Monthly Archive: August 2014

Kicking the Chemicals~Bath & Shower Products

Author: August 29, 2014

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My post about my balls, I mean my DRYER balls 😉 has been so popular that I think I am going to do a little series we are going to call Kicking the Chemicals.  As you’ve heard I am doing my best to rid my home of as many harmful chemicals as I can. We’re talkin’ house cleaners, people cleaners, moisturizers, air fresheners, well, you get the picture. So let’s get this party started!!

As a mom of three, my days are busy and insanely nuts a little crazy sometimes.  My *me* time is my bath in the evening.  Kids go to bed.  Mom takes a bath.  Sometimes I take a good book in and read while I soak, and others just close my eyes and totally relax.  A nice, hot bath is awesome, but a yummy smelling one is even better, so I’ve been a bit of a bubble bath, bath bomb, bath salt, bath oil, etc., collector.  Then I read the ingredient list on one.  Well, if that wasn’t a bummer I don’t know what is.

First, I needed a good exfoliating scrub for the shower.

Sugar Scrub

1 Cup Sugar

3-4 Tablespoons of oil (olive oil or grapeseed oil are my favorites for this)

5 drops of essential oil

Or

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup liquid coconut oil

5-8 drops of essential oil

My favorite scent for this is 4 drops of Lavender Essential Oil + 8 drops of Lemongrass Essential Oil, but use what you like.  The good thing about this is you can also make the scent as soft or strong as you like.  Big bonus for someone like me who is super sensitive to fragrance.

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Gather your ingredients and add your oil and essential oils.

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Mix well and you are ready to go!  A little goes a long way, so take it easy the first time you use it so you don’t waste a bunch.  Also, if you don’t have a non-slip mat in your bath, be careful while you are showering and spray the floor down when you are finished so that the next person doesn’t end up with crazy slippery floor.  Because chances are fairly decent it will be you, and you don’t want to recreate the Bambi on ice scene the next time you step in the shower.  Not speaking from personal experience of course….  (insert guilty whistle here)

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Next came scenting my beloved baths.  Epsom salts are fantastic for baths!  Be sure to drink lots of water before and after!  FYI The bath salts don’t make my tub slippery like the sugar scrub does.  No Bambi.  🙂

Bath Salts

1/2 cup Epsom Salt

4-6 drops of essential oil

Directions:  This couldn’t be simpler.  Dump your epsom salt into a container.  (The above amounts make enough for one large tub or two regular sized tubs so make as much or as little as you like).

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Add your favorite essential oils for scent and to help anything that ails you.  My favorite combination for a super relaxing bath experience is Lavender and Young Living’s Peace & Calming.  Sigh.  Heaven.

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Put the lid on and shake that bad boy up!

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I wish you could smell the yummy-ness!

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These make super fantastic gifts as well.  I just got an email this week from my old favorite online body and bath product site saying they missed me.  Cringe.  I told you I had a problem.  🙂  We actually had a package from them delivered to our house that should have ended up down the street.  My Super Awesome Husband shook his head and told me that means I ordered too much from that company if the FedEx driver just assumed it was mine.  🙂  And now, my friends, I am reformed.

If you would like more information about Essential Oils you can click here, or shoot me an email from the contact page above or directly to [email protected] and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have or send you a free sample.

Have a great weekend!  🙂

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Essential Oils, Healthy Living

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Kickin’ Corn Relish

Author: August 27, 2014

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If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you saw a couple of photos last week of my very first canning adventure.  In case you aren’t following me yet (and shame on you if you’re not!!!) here is the gorgeousness that was my tomato harvest one day:

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I’ll let you in on a little secret.  I am a completely fearless gardener.  I jumped right in full force, will try anything and everything, and even though I hope it all works out I’m not hesitant at all just because it may fail miserably.  Canning on the other hand?  I was terrified to try it.  Truly.  I worried about it being too complicated and not doing it right, making my family sick because I messed it up or ruining a whole bunch of delicious food that I poured my heart into growing.  That’s a LOT of pressure people!!!  Well, I’m quite embarrassed now because, well, it’s pretty dang simple.  🙂

I took a look at all those beautiful tomatoes and wanted fresh salsa.  At a friend’s suggestion I went simple and used Ball’s Zesty Salsa Recipe.  It is sooooo delish!

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So while eating some of that yummy fresh salsa, I was reminded a tiny bit of the corn relish that my mom used to make when we were kids.  My brother and I used to tear that stuff UP!!!  Mmmm.  I figured while I’m sitting here still all confident from my canning success I should give her a call and get her recipe.  This is adapted from her recipe, and it is yummy!!  And you need to pronounce that Ya-Um-EE!! 🙂

Kickin’ Corn Relish

8 cups of fresh corn (it took 10 ears for me today)

1/2 cup chopped onion (I am not a big onion person, so you could bump it up to a cup if you are)

2 cups of finely chopped sweet peppers of your choice (I used one red and one green bell to make it pretty)

1-2 finely chopped, seeded jalapeno peppers (depending upon your desired level of heat)

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 tablespoon of salt

1 tablespoon of Turmeric

2 tablespoons of dry mustard

1 1/2 tablespoons of mustard seed

4 cups of distilled white vinegar

1 cup of water

Directions:  Remove the husks and silks from your corn.  Bring it to a boil and cook for 5 minutes.  Remove the corn from the cob and place it into a large pot with all of the rest of your ingredients.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Fill your jars while your relish is still hot.  Process for 15 minutes if you are canning.  This recipe makes 6 pints.  I went with quart jars though because that’s what we had handy.

As for what it looks like along the way…  I gathered up my ingredients while the corn was cooking and had to take a picture.  They were so pretty.  Unfortunately the kitchen was a little dark.  Is a kitchen re-model a tax deduction if I’m doing it to make it bright and beautiful for blog photos?

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I wish I could say the corn was from my garden, but unfortunately the corn didn’t do well this year.

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How pretty?!?!

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I was scared of this why???

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It’s fun making things as an adult that take you back to your childhood.  I guess one of these is going to my brother’s house.  Well….maybe….  🙂

 

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Healthy Eating, Recipes

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Sweet, Sweet Summertime!

Author: August 15, 2014

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What is it about time that makes the summer go by so super quickly?  Time seems to go so fast now anyway, but summer flashes by at light speed.  It’s crazy!  It breaks my heart to think about the kiddos going back to school next week, but I will have more blogging time if there is an upside.

Gardening this time of year mostly means a little weeding and a lot of picking.  We have also started seeds for our fall garden under grow lights in the basement.  I want to do some canning soooo badly, but I haven’t been able to get a whole bunch of tomatoes ripe at the same time yet.  We have had several dinners with marinara sauce from scratch though.  There’s nothing quite like it.  🙂

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The Super Awesome Husband looks at our haul every day, shakes his head and asks what happened to the good ‘ole red tomatoes.  Hee hee!  I have some of those too, but honest to goodness people, the colors and flavors of the others are incredible!  And purple peppers?  Heck yeah!  🙂

See??  I have red.  (Or it’s actually pink, but shhhh don’t tell him)! 😉 😉   Problem is, the stupid squirrels and birds like them too.  UGH!!!  I think what bothers me even more than the fact that they steal my tomatoes, is that they leave half of them to rot on the ground.  If you little jerks are going to rob my garden, at least eat every.single.delicious.nutritious.bite!!!!  Don’t waste half of it.  OR there are plenty of little ones, so leave my huge slicers ALONE!!!!  Sorry.  Deep breath.  I can’t stand waste or tomato thieves.  🙂

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Can’t have tomatoes without fresh basil.  Mmmmmmm.  I’m getting hungry now.  My favorite meal in the summer is sliced tomatoes with fresh mozzarella and basil, drizzled with balsamic vinegar.  Never gets old.

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Tomatoes and basil are meant to be together.  They are fabulous companion plants.  Many of my tomato plants in the garden (like this one), and all of my tomatoes in pots have basil growing around them.  They are supposed to make the tomatoes taste even better when grown together.  Plus, it makes it super easy to pick your maters and grab a handful of basil to put on top.  🙂

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See!  I told you I could grow carrots once I got them sprouted!!  It’s a jungle in there!!

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Beets!!!  So far (fingers crossed) the evil mole/vole duo hasn’t cleaned out the beet patch.  This guy has a hot date with my juicer in his future.  Yummy!

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I really hate the flavor of black licorice.  The Back to Eden film got me curious about fennel though.  Paul swore it was sweet and delicious and everyone seemed to love it.  Then I found a Bronze Fennel plant at our local farm stand and couldn’t resist how pretty it was.

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Now I can’t walk out to the garden without breaking off a little sprig and eating it.  The flavor is amazing!!  I could probably sit and eat the whole plant.  I don’t know if they all taste this way, or if it’s my rich, Back to Eden soil.  You HAVE to try some!

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Still only a couple of honeybees this summer.  I can’t wait to keep some bees one day.  Until then, we’ll have to rely on the little baby bumblebees.

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My daughter’s Scarlett Runner Beans.  We love the flowers!

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So I’ve been meaning to share with you some of my favorite gardening books.  I LOVE to read.  Though I don’t have a lot of time for it right now, these books keep me happy all winter while I can only dream about my little garden.

The Heirloom Life Gardener

The Gardener’s A to Z Guide to Growing Organic Food

The Weekend Homesteader: A Twelve-Month Guide to Self Sufficiency

Mini Farming:  Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre

And because I am OBSESSED with getting chickens:

Homemade Living:  Keeping Chickens

I promise you will be hearing more about my chicken obsession.  😉  Lots more….

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DISCLOSURE:  This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive compensation for sharing products and information on this site.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.  Thank you for supporting Walking Softly Upon the Earth!  See this page for full site Disclosure.

Gardening

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Walking on Eggshells

Author: August 3, 2014

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Let’s chat a little about reducing waste and building soil.  These things are so very important!  We began going green here several years ago when we started recycling.  We began with mixed recyclables, and then a year or two after that I started keeping a box for paper recycling.  We were truly amazed at how much those two things cut down on our trash.  It was a wonderful feeling knowing I had cut our contribution to the landfill by about half.  It always made me sad seeing bag after bag and box after box of garbage after Christmas morning, so this year I made the decision to go through all of the wrapping and packaging and separate the paper as well as the recyclable plastic.  I was thrilled to find we were left with only half a bag of actual trash after this.  I’m happier when I’m doing my best for my children and our beautiful planet.

Two years ago we bought a compost bin.  (This one actually: Lifetime 60058 Compost Tumbler, Black, 80-Gallon)  Once again our trash can filled even more slowly, and you just can’t beat free compost for your garden.  It always seemed like such a complicated thing that I didn’t think we could keep up with, but it’s really not a big deal at all.  When it is time to empty our bin next month, we’ll go through some steps to making great compost.

If you have a garden I hope you are not throwing away your eggshells. Please tell me you’re not!  If you are, start saving them now!  When we started out we were throwing our eggshells into the compost.  I knew they were good for it and would add lots of awesome calcium to the soil eventually.  I then read more and more about ways to use eggshells more directly, so I began to rinse them out and place them back in the carton.  When we use the whole dozen, I bake them to dry them out and kill any bacteria.  You can either bake them on your lowest oven temperature for a couple of hours or pop them in the oven after baking something and let it sit in there as the oven cools.  Once they’ve cooled, grind those bad boys up.  You can just crush them into small pieces but it will take quite a while for them to break down and really be beneficial to your plants.  I bought a mortar and pestle and set the kids to work.

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It occupies them for a while, and they get to work on their arm muscles.  😉

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When they are very fine to powder texture we dump them into a storage container.

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I do a few different things with these now.  When I put my tomato plants in the ground at the beginning of the season I have a whole “cocktail” I add to the dug hole before adding the plant.  They get some Epsom Salt, an aspirin, rock dust, organic fertilizer (Fish emulsion or worm castings are wonderful) and a scoop of the ground eggshells.  If you have ever had a problem with blossom end rot, adding ground eggshells or bone meal at the time of planting, before your little tomato plants are even thinking about fruiting, is a wonderful preventative.  I also add them to the areas where I plant my squash and zucchinis since I’ve had trouble with blossom end rot with them as well.

Ground eggshells also help to ward off slugs.  I don’t know about your garden, but mine is a slug magnet in the spring, so I need all the help I can get protecting the plants.  I make a ring around the ground at the base of the little plants with the ground shells and, for the most part, the slugs won’t cross the shells because sharp edges cut their soft bodies.  It’s not perfect, but it is a HUGE help.

Since the pictures of eggshells aren’t overly exciting, I thought I’d add a few that I took this week of a couple of our dragonflies.  We have TONS of these guys flying around the yard lately and the kids and I just love them.

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Sometimes they sit and pose for me for as long as I would like, but this week they were a little too busy and kept flying off after a few seconds.

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I love the blue ones.

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My daughter looked at this and asked if the patterns on dragonfly wings are all different, like fingerprints.  I LOVE when my kids come up with really awesome questions.  🙂  Of course, it also ruins the mom knows everything card.  😀

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I am amazed by their eyes.  It’s probably the photographer in me obsessing over eyes, but W.O.W.!!!

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Summer is going way too fast!  I hope you are enjoying every second of yours!!!

DISCLOSURE:  This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive compensation for sharing products and information on this site.  These links help support this site, and do not cost you extra to use.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.  See this page for full site Disclosure.  Thank you for supporting Walking Softly Upon the Earth!!  🙂

Gardening

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