Made Up Chicken Pox Salve

My poor girl is just miserable. Her pox are itchy and she's not happy about it. The boy, well, he hardly fussed over his. Anyway, she's desperate. She had a 4am oatmeal/baking soda/lavender bath and a noontime bath, and she's still desperate. I started looking online for what else I could do for her and it appeared that a salve might be the best option. Then it was a matter of figuring out what I had on hand that would be useful because I don't know of many places locally I can find bulk herbs.

Most salve recipes have you soak herbs in oil for days or weeks.  Obviously that wasn't an option for my poor girl.  Then I found this recipe that says you can cook the herbs in the oil, strain them off, and use them the same day.  On to what I used: 0.3oz catnip, 0.3oz chamomile, 0.2oz lavender, and 0.2oz oregon grape root.

Catnip appears to be a good treatment for the chicken pox, though the only catnip I had on hand was some I had bought for making some cat toys.  I read on the package that it's organic, and since it is just going to be used externally I decided to go with it.  Chamomile is anti-inflammatory and antiseptic.  One of the biggest risks of further complication associated with chicken pox is infection of the blisters.  Lavender essential oil is cited several places to use in topical application or baths, and oregon grape root is anti-viral according to the recipe.  Since chicken pox is a virus, it seems logical.

Don't judge my dirty stovetop. My sink was shiny last night and that's good enough for a mom single parenting for 2 weeks with 2 chicken pocked kids.

I used my mom's old double boiler and cooked the herbs for about an hour, then strained them through a fine mesh strainer.  The oil came to about 6 or 7 oz, I added beeswax to 8oz so it would fit in a half pint canning jar.  I also added 5 drops of tea tree oil, as tto seems to also be indicated in several places online.

Filtering herbs out of the olive oil

Does it work?  Well, while the salve was cooling I used what was left over in the measuring cup to put on her sores, it was still warm and she seemed to appreciate it.  Once since she has come to me with a festering pock and I put some more on it.  She's in her third bath of the day right now, the bath I think relieves her pain while she's in there.  I'll slather her again when she gets out.

Meanwhile, the boys are downstairs watching a movie.  My kids have watched so much tv this week.  I feel terrible, I keep justifying it by the fact that they need rest.  Also watching tv means they're not messing up the house.  And since we're having a birthday party for Dude on Sunday for 19 people (can you believe he's going to be 1?!  I still haven't written down his birth story) I'm okay with less mess-making.

Anyway, here's hoping the pox are on the upswing and this salve actually does some good.

NT Tomato Soup

This always happens, I have a consistent online presence until my baby gets a couple months old, then I fall off the grid.

The last several months have been full of changes. Monkey Boy is back in school, BSF has started again, my little Dude is crawling and pulling himself to standing. Our lives have been full, to say the least. But tonight I want to talk about food.

I've been trying to change us over to a more traditional diet. If you're unfamiliar with this try an internet search for Weston A Price or Nourishing Traditions. Tonight I made tomato soup from and it's just about the best I've ever had. This summer I canned tomatoes so I used those, they are just tomatoes cooked down and blended with an immersion blender. Here's the recipe:

Tomato Soup
2c tomato sauce
1c bone broth
1 small onion
1 Tbsp butter

Simply dice up the onion and fry it in a little butter, then add the tomato sauce and bone broth and cook until warm. Ladle into bowls and serve with sea salt and maybe a dollop of milk or cream.

The only way it could've been better was if I got out the stick blender to chop up the onion bits. And let me tell you the key in this is the bone broth, homemade stock. I used chicken because I just made some yesterday, but the friend I got the "recipe" from used beef stock. It's so satisfying, and I never would've thought to put broth in it without Deborah. Mmm...

And since every blog post needs a picture, here's my brood on a walk a couple weeks ago at the cabin. They're way cuter than my bowl of soup.