Joan's Girls: May 2010

Our Message

Joan Ruth Smith Stout passed away on September 5, 2007. She was my beloved mother and grandmother of the beautiful girls pictured to the right, Kim, Tiffany, Tara, Chelane, Stephanie, Tristen, Sara, Telisa, Mikel, Jenny and Ashling. My mother died due to complications from malnourishment, or in other words, an eating disorder. I believe it started in her teens and she was completely unaware of the insidious disease that took route in her mind. She was somehow blessed to give birth to four children, three boys and a girl. Joan loved her children with devotion and passion even though much of the time, she felt poorly. Stomach problems, headaches and heart palpitations were a daily occurrence for her. As her only daughter, I was oblivious to her plight until my very own sweet daughter started on that same journey in her teens. By then my mom had been suffering from her eating disorder for a good fifty years, and there was no redirecting her thoughts. Unfortunately for me, I was angry for a while when I realized that the route of all her illnesses was through lack of nutrition. That was shameful on my part, and I am sure that only added to my mom's illness. I hope she knows now how foolish I was. However, through the journey of Telisa's eating disorder, the girls in our family have learned much, especially Telisa! It is for this reason that we collectively, as Joan's Girls, are choosing to send the message out to the world of what real beautiful bodies need to support good physical and mental health!!!!!!! We watch with horror the unhealthy and unattractive images on TV, Movies, Magazines etc. We witness some of our dear friends struggle with body image issues, and frankly we are sick of the comparing and obsessing over one's size versus one's health!! We believe in good health, we believe in eating the food provided for us by our Heavenly Father, we believe in balance and moderation, we believe in exercise in moderation, we also believe the best exercise is done while serving others, we believe that God created many types of bodies and we thank Him for that! We believe in modesty and we believe that our bodies are a gift from Heavenly Father! We believe that true beauty comes from within. All of Joan's granddaughters are true beauties. Our legacy to her will be our commitment to the TRUTH of what is beautiful and praiseworthy. We seek after these things. We will strive for good health and the truth in all we do!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Pamper Yourself!

I hope all the mommies had a beautiful Mother's Day! xo Mother's Day got me thinking of ways we could pamper ourselves on all the other days of the year and I found some simple ideas that always feel good! I love foot soaks and hand scrubs and such. And since our hands and feet take quite a beating and I thought I'd share a few ideas that I came across!! Enjoy! Love you all!

Homemade Sugar Scrub Recipes:

Recipe #1 – Brown Sugar Scrub

1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of almond oil
1/4 cup of liquid Ivory hand soap
1/4 tsp of vanilla

Recipe #2 – Lemon Sugar Scrub

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 TBS lemon zest (grated)

Recipe #3 – Lavender & Rosewood Scrub

1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup almond oil
1/2 tsp vitamin E
6 drops rosewood essential oil
4 drops lavender essential oil

Recipe #4 – Tea Sugar Scrub

2 cups white sugar
1 cup honey
2 TBS tea
5 drops vanilla

Recipe #5 – Yogurt Sugar Scrub

3 TBS baby oil
1 TBS yogurt
1 TBS white sugar

Directions:

Mix ingredients and use as a body scrub/exfoliator.

Homemade Foot Soak Recipes:

Recipe #1

1 part Epsom salts
1 part Baking soda
drops of choice essential oils (optional)

Recipe #2

4 bags chamomile tea
1/8 cup dried parsley
4 drops essential oil of choice

Steep ingredients in 1 gallon of hot water for 10 minutes before soaking feet.

Recipe #3

2 cups Kosher salt
1 cup Epsom salts
drops essential oil of choice (optional)

Recipe #4

1 1/4 cups Epsom salts
1 1/4 cups Kosher salt
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup cornstarch

Recipe #5

1 cup lemon juice
3 TBS olive oil
1/4 cup milk

Mix together well in a small bowl then add to 1 gallon of water and soak feet.

Tips

Single Ingredient Ideas:

1 cup honey per gallon of water
1/2 cup Epsom salts per gallon of water
2 cups brewed coffee per gallon of water

Essential Oil Ideas: peppermint, lavender, lemon, orange, eucalyptus, mint

You can also add marbles to the bottom of the basin to rub your feet over while soaking, quite soothing!

When your garden is in full bloom, add as many flower petals as you like to your favorite recipe for a special, pampered experience.

P.S. tipnut.com is an awesome site for all kinds of simple homemade ideas of all kinds!!!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

All is Well!

The last two posts were sent to me by Carin, Stephanie's mom. I thought they were super appropriate for our Joan's Girls Blog. What an inspiring example Stephanie Nielsen is to all of us!