Sugar scrubs. A simple mix of sweet sugar and silky oil. Easy to make. Easy to use. Another simple pleasure to enjoy along with handmade soap. And everybody needs a "little sugar" now and then. Especially seniors who have given so much to others. A lifetime of sugar.

I've watched enough old episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show" and lived in the South long enough to know that to give someone "a little sugar" is to give them an expression of love, usually a kiss. One definition from the Urban Dictionary states that sugar is "a Southern term for kiss. Often pronounced as 'suga' or some variation thereof."  So a Southern senior has most likely given and been given a lot of sugar over the years. And most seniors are plenty sweet!

This week I had the opportunity to demonstrate how to make sugar scrubs at a local assisted living facility, Atria Park of San Pablo. Carrie Walle, the Engage Life Director, had approached me a few months ago at a craft show where I had a booth set up to sell my handmade soaps. She asked if I might be interested in doing a demo at Atria Park, and without hesitation, I agreed. What a wonderful opportunity to give a little suga to some sweet folks!

At the time, I didn't realize that the director had taken a short video. You can view it on The Lathered Lamb's Facebook page. Carrie also took the photos and brought many of the supplies for the demo. The participants had a good time trying the different types of scrubs that I made and then each made their own. I had brought several different fragrances and additives that they could add to their sugar scrub. Then they scooped their scrub into a mason jar and topped it with raffia ribbon. Pretty sweet.

Below are a couple basic scrub recipes using both oatmeal or sugar. Just mix the ingredients together, adding more or less oil to get a consistency that isn't too oily or stiff. Use caution in the shower or bath as the oil can make things slippery.

Oatmeal Scrub

1 1/2 Cups finely ground oatmeal
  1/2 Cup light oil like sweet almond, olive, or sunflower (I used the calendula infused light olive oil mentioned in the video.)
​a little bit of fragrance or essential oil, maybe 1/2 ounce

Basic Sugar Scrub

1 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup Coconut oil, melted (or whatever oil/s you'd like)
1 Tablespoon dry milk powder, optional
body safe fragrance or essential oil - lavender, tea tree, peppermint, whatever you like

Additives can include ground lavender buds, jojoba beads, coffee, loose leaf tea, spices, pureed strawberries or blueberries, honey, salt. Try different sugars - brown, rapadura, raw cane.

*For personal use only. Avoid getting water in the scrub. The scrub should be used within a couple of months, otherwise, please use a preservative.

Springtime usually comes quietly to North Florida. The past few winters have been very mild, with not even a hard freeze, but there are clues that spring has begun. Fresh, new green leaves on the trees and a yellow dusting of pollen on car windshields tell me that chilly days of the past few months will soon give way to beautifully comfortable sunny days. Early blooming azaleas have been flowering for a few weeks already and more varieties will join them as the weeks merge into March. 

Yesterday afternoon was a lovely day for a walk. The clouds were heavy, but there were glimpses of the sun later in the day. I've lived in this area for 15 years now but have never walked Black Creek Trail, which parallels Highway 17 for 8 miles in Clay County and starts at the southern tip of Fleming Island. I didn't walk the whole trail, just the southernmost end, but I enjoyed the beauty of that stretch of woods and the water of Black Creek.

A tangle of vines twisting and turning ever skyward, clinging to tree trunks, climbing higher and higher towards the sun. In a few months these woods will be thickly covered with leaves of the strangling vines of poison ivy, green briar, and kudzu.

This tree isn't threatened by climbing vines. The Hercules Club tree's trunk is covered with knobby growths, many of which project a sharp, sturdy spine.

This tree trunk is adorned with the greyish green polka dots of Crustose Lichen, a symbiotic relationship of fungi and algae which work together to provide food and protection in a biological partnership.

"Leaves of three, let it be." Although there was plenty of poison ivy along the trail, these sweet pink shamrock flowers blooming above their own leaves of three were an unexpected surprise of color amongst the dried leaves that littered the woods. Their leaves of three are harmless.

Black Creek Trail heads north toward Fleming Island Plantation, continues on past Eagle Harbor and Pace Island, and ends in the town of Orange Park. Perhaps one day I'll walk another stretch of the trail. The southern portion of the trail ends at the waters of Black Creek.

The sun was shimmering on the waters of Black Creek at the end of the trail, creating sparkling stars which peeked between the roots of cypress trees lounging in the lapping water. The trees' knees stood like pyramids, and sun rays played hide and seek among the trees.

You never know what you might find walking in the woods. This unintelligible sign was unable to convey it's meaning, and I wondered at this unusual plant. A bottle tree, perhaps?

I was delighted to find a few shy violets peeping out from last year's discarded tree leaves. When I was a child, violets were a sure sign that spring had arrived.

This leisurely walk along Black Creek Trail brought to mind a quiet reminder that the seasons of life often bring a tangle of thorns and new growth, unexpected moments of beauty and absurdity, deepening roots and shifting shadows. There is a time to reach towards the sun and a time to look ahead. There is a time to just be still and listen to the sounds of life in the rustling of leaves, the lapping of water at a creek's edge, the beating of your heart. Life is a trail that leads ever forward. Find beauty in the ordinary. Accept the unexpected. Look to the Son. Just Live.

Thanks for stopping by!
​~Debbie