Natures Gifts and some pie!

My new home and yard keeps amazing me. From the humming birds at my windows to the mulberry tree in the back! Can I just say how excited I am about the mulberry tree!? I had always heard of them in stories and such but never come across one in real life.

Look at how big this thing is! It's not the tree all the way to the right but the tree right before.



So to add to the list of yummy goodies growing naturally in my yard, is the mulberry tree! Here is a picture of the berries when I SHOULD HAVE started picking them.



But I didn't know what they were yet and I wasn't about to do something that would encourage my son to go picking possibly poisonous berries! Fast forward to present day...


Not as full of ripe beries but did anyone see the pretty little Cardinal on the right in the picture :)

Over the past 2 days I have been picking ones I could reach and I put out a sheet (crib to be exact)on the ground to catch them during the day. I figured it would never get used because I don't like cribs and don't own one (baby sleeps with mama as he should!).



Oh and can I add myself to the edible things in my yard? Because boy do the mosquito's eat me alive! I guess I'm just ripe for the biting lol! My grandmother always told me I must be sweet... Still need to figure some good mosquito control (if there is such a thing) so I am not hiding in the house half the summer...

Now I asked my hubby to bring over our new ladder so I could reach up higher(he bought it just in time to help me with this project!)and I got to work pickin' those berries! I had earlier come across a recipe for mulberry pie so it was my goal to get 3 cups like the recipe called for.








After trying to pick the berries by hand I realized I still could not reach enough so went into the house and got a big bed sheet and into the garage for a metal rake. I laid out this bigger sheet on the ground and climbed back up the ladder to try to shake some off this way. Well I wasn't doing a very good job at this (too afraid of falling and honestly of shaking bugs all over myself). There is a lot of bugs on this tree (makes sense as it's a very edible tree!) so I ended up asking my wonderful hubby to help me out.



How can the girl so in love with nature be so squeamish about bugs? Beats me! I actually lived in a tent for 2 and 1/2 months once so this whole can't handle bugs thing is really weird.

While my hubby was up on the ladder picking and shaking away my son was singing at the top of his lungs "Berry Pickin, Berry Pickin, Berry Berry Berry Pickin!" lol. I'm sure my neighbors "loved" it but it was so sweet and I wasn't going to hush him one bit! Besides one of the neighbors has some pretty noisy kids and it's not the cute kind of noisy... Anyhu! :)






Here is our harvest of sweetness.



Time to make the pie! Here is my son making pictures with his fingers in the flour :)



Pie crust



Mulberry filling



Finished pie! Now it doesn't look so good ( need to make more pie dough next time because this recipe didn't make enough for both halves) but the taste more then made up for it.



I can't believe how incredibly yummy this pie turned out! I don't know if it is because I made it or because of the mulberries (maybe a combination of both ;D)but it is one of the best pies I have ever had! And I can't believe this tree was in my backyard and I made this yumminess from something I didn't even plant!

We haven't been able to stay away from it. We actually had pie for breakfast! It's not like we do that all the time so it was a treat. The one bad thing? The pie is now gone! :( And I don't think I will be able to get another 3 cups from the tree again but I'm sure gonna try!

Wordless Wednesday

♥My Boys ♥
♥ Pure Love ♥
♥On A Beautiful Day ♥

Fluoride Free

I really wanted to post this on Friday and call it "Fluoride Free Friday" but I haven't finished my other posts yet and everyday should be fluoride free anyway!

Anyhu, I am on this website called BabyCenter. Basically a bunch of groups of mama's and mama's to be talking about all sorts of topics or trading and selling their goods (like cloth diapers!) I hadn't been on there in a few days and when I came back I found this in my messages:

From: BabyCenter Partner
To: You
Subject: Go to nurserywater.com for coupons, offers and a chance to win prizes!
Date: 5/18/10 05:56AM
Sign up on nurserywater.com to receive coupons, valuable information, offers and enter for a chance to win prizes!

Seriously that site is just as bad as all the other awful corporate brands out there (actually isn't it run By Johnson & Johnson? Hmm yea...). I mean I do love some of the groups I am in there, so I just need to ignore everything else I guess. But I can't help feeling like being here is helping feed this disgusting government controlled society we live in.
Think about how many people are on that website (1000's!) and how many of them actually know about fluoride? I'm sure it is an extremely small percentage.


David Dees Illustration
OMG! Seriously take a look at this guys artwork! Amazing!

Now lets take a look into this.

The website says they have been around since 1948. So since 1948 people have been poisoning their babies because they were told it is good for them. Although tap water has fluoride too so no difference (except that your paying extra for this poison baby water ).

Does this make sense to any of you. Children's toothpaste has packaging and commercials that say fluoride free so it's safe if swallowed! But it's OK to drink it? Last time I checked drinking involves swallowing. Hello! Why is fluoride toothpaste not OK to swallow? Well because fluoride is a poison. But the American public seems to think “Oh it's just small amounts in water, it wont hurt you”. But maybe it's like a cigarette. One wont kill you but smoke enough over time and watch the magical effects (some sarcasm here I know)! On that note though, do you give your babies and children a drag of a cigarette because one wont hurt them? I didn't think so!

This product's website has a time line from pregnancy (wait are they telling pregnant mothers now to drink this stuff too? Well I don't see them mentioning it except for the drink 8 to ten glasses of water every couple of paragraphs... Hey if we are told it's so good for babies maybe we should be drinking it prego too!) to 4-5 years!

Of course the first thing I click on (Does my baby really need fluoride water?) brings up an article about fluoride and formula. Ahhh yes bad for baby #1 and bad for baby #2 put together equals a really healthy baby! :s Just an FYI, I am not completely anti-formula. I know there are mothers and babies out there that need it. But for the people who choose to formula feed for non medical or hardship reasons, I'm sorry, what are you thinking?


Then I scroll down some more and see the water bottles with an added danger #3, a TV character on the packaging. If your kids never noticed bottled water before they will be grabbing for the one with the TV character they know on it (that is if your kids watch those kind of things).

This is what the website says about the safety of this “Healthy” water:

Is drinking water with fluoride safe for my child?
Yes. The American Dental Association (ADA) continues to support water fluoridation at the optimal range of 0.7 to 1.2 parts per million (ppm), for the general public as determined by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS).

According to the ADA, baby formula can be mixed with water that is fluoride free or contains low levels of fluoride. Babies less than one year old need less fluoride than everyone else because they are so small. Nursery® Water has a fluoride level of 0.7 ppm or less. This means that when your child is drinking Nursery® Water, you can be confident that your child is getting a lower level of fluoride.

So all they say is that it is safe. There is no explanation what so ever about why it's in the water in the first place.

OK I take that back (did some more searching around the site) here is what they say the fluoride is for:

What is the Purpose of Adding Fluoride to Purified Drinking Water?
Our primary purpose in adding fluoride to purified drinking water is to help strengthen teeth. Nursery® Water is purified water steam distilled for purity, which assures you it is safe, pure, and clean. You can use Nursery® to mix formula and cereals, to dilute juices or as pure drinking water.

So first off how many newborns do you know that have teeth? Yea thought so. But this has clearly been marketed to newborns as well as teeth bearing babies and now all the way up to 5 yr olds! Lets get the fluoride into all the babies and children of this world!
Even as adults it clearly says not to swallow our toothpaste but lets keep drinking that water!

According to the handbook, Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products, fluoride is more poisonous than lead and just slightly less poisonous than arsenic. Who started giving this to children!?

According to the Physicians Desk Reference, "in hypersensitive individuals, fluoride occasionally causes skin eruptions such as atopic dermatitis, eczema, or urticaria. Gastric distress, headache, and weakness have also been reported. These hypersensitive reactions usually disappear promptly after discontinuation of the fluoride."

I could go on and on listing all the things that could happen to your body because of fluoride.

And the funniest part of all this, the one thing they actually say it is good for (your teeth) it's not. In reality it causes dental fluorosis.



Look at those healthy teeth! :s



So why are they putting fluoride in our water and toothpaste then? Well I think this pretty much sums it up .

Before 1945, fluoride was considered an environmental pollutant. It was responsible for many lawsuits against industries, like the aluminum industry and the phosphate fertilizer industry, whose waste products contain large quantities of fluoride. This fluoride destroyed crops and animals, leading to lawsuits. The limited public view was that fluoride was an environmental pollutant that needed to be reduced or eliminated from the environment.
But as a result of clever public relations campaigns, fluoride was transformed from an environmental pollutant to an essential nutrient necessary for producing healthy teeth. Got to love this country we live in! Bah.



Am I going to link to everything I have ever read to prove this to you? Nope. Really do the digging yourself and make the decision to avoid this poison yourself. But here is something to watch if you feel so inclined.

Fluoride Deception Part 1



Fluoride Deception Part 2


FACEBOOK



It's so sad and sick that our own kind are willing to do this to us. For money, greed, science, whatever their motives are it's not for the good of the people...

From all I have read and seen the is definitely one thing you wont see in my house!

Things you can do to avoid this poison:
Invest in a good water filter for your home. Whether it be be a counter top version, under the sink or whole house. Just make sure the filter says it filters out fluoride!
If you can't afford this right now buy bottled water (yea I know, not good for the earth at all but sorry my children poison free is more important to me). Unfortunately until I get a good water filter I am stuck buying bottled water. Or if your local supermarket or health food store has one, the water machine's where you fill up your own jugs of water (I miss this from my old Co-Op in my hometown before I moved!).
Don't forget fluoride free toothpaste too! For my kids I use Weleda Children's Tooth Gel
I have used a few different toothpastes for myself but I am not set on one yet. Right now I am using Jason Nutrismile Toothpaste Orange, Cinnamon and Mint. Be careful as a lot of Jason products still contain fluoride.
I have been really wanting to try these though as I have heard many good things about them! Tooth Chips Soap at Rose Of Sharon Acres's
They also have an Etsy store HERE

Good luck on your fluoride free journey!

Sightly Saturday..

OK super late post but I felt like posting something as I have 4 blog posts in the works and haven't finished any of them yet. SO I just thought I would post a sight a see every morning that I love. My kitchen window.



I love these bottles so much.



And the fresh from the yard flowers add to it for sure.



And the green view out the window is wonderful too!




I am soooo thankful for my new home that I get to share with my wonderful family.

A blog about my blog?!

I can't believe someone is blogging about my blog already! When I found out I had a huge smile on my face. Because even though I do this for myself, I also do it in the hopes that I write things that like minded people are interested in reading. I mean that's what blogs are all about right? Right! We wouldn't be sharing info on the internet if we didn't want people to read it! :P

So I got a comment from a women whose blog I follow letting me know about this! Click the picture to give her blog a peek!.


I must say thank you to her for telling me and for following me back! It means a lot to a newbie like me. :) We share some common interests in life which is why I started following her in the first place!

But she told me I was mentioned on Blogs Worth Blogging About from http://myecofamily.blogspot.com/ who I am of course following now too as I see we also seem to have many things in common. Check out her blog and read her nice comment about mine HERE! Thanks for following me as well mama!


I really do love this new blog world I have entered into! I get to share what I want and I can read so much more from others!



Thought I would end this post with a picture of my sweet, chubby, smiling baby :)

Oh my Cookies!

I really do love to bake and cook even though I could definetely use some more practice! Just the other day I decided to try a new recipe. Kinship Cookies. They are supposedly very similar to cookies made by the early Pagans in Germany that were small cookies often shaped like animals. Possibly the roots of our modern day animal crackers.

This recipe calls for 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind and 2 tablespoons grated orange rind. Now this was no fun task! The only thing I had to finely grate peels was this silly little cheese grater my mother gave me years ago and I have never used! Well I am happy to have found it has a purpose.



Poor little naked fruits have lost their peels! :)



4 eggs as the only liquid in these cookies.



Your supposed to beat the eggs till fluffy. My son helped me with this (he loves to cook!). :)




Now for some sugar, 2 cups to be exact.



That's alot of freakin' sugar! Look past the white coated counter tops... I had made pizza dough before this and when you cook the kitchen isn't clean! At least not with me!

Add the sugar to the eggs...



Mmmmm sugared eggs.... :s

Now 2 cups of flour. Did I say 2? It was supposed to be 3.. Explanation below. The funny things that happen while cooking with your children while taking photo's and getting distracted!




A half of a teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking powder into the flour. Where'd the baking powder pic go? Beats me!



Mix the grated lemon and orange rind into the eggs and sugar.



In with the flour, baking powder and salt!



I love my little boys cooking hands. :)

Now you were supposed to mix this all together till smooth then place in the fridge for an hour (covered). Well I took out the "dough" which looked like goop! Something was wrong there was no way you could use cookie cutters with this stuff! And the recipe calls for using cookie cutters. I looked back at the recipe and realized I left out a cup of flour... I filled my 2 cup measuring cup but forgot to add in another cup. Grrr

So I added another cup mixed it up and hoped it would be salvageable. Stuck it the fridge for another 20 min or so and pulled it out again. Well guess what? Not goopy any more but still WAY to sticky for cookie cutters. Darn.

I was now supposed to be able to roll a 1/3-inch thick piece of dough out on a sugared surface and cut into shapes. Then place on greased cookie sheets, sprinkle anise seed on them (just realized I forgot those too! Ahhh!)then cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. I tried rolling out a piece of it on the floured counter for the heck of it, and had to scrape it off.

So I just stuck the whole darn bowl in the fridge and waited 24 hours. I thought maybe I'd have a chance to use the cookie cutters at the end... But of course the dough was way to sticky still so I just scooped it out in "balls" onto the cookie sheets and baked them like the recipe said (325 until lightly browned around the edges. Said about 20 min but 15 was better in my oven).

At the point when I found the goop in my fridge I had completely forgotten to finishing taking pics. I guess being a mom to a 1 month old and a 4yr old has given me "mom brain" for the time being!

The cookies ended up having a really nice flavor but I was really disappointed by the whole thing. I wonder if the batter would have come out better if I hadn't messed up. But I highly doubt it would have been any less sticky.

Not really sure why I ended up blogging about a not so great recipe turnout. But hey, at least I'm honest and not pretending to be Martha Stewart here! I do have to say even though they weren't perfect my family did gobble them up.

I decided to take a picture last second before they went to the party in someones tummy. :)

Green is good...

Green is amazing! And everything green is on my mind! About a month ago we closed on our first home and it has been pretty great so far. There is a lot of greenery which I had been missing terribly since my move to Ohio from Mass. Within a couple weeks the snow starting melting and everything started growing. It was making me so happy!

I started to notice all the things sprouting from the ground. Which made me even happier. I have always been super interested in edible wild plants. And as I was walking around outside I spotted this,



I am pretty sure it is wild onion but someone feel free to comment and tell me otherwise if you think not! Make sure you really know your edibles before eating wild plants though! Wild onion does have some very similar look alikes that you would not want to eat (if it doesn't smell like onion do not eat)! You can harvest the tops before flowers appear and the bulbs in spring and fall. I'm sure you can use these just the way you use regular onions.



Just thought I'd add a picture of the onions out of the dirt. It is pretty much impossible to pull them out of the ground. I had to dig them up with a shovel to get the whole plant roots and all.

I walked around some more and saw this,



Garlic Mustard! And it is everywhere! You can harvest the young leaves, blossoms and seed pods in spring and early summer. You can eat it as a raw salad or steam it. You can boil it then add a little salt and butter or use it with meat and veggies for garlic flavor too.

As the spring has gone on more and more things have popped up and are of course growing everywhere and everything is getting huge! Here is a pic of the Garlic Mustard today my son as comparison in height.



And he is a tall 4 year old too!



One of the other things I found was what I believe to be Wintercress. I did not take a pic of it though in its natural growing spot. You can harvest leaves in spring until flower stalks appear. Leaves blanch and lose bitterness if you tie them in a bundle with the plant still rooted and cover with a bucket. Pick flowers and buds until blooming is over (April or May). Use early and blanched leaves in salads.

Buds and flowers are excellent with cheese sauce. Cover clusters with boiling water for 1 min. Drain, cover with fresh boiling water, heat, and boil 3 min more. Drain, season,and cool for 5 min.

Well I decided I wanted to move some of the onions and Wintercress to a spot I know my hubby wont mow over. So me and my 4 yr old dug up a spot in the yard (was not fun as this ground was hard and full of roots) and transplanted the onions first. Now these guys are huge! That is one half of my full size shovel on the ground next to them.


Then we dug up the Wintercress and moved them to their new home too.




And here is my son watering them. I love his watering plant face. He likes to water the tops of the plants instead of wetting the dirt. I have tried to explain it to him but it's ok, he is my good little helpy helper (one of my nick names for him)!



This photo is the next day and unfortunately the onions dont look like they are doing too good (also didn't get to watering them until way to late in the day, keeping my fingers crossed they make it!)but I wanted to give another size comparison on how big the Wintercress is.



I also transplanted some Thistle known also as Blessed Thistle. Thistle is a protective plant and I thought the plants I transplanted could use some protection while hopefully growing stronger in their new spot. There is also Thistle all around our house (except I didn't see any in the back of the house). It seems to be only growing very close to the sides of the house which I am so happy about. Can never complain about a little added protection!



I just had to add a pic of one on the side of the house. It is the second biggest one growing.




And then last but not least tons of Dandelion! All parts of this plant, root, leaf and flower are edible! And I personally love it in my lawn. I don't care if everyone on earth thinks it is ugly in your yard, I don't! Look at the color....



My son picking them, he loves them too :). And he definitely likes them when they turn to "fluff".





What can I say I love my yard and all that grows in it! I can't wait till I can get my veggie garden going! That will be another post...

A new use for everything!

So I am standing in my basement doing laundry the other night. I switch over the washer load to the dryer, close the door and almost forget to check the lint trap before starting the dryer. I pull out the trap, scrape off the lint and put it in the pile that is growing on the shelf next to our dryer. I start the dryer but pause for a moment before heading upstairs. Why did I pause? Because I am staring at that pile of lint. Thinking "I wonder when that is gonna get cleaned up". But then something else comes to my head. Dyer lint always just gets thrown in the garbage. Or does it? I all of a sudden felt inspired to figure out what else it might be good for instead of just adding more crap to the landfill. I thought to myself there has got to be something this icky fluffy stuff could be used for, so I went on an internet mission to see what I could find!



Something that I hadn't thought of was the fact that dryer lint is extremely flammable (knew that part, that's why you need to clean those traps!)and I just have a pile of it sitting in my basement... Not so smart eh? So now I am worried about it till I get a good container to store it in and hope that no one smokes in my basement! They better not! Just being silly, no one would do that. Friends and family already have gotten to see my "mean" side about smoking just from them smoking outside....



So anyway in my search I find out you can use lint for fire starters. OK that one is like duh! Extremely flammable would make sense right?! There is a little work involved but not much.
To make the fire starters you can pack the lint into a cardboard egg carton. Then you melt some kind of wax (old candles or crayons etc) in a metal can(coffee maybe)in a shallow pot of boiling water on low heat. When the wax is melted, drizzle the liquid wax onto the lint, filling each egg slot full. When the wax cools, you just cut or break apart the sections.


Image from Mother Earth News. My favorite subscribed magazine! You should get it too it's awesome! Mother Earth News HERE!


You can then use these for camping or a campfire, your fireplace; I even read for a charcoal grill but I seriously question the safety of that. I will need to find out more. Especially because I also read to avoid fumes in your home use lint only from natural fabrics. I honestly wouldn't want to put these in my fireplace and especially not in a grill but hey if you were ever really desperate for fire starter... I guess it would work!

Of course for a campfire you could just use the lint for kindling on it's own! Just bring it with you in a airtight, watertight container. As I believe it will do you no good if it gets wet.

How about for composting? Really?! Supposedly you can toss it in your compost bin if it comes from all natural fabrics like cotton, wool, or linen. Only problem is how many people actually only have those types of fabrics in their dryers? I know there are other fabrics that go into mine sometimes... Also I would think you would want to make sure you use natural laundry detergent as well. And no softeners or dryer sheets (that I can do because that's how I wash my laundry). Too bad it isn't only natural fabrics in my dryer though.. I suppose if I really paid attention and just didn't include lint from "bad" batches of clothes it could be done. I am not sure I want to put that much effort into lint though seeing as how I am always doing laundry.



Some websites say that lint makes great clay and paper mache. Here is an example HERE

Another use I have read but not sure I would recommend it is, using it as stuffing for dolls and such. I really am not sure how much more flammable it is over regular stuffing if at all but making (toys as an example) out of something super flammable doesn't seem wise or safe to me...

How about a possible nesting material for birds? Just hang it from a tree or place it out in your yard and they will bring it home.

I actually found this posted as a comment as well. But I couldn't locate the person who posted it:

I use Lint to make CANDLE WICKS, as well as ROPE. I roll my own rope the same way Indians used to make rope from plant fibers. its a long project but i tell you Lint makes a good strong Rope. I make small Ropes to use as a candle wick and they work great. My candles are made from bacon fat or beef fat. I use the tallow I make. I get about 24 hours or more from one candle, or you can use the tallow and chunks of Lint saturated in fat in a large metal bowl as an outdoor space heater or cooker.

That would be something else to look into.

Anyway I am no expert on lint but this is what I found and I have yet to make sure any of it is 100% accurate or really works but I wanted to blog about it!

If you have any uses for lint that you use in your everyday life feel free to comment!

How could you...

Do this to your newborn baby boy? What am I talking about? Circumcision. The truth really needs to be known about this procedure. I am horrified that my first son was circumsized. I unfortunately did not have the info I have today. I didn't want to do it then either, in fact he was 2 or 3 months when I finally gave in and let it happen. I just couldn't imagine putting my baby through any pain and for what? But I had voices around me giving me all these stupid reasons for doing it. Oh he's gonna be upset that he's different from other boys when older, he wont be like his dad etc. My first sons father said he was having it done and I eventually just gave in. Luckily now with my second son my husband agrees with me. And seriously after seeing something like this, how could you not? Unless you just don't have as much love for your child as I do or for your own selfish reasons....

VIDEO HERE

I remember with my first son carrying him up into the hospital with tears in my eyes. So worried and scared and upset about it all. They wouldn't let me stay on that floor either, they made me go down to the cafeteria. Obviously because they didn't want me to hear him screaming :(. That kills me. I also remember the Dr telling me at the end "Oh he did great, He actually fell asleep during it." Bullshit. If I recall I read once that babies pass out sometimes in extreme pain. My poor boy. When I got him back he was lifeless, like the most horrible thing in the world just happened to him, well it just had.



I am making this post to help inform other mothers about this and hoping it will save at least one baby from unneeded pain or possibly even death...
I also think you should read this below, then go there and sign the petition if you feel as I do...

Newborn male circumcision is the most common surgical procedure performed in the U.S. Many people believe that there are tangible health benefits to male circumcision but, the truth is no medical society in the world recommends it. In fact, the American Medical Association calls the surgery "non-therapeutic." What's worse, over 100 babies die as a result of complications from circumcision in the U.S. each year.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is developing public health recommendations for the U.S. on male circumcision – ignoring the serious risks such as hemorrhage, infection, surgical mishap, and death – in favor of highly debatable and inconclusive research.

The CDC is the foremost expert on public health in our country and, as such, has a responsibility to share the truth about circumcision.

I just took action, signing a petition to the CDC, demanding the organization release a truthful statement on the harms and risks of circumcision.

If you believe as I do, that we should protect newborn babies from harmful and unnecessary surgery, then join me by clicking the link below:

http://www.intactamerica.org

Starting Out Empty handed and a chance to win!

So this second time around with a new baby, I decided something last minute. I really want to cloth diaper! All this time being pregnant, even though I wanted to I just thought I didn't have it in me. I deal with a bit of chronic pain and I figured anything else added to my life would be too much. But as of now my new baby boy is the last time I am having a child. And I really want to try to cloth diaper! I think I would regret it if I never tried. And I totally think I can do it and am mad I didn't figure it out sooner!

Unfortunately all I have is one, yes ONE cloth diaper/cover and a few gDiapers. After just buying a house and the money that goes into it, it is very hard to get anymore :(.

I just came across this blog though "Fitteds and pockets and snappis, oh my!" http://changediapers.blogspot.com/ And thought this was a great opportunity to up my stash to at least 2 diapers lol! And This women sounds like she has some great knowledge on cloth diapering, which obviously a newbie like me needs! So it is win win either way! I am entering her contest following the rules and keeping my fingers crossed that something good happens!

Again the URL for the contest if you want to check it out is:

http://changediapers.blogspot.com/