Aromatherapy Play Dough

We love our new church. Not only do we enjoy the worship music and the message we receive each week from the pastoral staff, we also love the way the volunteers there love on our children every week and plan fun things for them to do. This past week, Owen came home with his typical art project (a picture of a loaf of bread with oatmeal glued to it) and a Ziploc bag filled with white powder. The note attached to it said that the kiddos had learned about the story of the widow to whom God provided flour and oil for bread and that they had prepared a project involving flour and bread too - homemade playdough. 

I have never made playdough at home before, but I was excited to have a project to do with Owen and I am not one of those Pinterest moms that plans lots of crafts to do with him. If all the legwork is already done, I'm much more likely to do those types of things. The one thing I did change about the recipe was that I decided to try adding essential oils to the dough to provide extra sensory stimulation. And not only does it smell great, but the oils I chose also have the added benefit of some healthy side effects, like mood enhancement and stress relief. 

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 Tbsp. oil

1 cup water

Food coloring

Essential oils

Here's the recipe: 

Combine flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a medium saucepan. Add water and oil (the recipe called for vegetable oil, but I didn't have it so I used olive oil and it turned out fine). Turn on the stovetop to medium and stir constantly until it gets lumpy. Add 3-5 drops of food coloring and continue stirring until dough forms a ball. I actually split my dough in half and dumped half in another pan so I could do two colors from the same batch. 

Once the dough had cooled, I then added about 10-15 drops of my chosen essential oils. I decided on orange and a blend called Stress Away. I just poked little dents in the play dough and added the oils and then balled the dough up so it was mixed throughout. 

Orange essential oil is great for mood. It is antidepressant and can promote relaxation. Stress Away is a great blend that includes lime and vanilla scents. When I am at the end of my patience and counting down the seconds until Tim gets home from work, I typically diffuse this blend. Now I can play with Owen and give him some undivided attention (which generally clears up any behavioral issues) all while mashing out some of my frustration and breathing in the relaxing scent. If I were to make another couple batches, I would probably do a lavender scented purple dough, great for pre-naptime calming, and a lemon scented yellow dough, good for energy and focus. 

Make sure the dough is completely cool before letting your kids play with it. I stored mine in 4 ounce mason jars. Hopefully they will last a long time that way. 

All kids love playdough, but I hate the store-bought kind. It smells and it dries up easily, not to mention Owen is always trying to eat it. What's up the that? This way, I at least know all the ingredients are edible so the next time I see blue in his teeth I don't have to scold him so much about eating the stuff.  

Little dude loves the stuff. He is a big fan of essential oils (gotta train 'em young) and got a big kick out of smelling them. Surprisingly, he didn't try to eat any of it. Which was shocking since they smell good enough to eat. 

Since this was such a success, I fully intend to toss out all our old playdough. From now on I will just make it. I never realized it would be so super easy.  

We had a great time playing with our new playdough the other day. It has a good consistency, smells awesome, and dare I say it... I felt much more relaxed and happy after we played with it. 

Lemon Blueberry Essential Oil Scones

It's a well-known fact that when you start using essential oils, you want to find a way to use them for everything and in everything and for me, that also includes cooking and baking. And some days you just have the urge to bake something sweet and pretend that calories don't exist. And some days, the stars align and you magically have all the ingredients you could need to make a delicious treat without having to make a trip to the grocery store. And some days you toss in a few (okay, more than that) drops of essential oils and make the best darn lemon blueberry scones you've ever tasted. And then you make your husband take them to work so you won't eat every last one of them. And then his coworkers propose marriage request more and you oblige because you're nice like that and because really, you didn't get enough scones since you sent them all the work. 

So, for those of you who like to bake... here's a recipe for some day.  

This is the cast of characters. Except for the baking soda. I don't know why that box sneaked into the picture. It was not invited to this party. So pretend it's not there. You will need: flour, sugar, baking powder (not soda), salt, heavy whipping cream, an egg, two lemons, vanilla extract, two sticks of butter, powdered sugar, milk, blueberries, and Young Living lemon essential oil. 

Here's your ingredients:
3 cups flour
2/3 c. sugar
5 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 egg
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla
Zest of one lemon
15-20 drops of Young Living lemon essential oil
1 cup blueberries

And the glaze is:
5 cups powdered sugar
Juice and zest of one lemon
1 c. milk
10 drops lemon essential oil

Begin by sifting together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl (or measuring cup), combine whipping cream, vanilla, lemon zest, egg, and essential oil and let it sit for a bit. Cut your butter into the flour mixture and then add the liquid ingredients until it forms a dough. Gently work in a cup or so of blueberries, trying not to break any of them. I used my hands. 

 Flour a flat surface and roll the dough into a rough rectangle. Cut the dough into squares (I used a pizza cutter) and then cut each square diagonally to form triangles. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 17-18 minutes. Meanwhile, sift powdered sugar and add milk, lemon juice, zest, and lemon essential oil to make a glaze. Allow scones to cool completely and then dip in glaze.  

 The last step is very important. Don't forget. After the scones have set up, hide in the pantry and eat one so your three-year-old doesn't see. Then send the rest of the batch to work with your husband so you don't gain 12 pounds. The end. 

His Plan, Not Ours: A New Journey Begins

Hello again to those that have followed me over from my original blog and nice to meet you to those that are just tuning in for the first time. The old blog has reached its space limit and to be honest, my OCD self can't handle the hundreds of posts over there any longer. So I've jumped ship to a new blog with a new purpose and lots of available space. The former blog will remain until I figure out a way to save some of the information (mainly all the stuff about the babies), but from now on, I'll mainly be here. 

I realize I haven't been posting as much in the past oh, eleven months or so. We have all been so busy. Life with two kiddos is hard, but on top of that, I have a brand new obsession that takes up a lot of my free time (Read: Time not spent playing cars, reading "Steam Train, Dream Train," doing laundry, and endlessly stacking blocks that are immediately knocked down). I drank the Kool-Aid yo, and I am not ashamed to say it. The essential oil Kool-Aid. Most people think I'm a bit nutso, but they are awesome and amazing and all the cool kids use them. 

Like our original blog suggested, we are still following hard after God's plan for our lives. Tim still works for Bechtel, but recently moved into a new position that makes him much happier. I started getting into the essential oils about six months ago and have been learning a lot and making new friends and getting to feel like someone other than "just a mom" a little bit more. 

Owen is now three years old. He is a total joy 99.8% of the time when he is not affected by his delayed terrible twos (Holy pushing boundaries, Batman!). He still loves cars and construction vehicles and has taught me the difference between a bulldozer, a backhoe loader, and a skid steer. He loves to have us read to him and spends every night before bed looking through his books, many of which he has memorized. And he is potty training! Hallelujah! 

Graham will be one in August. His first year has flown by, partly because he was so sick the first four months of his life and we were in survival mode and partly because he has breezed through all the baby milestones - rolling over, crawling, walking, and talking early - in an effort to keep up with big brother. I feel like I was robbed of most of his babyhood. But as he gets closer to his first birthday, we are learning more about his personality and I am really excited about the toddler stage. Please remind me that I said that when he starts tearing the house apart and paints the walls with yogurt. 

So feel free to follow along with our lives again. There will be a lot about essential oils. A good amount of cute kids. Maybe some cloth diapering info. Some recipes. A few box reviews. Some more about essential oils... 

Sorry, folks. Just keepin' it real.