Month: April 2015

A Journey in Making Your Own Household Products-Butt Balm

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buttbalm

If you have a baby at some point of another you will experience the dreaded diaper rash.  About 6 months into having a baby and being frustrated with a commercial natural baby diaper rash cream I stumbled across The Hippy Homemaker.  She has an awesome butt balm recipe that works absolute wonders on rash and red baby bums!  You can find her recipe here:
http://www.thehippyhomemaker.com/the-best-homemade-first-time-moms-kit-or-any-new-mother-for-that-matter/

I altered the recipe just a bit and include tea tree oil in mine.  I have also made it with Cocoa Butter as a substitute for Shea butter when I’ve been out of Shea Butter and it doesn’t seem to alter the effectiveness of the balm.

Recipe

1/4 cup of Beeswax
1/2 Cup of Coconut Oil
1/4 Cup of Shea Butter (Or Cocoa Butter if you have that on hand instead)
40 drops of Lavender Essential Oil
30 drops of Chamomile Essential Oil
15 drops of Tea Tree Essential Oil (Some people don’t feel comfortable using Tea Tree Oil on babies less than 6 months old so you could leave this one out or half the amount (8 drops) if you want to play on the more cautious side. If you’re making the recipe for a baby over a year you could use as much as 30 drops)

I don’t own a double boiler, so I don’t know how to instruct you on how to use one of those.  I place a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup in a pan of water and bring it to a boil.  First I add the beeswax and make sure it is entirely melted.  This takes a little while.  Second, I add the coconut oil and let it melt in the beeswax while stirring frequently.  Next, I add the Shea Butter (or Cocoa Butter), again, stirring frequently until all the ingredients are completely melted and liquid.  Using a Hot Pad/Potholder remove your Pyrex cup out of the pan of water and set aside.  Add your essential oils and immediately pour the mixture into your container(s).  I always use metal Tins for my containers. If you are going to use a glass or  plastic container remember you are dealing with a  SUPER HOT liquid here and you could possible melt the plastic container, or have the glass crack and hurt yourself if you do not use EXTREME CAUTION.  If you are using a glass or plastic container let the liquid cool a bit before transferring.  The The recipe makes roughly 8 ounces.

Clean Up:  I always immediately wash my utensils after making this as the wax will quickly harden in your glass pyrex cup.  I always triple wash my pyrex cup to be sure there is no traces of essential oil left.  I also have wooden spoons designated specifically for using with essential oils and do not use them for any other cooking.

CAUTION: Always use caution when making products using essential oils for babies and children.  I recommend to ALWAYS dilute oils for babies and children.  A standard rule of thumb is to use 1-2 drops of essential oil per 1 ounce (2 TBSP) of carrier oil.  Some experts recommend not using Tea Tree Oil on children under 6 months while other experts put it on the list of safe oils.  Use your judgement and do your own research!

General Essential Oil Safety:

  • Keep out of reach of children and pets
  • If swallowed immediately contact poison control and do not try to induce vomiting.
  • If product gets in eyes flush with milk than water
  • Keep away from heat 
  • Do not leave in direct sunlight

For more safety tips go to https://www.naha.org/explore-aromatherapy/safety/#general

Disclosure: The statements on this website have not been evaluated by the FDA or any other organization.  Products and/or information are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any diseases.  Readers are advised to do their own research and make their own decisions and refer to their own healthcare provider regarding anything health related.

Find Essential Oils and Carrier Oils at:

Mountain Rose Herbs

FTC disclosure:  I may receive monetary compensation for my endorsement/recommendation/testimonial and or link to retail products in this article to support my blogging habit.  I will never link to a retail provider I have not used.  I will only link to providers I would personally recommend

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Getting Your Child to Eat Well

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One of the biggest challenges of parenting is getting your child to eat well.(Sometimes it’s just getting your child to eat at all!)  One of my sisters lived in France for a while and talked about the cultural differences between the United States and France which I found fascinating, so when I happened across a book called French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon (http://karenlebillon.com/) I immedietely checked it out from the library (and then bought it because I didn’t have time to finish reading the borrowed copy).  If you have a picky eater I highly recommend checking out this book!

In it you will find the 10 rules of eating:

french-food-rules-kids

1. Parents, You are in charge of Food Education!  Educate yourself about the food you are putting into your body.  Let your children know what they are eating!  Talk about what is in the meals you are making!  Teach the children how to cook!  Let them be involved!

2. Avoid Emotional Eating.  This is where I like to say you are not a dog, food is not a reward.

3. Parents Schedule Meals and Menus, KIDS EAT WHAT PARENTS EAT.  Okay, parents, this is where a lot of us go wrong.  Our children won’t eat what we make, so we get them something else.  Kids are pretty smart little creatures and if they have figured out that if they don’t eat their food you will make them a grilled cheese instead, they will repeatedly not eat their food to get to the grilled cheese sandwich.  Solution: Don’t make the grilled cheese sandwich.  The child can eat what’s on their plate, or they can NOT eat and NOT have a snack later.  I promise you your child will not starve by missing one or two meals here or there.  I recently pulled this with my own child.  He would not eat dinner and then wanted a candy (left over from Easter).  I told him he did not eat his dinner so he could not have a candy, but if he wanted to eat some of his dinner (that I had left out because he hadn’t eaten it) he could have a candy he proceeded to eat enough of his cold dinner to satisfy me and got his candy.  Dessert is fine if they eat their dinner but no dinner, no dessert which in this case was a childs size handful of mini M&M’s.

4. Eat Family Meals Together.  This is part of healthy families on so many levels!

5. Eat your Veggies.  Try to provide your child with a variety of vegetables, even try letting them pick some from the produce aisle that they want to try! You might be surprised in their choices.  (I have been known to get stuck buying an extra head of Broccoli if the babe is left within arms reach.  If I step away from the cart for the 5 seconds it takes to grab a different vegetable, I turn around and he has a head of broccoli up to his little mouth and is taking a big ole’ bite out if it. . . better add that to the cart. . .)

6. You don’t have to LIKE it but you do have to TRY it!  A women I worked with for a short while said in her house she had the rule of three.  You weren’t allowed to say you disliked a certain food until you had tried it at least three times.  I thought it sounded like fantastic advice.  (She was Canadian.)

7. No Snacking!  This is a hard one in my house as my husband is a big snacker. . .and it’s hard to tell the child NO when he sees you (or your spouse) snacking.  So I’ve told my husband if he must snack he needs to do it where the babe cannot see.  If the child snacks before dinner, getting him to eat dinner is a battle.  More often than not if he hasn’t snacked he is hungry at dinnertime and will eat dinner (He will also go from fine to starving in 2.2 seconds and have a meltdown when dinner has 5 minutes left to cook if it is not ready at exactly 6:30.)

8. Slow Food is Happy Food (and as my husband likes to say Happy Food tastes better).  Eat slowly, enjoy your meal.

9. East Mostly REAL FOOD. This means you might actually have to learn how to cook!  Processed foods have so many things in them that are so incredibly awful for us.  Try to eat mostly foods that don’t come in a packages.  Someone taught me a trick about staying on the outer rim of the grocery store  this is where you will find the veggies, fruits, meats, dairy; the processed foods tend to be in the aisles in the middle.  Limit your trips in the middle.

10. Relax. Again, Eat slowly, enjoy your meal, throw in some conversation and make it a time to enjoy your family and/or company.

Check out author Karen Le Billons website for recipes and tips or to buy her books French Kids Eat Everything and Getting to Yum  http://karenlebillon.com/

(Illustration by Sarah Jane Wright for French Kids Eat Everything)

3 Ingredient Chicken Taco’s

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Have I mentioned how much I like simple meals?  One of my favorite simple meals is 3 Ingredient Crockpot Chicken Taco’s. . . (Okay, so technically after you load down your tacos with all the side goodies it’s more than 3 ingredients, but you only have to put 3 in the crockpot).

Ingredients:
4 Chicken Breasts
1 Package of Taco Seasoning (Your own or storebought)
1 Jar of Salsa (Again, your own or storebought)

Put all in crockpot and let cook on low while you’re at work (or home or whatever) for about 8ish hours.

Wrap up in a Tortilla adding whatever goodies your heart desires (Lettuce, Tomatoes, Cheese, Pico, Avocados, Corn, Beans, Sprouts, Sour Cream, More Salsa,etc…)

Voila!  Easy meal and if you leave out the sour cream, fairly healthy too!

Cheers and Happy Eating!!!

Dealing with Death

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It seems like Death sometimes sneaks up on us, and the older we get the more it starts to surround us.  When a loved one passes or when a friend’s loved one passes, it’s hard to know how to react.  Dealing with all the emotions surrounding a death makes us feel awkward and clumsy.  It is easy for our tongue to get tied into knots and we just don’t know what to say or what to do.  That’s okay.  Just do your best.

A few helpful things to know:

  • Grief is a roller coaster ride.  Everyone grieves differently.  Allow people space to grieve, but also be around for support.
  • It is not healthy to bottle up grief, let the person experiencing the grief express their feelings and share memories with you.  Sometimes sharing your memories helps too.
  • Sometimes it’s just helpful to be a shoulder to cry on.
  • Rituals such as a funeral or a memorial service help some people in the grieving process, if you can attend for support, do so.
  • There is not a time limit on grief.  All people experience grief differently.  There is no correct or incorrect way to deal with grief.  It is NEVER okay to tell someone they should move on.  They have experienced a substantial change to their world and they must recover at their own pace.
  • Watch your tongue, don’t say anything insensitive/stupid: Some examples of such stupidity are:
    • “I Understand how you feel.”  (You are not them, you have no clue how they feel.)
    • “They are in a better place.” (How is being away from them in a better place?)
    • “They would want you to move on” (Even if “they” would want that, moving on is a process, that requires time and healing and more time.)
  • It’s better to say things like “I’m sorry for your loss” and “I love you” or even “It sucks”.

Some Appropriate Ways to express your Sympathy are:

  • Send/Bring a thought-filled personal gift or letter
  • Bring Food- Any kind of food, or buy them groceries with a list of what simple meals can be made from them.
  • Mow their lawn/clean their house, don’t ask them to call you and ask for your help, just go do it.
  • If they have children, take the children for the day.
  • Spend time with them, it could be a night of silence, tears or laughter filled memories.  Let them talk, and listen, just listen.
  • Be patient and let them know you are there for them for the long haul by being there.  CHeck in with them often over the coming months and possibly years.

If the person in the grieving process seems to be “losing it”, experiencing trouble coping or functioning you might want to urge them to get some type of professional help in a grief support group, in books, or through counseling.