What Isn't Wrong With Me? or September Goals
Happy September, everyone! The month is rolling in with high humidity and strong storms where we are. How about in your corner of the world?
Last week was quite the adventure. Saturday night I developed an outer ear infection in the right ear and by Sunday night I had one in my left ear. These were not just slightly uncomfortable but garlic, onion and olive oil will kick it types. These are of the "oh, my ear is itching" to "oh, my ear is swollen shut and it's only been four hours" variety. It's swell fun. The swelling was so intense it ruptured my right ear drum. Not so enjoyable. The real icing on the cake though was waking up one morning with double pinkeye. Talk about rubbing salt on the wound! The Doctor (yes, that was my breaking point) prescribed eye drops, ear drops, and an antibiotic. I filled the last two. There was no way I was paying $77 for eye drops when I knew a little colloidal silver would take care of it in a jiffy. Instead, I meandered over to the local Whole Health Store and spent my $77 on Immunity Builders, FOS to counter the antibiotic damage to my flora, a huge bottle of silver, and a coconut macaroon. Money well spent!
I am not anti-Doctors. I just want to be clear on that. My personal belief is that people tend to go to them to quickly and too often. I feel that often when I go to the Doctor my symptoms are treated but the root cause is not. That is cause for great concern for me. Why is it that when I get an infection it crashes my immune system and runs rampant? Why do I get every infection that meanders by? These are questions I will continue searching for the answers to.
We are all wonderfully designed by our Creator. There are laws of nature which must be followed for our bodies to operate as intended. I know my body has been greatly abused in the past 27 years. I want to make amends. By the grace of God this machine will be rebooted and I will again have the energy necessary to serve the Lord to my full potential. Can I get an Amen?
On Monday, I will personally be starting the GAPS protocol Stage 1 again(I am not going to put my husband through that again!). We had such wonderful results last time we did the intro diet, I am concerned I went too quickly due to my excitement and didn't reap the full benefits. For example I have a full yeast issue I would like to know is dealt with this time. I will also be starting a liver and gallbladder detox. I am really excited to finally be doing this one and can't wait to let you know how it goes! It's going to be a full month for sure! Let's get started!
Soap Giveaway Winners
And We Have Our Winners! Hooray! Drum roll, please: The following four winners were chosen using Random.org.
Our first three winners of their very own tube of Pearly White Teeth are:
Cathy Payne
Blakely
and Alexis!
Congrats to you all!
Now, for the Grand Prize Winner! The winner of two tubes of Pearly White Teeth, Peppermint Shimmer Lip Balm, and a bar of soap of her choosing is Heidi Powers!
Thank you to all who entered, I wish everyone could have won!
I will be contacting the winners over the next couple of days for their addresses. Have a great afternoon everyone!
In case you were disappointed...
Hi, All!
I know a few new people have subscribed as part of the Giveaway. Yay! I'm glad you've joined us. :) In case you've been regretting that decision thinking "goodness! this lady never writes!", I do! Really, really!
I have been suffering (understatement of the year) from a double ear infection that started Saturday evening. As I lie awake at night waiting for death (okay, now I'm just being dramatic, but it really hurts!) I've been drafting some great posts in my head. Expect them here soon!
The Lord has also been really using this illness for His glory. I can tend to be stiff necked and think I know what is best for our family and during this time the Lord has really addressed that sin and convicted me that by usurping Erik's spiritual headship in the home I am not protecting my daughters best interest, as I've claimed. What I am really doing is putting them in grave danger by not allowing them to rest under the protection of the headship of their Father. Praise the Lord!
This has also been a good time for Erik and I to have some honest conversations about some topics we've never seen eye to eye on and finally find ourselves (as usual) in basic agreement just using the wrong words to convey that. Oh, joy!
Praise the Lord, Who uses all things for His glory!
You probably won't hear from me again until I announce winners on Friday. I need to give any coherent moments to my ladies!
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (King James Version)
9And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee:
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly
therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of
Christ may rest upon me.
10Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,
in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake:
for when I am weak, then am I strong.
A Tooth Soaps Giveaway!
Yes, you heard that right: tooth soaps. For those of you stopping by for the first time I am indeed "that kind of crazy"!
Before we get to the giveaway (Hooray!), let's chat about what you'll be winning and answer some questions. Shall we?
What is tooth soap? It's exactly what you're imagining it to be. It's soap that you use for your teeth. Why would anybody do a crazy thing like that, you ask? I think the question you should be asking is why would anyone in their right mind put fluoride, glycerin, sodium lauryl sulfates, food dyes, and a whole host of other unimaginables in their mouth, let alone their children's mouthes!
Let's look at a couple of the ingredients I just mentioned.
Fluoride seems a good one to start with. I am not going to go into very much detail (we'll save that for another, less riled up night!) right now, but here's a little info to mull over. Fluoride is a known mood and behavior alterer. It was used as such in Nazi prison camps and by Soviets. It was used specifically to sterilize the inmates and make them docile. It's a key ingredient in Prozac, rat poison, and nerve gas. It has NEVER been approved by the FDA for human consumption. I don't know about you, but I have yet to meet a kid who doesn't swallow at least a little bit of their toothpaste. Especially if it's flavored of bubblegum!
Moving on now to glycerin. This one is the hardest one to avoid even in "safe" toothpastes in my experience. Why should we avoid it? It doesn't do us any favors. It takes twenty rinses to remove it from our teeth while it only takes two to remove soap. Twenty rinses! Why do we want it rinsed off? If it stays nicely coated on our teeth then the calcium and phosphate in the food we eat can't penetrate. It prevents remineralization of your teeth via your saliva. We can all use some of that!
Sodium Lauryl Sulfates are the ingredients which make you foam and froth during brushing. Fun, I know, but we don't want SLS in any product which will come into contact with our skin as the American College of Toxicology has reported it to be quite corrosive and harmful to skin tissue. Eeks! My gums don't need that!
I'll just quickly touch on the topic of food dyes in toothpaste as I know you want to move on to good news. It's not here, I can assure you! The dyes used in toothpastes are coal dyes and long known to be carcinogenic and mutagenic. Your son may at times seem to have the energy of Wolverine, but you don't want him turning into him, do you? Okay, fine, maybe you do, but you get my point.
The Physicians Desk Reference teaches us that the mucus lining of the mouth can absorb with 90% efficiency meaning that all the toxins going into your mouth are getting absorbed into your blood stream whether you swallow the toothpaste or not. Bummer.
Please cue the music for our hero's entry: It's ToothSoap! Hooray!
Your first thought may be "I don't care if this stuff is better for you, I would hate rubbing soap all over my tongue".
I understand. I used bad words as a child also... Oh, wait. You don't think you'll like it. I see. Not a "from personal experience" share. Forget I said anything. This is not your mothers soap bar. Not that there's anything wrong with that one. It would work too, just maybe not as well and it sure wouldn't taste as nice. Believe me!
According to Dr. Judd, the author of Good Teeth, Birth to Death, "brushing with soap washes oils off the teeth and disinfects the gums, with the bacteria being killed by the soap". Hip, hip, hooray!
When I decided to give tooth soap a try I looked at the options and there are a few good ones! The trouble I came across though was that I wanted it to not break the bank and I wanted to be able to share with the rest of the family. Most of the tooth soaps I found came in little boxes for you to dip your wet brush in. I would not be willing to share that with anyone else and I am not sure I would even want to go back after too many days! The perfect solution for me was to buy it in a tube. I found a wonderful Etsy shop called Beautiful Soaps'. She offered Pearly White Teeth, a soap for teeth in a little chapstick tube which I found to be the perfect size and price for a family trial.
The ingredient list is simple yet effective: olive, coconut, and palm oils, peppermint, spearmint, and orange essential oils, anise, cinnamon, orange and lemon extracts, xylitol (go here to read some exciting benefits of this one!), vitamin e, and aluminum free baking soda.
The way we use it is we just wet our toothbrushes, swipe them across the top of the tube and then, personally, I swipe it across the back of my hand to clean it off for the next person. As I don't trust my three year old or husband to be performing the same courtesy, I swipe my hand before I swipe my brush as well. At this point, in theory, we all have our own tube, but ya know how that goes! (Erik says he doesn't want to brush his teeth with the back of my hand. There's no pleasing some people!)
The soap taste is not offensive at all to any of us. The Lady enjoys the excuse to spit and even without the SLS, it foams up quite comfortingly! It leaves my teeth SO SMOOTH! Even Mr. Picky has no complaints of its teeth cleaning abilities and that's saying A LOT! I love it. True story.
I have purchased from Beautiful Soaps' Store twice now and have always been quite pleased with the promptness of delivery. i have yet to receive an order without there being an extra goody in my bag either! Let me tell you: The Sweet Pea soap is a favorite around here!
Heather Rai, of Beautiful Soaps', has graciously agreed to give three of my readers a chance to try a Pearly White Teeth soap of their own! I am so excited that I'm going to throw in a fourth, Grand Prize if you will, from Heathers shop: two tubes of Pearly White Teeth soap, a tube of Peppermint Shimmer Lip Balm (I love this stuff!), and a bar of soap of your choosing! THat's right, FOUR winners!
Here's how to enter:
****************Giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered!*****************
Please leave a separate comment for each entry!
1. Mandatory entry: Go to Beautiful Soaps' Shop and look around! Come back here, and in the comments tell me what soap you'd pick if you won!
2. Subscribe here at We Are Of The Day. Then leave a comment telling me that you did!
3. Blog about this giveaway with a link back here. Leave a comment with a link to your blog telling me that you did it!
4. Share this giveaway on Facebook or Twitter and again- come leave a comment for an extra entry!
Winners will be drawn on Friday the 27th at 9am central time.
That's it! Four chances to win one of Four Prizes! May the most in need mouths win! Ha!
Just in case you were curious, I am in no way being compensated for this giveaway and was not paid for my review. Just so ya know!
This post is a part of Things I Love Thursday, Simple Lives Thursday, Family Food Fridays, I'm lovin' It, Pennywise Platter,
Fight Back Friday, Monday Mania, Gluten Free Wednesday, Real Food Wednesdays, Frugality is Free, .
Kid Tested, Mother Approved: Pesto
What is is with children and condiments? Years ago, while working at a daycare, I was shocked at the amount of ketchup those kids could consume! We're talking an equal ratio of ketchup to whatever (crap) food product they were dipping into it. Truly impressive.
My daughter is also a lover of smears, but as my child has more refined tastes. Her spread of choice? Sun-dried tomato pesto. I kid you not! She will (and does!) eat the stuff by the bowlful!
In Mason City, where Erik's parents live, there's a delightful little restaurant that serves excellent dishes made with as many local foods as they can get their hands on. It's named "Ralph's" and we are well known there. On our last visit I found myself almost wishing the server seating us hadn't confirmed "Your family is grain-free, correct?" as she led us to our table so as to not blow the girls and I's cover with my husband and father-in-law. No way to pretend this trip was a special occasion at that point! Oh, well... at least, as their best customer, they shared the pesto recipe with me!
The recipe is perfect on its own, but I gave it some tweaks so as to be able to not make a special trip to the stores. I also made it two ways: one with standard dried and stored in a bag tomatoes, and once with dried and stored in olive oil tomatoes as the recipe hadn't specified which. I am quite sure they use the oil packed ones as the bright red color fades otherwise. Ralph's uses Parmesan as their cheese of choice. I used Asiago as I had it on hand and personally, I enjoy the bite. If you want a more subtle flavor, then by all means: use the Parm.
Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
1/2 cup packed basil
1 mounded cup sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil (save the oil from the jar)
1/4-1/2 cup grated Asiago cheese (or Parmesan)
extra Olive Oil just in case
Here's how you do it: Throw the first two ingredients into your food processor and let the blade spin until everything is nicely chopped and blended. Now add the cheese and the oil from the jar and let the blade whirl some more. At this point you should be done. If you feel it is too crumbly or dry you can add more olive oil until you are happy with the consistency. This pesto is so delicious!
If you are going to make it using dried tomatoes from a bag, you will definitely need extra oil in the ballpark of 1/4-1/2 cups. The color will also be much darker. In the above picture, we are serving the tomato pesto on top of stew. The darker colored layer on the bottom is the recipe made with bagged tomatoes while the redder pesto on top is the same recipe made from tomatoes bought in oil. We prefer the recipe made with the oil soaked dried tomatoes.
Which way do you prefer it?
This post is part of Two for Tuesday's and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday's, and Real Food Wednesday's, Friday Foodie Fix, Gluten Free Wednesdays. Pennywise Platter
