renee's blog
I'll start by saying after a full morning of taking care of everyone else's needs I'm so happy to be sitting down for a few moments to write. Ah... I relish this first hour of the afternoon.
I feel Friday's Flowers drawing to a close. Participation has dropped off in past weeks, summer vacations and other priorities no doubt, and my own inspiration in this area is waning. Fresh flowers are still coming into my home each week but my creative energies are being spent elsewhere and taking photos of flowers seems like a chore. Can't have that now can we?
This will be the second last week and next Friday will be the last time (at least this summer) that I host Friday's Flowers. After which I will draw a name from everyone who has participated since the last drawing and send the winner a bar of my summer soap.
Thanks for you joining along. It's been fun meeting you all.
We're going backpacking this weekend so this week's flower photo is a bit contrived (I don't usually put flowers next to the packing box!) to give you a little picture of what getting ready looks like. I won't lie, getting ready for such an undertaking is a lot of work. But we get better at it each time.
This week we've worked hard in the evenings - all of us - so the packing, which is mostly food prep, doesn't affect my daily routine with the kids, something I find really difficult. It's so hard to regularly (we do this once a month) fit in packing with my full time job of feeding our family, homeschooling and doing all the usual summer stuff like weekly swimming trips, farm visits, berry picking and a little gardening.
my backyard sunflowers towering over the garden path
I think we're improving at getting ready for a weekend of backpacking. The fact that I haven't experienced any stress this time around is an indication that we might be on to something.
This has been a golden summer. Warm and sunny with thunderstorms every once in a while to bring the needed rain.
We're doing our best to make the most of these beautiful days. To live summer and enjoy summer. Even when it means full days of school/crafting, work, swimming, meals and then packing before bed. Because making the effort to go to the woods, with a pack on your back, to camp at a pond and walk along streams is worth it.
How are you making the most of your summer?
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Welcome to Friday's Flowers! If you're just visiting today and want to know what's going on please read this post. Use the linky feature below to share your bouquet blossoms.
Pick some flowers, arrange 'em pretty, take a photo, post it to your blog, link to Friday's Flowers and share it with us.
I've been putting off this semi-regular Sweet Stuff link post. I find they are a lot of work to pull together and I'm not sure how helpful they are for readers. I'm thinking of ways to make linking to blogs both fun for me to write and interesting and relevant for people to read.
If you want to know what I recommend for reading on the net you can see my list of Internet Reads on FIMBY's front page. I update this list daily and I although I know doing things this way is hopelessly out of date, what with smart phones and twitter and everything, I just can't bring myself to join that party.
So this time around instead of linking to particular posts or articles I'm sharing thirteen of FIMBY's favorite blogs (in no particular order).
- which name? - I've been reading Nicola's blog for about a year and I have enjoyed following her family's journey of creatively living light on less. Getting to know Nicola, in both public and private space has been a pleasure. I love Nicola's truly creative, frugal and eco-friendly perspective.
- Steady Mom - What can I say, Jamie's my editor at Simple Homeschool so I have to say nice things about her right? But she's not just a great editor she's also a like minded blogging friend. Steady Mom is all about intentional, professional motherhood and that's my gig.
- exhale. return to center. - Erin is a real world community gal. She doesn't just live on her computer, she works on a farm, teaches classes and dances with a rolling pin. And she's not afraid to share the struggles of thoughtful, intentional living. Well maybe she is afraid but she does it with such honesty and I really appreciate that about her.
- Small Notebook - I have been reading Rachel's blog for a long time. I was privileged to guest post there early last year. Rachel's the real deal and it just shines through her words. I love small and I love simple and I just love Small Notebook for a Simple Home (who doesn't?).
- Simple Savvy - As Christine describes it her blog is about "organizing and going green" but I feel that description doesn't do it justice. Simple Savvy challenges me to think deeper about a more ecological everyday living and she's not a mother (the only non-mommy blogger on this list) and I appreciate that change in viewpoint.
- Old Recipe for a New Generation - Kyce is currently taking a summer blogging break and I do miss her desert photos and thoughtful writing. Her family went without plastic for 4 months this year and I find that inspiring. They also travel in a old VW van. What's not to love?
- 5 Orange Potatoes - Part homeschooling, part craft, part herbs, part nature study, all good. Lisa blogs about a variety of topics many of which I identify with. I love it especially when she shares her herbal/outdoorsy knowledge.
- Fat Free Vegan Kitchen - My favorite recipe source on the web. I know there are probably other great food blogs out there but trust me not many for they way our family likes to eat.
- Clean. - A blog about natural family living written by Rachel who, like me, is a soap maker, but unlike me does this for a family livelihood. A couple months ago I had a giveaway of her LuSa Organics Soap. Clean often hosts interesting giveaways for stuff other than wooden baby toys and fabric - neither of which I need. Cool family. Cool blog.
- infinitely learning - Hillary and her family are (in her words) "on a journey towards mindful family living, self-sufficiency and financial independence". Good stuff. She also just had a baby so things are slow right now but that's true and right for just having a newborn. I admire that about her blog, it's honest.
- Simple Homeschool - I know I write for this blog so it's bit like tooting my own horn but I really do like so many of the posts that show up here. I think this is a great resource for homeschoolers and those thinking about it and I'm really thrilled to be a part of it.
- fuoriborgo - It's a blog about rural/small village family life in Italy. Francesca takes beautiful photos and shares her thoughts on homemaking, gardening, stitching and art. Each post is beautiful and feels exotic to someone like me who has never traveled beyond Canada and the US. And no, I don't know what fuoriborgo means.
- The Organic Sister - is traveling the United States with her husband and son looking for a place to settle down and call home. Tara writes about "Mindful Parenting. Organic Living. Learning Without School. And Life On The Road." I find her posts very thought provoking and interesting
My only fear in writing a post like this is that I have no doubt left someone out who feels they deserved to be mentioned. My apologies for not including every blog I read and comment at.
By the way, that's my homemade raspberry ice "cream" pictured at the top. It was even more delicious than it looks. The recipe can be found in the Vice Cream cookbook.
What are your favorite blogs to read? Please leave links in the comments.
Let's revisit two of my all time favorite, easy to grow, easy to use backyard herbs. Comfrey & Plantain. I'm not a certified herbalist, I'm just a girl with a garden. So trust me, if I can grow and use these two herbs so can you.
my backyard comfrey
My herbal knowledge is pretty much limited to topical skin preparations. Our plant based diet keeps us extremely healthy and now that our children have outgrown the sniffles that seem to plague little ones we are very rarely ill. I think two of us caught a cold in the past 18 months, which we treated with ginger, lemon, garlic, echinacea, vitamin C and elderberry.
But throat soothing teas aren't really where my knowledge lies. My knowledge, whatever little I have, is mostly in plants for the skin. You probably already know about comfrey and plantain and this is a simple recipe using those herbs to make a poultice or paste to relieve itchy insect bites.
Ingredients
- 1 tsp Powdered Herb & Clay Mix (see below)
- 1 tsp raw apple cider vinegar (regular would probably work fine also, this happens to be what I have)
- 5 drops tea tree oil
Preparation & Usage
- Mix three ingredients together. I find a chopstick works well. You may notice a slight fizzing which I assume is the vinegar reacting with the clay.
- Apply to affected skin. As the paste dries it will start to flake off the skin. It looks like dried mud but cleans up easy.
- You should notice relief fairly soon after application. We've never had to re-apply, either the bites weren't that bad or the kids didn't notice it any more. You should be able to re-apply as often as necessary but watch for irritation or rash in case of sensitive skin.
- The quantities I've given make enough paste to thoroughly cover a large area of bites. We always have more than we need for a single application.
Notes
I'm not exactly sure which component of this recipe is most effective at relieving the itch. Is it the herbs? Maybe the clay? The apple cider vinegar? Or the tea tree oil? You may have success with just one of these ingredients or various combinations of them.
Experiment mixing your own proportions according to what you have available. None of these ingredients are harmful to skin though I wouldn't recommend applying this paste to an open sore.
Directions for Powdered Herb & Clay Mix
During the summer it's great to use fresh herbs on your skin, especially chewed up plantain which has relieved our family of bee sting and mosquito bite itches. However, I find this dried herb and clay mix to yield a better consistency for applying to the skin. Also, this mix will store well for years in a dark cupboard and be handy whenever you need it.
- Harvest a handful or two of comfrey and plantain leaves, roughly equal amounts of each.
- Wash well and hang from ceiling to dry (can't be too humid), use oven at low temperature or dehydrator.
- When completely dry pulverize the herbs in the blender till they are a fine green powder.
- To 1 part of dried herbs add 1/2 part bentonite clay. Better to add less to begin with and use more later if needed for individual applications.
- Label jar and store in cupboard.
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If you are new to herbs and want to learn more I've got a great resource to recommend. Making Herbs Simple is a DVD that explains in very simple, easy to understand instructions how to find and identify herbs in the wild, drying and storing herbs, and how to prepare tinctures and poultices. I like the video format and learned a lot from watching it.
I am downsizing my library and selling my copy which has been watched only a few times. The DVD is $24.95 new and I'm selling mine for $10.00 plus shipping. If you'd like to buy it please use this link to contact me.
What natural remedies do you use to relieve insect bites?
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