Winter & Health

WINTER IS HERE!  As if you didn't know ~ LOL

They say somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of the country is literally FREEZING!!!  It's so hard to picture icicles on oranges in Florida!  We too are in the deep freeze way up north in Wisconsin!  I'm not even sure when it was that we last were above freezing but that really doesn't matter when you're down below zero all day long!

Suffice it to say we've had several spells of "cabin fever" around here.  Some rounds were spent baking up all sorts of goodies from roasts and turkeys and ham to biscuits and cookies and pies and other treats.  Some rounds were spent playing games: Clue (three different versions), Monopoly (five different versions), Life (two different versions, Bubble Brain, Chess, Cards (Spoons, Go Fish, Match, Hearts, Spades, and more), and a few totally made up games just to keep the imagination alive. Some rounds included a run of movies on a theme or catching up with DVR'd shows and movies.

This winter has hardly begun and yet we've already seen enough of it to feel we've been living in it for the last year! LOL  We still have a good three months to go - at least, on average up here where Spring doesn't spring until May for the most part and sometimes not until June!  UGH!!!

So ~ how goes it with all the healthy life changes and such?

Well, we're still doing ok with using cloth bags for shopping thus avoiding the need for endless mounds of plastic bags and stacks of folded paper sacks building up around the house.  In fact, I think soon we'll be making some of our own.  We've found so many great uses for them!  The other bags don't even come close ~ plastic ones usually get filled with trash or returned to stores that recycle them; paper ones usually go for book covers and a few art projects.

We are STILL using our first bottle of Basic-H2 ~ AMAZING!!!  We will be trying the oven cleaner very soon.  We've been using their water pitcher filter system and it's awesome how much bottled water that is saving us!  Someday this is going to grow into a great family business.  A couple of my kids are interested in joining up with me already. :)

Organic eating is increasing as well and we are all seeing benefits from that.  Or maybe it's more that we're seeing what happens when we don't eat mostly organic and mostly unprocessed foods.  Eating less from restaurants has eased up our budget some too... enough to balance the higher cost of organic foods as we increase it more and more.  We bought a really nice juicer recently and were really enjoying lots of fresh fruit and vegetable juices... and then a tiny little piece broke off, a piece that is essential to the safety mechanism, a piece that is essential for it to be operational.  (deep sigh)

We bought it online, using a 3-month payment plan and at the time it broke off we hadn't even been billed for the 2nd payment!  I tried super-glue to hold the tiny piece in place, and that worked for a week or so.  Then it broke again.  We tried another glue.  When that broke we gave it up and got online to order the replacement part.  A few days later I received an email explaining that the part was on backorder but should be shipped in two to three weeks.  A month later I'm still waiting so I telephoned their customer service department.  At first I was told it was on an indefinite backorder - some sort of problem with the supplier and there was no date on when the part would be available.  This was quite frustrating so I asked about speaking to someone else - anyone above him, including the owner of the company!  I explained to him how I hadn't had it even a month when it broke and the 2nd payment hadn't even been billed and now all the payments have been made and we haven't been able to use it for nearly two months after just using it for a few weeks!  This was no way to run a business!!!  And this certainly was not holding up to the standards I'm sure were expected by the owner!  So he asked me to hold. After several minutes I was beginning to think he was just trying to wait me out, thinking I'd hang up before he got back on the line or something.  Finally he returned and offered me a different type of replacement.  He said they'd be sending me a return label and I could return the juicer and they would send me out another one - brand new!  I like this idea.  He said the return label should arrive in 5-7 business days.  It's been four and so far no sign of it.  Guess hoping it might come early was too much to hope for.  We'll see what happens.  I miss the juices though!  Everyone here misses the fresh juices!  Absolutely nothing beats the taste of fresh juice!!!

Day 18 Comes to a Close

OK, we're now 18 days into my new plan... living greener, getting healthier, etc.

HOW ARE WE DOING?

UGH!!!

Change is never easy!

But we are making progress!

We are trying to remember to use the cloth tote bags we've gathered when we go shopping - but first we must come up with a plan to REMEMBER TO BRING THEM with us!!! LOL It's about 50/50 right now.

We have all agreed that we will not buy anymore chemical cleaning products. The little bits of the few we do still have will get used up unless I can find someone else who might want them. We don't feel it's right to just throw them out. But I do feel like I really don't want to use them anymore. Aside from the chemicals not being good for the environment, and not being good for us, I have some personal issues with how those chemicals affect me and my health as well as the health of some of my not-so-healthy kids! Maybe I will just dispose of them!

Some of the things we're using instead of those chemical cleaners:
Basic H2 - 1 dilution for windows and glass cleanings, a 2nd dilution for average household cleanings (counters, sinks, toilets, tubs, etc)... and even a 3rd dilution formula for the really greasy messes! We made 3 bottles (16 oz ea.) and have done lots of cleaning with them, we even made a 2nd bottle of the #2 formula, but we have only used about 2 teaspoons of the Basic H2 so far (and it's been a month since we started using it). I even wrote the date on it so I will know how long it lasted. (I'm keeping track of expenses - how much we spend on the products we're switching to, how long they last vs. how much the other stuff cost & lasted)
Vinegar
Baking Soda
Borax
We're learning lots of different recipes to combine those three ingredients with plain water to do all sorts of things. I'll try to post some of those here soon.

I also want to mention that we deal with lots of health problems here in my household. We talked some about how to handle this. My business kit came with a month's supply of Vitalizer - a basic supplement strip that includes vitamins & minerals, antioxidants, omega-3s, and even probiotics! I've been taking them for the last 3 days. I have to say they must go to work pretty quickly as I've been under tons of stress and had to do so much more physically than usual for the last several days and 4 days ago I thought I would end up with the whole weekend in bed unable to move, but that didn't happen! We'll see, I'm still skeptical of new stuff - especially if I'm swallowing it! BUT, I trust these supplements more than what I get at Wal-Mart! LOL

Sometimes I dream that coming back to this company will be a really positive thing for me. Though, after ten years of dealing with constant pain and seriously reduced mobility, I don't hope for anything to really reverse that, but it would be nice to find a way to lessen the pain, increase the mobility AND not be worried about side effects that all my prescriptions have! As I build up my business I'll add more of the supplements to my routine, replacing the ones I now get at other places. It's like I'm going to show everyone, personally, by my own experience, that these supplements work better for your body and even faster so you won't need as much of them as you do of the cheaper stuff you get at the discount stores. :) Who knows? I might even get really brave and try weight loss program too! Yes, like practically everyone I know, I need to lose weight too... but I'm even more leary of "weight loss plans" than I am of new supplements!

The other thing we've been working on is a garden!!!
Let me first say that I have the world's brownest thumb... the most success I could have in growing a garden is with a rock garden! LOL
However, we have to find a way to cut costs. We have to find a way to eat healthier. We have to eat organic produce as much as possible. SOOOO... We HAVE TO GROW A GARDEN!
My kids, my sister, my niece, everyone here wants to do it! So I figure if any of them might have a green thumb (we have no idea yet) then maybe we'll have more green thumbs than brown ones and that will make up for my really brown thumb! LOL
So to this effort - now that the snow is gone (except for just a few spots in the shadiest areas) we've been raking up all the debris from fall and winter. Right now it's just in big pile - that's getting rained on tonight. :( Guess we're going to try composting too! Hmmm... something else to work on.
A friend is going to loan us his tiller soon - after we decide exactly where in that back yard we're going to turn the ground over/under! He's at least grown a garden or two - so he's good for some advice too. Maybe he'll teach my kids while his wife & I go out for some sorely lacking girl time we've been missing! ;-)

Well, time to sign off for now. I'll try to post a little more often.