But I can't even see the gingerbread cookie!

Making cookies at Mim's after a day enjoying wintertime celebrations in Northfield!



I handed off the kids to Rob and went to work so I missed the fallout from the candy ingestion.

Home sick with Georgia

We felt a bit better from our stomach bug in the afternoon so we took a walk with the Cookster (who is much more pleasant to be cooped up with after she's had a walk.)








Georgia looked pale but she was cheerful and interested in the frozen mushrooms.




I tried to enjoy my day with her instead of grumping about losing my only day before x-mas to shop in Hadley without the kids. I was even going to meet Rob for lunch at a nice cafe.
Oh well.














It's cold out!


Frost grows like little silver hairs on the Virginia Creeper.

A dusting of snow

The sun is so bright, but it's cold.
I'm home sick from work with a stomach bug and I just had to go pick up Georgia after she threw up at school.


My Dad is still in the hospital in Boston. Turned out he had "malevolent" beats during his second stress test, so they put in a defibrillator in his chest yesterday.

If he gets shocked, he is supposed to go right to the ER.

I wonder what it feels like?
They told him, "You'll know when it happens."


Today when I dragged myself out of the house to bring Cookie for a walk I was feeling nauseous and overwhelmed, then I remembered, "Oh yeah, I could have just got diagnosed with breast cancer and be fitting in appointments and trying on wigs."
It's good to be here, to have a reprieve from our mortality, even with a stomach bug or a buzzer in our chest, shocking the heart back into rhythm.

Now it's time for the neglected house....

So messy, I don't know where to start.
Oh how helpful. My husband has left me a note.
Makes me want to blog.

































Here is my basket of essential oils I have collected over the years.
The teacher of my class, Kathy Duffy, did not have nice things to say about essential oils you buy in a health food store. She only gets her oils (and our class oils) from suppliers that she knows personally and from whom she gets amazing oils year after year. When I asked, "What about all my essential oils at home?" Kathy replied, "You could use them in potpourri for gifts." Hmmmm. A sad downgrade for my previously precious oils.

She recommends keeping our new oils in the fridge to keep them from oxidizing and spoiling.

They do smell spectacular.
I'm excited to make magic with them.
I put a drop of the Red Mandarin on a pillow for Lily when I got home at 9pm and she was still awake with a vomit bucket in her hand. She mumbled, "That smells good." (It is mandarin orange peel from Italy great for anxiety, insomnia and nausea especially mild for children and elderly) and instantly fell asleep.

Aromatherapy Class in Boston

I spent the weekend at Boston Medical Center learning about aromatherapy in the clinical setting. I am doing a 18 month program to become certified as an aromatherapist under my nursing license so I can use it at work and in my own practice.

I have been really looking forward to this weekend. I signed up months ago and justified the cost and time away because it is my birthday on Sunday and this will be a great birthday present! Work is paying for part of it and my mother and sister are watching Georgia and Cookie. Lily is staying at a friends and Rob is off on a bike weekend. My Dad is still in the hospital where they are watching how he responds to meds after his cardiac catheterization last week. It has been a long stressful week with him in there, but I could finally visit him, which was nice.

It was difficult to have every member of the family somewhere different. It made me anxious, but it worked out and we all made it home by Sunday night (except my Dad who gets a stress test on Monday and we'll see what happens from there.)







It is a lovely group of women, which is good because we'll all be working together for the 18 months. It is a strenuous program, the equivalent of a college level course with case studies and a research study and exam required for graduation, but I really enjoyed the lectures and the oils! The oils were so much fun. Part of the cost of the class is a little box of exquisite oils that we got to smell and spray and massage as we learned the scientific and medicinal history. Soon we'll learn the chemical components and how they work to do the amazing healing things they do!

Hospital craft fair (last one of the season!)

I had fun at the craft fair today. Last year I was so nervous because it was my first time displaying my Crow Lady herbal products and coming out as a witchy herbalist at work. But everyone was wonderful and really supportive. This year I felt rushed in pulling everything together, but once I go there I had a splendid time talking with people and selling my wares.



Last week when I made so little money at the craft fair I felt disappointed, but then realized something in talking to my mother and others (not Rob who is quite sick of bottles all over the couch and me taking over the kitchen counter with my sterile field.) I realized that I am making these products because I want to. Because I cannot pass a field of St johnswort blooming in the summer without a deep urge to stuff in in jars and pour oil all over it. I need to make flower essences in the light of the moon then drop them into homemade rose glycerin tincture, pouring that pink potion into pretty blue bottles. I want to make these potions and I want to share them with people. That is why I am doing this whole herbal business.




















Knowing that took alot of the pressure off today so I just had fun talking with people and explaining my vanilla, tinctures and massage oil.






















I ended up doing pretty well!
I sold enough to pay for most of the ingredients I had bought throughout the year, that really add up, so that was quite a success.

I brought the leftovers to Art and Soul a sweet gift shop in town.
http://www.artandsoulnorthfield.com/

where she was having a party so it felt like a festive place to leave my products and then pack up and head out of town for the weekend.

Sewing sewing

Holiday season and hospital craft fair tomorrow so I am sewing my therapy pillows with organic golden flax seed. I do really enjoy the fabric and the cool slippery seeds. I love the smell of sweet smelling lavender and chamomile, which I add to some of the bags, and I feel proud of the solid satisying pillows at the end of the process. But. I am very tired of having stuff everywhere and spending all of my free time bottling and sewing. (And so is the family!)