All posts by Monna

Aug 22
0

Cherry Cough Stop Tea

By | Natural Health | 4 Comments

Spicy and sweet, this boosts the immune system and soothes coughs. This drink is chock full of healthy ingredients. Lemon juice contains vitamin C, ginger is antiviral and anti-inflammatory,  garlic is antiviral and antibacterial, Tart cherry juice (not sweetened!) is full of antioxidants and honey is soothing, healing and (when raw) antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal. Don’t freak out about the garlic. It’s surprisingly un-garlic tasting. It tastes pretty darn good.

Ingredients
1 Inch ginger root (peeled and minced)
Juice and zest of one lemon (Vit C)
One mashed garlic clove (antiviral and antibacterial)
8 oz organic TART cherry juice (high antioxidant value)
8 oz water
Honey – buckwheat or another dark honey works best

Instructions

  • Bring ginger root to a boil in 8 oz water
  • Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
  • Add lemon, garlic, cherry juice and water
  • Let mixture simmer for another 4 minutes
  • Strain liquid into a cup for the patient and add honey to taste.

If you need to cool it quickly for a kiddo, just add a few ice cubes. Leave it a little warm to ease the cough.

I usually double this recipe so I can give it to multiple people. In fact, when one of my family is feeling sick, I just give it to everyone because the garlic and ginger are great immune boosters. With any luck, only one of us gets sick!

Aug 22
0

Organic Mama’s Magic Chicken Soup

By | Natural Health, Recipes | No Comments

1 whole organic uncooked chicken, remove gizzards & throw into the freezer till later (unless you like them in your soup)

1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 stocks of celery, finely chopped
4 carrots, finely chopped
4-7 cloves FRESH crushed garlic (immune boosting)
2 T. Olive oil
Sage (has drying properties)**See note!!**
Sea Salt to taste (several Tablespoons)One Large stew potOptional items – to be added once broth is strained:
1-2 cups cooked rice*. Cooked so you don’t lose all the liquid in your soup. *Great for those suffering from tummy distress.
Any veggies you love to eat with chicken. Cut them into bite sized pieces so they’re appealing to kids.
Egg noodlesInstructions:

1. Heat stew pot from med to med-high and add 2 T olive oil. It should easily swirl in pan

2. Add veggies (except garlic) and a couple pinches of salt to taste

3. When veggies are translucent, throw in garlic and cook for a minute more. Don’t burn it because burnt garlic tastes just dreadful!!!

4. Place whole chicken (be sure to take out the guts first!) in pan and add water to cover the chicken by several inches

5. Add a small handful of sage

6. Bring chicken to a boil and simmer till cooked (depending on size between 1 1/2 to 2 hours)

7. Salt and pepper to taste

8. SERIOUSLY – SALT IT or it just won’t taste good!!

Another great way to make this is just to dump the ingredients in a crockpot and cook all day or overnight.Lazy girl (or really sick mama) method: When chicken is cooked, use the broth straight out of the pan and serve but watch for chicken bones.
Motivated person method: Pour the liquid through a strainer into another pan or heat proof bowl. Place back in the pan and add egg noodles or rice and veggies as desired. When the chicken is cool enough, pull the meat off the bones and throw it back into the soup or use part of it throughout the week to make other chicken rich dishes.It’s perfectly ok to add a little extra water if you find you’ve overdone it on the rice or veggies.It’s important to use a whole chicken because the bones have nutrients that will strengthen and heal too!****Pregnant mamas who have a tendency toward miscarriage may want to avoid sage. The rest of this recipe should be fine for you!****
Aug 17
0

Facing Fear and Finding Joy

By | Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Spirit | 16 Comments


Life has a way of making us face our fears whether we want to or not. For those who don’t know, I had a life threatening miscarriage in February 2011. The surgeon who performed my emergency D&C said there is nothing wrong with me and encouraged me before I left the hospital to get pregnant as soon as I’d had a few normal cycles.

I was just so happy to be on my own two feet, I banished the discussion from my mind until later. Banished it because being cleared physically for pregnancy after miscarriage and being emotionally ready to become pregnant are two very different things.

After returning from the hospital, I took my time recovering, enjoying my children and doing some things for me that I wouldn’t have done were I still pregnant. I didn’t want to dwell on the possibility of pregnancy too much yet – until several weeks ago. That’s when I realized that after five months of studiously avoiding pregnancy, my husband and I had enjoyed a grand ole’ reunion with each other (he’d been gone for almost three weeks) for nearly a week – SMACK DAB in the middle of that week of the month.

You know what I’m sayin’.

Suddenly I had to face the strong likelihood that I was pregnant and I discovered, upon retrospection, I was terrified at the prospect. Flashbacks of blood soaked towels between my legs and the feeling of the bathroom floor as I lost consciousness haunted me. I did NOT want to go through that again!!!

I spent almost a week in that breathless, scared place before I could even test for pregnancy. Thankfully, my sister, a good friend and my strong husband were sounding boards for me as I carefully explained my feelings, hoping I didn’t sound too selfish. They encouraged me to face my fear and choose hope.

After letting myself freak out for those few days, I pulled myself together and decided to remember the lesson I learned in February when I realized I might not have come home at all.

Life is short. Live it!

There are no guarantees that life will go a certain way or that the end won’t come earlier than we planned. So, we should consider every breath we take a gift and be unafraid to take chances. I want to be the kind of person who faces down my fears and takes a leap of faith toward my dreams of having a larger family and being a courageous woman.

So, I took a leap. I lifted that little stick . I turned it over – and saw –

TWO PINK LINES.

Yep. It’s good news. While it might be better to wait to share because we’re not past the first trimester yet, I wanted to encourage those of you who have been where I have been this year. In a few weeks, I’ll be as far along as I was when I had my miscarriage and that carries with it an understandable stress. There is no guarantee that this baby will be ok but I am choosing to face my fear and find joy in this moment and this baby. Even though I’m feeling pretty nauseous.

It’s a good sign, right?

Please this if you know of someone who it might encourage.

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Aug 04
0

Recovering from Miscarriage; Overcoming “The LIST”

By | Miscarriage | 8 Comments

If you’ve had a miscarriage before, you know about “The List”. After miscarrying a baby you’ve been dreaming of holding, it’s only normal to compile the list. On that list go all the things we worry might have contributed to our baby’s demise.

We compile the list because we wants answers and a way to avoid pain in the future. But the truth is, a lot of pregnancies end in the first trimester and even after because the baby isn’t developing properly. My pragmatic side accepts this truth but my “that was my baby!” side doesn’t accept it.

That side of me created this list.

1. I worked to exhaustion the week before I miscarried. I had a list of housework to complete and kept going till my feet couldn’t hold me anymore.

2. I ate too much Chocolate. ‘Cause of its caffeine-like affect on our bodies. On my list of things to do the weekend I had my miscarriage was making a huge chocolate cake from scratch. Not only was I worn out but I worried that eating this might have caused my miscarriage.

3. I carried my two year old in a backpack while hiking (yes, all in the same weekend). But, I was in the habit of hiking regularly (and carrying my daughters too).

These were the items on my immediate list. Of course, the list has another side as well. It’s where you list all the things you think should have told you this pregnancy might not be a healthy one.

I only had a few…

1. I didn’t feel as sick. The 15-18 weeks of my first two pregnancies were miserable because I was sick 24/7. I woke nauseous, spent the daylight hours wishing I could be asleep to escape it and went to bed nauseous. This time, I started feeling better around 10 weeks, which made me nervous.

2. I wasn’t as emotional/exhausted this time.  My husband is a trooper and handles my crazy pregnancy mood swings very well. But, he even noticed that this time, I seemed my normal self.

I think every woman who has miscarried creates some version of the list. It is a normal part of the grieving process to look for answers.

But Mama, I hope you realize as I did, that you probably didn’t do anything to cause your miscarriage.

One thing that helped me to regain perspective and put the list behind me was to remember that moms in third world countries who have terrible diets have live babies.

Moms on crack have live babies (though often severely challenged).

If my baby didn’t make it through the first trimester despite my healthy diet and lifestyle habits, it probably wasn’t meant to be. Our womanly bodies are wiser than we recognize.

That doesn’t mean I won’t have a healthy baby in the future and that goes for you too. I decided to take the time to recover – physically, emotionally and spiritually. I cried when I needed to and I was silent when I wanted silence. I also made myself seek the company of others who reminded me that life is good.

Since I was pregnant 3 months, I gave my body at least three months to get back to normal. A pregnancy that ends in miscarriage takes as much out of us as a live birth and our bodies needs to recoup the reserves before we try again. I ate fresh, unprocessed foods, took my chinese herbs, prenatal vitamins (mainly because of the extreme blood loss) and exercised.

And, I trust that my body will carry a baby to term again when and if it’s time. I hope you trust yours too.

Recovering Physically from Miscarriage & Hemorrhage

Recovering Spiritually from Miscarriage & Hemorrhage

Share this if you know of someone who it might encourage.

Don’t miss updates from Organic Mama Cafe. Subscribe. 

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