Hankie Doodle Dandy

Kids go through phases.

I know this. 

You know this. 

But ARGH!!! Do we have to go through THIS phase? 

I mean it was bad enough when one of them walked around with his hands down his drawers all the time. Oh yes. 

And it was mightily unpleasant when one of my men began licking his fingers. Or rather, as he told me, "rubbing his tongue" incessantly. 

But now, now we have a picker. 

I try not to make a big deal out of it, but really after all the sickness we've had around here, I just cannot stomach the idea of him touching every door handle between here and Oklahoma and then mainlining those germs straight up his nostrils. 

Ew. 

Telling him to get a Kleenex does not work. He is unwilling to stop what he's doing and search out a sanitary solution to his itchy nose when his fingers are right there at (ahem) hand. So I had him carry a kleenex in his pocket, which might have worked accept that it gets rubbed and shredded to bits and ends up everywhere, most especially in my dryer. 

Enter the hankie

.  

It's going to take a little bit of training to get him to remember to use it instead of his fingers, but so far so good.

 I even sprayed a little (heavily) diluted peppermint oil on it, which he loves. So, we might just be trading one habit for another... nose picking for hankie huffing.  

Now, if only I could think of a crafty cure for that whole, "mama watch me cross my eyeballs" thing.

Anyhow, If you'd like to make some hankies of your own, you can find my little sewing cheat sheet here. It's nothing fancy, but it gets the point across I guess. (*** and I just realized that I spelled "flour sack" towels as "flower sack" towels on the sheet. Guess I'll have to fix that later. Or not. You knew what I meant, right?)

A couple of notes: 

I just used flour sack towels for our handkerchiefs. You can buy them in big packs of 6 or 12 at your local discount store. 

Also, about spraying them with essential oils - I've listed a few oils on our down and dirty little sewing instructions sheet, that are said to help with cold symptoms, but I'm not in anyway an official herbalist or anything, so take it with a grain of salt. 

And please, never use undiluted oils on children unless directed to do so by someone who really knows what they are doing. 

For our hankie purposes, we filled a 4 oz spray bottle with water and added about 3 drops of peppermint oil. Then, each hankie got a couple of squirts.