The Beginning

Hello and welcome to the Happy Homemaker!   As a mother of two small children and a stay at home mom, I find that my life revolves a lot more on the practical these days.  The purpose of this blog is to share tips and ideas for a wide variety of homemaking skills such as  crafting, sewing, organizing, cleaning, cooking/baking, decorating, and lots of DYI ideas. My background in art has helped me a lot to come up with creative ideas for how to decorate our home, and how to do things myself, instead of having to buy something pre-made, or hire someone else to do it for me.  A lot of this thinking comes from the way I grew up where if something was broken, we fixed it instead of immediately buying something to replace the item.  My ideas and inspirations come from all over (though since I've discovered Pinterest my imagination has gone into overload!)

While many of the tips and ideas I share here are my own, or my own variation, I also love to pass on the knowledge I've gained from others.  Since this blog is all things homemaking, it will be a hodge podge of things like for instance,  today's tip about thumb-sucking, to the occasional post about sharing a favorite well-loved recipe.

My goal is to be able to connect with other mother's out there, and to be able to share back and forth.  This blog has been several years in the making, and I am very excited about embarking on this new journey because the subject matter is so near and dear to my heart.

This blog is also solely for the purpose of edification and will be a "safe" zone for all who visit.  It's always with a little trepidation that I put myself out there with the lurkers of the internet world.  My goal is to glorify Jesus Christ in what I share here, and to be a testimony to His grace.

 And with that introduction, today's tip is for how to heal the skin of a voracious thumb-sucker.  My little girl has been a thumb sucker from infancy, and she sucks so hard she has literally broken the skin.  I was very against applying an antibiotic cream because I knew that would going right back into her mouth.  My sister suggested cleaning it with hydrogen peroxide which does a fabulous job for cleaning, but unfortunately dries the skin out.  Lately I've been doing some research on the benefits of coconut oil, and have been very happy with the results in my cooking.  But I also read that coconut oil http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html  contains antibacterial properties, as well as being a great skin treatment.  I tried it on Miss G's thumb and was amazed at the overnight difference.  The open area was almost entirely healed, and the whole area in general looked amazingly better!  Just a little bit goes a long way with coconut oil, and it's a wonderful natural alternative to chemically filled creams.

Happy healing!

Thanks for visiting-blessings
Laura