Clean.

Glass Dharma Glass Straws Giveaway.

Glass Dharma has generously offered me a $25 gift certificate to give away to one lucky reader! Earlier this year I shared our groovy straws with you in my homemade tonic water post. I got quite a few emails about the tonic and the straws.

Yes, our glass straws are wonderful. We're kind of obsessed with them. And if you manage to break one, they have a great guarantee and will replace your straw. How great is that?

To enter your name in the giveaway, simply leave a comment here. I'll select a winner next week. You may add up to four additional comments for liking Clean on Facebook and Glass Dharma on Facebook or by liking, sharing, or tweeting this post, or signing up for my rss feed.

Comments are now closed!

Congratulations to Amy who said:

"I would love to try glass straws!"

We love our straws!

Thanks, Glass Dharma for the generous giveaway.

 

Natural Whooping Cough Remedies.

Welcome to Clean. I'm happy you stopped by. This page has seen a lot of traffic recently. While you're here I invite you to explore a bit. I post weekly on peaceful parenting, homeschooling, kitchen adventures, and general craftiness.

Blessings,
Rachel

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Pertussis is one heck of a cough. It starts as a small, benign cough, maybe a little fever and then - wham. Long, powerful coughing spasms take over the rhythm of your day. Many people I know have it or have had it in recent years. Presently it is making its was through our town and early this month Sage, Lupine and I came down with it too. Good times. Quarantining ourselves, we haven't been out and about since early October (thus the scanty posts here) and we've focused most of our energy on resting and healing.

While this post is hopefully written for a select few of you, I trust it will be of service to some. Bookmark it, share it with your friends, and file it away in case whooping cough finds its way around your community any time soon. It's in our little town right now in a big way. As more people in my area (and elsewhere) have found themselves staring down pertussis I thought that a post collecting some good home remedies for whooping cough would be a blessings.

No whooping cough in your neighborhood? (Well, hooray for that!) Still, many of the remedies below are amazing for any cough, cold, flu, or bug that comes your way this season.

This is in now way a health consultation. Get on the phone to your doctor or health care provider if you suspect you have pertussis. If you test positive (the test is a simple nasal swab) you will likely be encouraged to take antibiotics and quarantine yourselves for five days. If you go antibiotic free you'll be in quarantine for most of a month (beginning after the last person starts coughing in your house). For us it has been a hassle but not a big deal. Pete is healthy and working. The kids and I are sick and staying home. It's a lot of coughing but I'd take this over the flu or pin-worms any day. (That being said, pertussis is especially dangerous for babies, the elderly, and anyone with a compromised immune system. We don't fit into those categories so it hasn't been horrific. Just icky.)

Here are some of the things we've done to ease our transition back to health.

Pine Needle Bergamot Syrup

When Lupine started coughing we had no idea it was whooping cough. Just a little cough during the day, nothing dramatic. She and I were on a hike with my sister at the cabin. She reached out and picked a handful of white pine needles and stuffed them into my pants pocket. "Mama, I want you to make me pine needle tea." We had never had pine needle tea before. We read once in a children's herbal book that you could drink pine needle tea, but I couldn't remember why. After we determined that it was pertussis I called and herbalist friend who's child had also contracted it around the same time. "The best remedy for whooping cough," she told me, "Is white pine needle tea."

What a shining lesson in trusting our intuition, spirit guides, or the voices of the plants. Pine needle tea and syrup has been my favorite remedy for whooping cough. We dilute the syrup in hot water and drink it throughout the day.

Begin by collecting some fresh white pine needles and/or bark. Take two large hand-fulls and add to a stainless cooking pot (approximately 1 C of needles if you could jam them into a measuring cup). Add 1/2 C of dried monarda (bee balm) flowers and leaves if you have any available. Cover with water, adding approximately 3- 4 C. Simmer until you have cooked the water down to a thick tea, about 2 cups. Strain and mix with equal parts honey. Store in the refrigerator and use as needed, by the teaspoon. Take as a cough syrup or dilute and use drink as tea.

Garlic Syrup

A local herbalist/mama shared this recipe in our local newspaper a couple of years ago. (There is one type-o, where the article reads "4 hours" should say "4 days". Thanks D. for bringing the article to my attention.) We have been taking this throughout our illness and it seems to be a wonder tonic. This is a good one if you are exposed to someone with WC as well as just general immunity boosting throughout the season. A quick google of "garlic syrup" yields dozens of formulas, so pick one and go for it.

We are using this:

1 pound garlic, peeled and chopped

apple cider vinegar

water

honey

Place chopped garlic in a quart jar and cover with 1/2 water and 1/2 apple cider vinegar to fill the jar. Infuse for four days (or more), shaking often.

Strain, pressing garlic to extract all the juices you can. Make a simple syrup of 1/2 water and 1/2 honey to total the volume of your garlic infusion. (If you have 2 C of garlic infusion, add a simple syrup made of 1 C water and 1 C honey. I pour 1 tsp of this in a small cup for the kids several times a day and take 1 tablespoon myself. This is a great remedy for cold and flu season and shouldn't be reserved just for whooping cough. Spread the garlic out on a cookie sheet in the freezer and use in your cooking.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C saturation is one fairly common method of shortening the duration of whooping cough. I found suggestions for this online and it always led me to take sodium ascorbiate. I couldn't find that version of C without food coloring added, so we went for Ester-C. Each of us takes 5000 IU per day. To determine correct dosage you can follow the instructions here. We didn't exactly follow this method but it was close to what we did. To make pure vitamin C palatable for the kids I powder the capsules in my food processor, then blend with a dab of honey to make a paste.

Herbal Cough Syrup

This is a wonderful remedy for nighttime coughing episodes. Use equal parts elecampane and wild cherry bark, 1/4 C of each and 2 C water. Bring to a simmer, turn off, and steep for 10 minutes. Strain promptly and mix in 1/4 C of honey to make a thin syrup. (You can leave out the honey but elecampane is bitter, especially if you simmer it too long.) Dilute syrup with water and sip as needed, or drink undiluted by the teaspoon (kids) or tablespoon (adults).

Elderberry Tincture

I shared with you how we make it here. We're also enjoying some elderberry syrup this year, made using a recipe from here I think. (I love this book. The recipes are so simple and accessible. Ask for a copy for Christmas or Solstice if you have been wanting to learn more about plant medicine.)

Immunity Building Tincture

The kids and I made this in the spring and we're loving having it on hand right now. We combined echinacea root and flower, usnea (an immunity-building lichen), rishi (the shelf fungus pictured above), cinnamon, and ginger and covered with apple cider vinegar (enough to cover). It sat for 4 months, we strained it and now add a few drops to our water or tea each day. So good to have on hand, but it requires some mindful work in advance. If you don't have anything similar lying about (unlikely for many I expect), pick up a good quality echinacea tincture. That will do the trick, too. If you want to make a tincture now, you can buy all the herbs your local food coop doesn't carry from Rose Mountain Herbs.

Humidifier with Essential Oils

Every night I refill our humidifier and add LuSa Organics Breathe Deep Essential Oil to the essential oil cup or the water. So lovely, if I do say so myself. We've also used a healthy dose of LuSa Organics Chest Rub this month. I can't imagine not having this on hand but if you don't, straight eucalyptus essential oil will help as well in the humidifier and you can add a couple of drops to a balm of your choice and apply to chest and back.

Homeopathy

There are a few remedies recommended for Whooping Cough. This site gives a good break-down of recommendations.

Rest, rest, rest.

Because you are healing. Your immune system is working. Your body is amazing. Give it time to rest. Nourishing food.

And when all else fails, brandy.

Okay. I'm kidding with that one. But do what you have to to get some sleep. Your nights will be disturbed by lots of coughing, so go to bed early and sleep as long as you can. (She writes through bleary sleepy eyes.)

Wellness blessings to all.

Love,
Rachel

Felt Crown Tutorial

Today you can find me over on Whip-Up. I was honored to be asked by Kathreen to write a post for her guest blogger series and I shared a tutorial for crafting a free-spirited wool birthday crown or play crown. Click on over to my post and have a peek.

I love this project. Truly. Love it. That would explain why we have two children and four crowns. 

Love,
Rachel

 

October. And the Pumpkin Fairy.

October is time for...

Harvesting and carving pumpkins. Every year we have volunteer pumpkin plants that spring up (this year in the asparagus bed) and provide us with plenty of pumpkins to carve.

Knitting. Constantly. Obsessively. Neurotically. In my knitting basket is Lupine's birthday sweater, my second arm warmer, a dress for our favorite Waldorf baby, and more - with Sage and Pete's sweaters on deck for the coming weeks.

Making live-fermented veggies to last us through the winter. Sauerkraut, gingered carrots, kim chi, cordito, and more. These are among my favorite foods and are on our table every day. (I use Sandor Katz's formula for ferments, though I don't follow a proper recipe anymore.)

Bringing out the bin of hand knits to handwash and lay out to dry the mittens, hats, sweaters, and slippers. These knits are such a simple pleasure for me. Some were knit by my grandma, others by me. I treasure them.

Putting the summer garden to bed. And the canning supplies. We're done! Time to count the jars. This was a great first canning year.

Putting the finishing touches on our Halloween costumes. So fun.

As we look ahead to Halloween I wanted to share with you a favorite magical tradition in our home: the Pumpkin Fairy. I was introduced to the Pumpkin Fairy by one of my most magical friends several years ago. And I was so glad we were.The Pumpkin Fairy is wonderful.

You see, I was always a little sketchy on keeping all that sugar from Halloween around the house. It's not what I wanted my kids to eat, yet I didn't want to be the heavy and swoop in and swipe their candy on November 1. Hello, rock. Hello, hard place. And then the Pumpkin Fairy swooped in on an autumn wind and saved the day.

The Pumpkin Fairy arrives by invitation to transform your Halloween treats into a wonderful, simple gift. (If she's never come before it's only because you didn't invite her before.) To invite her to your home is simple. Your child first selects the candy you will give her and put it out in a basket, covered with a cloth or silk. (Sometimes it is easier to choose a few to keep and put the rest out for the fairy.)

By morning the Pumpkin Fairy has come and transformed the candy into something lovely, akin to what you might find in our spring baskets. Around here the size of the gift is determined by how much candy they give, as an incentive to give it all. The Pumpkin Fairy has brought crystals, craft supplies, small handmade toys, and a special fall book. 

So there you go. That's how we do it around here.

(P.S. I'm closing down my Etsy shop for a while and have everything 20% off with the coupon code PUMPKINFAIRY if it is of interest to you. There are a couple of toddler Waldorf dolls, an upcycled shoulder bag, and a soft woolen hat.) 

A Quilt Auction.

Birds

People

Colors

Homes

The rural corner of Wisconsin where I hail from, Vernon County, is the second poorest of the 72 counties in the state. Poor in dollars, maybe. But not in creativity, vision, magic, or art. In those I suspect we'd come out on top, per-capita. 

Take these quilts. They are fantastic, if I say so myself.

Handmade for the Viroqua Harvest Moon Celebration (I blogged about that experience here), the quilts were crafted by four groups of amazing, artistic, passionate women. The quilts represent weeks of creative collaborative work.

They also provide a bit of artistic parade fund-raising.

All four quilts are all being auctioned off in a silent auction at Ewetopia, our local yarn shop. All proceeds will go to support the future of the parade for years to come. For those of you with the means, will you join us? The starting bid is $200 on each quilt. The sale of these quilts will really help make the parade happen in the coming years. Considering the time that went into each, that's a steal for starting bids. LuSa Organics bid on one to hang as art in our new production space. I'll let you know if we win!

As for sizes, a call to Ewetopia can answer your questions. Place a bid by phone (Ewetopia Fiber Shop: 608-637-3443) or email (info@ewetopiafibershop.com). Quilts will be delivered to the winning bidder in the coming weeks.

Have a blessed weekend, everyone.

Love,
Rachel

P.S. In case you were wondering, I made the wren (bottom left) and bluebird on prayer flags (top right) on the bird quilt.

 

Gratitude.

Finding gratitude today for...

The cold. Last night was the first frost of the season. Waking to see the garden laid out by a thick frost was delightful. I know. Strange. But it's time and I appreciate the continuous turning of the seasons. I'm ready for the next rhythm.

The warmth. A fire burning in the fireplace. The light, the smell, the heat. A quilt on my lap, and a kid on each side. Oh, yeah.

This yarn. Seeing progress on this knitting project (size 2 needles!). This is Lupine's birthday sweater (Ravelry link here) and the progress is slow, but it's happening. Row by row... I have 2 1/2 weeks until her birthday and miles of stitches to go. But the focus is good for me right now.

These herbs. We're taking a lot of herbs these days as we work on some serious natural immunity. (More on that next week.) I'm so happy to have bags of thyme, sage, pine needles, and other herbs to help us stay strong on our path towards wellness.

And you. Yes, you. I'm thankful for those of you who come here day after day, week after week to read. Most of you are quiet, some of you I feel I know well from your voice in the comments. I love heading from you, and I love seeing points on the map from Hawaii, Alaska, and Nova Scotia to France, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica, Columbia, Mexico, and so many points between. Thanks for sharing this journey with me.

What are you grateful for this day? I'd love to hear from you.

Love,
Rachel

 

 

 

Finding Our Rhythm: Autumn.

It's that time again. The leaves are on the ground. We've changed out the clothes in our drawers and the activities on the calendar. All of our school friends have been back to school long enough that our own rhythm is setting in. And it feels amazing. Like that fire in the wood stove.

Here is what has changed with our seasonal rhythm:

1. Quiet time has been transformed. Thanks to some wise words in comments here (See - you inspire me!) I've shifted quite time from a prison sentence to a half-hour of so of "Mama-needs-a-break". And they get it. They chill. We even hang out together sometimes. I knit, they read or play quietly, we unwind our day.

2. House Blessing. After quiet time we work together to clean one room (or 'area') per day. The kids use to resist this but now... they love it. Love it I tell you. (Yes, really.) They can't wait. Sage did the math on how many days we have chores for and realized there was a day off. "Can we just polish furniture that day, mama?" Um, okay.

I let them choose how they participate and they just roll. The big fluffy feather dusters my mom gave us and the many vacuum attachments don't hurt either. We dust. We polish. We organize. I can't explain it. They freaking love it. I think a big part is because it is to make their space beautiful (who doesn't appreciate that?) and because I don't force them to do tasks they don't like. If the two of them spend 20 minutes polishing the coffee table with homemade furniture polish I'm okay with that. If they need to take all of the pictures off the wall to dust them with a single ostrich feather from Pete's fly tying supplies, go for it. (That was yesterday's turn of events.) Keep it fun and they'll dive in.

3. Chapter and Tea: We're back with the book. We took summer off but are back on the couch again. How I love this ritual. It is one of my favorite parts of the day.

4. The computer is OFF. This one is huge. I have started switching the computer off all day long. I boot up once mid day and after bedtime and that's it. Ta da! I love it. (So do they.) Our mindful, connective, present time is expanding in every direction.

5. Outside time. I don't want to slack on this right now. If we're out constantly out in summer and get sloppy in the fall, then winter will be misery. I chase them out each day late afternoon and then do some work of my own. Then I join them and find the joy in play out in the freshness with them. Their play has been inspired - by the season, by the leftovers in the garden, by their spirits.

6. Early to Bed. I've revisited a more solid rhythm in every part of our day, including a more stable, fall-like bedtime. (Summer has quite an effect on us, dragging bedtime out until it's later than I wish.) They are asleep early, and so am I. Win-win.

And all of these changes? We love. Deeply and honestly. Life feels balanced right now, and I'm enjoying every aspect of my day. Finding the gratitude in all that is right.

Love,
Rachel

How To Felt Soap

Welcome to Clean! I frequently post simple craft tutorials as well as share my reflections on gentle parenting. I invite you to like my page on Facebook and keep up on what's happeing here. Peace, Rachel

What is felted soap?
Felted soap is a bar of soap encased in a wool cover. It is soap in a jacket. It is soap with a sweater. It is a built-in washcloth, poof, or scrubbie. And the real magic is that the wool continues to felt up smaller and smaller as the soap shrinks, staying tight around the ever diminishing bar. Cool? Very. And at the end all that remains is a wee scrap of wool that you can toss into the compost. I love that.

It sounds complicated.
No. Not really. As homeschoolers, my family is always looking for a project that is easy enough to satisfy our children but fun enough to be enjoyable for all. Wet felting is one such project. Quick, easy, and affordable, my children and I wet felt beads, paperweights, balls, vessels, soap, and more. Heck, you can wet felt a rock to make a paperweight Martha Stewart would be proud of. All you need is wool (roving), hot and cold water, a little time, and in this case a bar of soap. Each bar takes under five minutes, so you can make dozens in an afternoon.  

Ready to get started?

Good. Me, too.

Materials

To create felted soap you will need a few ounces of colorful 100% wool roving. Ask at your local yarn shop for a roving that wet felts well, or visit a website like Etsy and search for “roving”. Choose a few coordinating colors.

Soap (obviously). I'm partial to my own soap, and I sell "Imperfect Soap Samplers" (as pictured above) which are perfect for this project at a bargain. But use whatever you love.

Instructions

Begin by filling a soup pot with very cold water (toss in a few ice cubes for good measure). Set the pot aside by your sink.

Roughly measure the width of your soap bar. Tear off a piece of roving that is approximately three times this measurement. This will give you enough wool to wrap your soap with some overlap of the ends. (Don’t cut your roving. Tear with your hands. You may need to tease the roving apart a bit to make it thin enough to tear.) Tease apart the wool until it is a fairly thin and uniform layer. You should be able to see your fingers through the fibers. It if becomes much wider than your soap, pull away the excess and set aside.

Wrap the bar of soap tightly in the wool, overlapping the ends. Set aside your soap, weighting down the wool with another bar if necessary to keep the wool tight.

Measure the height of your bar and triple it. Working in the same color or a new color, again tear off a length of wool to wrap your soap in the opposite (vertical) direction. Tease the wool into a thin layer. Repeat vertically the wrapping process on your soap. You should now have a bar of soap completely covered in two layers of wool. Look it over. If there are holes move the wool around a bit to cover any exposed soap.

Holding the wrapped bar carefully, move to the sink. Turn on your hot water tap. When the water is very hot (as hot as you can comfortable place your hands in), set the faucet to a trickle. Take a dab of liquid soap or dish soap and place it in the palm of your hand. Using your fingers on the opposite hand, pick up a small amount of soap and gently work it into the wool on the top of the soap. Repeat on the bottom of the bar.

 

Move the wool-covered soap under the trickle of water to just moisten the fibers. (Do not soak the bar). Using a very gentle touch, massage the soap with your fingertips to lather up the liquid soap. Flip the bar over and repeat. When the wool is lathery, move under the hot water again and continue to gently massage the wool. This time the wool will become thoroughly saturated and the bar of soap will begin to lather.. The wool will be squishy and loose on the soap. This is normal. Be gentle. Use patience, a light touch, and go slow.

Continue to massage and lather the soap very gently in your hands. Alternate between the hot tap and gently massaging, then the cold tap and massaging ever minute or so. The combination of friction, hot water, and cold water will case the wool to transform into a dense felt, encasing the soap.

As the wool very gradually becomes more densely felted, you can apply more pressure to speed the felting process. Within a few minutes you will be gently flipping the felted soap in your hands like you are washing up. Continue to alternate between hot, cold, and friction until the wool is fairly tightly felted around the bar. When you are satisfied with the tightness fo the wool, rinse the bar, squeeze out excess moisture and set aside to dry. (The wool will be soapy. Don’t fret. It’ll dry up beautifully.)

Experiment with single colors, multiple colors, and even needle felted embellishments added after the soap and wool are dry. Happy felting!

Girl Time

Feel the collective relaxed sigh from such an amazing weekend? Despite our coughs, it was magical.

I love:

This place.

This season.

This girl.

We headed to the cabin. (You suspected that already, didn't you?) A weekend for just the two of us. (Leaf Girl" as she is now known and me.) We'd never taken a trip without the boys before. And I must say, it was bliss.

We sewed, we knitted, and we played along side the river, mostly in the leaves.

We nursed our coughs with good tea, elderberry tincture and syrup, and nourishing food.

We slept 11 hours at a stretch. We read books and laughed together.

We sat together on the dock - built by my grandfather's hands out of rocks, concrete, and an old bedframe decades before I was born - and watched leaves dance in the wind. We wondered at the the short days, the river, the birds.

We connected so deeply. And relaxed so deeply as well. Indeed, this weekend was as magical and healing as chicken soup, on every level. And now? We're home, but we both still sparkle with the magic of these three days. Together.

Making Elderberry Tincture.

While we get settled back in and unpacked, I have another re-post for you to pass the time. Elderberry tincture.

~ * ~ * ~

As a society we have externalized so much of what we need and want in our lives. Music, clothing, food, entertainment, health care. It's all purchased from outside of our family and our community. So what happens when we jam on the mandolin in the evening, sew some of our own clothes, bake our own bread, and make our own medicine? We come to life. On so many levels. Sure, I sometimes buy bread, most of our clothing come from the thrift store, and I have an Ipod, but to mix homemade and homegrown into every fold of our lives - even the smallest bits - can change everything.

That being said, making medicine is likely a daunting task to most. I broke down a simple fresh elderberry tincture into seven simple steps below. (Aside from chewing up a plantain leaf and placing it on a bee sting, this is almost as easy as medicine gets.)

I was very much "in the now" when I made this tincture, so there are no photos walking you step-by-step, but it is so easy I think you'll get it without the pics.

I chose elderberry because the elderberries are coming ripe, and because we use a great deal of elderberry tincture every winter. The procedure is as basic as can be. You really only need to be certain of your plant identification before you proceed, and you're golden. (Also avoid raw elderberries as they can cause nausea and vomiting. Don't ask me how I know this.)

Fresh Elderberry Tincture

1. Locate: Find a site with abundant wild elderberries (sambucus ssp.). We honor the wildcrafting rule of 10/1. For every ten plants (or flowers, or fruits, or mushrooms) in the immediate area, you may take one home. If there are fewer than ten leave them to propagate the area and check back another year. You can also purchase dried elderberries online or at your coop, but use fresh if you can get them.

2. Harvest: Pick your elderberries right on the umbels (umbrella-shaped berry clusters). The stems are hollow and the fresh clusters snap off with ease. Don't fuss with picking off the individual berries. We'll get to that at home. Gather the ripest, almost black berries.

3. Freeze: When you have a bag-full take the berries home and pop them in the freezer. When frozen the berries will crumble with ease off of the stem.

4. Separate: Crumble the berries off of the stem into a bowl and transfer to a quart jar. Fill the jar with berries to just below the shoulders. Allow to thaw.

5. Muddle: With a wooden spoon or kraut pounder break the berries open a bit. You don't need to pulverze them, but muddle them up a bit. Some seeds will become exposed, and they look a little like bugs - so don't freak (see photo above).

6. Steep: Cover to in inch or two above the berries with good brandy (in Wisconsin a basic decent brandy is Korbel, so that's what we use). Lid, label, and tuck away in a dark quiet corner for 4 to 6 weeks. Tip the jar over and gently shake every time you think of it.

7. Bottle: Strain through a stainless steel colander lined with a thin cloth. Store in amber dropper bottles or glass jars in your medicine cabinet.

You can take a few drops of elderberry tincture often throughout the winter months. Dosage is as follows when feeling under the weather:

Adults 20 drops 2 - 3 times/day in water

Children 10 drops 2 - 3 times/day in water