End Of Year 2024 Products Favorites List

 Here is a quick rundown of product favorites. I didn't get around to writing posts reviewing everything on this list (due to sickness), but I will get around to some of them in 2025. By the way, they are in no particular order.

• Jamaican Blue Soap - Love that I can use it for machine & handwash laundry; cleaning my floors; and using on my skin. The affordability helps.

• Anchor Original Chicken Chippy Salt - The one thing out of Australia that I'm definitely not frightened of! This stuff is weirdly addictive & I can't explain why. I use it on eggs, fish, burgers and, when I get teeth again, probably on every other edible thing.
• Peet's Major Dickason's Blend coffee - The coffee is good (though only about #4 of my Top 10 in coffees), but I'm crazy about the smell. It's the most coffee-smelling coffee ever.
• Topo Chico sparkling water - IMO, this is better-tasting than even Pellegrino. It has just the right amount of "bubbly" to it. The Tangerine Ginger is my favorite.
• Aunt Martha's Flour Sack Towels - I grab these when they go on sale. They come in all kinds of sizes.  I use them in the kitchen for everything, and I also use the really large ones for drying my hair and skin. They are often super affordable and are endlessly useful.

• NeilMed Nasal Gel - I suffered with dry nasal passages during every cold and allergy this past 2 years. Found this, and it's such a (literal) relief.
• Red Cow Full Cream Milk Powder - I switched from another very decent brand to this excellent one and will never be without. It's money-saving, since store-bought milk goes bad too fast the way I use it. It's awesome, with its higher fat level in my baked goods and in cereals. I sure hope the price stays stable!

• Topicrem's Ultra Moisturizing Milk and Emollient Balm completely replaced every body lotion, face moisturizer, and psoriasis cream in my home. They initially cost more than some of my previous products but work at least 5 to 10 times better.  The Milk is my day-to-day lotion and face product, while the Balm is for my extra-dry skin and my night face cream.

• French Flour - I use the Francine brand T55 as a bread flour and the T45 for an all-purpose. It's true for me that the flour causes less bloating and other gluten-related issues.

• Celtic Sea Salt - I mainly use the fine ground for everything but have tried the coarse also.
  
• So Cozy hair products - I love the gentleness (on my hair and wallet) of the shampoo, conditioner, and detangler.

There are some other products I like, but I did want to highlight the ones that just were above and beyond. I'm having to tighten the budget every week it seems, so I try to find products that are affordable or very worthy of every nickel spent.

Looking toward 2025, I'm buckling up for a rough ride! I wish everyone the best. Should the good Lord be willing to let me live to see the new year, I plan to be every more frugal and content with the basics.

Peace

-- Free

DISCLAIMER: I was not & will not be paid for listing any of the products in this post. All my reviews from 2018 forward are non-sponsored.

Let Us Make America *America* Again.

 Look, I don't want the America of the past with all the slavery and unchecked terror for some of us. I want the America of before Trump and MAGA.

Let's get back to just not liking our politicians, but not being terrified of them. I want to get back to just knowing that a president or politician would dare be less than presidential or at least adult-like.

I don't to live in an America where members of the president's cabinet are weaponized against those they don't agree with.

I want to go back to an America where at least the president and all his men and women were ashamed of lying. I want the politicians of old who knew that they should not (and could not) do certain things - because most of us as children were taught that certain things are wrong, hurtful, impolite, not gracious, not wholesome, or not good for everyone else.

I don't want this America where the president is literally a felon. Where his henchmen are just as bad as he is. I want an America where the president was surrounded with people who kept him somewhat in check. 

I don't want the mean, churlish and big-headed kid for president. I want the Sheriff of Mayberry kind of president: calm, collected, and understanding of the people he serves. I don't want a villain in charge, and certainly not one who has Tony Stark whispering in his ear and slipping money to him.

I recently posted on a platform about how I miss waking up to a calm America. We had our problems, God know, but we were not waking up in astonishment of how easily someone could put cracks in the walls of Democracy. 

The last president I was most irritated with was Reagan. I felt he was more showmen than anything. I thought that he reminisced about the days when people of certain classes and races "knew their place". But I respected the office he held. Any dirt he did, he knew to do it in the dark. Because, back then, there was shame and accountability (to a degree).

I will never tell the lie that America was always "great" in her morals and justice, but I can say that America was growing and maturing. We had just hit the stage of young adulthood of knowing how to mediate and govern for more than one class or race. Then entered Trump.

Actually, I think this started with the Tea Party people. It continued, quietly and seething like underground lava. Now, all hell has erupted, and we have a man-child about to hold the seat of power. And he's got a cast of strange and ominous characters around him. And a rich and dangerous hype man ready to play his part to the fullest.

As a Christian, I am not afraid. I'm anxious and always a little bit angry. I'm just not ready for another 4 years of chaos, discord, and storms of every kind.

I want to get back to the America where I voted for someone, you voted for someone else and, when a person was elected, you and I just kept living our lives. I don't like this time of friendships shattering, and even marriages being stressed... 

Last of all, I want to say something to my Christian brothers and sisters. If you ever wondered, as I have, how someone could come on the world stage and have the power to delude and seduce people against their own good, now you know.

Peace

--Free

P.S. I am not calling anyone the Antichrist. I am not trying to incite anything other than discussions and deep thinking. Like some of you, I know that no matter who sits in high offices, we serve a King.

Health Update: Manuka, Green Tea & Nasal Gel

 I guess this can be my end-of-year health update. It's been a couple of years since I lost my favorite Iowa doctor, and I think I have battled every cold and roaming virus known in all that time. Mercy!

Anyway, by mid-January, should the good Lord be willing that I am around, I will have teeth again. People, I cannot wait to be able to chew! My family teases me because every time I talk to one of them, I have something new to add to the list of what I want to eat. The most recent entry is a nicely cooked thin pork chop with just the right amount of fat around the edge...

Anyway.

As I mentioned recently, I am winning the battle against this latest infection that has me alternating between coughing up mucus (sorry bout that!) or coughing from a dry throat. Basically, there has been a lot of coughing and for the time being I sound like Marge Simpson. But I want to do a shout-out for my favorite remedies. I think they are the reason I am finally getting better.

First, there is the Manuka honey, of course. I have a small jar of the UMF 20+. I am steeping unsweetened green tea in cold water overnight, then adding some to my water throughout the day. I'm actually coming to like the unsweetened green tea - as long as it's room temp or chilled.

When the dry throat cough acts up - which is mainly at night - I am using the NeilMed NasoGel. As soon as I apply some in my nostrils, my throat feels better. And, of course, I am running a humidifier and staying hydrated with water.

Since I am on the mend and getting closer to the day I will have teeth, my mood has lifted. I was really having to battle nagging bouts of depression when the coughing and fatigue was at the worst. 

By the way, it's true what they say about the tongue being an indicator of your general health. During the worst of whatever I was fighting off, my tongue was (warning: this might be TMI and gross) this icky shade of yellow-brown. The only time it changed colors was when I was sucking on peppermints, which added a bit of red - and I should definitely mention that peppermints were so much better for my cough than any cough drops! I will be reaching for peppermints first when I get another cold...

After drinking the green tea every day, my tongue regained it's healthier shade of, well, tongue, although my tongue is never the uber healthy pink shade it was before sarcoidosis.

I'm really looking forward to being at least a bit healthier in 2025 - again, if the Lord is willing. I will be able to lose some of this pancake weight once I can eat meat and raw veggies again. I'm planning to keep up the habit of drinking green tea. Since I'm not a fan of strong-tasting green tea, I find that I am happy with this brand for the mild flavor, the organic certification, and especially the price.

I wish all of you good health, blessings, and peace in the coming year. 

Peace

--Free

DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical professional of any type. I was not and will not be compensated for products mentioned in this post.

Meeting of a MAGA-Mind

In all the turmoil and talk after this year's election, some things got lost in the sauce. Friendship, understanding, and real communication. That's what we all need. I realized that today. Nothing is going to be solved with all the #FAFO stories. I will not stop saying that not all of us FA'd, but we might all have to FO.

I have a neighbor I consider to be a friend. She is one of the kindest, sweetest people I know. I don't talk politics with anyone outside my family (except online) so I had no idea that "Linda" was a Trump voter. I wouldn't have thought it. Not only that, but I never thought of her as being Red or Blue, to be honest.

Today, during her visit to my apartment, during casual talk, it came up that she voted for Trump. I was surprised. As we talked, I explained why I am not a Trump supporter (in spite of my many moral issues with Democrats). One thing that came up was his talk of Tariffs and cutting various modes of aid to citizens.

Linda was trying to correct me about the tariffs. I told her that I worked for an import/export broker, then explained how tariffs actually work. I actually pulled up the online U. S. Tariff Schedule and explained using an example.

People, this woman was heartbroken. And I think she wanted to believe I was mistaken. Then she took a call from her doctor. When they finished whatever he called for, she asked why nobody told her that Trump's tariffs could raise prices. (Yeah, she was sneak-checking me!) He told her that we could only hope he never gets that done. (My information was confirmed!)

Anyway, because we are friendly and love each other as Christian sisters, we continued the conversation.

What Linda couldn't understand is why, if tariffs are not good for us (you know, po' folk), why would Trump want to impose them. As delicately as I could, I explained that I'm not sure Trump understands how tariffs work. Seriously, not being mean. I reminded her that Trump, Elon, and Biden don't have to shop at Walmart and Aldi's...

Before Linda left, I showed her some online news sources - that are not MSNBC or Fox or CNN. She said that she doesn't have cable or a internet access. She was very interested after I showed her some content from Ground News, Newsweek, and a few other sites. BTW, I also showed her this:

source

What struck me was how hurt Linda was. Or rather, why she was so hurt. She wasn't acting as if she'd found out Trump, as a politician, lied or misled her. She was acting as if a favorite child has betrayed her. It was very personal. 

So, while a lot of non-MAGA folk see all MAGA-ites as pitchfork-toting, evil idiots, there are probably a lot of Lindas out there as well. She is ill-informed, gullible, and a little blinded by culture, but she is not a MAGA-ite type woman.

The problem is, though, how to reach people like Linda? She only listened to me because of our Christian-ship, but she still needed to hear another source. This is a tricky situation we are in.

Peace

--Free