Mango Butter Benefits

My first batch of lotion bars were lovely! Everyone loved them and we sold lots of them! However, the lotion bars we make and sell today do not even compare!! Why? Because I changed out one of the main ingredients and I will never go back!!

Many people love shea butter. Many people love cocoa butter. Both are good for your skin and can make some really good products. But if you ask me, Mango Butter beats them all!! I honestly love the feel of the mango butter in creams and solids! There is not extra scent when using it, which I love!

Here are a few more things about mango butter that I love!

1.  Can help protect your skin from cellular damage by a type of antioxidant called mangiferin

2.  reduce signs of sun damage by reducing oxidation of your skin cells

3.  Mango is rich in vitamin C which is needed for production of collagen

4.  Contains vitamin C & E which help your skin when it is exposed to pollution or sunlight.  If they aren’t replenished, your skin becomes more susceptible to damage that can lead to premature aging.

You can find Mango Butter in our body butter, lotion bars, and even in our Beard Balm!! We love it and hope you love it too!!

Jojoba Oil Benefits

When we started this journey of our hobby farm, we really had no idea where it would lead us. But today we love teaching classes, selling bees to new and old beekeepers and of course furnishing everyone with products they can use without worrying about the ingredients!

Why do I say you do not need to worry about the ingredients? Because I am very picky about what I use and what I include in my products!!

One of my favorite ingredients to use is Jojoba Oil.

Personal Story: I have naturally curly hair. I also stopped using shampoo & conditioner about 11 years ago. I now use a “no-poo” method. I periodically wash my hair with baking soda and rinse with apple cider vinegar. It has been working well for me for 11 years! Every day I rinse my hair and apply some Argan Oil with essential oils.

My daughter is quickly becoming a woman and trying to manage her naturally curly LONG hair. She does use shampoo and we try to find clean products that I can feel ok with her using. As we have been navigating the world of “clean” products I have been tempted to use a few myself.

So, recently I called a hair dresser friend to get some advice because my hair was feeling dry recently. This was not something I had dealt with in the past and I was stumped. She recommended I add jojoba oil to what I put on my hair and she also recommended some other crazy thing.

I did two things. I stopped using the products I had been buying for Anna because I realized they might be drying out my hair. Then I added Jojoba oil too the bottle of organ oil that I use every morning. You know what? Within about 2 days my hair felt SO MUCH better!! I was honestly shocked!!

So I knew Jojoba was a good oil, and that I use it on my face already and trusted it. After this though, I was sold! I love jojoba!!

So here are a few other things about it that I love:

-Natural Moisturizer

-Lightweight texture

– Nurtient Dense

– Low Comedogenic Rate

– Prevents pre-mature aging

-nourishes the skalp

-great for nails and cuticles

-has anti-inflamatory effects

We use this oil in our facial Serum and in our Essential Oil Roller Bottles. I love knowing that the ingredients in our products are safe enough for me to use and my family, as well as recommending them to you!!

Meal Planning

I thought it would get easier. Well if I am confessing, I thought a lot of things would get easier!

Head-up!! Parenting teenagers is so much harder than little people and forget the whole quasi adult thing. But that is another post for another day.

I wanted to talk about meal planning. We all know it saves time and money. We know. But still meal. planning is hard because I just keep planning the same meals over and over. When my kids were little I meal prepped all the time. I even got together with a friend a couple times and we batch prepped and walked away with like 30 meals each. Other times I did a soup swap. 10 moms make 10 batches of a soup. Then we all meet up with our coolers and trade – we each go home with 10 different soups! It was awesome!

Well my kids aren’t little, and I have no excuse why meal time is still hard. But it is.

Today I spent about 2 hours prepping 21 meals. My husband does all our grocery shopping (a huge blessing) and a huge savings!! When I sent him the list he texted back that he was not getting all that. It would require 12 carts. I am not sure it did. But he made it home with just about everything. I found a list HERE of summer meals to prep for the crock pot. I was very excited, most were pretty clean and easy to make sure they were gluten-free. Many we will grill instead of crock pot.

(I did not make them all, hence my 21 meals vs. 30). But I did find another post on Pinterest for chicken marinates for the grill and I did a couple of those too.

But I am super excited, now on Sunday I will pop 3 of these guys out of the freezer and have 3 nights done. Some I will put in the crock pot in the morning, some I might instant pot, and others we will grill. The work is not the problem for me, it is the coming up with meals. So this takes care of it!

I made a binder with the recipes so I can make them again if we love them. Also so my teenage son can make them while he is house sitting this summer and know what to do. (Not that hard, dump in a crock pot, but some had sides and stuff mentioned)

Here is the counter after shopping, mostly condiments. Lots of meat in the fridge. I did use some of our own meat like goat for a few pork recipes and I will use our own beef instead of buying (since we have it).

I am super excited and I think I will do this again later this summer and certainly for the fall. I love marinating meat to grill and having so many options just ready to thaw and dump!!

Baby stepping to a Healthier Life

Getting healthy is not an overnight change. For our family it took years and lots and lots of baby steps. Today we use very few products in our home that have questionable chemicals. We have switched shampoo & conditioner, Dish soap, laundry soap, bath soap, cleaning products for every room, and of course healthier eating as well!! So baby steps are KEY to making changes. You cannot make a bunch of huge changes at once or you are liable to go crazy. So I thought I would mention one, easy change!

When we had our February freeze, I bet you were thinking the same thing I was – “yay this will kill our bugs and we will have fewer bugs this spring!”  Boy, were we wrong!  Not sure why, but the bugs did not seem to be impacted by the weather!  

There are so many ways we can make our homes healthier by replacing or swapping out a bad products for better.  This is one area that would be very easy to make a swap.  Why not find a source for a natural bug repellent?  Also you can plant herbs around your porch or in your back yard that might help lower your bug population.  For instance rosemary is a great plant to help with flea numbers.   Basil can help with flies.  Lemongrass can help with mosquitoes.  

If you are on the hunt for a bug spray that is a little safer to spray on your skin than some of the sprays in the grocery store, why not try an essential oil based spray?  Our bug spray is made with an assortment of essential oils!

Check it out in our store at www.ourmilkandhoneymeadows.com

Healthier Living Baby Steps

We all know we have a few bad habits in our lives. Many of us spent 30 days in a Whole30 challenge, but have gone back to some form of normal life. Many of us wish we exercised every day, or even once a week? And many of us know that we should pay attention to ingredients in our food or body care products, but that list is so long, and so many things I cannot even pronounce!!

Well, let me help you a bit. I am going to give you 5 easy steps you can take right now. You don’t have to take all of them at once, or maybe you only adopt 3 in the next few weeks or months. No problem! Even one step is a better step for a healthier you!

Our healthy journey is about 11 years old, and several people have been instrumental into breathing life in it. So I am not an expert, but I can share a few steps we started with and give you a bit of a jump start!

1. Think Dirty App – I would start the entire process of living a healthier life with this app. Install this app on your phone. Then take a few minutes in your kitchen or bathroom and see what items you have that you use, that are not good for you!!
2. Dish Soap – this is an important step. Whether you are washing dishes or your kids, your hands are in the soapy water and your skin is absorbing the chemicals from the soap! Who knew Dawn Dish soap was an 8 on the Think Dirty App? We have replaced it with Dr. Bronner Castile Soap – Sal Suds. I have been through a bottle since we switched and I love the smell, and it is working great!!
3. Laundry Detergent – everyone loves laundry that smells good, right? Well that smell now means to me hormone disrupters and chemicals. I hate the laundry soap aisle at the store and try to hold my breath if I have to walk down it! Again, check your app and see where you laundry detergent falls. Those chemicals get into our clothes and lay against our skin all day long! And we sleep on sheets with those same chemicals.
4. Soap – this one is obviously going to make my top 5 list! Sorry, but I have to remind you that what you wash your skin with, gets absorbed as well. When you use something like Dove Body wash, you are absorbing chemicals our body cannot process. Our Goat Milk Soap is made with not only our goat milk, but oils that are safe to eat! Lard from my tamales is the same Lard in my soap! Olive Oil is the same oil we use in the kitchen. Coconut oil, yep, its the same one too! The only thing I add that you should not eat is the Lye and the fragrance. (Note : I use Phthalate free fragrances)
5. Lastly, Cleaning Supplies! UGH. I recently learned a lot about my cleaning supplies when I hosted a Norwex party. I honestly had no idea! I will point you back to the Think Dirty App, and find your favorite cleaner and search for it. I will tell you after looking many things up, I ditched them all. My Norwex party was a miracle event for me! I replaced almost every cleaning product in my house with a norwex product that uses water. Crazy, right? Yep. And I have loved everything!! I am not a Norwex rep, although I do know a few. I love my Mop, my Envirocloth, my window cloth, and the list goes on and on.

So those are a few great first steps, then we can talk about products like deodorant! And nail polish, and so many other things. Replacing toxic items is not as hard as you might think. Just start with one, with one baby step and one product and then go from there!!