Fortnite & Video Games

June 9, 2018By Katie GuyAt Home, Family No Comments

Wow!! I have been researching this stuff for years, but am still amazed at the info I learn.

Families Managing Media is a GREAT resource!!!

I LOVE the idea of an electronic fast for our children. Especially in light of the knowledge that our children’s brains are not fully developed until 25 and sometimes longer for men!! There are some really great videos on Families Managing Media explaining our children’s brain development and how DETRIMENTAL video games and even just looking at screens (think scrolling on social media) is for our children’s brains, including our adult children. They have extensive information on screen/video game addiction and how we should not be fooled that our children can not get addicted to screens!!

I came across Families Managing Media when looking into the video game Fortnite. If your children play Fortnite, I highly recommend watching this video. There is a short part where she references sex so you may want to listen on headphones first and then watch it with your kids who play video games knowing where to mute it for 30 seconds. My son was very interested in listening to it and learning all the information they shared about brain development and the intent of video game makers.

The video reveals that these video games are being designed with the help of neuroscientistsis that know how the brain works and what things to design into it to keep people (kids) playing them more and more, very much like a slot machine in a casino!! This is seriously alarming, but TOTALLY unsurprising!!

In an article on Medium.com entitled “The Tech Industry’s War on Kids”, Richard Freed the author states:

What none of these parents understand is that their children’s and teens’ destructive obsession with technology is the predictable consequence of a virtually unrecognized merger between the tech industry and psychology. This alliance pairs the consumer tech industry’s immense wealth with the most sophisticated psychological research, making it possible to develop social media, video games, and phones with drug-like power to seduce young users.

These parents have no idea that lurking behind their kids’ screens and phones are a multitude of psychologists, neuroscientists, and social science experts who use their knowledge of psychological vulnerabilities to devise products that capture kids’ attention for the sake of industry profit. What these parents and most of the world have yet to grasp is that psychology — a discipline that we associate with healing — is now being used as a weapon against children…The parents I work with simply have no idea about the immense amount of financial and psychological firepower aimed at their children to keep them playing video games “forever”…Put plainly, the science of psychology is hurting kids more than helping them.

Freed quotes Tristan Harris saying “Never before in history have basically 50 mostly men, mostly 20-35, mostly white engineer designer types within 50 miles of where we are right now [Silicon Valley] had control of what a billion people think and do.”

These designers are “brain hacking”, not just our kids, but adults too. Many UX designers are utilizing what is called Persuasive technology with the help of psychologists and neuroscientists. Again quoting from Freed’s article “The Tech Industry’s War on Kids”

In the Venice region of Los Angeles, now dubbed “Silicon Beach,” the startup Dopamine Labs boasts about its use of persuasive techniques to increase profits: “Connect your app to our Persuasive AI [Artificial Intelligence] and lift your engagement and revenue up to 30% by giving your users our perfect bursts of dopamine,” and “A burst of Dopamine doesn’t just feel good: it’s proven to re-wire user behavior and habits.”

Ramsay Brown, the founder of Dopamine Labs, says in a KQED Sciencearticle, “We have now developed a rigorous technology of the human mind, and that is both exciting and terrifying. We have the ability to twiddle some knobs in a machine learning dashboard we build, and around the world hundreds of thousands of people are going to quietly change their behavior in ways that, unbeknownst to them, feel second-nature but are really by design.” Programmers call this “brain hacking,” as it compels users to spend more time on sites even though they mistakenly believe it’s strictly due to their own conscious choices.

I HIGHLY recommend reading Freed’s article in it’s entirety!! It’s a fascinating and infuriating read. There is enough info to, hopefully, propel you to take action to protect your kids from this “Persuasive Design” that is used to keep people, children, in the bondage of addiction. It is documented that these designers are using their knowledge of addiction and how the human brain works to ensure we stay on and keep coming back.

Video Game RULES!!!

Our family has always had fairly strict rules for video games and video game time. They started out less strict and progressed over the years until our children always had to buy their video game time with their Virtue Reward cards and by then it was only allowed on weekends. However, at some point, years ago, when our oldest was in his teens we just took it all away and said everyone is grounded and just never got it back out as they shortly found other interests outside of video games. The older ones don’t really play video games and the younger three occasionally ask to play the Wii…it’s the original one. Via my 13 year old: the games we have on it are Wii Sports, the OLD Mario, Bionicle Heroes, a few Zelda (including Twilight Princess but he says they are not allowed to play that one. I don’t remember why.) and Star Wars Clone Wars. I guess we used to have Lego Star Wars and Super Smash Bros, but they are broken. We play it so rarely that it is just not an issue. When they are allowed to play it and the five year old is around the only game he is allowed to see is Wii Sports, Mario and part of Star Wars. The only game the 5 year old is allowed to play on the Wii is Wii Sports and we have let him play Clumsy Ninja on the iPad a handful of times.

This Fortnite thing though!!

My 13 year old was apparently hearing all about it from several friends. In a, not so rare, hectic moment at our home he came to me and said “May I please get this game on the iPad” Of course, I asked what game?, he told me Fortnite and named a few of his friends whose parents were letting them play it. Unfortunately, I said yes and downloaded the game for him without any further investigation.

Thankfully, computer, video games, iPad, TV usage are still HIGHLY regulated at our home. EVERY single device is locked down with a parental code. My husband and myself are the only ones who can open the iPad, we have allowed our 21 year old daughter to have the code for the TV. Each child (except the 5 year old) has their own account on our iMac, of which all are locked down with the Apple parental controls and Covenant Eyes monitoring. They only have these accounts as we homeschool and they need access to certain things on the computer for this, not always internet related either. For the younger children (13 & 11) their internet is completely locked down. This means the ONLY websites they can goto are ones I specifically add to their “white list”. NO ONE has the wifi code except myself and my husband (wifi will be going completely away in our home soon, you can read why in the world I would want to get rid of wifi here.). The wifi shuts off at 10:30 and doesn’t come back on until 7 am. We can also go into Covenant Eyes and set specific times each child is allowed access to the internet, just in case they figure out how to flip the switch on the light timer, like this one, we have hooked up to the wifi and router.

Back to Fortnite, so I downloaded it and my son played it once or twice. Then he had two friends, who play Fortnite, spend the night. He asked if they could play Fortnite on the iPad. This is when I learned that Fortnite was a internet based game. I learned this as they had a third friend on the phone who was going to be playing it with them and knew of an older boy from our parish who was going to play it with them as well. This gave me pause and I reluctantly agreed, but only allowed them to play it for 30 minutes and promptly shut the iPad down at the end of the time. This was the last time my son played the game. Then the video mentioned above came across my path. This video shed some light on what exactly Fortnite is. While it is not a first person shooter it is a third person shooter, where the kids are “hunting” other humans.

Another VERY strict video game rule my husband and I have ALWAYS held is NO FIRST PERSON SHOOTER games!!! We had this rule from DAY ONE, our oldest is 23 so A LONG TIME!! We knew back then that first person shooter games only trained these poor children’s brains to form pathways to accept shooting someone much more easily. It has now been revealed that this is IN FACT what the military uses to train soldiers for battle, so they will not freeze up when faced with shooting an actual person. We also held to the rule of no THIRD PERSON shooting games, unless the shooting was not of a figure that looked like a person, for instance Star Wars, Clone Wars is tanks shooting tanks for the most part and at some point shooting aliens. Knowing now that the human brain is not fully formed until the age of 25 makes this decision even more solidified for our family!!

Over the years we have had a pretty consistent pattern of reducing video game usage. We started out way more lenient than we are now and as we observed our children’s behavior with video games the rules got more strict and the video game time allowed less and less. Here is the progression of the video game rules I used to print and hang up. The files were so old I couldn’t open them, so they had to be converted to Simple Text. Imagine these were much more fun looking for kids. 🙂

These were rules early on…

Summer Rules Early On…

See the progression to LESS time…

So…Used to is the key word. We have gotten so strict that we rarely let them play. Then times occur that they end up playing way more than they should. I’m busy, distracted, time flies by too quickly and I DON”T have rules hung up anymore. Writing this post has inspired me to make up another Video Game rule chart (much more strict than the others) and hang it up. That way there will be no discussion or me trying to remember what I had said last week about it. My younger kids also seem to have a hard time with the timer thing. They either forget to set it or ignore it when it rings. I come in and they have that zombie look on their faces. After reading Richard Freed’s article on “The Tech Industry’s War on Kids” it is apparent that they are probably zombie faced out on all the mind control that is put into these things on purpose!! Sadly, research shows that many young men in the US are opting to stick to their video game habits instead of becoming productive members of society and join the workforce.

So what is a parent to do?

Well, a Hammer is an option!!

No Seriously…

If you don’t want to be as drastic as taking a hammer to all your electronics, here are some things I recommend:

First start by observing your own digital habits. If you are spending too much time on your phone/computer/TV, you will need to seriously curb your own habits. Kids are smart. They will see you over using your digital devices and wonder why it’s OK for you and not them. Parents ARE NOT immune from screen addiction!!!
If your kids don’t have an interest DON’T START them on screen/video games.
KNOW your kids temperament!! Certain temperaments will need more strict rules or just not play AT ALL!!!
Make sure they have a love for other things: outside play, sports, nature, biking, etc. BEFORE you EVER let them play video games.
Find friends that don’t play video games or have similar STRICT rules. (This is a HARD one. Even if your kids have friends that will play things other than video games with your children, I have found that the kids that play video games more than my kids can’t seem to talk about other things when they are over!!! Most conversations will revolve around video games they play) This has always ended up making my kids feel left out and “different”.
Don’t be afraid to JUST SAY NO to video games ALL TOGETHER!!!
Once they start playing video games if you see their love for other things fade, detox them from screens immediately!!!
Seriously LIMIT video game time. I suggest Fridays after dinner and only after all duties are completed, Saturday and Sunday only after morning duties are complete and not near dinner time when this will interfere with dinner chores.
I also don’t recommend letting kids play video games before church on Sunday’s. I think this just sets a stage for them to be thinking about the games during the church when they should be meditating on our Lord.
Don’t let them play for more than 20-30 minutes on the days they are allowed to play.
Purchase an egg timer and MAKE THEM USE IT!!!
DO NOT let them combine times. If you have two kids that want to play together, they start at the same time and end when the 30 minute timer goes off.
Have some system where they MUST earn/purchase video game time. I am a little partial as the inventor, but I HIGHLY recommend The Virtue Reward Program!!
If they throw a fit when they have to stop playing TAKE VIDEO GAMES AWAY for, at least 3 weeks (4 is best) to give the brain a chance to detox and reset.
If they nag you to play, set a rule…nag about video games…loose video games for 3 days or the upcoming weekend.
If you are like me…spread thin and a, not so great, short term memory from homeschooling, running a home with 6 children, etc. Put up a white board where you will write down who is grounded from video games, for how long and what reason. (In fact, write all your rules, consequences down. I forget so much with managing lots of kids)
Type up ALL these rules on a piece of paper, print them and HANG them up!

As always with Swell Living we don’t want to just sound the alarm bells, drop the mic and leave you hanging. We aim to help you have the wisdom and knowledge needed to implement some very practical steps to solving the problem we have brought to your attention!!

Leave a comment and let us know what you think and share your tips for managing video games in your home!!!

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Is Your Laundry Detergent TOXIC?

February 25, 2018By Katie GuyAt Home, Family, Wellness 1 Comment

I’m sure most have heard of the viral “Tide Pod eating” challenge. Even before this so-called challenge laundry pods have posed a serious health risk. The EWG states:

Laundry pods came on the market in 2012. The American Association of Poison Control Centers says that between 2013 and 2017, there were more than 56,500 reported incidents of children 5 years old or younger ingesting, inhaling or touching the highly concentrated detergent found in single-dose laundry products. Vomiting, burns, corneal abrasions, breathing problems and at least 10 deaths have been linked to pods.

This pod eating craziness may have one bright side…which is that it has brought attention to the fact that these laundry detergents are TOXIC!!! And don’t be fooled thinking it is just Tide. Just about every laundry detergent on the market is toxic, even some of the “green”, “natural” ones still contain toxic chemicals.

One recent study, by Mike Adams on Science.news, using state-of-the-art mass spec instrumentation (LC-MS-TOF) in an ISO accredited laboratory, found that these Tide Pods contained over 700 unique chemicals, even though, Adams reports:

“Tide packaging claims the product is made of just three things: Detergent, stain remover and color protector. The Tide website admits, ‘Every Tide detergent contains many ingredients with long, complicated names,’ but it only lists 14 ingredients.”

Mike Adams explains “Tide laundry pods are widely described by doctors and health professionals as being toxic to human health, and eating them is said to cause severe health consequences or even “permanent damage” to human health.” He goes on to make the point that if these are hazardous to our health if ingested then they are hazardous to your health JUST by wearing the clothes that were cleaned in them. Mr. Adams points out that as we sweat in our clothing this releases these toxic chemicals directly into our pours. He also expressed real concerns about what ALL of these toxic laundry detergents were doing to our ecosystems. You can watch his full video explanation here.

I would go even further than Mr. Adams and say that, even if you are not sweating in clothes washed in toxic laundry detergent or dried with toxic dryer sheets, you are at risk JUST from breathing in the “scent” that comes off of it. Sadly, many companies have turned to new nano technology to bind these toxic, synthetic scents to the clothing so that “fresh smell” lasts until the next wash. What comes with this is the ability for these chemicals to now cross the blood brain barrier. Just breathing in the scent is toxic on so many levels!!

Many laundry detergents use added optical brighteners to make the clothes appear brighter. This has nothing to do with getting the clothes cleaner. These clothes only appear whiter, because these additives reflect blue light, giving the ILLUSION that your clothes are less yellow. These chemicals remain on the clothes and up against your skin all day long!!

What about babies & children?

Now consider the effects on children and babies. Their little bodies are taking in WAY more chemicals, percentage wise, than an adult. Not to mention, how many babies and teething toddlers drool on and chew on their clothing!! And the sleeping baby…with their face pressed against those freshly cleaned sheets for hours, just breathing those toxic fumes in, makes me sick just thinking of it. Many of these chemicals are known cancer causing chemicals and endocrine disruptors.

So what to do about this?

Here at Swell Living we are not just going to scream the sky is falling and leave you with no solution. You have to wash your clothes and nobody really wants to stink!!! I like to give several alternatives to hopefully help a wide range of people make the NON-TOXIC switch. Taking into consideration everyone has a different level of time and money to devote to this seemingly daunting task. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it will be to clean up this toxic part of your daily living.

First, you must STOP using toxic laundry products, detergent, dryer sheets, fabric softener, stain removers, etc. ALL of them
I recommend loading them all in a box and dropping them off at your local chemical recycling place.
Laundry Detergent Options:
- For the DIY’er you can make your own. Here’s a GREAT recipe. I would not use Ivory soap, but instead one of Young Living’s many bar soaps or another favorite of ours is Five Star Soap.
- If you are not a DIY’er, in my opinion, the best laundry detergent on the market is Thieves Laundry Soap.
- Store bought options are SLIM!! After much research, I have not found one that is available at my local stores that I can recommend as being free from toxic chemicals. Not even at the crunchy stores!! To be on the safe side you may just want to use a capful of Thieves Household cleaner per load or try out the washing soda and Borax, which can be purchased at most grocery stores. (If you have a suggestion that is clean let me know in the comments!!)
Fabric Softener Options:
- VINEGAR!! Yes, you heard that correct. Use plain old white vinegar in the liquid fabric softener well in your washer. I promise, your clothes will not come out smelling like pickles!!
Dryer Sheet Alternatives:
- Wool dryer balls, with a few drops of your favorite Young Living essential oil on them.
- If you don’t have the dryer balls, use a kitchen rag and put your oils on it and throw in with your load.
Stain Remover:
- The Thieves Bar soap is great to keep in the laundry room to rub on stains.
- The washing soda and Borax are great for stain removal as well.
- For a tough, greasy/oily stain I like to put Young Living’s Lemon essential oil on it to sit for a bit and then spray it with diluted Thieves Household Cleaner. Works GREAT!!

Getting these toxic chemicals out of your home is a great step in living the Swell Way!! Be kind to your neighbor and stop polluting the neighborhood air with your laundry!!!

Oral Care: Fluoride

July 14, 2017By Katie GuyAt Home, Family, Wellness No Comments

“sodium fluoride” or “hydrofluorosilicic Acid”
Does NOT prevent cavities
Tooth decay is HIGH in low income communities that have been fluoridated for years
Is NOT an essential nutrient
FDA states it is not a mineral nutrient but a prescription drug!!
American Dental Association DOES NOT recommend it under TWO
Unprocessed industrial BYPRODUCTS of the aluminum scrubbing & phosphate fertilizer industries
These industries would have to PAY to dispose of it as a TOXIC chemical
It is instead purchased by municipalities and added to our water
People who handle fluoride MUST wear FULL hazmat suits and respirators or DIE

Young Living products to use…

MINERAL ESSENCE: MAN I LOVE how our products are formulated. Young Living formulated our mineral supplement with Lemon, Cinnamon Bark and Peppermint Essential oils. These oils help support the bodies ability to actually ABSORB these essential minerals!! SO YOU AREN’T JUST FLUSHING IT DOWN THE TOILET!! If you have been exposed to fluoride it is essential that you first get the fluoride out of your cells. These oils support the bodies natural detoxification process.

LEMON VITALITY OIL: start adding this to your water daily. If you have to drink city water at home (until you get a filter), a restaurant or a friends home make sure to always have your LEMON with you!!

THYROMIN Thryromin was developed to nourish the thyroid. It was formulated with specially selected glandular nutrients, herbs, amino acids, minerals and essential oils all balanced for the most beneficial and nutritional support of the thyroid.

MULTIGREENS Nutritious chlorophyll formula that provides support to the Central Nervous System and full of antioxidants.

NINGXIA RED Amino acids, trace minerals, beta-carotene, B vitamins, and AWESOME essential oils of Orange, Yuzu, Lemon, Tangerine!!! All formulated for a SUPERIOR antioxidant support.

If you would like to research more information on the negative effects of fluoride watch the movie The Great Culling and goto Mike Adams website Natural News and search for fluoride.

#oralcare #fluoride #toxin #lemon #lemonvitality #mineralessence #multigreens #ningxiared #berkey #water #waterfilter #toothpaste #fluorideisachemicalweapon #justsaynotofluoride

Chronic Illness, Hospitals and Essential Oils

July 9, 2015By Katie GuyAt Home, Family, Wellness No Comments

The Best Berkey Hack on the Planet

January 22, 2015By Katie GuyAt Home, Family, Wellness No Comments

OK people, if you have a Berkey water filter you’ll know what I am talking about (if you don’t know about Berkey’s read my post All About Berkey Water Filters here) when I say it is such a drag when you go to get some water and it dribbles out. You tilt it just to get that last bit out.

However, being out of water isn’t the biggest part of the drag. It’s the fact that you NOW have to REFILL the Berkey!!!

UGH!!!!!

Cut to an image of me or one of the kids walking back and forth from the sink to the Berkey with a pitcher full of water. If you have the Big Berkey or Travel Berkey this isn’t such a daunting task, but think about that Crown Berkey.

A whopping SIX GALLONS!!! Who even has a pitcher that is a gallon. Most are maybe 64 ounces. So we are talking about going back and forth 12 times with that pitcher. And who is agile enough to carry a 64 ounce pitcher all the way full without spilling it? NOT ME!! Nor my kids. 🙂 So we do it an extra time for all the water we spilled and couldn’t fill to the top.

Then there is the clean up. Yep, mopping up all of that spilled water, which we use precious towels to do. Towels that are then needed to dry hands or dishes on later.

“Mom there are no more towels in the drawer.” Then we are off to do another load of laundry. All because of this Berkey.

It does make DELICIOUS water though!!! This is why we go through all of this….for the delicious water and the knowledge that we are not putting toxic chemicals and pathogens in ours and our children’s bodies.

So after owning a Berkey for many years now and trying out several hacks:

•the dreaded pitcher

•the dreaded larger pitcher

•filling when emptey

•trying to remember to fill a few pitchers throughout the day

•running a hose from the hose faucet in the garage to the Berkey (without a sprayer handle) making sure someone was near by to turn it off before it overflowed or trying to kink the hose so no water would come out as you run back to the faucet to turn it off

•the hose thing with a sprayer, said sprayer that always leaked and sprayed all over the breakfast nook.

•making sure you kept a tall chair near by so children could do any of the above

•moving to new house with no hose hook up near by and back to the pitcher thing!!

I decided to get creative.

Basically I ran an ice maker hose from a nearby water heater that already had a T valve on it. Then I hacked my way through some faucets with shut off valves. After many trips to Lowe’s then finally Home Depot, as the plumbing department at Lowe’s is subpar, I finally got all the required parts (of which I made up as I went along). I probably couldn’t tell you what all they are, so hopefully you can just see them in the video if you want to try to do this yourself. If you get really stuck and need more details comment below and I will try to figure out what they all are!!

This is yet another example of Swell Living!!!

All About Berkey Water Filters

June 24, 2014By Katie GuyAt Home, Wellness 1 Comment

We love our Berkey Water Filter. I firmly believe that we need to be drinking pure water whenever possible. See this for why. I don’t sell Berkey’s, but I want to get the information out about them. I’m constantly getting questions about them, especially “How do I know when to change my filterers?”

How Berkey® Natural Water Purifiers Operate

To use, water is poured into the upper chamber. Gravity draws this water through the exclusive purification elements where contaminates are captured on and within theses micro-porous elements and are separated from the water. The purified water then collects in the lower chamber where it can be drawn through the spigot. What’s more, Berkey® elements are cleanable and can be used over and over again.
When I clean my filters, I make a point of cleaning out the inside with Thieves Household Cleaner. I don’t rinse it out all the way. I spray it in, scrub, rinse, then spray again and wipe with a dry paper towel.

FEATURES AND BENEFITS

Healthy

Berkey® systems are far superior to other filtration systems because they remove viruses, harmful pathogenic bacteria, cysts and parasites as well as unhealthy chemical contaminates and impurities while leaving in the essential minerals your body needs. Berkey® systems produce virtually the most healthful, clean and delicious water available.

Convenient

Berkey® systems assemble in minutes without tools, electricity, water pressure, or plumbing. What’s more, they are simple to operate and maintain.

Economical

Berkey® systems are easily the most economical water purification system you can own. Their unique design allows you to easily remove and clean the purification elements over and over again.

Powerful

Berkey® systems can easily purify ordinary tap water, yet are so powerful, they efficiently purify raw, untreated water from such sources as remote lakes and streams. What’s more, Berkey® systems are the ideal water purification systems to have on hand in the event of natural disasters such as blackouts, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes as well as local or national emergencies when treated tap water may not be available.

Flexible

Berkey® systems are so convenient and easy to use, you can take them anywhere: on vacations, hunting and camping trips, college dorms and they are ideal systems for RVs and pleasure craft.

Elegant

The elegant high-grade polished 304 stainless steel design makes Berkey® systems an attractive addition to any kitchen or home yet each system is both rugged and durable.

Proven History

The same high quality and effectiveness of the gravity filtration process, that is utilized in Berkey® systems, has stood the test of time. Gravity filtration has been used by relief organizations such as UNICEF, the Peace Corps, Red Cross Societies Internationally, missionaries and relief workers in over 140 countries throughout the world.

How often do the Black Berkey® purification elements need to be replaced?

Each element has an expected life of 3,000 gallons or 6,000 gallons for a set of two.

I have been using my system for about six months and the flow rate has slowed down considerably. Do I need to replace the elements?

No, unlike other filtration elements Black Berkey® purification elements are re-cleanable. What typically causes the filters to drip slowly is turbidity and sediment clogging the micro-pores of the purification elements. Simply remove the elements from your system, scrub the exterior of each element with preferably a white ScotchBrite pad or stiff toothbrush. Simply scrub a section of the filter until you see a bit of black on the white pad then move to the next section. It’s simple to do and takes less than a minute. Then re-prime each element and reinstall them. Your problem should now be fixed.

How do I know when it is time to replace the elements in my system?

The best way to gauge when to replace the filters is to do the following:

Multiply the number of filters in your system by 3,000 gallons to get Total Gallons For All Filters within the system.
Next keep a track of how many times you need to refill the upper chamber in one week.
Then multiply that figure times the capacity in gallons of your particular system (for example the Berkey Light™ system is 2.75 gallons) to determine Total Gallons Used Per Week.
Finally divide the Total Gallons Used Per Week into the Total Gallons For All Filters and that will tell you how many weeks before the filters should be replaced.

Next calculate the future date for replacement (52 weeks per year) and write that date on a sticker and attach it to the bottom of your system for future reference. By the way, if you have been using your system for some time now, you can still use the above formula to determine when to replace the elements. Just count forward from the date you purchased your system.

Pressure Cooking Bone Broth

September 6, 2013By Katie GuyAt Home 1 Comment

The other day I decided to try making my bone broth in my pressure cooker for the first time. I had been on the fence about this method for some time. I had too much on my plate to research it, so I kept on using my crock pot. Then the crock croaked!!! I was forced to do my research. I read and read and found several trusted sources say that you could, in fact, get the same healthy bone broth benefits from 30 minutes in a pressure cooker as you do in 24-48 hours in a crock pot. They also claimed it was better because it would consistently jell.

I was a skeptic still and didn’t have the money to buy a new crock pot AND a pressure cooker. Then I found the Instant Pot. It is a pressure cooker, crock pot, rice cooker, and many more all in one!! I’ve had it now for several months and still had the skepticism. Being a creature of habit I have been using the Instant Pots crock pot feature to make broth. Lack of planning and time led me to try pressure cooking my broth for the first time.

I used the same recipe from Nourishing Traditions.

1 whole pastured chicken or 2-3 pounds chicken bones with or without bits of meat, including feet if you have them
4 quarts cold water (I could only fit 2)
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 carrots coarsely chopped
3 celery sticks, coarsely chopped

My chicken carcass came straight out of the freezer. (We throw these plus any left over bones from our plates in a big ziplock bag every time I make a chicken.)

I stuck it all in the pot, put the lid on and set it to 40 minutes of pressure cooking. Thirty or so minutes is the recommend time. I bumped it up to 40 since my bones were frozen and I was still skeptical.

Those 40 minutes were over before I knew it. I let it cool down naturally instead of releasing the pressure, mainly because I was busy. When I opened it I was still skeptical. It was a lot lighter than my broth normally is. I thought “this must be a dud, but we’ll eat it anyway”.

I strained it, put it in a bowl with a lid and stuck it in the fridge. A few days later I reluctantly pulled it out, thinking we would be consuming an inferior broth than normal. Then I pulled the lid off and too my surprise I saw what looked like a bowl of jello!!

Since I am feeding my baby bone broth I needed to separate this into several jars for storing. I literally had to spoon it into each jar. Six jars in all, twelve cups worth of broth. Not bad for 10 minutes of prep and 40 minutes of cooking!!

It has actually been easier to feed him. I take one of the mason jars out of the fridge 30 minutes or so before he eats, put his portion in a little bowl and feed it to him around room temperature. It’s still jelled so it stays on the spoon and he loves it!! It all ends up in his mouth instead of half on his bib and clothes.

Another bonus to pressure cooking instead of the crock pot is that you don’t need to do the last step of parsley to pullthe minerals out of the bones. I notoriously forget to buy parsley anyways and the one in my garden doesn’t produce enough for this.

So I highly recommend the pressure cooker for bone broth. My husband appreciates that our house doesn’t smell for days on end. I don’t mind the smell but we have all commented that you have some weird food dreams when bone broth is simmering over night.

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Fluoride Filters and Clean Water

October 3, 2012By Katie GuyAt Home, Wellness 2 Comments

“The use of the public water supply to deliver medicine is pretty bizzare when you think about it. Once you put a medicine in the drinking water you can’t control the dose.”

I’m so excited about this new movie, “The Great Culling”. It is a documentary about fluoride. I firmly believe that no one on this earth was meant to drink, brush with or ingest this toxin and it is a TOXIN. Check your toothpaste tube, if it says “Call Poison Control if Swallowed”, it contains fluoride and you should throw it out!!!

Excerpts from The Great Culling’s website:

Fluoride is a generic term to indicate a wide variety of substances containing the element fluorine. Slightly less toxic than arsenic, but more toxic than lead, fluorine is the most negatively charged and most chemically active of all elements on earth, which means it loves to combine and recombine with other elements in its path, ever looking for the strongest bond, and reeking havoc all along the way by creating even more toxic combinations.

Fluoride is not just one of forty chemicals used to treat water. It is the only chemical added to public drinking water to treat individuals, rather than the water. It is mass medication. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that fluoride is not a mineral nutrient; it is a prescription drug. Every prescription drug has side effects, including fluoride.

Fluoride has never received FDA approval and does not meet the legal requirements of safety and effectiveness necessary for such approval. Once this drug is put in the water there is no control over individual dosage.

The Great Culling of the human race already has begun. It is being done through chemicals added to our drinking water, food, medicines, and the air we breathe – chemicals that have the known effect of reducing fertility and shortening lifespan. This message can no longer be dismissed as conspiracy theory. The facts are in plain view.

This documentary is the first of a three-part series. It shows how additives to our drinking water, such as fluoride, supposedly to combat tooth decay, in reality are covert doses of death. It also shows how you can protect yourself and your family.

Fluoride that is added to our city’s drinking water is not a natural mineral to help our bodies or teeth. It is the byproduct of the chemical phosphate fertilizer process and the scrubbing of the coal plants. These corporations would normally have to PAY to dispose of this poison. Instead, our cities decided to PURCHASE it and add it to our water. The fluoride in your drinking water is really called “sodium fluoride” or “hydrofluorosilicic Acid”. In order to add this chemical to your drinking water the poor person that has this job must put on a full hazmat suit and respirator. If he touches it he will die.

There is hope though. There are ways to filter this poison out of your water. We have been using a Big Berkey for sometime now and I just recently became a dealer. I wholeheartedly believe in the Berkey’s efficacy to remove this toxin from our water. You can literally taste the difference. The Berkey is just one of many ways to filter out this poison from your water. There are whole house systems, including the RO filters, but the RO also takes out all of the minerals. The Berkey leaves in the minerals making the water taste super sweet!

Wi-Fi, Smart Meters, Radiation and Electrosmog

February 17, 2012By Katie GuyAt Home, Family 2 Comments

Some people have never heard of radiation being connected with wi-fi and smart meters and they certainly have no idea what electrosmog is. I will quickly go over the basics. Electrosmog or dirty electricity, as it is sometimes called, is the electromagnetic field and/or electromagnetic radiation that comes off of cell phones, electric wires, transformers, electric meters (especially the new smart meters) digital clocks, cell phone towers, wi-fi, computers, appliances (espcially energy efficient ones), fluorescent lights, electric blankets microwave ovens and many more things. Here is a great article that goes into more details on the EMF’s from some of these things. “So what”, you may say, “what is the big deal?”

Negative Effects of Electromagnetic Smog

Well, this pollution has a tremendous negative effect on the human body, especially small growing children. Electrosmog can cause all sorts of ailments that seem to have no explanation:

DNA: Electrosmog can even effect the structure of our DNA. The cells in our body treat EMF’s as a harmful invader, which it is. This results in the cellular level being in a state of distress for long periods of time.
Water Contaminates: Another little known fact is that EMF’s traveling through our water pipes attract contaminates to our water increasing the pollution in our water.
Mold: Additionally, electrosmog can have a profound effect on mold, increasing it’s growth rate significantly. If you have a mold allergy, electrosmog can increase your exposure to mold and make it more difficult to rid your home of mold.

The Current Electromagnetic Spectrum

I don’t know anyone without wi-fi in their homes. In my neighborhood, when I turn on my wi-fi connection on my computer, I see a list of at least eight other wi-fi connections. This means, at least, 8 of my neighbors have wi-fi and their signals are coming through my walls into, not only, my home, but mine and my children’s bodies. With smart phones becoming the rule rather than the exception I wonder how many instances of tumors we will see in all different parts of the body in the, not so distant, future. Most smart phones can not be turned off. Essentially even when you turn it off you are still receiving EMF’s from it. Smart phones utilize each other for better reception. This means that if the cell phone tower is at point A and you are at point B, everyone that is in the proximity of this cell phone tower, but further away than you will be piggybacking off of your phone to get better reception. This is great news for our reception but horrible news for our health. UGH!!!

What we can do about it

What can we do about this and all of the other exposures we have to this harmful pollution? Julie Genser’s article Reducing Electromagnetic Frequency Exposure May Improve Your Health is a great place to start. It lists 15 different ways to reduce EMF exposure.

I will go over some other things that are not listed.

It is imperative that children not use cell phones directly on their head without some sort of EMF disruptor (I’ll talk about these in a bit). Children’s skulls do not have the bone density or thickness as an adult skull and the frequencies go directly to the brain causing damage and even cancer risks. If your child must use a cell phone and you don’t have an EMF disruptor on the phone make sure they use it on speaker phone and keep the phone away from the skull and other vital organs. These risks are still there for adults, especially those adults that spend countless amounts of time on the cell phone. You up your risks even more when you add the use of a blue tooth headset.
One simple solution on an iPhone is to go into settings and turn it on “Airplane mode”. This shuts off the wi-fi and cellular data. ~~I do this every night since I charge my phone in my bedroom.~~ (I no longer charge my phone in my bedroom while I sleep, I believe even with it is on airplane mode the risk of EMF exposure is still there, not a risk I want in my bedroom while I sleep)
Put your electronics, especially your wi-fi on a timer. Set it to turn off at night and come back on in the morning.
If you can afford to renovate or are building a new home wrap the bedrooms with radiant barrier and ground it. This will not only help with insulating but the barrier actually prevents the EMF’s from entering the room. It is very important to reduce this pollution when you sleep.
Cleansing and detoxing are very important. Monthly fasts, therapeutic baths of Bentonite Powder, baking soda or sea salt are helpful in detoxing the body.

The last thing I’m going to talk about are the disruptors I mentioned above. There are a wide variety of products on the market. In the research I have done, I think the best product at the best price is the ~~Safe Space Home Kit.~~ This kit is no longer available. You can see the range of products here.

This kit comes with
3 appliance patches
2 energy strips (these can be applied to the main electric conduit coming into the home and the main water line, eliminating the electrosmog in your water freeing it from attracting more dangerous chemicals)
Cell Phone Patch
4 Georesonators to clear your property
SafeSpace II to clear small areas in the home
SafeSpace I to clear large areas…approximately a 1000 foot radius.

I have yet to purchase this but it has been on my wish list for some time. Our bedroom has a smart meter on one wall, two outdoor AC units on the other wall and a transformer on the electric poll 30 or so feet away. Talk about a polluted sleeping environment!!

SaveSave

Video Game RULES!!!

This Fortnite thing though!!

So what is a parent to do?

Well, a Hammer is an option!!

No Seriously…

What about babies & children?

So what to do about this?

What to do?

Young Living products to use…

How Berkey® Natural Water Purifiers Operate

FEATURES AND BENEFITS

Healthy

Convenient

Economical

Powerful

Flexible

Elegant

Proven History

How often do the Black Berkey® purification elements need to be replaced?

I have been using my system for about six months and the flow rate has slowed down considerably. Do I need to replace the elements?

How do I know when it is time to replace the elements in my system?

I used the same recipe from Nourishing Traditions.

“The use of the public water supply to deliver medicine is pretty bizzare when you think about it. Once you put a medicine in the drinking water you can’t control the dose.”

Excerpts from The Great Culling’s website:

Negative Effects of Electromagnetic Smog

The Current Electromagnetic Spectrum

What we can do about it