Mountain Rose Herbs

I have lots of ambitions regarding the direction of my home and the products that I will use to care for it and all it holds. As soon as we get into a place of our own, it's going to look like a chemistry lab in no time flat. Laundry soap, deodorant, body care products, cleaning products...these are all on the list of industrial casualties for our home. I had long ago stopped using chemical cleaning agents in our home, but I have been wanting to go beyond white vinegar for quite some time, now. There is also the issue of wanting to become more frugal, consume less, create less waste, and pull money out of the pockets of large corporations. So, how does that happen? Where do you start?

I have found many wonderful blogs since I started this gig, and they have helped enormously! I had been finding wonderful recipes for homemade home & family care on other blogs, but I was always wondering where they got their ingredients. Since I don't live in a part of the country that is saturated with resources for the life I want to live, I was getting frustrated. Until...one day, I realized that lots of the blogs I read had the same button on them for Mountain Rose Herbs. Well, wouldn't you know it...it's a wealth of resources! It's oh so much more than just herbs...there are carrier oils for aromatherapy, there are butters (like shea, cocoa, and kokum), there are essential oil kits, containers for everything, and my personal favorite...bulk coconut oil...for an AMAZING price, which is huge, because I use it for everything from cooking my sons eggs in the morning to making deodorant...VERY versatile. That's just scratching the surface. I. am. thrilled!!!

Soooo...naturally, I promptly went to the website, applied to be an affiliate, and was approved! Now, let me clarify...I realize that many readers are bloggers in the natural home realm, themselves, and are more than likely quite familiar with Mountain Rose Herbs, and most likely an affiliate. So, I totally get that...but, I do have a few readers that are looking for resources to help them on their journey toward keeping a natural home, and I will happily provide that link! There is a button on the right side of my blog page that will link you directly to their site!

I feel good about recommending their products, because they are committed to providing quality, EXTREMELY well-priced, very versatile and usable products. Add to that, they are also committed to community & organic agriculture, education and activism for it, and I am honored to be promoting them! What a great company!

Just to make it even easier...here is a link to their eCatalog:

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/b01684aa#/b01684aa/16

Happy shopping, my friends;)

Real Foodie Mishaps & A Fuzzy Ball of Madness

Well, I know I said I would be back yesterday, but when we got home from our weekend in Lubbock, I was working on about 2 hours of sleep (followed by a good stretch of head bobbing, neck snapping, half snoozing in the car on the way home), and I frankly, had to go to sleep. So, I beg your pardon for the bogart.

As for today, I am going to bring attention to a little problem that I'm having. With joblessness & homelessness being our set of circumstances at the moment, we are having a hard time figuring out how to incorporate Real Food into...well, poverty. Having a farm or backyard homestead might help with this problem...but, alas...have you checked the stats on buying land or a house with no job? Sooooo, some creative solutions are in order...(as well as a serious attitude adjustment for me.) {Cue: I might be registering for school tomorrow!!! What!? I'll elaborate when I know more:)}

I am so ready to get started on our new lifestyle, and I have this "the way it should be" problem...which, if you were reading during the time we were on our trip, you should recall this problem, readily. I am struggling with visions of colorful, seasonal bounty dancing in my head, so food is becoming a real struggle.

The Scene: I bought 3 peaches from the grocery store, today. (I know, what was I thinking?) But, it's peach season, and I'm desperate, because I'm yearning for them, and the farmer's market is several days away. Besides, I'm one of those annoying foodie people that smells each piece of produce before I select it...and these peaches smelled gooood....very peachy. Well, I got it home, washed it, sat down to eat it, and it was tough, sour, and just plain AWFUL! Remember the Veruca Salt fit I pitched the other day?...well, Take Two. I LOATHE bad produce. Strangely, a few years ago, I would have just eaten it, wondering where along the road of my life peaches had lost their charm. Well, I now know that the charm has literally been stolen, and a bad produce experience is beginning to get equal billing alongside getting my purse snatched.

{don't be fooled by it's fuzzy cuteness. it's an imposter. an imposter, i say!}

Well, I guess that teaches me...I suppose I will just have to make friends with a local farmer this weekend at the Farmer's Market, and buy all I can carry. Maybe that way, I'll be contributing to my local food economy, contributing to a small farmers' ability to still be one next year...and I'll finally be able to have my peach...and eat it, too.

We're Outa Here

Ok...well, I have a post about marriage in the works, but I'm emotional about it, and it's pretty snarky....so, in the interest of wisdom and discretion, I'm going to wait. Besides, when I feel like this about something, it tends to dwell and swell in my psyche, until I'm having a bad day, and don't know why.

So, instead of writing an article about how marriages are falling apart, I'm going to conserve my energy, and invest it in my own marriage, this weekend. I'm choosing to let go, and fully soak in the 4th of July celebrations in Lubbock, all the while thanking God for my wonderful husband. We've been annoying each other quite a bit this past week, so I'm going to make it my mission to pave over that rocky path, enjoy the family time, enjoy celebrating our freedom, and make some wonderful memories:)

God has blessed me beyond measure, and allowed me to be born in a country where I can post my opinions on a public forum, not get stoned, and go home to a husband that won't stab me in my sleep because I rolled my eyes at him. Theatrics, again...I know. But, seriously...the truth is more dramatic than any fiction.

I love doing this. I appreciate it with every fiber of my being. And I also love fireworks...with the giddyness of a child...I love those colors exploding across the sky. What's better? I get to watch them with my kid...and he's reached the age where he totally gets why we're doing it. So, I want to thank you all for reading, wish you the happiest Independence Day, stickiness from watermelon juice, achy sides from laughing, euphoria under the plumes of exploding colors, and contentment in the arms of the ones you love. Have FUN! Give THANKS!.....

...and, GOD BLESS AMERICA!

*I'll be back on Tuesday...have a safe and happy weekend:)

Livin' La Vida Locavore

Often, when I tell people in my hometown that my husband and I have this dream to buy a farm, start growing our own food, hand making most of our household products, and to can and preserve all summer so that we can eat in the winter, I get these blank and questioning stares like they have just run into a certifiable masochist. The look is always followed with the inevitable question, "but, WHY would you want to work that hard, when you can just go to the store?!" It makes me giggle:)

To put it lightly, the DFW metroplex is not necessarily a haven for agrarian minded people. I get it...I really do. I'm a city girl. I'm one of those that actually finds it relaxing and wonderful to be in the middle of New York City. I've grown up and lived in one of the largest metropolis areas in the country for the last 20+ years. So, it's a little counter-intuitive that I would actually choose a life of weed pullin' and feather pluckin'. But, there is a reason...LOTS of reasons...and I'm about to give you my Top 5. *Notice I said top five...there are MANY more. {these are not necessarily in order of importance}

5. Quietness

Everywhere, all the time, there is noise. It's funny to me, how everyone always yearns for a better time. They yearn for the time when everything wasn't so scary, and everything wasn't so tense, and everything wasn't so hurried. I have a thought about that. When I sit and listen to all the opinions about every single thing that's going on in the world, it dawns on me that the information age may have a hoodwink buried in it somewhere. Who said it was a good idea for everyone to know everything...at every moment? I get tired of all the noise, all the political BS that comes from everyone knowing how the president reacted when he spilled guacamole on his shirt in the middle of a security briefing, or what happened when Brad Pitt was shaving this morning. Just a bunch of sheep, being told what to think, what to care about, what to buy. Nothing good comes of it...ever. I'm ready to learn the opinions of the ground, as it gives up the fruits of my labor, communing with the bees as we work together to make the garden grow, to feel the sun warm on my back, or the few whispers of rain, letting me know it's time to go in. Job 12:8 says, "speak to the earth, and it shall teach you"...yeah, I intend to hear it.

4. It's Biblical

I have been in church my entire life, and I never knew this part. We are called to a sustainable, manual life in the Bible. I Thessalonians 4:11-12 "11Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we have told you, 12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody." Now...I don't think that God expects everyone to be a farmer. However, I do believe that it's important for people to at least know HOW. I believe we need to live in community with one another, and to be able to contribute our skills into the lives of those around us. However, at this point, the closest thing we know to having a relationship with those who produce our food, is saying hi to the checkout person at the grocery, or thanking a waiter for their service. We need to go deeper.

3. It's the Opposite of Consuming

Our daily lives consist of a long series of acts of consuming, interspersed with moments of expending. Here's what I mean...(and this is a general look at the American lifestyle...not every person)...we eat, we buy, we type, we gas up, we burn that gas, we listen to radio, we watch TV, we read, we watch the news, we read emails, we read tickers, we workout, we bathe, we eat some more, we work at a job where we push buttons a bunch, we turn on lights, we dry our hair, we sit, we grocery shop, we stop in for a latte...it just goes on and on. There is so much that we do to consume all kinds of energy. Producing your own food is a practice in creating fuel, expending physical energy, putting life into the earth, putting nutrients into the soil, creating health benefits, creating environmental benefits, and living with purpose...for a noble cause. It's a life that is spent giving forth, with highly valued times of reaping harvest, consuming truth, and sharing with those you love. See the difference? It's intended life...not life happening to us.

2. Real Health

Man, this one's loaded. Ok...in order for me to fit this paragraph into this post, I'm going to have to completely leave out the issue of our fake food debaucle. Chances are, if you're reading this, you are looking for answers to the "how the heck do I get off this crazy thing" question regarding what has been allowed to pass as food, in our country. So, I think I'll just address the integrity of our supply of "normal" food, and leave the Frankenfood discussion for a time when I'm blogging with a glass of red wine in hand. So...in order for food, namely produce, to be transported 1500 miles, and still look nice when it gets to the grocery, things have to go a certain way. First of all, if it were to be harvested when ripe, it would be a soupy mush by the time it traveled in the back of a semi all the way across the country or up from Chile. So, they pick it green (unready), load into the truck, and throw an ethylene cartridge in, shut the door, and PRESTO...it LOOKS ripe when they get it at the store. What's the problem? Well, the ripening process as God designed it, is the part where are the good stuff happens...you know, like flavor, nutrients, color, phyto-chemicals, disease healing properties, disease preventing properties, and the like. When that thing is picked "green" all that stuff that we think is in there....well, it ain't. It's just made to LOOK good, so that when we go to the grocery store, and "stick to the outer perimeter" in order to ensure that we're making the best health choices, well, it's really just a smoke and mirrors game where they all laugh while we buy a very colorful array of, let's be honest...sour water. Then we wonder WTF is going on, when we go to the doctor, and despite our best efforts, have some horrendous disease, for which we will take a little pill for the rest of our lives, and actually die of the affects of THAT, quicker than we ever would have died of the disease, itself. Cue weepy loved ones at the edge of the grave....Aaaaand, SCENE! Man, they're clever.

1. Sustainability.
I'm becoming less and less inhibited about telling people that I am somewhat of a conspiracy theorist. Now...I'm not carrying around copies of The Catcher in the Rye, and I don't think there are government agents following me (yet;). The kind of thing I'm talking about is the kind of thing that we are dealing with right now. I believe that greed and convenience addiction are literally killing us; that how we have come to depend solely on those philosophies to run every facet of our lives is dangerous...and a ticking time bomb. And friends...that timer is winding down...AND HOW! The BP oil spill is really just like seeing the flashlight in the Watergate. It's just the warning shot. There's always going to be that guy...the one who's phone rings in church, that reminds everyone else that they need to turn theirs off...BP is that guy. We have a problem, here, folks...and, it's not going to get any better as long as our very livelihoods are completely dependent on a giant, oil-guzzling infrastructure to bring our food to us from an average of 1500 miles away. That is INSANITY! All it's going to take is for some sleeper cell somewhere to fully understand the fact that if they screw up our ability to get oil...the whole country folds. Seriously...the grocery stores are empty, the stores go bare...and then what's a consumption-addicted, push-button country to do for food? At this point it would be laughable to think we'd just pick up a hoe, and get to work. Kids don't even know that their food came out of the dirt, much less how to get it there and get it out! That is a problem...a serious one. The system that we all adhere to, every single day, is really just a giant sinkhole under the freeway...one day soon, the whole thing is going to open up, and take us all down with it. So...yeah, not sustainable. I don't want to be a part of it, anymore...This sheep's jumping the fence.

* I realize that there is a very irreverent tone to this post, and I apologize. But, that's where I am...I'm sick of it. It's like life is a joke, and it's not getting any better until we start taking a hard look at taking back the reigns. There shouldn't be a single person left in this country that believes that "they" have our best interest at heart. They don't.

Check out this post in Fight Back Fridays at

http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-july-9th/

Me and My Blueberries

I realized, the other day, that my food cravings actually pattern seasonal fare. I'm thrilled about that, because as we move away from the industrialized food grid, we are going to be changing the way we see the availability of food. We will be trading in the availability of all foods at all times, for the more rewarding system of looking forward to certain times of the year when we can enjoy the tastiest and most nutrient dense version of foods we love, in large quantities.

Warning: Soapbox Sidebar... {What a novel concept...quantity and quality working in a synergistic, symbiotic way to create a feast of health and pleasure! If a big corporation was trying to achieve that level of productivity, they would hire a consultant for millions of dollars to teach them how to make that happen. Why? Because that kind of thing doesn't just happen as a result of human nature or chaos all of a sudden righting itself. Hmmm...sounds like someone really intelligent may have had a hand in designing it.}

So, as it turns out, I'm a little ahead of the game on that point...and, I think that if we all tuned into ourselves and our bodies that maybe we would all realize that we crave winter foods in winter, summer foods in summer, etc?...I don't know...just a hunch.

Anyway, so here we are in summer, and I am happy as a clam. It's due, in no small part, to the fact that blueberries are in season RIGHT NOW! Last Friday was the first blueberry picking trip of the season...aren't they beautiful?



Blueberry picking has been a part of my summer for my entire life. I'm not sure why we didn't really pick anything else...but, blueberries are like the symbolic family fruit where I come from. Blueberry syrup, blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes...these are all wonderful. But, when the mercury starts to rise, and blueberry picking weekend approaches, there is one thing on my mind. Like a teenage girl waiting for her Sweet 16, or dew drops awaiting the dawn...I yearn for {frozen blueberries & milk}.

It's the easiest thing you can possibly imagine. After you wash your blueberries, lay them out to dry. (If you freeze them while they are still wet, they get all icy and mealy in the freezer.) After that pop them in freezer bags, and the next day you'll have the most refreshing treat imaginable. Pour some in a bowl, pour milk over them, add a touch of vanilla extract, and you have a bowl of summer yummy goodness that is better than ice cream, in my opinion. The milk freezes around the berries, making a frosty, slushy, healthy, gorgeous, just sweet enough bowl of bliss, and I am COMPLETELY smitten. When you throw in the fact that they are brimming with powerful nutrients, such as antioxidants, Vitamin C, Resveratrol, fiber, and manganese...well, it's clearly the front-runner in the race for my heart...not to mention my collagen matrix, capillary integrity, and overall free radical fighting ability:)

GO! RUN! Get some quickly!!!...you'll want to experience this as soon as possible:)

Happy Summer my dear friends:)

Our Adoption Story

I have been trying to find a place to fit the subject of adoption into the Project. For my husband and I, it's a very personal issue that has profoundly affected our life for years. I have decided that I will be incorporating a Spotlight on Adoption post to every last Tuesday of each month. Tuesdays are the days that I plan on writing about parenting & child rearing issues...whether it be something that we are dealing with and need help on, or if it be a tip that I have used in our home that has worked and which I feel would be useful to pass on. I hope to have running themes on each day of the week and then inspirational bits on Saturdays...all of which will funnel toward the common theme of practical ways to keep our families whole.

Today is the first of those posts...this is our adoption story:

In October of 2006, Brandon and I had been married for 3 1/2 years. There is nothing that either of us wanted more than to have children. Though we truly did want to have at least one biological child, we both felt a strong burden for children that needed a home, and we were determined that we would adopt at some point in our lives...if only just one child. However, in the fall of 2006, we owned a little landscaping business, we lived in a one bedroom apartment, and we were in NO financial shape to be seriously attempting it.

I was having a terrible time with my inability to conceive a child at that particular point. To be honest, I was exhausted with hope. I was sick of trying to keep my chin up, I was sick of that little feeling in my stomach EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I opened my eyes to see if there was a plus on the little test stick...like maybe THIS was the time...maybe THIS TIME we would get what we longed for. It all culminated one night, as I lay awake in bed & considered the fact that I may NEVER have a child. NEVER...that word rang in my mind as I wept and sputtered down the stairs of our loft at 2am, to go cry in the kitchen. I had a really hard time understanding why God would allow this...I mean crackheads have babies ALL THE TIME...seriously...WHAT THE???!!! It was at this point that I had to really search my soul...and I mean DIG DEEP. I just had a moment where I thought..."OK. If I never get to be pregnant, if I never get to give birth, if I never get to make a baby with my husband...am I ever going to be happy again?" I literally had to answer that question for myself. Immediately I knew...I could lay down my desires to be pregnant, but there's no way my life made sense without motherhood in it. So, in an instant...I just stopped. I put the proverbial baggage down...I turned around, and I walked away from it. I gave pregnancy to God...I told Him, "it's Yours. You take it. But, PLEASE let me be a mother somehow." That was December 20, 2006.

{Back in October of 2006, I had gotten a call from a friend. She told me that her boyfriend (who we'll just call Bob) had just received a call from a girl, that she had given birth to his child, and that she didn't feel that she could care for him. She told him that he could pick up the baby if he wanted to, and so...he did. My friend asked me if I could help him babysit, because this had just been sprung on him, and he had a full time job, and they knew that I wasn't working, at that point. I was happy to, and I began babysitting off and on for the next couple of months. The very first day, my husband and I had made an offhanded comment that we were looking to adopt sometime, and that if he didn't feel like he could do it alone, we would be happy to take the baby boy. We left it at that, and never put another thought into it...until December 21, the day after my meeting with God.}

December 21 is my grandmother's birthday, and my mom, sister, and I went out to lunch & shop for that and some more Christmas stuff. My mom had picked me up a little earlier, and I was telling her about the realization I had come to with God, the night before. We met my sister at a little deli shop, and I got a phone call from Brandon. He said that Bob had called very upset, and wanted to know if he could bring the baby over for the afternoon. He had just received negative paternity results, and needed to go talk to his family to decide what his next move was. *My heart nearly stopped.* I got a rush of adrenaline and a knot knitted itself in my stomach that would stay there for the next year and a half. I knew immediately what was happening, but there was no way that I was going to believe that THE. NEXT. DAY. after surrendering my will to God, that He would just hand me a child. Dude...that just doesn't happen...right? That stuff only happens in movies.......right?

I suppose that God had something to show me about His truly unbelievable antsy-ness to bless us.

I rushed home to help take care of the baby...Jackson was his name, and I waited by the phone. That night came and went, and we slept with a 10 week old baby in our bed, and the next day came and went...same story. On Christmas Eve, I finally got ahold of Bob. He told me that he did want to come get the baby...but, just for that night and Christmas Day so that he and his family could say goodbye...that, if we seriously wanted to have him...we could. He was devastated, but knew this was the best way.

There's no way to describe what kind of feelings began in me that day...but, it's probably not what you'd expect. I felt terror, disbelief, panic, gut-wrenching doubt, completely out of control, and then that love...oh the love I had for that baby boy. Overwhelming love. It was a love that I couldn't even access at that point, no matter how I tried, because I was terrified that it was all going to unravel. I wouldn't let anyone call me his mom until we had papers signed by the birth mother (who I will tell you about, later...she deserves her own post), and even then, I was protective of myself.

For the next year and a half, we went through all the adoption red tape, I got a raucous case of insomnia, and pretty heavy dose of anxiety disorder...and a child. A child whose name we now spell Jaxen, and who is my son...through and through...my blood, my calling, my gift...a treasure on loan from a gracious Heavenly Father who couldn't. wait. a. single. day. to wow me beyond all my imaginings, because I gave my desires to Him. On February 29, 2008, we stood before a judge, and we became Jaxen's naturalized parents. I love that phrase...naturalized parents....because, he's ours...naturally. He was always supposed to be ours.

It's funny...I can hardly remember all the pain and fear of that time period. After we got the adoption decree, signed by the judge, I just got to the business of letting all that was stuck behind that dam of fear rush out and engulf my little boy. My. Little. Boy. My son.

{jackson: december 28, 2006}

{jaxen: april 22, 2010}

The New Look!

I almost forgot to post about my new look! The concept for the new Whole Family Project logo just came to me one day while we were on the road. I think we were somewhere in the desert...and I was wishing I had a good look for my blog. Well, I came home with a VERY childish drawing of the concept in my head, and the brilliant Julie Sears (a.k.a my little sister) sat down for about 10 minutes and VOILA!...awesomeness!

It's sick, really...when the genes for creativity and computer savvy were being handed out in our little pool, I was apparently at the concession stand while my sister was stocking up. Don't get me wrong...I have some gifts, too, but mine are just not as obvious as hers:) She's a naturally talented crafter, entrepreneur, and digital designer, and she rocks! I'm hoping her company (JNS Designs, for now) will be the first sponsor on Whole Family Project.

After that, I sat down for about 4 hours to try my hand at making a button out of my new rockin' logo, and I got about half way...like I said...concession stand. However, my husband is pretty techie, too...so, he sweetly sat down and took over and in about 5 minutes...BUTTON! He probably could have saved me the 4 hours, but I'm bound and determined to figure this mumbo jumbo out for myself, because I'm stubborn like that, and the only reason I quit in the first place was because I was on my dad's computer, and I didn't want to pound his keyboard due to the fact that I was in that space where throwing a tantrum seemed fully justified and totally grown-up. Those episodes are truly some of my proudest moments. Anyway - all those unnecessary details aside...I now have a BUTTON!!! Please copy and paste the code if you have a website or blog and would like to support this one...I will do the dance of joy:)