Decreasing Inches: 5 Focus Points

This June my family moved 3+ states North East.  In addition, my youngest son who was our foster son for 21 months went home to be with his family in late May.  There has been so much change and I chose not to pay close attention to our diet during this time.  I did not add on an extra 20 pounds, but my pants are snug and uncomfortable.  In the Spring, I focused on loving my family intensely and this Summer I am focusing on decreasing inches.

We go through times that our life is more important than focusing closely on our diet.

My Goal: Decreasing Inches

Today is a new day.  I have time to focus on my diet and my health.  I have the goal to go from size 10/12 in pants to a size 8 in pants. While I was easily able to attain this in Italy with fresh, real foods, I’ve found it difficult in America with a supermarket full of processed foods and meats with additives.1  

Focus Points for Health

My Healthy Lifestyle Methods

When I really want to focus on decreasing inches, here are some of the methods I employ:

1. Decrease sugar and carbs. I begin to read the products I purchase to see if they include any added sugar. Surprisingly, even sandwich meat often includes dextrose (another name for sugar). In fact, there are many names for sugar that need to be identified in order to avoid sugar.

Note: You can find a list in the footnotes below.2

As for carbs, our body uses carbs for energy and for building vitamins and minerals that we are missing. We will […]

Godai Soaps Review by a Crunchy Mama

Soap Review

Godai Soaps Review

These past two weeks I have had the privilege of testing out the five varieties of –> Godai Soaps.  I performed an in depth Boholistic Mom Godai Soaps review! Before even accepting a cooperative reviewing of a companies product, I view the ingredients of their product and I decide whether they are a company that I want to stand behind. If not, I do not even move forward. Why accept products from a company with ingredients that I cannot agree with using? Godai Soaps was a brand that has excellent ingredients, so I proceeded forward to doing a Godai Soaps review.

Scroll to the bottom for my final score on Godai Soaps.

Mail from Godai Soaps

The day I received my soaps in the mail, I was excited. Our family uses limited soap products as we only need soap when we are really in need of dirt removal, washing hands from dirty jobs, or when we are concerned about exposure to germs. So when I buy soaps, I look for the BEST. Why wash dirt off with dirty ingredients?

So when I saw Godai’s list of ingredients, I was impressed:  all natural, organic ingredients with herbs and essential oils.  This was my kind of company.

Here is the list of ingredients from their Sky Calming Soap and Shampoo Bar:

  • Saponified oils of sunflower*, coconut*, palm*, and safflower* (with retained glycerin)
  • Water
  • Essential oils of lavender*, orange*, and eucalyptus*
  • Alkanet root
  • Rosemary extract

*Certified Organic Ingredients

Godai Soaps Review

My Experience

As I have used each organic soap bar, I have enjoyed the sensory experience.  The bars smell wonderful and […]

1st Grade Homeschool Curriculum for 2018-2019

1st Grade Homeschool

1st grade homeschool curriculum was pretty easy after I had made my choices in Kindergarten.  I knew we were doing Classical Conversations.  I knew we were doing Five in a Row.  I knew that we were using Alpha-Phonics to teach reading.  However, each year brings different challenges and different life events happen.  We had just moved from Naples, Italy to Auburn, Alabama.

What an adjustment!

While I had begun our reading program in Kindergarten with a few pages, we did not get very far.  My son loved to listen to books, but he was not very interested in reading.  In 1st grade, we made it through the entire curriculum and he still was not reading easily.  Sometimes it takes a little while for things to sink in successfully when you are giving children time to learn naturally.  All of the sudden at the end of that year, he began to want to read.  That changed everything.

1st grade homeschooling will look different for every family and every child.  We are doing it again this year with our littlest who is already reading.  This 1st grade year will be completely different than my previous experience.  Allow your children to be unique.  Enjoy the journey.

Our 1st Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices

Main Curriculum

  • Classical Conversations in a CC Community – Cycle 1 (Find out more about classical conversations by reading –> The Core by Leigh Bortins)
    • Ancient History
    • Biology, Earth Science
    • The Geography of Europe, Africa, Canada, and South America
    • English, Math, Latin, and the History Timeline as well as Fine Arts and Hands-On Science

Pros and Cons of Classical Conversations:

PROS – getting together with other children (apprentice), experiencing […]

10 Marriage Tools for a Thriving Relationship

Let me be clear ladies.  Our marriages are under attack by the enemy of our souls.  The good news?  God is bigger, stronger, and has every intention of helping us through any hurdle that the enemy presents.  However, we need God and we need tools.  Why do we need tools?  Because God has given us a base of Biblical wisdom and teachers who have walked this path before us.  We do not need to come to the battle empty handed, but rather equipped by God’s power and with tools that work because they are a part of His plan.

Marriage tools are a part of God’s plan.

While you could gain these tools through years spent hammering the grindstone with your husband figuring out what works and what doesn’t, God’s intention is that you form relationships with other couples who can teach you to be a better wife.  For men, being a part of a relationship with another couple that teaches you to be a better husband.  You are NOT intended to be in marriage alone without support.  If you are hiding your marriage troubles from other couples, you are not experiencing the support that God has for you.  Reach out and get a mentor.

I’ve been in situations where mentors aren’t available.  I’ve even asked couples to mentor me and my husband and the mentorship relationship did not happen.  This is not meant to shame these people, but for us all to realize that this isn’t an ideal world.  We live in a world with busy people who are focused on many different things.  If you cannot find a mentor, you can still find tools for your family.  Beautifully wise people have written books with marriage […]

Reading List for Traditional Food and Health

Book Reading List

The books listed below are recommended by the Weston A. Price Foundation and are GREAT to help you on your food and health journey.  If you want the full list from the WAPF website, head over to –> Nourishing Our Children and search for book recommendations.

Note:  I’m only including books that I personally own on this reading list.  I prefer to pass on book ideas that I have personally tested and found to be excellent.  The books that are *starred* are books that I added to the list according to the benefits I’ve found from these particular books.

New Years Reading List

Traditional Food Reading List

–>  Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and Diet Dictocrats

This book has the basic information on the dietary principles of the traditional food ideals.

–> Nourishing Broth: An Old-Fashioned Remedy for the Modern World

One of my first steps into real food was making my own broth.  I felt healthier, I looked healthier, and I began to nourish my family.  What a beautiful gift!

–> Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston A. Price

The Weston A. Price Foundation is based on the information provided by Dr. Weston A. Price in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.  As a dentist in the turn of the century, he began to notice his patients getting more cavities and having poor oral health.  He had no answers for them, so he sought out the answers.  He traveled the world and found that cultures who did not eat a diet full of processed foods had less dental carries (cavities) and babies were born with wider jaws.  […]

Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

I honestly can’t believe that it has been over four years since we began our journey in homeschooling.  In Pre-K, I wrote down a list of all of the “subjects” or topics that I thought were important for children to learn and spent my son’s Pre-K year simply picking interesting topics and going over them together.  We learned about Japanese spider crabs, ABCs, and our emotions.  Through this relaxed early learning, I realized that I could teach my son, but starting kindergarten homeschool was still a scary proposition.

It got real.

The world has expectations for kindergarten!  These days, schools are pushing five year old children through their ABCs and 123s into sight words and reading.  Ready or not, here it all comes.  Due to this, I felt worried that I would somehow fail these standards and not be “enough.”  What I learned instead was grace, peace, and patience.

Your kindergartner does not need to reach some magical standard.  Your kindergartner needs God’s grace, peace, and patience just as much as you do.

So as you read my suggestions for kindergarten curriculum, take a deep breath.  Realize that what you do or do not get done this year is just a part of your journey.  You are learning to be your child’s teacher and your child is learning to be a lifelong learner.  Bumps are to be expected!  There is grace for every bump along the way.

Curriculum Options for Kindergarteners

Our Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Choices

Main Curriculum

  • Classical Conversations in a CC Community – Cycle 3 (Find out more about classical conversations by reading –> The Core by Leigh Bortins)
    • American History
    • The Human Body, The Periodic Elements (1-12), and Worldviews […]

Baking Soda is Abrasive – True or False

After answering this question in a comment over on my soap alternatives post –> here, I realized that the topic of baking soda abrasivity deserved a post of its own.  I have heard so many times that baking soda is abrasive and will cause damage to our tooth enamel.  However, have we ever seen proof of this tooth enamel damage?  Where are they getting this information about baking soda?  The truth about baking soda will surprise you.

Baking Soda is Abrasive – True or False?

Tooth enamel ranks 5 on Mohs hardness scale, dentin ranks at 2.5 Mohs, and baking soda ranks at 2.5 Mohs.1  In comparison, diamonds are a 10.  Please, don’t brush your teeth with diamonds.  In regards to hardness, baking soda is softer than our tooth enamel.

When testing toothpaste abrasivity, researchers use RDA (relative dentin abrasivity) in order to gauge each toothpaste’s dentin impact.  Dentin is the tooth material beneath your tooth enamel that is the most fragile.  According to the Lincoln Dental Center, “The ideal toothpaste would not have a RDA index higher that 7; therefore dentifrices with a low abrasivity index are desirable.”2  The list below is generally accepted range for RDA values:

  • From 0 to 70 = low abrasion
  • 70 to 100 = midrange abrasion
  • 100 to 150 = highly abrasive
  • 150 to 250 = considered harmful to teeth2

IMHO:  If an RDA of 7 is ideal, then why exactly are we accepting toothpastes with abrasivity levels ranging from 70-250?  While I found an article online suggesting our toothpaste and toothbrushes have little to do with […]

3rd Grade Homeschool Curriculum for 2017

Throughout our time homeschooling, I have met many kinds of homeschooling families.  Some mothers in those families hate choosing curriculum avoiding the process as if it were their most fearful nightmare and some mothers swim in curriculum as if they were surfing the waves in Hawaii.  I am neither of those mothers.

While I do enjoy looking for my curriculum, I do not like looking through ALL of the millions of choices out there.  It can be overwhelming and counterproductive.  You see other options and second guess what you’ve chosen to do with your children.  How can we assimilate information without becoming lost in the nightmare of too much curricula?

We would all love to be the mother who has researched every single curriculum option and hand selected the best one for her family.  She’s amazing.  How she has the time to read and research all the options is beyond me!  How can we find the best option without spending an enormous amount of time researching each curriculum trying desperately to understand all of the differences?

Two Options for Finding 3rd Grade Homeschool Curricula

Interview other homeschool mothers who are like you in personality and family style

  • Get together for a coffee/tea date
  • Ask each mother about their curriculum choices and why they work for their family  (P.S. Be specific in telling them that you want to know what is working for them, not why it will work for you.  Mothers are so helpful, but they can sometimes push their choices on you.  Be strong and take in the information rather than copying their exact choices.)
  • Ask them to give you the pros and the cons

Utilize a condensed homeschool curriculum resource list and take a quiz to understand what types of […]

Headache Remedy List for Moms

Gradually, but surely, I hope to share the lists of remedies that I use personally with my Boholistic Mom followers.  Today, I am sharing with you a headache remedy list that will give you some great ideas for tackling situations when you feel your head might explode.  Some of these ideas work within the hour, some will are long term fixes and will take time.  You are in charge of your health and your wellness.  Find out what options there are from this headache remedy list that are not in a medicine bottle and give them a shot!

Headache Remedy List

Headache Remedy List – Natural Relief

  • Magnesium

Magnesium helps blood vessels relax and regulates your blood pressure.1  With all of the stress our bodies go through, most people are very deficient in magnesium.  Deficiencies in magnesium can cause major headaches, but even if you aren’t deficient, magnesium can be a quick relief to minor headaches.  I use –> Ancient Minerals Magnesium Gel.

  • Ginger Tea

Ginger tea is also vasodilator like magnesium, meaning it dilates your blood vessels allowing blood to pass through more easily.  When you have a pounding headache with lots of pressure, this can be a life saver.  In addition, ginger can relieve sinus pressure that can lead to headaches.  I love to use fresh ginger, but if you want to keep a bit of ginger tea on hand for emergencies check out –> Traditional Medicinals Organic Ginger Tea.

  • Nasal Pressure Points

When I was pregnant with my son, I was instructed by a doctor to massage certain points around my nose to stimulate my sinuses to relieve pressure.  However, when I look online for great, solid information […]

Infinity Glass Jar Review – Do they work?

I recently had the privilege of reviewing a set of ultraviolet Infinity glass jars.  While I had not heard of this particular brand of ultraviolet glass jars before, I had heard about the technology of the deep purple glass.  Basically, they propose that the tint of the glass keeps out harmful light and lets in beneficial light in order to keep the contents fresh.  My question is . . . do they really work?

Miron glass jars - do they work

History of Violet Glass

Purple glass jars have been used since Egyptian times and throughout history for storage purposes.  Some companies (not Infinity) claim that archaeologists have found viable ancient seeds in Egyptians purple jars; however, I was unable to find any documents to support these theories.  We do not know if the Egyptians or later historic peoples understood the scientific attributes of these purple jars, but we do know that violet jars were enjoyed in the past.

Current Science on Violet Glass Jars

Current science has found these jars to keep herbs, salves, and other contents fresh longer than regular glass jars, but let’s look deeper into the science.  According to Infinity Jars, the violet glass jars “slow down the decaying process of organic matter while maintaining the freshness of whatever you put inside.”  They keep out visible light rays and allow infrared and UV-A rays that benefit the fresh ingredients inside.

The effect of the light limitation keeps the contents from getting exposed to the sun rays that do damage and allows in light rays that are beneficial and kill harmful microbes.  Sounds good, want to test it out?

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