Mini journals called planners

I like to have things written down or I forget.  I used to be able to remember but I have the full blown mommy brain now.   So I started using these small planners after I got home from my mission.  If you remember from my mission box post, I used a very similar planner to these.  I loved them.   

So I started using them and I love them.  It has been 10 years.....wait what?   I guess when this years planner is over It will have been 10 years since I got home from my mission.  That is crazy.   Anyway    so I use these planners everyday and I write everything I have planned in them.   

At the end of the day I will write what we did that day.   So its like a mini journal for me.  I have used it to look back at when I am writing in my journal.  It doesn't happen as much as I would like anymore.  So this helps me remember what we did.  

Its also fun to look back through and see what we were doing so many years ago. Its quick to look through but I am reminded of so much.   

I also keep track of when I changed my contacts last or when I had that dr appointment.  Things like that.  Its a nice place to keep track of everything.  

New basic salve to use for everything

As part of my natural health journey I have been learning more about essential oils and using them.   I have been attending these online camps where they have so much information about oils.  I have learned so much I love them.  They have a few posts everyday that you learn and read about how you can use a certain oil more.  They also explain the benefits of the oils.  

One of my new items that I have found helpful is this salve.   You can really add whatever oils you want to the basic recipe and use it for different things.   I made this one for chest colds.  I want to make one for skin and stretch marks.  Like to rub on your belly when I am pregnant again.  I feel like this would work a lot better than what I have used previously.   So here is the basic recipe.

1/2 c grapeseed oil

1/2 cup almond oil

2 tablespoons beeswax

1/2 tablespoon vitamin E oil

  Then you add whatever oils you want.... I did Lavendar, Melalueca, frankincense and breathe oil.   I didn't have the cypress and eucalyptus that this recipe called for.  But like I said you can put anything in it for whatever you want to use it for.  It said to do 5 drops of each oil.  

I got the beeswax from amazon I believe and the other oils from the local health store.  They were relatively cheap for how much you use each batch of salve you make.  

The first thing you do is melt your beeswax down it has to be in a double boiler so I put my glass measuring cup in my pan and melted it.  

Then once its melted you add the oils and mix them all together.  

Take it off the stove and put it out to cool a bit maybe 2-3 minutes then add the oils before it starts to set up.   Then you can pour them into whatever containers you want to use.  I bought these ones off aromatools.com  I love how many different options of jars and bottles they have and they are cheap.  

You let it cool in the final containers for 2-3 hours and then they should be setup.  I store one in my babies room and then one in the older kids room.  I just rub it on their chest when they are getting a cold.  I have even used it just for a good nights sleep since it has lavender in it.  

I just used a wooden skewer to stir it with.  It really didn't take long to melt the beezwax.  

I am really excited to make another one.  I want to make one that will help with my kids ezcema they like to rub this on their skin.   I really don't like the lotions you can buy at the store.  So I am going to try this out and I"ll let you know.   

Treasure box idea...

I am seeing all sorts of smart things that my parents did when I was little.  Being a mom now I am looking for all sorts of ways to get rid of stuff and keep a simpler life and home.  

One of those things that my mom was so smart about was this Treasure box.   We had a xerox box that she had decorated and put contact paper on to make it look pretty.   We each had one that we could keep our treasures in.   This helped us to not keep so much junk.  When I was little everything was a treasure.  haha.   With my kids in school now I have a ton of papers that come home with them.   I needed to find a way to only keep the really good stuff.  I have taken pictures of their stuff and then I put it in their scrapbook.   Some things just don't do justice in a picture. 

I found my box and went through it.  I had stuff I didn't know I had kept.  Like my personal progess book that you do in our church when you are 12-18.   

I also had all of my medallions that I had earned.  

I had my quarter collection that we did as a family.  We each got these books and found the quarters from each state.  It was a fun family project to do and help each other find the right quarters we needed.  

I was on the swim team in high school and we would have a swimmer of the meet.  I got two of them and I remember feeling so proud of those when I got them.  I had worked hard for them.  It will be fun to show my kids these things when they are older and are participating in their own activities.  

I have a bunch of things that my Grandma Beck had crocheted or tatted for me.   These are even more special now that she has passed on.  I never learned how to do these but she did teach me how to crochet.  

I have a gold cup that I got for piano.  I played for 6 years I believe and I finally earned my gold cup.  Looking back as an adult I wish I had stuck with playing the piano so I could play better now but I can't.  I didn't like practicing as a kid though. I loved being outside instead.  

I have a bunch of other breakable stuff that I keep in there. My box isn't as full as it once was.  But I am glad I saved the things I did.  I have just started to put some of my daughters school work in a box that I made for her.  Then when she gets older she can decide what to keep.  She can keep whatever as long as it all fits in her box.  Right now her special stuff goes in a drawer in the bathroom.   We need to change that.  

I love this idea because it gives them the opportunity to choose for themselves and to decide what is important to them, and then they have all of their "special" stuff all in one place.  

Rough sick winter

We were doing so good this winter until the middle of January and then we all got it good.  It started with everyone getting the 24 hour flu.   Luckily everyone but me got it on a friday night and saturday.   I didn't get it until monday right at 5 pm when my husband got home.   So really it worked out pretty well if we were going to get it.    Then that week the kids started with runny noses and a cough.   I figured Sawyer was getting an ear infection and so I put silver in his ears and he seemed to be a little better.   The other two just kept coughing and coughing.  I figured it was the cold that the cough just lingered for ever.  Finally one night my daughter asked me if she could go to the dr.  I said ok well go.   I had been trying to avoid going to the dr because they just give you antibiotics and I didn't want that.
I give my kids probiotics and elderberry everyday.  I figured that this would help keep everything away and if they did get something it would make it go away faster.   Turns out she had strep and sawyer had an ear infection still.  So I got the antibiotics because she had already missed quite a few days of school.

Fast forward a few days I came down with something terrible.  My whole body was sore and achy.  It was bad.  My throat hurt so bad I figured I had gotten strep from her.  I was gargling silver and drinking a ton.   We were also drinking hot lemon and honey tea.   I finally decided to go in and get tested for strep...... big fat NO!  ok well now I know its just a viral thing that will take a few days to go away.    So I kept taking my garlic and vit c and doing the silver gargle.   It did go away faster than the last viral thing I got in October.  So that was nice.  

  The kids still were coughing pretty bad a week later  and my oldest was sleeping so much.  She would come home from school and take a 2-3 hour nap and then sleep at night fine too.  This was not normal so I took them back in and dr said they just have the viral cold on top of recovering from strep.   OH MY!!!
By this point it had been a month of us being sick...... I was so sick of being sick.....
I was frustrated by now because we had been so good at doing all of the preventable stuff.   Using the oils and taking all of the extra probiotics and everything.    We shouldn't have gotten sick and stayed sick for a month.    I know that so much sickness was going around everywhere and having kids in school makes it worse because they get so much from school.    I know we need to improve our washing hands with the kids and I know that is part of it.  We have started to sing a song while we wash our hands, to make sure they are washing for long enough.  I know this will help.

We are all doing better now.  I am pretty sure sawyer still has a little ear infection because his nose is runny again.  I just can't get him to lay down for a few minutes to let the silver do its work.   I need to try it when he is asleep.  It made me want to research out more about how to prevent and be proactive about not getting sick next winter.   I have already found quite a few things that we can add to our preventative list.   I know we still did pretty good for not getting little colds here and there we just had major stuff for a month.  So I guess that is a plus.   Its a learning process and I am learning all sorts of new stuff that I can start applying and using now.  I guess its the struggles that make you grow and force you to learn more.