Gifts for New Moms

When the topic of gift-giving comes up, they say it's the thought that counts. So when people give gifts like clearance throws or a gift card to a random place, it annoys me. If you can't bother taking five minutes to really think about what that person may enjoy, don't take the $10 out of your wallet. Truth hurts sometimes, sorry, not sorry.

Disclaimer: I don't need one. None of these are affiliate links. These are legitimately my favorite things that I have used or appreciated as gifts.

A Natural Medicine Cabinet

As my experience in the natural world deepens, my cabinet contents have shrunk. We used to have numerous over-the-counter medicines and toiletries - antacids, pain killers, anti-fungals, anti-itch creams, cleansers, lotions, and potions that I used for a while, didn't like, but still kept. At this point, my teensy home is seeing less and less clutter because of my newish-found ability to concoct natural products at home.

I've had some time off of work recently, so naturally the first thing I do is wake up at 6:00 AM and organize the linen closet (totally normal, right?). Our sole bathroom is exceptionally little, so even though we utilize the medicine cabinet in the bathroom with our immediate needs (toothpaste, deodorant, face cleanser), the linen closet not only houses our linens, but the overflow of toiletries.

I organized my little heart out. Alongside the flannel sheets, towels, and extra blankets, there was a beautifully organized, crunchy little collection of essential oils, homemade salves, and spray and dropper bottles full of homemade potions. Happy girl. Here's what you'll find in there:

Banishing the Alligator Skin

So my kids are both dry-skinned little ones. The big guy was diagnosed with eczema when he was teeny - probably two months old. The doctor prescribed him a topical steroid. She even told me, "if you apply this every day, it can thin his skin." And I still used it! (Can you believe that?!)

Eventually, at about age three, his skin softened up and we just stuck with using regular lotion on his extremities after a bath. He was fine.

Then the little one comes along, and he was a health nightmare! Among several health issues, he of course, had eczema. I didn't want to thin his skin with steroids - I was a bit more educated in natural approaches than I was both my big guy. While littlest was nursing, I eliminated meat, dairy, and peanuts from my diet to see if those were causing issues. They weren't. Dietarily, I was going about it improperly, but I didn't know that, three years ago.

When the little one turned three, his skin did not clear up. It got worse, in fact. He not only had dry skin, but it was rough, scabby, slightly discolored, and the poor guy complained that it itched  constantly. When I went to my [holistic practicing] doctor for my dry skin and allergies, she suggested eliminating dairy and gluten. Isn't that just a fad? I already buy organic, whole wheat flour, shouldn't that be enough? Pffft.

It took about four weeks for me to see any difference, but my face cleared up, my stomach deflated a bit (no, I didn't lose weight, sorry friends!), I could breathe (that was a plus), and I didn't need to scratch my legs with my driver's license every evening because they were so itchy. Mkay... fad or not, no gluten meant yes happy.

Meanwhile, I'm soaking my kid in oatmeal baths, exfoliating him with sugar scrubs, blobbing on straight Shea butter, and not using soap but twice a week on his dry, scabby skin.

Stomping Out the Man Flu

This is my secret weapon. Its what I make if I ever want to comfort someone via the belly. So my sharing this with you... makes you pretty stinkin' special.

I learned how to make chicken noodle soup when I was still crushing pretty hard on my husband, before we were officially "together." He got sick for the first time in forever, and was....well, acting like boys do when they get sick.

My granddad had given me a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook for Christmas that year (what I wouldn't do to know where the heck that thing went!), and when I learned my hunk-a-burnin-love wasn't feeling well, I went home to make him some soup from my BHG cookbook... as soon as I got out of seventh hour.

Its been a favorite of his ever since, because to him, food is love. I think he realized I was head-over-heels for him when I went out of my way to make this, then ride the bus to his house with a giant pot of soup - and that feeling remains. So I could make it every week, and he just smiles and gobbles it up.

In the past year or so, I've started occasionally adding dumplings to the soup instead or rice or noodles. My mom made chicken and dumplings when I was little and I remember picking out the dumplings and scarfing them down. I could have sustained life on those things. I'm a total starch-o-holic.

I'll start by giving you my basic recipe for chicken soup. This is a very hearty soup, almost a stew. I include rice/pasta in the recipe, and the starch from the rice or pasta (since we don't rinse it) thickens the broth - it is very filling! If it's dumplings you want, the broth will be more like a broth - liquidy. I suggest omitting the rice/pasta if you're going with dumplings - there's enough starch in the dumplings, trust me!

Chilli. Just Chilli.

Once upon a time, we lived on a military base. There, we had a man-neighbor. He once made my family chili. I asked man-neighbor for the recipe, so he showed me a piece of paper. Listed on it was cans, packets, and jars of stuff mixed into a crock pot.

Are. you. serious.

So being the food snob that I can be, I wanted to duplicate the flavor, but eliminate the processed food items and make it from scratch.

"1 lb ground turkey."
First item of business - change ground turkey to organic, grass fed ground beef. It just makes me happier.

"1 packet McCormick chili powder."

I went to the grocery store and looked on the back of one of the packets. Minus the MSG and preservatives, I think I could combine paprika, cayenne, cumin, bay leaves, salt, and pepper all by my big-girl self.

"1 can diced tomatoes."
I have knives and a cutting board for those... What's "a can," like, a cup's-worth?

"1 can of pinto beans" + "1 can refried beans."
 So... one's just mashed pinto beans? I got this. I can do beans. Shewt, I'll even throw in some black beans for texture variation.

"1 can Contadina tomato paste."
Okay, I could probably make this, but they sell organic tomato paste at my most favoritest store in the world, so I won't get too picky. I'll give man-neighbor some credit on this one. One day I'll get the guts to make my own tomato paste. Until then, cans it is.

"1 bell pepper."
Can do. I used a sweet red pepper and it was a bigger hit with the family, so either/or, I suppose!

"1/2 onion, diced."

Psht. Why not throw the whole onion in there?

Avoiding the Actua Chill Pill

I'm gonna get a little personal on you here, for a minute.

I have a blessed/lucky/awesome life. Lets count my blessings, shall we? My husband never fails to care for our family. He loves me regardless of the emotional hell we've been through, he still laughs at my weird sense of humor, and for whatever reason, he still reminds me of how smart and beautiful he thinks I am. Crazy man.

My kids are 100% healthy, and we have a great relationship. I have a roof over my head that isn't about to cave in, running water, electricity, food in my belly, and the most awesome memory foam mattress topper... possibly ever. Any health problems that I have, we know what causes them - I don't have a mysterious incurable disease. I have 100 reasons to smile and laugh on any given day, and my crazy little caveman/warrior children and scruffy dog with an underbite make sure of it.

Given the fact that my life is surely rockin', the truth remains, I have stress issues. Anxiety (and other issues) run in my family, so naturally, I'm a wreck. I care way too much about what people think, and take most of it personally... It builds up after a while, and wanes on my energy levels. I've even had a few panic attacks in the middle of nothing. I think they call that the breaking point. I even stress myself out about trying not to stress. That makes sense.

The other night, my husband suggested I go soak in the tub. He may have been trying to wriggle out of doing dishes, but he had something, there. Huh.

So I took a quick shower, then filled the tub with the hottest water I could stand, epsom salt, and lavender essential oil. I think I laid in there for an hour, deeply breathing in the lavender.

I don't normally soak in the tub, it seemed futile up until now. But when I got out of the bath that night, I felt calm, and... for lack of a better word, content. I put some lavender skin salve all over to preserve my happy, post-soak skin. I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed, and ready to take on my day. (Doesn't that seem like a bunch of BS? Its not, I promise). I was hooked. It helps so much to just spend 30 minutes taking in the silence... and thinking about nothing. 

Just a Little Picket Fence

A few posts back, I published some pictures of my 2013 garden. If you'll notice, there was no fence.

Please excuse my neighbor's awesome need for 45 cars. 

There was no need for a fence. This year, the second anything had a leaf, we got a visitor.
A fuzzy, quiet, hopping, leaf-eating visitor. Little Bunny Foo Foo has a thing for tomato leaves, apparently. Where was Little Bunny Foo Foo last year? Well. This had to be handled.

It was time to build a fence. We were strapped for extra cash at the time, so my husband grabbed a roll of chicken wire and cut a couple 1x4s in half. Then he cut an angle at the end of each 1x4 so they were stakes. Then he hammered a stake at each corner of the garden, and just wrapped the chicken wire around the stakes. It was horrific - the chicken wire was floppy and... well, it was classy (not).

It really ups the class when you have toys strewn everywhere... geez.

I knew that was just a temporary solution, so I didn't fret too much. I could still bend over the fence to weed and harvest. But the problem remained. I wanted a sturdier and far more attractive fencing solution for my garden. Firstly  because I hate rabbits when they're not food or pets.  Secondly, because chickens apparently love spinach. Jerks.

Baked Salmon with Lemon and Dill

I make salmon the exact same way every time. There are only so many ways you can make salmon when there are picky eaters in the house (and one of them is a grown man)!

This is a recipe I think my mom learned in cooking school, then taught it to her mother. My grandmother used to make it for most of her dinner occasions , so I thought it was her recipe until my mom spoke up, recently.

Disclaimer: I cook with "a little bit of this" and "add that till it tastes right," because I don't typically use processed food - and nature never, ever tastes the same twice. So even though this has mayo in it, there's still the dill and lemon which vary greatly depending on different factors. I'm taking a page out of my mom's book and throwing nonspecific measurements at you. So this is a "to taste" kind of recipe, for sure. Take the measurements lightly!

Ingredients:
* slab-o-(raw) salmon (I usually use 2-4 lbs so we have leftovers. This one is 3.5 lbs)

* 1 C mayonnaise. (If you can't make it yourself, get the kind with actual egg in it - the low fat junk has artificial WTF listed on the label and doesn't brown in the oven).

* Juice from 1/4-1/2 a lemon. (I like it tart, but you may not. Start small!)

* 3 Tbsp dried dill. Or more. Because I. Love. Dill.

Just Grow Something!

I don't really *do* dirt. I get ticked off when my kids track it into the house, I get annoyed when its under my fingernails, and ohmigawd when it gets in my eye I could just scream. But I, for whatever reason, decided that I wanted a garden.
I needed  a garden. I've had failed planter disasters (read: "American Bulldog puppies like to dig") before, and have somehow kept a sweet mint plan alive for the past four years, but other than that, my green thumb was more brown, as they say. 

So last spring/summer, my mister man dug up a little plot for me, probably rolling his eyes every 5 minutes because he knows of my issues with commitment... But he does it for me anyway because I pack his lunch every day and he knows he'll get an unopened can of tuna and an old pear if he doesn't (we'll touch more on enabling in another post). So I got a lovely 8' x 3.5' plot to plant whatever my little heart desired. 

I planted two types of kale, two types of cucumbers, radishes, carrots, white onions, jalapeños, purple(!!!) tomatillos, serrano peppers, strawberries, and tomatoes. I had herbs, too - basil, cilantro, and mint, and lemon verbena... all in mismatched containers, of course.