​Winter is here. Wah Wahhh. Time for cold fingers and toes, figuring out how to exercise the dog, taking 30 minutes extra to suit up the kids only to walk to the car and suit down to buckle up. I am trying  to embrace it, trying to see the dusting of snow that covered the yard this week as gorgeous. Trying to laugh at my daughter touching every snowy surface the other morning with her gloved finger and then licking her finger. And trying to know that following every snowy and cold winter there is a glorious and green spring. I am trying.
 
And I am mentally escaping… I mean coping. In doing this I like to think about growing and life and green. 

Lately I can pretend I am growing. My mom recently got me a pre-winter, birthday gift of a sun lamp. It helps me to feel like a plant- absorbing all the sun needed to become full and green. It is really nice to sit at my desk and feel bright and warm. The lamp is called a Sun Box and it certainly is as bright as the sun. The goal is that it can provide light therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder. There is research on the positive effects of using properly made sun lamps.  

SAD isn’t something I have diagnostically struggled with- though my opening introduction to winter may cause you to think otherwise! However, I can say that our house gets very little direct sunlight in the areas where I tend to hang out and that can be a little sad to me. I remember designing a dream house in an introductory Computer Aided Design class in college. Budget and reality weren’t an issue and modesty was apparently not on my mind, because the whole thing was made of windows. I like natural light. I do often want to bathe in it. Now I can. My goal is to integrate the Sun light into my morning yoga routine (that routine I have done for three mornings in a row- yes, that makes it a routine!).
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In addition to feeling like a plant, I am also growing a plant.  Last birthday I asked for a citrus tree for my gift. It came, about 2 feet tall and green. I am not blessed with a green thumb. But it is a goal of mine to paint it green somehow. And this fall I almost jumped up and down and called everyone I knew when that tree finally had blossoms. Seriously. The blossoms smelled great all fall and they were really pretty. I have gifted the plant with one of the few windows of the house that gets sun. It is happy. And it has fruit on it! So now I can patiently wait and hope that some of those teeny tiny clementine’s will become delicious. And that I don’t freeze off my green thumb. Seriously I want to build some planters and try growing a little garden this spring. I pray I maintain this glimmer of an ability and the Clementine doesn’t go the way of the Money Tree, Rubber Plant, Wandering Jew and all the other lovely green housemates I have neglected over the years.

Citrus Grove Body Butter

Ingredients and the Ratio amount for Body Butter

Four : Mango Butter. I get it Here.
One: Coconut Oil. The only question is how much you want to stock up on.
One: Shea Butter. I get it Here.
One Tenth: Beeswax. I got mine in bricks from a local beekeeper.
One Tenth: Sweet Almond Oil I get it Here.
18-36 drops of Essential Oils These are the ones I use.

How to use the Ratios: If you have 4 ounces of Mango Butter(one fourth of the bag that I get), use 1-ounce Coconut Oil, 1-ounce Shea Butter, .10-ounce beeswax and .10-ounce Sweet Almond Oil. This will give you about one cup of body butter- since whipping it will add volume.

​Process:
Melt the Beeswax in a DIY double boiler: AKA a Jar in a pot of water on Low. (if in a chunk, break this up while it’s melting to speed process)
When melted, Add Mango Butter, Coconut Oil and Shea Butter. If you don’t have Shea, you can just add a little more mango or even cocoa or other butter- honestly it may not even be all that needed to have that extra bit. You can also add these in smaller chunks if possible so that they melt quicker. Stir as able to get them melting and mixed in.

When it's mostly liquid- it’s ok if there are little bits of butter chunks. Take glass container out of the pot and pour liquid into a mixing bowl. You can place this in the fridge and check on it. You want it to start to get thicker. I will check on it and start to whip it with an electric beater. I don’t use anything fancy. I am not fancy. 

After this mixture cools, you can add your essential oils. With Citrus oils sometimes you need to add extra for lasting scent. I added about 3-6 of each of these oils: Stress Away, Lime, Orange, Tangerine, Lemon and Grapefruit. There is no exact science in adding essential oils. Citrus essential oils are distilled from the rind and have a more subtle scent when added to lotions. But you can use what you have and the best part is you can try it out while you’re working to see if it is scented to your preference and add more as you go along. Citrus oils can cause some sun sensitivity- of course in the winter months this is not so big of an issue but they are best to avoid where the sun is shining the rest of the year! I am using these oils to embrace their emotional influence. I call them “happy oils” as they all have properties that enhance positive feelings. If you’re looking to support the condition of your skin, here are some other options: Lavender, German and Roman Chamomile, Geranium, Ylang Ylang, Elemi and Frankincense.

Make sure to whip this into a stiff consistency. If it’s not doing that just keep refrigerating and then taking it out and whipping it more. It also stiffens when it sits. I accidentally over refrigerated one batch but just sort of let it warm under a light and then whipped it. Whipping adds air to it and allows you to be able to get a good scoop of it when you're ready to use it. 

In making my own lotions and lip balms I’ve noticed that the longer they “Cure” the stronger the scent will get. The viscous oils seem to absorb the essential oils more. Also DIY lotions can take a little longer to absorb into the skin and some people find them oily. I feel like this body butter is the right balance of moisturizing and oily and a little bit can go a long way. It is also always good to give your skin a little time to absorb the lotion before putting on clothes- depending on how harsh winter has been on it! My feet can use this slathered on like butter on a fresh baked roll.  I say slather away and become one with the citrus grove.
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May we all be able to mentally escape the winter as needed. And may I learn to love licking snow.  


For now I will be sitting in the "sun" sending positive thoughts to my tree while slathered up with Citrus Body Butter. ​

With healthy eating, comes recipe hunting. While looking for family and kid friendly snacks I read about an ingredient called gelatin. I proceeded to experiment with in many times in the past few years. It is a “superfood”- as classified by a lot of healthy foodies. WebMD has great things to say about it:

​I have personally enjoyed stronger nails and less hip ache (Thanks, Pregnancy!) from consuming Gelatin regularly – two welcomed benefits! As with any food you aren’t used to consuming, try a little at a time as you system needs to adjust (even to healthy foods!). Here’s the thing though, if you eat Jell-o, you are consuming this. In addition to a whole lotta blech: artificial dyes, sweeteners, sugars, fake flavoring... Just say Jell-NO!! It may be cheap but it’s only cheapening your health. (You can quote me on that one!)
With this little canister, you can make your own jello. You can even make it fruit filled in a giant mold ala the church picnics of my childhood. No matter what you make this into, it can give you a great health boost and your kids (or hubby) won't even know!

For healthy jello with our without fruit follow this Recipe from Wellness Mama: http://wellnessmama.com/3803/healthy-jello/ I used frozen blueberries and a can of no sugar added cherries when I made it the first time and it was delicious!

Jello is a good way to ease into the Gelatin world but Gummies- AKA Jigglers- is another way to make a finger food snack (And to replace gummy fruit snacks since our dentist say to skip them for the kiddos – even the 100% fruit ones - they are so chewy that they get stuck to the teeth! It’s a good thing our kids don’t do grocery shopping and are pretty flexible about snacking ‘cause we used to have them on a daily basis!)

I have made a lot of experimental batches of gummies in the past few years but wanted to share some of the fall themed ones I have done lately! 

Creamy {Can't get enough} Coffee Gummies:
Do you like to start your day with coffee? Me too. Next time, make an extra cup so you can whip up a batch of these creamy coffee gummies for a mid-day snack. Or meal. Yes, sometimes these have to do when life is busy. They make a great breakfast or lunch when needed! Grown up finger food. Want to REALLY make these a grown up finger food? Add a shot of your favorite liquor to the creamer- and then make sure to NOT eat them for breakfast! I do generally brew low caff or decaf coffee so a spiked version makes a great after dinner dessert!

Apple Cider {Probiotic} Gummies
My next foray into fall flavors was using Mock Cider. (You can use real cider too so if at some point the following explanation is too much for you, skip it and just go right to the recipe!)
I have been fermenting Water Kefir. It's great. You can make all different flavors and recently I second fermented it with a sliced up Macintosh Apple a stick of Cinnamon and a few slices of ginger. It was delicious and tasted much like Apple Cider but less intense and with fizz (aka probiotics). Water Kefir is a natural source of probiotics and is a great alternative to Soda! It's also super easy to make! Learn more here.
I warned you that might get a little odd there for a second but if you just want to use Apple Cider, you could always empty a probiotic capsule into the final mixture to make these just as healthy AND delicious! Adding the Thieves oil makes these immune boosting gummies! That's a Super, Super, Super food opportunity right there! These didn't last long as the kids kept sneaking them out of the bowl! Hence only pictures of us holding them before consuming!

Boo-berry Bat Gummies
It's Halloween and it's not my favorite holiday. I can not seem to maintain a cool composure with the great influx of candy that arrives on our doorstep Halloween night! So I plan on having a bunch of these little guys on hand! They are festive, delicious and the kids loved them. I was even trying to take pictures and a little hand reached up and tried to swipe some more (hence the blur)! The great thing about the silicone mold craze that exists is that instead of making candy you can make GUMMIES! My creative brain is spinning in preparation for Christmas too! I may need to clear out a cabinet just for fun molds! 

Have you realized how many possibilities there are for gummies yet? I hope your creative brain is clicking! Here is a little gallery of all the steps laid out so you know what things could look like! Of course I don't take fancy pictures just so you can feel better about life. Real life isn't always shiny and perfect. Like that time when you went to fill a mold and poured gummie mixture all over the counter. It happens. And it still tastes great!  

What flavors do you want to make gummies with this fall?! To learn my year round recipes follow me on Instagram or join my Facebook Group!

So a few months ago, I just stopped wearing deodorant every day. Do the math- it was the winter and it wasn’t quite so vital. I was fed up with  that fact that I was smearing soda cans all over my lymphnodes, and the ick-o stink-o of fake smells… There is nothing appealing to me about being around someone who smells “baby fresh” in their thirties- or teens for that matter. What is that?! Why do grown women who are obviously hormonal enough to have stinky sweat want to smell like baby powdered bums? No thanks. Who knows though, maybe I'm the only one who feels this way. 

When I stopped wearing deodorant, I didn’t really replace it with anything. I know, I know- how rude! But you love me and you really don’t want me to wear toxic chemicals, you’d rather me just declare ripeness as needed. Right? Right? (My sister is not allowed to answer that.) To be fair, I wasn’t around many people during the heat of the day other than my kids. They never complained.  My hubby may have implied a thing or two once or twice. But he loves me too and knows my thoughts about chemicals. Lucky for him I went searching for solutions before summer struck!

Wait! Freeze! Before you run and get those ingredients, or ask Amazon or Vitacost to do it for you, you may want a little more information about detoxing your pits. I recently came across a blog post about how when you switch to a natural deodorant you can get some sore spots, more stink, more sweat or more sting. I didn’t experience much of this problem since I had gone rouge and just quit deodorant. But you may have more success with the whole process if you start here: Detox the Pits.

Regardless of which way you start. Just start. Please – for the love of the lymph nodes! (And life without stink!)

So, ya’ll know I love me some essential oils, right? (They aren’t right up there with my family, clay, dark chocolate or curling up and devouring a good book, but they are close.) The thing I love about them is that they are inspiring. They’re these little bottles of delicious smelling goodness that can also work magic in different ways! I love being able to find wellness in oils, but I also love being able to create wellness. This week I finally got motivated and got to work making some oily wellness. In the form of bars: lotion bars for everything!. But crazy enough, the bars mutated into lotion sticks and then into lip lotion sticks. It wasn’t even a lot of work or . I have been looking up recipes for making lotion bars on various websites (such as this and this) as I need to replace chemically filled hand lotions and find something fabulous to help with dry ceramic hands and coming winter scratchy hands- not to mention supporting all my body systems proactively.!

So, way back when I decided I needed to make lotion bars and I looked up recipes and gathered my ingredients, my first thought was, If I am getting all these materials and going to all this trouble, I am going to want this to be purposeful. I want these lotion bars to not all be for the SAME purpose. 'What, lotion has a purpose beyond making my skin all soft and lovely?' You Say. Well, when it contains essential oils it does. It can provide all forms of goodness. Good Skin. Good Muscles. Good Feelings. Good Immune Support. Hi, my name is Megan and I am a multi-tasking addict. But I am unashamed to say Lotion Bar Making Multi-tasking was the name of the game this week.

So after pursuing the recipes, I went with:

• 1 cup Coconut Oil (I get it from Aldi) 
  

• 1 cup Beeswax (If you have solid wax like I do, you can use half a pound in weight I got mine from a local beekeeper where I also get raw honey)
  

• ½ cup Shea Butter (I got it here) 
  

• 1t Olive Oil (You can use Almond or Vitamin E, or others or skip it too)
  

This made about 3.5 cups of liquid once I melted it down in a double burner- well, not a double boiler, really. It was a large Pyrex Measuring Cup sitting in a sauce pan of water sitting on a burner on medium setting. I don’t own a double boiler.

 This worked out perfectly though. The spout on the measuring cup poured the melted lotion out easier and with less mess. 

I used a silicon 6-cup cupcake pan, poured about ¼ cup of lotion into each cup, added somewhere between 10 and 15 drops of EOs to each cup and stirred them up with a plastic knife. I was able to make each one a different “Flavor” and give them each a different purpose.    

Here are the combos I went with. They all target a different body system and their aroma benefits differ too (noted in parenthesis). If you don't already have some helpful reference materials, but want to know more about each oils' properties, get one. These oils are dynamic!

WORKOUT BAR that WORKS IN:
Wintergreen- supports skeletal system (Stimulates/increases sensory awareness):4 drops
PanAway- targets muscular system: 4 drops
Copaiba- support whole body: 3 drops


SUPER HAPPY SKIN and MIND:
Lavender (Calming, Relaxing and Balancing): 7 drops
Elemi (Grounding): 4 drops 

MANLY and SENSIBLE:
Valor (Balance and Self-esteem): 6 drops
Cyress (Soothing, Helps life Flow Better): 4 drops
Idaho Blue Spruce (Balancing): 4 drops

IMMUNITY BOOST:
Thieves- supports healthy immune system: 10 drops

CRAVINGS CRUSHED:
Grapefruit (refreshing and uplifting): 7 drops
Ocotea (Increase feelings of fullness): 3 drops

DON’T MESS WITH ME OUTSIDE:
Purification- Citronella is predominant oil in this blend:  10 drops

I have since kept these in the fridge as coconut oil and summer don’t result in solid bars- and the coolness of the Super Happy (Lavender) Skin and Mind Bar felt great after a long day in the sun! I was thinking that in the future I might add more beeswax or skip the liquid oil in the warm months but on the other hand, I like the moisture of the coconut oil… sooooo. The point is- these are great no matter what. They are adaptable to different ratios and you can feel free to play around and not worry about it being exact(my kind of making)! And you could even pour them right into little 4oz jars so it doesn’t matter if they get softer. I was out of these cute little jars- ‘cause other oily concoctions have filled them!

I love doing different replacements for other products – it makes my oils pay for themselves and it ensures that I know all the ingredients and where they came from- in this case- all 5 ingredients! Doesn’t get much simpler than that!

This past year I learned about and read a really neat book called OOLA: Find Balance in an Unbalanced World. The word OOLA comes from saying OOLALA... as in that is awesome! It has inspired me to write this blog. As I was filling out my OOLA wheel I realized I needed more OOLA fun in my life and I needed to solidify my OOLA field direction. Do you stay at home mommies ever feel like that is one of the hardest things to do? Have direction? You're going in five different ones in any given moment and are not sure you're fully successful at any one thing. I miss feeling accomplished and feeling inspired- hence this site! It's exciting to do something that has a start and finish even if I don't know exactly what the big picture finish is. That's okay. Just sitting down, making a goal (write down some thoughts and add pictures) and then accomplishing that goal (posted) and it not being about washing clothes- that's exciting to me. 

It's the same - BUT MORE - when I sit at a ceramics wheel or in front of a sculpture. Writing about creativity in daily life is just a wee bit less messy and a wee bit easier to do in the free minutes I get! But clay- if I had a wheel and a kiln at home, I am pretty sure my family would think it was normal to be covered in mud or dust all the time. And I am pretty sure they'd also be starving and wearing dirty clothes. And I'm even more sure I wouldn't care too much! And so, I usually go to a studio to work with clay. And I loose track of time and never feel like I have enough (And I completely empathize with my passionate-about-fishing-husband who would gladly spend a day on a stream without a glance at his watch but usually can't: family life). 

When studio time is up I am so REFRESHED and looking forward to my next opportunity to get messy! Someday I will make clay the fulcrum of my field but for now, it's my fun (even when it does merge into my field) and I am so glad I found that out. Do you have a passion that you want to harness into a career? Or do you have something that fills your cup? Take the OOLA wheel survey and let me know what you learn about you! 

It's easy to look back on life with "wishes" or maybe even regrets- to recognize how good you had it or to long for something different. And yet, it's more productive to learn from how life was or is and then use that as a spring board for the future. "What worked?" "What nourishes you?" "Where can you grow?" "What are you moving toward?" 

In an effort to push back from "Midlife Malaise" (a term I recently read about in The Happiness Project by Gretchen Reuben) and with a determination to seek my OOLA, I am starting this endeavor: A Place to Commune in Creativity.

There is something  about the word "endeavor" that calls to me: The yearning inherent in it; The strong awareness that work will be involved; The hope and positive connotation that can overcome drudgery and monotony. We endeavor in a direction we want or need to go regardless of the challenges. It's that kind of passion that I want to apply to all the areas of my life. If you sit back and think about what you're endeavors are, you might think of a job, making money, building a family, finding happiness, spiritual growth. All valuable and important life directions. And isn't that something that we are all trying to find and keep: direction?

A primary direction that I am often pulled in is toward creativity. I strive to  exercise my creativity in art making(though time does not always a lot for it), but also in less obvious and more day to day ways: In parenting (yes, every minute requires thinking outside of the box), in being healthy, in worshiping my Creator, in being married, in learning new things, in managing our house... in all that makes up life.

In a recent series at church, we were challenged to examine our calling- our vocation. It hit home with me, as I don't have a "vocation" by the world's standards right now. I have a role- a lot of them actually! And I love that I can find fulfillment in them- most of the time. But lately, I have felt called to live life creatively for our Creator. Some vocation that it, huh? It's very easy to get caught in the monotony of daily tasks, to struggle through the drugery of laundry, cooking, cleaning, following everyone's sleep schedules (just making that list makes me a little twitchy). With the past week "off" from that monotony and blessed with the time to spend adventuring and relaxing with my loving husband, I was inspired to create this space. He encouraged me to do something that I have daydreamed about for a while and have let doubt, fear and insecurity stop me more than once (I signed up for this space a few months ago and have been "mentally blogging" for years ever since my sis and I tried our hands at it for two months 4 years ago! I can't believe that was 4 years and two more kids ago! How silly I was to think that one little toddler was a handful.) As this last year has gone by, I have often wished to catalog my creative finds, ideas and actual creations in one spot. These may include, but not be limited to (hey, creativity invites new and unusual options) cooking, making art, teaching art, finding health, using essential oils, tackling DIY projects, parenting, crafting. You know- the fun stuff in life!

And so this forum is intended to serve as an inspiration station for me and hopefully for you! May we keep on finding creativity in life- don't you dare try to tell this art therapist that you aren't creative! May we make the ordinary a whole lot of fun!

What is one thing toward which you have be endeavoring lately? What is your favorite way to be creative?