Snow Ice Cream

This is a post I should save for a snow day, when it's all white outside and you can't leave the house...but if I did that you wouldn't be able to have your ingredients all ready to make Snow Ice Cream! This is my FAVORITE! It's so easy to make and and SO good! It doesn't keep, so you have to eat it as soon as you make it. Like, I said, you need to have light, fluffy snow to make it work. Those days when you get a foot in an hour...that's what you need!
Ingredients:
2 quarts snow
1/2 C milk (heavy whipping cream works best... and it keeps unopened forever!)
1/4 C sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

All you do is mix it with a spoon and enjoy!

Now all we need is some of that snow!

FINALLY read Kiwi

I FINALLY got around to reading that Kiwi Magazine I talked about so many posts ago, the one with the Winter Solstice celebrations article. I was a little disappointed in the article about the celebrations...guess I wanted a little more, but I did find some other interesting facts and articles. First, I found a recipe for dry skin care...could have used THAT when I was doing all that research looking for a good lotion to use on my eczema son! It's 1/4C cocoa butter melted with 1 TBSP each coconut oil, sweet almond oil, and vitamin E oil. Stir until melted, 5-7 minutes, then store at room temp for out to 6 mos. It sounds a little greasy, but if it works I don't really care!

I won't summarize the entire magazine for you, but there was a surprising statistic, 80% of processed foods contain GMOs! I didn't realize it was THAT prevalent! AND it doesn't have to be labeled...yet another reason to eat whole foods!

Cold and Flu Season

At our house Christmas always seems to come with illness. This year, my youngest gave me puke as a gift...twice. So when I saw the Kiwi Magazine online article about easing cold and flu symptoms, I thought I'd give it a quick read. I expected it to be the same old stuff, honey for coughs, saline for stuffy noses, but I came across something that I've never heard of before and I was intrigued to try it. Here's what it said, "Wet sock treatment: If a wet blanket can bring a party to a halt, a wet sock could do the same for a cold. “It works really well with kids with a lot of intense congestion in the head and nose,” says Baral, by bringing blood flow to the feet and decreasing some of the pressure in the head. Run a pair of cotton socks under cold water and squeeze them out. At bedtime, put them on your child, followed by a pair of dry wool socks. By morning, the socks should be warm, head congestion eased, and the fever will often be broken. “All of my patients tell me it’s a really powerful treatment,” says Baral. Children tend to like it, too. “It seems to have quite a sedating action and helps them sleep a little bit better,” Baral says."

Crazy, right? I'm going to buy wool socks for my kids so I can try this when they get sick. I had a hard time finding 100% wool socks for kids but I did find some here...too bad they're $20 each! Guess I'll have to pick which kid I like best when it's time for this remedy...don't get sick all at once kids!

I also found this on youtube so it's not TOTALLY nuts!

More Green Gifts

I know you're probably not pulling up my blog to see what I got for Christmas, but I'm just excited about my OTHER green Christmas gift. Not only did my mom get me the Yonanas, she also got me something I blogged about a LONG time ago...when we had sun and the weather was warm...does anyone even remember that?!?! It was a big package with a note that said "a green gift" I was hoping for a composting toilet, of course, but it was something even more useful...She got me a clothesline! It's actually not really a clothesLINE, but rather an outdoor clothes dryer. It has a pole that goes into the ground, then has kind of like an umbrella over top of lines that can hold the clothes. She also got me clothes pins and of course a clothes pin apron, which I'm super excited to use! My husband isn't too excited about mowing around it, but I just think that means we should get him one of those reel mowers that doesn't use gas!

Yonanas!!!

My mom kept talking about this Christmas gift that she got me that I was going to LOVE! This always makes me nervous since...what if I didn't LOVE it? I don't want her big Christmas gift be a flop. But good news! I DID love it! It's a Yonanas. I had never heard of Yonanas until I opened the box. It's a small kitchen gadget that mashes frozen bananas and fruit and creates a fruit puree that's the consistency of frozen yogurt. I tried it out last night and my entire family LOVED it...which if fabulous since my daughter isn't a big fruit fan. I was surprised how little fruit it took to make a batch of "ice cream" for my family. I was prepared to have to use TONS, like I would with a juicer. It was quick and easy, and the best part is that it was TOTALLY healthy! It was just frozen fruit! Great gift, Mom!

Cold Water

Last night we had round two of Christmas in my family. We got together with my mom's side and my uncle was telling me about a dinner party he went to at a "green" family's house. It was a buffet style dinner and as each person went up to grab their plate, they realized they weren't very clean. They politely pointed this out to the host, but he just said, "It's the best we can do with cold water." So they just kind of did the best they could and when the next course, dessert, was served they noticed that these plates were also not looking so clean. Again, the host apologized and said, "It's the best we can do with cold water." "Here," he said, "Let me show you what I mean." He let out a whistle and his dog came running, "Come here Cold Water!" he said.

*Now, I thought the joke was funny in and of itself, but after my uncle told it we hear my mom laughing, look over and she's letter her dog lick her plate clean...ummm, joke's on us???

Tomorrow's Christmas Eve, which in my messy family life has always meant the start of the Christmas extravaganza, so I'm signing off until after the holiday. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and make sure none of your holiday hosts have a dog named Cold Water!

My New Title

I am now officially a Mom Ambassador Blogger. I was already a Kiwi Magazine Mom Ambassador, which is why I was doing the mom's meet groups, but now I've applied and been accepted to be a Mom Ambassador Blogger. It's kind of the same thing, except when I apply for the products, they just ship them to me, I try them, then I review them on my blog...much easier than trying to get everyone together to try them...although if I already had a mom's group that met regularly... So I'm excited. I'm glad I'll be able to keep this thing interesting for you readers with new products. They said they want us to be honest in our reviews, which I'm excited about too. I'll be able to really do some research and make sure that if I say I recommend it, it's really a product I believe in. (Since I know you all hold so much stock in what I say!)
I'm writing this blog procrastinating going to the Humane Society to drop off the food I bought. I REALLY don't want to go, but it's so important to me to donate to the Humane. (Is this a term people other than my mother use? We got a cat and kittens when I was young from the Humane society and I named her Sumane, because we got her at the Sumane Society.) So I'm going to go so dogs giving me pathetic looks, and listen to all that barking and see poor cats that are curled up in their litter boxes...and I WILL NOT bring home another animal! My fat Rott with the thyroid problem just cost me $200 at the vet on Monday...I need to remember this when I'm looking at that sad face of the dog that REALLY wants me to bring him home!

Lending a Helping Paw

If you know me, you know I like animals. In our house, we have a cat, two dogs, two rats and a snake. All of the big animals are rescues, and that's something that's VERY important to me. I don't think I'll ever own a dog (or a cat) that comes from a breeder. (Not true with rats, clearly.) So, merging my love of animals with charity, we created a new Christmas tradition last year in which we buy some items from the Stark County Humane Society's Wish list and deliver it to the dogs and cats at the shelter. Last year my mom went with us and we walked around and looked at all the dogs and cats that need homes...it was horribly heartbreaking and I was SO close to bringing home another Rott that I think this year it might be better if we don't tour the wards, BUT I still think it's important to take the animals something at Christmas time. As I've said before, we don't really celebrate the whole Christian part of Christmas, more just the spirit of giving, and who better to give to than shelter dogs and cats?!?! So tomorrow we'll be headed out to the store, wish list in hand, to buy some needed items for the Stark County Humane. If you're still looking for that last minute gift idea...this girl still needs a home...



**Dad, if you're reading this, she is NOT a good last minute gift for Caden!!
*****Also, just to be clear, this is NOT Abby, she just looks like her. We've decided to keep Abby for another year, despite her brattyness!