Healthy Cosmetic

There are almost as many aisles of cosmetics in our grocery store as there are of food aisles. And while we take the time to look at the nutritional information on food packages most of us don't think twice about the ingredients in cosmetics. As long as the cosmetics does it's job or at least smells good it's welcomed into our home environment and into our bodies. It doesn't help that the ingredient lists on most cosmetics are often undecipherable. And even if you want to find something less toxic you have to deftly navigate through the currents of cosmetic greenwashing.

But think about it. How many cosmetic products do you use every day? (I put up a poll on the sidebar) ...and do you know what's in them?



The Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Safe Cosmetic Database is a great place to do a background check on your favorite cosmetics. They even have this handy Shopper's Guide print out. You need to armed and ready when facing the world of cosmetics.

I don't use a lot of cosmetics but over the last year I've been slowly making the switch to healthier alternatives. Sometimes safe cosmetics are pricey and so my latest project has been making my own beauty products. In the long run think it'll be less expensive and a good way to know exactly what I'm exposing my body to. I'll be sharing some cosmetic recipes soon.

The Christmas Season

The last week has been filled with much joy, play and laughter. We've had the chance to visit family and friends and eat delicious food. There was nothing simple or quiet about Christmas this year... I don't know why I hoped it would be. I think I should just accept that unless we go away for Christmas it won't be relaxing. Nope, for the foreseeable future I'm sure Christmas time will be crazy and fun!

With all the celebrating, I am glad for a small respite today. We need to regroup and relax. Sweetpea is cutting teeth and Monkey needs some reigning in. Hopefully we'll be back to tip-top shape just in time for the New Year.

Merry Christmas!

Last night was a big night for us. It was the Réveillon, which is a French Canadians tradition where family and friends gathered and celebrate the coming of Christ Jesus at Christmas. There was delicious food, good drinks, fun games and gifts (which we only opened after midnight). This year we hosted the Réveillon at our home and we were inspired by our friends (thanks L!) to do it Italian style. Our guests enjoyed a Feast of the Seven Fishes. Italians celebrate this feast by serving seven different seafood dishes. We decided to serve seven different types of seafood appetizers. After all our family is French and live inland so we aren't big seafood eaters. It was a fun evening and a great way to start off the Christmas celebrations.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas filled with much joy, peace and love!

The Twelve Days of Christmas Ornaments

Last year I had plans to make tree ornaments for the twelve days of Christmas, but after making all the Jesse Tree ornaments I was done. making. ornaments. After seeing Chelsea's Advent calendar last week I was inspired! I decided to make the twelve days of Christmas ornaments out of modeling clay.

I managed to make the first five ornaments today. My plan is to give Monkey an ornament for each of the twelve days of Christmas, which go from December 25th to January 6th, wait isn't that thirteen days? Apparently you don't count January 6th.

I decided to model the ornaments after the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. Some people believe that the verses of this song have catechetical meanings, others (Snopes.com) claims this is false but that the song may have been confused with another song called A New Dial. I like the meaning behind the song whether it's true or not.

A partridge in a pear tree - Jesus Christ, the Son of God

Two turtle dove - The Old and New Testament of the Bible

Three French hens - the three theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Love

Four calling birds - the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

Five Gold Ring - the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy

Yarn Along (no.6)

Ginny at Small Things is hosting her Yarn Along today. I really enjoy participating in her yarn alongs. It gives my that extra motivation to put aside some time for knitting and reading during the business of December. Unfortunately I left my camera at my parents-in-laws home so I don't have a picture for this week.

I have almost finished both fingerless mitts. I've been working on them for the last one, two and three yarn alongs! I hit a bit of a stall after loosing a needle, but it has been found so all is well. The only thing keeping me from finishing the mitt is time and the The Apothecary's Daughter.

Here is a picture I thought I'd share from last week to make up for the lack of the knitting/book picture.

Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice officially marks the beginning of winter up here in the North. It's also the shortest day of the year and the longest night. It feels like winter has been around for two months already, so it's a little depressing to think that winter is only beginning.

To witness the shortest day of the year, I brought the little ones out to a nearby lake with my father and sister and some friends. Here we watched the sun set and kept warm by drinking mulled wine by a bonfire.



I'm glad that the days will be getting longer now. It gives me hope. In fact, Winter Solstice is a beautiful reminder of the coming of Christ Jesus at Christmas.

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, 

but will have the light of life" - John 8:12

Weekly Menu

It's been quite some time since my last weekly menu post. I have had good intentions but before I knew it the next week would come around and I was using a new menu.

Anyways, here is this week's menu:

Beef and Bean Burritos with sour cream, salsa, guacamole and cheese.
Vegetarian sushi rolls and miso soup.
Curried sweet potato soup and homemade bread.

Yes, it's pathetically short but Christmas Eve is this Friday and we are planning an exciting feast which I'll blog about soon.

Enjoying my cross country skis with my "little" sister.

Christmas Baking

Christmas is drawing near and as each day approaches the cookie bin gets a little fuller. I am making many of the same cookies as last year and adding a few new ones as well.

Cashew Caramel Cookies
Cherry Pecan Icebox Cookies
Chocolate Crackles Cookies
Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies
Grandma's Gingersnaps
Hazelnut Jam Thumbprints
Lemon Poppyseed Cookies
Pecan Logs
Pfeffernüsse
Sugar Cookies

One of the new cookies I made this year was the Pfeffernüsse (Pepper Cookies). I had two sources of inspiration for these cookies. One was my good friend Cindy who spends countless hours making these delectable cookies as a labour of love for those around her. The second source of inspiration was two German university students that will be joining us for Christmas. I used a recipe from Martha Stewart Cookies and they taste good, but after talking to my German friend Uli I question their authenticity. Both Cindy and Uli roll out their dough into strands and then cut it into small pieces. My cookie were big balls that resembled gingersnap cookies. It looks like I will need to find a more authentic recipe. After all, Martha Steward has a Polish heritage not German.

I'm also hoping to make some authentic French Canadian desserts like la sucre a creme and perhaps trying to make some profiteroles and filling them with la sucre a creme. Yum!

I hope your last week of Advent is filled with anticipation.

Drinking Raw Milk

That's right! We've been waiting for this opportunity since the beginning of July. It's official now, we have joined a herdshare program. Hubby and I have been reading about the benefits of raw milk for a while and are quite convinced that raw milk from a real feed cow is healthier.

I'll admit though that when Hubby brought home our first gallon of raw milk I was both thrilled and slightly anxious. I fully trust the herdshare program that is supplying our milk. I know that their cows are very well treated and the milk is expressed and stored in an extremely sanitary manner. But still I felt a little anxious. Why? Well... I'm choosing to do the opposite of what I have been told to believe and say as a nurse. Not long ago I would have gladly stood beside those health officials that claim that "any possible benefits [of raw milk] are far outweighed by the serious risk of illness from drinking raw milk" (Health Canada).

But my opinion has changed. I recognize now that Canada's view of raw milk is skewed. In France, as well as the UK and Germany, the sale of raw milk is authorised but strictly controlled. Of course farmers selling raw milk have to meet stricter regulations to prevent human illness. It makes sense. But it's not illegal to sell raw milk like it is here in Canada. In fact, there are even vending machines in France and Italy that sell raw milk. Don't you think that's neat?

I've also come to realize that there are many things that cause food borne illness that we have access to on a daily basis. For example, meat, seafood, lunch meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables can carry pathogens and cause food borne illness. Yet, we can still buy these foods legally. I'm starting to wonder if there is more to the illegality of buying raw milk that meets the eye.

Yarn Along (no.5)

It's Yarn Along over at Small Things today.

I finished the first fingerless glove last night while watching Anne of Green Gables. I love that show and should really purchase the TV series someday. I had to alter the mitt pattern slightly to fit my small hands but I'm really happy with the way the mitt has turned out. It looks like Hubby won't have to wear them after all.

The last few days I've been doing some research into beekeeping and wine making. Beekeeping seems like a great deal of work so I'm going to focus on wine making instead. The Complete Guide to Making Your Own Wine at Home is a great beginner book and I'm learning lots of good things from it. With Christmas around the corner I don't plan on starting any wine just yet, but I really should start baking cookies. Martha Stewart's Cookies is my go to book for Christmas baking. I'll be making some family favorites as well as trying some new ones too. What are your family favorites?

I've also been looking through Prayers for the Domestic Church: A Handbook for Worship in the Home for special Christmas prayers. I found one a really nice Blessing Prayer for the Christmas Tree that I'm hoping to use this weekend when we get our tree.

I hope you are having a blessed Advent!

Bottling Apple Cider

In the fall we went around town asking people if we could pick apples from their apple trees. We gathered about 500lbs of apples, of all different varieties, and met some really nice people. We rented an apple press and squeezed out about 120 liters (32 gallons) of apple juice from all the apples we picked. That's a lot of apple juice!

Not wanting to put all our apples in the same basket (grin), we stored the apple juice three different way. Half of the juice went to the brewery to be made into apple cider, some went into a carboy at home to be made in apple wine and the rest was canned as apple juice in quart sized jars.

Last week we got a call from the brewery. Our apple cider was ready and we could come in any time to bottle the cider. And this is what we did on Wednesday... for four hours! It took so much time because the carbonation machine was very slow. It took about one minute to fill each bottle and we had 180 bottles to fill.

We gathered and washed over 200 beer bottles, but they still had to be sterilized. Here are some sterilized bottles.

As you can see we used a variety of bottles... Corona, Miller, Stella Artois...

This was my view for four hours. Hubby sitting at the carbonation machine. I can't complain, this was the closest we've been to having a date in a long time.

This is to prove that I was there. When Hubby would pass me a filled bottle I would cap it. I'm not actually doing anything in this picture, just pretending and waiting for the next bottle.

The slow carbonation machine. Next time we'll bring a laptop to play a movie while we do this.

Looks like Corona, but it's actually apple cider. I think it tastes better than Corona myself but I'm not a beer drinker. It also has more alcohol compared to Corona... maybe that's why I like it better :)

Yarn Along (no.4)

Once again, it's Yarn Along with Ginny over at Small Things.

As you can see, I continue to work on my fingerless mitts. The brown yarn is a little tricky to work with because it's so stiff but the orange baby alpaca is so wonderful and soft. I'm getting close the finishing the first mitt. So far I'm quite happy with it... Hubby might not get them after all. Hopefully by next week I'll be almost finished the pair. If you are wondering, I'm using the Berry Hill Fingerless Mitts pattern from Ravelry.

For my book selection this week I'm reading a few cook books. I received Forgotten Skills of Cooking for the feast of St. Nicholas and I borrowed Meat: A Kitchen Education from the library (it has a long-braise rabbit stew recipe that I'll be trying out tomorrow). It's no secret that I really enjoy reading cook books :)

Jesse Tree Link Up

The Jesse Tree is a fun way for families to prepare for Christmas. Over the last couple weeks I have been amazed by the variety of Jesse Trees out there in the blogosphere.

To celebrate our Jesse Tree diversity and to inspire other families out there, I though to host a Jesse Tree link up. Will you join me?

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas!

December 6th is the feast of St. Nicholas and it's the perfect day to teach your children who Santa Claus really is. The St. Nicholas Center is a great place to find information about St. Nicholas and ideas for celebrating his feast day. Also, there are plenty of posts in the blogsphere about St. Nicholas today. It's fun to see what everyone is up to.

This is the second year we've celebrated the feast of St. Nicholas. We did a few of the same things as last year but did a few new things as well.

Like last year we made Candy Cane Cookies coloured a St. Nicholas paper doll from Paper Dali.

And unlike last year, this year we each received a book in our stocking. Monkey got The Legend of the Golden Snail, Sweetpea received The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, I got Forgotten Skills of Cooking and Hubby got a new computer game that's being released tomorrow - any guesses? 

Anyways... Here are some other ideas for celebrating the Feast of St. Nicholas:

Catholic Cuisine: St. Nicholas
Catholic Icing: St. Nicholas Day - Our Tradditions
Shower of Roses: Feast Days (scroll down to December)

Artist Trading Card Swap

At the beginning of November I participated in Kimberlee's ATC swap for "All the Saints". For the swap I submitted five acrylic paintings of St. Andre de Montreal, and yesterday, I was the happy recipient of five beautiful saint art pieces conveyed safely to my mailbox. Thank you Kimberlee and your wonderful children for all the hard work that went into sorting and mailing out the 1460 cards you received!

Here is the painting Of St. Andre that I sent out:

And here are the lovely cards I received in exchange:

Blessed Marie of New France from hmotherwonderswhy.blogspot.com

 

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

Saint Mary of Egypt

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

St. Justin Martyr from www.curmudgeonry.net

I can't wait until next years swap!

Infant Ear Infections

Every time Sweetpea gets sick with a cold she develops an ear infection. I dread it when her nose starts to run, like it has today. Monkey has never had an ear infection so I was taken off guard with Sweetpea's first one. I don't understand why Sweetpea is so susceptible. She is still being breastfed and we don't smoke. I guess it must have something to do with her ear anatomy.

The worst part is that her ear infections always end with a ruptured eardrum. I try to be proactive to avoid this from happening. I've read Dr. Sears advice on ear infections and have made some garlic oil to put into her ear. Last time it may have helped a little but eventually her ear started discharging again and our physician prescribed another round of antibiotics. I've read the majority (80%) of uncomplicated ear infections will resolve in four to seven days without antibiotics. But do uncomplicated ear infections include ruptured eardrums? Probably not. Nonetheless, I don't like giving Sweetpea too many antibiotics either.

Tomorrow I plan to pick up some infant echinacea and perhaps a different kind of ear-drop. Hopefully this won't be round three!

Yarn Along (no. 3)

Yarn Along over at Small Things is back this week!

Right now I'm working on a pair of fingerless mitts with that rustic brown yarn from a few weeks ago. I found the pattern on Ravelry: Berry Hill fingerless mittens. I'm mixing the brown yarn with an orange baby alpaca yarn to soften the feel a bit. Honestly, I don't know how they'll turn out but Hubby volunteered to use them at work if they aren't what I'm looking for. Oh yes, I just picked up another murder mystery by Peter Lovesey, Skeleton Hill. I really enjoy a good murder mystery!