Our Inauguration Week

We did end up taking things easy this week, and it was good.  Josiah started a new job, and Sam needed help with some of the transition to civilian life issues, so it was nice to be available for my big boys.  

It was also nice to extend our "stay" in India a little bit longer and fit in some of the things we hadn't gotten to yet.  

Months ago, I was Pin-surfing, looking for TP tube crafts, and I saw one for a peacock.  I put a post it on India's planner page to remind me to make it when we got there.  

Grumman liked this one because it involved feathers.  

I told Hannah she might as well let him have that one until he got bored with it, because taking it away was going to be painful.  

I thought they turned out cute.  Mine sits behind the monitor and I smile when I see it.  Grumman tried to teach my peacock to fly by knocking it off the half wall over the staircase.  

Library book project that rapidly became cat toy.  

We talked about how India is known for it's spices, and so I got a bunch of spices out for the girls to smell.  

Katie rightly identified one as smelling like essential oils.  I tried to connect the dots by asking, "Okay, so where do spices come from?"  The grocery store?  India?  "No, like, what are they made out of?"  Eventually we got to "plants."  

Then I asked, where do essential oils come from?  "Out of the ground!"  Because oil (petroleum) comes out of the ground.  No, essential oils also come from plants.  So if there's a spice (that comes from a plant) and an oil (that comes from a plant), and they smell the same, maybe they're...  [blank looks]  From. The. Same. Plant.  Okay, let's move on to our experiment.  

With each country we study, I pull "extras" from a variety of sources.  One of those is the website Twinkl.  When I typed in "India," one of the things that came up was this Turmeric Experiment.  

We talked about the difference between a solution and a mixture, as we blended turmeric and water in a glass.  

Katie poured the lemon juice for us.  

The idea was that we would add two different things to the turmeric mixture, and observe the changes.  

 Turns out, lemon juice has no effect on the color, but baking soda changes the color.  As experiments go, it really wasn't all that impressive.  

I did finally make it to the Indian market!  After sniffing various spices, we were able to taste some of them in our spicy Indian dinner!  The base layer is naan (which was already a favorite around here, thanks to Trader Joe's), the kabob is mutton, the round things are potato based, with other veggies and spices, and the meat that burned our faces off is lamb curry.  

Grumman, who still swears he's not a lap cat, has been hopping up in my lap rather often recently.  I think it's more due to my relation to the space heater, than any desire to snuggle.  

I did a little more paint pouring.  

Then I fired up Crikey to add stickers, making them more like conversation hearts.  

These will get mailed off to the adult children.  

I found the wooden blank on clearance for less than a buck, so I decided to make another little something for Zach and Heather's baby.  

What's that?  I hadn't mentioned The News here yet?  

They called to tell us in November, and this was the first thing I made and sent to them.  (By the time I entered Brayden's life, he already had a few grandmas, so all the usual names were taken.  He calls me Nai Nai, which is "paternal grandmother" in Mandarin.)  

Grumman, you're not helping me correct Katie's math.  

Gah, sorry about the flash.  We've got a huge pile of China books now.  I'm very excited about getting to teach the girls more about China.  

One of Hannah's projects.

The new rubber duckie in the van inspired our rubber duckie library bags.  I hope they make the staff smile.  

Speaking of library, our usual branch is going to be closed for a week, boo hoo.  I've started reserving things to be sent to the branch across town, so we don't go through withdrawals.  

Educators, check out the Cub Club at Panda Express!  

In addition to some free kids meals, we got a bunch of bookmarks, which is great, because we go through a lot of them around here.  

Growing crystals from the Star Wars project book.  

Hannah's curious cow.  Just put some China craft/project/activity/art books on hold at the library.  I'm sure she'll be thrilled.  

I opened the dryer and found a bullet.  It made me smile, because it's one more reminder than my Marine is HOME.  

Katie made a crown for Grumman.  

Who was delighted, of course.  

Yeah, I don't think that's going to work.  

I wish I'd noticed how washed out Hannah's picture was.  She used colored pencils.  The girls drew the White House and read books about it on Inauguration Day.  I was the only one at our house who watched the event.  

A little Crikey on a plain dish towel will be going in the mail to brighten someone's day soon.  

Our "henna" project, inspired by our Global Kids deck.  We used multicultural construction paper for the hands, and I just love the way it turned out.  

We had a great time learning about India, and were able to take things further and learn about how the region became India and West Pakistan and East Pakistan, which eventually became Bangladesh.  We learned about the forced Muslim/Hindu migration, and compared it to our Trail Of Tears.  I'm glad we were able to spend a few extra days finishing up all I wanted to get in before moving on to the next country.  

And now, I'm excited to get started on China!  

Fractionated Coconut Oil

A while back, I posted about using coconut oil, mentioning that it is semi solid at room temperature, much like shortening (although not as dense).  Today, I'd like to talk to you about Fractionated Coconut Oil, which is a liquid.

Fractionated coconut oil is a fraction of the coconut oil from which almost all the long-chain triglycerides are removed, leaving mainly the medium-chain triglycerides, which makes it an absolutely saturated oil.  Plainly put, it's been altered to be a stable liquid.

I received a 16 ounce bottle of fractionated coconut oil from Majestic Pure.  When my oil arrived, it came with a sticker listing the expiration date on it, which I re-adhered to the bottle, to ensure that I use it in a timely fashion.  (As a side note, the other day I found children's pain reliever in my bathroom that expired a year ago.  I am thankful to have such healthy kids that we can't use up 24 chewables before they expire.)

It also came with a handy little pop open lid, which I used to replace the very secure shipping lid.

I have been using my fractionated coconut oil to dilute essential oils, and to create oil blends.  It's also a popular base ingredient in many DIY body products, such as natural hair care, lip gloss, deodorant, and shaving cream.  Many people mix a favorite essential oil with Fractionated Coconut Oil to use as massage oil.

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Getting Started With Coconut Oil

Coconut oil.  Sounds vaguely exotic at first hearing.  Makes me think of Hawaii.  Actually, I hadn't really thought about coconut oil much at all until a blog I follow mentioned it a while back.  She mentioned it in the context of oil pulling, which sounded kind of gross to me at the time.  But she's a blogger I respect, so I tried to keep an open mind.

Then I got into essential oils.  Some of which need to be diluted.  And I started hearing about using coconut oil to dilute them.

So when the chance to review Paradise Coconut Oil from TheraVita came up, I decided it was time to give it a shot.

When my coconut oil arrived, it was a hot day, and the oil was in liquid form from being in the back of a warm brown truck.  However, coconut oil is actually semi-solid at room temperature.  It's kind of like shortening.

It re-solidified after cooling off, and I set about trying out oil pulling.  What is oil pulling?  The idea is that you swish the oil around in your mouth and it helps remove harmful bacteria, as well as fighting gingivitis, and even helping to remineralize your teeth.

The first time I tried it, I used straight coconut oil.  It was... different, but not horrible.  I realized I was going to need a plan for disposing of the used oil after swishing.  I remembered that we had some leftover paper cups, so I brought some of those upstairs to expectorate the oil into.

Since then I've been adding different essential oils to the coconut oil, to change things up, flavor wise.  Peppermint would be the obvious one, for freshening one's breath.  I found one drop was not quite enough, but 2 or 3 was good.  Thieves oil was okay.  I like the smell better than the taste, though.  I've read that Tea Tree or Basil are good for owies in the mouth, but I haven't tried those.  Citrus oils are pleasant tasting.

As mentioned, you can use coconut oil to dilute essential oils before applying to the skin.  Coconut oil melts at body temperature, so it's easy to work with for massage.

I recently read about someone using coconut oil on their face.  I thought, "Oil??  On the face?  That's just asking for acne!"  But I had a rough patch of dry skin, so I tried a swipe of coconut oil on it.  It felt nice.  I put it on 2 mornings after getting out of the shower, and on the 3rd morning, I noticed that patch wasn't dry any more.  I went ahead and swiped some on anyway, just for extra moisture.

Luke's skin is dry and he's been scratching his legs and leaving marks on them (I noticed as I was getting him into his wheelchair to get on the bus the other day).  I'm going to try coconut oil on his skin.

Coconut oil can also be used for cooking and in smoothies.  I'm happy I got the chance to try out Paradise Coconut Oil, and I can see it's useful for a variety of applications.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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