A Healthy Bed--Finally!

We love our bed!  It doesn't matter where we are sleeping and how nice the bed is, Tim and I always miss our bed.  It is comfortable, but what I love about it goes way beyond the comfort factor--it is a non toxic bed that improves our health as we sleep! 

Have you ever heard of Earthing?  As simple as walking barefoot in the soil, Earthing (also called Grounding), can calm and and help the body heal.  Here is an excellent article about what grounding can do for you!

We sleep with a grounding sheet and an electric field shield on our bed.  Both were suggested to us by our Building Biologist, Larry Gust.  The electric field shield helps protect the body from the stress of electric shields in the environment.  Here is more information from Larry's website:   http://gustenviro.com/electrical_sensitivity.html 

The grounding sheet helps the body heal quicker, sleep more deeply, and get better quality sleep.  Many athletes use this product and it was tested on the US Tour de France team with beneficial results.  Both are connected to our bed via a telephone line, leading out to a grounding stake, pounded into the dirt outside our home.  Sounds complicated but it was easy to do.  Now we are getting the benefits of grounding and protection from electric fields while we sleep.

Here is the rest of our bed--from mattress to comforter detailed below:

Mattress:  We have a latex mattress from Custom Comfort.  I had my doctor write a prescription for a mattress without flame retardants so our mattress was made especially for us without these toxins.  The kids have organic matons (half mattress, half futons) from Lifekind and my son has the bed and drawers pictured below also.

Organic Dust Mite Barrier and Bed Bug Barrier Mattress Cover from Lifekind  I have read that a pillow that is two years old is 10% heavier in weight from dead dust mites and their feces.  This keeps the dust mites out.

  

Wool Pillowtop with Organic Cotton Cover from Lifekind  This keeps body temperature regulated, wicks away moisture, and wool is naturally resists dust mites.  The kids do not have this.




Organic Flannel Mattress Pad from Lifekind  This protects the wool pillow top as it can be easily laundered.



Organic Sateen Sheet Set from Lifekind  These are very well made, soft sheets that last and last.




All Season Wool Comforter with Organic Cover from Lifekind  We remove this in the summer because my husband runs really warm but I could comfortably use it all year long.  It is covered in an organic duvet cover from a sheet set we purchased a while back.  The kids have a organic, cotton, basket weave blanket from Lifekind instead.


Wool pillow for me and a customizable wool wrapped natural shredded rubber pillow for Tim.  Both from Lifekind



Organic Dust Mite and Bed Bug Resistant Barrier Pillow Covers from Lifekind


Moneysaver:
We purchased all of the above a little at a time, as Lifekind had sales.  Right now they are running a 25% off everything sale and sometimes you can save much more!  My goal was to have all materials on the beds in my home toxin free but I had to take my time and buy things a few at a time.  The first things I bought were organic pillows, barrier covers, and organic pjs.  I sleep in organic t-shirts and cotton shorts that I purchased at Walmart for $3.00 or $4.00 each.   The kids sleep in organic pjs from Hanna Andersson which I purchased from the Hanna Anderson outlet very inexpensively. I figured what was on the body and under the nose was the most impactful.  Then I purchased the other items as we were able and when there was a really big sale.

Due to allergies and health issues in our family, our doctor wrote a prescription for an organic, toxin free bedroom and the supplies above were tax deductible.  The amount that was tax deductible was the amount over and above what a typical item would cost.

Grow a Mother and Brew Your Own Kombucha!!

 

Kombucha is wonderful!  It tastes like a sparkling wine or a fruit seltzer, isn’t too sweet, and always makes me feel energized after I drink a glass.  Kombucha is also full of wonderful health benefits and is an especially  powerful source of probiotics.  This amazing drink is full of B vitamins and even helps your liver detoxify, so it is wise to start slowly when introducing it into your diet.  Some people claim it cured their cancer and others say you can beat major health issues after drinking it regularly for a year.

The price of kombucha at the local health food store, however, kept me from drinking it very often.  Where I live, the average price for a serving size bottle of kombucha is $4.00.  Knowing you are getting lots of powerful probiotics makes it feel like a supplement, but $4.00 a bottle is too much for me to spend regularly.  I’m cheap like thatJ

So I set out to see if I could brew it myself at home.  It took me a year to figure it out but I finally am brewing two gallons a week, for less than a half dollar a gallon!  And it’s not hard once you know what to do, and what not to do.  First, what didn’t work...

I tried rehydrating three different dehydrated scobys I purchased from an online company. The first two never took off and the third one developed mold.  I learned later that scobys are very difficult to grow from a dehydrated mother and that kombucha should be brewed outside of the kitchen because of the mold spores in the air from things like onions sitting in a bowl on your counter or houseplants.  I was trying to brew my kombucha right by a bowl of onions and my potted herbs on the kitchen counter—so the mold problem isn’t a surprise.  I was really wary of getting a scoby off Craigslist or from the local health food store bulletin board.  My mother drilled into me lots of handwashing with hot water in the kitchen and I was afraid of bringing someone else’s germs into my house. 

One day at Trader Joe’s, one of the ladies working there told me you could grow your own mother (scoby) from a store bought bottle of kombucha.  So I googled and came up with wonderful directions here: 

http://www.paprikahead.com/2009/07/how-to-brew-your-own-kombucha-from.html

The benefit of this method is that the scobys used by these big brewing companies are strong and healthy so the product you will get at home should also be strong and health.  I used GT’s Organic Raw Kombucha in the original  flavor to grow my mother.  The resulting kombucha tastes just like the store bought bottle, though sometimes we add a splash of juice in as well.

The fermenting time took much longer than the directions said it would initially.  I waited two weeks before the tea smelled like kombucha and there was no film growing on the top.  I fed the culture anyway and hoped for the best.  The first cycle I didn’t even grow a mother but the tea fermented and we drank some and saved a cup of the tea to use as another starter and I tried again.  I followed the directions with my newly created starter and finally grew a mother (scoby). 

At first, as it was beginning to grow, it looked like specks of white mold all over the top of the tea and I almost threw it away.  But then those specks got larger and grew into dots, and ultimately the many large dots grew together to form a scoby covering the top of the tea.  (Google “Kombucha mold pictures” so you will know what kombucha mold looks like.  It is normal to have white or brown strings or mounds but if you see anything black, colored or furry you need to throw it away and start over).

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:  Make sure everything you use, including your hands are very clean!  Once you add the kombucha starter, you can’t let anything metal touch it.  No silverware spoons dipped in to taste, or big spoons to stir.  No metal strainers.  No metal lids of canning jars.  Scobys and metal do not work together. 

I watched and waited for it to grow the necessary thickness described in the directions, and then the scoby was finally mature enough to brew a gallon of kombucha.  I followed her directions to brew kombucha and it worked perfectly!  Here are some pictures of the process and some tips:

1. Starting early in the morning, boil 12 cups of water in a big pot.  I use a Le Creuset dutch oven.

2. When the water starts to boil, add one cup of organic sugar.  Let it return to a boil and make sure the sugar is dissolved.

3. Take the pot off the burner and add 4 tea bags to the sugar water solution.  I use Organic Oolong Tea.  I have not ventured from this choice because I read that this is one of the better choices and some teas have oils that promote mold growth.  I just went with a safe tea with great health benefits.

4. Wait for the tea to reach room temperature.  This takes hours which is why I recommend starting early in the morning.  You can kill the scoby if you add tea that is warm so this step is important.  If you have any bugs in your kitchen, I’d recommend putting a towel over the top of the bowl, once the steaming has stopped, to keep anything from flying into your tea.

5. Add the tea to a clean, gallon jar.  I got mine for $5.00 at Walmart.  I use a plastic funnel to make sure I don't spill tea everywhere but my husband did the pouring for this picture and he is much braver than I am:)  Then add two cups of starter and your scoby to the jar.  Cover the opening of the jar with a coffee filter secured with a rubber band.

    

6.  Place your jar in a place where it will stay warm (around 76 to 85 degrees should be good) but is also a dark area, away from direct light.  You want to keep it away from food and plants too.  I put mine in our family room, up high, in our media cabinet. 

7. I start checking the kombucha at a week, just smelling it to see if it seems fermented and making sure the new scoby is growing.  Usually the new scoby grows on top of the mother.  I have found that after 10 days the tea is at just the right level of fermentation.  It shouldn't be sweet but it shouldn't be vinegary either.  By tasting a store bought, original flavored kombucha, you will know the taste you are aiming for in this process.

After the brewing is finished, you can pull the two scobys apart and brew two gallons next time, instead of just one.  Or you can freak your friend out by bringing it to her in a jar with two cups of starter as a housewarming gift.  Probably few friends will appreciate this type of gift but you might have some really cool friends open to a new adventure!

For information about the amazing health benefits of Kombucha see: http://www.foodrenegade.com/kombucha-health-benefits/

Is Your Bedroom Keeping You Sick?

Did you know that your bedroom, and what is in it, probably causes more harm to your body than what you are exposed to during the day?  Your body needs to rest and heal at night but many bedrooms are filled with things that deplete the body rather than aid in restoration.




Here are a few simple, free, or inexpensive ways you can change your health--while you sleep:

Power Down:  This is the most important thing you can do in my opinion.  Sleeping without the EMFs (Electric and magnetic fields) from outlets, clock radios, televisions, and all kinds of phones is important for restorative sleep.  We have a device that looks like a garage door opener that we hit to power down the kids' rooms and then another to power down our room.  It is called a "Remote Circuit Cutoff Switch".  It also turns off the wi-fi and our televisions and cable boxes throughout the house.  We save $90 a month on our electric bill by just doing this!  Before we had the remote, Tim would just flip the appropriate switches on our fuse box.  We have a battery operated alarm clock but never need it because our kids are up early every morning.  You can read more about how EMFs affect our body in the websites linked below.

Sleep in complete darkness:  This helps your body produce melatonin, the hormone that gets you sleepy and is an important antioxidant.

Turn off your cellphone:  Or at least keep it in another room far, far away from your sleeping area.  Some phones, like the iPhone, are constantly checking reception so they function like a mini cell tower.  You don't want to sleep next to a cell tower--just google cancer and cell towers.  We have a very cheap, corded phone in our room that is safe to keep next to our bed as we sleep.

Make sure your bed faces north:  This optimizes red blood cell production, yields optimal deepness of sleep, and prolongs REM sleep by 7%.

Sleep with your head away from things like computer stations, smart meters, etc.  It doesn't matter if a bedroom wall is separating you from the item--you are still exposed to radiation.

Avoid metal in your bed:  Headboards or bed springs can act as an energy concentrator.

Avoid using chemicals and fragrances in your bedroom:  Clean your bedroom and bed linens with green products.  Use no VOC paints and buy furniture that is either used (and done off gassing) or made of real wood and stained with natural stains.  Cheap furniture often outgasses formaldehyde. 

Avoid carpet and drapes:  This allows you to keep your room relatively dust free, and carpet is a breeding ground for dust mites.  I will talk more about this in my "Healthy Bed" post next week.
            
I learned about almost everything above from Larry Gust http://gustenviro.com/about_us.html  He is a Building Biologist who came to evaluate our home and educate us on what we could do to make our home a healthier place.

Here are some EMF websites if you are interested in learning more:

http://emf.mercola.com/

http://www.electric-fields.bris.ac.uk/
http://www.electromagnetichealth.org/
http://www.emrpolicy.org/

Next week I'll write a post on everything we've done to make our bed the most comfortable and healthiest one we've ever slept on--even better than the Four Seasons!  We don't sleep as well anywhere else!

Image from http://www.freedigitalpictures.net/

Our Beginning with Green Living

My second child was 4 months old, in the ER examination room, struggling to breathe.  My husband was in denial when they decided to admit her.  "I think they are short patients and drumming up business.  She doesn't need to be admitted," he told me.  I was so very sad.  I couldn't believe we were doing this again.  My firstborn's short life had been filled with hospital stays, lots of prescriptions, and many allergies.

At four months old my daughter's entire body was covered in bumps (eczema) and a few places were constantly scabbing over and bloody.  She refluxed constantly and was a very unhappy baby.  She had several loose bowel movements a day that poured out of her diaper and burned her bottom.  She had open sores on her bottom too.  I changed her sheets numerous times a day due to the diaper leaks.  Now she was being hospitalized with asthma. 

We already had a medical baseline allowance with our electric company because of the constant use of the nebulizer for my son (up to 7 times a day for both Pulmicort and Albuterol).  The doctor said it was a lifetime condition when she signed the baseline allowance form and checked the lifetime (no need to be renewed) box.  The medicines and mainstream medical approaches did nothing to help my son get better.  We just spent a lot of time with the nebulizer and he suffered the side affects from the medicines.  I had always listened to and followed the advice of my mainstream doctors so I had felt hopeless that their solution wasn't working.
Recently, however, I had been able to stop all my son's asthma meds by putting him on a diet free from his food intolerances and by giving him supplements to support his immune system.  A specialist had done blood tests to tell me what foods to eliminate and what supplements to give based on his allergy panel and blood work showing vitamin and mineral deficiencies.  I had also been starting to research how to make our home environment and food as non toxic as possible.  Finally something was helping my son get stronger and healthier!

When they released my daughter from the hospital the next afternoon, with several prescriptions and a nebulizer, I knew what I was going to do.  I promised myself I would use the nebulizer IF she started wheezing again but would first try and prevent wheezing with the same protocol I had used for my son.  And she hasn't needed a nebulizer since that hospital stay at 4 months!  No meds.  No wheezing! 

It has been a long journey, but now, just finishing her Kindergarten year, she is a happy, healthy girl who was recently awarded an academic excellence medal at her school's award ceremony.

This blog will discuss the many things we are committed to, as a family, to be as healthy as we can be!  Healing comes from God and I believe with all my heart He is the reason for the healing I've seen in my children's lives.  That being said, He has used some interesting methods to bring that healing about:)  I am committed to praying and asking God to guide us each day.  You may be surprised when you read where that has taken us.

How I Got Here...A Dirty Chair and a Smart Husband

People have been telling me that I should start a blog.  I never thought I should, however, because most of the things they thought I should post about (our green journey and discoveries) were all created or discovered by someone else.  But yesterday, my wonderful husband thrilled me by cleaning our dirty, leather bar stools (which were uncleanable!!) with a creation of vinegar and baking soda paste.  And I thought--I need to start a blog.  Because this kind of thing happens all the time and it may help someone else.  And that would be cool.  So here is my first entry:

Our kids eat at least one meal a day at matching bar stools in our kitchen.  These bar stools are white leather (I know, bad decision) and have gotten filthy.  And I faithfully try to clean them with whatever is in my homemade cleaner arsenal.  Because the kids are going to be sitting on them, touching them with their fingers, and then touching their food and probably their mouths.  So I wouldn't use anything toxic to clean them  (But I did try Windex in a moment of weakness and then wiped it down with water afterwards).  Long story short--nothing has worked.  Probably 7 different cleaners and the bar stools looked yucky and I thought probably the white paint on the leather had worn away and maybe they had to have this look forever.  Unless I used leather polish which wasn't going to happen.

Tim poured baking soda in a canning jar and added vinegar.  Luckily it was in the sink because it did that "volcano" thing and poured out foam a bit.  He mixed it and added baking soda until it was a honey consistency.  Then he poured some of the liquid/paste on the chair and used an old sponge to rub it around.  Very quickly, without much effort, the dirt lifted away.  I wish I would have taken a before picture but I didn't got the blog idea until he started cleaning.

Here is during:

And here is after:

Once they dried they had a bit of a gritty residue but that easily wiped off with a rag.  I am thrilled!

He has also used this cleaner to get dirt stains off the floor in our shower.  These stains were there when we moved into the house and I tried all sorts of things--even scrubbing with bleach, which I don't keep in the house anymore.  Nothing worked until this applied with a scrub brush.  It is crazy to me what you can do with cheap, safe ingredients.  Works on the kitchen sink's stains too!

Moneysaver:  I buy my vinegar and baking soda at Costco in huge containers.

Next time I'll talk about how I became an accidental green mama!