Winter Scrub

Written by Jessie

Wintertime weather, compounded with hot indoor air, can drain vital moisture from our skin and cause irritations. Here is a simple recipe for a luscious body scrub you can make at home to help restore and retain the moisture in your skin through the winter season. 

Items needed:

Course sea salt 3-5cups

Carrier oil such as grapeseed or hemp (*amount will vary) 

Essential oil of your choice

Mixing bowl and spoon

Salt grinder or food processor

Small jar with lid

Step One: Grind Salt

Pour sea salt into processor and pulse until the salt is the coarseness you desire. Aim for a coarseness somewhere before kosher salt. Table salt would be too fine and may dissolve in the next step. (I used 5 cups of Bali Sea Salt for two small jars.)

When you have found your desired coarseness, pour the salt into a mixing bowl.

Step Two: Mix in Oil

Slowly stir in your oil a teaspoon at a time. There are no true measurements here so frequently testing the consistency with your fingers is key. You want the scrub to be dry enough to be scoopable but not crumbly, and just wet enough to leave a nice sheen of oily-goodness on your skin without being runny.  

*Note: If using saturated oil such as coconut, you will need to heat the oil to liquid form so it can be stirred into the salt. You will also need to use a tablespoon or so of unsaturated oil, such as grapeseed, to keep the mix from solidifying in the jar. 

Step Three: Add Aroma

This is where you can get really creative! 

Add your oil one or two drops at a time and stir. Give the scrub a full whiff before you add more. Essential oils go a long way and you want to avoid over infusing the salt. When you find the perfect aroma balance, scoop your scrub into the jar and seal the lid. 

Essential Oil Suggestions:

Grapefruit: Uplifiting

Lavender: Calming

Lemongrass: Balancing

Lemon: Energizing

Lime: Energizing

Ylang Ylang: Relaxing 

Patchouli: Balancing

Jasmine: Soothing

*Note: Essential oils have therapeutic qualities so I highly encourage you to do a bit of research in finding the best one. Always perform a spot test (one drop of EO to three drops carrier oil) on the inner side of your elbow to check for allergic reaction. Also, I refrain from using fragrance oils (different from essential oils) on my body as they are not 100% natural and can cause skin irritations.

Step Four: Enjoy!

Apply scrub to wet skin and use your hands or shower glove to lightly exfoliate. Always use before shaving and void using on the face. Pat skin dry with a towel. 

Feel luscious and hydrated and smell delectable! Scrub will keep for up to three months in a cool place. 

*Note: The oil from the scrub may make your shower or tub very slick. Be careful!

Happy scrubbing!

They Will Follow Suit

Written by Kiersten

Raising teenage daughters, I have quickly realized that coercion does not work. I am passionate about parenting and am willing to try new things, read new books and implement changes to our lifestyle that I believe will benefit us. 

When beginning new ideas, or introducing new behavior, I have to be subtle. I have to do it first. They will see me doing things, and they will follow suit. As parents, we are setting patterns for a lifetime.   

I started a blog a few years ago chronicling our new farming project and the beginning years of our home schooling. My mom started reading it. As my blogging became more inclusive I added birth stories from my midwifery practice and documented lots of arts and crafts.

My mom said, recently, “Gosh, Kier, you do all the same things I did while you were growing up! I keep reading about them on your blog.”

 “Like what?” 

“I gardened, I crocheted, and I embroidered. I sewed.”

I just barely remember my mom doing all of these things. If I spend time, consciously thinking about it, I can remember. I have blankets that my mom made. She made them for my daughters too. I remember her doing batik. She embroidered and we always had a garden. I never thought of that. I never realized that I was doing all the things my mom had done. 

She was (and is) an avid reader. So am I, so are my daughters. 

It reminded me that our children will do what they have seen us doing throughout their childhood. 

If you want your children to be unplugged, be unplugged yourself!

Make sure they see you:

• Reading. Have books and magazines around the house.
• Crocheting, knitting or embroidering. Use your hands. Spend time talking to your children while creating something.
• Hiking.  Even if they don’t join you each time, let them see you going for a walk with your partner, or friend every day.  (Or often!)
• Sitting still. Drink tea with each other. Drink tea with your friends. Let this be a normal way for you to spend time together with friends and family. 
• Garden. Grow your own food, or just grow some herbs on your windowsill.

Do the things you want your children to do! 

What are some of the things that you do that you remember your mom or dad doing? 

Weekend Inspiration

Written by Heather

A couple of our writers have mentioned recently how preparation for a relaxed, unplugged day can be key for its success. This is a great point! A few mental notes can help your day flow better. It might seem counter-intutitive, but a little preparation can help you sink into relaxation or adventure more easily. 

Sometimes peeking in on what others are up to helps to spark our own ideas.

Heading in to this weekend, I thought I'd share a few items that might inspire you - activities, reflections on unplugging, and sheer inspiration. Make yourself a cup of tea and enjoy!

• Make a Gratitude Tree
• Maureen Cracknell Handmade - Unplugged Sunday
• Getting There - Unplugged Sunday
• Our One Sweet Family - Harvest Days
• Salt and Chocolate - Scenes from and Unplugged Sunday
• Clean - Unplugging and Getting Outside
• Begin Holiday Gift Making
• Plan a Craft Project

Video Inspiration
Thank you AMC and Renee.






Wishing each of you a wonderful weekend! May it be filled with all the activity, creativity, and relaxation that you desire.

Five Tips for Art-Making with Children

Written by Jaimie

My kids and I make a lot of art.  Because one of my daughters just started school, and we’re quite busy and scheduled on the weekdays, we’ve been spending most of our Sundays at home.  With one parent and two kids rushing around all week, the most relaxing and centering option at the moment is to cozy up together in our nest before the hustle and bustle begins again.  And since we love to make art, it’s a natural way for us to spend the day.

If you’d like to spend your Unplugged Sunday creating with your kiddos, here are some tips I’ve acquired over the years of art-making with my daughters:

1. Don’t worry about the mess.  
I wish families could eliminate this concern all the time, but most of us are not blessed with either housekeepers or the time and desire to spend all day cleaning up after art projects.  A low-key, unplugged day at home is a great opportunity for the kiddos to create freely without worrying about spilling paint, dropping paper scraps on the floor, or pouring out too much glitter.

2. Consider leaving the supplies out all day.  
To those who keep a spotless house, this may sound like an invitation for chaos, but give it a try.  The creative urge doesn’t always run on schedule, at its allotted time of, say, 1:00-2:30 on Sunday afternoon.  My children, one in particular, will often return to the art supplies several times throughout the day, and an at-home, unplugged day is the perfect time to make this possible.  

3. Abandon expectations for final products. 
Kids (and their parents) are more relaxed when no one is worried about the end result of an art experience.  Whether you’re simply painting with watercolors on paper, or you’re doing a more specific holiday craft, try to put as few constraints on yourselves as possible.

4. Get your own hands dirty with the art.  
This is your time, too.  Like most, you’re probably very busy all week and don’t have much time to just sit and create uninhibitedly.  Don’t worry if you’re not an artist (though I’d argue that you probably are, in one way or another).  Relax and create, and your comfort will not only enhance your own experience; it will rub off on your children as well.

5. Prepare the supplies ahead of time.  
The younger the child, the shorter her tolerance for sitting around waiting for you to set things up.  Any parent who has announced to a three year old that it is art time and then subsequently spent twenty-five minutes fumbling around looking for supplies understands the value of preparation.  And if one component of Unplugged Sundays is the opportunity for you to relax and breathe, you don't want the stress of realizing at the last minute that you ran out of glue during the previous art project.  And, even worse, you don’t want to end up accidentally checking email and Facebook when you turn on your computer to print out the tutorial for a craft project.  

What kinds of art work well for Unplugged Sunday?  

Anything, of course, but here are a few ideas to try:

Completely Open-Ended Art.  

This is what we do most often, on any day of the week.  I set out supplies, or the kids just grab them, and they make whatever they please.  If you’re looking for something a little more specific or with more of a theme, consider the following two options.

Seasonal projects. 

I interpret Unplugged Sunday as an opportunity to peacefully experience the present moment, which means no TV, no computer, etc., but it also might mean intentionally connecting with the current time and season.  

If you need inspiration, a great place to find seasonal (or any other) arts and crafts ideas is Pinterest.  I've got a board dedicated to fall-themed projects here, but the whole site is filled to the gills with seasonal crafts and activities.  

You don’t necessarily even need a big “plan.” Over the course of the week, collect bits and pieces from outdoors to use in open-ended art-making. Right now, this might mean brightly-colored leaves, acorns, chestnuts, flowers gone to seed, and much more.  Setting these out with some glue, fall-colored papers and felt, markers, scissors, and paint (or far fewer supplies, even—whatever feels right), along with the invitation to create, is everything you need for a day of fall crafting.

Crafts that reflect upcoming family events. 

Do you have upcoming birthdays?  Great—spend the afternoon making gifts or simple, handmade party decorations.  If you’re dressing up for Halloween, work on costumes.  And if you celebrate a winter holiday (or two or three!), get a head start on decorations and gifts.  Or make welcome banners for relatives who are coming in from out of town next week.  All of these give you the opportunity not only to create together as a family, but also to prepare for important events you’ll share.

Above all, remember this: don’t put any pressure on yourself or your kids to make something “perfect” or “right,” or even “good,” for that matter.  Just lose yourself in the creating, and the kiddos will follow suit.  

If you’re already the crafty type, awesome—we’d love to hear your suggestions and input in the comments.  And if you’re not, what are you waiting for?  Make this Sunday the day you stop saying “if only I were artistic…” and get messy with your kids!

Just Make It

Written by Jonah Lisa

Us bloggy types have a tendency to collect projects the way some people collect teacups, or stamps.  We bookmark, we favorite, we clip, like and digg.  

And now, we pin.  

It’s a strange compulsion, an obsession almost, this hoarding of ideas.  And the sheer number of things we mark “for later” almost insures the fact that most of them will never be looked at again, let alone made.  It’s a great big internet out there and so the ideas just pile up, like plastic bottles in a landfill.  

The scary thing is, that landfill is my computer...and MY MIND!  And both of them are getting full!

No doubt, there are beautiful things to build and sew and repurpose, and places to go, and things to buy and look for at thrift shops, and sayings to remember and bedrooms to covet.  But are we creating stress and unrealistic expectations in our lives as we create these lists?  Are we missing the point?

I don’t know the answer.  Frankly, this brand of pop psychology has already gone way beyond my pay grade.  Interesting to think about though, isn’t it?   What are we saving all these brilliant ideas for?  What rainy day?  What chunk of time?   

I can tell you this much, since I’m probably not going to stop collecting neato ideas any time soon, I better start whittling down the lists the only other way I know how.  And Fall and Winter Unplugged Sundays are going to help me do it.

You see, this past Unplugged Sunday I tried a novel approach to dealing with the lists...

l chose a few ideas: a project for me, a craft project for the kids, a cool snack idea and a dinner recipe from my multiple, massive lists and do you know what I did?   

I MADE them!  

I know.  Out there, right?  I’d almost forgotten this was the point and not the pinning and digging and bookmarking itself.  

During the previous week I spent some of the time I might normally be surfing the net, surfing my lists instead.  Then I picked my Sunday projects and made sure I had all the materials on hand.  I printed out the recipe and some photos for the kids’ project so there was no reason to turn on the computer “just to check” anything.

I started off with a simple but fun milk and cookies snack brought to you by Pinterest.

They loved the novelty of it, as I knew they would when I first pinned it.  Then I got them started on a cool Dia de los Muertos craft project that had been bookmarked in my browser for at least a year.

And while they painted to their hearts content, I played with yarn and felt and ended up with something beautiful inspired by one of the talented artists on Etsy.

Another Pin brought us dinner, but we ate the photo op.

I’m not sure I think this will really make my all my lists shrink, but I do know it was a nice  and needed reminder of the actual purpose of pinning and saving the ideas in the first place.  

To DO them.  To MAKE them.  To VISIT, and SEE, and CREATE.  

It also made for a perfect, rainy, Unplugged Sunday and I imagine, as the weather turns colder and wetter here, I’ll be using this formula again.