"What do you think changed?"

Since announcing my pregnancy back in December I've had a lot of people ask me, "What do you think it was that changed?" and every variation of that question you can imagine. Some people are just curious for the sake of curiosity. Others want to know because they have a friend struggling with infertility and when you or someone you love is in the midst of that struggle you will grasp at anything that offers even the slightest glimmer of hope. Some want to tuck the information away in their own minds in case they someday face this heartbreaking trial. Some already are in the middle of that pain. After 3+ miscarriages, followed by years of not conceiving, totally in 5 1/2 years of days and nights of praying fervently that God would someday bless us with a child we could actually hold in our arms, the question really feels so... big.

Ultimately, we know that it was God. All God. Nothing but God and His infinite wisdom and knowledge and perfect timing. Could He have given us a child sooner? Sure. Did He? No. Why? No clue! But that's okay, because God knows. And God is the author and creator of all things, and I would rather be in His will, pain and all, than outside of it. I won't pretend it didn't hurt. I won't say that all those days and nights, I didn't sometimes question His will. His timing. Or even His love for me. I did. There were times when I would cry so hard I couldn't even ask the question, but He knew. There were times when all I could do is cry, and ask, "Why, Lord? WHY?!" Because it just hurt so bad. There are days when I sit here, thinking about my tiny baby growing now inside my womb after so many prayers and tears and high hopes followed by broken dreams, and I can't help but turn my thoughts towards my dear friends and even women I don't know at all who are still in that struggle. I know I can't make it okay. I can't take away the pain, or give you the child you so desperately long for. But I can give you my prayers. And I can tell you that if it is part of God's plan for you to have that precious little one in your future, while the in between time is hard, it is worth the wait. And suddenly, when it does happen, you realize that right now was the right time. Not before. God always has the best plans, and sometimes His plans hurt a little, sometimes a lot. But He always loves us. Always does everything for a reason, whether we see it right away or not.

I know even that isn't always as encouraging as we'd like it to be though, when you're at your lowest. You can tell yourself in your head it's all true, and good, but when you're in those darkest moments, it still hurts more than you can say.

Doing something about it isn't always the answer, and I can't say I have a magic bullet that will work for everyone. But I'd like to tell you a little bit about some of the things we were doing in the months leading up to this precious little one, and hopefully someone somewhere will benefit from this information.

1.) Have you considered the possibility of having a methylation defect? A significant portion of the population (somewhere between 40-60%) does have some form of this genetic defect (my husband and I both have it), which causes the body to not be able to convert folic acid into methylfolate. Without that conversion, your body will be severely lacking in the very important methyfolate and all the supplementing in the world won't help, because almost all prenatal vitamins and other supplements are the synthetic folic acid instead of folate. Over time this can wreck havoc with your fertility, causing miscarriage, and eventually often progressing to no longer being able to conceive at all. It causes other problems, too, including decreased detox capabilities, which can also cause a host of problems, so whether you're trying to get pregnant or not, or are even female or not, doing something to correct this defect is ideal.

So what can you do to correct it? Fortunately, correcting this particular gene defect is pretty easy! You just have to take pre-methylated folate! But be careful; you don't want to just take folate without adequate levels of B-12 beforehand or you can make things worse. Ideally, consult a healthcare provider familiar with methylation defect in order to best go about correcting this condition.

In my case, it was January of 2013 when we began to seriously consider the fact that I likely had at least some degree of methylation defect. I had some of the signs that indicate methylation defect (midline defects such as lip and tongue tie, for example were my primary signs aside from infertility. Other signs include things like sacral dimples, and certain heart conditions) and some of those signs also ran in my family. David had started looking into the issue before I did but once I started digging into it myself I remember calling him one day when he was out somewhere, very excited, doing that whole familiar, "I think this might be it!" thing. Before the month was out, he had me start on a supplementation protocol. After already dealing with infertility for years at this point I was rather impatient. I took my supplements daily for the first 3-4 months and then slacked off a little. I continued to take them at least a few times every week though, "just in case" -- though emotionally I had given up on the idea that that would help after the first few months. See what I mean about impatient? It is a problem that took years to develop; I shouldn't have expected it to fix things overnight!

2.) We seriously addressed my adrenal fatigue, and not a moment too soon, as testing revealed that I was on the cusp of falling into stage 3 adrenal fatigue! We took a few months off from trying to get pregnant so I could take some supplements that are great for adrenal fatigue, but are contraindicated if pregnant or trying to conceive. Adrenal fatigue can play a significant role in fertility problems as the adrenals are key in hormone production. If you're chronically stressed (and remember, stress comes in MANY forms; just because you love your job does not mean you are not stressed in some way), you'll eventually begin to burn out your adrenals. Your body will then start to express this in the form of a hormone disruption called "pregnenalone steal". For one thing, this means your body will start converting your progesterone into cortisol to try to make you feel better, instead of letting the progesterone do it's job of creating a good environment for implantation to occur, and support a pregnancy if fertilization is successful.

 So how do I fix this? Do some research, look up "adrenal fatigue + infertility" or "pregnanalone steal + infertility" or something along those lines and you'll find a lot of information about this problem. Of course, I cannot vouch for the information you find or the suggested methods of treatment -- like so many things when it comes to our health, a lot of people have an overly simplistic view of things and as a result may not treat adrenal fatigue properly; for your best bet, look for a healthcare provider with a good track record with adrenal fatigue, and ideally, someone who is familiar with the Kalish Method!

Here is a quick little image to show you how what this hormone cascade looks like:

For me, we went with a simple version of what my naturopathic doctor (husband!) has learned from Dr. Kalish. We didn't do it for very long, but I felt a positive change in my overall well-being, and I'm sure a few more months on the protocol would have been ideal! However, God had other plans for me and I got pregnant while on the protocol, so we had to halt it entirely for now. Most likely I'll go back on some other variation of an adrenal support protocol after the baby, though it will be pretty limited since a lot of the good herbs for adrenal support are contraindicated during breastfeeding.

So while this is by no means an exhaustive list of everything we tried (ha ha ha!), it is the two things that we believe were the most likely to have been God's tools in bringing about our precious little baby! Also consider looking into myo-inositol (and be specific, don't just look into "inositol" -- they are different) which is great for ovarian health, and if you have any reason at all to believe you may have PCOS (being overweight is not required, even though that's often the picture presented of women with PCOS), look into some simple things like spearmint tea to help lower your androgens. Also consider looking into Protandim, if you're infertility is unexplained, or suspected to be due to age related factors. There are no guarantees, but things like high oxidative stress can play a role in all kinds of disease and conditions, and for $50/mo, it's worth a try. It wasn't "the thing" for me, but I have heard testimonials from couples where it was.        

Soup, Summer, Surprise!

Okay, several topics for today.

First off, SOUP. For Christmas my in-laws gave us a Vitamix blender. The funny thing is, my parents did, too. I guess it was just in the air! But we are returning the one from my folks and got a super fun replacement gift already! I'm getting a tad bit distracted though. The point is we got a Vitamix blender. So now we can BLEND ALL THE THINGS!!!!!

The thing I was most excited about was making broccoli soup like my mom makes with her Vitamix. I tried with my regular blender once. IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS SOUP WITH A REGULAR BLENDER. Trust me, I thought it could work but you simply must have a very high quality blender like the Vitamix in order to really puree the soup. Otherwise you end up with chunky, watery soup with a horrific texture. Just don't even try. Don't.

So the first thing I did with the blender (after David made a protein shake) was make the beloved broccoli soup! This is the only picture I took of it though before we ate it all up. Yum, yum! This is definitely something I will be making over and over and over again.

Then today I tried cauliflower soup, and it too was amazing. I am in love. With soup. Sprinkled with a bit of cayenne it was amazing. I wouldn't want to put any meat or anything into it because it seems gross to puree the meat, but it also seems to me that it would be gross to have such a nice smooth, creamy soup, with random chunks of meat in it. No, this soup should be left entirely alone. It is food perfection.
 

I'm sure now you'd like to try this amazing soup with all this talk of perfection. It makes getting your veggies in really easy, too, as a serving is about 1/4lb of either broccoli or cauliflower. Talk about healthy! So without further adieu, I give you

Broccoli or Cauliflower Soup

 Yield: 4 servings

1 lb broccoli or cauliflower, frozen or fresh (I find frozen easier just because it's pre-chopped but still very inexpensive! I get 1lb frozen broccoli for $0.98)

1 tablespoon butter

Water

Salt

Pepper

Garlic (optional)

Notice the overall lack of measurements? Don't let it scare you if you're a strict recipe follower. I promise this is easy enough without exact measures! 

In a medium saucepan steam, or boil veggies until tender. If boiled, drain (but retain!) the water. Dump your broccoli/cauliflower into the blender, add 1 tablespoon of butter, salt, and pepper, with enough water for the veggies to blend. Add more water as desired until you achieve the thickness (or thinness) you prefer! I like mine thick and add as little water as possible. Add more salt and pepper to taste (I'd guess I add around a teaspoon of salt to mine). 

For the garlic I peeled 4 large cloves and tossed them in the pot with the cauliflower to boil. Easy peasy. But if you don't like garlic (sadness!) you can leave it out. But that will make me sad if you do, so don't tell me you did that. 

See? That's literally all there is to it! My mom has tried it with chicken broth instead of water, and adding some heavy cream to it, but I really like it simple like this. It's easy and cheap! I like the butter for flavor, but also because the fat helps your body to absorb the nutrients in the veggies better! So you really don't want to omit the butter. If you don't have butter, olive oil, coconut oil, or other healthy oils can be substituted just fine! 

Now SUMMER and SURPRISE! 

Am I the only one already excited for summer to hurry up and come? I want the blue skies, the green grass, the hours spent in my garden with my hands in the dirt and the sun on my back! The shorts and the tank tops. I am already working on plans for the garden this year and can hardly contain the excitement! I'm going to be adding a fence this year, because my free-range chickens have discovered tomatoes. That would be not good. So it will cost a bit more this year, but it will be worth it -- it will give me plenty of space for cucumbers and other climbing things! Now I have to admit, I have an extra special reason for wanting summer this year. The best reason! That is that I'm going to have a baby this summer! WAHOO!

I have never really mentioned it specifically on my blog partially since it is a public blog I never really felt like being that open, but we've had fertility problems since we got married. In the first 12 months of our marriage I got pregnant 3 times (possibly more) only to miscarry every time. After trying to improve my health for over a year after that, we started trying again and for over 2 years, nothing. Then we started seeing a specialist in June and still nothing. But after a total of 5 1/2  really difficult years, we were overwhelmed with the wonderful (and totally unexpected!) blessing of a positive pregnancy test a few days before Christmas! It was the most awesome gift of all, to be sure. Thrilled doesn't begin to describe my feelings. But it's a scary time, too, because of my history. So we're trying hard to take it all one day at a time, and just be thankful for every moment that we have with this precious little baby. Things seem to be going well though, and for that I am so, so very thankful. I am 6 weeks along now, so it's my 2nd longest pregnancy to date thus far. We're praying fervently of course that it ends up the longest of all, with a healthy, happy baby at the end of it! Oh and for the record (because I know some of you will think it!) we were on break from the specialist for Nov/Dec, so no higher-than-average chance of multiples. ;)  

Salted Christmas Crack

While I typically try to focus my blog posts mostly on natural/diy/self-sufficiency subjects, or sharing recipes that are for. .. you know, fish soup or beef liver, the holidays are always a fun excuse to throw caution to the wind -- eat some sugar, and maybe even some gluten-grains if it doesn't make your stomach blow-up or your skin break out. Ha!

Since gluten-grains don't have any obvious negative side-effects on me or my husband, we do allow ourselves treats during the holidays, though we still try to keep them minimal throughout most of the season, really up until the actual week of Christmas when we generally allow ourselves to eat whatever whenever.

This week though I desperately wanted some Christmas goodies! Half for the taste (DUH), and half for the experience of getting to do a little bit of holiday baking. So I thought about the few "bad" ingredients I have picked up over the last couple weeks in anticipation of this very moment, trying to think of what treat sounded best. Ah! Saltine Cracker Toffee, I tell myself. But of course, I have no saltine crackers in the house (What my brain thought it was doing including ingredients I didn't have, I'll never know when I told it to consider what I did have -- my mind has a mind of it's own. Uh, creepy.). Never one to shy away from a recipe due to missing even a main ingredient, I looked through my cupboard to see what I could substitute. Oatmeal! Yesssss. This will work just fine. So I set to work. I'll show you the end product now, because being the lazy blogger that I am (and anxious to just EAT IT) I forgot to take pictures until practically the end:

Now you REALLY want it, don't you? Alright. So I won't be one of the recipe bloggers that writes a whole book before getting to the actual recipe. I hate that. It usually makes me look elsewhere for a recipe (laziness again? Oh brother!). The only thing I will add at this point is that you could substitute SO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS for the oats I used. Saltine crackers. Gluten-free crackers. Crushed pretzels. Cornflakes. Chopped nuts. Coconut. Toasted coconut. You could probably even leave the toffee portion plain and it would still taste amazing. Just a little less amazing. I am partial to the Saltines though because they give it such a great texture and flavor. 

Christmas Crack

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

 Oats/crackers/whatever filling (I used two big handfuls of oats; don't you like my measuring method? It's all about laziness and quick clean up -- easier to brush my hands on a kitchen towel than to wash a measuring cup)

1/4 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet would be best but all I had was milk chocolate)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Cayenne pepper (optional)

Margarita salt (optional)


Preheat oven to 400°F.

Set aside an 8X8 glass pan, or any other similarly sized bakeware. In a small saucepan combine butter and brown sugar over medium heat. Allow to come to a slow/med boil and continue to boil, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Remove from heat, add vanilla and a very small sprinkle cayenne. Very small. You don't want the end product actually tasting spicy. But trust me, a teensy bit of heat just kind of enhances the flavors (I can't make chocolate anything without a sprinkle of cayenne or chili powder -- please don't start calling me Jesse, please!). Add the mix-in of your choice, stir until well coated and spread on the bottom of an 8X8 pan. Place in 400° oven for approximately 5 minutes or until the mixture is bubbly all over. Remove from oven and allow to sit approximately 3 minutes to cool slightly. Sprinkle with chocolate chips while still warm, allowing it to sit for another 3-5 minutes or until chocolate chips are nice and gooey. Gently spread melted chips over top of the toffee. Sprinkle generously with margarita salt (unless you used a salty filling like Saltines or pretzels). 

Similar recipes call for a lot more chocolate (like an entire cup), but it's already so very sweet due to all the brown sugar that I like it with less chocolate like this. Which is saying something because I'm a choco-holic. Feel free of course to add more if you so desire! Allow the candy cool completely before cutting or it will fall apart. 

Now is the hardest part of all. Try not to eat the entire pan in one day. Good luck! You're going to need it. 

Changin'

So for a long, long, looooong time I had been seriously contemplating cutting my hair. Not a trim. Not a few inches, even. But like, seriously whacking most of it off. I had been growing it out, and was close to my favorite length, which is just below the bra strap. But for a variety of reasons, I felt it was time to let go of the hair. The security blanket. If I only feel pretty or feminine with long hair maybe I need to get rid of it in order to gain more self-confidence. Which, yes, I need.  Not sure how obvious that is or isn't to those who spend face-to-face time with me but it's something I've struggled with my whole life. I've improved some in the last few years but it's still something I'm working on. And really what adult woman wants to feel like it's only her hair that makes her attractive? That's not right. Not biblical. Our beauty and worth comes from so much more than hair! I know the whole hair-is-your-glory thing, but I don't think that means you have to have waist long hair.  So I cut mine. Especially considering my hair is not super-anything. It was just average-ish. My hair isn't thin, but it is fine, which makes it look thinner than it actually is at times because it doesn't have a lot of body (except if I let it air dry but that takes FOREVER so I rarely do) due to the silkiness, and I just never felt confident that I had "good enough" hair to keep it long, even though I almost always did have it long (even as a child I never wanted to cut my hair short, except for that one time when I decided I wanted to look like Marty Stouffer from "Wild America" and how else could I get a beard and mustache if I didn't cut off my hair? He is 65 now, btw. Whaaaa?!).

There were Other Things that factored strongly into my decision to make the cut. But I won't get into that stuff because I don't wanna.

So here is the old look (yes, looking at this picture DOES make me miss my longer hair, but I have to remind myself that that was a particularly good hair day; who does profile pictures on bad hair days?):

And here is the new look (although this is not the best photo, lighting-wise): 

So there you go. I whacked off my hair and so far I don't regret it. Oh yeah, see the "diy" label? Yup, did it myself, and I somehow (miraculously) got it even!

Fish Soup

Fish soup. It's something I have meant to make for a long time. I am not a huge fan of soup unless I can have it with a giant hunk of warm, crusty sourdough bread (waaah! Sometimes I miss the days when I thought wheat was a health food!), but I loooooove, love, love me some fish! Plus I am always on the lookout for ways to up the ante on nutrient density since our grocery budget is small. Anything that packs a big nutritional punch is worth trying at least once in my mind as long as it's also pretty inexpensive! Enter fish soup! I  used a pre-packaged fish stock, but if you can get your hands on some fish bones and skins and make your own then all the better! The one I found (50% off at Walmart) was high quality though with no unnecessary additives or colors or anything like that. Just fish and veggies went into making that stock! It was very mildly fishy, too, which I appreciated. I'm a huge seafood freak but I  still don't like for fish to taste super fishy.

Sorry I have turned into a phone-photographer. It's a horribly hard habit to break!

Fish has been getting a bad rap lately due to the continuing problem with radiation leaking from Fukushima. But it's really being overblown by the media and scaring people away from something that is still safe and healthy to eat. Here is a good article explaining why it's nothing to be afraid of Fukushima Radiation: Is It Still Safe To Eat Fish?

Like most of the food I make, I didn't use a recipe. I looked at a few to get some ideas but mostly just went with what "felt" right to me. 'Cuz that's how I roll. 

Also you can thicken more "traditionally" with flour if you like, but I wanted this soup to be only moderately creamy, hence the small amount of sour cream and potato starch (plus the whole no-grain thing, you know).

Fish Soup

Makes 4 servings

1 quart fish stock (vegetable or chicken stock would probably be a fine substitute)

1 cup milk*

2 tablespoons sour cream

Lemon juice

Approximately 1 lb mild, white fish (I used 4 whiting fillets) 

2 small-med potatoes, peeled and diced

1 stalk of celery, chopped (I chopped mine into large pieces but it would have been better with small ones)

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

1 small onion, diced

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

2-4 tbsp butter

1 tbsp potato starch

garlic salt

sea salt

pepper

cayenne pepper

Combine stock, milk, sour cream, and a splash of lemon juice in a small soup pot. Heat to medium-high heat. Meanwhile, add butter to a skillet with potatoes and cook until lightly golden. Add carrots and continue to cook until they are also lightly golden. Add celery and onion and cook until onion is clear. Add cooked veggies to your soup pot then return the skillet to the burner and toss in the garlic, sauteeing just a moment or two. Add to soup. Add garlic salt, salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste (I like to taste the spiciness of the cayenne without it being really obvious). In a small bowl or cup add potato starch and a little water. Add to the soup and bring to a slow boil. Dice fish into 1-2 inch pieces, add to soup pot and boil approximately 10 minutes. Remove from burner and enjoy! 

P.S. I think a little Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top would be the bees knees! 

*almond milk, half & half, or whatever your preferred "milk" is (heavy cream would be delicious, too, I'm just too tight with my budget to use an entire cup for anything outside of special occasions!)

Soap Recipes Reviewed

So this week was the week for soap. I ran out of both laundry soap and dish soap at almost the same time. I'm always interested in trying new, cheaper options for such things, and I thought it high time I actually attempt the laundry and dish soap deal, since everybody seems to rave about it so much!

Sadly, I have no pictures of either soap being made. You'll just have to use your little imaginations this time!

Dish Soap
Pros and Cons?

Yes, the soap gets sudsy.

Yes, it smells fabulous (lemon & eucalyptus, people!).

No, it doesn't leave any streaky, sticky, or smelly residue like I've read so many people complain about with homemade dish soap.

No, it doesn't dry out my hands, which is important when you hand wash all of your dishes!

Sounds great, right? Well, so far so good but I do have a few issues with it.

First off I used most of a bar of castile soap, and the whole batch didn't even fill my little built in soap dispenser bottle. In fact, I think it was just below the halfway mark. So that was a little lame, considering I can get 25oz of natural dish soap by EarthFriendly for about $3. And I'm pretty sure I fill that little bottle twice with the 25oz? The worst part was how firmly it set up though. I knew it would gel, but this was ridiculous. It clogged my dispenser so badly I thought it was broken. Incidentally, the same amount of castile soap can be used to make 5 full gallons of laundry soap. So... wasteful? Big yes. I don't think dish soap needs to be that concentrated.

However, if you're in a pinch like I was and are out of dish soap, and would have to wait for days to have the kind you like shipped to you (because you live in a small town and nobody carries a good, natural dish soap), this is a life-saver. So here is the recipe I used, in case you need your life saved like I did. Maybe try adding more water than the original recipe called for and you'll partially ameliorate the problems I had with it (too thick, and didn't make enough for the quantity of soap used).

Homemade Dish Soap

1/2 cup lightly packed grated castile soap
1 1/4 cups water (I would try adding another 1/2-1 cup)
1 tbsp glycerine
1 tbsp washing soda
10-30 drops essential oils of choice, optional

Grate castile soap while you bring the water to a boil on the stove. Add soap to water and continue to lightly boil, stirring, until soap disolves. Remove from stove. Add washing soda, stir well. Add desired essential oils. Pour into repurposed containers and allow it to cool completely. Check consistency; if too thick add hot water and shake vigorously. If too thin, try reheating and adding some more washing soda.

Laundry Soap
My intent with the laundry soap was to make the 5 gallons of liquid soap I kept reading about. A friend from church even gave me the borax and washing soda I would need, so I wouldn't have to buy two full boxes for a measly little cupful! Sweetness! But when I went to make said soap, I discovered that I did not, in fact, have a 5 gallon bucket with a lid to store it in. PROBLEMATIC! Where else could I store 5 gallons of soap? Um...? Nowhere, really. So I decided to try powdered laundry soap this time round! It requires most of the same ingredients, and instead of using a cup per load like with the liquid, you use a tablespoon per load. So far I have to say I'm very pleased with the results. Our clothes are coming out fresh and clean and soft. I used Dr. Bronner's Lavender Castile soap bar, and I love the very mild scent it leaves on our clothes. It's so mild in fact, you really have to stick your face in the warm laundry to smell it.

As the laundry cools down, the scent fades -- this is a good thing as I doubt David would be excited to go around smelling very strongly of lavender all the time! So yes, mildly scented. So much better than a lot of store brands that smell so strong you're sure your brain is being deprived of oxygen just wearing the clothes washed in the junk! The recipe I used makes enough for 32-64 loads depending on how much you use each load, which for us will last us anywhere from 3-6 months. The liquid version would yield around 80 loads, so it is more cost effective and I will be trying it next time. But since I don't have the container/space to store 5 gallons of detergent right now, this seemed like a good alternative! I only wonder, if it contains the same quantity of all the same ingredients except for water, couldn't I probably use less than a tablespoon of the powder, and get the same results I would see with the liquid, without having to store 5 gallons? What do you think? 

The recipe I used follows:

Powdered Laundry Soap

1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1 bar fels-naptha or castile soap, grated

Grate soap. Combine borax and washing soda. Mix all three ingredients together and store in a quart jar or other container.

Enjoy!

Tip of the Day

It's that time of year again! When select parts of my body are about 10 shades darker than the rest of me, and my foundation no longer matches my face. Sure, I may look less than picture perfect with my tan lines but this is the best time of year! The BEST! It is currently 90­ degrees outside and I've thrown my front door open (complete with a baby gate to keep the dogs inside) to let all that glorious warmth permeate every nook and cranny of my normally cold basement apartment. Ah yes. The time of year when it gets so hot that I can only manage to weed about one row in the garden at a time before I need to come in for a few minutes.

The garden is now almost complete, though I've been extremely lazy about my last two rows. I mean to plant squash/zucchini and cucumber there, but I keep procrastinating. Because I'm made of awesome like that.

With the front door open I can hear one of my chickens singing the egg song. Maybe I need to go get that egg soon. It has been about 15 minutes, after all, since I've been outside! We wouldn't want to spend too much time indoors now, would we?

I'm actually here to share a Tip of the Day (is this the first in a new series? No. But it sounds stupid to simply say I'm here to share A Tip, whereas Tip of the Day somehow sounds...less stupid).

If you've read much of my blog at all you know that I am an active person. I have a vegetable garden to tend, various other flowerbeds around the yard (often full of herbs and vegetables; I find it hard to plant things with the sole purpose of looking nice; I want it to look nice and provide food for my family, or my animals, or something), 12 chickens, 10 rabbits, 2 dogs, plus housework. I hand wash our dishes probably 95% of the time. So between the animal and yard care, I wash my hands at least a dozen times each day. Add in washing dishes for two throughout the day and...well, you get the picture. I'm not a paint-my-nails type girl, when I know that doing so means my hands will look pretty for a couple hours, and then bit by bit, before the first full day is out, I'll look like a lazy teenager with flaky, chipping nail polish that looks like I applied it a week ago! But regardless of whether or not you garden gloveless like I do, we all know that one of the biggest frustrations with painting our fingernails is how quickly the nail polish begins to peel off! Enter Tip of the Day!



I painted my fingernails on Saturday night. This photo was taken yesterday, but the polish looks just the same now as it did then! At this rate my nails will grow out before the polish chips. So what did I do, you ask? I ran across the idea on Pinterest. I've been fairly disappointed with Pinterest ideas in the past, but this one really worked. All you do is wipe your nails with vinegar prior to painting! And tada! I am rather pleased with this. :)