The drizzly grey weather seems to chase us indoors in search of a wool wrap or warm fire. Often such late fall days coincide with seasonal "colds" or flus that leave our bodies chilled and tired. These short-lived illnesses force us to rest, renew a focus on our bodies, and often to seek nurturing and care.

When doctors send us home advising rest and fluids for minor afflictions, what do we have in our home stores to support revitalization? What can a family gather to help us weather colds? From creams, salves, oils, and aroma therapy to soothing "props", to comfort foods, to warmth, water, and hand washing to vitamins, herbs, and/or homeopathy, we can gather many items to create wellness baskets for nurturing our families.

With newspaper headlines declaring this one tough flu season, I inventoried the homemade remedies in our hat box cum wellness basket. I decided to shop for a few more items, and contacted Whole Foods.  Noelle Moss of Whole Foods Santa Rosa offered to connect me with her Whole Body Department Team Leader (the fabulous Leondard) to help me learn more about available products- a service the Whole Body Department staff are happy to do for any family.  

Our family now has on hand the following wonderfully soothing items: 


Creams, Salves, Oils and Aroma Therapy

 “Green goo” or “Magic Medicine”


 Arincare Gel


 Eucalyptus oil


 Dry Skin Lotion

Building my wellness basket starts with a good store of healing salve, which we call “Green Goo” or “Magic Medicine.” Sono-Ma Nina Goodwin helped me wildcraft St. John’s and plantain from the banks of the Eel River last summer as core elements of our healing salve recipe. Other healing ingredients include: calendula and comfrey from my garden, olive oil and beeswax. We put this cream on all skin abrasions.

As an alternative to a homemade salve, Whole Foods gave me a sample of Boiron, Inc’s Arincare gel, which claims to provide pain relief for muscle aches, stiffness, and bruises. We’ll give this one a try for Bryles’ next bump!


Olba’s Oil replaced the Vick’s my mom used to give us for coughs. This natural product offers “aromatherapy in a massage oil and inhalant.” While Bryles finds it too strong for his chest or temples, he doesn’t object when we sprinkle oil on a tissue and tuck it in his pillow.


Dry skin sneaks up on our hands every winter. Santa Rosa based ShiKai offers “Borage Dry Skin Therapy” as a local and natural solution. I got a freebie through a swag bag at the Lunafest and a recent Whole Foods store tour. I love it!


Soothing Props

 Boo Boo Baby


 Lemon Neck Wraps


 Rice Sacks


 Blankets


 Stories

While moms and dads wish kisses solved all problems, sometimes we need to call in support from soothing props. One great distraction and novelty for a crying child is the adorable “Boo Boo Baby.” Sono-Dad Paul Kaiser just crafted one for his son Lucas in our Children’s Play Garden Waldorf group.

Sometimes comfort comes in other simpler forms. Grandma Mary showed me how to make a neck wrap with crushed lemons, wool, and silk to warm and soothe my throat. My neighbor, Miss Teapot, blessed me with a rice sack teddy bear as welcome gift for Bryles. My adopted mom crafted a wool and fleece blanket set for my birthday one year. We give great reverence to the soothing properties of these gifts, and wrap ourselves in their warmth. We cuddle and share stories of these women or the other angels in our lives – virtually calling on their strengths to help nurture us from afar.

Whole Food's Leonard also recommends Bucky brand neck and body wraps for those of you who'd like to start your own warm "rice sack" traditions!  The body wrap look's like a toddler's body pillow - imagine the toasty dreams your little one could have snuggled up with that!

Comfort Foods

 Tea - Traditional Medicinals

 Chicken Soup

 Honey

 Lemon

Let Sebastopol-based Traditional Medicinals soothe you this winter with a range of wonderful teas (and other herbal products.) I can’t live without Throat Coat tea when I have coughs and sniffles.

While some may argue the medicinal properties of chicken soup, people agree that warm soup soothes the throat, heats the body, and provides needed nourishment. Try “Mom’s Cold Season Chicken Soup” from Elise at Simply Recipes.


I also like to snuggle up in a blanket and sip comfort from a mug filled with honey and lemon water. Mother Earth News reports that honey is an excellent wellness tool. Its inherent anti-bacterial properties make it a wonderful wound healer and throat coat. Read more here.   Lemons are also said to have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.


Warmth, Water, and Handwashing

It turns out that granny is right! Keeping warm, drinking lots of water, and frequently washing our hands are important tasks for maintaining health and recuperating. Support your health throughout the day by forming a habit of always toting a hat, scarf, water bottle (Whole Foods Whole Body staffer Leonard recommends Klean Kanteen), and hand sanitizer such as our local EO’s lavender scented version.

While my son often tries to throw off his hat as he runs out the door, I chase after him and put it back on. Thomas Poplawski says in Renwal Magazine’s “‘Button up Your Overcoat’ Warmth and the Healthy Development of the Young Child:

a child’s body “has a finite amount of energy to use for growth, both for the growth of the body as a whole and for the development of the brain and inner organs. Keeping the body warm allows the greatest amount of these energies to be devoted to this task. When the child is not sufficiently warm, the growth forces are used up in maintaining body temperature, and the processes of outer and inner growth is affected.” (Read more of Poplawski)

Vitamins, Herbs, and Homepathy


Your family doctor can help advise you about what vitamins, herbs, and homeopathic remedies may support your family. Once you are ready to shop, Whole Foods is a great provider of high quality, local and/or organic products – detailed video included here:



(video: “Protecting your family from flu with herbal remedies - 10/30/09 - San Francisco News - abc7news.com”)

 You can find out more about how Whole Foods can support your family by participating in the:  Store Tour for Moms at Whole Foods on December 9th from 10:30 – 11:30. (Please RSVP to secure one of 6 remaining tour slots to Noelle Moss.) I received a great swag bag full of samples and coupons on my recent tour! Note: everyone can benefit self guided tour via a copy of the Santa Rosa Store map and Whole Food’s coupons found in the “Whole Deal” publication offered in front of stores as shown here:

For those schooled in crafting home herbal remedies, some common plants such as mint may come in handy as a part of your repertoire. Our family is also taking daily elderberry drops, to fend off this season’s flus.

Share your family’s ideas for a well winter by sharing your comments and photos now!

"I found a sweet elder tree with TONS of berries that are starting to ripen!" writes Sono-Ma Karla Gormley to our craft circle.

Next day, our kids happily gathered up buckets and baskets, while we loaded the bike stroller and prepared for a walk on a trail near Karla’s house. These kids are their nature loving mamas’ children, anxious to find wild treats as we were!

Little did we know we’d discover elderberries, grapes, and blackberries on our short walk on the outskirts of a Windsor subdivision. Like the little gnomes in Children of the Forest, our kids listened to our cautions about what to eat, touch, or leave alone- all the while learning lessons about the wild world we hope they’ll hold onto for life.

The elder tree was loaded with berries! With a couple of three-year-olds and a one-year-old babe, we did some quick picking before they lost interest. As we picked bushels, we talked about our plans to make natural home remedies for winter colds and sore throats. Bryles and I started this process by putting a healing basket together including his warm bear, Epson salts (good for family foot baths – see Mothering Magazine May June 2009 article and this inspired group), salves we made last summer, and a few other herbal or homeopathic concoctions. These elderberries will be a key ingredient in my “wellness” drops – a recipe by Rosemary Gladstar or this recipe I found at "Home Grown Farming."  These tried and true serums have been used by wise women for centuries, but are finding a new place in my home...

There are many lessons we can stand to learn from the women in our past and current lives. A mother of aged-twenty something children chatted with Karla and I as we all plucked blackberries today. This mother talked about her lovely children who went away on young adult adventures, but recently found their way back into her nest for short reprieves from life’s stresses. She eyed our young children throwing rocks, squealing for more berries, and generally surrounding us in a flurry of activity. She reminisced on her earlier days of mothering three children under four years old.

I asked this experienced mother to share her stories on Sono-Ma.  Many younger mothers search for the wisdom of those who’ve made it to her stage of mothering adult children. She hesitated and said that she doesn’t talk about the hard times of parenting.

Why not? Karla and I sometimes enter a virtual confession stall and admit that we find mothering a challenge (to say the least.) Both of us have shared that we’ve felt inadequate next to other mothers who seem to sail through sleepless nights and continue to dote on their children with the utmost of patience. I’ll go ahead and admit that lots of times I feel overwhelmed, over needed, under slept, consumed by back pain, and filled with an urge to run away to hide! I constantly write this letter in my head, “Dear Mom. You had five children, and made it seem like you loved every minute of mothering. What was your secret?”

I don’t know if the wise woman we met will share her stories, but I hope she will! Mothering is all things: sweet, awful, fulfilling, draining, the best and the worst. I need more stories about some of the down and dirty to learn how to balance myself.  Are their other moms who hit lows and highs?  Please share!

*Note:  elderberries are not edible unless processed in a tincture or cooked - do not let your children eat them raw.