
6. One day, I simply put dry baking soda on my dry hair and massaged it into my scalp before rinsing out.  Not sure that did anything either.

I'm sure there are other methods of ridding the shower of commercially produced, chemically laden shampoos, and if I don't see better results in the next week or so, I'll start exploring those routes.  I have a recipe for making toothpaste, I just haven't written it down so that I'll do it.  I also found a homemade hairspray recipe while looking for more hair cleaning methods.  Two other things I want to try are homemade deodorant, and the oil cleansing method for face cleaning.  One thing at a time.  Yeah right!

Replacing Chemically Based Personal Care Products with Natural Options

I've sorta been working on this.  I know that there are chemicals in my personal care products repertoire that aren't good for me, but knowing how to change that takes a bit more thought and/or a bit more money.  Last year I learned how to make laundry soap for a bit more than $1 for nearly two years worth of washes, and how to use vinegar and essential oils to replace bleach and other harsh chemicals, so why can't I learn to make some of my personal care items?  I think I can!  I found this list at The WellGrounded Life and turned it into a spreadsheet that I then prioritized.  The copy/paste routine from Excel didn't maintain columns, but I think you can tell from the list what's what.  It's sorted by how often I use the product and then how quickly I think I can replace it.  Notice that there are many that I didn't mark with any priority for replacing-just not there yet!  What about you?  Have any experience with home made personal care items that you'd like to share?  I'll be posting progress as we go!

Personal Care Item Use Frequency Priority


shampoo, 2 I
hair spray, 2 I
toothpaste, 1 I
conditioner, 3 S
body wash, 3 s
body scrub, 3 W
deodorant, 1 W
Soap 1 w
hair gel, 2 ?
mousse, 2 ?
body lotion, 1 ?
insect repellent 4 D
face cream, 6
eye cream, 6
toner,  6
eye liner, 6
eye shadow, 6
eyebrow pencil, 6
foundation, 6
concealer, 6
makeup remover, 6
hair straightener, 6
whitening strips, 6
suntan lotion, 6
sunless tanning lotion, 6
antiaging cream, 6
vaginal deodorant or douche, 6
shaving cream, 6
acne treatment, 6
face wash, 5
perfume, 5
lipstick, 5
lip gloss, 5
nail polish, 5
nail polish remover, 5
mascara, 5
blush, 5
powder, 5
hair dye, 5
priority I=immediately, S=soon, W=when it runs out, D=done
use frequency 1=daily, 2=several times per week, 3=weekly, 4=several times per month, 5=rarely, 6=never