Pintesting - Vicks Shower Discs

I'd never heard of Vicks ever making congestion relieving shower disks but that's probably because they've been discontinued. The recipe to make your own has gained a fair amount of popularity on Pintrest.

Recently my little lamb caught a very nasty and persistent cold that came with a lot of concerning congestion. Remembering this pin I went to make it AFAP but didn't have any essential oils.

When I finally went to purchase essential oils I hadn't noticed that the recipe called for more than one. In fact, this is a fact that escaped me until I was ready to make these.

I put the baking soda in the bowl first and then added the water. My sweet little lamb was busy begging me for apples while I was attempting to prepare these so by the time I'd washed and sliced and apple for her I saw that the water and baking soda had really just gone ahead and formed its paste on its own.

I stirred it anyway for good measure and used a regular soup spoon to put the mixture into the cupcake liners.

I noticed some people had crumbling issues so I chose to cook my discs rather than let them sit out overnight.

As you can see mine didn't come out looking as smooth and beautiful as the ones in the picture from Pintrest.

This might be because I made two batched in order to utilize all of the cupcake liners in my pan, so some of them got a double dose.

My Eucalyptus oil didn't come with a dropper so I tried my best not to make a mess and only pour a little onto each disc. A small mess still ensued and my house spent the rest of the day reeking of Eucalyptus.

If your bottle doesn't come with a dropper - GO FIND ONE!!!!

When I went to remove the discs from the paper they were still very crumbly so I opted to put the disks, liner and all into some Mason jars to store under the sink in the bathroom until needed.

One dark and stormy night. Alright, it wasn't at all stormy. One evening after a hard day I felt I could really use a good blast of aromatherapy. You don't have to be sick to enjoy these so why the heck not!? Let me tell you it was just what I needed. Soothing and enjoyable. In fact, I used two discs!

Kitchen Testing - Winter Sore Throat "Tea"

Some months ago it seemed that a great deal of the women I know on Facebook were all "like"ing the same "Farmer's Pal" post. But of course, that's really how it works isn't it? One person "like"s it and then we all see it and then people start following suit.

What was all the hubbub about? "Winter sore throat 'tea'"

I mentioned recently that my little lamb and I got sick. My sore throat far outweighed the annoyance of my ever dripping nose.

This is a recipe you should really make months in advance but who can really remember what you had going on months ago that kept you from doing it? Besides - there are still more winter months to go!

I bought ginger with the intention of using it in some kimchee for my mother, but my piece was large enough that I could spare half to make some tea.

I sliced it up and then got out my lemons.

Layer lemons and ginger.

Then pour honey over top and watch it drip through the open spaces.

Now I play the waiting game. This mix looks so wonderful I almost hope for a sore throat. By the time this post goes out it will only have been in the fridge six days. The original post says to wait months but I'll be trying to keep an eye on it to see when it congeals.

Fleas - The Waiting Game

The fleas are still here. They're very hearty little buggers (much to my chagrin). The toll it was taking on the dog was just too much.

I started waking up with more and more flea bites in the morning. Worst of all - I found fleas in my daughters hair once after she rolled around on the floor playing. I felt like I was the worst worst house-keeper and that I had my family living in some flea infested hovel (my mother didn't help me feel any better about all of this either.)

My father bought a flea spray to be applied to the dog pretty much every day, we bought the dog a flea collar, we bombed our house twice, and then we had to give the dog a flea bath. Once again we will have to wait.

I found a pin talking about an at home spray you can make using essential oils, but essential oils run around $10 - 20 per bottle at my local health food store and the mix calls for quite a few. I just couldn't afford it.

Now you may be thinking, "with all that was purchased, surely you could have afforded the natural solutions." We really don't have a lot of money, and I really didn't expect this flea problem to go this far. Maybe I'll slowly purchase the necessary essential oils to create the natural flea spray but for the moment I have a lot of other things on my plate.

It seems that a kitten our daughter was playing with at my mother-in-laws house was patient zero. I heard a lot of my brother-in-laws friends found themselves victims of a flea infestation. It just seems my own household was the one that suffered to this extreme degree.

One of the friends said that his mother suggested banana peels. He he said he bought some bananas and left the peels in the corners of a few of the rooms and the fleas were gone in days. He also made sure to point out he's never home so they may have just starved to death.

Pintresting Results

It would seem that the baking soda paste worked. Later that day (the day of the remedy) my husband said he wasn't sure if the splinter was still in there or not so he had me look. I saw the spot where it had once been, but not having to walk on the offending spot I can't vouch for the whereabouts of the splinter and any subsequent pain. I asked him again today about it and he said that the spot still feels tender but that he's relatively certain the splinter is gone.javascript:void(0);