Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Homemade Beauty: Lip Balm making with kids


AR has always had chipped lips issue, many underlying issues for that. However, I also wanted something topical to use. We tried many different brands, both organic and non-organic but nothing seem to help really. Then I started making our own at home after the eczema salve we made for H. I have made many different variation until (I think) I mastered the ingredients blends to get the best results and here is my recipe.


Ingredients laid out for kids
Ingredients:
  1. 5 tbsp Beeswax
  2. 6 tbsp Coconut oil
  3. 4 tbsp Olive oil / Almond oil
  4. 4 tbsp Coco Butter 
  5. 2 tbsp Shea Butter
  6. Containers to pour into, you can find many options, we recycled these mini honey jars and previously used EOS old containers.
Instructions:
  • Melt ingredients 1, 2, 3 and 4 in a microwave (15 seconds intervals, because can get really hot) or a double broiler. 
  • Add shea butter at the end to the hot liquid to avoid it from turning into beads.
  • Add essential oils (keeping in mind what oils are safe for children) and vitamin E at the end because heat destroys their properties.
  • Pour into containers, let it cool and they are ready to use.
I  usually add a little shimmer for H using broken eye shades (which I save for this)
Final product. Notice the messy edges... I love the beauty of kids hands.
If I make Homemade body products for gifting or selling, I prefer not letting the kids help much to keep things clean. Beeswax can get quite messy when mixed with greasy ingredients, so be prepared for the mess when kids taking part.

Learning points
  • We also talked about, smiling is sunnah Hadeeth
  • Purifying intention to have beautiful smiles when making to please Allah SWT
  • Instill the idea of making your own things so you know what you are using. 
  • Be producers not consumers
  • For older children great math lesson on how much you save by this and how much one lip balm container cost.

For beautiful smiles!

Horse Championship

The Racing & Equestrian club of Doha, held a Horse Racing Championship. Alhumdullilah we got to go watch. Kids really enjoyed the experience and learned a lot about a new sport. Our youngest S loves horses but was scared to ride one and mashaAllah (by the will of Allah) his Baba helped and guided him through his fear...and he got over it Alhumdulillah. So by the end of it, he didn't want to get off of the horse.

Empowering and inspiring moment for H when she saw a female participant, who came 6th



Best part, boys got to pray Isha salah behind the 2nd place winner from Qatar.



Friday, January 1, 2016

Book Reveiw: I Think, I Am!



Louise Hay is the author of the international bestseller "You can heal yourself" and also New York Times bestseller for "Heal your body". She also has a work book that goes with "You can heal yourself" called  "Love yourself and heal yourself" which has proven to help many people. She is known for her work on encouraging people to change their thoughts to positive and more affirming thoughts, despite of what they have heard about themselves.


"I think, I am" is a kids version book of her other works. It teaches children the power of Affirmation. With the help of fun illustrations and simple words children can learn how to change negative thoughts to positive affirmations. If children learn this skill of positive self talk, they can live a more fulfilling life inshaAllah.

We paired this book up with her "The Affirmation coloring book" and "Inspirational". I have always felt art to be very therapeutic just like writing. Coloring books like these have very soothing and calming affects on a person. Zentangle is a form of art that has been used to help people focus and relive stress.




Some of our completed works
This is one of those book we should have in our home libraries. Also be shore to check out Louise Hay's website.