So many things change when you have children. There are the obvious changes and then there are the unexpected changes.

My husband was in the military when we first married and we loved getting to experience so many different places and people.  But as time went on, we began to yearn for a simpler, more natural, and more handmade way of life. After our travels with the Marines, we have settled down in Bailey, CO in the Rocky Mountains.  Besides my time spent with Emily's Homestead, I enjoy music, gardening, reading and hiking.  And all of my high school sons' activities . . . anyone else on that crazy train?

Here's how Emily's Homestead began:

It began when I saw that my little guy had inherited his momma's eczema. In the past, I had slathered the pharmaceuticals on myself and my eczema abated for a while, only to come back in full force later. I couldn't bring myself to put the drugs on my small child especially since they never seemed to truly help much anyway.

So I started searching for a healthier alternative. I had intended to find a more natural treatment for the eczema that we would just have to live with but then I learned about handmade soap. Handcrafted soap doesn't have chemicals and detergents added to it so it doesn't exacerbate issues like eczema and psoriasis. I realized that I could make our family a natural cleanser that would moisturize their skin and help them feel better!

What began as tentative baby steps turned into a huge passion for making soap and shampoo bars. These products don't strip the natural oils from your skin, scalp and hair. Many detergent-based bath bars and shampoos leave your skin and scalp defenseless, causing it to go into overdrive producing oil to try to balance itself out. This leads to more scrubbing and buying more products to continually moisturize your stripped-bare skin and hair. Handcrafted soaps and shampoos take your cleansing routine from harsh detergents back to old-fashioned goodness.  

Then, once my creative mind got going on these natural soaps, I quickly branched out to balms, probiotic deodorants and coconut wax candles, as well.

By embracing a more natural lifestyle and using more natural products in our home, we have been able to help our bodies help themselves. The momma in me loves that.