Earth Paste a truly ALL NATURAL TOOTHPASTE!

I don't know about you but I have had problematic teeth in my lifetime.  I can always rely on the dentist to tell me I have at least one cavity, no matter how hard I floss, brush and rinse.  Even after taking a bunch of sugar out of my diet, I still get cavities.

I have been reading alot about oil pulling and people having success with it, but I have to admit it still scares me to not use flouride.  But is flouride that good for us and is it really helping my teeth?

I contacted the lovely people that make Earth Paste, what exactly is Earth Paste?

It truly is an all natural toothpaste, not a yucky chemical in sight and nothing to worry about if you swallow it.

It is made up of quality ingredients including Food Grade Redmond Clay, Readmond Sea , Xylitol (you know that stuff that is in gum that is good for your teeth) Purified Water and Essential Oils.

They have a few flavors including Cinnamon, Lemon Twist, Wintergreen and Peppermint.

Ok so when I first squeezed it out it seemed odd, it was not the usual bleachy white color, it was brown just like clay.  

After using it my teeth felt smooth and clean and it left a nice (real) peppermint taste.  

I am going to trial it as I have a checkup in a few months, along with my oil pulling I will be interested to see what happens.

You can buy it here if it is something you would want to try.

The makers of Earth Paste which is Redmond, also sent me a bunch of other stuff

 

I would have to highlight my favorite from this group of stuff and that is the Organic Garlic Real Salt.

The taste is amazing and I can use it on anything.  So far I have used it in mashed potatoes, on chicken, on fish and sprinkled it on my kale.  It has a really good garlicky taste.


You can find out more about Redmond here on their website.  So far I am really impressed with the quality of their products and will defenently be buying more of the food salts when I run out.

When good news reigns

Ok so first off I have to let you all know that the natural cold sore cures worked.  Right now I just have a faint red spot on my lip.  Usually those darn things get pussy and huge and crack.  Well the ice, tea tree oil and honey combo worked wonders.


That isn't really what I want to talk about though.


About a year after I left Australia my best friends mother passed away.  She had been diagnosed with cancer a few years prior and battled hard to fight that tough fight.  She had times where she was winning then the cancer would rear its ugly head again.  Eventually cancer won that battle.  Stealing a mother from 3 young girls and a wife from a husband that adored her.

So when I got some wonderful news today I was overjoyed.

5 years ago my Aunty was diagnosed with breast cancer, she has 5 children and 3 grandchildren (with many more to come).  She is my mums sister and the first one in the family and hopefully the last to receive that scary diagnosis.

I am more than sure she was scared at times.  I am sure it hit her hard.  But she chose to fight, she chose to live life and enjoy it. 

Today she got the news that after 5 years she is in remission.  That beautiful word for a cancer patient.  I feel like she has fought it and beat it.  I am overjoyed whenever I hear a cancer survival story, I am overjoyed at the strength and fortitude that those diagnosed possess.

Cancer is an ugly thing, it has stolen way too many lives way too early, but it won't steal my Aunty's  and that my friends makes me happy.

Natural cold sore cures

I am currently sitting here with the beginning of a cold sore.  I dont get them too often and I am thinking this one is due to sun and heat and too much at once. 

They are such sore and unatractive things.  I have tried a few things  in the past to deal with them but with not much luck.  So this led me to go looking for some more natural cures.  Here is what I found.


Honey (manuka is the best) -  I don't have any manuka so I am using my regular raw honey. We all know honey is a great healer so this one made sense to me.  It also moisturizes a little.  Dab some on 4 times a day from the first sign.

Ice - This is a new one for me.  Apparently making the area around the cold sore, cold slows down the skins tissue metabolic rate preventing the feeding of the cold sore.  Well why not, its free, its natural and I have it on hand.  Put ice in a baggie or wrap it in a paper towel.  Hold it to the cold sore for 15-20 minutes, 3-4 times a day.  Do this when you get the tingling , burning its coming on phase and continue through the coldsores life span.

Tea Tree - Antiviral and Antibacterial, tea tree oil is your best friend.   Use 100% tea tree oil at full strength, if you have sensitive skin you may want to dilute it with water to a 1-1 ratio.  Use a Q tip to dab it on, once again starting at the first sign is going to be your best bet.


Try and moisturize your lips every now and then too.  I am using coconut oil right now.  I have used Lysine in the past which a lot of people swear bye.  For me it hasn't worked so great.

We will see how this one goes with these new treatments.  Do you have any natural cold sore treatments you can share with  me?

Spring Container Planting

Ahhh Spring seems to have finally arrived in Colorado.  After several snow storms in April that resulted in a lot of snow, and a lot of  much needed moisture the sun is shining.  Temps today are in the 60's which is my favorite range.  

Today I planted some lettuce seeds , two types a spring grower and a lettuce that grows all the way through Summer ( Excited about that one)  I bought organic non gmo seeds and organic soil.  I also planted basil and cilantro.  I have never had much luck with cilantro , so we will see how that goes.

I also got seeds for peppers at the request of my little guy.  I need to go and get a bigger pot for those.  And some chard for me. 

Due to our new apartment lifestyle I will be growing in containers , another experiment for us, life is full of experiments right now :).  We bought wall mounted shelves from IKEA so we could go a little vertical.

I also saw that our local library is opening up some community garden plots, I am hoping to snatch one of those up so I can grow things like potatoes, carrots, beans, beets, etc.

You know what else I love about Spring, this guy returned.

Sourdough Fail!

Ok so my sourdough experiment failed, I couldn't get it bubbling enough and it didn't seem to look like it as supposed to according to photos.

Soooo I bought a San Francisco starter and am waiting for it to arrive.  I will be back on it once it gets here.  Hopefully I can get it up and running this time.

In other news, the Spring snow in Denver is starting to get to my head.  I think I need a holiday or vacation ;)

We are off to St Louis in June to visit family, I would really like to go somewhere new though, somewhere we haven't been yet.

Legoland and Disneyland are defenently on that list.  We just have to plan well though because I also want to get back to Australia to see my family mid next year.  We are aiming for every two years which is a good improvement over the 3-4 years it has been in the past.

Hope you are all having a fabulous day!

Sourdough Starter Day 2 & 3

So I must say I am doing pretty good at sticking to the 12 hour schedule.  My starter has grown considerably so I have had to scoop some off each time I feed it.

If you are wondering what the heck I am going on about,  you can see here.

So Here are my updated photos of Day 2 and Day 3

Day 2,

It grew overnight, crazy, I had to scoop some off and place it in another jar.  I had the thought to make pancakes or crackers with the leftover, yeah that didn't happen.



































Day 3 

Rather than show you a picture of a very full jar I thought I would show you that it is starting to bubble, this is a VERY good sign.

Its ok to feel sad sometimes

In our little world of health and well being we get into the mindset that any thought that isn't positive is not OK.  With Instant media right there we often feel the urge to express these sad/blue feelings.  Sometimes it is just to get it off our chest and sometimes it is to get encouragement or even share these same feelings that others may be feeling.  Sometimes all we get is replies that tell us to be positive, which lets be honest can just make us feel worse sometimes.

It is OK to feel sad sometimes.

Actually I think anyone that is positive all the time is probably hiding their feelings deep down and one day they may just explode all at once.  Or sometimes they feel the need to be seen as a super positive person when they are really sad or mad about something themselves and they don't feel they can share it.

Yesterday was one of those days for me.  Yes the Boston Marathon tragedy made me mad and sad.  Mad that these things happen so often, made that our children have to live in a country where they see crap like this all the time and very sad for all those that were effected.

Yes my reaction was that I wanted to take my family back to Australia and live there, things like this just don't happen as often in Australia, my family over there doesn't have to worry when sending their children to school that a crazy guy with a gun might come in.  For now Australia seems like a safer place.

Those that know me know this was just a gut reaction.  Its OK to have those too.  I talked to my sister for hours yesterday as I ranted through all my feelings.  She said " I know its hard because I know you love it in the USA".  And that too is true.  I do love living here, I have been here 8.5 years now. So saying I want to move back to Australia was my way of expressing the frustration of the bad and sad event that happened yesterday.

I have also seen a lot of people saying, these things don't really occur regularly, unfortunately in this day and age, horrible man caused tragedies are happening way too often. More than they should be.

It is OK to feel sad, mad, frustrated, blue and question why ?

Actually having these feelings instead of hiding them often leads to meaningful discussions and thoughts that usually bring us back to a peaceful place.

I woke up this morning feeling normal and ready to get on with life, ready to take every second and live it with purpose and joy.  Ready to pray for the families that had to go through yesterdays tragedy and ready to hold my family a little closer again.

It is OK to feel down as long as you sort through your feelings and come back to that peaceful place.