Hair Growth Tips

Hi everyone!

I had a question from a reader about my hair again. Thank you Hannah Elise for your good question on how to take care of your hair so it can grow longer. Her question was how do you get your hair to grow out and what tips do you have for doing this. I really have not been trying until a couple months back to grow my hair out. I decided over the summer I want to get my hair to be as long as it was when I donated it when I was 12 years old, which was down to my bottom.

My hair this past spring was only about shoulder length. 

My hair right now is half way down my back. So it grew a lot between last april and now. 

The first thing I would say for anyone even with straight or curly or wavy hair to eat well. If you don't eat so great all the time like me take supplements and a daily vitamin. Ever since I started doing this my hair has definitely felt healthier and looked healthier. The vitamins I take are raw vitamins from the brand Garden of life, which I buy from vitacost. Thank you to Mrs. Soderstrom for telling us about Vitacost! Its totally literally saved our lives and money. :) We buy all kinds of supplements and food products from them monthly for much cheaper than the health food store in our area.

Another thing I think works, I don't know quite yet, but I think not cutting my hair regularly has let it grow at a faster rate. I really do think that has let it grow faster. I cannot say for sure. But it sure it longer than it was last summer. When my curly hair is wet it is down to my bottom. When its curly its about half way down my back.

I would also say keeping your hair clean and moisturized helps. I always do a moisturizing treatment every 1-2 months. I use a recipe my sister found online somewhere. It includes oatstraw, olive oil, vinegar, and an egg. Ok I am pretty much into doing things natural so if you are not too keen on natural hair care then this method might not be for you. :) You can totally buy a hair moistureizing treatment from the grocery too. Its cheaper for me and better for my hair and body I think to use the raw foods to moisturize, but you be the judge of that.

My hair at the length it is currently at is half way down my back when its curly. When its wet its down to my rear end. 

Here is the recipe for this hair moisturizing treatment. I do it the evening before a day I am not going anywhere. I also do it when my family and I are not going anywhere and do not have company. The vinegar has a strong odor so its not too pleasant for people who are not used to smelling it. ;) The vinegar in this treatment makes hair shiny and darker. Lemon juice will make it lighter in color. The eggs add vitamins your hair needs to be healthy. The oils add moisture and the oat straw adds more nutrients for your hair.

Beautiful Hair Treatment
Recipe-

3/4 cup of lemon juice or vinegar ( use lemon for lighter highlights, or vinegar for red/darker highlights)
1/2 cup oat straw
2 beaten eggs
1 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil or mayonnaise (optional)

(I would only use olive oil on hair that is dry like curly hair. My sister Bethany does not use it because her hair tends to be oily and therefore it makes the oil worse. I have never tried mayonnaise on my hair and probably never will as its eggs too.)

Directions-

1. In a small pot, mix the lemon or vinegar with your oat straw. Heat the mixture on the stove for 5 minutes and don't let it boil.

2. Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes, and mix 2 beaten eggs. For those of you with dry hair, add the 2 tablespoons of olive oil or mayonnaise. a bit of lavender or rosemary ground into powder can also be added to the treatment at this time to give it a faint, pleasant scent.

3. Grab a plastic grocery bag and a damp warm towel first before you apply your treatment! I have made this mistake of forgetting to get them before my hands are covered in the goop. :) Apply the treatment to your hair, ensuring you cover the most damaged parts such as your ends. Keep mixture warm by placing a plastic baag over your hair, and wrapping a warm, damp towel around your head.

4. Leave it on for 45 minutes or so ( the longer the better). As the towel cools, you can warm it up again to get the most out of the treatment.

5. Without shampooing, rinse your hair, and let air dry. use shampoo the following day. However, if you added the oil or may, you may want to shampoo before bedtime to avoid staining your bedding. ( I always shampoo after doing the treatment.)

My treatment lasts me about 2 months, so I like to do it every other month.

I hope this post was helpful and informative. If you have any tips for how to keep your hair healthy and growing longer comment below.

God bless,
Rebecca

A Birthday Alternative to Cake (tart!)

Hey Ya'll! 

My sister Bethany had a birthday in September and I decided to make her a gluten free and sugar free alternative to a birthday cake. I thought to myself what would sound good and taste yummy for a b-day celebration that was just as good as cake? 

Then the idea came to my head, why not do a fruit pudding tart?! I had always dreamed of making some small personal tarts for myself and friends and family, but there was never an occasion. Now was my chance.

So I went to the dictionary/resource of all resources Google. :) I Googled fruit tart and up came this lovely blog. Then I wanted to do an arrangement of fruit on top that was different than her lovely tart. It was pretty, but I did not have raspberries and I wanted to use the fruit we had in the freezer and fridge.  I wanted to be frugal and not have to go to the grocery to buy anything and I did not have to.

So once again I went to Mr. Google and found some fun pictures for inspiration. Yes I know I should start using Pinterest and I might have found something even more epic, but alas I do not want to succumb myself to the temptation to be addicted to that lovely attraction. Although it sounds lovely, it could turn into a not so lovely addiction for me. ;) I regress.

Anyways, so I found this, this , this, this, and this to be very inspiring and helpful in figuring what design I wanted to do with the fruit I already had available.

Here are a few pictures of the 3 different tarts I made over the course of two different days of celebrating.

My dad even thought they were delicious and so did the birthday gal and my mother. We were all happy even without sugar or wheat in there. It was still tasty with a little honey in the vanilla pudding I made from scratch that filled the middle.

I used the crust recipe from the Gluten free fix blog and I used the Creamy vanilla pudding recipe from the Heavenly Homemakers blog. Both are so so so yummy! I substituted the almond meal flour in the crust for raw almonds, which I just chopped up into fine flour in our Vitamix. I also substituted honey instead of sucanat in the pudding since we are doing sugar free tarts. You really should make them sometime with or without the sugar. ;)

I hope you all are having a lovely day! And just to be honest this is the first day in quite sometime I have gotten up when its still dark outside to start my day and I am very excited about all the things I have gotten accomplished before 10am. ;) Am I the only one who has had a hard time getting into a good morning routine of getting up early? Its only by Gods grace and help I was able to. Praise the Lord for His help!

God bless,

Rebecca

Super Natural Everyday

Hey everyone,

I know I have been in a blogging slump for a while not really knowing what to post about since so much is going on and its hard to choose a topic to post about. I thought why not talk about something I enjoy, cooking and baking! :)

I have rediscovered the book Super Natural Everday Day by Heidi Swanson as I looked around the kitchen for some new ideas of what to eat for breakfasts and lunch. Today I made a favorite of mine from her book called the Open Face Egg salad sandwhich. I will share with you my version of this wonderful idea. When you have tons of eggs as we do right now they need to be used in the best ways possible and I believe that means, scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, egg salad and much more. :)

My recipe for Egg Salad

6 brown eggs
2 tablespoons dried or fresh chives for color
1/2 mayo (homemade if desired)
1/2 teaspoon of salt

I boil my eggs for 10 minutes and then I put them immediately into a bowl of ice cold water. Then I let them sit for 10 more minutes to cool down. Then I peal my eggs carefully and then I rinse all the little tiny egg shell peices off of them. Then I mash the eggs in a bowl and add my mayo, chives, and salt. Sometimes I do not add salt depending on how it tastes.
I love to put my egg salad on a nice peice of whole wheat honey bread I have made or on crackers. Its even good on pita or by itself. Whatever you have on hand use it. Lots of recipes for egg salad add lots of different things I did not have, so I have concocted this version that is easy and with things I had on hand.

I also tried her really yummy millet whole wheat muffins last week and was pleasantly surprised. I can't share the recipe with you, but I will share photos. :)

I put them with yummy scrambled eggs done in my good old cast iron skillet and some purple grapes. My sister, mother and I loved them with butter on top. So if you want healthy cookbook that is also full of deliciousness get Heidi's book Super Natural Everday. I guess I sound like a commercial, but its so great. :)

Have a great rest of your Tuesday everyone!
In Christ,
Rebecca

A Belated Merry Christmas

Hello everyone!

Merry Christmas 3 days late! I hope your Christmas Spirit filled and once again you all realized as I did the need for the real meaning of Christmas to be preached, Jesus Christ was born to die for us!

My family and I had a quiet Christmas, just the four of us together. It was lovely! Here are a few photos of Christmas morning and Christmas day.

 As is tradition in our home, my mother and I made monkey bread for breakfast Christmas morning. She did most of work getting up real early to get it together and I just put sugar all over the dough and put it into the pan and she put it into the oven. She also made a breakfast casserole pictured below that morning. Its also traditon for us to eat this dish Christmas morning.

 " The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known."

(John 1:9-18 ESV)

 Then for lunch mother also made enchilladas and mexican rice and Beth and I put together a fruit plate. I love all the colors!

 Here are a few pictures of our home. I am not sure I have shared what it looks like really. But here is the kitchen and living room where we spend most of our days. Mom puts all the Christmas cards around the doors to decorate every year as is another Christmas tradition of ours.

 We decided to not go through all the trouble of having a huge tree this year and we got a nice small one. Mom put it atop the piano and we were all pleased. We decorated our tree 1860s style with period ornaments we had made at living history events. So this year we had a historical tree. :)

And lastly here is the rest of the kitchen where we made cookies and all the Christmas food this year as we do every year. I love how the sunlight always pours into the kitchen each day. Praise the Lord for another year almost done! I have been pondering as of late how time is so short and how God is still faithful no matter what. Praise God for Jesus His Son coming to earth that we might be saved. John chapter 1 is a favorite chapter of mine lately and I posted if above for you all.

Merry Christmas and God bless all of you!
In Christ,
Rebecca

A view into my day

Hi everyone!

I have been sorting through photos from the past 4 months June through September and realized I have some catching up to do. So from now on I will try and post a few times a week until I can catch up on all that you all have missed. :)

For today here are some photos of one of days this past week. I had seen another lovely blogger Miss Linda do this and I enjoyed seeing what her day was like. So here is a sort of diary of my life on a typical day.

I forgot to get more photos in the evening so you will have to be content with just commentary. :)

 

In the morning I love to get out of "photo album" which I have turned into a memory verse card holder. I put all of verses in there I want to memorize on index cards. I have to say that I have not been doing this lately, but I have been going over verses I have memorized in the past in the mornings. This method is handy to bring with you anywhere as well!

" So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of Wisdom."-Psalm 90

I have been reminded more and more by the Lord and friends and my family that we need to remember that this life is but a vapor and so short. The Lord is at hand and He is coming again soon. Its reminded me as well to get a heart of wisdom, but not earthly wisdom that comes from myself or others, but the wisdom of the Lord.

Then I glanced over at my dresser and realized even more that I am an adult now and really have grown in the past year. I have the responsibility of getting things from the store for my mom by driving. I also have a cell phone of my own now, it updated this of the weather before I started my Bible study. Its a great feature as I am always wondering about the weather.

The red journal underneath my phone is my prayer/Bible study journal which I use each morning to write down verses I am memorizing or really want to ponder throughout the day. I have always had a journal ever since I was 13 I guess and now I love writing in them. I hope someday my children and their children will be able to glean some wisdom from the Lord from my scribbling. :)

Acts 18:9-10 " Do not be afraid but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." 

Then I studied chapter 18 in Acts and chapter 19, I have been just really loving reading Acts. Its so encouraging and challenging!
In chapter 18, Paul was afraid to share the Gospel for fear he would be abused and persecuted again, but God said to him in a vision do not fear! How much more then should we not fear as we are not getting beaten and put in prision in the US as Paul was in Rome and other provinces. The Lord has shown me more and more that I need to share the Gospel because the days are coming when the Lord will come again. We should not hide and not tell of the hope that is in us. I must say many a time I do not share the Gospel because I am afraid, but God says do not be afraid, and we have many Christians in our cities in the US, probably more than Paul had, but he still preached the Gospel. How much more should we? These were my thoughts all day yesterday.  I felt as though I really have not been doing what I should do as a christian, I have felt as though I have not verbally shared the Good News enough.

Then I also read from Psalms 92:4-5 " For You Oh Lord have made me glad by your works; at the works of your hands I sing for joy. How great are you works Oh Lord! Your thoughts are so deep."


I read this and remembered that yes I should be joyful always because My God's works are so so great! His thoughts are so deep, too deep for me even to understand, but He wants me! His steadfast love never ever wavers for me His child. He loves me with a love no one else can ever love me with! That is a promised hope, its not a hope that is unsure, its sure!! My God loves me with a steadfast love. He will never forsake His bride!

Then I went on a run, I tend to pray while I run now. I used to listen to my ipod, but it has basically died. So now I use the time to pray and remember my God who is always with me. I feel more at peace this way and remember that He will protect me while I run through the neighborhood. Yes I do wear pants when I run, I have found its easier and warmer in the winter months. I could wear a skirt, but it gets in my way, so pants it is. I wear loose sweat pants, not so pretty, but warm and great for exercise. I have been convicted by the Lord in the past few years that its definitely not a sin to wear pants and for some things its necessary.

When I came in from my run I was cold, but at the same time hot, I hate that. But it was worth it to get a good 30 minutes of exercise. I love earl grey tea, ever since I went to England in 2009 with my sister and Jennie Chancey on the England tour I have fallen in love with the taste of tea. I have it most every day in the fall and winter months. Earl grey is my favorite type!

For my early meal I wanted some scrambled eggs made in my cast iron skillet, but I had neglected to clean it the previous day. So I thought I would do a little tutorial on how to clean your cast iron in this post. Yes this post will be a little long. :)

I clean my cast iron with sea salt, I was actually reading a magazine called Reminisce and it has stories and things that lots of elderly people send in about how they lived in the 30s-70s when they were children and young people. One lady did an article about cast iron and I tried what she said to do, which is use no soap or water to clean your cast iron! I had never heard of this, I was always using water, but no soap with a scrubber to clean it. But she said that salt has properties that are great for cleaning, so its great for clean cast iron.

So what I do is I get a dry paper towel, pour some sea salt in the dirty pan and scrub. If you have a lot of stuff that is stuck on use some sort of scrubber to get it off, but no water or soap, just the sea salt.

And here you have it! I beautiful and clean cast iron pan. :) Not using water or soap helps it to stay smooth and that way you have an anti stick coating on your pans. Its lovely isn't it! :) Cast iron just is so fun to me! I love using it and taking care of it. :)

Now if you are not going to use your cast iron pan after you clean it up, then re-season it, this means re-oiling it. I use coconut oil to oil my pans, but you can also use canola oil or vegetable oil. But coconut oil is the best I believe health wise. We only buy extra virgin, here a photos below. :)

We get it in a huge bucket way bigger than the one in the photo. We use this little bucket for storing small amounts in the house. We store all of our bulk foods in our garage. If you want to know more about getting different whole grains and other organic foods in bulk shoot me an email here- ra.stricker@gmail.com

I only use about half a teaspoon full of the coconut oil and then you melt it in the pan. Its a solid at room temps, but is a liquid at higher temps.

Here is photo of what the coconut oil does when it melts, it was hard to get a photo for some reason. But its basically a clear liquid. Then you can whatever you want, I did eggs.
My tea and my bread and eggs, yummy! Then I practiced piano for church on sunday, I am one of the pianists for the services at our church. I did not get photos of that, but I did get photos of my music for my voice practicing and from my lesson. I had to drive to my lesson as well, so I listened to my favorite group Selah in the car.

Above, on of the songs I am studying for my college vocal lessons. Its so beautiful! This song can be found in the Celtic Woman songbook. Its my favorite song I am learning right now.
Here are some photos from my lesson, the exercises I must do daily to become a better singer. They are difficult, but fun! :)

 These are from the Little Book Cocone exercise book. I also do the Big Book Cocone exercises as well. I have also been using Italian Arias as well to sing the song Alma Del Core, which is my most difficult exercise right now I believe! There are some high notes in it. :)

This one is my favorite I believe because its easier than number 8! Its funny that 8 is harder than number 9 for me. :)

I always write out a to-do list for each day or else I am lost not remembering what I need to do.

 After I do some more things on my to-do list I read this lovely book Womanly Dominion. Its so good!!! I can't put it down, its so good. I read about Abigail and how she was a woman who did not just sit and knit she was intentional for the Lord. She did not say oh the Lord will do that, she got up and moved in order for the Lord to do what He wanted to do in her life. We as women should not just be sitting around we need to be active in our faith pursuing God's will for our lives!

I also uploaded this wonderful program to my parents computer, because the family computer is right next to the piano. So I can just scoot on over to the computer and type of the music after I compose it. I believe this will be better than having to go up to my room upstairs when I have a tune that needs to be written up. So I uploaded that before I went to my lesson and after I did some music practicing and reading. I also heaped up more compost outside and remembered the gardens need tending today. Then I helped with some more chores in the house before leaving for my vocal lesson.

 My sister made us all chocolate milkshakes after dinner. It was so yummy!

In the evening Dad taught us from the WORD from Ecclesiastes and I learned a lot. I wore those earrings as well.

I changed into my princess night gown I call it since it has elaborate embroidery all over it and its red.

I did some knitting on my nubia which is a type of scarf they wore in the civil war in the fall/winter months. We have a reenactment in a week or so and I want to get it finished in time. I do that while we watched The Polar Bear king, a great movie from my childhood. It was instant on netflix which is always a plus not having to wait for it to come in the mail. My sister did some sewing a civil war dress she is sewing for a customer and my mom watched as well. Then we all went to bed. So that was my day! Sorry this is so long, but I thought it would be fun to give you glimpse into my day. :)

In Christ,
Rebecca

Sue Gregg cookbook booth

Hi everyone! My family and I started doing the Sue Gregg booth at our local homeschool convention last year and we did it again this past weekend. If you have not heard of Sue Gregg you can see her website here-www.suegregg.com 

The basic idea of her books is that you can use whole foods and whole grains in place of processed white flour and sugar and other ingredients that are not as healthy even if you are on a budget. She has menu plans by month and many recipes and tips on using whole foods and grains in your cooking and baking.

My sister managed the booth this year and we were so suprised that setting up the booth only took us 45 minutes! Compared to last year taking us 3 hours!! Praise God we have a better idea now how to set up and tear down the booth efficiently! thank you to all the sue gregg volunteers! We could have not done it without you and thank you to all the eager people at the convention that were eager to learn about a new way to view food. :)

In Christ,
Rebecca

Farmers and Food Rights Rally

 Hey friends! I just wanted to share a bit about my day today. It was quite lovely! I have really been pondering, praying, and contemplating food and where our food comes from lately and how we should be eating healthy food that is not covered in pesticides and other stuff that is not God made. :) Some friends of mine told us about a rally in D.C. that was this morning and we decided to attend. It was all about food and farmers rights and how the FDA is not letting us have our liberty and freedom to choose to have unpasteurized milk among other things.Two lovely friends of mine who attended the rally with myself and my mother above.

Yes they even brought in a cow from a local farm near D.C. to prove the point all the more that cows that are being treated well and are grass fed produce yummy milk.

I loved these signs this family made! Why is alchohol and tabacco consumption legal, but having raw milk is not?!! I don't believe that its right for us americans who are supposed to have the liberty cannot consume food that is good for us!

My family and I have also enjoyed The Nourishing Tradtions cookbook for the past year. We were able to hear the author Sally speak about the benefits of non pasteurized milk. We were also able to hear other speakers as well talk about our right to liberty and how we should have the freedom to legally consume foods that are nutritional! Why is junk food legally sold and it is not even nutritionally good for the human body?!

All the Moms and their children that attended above and below, it was great to see families, fathers and mothers and their children come to the rally together! How wonderful to see the generations young and old wanting to support liberty and the freedom of speech.

I hope you all's day was also lovely! I ended my day with watching Food Inc. and I would recommend this movie! If you have netflix it is up for instant streaming! It was also a day for me of pondering really where our foods come from and my sister and mother and father and I have seen it confirmed that growing our own food and tryign to buy locally is definately becoming a bigger priority for us!

Do any of you garden or buy from local farmers for your own food? Have you all ever attended a rally before?! I had not! I am just starting to really ponder about all this food stuff. But I have been gardening for about 3 years now and trying to eat better food for much longer. But I had never realized how the FDA is trying to prevent americans from freedom of choice for healthy foods!

On another note, today was also a great day for me because my two friends and I and my Mom were able to share the Gospel today. We were able to share with many at the Rally that we were not there just because we believe eating natural foods is good for our health and the world. We believe that since God provided us with these foods we should be using the foods He provides knowing the food is from Him and Him alone and not man.If you get my drift.

We were also getting onto the metro to go home and a lady said to us, " I know you gals, your amish!" I was a little taken a back for a second, but as I had kept on walking I stopped and said, " No we are not amish, we are Christians and we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior!" Then the lady responded, " Oh I like that, thats nice." And we had been walking to get onto the escalator as she replied. Then I smiled and said to my mom and friends, " do we really look amish?" Then we all discussed this for a while and came to the conclusion the lady was just trying to get our attention so she could give us her flyer, but that what a great ministry opportunity it is when you dress differently from the world. People notice and then you can share why you dress differently! Praise God He can be a light through us even in the small way of dressing in a feminine way. :) That made my day!
In Christ,
Rebecca