Laundry Detergent

I've been making our own laundry soap for years now but its taken me a while to tweak the recipe to get it just the way we like it without the use of Borax. Here's the combination I am finally very happy with...

1 bar of Dr. Bronners Castile soap grated
1 cup washing soda
1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup salt

I use about a tablespoon of this soap per load of wash in my HE front load washer.

Our Favorite Pancakes (grain free with dairy free options)

I've not been posting bc my camera is broken and blog posts to me are just so much more interesting when there are pictures included. 

It may be a while before I can replace my camera though, so I'll share with you now and add the pictures later.
 
We had our favorite pancakes for breakfast today and while they are not the lovely fluffy flour pancakes you're used to, they are the best GAPS legal alternative we've tried.

Using my Vita Mix, bc it makes the whole process so much easier, I throw in...

2 med bananas (we like banana flavor, if you don't, use 1 instead instead of   
                 two, you won't notice the flavor but the banana helps the texture)


2 cups coconut milk, raw dairy milk or cultured buttermilk  (unfortunately kefir 
                             does not work well) 

8 Organic pastured eggs


2 good pinches of baking soda

A nice big splash of vanilla

A couple good pinches of cinnamon 

About 1/2 a tsp or so of a good sea salt 

3/4+ cup coconut flour

Spoonful of a good beef gelatin (this is optional, you won't notice a difference in the pancakes if you add it or not, but I like to add gelatin to anything I can)

Some delicious additions we often add are organic blueberries or sliced bananas. Obviously we stir these in by hand after we have blended the rest of the ingredients.

Fry them as you would any pancake in butter, coconut oil or Ghee and enjoy with honey butter, some nice pure grade B maple syrup (sadly maple syrup is not GAPS legal)  or some fresh fruit and yogurt.  

I recommend you make these the size of a silver dollar or just slightly larger bc they can be a bit tricky to flip if they are too big.

Lemon Kefir Smoothie (Popsicles and Ice Cream too)

I love smoothies, my kids love smoothies, and even more they love popsicles made from the leftovers! They are fast, filling and super easy plus I can pack loads of nutrition, protein and good fats into them. Because of this they are often my "oops I forgot to plan something" meal if dad's working late or they serve as the perfect breakfast for hurried mornings.  Lemon Kefir happens to be one of our favorite smoothies so I thought I'd share the "recipe" with you. 

Ingredients:

-Raw whole milk kefir,  enough to fill my vita-mix about 2/3's full (can you

                           see all that beautiful cream on top of mine :)  )

-One whole Meyer lemon with ends sliced off, cut in half and any visible  

                           seeds picked out

-Good splash or two of vanilla

-5  raw egg yolks ( I leave these out if making it for myself as I'm allergic but

                                   they add loads of nutrition and nice rich creaminess if not
                            allergic. Also omit them if you don't have access to good 
                            eggs from a source you trust. I would never use store 
                            bought eggs raw.)
-Good tablespoon of a clean beef gelatin free of MSG (I get mine in bulk 
                             from Azure Standard but Bernard Jensen is a good brand
                             too)
-Raw honey to taste (a pure stevia extract can be used instead if you have 
                            blood sugar issues)
-Nice big spoonful of raw coconut oil (optional but a good way to get more 
                             coconut oil in you)
-Extra kefir grains if you have them (smoothies are a great place to use up
                            extra kefir grains if you have them to add a nice extra
                            dose of fantastic probiotics and no one will ever know)

* See below for tips on making this into ice cream 

Instructions:


Place all in blender and blend until nice and smooth. If there is any left over it makes great popsicles! 

* This also makes a beautiful ice cream! However, I have always omitted the oil when I make it into ice cream, I'm not sure if the texture would be as nice with it in. Also when making ice cream a very nice addition to this is a few good scoops of homemade sour cream.  If I get carried away with the vanilla, as I sometimes do, it doesn't set up well (due to the alcohol in the vanilla) so I prefer to use the seeds from a few vanilla beans in order to get a nice rich vanilla flavor without compromising the set up of the ice cream.

Broth, a GAPS Essential and a Beautiful Super Food!

I have so much I want to share on this blog that I've had a hard time deciding where to begin. Because GAPS has become such an important part of our life, I want to share as much about how GAPS fits into our life as I can. Often I'm asked questions about how we find time for GAPS, how  I get my kids to eat these foods, how  we afford it... I hope to eventually get around to writing posts on each of these topics, but I decided  the best way to start would be to share with you a few of the basics, the habits I've had to develop to make this all work. Two of the most important elements of GAPS are Bone Broth and probiotics, both in supplement form and in the food we eat. We try to eat as many fermented foods and beverages I can stuff into us. Ferments are not hard, they just require some new habits. I found when we started, that once I jumped in and did each new task, none of them were hard. It just took doing it to find that out. I started with one new thing and added that to our routine, then I added another and another....

Bone broth was easy for me as it was something I already made often. I have always LOVED soups and we eat a lot of them. A good broth is essential to making a good soup and to so many other recipes. Broth has so many health benefits I wish that everyone would drink it daily and I am convinced that it is the most important food a pregnant mom can consume.  I'm assuming most people know how to make broth but I have encountered a few who don't, so because it is such an important food that everyone can benefit from I'll give a quick rundown here of how to make a great broth. 

As with any recipe, your results are only as good as the quality of your ingredients and the same is true here. Bones from grass fed cows or a carcass from an organic and preferably pastured chicken or turkey  are your main ingredients. Because poultry, even pastured poultry, are fed grains, buying organic is crucial with poultry. Most poultry feed is made from genetically modified corn and soybeans that are terribly detrimental to your health. You are better off avoiding poultry if it has been fed these genetically modified grains.  We are so pleased to have been able to find a beautiful, organic, whole grain, soy and corn free feed for our chickens. Beyond this you will need vegetable scraps, good quality salt (I prefer Himalayan but Celtic or Real Salt are good too), pepper and a good splash of Apple Cider Vinegar.

I save veggie scraps in a 1/2 gallon tub in my fridge that I collect from making meals throughout the week, this way I don't have to "waste" usable vegetables in my broth. Onion skins, carrot and celery ends, broccoli and cauliflower stems, garlic peels and ends are the ones I most commonly save. I often add additional garlic to my broth as well.  If I know I'll be making beef broth I save left over tomatoes.

For chicken or turkey broth, simply place the carcass and veggies in a stock pot, add your salt and pepper, add a good splash of apple cider vinegar and just enough water to barely cover it all. Bring to a slight boil, reduce to a slow simmer and simmer overnight. Strain the broth through a colander and that's it.

If you have access to them, chicken feet make beautiful gelatinous broth. We save the feet from the chickens that we raise and butcher in the freezer so I usually throw one or two in with the carcass. Chicken feet do need to be peeled and have the toenails removed before adding them to your broth, but once you get over the oddness of peeling a chicken foot it's quite simple and you'll be over any squeamishness in no time, especially once you see what they do for your broth ;) . Ours are generally frozen (I rarely remember to remove things from the freezer before I need them) so to prepare the frozen feet,  I blanch them by tossing them into a pan of boiling water for about ten or so seconds, just long enough to see the toes start to stretch out. Then I drop them into a bowl of ice water for a bit. To peel them, use a paring knife to lift the yellow from the rest of the foot, it should then just pull off rather easily with your fingers. Chop the toenails off at the knuckle above the nail, rinse it off well and you're all set. The purpose for doing this is to expose the good stuff under the yellow, the good gelatinous tendons and bones, as well as to get rid of any dirt that is under the skin around the toes.

For beef broth, the only difference is that the broth is so much better tasting if you roast the bones in the oven before adding them to your broth. In addition I prefer beef broth when tomatoes have been added along with the other vegetables to simmer. If you buy beef soup bones from the butcher they will likely have a lot of meat left on them. I pick this off after I have strained my broth and use it to make shredded beef tacos or  I add it to my soup if I am making vegetable beef soup. If you can get them, the good joint and marrow bones are the best for broth making. Once you have roasted your bones you can scoop the marrow from them to use right away, (I like it melted over veggies or on a GAPS legal toast) or once your broth has simmered, scoop it out with a spoon and add it back into your broth (if it hasn't already simmered itself out). It is so good for you.

Some people make broth perpetually in a crock pot which is an easy, great way to make it as well. I prefer my stock pot though since our family is larger and because I always cook in bulk, I generally have more bones than my crock pot can hold. We use gallons of broth a week. I've learned to love drinking it from a mug as you would tea or coffee, it's just the most nourishing comfort food.

To help convince you to add broth to your daily diet, here is a great article about "Why Broth is Beautiful"!

Source of Strength

The story I’m about to share here is not particularly riveting or exciting, but it is the story of a faithful and loving God who graciously and mercifully kept me near to his heart, in spite of myself.

As an infant up for adoption, God chose for me parents who loved Him and were committed to raising my sister and I to know and love Him as well. We attended church regularly and I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior at three yrs of age.

As a young child, I had a great desire to share God's love with everyone. I had dreams of one day becoming a missionary and serving God overseas. I had no idea then just how blessed I was to have parents who love the Lord or to have grown up in a church with sound Biblical doctrine. I took so much for granted.

As I grew, I began to flounder, becoming more uncertain about life. Wondering what life would have been like for me had I not been adopted. I eventually rebelled against God and the life my parents wanted for me. My actions and behaviors were far from anything godly. I believe now that my mother's prayers were very likely what caused God to preserve and protect my life the way He did. There is no other explanation for why I have not had to suffer terrible lifelong consequences for the activities I was involved in during this time. Regardless of how far I wandered from God's will, the knowledge of who He was and what He had done for me in sending His Son to die in my place because of the sins I had committed, never left me and were always a present, nagging thought in the back of my mind.

I knew something needed to give; I couldn’t stand the conflict between what I knew God wanted for me and how I was living. I was too scared to let go and venture into a new life with Him on my own though. I tried convincing my friends to believe in God. I thought maybe, if they came on the journey with me, it would be easier.  Sadly nothing about my life at that time could have caused anyone to want to know the God I claimed to know. My heart grieves now at the damage I did to His name.   I finally decided to attend a small Bible school in Montana. I’m not sure what I thought I was getting into but I knew it was where I needed to be.

Oh the poor staff and students there...I made everyone around me quite miserable when I first arrived! The conflict within me only grew as I tried hard to hold onto the life I’d been living while my soul longed to return to a relationship with a Holy God. One day, a conversation with one of the students helped me to see that my belief of God’s existence was not the same as believing IN God and trusting Him as Lord and Savior. I finally realized the only way to end my inner turmoil was to let go of the sin I’d been clinging to and cling instead to God. No one could do this for me or with me; it was a choice that only I could make. The faith of my parents could not sustain me or make the relationship real for me; it had to be my very own.

The years since then have brought me closer and closer to God.  I love Him with all my heart, although I continue to be a work in progress. He has never let go of me and His providential hand in my life is nothing less than miraculous. He truly is my only Source of Strength. My greatest prayer for all who read this blog is that God would be glorified. I want to share with you my failures and God's successes so that you can see His grace at work.  I want more than anything for every single person who reads this to have their own relationship with Him, to know Him as Lord and Savior.  If you are reading this and you do not know him, please don’t let another minute go by without surrendering yourself to him. He loves you beyond measure.

God is a Holy God! His character cannot allow for ANY sin to be in His presence. In order for us to be in a relationship with Him now or in eternity, restitution must be paid for our sin.  He wants a relationship with us so badly that he paid this price Himself.  He gave His only Son, who has eternally existed as God with the Father to pay the price of our sin for us. 

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ
 Jesus our Lord.

2Co 5:21  For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.  

Now that I am a mother, I appreciate even more the depth of this love. I would gladly give my own life for my children and I think with God's help I may even be able to give my own life for a stranger, especially if I knew that stranger would enter eternity without having accepted God’s salvation. However I could never give my child’s life for someone else. God did though! 

Rom 5:7-8  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.


Please accept Gods gift, it is completely free and the greatest gift you will ever receive!

Fear and Faithfulness

I wish I could say that after Amelia's miraculous arrival I stayed in that wonderful place of perfect peace and trust, but sadly that's not the case. The day after her birth, recognizing there may be some health concerns associated with Down Syndrome, I got online to see what I could learn (I don't recommend anyone do this the day after giving birth). As I sat looking at the screen, my baby in my arms, tears streamed down my face and my heart filled with fear. Fear of possibly losing my child, fear of entering a world of conventional medicine in which I have no trust, dealing with health issues I have no prior knowledge of or control over was more than I could fathom. How on earth did God think I could handle this? 

It grieves me that my faith is so small and that I so quickly forget God's miraculous care and faithfulness.  I'm filled to overflowing with gratitude that His love is unconditional.  He knows my weaknesses and He loves me in spite of them. He is always ready to lavish me with Grace. God is teaching  me to live in a place of dependence and it is one of the hardest but most liberating lessons I've had to learn. I pray that someday it will come naturally to me but for now it's a constant falling down and letting Him pick me back up.

We are blessed far beyond words can say that Amelia is amazingly healthy. With the exception of a possible low-frequency hearing loss she is in perfect health. The health care professionals we've seen have been kind, wise, gracious and understanding. Thank you Lord Jesus!!!!

Heb 4:15  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 

Nursing Amelia

I have never been one of those women who love nursing, I've always done it only because it's what's best for my babies. However, sweet Amelia Rose has given me a whole new perspective! When she was born it never occurred to me that nursing might ever be a problem. She latched on right away, without too much difficulty, and I felt sure that things were going well. She was such a sleepy little newborn, I did struggle to keep her awake to eat and her suck was gentle (due to the low muscle tone often associated with Down Syndrome). Certainly not the same hoover-like suction that my other babies have had. In spite of this, my milk came in and all seemed to be going well. She lost a bit of weight as all babies do, but gained it back right way.

At two weeks she began to lose weight again. I began pumping and feeding her at least a few of her meals through a bottle hoping that would make it easier for her to get more into her tiny belly before falling back asleep. I thought we were doing OK but when I weighed her again the following week she had lost even more weight. I was scared! All my other babies have been big babies with huge appetites who nursed passionately around the clock.

Not willing to give her a commercial baby formula, I ordered the supplies I needed to make a homemade formula made from wholesome whole food ingredients. I'm so grateful that I knew about this formula before she was born so I could quickly get what I needed for her! I had hoped to only supplement a feeding or two a day with this, but as Amelia has grown, my milk supply has not. I was up to giving her four or five bottles a day and I felt my milk supply decreasing. I decided the best course of action would be to order a Lact-Aid nursing system. Besides wanting her to have more breast milk, I wanted her nursing more in order to work the muscles in her mouth that are so crucial for speech development. My midwife suggested that this may also help my milk supply due to the additional suckling being better stimulation for my milk glands than the pump.  It's going well so far and my milk supply has increased some. I'm hoping that eventually with the help of the Lact-Aid, herbs and homeopathics I may have enough milk to nurse her exclusively. In the mean time I feel very good about the nutrition she is getting from the formula and I'm continuing to do all I can to make my milk as nutrient dense as possible. To do this I am eating a nutrient rich diet of bone broths, organ meats and fermented foods (veggies as well as dairy). I'm taking fermented cod liver oil, probiotics (that are part of the GAPS protocol), a supplement called Krill IQ ,  liver pills , and a zinc supplement. I also rub additional fermented cod liver oil on her skin daily so her body can absorb all the Vitamin A and D she needs.

I am infinitely grateful that  in spite of the struggles we've had nursing, Amelia is thriving!! At the time of this writing, by God's grace, Amelia is getting stronger and less "floppy" by the day and is a happy, healthy, radiant, alert, interactive, almost four month old baby.

It's ironic to me that all the supplements I'm taking for Amelia are the very supplements that I myself should be taking for my adrenal health. God knew I would never spend so much money on supplements just for me.  Additionally, the GAPS diet is the ideal diet to address all the health concerns commonly associated  with Down Syndrome. God  is literally using Amelia and I both to keep each other healthy.... Isn't He AMAZING!!

Phi 4:19  And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.