DIY Flower Wreath Crowns

August 5, 2020 By Jill 19 Comments

I love spending time with my girls ~ they are so much fun! 🙂 It’s important to spend good quality time with our children and make memories! They grow up way too fast, don’t they? 🙁

Every summer, we go flower picking to make flower wreath crowns. The girls choose which flowers they want, and we braid them into crowns.

They are so simple to make!

Flower Wreath Crowns

Start with 3 separate flowers

2. Begin braiding them together, making sure you braid as tightly as you can.

3. When one of the stems gets short, or you just want a new flower weaved in…

~Add another flower to one of the stems….~

~And continue braiding~

4. Stick flowers in here and there to fill in empty spaces and add more color and beauty!

5. When the crowns are the size you want, twist the ends of the stems around the beginning of the wreath.

~And you have a beautiful flower wreath for your girls~

You can make this more educational by studying the flowers/herbs you choose for your wreath and whether they can be used for food or medicine! Learning about herbs can be a daily way of life. Our children’s lives may depend on this some day!

Speaking of education, how would you like to win $200 toward educational materials??

It’s Back to (Home) School time!! More and more families are joining the ranks of homeschoolers this year. With all of the uncertainty surrounding what public school will look like this fall, many parents are adding the role of educator to their list of parental duties. One of the scary and overwhelming things about making the leap into homeschooling is the financial aspect of it. Curriculum can be expensive (although it doesn’t have to be) and one of the parents might have to quit their job or cut their hours to help make homeschooling a reality for their family. While working and homeschooling or being a one-income family is totally doable, it does require some sacrifice and sometimes that means tightening the budget. I’ve teamed up with a great group of homeschool bloggers that would like to bless a few homeschool families this year and help lighten the financial load, even if it’s just a little. We wish we could bless more, but we will be able to give THREE families $200 to spend at Christianbook.com to buy curriculum, resources, and supplies for their homeschools. To enter for your chance to win, simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter. Now I know this is quite a few entries, but each of these bloggers has generously chipped in their own money to make this giveaway possible, so I hope you will take the time to do all of the entries. And hey, the more entries you do, the better your odds are of winning! Giveaway ends August 14, 2020 at 11:59pm ET. Must be at least 18 years of age. Must be a resident of U.S. or Canada to enter. Selected winners will have 48 hours to respond to email notification to claim their prizes or another winner will be drawn. By entering this giveaway, you agree to be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers (see the Terms & Conditions on the Rafflecopter form for the complete list). a Rafflecopter giveaway

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The Two Organs You Must Not Forget To Detox

July 27, 2020 By Jill 2 Comments

Each year, detoxing is one of the first things on my list. As I make my list, I have learned the hard way that there are 2 organs that are essential to remember. Let me tell you why.

Organ #1: Liver

Looking at myself in the mirror this winter is not the same image I saw 10 years ago. In the winter of 2010/2011, I had dry, red skin around my eyes. This was nothing new due to the fact that my eye skin had been dry for several winters for some unknown reason to me.

But about a month into this particular winter season, the dryness and sensitivity around my eyes got much worse, even so bad that I didn’t want to leave the house. The skin around my eyes would peel and reveal raw skin. And wearing makeup or washing the skin? Those simple tasks made me look like a strange creature to behold. The skin would then become so irritated that it advanced to open oozing sores all around my eyes, which would scab over, leaving thick, scaly scabs all around my eyes. Can anyone say crocodile?

Needless to say, I learned not to leave the house without sunglasses in those days. Everywhere I went, whether it be church or the store, I had to keep my eyes covered, so as not to frighten some child along the way.

Thankfully I came across Shoshanna’s YouTube video about detoxing the liver and made a connection. I was now certain that my eye issues were related to my liver. I ordered her herbal mix, made my own tincture, and began following her suggested dosage.

Imagine my joy when the next winter rolled around and my eyes were fine! This was the first winter in several ye ars that I did not deal with dry, itchy skin around my eyes. These herbs were amazing healers!

We may not be able to see our liver, but it is a very vital organ to keep healthy. It is our blood cleaning filter, receiving 1 1/2 quarts of blood a minute, and cleaning our blood 24/7. Anything that you eat or breathe is filtered through the liver, detoxing your whole system.

Some other important jobs of the liver are:

Regulates protein metabolism
Regulates carbohydrate metabolism
Modifies fats
Produces bile
Stores vitamins, minerals, and iron
Converts ammonia to urea, which is converted to urine by the kidneys

Those are some very important functions! When the liver is not working properly, it can cause poor digestion, headaches, acne, depression, mood swings, skin problems, foggy thinking, IBS, weight gain, reflux, constipation, poor digestion, and more! The liver assists the body when the rest of the body is being cleansed. If the liver is not working right, cleansing the other areas of your body may not be as successful.

The detox I used was the Liver Cleanse Tincture from the Bulk Herb Store. You can find the simple instructions on making it, and the suggested dosage on the package.

Organ #2: Kidneys

Finding myself at the emergency room at 2 a.m. in terrible pain was a lesson I will not forget. After tests and a lot of money spent, I was diagnosed with kidney stones. I had been having such success with healing my liver, had cleansed my blood and colon, was ridding my body of parasites, but had neglected my kidneys!

The kidneys regulate the alkaline/acid balance of the body. Every day the kidneys process 200 quarts of blood and filters about 2 quarts of waste products in the form of urine. It is important to keep them cleansed and healthy.

One of the best things you can do to help kidney health is to drink plenty of water. The color and odor of your urine will tell you a lot about your kidney health. Your urine will become darker and stronger smelling if you fail to drink enough healthy liquids.

Lack of water is really hard on the kidneys and can lead to kidney stones, bacterial growth, and bladder infections. Many nutritionists recommend drinking 8 glasses of water a day, but make sure you are drinking enough to keep your urine a light yellow.

To help determine what the color of your urine means, refer to this chart here.

One way to clean out the kidneys is with a kidney flush.

To flush the kidneys:

Combine 2 oz. of olive oil and 2 oz. of lemon juice.
Stir and drink down.
Follow with a large glass of water.

This remedy does a great job of cleansing and rejuvenating the kidneys! You can also purchase a kidney cleanse and follow the directions on the bottle.

What do you do to keep your liver and kidneys healthy?

Lemony Lemon Balm Drink

July 10, 2020 By Jill 2 Comments

It was a super hot, humid day and the lemon balm in my yard was calling my name. I had never used it in a lemonade-type drink, but I just knew that it would make a refreshing drink.

And it did not disappoint! This lemony lemon balm drink is absolutely delicious!

Lemon balm is a great herb for anxiety, nervousness, and stress. It also promotes sleep and is an antiviral.

It also makes a great lemonade.

I simply picked a handful of leaves, steeped it into a tea and added sugar, water, and lemon juice.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

Lemony Lemon Balm Drink

Ingredients

1/2 cup fresh lemon balm or 1/4 cup dried lemon balm

8 cups water, divided

1 cup cane sugar

2 cups lemon juice

Directions

Add lemon balm to 2 cups of boiling water. Cover with lid, remove from burner, and steep for 20 minutes.

Strain lemon balm into a 2 quart jar or pitcher, stir in sugar until dissolved.

Add lemon juice.

Fill jar with ice and water.