As I looked around the table at the whole family gathered for our Thanksgiving dinner, I was reminded of what a wonderful life we live here in Nebraska. There is no one telling us where to go to church, how to raise our food, or why we have to wear a mask. Well, people have a habit of telling things like that, but nobody has authority to make our decisions for us.

It was just our immediate family this year, but the ten of us must surely have made enough noise for a big crowd. Our plates were full (probably over-full) with turkey, potatoes and gravy, stuffing, corn, rolls, and pumpkin pie. But better even than the food was the conversation, the laughing, and the stories flying back and forth. I mean, seriously. If our happiness depended on my chocolate bears coming out of their mold perfectly, we would have been devastated. They were mush.

May your turkey be fat and juicy,

May your yard games not result in broken bones,

May the cell phones by forgotten in your vehicle,

May the laughter be so loud it alarms the neighbors,

May your gravy be smooth and truly without MSG,

May the kitchen be used and without smoke,

May the food be so natural that you feel energetic and fruitful,

May you be blessed with abundant health!

May you make great memories on this day, while giving thanks to our amazing creator God for His provision.

Psalm 106: 1 Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Mentinks!

Have you ever noticed that even if God allows you to have a dream, you’re expected to work to make it happen?

Dan Miller

The other day Asher, age 6 came up to me and asked if he could listen to a Dan Miller podcast while he put his clothes away every morning. “I would like to get some wisdom,” he seriously replied. Since Asher was helping me with my wisdom Wednesday post last week, I thought I would share something from Dan Miller and Asher approved the quote. While we think proverbs is the BEST place to get wisdom, we think Dan Miller has some good wisdom to share too! Are you living your dream? We would love to hear from you!

Homemade Carpet Cleaner Recipe

Since we had carpet in the kitchen at our old house, I cleaned carpets about once a month. Every time I would clean the carpets I would get a sore throat. Needless to say I hated cleaning carpets! Once I found this natural recipe my husband thought I might wear out the carpets by cleaning them so much. The carpets looked clean, smelled fantastic, and I felt great after using it. I no longer have any carpet in my house, but I still use this on my furniture a few times a year. I used this recipe for years on my carpets and furniture and never experienced any problems, but please read the warning below.

1. I HATE suffering
2. I don’t have time to waste feeling tired
3. I don’t like being in pain and feeling sick
4. I’m a better servant
5. I don’t want to be a slave to big Pharma

Why do you use natural cleaners, natural skin care, and eat good quality food? We love to hear from you!

“A newly published UC Davis research paper pinpoints what could be “the missing link” in why some CO VID-19 patients recover and some don’t.” Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome or ARDS, characterized by fluid build-up in the lungs, is the “Second leading cause of death in COVID-19 patients, next to viral pneumonia, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.” “Recent data indicate a role of dysregulated lipid profiles in CO VID-19 and identified cytochrome P450 (CYP) metabolites of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) as potential biomarkers of disease severity.” In other words, a high amount of polyunsaturated fat intake could be to blame.

Is Organic Food “Gross?”

For the next several weeks we will be focusing on getting the toxins out of our household cleaners. This week I will be sharing how I clean my furniture naturally. I used to buy a commercial powder to sprinkle on my cloth furniture, vacuumed it, and then I would spray a toxic spray to make it smell good. When I started changing my cleaning routine and reading the ingredients in my products, these two products were some of the first to go. I have discovered that mixing baking soda with some drops of essential oil and sprinkling this all over my furniture does a great job and leaves the furniture smelling great.

Last week I shared my recipe that I love for polishing, and today I will be sharing my dusting spray recipe that I use often. My kids love to help dust and especially to use this spray. The only problem is they often use more than I would. A little supervision is always good. The great things about this recipe are the natural ingredients, and the fact that we don’t feel bad when we use it. It also contains ingredients that most of us have in our homes, and it’s a very frugal option. An observation that I have made with this dusting spray is that it doesn’t seem to attracts dust like the store bought sprays that I used to use, which means less dusting for me! Because of the vinegar and essential oils in this recipe, I like to use a amber glass bottle, but I have used plastic bottles too.