Homemaking on the Homestead

This article originally  appeared in my newsletter (which I no longer have) and it was on my website (The Family Homestead). It was written by a very dear friend of mine, Debi. I was sent a request to reprint it on my blog. I hope you all find it helpful. I'm a big fan of Grapefruit Seed Extract. I've used it for years.  Grapefruit Seed Extract and It's Many Uses by Debi Hopkins   Grapefruit Seed Extract is a product my family has been using for about 20 years now.  I wouldn't be without it in my home because it is so versatile and easy to use, and has been a real blessing to my family's overall health and well-being.   Here are some of the things GSE is helpful for:   Skin fungi or bacterial diseases of the skin: Mix 30 to 50 drops of GSE liquid extract in a quart of water, and spray on the infected area at least 2 times a day.   This same dilution can be used as a general antiseptic for cages, stalls, or any other contact areas where a comm...

Good morning friends! I hope you are having a great week so far. I've been busy around the house in the last few days. Over the weekend my son, Jacob, came up for a nice visit. We enjoyed seeing him and getting all of his life updates. Monday was a quiet day and a little on the cool side. It seemed the perfect day for making a nice big pot of chili and some corn muffins. Yesterday I spent some time getting my pantry shelves cleaned and reorganized. It was getting to be quite the mess in there. I'm really enjoying fall this year. The days have been beautiful. Dry, sunny and not to hot. The evenings cool off and leave a nice crisp feeling. We haven't had our first frost yet, but that may be coming soon. While I was out grocery shopping last week I picked up a couple little mum plants to sit in front of my door. I didn't bother replanting them, because I know they won't last long. I put them in one of the buckets t...

When I turned 50 I decided it was time... it was time to get more fit. I decided it was time to focus on my health more than I had been doing. The easiest thing to do was to start walking. Of course that is when I realized how very out of shape I was! :) I did not let that stop me. I've been a big fan of walking because it can be done without equipment, no membership needed, and it can even be done in the home. I don't think there is anything wrong with equipment or gym memberships, I'm not knocking them, but they can also be obstacles when starting a journey to fitness. Something you have to wait for, or wait until you can afford it, etc. Walking can be done right now. One thing I would recommend is a good pair of shoes. If you start walking and enjoy it you'll put a lot of miles on and good shoes are a must. The other item I purchased to help motivate me to walk was a FitBit. I love the motivation it gives me. You don't need t...

Wednesday Snap Shot will have a little different look for awhile. When I'm back up and running again, I'll return to the previous format. ****************************************** Good morning! I hope you are enjoying a beautiful spring day. I woke up to sunshine and that always makes for a perfect start to my day. My week has been good and productive. I spent a wonderful afternoon with my daughter Hannah and my grandbabies. They are all growing so much. It was the first time the grandchildren had been here since my surgery. We all realized how much we had missed our visits. With health I look forward to more visits and time spent together..    I'm working on changing up my blog so if you see things changing, you'll know I'm still trying to find the look that I like :). This afternoon we have a few errands to run and then we're heading over to have dinner and spend the evening with our grandsons...

Wednesday Snap Shot will have a little different look for awhile. When I'm back up and running again, I'll return to the previous format. ************* Good Afternoon! My WSS is up later then typical. I woke up this morning and the first thing on my mind, other then a cup of hot coffee :) was my to do list. The sun is shining and I'm feeling motivated. I had a long list that I started yesterday and did not get finished. So I started working on that. Then got a phone call from my daughter in California and we chatted over and hour, which was wonderful. I love catching up with her busy life when she has a moment to chat. My week has been going very well. I am up and out the door as often as the weather cooperates for my walks and getting other household chores taken care of. I've been in a cleaning and purging mode lately. I went through a tote of clothes and started pulling out summer clothes and putting the winter sweaters awa...

I want to thank each of you who have left me comments of well wishes, prayers, and offers to help me.  Healing has been about all I've had energy to deal with and have not been able to get back and reply.  Hopefully over the next few days I can do this. I've had several people ask me how I'm doing in my recovery. I wanted to give you a little more of the details and an update. This honestly has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to walk through. Recovery has been long and difficult. It has left me feeling exhausted most of the time. However I do seem to be turning a corner now and that has been so nice. It has been 6 weeks now since my surgery. My main surgery, the one for my hiatal hernia (Nissan w/Fundoplication is the official name of it) has healed very well. I'm thrilled with the results of this. I don't have any more heartburn or acid reflux and no longer need to take any medications for this. I slee...

I was going to try and reply to everyone that left me heartfelt comments on my “Update” post. My energy level is limited so I decided to let you know here instead. Thank you, thank you for your prayers, concerns and positive thoughts. It means so much to me. I'm doing a little better each day. I have a couple follow up appointments with my doctors this week and I'll see where I'm at according to them. Right now my biggest desire is to get to the point where I can swallow liquids again. Swallowing is a labor for me as my throat is healing. They told me it would take time for the swelling to go down and things to stabilize. I can swallow soft liquids, such as smoothies or nectar and some soft foods such as applesauce and mashed potatoes but in very small amounts. Not enough to sustain me or keep me hydrated. They sent me home with a feeding tube where I'm getting the calories and water needed to heal and recover. I'm praying that...

I'm a year and a half into my goal of getting fit. My goal was not to lose weight.. it was to get fit.. I did not care about the weight loss. How much stupid wasted time have I spent on focusing on weight loss only to gain it all back. Only when I stopped focusing on weight loss and started focusing on getting fit did I finally see some changes. Last year I decided to start walking. I wanted to just move. I wanted to be more active. One mile about killed me.. LOL.. today I walk 4, 5 or 6 miles and have no problem with it. I've even started doing a little running during my walks. I go easy.. because.. well.. I'm 52.. my knee joints don't like it when I stress them out.. the joys of getting older. But, step by step.. walking or jogging.. I am getting fit. I have a FitBit.. and I LOVE this thing. Daily my goal is 10,000 steps or more. More has been my goal this year. In January (my one year anniversary to making the choice to get up off the couch and j...

 My son was sick on Sunday. He felt horrible. Running a fever, achy muscles, stuffed nose, cough.. all clear signs of the flu. I jumped into action :). I got some bone broth out that I had in the fridge, peeled a few large cloves of garlic and cut up some of the chicken I had from making the broth. I chopped up the garlic, heated some water up and poured that over the garlic to let is soften up. Then added some bone broth (it's pretty concentrated so it needs the extra water added). I added the chicken and at last minute threw in a big scoop of my homemade cream cheese (for the probiotics). He drank that down and said he was feeling a bit better. His nose and head were cleared up a bit more. On Monday he stayed home from work because he still did not feel great. That afternoon I made him another big cup of the same mix. After that he slept for about 3 hours and woke up and said he had sweated up a storm and felt so much better. Yesterday was day 3 of th...

I have never viewed myself as a physically active person. As a child I detested P.E., I never enjoyed softball, soccer, or any other type of sport. I loved to read, go camping with my family, swim a bit and ride my bike. As I got older my dad started running and I would join him occasionally, but usually because he was asking me to. I did find I did not mind running but it was not something I was really drawn to at the time. As a young mom of 2 kids I took up running again. My dad, in an effort to encourage me, would come over to my house several times a week and watch the kids so I could run. I enjoyed that. As the years went by and I had more children the opportunities to get out and run were no more and I felt raising children was activity enough. I still never saw myself as a person who enjoyed getting out and being physical. I would make efforts now and again to try and get some exercise. I would take a class, or pop in a workout VHS tape off and on. But it was...

Whether I talk to people, read articles, watch TV, or see magazine covers I see someone's version of healthy eating. But they can often be so different. Some say low fat is the way to go, or carb free, high fat, count calories, take lots of supplements, low protein, high protein. So what exactly is the healthy thing to do? I've come up with a view on healthy eating that works for me. I've also seen that the drive to eat healthy can lead to obsession and be out of balance at times,  at least that is my opinion. After reading a lot over the years, trying many different things I came to the conclusion that while food and what we eat does need our attention and thought, it should not be what rules our lives. We need balance. I strive to eat a well rounded healthy diet. But last week hubs and I went away for a few days and we enjoyed a lot of different foods that would not normally be on my list. The week before my daughter and I took the kids to the science ...