We took away the Toys...

The kids have this super bad habit.  It goes something like this.  Take all the toys and dump them all over the floor.  Add contents of drawers.

Like this, only a lot worse.  And with clothes.  (This isn't their room, because I can never remember to take a picture in the moment.)

So, in a great parenting moment, we banned all toys except books.  They may have found a stray toy or two downstairs or from some magical hiding spot that we weren't savvy enough to figure out.  But all that we could find were loaded up into containers and put into the garage.  Inside the old dog kennel.

I thought they would cry, be upset, beg for their toys back.  Maybe negotiate a toy or two with some sort of cleaning deal only 3 year olds could think of.  Nope.  Do you know what they do?

Read books.

Not one mention of the toys in the last week. Zip.Nada.Zilch.  They haven't asked for one thing.

I did not see that coming.

We already kept their toys pretty limited.  Some kids I know have every toy under the sun.  It drives me crazy.  Our kids have a box of blocks, a box of train pieces, some matchbox cars, some dinosaur and animal figurines, and one box of miscellaneous "girl" toys.  It sounds like a lot when I type it out, but compared to most people whose toy cup runneth over, we're running a little thin.

So now what?  We'll continue to keep the toys outside, and maybe slowly bring one or two items in for them to play with and then bring it back outside.  But since my kids have never been this interested in reading before, we probably won't be doing that any time soon.

They also want to color and play with playdoh a lot more.  Two other items that we didn't take away.  Probably because we don't keep those in their rooms and I didn't think about them.

Anyway, a long post to say you may want to take away their toys and have a little breather in terms of the messy room department.  And oh, it also fosters their imagination into more creative outlets.
A double win in my opinion!

So even though the outcome wasn't what I was expecting,  I am loving it.  And maybe when bad weather comes again (cause it always does in the North!), and they get their toys back, just maybe they will play with them like they are brand new and never seen before!

Edible Plantain And Not The Banana Kind

Do you have this "weed" in your yard?  We do.  All over.  Mostly because we don't have extra money to spend on keeping our yard nice and grassy.  We eat instead.



My dad mentioned that he thought this plant was edible.  We didn't eat it on our foraging weekend with him because it wasn't actually in the book we were using.  But once I got home, I decided to spend some quality time on the good old internet researching it.

And holy smokes, this puppy is amazing!  Plus it doesn't look like anything else so you won't mistakenly eat another plant.  A big plus when it comes to foraging.

Here is a great blog of what this plant does.  If you have this in your yard I highly recommend you pop on over and read it.

A general run down on it is this:  Super high in Vitamins A and C- you can eat it like we did in pasta or make a tea out of the leaves.  You can even eat the rod-like seed pods, or grind them up and put them in recipes. The leaves are used to stop the pain and itch of bug bites as well as poison ivy and promotes healing of sores and bruises.

Here's a list from the above blog who got her information the book Practical Herbalism on what Plantain can help with:

The Many Uses of Plantain:

Plantain leaf can be made into a tea, tincture or infusion and used internally (according to Practical Herbalism):

• To help get Cholesterol to healthy Levels
• To aid those with Diabetes
• For Hemorrhoid relief
• To help relieve Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• To help calm the bowels during Constipation or Diarrhea
• To sooth kidney and bladder problems and to aid with Bladder infection, ITIs and similar problems. Safe for children
• For indigestion and ulcers

Plantain Leaf is also very soothing on external  inflammation:

• Bites
• Stings
• Rashes
• Eczema
• Psoriasis
• Burns
• Cuts
• Yeast
• Varicose Veins

So what do you think?  Would you give Plantain a whirl?  It tasted great to us, we used in place of spinach in our alfredo.  I'm currently in the process of making a salve out of it, so I will keep you updated as to how that goes.

Maleficient Review

Did you go and see it?



I have to admit, I was quite intrigued by it.  But, since the only tv we watch is public television with shows for the kidlets, I had no idea what it really was about.  (Other than it was about the villain in Sleeping Beauty)  My only experience with anything about it was a picture similar to the one above and a 2014 date that they showed in a preview set before another movie I went to last year.

Ava begged and begged to go with me when a couple of girlfriends and I went this last weekend.  I told her no because I wasn't sure how dark it would be, and I'd rather not risk it.

I was pleasantly surprised.

There were still some dark moments- wars, revenge, a man who's slowly losing it, but it wasn't what I was thinking it would be.  It's actually quite charming, and I definitely will be taking her to see it soon.

A heads up though, the movie is rated PG, I was a little surprised at this rating.  I think it's definitely more than a PG (especially vs. some of the "kid" movies that come out with that rating- Monsters, Despicables Me, etc.), but not a PG13 level movie.  It would have been too much for Owen who is 7.  I'd say somewhere around 9-ish would be appropriate, depending on how your child can handle suspense and some war themes.  There wasn't any blood or gore, but it was definitely intense and suggestive.

Here's a trailer if you haven't seen it yet.

Baba Ganoush

We went on a couple's date to a restaurant called Jerusalem.  Where we ate amazing middle eastern food.  And now I am obsessed.  With both Baba Ganoush and mint tea.  I am so obsessed that I planted 6 eggplants and a bunch of mint even though the mint can overtake everything.

    

You can Pinterest about a million recipes for Baba Ganoush, or you can luck out like I did and get some already made in the fancy deli section of your grocery store.

I do plan on making a version later this year when my eggplants grow...  but until then, I foresee a lof of trips to the grocery store this summer.

Essential Oils

I did it again.  Dropped right off the face of the blogging earth.  Oh well.  It's crazy and sometimes I don't want to do it!

I'm back for today.  Talking about essential oils.



Random right?

Here's what happened.  I decided to go all "green" and plant an herb garden.  Which lead me to the benefits of herbs, which naturally lead to essential oils.  The reason I was so fascinated with all of this is that Truitt is super susceptible to croup, but the clinic won't put a permanent prescription for steroids on his file.  Which is the only way to help him.  Instead I have to ER him and pay a gazillion dollars even though I know what he needs.

So.  I'm desperate and looking for other options.  And along comes essential oils.  Truitt has not had croup since we got some of our oils, so I can't actually tell you if it works for him or not.  But what I can tell you is that the EO market is crazy.  There is a ton of evidence that it works, and a ton of strong opinions on what company to go with.

The big two are DoTerra and Young Living.  These are MLM companies (multi-level management).  Which means there are parties with people who sell them.  This jacks up the prices significantly.  But, I have a cousin who swears by DoTerra and actually sent me a bunch of oils, which I am extremely grateful for.  And I also know several people who stand firm with Young Living, especially their Thieves oil.

   

I went crazy researching, because that it what I do, and came across this 7 part series from a mom who was looking for the best company.  It's pretty fascinating.  Long, but totally worth it.  And read some of the comments too.  In the end, she picked a company that is smaller and not and MLM called Native American Nutritionals.  I ordered several oils from them.

The thing I am finding out is people are loyal to their oils, no matter the brand.  And it seems like each company has good and bad ones.  And for people, some oils and brands work and some don't.  You kind of have to experiment.

There are things to look for in a company.  Making sure they third party test and what country the oils are from; there is a whole list of things to look for here.  Scroll down a bit and you will see the list.

I also picked up two books about oils.

     
       Here                                       Here

Valerie Worwood is kind of "the person" when it comes to essential oils.  I bought the first one because it's a pretty exhaustive book on the use of oils from maladies to home use and face creams with all sorts of good concoctions.  I bought the second because you need to be careful with essential oils and small children.

I ended up buying oils from several different companies.  Cost can be a big factor in choosing companies.  More expensive doesn't mean better and cheaper doesn't mean worse quality necessarily.  I ended up buying from all of these companies:

Native American Nutritionals
Plant Therapy
Heritage Essential Oils
Eden's Gardens

I also have several DoTerra oils from my cousin.  Nothing from Young Living, but I plan to buy their Thieves oil, probably their most famous.  I have DoTerra's version, but I'd love to compare them.  I'll put it off until fall though because it's around $45 and since I already have a version that does the same thing if we should need it this summer.

All of the above companies have both negative and positive reviews.  As does anything else in life.  I'd spend some time researching some of the links I gave you and form your own opinions.  Careful though, soon enough you'll get sucked in and wonder where the time went!

I'll be back later with some of the things we are currently treating with essential oils, and diffusers which disperse the oils around the room for health by breathing them in.