Keeping Hearth and Home

I love essential oils.  I also love tinctures and other herbal remedies.  But my kids aren't always thrilled with home remedies because of taste/smell/random finicky-ness, and *sometimes* I run through a few natural options and still can't solve a problem myself.  Case in point:  my 7-year-old has a nasty bug.  We had family come and visit this weekend, and someone was sick.  Sunday he started complaining of not feeling well and by Sunday night he was running a moderate fever (100-101 degrees Fahrenheit).  I rubbed some lavender oil on him to keep it moderate and put him to bed.  The next morning his fever was 101.8 when he got up. Still no big deal.  But within an hour it was up to 102.8.  Hmmm. Time to try something a little more potent.  Out came my glycerin tinctures, diluted in water.  He wouldn't take more than a sip and then refused more because it turned his already painful stomach. Out came the essential oils again....

My eldest won't stop growing!!  We recently had to buy him new jeans, money we are willing to pay for extra durability because this boy is ROUGH on his clothes (I highly recommend Wranglers, they have worn better than any other brand we have tried, and you can get them at a deep discount from  VF Outlet , especially on clearance).  While we were shopping to for jeans I looked at pajamas as well because they were also getting short on him.  OUCH!! I forget how expensive PJs can be every time until I go looking.  Sometimes we get a good deal at Costco, but they have already stocked their spring/summer wear and the nights are still cold here, so that was a no go. I was considering just letting him wear PJ pants a few inches short (nobody will ever know.....) until the weather warmed up.  But then I saw them: two perfectly good long-sleeve shirts that my husband had put in the donation pile, one was even made of thermal fabric.  "Light Bulb!" So out of...

I grew up in a household of girls.   With four daughters and no sons, my father was, quite literally, the odd-man-out.   We used to tease my dad on a regular basis about being the only male in an otherwise all female household.   As an adult, the tables are turned at our house.   I am the lone female in a house of boys.   Granted, the numbers aren’t quite the same (I only have two boys as opposed to my father’s four), and at some point the game may change.   But for now, I have figured out that my life in a family of all girls left me woefully unprepared for little boys.   It actually took a while for me to settle down and realize that my eldest son was normal.   And it took even longer for me to curb the instinct to squelch those normal, little boy behaviors that did not make sense to me because I was a girl raised among girls. So, for the benefit of others who may feel lost in boyland, here are a few things I have learned in the la...

Ahhh, Television... Growing up, my family very rarely had cable television.   We mostly watched what was on network television, and I grew up on PBS especially.   In those days, the before school hours, the after school hours up until the news hour, and Saturday mornings were filled with children’s content on pretty much every network channel.   Today, I can’t find children’s programming on a weekday morning or afternoon except for on PBS, which we love and adore.   Apparently, in order to get children’s programming, one must pay for cable television and niche channels.   The biggest problem with this is that along with those kid and family friendly channels, you also get what I like to call the junk channels.   Channels that are full of stuff I don’t want my kids to see. The Christmas before we found out we were expecting our first child, my husband and I decided that we wanted to get cable for the holiday season so that we could wa...

I wish I had taken better pictues of these, because this one just doesn't do it justice.  I made these princess dolls for my six-year-old niece for Christmas, and I actually made two more (Tiana and Aurora) that I didn't get pictures of.  Drat!  Oh well.  They were pretty straightforward to make, and my niece LOVED them.  I put them all in a cute little purse for easy travel, and the whole night after she unwrapped them, she wouldn't put that purse down or let anyone else touch it...not even her mom who just wanted to look at them!  I was tickled pink.  I used the Princess Peg Doll Tutorial that I based my Nativity Se t on as well, but I added Princess Merida from Brave to the mix. I think that Merida ended up being my favorite, followed by Snow White.  I also made a set of Super Hero Figures for my son using the same method.  The best part of these toys is that they are about the same size as the original Fisher Price Little Peo...

I made these fantastic little dolls for my son this year for Christmas.  I bought the blank wooden dolls a Hobby Lobby on sale for $2.99 for all 8!  S had been really enjoying watching Spider Man and His Amazing Friends on Netflix, so I made him a little Spiderman, Iceman and Firestar.  I also made him a set of the Avengers (plus Wolverine) since they're pretty much everywhere right now and he has been asking questions about the pictures and toys he sees at the store and seems to be pretty interested.  I used the same tutorial that I used to make my  Nativity Set , and I used images I found on Google as an idea for how to paint them.  I also added an extra step and modge-podged them to keep the paint from chipping and the exposed wood from getting dirty. Do you have a little girl that you would like to make some dolls for?  How about Princess dolls ?

Last year, after Christmas was over, I saw the cutest Little People Nativity for sale on craigslist.  I didn't even know they made such a thing! I thought it was such a great idea to have a Nativity set that it is okay for kids to play with.  It helps to keep Christmas centered on Christ, and you don't have to worry about the nice Nativities getting broken.  So, I was keeping my eyes open for a good price come Black Friday.  My husband and I were discussing you Christmas budget this year, and I told him how much I wanted to buy a kid-friendly nativity this year for our kids.  He pointed out that I was already working on some princess themed wooden peg dolls (using this tutorial ) for my niece, so why couldn't I take the same method and use it to make a Nativity set?  Can I just tell you how much I LOVE my husband?  I really, really do!  What a brilliant idea, I thought.  And then it went on the back burner.  That is, until yesterday ...

Ah, baby food.  Whether you make and freeze your own purees in large quantities, or buy it commercially, chances are you're going to have a plethora of leftover fruits, veggies, and perhaps even meats once that tiny tot of yours decides that "real" food tastes SO much better and, lets just face it, its much more fun to feed himself and chew it up than to have mush in his mouth.  This begs the question: What to do with all of that leftover baby food?  I hope I can help answer that with a few ideas of my own, and a few links from around the web. 1.  Give it to a friend.   Know someone who has a little one just getting ready to start solid foods?  Or perhaps their baby is already on solid food but not ready for table food yet.  Many moms would be very appreciative to receive a gift of baby food for their tyke.  Commercial baby food can eve be given to a mama who is pregnant or just had a baby as long as you do the math and the expiration date is...