Wellness Mama®
Simple Answers for Healthier Families
I’ve been fascinated by perfume since I was a kid. Scent is intimately tied to memory and I realized that my earliest memories were tied to particular scent: my great aunt’s hand lotion that I would smell when she sang me to sleep, the smell of medicine I had to take as a baby, tempera …
I adore the scent of natural vanilla. It can be used in so many recipes and is perfect in my superfood coffee. I even use it as a base for my homemade perfume (recipe coming soon). Unfortunately, as Food Renegade revealed, store-bought “pure” vanilla extract can often contain corn syrup or sugar. There is also …
Our family has had a Berkey water filter for years and we absolutely love it. Before that, we had a basic reverse osmosis water filter, and while I loved that it was getting rid of all fluoride in the water, I never loved the taste or that we had to add minerals to the water …
Once upon a very terrible time, all five kids got a stomach bug at the same time… while I was gone… and my husband got it too. Thankfully we don’t get sick often, but it was terrible and I wasn’t on hand to use all of our natural remedies. That was the first and last …
I’ve mentioned before that I use silicone molds to make homemade gummy vitamins and lotion bars, along with several other household staples. I’ve gotten one question so often that I decided it deserved its own post: Is Silicone Safe for Baking? Unfortunately, this is one of those questions that I usually answer by saying: It depends. …
Tis the season for making homemade gifts, at least at our house! A few days ago, I had a mom’s night out at my house and we made all kinds of homemade gifts like lotion bars, vapor rub lotion bars (recipe soon!) and homemade lipstick. The lipstick was the biggest hit and it was so …
I was blessed with the naturally oily skin that many of my relatives have. It was a tremendous pain in the teenage years, but I say “blessed” because everyone in the family with that skin type has aged incredibly well. In fact, it has only been recently after five kids and muchas stress that I …
I’ve shared before the non-toxic and non-scratch cookware I use, and how we avoid chemicals in our water, but I get quite a few questions about how to store food without plastic in the fridge of freezer. Plastic containers and plastic bags are the normal fare for this, and it can be a difficult switch. …
I use a computer quite a bit… it comes with the blogging territory. I even use computers late at night when I’m supposed to be avoiding blue light and relaxing. Certainly, modern computers have brought immeasurable benefits, but they also come with their problems (aside from the very real risk of getting sucked into a …
My Amish friends are predicting a really cold winter based on the fuzz on caterpillars, the shells on acorns, the movement of squirrels, the size of pinecones and the bird migrations. Who knows if any of these predictions are accurate, but I’m actually excited at the prospect of a cold winter this year and hopefully …
I don’t share many craft posts because while I love making crafts with my kids, I typically stick to making lotion bars or homemade soap. In the winter, when it gets too cold for treehouse play or going for walks, I try to find fun projects for us to do together instead and this was …
I’m so excited to be able to share an amazing resource that I’ve had the advantage of knowing and using for several months. My doctor, Dr. Alan Christianson NMD, is releasing his book The Adrenal Reset Diet. I interviewed Dr. Christianson on my podcast and his interview was one of the most popular episodes! He is a …
I’m a big fan of healing clays. I put them in my own bath and in my children’s bath water. I use them on my face as a face mask and my armpits to help detox and avoid odor. Another way I love to use them that is much easier than a full bath is …
Giving birth to a baby is tough work, no matter how the little one decides to enter the world. Having had a c-section and natural births, I can say that while natural birth can be harder pre-birth, c-sections can be much harder in recovery. At the same time, there are some things you can do …
One of the single most difficult moments of my life was as I was being wheeled down the hall to an emergency c-section and I hugged my husband good-bye and we said our “I love yous.” He was able to rejoin me just as our little one entered the world, but that day and its …
Burt’s Bees Original Beeswax Peppermint Lip Balm was my gateway product into the world of natural living…really. I was a devoted conventional makeup girl and had a drawer full of the latest glittery, scented, brightly colored lip glosses available. And my lips were chronically dry (wonder if it was from the chemical cocktail I was …
To my children, pets truly are part of the family. It was their idea to make homemade dog treats for our dog, and they wanted to make homemade cat treats for our cats, Penelope and Tiger, too (“to be fair”). Like the dog treats we made for Daisy, these homemade treats contain coconut oil and other …
