The Beeswax Body Balm and Booty Balm are essentially the same product except that the Booty Balm has no essential oils, for the extra sensitive baby or person or for the person who doesn’t like scented lotions and creams.
This balm can be great for dry skin from head to toe! I have psoriasis on my scalp and when I have flare-ups I have put it on my scalp before going to bed and wash my hair in the morning.
I have also used it for:
All over my body: especially on my lips, face, elbows, knees, very dry hands, feet and “chub rub” places.
Cradle cap.
Baby’s bottom during diaper changes for a moisture barrier.
Don’t laugh about this one: I don’t ever wear perfume, but I will put this on my neck and behind my ears when I am going out and will be hugging my friends.
If you want something more healing check out my Healing Balm.
Ingredients: Olive oil, coconut oil, and beeswax. And essential oils.
Currently, I have three different kinds of the Beeswax Body Balm:
Patchouli, Orange and Lemon
Lavender, Rosemary and Lemon
Lavender and Lemon grass
I am able to make some to order with your choice of essential oils. Leave me a comment and I can send you a list of the essential oils I have on hand.
We have been canoeing in the bowl at the ski hill for the past four years (I think). Click here for better photos from April 12, 2011. This year was the latest date, May 1st, we have ever paddled and March 16, 2012 was the earliest.
Jack took a video of Henry being cute pushing Nola Mae around on the upside down kitchen stool. While doing that he captured some crazy stuff. He put this movie together and titled it FourKidChaos:
I was putting Nola Mae down for a nap and I found Henry getting the boys’ after school snack ready. Henry is always so thoughtful and helpful.
Grandma Helen came to visit us. We had a busy weekend with activities around our house and farm. Nola Mae watching a kickball game in the front yard.
This is the tree that fell down or we cut down the week Nola Mae was born. That year on Saturday of Easter weekend we spent the morning making firewood. I went into labor that night and had Nola Mae in the morning. I will always remember this spot and refer to it as Nola Mae’s firewood.
At some point during basketball Robbie found a soft spot in the floor. Jack decided it was time to replace that part of the floor. He put the boys to work and had this done before the end of the weekend.
We got these stilts from Jack’s Aunt Corky. Charlie was the one that was interested in them when Jack showed them how to use them. I was surprised because he seems easily discouraged when trying new things. Now that I think more about this…He wasn’t discouraged because Robbie wasn’t trying them and if Robbie did and was good at it Charlie would have quit. (Something we have to be thoughtful of all the time!) Charlie practiced every day for many days and is able to take many steps.
A couple of years ago we had to replace the south stone wall of our barn. In order to minimize our cost with this repair we had the workers move the rock just outside the barn door into the pasture. I didn’t think through this when it was happening. This huge rock and dirt pile blocks my path to the north pasture and my access to the north side of the basement of the barn. Plus it is an eye sore to me. Last year, when I had a new baby, I wanted to work on moving the rocks. It never happened! So this spring, my plan was to move a bucket load a day. It worked for about two weeks and the progress was slow. I will get this path opened by the end of summer!
I started running this month and decided I needed to buy new shoes, more pink than I like, but they were the best for comfort and price!
Once the snow melted and skiing was done I would walk/run around town for an hour, while Henry was in preschool, pushing Nola Mae in a single child jogging stroller. My first run from home - pushing two kids loaded with water, snacks & a tablet (I didn’t want to have a restless Henry) in my bike trailer/stroller. This load is a lot harder to push compared to pulling them in the ski sled while skiing! It took me many runs to realize that I am out of shape but not terribly out of shape, I am just pushing a big load. My 4.5 mile loop that I do from home was taking me 1 hour and 20-30 minutes. One weekend morning I went for a run, all by myself, and ran that loop in 50 minutes.
Nola Mae napped in the stroller during my run. This photo is from later in the afternoon when my neighbor came over. She helped load up some rocks into my tractor bucket and watched Henry and Nola Mae while I delivered the rocks to her yard for her landscaping project.
Our sweet Nola Mae loves the phone. The same day we went for our first run, loaded and delivered rocks, I was working in the kitchen and I needed Nola Mae to be happy for just a little bit longer. I gave her the phone to play with. That was the last time I thought I saw phone for three days! I back tracked all my steps that day and all the places I was outside and in the house. I could not find the phone. I had Henry push the “find” button once I was in the garden, garage and barn. For three days I cleaned under furniture, cleaned closets and cleaned the mud room, sort of cleaned the toy room, and walked all over the yard looking for that darn phone. While I was walking around the yard I was reminded that I lost our phone last year, forever! I thought maybe I would find that phone instead of the current lost one. I will laugh so hard and probably pee my pants when I am 60 years old and working outside in the yard and I find a phone!
Since I was on a cleaning spree and the temps were dropping outside I decided I should clean out the ashes in the wood stove and wash the door window before I started a fire. I laughed pretty hard (didn’t pee my pants) when I opened the stove door and found the phone!
Iola has a city-wide rummage sale every year on the weekend of Mother’s day. Last year I missed out because I was really sick. This year, Henry and I hit a few jack-pots! I had to take a photo of our goodies from just one sale. All this for around $50. (bike $5, lawn mower $20, two plug in heaters for chicken waters $10, buckets $1 each, pretty denim fabric $3 for 5 yards, swimming stuff $2, buttons $2 and glass wares $6)
Charlie bought this chess, checkers, backgammon, domino set from his teacher’s rummage sale for $1. For as much as he loves to play chess this was his jack-pot! I think that boy now owns three chess boards.
Charlie has not been wanting to sleep in his bed lately. So he will fall asleep in the door way of his room or on the couch while watching a movie.
I haven’t had a flat tire in a long time. I got this one on my way to the ski hill to help my friend prepare for a bike race IWSC was hosting. I was thankful my Mom and Step-Dad made me take off and put back on all four tires on our family car before I could drive it. A good reminder to do that with our kids.
I discovered Nola Mae likes mud puddles.
Henry finished preschool and will go to 4K in the fall. His preschool was two days/week for 2.5 hours each day. 4K will be two full days/week and he will ride the bus. He loved school, enjoyed playing with most of the kids, loved his teachers and rarely gave me kisses good-bye. I was reminded every school day that he is independent, very confident and my 3rd child when he would tell me, “Mama, just drop me off at the sidewalk. You don’t have to walk me in.”
When the older boys went to preschool this is what I remember: Robbie didn’t want me to leave him, I always left quickly, he didn’t cry but was sad, and always gave me the biggest hugs and five kisses (that was the number of kisses he picked for our good-bye routine). Charlie cried when Robbie went to school. Charlie always gave me a quick kiss and hug when I dropped him off at preschool.
This soccer season was over so quickly. And was a lot of fun for me to watch them play.
Charlie is also in Robbie’s team photo because a few times Robbie’s team was short players.
My dream of having a track star to cheer on may come true. Robbie is showing signs of being a strong runner and he sure is a speedy boy. Nola Mae loves running on the track.
Jack took this photo. I love it because Henry looks so peaceful and angelic. I also find this photo to be funny because it looks like aliens are sucking his brain while he is rotting his brain while playing on the tablet.
Jack took all three boys for a camping trip with his brother’s family. Our boys adore their older cousins. I love these two pictures because you can see their happiness.
I met Jack and the boys at the nursing home to visit the Vater grandparents. I spent a little bit of time outside with Nola Mae taking these pictures. I couldn’t decide which one I liked the best so I had to include my four favorites.
Henry discovered these morels in my flower beds and strawberry patch. This is about a quarter of what we picked and I ate.
Robbie brought this note home. I was shocked only because he never gets in trouble at school! I was not surprised because this is the kind of stuff he would do at home!
Nola Mae rarely lets me feed her anything with a spoon. She has to pick up her food with her fingers by herself! Recently, I tried to give her some of my homemade applesauce but she has refused it because I was serving it to her on a spoon. I had applesauce on the table for everyone, she grabbed Robbie’s bowl and started eating it and loved it! She made a horrible mess. And now eats it off a spoon from me.
We have been getting some good rains this month. Our rain gauge is broken so I never know how much. The boys played outside in the last rain we got.
Baby wearing photos:
Mother’s Day hike at Keller Lake, wearing Nola Mae in my Ergo.
My homemade Healing Balm has antibacterial qualities similar to Neosporin. This healing cream will form a layer on your skin protecting it while carrying the active ingredients to the affected area.
Ingredient list: coconut oil and olive oil infused with dried comfrey and dried calendula, beeswax, and essential oils – tea tree, lavender, and lemon.
Antiseptic properties of the essential oils include:
Tea tree oil: antibiotic, anti-fungal, antiviral, antibacterial
Comfrey: stimulates cell growth and repairs while simultaneously depressing inflammation.
Calendula: has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, astringent, antifungal, antiviral, and immunostimulant properties making it useful for disinfecting and treating minor wounds.
Uses for natural Neosporin:
Cuts, sores, scrapes and bruises
Acne (before and after they pop)
Mosquito bites (before and after they’re scratched) & Stings
I have been inspired by a few people to do some upcycle sewing. My step-mom, Lynn, showed me a bunch of wool sweaters that she felted and talked about the things she was going to make with them. I went home and started googling things like upcycling sweaters, felting sweaters and found tons of cool ideas in many different areas.
I was also inspired by the Vaters at Christmas time. Our art exchange theme was “container” and there were a few upcycled items – deck material made into a bird house and also a planter, a feed sack made into a tote bag and a watercolor painted container made from an oatmeal box.
Those ideas lead our family to decide to agree on a “upcycle” theme for our 2013 art exchange.
My other inspirations came from Prudent Baby, a blog I follow.
My first completed project:
I had this older style ring sling that I never used before because I couldn’t get it to work for me. The reason was that the design and baby position is unsafe and wrong! For some reason I was saving it. When I needed a pair of ring slings for a kid’s sling I cut this baby apart. I still have the fabric and may find something to make out of it.
Other projects:
I bought this sweater at Goodwill with the intention of making baby legs out of it. The pattern was so cute on the sweater that I had to use the whole thing.
Another shirt I found at Goodwill. I wanted to try to make pants out of the legs for Nola Mae. After inspecting the collar and sewing the collar inward, the neckline would fit Nola Mae. Which was perfect, I am not sure how I would alter a collar.
These pants turned out very easy to make and they look and seem comfortable to her. I wish I could have a pair of my own.
I found this awesome wool sweater early this winter at my favorite thrift store in Marion for $1! My intention was to felt it and make some soft toy for Nola Mae. I tried it on before felting and it fit me. I wore it for skiing almost every day. I always washed it in a cold and gentle cycle and laid it flat to dry. The sweater slowly got smaller, you can see how much my tank top is showing at my waist. Once skiing was over I felted it. Last week I chopped the arm up and made these fingerless gloves.
A friend posted on Facebook that she had some wool clothing that would be good for a repurposing project. I jumped on it without knowing what they looked like. I wasn’t sure what I would do with them. At the time these things arrived at my house I had started to search for Christmas ornament ideas.
I made some heart-shaped ornaments.
And Christmas tree shaped ornaments.
And a liner for my egg basket.
Technically the only upcycled item in these photos is Robbie’s red cape. It was a curtain that I found at Goodwill. The other two boys’ capes were made out of fabric I bought at St. Vincent de Paul’s (my second favorite thrift store).
What have you upcycled?
I have many other ideas for upcycling and hope to have a Part 2 post (maybe this summer). I needed to post this shortly after my Winter of Sewing (2013) because these things were also completed during the winter.
Our last day of skiing was April 3rd! A beautiful day for us, except both of us were low on patience and energy. More pictures and the story are in my post Winter of Skiing.
Henry had a great wipe-out and was not happy that I was taking photos. He went down the hill and around the corner first. When I went down the hill I came to this pile of a boy.
Grandma Hanna was here for her birthday. Jack got the boys up earlier to have a birthday pancake with her before going to school on the bus.
And then a few days later it was Henry’s birthday.
Grandpa Rob brought a lantern for us to send off. We watched it slowly blow over the barn (I held my breath until it was over the barn), slowly go higher and we saw where it went down about a half mile from our house. The two older boys rode their bikes and found the darn thing. Which meant they had to send it off again with a few minor repairs.
And then the next day it was Nola Mae’s birthday. My three favorite photos of her this month.
I made a few cupcakes from the batter of Henry’s cake so Nola Mae could have her own cake on her birthday.
Around her birthday, Nola Mae, was taking about four steps at a time and two weeks later she was doing about 8 – 10 and almost a month later she is taking more steps than you can count. Every time she would take a few steps Henry would say, “SHE TOOK FOUR STEPS!” in the most excited voice you ever heard. I hope that he continues to be her encouraging brother.
Henry stopped nursing a week before his birthday and one of the things we started doing in the mornings to replace our nursing times is cuddle and read books. On this morning he waited very patiently for me with his pile of books. I always say, “Get your books ready while I get my coffee.” This day I got distracted and he was quietly waiting and waiting.
Charlie and Robbie had long hair over the winter months. Charlie came home one day from school and said he was ready for a hair cut and wanted it to be like his friend, Gavin’s. I don’t go to school very often and didn’t really know what kind of hair-do Gavin had so I asked Charlie to draw a picture of him. Just to be sure we were clear on what he wanted done. Pretty simple hair cut! And he is just as handsome as Gavin.
We had ice and snow come in April that caused a two-hour delay of school. I went outside to take care of my animals and heard an odd sound coming from the woods. Then I realized it was the ice coated branches clanking.
My friend Kristin who is a runner and a skier told me about the Wood County Breastfeeding Coalition 5K run in Marshfield. I took Nola Mae and pushed her in the stroller. It was a great morning for a run and it felt good to be running after a long winter of skiing. I was hanging out after the race getting us packed up and Nola Mae fed before we left so she could sleep in the car all the way home. I was listening to the awards being announced expecting Kristin to have placed in her age group and to my great surprise I placed 3rd in my age group and got this awesome medal!
Iola Winter Sport Club had a trail run on April 14th, run by Great Lake Endurance which benefits my youth ski program. There was a great turn out considering the weather was terrible for trail running, they should have worn snow shoes! I made two nescos of Black Bean Veggie Soup for the race and had to take a photo of my ingredients and the veggies cooking in my big pot.
Since I am talking about food this is a perfect place for me to put these egg photos. I was frying some eggs for breakfast and grabbed the two biggest ones.
In this photo one of the yokes looked like it was supposed to be a shell.
Here is what a normal double yoke should look like!
These snow pictures are from the afternoon of April 14th. Making a snowman!
Actually three of them.
It is unbeliveable…Nola Mae is a crazy climber! One morning I was in the kitchen and heard her laughing and giggling all by herself in the living room. I grabbed the camera and ran in there to find her on top of the table with her legs dangling down. At first I accused Henry of putting her up there and he denied it, whole heartedly. Then I realized that he was playing in the toy room.
I put her back down on the floor and watched her. She climbed onto the chair and then onto the table in a matter of three seconds.
Five days after the snowmen Nola Mae found icicles to eat.
Lately, I have been sewing a lot and Henry has been wanting to make a skeleton. I had no idea what he was talking about. We were in the sewing room and he started talking about a skeleton and finally I asked him if he could draw it for me. He told me, “I ALREADY DID!” and ran upstairs to get his paper. He picked out the right colors from my bag of felt pieces. I cut out all the parts, the left legs are suppose to be shorter (just like the picture!) and they must have feet (not in the picture). He helped me pin it together. I called this thing a bug many times and was corrected that it is a skeleton. I was confused and I have learned you don’t argue with a four-year old! Now that I am writing this story I think he might be talking about a centipede. I’ll have to ask him in the morning.
April 26th – crocuses blooming in my ditch.
We took a walk around town while Robbie was in piano lessons.
Nola Mae watching and learning or watching and thinking “my brothers do silly things”?
I love this photo of Nola Mae’s blue eyes.
I made these capes this month. Charlie’s cape is made out of some fabric I found at a thrift store and Robbie’s is from a curtain from a thrift store (sneak peak at one of my upcycled sewing projects).
I am starting to move out of my comfort zone in my soap making. I was inspired to try something new when my friend Rhonda asked to purchase a variety of my soaps. My newest soap has dried enough to be packaged up. The cinnamon bars are pretty nice! They have a little cinnamon smell to them and I can feel the cinnamon particles doing some scrubbing.
I have used alpaca wool felted soap, my friend who is an awesome soap maker introduced me to her felted soap. The bar that I got from her I used in the shower on my face. The wool was soft and felt like it was a gentle scrubbie that cleaned my face very well. It also lasted forever. I have searched YouTube and read a few books on felting. Originally, I wanted to felt some toys for Henry. The toys never were made and I had some felting wool. I used the wool for my little bars of soap. I love it.
Thanks for reading my blog and putting up with some of my rambling! I get a lot of pleasure out of putting these photos and stories together. It helps me appreciate the good days, helps me feel like I do get things accomplished and helps me remember what we have done.
I took this photo on January 7, 2013 with the intention of sewing everything in this pile that week, documenting it and doing a blog post called something like a “Week of Sewing.” That didn’t happen so it turned into a Winter of Sewing.
Completed projects from this pile:
Black coat on the left – I replaced a zipper on a ski jumper’s coat.
Pink fabric with flower print – a huge pool bag for my sister that fits three kids.
Green fabric with silver rings – a ring sling for my sister-in-law, BJ, and for a friend’s daughter. Extra fabric was made into bags for me and BJ.
Blue fabric with snow flakes – an apron for a young lady who use to live and ski jump here.
Not in the photo: a patch job on a friend’s coat.
Not completed:
Top middle – old curtain from a thrift store to be made into a bag.
Purple fabric – maybe will become a skirt.
Brown fabric with “ICE” & “RWV” - a sword holder designed by Robbie to hold his wooden sword that he received at Christmas time. It has something to do with his Elemental Warrior game that he plays with his cousins.
Green peppers print – will be a fabric box.
Green and gold fabric – will be made into a star baby or a couple of them.
I am not sure exactly what happened that week. Could it be the many distractions from my four children, the need to cook and feed my family, laundry and very minimal house cleaning? Or maybe it was the skiing conditions were great that week and I went cross-country skiing. Priorities, right? My sewing will still be there but nobody knew how long the snow was going to last. I recently wrote a post on my cross-country skiing (Winter skiing 2013) because it was the best winter for cross-country skiing!
When I got into the mode of sewing and not thinking about skiing I was inspired or distracted, depending how you look at it, by other sewing projects that weren’t in this pile. I hope to publish a “Upcycled Sewing” blog post soon.
While I was making the ring sling for BJ, I thought Kale, my nephew, could use one too. I had this cool star print in my stash.
My friend, Kristin, saw Kale’s ring sling and asked me to make one for her three kids.
Henry modeling Kristin’s son’s ring sling.
I used BJ’s ring sling for a couple of weeks and fell in love with it. I never tried one and was never interested in ring slings. I always thought I needed to have both my hands free to do things and having a baby in a ring sling on my hip or on my front wouldn’t work, even if my hands were free. Except when you need to run into the store or school quickly while holding a 3 year old’s hand. Or hold your baby while at a family function or event. Or when you are in a public place and need to nurse the baby to sleep and keep the baby sleeping. Too many uses to list.
I took these to photos to show that ring sling can be used with a baby and a three-year old, separately of course. I have a friend who is a babywearing pro and has taught me everything I know. She has an instructional YouTube video on how to put a newborn into one of these ring slings properly. It is the best video out there!
I went back to the fabric store and bought more of the green fabric and some of this plum color. I made this one with black rings for myself.
I have been using a ring sling for three months and Nola Mae is slowly getting heavier. The ring sling has been comfortable for long periods of time, but lately not so much. I was having trouble with the shoulder riding up towards my neck. I believe that is because I made the pleats on the shoulder too narrow.
This week I finished making two more ring slings (another green one and a second plum-colored ring sling) and I ripped out the seams in the shoulder and widened the pleats on mine. Then I decided to add a pretty design to the tail.
This winter was one of the best winters for cross-country skiing. Maybe because last year’s winter stunk for a number of reasons – we had very little snow and I had a baby in my belly. The baby in the belly shouldn’t really be an excuse. The winter of 2008-2009 I was pregnant with Henry and I skied almost every day we had snow on the ground.
One of the reasons for my wonderful winters of skiing is because I live seven miles from Iola Winter Sports Club.
There are over 20K of trails, over 7K of lit trails for night skiing and one of the best groomers in the midwest.
A portion of the Ice Age Trail runs through the property.
Iola Winter Sports Club has a youth ski program which has been going on for many years. This year I had 48 children signed up for our program. Every Saturday there was about 20-25 kids that came.
I had a great skiing partner this year while the two bigger boys were in school.
There were weekends I was able to ski with all of our kids. And twice with our whole family.
I was fortunate to have this sled available to me to use when Henry was a baby. I eventually purchased it and have gotten a lot of good use out of it.
The days I would ski with Henry we would start out skiing together. When he would get tired I would pack him and his skis in the sled with Nola Mae.
The two of them would nap and I could ski as long as they slept. Most of the time I would get an hour and a half nap out of them. One morning I had them sleeping nicely in the sled and took a chance that they would keep sleeping for a longer than normal loop. I turned off onto a freshly groomed trail that I haven’t skied on in a couple of years to get in an extra loop. I was on that trail going down hill for one minute, really one minute, and they both woke up screaming. At the bottom of the hill we had a snack and I had to pull them up the hill to head back. The rest of the winter I didn’t take any more chances on a longer loop.
I have many highlights from this season with one amazing ski day with my friend Mary, her eight year old daughter and I met a new person that day who joined us. We skied all of the trails in one day. Another time Jack’s Aunt Mary and her friend Donna (they were a couple of my skiing partners before I had kids) spent the night one weekend Jack took the boys away. We had a wonderful ski on a very cold day. Aunt Mary pulled the sled for me while I skied really fast in the tracks. It was one out of two days I skied this winter without pulling the sled. Another memoriable ski was during the full moon in March when I met a friend on the trails for a night ski.
The kids had spring break the week before Easter. With Phil and Mary we planned an egg hunt on the trails. It pays to be friends with the groomer and to make plans to ski with his wife. He will groom in the early morning hours when he knows you have plans to ski and he plants Easter eggs for his and my kids.
Grandma Hanna (Helen) was visiting us when we had the egg hunt.
Springtime skiing is the best. I don’t know why, maybe because I know it is ending soon and I appreciate every day there is skiable snow. I love skiing without gloves. The sun on my face feels wonderful (getting a little tan on my face).
Springtime skiing is very exciting too. There are times when going down hills the brakes get put on. That happens in places where there is shade on the trail from the trees and spots where the sun is shining on the snow. The sun is slowly melting the snow and warming it up. You are going really fast down hill in the shade and as soon as your skis hit the sunny spot your skis slow down. It is so fun trying to prepare for when your skis hit the sunny spots. If you have ever skied with me in the spring time I do a lot of screaming, laughing and swearing.
Henry and I skied for the last time on April 3rd. We could have skied longer into April because my friend Phil skied with his family on April 20th.
The rest of these photos are from our last day of skiing. Henry was crabby and low on energy that day. He needed to be pulled a few times, bribed a little and then we just ended up turning around before finishing the blue loop. He insisted that he could do the whole thing, but I just knew he didn’t have it in him that day.
The other exciting part of springtime skiing is dodging the dirt and mud. I forgot to tell Henry what to do when the track runs out and there are bare spots.
At this point in our ski we were almost back to the chalet. My treats were gone, Henry was really crabby and my patience was gone. I was behind Henry when he went down this little hill and hit the mud. I was laughing and taking pictures and that made him very mad! I don’t remember exactly what he said, something about him hating skiing, hating mud, that he was done skiing forever and would never go skiing with me again.
I know…not a good way to end the winter. I am counting on him forgetting this day. I need him to be my skiing partner next winter on the days that he isn’t in 4 Year old Kindergarten.
