Joyful, Healthy Living

Here's a seasonal winter muffin recipe, made with cranberries and oranges! Are you ready for a new Einkorn muffin flavor combination? I had a bag of frozen cranberries still lurking in the freezer after the holidays, so it was time to get baking 🥳! Most cranberry orange muffin recipes have lots of sugar and little nutrition. I wanted these muffins to be healthier, so I've dialed back the sweetness and boosted the protein by adding extra eggs. These muffins are mildly sweet

We're in the midst of cold and flu season, so I wanted to share the protocol that has been quite effective at helping with respiratory illnesses in my family. Of course, we also use homeopathic remedies for treating colds , flus , and COVID-19 . However, I have found that when we use the following supplement trio, with many illnesses the symptoms never become strong enough to need much in the way of homeopathic support. Supplement Trio At the first sign of illness, we take

Our hens are producing lots of eggs at this time of year, so I'm resurrecting recipes that use ample eggs. Besides quiche and the typical egg breakfasts, my family is enjoying Apple Custard Cake as a way to use up the bountiful eggs. This nourishing recipe for Apple Custard Cake is loaded with eggs and healthy fats. We typically eat Apple Custard Cake for breakfast, but it can be fancied up with whipped cream for a nice dessert, too! Apple Custard Cake Serves 6-8 Prep Time

Crispy, fluffy pancakes, yum! This recipe is a great way to use up extra sourdough starter. Got Extra Sourdough Starter? This Recipe is For You! Confession: I can easily go a month or two without using my sourdough starter. Life gets busy and sometimes I just never get around to making anything with sourdough. Nonetheless, I keep my sourdough starter in the fridge and *try* to remember to feed it once a week. Every so often it reaches the point where I have too much starter

We're dialing back the sweets after enjoying plenty over the holidays, so I'm looping back around to this recipe for Einkorn Banana Nut Bread that is sweetened with only bananas! It is mildly sweet, with lots of banana flavor and the yummy crunch of nuts. My family has enjoyed this recipe for breakfast or a midday snack. My family switched to Einkorn wheat flour over 10 years ago. Einkorn is an ancient variety of wheat that has never been hybridized; as such it is natural

Storebought lip balms and lotions are generally filled with unhealthy ingredients that can be absorbed through our skin. Organic lotions are pricey and may still not have the best ingredients. For the last 10+ years, my family has been using homemade hard lotion and lip balm. This recipe for homemade hard lotion and lip balm is made from coconut oil, shea butter, and beeswax. Hard lotion is a great all-over body moisturizer, and it is also wonderful to use on any very dry

Did you know that many lotions contain unhealthy ingredients that can be absorbed by your skin? The known harmful effects from lotion ingredients include developmental and reproductive toxicity, endocrine disruption, and organ system toxicity. Getting rid of your lotion can be an important step towards a healthy lifestyle. Here in the desert southwest, our very low humidity and wide range of temperatures can lead to very dry skin.  I used to apply lotion to my whole body d

Nutrition is a cornerstone of health. Processed and unnatural foods wreak havoc on the body, whereas real foods support true health. But how do we know what makes a diet truly healthy? Real Foods Research  Weston A. Price was a dentist who traveled the world aiming to learn why so many of his patients in the United States had prevalent tooth decay and cavities.  Price learned that people who ate traditional foods had virtually no cavities or tooth decay, nor even cancer, d

Teaching kids to become independent learners is one of the foundations of our homeschool philosophy . For my two high schoolers, this means that, in addition to our 3x/week all-together schooling time , they also pursue their own studies independently . Here's a snapshot of independent study plans for 18yo Alina's last semester of high school and 15yo Ian's spring semester of his sophomore year. Scholar Contracts for My Teens Each semester, I meet with the kids to develop t

Here's a peek into what is and isn't working well in homeschooling my 18yo and 15yo, plus our new curriculum and areas of focus for the coming semester. Although I do the bulk of our homeschool planning in July , by January it is time for a mid-year review. The intent of our mid-year review is to look at the following with regards to our home school: What has been working well? What needs to be improved? What needs to be removed from our curriculum? Is there anything new to