naturally Archives | Heavenly Homemakers

My favorite way to get rid of ants – cornmeal :)

Have I ever I told you about the time several of my aunts (which I pronounce “ants”) were in town helping me in the kitchen? We were having a lovely time capping strawberries and telling stories and laughing. Suddenly, a big, fat ant crawled across my kitchen counter and I let out a breath of frustration while exclaiming, “I wish these stinkin’ ANTS would get out of my kitchen!!!”

Well, my aunts hadn’t seen the ants that had so suddenly caused my outburst. They all dropped their knives and looked at me in astonishment because surely I wasn’t asking THEM to get out of my kitchen was I? I mean, what had they done except to help me so graciously with my load of strawberries?

Oh dear.

I quickly realized my mistake, and they quickly realized that I wasn’t talking about my aunts but about the ants – the nasty, little bugs that like to make a trail from one part of the kitchen to the other all while making away with our dinner roast beef. My aunts on the other hand, while they would surely enjoy my roast beef, have never formed an assembly line across my kitchen in order to steal away my supper. Nor have I ever had the urge to scream at them or squish them with my flip-flop. Goodness.

Now, isn’t that a great story? Laura screams at her ants. Laura’s aunts become shocked. The ants get squished. The aunts have a good chuckle. Laura enjoys her aunts while trying to figure out a good way to get rid of her ants.

All that to say, let’s have us a little discussion about getting the ants out of your kitchen. Regarding the aunts in your kitchen – you’re on your own, but I highly recommend figuring out a way you can all remain together harmoniously.

Recently, Mary emailed this question:

I have a one-year-old and don’t want to use RAID around the house. The warm weather is starting to bring ants around and my little girl loves running barefoot. What do you suggest? Mary

Here is a list of all the “Getting Rid of Ants Naturally” tips I have up my sleeve (if in fact I do have sleeves):

Keep your floors and counter-tops clean. Crumbs and stickiness just give ants the incentive to stay. They call or text all of their friends, then they come into your kitchen and have a great, big party.
Seal all leftover food very well, or put it into your fridge. There have been too many times I’ve made a lovely baked item for breakfast, only to find that ants have gotten up under the plastic wrap during the night and had their party in my Pyrex. If you think I screamed at my ants when I saw them on the countertop, you ain’t heard nothin’ like when I saw them in my fresh-baked whole wheat cinnamon rolls.
Sprinkle some cornmeal around doorways and places you normally find ants. They eat it and become bloated and it does them in.
Ants don’t like vinegar, bay leaves, peppermint oil, cinnamon, black pepper or whole cloves. You can make a picnic of any of these items for them in various places in your kitchen but their noses (ants have noses?) will be offended and they are likely to refuse your picnic invitation.

What else? Do you know of any natural, non-toxic ways to rid your home of ants?

The aunts, well…we’d like them to stay.

If you’ve had a child suffer from eczema, even a mild case, it can be incredibly frustrating to helplessly watch them suffer. Today I’m happy to share what we did to help our son’s ezcema. His case was a chronic one. :(

Our youngest son developed severe eczema when he was just two months old. We allowed one round of an oral steroid and half a tube of cortisone cream before learning that his condition was chronic and the drugs, if they were to get rid of the eczema symptoms, would be a permanent part of his life. So would be the terrible side effects of the drugs if we continued to give them to him.

So we chose to stop. We refused to give these life altering drugs to our baby. Eczema has been a part of his life for ten years now. Thankfully, we’ve found some answers and help.

We were learning more about nutrition, drugs, whole body health at that time. Through MUCH trial, error and prayer…we found a few things that helped him. There was NO quick fix because it has been a matter of healing his body from the inside out. Some of the things we did helped immediately (like changing detergents and soaps), but overall healing is STILL taking place five years later. I wish I could tell you otherwise.

I want to share these ideas with you…not because I’m just SURE they’ll help your child. Every child and every eczema case is different. Plus, I’m not a doctor…I’m just a mama.

What We Did To Help Our Son’s Eczema – Without Drugs

Remember, we learned that eczema is not merely a skin issue…there’s much more to it than that. But, here are the best changes we’ve made and the best products we’ve found to help our son Malachi with his eczema symptoms:

We began eating organic, natural and unprocessed whole foods. You’ll read more about all of this (all over my site), specifically in my Journey to Healthy Eating series. We specifically kept Malachi away from grains and sugar for quite a while to help his immune system and to help with his digestion.
We found this fragrance and dye free laundry detergent from Shaklee to be the best and only one that would not make his rash worse. Many people have suggested that we make our own detergent, but I have yet to see a homemade detergent without borax as an ingredient, and I’m not convinced that borax is okay for our skin.
We use only pure coconut soap from Tropical Traditions.
Lotion in general just doesn’t offer much comfort for Malachi’s dry itchy skin. After each bath we rub him down with BeeSilk Lotion Bar from MadeOn. BeeSilk Lotion Bar is made from three completely pure and natural ingredients. We fully trust this product. Straight coconut oil can also be helpful.
We started supplementing him with Black Current Seed Oil that we got from our chiropractor. Malachi takes it orally, plus we open up a tab and rub the oil onto his worst sores. This has been a HUGE help for his overall healing (digestive system healing) and I’ll talk more about it in my Journey to Healthy Eating series.
Speaking of chiropractors, we try to take Malachi in for regular chiropractic adjustments. If his body is in alignment, he does better. Plus, our chiropractor focuses on nutrition, allergies, and needed supplements.
We limit the baths. The water seems to dry his skin more, so once or twice a week is his limit. Faithfully after a bath, we slather him with BeeSilk Lotion Bar. (Edited to note…we’re now experimenting with bathe him daily, let him have a good long soak, then immediately rub BeeSilk Lotion Bar on his skin. This seems to offer him quite a bit of itchy relief.)
He wears mostly 100% cotton clothing so his skin can “breathe” better.
We clean the house either with good old fashioned water and vinegar…or Basic H from Shaklee. We have NO toxic cleaners in our house anymore. Read here about all of the soaps and cleaners we use.
Allergy testing…and desensitizing. Our chiropractor tested Malachi, then one by one he desensitized him for any allergies that he was showing a sign of. We were surprised that as he got older, different allergies showed up that hadn’t when he was tiny. It never hurts to try again. (P.S. The desensitizing process is super simple and painless…just a little different if you’re used to conventional methods of doctoring. Here’s a link my chiropractor directed me to, explaining more about this process. Not that I completely understand it. But it did help Malachi quite a bit.)
I can’t say enough about this one: SUNSHINE. We completely avoid sunscreen because it makes Malachi break out terribly. However, the sunshine makes his rash SO much better. Summer is our favorite time of the year. He always feels so much better in the summer when he’s in the sun. We just make sure he’s in the sun long enough to grab some good vitamin D…but not long enough to get a sunburn. We call it the “in the sun…out of the sun…in the sun…out of the sun…” method.
Our natural doctor helps keeps his liver and kidneys functioning properly so that toxins will be taken out of his body the way they are supposed to, instead of coming out through his skin. Find a natural doctor close to you who looks at the cause of the problem, not just the symptoms!! We could not have helped solve this chronic condition without professional help.
Prayer, prayer, prayer. God is the ultimate healer and we are so thankful to know that He loves Malachi even more than we do.

Ultimately, we have found that eczema or not…using high quality products in our home for cleaning and eating high quality unprocessed foods is best for all of us! We are so thankful for the changes we’ve made for our family…and for the relief Malachi has found as well!

Now that Malachi is older, his eczema is much better. The worst area is on his legs, and we’re hoping that once the sun starts shining a little more regularly again and he can be out in it…his legs will clear up more. His cheeks are now SO SOFT that I CAN’T stop kissing them. And he just lets me…great little accommodating guy that he is.

If you know of any other great, natural remedies for eczema, please leave a comment letting us know. I’d love for this post and all the comments to be a great resource for parents looking for answers!

P.S. If you’re interested in trying any of the products from Tropical Traditions I mentioned in this post, click here to read about how you can receive a free book from TT about the great benefits of coconut oil. I also highly recommend that you look into BeeSilk Lotion Bar from MadeOn. It truly is a wonderful product and I am so thankful to have access to it!