I absolutely LOVE summertime. Having lived in Southern California my whole life, I am now convinced my body wouldn’t know how to function in cold weather. Anything below 60 degrees means there’s a high possibility that I am wearing Uggs. Summertime means being outdoors, soaking up the sun, and spending long days at the beach or pool with the kids; and ending with a family BBQ just because it’s still light outside.
The unfortunate part of summer is all the bug bites. My poor babies are getting eaten alive and don’t know to not scratch at the bites. I was recently introduced to essential oils and their (what I like to call) “magical powers”. I’ve learned that Lavender Oil (aside from smelling like I’m at a day spa) is helpful with soothing bug bites! Hooray for an all natural relief!! Because the kids are so small and the oils are so potent, I like to dilute them with coconut oil. I mix up the oils (1 drop of lavender oil & 1 tsp coconut oil) and put it on their bites. Then at the end of the night after bath time, I rub it all over their little bodies. Talk about smelling great!! Lavender is one of the most popular of the essential oils. Because it is both an antiseptic and a calming oil, it can be used for so many things. The key though is making sure that you get a pure essential oil. There are many cheap oils that you can find, but the benefits can truly be found in pure grade essential oils. My husband now laughs at me and says that I’m becoming all “hippie dippy” on him. But let me tell you, the laughing stops when he sees that the oil actually works. Ha!! Who’s laughing now? This Hippie is!! I was explaining to my son what the “special oil” was that I was putting on him. He loves hearing the story about how the oil was made so much that I decided it was time to take a field trip.
About 20 miles east of us is a place called Keys Creek Lavender Farm. They also have lots of bee colonies up there (a fave of my Husband) so I thought it would be a nice little learning session for our son to learn about both the flowers and the bees. When we arrived at the Farm, I got a lesson myself…. Read the Hours of Operation in its entirety 🙂 Apparently the farm is only open to the public during May and June.
Ooops! My husband, ever the gentleman, only laughed at me a little while he took our picture next to the Closed sign. Oh well, a lesson learned.
At least there were a few lavender bushes next to the sign so our son could at least see what they look like. Bonus round that they also happened to have quite a few bees collecting pollen from them, and the bees lesson was also taught. And lucky for me, the online store is open, so the lemonade that I promised my boys is on the way to our house to be enjoyed later on this week. Even though the field trip didn’t turn out as I had planned, we still had a fun time and made some good memories.
