Flu Repel Foods and Recipes

In reference to my previous post - healthy smoothie, here are some food stuffs you can add to that recipe to repel or fight the seasonal flu and colds

• half an avocado
• spinach (organic!)
• replace boxed orange juice with fresh
• a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (cold pressed)
• another tomato, organic

For a power shot: (good for strept throats, too)

Juice ginger and keep in a well sealed container. Add only a few drops or drizzle to fresh apple/orange juice and gurgle. Drink it in small sips if you find it hard to gurgle. Ginger is a powerful anti-viral and anti-bacterial root. It has great anti-inflammatory effect and treats the mucus membranes. It also will clear your head and sinuses too! Ginger is also a natural painkiller.

Garlic:

Cut garlic into capsule sizes and swallow them. Garlic also has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial effects. Garlic cleans your blood from all those nasty bugs!

Olive Oil:
Imagine 'teflon surface' for the bacteria and viruses.

Probiotics: Boost immunity.

NO sugar! NO NO sugar:

Sugar is a vital surface for bacteria to multiply fast. Bacteria thrive on sugar. No sugar during cold season! Sugar is the "best friend" of colds.


Dodge the cold:

When  the first cold symptoms appear: Tackle it a.s.a.p with ESBERITOX! Even if you are suffering in the midst of it all, take this supplement to prevent any "after shocks". Studies have shown reductions in any following ailments, such as sinus infections etc.

for more info look at their website www.esberitox.fi all I can say is, I tried it and it works!!

Zinc: take a triple dose of the recommended daily allowence for two days. You need Zinc more that ever when your immunity is under attack.
Vitamin D: triple or quadruble RDA* for 3 days during symptoms. Don't take the pills (D and zinc) all at one time, spread the doses throughout the day.

"Starve the cold and starve the fever" by not eating anything cooked. Eat fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, smoothies, raw and live food. Your bodies enzymes that are currently fighting the viruses, do not need to be disturbed because your food has its own enzymes to digest itself for the most part = no extra energy used to digest your Big Macs = all the energy is being used to make you better!

Water: Drink plenty of water. Your body needs water to flush out toxins and your cells work way better with enough fluids.
Bug Killing-Soup!
Into a blender put:

• tomatoes 3-4
• garlic (cut into pieces) 1-2 cloves
• avocado ½-1
• olive oil 1-2tbsp
• dash of salt and pepper
• spinach -handful
• basil- handful
• dash of cayenne pepper

puree and if you want to, warm up to 37-40 degree celsius, don't let it boil!

Bug Killer Tea:

Place fresh ginger and honey into semi-boiling water and let it brew. Keep drinking tea and plenty of water.

Blessings, Cathy

Cinnamon-Apple Snacks

This is pretty healthy and yummy, I should say. The kids love it and it really is healthy. It tastes like healthy apple pie.

Ingredients:

• 2 Apples, I prefer Fuji by far!
• 2 T Xylitol or  0.5tsp Stevia (koivusokeri tms.)
• 1tsp Cinnamon
• Lemon juice

Instructions: 

in a bowl or zip lock bag

1. peel and chop up the apples
2. drizzle a tblsp or two of lemon juice
3. sprinkle the cinnamon and "sugar"
4. mix
5. eat.
6. repeat :)

Bookmark Jewelry Crafts -For kids!

 This was a fun craft project for my kids. I had them decorate two pieces of narrow paper and which they glued together, I then laminated and which they made beads for. Pretty simple yet rewarding. The kids think they look fab! It was almost mess free too, done and dusted in 15 minutes! 

Empty House -No Unnecessary Organizing (Part I)

What I am dreaming about is an "empty house".

Empty of what? Well, empty of junk, clutter, stuff I might want, posessions and well, EXTRA. I want my home empty of anything and everything that takes my mind and my time away from my family.

I don't want to feel guilty about drawers and cupboards that have been neglected. I don't want to carry stress and guilt over unfinished "one day" projects. I don't want to be afraid of living in regret for giving away books and "sentimental" belongings that I might want to keep, but honestly probably wont ever read or use.

I don't want to continuously pick stuff up, maintain order, dust, reorganize cluttered surfaces and feel like "heck sake! i just knocked something over!" I don't want to nag at my kids to watch out, they might knock off a pile of papers and magazines.

I don't want to carry anymore baggage!

I don't really want to create boxes and label them for the sake of organizing. I don't need my home to be a shop with isles and isles of labelled 'goods'. Even if I had labelled boxes, I would need to pick stuff up and find a place for them. Labelling might make things easier but I am still tidying up junk and that has not changed.

What if my home was as simple as it gets? What if we woke up in the morning and the day was about relationships instead of stuff. For instance, instead of having a swing, sitter, play mat and a musical play mat for my baby that are in the way on the living room floor, which are obstacles for me, we would have only one of them? Will the baby miss out on the stuff. What could we gain from owning a little less- just one thing? The baby is more bothered about the faces than the gadgets on the swing. Which will the baby learn more from? What will I gain from it? I can BE. I can enjoy. I can hold.

I am known for my laminating desire. I used to find any reason to laminate anything... like my cousin K.D once put it, "I would laminate my toothbrushes if I could". Come to think of it, why laminate? Better yet, why NOT to laminate. I have several reasons why NOT to; extra plastic covered paper clutter. How will laminating affect the earth? I know, pretty deep stuff right? But seriously, how will I recycle it? Life changes EVERYDAY! I change everyday. My teaching skills change and so do my ideas. Are my pieces of paper worth toxic build up? Besides, laminating paper tricks us to believe that they are important and eventually just piles up.

 These are my 2 rules of thumb (for now)

• Only laminate important documents/craft projects i.e diploma or hand made bookmarks which need protecting
• In homeschool or at work, instead of laminating words to place on the wall temporarely, use a marker/chalk and a board. 

I browse a ton of "organizing" blogs and sites on how to be organized. I find myself motivated and inspired in so many ways and feel that I want to get started immediately in tackling my home. Hold on! I've been down this road before and I'm perhaps on it again as we speak. Okay, so I have bought my supplies to help us to be more organized. I've labelled, stacked and made it look pretty. I am on a roll! I do a great job for about say, 2 weeks. One day I am overwhelmed with the day and pile stuff "to put away later" into my organized shelves, cupboards and wardrobes. This is forgotten and the piles get bigger and spread. See, those piles are unnecessary stuff, stuff we dont need and never get used. The piles keep on growing and one day when I do finally get to go through them, I store the items like I would need them, but I dont! I didn't even know I had most of it. Don't you get it, stuff in your home is clutter! What if those piles never appeared and you didnt have to store away stuff in colour coordinated cupboards to look perfect and then get overwhelmed and upset because they end up looking imperfect? Give it up.

NOW I KNOW I AM GOING TO GET A LOT OF HATE MAIL FOR THIS ONE please bare with me...

-BINDERS. Oh yes, I said it. I almost fell for that. I almost created myself an "excel sheets" in a personal binder to remind myself to drink water, scrub my sink and hug my husband... Where is the freedom in this? How about the spontinuety? Where in this do I "live"? If my days are filled with tasks to be done (tasks that someone thought were so important) where do I just 'BE' as we were MADE by our creator, to BE? Now if we need reminding of some things, can it not be done by having an accountability partner or friend?

Bad News Regarding Organized Home in 30 Days

My grand plans in organizing my home has stalled. As previously written HERE I had great plans for our outdoor shed. However, after cleaning it out, stripping it down and while painting it from the inside, we noticed mice droppings and dampness damaged walls. My grand idea of an extension to the house is not going to happen after all. 

More posts on the rest  of the house coming up soon!

DIY Toy Boxes (Organized Home in 30 Days)

We cannot afford to buy proper toy boxes for the kids right now. I wasn't going to look at their unorganized toy boxes either. They were in a mess. It made me itch. Yuck. I bought contact paper from Walmart (surprise! surprise!) and Simon got some empty shoe boxes. Ask from your local shoe shops.

 Yes, simple. Yes, cheap. And yes, ORGANIZED!

 Contact paper and FREE boxes

We piled their toys into categories and took a look which needed their own boxes. The ones left, random individuals ended up in one box labelled as BITS and BATS a.k.a bits and bobs, bits and pieces to some of you.

 Labelled and pretty

 Organized room and a happy kids (mum!)

 Organized! 

 My son's toy boxes ended up looking something like this; "GORMITS", "ACTION FIGURES", "SOLDIERS" etc

My daughter's toy boxes were more like this; "BARBIES, "DOLLS", "PONIES" etc

 Before

After

A Beautiful Notice Board

With me homeschooling a lot and Simon at work even more, communication is probably one of the most challenging things facing the family. If I tell Simon something verbally, within moments he's forgotten it (in his own words!). Not even latest technology seems to work. So, we have opted for a very functional, and dare I say, very pretty a way of communicating. A white board. I know what you are thinking, " what's so special about a white board!?" but this is no ordinary white board. I found this white board at Bed Bath&Beyond for 20 bucks. It is, essentially, a giant sticker. It's our very own family giant "post it note". I use the board for messages, brain storming, lists, grocery lists and most importantly a "Simon to-do list" :)

Lesson Record Diary for Homeschool

As a homeschooling mum, one of the biggest challenges I have had to face is knowing where we are and what we've done in the large number of subjects, books and activities that we have to do. So, therefore, we have implemented a lesson record diary. For sure, this is NOTHING new for those teachers of you out there, but this certainly helps a new teacher, like me. Each day we record each activity, subject and learning outcome that takes place. The diary really helps to keep on track, to check our progress and to help in reporting back to the moderator. Any diary that allows enough space for detailed notes will do. I got mine from Walmart and the Dollar Store.

Reward Chart

 If you need to motivate your child to do right, a reward chart is a good start. However, it would be good to teach the child to do right from the heart and not just because she/he will "get something out of it". There is a saying though, "what gets rewarded, gets repeated". I have created a Reward Chart for my kids with the areas that they are currently struggeling in. There are many areas they struggle in that I put on the chart, but I don't want to overwhelm them. So I choose the 'worst' that need dealing with a.s.a.p as in, bad attitude, ungratefulness, selfishness, disrespect, disobidience etc and then turn those into ' happy heart, sharing is caring, no back-chatting, instant obidience'... So far so good!

Restrategizing "Organizing my Home in 30 Days"

Okay, I know you all have been waiting for my updates on how my organizing has been going. Well, my start was strong. I had good plans for each area of the house. While I was organizing these areas, my plans changed from good to GREAT. Now, I have BIGGER plans for the areas I wan't to organize and this will take more than 30 days. I won't go over 30 days, as in, the tasks combined will not take more than 24h x 30. :) Are you curious about what my GREAT plans are?? Well I thought you'd never ask! Here they are!

The Shed will not be cleaned and organized, but it will be stripped, cleaned, painted and refurnished to be a very nice extention of our house! YES indeed! We will be getting rugs, a couch, scrapbooking table, shelving, mirrors, art- you name it! It will be a man cave, play den, pantry, art room and even during summers a great extra bedroom for visitors.

The Pantry will be dedicated for homeschooling and homeschooling only. Books, notebooks, workbooks, paper, crayons, art supplies, more books, more paper, craft supplies, board games etc

Laundry Room will be for linen, towels, blankets, basket etc

The Linen Cupboard will be extra space for clothes and other items.

Kayleigh's Room will have a whole new make over, paint job and a well organized toy area for her to maintain as well as a 3 years old can. We will go through her clothes and her princess dresses and give them a more accessable place for her to reach them.

The Backyard will be emptied from summer toys, gardening tools, pots, etc. We will decorate it to be a warm, welcoming back garden for the Autumn and Winter with logs, garden statues, Autumn plants and so on.

Joshua's Room will also get a make over, paint, toy organizing and so on.

Let the MAMMOTH task begin!

Organizing the Cuttlery Drawer (Day 4)

People should be extra tidy and CLEAN, when it comes to the drawers in the kitchen. Especially, if you live in a country that has those little gross bugs called ROACHES! Coming from a country where the worst kitchen enemy was a silverfish, I was utterly grossed out by finding a small roach in my kitchen drawer. Everything else in my kitchen was organized except the drawers. The drawers were on the top of my list for Organizing my home in 30 days thank goodness! Think about it, you and your family eat with those utensils right!? Imagine what is on them. Keep your drawers and cupboards TIDY and SANITIZE them at least every other week.

I am NOT joking, my drawers looked like that. Seriously.

and

Keeping the utensils that I rarely use in a seperate container, keeps my drawer organized and prevents them from sliding all over. I would've used sticky matt for the rest of the untensils but I ran out. Will have to purchase some more!

Homeschool: Creating a Classroom in Your Kitchen

I have been homeschooling my son for 2 years now. Officially 1. Untill now it has never really had that feeling of "school" that I hoped for. What I have tried to do is create a school like feeling that is one condusive to learning, but second, a place where I feel motivated to be a teacher. 

So, I went out and bought some things that would help me to create this educational enviroment, and spent the evening -and some of the night, putting up all the stuff. When we were done we had a white board, A-Z stickers, a month chart, days of the week cards, weather chart, and a reward chart up. 

In the morning when the kids woke up, they were amazed and happy.

 Click on the images below, to appear bigger.

Our Classroom.

 Months and weekdays.

 The blackboard and reward chart.

I look forward to teaching these little kiddos again on Monday!

T-Shirt Designs

 

Another fun craft idea to do with the kids! It was a great way to teach them how to design their own shirts and wear them with pride. They were really happy to create a shirt for themselves. It's special! 

I bought the plain t-shirts and fabric pens from Walmart.

Soap Cloud Experiment

Kids love it! Watch the bar of soap grow into a fluffy cloud! It has to be IVORY, else it wont work. Our first try did not work as well as our second go. The kids took the cloud to the bath afterwards.

 MUST be IVORY!

Ooh! Exciting!

 It's growing!

It's a cloud! (looks different every time)

My Organized (Imperfect!) Home in 30 days

Here it is, finally, my post(s) on how I am going to organize my home in 30 days. Most of the areas in our home are pretty under control, but I still want make them even better. I will figure out what works best for our family, with our schedule, our daily activities and rhythm.

The areas I am going to take control over are,

• laundry room
• linen cupboard
• kitchen pantry
• entry ways
• kids toys
• crafts
• dressers and wardrobes
• bathroom
• shed
• our bedroom 
• homeschooling shelves

I will also blog about de-cluttering, recycling, and re-using.There is no certain order I am going to do it. I know that I will start with the linen cupboard though, it has been bugging me for quite some time now. Also, the drawers in the kitchen look like a spoon factory vomited in them. So yes, that is on the top of my list too.

Let the organizing begin! Stay tuned!

Housewife University: Forgiveness

Housewife University: Forgiveness

Animal Collage From Your Pantry

I took the kids to Maplewoods Farm. We had a fun time learning about the everyday life that takes place at a farm and how to even milk a cow old fashioned way. I asked my kids to count the animals they saw (besides the 100's of ducks) and write them down on a piece of paper they carried with them. At home I asked them to chose their favourite farm animal and to make a collage out with whatever we found in our pantry. This was a fun and frugal way of making art.

 Mid way of our art project.

 Almost there!

 J's Goat Collage.

K's Horse Collage.

1st Years Gardening Part II

This was our vegetable patch at one point along the way. Kids can dig up all the weeds and roots while playing. Perfect!

I was very excited about my garden. I had BIG dreams about being very self sufficient, providing my family with tons of vegetables. I had BIG ideas! With everything going on at home, being big, heavy and pregnant, and having a hard enough time keeping up the basics at home, maybe gardening could've waited another calendar year. However, I am no quitter! Even if I did not give my 100% and did what should've been required, I still got - and am getting - something out of my garden experiment!

My broccoli plants grew really big but they produced small florets that I just couldn't see my family having to fight over during dinner time. Eventually, we dug them out, fed them our pet Guinea Pigs and made room for other plants, which I had sown into decomposable pots ready to plant.

The broccoli is on the left. They are still small in this picture. I never did take a picture of how big they grew. Lets put it this way, I could not see the soil around them. They stretched beyond the two planks along side them.

My lettuce was a hit. However, it may have been too much of a hassle outside and I could've easily had the plants inside. The lettuce grew fast and provided me the greens I needed for my famous smoothies. It was just the damn slugs that got to me. Endless slugs! Not a big fan of slimy slugs. I googled how to get rid of slugs without using overly harsh chemicals and how to make home-made, non-toxic pestacide. I will blog those recipes.

My spinach prematurely bolted, since June was a bit too cold. I planted new plants in July and we got a good freezer bag full of leaves. I gave the rest to the Guinea Pigs and removed the roots from my patch. I have big plans for my gardens empty space, oh yah! Just wait and see!

My spring onions did fine, grew well and were delish!! Yum YUM! I planted more!

I had planted my chard and dill right under our dryers 'fume pipe' which put me off. Our Guinea Pigs seem to benefit most from our garden.

1st years Gardening Part I

 

This is what was I was facing with all my little seedlings needing to be planted a.s.a.p! I had my work cut out for me and I was heavily pregnant too. Thank God for a loving, caring and strong husband. It took several days to clear this vegetable patch out. Several new gardening tools too, which we were luckily able to borrow.

I really like this picture above. It reminds me of the verse in Genesis!

 Genesis 3:16-19

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labour you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you. ”

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return.”

I got them planted all in a rows. I placed planks in between the rows for easy access to the plants and also so I didn't have to stand on the soil.

I planted peas, broccoli, spinach, spring onions, tomatoes, dill and Swiss chard. Little did I know that half of these weren't going to work out as I had planned, for one reason or another. I will explain more in part II and III.

 My aunt had brought me herb pots for my yard.

The little beginnings of our pumpkins, squash, zucchini.