May 30, 2025 • 41 mins
Ever heard the term "crunchy" and wondered what it actually means? Join cousins Chrissy and Katie on this episode of Crunchy Stewardship as they pull back the curtain on the world of natural, holistic living. We're defining what "crunchy" means to us – a lifestyle focused on stewarding our spiritual, mental, emotional, financial, and physical health to honor God – and why it's more of a spectrum than a strict label.
From birthing choices and organic eating to homemade cleaning products and natural remedies, we share our personal journeys and reveal just how "crunchy" we actually are. Plus, get ready to play along as we take a fun personality quiz to help you discover where you land on the crunchy spectrum!
Episode Takeaway:
Embracing a more natural, non-toxic lifestyle isn't about rigid adherence or perfection; it's a personalized journey of making intentional choices that align with your values for health and well-being.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship
00:44 The 'Crunchy' Spectrum
03:27 Chrissy's Crunchy Journey
05:26 Defining 'Crunchy'
06:45 Katie's Crunchy Journey
11:10 How Crunchy Are You? Quiz
12:23 Ideal Birthing Scenario
15:25 Organic Choices
17:11 Breastfeeding Plans
19:29 Baby Carrying Methods
22:03 Produce
24:22 Drinking Water
25:37 Fermentation
25:49 Finding Clean Products
26:28 Essential Oils
27:19 Acupuncture
28:40 Bone Broth
29:33 Compost
30:00 Dream Homes
30:23 Coffee Additions
31:21 Farmer's Market Finds
33:22 Crunchy Checklist
35:34 Education
36:42 Crunchy Practices
38:46 Final Thoughts
Links & Things Mentioned in This Episode:
- Bobby Approved App: This app helps you scan product barcodes to see if ingredients are "Bobby Approved" based on common health criteria. https://www.flavcity.com/bobbyapproved/
- EWG (Environmental Working Group) Apps: We love their apps (like Healthy Living) for checking ingredients in personal care products, cleaning supplies, and food, giving them a "cleanliness" score. https://www.ewg.org/apps/
- Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen Lists (by EWG): These annual guides help you prioritize which produce to buy organic (Dirty Dozen) and which are generally safe to buy conventional (Clean Fifteen). https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php
- Brita Water Filter Chrissy Uses: https://amzn.to/4lU6C11
- Brita Faucet Filter: https://amzn.to/4jEdazm
- Berkey Water Filters: https://amzn.to/4cWaIll
- US Raw Milk Laws by State: As promised, here's a helpful resource to understand the legality and accessibility of raw milk in your state: https://www.realmilk.com/real-milk-legal-map/
Connect With Us:
Join Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crunchychristianmama
FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chrissy (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
(00:03):
My name is Chrissy.
Katie (00:04):
And my name is Katie.
We are two cousins who arepassionate about learning and
sharing the knowledge that wehave to equip others to steward
their spiritual, mental,emotional, financial, and
physical health in order tohonor God with every aspect of
your life.
Chrissy (00:21):
In this podcast, we are taking a deep dive into what it
means to steward our lives asGod originally intended for us.
With the resources that God hasgiven us, we will look at topics
like food, medicine, finances,mental health, and lots more
through a natural lens with abiblical foundation.
So without further ado, let'sget started.
Katie (00:43):
Yay.
And today in this episode, Ihave come up with a kind of fun
idea for what I'd like to do inorder to help our community and
audience understand a bit moreabout what we kind of mean when
we say crunchy.
Now, a lot of our listeners areour friends and family members
(01:08):
who just kind of wanna tune intowhat we're talking about here on
our podcast.
And I have talked to many of youwonderful family members and
friends who are like, what isthis all about?
What is it?
What are you even talking aboutwhen you say crunchy?
And how crunchy really are you?
Because a lot of times if youstart Googling the word crunchy,
(01:31):
there's a lot of crazy stuffthat comes up, I'd say about
being crunchy.
And the thing that I think thatyou and I both agree with
Chrissy is that crunchy isdefinitely a spectrum and people
can
Chrissy (01:45):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (01:46):
a little bit crunchy.
Maybe they do a few things thatare crunchy or they can be
extremely crunchy and be all inon all the things.
And you and I are at differentpoints as well on the spectrum.
I don't think we agree oneverything or we're not at the
same place and we have differentthings going on in our lives.
So in this episode, I thoughtit'd be really fun to first off
(02:10):
describe what we mean by crunchyand then let the listeners and
our community and our friendsand family know more about how
crunchy we are on the spectrum.
And yeah, like the little thingsthat we think kind of make us
more crunchy.
The last thing that I wanna saybefore I have a few questions
for you, Chrissy, is that Idon't wanna like plaster a label
(02:34):
of like, yes, we are definitelycrunchy people and people have
to think of us in this this way.
'cause I also think labels canbe very not great at times.
You know, I, I don't wanna putus in a box in any sort of way,
but it's just kind of a fun wayto say that.
Yeah, we are just kind of onthis journey to become
non-toxic.
(02:54):
And so that's kind of what, forme, crunchy means is trying to
eliminate toxins from my life.
You know, I've kind of come tothis awakening of the world and
the news and the government andwhat we're being told isn't
always the truth.
It's just kind of like I've,I've become more aware of that
and I'm trying to do things moreholistically and more naturally
(03:17):
versus always introducing amedicine or doing things a
conventional way.
And so I think for me, that'skind of what makes me more
crunchy.
So Chrissy, I wanna turn it overto you and ask you like, what
does crunchy mean to you?
And what do you think kind ofputs you on the spectrum of
(03:37):
being crunchy?
Chrissy (03:38):
So I guess let's start off with what does crunchy mean
to me?
To me it, it's less of a focusof eliminating toxins and more
of a focus of feeding my bodywell.
When I first started it was morerealizing of like, I can have so
much more benefit from betteringredients that I put in my
(04:01):
body.
And now as I've kind ofcontinued, I've looked a little
bit more at detoxifying, but atfirst it really was more of a
motivation of merely just addinggood stuff and less of taking
away the bad stuff.
And it's, it's a process, so Istarted with adding good stuff
(04:22):
and now I'm in the process oftaking away bad stuff from our
household in cleaning products,in food, in just like, I haven't
quite gotten to the clothingsection.
That part of being crunchyactually kind of scares me.
We, we haven't gone down thatrabbit hole yet.
So I guess if you could saylike, on the spectrum of being
(04:42):
crunchy, how crunchy are you?
Like you said, Katie, you and Ihave, different things that we
are more likely to want to do inorder to improve our health and
decrease toxins in ourlifestyle.
So I consider myself fair tomoderate.
You know, I do read the labelsof every single thing that I buy
at the grocery store andeverything that I put in my
(05:04):
house.
I've decreased seed oils, I'vedecreased additives in our food,
extra sugar and things likethat.
But at the same time, I do stilllike my chocolate and I will
still eat a donut, especiallywhen I really wanna a donut.
I will get a donut, you know?
So it's, it's a balance and it'sa spectrum.
Katie (05:26):
So quite a while ago I was talking to a mom and she was
describing some things to me andI was like, oh, you kind of
sound crunchy like me.
And she was like, well, whatdoes that actually mean?
So I googled it and I actuallythought this definition was, was
pretty spot on.
But take this with a grain ofsalt.
So this is what Google said isthat a crunchy mom is a mother
(05:48):
who practices a parenting stylethat is centered around a
natural lifestyle, typicallyavoids modern medicine,
technology, and processed foods.
The term can be used positivelyor negatively and is often
contrasted with the term silkymom, which describes a mother
who embraces modern technologyand science.
(06:10):
Now I wanna pause there becauseI think when people hear that
phrase at the end of moderntechnology and science, you
would almost automatically jumpand be like, no, I do like
modern technology and I likescience and health, and
healthcare, and all thesethings.
And I think you and I both fallon the spectrum of we want to
(06:30):
try to do things the morenatural, holistic way to start
with
Chrissy (06:36):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (06:36):
with, but there is absolutely a time and a place
for our modern healthtechnologies and science to come
in.
Chrissy (06:44):
Absolutely.
Katie (06:45):
About a year ago my son was born and we both contracted
a life-threatening case ofsepsis.
And in that instance, I was sothankful and so glad that modern
health technologies and scienceHas gotten to the place where it
is.
Because what we had wasconsidered child bed fever many
(07:09):
many years ago, like centuriesago.
And child bed fever was whatkilled many women and babies
during birth.
And so I'm so thankful that Iwasn't born in like the 19th or
18th century where we would'vehad no chance of survival.
But in today's modern technologyera and all the science that we
have, we survived because of allthe interventions that they had.
(07:33):
Now, however, when it's just dayto day with like taking care of
ourselves, and even when my songets a fever, I don't pop
Tylenol into him.
The first thing I do is put himin a bath with some Epsom salt
and lime juice and somepeppermint oil.
And I try to detoxify and allowthe fever to work its course
(07:55):
because, you know, fevers aretrying to get the, the illness
and the sickness out of the bodywe don't want to necessarily
stop that process.
So for me, I try to do the morenon-medicine route for simple
things like that.
Or when he has a rash, I'm notusing like Neosporin or
Benadryl.
I'm trying to look for a morenatural route to curing whatever
(08:20):
that thing is.
And so, for me it's definitelylooking at the long term effects
of something like a medicine,and trying to do it in a way
that's not going to cause moreharm over time.
Because I learned that somethinglike Advil, Tylenol,
acetaminophen, you know, allthese over the counter
(08:41):
medications for pain, they tendto ruin your gut lining and can
actually cause things like foodinsensitivities especially too,
for people who have lots ofantibiotics, in their childhood.
So of course when my son wasborn and had sepsis, the two of
us were pumped with antibioticsbecause we needed them.
(09:04):
We needed them at the time, andthat was the time and place for
them, And so unfortunately,because that was how his life
started, his gut right now issomething that we're working on
repairing and healing and allthis stuff.
So all that being said, talk alittle bit about what tends to
make people more crunchy,because again, like yes, there's
(09:26):
the medicine side and non-toxicside, but let's kind of like
break it down into some littlebits and pieces of like, this
tends to make people crunchyversus makes them silky which is
kind of the more just all in oneverything that we have today,
the conventional way.
So I think one thing that Iwanna throw out there, which
tends to make people morecrunchy to begin with,
(09:49):
especially like as mothers, iswanting to do an unmedicated
birth.
So instead of using all of themedications, whether it's to
induce labor or to reduce thepain of labor.
One thing that originally mademe crunchy when I kind of first
started this journey was wantingto go through with an
(10:11):
unmedicated birth.
So I think a lot of times that'sone of those big things that
tends to make people crunchy.
Chrissy (10:17):
It's actually kind of funny, I was talking with my
small group last week or twoweeks ago, and, I said, yeah,
I'm, I'm pretty crunchy.
And one of the people in mysmall group was like, what are
you talking about?
Like, no, you're, you'reactually quite normal.
And so, I pulled out my homemadedish detergent and I said, am I
really?
And then I went to the laundryroom and I showed them my
homemade laundry detergent.
(10:38):
I said, are you sure I'm normal?
And they were like, oh, wait aminute.
No, you're not normal.
But it was more in like a lovingmanner, not necessarily the
negative side of it.
But yeah, sometimes like I thinkthe unmedicated birth is the one
thing that we really see.
You know, more so than changingyour laundry detergent or
(10:59):
increasing your time outside.
Changing the food that you'reeating is a little bit less
noticeable steps from people whoare merely just observing your
lifestyle.
Katie (11:10):
So, Chrissy, for everybody and for ourselves, I
thought it would be fun today togo through some random online
personality quizzes becausethose are so hilarious.
And we are going to answer somequestions about being crunchy.
Now, I've found a handful ofthem and I thought we could go
(11:32):
through and ask each other thesequestions.
And I'd love for you as thelistener to kind of play along
and answer these questions inyour head.
Or even like jump in on theFacebook page and answer them
and let us know, like, do youfall into this crunchy thing?
Or are you not practicing thiscrunchy thing?
And yeah, so we'll all together,see how crunchy we are.
(11:55):
Okay Chrissy.
So the first quiz that I havefound is about motherhood and
getting started with yourjourney into motherhood.
So these are actually reallygood questions for you to answer
because you are not pregnant yet
Chrissy (12:11):
That is correct.
Katie (12:12):
Soon.
And so you need to kind ofanswer these questions for
yourself as far as how you planto bring a child into the world
and what you plan to do in thebeginning of their life.
So first describe your idealbirthing scenario.
So here are your four options.
You either want to be at abirthing center with few to no
(12:33):
interventions, a traditionalhospital birth with whatever
interventions your doctorrecommends.
You want to have a plannedC-section or you want to do a
planned home birth.
And even, I wanna add to that,maybe a planned home water
birth.
Chrissy (12:51):
I think I would definitely say my ideal would be
a birthing center.
I want to be surrounded bypeople who know what they're
doing, and have done this timeand time again.
This is literally their life,but at the same time, I don't
want a lot of the hospitalinterventions that happen when,
people go to a hospital.
(13:13):
Now this is actually like a hardone in terms of like our family
just because of, the situationthat happened with you and your
son last year.
so that is definitely aconversation that will have to
be navigated when the time comesbecause I know a lot of our
family members now are verygung-ho about hospital births
only, and you shall not have ababy anywhere else.
(13:36):
So that's a conversation I wouldhave to navigate, but my ideal
would be a birthing center forsure.
What about you, Katie?
If you were to do it over againwhat would you do?
Katie (13:46):
Yeah.
For our family memberslistening, I, I still stand by
my choice to go with a birthingcenter to begin with the
situation when my son was bornis extremely rare, and even when
I've talked with all of mydoctors and my son's doctors,
like the chance of what happenedto us was like a 0.001% chance,
(14:11):
like it was so small and you cancount how many people this has
happened to within the last fewyears, like on, on your two
hands.
Like it is so rare basically forthis to happen.
So, if I could go back and, anddo it again, I would still
choose to do a birthing centerwith few to no interventions.
(14:32):
I still believe having a babyand being pregnant is not a
medical emergency and thereforedoesn't need to be in a hospital
however, I was very thankfulthat the birthing center I chose
to go with had a relationshipand, they had admitting rights,
to the hospital.
So that way in the case, likemine, I could just be whizzed
(14:53):
away to the hospital when Ineeded it.
And so it was only a few minutesaway.
We jumped in the ambulance andthen I did actually give birth
to my son in a hospital withsome interventions you know, I
had an epidural and, and all thethings, which was crazy but, I
was thankful in that situationthat the hospital was close by.
(15:13):
So still stand by it though.
I, and I still recommend itbecause the birthing center was
really wonderful up until thepoint that we needed to move.
So, alright, moving on.
Question number two.
When it comes to organic, youplan to buy Now the four options
are organic, diapers, bedding,clothing, toys, cleaning
(15:35):
products, everything or optiontwo, organic food and cleaning
products.
Option three, organic food whenit doesn't cost much more than
conventional, or the last optionis organic or conventional,
whatever is on sale.
Chrissy (15:51):
I think a year ago I would've said Option D, organic
or conventional, whatever's onsale.
But now I am definitely option Bof organic food and cleaning
products.
And honestly, with cleaningproducts more likely to be
homemade rather than organic andstore bought.
(16:11):
Just because of that cost pieceto it.
It's so much cheaper to make ithomemade.
So, yeah, that's my thing.
Honestly, I don't think muchabout the toys and the clothes
and diapers will probably becloth diapers.
But toys and clothes, I, it,it's toys and clothes,
whatever's available.
What about you?
Katie (16:31):
For me, yeah, I would say probably the same.
Organic food and cleaningproducts.
I am actually starting to jumpmore into over to that camp of
organic everything.
I'm trying not to get too crazy'cause it does cost more when
things are organic, but it'sjust, they tend to be healthier
and better for you.
(16:51):
But I, I'm still kind of in thatcamp of organic cleaning
products and food.
Sometimes I jump down to theconventional, if it's more cost
effective, especially when we'reproviding food for others.
Because when you're hosting itcan get really expensive.
So anyway.
The next question is when itcomes to breastfeeding, my plan
(17:16):
is one, to use Formula two tonurse exclusively for at least a
year.
Then follow child-led weaningafter that to nurse for at least
six months, and then see how itgoes after that.
And then the last option is tonurse and supplement with
formula if I need to.
Chrissy (17:35):
None of the above.
Katie (17:37):
Oh.
Chrissy (17:37):
yeah.
I actually really, like what youdid Katie, with your son is, you
know, nursing exclusively forthe first six months, but then
continuing to nurse up until thebaby is ready to be weaned.
But in addition to that,providing the baby with
opportunities to try new foodsas they develop and grow the
(18:00):
curiosity and, ability to eatreal foods so that the bulk of
the nutrients is still comingfrom breast milk because breast
milk is just so incredibly goodfor babies but yeah, just like
continuing with breast milkwhile also allowing the baby to
learn and be curious andexperiment with additional
foods.
(18:21):
What about you?
Katie (18:22):
So at this moment in time, I'm exclusively pumping
and I would have loved to like,you know, direct nurse my baby.
But just because of the hospitalstuff, I wasn't able to like
nurse him.
So we've been just pumping, butit is still considered being
breastfed.
But yeah, when he turned sixmonths, we started introducing
(18:42):
food.
It's called baby led weaning.
And it's basically like justgiving babies every single food
item that they can kind of likegum when in the beginning and
then eventually start eating.
And so we have totally skippedthe baby food, like processed
baby foods and baby snacks andall that stuff, which tend to be
more expensive as well.
(19:03):
But, there's, there's a lot ofreasons and we can maybe talk
about that in another episode oflike, why baby-led weeding was
the choice that we did.
But that's what we did.
And, and he is still, beingbreastfed, but now that he's a
year old, we're gonna, we'rejust looking for that next step
of what to do.
But I have not, decided yet.
All right.
Last question about babies onceyour baby arrives, how do you
(19:26):
plan to carry him or her?
Number one is I'm going to wearlike sling the baby when you are
out and about option two is I'mgoing to wear the baby at home
and when we're out, so basicallyall the time, option three is
I'm going to use a stroller mostof the time, and option four is
(19:48):
slings are intimidating, but I'mgoing to try using a baby Bjorn
or something similar.
Chrissy (19:54):
So, I'm gonna be completely honest, I've never
thought about this before.
Katie (19:57):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (19:58):
Yeah, I'd probably just carry my baby in whatever way is
most practical at the time.
You know, like if I'm going on arun, I don't think a sling would
be ideal.
I think a stroller wouldprobably be better for the sake
of the bouncing in the baby'sneck, you know?
But if I'm out at the grocerystore, I think having a baby
(20:18):
like in a sling or a babycarrier is nice.
'cause then I have both my handsfree and available to do stuff.
At home, whatever the babywants.
I don't know.
I know some babies wanna be heldall the time.
Some babies don't wanna be held.
Some babies are comfortable onthe bed or a couch or the floor,
and some babies hate it.
So I think it really isdetermined by the baby, in my
(20:42):
opinion.
But that is coming from somebodywho has zero experience with
carrying babies all the time.
So.
Katie (20:48):
So, you may or may not know this, but, what tends to be
the more quote, unquote crunchything is like attachment style
parenting, which is basicallybaby wearing, you know, even in
some cases people have talkedabout things like co-sleeping or
basically just the idea of like,baby, and it is, it's like this
(21:10):
attachment style parenting andthat tends to be the more
crunchy thing.
And so for this, you were to dothe more crunchy thing, it would
be basically to wear your babyall the time, or at least like,
especially when you're going outand about.
And the less crunchy thing, isto pop'em in a stroller or pop
'em into like a baby bouncer inthe house or basically just not
(21:34):
wearing them and, and allowingthem to be on their own.
So, I've tried wearing Malachiwhen he was a baby.
He didn't love it.
We did use a baby Bjorn, whichis kind of like a good
in-between, like a, a sling andjust holding them.
And so he, he tended to likethat.
But these days, I mean, he'sgetting heavy and big, so I'm
(21:55):
not wearing him all the timeanyway Next questions.
gonna talk more about yourlifestyle, chrissy.
Where do you get your produce?
Option one, produce questionmark.
Like the pickle on my McDonald'sDouble Quarter Pounder.
Chrissy (22:13):
Oh boy.
Katie (22:13):
Option two.
I buy a lot of healthy fruitsand vegetables from Costco.
I think they're organic, maybe.
Option three, both at my localfarmer's market or from a divine
goddess named Crystal honeybee.
Option four, I grow over 100varieties of kale, beets,
turnips, and tubers at a localcommunity garden where I am
(22:36):
known as Captain Rutabaga.
Chrissy (22:39):
Oh Lord, I aspire to be option number four.
Captain Rutabaga fits me well.
But if I had to choose one, Ithink it's probably closer to
the Costco option, although Idon't go to Costco.
I do like a combination ofSprouts and my regular grocery
(22:59):
store, just depending on whichfood it is and which food I care
more about it being organic.
You know, obviously a dirtydozen list, I'm gonna buy
organic from Sprouts morelikely.
But if it's cheaper at the othergrocery store, organic, I'm
gonna buy it at the othergrocery store.
And then for like the Clean 15or fruits and vegetables that
(23:23):
have a peel, I'm more likely tobe okay not buying it organic
just because it has that barrierfrom the spray that I'm not
eating.
Granted, pesticides are still onthe inside of it because of the
soil that's grown in, but lessso, you know, you can ease the
stuff that's on the outside.
You take it off easy.
So yeah, I guess I'm acombination.
(23:45):
I don't know.
What about you, Katie?
Katie (23:47):
I really wanna be Captain Rutabaga and I definitely plan
to be Captain Rutabaga so youguys can call me Captain
Rutabaga once we move and Ibuild my whole wonderful kale
beat Turnup farm.
I don't even know if I eat anyof that stuff, but I really, I
love gardening.
But right now we do try to get alot from the farmer's market,
(24:10):
and at the same time, Costco hasa lot of really good organic
options and we get a lot oforganic food from Costco and the
grocery store.
So anyway, it's kind of, Iguess, a mixture of both.
Moving on to the next question.
Where does your drinking watercome from?
Chrissy?
Option one is straight from thefaucet.
Option two is a basic Britafilter.
(24:31):
Option three is a five gallonglass jug with molecularly
distilled H2O, and option fouris from your double reverse
osmosis filtration system thatyou had installed in your house.
Chrissy (24:48):
I am a basic Brita girl.
What about you?
Katie (24:50):
Nice.
I, right now it's just from thefilter from our fridge, but I
would like to have a waterfiltration
Chrissy (25:01):
system
Katie (25:02):
We just
Chrissy (25:03):
need to save up The house wide reverse osmosis is a
post mortgage decision, butwhile we're still paying rent, I
am not paying for that onsomebody else's house.
Katie (25:14):
Exactly, yeah.
I'd really like to get the,system for our house.
I also have heard that the, likeburkey water filtration systems
are really good.
They tend to be expensive aswell, but I have some friends
who have it and really love it.
But yeah, we'd love to have onefor our house when we save up
for it.
Okay, Chrissy, here's some quickfire questions.
(25:37):
Number one, have you everfermented anything yourself?
Chrissy (25:41):
I attempted to make kefir.
I failed.
Katie (25:44):
Hmm.
We've only done some quickpickling We've never done true
fermenting.
Okay.
Question two, do you payattention to how quote unquote
clean your products are?
Chrissy (25:55):
Oh, absolutely, 100% I have stopped buying, you know,
actually I officially havecrossed the line into having a
completely bleach free home.
Katie (26:05):
That's really awesome.
Chrissy (26:06):
Yeah.
So I'm really excited aboutthat.
And yes, so I definitely do lookat my products and I read every
single label that I buy.
Katie (26:14):
Yeah, and I think both you and I use the Bobby approved
app and the EWG like apps tokind of understand how clean or
not clean our products are.
Those have been really helpful.
Chrissy (26:25):
Yes, they're very helpful.
Katie (26:27):
Okay.
Next question.
Do you use essential oils?
Chrissy (26:31):
I want to, but they're expensive.
So the most I use is likelavender oil in a bath and the
occasional lavender oil forbedtime, but not really.
Katie (26:45):
We,
Chrissy (26:45):
what about you?
Katie (26:46):
we've started using some essential oils.
I've been slowly gathering someas I have different sales and
things like that.
As you said, they tend to beexpensive, but they really can
be helpful when trying to healdifferent ailments.
Peppermint oil also can helpwith like just body aches and
stuff.
Instead of using acetaminophenor something like that, you can
(27:06):
actually do some essential oilstuff in order to help like
headaches and body aches andstuff.
So,
Chrissy (27:11):
Peppermint oil is also very effective for nausea.
If you put one drop in a waterbottle and drink it in your
water, it's very helpful fornausea.
Katie (27:19):
I didn't know that one.
Okay, next question.
Have you tried acupuncture?
Chrissy (27:25):
Ah, this is a funny one.
Uh, yes.
I don't think I did it for theactual reason of acupuncture,
though.
I did it when I was in highschool because I wanted to be a
nurse, and I had a tendency topass out at the site of blood
and needles.
So I did it more as a method ofsystematic desensitization to
(27:49):
get myself more okay withneedles.
Um, it worked.
I, I don't pass out now.
Mm.
I do still get a little dizzysometimes, but I haven't passed
out in like three years, so I'lltake it.
Katie (28:03):
We actually just started doing acupuncture, so I have
been learning a lot about thebenefits of acupuncture.
And so all three of us, my sonincluded, we've all had
acupuncture done within the lastcouple weeks of this recording
now, and we have appointmentsactually scheduled coming up, so
(28:23):
we're doing it for allergy stuffas well as just trying to heal
my son's gut and everything.
And yes, so I have, I havecrossed over to that side of
being like, acupuncture is soawesome.
So, but I was like, you, I hatedneedles and I've gotten over my
fear and I've just done it andI've, I really love it.
Next question, have you madebone broth?
Chrissy (28:44):
Yes, I did.
I, bought a whole chicken fromthe grocery store and like
butchered it myself.
And then I had two breasts, twowings, two legs, and the
innards, the innards went in thetrash.
Actually, no, I think I used theinnards to make the broth also,
but I, I kept like the bonecarcass with the extra fat and
(29:05):
skin on it and the innards thatcame with the whole chicken and
made a bone broth with it.
And then I used it in a, arecipe that I was making later.
It was delicious.
Smelled nice too.
Katie (29:17):
I have not actually made bone broth yet, but I plan to,
especially when we become legitchicken farmers.
I plan to do the whole shebang,but that's probably years in the
making of getting to that whereI can do it from my own chickens
and everything, but okay.
Next question.
Do you compost?
Chrissy (29:36):
No.
I throw a banana peel over theside of my balcony sometimes.
Katie (29:40):
Christina, that is so funny.
Chrissy (29:44):
But no,
Katie (29:44):
I don't know if that's considered composting.
I think that's consideredlittering, but you know,
everybody has their own
Chrissy (29:51):
things My property
Katie (29:53):
We have composted.
We don't currently right now,but we will eventually once we
move.
So next question.
Where would your dream house be?
In a fun city, in the mountains,by the ocean, on a homestead,
anywhere close to nature.
Chrissy (30:09):
homestead
Katie (30:10):
Ditto.
Yeah.
Chrissy (30:11):
for sure.
Katie (30:12):
I think we both kind of fall in that.
I think also just close tonature in general
Chrissy (30:17):
Mm-hmm.
To be like within one hour ofmultiple different parks.
Fantastic.
Katie (30:23):
Here we go.
What are you likely to add toyour coffee?
One mushroom powder, two grassfed butter, three oat milk plus
vanilla.
Four, collagen.
Five.
Just black, please.
And then the last option is justyou don't drink coffee.
Chrissy (30:40):
I'd probably say collagen, although right now I
am on the land flowing with milkand honey because that's what I
put in my coffee is just milkand honey.
Katie (30:49):
None of these options actually, uh, are mine.
I really like my just organicwhole milk, so I guess maybe the
oat milk plus
Chrissy (30:58):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (30:58):
vanilla option.
But I do really wanna try thegrass fed butter because I've
heard a lot of good things aboutit.
So, I don't know, we'll try itsoon.
Chrissy (31:06):
I think my sister used to put lemon juice in her coffee
to take the edge off the, thesharp flavor of the black coffee
without adding anything reallybad to it.
Katie (31:17):
Interesting.
Chrissy (31:19):
She said it was good.
I don't trust her
Katie (31:21):
What are you most likely to purchase at the farmer's
market?
Flowers, raw milk, artwork,veggies, local honey or
something from the food truck.
Chrissy (31:32):
local honey, for sure, 100%.
It's so hard to find that in thegrocery stores.
Katie (31:37):
Mine would be, yeah, local honey veggies.
And I really wanna try raw, tryraw milk soon.
So we're gonna, where we'removing there's a lot of so I
wanna try raw milk there.
Chrissy (31:50):
you know, yesterday at work there's, there's a farmer's
market and I was walking throughit really quick on my way to the
cafeteria to grab somethingquick for lunch, and I saw a
milk stand.
I would love to go back outthere to see if it's actually
raw milk, because raw milk isillegal for human conception in
North Carolina.
So I find it very interestingthat they would have raw milk at
(32:12):
a farmer's market at a hospital.
I don't think it was raw milk,but I hope it was.
That would be cool.
Katie (32:18):
I'll have to post a link to the milk laws in all the
states because it's interesting.
There are certain states whereit's completely illegal There
are some states where it's legalfor consumption, but in order to
get it, you have to own the cowthat the milk comes from.
So there are things like herdshares where you can own a
(32:38):
percentage of a cow and then youcan get it.
That's how it actually is inColorado.
You can like own a part of thecow and then you can get a
certain percentage of the milkfrom that cow.
And then there's others whereit's legal to be sold from only
like small farms, and thenthere's other states where you
can literally just go and getraw milk from the grocery store.
(33:00):
So i'll post a link to that inthe show notes
Chrissy (33:03):
Crazy.
Katie (33:03):
and that way people can find out what it's like in their
state.
Okay.
Let's ask just a few morequestions and then we'll wrap up
this fun episode.
Again, if you are listening tothis, feel free to pop in your
answers in our Facebook page andlet us know some of your own
crunchy habits.
Okay, Chrissy, of this list, letme know which of these you
(33:26):
currently own.
Subaru.
Chickens, lots of plants,homeopathics, Birkenstocks, an
EMF guard, a Burkey waterfilter, a kayak, mason jars, a
homemade clay mug.
An air filter.
Chrissy (33:46):
I own Birkenstocks, but that's just because they were in
style, not because they aregood.
I didn't even know they weregood for the environment or
crunchy.
I own lots of plants, but noneof them are edible except for my
new herbs.
I just got new herbs and I'mvery excited about them.
I do not have an EMF guard, butI am in the process of learning
(34:09):
how to turn off my wifiovernight to prevent the EMS
from attacking me overnight.
And I have some mason jars, butnot because I intentionally
bought them just because mypeanut butter that I bought for
a while came in glass jars and Ididn't wanna throw'em away'cause
they look nice and I can use'emfor things.
And I do have an air filter, butI haven't bought new filters for
(34:31):
it for a while.
So it's, um, not currently inuse, but I do have one.
What about you,
Katie (34:36):
So we have chickens.
We don't have lots of plants.
I am actually not extremely likean indoor plant person.
We do technically have somehomeopathics, though I didn't
realize that a certain medicineof mine was actually a
homeopathic remedy, but it is,which is kind of cool.
We, don't have an EMF guard.
I'm kind of in the same space asyou where I, I'm just learning
(34:57):
about it and it's really freakyand I'm trying to figure out
what steps to take withoutblowing my mind up because it's
freaky.
Chrissy (35:05):
but you don't wanna wear a tinfoil hat to bed?
Katie (35:08):
I might need to, we do have so many mason jars and we
keep collecting mason jarsbecause they're so useful.
Especially when you're makingthings.
We do technically have ahomemade clay mug, but it was
not something that I made.
It was something someone madefor me.
And yes, we do have air filtersand I really love them, and they
have been wonderful.
So I guess almost half thethings on this list, which is
(35:31):
kind of crazy that we do.
Oh, okay.
Chrissy, next question.
How do you plan to educate yourchildren?
Do you plan to, one, send themto the closest public school?
Two, send them to a privateschool.
Three, do a homeschool co-op, orfour pure homeschool.
(35:56):
Nobody else involved.
Chrissy (35:57):
I've actually thought about this a lot because the
school system here in NorthCarolina is not the greatest.
So I'm definitely on either ahomeschool co-op or a Montessori
school, actually.
Those are like my top twochoices, but we'll see what my
life looks like financially and.
(36:18):
In terms of my own job.
Whenever we get to that point,
Katie (36:22):
Yeah,
Chrissy (36:22):
What about you?
Katie (36:23):
I think we will likely homeschool and do some kind of a
co-op.
The place in Michigan, we'removing to, it's kind of just
like the thing to do over there.
But even if we weren't moving, Ithink we would still end up
homeschooling Malachi.
Okay, last question, Chrissy.
Which of these things do youpractice regularly?
(36:46):
Grounding, looking intoconspiracy theories about big
ag, food, pharma, andcorporations, red light therapy.
Limiting your screen time slashexposure to blue light, getting
outside to get your vitamin D.
And lastly, hugging trees.
Chrissy (37:05):
Well, I do have a couple pictures of me hugging
trees.
Quite literally.
I can't say I do that veryoften, but I do intentionally do
grounding.
I do intentionally track myvitamin D absorption when I go
outside.
I try to limit my blue lightexposure, at home.
(37:27):
But that's very difficult to doat work because I use a computer
for the majority of my job.
Um, and I don't really actuallylike looking into conspiracy
theories because then it makesme feel very stuck.
Like, I can't move andeverything around me is going to
kill me.
So I try not to look at thoseactually.
What about you?
Katie (37:47):
I do practice grounding occasionally when I remember.
I, I actually love looking intoconspiracy theories.
It's like of my pastimes nowlately.
I.
I have tried red light therapy,but it's not something I do
regularly.
Um, I have been trying to limitmy screen time and exposure to
blue light, like at eighto'clock.
I've been trying to just like,turn my phone into airplane mode
(38:10):
and just stop using it.
I do get outside prettyregularly for vitamin D, which
I'm again trying to just getbetter at regularly doing that.
And I guess I don't hug trees,but it's, you know, something I
guess I have done, I'vedefinitely touched a tree in
order for grounding to happenbecause in the winter, it's hard
to ground when there's snow onthe ground.
Chrissy (38:31):
That's funny.
I actually never even thoughtthat you could touch a tree in
order to get grounding.
'cause the ground gets very coldin the wintertime and so I think
touching a tree is much easierto get that grounding time in.
Um, anyways, this has been fun.
I've actually thoroughly enjoyedgoing through all these
questions and hearing youranswers.
(38:52):
Katie, I am looking forward toseeing the answers from our
listeners in our Facebook group,Crunchy Christian Mamas on a
Budget.
Um, if you are a woman who is amama, wants to be a mama, hopes
to be a mama someday, has manychildren, would love to see you
on there.
Join us.
Um, sorry guys, you're notinvited.
(39:13):
We love you though.
You can continue listening toour podcast if you'd like.
But yeah.
Katie, do you have any otherclosing comments that you would
like to share before we head outfor the day?
Katie (39:26):
I just want to say that yeah, it's, it's a spectrum.
You definitely don't need tojump in and do all these things,
or you don't even have topractice any of these and enjoy
this podcast.
So we are just trying to share alittle bit more about what we
know about being healthy,eliminating toxins, glorifying
(39:46):
God in the way that we are justseeing and stewarding our
bodies, as a temple and, yeah.
So just taking one step in theright direction with your health
is just kind of the way that wewould encourage you to go, and
doing it in a way that's, youknow, cost effective.
We're not trying to breakbudgets here, you know, it's,
(40:08):
it's a process, as Chrissy saidin the beginning, that it's one
step at a time.
You know, don't.
Do a whole overload and get intoall this immediately, it's a
little overwhelming.
So if you enjoyed this podcasttoday, be sure to share it with
a friend who has called youCrunchy maybe, or that you think
is crunchy.
Share it with somebody and besure to subscribe to our podcast
(40:31):
as well, so that you don't missout on any of our silly, fun
episodes about being crunchy.
And we'd love to get to knowyou.
So join us in our Facebookgroup, like Chrissy said,
Chrissy (40:43):
We pray over each of you guys, and we hope that these
episodes can be helpful in yourjourney to becoming a better
steward of your body, your mind,your soul, your spirit, your
finances, and your families.
Uh, we're praying that theseepisodes are helpful for you and
we will see you next time.
Katie (41:01):
see you
Chrissy (41:01):
Bye.
Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
(00:03):
My name is Chrissy.
Katie (00:04):
And my name is Katie.
We are two cousins who arepassionate about learning and
sharing the knowledge that wehave to equip others to steward
their spiritual, mental,emotional, financial, and
physical health in order tohonor God with every aspect of
your life.
Chrissy (00:21):
In this podcast, we are taking a deep dive into what it
means to steward our lives asGod originally intended for us.
With the resources that God hasgiven us, we will look at topics
like food, medicine, finances,mental health, and lots more
through a natural lens with abiblical foundation.
So without further ado, let'sget started.
Katie (00:43):
Yay.
And today in this episode, Ihave come up with a kind of fun
idea for what I'd like to do inorder to help our community and
audience understand a bit moreabout what we kind of mean when
we say crunchy.
Now, a lot of our listeners areour friends and family members
(01:08):
who just kind of wanna tune intowhat we're talking about here on
our podcast.
And I have talked to many of youwonderful family members and
friends who are like, what isthis all about?
What is it?
What are you even talking aboutwhen you say crunchy?
And how crunchy really are you?
Because a lot of times if youstart Googling the word crunchy,
(01:31):
there's a lot of crazy stuffthat comes up, I'd say about
being crunchy.
And the thing that I think thatyou and I both agree with
Chrissy is that crunchy isdefinitely a spectrum and people
can
Chrissy (01:45):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (01:46):
a little bit crunchy.
Maybe they do a few things thatare crunchy or they can be
extremely crunchy and be all inon all the things.
And you and I are at differentpoints as well on the spectrum.
I don't think we agree oneverything or we're not at the
same place and we have differentthings going on in our lives.
So in this episode, I thoughtit'd be really fun to first off
(02:10):
describe what we mean by crunchyand then let the listeners and
our community and our friendsand family know more about how
crunchy we are on the spectrum.
And yeah, like the little thingsthat we think kind of make us
more crunchy.
The last thing that I wanna saybefore I have a few questions
for you, Chrissy, is that Idon't wanna like plaster a label
(02:34):
of like, yes, we are definitelycrunchy people and people have
to think of us in this this way.
'cause I also think labels canbe very not great at times.
You know, I, I don't wanna putus in a box in any sort of way,
but it's just kind of a fun wayto say that.
Yeah, we are just kind of onthis journey to become
non-toxic.
(02:54):
And so that's kind of what, forme, crunchy means is trying to
eliminate toxins from my life.
You know, I've kind of come tothis awakening of the world and
the news and the government andwhat we're being told isn't
always the truth.
It's just kind of like I've,I've become more aware of that
and I'm trying to do things moreholistically and more naturally
(03:17):
versus always introducing amedicine or doing things a
conventional way.
And so I think for me, that'skind of what makes me more
crunchy.
So Chrissy, I wanna turn it overto you and ask you like, what
does crunchy mean to you?
And what do you think kind ofputs you on the spectrum of
(03:37):
being crunchy?
Chrissy (03:38):
So I guess let's start off with what does crunchy mean
to me?
To me it, it's less of a focusof eliminating toxins and more
of a focus of feeding my bodywell.
When I first started it was morerealizing of like, I can have so
much more benefit from betteringredients that I put in my
(04:01):
body.
And now as I've kind ofcontinued, I've looked a little
bit more at detoxifying, but atfirst it really was more of a
motivation of merely just addinggood stuff and less of taking
away the bad stuff.
And it's, it's a process, so Istarted with adding good stuff
(04:22):
and now I'm in the process oftaking away bad stuff from our
household in cleaning products,in food, in just like, I haven't
quite gotten to the clothingsection.
That part of being crunchyactually kind of scares me.
We, we haven't gone down thatrabbit hole yet.
So I guess if you could saylike, on the spectrum of being
(04:42):
crunchy, how crunchy are you?
Like you said, Katie, you and Ihave, different things that we
are more likely to want to do inorder to improve our health and
decrease toxins in ourlifestyle.
So I consider myself fair tomoderate.
You know, I do read the labelsof every single thing that I buy
at the grocery store andeverything that I put in my
(05:04):
house.
I've decreased seed oils, I'vedecreased additives in our food,
extra sugar and things likethat.
But at the same time, I do stilllike my chocolate and I will
still eat a donut, especiallywhen I really wanna a donut.
I will get a donut, you know?
So it's, it's a balance and it'sa spectrum.
Katie (05:26):
So quite a while ago I was talking to a mom and she was
describing some things to me andI was like, oh, you kind of
sound crunchy like me.
And she was like, well, whatdoes that actually mean?
So I googled it and I actuallythought this definition was, was
pretty spot on.
But take this with a grain ofsalt.
So this is what Google said isthat a crunchy mom is a mother
(05:48):
who practices a parenting stylethat is centered around a
natural lifestyle, typicallyavoids modern medicine,
technology, and processed foods.
The term can be used positivelyor negatively and is often
contrasted with the term silkymom, which describes a mother
who embraces modern technologyand science.
(06:10):
Now I wanna pause there becauseI think when people hear that
phrase at the end of moderntechnology and science, you
would almost automatically jumpand be like, no, I do like
modern technology and I likescience and health, and
healthcare, and all thesethings.
And I think you and I both fallon the spectrum of we want to
(06:30):
try to do things the morenatural, holistic way to start
with
Chrissy (06:36):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (06:36):
with, but there is absolutely a time and a place
for our modern healthtechnologies and science to come
in.
Chrissy (06:44):
Absolutely.
Katie (06:45):
About a year ago my son was born and we both contracted
a life-threatening case ofsepsis.
And in that instance, I was sothankful and so glad that modern
health technologies and scienceHas gotten to the place where it
is.
Because what we had wasconsidered child bed fever many
(07:09):
many years ago, like centuriesago.
And child bed fever was whatkilled many women and babies
during birth.
And so I'm so thankful that Iwasn't born in like the 19th or
18th century where we would'vehad no chance of survival.
But in today's modern technologyera and all the science that we
have, we survived because of allthe interventions that they had.
(07:33):
Now, however, when it's just dayto day with like taking care of
ourselves, and even when my songets a fever, I don't pop
Tylenol into him.
The first thing I do is put himin a bath with some Epsom salt
and lime juice and somepeppermint oil.
And I try to detoxify and allowthe fever to work its course
(07:55):
because, you know, fevers aretrying to get the, the illness
and the sickness out of the bodywe don't want to necessarily
stop that process.
So for me, I try to do the morenon-medicine route for simple
things like that.
Or when he has a rash, I'm notusing like Neosporin or
Benadryl.
I'm trying to look for a morenatural route to curing whatever
(08:20):
that thing is.
And so, for me it's definitelylooking at the long term effects
of something like a medicine,and trying to do it in a way
that's not going to cause moreharm over time.
Because I learned that somethinglike Advil, Tylenol,
acetaminophen, you know, allthese over the counter
(08:41):
medications for pain, they tendto ruin your gut lining and can
actually cause things like foodinsensitivities especially too,
for people who have lots ofantibiotics, in their childhood.
So of course when my son wasborn and had sepsis, the two of
us were pumped with antibioticsbecause we needed them.
(09:04):
We needed them at the time, andthat was the time and place for
them, And so unfortunately,because that was how his life
started, his gut right now issomething that we're working on
repairing and healing and allthis stuff.
So all that being said, talk alittle bit about what tends to
make people more crunchy,because again, like yes, there's
(09:26):
the medicine side and non-toxicside, but let's kind of like
break it down into some littlebits and pieces of like, this
tends to make people crunchyversus makes them silky which is
kind of the more just all in oneverything that we have today,
the conventional way.
So I think one thing that Iwanna throw out there, which
tends to make people morecrunchy to begin with,
(09:49):
especially like as mothers, iswanting to do an unmedicated
birth.
So instead of using all of themedications, whether it's to
induce labor or to reduce thepain of labor.
One thing that originally mademe crunchy when I kind of first
started this journey was wantingto go through with an
(10:11):
unmedicated birth.
So I think a lot of times that'sone of those big things that
tends to make people crunchy.
Chrissy (10:17):
It's actually kind of funny, I was talking with my
small group last week or twoweeks ago, and, I said, yeah,
I'm, I'm pretty crunchy.
And one of the people in mysmall group was like, what are
you talking about?
Like, no, you're, you'reactually quite normal.
And so, I pulled out my homemadedish detergent and I said, am I
really?
And then I went to the laundryroom and I showed them my
homemade laundry detergent.
(10:38):
I said, are you sure I'm normal?
And they were like, oh, wait aminute.
No, you're not normal.
But it was more in like a lovingmanner, not necessarily the
negative side of it.
But yeah, sometimes like I thinkthe unmedicated birth is the one
thing that we really see.
You know, more so than changingyour laundry detergent or
(10:59):
increasing your time outside.
Changing the food that you'reeating is a little bit less
noticeable steps from people whoare merely just observing your
lifestyle.
Katie (11:10):
So, Chrissy, for everybody and for ourselves, I
thought it would be fun today togo through some random online
personality quizzes becausethose are so hilarious.
And we are going to answer somequestions about being crunchy.
Now, I've found a handful ofthem and I thought we could go
(11:32):
through and ask each other thesequestions.
And I'd love for you as thelistener to kind of play along
and answer these questions inyour head.
Or even like jump in on theFacebook page and answer them
and let us know, like, do youfall into this crunchy thing?
Or are you not practicing thiscrunchy thing?
And yeah, so we'll all together,see how crunchy we are.
(11:55):
Okay Chrissy.
So the first quiz that I havefound is about motherhood and
getting started with yourjourney into motherhood.
So these are actually reallygood questions for you to answer
because you are not pregnant yet
Chrissy (12:11):
That is correct.
Katie (12:12):
Soon.
And so you need to kind ofanswer these questions for
yourself as far as how you planto bring a child into the world
and what you plan to do in thebeginning of their life.
So first describe your idealbirthing scenario.
So here are your four options.
You either want to be at abirthing center with few to no
(12:33):
interventions, a traditionalhospital birth with whatever
interventions your doctorrecommends.
You want to have a plannedC-section or you want to do a
planned home birth.
And even, I wanna add to that,maybe a planned home water
birth.
Chrissy (12:51):
I think I would definitely say my ideal would be
a birthing center.
I want to be surrounded bypeople who know what they're
doing, and have done this timeand time again.
This is literally their life,but at the same time, I don't
want a lot of the hospitalinterventions that happen when,
people go to a hospital.
(13:13):
Now this is actually like a hardone in terms of like our family
just because of, the situationthat happened with you and your
son last year.
so that is definitely aconversation that will have to
be navigated when the time comesbecause I know a lot of our
family members now are verygung-ho about hospital births
only, and you shall not have ababy anywhere else.
(13:36):
So that's a conversation I wouldhave to navigate, but my ideal
would be a birthing center forsure.
What about you, Katie?
If you were to do it over againwhat would you do?
Katie (13:46):
Yeah.
For our family memberslistening, I, I still stand by
my choice to go with a birthingcenter to begin with the
situation when my son was bornis extremely rare, and even when
I've talked with all of mydoctors and my son's doctors,
like the chance of what happenedto us was like a 0.001% chance,
(14:11):
like it was so small and you cancount how many people this has
happened to within the last fewyears, like on, on your two
hands.
Like it is so rare basically forthis to happen.
So, if I could go back and, anddo it again, I would still
choose to do a birthing centerwith few to no interventions.
(14:32):
I still believe having a babyand being pregnant is not a
medical emergency and thereforedoesn't need to be in a hospital
however, I was very thankfulthat the birthing center I chose
to go with had a relationshipand, they had admitting rights,
to the hospital.
So that way in the case, likemine, I could just be whizzed
(14:53):
away to the hospital when Ineeded it.
And so it was only a few minutesaway.
We jumped in the ambulance andthen I did actually give birth
to my son in a hospital withsome interventions you know, I
had an epidural and, and all thethings, which was crazy but, I
was thankful in that situationthat the hospital was close by.
(15:13):
So still stand by it though.
I, and I still recommend itbecause the birthing center was
really wonderful up until thepoint that we needed to move.
So, alright, moving on.
Question number two.
When it comes to organic, youplan to buy Now the four options
are organic, diapers, bedding,clothing, toys, cleaning
(15:35):
products, everything or optiontwo, organic food and cleaning
products.
Option three, organic food whenit doesn't cost much more than
conventional, or the last optionis organic or conventional,
whatever is on sale.
Chrissy (15:51):
I think a year ago I would've said Option D, organic
or conventional, whatever's onsale.
But now I am definitely option Bof organic food and cleaning
products.
And honestly, with cleaningproducts more likely to be
homemade rather than organic andstore bought.
(16:11):
Just because of that cost pieceto it.
It's so much cheaper to make ithomemade.
So, yeah, that's my thing.
Honestly, I don't think muchabout the toys and the clothes
and diapers will probably becloth diapers.
But toys and clothes, I, it,it's toys and clothes,
whatever's available.
What about you?
Katie (16:31):
For me, yeah, I would say probably the same.
Organic food and cleaningproducts.
I am actually starting to jumpmore into over to that camp of
organic everything.
I'm trying not to get too crazy'cause it does cost more when
things are organic, but it'sjust, they tend to be healthier
and better for you.
(16:51):
But I, I'm still kind of in thatcamp of organic cleaning
products and food.
Sometimes I jump down to theconventional, if it's more cost
effective, especially when we'reproviding food for others.
Because when you're hosting itcan get really expensive.
So anyway.
The next question is when itcomes to breastfeeding, my plan
(17:16):
is one, to use Formula two tonurse exclusively for at least a
year.
Then follow child-led weaningafter that to nurse for at least
six months, and then see how itgoes after that.
And then the last option is tonurse and supplement with
formula if I need to.
Chrissy (17:35):
None of the above.
Katie (17:37):
Oh.
Chrissy (17:37):
yeah.
I actually really, like what youdid Katie, with your son is, you
know, nursing exclusively forthe first six months, but then
continuing to nurse up until thebaby is ready to be weaned.
But in addition to that,providing the baby with
opportunities to try new foodsas they develop and grow the
(18:00):
curiosity and, ability to eatreal foods so that the bulk of
the nutrients is still comingfrom breast milk because breast
milk is just so incredibly goodfor babies but yeah, just like
continuing with breast milkwhile also allowing the baby to
learn and be curious andexperiment with additional
foods.
(18:21):
What about you?
Katie (18:22):
So at this moment in time, I'm exclusively pumping
and I would have loved to like,you know, direct nurse my baby.
But just because of the hospitalstuff, I wasn't able to like
nurse him.
So we've been just pumping, butit is still considered being
breastfed.
But yeah, when he turned sixmonths, we started introducing
(18:42):
food.
It's called baby led weaning.
And it's basically like justgiving babies every single food
item that they can kind of likegum when in the beginning and
then eventually start eating.
And so we have totally skippedthe baby food, like processed
baby foods and baby snacks andall that stuff, which tend to be
more expensive as well.
(19:03):
But, there's, there's a lot ofreasons and we can maybe talk
about that in another episode oflike, why baby-led weeding was
the choice that we did.
But that's what we did.
And, and he is still, beingbreastfed, but now that he's a
year old, we're gonna, we'rejust looking for that next step
of what to do.
But I have not, decided yet.
All right.
Last question about babies onceyour baby arrives, how do you
(19:26):
plan to carry him or her?
Number one is I'm going to wearlike sling the baby when you are
out and about option two is I'mgoing to wear the baby at home
and when we're out, so basicallyall the time, option three is
I'm going to use a stroller mostof the time, and option four is
(19:48):
slings are intimidating, but I'mgoing to try using a baby Bjorn
or something similar.
Chrissy (19:54):
So, I'm gonna be completely honest, I've never
thought about this before.
Katie (19:57):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (19:58):
Yeah, I'd probably just carry my baby in whatever way is
most practical at the time.
You know, like if I'm going on arun, I don't think a sling would
be ideal.
I think a stroller wouldprobably be better for the sake
of the bouncing in the baby'sneck, you know?
But if I'm out at the grocerystore, I think having a baby
(20:18):
like in a sling or a babycarrier is nice.
'cause then I have both my handsfree and available to do stuff.
At home, whatever the babywants.
I don't know.
I know some babies wanna be heldall the time.
Some babies don't wanna be held.
Some babies are comfortable onthe bed or a couch or the floor,
and some babies hate it.
So I think it really isdetermined by the baby, in my
(20:42):
opinion.
But that is coming from somebodywho has zero experience with
carrying babies all the time.
So.
Katie (20:48):
So, you may or may not know this, but, what tends to be
the more quote, unquote crunchything is like attachment style
parenting, which is basicallybaby wearing, you know, even in
some cases people have talkedabout things like co-sleeping or
basically just the idea of like,baby, and it is, it's like this
(21:10):
attachment style parenting andthat tends to be the more
crunchy thing.
And so for this, you were to dothe more crunchy thing, it would
be basically to wear your babyall the time, or at least like,
especially when you're going outand about.
And the less crunchy thing, isto pop'em in a stroller or pop
'em into like a baby bouncer inthe house or basically just not
(21:34):
wearing them and, and allowingthem to be on their own.
So, I've tried wearing Malachiwhen he was a baby.
He didn't love it.
We did use a baby Bjorn, whichis kind of like a good
in-between, like a, a sling andjust holding them.
And so he, he tended to likethat.
But these days, I mean, he'sgetting heavy and big, so I'm
(21:55):
not wearing him all the timeanyway Next questions.
gonna talk more about yourlifestyle, chrissy.
Where do you get your produce?
Option one, produce questionmark.
Like the pickle on my McDonald'sDouble Quarter Pounder.
Chrissy (22:13):
Oh boy.
Katie (22:13):
Option two.
I buy a lot of healthy fruitsand vegetables from Costco.
I think they're organic, maybe.
Option three, both at my localfarmer's market or from a divine
goddess named Crystal honeybee.
Option four, I grow over 100varieties of kale, beets,
turnips, and tubers at a localcommunity garden where I am
(22:36):
known as Captain Rutabaga.
Chrissy (22:39):
Oh Lord, I aspire to be option number four.
Captain Rutabaga fits me well.
But if I had to choose one, Ithink it's probably closer to
the Costco option, although Idon't go to Costco.
I do like a combination ofSprouts and my regular grocery
(22:59):
store, just depending on whichfood it is and which food I care
more about it being organic.
You know, obviously a dirtydozen list, I'm gonna buy
organic from Sprouts morelikely.
But if it's cheaper at the othergrocery store, organic, I'm
gonna buy it at the othergrocery store.
And then for like the Clean 15or fruits and vegetables that
(23:23):
have a peel, I'm more likely tobe okay not buying it organic
just because it has that barrierfrom the spray that I'm not
eating.
Granted, pesticides are still onthe inside of it because of the
soil that's grown in, but lessso, you know, you can ease the
stuff that's on the outside.
You take it off easy.
So yeah, I guess I'm acombination.
(23:45):
I don't know.
What about you, Katie?
Katie (23:47):
I really wanna be Captain Rutabaga and I definitely plan
to be Captain Rutabaga so youguys can call me Captain
Rutabaga once we move and Ibuild my whole wonderful kale
beat Turnup farm.
I don't even know if I eat anyof that stuff, but I really, I
love gardening.
But right now we do try to get alot from the farmer's market,
(24:10):
and at the same time, Costco hasa lot of really good organic
options and we get a lot oforganic food from Costco and the
grocery store.
So anyway, it's kind of, Iguess, a mixture of both.
Moving on to the next question.
Where does your drinking watercome from?
Chrissy?
Option one is straight from thefaucet.
Option two is a basic Britafilter.
(24:31):
Option three is a five gallonglass jug with molecularly
distilled H2O, and option fouris from your double reverse
osmosis filtration system thatyou had installed in your house.
Chrissy (24:48):
I am a basic Brita girl.
What about you?
Katie (24:50):
Nice.
I, right now it's just from thefilter from our fridge, but I
would like to have a waterfiltration
Chrissy (25:01):
system
Katie (25:02):
We just
Chrissy (25:03):
need to save up The house wide reverse osmosis is a
post mortgage decision, butwhile we're still paying rent, I
am not paying for that onsomebody else's house.
Katie (25:14):
Exactly, yeah.
I'd really like to get the,system for our house.
I also have heard that the, likeburkey water filtration systems
are really good.
They tend to be expensive aswell, but I have some friends
who have it and really love it.
But yeah, we'd love to have onefor our house when we save up
for it.
Okay, Chrissy, here's some quickfire questions.
(25:37):
Number one, have you everfermented anything yourself?
Chrissy (25:41):
I attempted to make kefir.
I failed.
Katie (25:44):
Hmm.
We've only done some quickpickling We've never done true
fermenting.
Okay.
Question two, do you payattention to how quote unquote
clean your products are?
Chrissy (25:55):
Oh, absolutely, 100% I have stopped buying, you know,
actually I officially havecrossed the line into having a
completely bleach free home.
Katie (26:05):
That's really awesome.
Chrissy (26:06):
Yeah.
So I'm really excited aboutthat.
And yes, so I definitely do lookat my products and I read every
single label that I buy.
Katie (26:14):
Yeah, and I think both you and I use the Bobby approved
app and the EWG like apps tokind of understand how clean or
not clean our products are.
Those have been really helpful.
Chrissy (26:25):
Yes, they're very helpful.
Katie (26:27):
Okay.
Next question.
Do you use essential oils?
Chrissy (26:31):
I want to, but they're expensive.
So the most I use is likelavender oil in a bath and the
occasional lavender oil forbedtime, but not really.
Katie (26:45):
We,
Chrissy (26:45):
what about you?
Katie (26:46):
we've started using some essential oils.
I've been slowly gathering someas I have different sales and
things like that.
As you said, they tend to beexpensive, but they really can
be helpful when trying to healdifferent ailments.
Peppermint oil also can helpwith like just body aches and
stuff.
Instead of using acetaminophenor something like that, you can
(27:06):
actually do some essential oilstuff in order to help like
headaches and body aches andstuff.
So,
Chrissy (27:11):
Peppermint oil is also very effective for nausea.
If you put one drop in a waterbottle and drink it in your
water, it's very helpful fornausea.
Katie (27:19):
I didn't know that one.
Okay, next question.
Have you tried acupuncture?
Chrissy (27:25):
Ah, this is a funny one.
Uh, yes.
I don't think I did it for theactual reason of acupuncture,
though.
I did it when I was in highschool because I wanted to be a
nurse, and I had a tendency topass out at the site of blood
and needles.
So I did it more as a method ofsystematic desensitization to
(27:49):
get myself more okay withneedles.
Um, it worked.
I, I don't pass out now.
Mm.
I do still get a little dizzysometimes, but I haven't passed
out in like three years, so I'lltake it.
Katie (28:03):
We actually just started doing acupuncture, so I have
been learning a lot about thebenefits of acupuncture.
And so all three of us, my sonincluded, we've all had
acupuncture done within the lastcouple weeks of this recording
now, and we have appointmentsactually scheduled coming up, so
(28:23):
we're doing it for allergy stuffas well as just trying to heal
my son's gut and everything.
And yes, so I have, I havecrossed over to that side of
being like, acupuncture is soawesome.
So, but I was like, you, I hatedneedles and I've gotten over my
fear and I've just done it andI've, I really love it.
Next question, have you madebone broth?
Chrissy (28:44):
Yes, I did.
I, bought a whole chicken fromthe grocery store and like
butchered it myself.
And then I had two breasts, twowings, two legs, and the
innards, the innards went in thetrash.
Actually, no, I think I used theinnards to make the broth also,
but I, I kept like the bonecarcass with the extra fat and
(29:05):
skin on it and the innards thatcame with the whole chicken and
made a bone broth with it.
And then I used it in a, arecipe that I was making later.
It was delicious.
Smelled nice too.
Katie (29:17):
I have not actually made bone broth yet, but I plan to,
especially when we become legitchicken farmers.
I plan to do the whole shebang,but that's probably years in the
making of getting to that whereI can do it from my own chickens
and everything, but okay.
Next question.
Do you compost?
Chrissy (29:36):
No.
I throw a banana peel over theside of my balcony sometimes.
Katie (29:40):
Christina, that is so funny.
Chrissy (29:44):
But no,
Katie (29:44):
I don't know if that's considered composting.
I think that's consideredlittering, but you know,
everybody has their own
Chrissy (29:51):
things My property
Katie (29:53):
We have composted.
We don't currently right now,but we will eventually once we
move.
So next question.
Where would your dream house be?
In a fun city, in the mountains,by the ocean, on a homestead,
anywhere close to nature.
Chrissy (30:09):
homestead
Katie (30:10):
Ditto.
Yeah.
Chrissy (30:11):
for sure.
Katie (30:12):
I think we both kind of fall in that.
I think also just close tonature in general
Chrissy (30:17):
Mm-hmm.
To be like within one hour ofmultiple different parks.
Fantastic.
Katie (30:23):
Here we go.
What are you likely to add toyour coffee?
One mushroom powder, two grassfed butter, three oat milk plus
vanilla.
Four, collagen.
Five.
Just black, please.
And then the last option is justyou don't drink coffee.
Chrissy (30:40):
I'd probably say collagen, although right now I
am on the land flowing with milkand honey because that's what I
put in my coffee is just milkand honey.
Katie (30:49):
None of these options actually, uh, are mine.
I really like my just organicwhole milk, so I guess maybe the
oat milk plus
Chrissy (30:58):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (30:58):
vanilla option.
But I do really wanna try thegrass fed butter because I've
heard a lot of good things aboutit.
So, I don't know, we'll try itsoon.
Chrissy (31:06):
I think my sister used to put lemon juice in her coffee
to take the edge off the, thesharp flavor of the black coffee
without adding anything reallybad to it.
Katie (31:17):
Interesting.
Chrissy (31:19):
She said it was good.
I don't trust her
Katie (31:21):
What are you most likely to purchase at the farmer's
market?
Flowers, raw milk, artwork,veggies, local honey or
something from the food truck.
Chrissy (31:32):
local honey, for sure, 100%.
It's so hard to find that in thegrocery stores.
Katie (31:37):
Mine would be, yeah, local honey veggies.
And I really wanna try raw, tryraw milk soon.
So we're gonna, where we'removing there's a lot of so I
wanna try raw milk there.
Chrissy (31:50):
you know, yesterday at work there's, there's a farmer's
market and I was walking throughit really quick on my way to the
cafeteria to grab somethingquick for lunch, and I saw a
milk stand.
I would love to go back outthere to see if it's actually
raw milk, because raw milk isillegal for human conception in
North Carolina.
So I find it very interestingthat they would have raw milk at
(32:12):
a farmer's market at a hospital.
I don't think it was raw milk,but I hope it was.
That would be cool.
Katie (32:18):
I'll have to post a link to the milk laws in all the
states because it's interesting.
There are certain states whereit's completely illegal There
are some states where it's legalfor consumption, but in order to
get it, you have to own the cowthat the milk comes from.
So there are things like herdshares where you can own a
(32:38):
percentage of a cow and then youcan get it.
That's how it actually is inColorado.
You can like own a part of thecow and then you can get a
certain percentage of the milkfrom that cow.
And then there's others whereit's legal to be sold from only
like small farms, and thenthere's other states where you
can literally just go and getraw milk from the grocery store.
(33:00):
So i'll post a link to that inthe show notes
Chrissy (33:03):
Crazy.
Katie (33:03):
and that way people can find out what it's like in their
state.
Okay.
Let's ask just a few morequestions and then we'll wrap up
this fun episode.
Again, if you are listening tothis, feel free to pop in your
answers in our Facebook page andlet us know some of your own
crunchy habits.
Okay, Chrissy, of this list, letme know which of these you
(33:26):
currently own.
Subaru.
Chickens, lots of plants,homeopathics, Birkenstocks, an
EMF guard, a Burkey waterfilter, a kayak, mason jars, a
homemade clay mug.
An air filter.
Chrissy (33:46):
I own Birkenstocks, but that's just because they were in
style, not because they aregood.
I didn't even know they weregood for the environment or
crunchy.
I own lots of plants, but noneof them are edible except for my
new herbs.
I just got new herbs and I'mvery excited about them.
I do not have an EMF guard, butI am in the process of learning
(34:09):
how to turn off my wifiovernight to prevent the EMS
from attacking me overnight.
And I have some mason jars, butnot because I intentionally
bought them just because mypeanut butter that I bought for
a while came in glass jars and Ididn't wanna throw'em away'cause
they look nice and I can use'emfor things.
And I do have an air filter, butI haven't bought new filters for
(34:31):
it for a while.
So it's, um, not currently inuse, but I do have one.
What about you,
Katie (34:36):
So we have chickens.
We don't have lots of plants.
I am actually not extremely likean indoor plant person.
We do technically have somehomeopathics, though I didn't
realize that a certain medicineof mine was actually a
homeopathic remedy, but it is,which is kind of cool.
We, don't have an EMF guard.
I'm kind of in the same space asyou where I, I'm just learning
(34:57):
about it and it's really freakyand I'm trying to figure out
what steps to take withoutblowing my mind up because it's
freaky.
Chrissy (35:05):
but you don't wanna wear a tinfoil hat to bed?
Katie (35:08):
I might need to, we do have so many mason jars and we
keep collecting mason jarsbecause they're so useful.
Especially when you're makingthings.
We do technically have ahomemade clay mug, but it was
not something that I made.
It was something someone madefor me.
And yes, we do have air filtersand I really love them, and they
have been wonderful.
So I guess almost half thethings on this list, which is
(35:31):
kind of crazy that we do.
Oh, okay.
Chrissy, next question.
How do you plan to educate yourchildren?
Do you plan to, one, send themto the closest public school?
Two, send them to a privateschool.
Three, do a homeschool co-op, orfour pure homeschool.
(35:56):
Nobody else involved.
Chrissy (35:57):
I've actually thought about this a lot because the
school system here in NorthCarolina is not the greatest.
So I'm definitely on either ahomeschool co-op or a Montessori
school, actually.
Those are like my top twochoices, but we'll see what my
life looks like financially and.
(36:18):
In terms of my own job.
Whenever we get to that point,
Katie (36:22):
Yeah,
Chrissy (36:22):
What about you?
Katie (36:23):
I think we will likely homeschool and do some kind of a
co-op.
The place in Michigan, we'removing to, it's kind of just
like the thing to do over there.
But even if we weren't moving, Ithink we would still end up
homeschooling Malachi.
Okay, last question, Chrissy.
Which of these things do youpractice regularly?
(36:46):
Grounding, looking intoconspiracy theories about big
ag, food, pharma, andcorporations, red light therapy.
Limiting your screen time slashexposure to blue light, getting
outside to get your vitamin D.
And lastly, hugging trees.
Chrissy (37:05):
Well, I do have a couple pictures of me hugging
trees.
Quite literally.
I can't say I do that veryoften, but I do intentionally do
grounding.
I do intentionally track myvitamin D absorption when I go
outside.
I try to limit my blue lightexposure, at home.
(37:27):
But that's very difficult to doat work because I use a computer
for the majority of my job.
Um, and I don't really actuallylike looking into conspiracy
theories because then it makesme feel very stuck.
Like, I can't move andeverything around me is going to
kill me.
So I try not to look at thoseactually.
What about you?
Katie (37:47):
I do practice grounding occasionally when I remember.
I, I actually love looking intoconspiracy theories.
It's like of my pastimes nowlately.
I.
I have tried red light therapy,but it's not something I do
regularly.
Um, I have been trying to limitmy screen time and exposure to
blue light, like at eighto'clock.
I've been trying to just like,turn my phone into airplane mode
(38:10):
and just stop using it.
I do get outside prettyregularly for vitamin D, which
I'm again trying to just getbetter at regularly doing that.
And I guess I don't hug trees,but it's, you know, something I
guess I have done, I'vedefinitely touched a tree in
order for grounding to happenbecause in the winter, it's hard
to ground when there's snow onthe ground.
Chrissy (38:31):
That's funny.
I actually never even thoughtthat you could touch a tree in
order to get grounding.
'cause the ground gets very coldin the wintertime and so I think
touching a tree is much easierto get that grounding time in.
Um, anyways, this has been fun.
I've actually thoroughly enjoyedgoing through all these
questions and hearing youranswers.
(38:52):
Katie, I am looking forward toseeing the answers from our
listeners in our Facebook group,Crunchy Christian Mamas on a
Budget.
Um, if you are a woman who is amama, wants to be a mama, hopes
to be a mama someday, has manychildren, would love to see you
on there.
Join us.
Um, sorry guys, you're notinvited.
(39:13):
We love you though.
You can continue listening toour podcast if you'd like.
But yeah.
Katie, do you have any otherclosing comments that you would
like to share before we head outfor the day?
Katie (39:26):
I just want to say that yeah, it's, it's a spectrum.
You definitely don't need tojump in and do all these things,
or you don't even have topractice any of these and enjoy
this podcast.
So we are just trying to share alittle bit more about what we
know about being healthy,eliminating toxins, glorifying
(39:46):
God in the way that we are justseeing and stewarding our
bodies, as a temple and, yeah.
So just taking one step in theright direction with your health
is just kind of the way that wewould encourage you to go, and
doing it in a way that's, youknow, cost effective.
We're not trying to breakbudgets here, you know, it's,
(40:08):
it's a process, as Chrissy saidin the beginning, that it's one
step at a time.
You know, don't.
Do a whole overload and get intoall this immediately, it's a
little overwhelming.
So if you enjoyed this podcasttoday, be sure to share it with
a friend who has called youCrunchy maybe, or that you think
is crunchy.
Share it with somebody and besure to subscribe to our podcast
(40:31):
as well, so that you don't missout on any of our silly, fun
episodes about being crunchy.
And we'd love to get to knowyou.
So join us in our Facebookgroup, like Chrissy said,
Chrissy (40:43):
We pray over each of you guys, and we hope that these
episodes can be helpful in yourjourney to becoming a better
steward of your body, your mind,your soul, your spirit, your
finances, and your families.
Uh, we're praying that theseepisodes are helpful for you and
we will see you next time.
Katie (41:01):
see you
Chrissy (41:01):
Bye.
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