I’m a bit superstitious. I wish I weren’t. It has improved over time, but when it comes to my kids I haven’t shaken it completely. I’ve noticed superstition rear its head as i’ve written the first aid series. I noticed, for example, that after the blog on healing salve for cuts and abrasions, my older son, Aidan, seemed to have one wipe-out after another that required the use of my newest potion. Same with the Tummy Trouble Tea and our incidence of the stomach flu.

There is nothing worse than teething, nothing. Except maybe when your baby topples over onto his head while trying to crawl, while teething and grumpy anyway, and ends up with a big red welt on his head. Then there’s something worse. Oh boy.

Well, it’s official. Sitting in the pre-tornado humidity of our Spring evening in Austin, it happened...my first mosquito bite of the season. Fighting back the urge to cry, “I’m not ready!”, I am reminding myself that this Friday for Recipe Weekend we’ll be posting a recipe -- and mixing up a batch! of natural homemade bug repellent that will hopefully make this first bite my last.

But I know that this first bite heralds the start to an entire post-Winter season - of camping trips, picnics, pool parties, trips to the park, summer vacations -- and general outdoor merriment that comes with the lurking dangers of everything from yellow-jacket-riddled trashcans to noseeums and sand fleas.

Mommy’s ER very own Herbal Antiseptic Tincture

This recipe is our own creation, but with the guidance of the The Herb Bar in Austin -- just my favorite little ivy-covered natural pharmacy ever...

• 1/8 tsp goldenseal root powder
• 10 drops of tea tree oil
• vitamin e

Combine the goldenseal root powder and tea tree oil in one ounce glass dropper bottle. Fill the rest of the bottle with vitamin e (which will equal very nearly 1 oz). Shake to blend. Apply via dropper directly to small wounds, cuts and abrasions.

There is a lot of swordplay in our house. I mean a lot. And wrestling, and karate. And similar to the old adage, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” (I love that one!), where there’s physical play and roughhousing, there are scraped knees and elbows. Couple being eight years old with the weather of Spring -- it’s gorgeous out! -- and you’ve doubled the chances for bruises and abrasions by, say, a factor of skateboarding, biking, soccer, ferocious tag games and tree-climbing.