Home-Grown Vitamins

I ran out of vitamins, and really didn’t want to spend the money on raw-food-based, quality, organic vitamins at the store. Danged  expensive to get the good stuff! …so I’ve been tossing around the idea of making my own. Becoming independent of the money gods and declaring my freedom. If “my people are gone into captivity for lack of knowledge…” (Isaiah 5:13), then maybe the converse is also true? Maybe there is freedom to be had… maybe, in part, to be earned through knowledge and through work in implementing it? Not talking in absolutes, necessarily, here– just the general thought that we can build freedom into our lives through a working understanding of Natural Laws.

With that as a frame-of-reference, I decided to experiment a bit 🙂 First I made some throat lozenges– stirred up some herbs & honey & a little Real Salt, and that went over really well– kiddos liked them, Hubby & I liked them, and they’re just really healthy, food-based medicine.

Here’s what I wound up doing with that:

1/2 cup Rosehips Powder

1/8 cup Comfrey Leaf Powder

1/8 cup Ginger Root Powder

1/3 cup Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Real Salt

3 heaping Tbsp Honey

1/4 tsp Real Salt

1/4 tsp Lemon Extract

1/4 tsp Orange Extract

1/4 cup Xylitol

Just enough hot water to make a dough. Drop by small spoonfuls onto an oiled cookie sheet & air-dry, or dehydrate in a dehydrator.

If I had it on-hand, I might include some licorice powder and / or some slippery elm powder, but this is what I had at the time. Worked nicely 🙂

They disappeared pretty fast, and enter point of confidence to try a bit more:-)  Here’s what I came up with for a first-shot at vitamins. Now, I do give everyone kelp, alfalfa, and Cod Liver Oil daily along with the regular multi, so I’m counting on those things to provide some of the nutrients that aren’t in the following recipe, but I’m thinkin’ I really like the idea of being more hands-on about our supplements and nutrition 🙂

Herbal Vitamins:

1/8 cup Chickweed Powder

1/8 cup Horsetail Powder

1 Tbsp Purple Dead Nettle Powder

1/4 cup Mullein Leaf Powder

2 Tbsp Comfrey Leaf Powder

1/3 cup Ginger Powder

1/3 cup Rosehips Powder

1/4 tsp Real Salt

2/3 cup Honey

1/4 tsp Lemon Extract

1/4 tsp Orange Extract

maybe 1/2 cup cocoa powder for rolling the dough in afterward?

Stir all dry ingredients together first, then make a well in the center, and pour in wet ingredients, and stir it all up ’till it makes a dough. Pinch off little balls and roll in cocoa powder, then set on a cookie sheet to dry, or in a dehydrator. Dehydrate at 115 or lower to preserve live enzymes.

Not the fanciest things in the world, and a bit spicy, so if you’re not into spicy, maybe trade out some ginger for something you like better. Definitely go with less ginger if you’re pregnant: a little is good for digestion and anti-nausea, but too much can stimulate uterine contractions. Works for us, though 🙂 Hubby & Twiddle-be-buttons say it’s a winner– they’re disappearing nicely 😀

I’ll probably play with the recipe some & see what exact amounts of which nutrients are “probably” in each ball– they’re not uniformly sized, but then, they’re all food-based, so no danger of toxicity, either 🙂

A word on comfrey– some folks are uncomfortable using it. I’m good with it. The older books have only good things to say about its use for all kinds of wonderful things. It’s only the modern books that suggest it has any potential for toxicity. “Just happens” that certain big businesses started experimenting with what certain extracts of it could do if injected into lab rats. I’m thinkin’ I’ll not inject it into my bloodstream, and maybe be fine LOL! I’m also very ok with other folks choosing a different nutrient-dense herb in place of it, because it does get a lot of bad press.  Which takes us to our Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you

Housekeeping & Natural Laws

Chapter for my book? Feedback, please 🙂

Sorry ’bout the font changes– I’m having trouble w/ switching between programs… will work on that. LMK which fonts work best for you, and I’ll see what I can do.

There are a million reasons we clean our homes– sanity being among the biggest motivators for me.  With all of my twiddle-be-buttons running around being normal, healthy, active children, it takes an army to keep up… which is why I employ them to whatever extent they’re developmentally able LOL! Things haven’t changed so very much in several thousand years. We need homes that are free of human waste and mildew / mold. The only real difference now is in finding homes free of man-made toxins as well… hmmm… or does that fall into the “human waste” category? There are some basic, Natural Laws about how to keep a home clean that we’ve “progressed beyond” in our modern, convenient society… or have we? There’s an odd form of ignorance that seems prevalent in moist climates, imagining that it’s OK to live with mold in a home. Health researchers tell us that mold and mildew are absolutely harmful to us, and that we should avoid breathing air that is contaminated by the spores indoors. Housing industries, on the other hand, tell us that those same spores are “only harmful to sensitive people” and are therefore not anything that a homeowner should worry about (especially if the homeowner is “just renting it out anyway”… as though renters were lower life forms, unworthy of healthy living circumstances.)  Just maybe some of the health researchers might have our health in mind more often than those who profit by ill-maintained housing.

A few months back, my joints started acting up again, I started getting headaches and difficulty breathing– something I hadn’t experienced to this extent for several years. About a week after the onset of symptoms, we found the cause. Our dishwasher had leaked, and mold had been growing through 3 layers of flooring in the kitchen. Awesome Hubby fixed it all up, and my joints, breathing, and head are all happy and functional again. Is it only an “emergent” situation with someone who is “sensitive,” though?

There’s an ancient law that deals with this–

Leviticus 14:36“The priest shall then command that they empty the house before the priest goes in to look at the mark, so that everything in the house need not become unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to look at the house. 37“So he shall look at the mark, and if the mark on the walls of the house has greenish or reddish depressions and appears deeper than the surface, 38then the priest shall come out of the house, to the doorway, and quarantine the house for seven days. 39“The priest shall return on the seventh day and make an inspection. If the mark has indeed spread in the walls of the house, 40then the priest shall order them to tear out the stones with the mark in them and throw them away at an unclean place outside the city. 41“He shall have the house scraped all around inside, and they shall dump the plaster that they scrape off at an unclean place outside the city. 42“Then they shall take other stones and replace thosestones, and he shall take other plaster and replaster the house.

43“If, however, the mark breaks out again in the house after he has torn out the stones and scraped the house, and after it has been replastered, 44then the priest shall come in and make an inspection. If he sees that the mark has indeed spread in the house, it is a malignant mark in the house; it is unclean. 45“He shall therefore tear down the house, its stones, and its timbers, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall take them outside the city to an unclean place. 46“Moreover, whoever goes into the house during the time that he has quarantined it, becomes unclean until evening. 47“Likewise, whoever lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house shall wash his clothes.

48“If, on the other hand, the priest comes in and makes an inspection and the mark has not indeed spread in the house after the house has been replastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean because the mark has not reappeared.

Thet-Hey-Resh:
Basket (surrounding, holding, containing), Man Standing in Awe (“Wow, LOOK!”), and a Man’s Head (Authority, First). 
The Surroundings being LOOKed at with Authority.
There are so many places in Scripture that call to mind pictures of cleanness and inspection related to ceremony and health, and areas where they overlap…. I’m thinkin’ the Health Department and CDC ain’t got nothin’ on Torah!

The ancient laws didn’t only protect the people against mold and mildew in their homes. They protected them against other forms of contamination that might not be visible as well. From the annual purging of yeast from the home at Passover (a GREAT idea for keeping a healthy balance of gut flora), to Ancient Paths for finding out if there’s radon gas or other contaminants in your house by taking a week off out-doors, there are beautiful, low-cost traditions for guarding our health!

Meth addiction is a hideous monster, and it doesn’t only affect addicts & their families… but there’s an ‘up-side’ to everything… 🙂
I’ve gotten sick in at least 2 homes that have been ruined due to either drug manufacture or usage: one in an on-campus apartment building when I was in college, and another in the house we rented a year ago. That last one nearly killed me before I figured out that it was the house, and had already started making the rest of our family sick, too. SO happy to be out… SO ready to see the epidemic halted!
While  we were living there, we had everything from nausea & vomiting to nerve disorders, paralysis, severe pain, rashes, difficulty breathing, irritation of mucus membranes… the symptoms came on so slowly for the rest of my family that I didn’t correlate my own severe symptoms with the house until theirs became more pronounced.
We moved out, and all of a sudden the health-nut stuff that had “barely held us together” while we lived there began healing us substantially. The kids are doing great now, and Hubby only has difficulty when he’s exposed to something we haven’t thrown away from that house. It has sensitized us to things, though. Man-made chemicals just aren’t good for anybody…
Three-fourths of everything we own had to go. It’s funny, though– the only “stuff” I really miss are my books and photos. The rest, I could care less.
That “Up-Side” I promised you:
It’s empowering to know that we can recover from such a horrible environmental attack, and freeing to have so much less “stuff” to deal with. I’ve become significantly more aware of what I really value in life… a lot of folks never do grasp that gift.
I have confidence in “Natural Miracles” that I may not have acquired in any other way. Sometimes blessings are the gifts we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy… we just have to choose to receive the blessing.

Sukkot is a Scriptural holiday to remind the Hebrew people of their time in the wilderness– so that they wouldn’t grow proud and forget the Power that had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Every year at this time, we sleep out in a Sukkah. We “go camping” with the Designer    It’s humbling to look up at the stars, and to realize how frail life is, and to recognize the gift of it as a family. By Jewish Law, only the men are required to keep this good work(post from another site), and we’re not Jewish, but we love joining Hubby whenever we can… for more than just the starlight.

A couple of years ago, we lived in a toxic house and didn’t know it for a while– we decided not to celebrate Sukkot that year because we figured I was too sick. While this may have been fine for me, we didn’t bother considering that maybe there was a Bigger Reason for Hubby to keep this Natural Law. We wound up staying in that house for another  6 months ’till Passover… another story. At any rate, if we had slept outside (like we wound up doing 6 months later, by  “coincidence”) we would’ve known that it was the house making me sick, and not me dying of Lupus. We would’ve known to get out at any cost: our lives depended on it. As it happened, we had to watch the rest of the family begin to develop my symptoms before we figured it out. We’re well now– biked 25 miles the other day, babies-and-all!  By all logic (without hindsight) we were perfectly sane in foregoing the Feast of Sukkot / Feast of Tabernacles / Feast of Booths– especially since we’re not Jewish, and according to Jewish law, are not required to participate… but that’s another story.  We’ve been finding more and more that we need these Natural Laws in Scripture– the more we study, the more we see the impact they have in the real world, here-and-now… most of it up-close-and-personal.

That word for “booths” is in Genesis / Bereshiyt 33:17

17 Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

The word “shelters”, also translated “tabernacles” or “booths” is the word “Sukkah” (singular of “Sukkot”, or “Succoth”). Strong’s # 5521. It corresponds to the AHLB # 1333J.

Here’s the Ancient Hebrew Pictograph:

Sin-Vav-Kaph

Samech: Ring of Thorns– as the shepherd would make to protect his sheep in the wilderness. Without a lumber yard to pick up construction materials, he would build it out of rocks or whatever he could find lying around, and then line the top of the ring/ shelter with thorny brush to ward off wild animals.

Vav: Tent Peg– Securing, Nailing Down

Kaph: Open Hand– Giving and Receiving

You can see the “Hedge of Protection, secured by hand” as the Sukkah.

It is defined, “Booth: A dwelling place. Branch: as used for making booths.” It is translated elsewhere as “tabernacle”.

For us, in our life’s adventures, we’ve found that this ridiculously frail-looking structure, this “booth” is the most secure place to be at the Appointed Time every year.  It’s the Ring of Thorns given by the Shepherd to secure us by the Divine Hand.

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you

I’m also no rabbi, so please don’t take my experiences and path as your Rx for Kosher living 🙂

As always, for more info on the pictographs, see:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ancienthebreworg

Sweat

When I was in the toxic house, I was miserably cold all winter because we had to keep the windows open so that I could breathe. Anytime we shut the windows, I’d asphyxiate. That was problematic because the cold would freeze my joints up even worse, and the lumps would get bigger– especially overnight. As excruciatingly painful as it was to move (I had to use my best labor coping skills to do it), it was absolutely necessary, because I’d only get worse if I didn’t. I found myself afraid to go to bed at night, because I knew how miserable the morning would be, and didn’t want to have to face being so crippled that Hubby would have to carry me to the bathroom in the morning… again.

I learned to sleep with a heated rice bag (other grain works, too) on my stomach and other heated bags on the worst of my joints, with those joints elevated, to keep my lymph fluid moving during the night. This usually made for better mornings– not good, but better.

After we finally figured out that it was the house (see “Camping out with God”), and moved out, I spent a few months just recouping  as much as I could, while helping to decontaminate those things that could be saved.

At some point… maybe it was that summer… we figured out that the more I sweated, the more the lumps shrank, and a few of them disappeared entirely that first year. A few years later, after using a sauna once a month (budget is tight, so we do what we can) I’ve seen a few lumps that I’ve had since I was a teenager disappear as well. I still have two small ones left over, but they get smaller when I use a sauna. Sweating is great medicine for me in this imperfect world of toxic houses, toxic fumes from asphalt plants, toxic neighbors who have no clue what they’re doing to their own bodies, let alone the air around them… One word of caution: I found that I had to bring Real Salt Water with me to the sauna to stay well-hydrated and keep my electrolytes balanced, especially at first.
Point is, I don’t live in the Garden of Eden. None of us do. And yet… we’re given some bit of a direction to point in looking for a solution for this imperfect existence… Hmmm… Thorns, Thistles, Sweat, and Dust…

Genesis 3:

17Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.

18“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;

19By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”

Thorns and Thistles here:

https://leavesheal.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/pathways-to-answers-thorns-thistles-and-blessings/

… and Dust… I’ll save that bit for another post.. but it’s good stuff, too 😉

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you

Happy Hearts…And Other Body Parts…

We have such convenient methods of poisoning ourselves now-a-days! We can walk downtown and breathe in an array of chemicals from car fumes to cigarette smoke to somebody’s dryer sheet to cheap perfume. On top of all this, we are encouraged at every turn to attempt to sustain ourselves (failing miserably) on miscellaneous toxins marketed to us as “food.”
Cheese slices that come pre-sliced in packages usually aren’t food: reading the label, you’ll find hydrogenated oil (something akin to biodiesel). Those cookies that come with an expiration date of a few years down the road: if it won’t mold, it won’t break down in your body, either. Hot dogs… EEEW!!!! It’s the left-over nasty after the real meat was used up, and mixed with chemicals and miscellaneous additives to make us imagine it were edible!
So… we get to the doctor’s office a few decades later, and find out that we’re headed toward a pretty miserable existence if we don’t change some things… as a friend so eloquently put it, “been taking the easy way.. can’t go there anymore. time to cook..”
Good plan 🙂 Home-made takes more time, but well-worth it! Real, hormone-free cheese from your neighbor’s cow isn’t so bad– it’s the processed stuff in the little plastic wrappers that gets you; home-made cookies aren’t horrible– especially if they’re made with honey or date powder in stead of sugar, and whole-grain, organic spelt flour in stead of bleached wheat (yes, they can still taste like cookies… they can also turn out seriously wrong– Hubby can attest to that a few years ago). Roast a real turkey or a real chicken, and use 10 times the herbs that the recipes call for, and Real Salt in stead of bleached salt– more flavor than any chemical-laden frank, and SO good for us!
A “non-recipes” for folks who want to experiment:

Here’s fudge that calls for coconut oil– the same medium-chain fatty acids found in breastmilk– great stuff all-around: helps heal damaged spots nicely.
I mix up more-or-less equal parts coacoa powder, warm coconut oil, and honey, with a drop or two of apple cider vinegar and a pinch of Real Salt; pour it into a pie plate, and stick it in the fridge. An hour later, we cut it into thin slices, and have fudge!
One child can’t have the coacoa powder, so he gets the same recipe, but with tahini or almond butter substituted for the coacoa.

Sweet stuff, with all the antioxidant goodness and none of the chemicals or cane sugar.

The heart isn’t just about pumping blood… Visit this picture into the Ancient Hebrew mind– the perspective into which TaNaK was bithed… Don’t forget to come back, now!

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The toxins we experience in our daily world don’t just mess with the physical health. I’ve experienced the emotional / mental toxicity resultant from physical toxins. When we read Scripture in English, we’re reading an entirely different story sometimes. Looking at the Ancient Hebrew perspective of these body parts that we deal with is an extraordinary adventure in the mind-spirit-body connections. Our hearts, guts, kidneys, and other vital organs are vitally important not only to our physical well-being, but also to our spiritual health. Toxifying these vital organs toxifies our attitudes, emotions, and “gut instincts.” The flip side: Detoxing can not only heal us physically, but can be extraordinary in healing our spirit, outlook, philosophy, and “heart.”

Stop back by for more excerpts from my book-in-progress!

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you