Monday, May 13, 2013

Solving Headache Mysteries

I know several people with young children who complain about headaches. Some on a daily basis.  Folks, headaches aren't "normal" and giving Tylenol or Advil to a child for a daily headache is NOT the solution.  There IS an underlying cause, and it's our job as mother's to figure out what it is.  It costs nothing to eliminate suspicious foods for 21 days and then re-introduce. If the headaches go away and then come back, mystery solved.

Read this mother's headache story!
Wheat Headache


Saturday, May 4, 2013

All Natural Skin Moisturizer w/Beef Tallow?

In my quest to find an all-natural skin care product, I came across an article touting the amazing benefits of beef tallow for the skin.  You can Google this if it interests you but here you can see STEP 1: Rendering The Tallow!  First, I procured some grass-fed beef tallow from my local farmer (be sure and ask for "kidney fat"), then I chopped it into chunks, threw it into my food processor and then into the crock pot on Low. Once it turns completely liquid, I'll filter out the solids through some cheesecloth and then mix in some coconut oil, olive oil and my favorite Young Living Essential Oil.  I'm really excited because if it feels half as good on my face as it feels between my fingers, I may really be on to something!

So once the solids became crunchy, I poured the contents of the crock pot through a cheesecloth-lined strainer. While the oil was still warm, I mixed in coconut oil, olive oil and my favorite Young Living essential oil. It was hard to find an exact recipe on line so I winged this first batch with 1 cup tallow, 1 cup coconut oil, 1/2 cup olive oil and 1.5 tsp of essential oil. This is a ginormous batch so I sure hope it's the right combination! Tallow and coconut oil are solid at room temperature so adding olive oil makes it softer and more spreadable. It will be nearly white once it's cooled.

So after the mixture cooled I spooned it into small jars (didn't have those yesterday, otherwise would have done that before cooling!).  The end result??   At room temperature my mixture is too soupy, which means I added too much coconut oil and olive oil.  Since this product is in a glass jar and not a tube, I would prefer it be more of a solid at room temperature, like it appears in the photo.  I used it as a moisturiser at bedtime last night and was very happy with how my face felt this morning so I'm definitely going to try and perfect the formula. Please post if you have any suggestions!!