Lotions and Potions!

Homemade Lotion

1/4 C Emulsifying wax

1/4 C Olive Oil

2 T Shea butter

heat in pyrex in micro for 1 min.

add scent to oils.

heat 1/4 C water in micro for 1 min.

add warm water to oils.

jar and cool overnight.

Next time I will be making this with Cocoa Butter and coconut oil! This was my first time and it was an experiment so i did not want to waste too many ingredients, in the event it was no good.

I LOVE this stuff!!

Homemade Deodorant

1/3 C Corn Starch

1/3 C Baking Soda

2 T Vitamin E Oil

3 T Coconut Oil

Tea Tree Oil

Lavender or Eucalyptus Oil

I saved four old D.O. containers from my husband and I to store this stuff in.

I ended up not really following these directions. :) I started with these and then made some changes to make it the right consistency, mostly adding more corn starch and baking soda, and then eventually a little water.

This will fill two old deodorant holders and have some leftover. Store in mason jar in fridge.

**I am almost done with my backup of this stuff, so i will be trying a new recipe that is a little different, I will let you know how i feel about it when I do!

Homemade Castille Soap

40 0z. Oil

5 oz. Coconut Oil

5 oz. Palm oil

16 oz. cold water

6.7 oz lye crystals

weight all ingredients and put in pot and heat to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix the lye with the cold water and it will heat up, wait until it cools down to add to pot. Wear gloves and do this in a well ventilated area as it is a potent chemical and will give you a killer headache. Be careful with this stuff. Then alternate whisk and blend until "trace".

add fragrance.

Pour into parchment lined mold.

After storing overnight, pull out soap and cut into squares. Handle with gloves as the lye will burn your skin.

Store upright and spaced out for 6 weeks on a cooling tray lined with a cloth.

We have made this with just a little lemon and tea tree oil once, and the other time we added whole lavender flowers to make an exfoliating soap. We love both. It works out to cost less than .50 cents a bar.

These three are some of my favorite little homemade delights. :)

Lifestyle Changes

Well Friends, the question has been raised, are Ricky and I Amish? Well, no...but we are running on little to no money, thank you student loans, so we have spent our days finding ways to spend less. While trying to minimize our spending Ricky and I also became very aware of the nasty things that are put in cleaners, toiletries, makeup, and even what is sprayed on food. You may be wondering how we managed to run across that while searching for ways to spend less money, well it turns out a lot of people who are trying to spend less money have resorted to making many things themselves. So we have decided to alter our lifestyle in an effort to spend less money, eat less bad food, and bring less chemicals into the home.

However, while we were chugging along on our little expedition, we were hit with some unexpected road blocks...Ricky and I got hit with some nasty sicknesses(me), multiple allergic reactions(Ricky), followed by a concussion(Ricky). Let me first say, Praise JESUS that we have health insurance again, after 2+ years with none. God has been so good to us in providing Ricky with a wonderful job that he loves, and through that giving us full dental, vision, and health insurance. Since we received these benefits we have both needed to purchase glasses, contacts(me), had cavities filled, received dental exams, seen 4+ doctors, many prescriptions, and an ER visit with a CT scan and chest XRay. Did I mention we have only had insurance for 2.5 months? It has been quite a whirlwind the last few months, but through it all, we are reminded of our sovereign God and His plan for us.

My dear sweet Ricky has had a few allergic reactions over the past few years that have resulted in full body rashes with raised welts and facial swelling. He has gone to doctors and received medical attention and they were never quite sure what was going on with him, and what exactly was causing these reactions. A few weeks ago, Ricky woke up one morning and asked me if his face looked swollen. Being the loving wife that I am, I laughed and said " why yes it does!" and ran to get my camera. We decided to take pictures each morning and night to chronical the change in his face, and it got crazy! Here is a picture of him on the third day, when I finally called the allergist and got him right away.

Turns out he is allergic to many, many things and some of them are minor allergies while others are very serious allergies...

From serious to minor:

Tomato

Carrots

Shrimp

Potato

Peanut

Wheat

Corn

Oats

Soybean

Orange

Apple

Baker's Yeast

Crab

Now, while that looks like the craziest list of allergies on the planet, because it is, do not be discouraged. They tell us there is a high occurrence of false positives so he is going in for a more conclusive test this Thursday. So far the only one we are sure is a pretty nasty allergy is tomatoes. Which makes us both really really sad. :(

Now some of you may be wondering about that concussion I spoke of earlier, and the ER visit with the CT scan and chest X Ray...

Well, my Ricky loves mountain biking, loves it so much he goes 4-5 times a week for 2 hours in the afternoon and also on Saturday mornings. Now given my husband's love for extreme sports and his tendency to get hurt, I have had many nightmares where I am woken up by a phone call telling me to come pick up my husband, or meet at the hospital, as he has been injured in an accident. Well, Saturday morning, that nightmare became a reality. I was woken up with a phone call from a man named " Ron" telling me he had my husband and he had taken a pretty bad fall on his mountain bike and that I needed to get down there right away to drive him to the hospital. I frantically threw on clothes, brushed my teeth and ran to get out of the house. It was at this point I realized I was left with the Miata to drive, and sometimes only Ricky knew how to start the Miata, as it is old and "special". After a few failed attempts at starting the car, I called my sister asking her to come get me and take me to Dreamy Draw Park to get Ricky.

When we arrived at the mountain, we found a very dirty, bloody, concussed, Ricky.

Ricky's front tire blew while he was going downhill throwing him over the front of his bike landing mostly on his head and upper left side. "Ron" was very very nice and sat with Ricky the entire time and also walked him down the mountain from where the accident occurred. When we got there and realized his pupils were not reacting to light and he had lost at least 15-20 minutes from right before the fall until about halfway down the mountain, we put him and the bike in the car and went to the ER. Ricky and I spent most of Saturday hanging out in the ER waiting for test results. Ricky's brain is OK but he may or may not have some broken or cracked ribs. Basically, there was nothing they could do about it and many times it did not show up on the scan so they just said take it easy, take your pain meds, and be grateful you were wearing a helmet. YES, Ricky was wearing a helmet, but the helmet was smashed where he impacted the ground, and I am so thankful that was not what Ricky's skull looked like. He is covered in large cuts and "road rash" and is still very very sore, but all in all he is doing alright. Ricky is no stranger to concussions, and has received one or two in some nasty snowboarding falls. He does nothing halfway and loves high intensity sports. I knew when I married him that there would be some injuries along the way, and since we began dating I have been by his side for the following procedures:

Rod bending procedure(eek)

Screw Removal(twice)

Rod Replacement

Concussion/ER visit

Staff Infection Removal

Now those are just the serious ones that required the hospital, there have been many more minor accidents that we have tended to from home. I love my Ricky, and his heart for crazy and exciting things.

On a differnet topic...

Toothpowder

1/2 Cup Baking Soda

Dash of Stevia Powder or Salt

Peppermint essential Oil

There you have it, toothpowder. Now, it takes a little getting used to, but my teeth have never felt cleaner, and I have grown to really like the taste of it. Many people do not add the essential oil, Ricky does not mind it without, but I HAVE to have the peppermint taste, it is an essential part of my teeth feeling clean. I did the first round with salt, but you have to be sure to get it down to a powder, as if it is too course it can damage the enamel of your teeth. This second time around we are using the stevia powder to see which we like best. I encourage you to try it! I put mine in a small mason jar and keep it in the drawer with the toothbrushes. Just dampen you brush and dip it in the powder, then brush away! I keep the recipe taped onto the bottle so I remember the measurements each time. Did I mention that I figured it to cost about $0.50 per double batch(which is what my jar holds) and that lasts us at least two months.

Not too shabby.

Homemade All Natural Stewarts

Well, it has been a while since I have done anything with this blog, but given all the exciting things that Ricky and I have been doing, I thought I should share.

We have decided that we are sick of bringing toxic chemicals into our home and purchasing cleaning supplies that I could make for CHEAP by buying just a few basic ingredients.

We have been very successful in making:

Castille Soap(so far so good, but they are not FULLY done until July 4th)

Dishwasher Detergent

Laundry Detergent

Dishwashing Liquid Soap

Tooth Powder

I have a few more things on the list to get done, just as soon as we finish up our old supplies. The next to be made will be some homemade all natural deodorant, and I am stoked! We have also had some great luck making some basic surface cleaners and baking powder scouring scrubs, however I have not used them enough to feel confident in sharing the recipe. But I will let you all know.

As for in the kitchen, well my dear sweet husband has discovered yet another wonderful gift God has blessed him with, and that is the gift of making some truly remarkable homemade breads. He has made homemade sourdough bread, homemade focaccia bread(tough to make but SO SO SO good), and some really amazing sourdough english muffins. I will picking his brain for the recipes tonight and will share them asap.

We also began making our own butter this past weekend, and besides being really fun, it tastes great. You also end up with some non-fat milk as a bonus! Our last adventure was homemade chicken stock, now this is NOT for someone who can't handle some serious chicken bones(feet, neck, back, etc). It takes hours and two huge stock pots, but the result is a huge supply of canned chicken stock to always have on hand. And the best part, it is VERY inexpensive and no MSG or any other crazy ingredients.

I have pictures of all of these wonderful items, but have yet to upload them to the computer. But when I do, I will be sharing some really wonderful recipes and you should be very excited.

The best Most AMAZING Fall Meal

Gnocci. I know, I know, Gnocci does not have a great reputation. But let me tell you- this was SO much fun to make and SO stinking good. We had a great time all 4.5 hours that we spent making this meal, and thoroughly enjoyed eating it as well.

Here is the recipe, try it...totally worth it.

We did not chill it as long as they say to, and we used a hand blender instead of a potato masher. We did not follow the amounts perfectly, but who does really. :)

I hope you enjoy it!

Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter

For perfect gnocchi, don't work the dough too much and add as little flour as possible. It's okay if the dough is a little sticky.

6 servings

• PREP: 1 hour 45 minutes
• TOTAL: 4 hours (includes chilling time)

Recipe by Lidia Bastianich

Photograph by Marcus Nilsson

October 2010

Ingredients

• 1 1-pound butternut squash
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 12- to 14-ounce russet potato, peeled, quartered
• 3/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1 large egg, beaten to blend
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups (or more) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
• Additional grated Parmesan cheese

• Special Equipment

  Potato ricer

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut squash lengthwise in half; discard seeds. Place squash halves, cut side up, on baking sheet and brush with oil. Roast until squash is very tender when pierced with skewer and browned in spots, about 1 1/2 hours. Cool slightly. Scoop flesh from squash into processor; puree until smooth. Transfer to medium saucepan; stir constantly over medium heat until juices evaporate and puree thickens, about 5 minutes. Cool. Measure 1 cup (packed) squash puree (reserve remaining squash for another use).
• Meanwhile, cook potato in medium saucepan of boiling salted water until very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain. While potato is warm, press through potato ricer into medium bowl; cool completely. Measure 2 cups (loosely packed) riced potato (reserve remaining potato for another use).
• Mix squash, potato, 1/2 cup Parmesan, egg, nutmeg, and salt in large bowl. Gradually add 1 3/4 cups flour, kneading gently into mixture in bowl until dough holds together and is almost smooth. If dough is very sticky, add more flour by tablespoonfuls. Turn dough out onto floured surface; knead gently but briefly just until smooth. Divide dough into 8 equal pieces.
• Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment. Sprinkle parchment lightly with flour. Working with 1 dough piece at a time, roll dough out on floured surface to about 1/2-inch-thick rope. Cut rope crosswise into 3/4-inch pieces. Working with 1 piece at a time, roll gnocchi along back of fork tines dipped in flour, making ridges on 1 side. Transfer gnocchi to baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour. DO AHEAD Can be made 6 hours ahead. Keep chilled.
• Working in 2 batches, cook gnocchi in large pot of boiling salted water until very tender, 15 to 17 minutes (gnocchi will float to surface but may come to surface before being fully cooked). Using slotted spoon, transfer gnocchi to same parchment-lined baking sheets. Cool. DO AHEAD Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover loosely and chill.
• Cook butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat just until golden, stirring often, 3 to 4 minutes. Add sage; stir 1 minute. Add gnocchi; cook until heated through and coated with butter, 5 to 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan. Serve with additional Parmesan.

What to Drink

With the dumplings, pour a white wine with wildflower and citrus notes

Life Update

Well, as usual life has gotten busy and I abandoned my blogging. :( I keep a journal so I thought I would look back on the last few months and put in some of the major things that my sweet husband and I have been up to. Since March, our lives have been flipped upside down in so many ways. I picked up a new job in May, as the Missions Intern at our church, and also headed up a trip to Rwanda, Africa in August! In June, we lost our sweet niece Mikayla to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome at only 4 months old.

Here is a picture of Ricky and I with her when she was born.

4 months old with her twin brother Elijah.

After her death, Ricky and I were thrown into a series of meetings, court hearings, funerals, viewings, etc. The courts were involved and still are and our lives were changed forever. Her death changed a lot in our family and opened the eyes of many people involved. Sweet baby Elijah is now almost 9 months old and the CUTEST little happy baby. He never cries, and when he does it is SOOO cute! He puts out his little bottom lip and whimpers and I can't help but laugh at his sweet little face. He thinks his older brother Caleb is the FUNNIEST person in the world, and loves to be with him. I often wonder if after his sister died, he felt the absence, like twin super sense or something. It is hard to think about, and was even harder to go through. Laying in bed the night she died with my sweet Caleb, 5 years old and explaining heaven and death was one of the hardest things I have ever done. He had so many innocent questions, and did not understand why he could not see her, hold her. Now he speaks of Mikayla in heaven, when there is thunder, she is bowling. :) He speaks of her with Jesus, and being his little angel. I am so blessed to have such a loving and sovereign God that would be with me for those conversations and give me the words to say to my sweet bug.

Her death was the first time I ever questioned my God and His role in all this. I remember driving down the 51 telling Ricky I was scared, and I did not want to go through this, and I wanted to know where God was, why me. Well, my sweet and wonderful husband brought me back, and reminded me that God is SO MUCH BIGGER than me and this situation. That this, Mikayla's death will somehow Glorify Him and further His kingdom. He prayed with me, cried with me, and loved me through the toughest moments in my life...and that is why my Ricky Bob is my best friend, best husband in the world.

These last few months have been some of the toughest, but they have also brought some truly amazing moments. I had the opportunity to go with some friends, the Sanborns, to Costa Rica to care for their two sweet girls in one of my favorite places in the world. :)

You are going to have to use your imagination for this one, as all my pictures are on my other computer and I am far too lazy to go get those right now. Just think me with Izzy and Gigi surrounded by rainforest and tacky themed cabins filled with people tucked, sucked, and lifted.

In August, Ricky and I embarked on our very first Mission trip together, just 8 months into our first year of marriage. Our group of 6 went to Rwanda for 16 days and had such a great opportunity to share the gospel with so many wonderful people. Africa was great, God taught Ricky and I so much, the biggest of which was that GOD has it all under control, NOT YOU! In Africa, everything is up in the air, no commitment is concrete. If you spend your entire life gripping to YOUR plans for your life, day, week, then you will be miserable when you realize those are not what God has planned. We learned to sit back and enjoy the ride. We thought we were going to a church service, and dressed the part...only to begin heavy lifting and construction on a church wall. Simon said, " hey, we are here to serve them ,and this is how they need to be served." So church clothes and all we dove in and helped rebuild their church.

Rwanda also brought us some unexpected challenges, we thought we were just visiting a sick boy, but it turned out to be one of those moments in life that you will never forget. We pulled up to the "Neuro-psychiatric" hospital and I asked the driver if this where they take crazy people, because if so, then I may need to take a rain check. I have a serious FEAR of psych wards thanks to a scary experience when I was 15. Turns out, one of our boys in our child-led families program was there being "treated" for what they thought was malaria. However, he was not responding to traditional medicine so they brought him to this specific ward to look into it more deeply. A warning would have been nice, but that was just too much to ask I guess.ha ha. The first thing we all noticed was the big cage that the "patients" were sitting in. Abubacar is 14 years old and was very very sick. He was mentally unstable, and I will not go into detail about the hospital itself, except that it was a mental hospital in Africa. Done. Abubacar could not remember his name, my name, why we were there, and he was very obvsiously sick in his head. He had lost both of his parents to AIDS and was now being supported by this program our church runs and lives with his lifelong friend Fils. During our time visiting with him we had the....pleasure...to greet a few of the other, less stable patients as they wandered through our room and tried to sit on our laps. Yea, I was freaking out and crying. My heart BROKE for this boy, to see him so lost and confused and here in this hospital, talk about feeling powerless! We left confused, broken, upset, and feeling miserable. As a group it took us a few days to work through what we had seen, but it became so clear, that the only thing we could do for this boy was to pray. God calls us to bring everything to Him in prayer, but it is so much easier to try to fill the need ourselves immediatly. Well, in this situation, we were truly helpless, we could not help him at all and we were forced to our knees in prayer. We did not get an update on Abubacar until a few weeks after we had returned, but it was worth the wait, HE IS HEALED!!! Believe me, after being in that hospital, it is the power of Christ that healed this boy, not modern medicine. It turns out it was a rare form or malaria that had attacked his brain and was not responding to traditional treatment. How they discovered this, the only answer is God. It was a testiment to the power of prayer, God promises He will care for us if we will just lift our prayers and needs to Him, and He truly cared for Abubacar when we as a humans were uncapable of healing him.

Africa impacted us in huge ways, and it is just recently that Ricky and I are beginning to feel like we have an understanding of the trip and how it impacted us. I close my Africa section with a picture of Ricky and I with Abubacar..sweet boy. Please, keep him in your prayers.

In October God blessed my family with my sweet little tiny baby niecy Nora Catherine. She was born on 10-11-10...I know, SO CLOSE to 10-10-10. She is the tiniest little sweetest thing in the world. Her older brother Roan is pretty sure he likes her I think, ya know, sort of wondering when she will go back in the belly and leave him with all the attention again. :) But he will be the best older brother, I just know it!!!

I know, she is mid yawn, but she just is TOOO cute!! Bat Girl for Halloween, please note ALL THAT HAIR!!!

I had to give a little lime light to one of my favorite boys in the world. :)

At the end of September, Ricky and I celebrated our one year proposal anniversary. He asked me at the top of Camelback mountain so we have vowed that every year we will hike to the top just as we did when he proposed. It was super fun and I loved thinking about how much God has blessed us in the last year.

Ricky and I have had quite the year thus far, and I have no doubt that it will only get better. God has blessed me with such a wonderful husband and life and I look forward to seeing what the next few years will bring!

But I just can't help showing you our favorite Halloween yet, it is up there with a few years ago when we were Tetris pieces. Yes, White trash. :)

I leave you with a verse that has blessed us this last year, and we find ourselves constantly repeating it to eachother, reminding eachother of our great and wonderful God.

"But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me."-Micah 7:7

The New Stews

Married on New Years Eve, my husband and I share a wonderful life in a tiny apartment and a small budget, and we LOVE it! We have a passion for food, good healthy yummy food, and it sometimes consumes our weekly budget just buying the food necessary to make the culinary masterpieces that come from the kitchen when my dear husband is cooking. As I sit down with my blueberry bran muffin and french press coffee, I come to the realization that there are few better things in this life than great coffee and great food.

What can I say, a good cup of coffee can bring a smile to my face no matter what the circumstance and throw in some scrumptous homemade goodness, like banana bread, and you have yourself a perfect moment. Coffee is delightful and for those of you who do not share in my love for coffee, you will be glad to hear that Ricky has instilled in me an appreciation for tea as well.

Ricky has taught me many things in the years that we have been dating, and one of them is to always make whatever you can, yourself. He believes that if it is good food from a great restaurant, then he can make it just as good, if not better, himself at home and for cheaper! This belief spills over into every area of his life, and our home has greatly benefited from his frugality, if that is even a word. At first I was hesitant, I just wanted to go to a store and buy whatever we needed on some great sale, but Ricky quickly showed me that it is not always necessary to run out to the store to furnish your home.

That being said, when we moved in we had nothing in the way of home furnishings. We both had been living with our families and therefore had to start from scratch. We got some things generously donated to us but what we did not have, Ricky would not let me buy. He insisted that he could build whatever we needed....And he did.

Example A-our homemade HD Antenna.

I have no idea how this works, or where Ricky came up with the idea, but let me tell you, this wonderful contraption brings us channels 3 through 15 and some spanish channels, channel 45 and 61. It is constructed of tin foil, a 2x4, and some coat hangers. I came home from work our first week in the apartment and my husband was finishing up this project complaining that the ones he bought in the store did not work. I have no complaints, we get to watch tv and protect our minds from being read by the aliens.

Example B-our TV stand

When I mentioned to Ricky that we needed a TV stand, he said not to worry about it, he would go to his parents house and pick something up. Once again, I came home from work and we had a "TV Stand" constructed of a piece of wood and some cinder blocks. Also you might notice the awesome surround sound system that we have running from that big box to the left of our TV, yes the chords run all around our living room and the speakers are sitting on end tables, DVD's and sometimes right on the back of the couch. However, it is functional and funky and it has actually been growing on me, I think I might be sad when the day comes where we invest in an actual piece of furniture.

Example C-our garden

Lastly, we yearn for a garden, for a home with a backyard that can house the fruit, vegetables, and herbs that we would so love to be able to grow. This is not necessarily a "home furnishing" but I will tell you, it does save us some serious money buying fresh herbs from the store, and nothing is as good as home grown produce. So, we have created our own little "garden" on the wall of our balcony. If there is a strong wind, or a violent shaking of the earth, our garden will come tumbling down but I do not forsee that happening in the near future...I hope. We are growing sage, habaneros, a few types of tomatoes, rosemary, and basil thus far. I intend on mentioning our need for plant stands to Ricky and can not wait to see what he comes up with.