Kaake Family Blog

A picture my daughter took of me at the nature preserve. Isn't she a great photographer! I have been asked by several people over the years what led me down this different path. Well, here goes. This is nothing at all against the way I was raised - this is simply my story. As a child I developed hay fever around age 5. You can see in all my school pictures that my eyes are squinted and weepy for the first day of school. My first day of school was always taking mini kleenex packages with me and having semi-swollen and weeping eyes. As I got a bit older I started getting throat, tonsil and ear infections. It got to the point where I would have at least 2-3 cases of each every year. By the time I turned 17 I was calling in my doctor's office telling him what ailment I had and could he please get me an antibiotic. At age 21 as a single mom I had become anti-biotic resistant to everything but the $100 antibiotic. That was something I just could not afford. It was...

I have so many friends and family members pregnant. With that in mind it got me thinking about my favorite baby products, items Nosefrida This crazy little snot sucker is amazing and has kept my boys from getting more sick because of mucus build up. Once it's stuck in the nose area it breeds more bacteria leaving little ones sick longer. I was referred to this by my friend Jamie Veprek. I'll admit, at first I was grossed out by the idea but knew i needed something that cleared out the little noses better than anything I've used before. These are amazing! When congestion was bad I'd put my baby in his bassinet in the bathroom with me. I'd take a nice hot shower to steam it up well, thus helping loosen the stuff in his nose. After I got out I'd suck like crazy and clear out his nose followed by a saline solution if it was really bad. It worked wonders! I also did this with my son Jon. As soon as we got the nasty green stuff out, he was feeling bette...

Plantain Jon using a mortar and pestal crushing up the freshly washed leaves. Wrapped up. Most of you have seen plantain before and thought it was just another weed. What a weed indeed! One Native American name for plantain translates to "life medicine". Plantain has so many healing properties. It is an astringent herb that has diuretic, expectorant and anti-mucus properties, as well as mild anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. It is healing, controls bleeding and fights bacterial infections. You can use all parts of the plant but I only use the leaves. How can this plant be used? You can use it in dried or fresh form. You can make a tea from it, a salve, or as a poultice like we did above. Look for information on my blog on Green Salve. We use plantain in this amazing healing salve. So on to what we did above. Jon had a nasty, nasty mosquito bite that was getting hard and hot and starting to weep. We washed off the weepy part with very w...