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    All the books, products and natural medicine I discuss on my website I have purchased with my own money, and used long enough (years usually) to have developed a strong opinion. I recommend the things I love best based on my personal repeated experience and use. If I ever do receive something for free to review, I will be sure to state that in my writing. I can receive a small commission if items are purchased through this site, which is passed on along with other donations I collect to one of my Causes.
February 25, 2010

Jen’s Tuscan Bean Soup

This is an easy soup recipe that I found in a magazine years ago and amended to our taste. My kids like it because of the shell pasta. It freezes well so you can save leftovers for a busy day in the future.

Jen’s Tuscan Bean Soup

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped
  • 2 TB olive oil
  • 2 C or 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 4 C broth
  • 4 C or 2 cans cooked kidney beans
  • 2 tsp powdered thyme
  • 2 C whole grain seashell pasta
  • 1 C packed spinach or chard, chopped (or substitute frozen green peas in a pinch)
  • 3/4 tsp sea salt (I prefer Real Garlic salt-I’m addicted to it actually)

First chop your pepper, onion and garlic. The easiest way to do this is with a small chopper. They’re cheap, save a ton of time, and make it hard for kids to pick things out.

Put the chopped onion, pepper and garlic in a pot with the olive oil. Sauté until softened (about 5 min).

Add tomatoes, beans,

and broth. I have some broth powder I use, but this time I used some liquid bouillon I bought at Costco. They both work. Homemade is the healthiest, of course.

Prepare your broth before adding to pot.

Simmer for 15-20 min while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Chop your spinach or chard. This can easily be done with a knife. I line up the leaves,

snip off the stems,

and cut into slices.

Measure your thyme,

and salt. Sea salt is much healthier than the bleached, chemicalized iodine stuff at the grocery store, and it tastes considerably better.

Add thyme, salt and pasta to the pot to simmer for 5 minutes. If you let it cook for much longer than this, the pasta will absorb more broth and get very large. This is fine, but I added more water and salt  the last time it happened.

Then add the greens last.

Serve with toast or wheat crackers and fresh ground pepper. A one-pot meal. Yum!

February 17, 2010

Fixing A Crushed Toe

One time a good friend of ours called and informed me that while he was moving a pool table with his wife (Nicole), they had dropped one corner of it on her big toe. The toe was crushed. They didn’t think going to the ER would be all that productive and would be expensive to boot. What should they do?

I told them to come over and I started gathering remedies. I pulled out my dependable Cuts & Bruises oil which eases pain, reduces inflammation and fights infection.

I grabbed some Complete Tissue ointment and Bone, Flesh & Cartilage herb blend (BF&C) for her to use in a tea for healing. Incidentally, comfrey is a valuable herb that heals things very speedily. If you have a toxic liver from taking drugs or alcohol, large quantities of this herb by itself can overload your liver, but this is rare. Generally it is very safe and cuts healing time in half.

I personally have taken comfrey in this formula for healing would take this formula in large amounts for broken bones or other serious injury to tissues or ligaments, but of course you need to be your own judge. (One of my mentors, Sandra Ellis, gave her son 100 capsules a day internally when he broke his elbow. He had no pain because he was getting the healing nutrition his body needed.)

Our friends came over and Nicole was in pain. Her toe nail ended up coming completely off. We dripped on a few drops of the Cuts & Bruises oil and I gave her the other items. I told her that cayenne has traditionally been used to stop bleeding.

Her toe bled that night, so she put cayenne powder on the wound to stop bleeding. It stung, but did the job.  (I would use cayenne if the bleeding were life threatening or the person was in shock. For most bleeding I now use straight helichrysum oil, which works excellently without stinging.)

She applied a drop of Cuts & Bruises every time before using the Complete Tissue formulas.

At night she made a tea of the Complete Tissue herbs (put a teaspoon of the herbs in a cup of boiling water for 15 min), soaked a cloth in it (wrung it out loosely), wrapped her toe with it, and covered it with a plastic bag. She did this nightly for about 5 days.

She also soaked her toe in Epsom salt twice a day with hot water and this helped prevent and draw out infection.

After the first week, she continued to apply the Complete Tissue ointment periodically.

Her toe healed quickly and over a few months a new nail grew nicely until it was back to normal.

Natural plant tools have been around throughout the history of the world! We are so fortunate to live in a time when we can purchase them easily in many convenient forms, thus facilitating and expediting the healing process.

PS-Nicole used the same routine on her son who fell off the top bunk, landed on a small wood chair, and punctured his outer ear. She soaked his ear in bath of Epsom salt, applied Cuts & Bruises along with Complete Tissue ointment until the ear healed. Thus she avoided another costly trip to the ER.

If you end up with a crushed toe and have none of the above tools for healing, you could always do what Mike’s great, great grandmother did when she crushed her toe. Fearing infection and future gangrene, she put her foot on the chopping block and cut her toe off with an ax.

I don’t recommend it.

February 11, 2010

Kumon Books: Fun Skill-Building For Children

I saw one of these eye-catching Kumon books while I was browsing online and decided to buy one. I’m so glad I did. I use my own copier so all my children can enjoy these. They help kids develop their fine motor skills. A motto of Kumon is Speed + Accuracy= Mastery.

These first ones are very simple, for ages 2-5.

Let’s Color! has very easy first activities. The one I have is More Let’s Color!

Let’s Fold has big lines to follow. On the opposite side is a picture of the outside of a lemon, so when it’s folded you see the outside and open it to see the inside. These are hard to copy because they’re double sided. So cute!

As the book progresses, the activities get more challenging, little by little. This is beginning origami at it’s finest!

Let’s Cut Paper starts with straight lines, then lines that bend. This one is More Let’s Cut Paper.

On the cover of each book is its age range.

My First Book of Tracing has easy activities and mazes for ages 2-5.

My First Book of Cutting has colorful pictures with big lines.

My First Book of Mazes starts easy . . .

but gets harder.

Once your child can use scissors and glue, My Book of Pasting builds skills from there.

My preschoolers absolutely love these activities!

My Book of Easy Crafts is appropriate for ages 4-8.  It says ages 4-6 on the cover, but my 7 yr-old will be doing the harder ones for a while.

They are double sided and so creative.

My Book of Amazing Crafts has even more exciting projects. This simple one makes it possible to change the faces and dress of the characters.

The projects get much more challenging (and popular) in the second half of the book.

I’m just starting to use this one with my 5 and 7 year old, to teach and improve their writing skills.

Not only does My Book of Writing Words offer an interesting format for writing practice, but it also uses short rhyming words and phrases throughout the book. Rhymes make everything easier to learn!

I’ve never been big on formal curriculum. I’ve always tried to find the most fun, pleasant (for me too), colorful, engaging books and activities for my kids (without dropping a wad). Nurturing their love of learning is a number one goal for me.

These books retail for $5.95-6.95 each, but run on average, new and used from 15¢ to $3 each plus shipping. So for some you’re mainly paying shipping. Amazon has good prices, but if you can find a seller on Half.com that’s offering multiple items you want, they will discount the shipping. This savings can really add up.

It takes a little time to hunt down the best deals, but you and your kids will love these!

February 6, 2010

The Mysterious Stink

One time a dad brought his daughter into the ER. He was very excited.

“She’s got something up her nose! It stinks so bad!”

The dad had detected a smell coming from his daughter, but could not figure out where it was coming from. He was giving her baths 3 times a day, and it was driving him crazy.

He finally noticed when she looked up, there was something in her nose. The something was a small strand of carpet she had stuck up there. It blocked the airflow and started attracting mucus which then started to reek.

When Mike was telling me this story he commented that cases with foreign bodies were quite interesting. He’s also seen beads and beans in noses and ears.

The weirdest is when people get bugs in their ears (hold on to your stomachs folks). When the person feels the bug in their ear they usually smack it, which drives it into the ear canal.

Mike is the one that has to delicately pull the insect out with alligator forceps, without puncturing the eardrum. He said it’s really strange to see a transparent wing poking out or two beady little eyes looking back at him.

Moral of the story: Don’t smack your ear if a bug tickles it, and if your child starts to stink mysteriously, be sure to check the nose.

  • About Jenni

    I am a do-it-yourself, happily married, mother of six rambunctious kids. I finished my master herbalist degree this past summer-whew! I am passionate about empowering people, especially women, mothers and fathers, to be teachers, chefs, and doctors in their own homes.
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    I am not a doctor (that would be my husband). Any advice or recommendations you find on this site should not be construed as medical advice. I do not claim to be able to diagnose, cure or prevent any disease (you can do that yourself). If you choose to follow my example, you will be taking responsibility for your own health and wellness.

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