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Benefits of Tallow in All Natural Soaps & Skincare
If you’re like me you were a little weirded out when you first learned about Tallow. You want me to put what on my hands and face? 😆 When I started learning about all the benefits of it, I quickly got used to the idea and started really appreciating the knowledge. If you don’t know, tallow is rendered and purified beef fat. Yup, you read that right! When you render beef fat (specifically suet, found around the kidneys), you rid it of impurities and water, leaving a nutrient-dense oil that will nourish your skin whether it is mixed with lye and made into soap, used as a moisturizer, or used…
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How Discovering Hidden Ingredients Led Me to Embrace Natural Soaps
Several years ago I started learning more about healthy living. This can mean a lot of different things depending on who you are. For me, it started with eating a little better to lose weight after having a baby (my first baby, who is 9 now 😭). As I was learning to look at labels I realized that there are so many unnecessary ingredients in foods. Even simple things that seem like they should only have 1 or 2 ingredients had 5-10. For me, this is where my natural product journey all began. My interest in healthier products grew from foods to cleaning products, and then to products that went…
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Why does Lye (sodium hydroxide) need to be in soap?
Why does Lye (sodium hydroxide) need to be in soap? This is a huge question I asked myself when I started looking into a more natural way of making soap. I read all the ingredients in the soaps and other products we were putting on our skin. I began to wonder what all the chemicals were for and how they were affecting us. What I found is we don’t need all those crazy chemicals to create a soap that is amazing. But we do need Lye. You can not make a natural soap without it. Lye – also known as sodium hydroxide and/or potassium hydroxide is a strong alkaline material.…
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My Scheduled C-Section Story-Thanks to My Breech Baby
This post contains affiliate links. This will not cost you anything but helps us to offset the cost of running the blog. We only share products we are using and are items we would recommend to a friend. Thank you for your support! Click ‘HERE’ for more info. First of all, I went into this pregnancy NOT wanting to have a C-Section, but Hannah had other plans. I was taking a Bradley Method Birthing class so that I could have an all-natural drug-free birth experience. If you’re interested in that kind of birth experience I highly recommend the book Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way. You can also find a live class to…
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Review of GroVia All in One Newborn Cloth Diapers
We’ve been using the Newborn All-In-One Grovia Cloth Diapers for 6 weeks now and we love them! My daughter was born at 8lbs 14oz but by the time we got home she had lost almost a whole pound (yeah, we had a slight weight issue), so she wore them as a 7lb 14oz baby and is about 9lbs and is still wearing them. According to the Grovia website, newborn cloth diapers are great for newborns between 5 and 12 pounds. I chose the GroVia brand of cloth diapers because the company is committed to high-quality, healthy, and environmentally friendly products. They also have some organic cotton options that I am…
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How to Make a Chocolate Rock Cycle
The Rock Cycle is something we study in the Montessori curriculum pretty much every year, especially in the lower elementary years because if you’re 6-9 year old is anything like mine (or any of my students) they are all pretty much obsessed with geology! This post contains affiliate links. This will not cost you anything but will help us offset the cost of running the blog. We only share products we use and would recommend to a friend. Thank you for your support! Click ‘HERE’ for more info. I have always had a hard time with the rock cycle (I know, kind of embarrassing for a teacher to admit), I just could…
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How to Make Cran-Raspberry Jam using Cranberry Juice
I searched and searched to find a Cran-Raspberry Jam recipe that didn’t use whole cranberries to start. Is it such a crazy idea to not want chunks of cranberry in my jam? Or maybe I couldn’t find any cranberries (which was the case when I was making Christmas Jam just after Thanksgiving this year). Or perhaps I had already purchased the cranberry juice without first finding a recipe, whoops! Anyway, I am happy to share this recipe with you in case you find yourself in a similar situation! This post contains affiliate links. Using them will not cost you anything but will help us offset the cost of running the…
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Black Raspberry Pie with the Best Crumble Top Recipe
Pick the Black Raspberries and Make the Pie Filling It’s no secret that one of my favorite parts of summer is being able to pick fresh black raspberries all over my yard and at a local park in July! Last summer I discovered that not only could we enjoy fresh black raspberry recipes but I could also can jams and pie fillings to enjoy that flavor all year long. Somehow, it tastes better in the dead of winter too when summer seems so far away. If you haven’t had the luxury of canning jam or pie fillings with your black raspberries, make sure to search for some recipes for that.…
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Rosemary Who? Try this Amazing Prime Rib Roast Recipe
This year, my nephew was telling me he would be cooking a prime rib roast for my sister and her kids at their little family get-together. He told me they were on sale and I was intrigued. I have never had a prime roast. Ribeyes – yes. We are a huge steak-eating family. But I have never had it in a roast. We are not a traditional family in the sense that we have a huge Christmas dinner and all that jazz. I usually want to have my kids come over and enjoy them. I don’t want to feel exhausted from preparing a huge meal. So it is either pizza…
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The Only Strawberry Rhubarb Recipe You’ll Ever Need
I think I’ve found the perfect strawberry rhubarb recipe. Try it and tell me if you agree! Living in the midwest, rhubarb has always been a staple in my life. I grew up picking it, dipping it in sugar, and enjoying those tart bites. I love making pies with it and listening to the stories about how my grandma used to make it too. When I moved out of the midwest I learned that rhubarb wasn’t easy to find! This is our first spring back home and I finally got my hands on some rhubarb, so a strawberry rhubarb recipe was first on my list. This post contains affiliate links.…
