Oils fun! + a sewing project.....

I have officially used everyone of my starter kit oils. It only took me a week....I guess you can tell u like them! 

I love using wonderfully smelling oils to help us all relax and embrace health. I have always been taught to be proactive about healthiness, not just reactive to disease or pain. Our favorite so far is lavender. I diffuse it at night and put it in the girls lotion. It seems to be making a difference on baby peanut's yeast rash too. 

The one downside is that most of the blends have peppermint in them. I used them once but can't use them regularly because of nursing (peppermint effects your supply negatively). So, I can't use stress away, peppermint, r.c., or panaway regularly yet. There are non peppermint alternatives, like peace and calming, but I haven't been able to buy them yet.

I created these little padded pockets so I could store the oils upright in the box. I used some leftover fabric and batting. I'll post some pics below. It has made storing them for easy access much easier.

Each piece is approximately 6"x10". The batting is sewn inside. Then I sewed a little seam to divide the piece in fourths. 

Rag Wreath-Christmas

I'm getting ready for the craft and food swap on Saturday! It has been the perfect opportunity to finally get to some of the crafts I have been planning for forever. I am a pack rack by nature and hate to throw anything away, especially if Pinterest has a use for it. 😀 so, I like to save everything. Because my little pumpkin is at the stage of toddlerhood where she pulls everything out and apart, I am realizing just how much stuff I have. Cleaning out and giving away has begun! What a perfect time to craft!

This week I made rag wreaths. This simple craft was easier then I expected (I finished one while nursing) and I love the final result! I will be using rag wreaths more often in my house from now on.

How to make a rag wreath:

What you need

-1 wire hanger

-aprox 100 strips of 1x6 inch fabric scraps (I used red and green for Christmas but any colors will work)

I began by straightening the wire hanger and then bending it in to a circle. Using the hook, I re shaped the top into a easy wreath hanger.

Next, I knotted each strip to the hanger. I began with one color, then switched to the other. I tied the same color on both sides of my existing strips to keep a corrisponding pattern. After trying push the knot along the wire until is presses against the previous ones.

After about 30 mins of relaxedly tying, I had a beautiful wreath!

Here it is in our doorway after a beautiful snow!

Untraditional thanksgiving

This year, because of snow and sickness, we had our own thanksgiving just us at home. We decided to make fondue instead of a traditional turkey dinner. I have been learning about Swiss foods from my sister and wanted to try fondue. 

I used a three cheese mixture. Fontina, Gruyere, and Gouda. They say fondue is all about the cheese. We loved this combination. Our sides included baked broccoli, white and sweet potatoe wedges, homemade crackers, multi grain French bread, green pepper, and some dessert sides with chocolate. I used a ceramic bowl with a tea light underneath In place of a fondue pot. The chocolate was in a glass jar sitting in a crackpot with warm water. The whole meal took me less then 1 hour to put together. We loved the many options and fresh foods. This is a meal we will be making again.

How to make cheese fondue without a fondue pot.

Shred cheese.

Slowly add to warm pot on the stove. Allow cheese to melt before adding more. 

Set up tea light under a ceramic bowl and allow bowl to heat up.

Place melted cheese in warm bowl and keep over the flame.

Enjoy your warm fondue cheese.

How to make chocolate fondue without a fondue pot.

Place chocolate in an empty glass jar (mason jar works great)

Add about 1 inch of warm water to your crockpot and turn on high. Keep the lid off.

Place chocolate jar in the water.

Allow 2 hours for chocolate to melt.

Enjoy your chocolate fondue.

My favorite blogs

I have been trying out many different blogs for the past 2 years of needing to find inspiration from the Internet. Here are some of my current favorites. They are in no particular order

1. The generous wife

http://www.the-generous-wife.com

This blogger sends marriage positive emails everyday. She has a small achievable goal to complete that will make your marriage stronger if only by being aware of the constant need to growth and work in every marriage. I also love her suggested blog posts from other blogs. They are full of positive marriage advice from a Christian perspective. The generous wife has made a huge impact on our marriage.

2. The prairie homestead

http://www.theprairiehomestead.com

This is a Blog by mom of four who lives in Wyoming. She blogs her chores, experiments, lessons, and fun bits homesteading life. I love her do it yourself approach to life with many practical recipes and tips. Although I don't ever foresee us owning a cow, I enjoy reading and learning from his blog.

3. Revive our hearts (podcast)

https://www.reviveourhearts.com

This blog/radio program is a podcast that I consistently listen to. Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth, she was married to weeks ago, teaches on topics that are relevant to all Christian women. I love her added perspective from being single for 57 years. She brings in many married and single women to speak on topics that are so relevant for today's Christian woman.

4. Underground wellness (podcast)

http://undergroundwellness.com

Sean Croxton is the best interviewer I have ever heard. He uses questions to draw out experts in to explaining their perspective in a practical understanding way. He helps everyone understand exactly how to learn and what to do with the knowledge from many different people. So often, on his podcasts, he asks very clear susinct questions that help the interviewee explain what I was not understanding from the interview. I really enjoy his perspective of alternative wellness.

Food swapping frenzy

Last Saturday a friend and I attended a diy swap. It is set up that everything there is a 1-1 beater system. I was so excited to see what it actually looked like.

Here's what I brought. My friend and I split this stuff and traded separately.

There were about 15 other people there with all sorts of baked goods and a few crafts. We chatted and tasted samples for the first hour. Then we all stood around and gave a commercial for our items. Next everyone went around and wrote their name next to the items they were interested in swapping for. A countdown led to rushing around trying to swap for what you wanted most while others were swapping with you for what they wanted. 😀 such fun chaos! 

We both came away with our top choices as well as a few extra treats! 

This is something we are going to do again. For more information on finding a swap near you go to http://foodswapnetwork.com

Diving into oils

For sometime now I have been researching essential oils. Most of the women on the blogs I follow really love them. My biggest concern was the safety factor. Since I have two little babies and in nursing, I didn't want to accidentally caused harm. I mostly felt like I needed a resource that I could trust to help me learn how to apply them.

 In the past few weeks the Lord has provided that resource. I met a really nice young livings lady. She has little kids. She has been using oils for 10 years. And she has lots of scientific "why to use them" knowledge. And on top of it all she applies no pressure to buy. 

I went to one of her make and take workshops where she explains a few oils and helps us make a few home goods with them. We made sugar scrub, thieves spray (Antibacterial spray), and breath spray. It was so much fun! My next step is to buy the starter kit and do some more experimenting.

 I'm so excited to be able to use these boils as a support in my every day life.

Losing the extra...

Since having baby peanut I have had extra trouble losing the baby weight. I recently read this article and it has really helped me think correctly about this time in my life. It says it's about losing belly fat, but I found it applies to living a healthy life as well.

 http://www.primallyinspired.com/how-to-lose-belly-fat/

Biggest points that stood out to me....

1. Because of how little sleep I'm getting with a premise at home.....my body is in survival mode. Instead of focusing on weight loss I need to work on resting and releasing stress.

2. I love the achievable nature of her to do list. I already was working on some of what she advices but was encouraged to just keep adding one or two things at a time. So far we now....

-remove shoes

- are working on replacing all chemicals with natural products

- are learning about essential oils (hopefully more to come on that)

- are taking eps on salt baths

Wow! Even reading the list again to write this post has encouraged me to keep going and helped me realize how much I'm thinking like this post now. Thank you primallyinspired! I am inspired!