homemade & lovin' it!

so...the kids all came down with funky colds & coughs this week. :( 

that is the bad news...the good news is that as i have been slowly creeping my way into the world of herbalistic remedies, we made our own medicines!! 

 it was so exciting & so...well, it was so cool to be able to make our own cough syrup vs spending $8-10 on the herbal ones @ the market. 

(side note, one of my good friend says 'market' instead of grocery store & i just LOVE it!  so, i am giving it a go...anything to help the chores seem less chore-ish, right?? ;)

anyway, 3 out of our 4 children woke up with coughs right off the bat, so i whipped up a standard honey & lemon juice cough syrup to get us on the road to healing...

super simple & you can use it immediately!!

1/2 c honey

1 1/2 tbps lemon juice

doseage: 1-2 tsp as needed.

yup, that's it! i put ours in a little jam jar, put on the lid & then shook it until combined.

the other & more potent & has to sit overnight, so i made it up as soon as i was done dosing out the other.

take a good-sized (yellow) onion & a squat little jar only slightly larger than said onion.  slice the onion up real thin & stuff it into the jar, then cover it all with honey.  if yours is like mine, you might need to stick your fingers (or a spoon -- in retrospect ;) in & sort of mush it all around to allow the honey to work its way down the sides & to the bottom of the jar.

let this sit overnight, then remove the onion leftover & store in the fridge. 

doseage: 1 tbsp (children 1-6 years) & 2 tbsp (ages 6 & over)

this was amazing!  bean had an especially nasty cough throughout the previous evening, all night long & when he woke up the next morning.  i gave him a tbsp of the onion syrup & he hardly coughed @ all for the next 3 hours or so.  a couple more doses & he was well on the mend.

i will warn you, it does smell very strong of onion, but it tastes like honey (well, aside from a wee bit of an onion after taste ;) 

i LOVE this for so many reasons, not the least of which is being able to physically see & touch each ingredient (unlike those insanely long named ones that are created in laboratories!)

and what's more...i am soon to be taking herb classes with my friend kati.  she is an absolute doll & an amazing woman in so many ways.  i truly love & respect her & can't wait for her classes to start.

the classes will run each monday in march, for a couple of hours each evening.  my sister is watching the kids & i am counting down the days!!

what's more, we get to keep the remedies/salves/syrups/tinctures, etc that we create in the class.  i can't wait!

don't worry, i'll share what i learn with you, most definitely!!  xo