Couponing and a great Groupon!

I know, I'm all over the place! But this is the way my brain works, you see. ;)

Anyway, I am a moderate couponer. I don't like to buy gross food no matter how cheap I can get it, and I don't usually buy things I wouldn't normally just because it's inexpensive. Sometimes I'll post good deals or links to coupons I use just FYI, and any tips I might think up/come across. I just started last April, so I'm fairly new at it and learning new things all the time. I'm kind of an old lady regarding some of my interests, but it's okay, because I've always kind of been that way. I mean, I used to read my Mom's issues of Real Simple and the like when I was a teenager and before, heh. 

Anyway- gotta go make lunch, but here's a good groupon for today- $10 for a $20 purchase at Old Navy. I'm totally getting it!

http://www.groupon.com/ch/grouponicus/deals/gx-nat-old-navy-us?c=all&p=2

It's a cold, grey day

More to come...

Elderberry

I could feel myself coming down with something the other day. Aching all over, low energy, weird headache, vague sore throat. I assumed I was coming down with what had been going around @ my partner's work. So that night I decided to put the elderberry tincture I had made a couple months ago to the test (didn't think of it earlier- duh!). I took 20 drops, went to bed early (around 9:30), and woke up the next morning feeling fine. Not sick. Full of energy and ready to take on the day. Maybe it was mostly the sleep, maybe it was mostly the elderberry, maybe my body did most of the work itself... We could speculate all day. Elderberries are rich in Vitamin C, potassium, and antioxidants. They have been used for a long, long time to shorten the duration of colds and other illnesses, and also as a preventative. Here's the recipe if you want to make your own elderberry tincture- it was very easy, and I literally had no experience with tinctures prior to making this. Here's the recipe, courtesy of Clean, which is a great website that I encourage you to check out.


Fresh Elderberry Tincture


1. Locate: Find a site with abundant wild elderberries (sambucus ssp.). We honor the wildcrafting rule of 10/1. For every ten plants (or flowers, or fruits, or mushrooms) in the immediate area, you may take one home. If there are fewer than ten leave them to propagate the area and check back another year. You can also purchase dried elderberries online or at your coop, but I prefer fresh.


2. Harvest: Pick your elderberries right on the umbels (umbrella-shaped berry clusters). The stems are hollow and the fresh clusters snap off with ease. Don't fuss with picking off the individual berries. We'll get to that at home. Gather the ripest, almost black berries.


3. Freeze: When you have a bag-full take the berries home and pop them in the freezer. When frozen the berries will crumble with ease off of the stem.


4. Separate: Crumble the berries off of the stem into a bowl and transfer to a quart jar. Fill the jar with berries to just below the shoulders. Allow to thaw.


5. Muddle: With a wooden spoon or kraut pounder break the berries open a bit. You don't need to pulverze them, but muddle them up a bit. Some seeds will become exposed, and they look a little like bugs - so don't freak (see photo above).


6. Steep: Cover to in inch or two above the berries with good brandy (in Wisconsin a basic decent brandy is Korbel, so that's what we use). Lid, label, and tuck away in a dark quiet corner for 4 to 6 weeks. Tip the jar over and gently shake every time you think of it.

7. Bottle: Strain through a stainless steel colander lined with a thin cloth. Store in amber dropper bottles or glass jars in your medicine cabinet.


You can take a few drops of elderberry tincture often throughout the winter months. Dosage is as follows when feeling under the weather:


Adults 20 drops 2 - 3 times/day in water
Children 10 drops 2 - 3 times/day in water


*FYI- Do not eat elderberries. Make sure the berries you select to use are ripe.

*Notes: I used vodka (Pinnacle), instead of brandy, and it worked fine. It would obviously be sweeter with brandy, though. Also, for my son I put it in water, but for me I put the drops right on/under my tongue. We had previously ordered some baby vitamin D drops for my son so I used the old cleaned out dropper bottle from the used up D for the elderberry. (If you needed to buy one, I'm sure your local health food store would have some for purchase, or look it up online if you don't have that resource handy). The batch I made ended up making more than I could fit in one bottle, so I strained what couldn't fit and put it in a mason jar with the cap on tightly and tucked it away for when I need a refill. If you make it, or have made it in the past, let me know how you like it!




Ask your doctor before taking any supplement or medicine, especially if you are on other medications.

of relocation

Dichotomy and fusion... Can I have aspects of both? Ponder ponder.

We want to move. I've said this so many times over the past year, but we do. But we keep getting hung up on the same roadblocks. Mostly- confusion as to where. The dichotomy comes into play; on one hand, I love being so close to Portland, Maine. I have lived in or around the area for nearly 4.5 years now. I've made friends here, grown closer with old friends who live here. Gabe has a good job here, and I love the convenience of being so close to stores, and being able to have variety in that sense. A nice variety of good quality restaurants, bars, tea and coffeehouses. Entertainment. Resources. Good healthcare. Meditation group. Yoga studios. We are also very close to several beaches. With all this being said... why would we want to move?

Well. It isn't cheap. Homes are expensive, taxes are high. Gabe spends the majority of his awake time away at work. And we don't even own a home yet. We crave a simpler life, in some ways. We dream of having a small vegetable garden, a workshop, a nice yard enclosed with protective trees, down a dirt road in the country. I can envision ourselves making more of the things we now buy, being more sustainable, being less materialistic. I don't want to forage for the things I need at big box stores. I want to be able to make things, learn so much, and be able to teach them to Rhys. Maybe I'm being a romantic idealist. The prospect of making all new friends, an all new network, makes me feel uncomfortable because I have such a great one now, and it wasn't exactly easy to cultivate. I know I would be lonely for them. 

But not making a choice, is still a choice. And right now we are choosing to be here. 

It's not like there aren't country-ish settings around here, but again. Not cheap. 

And so, back around the circle again. I don't know. I keep thinking I'll know when I know, but it keeps not happening. Don't want to force it, also don't want to miss it. Ya know?

Herbs to Protect Against Radiation

{Not astrology-related, just thought it was interesting}

Herbs to Protect Against Radiation (from cell phones, wifi, nuclear power plants, etc., etc.)
From Common Ground 25 Sept. 2011
Gail Edwards @ Blessed Maine Herb.

Rosemary- very protective herb
2 (oil-soluble) acids in it. Protect human cells and repair radiation damages.
*Infuse Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Rosemary. Put in sprigs, cover for 6 weeks. Can cook with or put oil on body, on thyroid/thymus (upper chest area).
*Can chew raw
*Tincture- 30 drops/day
*OK with breastfeeding
*Baking with it anyway is great, especially on meat, fat/oils. Perfect on chicken.
*Can also steep as a tea, but need to steep for 2+ hours (this source is not as good as the other ways)

Caffeic Acid
Top food- Apples. Also Pears, Plums, Cherries. Lots of pectin. Baked apple if ill.

Brassica- Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli and Broccoli Rabe, Bok Choy, Kale
*Protects us/cells and repairs
*Contains sulforaphane. Water-soluble.
*Need to lightly steam/simmer to release nutrients (also drink water leftover in pot)

Fermentation intensifies benefits. Make sauerkraut. Missing link in diet! Natural probiotics.

Seaweed/Sea Vegetables (Wakame). Very important. Protect + Repair.
*Powdered kelp
*Franklin, ME- Shep Airhart @ ME Coast Sea Vegetables (in many health food stores)
*Potassium and Sodium content are same as us
(Can also soak in seaweed bath or use in shower- use muslin bag full of seaweed).

Adaptogens (class of herbs/substances)
*must be 100% nontoxic to qualify
*Greeche mushrooms grown in Maine (all are medicinal/protective)
*American Ginseng.
-very rare. buy from legit source.
-tincture- 10-20 drops anywhere from 3x/week to every day.

Quickly

My future isn't about my past. (Life is only about NOW): Nothing that has ever happened has anything to do with now, unless, in my now, I continue to think and speak about it. Fresh new thoughts today will always give me a fresh new experience.-Ester and Jerry Hicks


This is my theme for the upcoming year. I have this tendency to ruminate on the past and it does me no favors, just keeps me stuck in places I don't need to be. There are so many better places for me to direct my energy!


Being consistent- something I've always struggled with, as I'm sure anyone else who has ADD has as well. And perhaps what I really mean is sticking to what I want to do. I'm the type who gets some idea in her head, semi-explores it, takes a couple steps toward it, and then it just goes nowhere because I don't continue on. I need to be more consistent in that respect- I still want to grow and change positively as a person, obviously.

No photos today- wrong computer. Next time. (Musical laptops is a consequence of being out one myself :/).

x