Homemade Deodorant

For several years, I have been seeing the words HOMEMADE DEODORANT on the internet. The first time I read about making deodorant myself, it was in an article about the chemicals in store bought and how they are used to keep you from sweating and the links to cancer and aluminum. Well, if you're like me then you don't want to smell sweaty pits. :P BUT... sweating is a natural way for your body to cool itself and to expel toxins.

I finally decided I would give homemade deodorant a try at the end of March. Let me tell you, I was a little worried about it not working;  so worried, I carried my spare store bought container in my purse when we went to church the first Sunday I wore it. I even carried it with us to Oklahoma; I just wanted to make sure I was not going to stink. Both times, this simple homemade product worked.

I know what you are wondering...Do I sweat? Yes and no. When I first started this, I noticed sweat even with colder temperatures but it has pretty much stopped.  Lately, I really don't have any sweat wetness even when I go to the gym and work out in the yard. I guess, my body was getting adjusted to the not having harmful chemicals being rubbed into my skin. I think a lot of the non sweating has to do with the absorption with the baking soda and cornstarch. While everything else is damp with sweat, my underarms are cool as a cucumber. ;)

Use your imagination and pretend there is a bottle of Tea Tree Oil in this photo. Yep, I completely forgot to add it in the grouping. If you haven't been introduced to Tea Tree Oil yet, I'm introducing you to each other now. Tea Tree Oil is an amazing antiseptic and antifungal oil. It can be used for many things including shampoo and deodorant.


There are many recipes out there for homemade deodorant and I chose to use the TTO because, well because I like the smell and since it is an antifugal I figured, why not. I did cut down on the baking soda and go up on the cornstarch. I'm not sure if I would have any reactions to the baking soda, but there are reports of people breaking out because of it, so I decided to not use as much.

Homemade Deodorant

3 Tblsp Coconut Oil
3 Tblsp Cornstarch
1 Tblsp Baking Soda
15 drops Tea Tree Oil

In a small container heat the coconut oil just until it is soft and mixed it with the other ingredients until smooth. If you don't over heat the oil, you should be able to pour the mixture into an old deodorant container. (roll it all the way down)  If you do over heat it and it is a liquid, cool it down in the refrigerator until you can pour or scoop into the container.  ** Remember coconut oil becomes a liquid at temperatures over 76 degrees. It will soften if your house is on the warm side.

I have not seen any "oily" stains in my shirts; and that's a good thing. I have a white tee shirt I only wear at home and I've not noticed any of the darkening that happens to white shirts. It doesn't take covering your whole underarm and down the side of your body (I know I'm not the only one who has done this in the past); just a couple of swipes in the pit. Also, I don't have to worry about white marks on my dark tops any longer.

If you try making your own deodorant, I would love to hear about it.

You can read more about odor and deodorant HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Loaded Potato and Buffalo Chicken Casserole

I found this recipe in the newspaper two weeks ago and boy, am I glad I did. This contains ingredients we all love and it is super easy to make and so delicious.

I did make a few adjustments; I cut down the potatoes to 6, used a quarter cup of bacon, regular onions and white cheddar cheese, and cut the hot sauce down to 4 tablespoons and I drizzled ranch dressing over the top when it came out of the oven. This has been requested on the menu again within the next two weeks. I will definitely add more bacon and potatoes.

~Loaded Potato and Buffalo Chicken Casserole~

2 lbs boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
8 -10 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 

 1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tblsp ground pepper
1 Tblsp paprika
2 Tblsp garlic powder
 6 Tblsp hot sauce

Topping
2 cups fiesta blend cheese 

1 cup crumbled cooked bacon
1 cup diced green onion

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. (* see note below)  Spray a 9X13" baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and hot sauce. Add the cubed potatoes and stir to coat. Carefully scoop the potatoes into the prepared baking dish, leaving behind as much of the olive oil/hot sauce mixture as possible.

Bake the potatoes for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until cooked through and crispy and browned on the outside. While the potatoes are cooking, add the cubed chicken to the bowl with the left over olive oil/hot sauce mixture and stir to coat.

Once the potatoes are fully cooked, remove from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Top the cooked potatoes with the raw marinated chicken.

In a bowl mix together the cheese, bacon and green onion and top the raw chicken with the cheese mixture. Return the casserole to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and the topping is bubbly delicious.

 Serve with extra hot sauce and/or ranch dressing. 

** I pre-baked my potatoes in the microwave, peeled, marinated and cooked them at 400 degrees to keep from spending so much time waiting on the potatoes to cook. Since they were almost completely cooked it only took them about 20 minutes to crisp up.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

On Saturday, we visited the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The weather in this area has been beautiful for the past several days, and Saturday was no exception.  When we came through North Dakota and saw Painted Canyon and a couple of the bison in September, I said then I wanted to visit.

This national park is not like many others with a lot to see. If you've been to the Grand Canyon, or Yellowstone you know what I'm talking about. There are still some ooh and aah moments you won't want to miss. There are two parts to the park the North Unit and the South Unit. We visited the South Unit and are planning on visiting the North Unit in a week or so.

Many people think South Dakota is the home of the badlands but in reality, they can be found here in Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, and several other western states. TRNP is home of beautiful scenery from badland canyons, to grassland with the Little Missouri River flowing through it.

The park entrance is right outside of the tiny city of Medora. A rather cute western city that has preserved its history over the years.

This is the Maltese Cross Cabin where Theodore Roosevelt lived when he came out for his hunting trips. This is not the original location of the cabin, but can you imagine living here? I know I can, even with only three rooms; kitchen, bedroom, living room area. Actually, a bathroom would be nice and maybe one more bedroom. :)

Just a few pictures of some of the items in the museum.   

If I remember correctly, the writing desk in the middle and the trunk(which I did not get a picture of) are the only original items to Theodore Roosevelt in the cabin.

Being goofy in the President's house.

In the park are many small herds of wild horses. The next two pictures are of a group with one stallion and the rest are mares with colts and one more on the way. The stallion in the first picture is "lip curling" an act that he does because she is in heat. They did the deed and I have a picture, but I didn't add it.  :)  Don't shake your head at me... how many people can say they have seen wild horses mate?

The above wild stallion has a harem of 8 mares. The one on the far left almost missed out on being Frog's Lilypad famous because she and her colt moved.

                                 There were lots of nursing mothers and babies.

This was the only baby bison we saw.

These little guys were all over the place in the Prairie dog towns throughout the park. Jamie waited patiently for this one to stand up it's not very clear, but since he did wait, I wanted to show you.

We got to see the aftermath of a horse and bison knock down drag out. We saw this young stallion limping and saw the gaping wound on his leg.

After we drove past the horse, the bully bison went running after him again. Yep, I was hanging out of the truck window so I could get this picture.

Wind Canyon, oh my! This place was beautimus and we quickly learned why it is called Wind Canyon. Let's just say, my hair was standing straight up and out because of the wind. I have pictures of the horrifying scene, but I think you can use your imagination .

We didn't get to go up to Painted Canyon because their visitor center is closed until Memorial Day. But we did find out we can walk through the gate and go and see the canyon. We'll be doing that when we head up to the North Unit.

This is how we spent our Saturday ~ enjoying the amazing work of the Lord.

Chocolate Banana Milkshake

Nothing bad in this chocolate banana milkshake. You’ll thank me when you make it.

Since bananas are big gout reliever (my husband deals with that mess), I bought almost 30 pounds of bananas last week. Wednesday, I went to the health food store and swung by Alberston's. To my knowledge they are the only store in our area that bags up the bananas that have started turning brown and reduces the price on them. Well, they were 39 cents a pound, so I bought 11 pounds of the bagged bananas. Then on Saturday, I bought about 17 pounds more.  Thankfully, we love bananas, banana bread and now Chocolate Banana Milkshakes. I have a freezer full of frozen bananas for the future.

After making a couple testers of the original recipe, we decided we liked them better without the ice and peanut butter.  The original recipes also calls for maple syrup and almond milk; we are true real milk fans and I used honey instead of the maple syrup.

~Chocolate Banana Milkshake~

2 frozen bananas
3/4 cup milk
1-2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put everything in a blender, and blend away until smooth and creamy. Or you can do like me and use a tall container and a stick blender. :) Yeah, I used my stick blender with

 ice. :P  I personally added the whole 2 tablespoons of honey to each container. It tastes better to me.

I'm linking up with Tammy at Country Girl at Home today.

Tea Tree Oil Shampoo

Happily, last Tuesday evening I chopped off all my hair; all five long inches of it. It took me two hours, but I did it and I'm happy with it being short again. My hair was at the point where I had to pull it back with clips to keep it out of my face and it was not quite long enough to put it up in a ponytail; the dreaded stage of letting short hair grow. Yeah, well, I'm 42 years old and I want to look my age for as long as possible, so the whole idea of letting my hair grow long has been flung out the window. I know there are ladies older than me with beautiful long hair, but there are also those who look much older because of their hair and I don't want to be in that boat.

I began writing this post before I ran to the bathroom with  scissors.  Hopefully, you will see the two reasons why I use Tea Tree Oil in my shampoo.

I love Tea Tree Oil! I have even come to love the piney smell when I open the bottle. There are so many uses for it and it works for everything I have used it in and on.

When I first bought Tea Tree Oil, I had read about using it for acne so it was bought for Jamie. Let me tell you quickly, it works and rather fast unlike all those over the counter creams that never worked when I was growing up.

For the past several months, I have been using it in my shampoo.   After Christmas, I started letting my hair grow back out and was looking for something that might work with the Biotin I was already taking. I stumbled over a couple of articles written for African American women and their hair and thought "why not?" after reading them and several others about hair growth.

In all seriousness, it really works for hair growth or I have a very good imagination! Now, I take Biotin every day and only wash my hair about 3 times a week; maybe one more time if I leave the house.  In some of the articles written about Tea Tree Oil shampoo, the idea of using it for oily hair was mentioned several times and how it seemed to work for some.When I started this, I had to wash my hair everyday because of oil and after trying this for a couple of weeks, I was able to cut back on the number of washes each week. YAY!

When mixing the first bottle of shampoo and oil, I used a small amount for the tester. I did this, so I would not have a big mixture that I would not be able to use for whatever reason. After using it with no ill effects, I now mix a half a bottle of shampoo with about 15-20 drops of oil (I keep adding until the TTO smell is stronger than the shampoo) and shake the bottle like there is no tomorrow.

Since we have soft water, I have been able to stop using a conditioner on my hair. Soft water and Tea Tree Oil shampoo go hand in hand! My hair is thicker, softer, and oil free it is unbelieveable!

Our Oklahoma Trip

We were all excited about our trip to Oklahoma last week and I am so thankful we were able to go and get back home safely. We dealt with blizzard like conditions through South Dakota and prayed all the way to Murdo that I-90 would open so we could get to the road needed to head into Nebraska. There were several closure notices along the highway, but the Lord opened the road before we even made it there. :)

We had been told the pronghorns out here are not like deer. They don't don't jump fences unless it is a must situation and even then they will run to keep from having to jump.  We got see to a group run from one side of the road to the other trying to find a safe place to get away from the cars.

If I remember correctly, this was taken in Mission, South Dakota. The cars on the side streets were snowed in and some of the houses had drifts of snow up to the gutters.

I got to explain how to work one of these to Jamie. Funny, there are still some actual places, you don't have to prepay for gas, if you use cash.

There was snow all the way into the middle of Nebraska. Once we got closer to Grand Island we began seeing green, green, green grass. It was a nice view since the last time we've seen any green grass was back before we moved. If this stunning little farm was in Montana, I would so want to live there.

Bull riding school was fantastic! Cody Custer is a wonderful teacher, his compassion and love for bull riding shows when he is around those who are starting out in the sport.  He worked with each boy on the barrel.

He watched each boy work with their rope; making sure they knew what they were doing. He went through each piece of equipment and made sure each boy knew how to use it.

This little guy in the pink shirt was the youngest student. Boy, did he have spunk! His father was asked about the pink shirt and chaps, and he told, "That is all he wears, he won't use another color shirt."  My husband told him (from a photographer's point of view) bold vibrant colors make the best pictures.

Cody even ran around the arena with those needing help, hollering what they needed to do and not do.

Jamie did very well riding. We realized his problem he was having was not all his form but rather a mental thing. ~ He takes his eyes off the bull and watches the ground when he doesn't see it, he panics.  That is something he is going to have to work on.  Believe it or not, I videoed one ride on Saturday and missed the part where he fell off. So I tried to do the others and would you believe the crazy video on my husband's camera paused? Yep, I missed his best ride of the weekend! So I quit being the official videographer before I could be fired. :)

It's not often you see a teenager being an encourager. This young man was the most encouragement I saw the two days. He patted the other guys on the back and told them they were doing good and better luck next time. He never made a sneary face or remark to those who were having trouble. He even helped get their ropes up out of the arena.

Who would have thought, I would have to wrap up in April in Oklahoma? Yeah, they snuck in a cold day on us for Friday. I rebelled and wore my sandals and capris anyway! We were rewarded with 70+ degree weather on Saturday, so it evened out.  I spent a good bit of time knitting, I finished a simple table runner and started and finished a couple of other small items.

No matter what this young-in will say, he was about whooped when he climbed into the bed on Friday night and into the truck on Saturday to head back home.

                                  Some of the students and men who helped out.

           This is my favorite picture of all; a former World Champion with a new comer.

On our way home, we were able to get a quick peek at some of the snow covered Badlands.

               And we were welcomed home to 8 inches of fresh snow.

Helping Our Children Fulfill Their Dreams

This week we will be attending a bull riding school. This is something that our son has wanted to do ever since riding his first steer. Sadly, I was not there to see that first ride; it was one of those "Momma's not here to worry, so let me give it a try and if I don't like it, no one has to know about it", situations. I'm still mad about missing the very first ride (not really), but my husband and son have a memory they can share forever and I'm happy with that.

Before the steer riding started, Jamie was chute dogging (steer wrestling) and he loved it, still does. He is built for steer wrestling and he is rather good at throwing the steer down and doing it quickly. Between steer wrestling and bull riding, bull riding is probably not going to be his best rodeo event, but he loves it and it is a dream of his to ride bulls just like his dad did when he was younger.

My husband shared this with his friends on Facebook early last week.

I gave myself a rule to live by on the day that I found out I was going to be a Daddy. That rule was, that no matter what my son wanted to be in life I would work as hard as I could and do whatever I could to put him in the position to be the best he could be, and have all of the opportunities he needed be successful.

He decided a couple of years ago that he wanted to rodeo and be a bull rider. So in just over a week we (as a family) will make an all night drive so he will have the opportunity to spend 2 days with Cody Custer learning how to be the best bull rider he can be.

I thank God that he will have the chance to learn how to rodeo, from not just a former World Champion, but from someone who knows how to handle the stress of the sport and the pressures that come with the rodeo lifestyle, and who still keeps God first in his life.

Before we moved to Montana, we were seriously considering moving to the Texas/Oklahoma area so Jamie would have easier access to many of the people who could help him in either event.  Helping our son to fulfill his dreams was something we wanted to do, even if it meant moving 900 miles from everyone we knew. Little did we know, the Lord had other plans and placed us in an area where we have almost the same access to men who can help Jamie. We are now in an area where all the local rodeos are open to riders and even have a junior division.

Last year, while waiting on the next month's junior rodeo day, my husband and son spent several hours each evening practicing form for bullriding even during and after the rain. This year will be about the same once the warmer weather sets in.

                      Here are some things I've learned to help my child fulfill his dreams.

1. Encourage don't discourage~ I heard my husband tell Jamie just the other night, if you want ride do it. I'll do what I can to get you there just don't forget about steer wrestling, because it will help pay your way to bullriding.

2. Don't stand is his way~ I could always say, you're not riding because of the risks. But, I have to remember young men and women get hurt all the time playing basketball, football, softball, etc.

3. Be a living example~ No matter what I do, I need to allow my son to see me work hard at whatever it is I'm doing. He needs to see me not be a quitter.

4. Show my support~  A lot of times, just being there goes a lot further than saying anything. I want to be a haven of encouragement and positive words for my tender hearted son. When the time comes and Jamie needs to talk to me, he'll feel free to come and we can talk.

5. Pray~ The best thing I can do for Jamie is to pray for him.

A Spring Weekend in Montana

For the past two weeks, it has been warm and beautiful around here. So nice, most of the days we enjoyed having the windows open along with the front and back doors. Yep, it was that warm! As many would say good things must come to an end and early this morning it began to snow. As of right now, we have about 4 inches of snow with a couple of knee deep drifts. :)

Since it was really nice on Saturday and we needed water, we went to Medicine Rocks State Park to walk.  We went the back roads and since Jamie and I have never been that way, we were amazed at the most beautiful sites we have seen so far for this area.

One of the many dirt roads. This one was to a small fishing reservoir...

We saw many windmills on the ranches.

You can seriously see for miles out here.

The light started changing when we made it to the park, so these pictures are not the best. 

Medicine Rocks State Park

Some of these rocks are MASSIVE! That's me standing beside one.

Some have holes where you can walk through.

                         

Pumping the ever so tasteful spring water to take back home.

We even saw and heard Meadlowlarks around the sides of the road.

Image Credit