Essential Saturday...#1 Peppermint Cooling Spray

First, let me tell you that I DO NOT SELL Essential Oils.

Of ANY KIND!

Fads come and fads go...remember bell bottoms?  The Locomotion?  Boy Bands?  Spiked hair with blond ends?  Jenkos jeans?  We could go on and on...

This is not one of those for me...

I am currently taking an aromatherapy class by Jessie Hawkins through Vintage Remedies.  This was recommended to me by a friend when I was looking around for more information about Essential Oils (EO's) and their role in our healthcare after dabbling with them since the 1980's.

I did NOT want to rely on a Multi-Level Marketing Company that has a bottom line reasoning.

I wanted to learn from a more neutral source.  I will be sharing some of the other sources as we go along as well.  I think you will enjoy them...

I will be showing you some ways that EO's have helped me and the family and saved us a TON of money to boot!

Traveling in a 5th wheel with my hubbs as he works in different cities throughout the country, we are having a GREAT time as you can probably tell if you have been reading along with my blog.

However, this traveling takes us away from our primary care physicians and leaves us to Minor Emergency Centers or Emergency Rooms for our medical needs between doctor visits.  This is expensive and not fully covered by our healthcare provider.

To be honest, I prefer to take more control of our (and our pet's) healthcare anyway.

So, with that rather lengthy explanation, I want to share a cool recipe that is really great in this 100 degree plus heat!

No, really!  It is to keep you cool!  :)

You'll need a spray bottle--I have an 8 oz aluminum bottle in the picture.  You can also use a plastic HDPE (#2) bottle like the one in the picture or a glass bottle.  Those little #1 bottles (PET) or other plastics are not really a great choice for use with EO's since the EO's tend to break the materials down and will cause failure of the bottle and leech into your blend.  And who likes leeches???  ;)

Anyway, for the 8 oz. bottle of Peppermint Cooling Spray:

Add 6-10 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil.  (in this recipe I used NOW brand EO that I had on hand and is very easy to find at GNC, on the net, in healthfood stores and is economical)
Fill the bottle up with Peppermint Hydrosol (which I bought here at Mountain Rose Herbs)
Shake before spraying.

Alternate:   You could also use a mixture of 1/2 bottom shelf vodka (i.e. CHEAP!) and 1/2 distilled water (or bottled at least) instead of the hydrosol.  You DO need something to make the oil and water mix which is what the hydrosol or vodka does.  And yes, if you prefer not to be seen buying vodka, you could use rubbing alcohol and water but that will change the scent.  The vodka doesn't add scent.

PLEASE don't use EO's straight from the bottle or use them orally except for VERY RARE instances!  They are strong and can cause side effects that may not be seen for several years, so use only in a 1%-2% solution--okay?

Spritz this on the bottoms of feet, arms, legs, anywhere that is hot as needed.  You will be cooled off by the liquid and that lovely sensation will continue due to the peppermint which has a very cooling effect.

During the current 100+ degree weather, we use this at night when we go to bed and are still warm from the day.  We spray ourselves down including the bottoms of our feet which cools us off and we sleep like a baby.

This is great during the day as well, when we have been outdoors and are sweaty and overly hot.

If you have a fever you can spray down to help reduce the fever and for you ladies out there who are having your own personal summers (you know what I mean...) this will really help.  Be sure to spray it on the back of your neck too!

Did I mention that I like the smell?  And that Peppermint scent is good for appetite control?  Bonus!

So, this is a very easy and useful little blend that we have found to be wonderful in our lives.

Have you used something similar to keep you cool?

Friday Fun! Here's Your Sign!

Found this sign while dining in a great cafe in Bastrop, TX:

Have a great weekend!

And don't bounce any checks!  LOL

Happy Hump Day #3...

This will include everything from people, places and things in my life and are high on my "smile" quotient--in no particular order...

One night we went to town to do some shopping and afterwards indulged in a Shaved Ice.

Upon returning, I spied this little beauty sitting by our camper...

One of our neighbors who is also a NASCAR fan happened to have this lunchbox along with the little booklet from the 10th anniversary race at Texas Motor Speedway.  

Is this the nicest gift ever????  Out of nowhere!  Just sitting there to brighten our day from a nice RV neighbor!

Cool!

Now THIS is definitely high on the smile quotient...

The Nails Have It...

You guys know how much I love to play with my nail polishes and do crazy things with my nails.

This week I was trying to think of something fun to do in the heat.

Something not too hot, but not too cool.

I came up with this...

After choosing the color, it seemed plain and flowers alone just didn't seem to do it for me, so I thought about some Washi Tape that I have been looking at for my History Project and thought, Why not add some polka dots????  

I used a polish pen, but later realized that I have seen cute polka dots made with a bobby pin dipped in nail polish.  If only I had a bobby pin!  Do you guys have bobby pins?  Can you remember the last time you used a bobby pin?  I can't!  Perhaps I should get some just for the fun of using them on my nails, huh?

And I did!  Fun!  :)

As I was doing this, I came up with something that I want to do later in July...

Happy Tuesday all!

Happy Hump Day #2...

This will include everything from people, places and things in my life and are high on my "smile" quotient--in no particular order...

Today's Happy Hump Day is my Pocket Hose!

First, this is NOT an advertisement and I did buy this hose.  While parked for 3 years in the same general area of MO, we had a long 75 ft traditional hose that I used to water.  At this point I am going to begin to sound like a commercial, but it really did kink and was bulky and to be quite honest, I sometimes didn't water as I should or worse, when I emptied the black water tank, I didn't flush as I should have because of the weight and more important, the unwieldiness of that monster.  And then it would invariably kink!  Every time!

When we were moving, I gave away the big hose and popped for this little jewel and have found it to be exactly as advertised!  I got the 50 ft version at Wal-Mart which is light, doesn't kink and does the job.  What more can I ask?

So, with that, I show you what I am doing with it:

By the way, I just put the flowers in the week after Mother's Day, so they haven't had a huge amount of time to grow but you get the idea!

So, my light pocket hose that doesn't kink and is easy to pack and doesn't take up a bunch of space in the camper when moving is making me smile today!

What is making your hump day happy?

Who Needs A Camera? [Giveaway!]

Okay, I NEED a camera!  I went to use my Olympus Stylus 710 (that I got one year in the dinosaur age on Black Friday) the other day and Poof!  Nothing!  Battery was good but camera is dead.  Darn!

Then I saw this:

Okay.  Heck Yeah!  How cool is this?  So, all, if you enter and win, please remember ME????!!!!!  K?

Please note that this giveaway if from Canon and not from me.  You have to go to their website and click "Like" and follow the directions.

Good luck!!!!!

Happy Father's Day...

Hope everyone is having a great Father's Day!

Happy Hump Day #1...

As I was sitting in church one Sunday listening to the sermon (yes, I really DO occasionally listen to the sermon LOL) the minister was speaking about Happiness.  One of the things that help us with our happiness quotient is thinking about the things in our lives that make us Happy--AKA, Counting Your Blessings...By looking for the good things in our lives, we begin to gradually SEE more good things and then we begin to FEEL more happy and then our lives begin to BE more happy...

I have to admit that at this point, I quit listening and started thinking about all of the great things that are in my life and that made me want to share those things with all of you.  My whole day was just so happy as I was thinking about those things, that I smiled and relaxed all day!  Fun!

I have a collection of photos that scroll through on my desktop that just make me smile everytime I see them.

So, with that, Happy Hump Day was born...

This will include everything from people, places and things in my life and are high on my "smile" quotient--in no particular order...

Today, I want to share with you this picture that comes up on my desktop from time to time and always makes me smile...

This is my hubby Gman and my brother Tom.  You may remember Tom from the tour of his Victorian House at Christmas.

It was not until we purchased our car, Junior, that I found out that back in the '70's my brother and I were both NASCAR fans!  He was and is a huge fan of Dodge and The King (Richard Petty) while I was a fan of Buddy Baker (remember the Gray Ghost?) who interestingly enough mostly drove GM cars.

Check out the shirts--Dale Jr #88 (though the #12 hat might be for Justin Allgaier (lil gator) in NNS or Brad Keselowski in NSC--hmmmm...which one?  We'll never tell!)  And Carl Edwards #99.  Yes folks, competitors really CAN get along!  :)

This was taken at the Dodge Dealers 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Gateway International Raceway (now Gateway Motorsports Park) near St. Louis, MO at the last NASCAR race to be run there on Oct. 23, 2010.  A friend of mine was able to get us great tickets to the race and what a fun day it was!  A perfect day for a race.  A good race with Keselowski and Edwards dukeing it out right to the finish line where Keselowski came across the finish line first and lil gator coming across 3rd and Edwards finishing 5th...

And we ended the day with a stop at Longhorn Steakhouse on the way home.  YUM!!!!

It was such a fun day all around and we had a trio of fun!  A smile still crosses my face every time I see this and think about the last NASCAR race at Gateway...

So, what have you done that makes you smile????

Mother of Invention Monday...

This is just for some fun.  If Necessity is the Mother Of Invention, some of these are funny, some may make you scratch your head and some are just downright clever!

As many of you know, we are RV'ers...

I've often wondered what we would do if we got to the place where we could no longer drive and then I found THIS beauty!  :)

Have a great Monday!

The Road To...Part Deux...

Just in case you missed part one, check it out here...

Back on the road after changing the tire in Ardmore, OK and missing the snow as well, we headed south once again.

 We stopped at the rest area and travel center on the Texas border.  Isn't it a lovely building???

I was checking out all of the flags flying over the building.  I could pick out the American Flag, of course and the Texas flag.  That one on the left looks like the Mexican flag.  Not sure about the two flags in the middle of the grouping.  The one with the French Fleur de lis was interesting.  I asked the guy working in the parking lot why a flag with French Fleur de lis was flying and was told he thought it had something to do with purchasing the land way back.  I am guessing he is speaking of the Louisiana Purchase?  Could make sense of course...

Anywho, I was intrigued by this monument:

With Memorial Day fast approaching during my trip, it was certainly a great opportunity to stand and read the memorial and remember all of those who have fought for this country which I love so much!  Thank you to all of the vets who have served and their families who were left behind while they gave.  My dad was a navigator in the Army/Airforce in WWII flying in the flying fortresses.  He even sat in that glass bubble under the plane as a gunner.  For someone who doesn't really even like to fly, I can surely say that he has a LOT more guts than his daughter!  Wow!  My dad rocks!

After a bit of retrospect, I walked around more of the area...

So, welcome to Texas!

On down the road we went.  I stop at half a tank of gas on my truck to check the tires for wear and to see if they are getting too hot.  I also like to make sure that I have plenty of fuel to make it to the next fuel stop.  Of course, with the pick-up pulling a 30 ft 10,000 lb camper, we get to stop quite a bit!  :)

The navigator took me to the west of Dallas by Ft. Worth and the Texas Motor Speedway!

Though I was not driving Junior, our 2004 Monte Carlo Dale Earnhardt Jr Special Edition, my heart was aflutter!  We do plan to take in a race or two while down here in Texas for sure!  

So, on south we drove and the navigator took us to Hwy 130 which is a toll road.  Now, I have been on my share of toll roads and usually you stop and get a ticket and then stop when you exit and pay.

Nope.

Just kind of drove on to the highway and while there were toll areas, there was no place to toss coins or stop to pay the toll.  Signs said TXTag or pay by mail left lanes.  I finally just decided to continue on and let the police stop me since I saw no place to pay them.  I am waiting to see if I get a ticket or something in the mail.  How interesting.

On the other hand, the speed limit is 80-85 mph on the toll road.  Of course, pulling the camper I could not drive that fast, but wow!  We have taken that road several times since and our car, Junior, LOVES that road!  He gets to stretch his cylinders and run a bit.  ;-)

I am driving along and a guy passing points at my camper so I pull over and yep!  ANOTHER flat tire!  Good grief!

I am literally in the middle of nowhere.

I call AAA and tell them that no I do not have a spare tire--that was used in Oklahoma!

They offer to tow the camper.  Well, if you could drive the blankety blank camper with the flat, I would DRIVE it to a place!  Doh!!!!!

They did, however, give me the names of a couple of places that will bring a tire and replace it on the roadside.  I called and the guy was a ways away and would be about an hour or hour and a half.  Okay.

That taken care of, I got the dogs out of the truck so that they could stretch and do their duty and get a drink and then we piled back into the truck.  Mommy had to use the ladies room as well but as I said, I was in the middle of nowhere.  This is the time, folks, when I am very happy to have my house behind me!  :-)

That finished, I kept the a/c on in the truck, the temps being about 90 degrees and sunny.  It was so crazy thinking that just yesterday I was worried about snow and today, it is summer!  I was able to show off my pedicure though!  Finally!  :)

I got to read the rest of my book on kindle while waiting.  I was reading John Grisham's book, The Racketeer. It was very good!  And, it certainly made the time fly!  I can really recommend this book!

I started The Hunger Games and can I just say, it is really good!  I am still reading it--since I don't just sit and read very much at this time of the year because I spend a lot of time outside, but I really do like it!  If you get the chance, you might have a look at it...

The guy got there with my tire, took the bad tire off and mounted the new one on the rim, put it on the camper and lightened my wallet a LOT and I was on the way again.  As it turned out, I was only 45 minutes away from our campground...

My poor hubby was so excited to have us arrive that he gave up the hotel room in which he had been staying for a few weeks until we could arrive.  He beat us to the campground and a good thing he was first because I did not make it until after the office closed.  Thankfully, he had paid and taken care of our registration and was waiting outside of the security gate for me.

I pulled in to our lot and miracles DO happen, folks!  The lot was completely level!  I didn't have to do ANYTHING!!!!!  If you are a camper, you KNOW how rare that is!  Wow!!!!!

We got our 4 happy dogs out for a little walk and stretch, I unhooked the camper from the truck and hooked up the electric and water and the dogs got to eat.  Boy were they happy!

Gman and I went to town and took a little tour and decided on chinese food for supper--buffet--quick, easy, yum and back to the camper so Mama could collapse.  It had been a long couple of days on top of a long couple of weeks but I was HERE and the whole family was once again together!!!!!  In Texas...