She Filled her Home with Scents! December 19, 2010

The lovely lemons that fabulous Jennifer sent to me have been waiting patiently for me, while I ignored them, quite rudely.  We'll, I guess not ignored them, I did keep checking to be sure they were still looking plump and lovely.  Finally today, with Christopher and the girls off visiting family, I thought I'd make some Lemon Curd.  Wouldn't you know the day I need 6 eggs, those lazy girls popped out 1...all day.  I guess today all their cycles met.  I decided to juice and zest all the lemons, for safer storing.  I can store in the fridge for a couple days while I collect eggs, and when I'm ready, it will be there.  I'm so excited.

My Curd plans being foiled, and while making room in the fridge for the new jars, I noticed we are almost out of cough syrup.  That stuff worked amazingly well for Istra when she had the bout with the croup.  All the comments I read online had me very worried, barking cough bringing on gasping for air, up all night, scary and helpless mom's.  Eeek.  Not here.  We gave her 1/2 tsp every 2 hours and she only barked when she cried,  and her breathing was raspy and noisy, but she didn't struggle, and she slept through the night.  I was amazed.  Certainly that stuff hits some kids hard than others, but I really was impressed with the cough syrup. 

Cough syrup led to me remembering the slippery elm bark lozenges I wanted to make.  Great for soar throats, or upset tummies.  Rounding things out were two salve/creams one for easy breathing and soothing sleep for when congestion strikes, and one is for scrapes, or chapped skin. 

I'm feeling prepared for whatever the cold season has to bring.  Cough Syrup, throat/tummy lozenges, chest rub, chapped skin salve, and the elderberry syrup I canned over the summer.  Now that is a DIY cold fighting kit to be proud of!

Hot water bottle cover number one is done, and the second is on the needles.  The sweaters are blocking.  Things are looking good so far, I hope you are finding the same!

 

Comments

[Christopher ouellette]

Fantastic

[Joy]

Nice cold kit, but the brown jars look a little scary. Is that the cough syrup?

[Amy Ouellette]

Yes, it's the cough syrup. It's herbs steeped in water, then you drain the water off and mix it in with honey. It's a little more golden in person that the pick, but it is dark. It's yummy and amazingly effective. I've been impressed with my experience with the girls, and I gave some to a friend whose little boy was very congested and within a day or two he was breathing much easier. She and I were both amazed. I love it when a simple herbal solution works as well, if not better than the chemically ridden over the counter options.

[ewg]

Hey what has she done lately?

Happy New Year!
-Ellen

[jenn]

Ellen- I was wondering the same thing too. And I'm wondering about that lemon curd.....