I'm amazed at how you try to get on and blog and WHAM

the kids are hungry
then you go to get the mail and find that the package was ripped open and some of your mail is gone!!!  :O
a few phone calls later...
then it's naptime and they don't want to go down
now hubby will be home soon, and guess what??  no blog post written!!  :/

Guess I'll try again tomorrow, lol.  ;)

Making Herbs Simple winners

Well, since I could give away up to 5 DVD's and only 3 people entered, they automatically win!!  :)
Congrats Heather, Nicole and Sherri!!  :D

Making Herbs SIMPLE vol 1 *Review & Giveaway* ~ CLOSED

I LOVED watching the Making Herbs Simple dvd, even though I already knew how to make the tinctures and poultices, watching it gives you a renewed want to get up and make some tinctures!! :)

I picked up a few new things about herbs that I will be using for myself and kiddos. Every summer, we get sugar ants that like to come into our house, unwelcomed!! In the past I have tried finding their home and drowning them with boiling water, but can't find where they are coming from!! Next I heard of laying cheyenne pepper where they come in. I wanted them out of my house, so I laid it on thick, inside and out, but that didn't stop them, they just found a different way to get in, aaugh!! From the dvd, I learned that dried peppermint is an ant deterrant!! You can bet that I will be laying dried pepperment wherever they're getting in. :)

This next one is one that I am probably going to end up using a lot this spring, while we're here in Missouri. A plantain tincture, made with apple cider vinegar, is great for insect bites!! Since there's a lot of spiders and other bugs here, I am convinced I'm going to need to make some to have on hand, just in case any of us get bit!!

All my close friends and family know that this next one is a HUGE need right now!! My lil guy who's 5 months old, has decided that sleep isn't that important and that mommy and daddy aren't going to get any either!! A chamomile tincture, best made with food grade glycerine for lil kiddos, helps you relax and sleep!! :D We deffinetely need to make some so that we can get our lil guy to sleep!!

I am very hands on and loved seeing the actual herbs in the wild and watching how they prepared the herbs and how they use them in poultices. There is a BIG difference in how much information you retain and how it makes you want to get up and start using herbs when you watch someone show you, compared to just reading it in a book. Even my 3 yr old watched the dvd with me, twice!! :D

We got a food dehydrator last year and I am hoping to dry some fruits and try my hand at drying herbs, too. It's the same concept as drying it in your oven, but a lot easier.

The Companion Guidebook is great to have on hand, it gives you all of the herb info thats on the dvd and also has great pictures!! Mine will be going in the car, so I can use it if I happen to find some herbs while we're out in the wild.

I hope to instill the love of herbs to my kids and that they will learn how to identify and use herbs. :)

Now for the BEST part...Bulk Herb Store is gracious enough to let me giveaway 5 dvd's!! :D

Be sure I have a way to get your email address so I can tell you that you won! If I don't have an easy way to get it (in your comment, google profile, etc) I will automatically choose a new winner. A new winner will also automatically be chosen if any of the entries are not followed specifically (such as doing the mandatory entry). Also leave a SEPARATE comment for each additional entry that you do! One comment = one entry! Open to the US only and 18 years or older.

Mandatory Entry

This must be done in order for any other entry to count
Follow Me on Facebook

Additional Entries

1 Entry ~ Follow me through Google Friend Connect

1 Entry **Daily** Follow Me and @bulkherbstore on Twitter and Tweet.
Be sure to leave me the link! You may copy/paste the following:
Win one of five Making Herbs Simple vol 1 dvd's! @poek4 Ends 3/18 Pls RT! #giveaway

1 Entry ~ Follow Bulk Herb Store's YouTube channel, they have a lot of great short videos to watch.

1 Entry Each ~ 'Like' Bulk Herb Store, and Shoshanna on Facebook

1 Entry ~ Blog about this and be sure to link back to this post and leave me the URL to the post.

3 Entries ~ Buy something from the Bulk Herb Store and let me know what you got. They have some great tasting teas!! :)

1 Extra Entry ~ Have you ever used herbs to cure an ailment or made your own tincture?
Tell me about it.  :)

This Giveaway will end 3/18/11 at 11:59 p.m. EST

I will choose the winners via random.org and contact them via email and post them on this blog. They have 48 hours to claim their win before a new winner is chosen.

Good Luck!!!

Thinking Positive

Wow, February FLEW by, or is it just because I'm severely sleep deprived!?! ;)

Well, today is the last day of Mami's & Papi's February "LOVE" & Happiness Challenge. Even though I didn't write much here, I was constantly reminding myself every day to think positive. I will admit there were times that I told myself, 'I don't care, I don't want to be positive right now'. That's ok, because I realized I can feel that way, but to get over it and move on. :)

I would like to thank Mami's & Papi's for everything they do, for us their customers, and also those of us who consider them a friend. I have been able to come to them with my night time cloth diaper delema and they have been there to give me suggestions. If it weren't for them, I never would have met a wonderful mommy who is helping me figure out how to solve my heavy wetting lil boys night time leakings. Thank you Ashley, you have been a great help and friend. :D

I would like to say that this month has had a lot of ups and downs for me, but I have also grown in a way that, if it weren't for Mami's & Papi's challenge, I wouldn't have taken on my own. Thank You Mami & Papi!!!! :D

Positive thinking, you haven't seen the last of me!!! ;)

night time cloth diaper woes

For a couple months now, I've been trying to completely switch over to cloth diapers. Day time, no problem, but night time has been very challenging!! :(

Gavin is 5 months old, tomorrow, and gets up 4-5 times a night. :/ I have been using disposables, but end up changing him once a night and he tends to leak with those almost every 3rd night. gah!!!

So I have been hearding that hemp is great for heavy night time wetters, pair that with wool covers and it've heard it's bullet proof!! So I bought some Hemp Babies Diaper Doublers and Hemp Babies Little Weeds.

After the hemp arrived, I first tried a flat wrapped around a hemp doubler, topped with a flip cover, it held, but was WAY too bulky!! Then I tried a hemp prefold stuffed in a Rump a Rooz, which didn't last the night.

So I asked, on Mami's and Papi's facebook page, and a sweet mama, Ashley, did a blog post for me!! :D you can read it here

So I promptly ordered some Babykicks Prefolds and Sustainablebabyish Organic Bamboo Fleece Doubler. Then I waited, impatiently, for the package to arrive!! :)

When it arrived, I promptly threw them in the washer and prepped them, about 4-5 times in hot water. I was excited to use them that night, so I diapered my boy, just like Ashley did and covered it with a Flip cover. During a couple of the late morning feedings, that I could feel something damp on my arm, which was resting on his side. I thought nothing of it, and figured he was swetting.

When I changed him in the morning, I noticed that the prefold was peeking out of the Flip cover on his sides, where I had felt the dampness!! Even though it was way too bulky and ended up peeking out of the cover, it kept his pj's and sheets dry. My lil guy seemed uncomfortable with the bulkiness of it, so I decided to try something different the next night.

Last night, I decided to try a Hemp Babies Little Weed prefold folded around a Sustainablebabyish bamboo doubler and cover it with the Flip cover. Making sure to tuck the cloth under the flap on the Flip cover. Well, half way through the night, he had soaked through the front of his diaper. :(

So, right now I am frustrated and not sure where to go from here. So I am asking/searching for more ideas, so hopefully the next time I write, I will be able to tell you what combination works for us!! :)

pre-review, a lil history into my interest in herbs

I can't remember a specific date when I became interested in herbs, I'll have to ask my mom about that. ;) I think I was in high school and I think it all started when I started having back issues, which my mom thought was just me wanting to get out of doing the dishes, lol!! My mom had started going to the chiropractor and decided to take me with her and see what the chiropractor thought, whether I was just faking it or if I just happened to really have problems. Everyone was so skeptical that I almost chickened out, but I'm so glad I didn't!!!

The chiropractor took x-rays before he started working on someone. Well, imagine everyone's surprise when he brought the x-rays into the exam room. My spine had s-curves starting from my neck all the way down to my tailbone, which was also 'out'!!!! I think I had a total of 4 curves in my back, and you would never have known it from the outside!!! :o

Once I started going regularly, I started feeling a LOT better. My mom and I then started looking into natural ways to 'cure' colds and minor ailments. My mom and I also went to a herbalist who ran a test on us that showed what areas our body was overfunctioning, underfunctioning, or was normal. (I still have those results!!) :)

Needless to say, the herbal remedies we had to buy to help correct our bodies was pretty expensive, no big surprise there!! So we started looking around and researching more herbal cures that we could easily get or make ourselves for a lot less.

Researching information has changed a lot!!! When I started researching herbs, I had to go to the library and check out books and spend hours reading. I don't think I reatained much, considering I either didn't understand it or it just didn't pertain to our situation. Today I can Google an ailment or herb and get all the info I need, have it ordered and know how to prepare it in under an hour!!!

So where does my review for the Bulk Herb Store fit into all this??

Well, about 10 years ago, my mom started getting "No Greater Joy" in the mail and we started following their family. When they started the Bulk Herb Store my mom and I started ordering herbs from them. We knew they had pure and natural herbs and trusted ordering from them. You can read about how the Bulk Herb Store got started and how Shoshanna took over the business, here. My mom and I order herbs from them a couple times a year, they have a lot of great herbs, books, dvd's and more.

I admit, I love making tinctures, salves, poultices, etc, but am reserved about jumping into it like I would like to. I am just unsure about which herbs are best together and which should NEVER be combined, and when making your own herb mix, is more better or less?? There is SO much to absorb when it comes to herbs and their healing properties, how to extract those properties without destroying the beneficial properties, and how to store them to retain their benefits for their full 'life' span.

This brings me to my review of 'Making Herbs Simple' vol 1. I have wanted this dvd since it first came out and I can't wait to watch it and soak in all the valuable info!! :) They also have a vol 2, which I also want and will probably end up buying after I finish the review!!

Whew, that was a lot longer than I expected!! This is my story, in a very big nut shell of how I got my love of herbs. I will be surprised if anyone reads this whole thing, but if you do, let me know what you think!! :)

Thinking Positive??

Ugh, I hate to admit, this has been a LONG and DIFFICULT week. :/

Even though I haven't been doing so well in the positive thinking department, I have been dealing with 'speedbumps' with a MUCH better attitude!! :)

I had a good dose of 'this is what it looks like to be impatient' moments. I was at the PX the other day getting some infant tylenol, which is impossible to find!! There was a lady infront of me with quite a few items and she seemed in a hurry. The cashier seemed to not be feeling well, so she was moving slow. Well, the lady, checking out, was antsy, she kept looking at her phone, and at one point, I noticed her 'lip speak', "come on hurry up"!! I felt really bad for the cashier, because I could tell she wasn't feeling well.

I noticed that when you are impatient or upset with how someone is doing something, it takes away your feminine beauty and glow.

So, aside from being good for your health, having a good attitude and patience is also good for your looks!! :D