Tag: Family

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Day 1 "FREE" Week Product Review – Dr. Ron’s Ultra-Pure Body Care, Shampoo and Conditioner

Welcome to Day 1 of The Five Fish “FREE” Week.  

Today we are going to explore the preservative free products of Dr. Ron’s Ultra-Pure Body Care. You might be asking how can body care products such as shampoo and conditioner possibly have preservatives. Well I wondered as well and began to research and found that almost every shampoo on the market has this #1 nasty ingredient, ready, “SODIUM LAUREL (LAURYL) SULFATE”.
Okay, so I know you are wondering what this compound mineral is in our hair products. Sodium laurel sulfate is a cheap detergent and is what makes our shampoos as sudsy as they are. You know what I mean, that great foaming action that makes us believe our hair is getting so clean…WRONG! In fact sodium laurel sulfate is an irritant and is a carcinogen…yup washing your hair can cause cancer, who would have thought. The second preservative is paraben which prevents bacteria and fungal growth in almost all beauty products, again another irritant, allergenic, and carcinogen.
So I came about researching this because I have been trying to find organic or as close to organic as possible for my family. Buying organic products not only reduces our overall carbon footprint, but the products are absolutely superior for your overall health. Big G has eczema so I have to be careful with what I use on his skin or he is a mess and takes months to clear him up. The Squids are also new babies, but have so far (so good!) been a-ok with standard OTC products. I, on the other hand, I have to use glycerin type washes or my skin is a mess as well.

The staff and Dr. Ron sent me the MSM Shampoo and MSM Moisturizing Conditioner. Here is some information straight from the Dr. Ron website about the products and about Dr. Ron:

MSM Shampoo

With herbs, nutrients and essential oils, MSM strengthens hair and restores elasticity. A rich supply of mucopolysaccharides and protein in our conditioners leaves hair soft, light and shiny. We avoid the use of sodium laurel sulfate, a cheap, harsh detergent often derived from petroleum and disguised in pseudo-natural products with the phrase “comes from coconuts.”

  • Soft, shiny hair results from superior nutrition – but our great shampoos and conditioners will bring out your hair’s natural qualities like no other products.
    Our unique blend of oils, herbal extracts, and nutrients strengthens hair, restores elasticity and repairs split ends.
    MSM Shampoo contains a rich concentration of sulfur in the form of MSM for maximum benefits

MSM Moisturizing Conditioner

  • For dry or damaged hair, our MSM Moisturizing Shampoo and MSM Moisturizing Conditioner have an extra high concentration of essential oils. Eight ounces each.
    Blended with coconut and olive oils, herbal extracts and nutrients, essential oils have exceptional moisturizing qualities and help restore beautiful luster to your hair.
    Essential oils contain characteristic plant aromas that leave a gentle fragrance and help hair stay fresh between washings.

Here is a little about Dr. Ron, straight from his website:

Dr. Ron’s Ultra-Pure began in 2000 to provide our patients with the purest and most effective nutrients, formulas and special foods. Many other people now use Dr. Ron’s products. We thank all of you, especially members of the Weston A. Price Foundation and the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, two organizations that are doing so much good work to further accurate understanding of nutrition. We are committed to providing the finest supplements to complement traditional diets.
We Source Materials from America, New Zealand and Europe
Most of our source materials are from America. We secure organs and glands from free range, grass fed New Zealand animals raised without pesticides, hormones or antibiotics. High-vitamin cod liver oil is imported from Norway and meets the strictest standards of purity. Other materials are occasionally sourced in Europe, Japan and Korea, depending on quality and availability of supplies. Contamination of source materials for supplements and pharmaceuticals in recent years has led us to avoid sources with potential problems. Careful and selective sourcing of raw materials provides an extra measure of safety. You may be confident that all Dr. Ron’s Ultra-Pure products contain only and exactly the nutrients listed prominently on the labels.
The Ultra-Pure Promise of Purity, Quality, Potency and Value
Dr. Ron’s Ultra-Pure products are designed and manufactured by a team of supplements professionals and health care providers with extensive clinical experience in natural medicine. Source materials are carefully tested for purity and potency. Many of our products, including Doc’s Best and other innovative formulas, New Zealand organs and glands, and high-vitamin Norwegian cod liver oils, are unique. In our formulas, we combine synergistic ingredients at optimal doses to create maximally effective products. We use no lubricants, fillers, binders, coatings, flowing agents, or other added ingredients of any kind. Because we use only the pure nutrients, our supplements achieve maximum absorption, and are truly hypoallergenic.

Ron Schmid, ND, has practiced naturopathic medicine since 1981. He served for two years as Chief Medical Officer and Clinic Director at the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine. Ellen Triplett , Lac, has a Master’s degree in Chinese Medicine.
Dr. Ron is the author Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine and The Untold Story of Milk. He is on the honorary board of the Weston A. Price Foundation and has written for Wise Traditions, the quarterly journal of the Foundation.

You must be itching to know……how did a “free” shampoo and conditioner measure up? Well I have tried a lot of salon shampoos/conditioners, claimed “organic” shampoos/conditioners and I have to say that Dr. Ron’s is by far the most enjoyable and fabulous product I have ever used. Like I said I have used the expensive salon shampoos, and we all know how our hair feels after leaving the salon…like silk…..well I got that same feeling from this shampoo and conditioner.


The best part was the smell. I am such a smell oriented person, I mean I smell all of my produce, meats, etc at the store before I buy it, so when I cracked open the package and my hair smelled like I was rolling in herbs I was in heaven. It was clean without feeling stripped and my hair smelled fresh without the harsh smell of added perfumes, and I had to get used to the little to no sudsing since the nasty emulsifiers and detergents aren’t in these products.

Then I conditioned. Mind you I have the worst hair known to man. I have chemically treated it since I was oh…..8 (I grew up in the 80’s, perms were so HOT back then, I was rockin‘!) I color it and then add that I live in the driest state of the union, Arizona, so I swim half the year which wreaks even more havoc on my hair. So I have to use a lot of conditioner, anti-frizz, and smoothing products. With Dr. Ron’s I didn’t have to use my daily routine of “Tame the Beast” smoother’s. The conditioner has a wonderful citrus scent that energized me in the shower and was a great morning pick-me-up. Plus when I rinsed my hair didn’t feel just soft, but smooth and silky and stayed that way even after I blow-dried my hair. Most products leave your hair feeling weighed down or they rinse out immediately leaving your hair barely conditioner or feeling repaired. All day….no fly aways, no tangles, no dry feeling, just smooth, soft, manageable, touchable, play with my hair type hair. I am in love!

Be sure to head on over to Dr. Ron’s and check out all of his wonderful beauty and health products. In addition to all over well being he does offer consultations! How awesome, get a consultation on how to live an all around healthy life. Also if you go to buy his products like I am going to, be sure you let him know you found his product review on The Five Fish and that Karie Herring of The Five Fish sent you. Thank you again Dr. Ron for sharing this wonderful product with me and my family!

Make it a great Monday!

The views and opinions expressed on this blog belong purely to Karie Herring. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party in question.

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For the ailing heart

My love recently moved back to Arizona and I have to say that I am so selfishly excited, exuberant, wetting myself in joy, bouncing happy to have my sister home again! I know she is happy to be around her family again, but I know her poor heart cries for the South. My sister should have been born in the deep South with the Confederate flag and all I swear!

For one, I named my sister. I named her after my best friend from Sunday school and her name was Brittany. So because I loved my best friend so much I thought what a fitting name for the person who was destined to be my best friend! So my sister was born and she has been a feather in the wind floating around to everyone and everywhere. From a very young age my sister would spastically wave to everyone…..and I mean everyone! I remember she would talk endlessly to the bakery staff at Bashas’ market, partly because we got free cookies, but my sister was friendly to everyone. If we moved, she had friends that day. If we went on vacation, she had friends to come with, new ones she would meet along the way, and she was by NO means shy. My sister was dainty without tact. By that I mean she was very lady like in she would wear a sweet night gown and put her hair in curlers, but then proceed to do kart wheels in the front yard….WITH NO PANTIES!

Yes….my sister was born to be a Southern Belle.

So to ail her poor aching heart for her southern pleasures in the dismal desert we call Arizona I have found some “Southern Comforts” replacements or close seconds:

Apple Ice Cream – The best I could find, which is right down the road from her house is The Apple Dumpling Cafe and they serve everything under the sun apple…including her ice cream.

Crickets – We got crickets. And later this summer she will her the never ending chirp, hum, hoop, and purr of the Arizona locusts, or as we call them “secadas” (suh-kA-duhs).

After the Rain – In Arizona she will get to see rivers flowing….literally, so no more crying your own as the Almighty will provide you with flash flood rivers through the neighborhoods and dry river beds, quite a sight!

The Deer – In Arizona, we don’t have the axis deer frolicking through the wood of the south, but we have PIG! Javelina will wander through your yard, maybe even a stray skunk, foraging for food. On a good day, maybe some coyotes, jackrabbits the size of a Bulldog, and your occasional Gila (thats HEE-LAH for you Yanks) Monster.

Wildflowers and blue bonnets – Those will be replaced by dandelions, sunflowers, Mesquite blossoms, tumbleweeds, Bouganvilla (BOO-gun-vee-yah), and the Fishhook Cactus blossoms.

Lightning bugs – We don’t have the glowy butt bugs that I miss too from a childhood spent in the midwest, but we have some SPECTACULAR lightning to be seen and FELT here during the Monsoon. We also have grasshoppers and locusts that fly in droves in early June through August that look like a dust storm. Only here too can you see a dust devil as high as a house.

So while I know your heart yearns for the dirt road, where everyone knows your name, and the pace that is just barely faster than a snail……..the desert and all her beauty are your South-Western home. And we are glad you are back and love to be able to spend so much time with you and your family.

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Why I love AZ

Yesterday was so awesome. I woke up to my husband and three beautiful kids and to top the whole day off…….I got to open all my windows in the house and my back door. I think the high for yesterday was in the 70s and the day was absolutely fabulous! We went on our evening walk and I had to bundle up all the kids in sweaters and hoodies and Chad and I put light sweaters on because the wind was blowing and the night air was a bit chilly. However, you know you live in AZ when you are wearing a sweater, shorts and flip flops.

Then this morning I woke up to a bit of a chill in my house. I figured because the AC had just run not too long ago. WRONG! The thermostat said 68* and the thermometer outside my kitchen window said 50*. FABULOUS!!! I actually had to put a robe on this morning. More beautiful days to come as we head into the AZ winter. I love it here because 1) NO SNOW (Love the snow, very pretty…..but hate living where there is snow and bitter cold) and 2) 70* November and December’s rock.

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All about a bargain and some comedy

Shopping is always an adventure for me. Not only because I have three kids….that is a task I tell you. But because I have twins and for some awful reason I have tattooed on my head:

INVADE HER PRIVACY! ASK ANY AND ALL QUESTIONS AND BE RUDE ABOUT IT!

Yes I get all the dumb twins questions along with the questions that make me ask….”Do I also have I am a dumb and or retarded Mom?” tattooed on my head. I mean I know I had kids…but come on now. So after many stops of “Oh! Are they twins?” I finally have resorted to answering, “No….I liked the little girl so much I stole her since I was sick of this many boys” Thank goodness no one hears what I say since the majority that ask this question need the assistance of a hearing device. So I kindly nod my head like that bobble toy on your dash.
Okay so back to shopping. The kids and I visited Goodwill as I love Goodwill. I think thrift and secondhand stores are awesome for all the treasures, the baby clothes that are awesome and the jeans! I mean come on….jeans should never be donated they are timeless. So there we are shopping and finding all sorts of FABULOUS bargains when this woman approaches me. I am not one to judge, but she screamed DUMB ASS! Here is what fell out of her mouth to me:

(bad accent of some sorts, southern in nature) Oh look……a baby. Oh look, two babies….hmmmm….they ain’t twins are they? They sure as much do not look like each other….they can’t be twins….well….. I guess since one is a boy and one is a girl. Are they yours? Hmmm…..so these are your only children huh? Amazing what technology can do?

I smiled. If you know me you know I had to refrain from slapping the old hag. So I said ever so politely, “Yes they are twins, they do look like each other even for being opposite sex. And, if your curiosity is killing you that much twins run in my family.”
All I could do was smile and laugh…YIKES!

So then while Grant and I were together looking at some items he makes this utterly random comment to me:

“Mama, I don’t want a shiny pee pee.”

Yup just like that. I about wet my pants and then looked at him like WTF are you talking about? Who is shining your wanker that we need to be worrying about it. So I asked my boy so lovingly:

“Grant-baby what do you mean you don’t want a shiny pee pee?”

“You know Mama….shiny boots, shiny chest, helmet with a feather….I don’t want the shiny pee pee and everything else is shiny.”

Okay….so the knight costumer he has hounded me about has gained more detail. No shiny pee pee. Alrighty. But everything else in the knight costume must be shiny. Got it.