I thought it might be fun to get a Supermom’s Health and Wellness group going on Facebook.  We have a discussion board for sharing tips and recipes, so I think this could be very fun!  Just go to Facebook.com and then do a search for Supermom’s Health and Wellness.  Click to join!  And tell your friends–the more, the merrier!

Hey folks,

I am considering adding two cool new products to the store, but wanted to get some feedback from you to see if these would even fill a need.

The first item is glass baby bottles with a cool silicone sleeve. Many parents are becoming increasingly concerned about the chemicals in plastic baby bottles, particularly when warming them or having warm milk in them. Glass bottles are great for the safety, but can be too hot to hold, slippery, and of course there is the concern about breakage.

These cool silicone sleeves go over the bottle, so they protect little hands (or yours!) from the heat of warm milk and slippage, and still allow you to see the measurement markers.

These come in both 4 and 8 ounce bottles, and would be priced at $10 and $12 respectively.

The other item I am considering adding to the store is this:

These are knee pads for your little crawlers! They can slide right over bare legs or pants, and provide a silicone cushion at the knees for your little tyke as they explore their world. I think these are really cute and smart, and wish there had been something like this back when I had crawling babies!

These would be priced at $17.95 for a pair.

What do you think? Any interest?

I discovered this Cranberry Apple Zinger tea back in the winter in a fruit tea sampler.  I loved this particular tea, but had a really hard time finding a box of just this kind.  Eventually I did, but had to buy it in bulk, so now I can share the fun with you guys!

Although I loved this tea in the winter, I’m really enjoying it this summer.  I make it into a cold sweet tea, which is a flavorful beverage–with zero calories!  It’s super easy to make:

I use my 10-cup coffee maker for this.  In the filter basket I put 3 tea bags.  Then fill the water reservoir all the way full, and brew.  After it’s done, let it cool.  (Make it at night and let it cool overnight)

In a 2 quart pitcher I put about 4 droppers full of regular Sweet Leaf Stevia, and all the tea from the coffee maker carafe.  Voila!  Sweet Cranberry Apple Zinger!

I’ve got two new additions to the store today that I am so excited about!  Wanna hear about ‘em?

The first is Miracle Salve. This is a wonderful product for minor scrapes, burns, cuts, stings, bites, sores, rashes, eczema, dry skin, and more. I have been using it on my family for many months now and am very pleased with it.  I appreciate it that this one product can do so much, instead of needing to purchase many different items for specific ailments. And my children appreciate that it does not have a strong scent like some herbal skin salves do. We have tried some that were so very, very *healthy* smelling —aka stinky!– that the kids just really didn’t want to use it at all.  They love the Miracle Salve and now put it on all of their little ailments on their own.

I bought the four ounce size to try out, and can see now that this product lasts a really long time.  So I decided to just offer the two ounce size in the store for now.  I could have made a little more profit on the 4 ounce size, but I think that 2 ounce containers will probably be helpful for most families without having to spend ten more dollars.  If you feel that you would rather have the four ounce size, just contact me and I will be happy to get it in stock for you.

The second new product is Glucosamine/MSM.  This supplement is great for helping your joints stay lubricated so they don’t hurt!  Back almost ten years ago after my third child was born (he’s turning 10 tomorrow!!  oh my goodness!) I started experiencing a lot of pain and soreness in my hands. Thankfully, someone told me about glucosamine and how it helps lubricate our joints. Through three more pregnancies and entire decade I have found glucosamine to be a good friend in helping me feel good and stay active with my growing family.

Glucosamine is an amino acid that contributes to making cartilage, which is the shock-absorbing gel in our joints. As we age, or as our bodies take on a lot of hard work (like pregnant mommies!), our bodies can slow down the production of cartilage, resulting in us feeling sore even while doing regular things in life.

Although pain killers can take away the symptom, that doesn’t help solve the problem. Glucosamine gives relief from the symptom while also helping your body repair itself!

There are several more good things about this particular formulation, so if you are at all interested, please check it out here.

I hope to be bringing you more helpful products this summer.  If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see sold here, or a health problem that you would like a solution to, let me know–I’d love to help you!

Just a quick reminder that any orders placed from now through next week probably won’t be sent out until Friday, June 13, 2008.  Thanks for your patience! 

~Erica

Here we are, in the car on our way to the Games. We took 7 kids + 2 adults. Woot!

The next photo is of my oldest son, demonstrating How Not To Sit While Wearing a Kilt. His was given some skirt-wearing pointers, but as you can see, he didn’t take the advice.

The first thing I did when we got to the Games was to fall and hurt myself, thanks to a sharp difference between the pavement height and the grass next to it. Somehow, I was so skillful as to have my right foot get half on the pavement and half off of it. So my right foot kind of rolled sideways downhill, and my left knee went crashing into the cement. So here is a picture of my scraped up knee, just to prove it. (thankfully, I was wearing cropped pants that covered my knees. I am so thankful that I didn’t hit the concrete with bare skin. And, extra bonus!, my new cropped pants *did not rip* which I thought was pretty great)

I got right up and kept walking. My husband has been ahead of me, as had most of the kids, so they hadn’t seen what happened, although they heard me say ouch. They checked in with me and I thought I was fine, so we kept on truckin’ for another few feet, and then I decided that maybe I should get some ice.

We found an ambulance so walked over to it, only to find not a single emergency services type person in sight. What a crock. We couldn’t find any ice near where we were, and then we saw a pipes and drums band starting, so we just went to watch that. I toughed it out.

After that we had to go to the farthest reaches of the grounds to find The Old Man, who is the vendor with the cheapest array of wooden swords, knives, and muskets. THIS is what our boys were looking forward to more than anything.

As you can see from the next photo, they had fun selecting their weaponry just in time to take the closest hill in a battle.

The thing that I was most looking forward to was seeing NeedFire play again. We just loved this group last year and have listened to their CDs since then. Well, they did not disappoint! Such a fun group to watch on stage, and super nice to their fans off the stage. Four of our kids had t-shirts that they got signed by the band members. Cool people. Very fun to see them again.

The one and only down side to the concert was that as I sat there, I noticed my foot starting to hurt. It had hurt just a little bit after it twisted as I fell off the pavement.

I don’t know if it was sitting for so long, or the amount that we walked, or just the amount of time since I fell, but the pain started intensifying and then extending all the way up my leg, almost to my hip. And that was just when I was sitting.

When I got up to walk…zowee! The pain was quite intense, and all I can say is that having birthed six babies, I do know how to breathe through pain. However, constant pain is quite a bit different than intermittent contractions with a cute baby to show for it at the end.

My husband stopped at a store on the way home to get me souvenir meds. (My daughter said to him, “Maybe you could find something herbal and natural for mom..” He was like, “Honey–they aren’t going to have anything herbal here….” It was nice of her to think of that, and I realized that I really, really need to get that first aid kit made up for the car like I’ve been thinking of doing for….years!) Neosporin for the scrape, Blue goo to make my foot feel cold, and Aleve, which ended up saving the day.

I could walk on my foot without too much misery by the time we got home. Yay! Thankfully, by Sunday my foot was feeling quite a bit better, although I took a lazy day to mostly stay off of it, seeing as how *Monday* we will be helping my husband’s sister’s family move into their new house, near us! They are moving here from 14 hours away.

Overall, it took a lot of energy and patience to take the kids to the Games, particularly when speaking through teeth clenched in pain. They had fun, though, and say they want to go back next year.

True to my make-lemonade-out-of-lemons personality, I have decided to experiment with a wonderful herbal healing salve on my knee scrape. One side of the scrape is getting the herbal stuff, the other side I am leaving alone. I already notice an obvious different in how much each part hurts. (the herbal side feels much less painful) I am thinking of offering this new product after I return from my vacation. This is a perfect opportunity to give it a good test.

So it’s been a year since my husband and I first went to the Glasgow Highland Games, and the whole family has been looking forward to attending in 2008. Since we knew we’d be going back, we started accumulating some good Scottish garb for the children. Would you like to see…??

This first little Highlander is my 5 year old. It was kinda sunny that day, so he did a lot of squinting.

Pained squinting, to be exact….

And this is my 6 year old. Cute, eh?

My daughter was quite happy with her costume.

Wild clan of cute young men…

Here’s one of all the kids together.

We had these kilts and my daughter’s outfit made by some very sweet and talented young ladies. You can go to their web site here. I highly recommend them.

Tune in next time for actually photos from the Games!