I Made Deodorant...
13 March 2019 • Make
6 years ago I would have rolled my eyes at anyone who told me that they made their own deodorant.
Deodorant is just another one of those things that you don't really think too much about when you buy and use it everyday. But if you really stop and think about what exactly you're slathering on your skin everyday for years and what happens to all those plastic containers once you throw them out... I don't know it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Anyway all I'm saying is that even if you do roll your eyes at home made deodorant, you probably get why people move away from the store bought stuff more and more.
This one I whipped up using really basic ingredients: shea butter, coconut oil, beeswax, cornstarch, baking soda and essential oils for smell. I melted everything together and poured it into a jar and presto, deodorant! I eyeballed this recipe and just used a little less beeswax to make it more spreadable with my fingers.
Does it work you ask? For me, yes! Surprisingly well! If you went from using Degree deodorant to this it probably wouldn't work that well at first. I've been using store bought natural deodorants for a few years now but I found initially my body really needed a good 2 week transition time from drugstore deodorant to natural deodorant. Apparently your arm pits go through a bit of a detox. It's a thing!
Does it work as good as an antiperspirant you would buy at the store? Of course not! But I'm willing to compromise a bit (having to give my armpits a little wash every night before bed) if it means I can feel good about what I'm putting on my skin and not having yet another plastic thing to throw out.
Amazing Two Ingredient Ice Cream
26 February 2019 • Eat
I realize ice cream is not on the minds of many people this time of year. But I've been making and eating this like crazy the past few weeks so I thought I'd share. And it's so easy! I'd say it even tastes better than anything I was making in my ice cream machine (RIP).
For the base all you do is whip 2 1/2 cups of whipping cream and stir in one can of sweetened condensed milk. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and freeze. Yeah that's it.
I make it a bit "fancier" by first steeping a few Earl Grey tea bags and a tablespoon of dried lavender in the cream over lowish heat. After that I just chill the cream and strain out the tea bags and lavender and then whip it up before adding the condensed milk. I'm dying to stir some goat cheese and berry compote in the next batch. That may just be the baby hormones talking, but that sounds good right?!
I still find this a bit on the sweeter side, but hey it sure beats anything you can buy at the grocery store!
The Eggless Winter
20 February 2019 • Chickens
After what seems like a very long eggless winter we are just starting to get some eggs in the morning again! This must mean that spring is coming soon. Right? (RIGHT?!) We had gotten into the habit of buying our eggs at the grocery store the past few months so it's been exciting to pluck 2 or 3 warm eggs out of the coop in the mornings again.
In other chicken news, about a month ago we lost Nellie in a rather tragic hawk attack. Yikes! We've always let the hens out every once in a while to free range in the backyard and had never had any issues. Being out of the chicken yard is way more stimulating for them plus there's something about doing the dishes and glancing up out of the window and seeing a few chickens wandering around out back.
Anyway on the day of the incident the hens were out and I had let Gus out back. Well he booked it right for the coop and I saw this rather large hawk fly out of the run and perch on a tree above the coop. I was at home alone with the kids at the time and may have yelled "Ah! A hawk!" which of course prompted both kids to run to the window and look. You couldn't see anything from the house but the hawk stayed perched in the tree for a good 20 minutes and Harvey kept pointing to it and shouting "Hawk up high!". Anyway long story short, poor Nervous Nellie met her demise. I kept telling myself as I was getting her out of the run and throwing more straw over the blood (I know) that this was a part of keeping chickens. But man, not what you pictured yourself ever doing!
The other chickens had scattered and we couldn't find them for hours. We thought maybe the hawk had gotten them too but ended up finding Michelle cowering beside the sandbox totally still and Betty and Dolly had somehow squeezed through the back fence and had hidden under the neighbours wood pile. Iris crawled back into the cedar bushes to look for them and Betty came running to her and then Dolly came back once Dave came home and went out to look. Rosa had run into the coop and was squawking her head off (understandably).
So I think we may be done with free ranging for a bit! At least until the weather is nicer and someone is out there with them. We have the "allowed" number of hens now and with a new baby coming this June we don't have any plans to get chicks this spring. Hoping we get another summer of eggs from the ladies we have!
Winter Days (& Nights) at Home
31 January 2019 • around here, Family
Ah winter. I am sure I am not the only one who romanticizes winter during the hotter months then when it actually arrives...yeah. With these extra cold days and nights lately where it's not advisable to be outside (even forest school was cancelled!) it's made for some long days at home let me tell you. We've been leaning hard into fires in the wood stove, lots of tea, hobbies, making art, baking, naps, cooking and obviously lots of Berenstain Bears and Little Bear on Youtube.
We recently enrolled Iris in JK a few days a week in the school down the road. I was really apprehensive about it at first but if you know Iris, you know she is extremely outgoing and chatty so she's been loving school. I've loved meeting all the families in our neigbourhood and I'm excited for her to have friends she can hang out with just down the street. Another nice bonus is that Harvey and I have been getting some days just the two of us. We both miss Iris during those days, but I can't deny that it is much quieter around the house for a few hours. Not better, just different :)
Looking forward to this extreme cold spell being done soon. Harvey stares out the window longingly every morning wanting to go out and shovel.
Winter Reading
6 December 2018 • books, Home, winter
Every fall and winter I love to really hunker down into some good books. Now that my kids are old enough to entertain themselves (for the most part) and I don't have to worry about them swallowing dimes from behind the couch (for the most part) I've been able to actually sit down and read more than a paragraph at a time. Yay! And I would much prefer my kids to see their mama reading all the time than scrolling on her phone.
A few winters ago I re-read the entire Harry Potter series. Never gets old. I cannot wait for our kids to be old enough to really get Harry Potter. We've tried with Iris but she had a hard time keeping all the characters straight and you could tell she was totally boggled by why the Dursley's were so mean to Harry. Bless her. We'll try again next year ;)
Last week we all got the stomach flu so we had a lot of time (between all the laundry and fun stuff that goes with the stomach flu) to sit and read and I ended up reading books 3-7 of Harry Potter again. Like I said, Harry Potter never gets old!
Last winter I tackled just one book and that was Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. What a brick of a book! But so wonderful! Not gonna lie, sometimes that Levin character would just go on and on about peasant farming methods and I would doubt my choice, but I just loved the timeless insights into family life. And I feel kinda weird saying this but Tolstoy really captured the complexities of motherhood so well.
Anyway, this snowy season I've started in on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy which I've never read before. I just finished The Hobbit last night and wow was it was better than I thought it would be! I also have Gone with the Wind sitting on my shelf and it's looking pleasingly dense and perfect for a winter read.
If you have any book series to recommend, hit me up!
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On an unrelated side note: doesn't the wood stove look great?!
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