Kaake Family Blog

Clove trees are native to the Spice Islands but now can also be found in other parts of the eastern world. You can information about the Spice Islands here. If you happen to be a homeschooler, I have also come across a unit study for the Spice Islands which can be found here. Last but not least, here is a guide I found online that tells about how long a spice will last in your cupboard. Cloves have been dated back to at least the year 207 B.C. in China where it is said that the emperor required visitors to chew on cloves to freshen their breath. In 1552, an explorer named Ferdinand Megallan was the first to bring cloves back to his home in Spain which were highly coveted for their medicinal properties. That sure was a long time for the rest of the world to wait to use this wonderful spice. The active ingredient in cloves is eugenol which is a very effective painkiller. It also acts to kill bacteria, fungis and virus’s. The eugenol in this plant gives the cloves amazing antiseptic ...

Once we started homeschooling, I really started looking at things differently. We ended up purchasing a Moody Bible VHS on bees which is incredibly fascinating. Here it talked about how there is nothing in the world engineered so well as the bees hive. How the worker bees act as a heater in the winter by doing various things and in the summer act as an air conditioner. Everyone knows their job and does it very effectively. God gave them exactly what they needed in order to survive. Ok I’m getting a little off subject. Let’s proceed onto the benefits of honey. First of all, all honey is not created equal. The honey you find in your local grocery store is more than likely not a good supply of honey. What you want to look for is locally grown honey which is very easy to find once you know where to look. It has wonderful nutritional value and is not watered down or sugar added. We get raw honey as we feel this gives the most benefits in it’s very natural state. Honey acts as an antib...

I had heard of people using this in the past - Folk Remedies is what they were called. It was touted to heal/cure all kinds of ailments from A - Z and then some. I’ll have to admit I am one of the worlds biggest skeptics on things like this. I will try it and if it works, great and if not then I let the world know. lol! I picked up a bottle of Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar from my local health food store. It is very low expense considering I only use 1 Tablespoon per day. I had taken a drink of 8 oz warm water, 1 tablespoon of raw honey and 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (ACV) for almost 2 weeks. In that time here’s what I found. - My appetite actually decreased . On top of that which I don’t know if it has any baring on this or not but I didn’t crave junk foods. I can actually see acv being a part of this because it kills yeast and yeast is what makes us crave sweets and breads. - My skin first broke out but that was because all the toxins were coming out. I think another week...

If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little, and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health. by the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates Come on in and take a peek into our medicine cabinet. We used to have cough medicines of all kinds, pain relievers galore, pms pills, throat sprays and more. What we have come to find out is they don’t actually work (most of the time that is). Here is a list of wonderful remedies and cures we keep on hand at all times if possible. Colds: Hylands Sniffles and Sneezes homeopathic remedy - we use this for kids and adults alike. Vitamin D Vitamin C Diarrhea: White Oak Bark from Nature’s Sunshine to slow down the bowels. Priobiotic Eleven from Nature’s Sunshine to repopulate the gut with good bacteria. Ear Infections: Ear candles made by my dear friend which can be found for sale here. Garlic/Mullein oil which we apply to the ear after we use the candles. Female Issues: E...

First of all I must say I'm incredibly pleased with the seeds companies I went with this year. I purchased heirloom organic seeds which in my opinion is the only way to go. Anyway, the main thing I'm harvesting currently is basil, tomatoes, chives and my other herbs. Oh yes, and Matt's banana peppers which I have no idea what to do with. lol. Below in the pix you will see our squash which we have vining up on a cage. This is working very well. Despite the weight of the squash, the stem is holding it well. The pix you see is not at all the biggest. My tomatoes are finally ripening. That is my fault due to very, very late planting. Lastly what I'd like to draw your attention to is the bee. Yes there are still bees in my garden and he's currently pollinating! How cool is that. I have two female flowers that I hope he pollinated yesturday since it was their pollination day. We'll see how he's doing soon. If the bulb at the base of the flow...

I have had just one child at home for the past several days - almost a week. My daughter went to visit her grandma for a week just before we start school. It's amazing how quiet the house is with just one. When Jon isn't talking or making noise - it's quite. With two that NEVER happens. With just one home I get so much more done and i'm able to actually think about something for more than 2 seconds. lol! Please don't take this wrong - I love my daughter dearly and would never trade her for anything in the world. It was nice to just have some time apart. She loved being with grandma and I was able to re-evaluate just how precious she is to me and lighten her work load seeing how much she really does do. I can't wait to have her back but the alone time that I got with my son I would never trade either. First children really have it made - they get all kinds of alone time with mom. Any children after that do not unless the time is scheduled. Just some p...

I had my first green smoothie today with my son and it was quite palatable. You can find more information out about my green smoothie at this link. It's so hard to get the amount of greens we should be having. This is the easy and painless way to do it in my opinion. I hope to do this every day for 14 days at least and see if I have any results.

“You must get into the habit of looking intensely at words, and assuring yourself of their meaning...you might read all the books in the British Museum (if you could live long enough) and remain utterly “illiterate,” un-educated person; but if you read ten pages of a good book...you are forever more in some measure an educated person.” by John Ruskin (1819-1900) As a child, my grandmother instilled a love for reading within me. She was and is still such a saintly woman. We always knew we were of importance to her. Strolling down memory lane, here is what I remember of my dear Grandma Good. Grandma would always make us our favorite breakfast as soon as we awoke in the morning. Even if it was a package of Ramen Noodles. I personally picked ham, onion and cheese omelets and boy were they good. We would make sawdust “cakes” with mud frosting and use some of our grandmother’s happy violets for the decorations. Grandma always had on hand extra clothes for us to wear if we forgot ...

I realized I had worked so much more with Allysha by the time she was two than what I am with Jon. So....I decided to start getting very serious about making time for his school every day too. In the picture below it shows what his sister, Allysha, and I have been making for him. We cut out two of each letter from felt. We then matched them together and quickly whip-stitched around them. Yes you can tell it's quickly. lol. We figured since we already had the felt and thread at home it'd be essentially free to make verses going out and getting something from the store. We have watched a few youtube videos with the alphabet including a youtube movie entitled Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom, which is taken from a book. Very cute! We'll also be using letter of the week for some of our teaching. I will soon have lesson plans up on homeschool.mandikaake.com for teaching basic letter recognition. Within just a couple times of showing him the felt letter A, he is already able to recogni...

So while this is by no means perfect, this is my first felted creation. I made it in about 1/2 hour - 45 minutes for my little Lyshie. For the children's together gift (for Christmas), I plan to make them a felted nativity. Just the cave, Mary, Joseph and Jesus this year - then more things to add each year. I supposed when I'm done with that I'll have to make an ark. I know that's a bit more ambitious. lol. Anyway, it's such a fun thing to do - although if you plan on taking up this hobby, make sure not to prick your finger. The needles for this are barbed and will not come out so easily. Eek!

With the bee problem this year some of us have to resort to pollinating our crops by ourselves. It's very easy, just a little time consuming. For my squash I got a new painting brush - just a small one - and first got pollen from the male plant, then rubbed the brush on the female plant. If you don't know how to tell the difference in a female and male plant of a squash, here are some pictures. Above is the male flower. Here is the female flower. Notice the difference? href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAtdhiXwwd3Tz8FMv5noU1AZ43YRr0OFwHfxYgcPvkvqt3b-5hCVGiQ5dmFVdgH9E4B99QqvhXiKyfDdY7e-Bw1p07_76o0wtJUAKBTy6JjkUWoh-83NYTtVO5Ck_ieaqsiIfhkxwE-UI/s1600-h/IMG_1375.jpg"> Here is an easy way to tell if the flower is female. It has a little bulb at the base of the flower. Now that you know what to look for, happy pollinating:)

I just went out in the garden today to harvest some basil. How lovely! I came in with more than I was expecting. I decided to make pesto and freeze it as well as some basil flavored vinegar. It was such a delight. Now, who wants to come and clean up my kitchen? lol! I also have some tomatoes right on the verge of being ready as you can see above. Can anyone guess what the blue flowers are from? It's flax - apparantly good for the soil:) I unfortunately only had one plant survive due to either a rodent, a neighbors dog or my children. Who knows. Back to the basil, when I made the pesto I didn't add the parm. cheese because I read it might not freeze well. I'll just add it in later. I put a generous tablespoon each in a small ziplock bag. I then will put all the little bags into a larger freezer bag and pop them in the freezer. I usually don't use more than a tablespoon at a time so this will be perfect. Below are the recipes if you're intereste...

I have been shampoo free for almost a month (a few days shy). My first response "ew gross!". However, the more I thought about it, the more it makes sense. We condition our hair to need to replenish it's oil with frequent washings. I had already gotten my hair to the point where I only needed to shampoo 2 days per week to keep the oils down. Any other time I was in the shower I would just rinse well to loosen any dirt. Well, this is just one step above that. Check out the links below. This is for all - yes all hair types. It's not only better for your health but super cheap! http://babyslime.livejournal.com/174054.html#gel http://www.naturemoms.com/no-shampoo-alternative.html Update: This is now October 2018.  I just came across this post and so remember doing this.  I went to a salon and they said the build-up on my hair was terrible as well as on my scalp.  My hair also went pretty limp.  But this wasn't a total bust.  I try to go 2-3 days wit...

The kids and I picked up Matthew from a friends home after the retreat. We went to a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday then went to Meijer to find something I had been watching to go on sale even further. It had the last time I was there but I didn't get it. Well, it was gone and I was really bummed. Matt told me that it's ok and that something better would come along. Fast forward 20 minutes later. I decided to go to Goodwill to see if I could find any linens, wool sweaters to recycle or anything else fun. Not quite 2 weeks ago I found the most beautiful picture with an old, antique frame. It was only 24.99 but I still didn't want to spend that on it. I had gotten my items to purchase and while in line looked across the other side of the room and there it was! I had looked earlier but it wasn't in the same place it was before. Since I knew I couldn't reach it and it was closing time, I asked the cashier if someone could see if it had a purple tag since purple ...

I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. One of those days you'd just love to forget and get over as soon as possible so a new one can start. So for those of you who think I've got it all together, have perfect, easy kids, etc.... (which people have said), know that I have these days too. Matt headed out for a men's retreat this weekend which is so hard because we never see him anymore. Even when he's home he's eating or sleeping. In the past several months we've prob. had only one day at home together on Saturday. While I'm glad he has a job I'll be glad when it's over. It's too hard on any family when their husband has to work 65 hours a week and that doesn't count his drive to and from work. Tonight Jon started choking really bad because he got a hair tie stuck in his throat. I was so scared cause usually he'll just cough something up but this time he started turning color before he did. By the time I got to h...