Wordless Wednesday

No special theme this week just a bunch of my favorites from the last couple of weeks

My boy is truly a boy, Working on his Big Wheel




My gardens are dead, but not completely, The sunflowers the birds plant are growing.







My kids really do love each other. Peanut, took this pictures her self.









One baby quilt down two more to go! Next time I will request that all of my relatives not have babies in the same year. Interesting fact, if you look in the background of the picture of Peanut above you can see here baby quilt. I have been making baby quilts since before my oldest was born. Each one reflects the personality of the child or family – or at least my interpretation.

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7 Natural Remedies For your Cold

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Cold season is fast approaching, as the weather gets colder it seems that we tend to catch more colds. Couple that colder weather with kids back in school and it seems we have created the perfect petri dish.  Kids tend to catch a couple of colds each winter.  It is sometimes easier to keep yourself healthy but what do you do when your family or you do get a cold?
. We try to take the Hippocratic approach to medicine around here.  First do no harm. We use natural and home remedies first at home then when that does not work we had off to see the Doctor. We will use our natural remedies but we do use modern medicine. Sometimes you do need an antibiotic or a steroid shot.
So when someone is sick here we start with simple remedies before we even think about doing to the Doctor we start with the following.
Tea – a hot cup of tea, with some local honey makes a great treatment for most common ailments, like colds and allergies. Not only is tea full of antioxidants, But you also get some therapeutic benefit from the steam and the heat of the beverage. Throw in some lemon and you get a boost of Vitamin C. Sometimes a green tea is warranted but other times a hibiscus tea is a better choice. Hibiscus based teas, like Celestial Seasonings Zinger teas have more vitamin C than per cup than orange juice.
Wash your Hands  Wash your hands, using soap, and wash them often. If you don’t have soap,  don’t worry. The rubbing together of your hands under water is what removes the virus from your skin, not the soap.  Hand sanitizers are not necessary.
Vitamin C and Zinc Lozenges  at the first sign of a cold I will start with these, Vitamin C and Zinc have been proven to reduce the severity and duration of a cold.
NetIi Pot – If you have not tried one of these, it may seem weird at first, but once you get used to it, it will become normal. My two oldest will go use the neti pot on their own. We just put a pinch of natural salt in warm water,  The irrigation of your nasal cavities really helps to get everything cleared out.
Garlic -  This is a great remedy for colds or stomach bugs. Throw in some Ginger and you have a winning combination. The last time I got a cold, which was over 2 years ago it only lasted one day. I felt a cold coming on so I sat in my chair drinking ginger tea with honey all afternoon. It was a Saturday after soccer.  That night I made my shrimp with Three Gingers, and Garlic for dinner. I think I put some extra garlic and ginger in that time.  I woke up with my cold gone.
Pineapple/Pineapple Juice – This is a remedy that tastes soo good. Pineapple contains bromelin, bromelin is an anti-inflammatory.  It fights infections and kills bacteria. You can drink fresh pineapple juice to sooth a sore throat and it will help expel mucous for you. I like to take my pineapple and blend it with my tea and honey. A good drink no matter what.  Taking pineapple to treat a cold or cough is a time honored tradition in Aruyvedic Medicine, not only does it deliver vitamin C but since the bromelin is a potent anti- inflammatory it helps in treating all the inflammatory symptoms that arise from the common cold.
Chicken Broth  A frequent symptom of the common cold, especially in kids is loss of appetite. Making a good Overnight Broth will help thwart that cold, especially if you include the spices turmeric, ginger and garlic in making your broth. I try to keep some broth on hand when I make it but it rarely lasts long enough to keep some.  If I don’t make a soup, my kids will drink the broth straight out the pan,


Healthy 2Day Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Fresh Bites Friday

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A Dozen Things I do not Do.

I do a lot around here but, I do not do everything.

• I cook from scratch but I don’t make my own bread. I eat gluten free, so I don’t make bread. For my family I buy locally made bread.
• I make my own laundry powder and hang up my clothes outside but I do not iron. Really if you hang up clothes outside wet properly they dry almost wrinkle free.
• I use pastured eggs in my cooking, but I do not raise my own chicken. We did try it once but out of 18 chickens none of them made it through the summer. Instead I buy my eggs from trusted friends.
• I do sew, making things from vintage cloth, or treasured articles of clothing, But I do not make our own clothing. Though I do repurpose some of them.
• I did not make my own baby food. I waited for my kids to show the signs that the were ready for solid foods and followed child led weaning. Because of this my kids went straight to Real Food .
• I do not homeschool. We have people frequently asking me if I do, since my kids are out of school on Mondays. Though we do do a lot of enrichment activities.
• I do not eat a vegetarian diet, though in the past I have been vegan.  These days I do better on a gluten free diet, with grass fed meat. Due to the price of grass fed meats, we do not eat meat every day, but I do make my own bone broth and use that for soups. Or if you are my daughter you drink the broth straight.
• I don’t pay car payments. We drive 10 year old cars, that we pay cash for.
• We don’t’ try to keep up with the Jones.  We bought a 50 year old farm house that we have been fixing up as we go along. We have furnished it with beautiful furniture that we have thrifted. I would take a picture of my beautiful living room, but my son is busy playing in there. I did however find a picture (not the best picture, but will have to do)of  our leather big man recliner and circa 1930's couch that I paid about $150 total for (oh and a matching side chair to the couch)
• We don’t schedule a ton of activities for our kids. We do let our kids choose one activity each for a season.
• We don’t buy our kids the latest and great new it  toys.  We only recently bought a WII game Instead we prefer Real Toys for Real Kids
• I don’t spend a lot of time cleaning my kids rooms or my house. But that is because I have the kids help me.  We assign each kid a room they have responsibility for the week. 

Now it is YOUR turn. What don't you do?

9/11 We Remember

As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches there is hardly a person alive who doesn’t remember the moment that changed their lives. For me it was surreal. I remember it was a morning like any other morning. I was home with a 1 year old Peanut and and a 3 year old Pi. We had just finished our breakfast and I believe I had the TV on while I folded laundry. A normal everyday. That is until I turned on the TV. The morning news shoes were on.  They were talking about a plane that had crashed into one of the towers. Speculation at that point was that it was a small plane. Coming from North East. I had made many trips to NYC. The idea of a small plane crashing into one of the towers made complete sense for me. I have been in small commuter jets that literally feel like you are flying through the skyscrapers of NYC.
What happened next left me speechless, I while I was watching the fire from the first plane crash in the towers, I saw the second plane crash into the towers. I immediately started tracking down family members in my head. My cousin and his wife lived in Brooklyn and worked in Manhattan. I counted my blessings when I realized that my husband who traveled frequently at that time was ensconced at his office here in Oklahoma. That day was one of a few days that I was grateful to only have our over the air channels, cable was is not available to us and we did not subscribe to satellite.  While it would have been nice to change the channel to something like HGTV, I knew in my heart that if I had 52 channels I would have quickly become a CNN junkie.
So what did I do instead? I felt a great need, nay a desire to get out of the house that day with my girls. We headed out to a park to meet some friends and get away from all the TV coverage. But we kept a watchful eye on the sky, while saying prayers for those directly impacted.
You may be wondering what ever happened to my cousin and his wife who worked in Manhattan. It turns out that my cousin was in Washington D.C. on that day. He had taken the train down for business. He was lucky, because he already had a return train ticket and was able to return home the next day.  His wife went home from work after picking up their daughter from the babysitter and walked more than 5 miles home across the Brooklyn Bridge. All the subways and trains were shut down for the day.  Not long after the events of 9/11 they made plans to move to France.

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Teaching Our Children Patience

This post is part of an ongoing series on the Seven Virtues. Practicing the seven  virtues is considered to protect one against temptation from the seven deadly sins,
The seven virtues are Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, and Humility.

What is Patience?
Patience is a virtue.  I am sure you have heard this expression before. What does being patient mean? Being Patient means being willing to wait. To delay getting something small in order to get something bigger in the end.  So what does that have to do with virtues? As a virtue patience is the counterpoint to the sin of wrath.  Being patient means you resolve conflicts peacefully, without resorting to violence. It means showing mercy and forgiveness to sinners.  Patience means not killing or being violent in any way to any thinking creature; to practice moderation of meat consumption. A patient person creates a  sense of peaceful stability and community, rather than engendering suffering, hostility and antagonism.
We all know the joys of teaching a child how to wait for ice cream, or a birthday, or Christmas. But how do you teach them to resolve conflicts in a non-violent manner? Or to show forgiveness and mercy to sinners? How do we as adults create a sense of peaceful stability in our homes?
As a mother and someone who works with kids I go through these lessons every day. Kids get into squabbles every day.
We begin teaching our children as always, through how we act. When you are on the phone with someone, let’s say the electric company, do you talk to them like human beings and empathize with their situation or do lose your patience and dehumanize the person on the other end of the phone? After all, is it their fault the storm took out your power? No they are probably being swamped with calls right now. 
The Aspects of Patience
Resolve conflicts peacefully, without resorting to violence

When you teach your children to resolve conflicts peacefully you are teaching them to work through a problem in a way that does not hurt anyone involved. This means you teach children to resolve disagreements without hurting the other person. You are teaching your child compassion. To care for others, their feelings, to come to solution to a problem without hurting the other person. Think of the toddler that wants a toy and if he does not get it. What does he do? He hits the other kid, or worse yet bites them. How do we deal with a toddler that hits or bites? We teach them how to be gentle. Gentleness is part of patience.

Showing mercy and forgiveness to sinners

How do we teach our children to show mercy and forgiveness?
Remember that game when a kid when bend back another kid’s hand until that kid cried mercy? We are not talking about that sort of mercy here. I am talking about teaching our children to show mercy to others. But first of all what do we mean by mercy? When we are merciful to those who have sinned we forgive offenses willingly. What exactly does that mean? Well let me demonstrate. Let’s say Pumpkin went into PI’s (a teenage girl) room and took out her paints and sketch pads, and then used them. How do you think she should react when Pumpkin says sorry for making the mess and taking her stuff while she was at dance? First lets look at how she is likely to react

1. yelling and screaming that is my stuff, he has no right to it. He went in my room.
2. Telling him it was wrong for him to go into her room and take her expensive art supplies, even if it was to make a surprise painting for her.
3. Forgive him for not realizing that her room is private and that he should ask to use her special paints when we have plenty of paints in our craft closet

To tell the truth if Pi has had a good day I will get response number 2. Most likely Pumpkin had no malicious reason for going into Pi’s room to use her paint. Most likely her paints and paper where more accessible than getting them out of the paint closet, after all he did not want to bother mom to get them and he wanted to do something independently.
How often do we teach our children to say “sorry”? Do we teach them to say “I forgive you?” I have to admit I only do this about 50 % of the time.  Usually the hurt party is not ready to let go of the hurt or transgression.  Lucky for us, as Catholics, we have confession.
It takes time for our kids to learn to forgive trespasses and offenses willingly.  I know that sometimes it is hard for me to forgive people for what they do to me, but I have to remember what Christ said “forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” Often people will hurt other people without even knowing what they do. Ask yourself when you mother in law hurts you with words, do you forgive her in your heart, knowing that she will probably hurt you again?

Patience is Non-violent

Whoa, this is a big one. Patience is non-violent and does no harm to any living sentient creature. What does that really mean? In a nutshell it means we do not perpetuate violence on man, woman, child, or animal. Think about it. If there was more patience in the world we would not being seeing those commercials for abused animals that make us all cry. I swear every time we see one of those commercials my 7 year old tears up. 
As parents, we have daily opportunities to teach our children that patience is non-violent. I mean how many times a day do your kids ask you the same question? Do you discipline them with a smack? Most likely if you are here, you do not. We are teaching our children the non-violent aspect of patience eve time we interact with our children.

Practice moderation of meat consumption

I find it interesting that patience includes the practice of moderate meat consumption. It seems that patience is the answer to our problem with gluttony also.  How do we teach our children to practice moderate meat consumption? As parents we are the ones who serve our children their food. As Americans, most of us over eat, and we overeat poor quality meat. Meat that is processed and full of hormones, antibiotics, and preservatives. Now I know not everyone can afford to eat grass fed beef, but have you considered how much meat you actually do eat? How much do you spend on meat a week? If you were to take that same amount of money and purchase meat that is humanely grown and processed you could then supplement your protein with other sources such as beans, bone broth, or cheese. 

Creates a  sense of peaceful stability and community

I just love that whole statement above, a sense of peaceful stability and community. Isn’t that what want in your house? I strive to have a peaceful house.  When we create a peaceful environment for our children, one that allows them to grow, they come to expect that as normal, they want to maintain that environment. They learn that it is normal to have a peaceful house. One where people do not yell at each other.  Speaking of yelling, are you a frequent yeller? If you are, what are you teaching your children? It is not peace and patience. Remember our children learn the most by watching how we behave. Children are perfect little mimics, they do and say what we do, not what we say.

 I will admit that this virtue is the one that I have the most trouble with. At times I am a very patient person. I forgive and understand a person’s background. I do not hold it against them when they harm me, but harm one of my children, then the mother bear in me comes out.  I wouldn't even say mother bear is an apt description, because the claws come out.  At times I lose my patience with myself, my children and the person at the store, the customer service rep on the phone. So how do I keep myself patient? I miss admit that for me it helps to eat good food, get plenty of rest and take care of myself. If I don’t find time to nourish myself, mind, body and soul I tend to be a cranky mama. Cranky mama’s don’t have a lot of patience. We are too tired and hungry to patient with anyone. If I make sure I have a good night’s sleep, get some time outside in nature and eat a good breakfast I am am able to weather what the day might bring.  Taking care of yourself and being patient with yourself if the best way to teach your child how to be patient.

this post is linked up with Women Living Well Wednesday

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7 Quick Takes

1

We are getting ready for a wedding around here, Next week my mother in law will be getting remarried after spending the last 10 years as a widow. My kids are excited to be part of the wedding and see their cousins. Since we live 12 hours away from them, we don’t get to see them too often.

2

I got my hair cut today. I treated myself to a real haircut, in a real salon. When I was a young, single, footloose young professional, I would go to the salon about every 6-8 weeks like clockwork. I would get the obligatory cut and color. It was nothing for me to spend $90 on my hair maintenance at each trip. Once I became a SAHM it became harder for me to find time for my regular hair appointments.  My 6 weeks became 12 weeks, then 6 months. I started to wear the ponytail more.  Last year at my our school carnival my husband bid on and won a haircut with a deep conditioning treatment. I am quite happy with my shorter sassier hair do. BUT after using the no-poo method for the last 3 months my head is itching from the shampoo. Next time I will just skip the wash.

3

The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is coming up. it is hard for me to think of NYC and not picture the towers %there in my mind. I made many field trips to NYC when in high school, and the World Trade Center was frequently on the list of places to visit.

4

Fall is my favorite season of the year. I absolutely love all things associated with it. The crisp air, sweaters, tights, the food. Yes, you read that right, the food. Apples are best in fall. They just taste so much better and there are so many more varieties available. My all time favorite is McIntosh, but I think I am loving the Paula Red.

5

We recently simplified our family schedule. We are down to activities just three nights a week for kids. I have been on a quest to simplify things around here for a while. You say I have minimalist tendencies. Our family motto is “Less is More”

6

It seems my son is a bean pole. We have problems finding clothes that fit him. He is at the 97% for height for his age, and his  BMI is 14.5, which is at the 19th percentile.  A BMI of 14.5 would be considered underweight in adults. What does this mean?  What this means is that he is boney and next to no body fat. You can see most of his bones in his torso, all the time. And believe it or not this is the highest BMI he has had since he was born. He came out a long baby, being the third kid I don’t remember the exact length, but I want to say it was 23”  and 10 lbs. Yes you read that right. I am 5’5” on a good day. I still am not sure how he fit. Now why am I telling you all this about my son? Remember #1 up there. The family wedding. I need to outfit my son in a black suit for next week. I have never been able to find a suit to fit him. His arms are too long for a size 8 and a size 10 makes it look like he is wearing a hand me down from his 13 year old sister. Interestingly enough the 11 year old can wear the size 10 blazer and have room enough for a sweater underneath.   We may be doing some last minute fashion show style alterations. You know the type, where they take in an article of clothing using clothes pins and safety pins. so it looks good for the runway or photo shot.  Unless anyone out there has a boys sports jacket in a 10 slim and matching pants in a size 8. If you don’t would you please send them may way. Thanks

7

I suffer from insomnia, sometimes it is caused by the pain I deal with. Sometimes I just can’t turn off my brain. Either way it is not fun.  What are your favorite natural remedies for insomnia?

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When Quitting isn’t Quitting

This year my middle daughter decided to “quit” her gymnastics team.  At least that is how some people would view it. She has been on her team for 3 years now, and has done fairly well, advancing each year in skills and levels. This year she has decided to try something new. Dance and Acrobatics. We have a strict one child/one season/one activity rule at our house. Not only is it good for our budget it is good for my sanity. Those of you who have more than one kid in more than one activity know what I mean. You spend your nights after school running around dropping off one kid at one dance, one at soccer and one at piano, only to start it all over picking them up in the same order. If you are lucky all of the activities are close to each other. If you are like me and live out in the country you drive 10 miles (or more) just to get to town.
I am a fan of kids not overtraining and overspecializing in a sport. Today so many of our kids train year round for a sport, whether it is cheerleading, softball, soccer or swim. Continuous training for a sport is not good for kids. It has a different effect on their growing bodies than it does on our adult bodies. Some of you might not remember the day, but when I was a kid, different seasons brought different sports for kids, fall was soccer and football, winter basketball and volleyball, spring, baseball, track, Summer swimming and bike riding. In fact, most kids took the summer off from organized sports and just played pick up games. While I understand we will not go back to those days, I also don’t have to let my kids become kids who over train and burn out on a sport. I would rather them be well rounded and as long as they are enrolled in a physical activity I am happy.
Over the years, my kids have participated in a variety of activities. They have all played soccer at one time, tried gymnastics, sing in choirs, participated in triathlons. So did my kids quit soccer, swim and gymnastics? No they are trying new and different things. In our household we commit one season at a time. After a season is over we evaluate and decide if a sport or activity worked well for the child and the family. Sometimes a sport or activity requires more than a child or family is willing to give. More time in training/practice; more commitment from mom and dad, more money than a budget will allow. I am a big proponent of supporting my children in what they want to do. BUT my support does come with a condition. If an activity is a hardship on the family, moneywise or time wise we will find an alternative. We as adults like to try new sports, or new workout classes. A well rounded individual will have be exposed to many things, not just a variety of sports, but the arts and cultural events too.
Now did my daughter really quit her gymnastics team? I argue that she did not. The season had not yet started for the school year.  While on summer  break she went and watched her sister’s dance class and liked what she saw.  After giving it some thought she asked me if she could take dance, knowing that she was only allowed one activity. She has on her own decided to do one semester of dance and one of acrobatics. Now we are talking about a child who would sign up for every extra curricular activity going if she could. I am not a fan of the overscheduled child. I am a firm believer that too many children do not have time to be kids, to just play. So what will we do with two nights free a week as a family now? We will probably be able to to eat dinner as a family, we will have time to make family memories with relaxing dinners and conversations together around the table.

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