Upcycled Hair Accesory

On the morning of 3rd of July, I wanted something for the girl's hair to fit the occasion, but what? All our hair things are the usual pink with a few other colors thrown in, not red, white and blue! What to do what to do? I had about 2 hours to do all the usuals, plus find that nifty idea for their hair.
  While getting them dressed I needed to cut off long sleeves to make a cooler shirt for the sweltering hot weather we were going to brave. That's when I thought of the idea. I had tried something similar with a different result in mind and it turned out to be one of those, "here you can play with this" because it totally didn't work.

  I took the sleeve, cut it round and round into one long strip about 1" wide. Then I wrapped it around two fingers and pulled a separate strip through and tied it tightly in a knot to secure it. After counting each one I've made so far, they are from 10-14 times wrapped. I just guess when I make them!
  Opposite the knot I cut the loops to form loose ends, trimming any that looked too long and out of place.
  Using the longer strips I had used to tie it together I tied them to the top of Belle's braid and Tori's pony tails. I was ready to go and loved the effects!
I was going to take pictures of each step but the shirt I pulled out to cut into a strip caused a meltdown of a girl proclaiming it was her favorite shirt and please please don't cut it up! (I think she wore it once)
  So hopefully you get the idea of how and I'll leave a few pictures of the end results. I was thinking too that rather than tie it to their hair I can slip a clip into it and clip to their hair.

I just made these pink ones this morning to match Belle's dress. I like how they lay against her head. I can make all those cute flowers for hair but can't wear them as well. They just don't work like I see everyone else making them look so I have a lot and wear little! These work for me!
  Look out everyone! If you have t-shirt of the correct color, I may come after it with my scissors!

Wow. I don't know if anyone even looks at this blog any more. I haven't. So why should you? I have a long list of reasons why not. But half of them I don't believe you have any need of knowing. So I'll give two that are predominate, 1. no internet for a year, 2. I became mother of not only 2 girls but now the most delightful little boy I have ever met!
  While I'm totally in love with that little boy and I dearly love having that little boy, he does not make my life a life of ease! He's a good baby...'cept at night. You know all those books and friends with "the" way to make a baby sleep all night? Yeah. It's like he's read them, before he came out of my womb. Then made his life goal to destroy those theories.
  I know some of you are going to faint and say I've obviously not....who knows what I've not....he is now officially a year old and still gets up 1-3 times a night. Yup, I've been told before "There is absolutely no reason a 1 year old should still be getting up..." Trust me, I agree. But he doesn't.

   I took great comfort several weeks ago to have talked to one of my many mom's in this world and she just chuckled while telling me that her oldest didn't sleep through the night until he was 6 years old! Alright. Finally someone who knows the feeling! Her son turned out quite independent so I suppose eventually mine will too.
  But I didn't open this page with my non-sleeping-through-the-night-baby in mind. I was actually planning to post a recipe I revamped to fit the food allergies in this house. I admit to not finding much joy in the kitchen these days. I once really did enjoy cooking and baking but now...I've lost the toss. I get so dreadfully bored of food when I can't use cheese (love cheese), peanuts aren't so bad, I've even found eggs aren't too hard to live without but that dairy and wheat I can't seem to get them out of my life with ease.
  So, since it's not gluten as a problem I use oatmeal a lot to replace cracker crumbs etc. Hence:

Naked Poor Man's Steak
Replace the cracker crumbs with oatmeal
Fry without rolling in flour first
Make a beef gravy with beef stock thickened with cornstarch to replace the cream of mushroom
Bake as usual
Serve as usual
Enjoy as usual!

It's quite good we thought. I grew up serving it with white rice. Nev grew up serving everything on potatoes. I chose fried potatoes this time since it's his favorite and I needed something he would enjoy in case these Poor Naked Man's Steak didn't turn out delightful!

 Now I'm off to make popcorn for the girls. Which, by the way, is quite good with melted butter and maple syrup drizzled on then baked like caramel corn. A good alternative and healthy!

Saturday Night Shopping

I was out of butter. The sugar ran out. I had frosting to make yet. I had to go shopping. I don't like shopping any more. It takes too much effort to dress up, get little girls looking like they have a mother who actually sees what they look like, hair combed, faces washed and dressed in an outfit that matches...you know how it is.
  But, I was out of butter. I had to have that frosting for my man's lunch to be complete. I found the perfect solution. Tell the kids to be quiet while Dad is sleeping and I'll be right back, I mean, I live 5 blocks from Sam's Club.
I almost went as is then thought, well, the least I can do is throw on a pair of jeans and look like I tried. It's saturday night, why would people be all dressed up? I should fit in. I walk into Sam's and think, "What did I miss? Who didn't send me the text, memo, email, card, notification, something to warn me that on Saturday night, women wear high heals and have their hair done, their best sassy outfit on with their neatly groomed guy's arm to hang on?"
  I put on my best smile and think, "I hope they just look at my beautiful smile and don't notice the rest of me." Oh horrors, that means they will look at my face. Absolutely no make-up. Possibly a smear of two of who knows what. I mean, I was baking and cleaning today and never looked in the mirror. Besides, you have to understand that being pregnant and no make-up means that what you see is a pale, washed out face with black eyes. That's just how it is. Esp in the winter with no sun to add some form of color. Then there was my hair. Oh do we have to go there? Once it was wound in a tight knot at the back of my head. When I plopped down on the floor to rest I let it fly. No more details.
  I decided to hurry. I was going to hurry anyway right? I needed to get back to the girls and get supper. But I kept seeing it, those high healed shoes. Ok, that would have been the least I could do! I could have worn my black healed shoes. Perhaps I could have looked taller than my scarce 5'2" and possibly more sophisticated. Black heals always improve jeans, don't they? I wanted to think so right then. But, no, I had shoes on. I push my cart faster.
Then I see a lady with a big belly, like mine will eventually be. I can't help but think, no one even gives me the excuse of being fat and pregnant. I can't even make it hang out and be warm too. Maybe I should sew a sign on my back that artfully explains why I may look like I do.
  I nervously check down each isle hoping I don't meet anyone I know. They were likely in their best outfits too. Shopping in heals with a dashing man. I grab a pizza, zoom by all the delightful smelling samples that they naturally bring out at dinner time and race to the check out. After I stand there for several minutes I realize that there are three ladies trying to figure out a crisis two customers ahead of me. I glance around and see a line of only one. My cart takes off in that direction. Upon arrival I see that there may be only one but her cart is so high it barely balances all the contents. By the time the cashier fills it, she's desperately searching for a place to put the bananas so they don't fall off. I sigh and watch the other line and realize I could have been through it a full 5 minutes faster. But the lady was sweet so I relinquished my frantic desire to get out of the high healed only party in my flat brown, fraying shoes.
  As soon as I get to the van I forget how bad it was and think, wow, I did that fast enough to go to Wal-mart to get some tape. I mean, surely they aren't that dressed up there! The girls used up all my tape and when that happens, I know I shall be lamenting my need for tape and can't live without it and will look even worse next time because it will be an emergency.
 I still glance around nervously as I enter, just knowing I'll meet a friend going to Sam's Club in her heals. She will arch a delicate eyebrow and wonder what kind of day I'd been having or if I always look that bad. I will smile and act like I have it all together as my hair wildly falls in my eyes.
 Miraculously, I made it out of there without seeing that high healed friend. She must have avoided me because what are the odds of NOT seeing her in my predicament? The check out lady was very obviously pregnant too. I walked out thinking, if only they knew. If they ONLY knew they would think, wow, she looks great for being pregnant. I mean, she looks perfectly lovely and we wouldn't expect any more of her outfit in her condition. She's really amazing to be out alone shopping with no one to carry those heavy bags (tape is heavy you know). 
  So, I raced home wondering, why would people go shopping on Saturday night looking like they were going to a banquet? Seriously. I was home all day cleaning and baking, why weren't they? Don't they know it's Saturday? I'm just exalting that I actually have my house all mostly cleaned up, some baking done and even the church cleaned. I don't have time or energy to dress up.
  But now I know. Saturday night at Sam's Club is wear-your-heals-and-best-outfit-night. I think the only reason they let me shop is they were trying to break a record that day or something. Otherwise I wouldn't have qualified to get through the door.
  Sorry, you look like a country girl and nope, that belly isn't big enough to blame it on pregnancy. Go home and come back on a look-like-you-just-got-out-of-bed-day. 
  I survived. My pizza is baking and I shall go see what damage is being done to my perfectly cleaned house.

Salve

My latest obsession....making my own herbal infusions! Thanks to Shoshanna (Pearl) Easling for the most part, I have learned so much and she makes it so easy! So, taking what I've already known for years from my mom, from reading, listening and yeah, reading more, I'm finally putting all I know into more practical use!

Making a salve has got to be one of the easiest things ever! I did not take pictures till now and the process is nearly to completely done so...put up with me ok?

Research what herbs you want to be in your salve (or read the label of one you like) first of all. What ever your needs are, bend towards them and collect! I so far have bought mine from Bulk Herb Store since they have been by far the cheapest, are fast and have great herbs. So I've only ever used dried at this point. Don't forget I live in the heart of the city so collecting herbs is difficult if you don't grow an herb garden (I won't go into detail why I don't).

Next, stuff them into a jar, for me a pint works best. I don't measure, I just figure which herb is most important then put it mostly that and the others fall in line behind according to importance.

Pour oil over herbs till they are thoroughly saturated and the oil covers them. I used a combo of olive and grape seed oil. The grape seed because it absorbs quickly and I like that with my dear rashy skinned Tori. Olive because it has good properties for health.

Now dig out your crockpot, put a washcloth or similar cloth on the bottom, set your jar on top of the cloth and fill with water to the top of where ever your herbs are in the jar. The little guy there floating is rosemary in oil since it wasn't yet dried from picking it at a friends to put in when I started the other oil. Oh, and I had three jars in there to start with.

Turn it to low, and you might be wise to check the temp of the water since crock pots cook different. I don't know right off how hot is too hot but you don't want it to boil for fear of destroying all that good stuff in the herbs. So now all you have to do is let it sit for about 3 days. Add water as it evaporates and stir the herbs once a day or so.

After 3 days of letting this stuff soak and all the herbal qualities go into the oil, strain off the oil. Use an old T-shirt, cheese cloth, or like me, a small holed strainer. I still want to squeeze them out but they are still dripping in the strainer!

 Nope, I don't really think it smells good at this point.
If you don't mind it as a runny oil, you could stop here. Label what's in it and store. I've read to add vitamin E oil to preserve it but I use mine up so fast with Tori that I don't need to.

To make it thick, I start a pot of water boiling on the stove, grab a small glass measuring cup and hook the handle to the edge of the pot to act as a double boiler. Pour a little bees wax pastilles in the measure cup and add the oil. The bees wax takes a little to melt down so have a little more patients here. I like my salve soft like a lotion, some like it harder. The harder you want it the more bees wax. 

The wax hardens quickly so to see if it will be too hard, too soft, or just right, drip a little into cold water, or dip the end of a butter knife into it and let it cool. Add oil or wax to consistency you want. The first time I made it, the salve was HARD. So better to add a little, be too soft and add more wax! The wax goes a long way.

I nearly forgot to insert here that I always add Lavender oil. It is good for you and makes the smell pleasing. This last time I also added Tea Tree oil. I put it in just before pouring into container

 After that, pour into a glass or metal container, cool and....ahhhh....nice, herbal, home made salve! I used a container from other salve and had the brainy idea to empty my husbands Altoid container! (he doesn't know it yet as I write) Don't forget to label. I even forget what herbs I dumped in!

In the picture they look more brown for some reason but they are actually a pleasing shade of green. Love it!

Oh, and I also put up a sticky note of what all I put into the jars while in the crock pot because I throw such random stuff in that I don't remember by the time 3 days go by!

Go ahead and try it! Even if you only have one herb! It's so fun and has such a good feeling of satisfaction that you didn't have to spend $20 for that little tin of salve. To those of you who like specific measurements, I'm sorry! I am not a measured person even in my normal baking so I don't know how to tell you exact, I always guess!

How does it work? Great. I gave some to a little guy who had a serious bike accident and both his parents told me it was amazing on his wounds. Tori's skin is looking great with regular use! Cannot be happier about that! Even my not-so-herby husband put some on his "ouchy" last night!

I would love to hear that you started to do it yourself too!

Any-one-can-make-this Ice Cream

I did not take any pictures of this because it was all an experiment and I don't think of a camera when I have no idea if it will turn out anyway.

 I'll start off by saying that this was instigated by my need of dairy/gluten free food in my kitchen. How do you have deserts that are loved by a picky 3 year old that do not contain these? I can always buy the ice cream that way but its so expensive and who knows whats slowly killing her via the chemicals that preserve it! Like I heard on a movie, a kid was saying the properties of preservatives and how he figures if he eats enough twinkies he'll live for about 1,000 years!
Anyway, the ice cream.

Whatever kind of milk you have, cows, goat, almond...etc, etc, put it in the blender. If you don't have a blender, use an electric mixer as if making whip cream. Add a sweetener of your choice and the best for our girls is to add several strawberries. Blend  until it's good and foamy. I put blender and all into the freezer for the next several hours. Blend it real good again. Put back in freezer....continue this till it reaches the frozen state you prefer. I usually serve as a milk shake or I'd have to wait for so long!
Leftovers freeze fine though and my girls eat it either way, soft or hard.

For our church potluck I knew there wouldn't be any desert for Tori so I put a container in a small ice box and she still had desert at the park. She thought it was pretty cool actually, wandering around with her container telling everyone she had her own ice cream made with goats milk! (sitting down to eat is not preferred posture in her etiquette book)

I feel so much better giving them this ice cream than store bought. I control what goes in, how much sweetener their gut has to process and the flavor is so easy to change. No need to finish up the vanilla before we can go buy the chocolate. ;)
To end all this, I have admit that I still prefer creamy hard serve ice cream from a good shoppe! (in a waffle cone)

~Shy

Radiation

I did not write this article, I'm just sharing it:



"We're zapped by more tests than any other nation

We're so radioactive that our bodies should be declared hazardous waste and sealed in lead-lined vaults -- or maybe just shot out into space.

Americans get more radiation-powered medical tests than anyone else on earth -- half of all advanced procedures performed on the entire planet, according to a recent Associated Press report.

In one outrageous instance, a New Hampshire teen was run through the CT ringer 14 times to check for kidney stones -- giving him the kind of radiation you'll only find in survivors of Hiroshima and Chernobyl, and I only wish that was an exaggeration.

I don't know what fool this kid had for a doctor, but I've never needed a CT scan to deal with a case of the stones.

Another young woman had 31 abdominal scans -- each one packing the radioactive punch of roughly 500 traditional X-rays, according to a doctor in the article.

Horrified, the doctor began searching the records in the two hospitals where he works and found at least 50 people who were given massive amounts of radiation over a three-year period.

Think that can't happen to you? Think again -- because chances are, it already has.

One study found that heart attack patients get the equivalent of 850 chest X-rays in the first few days of their hospital stay -- and that most of them were repeats of tests they'd already had.

It's so bad that CT scans are now responsible for 1 percent of all new cancer cases, with 29,000 cancers expected from the tests carried out in 2007 alone.

And that's just the beginning, because our overall radiation exposure has shot up SIX TIMES in three decades.

There's one simple reason for this, and it has nothing to do with your health. Advanced tests are expensive tests -- and each zap is worth hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. I've heard of some people who've been billed $6,000 for a CT scan in search of those kidney stones I mentioned earlier -- a zap that can usually be completed during a commercial break.

Like I've said before, it's some of the easiest money in the entire field of medicine.

Bottom line: There is no safe level of radiation. Approach any test with extreme skepticism, because most docs aren't interested in looking inside your body -- just your wallet."
WC Dougless M.D.

Shame...

I just read through this amazing ladies post and thought I'd share it. It really struck home with me in more ways than one, mostly the part of parenting by shame. How well I know it's sting and I strive to eliminate it from effecting my own parenting.
All I can say more is to affirm that shaming a child will never have good results. I could say so much about its effects but I would rather you read her insight and not have my ramblings distract from it. Just remember, if you ever intentionally shame your child, you are driving them away from you. They will retreat, and loose their respect and trust in you.
She is an excellent photographer as well, which always catches my eye.



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