Minty Mint Bath

Mint in the tub enlivens the senses and restores the spirit so this is a wonderful bath for when you need a little happy boost!

flowering peppermint

Here is how to make your very own mint bath  ~

In a cloth or muslin bag wrap:

• 1 to 2 large handfuls of dried peppermint leaves
• a good sprinkle of lavender blossoms

Toss the bundle in the tub and fill with the hottest water from your facuet.  Let the herbs steep in the tub until the water is cool enough for bathing about 15 to 20 minutes depending on the heat of your water.  The water will turn a deep greenish yellow brown, like a giant cup of peppermint tea.

Next Add:

• a handful of epsom salt
• 6 drops of spearmint(not peppermint*) essential oil

Climb in and enjoy this happy, refreshing bath!

After my bath ~

I felt calm as I always do after bathing yet I also had a sense of wanting to inhale the moment.  The rest of the afternoon found me happily going about my business with peaceful energy.  Plus my skin smelled sweet and nice, a bit minty, yum!

* A Note On Peppermint Essential Oil:  Every time I try putting peppermint in my bath I get burned, even with just one drop!  I start to feel an itchy uncomfortable sensation on my skin and must get out to rub down with olive oil, which dilutes the peppermint.  People react differently to things and it is possible that I am sensitive to peppermint.  Try peppermint essential oil in your bath, if you wish, but please start with one drop and go from there.

Shared On: Wildcrafting Wednesday, Natural Living Link-up, Heatlhy Habits Tuesday, Eco Kid's Tuesday

The Art Of Bathing

Nourishing Mama Mission Three ~

How have you been?  Feeling a bit more centered and relaxed?  I hope so!  A few weeks of claiming sacred time for myself and practicing conscious thoughts of gratitude upon waking have done so much for me.

This third pursuit of the Nourishing Mama Mission promises to be my favorite so far, the art of bathing.

I love baths.  I love water and how it has the power to wash away everything, absolutely everything.  Stress, dirt, illness, concerns and on and on...  One of my teacher's at herb school told us that water is very accepting and healing.  He said that when sitting by a stream you can ask the water to take away your worries, and it will.  Having tried this, I can attest that water will do this for you, even when you are in the tub.  As the water drains from the tub ask it to take away your pain, your cares and give thanks to the water.

All the Elements are present in the bath ~

Water

Surrounding, cleansing and supporting, it is truly magical and healing.

Fire

It is Fire that heats the water and the soul.

Earth

Our plant allies become part of the bath whether in the form of herbs or essential oils, they add their special properties and healing.

Air  

A deep breath is instigated by the deep warmth of water and by the fragrance of the plants.

Breathing deeply centers and calms the spirit.

Spirit

This is you, this is me, bringing ourselves to the moment.  To be healed and nourished.

Most of the mammas I know would agree that taking time for a bath is really taking out some time for yourself.  It means a lot to close that door on the world, slip into a warm fragrant tub and rest there undisturbed.  Can you find sometime to do this for yourself?  At least once a week?  Give it a try and see how you feel.

Here is my favorite no fuss recipe for making a healing, relaxing bath ~

Fill your tub with warm to hot water and add:

• 1 to 2 cups of relaxing Epsom salts, depending on the size of your tub
• 6 to 10 drops of beautiful cleansing lavender essential oil

Have a big glass of cool water nearby to sip and bring a good book with you to read, if you so wish.  Get in and relax, let go and know the water will wash away anything you no longer need or want.

More essential oil blends for the bath ~

• Awakens the brain while also providing relaxation: 4 drops each rosemary and lavender 
• Great for easing stress and fatigue at the start of menstruation:  5 drops of clary sage and 3 of lavender
• Soothes mental fatigue and anger, plus smells divine: 4 drops cardamom and 4 drops ylang ylang
• For easing stress and when you need a bit of happiness: 5 drops rose geranium, 3 drops orange  & 3 drops lavender

Note:  Whenever possible add a big handful of Epsom salts to your bath which help to relax muscles and draw out toxins plus so much more, they are magical!

Look for more delicious bath recipes in the coming days.  I know it will be hard for me, but I will research and try every recipe to give us all more wonderful ways to enjoy the art of bathing.

Blessings and Love!

Bath Blends To Try: 

Minty Mint Bath

Soothing Herbal Bath For Irritated Muscles & Nerves

Rosy Oatmeal Bath

Candy Cane Bath Salts

More Nourishing Mama Mission...

Mama On A Mission ~ Introduction

Nourishing Mama Mission One ~ Cultivating Sacred Space 

Nourishing Mama Mission Two ~ Attitude of Gratitude ~ The Start of the Day

Nourishing Mama Mission Four ~ Herbal Infusions, Healthful Simplicity

Shared On:  Time For A Party!, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Wednesday Wonderings

Image Credit: Morgue File (photos 1 -5)

Crafts For A Dreamy Herbal Slumber Party

A sweet celebration of a girl turning ten years old, my daughter's right of passage into "the double digits" was hallmarked by a riotously fun slumber party.  The girls danced to all the new songs; giggled and played tag; ate cake with ice cream; and had their faces painted by a professional face painter. As the evening wore on into night we followed all of this fun up with a bit of herbal crafting before bed.  My daughter requested we make dream pillows, spritzers and have foot baths.  It was great to work with a group of older children because they can do many things preschoolers just can't do yet!

Dream Pillows

Cuddly fleece surrounding aromatic herbs what girl could resist?  We based our pillows off of the instructions for making a no-sew fleece pillow on Family Fun.  We made our pillows like mini body pillows for extra cuddliness.  I have made these a few times before with children of various ages.  At ages 9 and 10 the girls were able to tie the pillows themselves and I am sure they could have cut the fabric too, but I made sure to have that part done before the party so we could focus on the fun part!  This pillow needs to be tied and stuffed.  Notice the how the cloth is cut, easy-peasy to do!

We sat in a circle on the floor.  The room alive with chatting and tying.  When someone had a bit of trouble with her project we would all help.  It was a nice little gathering.  After the girls had their pillows mostly tied they stuffed them with fluffy filler stuff from Hobby Lobby.  Then we made herbal bundles to put into their pillows stuffed full of herbs to enhance sleep and dreams ~rose petals, lavender, mugwort and hops.  All the herbs were chosen by my daughter during a visit to Rebecca's in Boulder where they let her meet and sniff the herbs to her heart's content!

Here are the beautiful herbs we used all ready to bundle up; from top to bottom ~ red rose petals, hops strobiles, lavender blossoms and mugwort leaves.  A fest for the senses!

The girls laid out their chosen herbs on a scrap of cloth which we then folded around the herbs and hot glued shut.  It is important to do something to contain the herbs with this kind of pillow because the pillow is not sewn shut and loose herbs fall out of the pillow.  Then they placed their herbal bundle in their pillow on top of the fluff filler, right near the surface so the fragrance of the herbs will drift out when they cuddle with their pillow.  After that, all that was left was to finish tieing their pillows and viola!  A soft aromatic sleep inducing handmade pillow!

Aromatherapy Spritzers

Making spritzers is always so fun.  It brings out a bit of  magical witchiness with all the smelling and blending of precious elixirs into something amazing.

To start this project each girl received a blank label for her bottle.  Creative juices were flowing around our kitchen table as the labels were transformed with stencils and colored pencils.

With their finished labels adorned the girls came into the kitchen where I had laid out a variety of relaxing dreamy essential oils ~ lavender, cedarwood, ylang ylang, cardamom, orange and rose geranium.

The girls sniffed and explored each oil asking questions while formulating their own brew.   It was lovely to watch them each pick out what their nose was drawn too.  No blend was the same!  Once they had chosen oils we added them to beautiful cobalt blue spray bottles which were filled with water.  We stuck to using 5 to 6 drops of essential oil per ounce of water.  Then we screwed on the spray top; the girls added their labels; a shake and a spray and they were off to enjoy.

Foot Soaks

Last but not least, the girls indulged in warm salty foot soaks.  Deep pans and bowls for the girls to put their feet in were filled with very warm water and the girls, sitting in chairs, eased their feet into the water.  "Ah's" and "oh's" echoed around the room as their bodies visibly relaxed.

We had a variety of warming and relaxing things to add to their foot soaks: epsom salt, ground ginger, lavender blossoms and essential oil.  As they relaxed and softly chatted, I added what they chose to the water and  it was quiet for the first time in hours!

As they finished soaking, their feet were dried and we started foot rubs.  They each got  a squirt of an herbal infused oil enhanced with lots of lavender essential oil to rub on their feet.  The skin on our feet absorbs whatever we put on it very well so it is a great place to use natural oils for promoting health.  Lavender on the feet helps ease the body into peacefulness and calm.  After all this nice soaking and rubbing, the girls had their feet warm and snug in socks and they were off again to sleep.... well, I wasn't that lucky but they were much calmer after all of our fun together!

Note:  Next time I hope to add in lots of delicious healthy herbal treats to our party plans to round out our plans.  Stay posted!

Eydie from Fanciful Faces was the incredible face painter we had to our house.  She was so fun and could paint anything the girls requested.  We had everything from a butterfly to a panda to Santa Claus to our dog's exactly replicated on my youngest child's face.  If you are in the Front Range of Colorado, check her out!

At Long Last An Essential Mommy Time Out

Just Me, Myself and I

This is important.  This is something many of us forget.  This is something we need to remember for ourselves and the other people in our lives.  Each of us has a responsibility to care for ourselves.  When feeling depleted and frustrated it is hard to care for others and more over, we deserve to take care of us, to feel good and happy.  As a mom I find it so easy to forget about myself and get caught up in the everydayness of life; all the things each day that come and go pulling my attention.  It is easy to become overwhelmed and depleted at a very deep level.

Well, today it was time to take care of me!

Back Story

We had a fun and exciting holiday season topped off with four birthdays in our immediate family.  That is right four!  We are all Capricorns and have our birthdays from December 29th to January 11th.  With two little girls eager to celebrate their special day and with the excitement of Christmas, the last six weeks were a whirl wind of planning and activity.  I always try to make their birthdays a bit extra special because, let's face it, having a birthday close to Christmas and New Year can be a big bummer.  So this year, true to form, they each made special plans and we carried them out to the best of our ability.  So, for me, today really feels like the first day of the new year, like the holidays are finally over and I can get on with life.  But instead of feeling ready to go and grab the bull by the horns so to speak, I found myself feeling grouchy and tired.  Previous life experience gained from ignoring signals from my body told me that  I must stop, truly, and take sometime for just me.  Just me, myself and I.  With the kids at school and nothing immediately pressing in my day I decided to seize the morning and after a bit of ponderous deliberation settled upon a good old fashion spa day.  As a young woman I used to relish in a custom, homemade spa day for myself once a week.  Unlike in my youth when I would do hair masks and rinses and multiple different facial masks while soaking in a herbal bath, today's spa day needed to be easy while also feeling decant.  I would say that I hit upon the perfect balance because now that I am done not only does my skin feel fabulous but my soul is peaceful, my mom brain is refreshed and clear, and well, I smell really good too!

The components of a luxurious, nourishing and simple mommy spa day

For this easy and relaxing morning I chose to do a honey mask, milky salt bath, shea butter foot rub and to finish off by brushing my favorite essential oil lavender right into my hair.  Each time I move my head I am still surrounded by drifts of calming lavender being liberated from my hair.  Um....

This spa day was simple with hardly any preparation required and easy to execute.

Here is how I did it...

• Honey Mask:  I put a spoonful of honey into a bowl then added 3 drops of helichrysum (great for skin health and encouraging fresh new skin cell growth) and 2 drops of lavender essential oil to the bowl along with a sprinkle of mild soothing kaolin clay.  While I am super lucky to have all of this in my bathroom, simple honey alone would be excellent because it is so very hydrating and nourishing for the skin.  Before getting in the bath I applied this mixture to my whole face.  It is important to put honey on dry skin as it kind of dissolves away when exposed to water.  I left this mask on for my entire bath and throughly enjoyed the scent of honey and helichrysm wafting up to my nose!   After rinsing the mask off at the end of my bath I followed up with a small amount of rose infused coconut oil from my favorite herbal apothecary Rebecca's.  This oil was dreamed up by none other than oil making goddess Rebecca.  So amazing!

• Milky Salt  Bath:  Epsom salts always find their way into my baths nowadays but today I wanted something special.  So I filled a large glass to the brim with milk, took it into the bathroom and dumped it into the tub along with about two cups of epsom salts (this amazing salt relax muscles).  Milk bathes, reputedly used by none other than Cleopatra, hydrate and smooth skin.  Then when I got into the tub I added 8 drops of lavender and 4 drops of cedarwood (encourages a meditative mind and releases stress) essential oils and gave the water a good whooshing to mix in the oils.  Now, I admit it, I take baths pretty regularly.  I consider it one of my rights as a human being.  But this bath was special.  I think the milk really held the essential oils in suspension so that the smell from oils permeated the water for the entire length of the bath.  It was so luscious!

• Shea Butter Foot Rub:  After my bath I got all  dry and toasty and then  I gave my feet a nice rub with some rosemary lavender shea butter that I have on my nightstand but don't use often enough.  My feet were thanking me as the dryness and tension melted away.  Then cuddly warm socks topped my feet and kept the moisture where it needed to be.

• Lavender Hair Brushing:  Last but not least, a few drops of lavender on my brush and some kind strokes through my hair topped off this wonderful experience.  Lavender essential oil is a great conditioner for hair and the aromatic benefits of brushing essential oils into ones hair is profound because the oil is placed so close to the nose!

So here I am.  Happy and calm again.  So glad to be sharing my beautiful morning.  It always surprises me that with a little intent and attention things can readily change.  Feelings become clearer and thoughts settle.  This was a fun adventure in self care using what I had on hand so that I could really focus on me.  Now, when my kids come home from school, they will find a happier mom.  A mom who is ready to listen fully and play and cuddle with her whole self!