Its been a long time......

Hi Everyone, 

 Wow it has been a long time since I have been able to sit down to blog. A lot has changed since the last time I was on here. We now live in Louisiana and Ian is finally a firefighter! 

  I am going to continue with Godly Living. I will be giving fun free stuff, coupons, recipes and healthy living in God's way and how to save money doing it!!! 

  There are several websites and blogs I follow on how to save money but one thing I feel that is missing is HEALTHY foods, organic products and health products! Sure I can get Oreo's for free, but my butt does not need Oreo's! I need healthy things!! 

I will be helping everyone know more how to get your wallet and bottom smaller, hopefully!! As well as not filling our house with cancer products. Most products on the shelf these days is nothing but cancer in a bottle. Let us look at what God has given us...Natural products! 

I hope you all will continue to follow and put in your input. I look forward to the following weeks!! 

How Tea Tree Oil changed my life!!!

Today I want to talk about Tea Tree Oil and how it has changed my life. 

This oil is so versatile from cleaning products to a face cleanser.

I first learned of tea tree oil when I was trying to find a cheap product to make my own cleaners. I did a lot of research and found that it is an antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral. It is native to the Australian and New Zealand regions.  It is also called melaleuca oil. 

To let you know tea tree oil has the ability to fight bacterium such as Staphylococcus aureus including MRSA when it is used at a 10% concentration! That’s amazing!!

First when I found tea tree oil I first made a multi-purpose cleaner. I use a 16oz spray bottle with 2tsp of tea tree oil. I first started to use this on sinks and counter tops. Then I wondered how it would do on mirrors and windows….it works great! Streakless in fact. I use it for everything now! It is my only cleaner that I have for everything. I said good bye to my other 15 bottles of chemicals and have only 1 bottle! It’s great!  The best part of all of this is I am saving so much money! Plus I am not filling landfills with 5 bottles a month and running out to get new bottles that will end up in landfills.

I wanted to see what other things I could do with it! I found a lot! I have suffered from very sensitive skin for many years. All the doctors have gave me medications or told me what to use, then it became it’s your hormones. I am getting so sick of have ugly skin. I found that if I mix an 8oz plastic bottle (I got mine for 0.85 at Wal-mart in the traveling section) and ½ to 1 tsp of tea tree oil to have a great facial cleaner. I was so amazed at what a difference it has had on me. I have used it for three weeks now and I no longer am breaking out, redness of the face or irritation. I was able to stop buying expensive promising products that did nothing for me. I now use an organic face scrub and my tea tree oil to have beautiful, flawless skin! In fact I was able to give up facial makeup!! I use my eye liner and mascara and I am done for the day! So I have saved who knows how much money just on face products alone. And I want to point out that I tried everything. From pills, Proactive, Cetaphil, Burts bee’s, Mary Kay, Avon, Arbonne, prescription typical, to everything in between! It is so relieving to be able to have skin like I use to have before kids came along! I feel beautiful every morning I wake up!! 

Also, Zoë started to have a rash on her back about 4 months ago, I was told it was heat rash, then eczema, then infection of the hair follicles….it was aggravating! They put her on a steroid cream that did not help. I was not going to go back to the Doctor or dermatologist to get another diagnosis. (please note that I am not hating on healthcare professions, but I am sure you have been given multiple diagnosis and its aggravating and cost a lot of money to buy the products and go to the Doctors all the time. I know that Doctors cannot always make the best guess on some rashes there are a lot out there and people react different to different things) So I started to clean her rashes with the tea tree oil and it has worked! I am very glad because I do not want my kids on steroids of any kind unless they really need it. I think we as a nation are putting our kids and ourselves on way too many medications for things that can be fixed in a natural way!! 

Just today I used the multi-purpose cleaner to spray where my daughter had an accident last night. Less than an hour the smell was completely gone and I am very comfortable knowing that has killed any type of nastiness left over!! Also, it kills mold, mildew, musty mold etc. just spray and don’t rinse and it will be killed. Please note that it will not turn the black discoloration of mildew/mold it will just kill it. 

I also want to let you know Tea Tree Oil is expensive, about $10-15 an ounce! Remember to always get 100% Pure Tea Tree Oil. You will save money in the long route so keep that in mind when you buy it, I had to when I bought it. I bought mine over three weeks ago and I still have enough for quite a while. I bought in at my local HEB (grocery store) for $40.00 for 4 ounces. I actually have more than 3/4^th left in the bottle. It goes a long way. 

Heads up... it has a medicinal smell to it. When I was at my local herb store I let the kids choose an oil to put in the multi-purpose cleaner. They choose 100% Orange and Lavender Oils. We added 1tsp of each! It smells great. These oils are very cheap. For 1 ounce I spent 3.00 on each one. Again, they will last a long time. It’s a great way to teach kids about Gods Earth and letting them help. They love being involved!!

Here are a few things it can treat…

Acne, warts, lice, nail fungus, scabies, herpes, ringworm, fleas, mosquito's, pesticides, after shave, deodorant, cold sores, chiggers, keep it in your first aid kit…and the list goes on and on. Please let me know if there is a recipe you want. There are too many for me to list here.

I hope you all learned something new. Please feel free to add comments. I would love to hear your thoughts! 

After doing some research this is the best price on tea tree oil I can find. I have used this site before and love it. Plus if you click on the below link you will also get $5 off of your order!! Enjoy

http://www.iherb.com/21st-Century-Health-Care-Australian-Tea-Tree-Oil-2-fl-oz-60-ml/9058?rcode=ISI261

Organic Living is not just for Hippies!!!

My kids are in VBS this summer and the first day they learned Genesis 1:1, which states "In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth" With that being said, God made everything that we need. 

He did not make cows that were injected with hormones, or corn that grew out of the earth with preservatives. Yes the preservatives help make the food last longer, but it takes so much away from the nutrients of the food.

Buying Organic can be very expensive, if you can afford to buy everything that’s great, for the rest of us on a budget, learning what is a must and what is not can be confusing and irritating. 

I have a few tips...

1. Do most of your shopping at your local farmers market, this helps support local farmers and gives back to the community. Plus you are able to meet the people who grow your food, you can ask questions and they are the best people to be asking! 

2. Eat what is in season, the best you can. Of course depending on our area and the season this may be hard, so do the best you can. If you live in Mass, most likely there will not be a year round farmers market, so use it when it is open!!

3.The best way to cut your grocery bill down is grow your own garden!! If you are like me and are renting and tend to move around a lot, then grow it in small and moveable pots. I currently grow several herbs that we use the most, basil, rosemary and mint. We are getting ready to plant several peppers, tomatoes, and other veggies that we use a lot.   

4. Buy your meat from farmers markets and local farmers that feed there animals what God created them to eat. Don't forget about hunting and fishing. Hunting wild animals is a great way to balance the world out, if you have too many deer in an area they will become deformed and they will not be healthy. God made us hunters to help balance out the earth. Remember humans are built to eat meat and produce. 

5. Buy things in season is going to save you money, buy a bulk and freeze or  can what you are able to for when they are out of season, this is a great way to save money all year round.

6. Educate yourself on what you are putting in your body. God gave us our body as our temple, try to remember that when you are about to put a gallon of cheap ice cream in it.

Here is a site that offers some more info, 

www.eatlocalchallenge.com

http://eatwild.com/

http://www.localharvest.org/

http://www.foodroutes.org/

http://www.greenoptions.com/wiki/seasonal-produce

And remember you don't have to be a 100% perfect to make a difference! Start off easy and you will be glad that you did, you will start to feel good about yourself for loving and respecting Gods earth as well as feel the difference in your body!!

What this is all about....

I wanted to start a blog to tie God and healthy living in together to be a complete circle. This is for all levels of people. If you are wanting to start living healthy but not sure where to start to people who have degrees in nutrition. I am in the middle..I have started and continuously educating myself on healthy, organic and natural living.

Maybe you want to lose weight, or you are already healthy but want to make a difference. I feel God has given us everything we need, man then tried to make it better, but in my opinion has failed in many ways. I hope this can help you and your family become healthier and closer to God. I encourage everyone to jump in the conversation, I don't know everything, and like I said, I am still learning. I look forward to all of your ideas and learning to become healthy in a Godly way with all of you!

Also, I want to point out I am all about saving money, so there will also be info on how you can save too!!  

Ashley