Lavender Essential Oils

So a new Mom friend of mine introduced me to oils. I have 3 kids. Life is crazy, my kids are crazy. It’s 10 days to Christmas…you know it’s kind of crazy right now.

First let me back track and explain how my 4 year old goes to bed. We put on pjs, we brush teeth and the 4 year old runs around the house like a mad man. Also…you know he is the one (love him) who gets out of bed 100x’s just to tell me 1 more thing…which is usually “I love you” or something else sweet an innocent that makes the bedtime…still frustrating.

The other night, freekin magic happened!

Lavender essential oils, bam bam. Rub and dibble dab dab onto the 4 year old from the roller I made.

Okay, now…Pjs. Teeth. Bed. Kid still runs up and down that hallway. Then he gets into bed. We let the kids listen to YouTube at bedtime. So YouTube meditation comes on. Children are in bed. Laying down. And he’s still there, not jumping around or off something he shouldn’t be. Kisses. Good night love bugs!

I go in my room with the baby expecting Matthew, the 4 year old, to come in…like he always does. But…nope! Not in 1 minute, not in 5 not in 20. The kid fell asleep!! Easy peasy! Parenting WIN!

So remember how I mentioned I went to my room with the baby? Well that kind friend of mine also made Lukas (baby) a chamomile & lavender roller. Put that behind his ears and a little on my chest (because he’s a nursling and goodness it smells SO good!) and off to the rocking chair we go…Well, I’ll let you in on my personal problems, Lukas nurses to sleep. And transfers to his own bed have been awful since a recent bout of thrush…so the baby comes into bed and I am a human pacifier. Anyways! So Lukas did not transfer to his bed…3x’s. I gave up.

I brought him into bed and snuggled that sweet baby. Breathing is his sweet smell….that sweet lavender and chamomile smell. My eyes got so heavy. I was texting my best friend about some fleece headbands and BAM I was just out! I passed out at 9pm!

So I think I forgot to mention…but, umm…I locked the bedroom door because I wanted Matthew to go to sleep and just didn’t want to do the in and out…just 1 more thing. So, you know I have a husband right? I locked him out. Yup. His wife and baby were passed out fast asleep and he was locked out of his own bedroom. Well I woke up at 11pm in a panic thinking it was like 3am and I locked Derek out!

I stumbled to the door, unlocked it, said hello to my husband with a kiss and back to bed I went. (Mentally my checklist was checked off, door unlocked. Check)

I woke up at 5am FULL of energy. I slept so well. Matthew slept so well. Lukas slept so well. This is our new nightly routine!

What kinds of experiences have you had with essential oils?

Burrito Dinner Just For You

As a mother of 2 and pregnant I want meals to be balanced, have a variety, and relatively simple. Some of my favorite meals are ones you and your family throw together individually. Taco night is a great example of this type of meal.

 

Tonight we had a breakfast burrito type meal. It was great! This was actually inspired by Hubs and his great adventure driving from San Diego CA back to NH. His good friend was living in San Diego, so they spent a few nights there before beginning the trip. Derek not only fell in love with California, but also realized the Mexican food we have here on the east cost cannot compete with that authentic west coast Mexican food! He was telling me about how he had these breakfast Chorizo tacos every morning and just loved them. So, I of course, felt the need to recreate that.

 

I found out that Chorizo is not easy to find here in NH. All I found was chourico, which was a precooked Portuguese sausage, not ground. Nevertheless, it was spicy and would have to do. Now, on to my adventure of trying to recreate this breakfast taco! I googled a few images, took note of what Hubs had described, and took into consideration what we liked as a family. Hubs and I enjoy spicy meats and the kids are hit or miss with meats, and definitely not spicy meats! So here is what I came up with…

 

Our shells: soft corn and flour 8” tortillas. I like flour, Derek likes corn.

 

Here is what we had for fillers: Refried beans (kids like these a lot!), chourico (which was a spicy Portuguese sausage…I couldn’t find Mexican chorizo here in New Hampshire. You could also use a sweet sausage if you don’t like spicy or make it vegetarian and just use vegetarian refried beans!) and scrambled eggs from our backyard, naughty, chickens.

 

Toppings: Here is where your family can add your own personal style or taste, but here is what we did. Avocado, cheese, salsa, and black olives. I felt like while I was eating mine I should have added lettuce too. Next time 😉

 

I had 2 of these and I was a little too full! It was great. My kids, 5 and 3 ate about ½-¾ of the burrito, which is in my book is pretty great! They had fun picking out what they wanted to put on it and I was able to have mine nice a spicy! Baby #3 is going to be a pepper head 😉

 

 

Recipe                                          Serves 4-8

Ingredients

1 package 8” flour tortillas

1 16oz can of Refried beans

2-5 Scrambled eggs (1/2-1 egg per tortilla seemed to be enough)

Butter

½lb Chourico or Chorizo

1 avocado, diced

Cilantro, chopped

1 package shredded Mexican cheese

1 Jar favorite salsa

2oz Lindsay black olives

1 cup shredded/chopped lettuce

 

Directions

*Note: When finished cooking, add ingredients into their own serving bowl

• Heat up skillet to cook scrambled eggs.
• Crack eggs into dish and scramble eggs
• Melt butter in heated pan and add eggs. Cook until done.
  1. Remove from heat and place in serving bowl.
• Slice Chourico into coins and heat them in a medium-hot skillet for 3 minutes each side. Remove from heat and place in a serving bowl.
• Heat refried beans in a glass bowl in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, mixing half way through -OR- in your skillet, mixing them about until they are fully warmed. Remove from heat and place in a serving bowl.
• Finally, in a clean pan on medium/medium-high, warm up those tortilla shells. They only need about 15 seconds each time. Microwave could be used too, about 10-15 seconds for 1.

 

Now you are ready to dig into those topping ingredients! Lay them on the counter with a spoon or spatula to serve onto your yummy tortilla shells. I layered mine: Refried beans, egg, chourico, avocado, cheese, but you do you and mix it up whichever way you like it!

 

Enjoy these and let me know how your experience went too!

 

❤ Sarah

 

 

 

 

How do I not get bumps on my tongue when I eat fresh pineapple?

I LOVE pineapple. It’s juicy, it’s sweet…it gives me blisters on my tongue. Okay that 3rd point it kind of a downfall. I felt terrible when I gave my daughter, 2 at the time, a take what you want off the cutting board kind of serving. I am sure you can guess what happened. A sore sore tongue with painful acid blisters on her tongue. She is now 5 and I just tested this new method to avoid tongue blisters.

We do have 2 options; 1, eat less (like 2-3 fresh pieces) or 2…reduce the acid!

Reducing the acid is really quite simple…and quick. Actually it was faster to do that to actually cut up the fruit! Ready? Brine! 

If you don’t know what a brine is, it is a water and salt mixture. It can also be used to keep fresh fruit fresh longer (strawberries are a favorite to do this with! Also try cut up apples or pears to keep them from going brown/oxidizing. Use the same method here!)

I used my gallon glass Kombucha jar…but you can do this is a mixing bowl too or a spaghetti pot, the glass jar is just pretty!

 

 

Ready? Add a handful of salt ( or how about 2 or 3 teaspoons) and 1/2 cup warm water to melt the salt. Once salt is melted, add cool water. Add fruit. Make sure fruit is fully covered with the brine.  Let this sit for 10-15 minutes, all it really needs.

Here is the link to the video of my pineapple in the brine,  https://youtu.be/6XAs_cvOtcI

Next, drain fruit into a colander. Rinse with cold water. Your fruit should not taste salty but will have lower acid content and be persevered to some extent…ie your fruit is going to stay fresh longer!

 

BONUS! Just found a video for how to cut up a pineapple I did from 4 years ago! VIDEO

 

Give this a try and tell me what you think and share this long kept “secret” with your friends!!

 

-Sarah

Interesting Seed Experiment

My mom and I over the past few years have been more and more drawn in by the organic market. 17 years ago we would have called you crazy and all this “organic” whoo-ha is bologna (and I was like 10). Certain acts have emphasized the importance of protecting organic produce such as; watching Monsanto fight GMO Labeling  (but Vermont won!), the government Monsanto protection act (now expired but was sneaky!), the non-gmo verified project, and the organic consumer association. We are seeing an uprising in the demand for organic and pasture raised produce and meats at chain super markets and people going back to “the good old days” growing their own produce and meats at home. Take a look at Whole Foods, starting in 1980 with 1 store in TX, now has 440 stores open which are only successful by the great demand.

 

So, now believing organic is not just bologna my mother has been planting organic only seeds and I have made sure to plant a mixture of organic and non-gmo seeds. Last year I had an abundant of acorn squash…like it was so much, too much! So I was sharing it and saved a few. They were not organic seeds. They sat on my counter and on my mothers mantle…fall, winter, and spring. Spring came around and they have not begun to decompose. Odd, it is real food. Why does this seem like a bad McDonalds experiment? I tossed mine to the chickens as they started to turn yellow and decompose. Okay, now hold this thought for a minute.

My mom had an organic pumpkin that she opened over the winter and the seeds inside were sprouting! Well, actually…that makes sense, doesn’t it? Foods are meant to reproduce and decompose. Lets go back to my acorn squash, why didn’t my seeds sprout?  I really don’t know…but there does seem to be a pretty big difference with non-GMO seeds and Organic seeds. Organic seeds sprout while still attached to the produce, other conventional seeds seem to wait to be planted? Have any of you ever experienced this, let me know!

 

Experiment

Want to try your own simple planting experiment? Have you ever planted a sprouting potato, it is the coolest experiment! I did this in Elementary school and it was really cool then too! The original potato sprouts, bears new life, and then the original potato rots and decomposes giving itself back to the earth.  This actually happens often on my counter, my organic potatoes sprout within a couple weeks of purchasing them. I put them together and plant them in the spring.

Buy a bag of potatoes (organic ones will sprout faster) leave a few in the brown bag/put them in a brown paper bag and leave them on the counter under a window (I leave my bag open). Within 2-4 weeks they will begin to grow sprouts! Ruth Stout says just toss them on the ground and cover them with some hay, but there are other ways ;). You can do this in a large pot, a barrel, bail of hay, or just a hole in the ground! Set in the sun, cover with dirt and let grow. They will grow tall stalks and each potato will grow several. You could cut them up before planting the potatoes, but really less work is best! They will be ready to harvest when the stalk looks dead (about 10 weeks). Pull them up and be amazed! Will you try this?!

 

photo credit: http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com

Photo credit: www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bedtime with a 2 year old

Dinner is served and bellies are full. Bath time was fun and now its time for bed. So, bedtime starts like this… “Matthew, Matthew…Matthewwww! There he goes…chasing the cat…forget it. “Annabelle come here, this will be faster.” We brush & floss teeth, put on pj’s, give hugs & kisses. Done, easy peasey! …back to Matthew. “Okay, Matthew come here. No not the cat, you can pet the cat later. Come, no, no. Matthew! The cat does not like to be chased, please. Come brush your teeth.”

Dad steps in “Matthew show me your sugar bugs. Wow, they are jumping all around, you better let mommy get them out! She is the best at getting those sugar bugs out! Are you going to be a good boy for mommy?”

Matthew: “I be good boy”

Dad “Okay love you, go see mommy” …me “patiently” waiting in the bathroom with a tooth brush and floss. Kid comes over opens his mouth and let’s me brush his teeth…no issues.

Phase 2. Okay Matthew, let’s go put on pj’s. Matthew. Let’s go. In your bedroom. Come one. Matthew. Okay, no, here. No Matthew, stop climbing over the bed. Matthew, hey come here. No! (I Grab his legs as the attempt to heave over his sisters foot-board) come here ya stinker! Okay, good job buddy. Now that you are undressed let’s put these nice warm…Matthew, no not the cat again!  *Does he really need pjs?* Okay I’m tired…Matthew…please…just come back.
Dad says from the kitchen, go be a good boy Matthew. Kid comes walking in like I haven’t been calling his name for the past 5 minutes and wrestling him off the bed. Okay, 1 foot, 2nd foot, head, arm, arm.

 

“It is time to lay down Matthew.  No Matthew! Don’t climb over your sister, watch out for her head! Stop jumping on her bed, she’s trying to sleep. Wait no, leave the poor cat alone! Matthew…”

So here comes Dad to say his sweet good nights…
Dad: “Good night buddy”
Matthew: “Night Daddy”

Dad: “Sweet dreams”
Matthew: “Sweet dreams”
Dad: “Don’t let the…bed bug bite”
Matthew: blows a kiss. 😘

Now what does Matthew do? Rolls over and falls asleep. I lay with him, and sometimes Annabelle snuggles in his bed too. Now I’m exhausted and that pre bedtime motivation just wants to scroll fb and Instagram. I’m grateful for a lot. Most of all an amazing loving family…and that mom reminded me to pick a name I love because I would be saying it over 100 times a day…and isn’t that the truth!

 

What Is My Life Calling?

Lately there has been a lot going on, life in general is busy. I will be the last person to say that busy is a bad thing, but right now there is chaos mixed in. To avoid family details, I will leave it just as that…extended family details. 

Hubs and I have recently embarked on raising a handful of chicks, his Sister is getting married this summer, I am making all 4 brides maid dresses, and we (hubs and I) really want to find a passion we can live off of. 

So what to do what do to? Well I LOVE the idea of raising baby chicks, maybe have a chicken farm. Eggs, meat, baby chicks. I have always grown up with chickens, mom loved them. 

I look up to my mom (and dad) a lot. Both in very different ways. Dad is the man who can get it done and just does it. If it sucks, he still will get the job done without complaint and a smile on his face saying your welcome. Mom is a bit more cautious but is the women who loves her chickens as egg birds and pets and appreciates God’s system of checks and balances with the way her garden succeeded this year. 

I admire and love my parents so much I want to be the best parts of them. Strong and able to get any job done I set my mind to and also be able to sit and appreciate all that is given to me from God and those around me. 

I would love to put this passion together and create something I can be happy with and live off of. Hubs and I love the idea of being self susstating by our own property (which we don’t have). We want to teach core values to our children that God is great and WE are in control of our own lives and outcomes by the choices we make every day. 

So how do we do this? Thinking of being a FARMER scares me! More land than I can see and being responsible for X amount of shares of goods for other families. Though, at the same time that is incredible. 

There is no doubt that I want a huge plot of land to farm for my family with meat animals, a dairy cow and chickens.  

The other option, is for Sarah (me) with this expensive paper (degree) to go back to work at a 9-5 job (8-6, I live at least an hour away from a job) and make a living and pay for what we need and try to continue to live close to the earth and buy animals raised humanly and vegetables grown that aren’t  GMO & ladened with toxic chemicals. 

I want to lead a happy and fulfilling life with my husband and children right along side me. They complete me and I just don’t want to loose my time with them to a job. 

Tell me what you think! What do you do and how do you make it work? Would you become a farmer? 

Is Fat in My Salad Dressing Good?

Today I posted a question on Facebook asking “What is the best kind of bottled dressing to have in a veggie Salad?
A) Full fat
B) Low fat
C) No fat”

Yes, this can be a loaded question, is there a best bottles dressing? Of course, there are alternatives that may be better, but lets face it we don’t all have time to make our own dressing and as consumers we buy bottled things, right?!

Do you know the answer? The answer is A, full fat dressing! There is a big misconception, or rather misunderstanding of fats in our society. Fats are good for you and are needed for a body to absorb nutrients.

For instance, when having a vegetable salad you should understand that vegetables are “fat-soluble” which means that, in this case, the vitamins are absorbed and stored via fats! The fat soluble vitamins are A, D, E, and K.

So when you are in the grocery store buying your salad dressing, opt in for the full fat and remember your portion sizes! (measure it out!) OR you could go for a do it yourself recipe of canola oil/vegetable oil mafia free Olive Oil and balsamic vinegar.

For an easy at home vinaigrette dressing that does the job as well, try ¼ cup balsamic vinegar, ½-1 tablespoon crushed garlic, pinch of salt, pinch of pepper, and ¾ cup Canola/Olive oil.

 

As an added note, for KIDS, making your salad dressing can be a fun learning activity designed for any age. Small toddlers can spin or shake the salad dressing, older kids can pour into container, and school aged kids can measure and mix! Read the label on your bag of carrots and share the knowledge of the vitamins it contains and explain that added a little dressing will help his or her body in many ways!

What kind of salad dressing do you usually buy? Have you ever made your own dressing?

Tampons, Pads, and.. CUPs?!

A post for my female readers

A little background information on me first. I am a stay at home mom with my beautiful little girl who is 20 months. I have changed a lot since becoming a mom. I have learned what is important when putting things into our bodies, plus doing it on a budget!

As a woman in my 20’s, tampons were a pretty monthly thing, without thinking twice. Why think twice, everyone uses them…right? WRONG! Who would have thought that there were other healthy alternatives? First off I would like to share a video HERE about tampons…short YouTube and how they…well I will let you watch.

Okay, welcome back. Gross right? Okay ever read the pamphlet that comes with tampons? TSS, death, and the chemicals involved? Am I overreacting? I guess you could say that but it just depends how clean and healthy you want your body, inside and out. Directly and intentionally putting toxic chemicals in my body is something I try to avoid. On this note Pads also have chemicals, and these chemicals in all these products cause harm to our body, altering our natural balance. Ill come back to this.. keep this on your mind

Okay so alternative options? Well 1, “mama cloth” which is a pad that is made out of cloth and you wash it. Not harsh chemicals, just like a pad but without out all the additives. Now, like I said being in my 20’s pads really are not on my hot list. (Granted I’m married, something about the smell doesn’t sit well with me) Anyhow…option B….Menstrual cups! What the heck is that? Amazing is what it is!

I showed my sister in law THIS video, and she thought it was a joke. I think there is some good humor and some good information (though cleaning your cup, I would go with what  is suggested via the company for longevity reasons)

After I had my daughter I had not had my period for well over a year. My last period was Jan 2010, and it is now July 2012…in saying that I had not thought too much about my period. (my period was absent for so long due to A nursing so much) So my period comes around, and I have herd of Cups…seems like a good idea but well, we will see. Let me tell you going through Pads and Tampons I

1. felt so wasteful! So much cotton, plastic, and extra t.p.
2. it smelts, the cotton in the pads and the tampons smelt gross and felt uncomfortable
3. I was cramping, but cramps like something was wrong

Okay so day 3 comes along and to the local “crunchy” store we go to pick up my Diva cup! I was so excited and telling everyone…Twitter you were excited,  at home friends said “oh cool” and had little to no idea what I was talking about! (I think Im the crazy one.)

PICTURE OF CUP

My Experience:

Day 3 I brought home my Diva cup and was so excited. Period so far hadn’t been awful and hadn’t been great. Okay so I’m a direction reader, I read the pamphlet like 4 times. I was ready. Okay Washed hands, cleaned cup…ready. Okay…how do I do this again? Crap. Skim, skim, skim…okay got it.

What I did: Folded in the, what I call, smooch it and go method…one side pushed in and then pinched to make it slimmer. I wont lie this size I wasn’t sure would fit!  Okay fits good, feels good but, NOW I take it out. Why? Had to test out the “C” fold. Not as easy…not for me at least. It was to wide and did not pop open like the smooch it fold.

PICTURE OF 2 FOLDS

“SMOOCH” FOLD

 

 

 

 

C Fold

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3 NIGHT

went good. At night was light flow…I did not push the cup up far enough so I had an ity bity dot of blood on my undies. No biggie. Was easy to remove. Though, I was told to just pull it out…not the way to do this, ouch. When you remove I recommend when you have it half way out to bend the top rim in half to help slide it out  so you don’t hurt yourself.

Day 4:

I am cramp-less! I feel free. I feel like I have no worries. I didn’t feel dirty, I didn’t feel crampy, but I did feel like I was doing something right for my body. Okay this is what I was referring to earlier. Mind over matter or truth, but not filling my body with unknown toxic chemicals I contribute to my feeling better, or at least my vagina feeling better. What are the true affects of additives to our body? How do the chemicals in our tampons and pads that our bodies absorb affect our menstrual cycle, symptoms, hormones, and fertility? Something to think about.

Okay, so when I took it out this night I actually had a bit of fluid in it. But, much less than I expected! With all the tampons I’ve gone though you’d think I was dying or bleeding to death. Being able to see how much there actually is really puts it into perspective…heavy really wasn’t as heavy as I thought.

Okay so my period was 6 days long, and the second half was amazing. It was easy, it was clean, and I felt good about it. I paid $40 and it should last me years to come. All in all I am completely amazed and in research have noticed most women are. Yes it is a bit more invasive, but you only have to “deal with it” every 12 hours. No worrying about bring tampons where ever you go, or forgetting a tampon…or TSS, did I stick 2 in…did I forget one up there…

All in all I am 100% behind this and I don’t think I will ever use anything else. I was so excited to see a couple of my twitter friends buy a cup or already have a cup! I like it, I love it…What don’t I like…nothing yet!

 

 

This is just a photo that I took. I filled my cup with water after my first full day (day 4 of 6) with about how full it was!

 

 

 

Please leave feedback! Would you use a cup? What is important to you in a cup? Has anyone else noticed less cramping?!

Processed Foods VS Make It Yourself

A little about myself, I am a stay at home mom to my daughter Annabelle and I also am a support fitness and nutrition coach (support). I love my life family and my job, I couldn’t ask for anything more!

A BIG thing in my families life is buying and consuming foods that are processed as minimally as possible! I was doing some meal planning tonight and my BIL was sitting next to me. I asked hi. “what is anther dinner idea?” You know what he suggested? Hamburger helper….

I will be honest with you, at one point in time I would have thought, perfect! Now…not so much. Why? To much “junk” and unidentified ingredients.

We have two rules when buying foods: 10 ingredients or less (do you know what the unknown ingredients are?) and know what each ingredient is! Do you know what is in your food?

Cons of making your own “hamburger helper”
…it takes an extra 10 minutes
….it is not as convent
….you have to buy multiple ingredients

Pros of making your own “hamburger helper”
…you have CONTROL over what you a putting in your body
….you will not eat unknown ingredients
….no preservatives
…..makes more and freezer well
……cost wise it truly is not more expensive!

Processed food truly is a harmful epidemic causing poor eating habits, poor nutrition and filling
our bodies with toxins causing so many of todays health issues.

*I challenge you to go to the grocery This week and LOOK at the ingredients on everything you buy and shoot for 10 ingredients or less! Can you meal plan it healthier and cheaper? Tell me your results!!

Quality Snacking – How Do I Snack Well?

A quick introduction…I have recently become more involved in my food and

my families eating habits over the past year n a half. I an now a support fitness coach because I love it so much and I love watching others succeed!

One of the biggest questions I have received is “What are good snack ideas?” So we know that it is important to eat small meals or snacks every 3 hours to keep our metabolism active.

Things to Remember:

*Snacks should be about 100-200 calories.

* You should per-portion you snacks ahead of time (snack size baggies with right size po

rtions)

*Pick minimally processed foods

*Snacks should be between breakfast and lunch & lunch and dinner

*Make your own foods (home poped corn, granola bars, etc…)

*Add spices to your snacks to keep it “fresh” and exciting!

Okay some recipes for snacks!

-Handful of raw almonds

– Banana slices [add cinnamon or  shredded coconut]

– Banana Smoothie [Peel banana and put in freezer, puree in blender or food processor]

-Raw Almonds

-Popcorn [Pop your own! Its easy and pretty fast! Need a small pan, a teaspoon of cooking oil (canola) and Parmesan cheese. Heat oil, add 2 TBS of kernels (enough to cover bottom of pan or less), cover and let it POP! Shake as need. Its done when the popping slows]

– Trail Mix [Remember having this in kindergarten? Add Cheerios, Chex, raisins, peanuts (or another nut), and Granola chunks..shake in a baggie and enjoy!]

-Cottage cheese with Pineapple chunks

(**none of these photos are mine, I goggled them!)

 

Okay Hope this give your a GREAT start on some quick and easy snacking ideas!!