By Nancy Webster Late one night after the children were tucked in bed, I pulled out the tin of homemade chocolate chip cookies, fresh from that morning. The first crunchy bite thrilled my taste buds as the chocolate bits melted in my mouth. For a repeat sensation, I ate another. Then another. And another. I finished the whole batch without any help from my husband. Disgusted with myself, [...]

by Nancy Webster Essential Oils Heal the Body and Sooth the Mind Our doctor was mystified twice over. First because he identified the painful rash on my ten-year-old daughter’s chest and neck as shingles—something only old folks are supposed to get. And second, the usually tenacious condition was already going away! “Whatever you’ve been putting on her, keep it up,” he ordered. I’d been slathering my daughter with [...]

by Stephanie J. Tallent “How much water are you drinking each day?” asked my health care professional. You see, I am expecting our second child and have placed myself in the hands of a dear lady for my own health as well as that of my unborn baby. With test results in her hand showing that I was not drinking enough water I had to fess up. [...]

by Nancy Webster Admitted coffee lovers that we are, our family couldn’t resist naming this fall’s baby cow De-Calf, but we could just as well have called him Debt-Relief. We owe the local 4-H cattle project the first cow from my daughter’s big brown heifer since she was donated to us (the heifer, not my daughter) by the area Cattlemen’s Association. So keeping the little bull-to-be healthy from the [...]

by Summer Moeller OK, I admit it! I am a skeptic when it comes to “natural” medicine and remedies. I grew up going to doctors when I was sick, taking all kinds of antibiotics and over-the-counter drugs, and generally avoiding herbal remedies and other natural cures. Then my mother began to have health problems and was prescribed many different drugs with side effects. Later, I lived overseas, and my [...]

By Arielle Hebert Some years ago, a friend gave me a bar of her own goat milk soap. Prior to using this soap, I often battled extremely dry, cracked hands. After faithfully using my friend’s goat milk soap, I was amazed at its effectiveness. My hands no longer dried out and cracked! My skin became soft and moist. I was [...]

by Rebekah Joy Anast Recently, as a homeschool project and in anticipation of starting our own beehives, we visited a successful bee farm in Tennessee. We contacted Tim Durham Sr. ahead of time via phone to see if we could drop in and see his hives. When we arrived in the humid afternoon, I was surprised to find a small portion of the Durham’s bee farm right [...]

By Maranatha Owens I can remember many times as a little girl being laid up in bed feeling horrible.  You know the routine—aching body, stuffed-up nose, so congested I could barely breathe, let alone sleep.  Then, in would come my mama with soothing words, a hot water bottle, and the relief that only Mentholatum® or Vicks® Vaporub® could bring.  She would slather it on my chest, throat, [...]

By Nancy Webster Siren-like wailing rose and fell from the kitchen table. Then, shaking uncontrollably, my husband collapsed on the floor in front of the sink. For the past ten years, the scene of my then five-year-old daughter choking down our family food supplement while my husband laughed himself into oblivion has been one of our favorite home videos. Every time we watch, memories of gagging [...]

By Nancy Webster I look forward to Easter shopping—but not for jelly beans and chocolate rabbits. What I crave are those cheap-plastic, pastel buckets. In my house, they have a vital purpose far beyond holding candy-filled fake eggs and artificial pink and green grass. Since we inevitably employ them several times a year, I stash the little pails around the house so they’re always near at hand. [...]