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* Messy, Authentic, Magical Life *

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Minneapolis Bound.

May 1, 2009March 17, 2018

Loaded to the roof and off we go! We hope to see some of you at the Living Green Expo in Minneapolis this weekend. Have a wonderful weekend, and see you back here on Tuesday!

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Decoupage Suitcase Goodness.

CSA Season: Get your veggies on.

My book!

About Me

lusa_mama

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With autumn upon us, I can't help but recall back to the @lusa_organics herbal retreats that I hosted in Octobers gone by, and what a wonderful experience those gatherings (and the spring and summer camps, as well) were. Building community, coming together as women, and making medicine from the abundance of the earth. I hope to have time again some day to gather with you amazing people.
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Did you attend a retreat or summer camp with me in years past? What recipes, friendships, or experiences are still s part of your day-to-day life? I’d love to hear how this time that shaped me also impacted you. 🌿✨

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Our little town's annual Harvest Parade was yesterday––snowflurries and all! This year marked the 10th anniversary (and the first ever with snow). A friend noticed some names penciled inside of a few costumes, made for kids now grown and gone. It’s hard to believe that Lupine was 3 and Sage 7 the first time they marched. It won’t be long and they’ll have fledged, too.
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Get out there and make some memories, friends. These are the (free, messy, joyful, imperfect) things that matter most of all.
#viroquawisconsin #viroquawi #viroqua

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There is so much I have yet to share from our six week journey to Ireland and Iceland. Yet being home has me pulling away from the screen and anchoring myself in the rhythms of home. A few blog posts are certainly in order, but first, some comforts that only dwell at home. So I’m roasting a homegrown chicken for tonight’s dinner, making a batch of nettle, garlic, and ginger-spiked bone broth, and drying herbs for winter. We had a few snowflakes fall on us yesterday in the woods, as a reminder that autumn doesn’t last, and winter will soon be upon us. How cozy it is.

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🍁October + home🍁 Though it was blustery outside and threatening rain, after 6 weeks away, we all craved reconnection with this land. I harvested tulsi and brewed it with fresh ginger root, a handful of this summer’s raspberry leaf and and the last of last September’s burdock.
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We filled a thermos, then loaded a pack with matches, a saw, some sausages, and foil-wrapped apples. The four of us whiled away the afternoon in the woods beside a crackling fire, watching the leaves drop and feeling our roots sink into this soil once more. Back at the house with muddy boots, rosy cheeks, and cold fingers, we set to the task of harvesting herbs and the last of the garden in anticipation of tonight’s hard freeze. After dinner we will load the drying racks with tulsi, catnip, patchouli, and sage m, light another fire, and snuggle in for the cold to come.
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Hello, October. Hello, Wisconsin. Hello, small rituals of home. Oh, how we have missed you all.
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* This is Sauk, Ho-Chunk, and Očeti Šakówiŋ (Sioux) land. *
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#childhoodunplugged
#simplicityparenting
#unschooling
#celebratingtheseasons
#secularholiday

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After 6 weeks away + one exceptionally long travel day, we rolled back into the Driftless tonight, just before the sun slipped behind autumn-colored hills.
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En-route between Ireland and home we (in no particular order): made a new Wisconsin friend in the Dublin airport whom we look forward to visiting in the north woods very soon; drank delicious (and honestly life-giving) homemade bone broth that was lovingly delivered in person to the Iceland airport by the @slowtravelkids_iceland family (whom we adore and already miss); bounced an overtired & fussy baby and befriended his parents somewhere over the Atlantic; and fell asleep mid-conversation in my dad’s pickup truck on the highway north of Chicago.
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And now we are home at last, reunited with the smells and sights of home, and the adoring and forgiving four-legged family that we left behind. And I think somehow it’s past our bedtime (despite only being 7 PM). Oh, friends, it is so good to be home.

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Pete and I both cast off our road trip knitting this week (Lupine cast her’s off weeks ago, and I’ll share photos soon). Just off our needles: a @jared_flood hat for Pete (he’s a fan, as evidenced by his accompanying sweater that he requested I knit a couple of years back), and an @Elizabethsmithknits Alanis tee for me. Both were knitted with homegrown yarn spun from the wool of our own sheep, adding a bit of extra nostalgia to these homemade travel souvenirs. (Mine was also dyed with black hollyhocks I grew in the garden over the past several summers.)
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And they were completed just as we board a plane bound for home. Because after some 6 weeks in Iceland and Ireland, we’re home bound at last. Whoot, whoot! See you soon, Wisco peeps.
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#wolffamilywanderings #manknitting #manknitter #knittersofinstagram #fiberflock #merino #diyrevolution

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One of our favorite stops from our first visit to Ireland was this pebble beach near Malin Head, at the northernmost reaches of the island. We returned this week, and gratefully whiled away a quiet day—wandering the shoreline, making beach art, and slowly filling our pockets with shining stones. Back home, these simple gifts from earth and sea will be among our greatest treasures.
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#roadschooling
#ireland
#wolffamilywanderings

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Hey, loves. I don't talk about my business often over here, but will you entertain me for a moment? Becasue we've made some changes at @lusa_organics that I think you'll absolutely love.
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Every year, we take another step toward greater sustainability. Because I believe that the status quo is rarely good enough. In the past we have made small, regular steps toward the world we want to work for like choosing the safest ingredients we can source, going organic, working with local farmers, and reformulating our recipes to go palm oil-free.
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This year we pledged to reduce our use of plastic by 80 to 90%. It was our biggest challenge yet (and our most important). And, at long last, we've done it! It's taken us all year, but we're finally free of plastic deodorant packaging, sugar scrub jars, and (as of this afternoon) lip balm tubes. I feel elated.
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In addition to our product packaging upgrade, we will soon have used up the last of our plastic shipping supplies (like tape, plastic bags, etc.) and when they're gone we're switching to compostable options. And we couldn't be happier.
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I can't thank my team at LüSa enough: Pete, Steven, Beanie, Phia, and especially Karen, for tackling this huge change with such enthusiasm and positive energy. We couldn't have done it without you.
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And now I turn to you. For those of you with the means to make a purchase, who've been considering LüSa for a while but haven't made the leap, who were customers years ago but wandered off: I'd love to welcome you to a whole new LuSa. We to vote with our dollars for the kind of world we want to live in. Will you vote for change? Will you join me here? Because together we can rewrite the status quo.
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#sustainableskincare
#organicbodycare
#saynotoplastic
#zerowaste
#plasticfree
#motherearth
#sustainablelifestyle
#sustainability
#zerowaste
#zerowasteliving
#palmoilfree
#saynotopalmoil
#palmfree
#ecoskincare
#biodegradable

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I got out of the car to swing wide the cattle gate, allowing our car passage up the narrow mountain road. There was no sign to greet us, only “leave the gate as you found it” posted on a wooden placard beside the road. I slid the pin back into place, and we resumed our circuitous route into the hills.

After countless sheep and threatening potholes, the road gave up, ending at a signpost reading “Carrowkeel” but providing no hints as to which way to go from there. We pulled off into the mud, and after a few false starts set off up the windswept hills, assuming the tombs, like so many others in Ireland, would be on the highest ground. Carrowkeel. An ancient, sacred site, consisting of some 14 prehistoric passage tombs. As we crested the hill, the first tomb came into view, first as a mound of rubble, then slowly taking shape before our eyes as a low, dark doorway came into view.
Read more on the blog, my friends. Link in my bio.

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