Salt and Sugar scrub: Mentoring in the kitchen

I love salt and sugar scrubs so much that my family is complaining. They would like to actually have some salt for their pasta and sugar for their tea. Ah, me! I just love it! But it really only keeps for a few weeks so I have to keep inviting people over to make and take.

This week's crew? My awesome Jane & Tea club girls! We get together every Sunday night to watch a Jane Austin inspired movie. We drink tea and do a craft and then watch our movie.

They are almost here. I can't wait for you to meet these awesome girls. I'll be back to introduce you.

Here they are! Last weeks craft was reclaimed wood signs.

I especially love the one with a house that says REFUGE. I'd like to think my home is that to these girls. They are smart, beautiful and attend the local Christian college. However, many of them are Missionary Kids who's families live in places like Ukraine, Indonesia, Japan and Germany. So, I guess thinking of my home as a refuge makes me happy.

Tonight we had six lovely ladies for Jane & Tea. So I gave each one a bowl to mix up their own scrub in.  They chose either a salt scrub or a sugar scrub. 

This darling gal will be graduating this year! It's been a joy getting to know her. I'm certain God will use her greatly wherever she goes. 

I provided colorant as well as fragrances for the girls to work with. They also had the option to add real lavender or flax seed as additional exfoliants.

So I'll share the steps as we go. The official recipes are at the bottom of this post, However, I would encourage to read our steps as we found some surprises along the way.

Step One:

Combine one cup of salt with 1/2 cup of Coconut oil

or: 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup Coconut oil

Here's what we discovered: Though everyone followed step one perfectly, not everyone got the same consistency with their scrub. We didn't know if it had to do with the type of conatiners we chose. ie. metal vs. glasss. So, here's a helpful hint:  Always start with less oil than suggested and add until you have a consistency like damp sand.

Step Two:

Choose your colorant.  I had official soap colorant as well as food coloring on hand. Though food coloring is not recommended, we found it to be just as good as the other.

Hint: If you are working on creating a color from primary colors first combine them in tablespoon and mix. When you think you have what you want, add it to your scrub.

I was loving the fact that this gal's finger nails matched the color of her scrub! 

Step Three:

choose your fragrance. This may seem straight forward but we did discover a few things along the way.

- orange frangrance combined with a small bit of vanilla fragrance smells like an orange creamsicle when added to sugar scrub. WARNING: it smells like Goo Gone when added to salt scrub!

- Vanilla extract does not give you a strong enough fragrance as it's more of a flavor so avoid using it if you can.

- peppermint is a very strong fragrance and is wonderful as a salt scrub. WARNING: Peppermint stings the eyes do not use it on your face.

Step Four:

Mix everything together. We ended up using our hands and mixing for at least ten to fifteen minutes to be sure our color, fragrance and oil were thoroughly combined.

Step Five:

Label: I printed out basic labels (Free download below) I then had everyone write the name of their fragrance on the label.

Step Six: Divide scrub into containers.

If you are doing this as a group project, I recommend using zip lock snack size bags as your containers. This way you can make about five - six bags of each scrub. Everyone was able to take at least one of each scrub home.

This was such a fun project it was nine p.m. before we started our movie!

DIY is great but using it to provide "together" experiences for college girls has been so amazing. I feel like a cup of tea and a craft project and fun movie provide a place that is more like home and more like refuge for these awesome girls.  I hope you will take this idea and use it to encourage and bless someone in your life.

Here's the recipes:

Salt scrub

1 cup salt

1/2 cup coconut oil

5 drops colorant

5-8 drops fragrance 

Follow steps above

Sugar scrub

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil

5 drops colorant

3-8 drops fragrance

Follow steps above

Free label download:

3 habits for developing a healthy mentoring lifestyle

"A healthy lifestyle is one which helps you to keep and improve people's health and well-being." 

A healthy mentoring lifestyle is one which helps to keep and improve people's spiritual health and well-being." 

I'm always surprised to hear women say, "I could never be a mentor, I NEED a mentor." 

When we hide behind our desire for what we do not have, we keep that very same thing from those who need it.  

Let's be the generation that develops healthy mentoring habits! It's really not hard or even that time consuming. I've found myself mentoring over a quick cup of coffee or text message. Mentoring happens during a conversation in the church foyer or a brisk walk around the park. It doesn't have to be complicated or formal. It's as easy as changing your eating habits. 

Three habits for developing a healthy mentoring lifestyle: 

#1. Change your eating habits: 

Yup, weird, but true. What are you feeding yourself? Do you have a steady diet of FB, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat? Maybe you binge on Netflix series. Perhaps your sweet tooth can't resist hours on Pintrest's baking files.

All of these things tempt me. Sometimes, it's like a physical pain to simply close my computer and walk over to where my bible and colored pencils sit. As if there's a battle waging or something! Um.. yeah, there is a battle raging. 

Feed yourself a steady diet of The Word. If you are creative I suggest bible journalling as a great way to inspire your study time. If you are not creative, I suggest a spiral bound notebook and a good pen to write down your thoughts and ideas as you study. 

As you fill yourself up with truth, wisdom and knowledge you will find you can nourish others out of the bounty in your soul.

#2. Exercise more

Last summer, I bought myself a bright green beach bike complete with a basket and a cupholder. I loved the sunshine on my face and the opportunity to be with my son as we rode all over Wheaton. The exercise did me good in many ways.

What does exercise look like for a healthy mentoring lifestyle? You just have to DO IT. 

Invite that college girl over for desert, Ask another family to join you for a game night, Call that friend and go for a walk in the park together, Text that person that's been on your heart and go out for lunch together.  Mentoring can begin with these small exertions. Endeavor to step out of your comfort zone and exercise your mentoring muscles. You may find you are invigorated by the effort.

#3. Create a support system

Who is your greatest cheer leader? My mom is that for me. She is quick to pray with me, quote bible verses over the phone and remind me of the strength I have in Christ. 

Find at least one other person who is like minded. Let them know you are developing a Healthy mentoring lifestyle and tell them what that means for you. Ask them to pray for you and invite them to ask you how it's going periodically. 

Don't have a person in mind? Ask God to send you one. Remember that God is the foundation of this whole thing. He can be your support system if there is no physical person available. 

So, I'm certain this list is leaving you wanting more. 

You may be asking, "Where's the resources?" 

Or, "Where's the method?"

With any lifestyle change you must simply make a start. Work on these three things for awhile and see if you don't feel renewed strength and vitality coursing through your spiritual veins. As you improve your spiritual health and well-being you will discover you can't keep your transformation to yourself.  May God be glorified in you my dear sisters. 

Under the same wing,

-Joleen

Keeping your head on Sunday

If you're a PW then you totally get the title of this post. If not, then hang on to your hat as things are about to get busy!

Sunday's are unbelievable at the "Blue House" Let me walk you through.
Don't worry, I'll tell you how to stay steady and sane on the way!

8:45a.m. My friend, Chi, arrives with food for the B&B college ministry

*B&B = Bible &Breakfast

9:00 a.m. the church bus pulls up to our door to drop off eager friends

We eat breakfast and look into the word of God together. 

How do I keep my head this early in the morning? 

#1. Get someone else to bring the food. Thanks Chi! You're awesome!

#2. Clean and prep the house the night before.

 Expecting to get up in the morning and be ready is a serious mistake.

#3. Get a good night sleep the night before if at all possible

#4.. Pray for the students the night before. The chalkboard in my entry way helps me find out great stuff about each student.

10:30a.m. Church

Okay B&B is over so let's walk across the parking lot to church. Oops first let me throw the chicken and potatoes I prepped the night before into my oven so we have food for our lunch guests. 

Okay, now we can go to church.

How do I keep my head? 

#1. As I walk across the parking lot, I pray for peace and sometimes strength to be a blessing to the people inside God's house. 

#2.  I also, pop a breath mint!

11:45a.m. Lunch guests

We don't actually have lunch guests every Sunday.  But when we do it's often international students from Wheaton College. 

How do I keep my head?

#1. I serve buffet style on this "island" in the middle of my kitchen. This keeps things simple

#2. I  serve a meat, a starch like potatoes or rice, a hot veggie like peas or corn and a lettuce salad. Desert is often store bought cookies and ice cream. 

2:00p.m. guests are gone! 

Let's Nap! 

Truly one of the best ways to keep sane on a Sunday! Take a 20 min. nap!

Now the evening comes and I know this is crazy but we have two small groups that meet at our house on Sunday night. 

The first group arrives at 6:00p.m. and stays until 7:30p.m. This is an important group to me. They are the ones with whom we share most deeply. Keeping my head with them is easy! I lean on them and they pray for me. They lean on me and I pray for them.

7:45p.m. Jane & Tea night

By now, you'd think I'd be dead dog tired! Nope. Every single Sunday God gives exactly what's needed.  This is actually one of my absolute favorite activities! Friends come over and we drink tea, create some sort of simple craft and watch one hour of something we're into. Right now, it's the six hour version of Pride and Prejudice. 

How do I keep my head?

#1. Greeting the girls with joy and being honest about where I'm at physically. Sometimes, I spend more time on the couch than they do.

#2. Put out simple snacks.  I've even served tea and toast to great approval! 

10:00p.m. Fall straight into bed and sleep like a rock! 

I will admit two things that are true about me right now. 

#1. I have older children at home. 10 and 17

#2. I sleep in on Mondays and spend most of my time on the computer creating posts and resting.

 So whatever your Sunday's look like, I hope you'll find ways to stay organized and be prepared ahead of time for whatever God may have in store for you. As one dear friend said to me once, "Joleen, I suggest you pray, pray, pray some more!" 

Dear PW I say the same and I pray you can keep your head as Sunday approaches. 

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HOW TO HOST A JANE & TEA CLUB

 "Do you like tea?" and  "What's your favorite Jane Austen story?"  If these two questions could keep you chatting for hours then this post is for you.

  

Several years ago, a dear group of women in PA started a Jane & Tea night. We would gather for tea and watch PBS renditions of Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. A little Charlotte Bronte's, Jane Eyre and a dash of Dickens with Bleak House rounded out our year nicely. We felt Jane would understand. 

My original Jane & Tea club friends developed a love for tea parties and china. So much so, we would often meet at local tea shops to celebrate our birthdays. We even began purchasing a particular blue and white Spode tea cup for each other as it reminded us of those viewed in Pride & Prejudice. 

When God called my husband and I away from PA to IL,  my dear friends threw me a party and gave me an entire tea basket filled with Jane inspired items.  I treasure these items as they evoke golden memories of lively conversation, laughter and love. 

Perhaps, golden memories are best left to glisten on the shelves of our minds. I longed, however, for the connection Jane provided.  So I endeavored to start a new Jane & Tea club.

Since College Students are one of the groups we are blessed to serve, I've invited the girls to join me each Sunday night at 7:45 for a cuppa tea and an episode of Pride & Prejudice.  I hope to inspire them to all things lovely and provide a golden memory of their own. If you live local, you are welcome to join us! You do not need to be a college student. We'd love to have all ages reflected in our club! I think Jane would approve. 

If you would like to host your own Jane & Tea Club here are a few ideas for you:

#1. The Menu

Keep it simple but pretty. 

Tea is essential. Check out my Tea quotes page for some ideas!
fruit, and breads or cookies make a nice spread.

If you are hoping for the traditional scones and clotted cream you can find many scratch recipes on line but, I love these ready mixes. If you live local you can find these at Serene Teas downtown Wheaton.

#2. The Decorations

A spot of tea and a beautiful smile are all you need.  But if you're inclined to do more, I suggest a pretty tablecloth and a small bud vase of flowers.  

#3. Crafts

I love this book from my local book store. 

It's called So Jane: recipes and crafts for an Austin inspired life. It's full of great crafts and recipes. 

I also love the templates in the back of the book!

I have a few craft ideas of my own of course. Like mod podge and old music papers on letters we buy at a local craft store.  I think we'll make the word TEA. 

Here's an example of some ABC letters I did for my music studio

so there you have it. The last thing you need is great conversation starters. 

It's easy! Simply ask,  "Do you like tea?" and  "What's your favorite Jane Austen story?"

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