Go Buy Ceramics!

Years ago when Dylan was a little tiny tike, I painted this ceramic Nativity.  I love the faces of the characters.  Many years I was afraid to even get the Nativity out of the box because I had a toddler who was sure to break it.  This is the first year since Josie learned to walk (and climb) that I have gotten it out.  So, I started thinking, since I've moved back into our old stomping grounds, I wonder if I could get more.  Would the lady still be in business?  Would she still have these molds?

So, I called Pat at Pasco Ceramics.  Yes, she still has the molds, and she is struggling to stay in business.  One of her employees died this year.  Pat's husband has Altzheimer's, and it's consuming more and more of her time.  Plus, fewer people are buying ceramics than used to.  While I was at her shop, I found a set of Nativity ornaments that were the exact molds that my mom had made years ago.  I remember Janae always calling dibs on hanging them every year.  Mom painted them when I was probably Mazie's age.  Janae inherited my mom's set.  I saw these same ornaments, already cleaned and fired.  I bought the whole set for a mere twenty dollars. 

I love to paint.  Ceramics are so fun, and I promised my kids we would go back after Christmas and I would let them each pick out one to paint.  In the meantime, I bought five fired sets of Mary & Joseph and the baby Jesus exactly like my Nativity.  I'm painting one set of each of my kids and one for my mother-in-law.  I told Pat I would be back for the rest.  I'm going to get a complete set for each of my kids.  I also learned today that I'm missing the cow, so I have to paint cows, too.

So, if you love to paint, if you want a personalized and unique gift, if you love this Nativity and you want one for yourself, or if you know of someone who collects Nativities, head over to Pasco Ceramics.  They are just down the road from Griggs.  I would love for everyone to help keep Pat in business and send some holiday cheer her way!

A Better Butter

In the time of about a month, three things happened.  First, my dry, winter-chapped hands started to hurt, so I headed to Target to buy the same hand cream that I've been using since I was a child.  Last year this cream set me back $2.97.  This year, however, the price had jumped to $4.25 for a mere two ounces.  I got angry, and I refused to buy it. 

Second, I picked up Nathan's almost empty bottle of Eucerine cream.  I do this monthly to see if he needs a refill. Nathan has psoriasis.  Creams and lotions are not optional for this man; they are manditory.  He needs a good, heavy moisterizer daily, or his elbows and knees bleed.  Eucerine cream lists their ingriedients right there on the package.  The list used to start like this:  "Triple purified water, glycerine,...."  I noticed about a month ago that the list had changed.  Now it says "Water, petroleum, mineral oil..."    Glycerine is a plant-derived product.  It's organic, so it soaks into the skin.  It is the main moisterizer in most lotions.  Petroleum is inorganic.  It is a skin protectant.  It sits on top of the skin, but doesn't soak in.  I got angry again. 

The third thing that happened was that Josie broke out with a terrible case of childhood eczema all over her legs.  I wanted to put oil into her bath to moisterize her skin, but I didn't want to use baby oil, since it is mineral oil and poisonous.  She often drinks the bath water.  I poured in extra virgin olive oil.  I did this for three days and the eczema was gone.  It was miraculous.  I was onto something. 

I said to Nathan, "I'm not buying Eucerine cream anymore.  For the money we spend, I'm sure I can make something better."  He was not all that convinced, but humored me anyway.  I spent a bundle of money on various oils and containers (more than a years supply of Eucerine would have set me back).  This was the result....

My very own recipe for body butter.  If you look closely at the photo you can see all the great oils that I used:  Shea butter, cocoa butter, olive oil, aloe butter, apricot kernel oil, avocado oil and beeswax.  Recently I've been experimenting with coconut oil in it, too.  The coconut oil gives it an even silkier feel.  Most handmade body butters contain sweet almond oil, macadamia nut oil or both.  This is a problem if you have a child with a nut allergy, and I'm very aware of this because my nephew has a serious nut allergy.  Almonds are one of the worst for him.  His mom could never wear a product with almond oil, because if she so much as touched him, he would have a reaction.  My butter is nut free. 

I only had to make one batch to be convinced I'd done the right thing buying all this stuff.  It's hard to wash off the body butter, since it's all oils.  When I was making that first batch, whenever it splattered, I just wiped it up with my hands and rubbed it in.  The next morning I was sitting at the bus stop with Mazie, and she said, "Oh, Mom, your hands are so soft!"  Remember, Mama Echo, when I said that my kids would always remember me as the mom with rough hands?  Not anymore.  It's amazing.  I have never had soft hands, but I do now. 

Nathan is never one to go out of his way to praise my craft projects, but he's an actions-speak-louder-than-words kind of guy.  He started using the body butter and didn't stop.  When he emptied his first jar, he started raiding mine, so I showed him the stash of jars stacked in the bathroom cupboard-- all for him.

My mother-in-law's fingers crack right around her nails.  Three days of using this stuff, and she said they were healed.  I gave a test jar to my friend, who used it on her grandson with eczema.  It immediately started getting better.  These natural oils are amazing.  They are so much better than the lotions that we pay an arm and a leg for in the drug store.

So, what is everyone getting from me for Christmas?  Body butter, of course.  I bought some nice scents, but the fragrance-free version has been the most popular.  Nathan won't wear any lotions with fragrance, so originally, the fragrance-free was just for him, but when you use a lot of product, you don't want to go around smelling like it. 

Of course, I have more than our family can use, and I would not mind recovering some of the cost of this little project, so I made up an order form for my friends and family.  I'm trying very hard to keep it inexpensive, because if you have skin issues, like we do, you use a lot of product.  It can't be a luxury item.  It has to be affordable enough that you can use it everyday and restock when you run out.  I priced my 8 ounce jars at $12.00, the 4 ounce at $7.00.  This is comparible to what you would pay at the drug store, but for a much better product. 

I was going to hit the holiday bazaar scene, but I decided it was too soon.  I'm still trying to perfect the recipe.  We have had some trouble with the butter turning grainy in the jar.  It melts right out as soon as you rub it on your hands, but it bothers me.  I want it perfectly smooth.  Still, in the meantime, it's an amazing moisterizer. 

So, if you are interested in trying it out, leave me your email address in the comment box, and I will send you an order form. In the near future, I will be giving away some testers for review, but I'm just trying to survive the holidays right now.

P.S.  What the heck happened to the spell check button on blogger?!?

FHE

For Family Home Evening this week we put together a gingerbread house.  My kids did this last year with Grandma when we came home for Christmas.  They had so much fun, Nathan suggested I do it for them this year.  I called my mom and asked where to buy it, because she has searched and found THE VERY BEST gingerbread house kit.  It is from Bed, Bath and Beyond for a mere $9.99.  The pieces are all neatly cut and packaged, and it includes a sloted tray, which helps the house stay standing.  We added peeps snowmen and trees and some chocolate gingerbread men, all courtesy of Grandma Kerr.

Wii Fit Yoga

Who knew exercise could be so fun?

Snow Day

School is closed today due to the weather. I have mixed feelings about this. We never had a snow day in Montana, and we had storms far worse than this. However, our circumstances have changed drastically since we were in Montana. We are no longer three blocks from the school. There, getting your kids to school was no big deal no matter how icy it was, and the city always plowed the block around the school, even if they never plowed my street. It was one thing to get the kids off to our small-town school, but no way was I driving an hour to Billings.

Here we are 8 miles from the school. Today was supposed to be scouts and dance at the school after school. I would have had to drive in to pick up the kids at 4:00. No one plows these county roads. They are sheer ice. Nathan had another delayed start work day. I was relieved that he left after I knew school was cancelled, so I convinced him to take the four-wheel drive Expedition instead of his car.

I have so many things that I needed to get done this week before everyone got out of school for Christmas break. I was really hoping to wrap gifts and dip chocolates and sew today while Josie napped. Now most of my stuff will get pushed into the background, and I'll spend the day cooking lunches and cleaning up messes and playing referee to all the bickering, but overall, I'm glad I didn't have to send them off to school.

Plus, all over the news today is the story of the triple homicide that occurred last night about five miles away. I think I'll just keep everyone safe at home for awhile. We may all become hermits.

Giving Thanks

I was so busy with Thanksgiving and my broken computer, I didn't get a chance to sit down and blog about the wonderful Thanksgiving week that we enjoyed. Nathan had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off, so he took Monday and Tuesday as vacation and we had an entire week to enjoy him. My kids didn't go to school at all that week. It was parent-teacher conferences, and they had half days Monday through Wednesday with no school on Thanksgiving and Friday. Their cousins were here from Wyoming-- cousins that they used to get to see all the time and that they miss-- so, I kept them home the whole week. I even missed my parent-teacher conferences, and I don't feel guilty either.

We spent most of the week here with Nathan's family, but I never seem to have any pictures. Mostly we cook, eat, do dishes, visit and start cooking the next meal. When we're all together, meals seem to be the focal point of our time together. On Wednesday we went to my mom's house. My sister and David were there.Jojo and Ben had fun on the slide despite the cold.The older kids helped set the table for dinner. My brave mother used the real china with the grandkids there. (My china is still packed, and I'm not unpacking it until we can get through a meal without someone dumping their entire glass of water on the table.)Grandpa kept the kids entertained with a game of T-ball. It warmed up enough that Ethan thought coats were optional.

And, of course we ate.... too much.
And drank lots of the traditional green punch. Nathan killed the punch bucket with the ice pick getting it slushy. It was perfectly slush and yummy.Our family came home that night and the following day (Thanksgiving Day) Nathan's family celebrated with the Spanish branch since his dad is the Branch President. Nathan and one of his brother-in-laws were sorely disappointed though. The Spanish branch ladies brought pasta and potatoes and stuffing, but no tamales. Not an enchilada in sight. Sigh. I didn't take my camera. Double sigh. Daneen bought cheesecake just for me. I gained back all the weight I lost this fall.

On the weekend, Janae and I did crafts. That's always my favorite part of these get-togethers-- visiting over craft projects. Janae blew out her knee a week before Thanksgiving. She tore the ACL and the MCL. I have one picture of her from the weekend, sitting on the couch in sweats, no makeup with her knee propped on a pillow. Because I love her, I won't post it on my blog. :)

This Thanksgiving I am grateful that we were here, and very grateful that we didn't have to drive 10 hours to get here. I'm grateful that even though everyone has had one kind of cold or another, for the most part, we're all healthy. I'm grateful that Nathan was off for the holiday and that we got to spend so much time together. This has been a trying year to say the least, but we still have the things that matter most. On Thanksgiving (and every other day) I keep reminding myself of that.

On the way out the door, my mom snapped this photo of Nathan and I. It's the best picture of us we've taken in awhile. (Please disregard my chipped fingernail polish.) Of all the blessings in my life, he's the one I'm most grateful for.

Paint the Nails

This past summer, Josie used to crawl into my lap, stick out her little chubby fingers and say, "Pink!" Now she's moved onto sentences, so about ten times a day she says, "Paint the nails!" This girl loves neon pink fingernails and toenails. I would never have painted Mazie's nails when she was two. She couldn't sit still for more than 30 seconds, but Josie will patiently sit, not moving a muscle, until every last nail is pink.

Lately, though, we've had a new challenge. "I do it!"I protested and tried to do it for her, but this girl is headstrong (just like all the rest of my kids), and she was absolutely determined. I tried to help. This was her first turn.
Yes, she painted the nails and the toes and anything else I let get near her. Look at the concentration....
Eventually, I just let her, and when she finished all ten nails, I swooped up the polish and sent her on her way. She was happy. However....

Nathan didn't realize that she could climb into the bathroom cupboard. I was in town and he was insulating our shed. Dylan was supposed to be babysitting, and of course, he was distracted by video games. Josie got the polish. She painted her fingers and nails, the bathroom counter, her hair, and every empty compartment in my make-up compact. I don't have any pictures, because my wise husband had the mess all cleaned up before I got home. It would have been no big deal if it had been with the little Sally Girl polish I bought for Josie, but she got into my polish, which wasn't so forgiving. The drain catch in the bathroom sink is still bright pink.

Everybody Boogie Now!!

FINALLY after weeks of frustration and heartache, a few small miracles and $300 in tech support, my laptop is back! It's been running for about two weeks now, but the video card wasn't working properly and everything was distorted. I'd get disgusted with looking at the screen after a few minutes, and I certainly didn't want to load any photos with it. Now I've got the drivers all corrected, and I played a test DVD. The display is perfect. I'm so happy! Now, I will once again be hiding out in the bedroom at night with my tech-baby and writing and blogging and surfing. Oh, my laptop, how I love thee!

Yes, Dylan just told me I'm a little too crazy for the computer. I can't help it.

So, I have several posts to catch up on. Stay tuned!