Sunday, April 29, 2012
Prayers are good :-)
So, with all this time away from the computer, one would think I have been able to accomplish my long list of "to-do's". Ha, well you would be wrong if you thought that! For some reason I see this as a repeat of last year, but the truth is the truth, we have been 'plagued'. We've been dealing with a LOT of issues around here, all of which have seriously thrown a wrench into my plans. Although it may be "my plans" which is the reason all of this is going on. I am sure that is part of it. Either way we've been swamped. Here are some of the issues we've been dealing with:
thrush
ring worm (on two of the children)
head lice
sinus issues
new allergies (Isa came down with a serious peanut allergy this past month, and now Flannery is reacting to eggs)
tear ducts swelling
UTI's
severe menstrual cramping (that was getting better, and is now worse)
some strange itchy mouth sores for one child
I know there are more, but those would be the major ones. That doesn't even account for our animals. With the warmer winter we had we are inundated with all sorts of bugs!! We have never had a problem with lice before, but most of the animals have it (which is different than the human kind). This morning the girls ran over to the window (they were outside) to announce that one of our goats is showing signs for labor. This goat has had her babies around 3 o'clock in the afternoon the past two years. This means she will be giving birth sometime tomorrow I suppose. Please pray that all will go well. Too many bad things have been happening here. Last year we lost half of our milking season due to the goats getting mastitis repeatedly. We really can not afford for that to happen this year. I plan on making cheese this year with our milk. We have been making a ton of yogurt and kefir as well. I am not sure if our dwarfs are with kid, so I don't know if we will have milk during the winter like we were planning. Only time will tell. I am really trying to work hard on keeping within the grocery budget (with food at least) and having this milk available to us will be a big help. Just yesterday we had our shopping day and I spent almost $30 in milk alone. And that was with me trying to be ultra conservative, because we really could use 4 more gallons on top of what I bought.
I need to spend some time making up some new chore lists. After doing some research I've come up with a new plan of action to take care of the animals. Our food can only be as healthy as the source it is coming from. With that in mind we are going to try to make a big attempt to get our animals as healthy as possible, with in our means. This will involve more work. On top of all of this I am still trying to get what little bit of organizing/decluttering done here inside the house. That proves difficult with three little boys getting into everything. Only once did I put on a video. That was a REALLY bad day. The girls are capable of watching them, but they've had their own work to do. It's definitely a season of treadmill running, and I am not talking about exercise! I mean I keep running around here without getting anywhere :-)
Alright, enough of the fussing. The baby just went down for a nap, so I plan on trying to get a few things done (we can't go to church due to the lice :-( ).
Now, not all has been a lose. I've gotten some things done. I am hoping tosteal borrow Isa's or Flannery's camera to take some pictures of what I have accomplished.
thrush
ring worm (on two of the children)
head lice
sinus issues
new allergies (Isa came down with a serious peanut allergy this past month, and now Flannery is reacting to eggs)
tear ducts swelling
UTI's
severe menstrual cramping (that was getting better, and is now worse)
some strange itchy mouth sores for one child
I know there are more, but those would be the major ones. That doesn't even account for our animals. With the warmer winter we had we are inundated with all sorts of bugs!! We have never had a problem with lice before, but most of the animals have it (which is different than the human kind). This morning the girls ran over to the window (they were outside) to announce that one of our goats is showing signs for labor. This goat has had her babies around 3 o'clock in the afternoon the past two years. This means she will be giving birth sometime tomorrow I suppose. Please pray that all will go well. Too many bad things have been happening here. Last year we lost half of our milking season due to the goats getting mastitis repeatedly. We really can not afford for that to happen this year. I plan on making cheese this year with our milk. We have been making a ton of yogurt and kefir as well. I am not sure if our dwarfs are with kid, so I don't know if we will have milk during the winter like we were planning. Only time will tell. I am really trying to work hard on keeping within the grocery budget (with food at least) and having this milk available to us will be a big help. Just yesterday we had our shopping day and I spent almost $30 in milk alone. And that was with me trying to be ultra conservative, because we really could use 4 more gallons on top of what I bought.
I need to spend some time making up some new chore lists. After doing some research I've come up with a new plan of action to take care of the animals. Our food can only be as healthy as the source it is coming from. With that in mind we are going to try to make a big attempt to get our animals as healthy as possible, with in our means. This will involve more work. On top of all of this I am still trying to get what little bit of organizing/decluttering done here inside the house. That proves difficult with three little boys getting into everything. Only once did I put on a video. That was a REALLY bad day. The girls are capable of watching them, but they've had their own work to do. It's definitely a season of treadmill running, and I am not talking about exercise! I mean I keep running around here without getting anywhere :-)
Alright, enough of the fussing. The baby just went down for a nap, so I plan on trying to get a few things done (we can't go to church due to the lice :-( ).
Now, not all has been a lose. I've gotten some things done. I am hoping to
Sunday, April 15, 2012
A Check In
Sitting up on the porch, watching kiddos scrounge for critters. Isabella found a toad. Flannery found a small snake, and Moira found some crickets and a tree frog. They are all looking for more "pets". Jed has been a wee bit obsessed about critters. So much so that I bought him a bug net and bug box. We've watched crickets eat some salad, and see a cricket get eaten by a lizard. Fun stuff :-)
I finally found the reason for my inability to cope with life last week :-) No, not pregnant! But I am thankful to know that I am not going crazy. Phew!
We did not get much done in the way of spring cleaning last week. Bummer. I am going to try to get it done this week. I am sure emotionally I will be in better shape. I thought I would catch up on some of the things that have been going on around here.
:: The girls and I have been participating in the "no shampoo" craze. It has been a trial and error process, but I am glad to say that I have finally found the correct ratios of ingredients for my hair. I made up a chamomile tea concoction for the 'conditioner'. However, my hair was *extremely* unmanageable! I finally tried the recommendation of using a lot more apple cider vinegar. What a relief! Now my hair is smooth and manageable. It is true that you can go days between washing your hair, once your hair adjusts to the new routine. My hair feels thicker as well. Very odd.
:: Ever since our bout with the Norovirus this past winter my stomach has not been the same. My leaky gut, which I was not having any problems with, grew worse than it was before we started GAPS. Not pleasant. As a result I will be re-doing the Intro stage starting in the next few days. Isabella is faring far worse. She has developed a peanut allergy, which is truly scary. It started a few weeks ago when she noticed that the roof of her mouth started itching after eating peanut butter. She didn't mention it to me for a couple of weeks. The itching was severe. I told her she shouldn't eat peanut butter any more. I am VERY thankful that she obeyed!!! Just a few days ago she was cleaning up the kitchen. She was wiping down the counter, which had some peanut butter on it. Unbeknown to her, she got a small dab of the peanut butter on her finger, and passed it on to her lip. Within a couple of minutes her lip had doubled in size!!! It ended up tripling in size before the allergy meds kicked in. I can't imagine what would have happened had she swallowed it. Isabella will be joining me in re-doing intro. I may have to take her to our alternative practitioner to see if we can help her over come this allergy. At this time everything I cook is from scratch, so I know that there isn't any peanut content in our food (save actual peanut butter). But we are not planning on eating this way forever (though we will be eating whole foods), and should she be out and about and grab something to eat.....well, that's just a scary thought.
:: Juice fasting. All of us did a juice fast, except the baby. The younger kids only juice fasted for 2.5 days. Moira did so for about 4 days and Jeremiah, Isa and myself did so for about 6 days. I have been battling a sinus infection for weeks now. I knew I could kick it with a fast. However I really needed to do one for 2 weeks. I was hoping that 1 week would at least help. I believe it did. I did have to start taking my GSE/oregano oil blend. Plus I added in some nasal washes (some with GSE in it and some with probiotics added to it). Thankfully I am making some head way! Plus the juicing gave me energy!! Finally, after years of low energy, it was such a blessing to be able to function. But, after the fast, which we came off slowly, my egg intolerance is worse than ever!!! So I changed my plan of action. I was planning on doing a longer juice fast, but instead have decided to re-do intro. By re-doing intro I can reestablish my gut flora. After that is set up I will then do a longer juice fast. Only myself, and possibly the older two girls will be fasting this next time around. The girls will only be doing a short one though.
Now, some people will say that children should NEVER do any type of fast. I would agree with that for the most part. But for us, it was a needed step to better health. Since they were only fasting for 2.5 days, I wasn't concerned. After all, nine months ago, when they had that horrid 5 day stomach bug I can assure you they were in much worse shape. With the 2 day juicing fast, they were completely hydrated and obtaining a ton of micronutrients. And since we have already done some detoxing from the GAPS diet I wasn't too concerned about any big detoxing. Jed did great, and he really enjoyed the juices. As a matter of fact after they were done with their fast, while the rest of us were still continuing on, he kept asking for some of our juice.
Nursing and fasting are not recommended. Again, for good reasons. But sometimes you got to do what ya got to do :-) I did not go in to this without doing my research. I outlined a whole routine for my body to handle any detoxing as efficiently as possible. Did it work? Well, I believe so. I felt yucky that first day (but it was also the day I came down with my sinus infection), but after that I felt great. Also the baby was not fussy (something he would have been had I been detoxing into him). In order to minimize any toxins passing on to the baby I did the following:
AM-take 1 TBS of bentonite clay
Mid-day take one tablet of chlorella
PM- take 1/2 tsp of diatamatious earth (DE)
PM take a warm bath with 2 cups of epsom salt and 1 cup of baking soda
Daily- 15 minute T-Tapp workout
Daily- skin brushing
Yes, that is a lot, but I was trying to give my body ways in which to process the toxins. The clay, chlorella and DE all have the ability to draw and bind to the toxins. This prevents them from being reabsorbed when they get into your intestines. T-tapp helps get your lymph pumping. After a workout I would then do some skin brushing which helps stimulate your skin to release any toxins. The bath with the salt and soda helps your body to give off toxins as well. My goal was for the toxins to be taken care of safely and not be released into my milk. I am sure some did, and for insurance I gave the baby some clay as well. So if he did get some toxins, he had a way to deal with some of it.
Well, I am getting very, very sleepy. Time to catch some z's. I wish I had some pictures. That will have to wait. Until? That's ok, life happens. We are trying to be careful. We are making emergency preparedness a priority and as such some things will have to wait until we have obtained some needed supplies. Man I wish money grew on trees :-) Ha, ha!! There are so many things on my wish list and it can be hard to leave that list in God's hands, for His timing. For example, besides my camera, there is a homeopathic course that I really want to take. Not only is it a year long, but you also get to have personal tutoring with the homeopath. But God knows this, I am sure He can make a way, should He really think I need to take the course :-) I am at peace with this.
Ok, off to get some sleep. I'll need it to tackle our spring cleaning. Thankfully we will be headed into our day with at least a decently clean house. That will save us time, so we can jump into decluttering, organizing and deep cleaning. Can't wait!
I finally found the reason for my inability to cope with life last week :-) No, not pregnant! But I am thankful to know that I am not going crazy. Phew!
We did not get much done in the way of spring cleaning last week. Bummer. I am going to try to get it done this week. I am sure emotionally I will be in better shape. I thought I would catch up on some of the things that have been going on around here.
:: The girls and I have been participating in the "no shampoo" craze. It has been a trial and error process, but I am glad to say that I have finally found the correct ratios of ingredients for my hair. I made up a chamomile tea concoction for the 'conditioner'. However, my hair was *extremely* unmanageable! I finally tried the recommendation of using a lot more apple cider vinegar. What a relief! Now my hair is smooth and manageable. It is true that you can go days between washing your hair, once your hair adjusts to the new routine. My hair feels thicker as well. Very odd.
:: Ever since our bout with the Norovirus this past winter my stomach has not been the same. My leaky gut, which I was not having any problems with, grew worse than it was before we started GAPS. Not pleasant. As a result I will be re-doing the Intro stage starting in the next few days. Isabella is faring far worse. She has developed a peanut allergy, which is truly scary. It started a few weeks ago when she noticed that the roof of her mouth started itching after eating peanut butter. She didn't mention it to me for a couple of weeks. The itching was severe. I told her she shouldn't eat peanut butter any more. I am VERY thankful that she obeyed!!! Just a few days ago she was cleaning up the kitchen. She was wiping down the counter, which had some peanut butter on it. Unbeknown to her, she got a small dab of the peanut butter on her finger, and passed it on to her lip. Within a couple of minutes her lip had doubled in size!!! It ended up tripling in size before the allergy meds kicked in. I can't imagine what would have happened had she swallowed it. Isabella will be joining me in re-doing intro. I may have to take her to our alternative practitioner to see if we can help her over come this allergy. At this time everything I cook is from scratch, so I know that there isn't any peanut content in our food (save actual peanut butter). But we are not planning on eating this way forever (though we will be eating whole foods), and should she be out and about and grab something to eat.....well, that's just a scary thought.
:: Juice fasting. All of us did a juice fast, except the baby. The younger kids only juice fasted for 2.5 days. Moira did so for about 4 days and Jeremiah, Isa and myself did so for about 6 days. I have been battling a sinus infection for weeks now. I knew I could kick it with a fast. However I really needed to do one for 2 weeks. I was hoping that 1 week would at least help. I believe it did. I did have to start taking my GSE/oregano oil blend. Plus I added in some nasal washes (some with GSE in it and some with probiotics added to it). Thankfully I am making some head way! Plus the juicing gave me energy!! Finally, after years of low energy, it was such a blessing to be able to function. But, after the fast, which we came off slowly, my egg intolerance is worse than ever!!! So I changed my plan of action. I was planning on doing a longer juice fast, but instead have decided to re-do intro. By re-doing intro I can reestablish my gut flora. After that is set up I will then do a longer juice fast. Only myself, and possibly the older two girls will be fasting this next time around. The girls will only be doing a short one though.
Now, some people will say that children should NEVER do any type of fast. I would agree with that for the most part. But for us, it was a needed step to better health. Since they were only fasting for 2.5 days, I wasn't concerned. After all, nine months ago, when they had that horrid 5 day stomach bug I can assure you they were in much worse shape. With the 2 day juicing fast, they were completely hydrated and obtaining a ton of micronutrients. And since we have already done some detoxing from the GAPS diet I wasn't too concerned about any big detoxing. Jed did great, and he really enjoyed the juices. As a matter of fact after they were done with their fast, while the rest of us were still continuing on, he kept asking for some of our juice.
Nursing and fasting are not recommended. Again, for good reasons. But sometimes you got to do what ya got to do :-) I did not go in to this without doing my research. I outlined a whole routine for my body to handle any detoxing as efficiently as possible. Did it work? Well, I believe so. I felt yucky that first day (but it was also the day I came down with my sinus infection), but after that I felt great. Also the baby was not fussy (something he would have been had I been detoxing into him). In order to minimize any toxins passing on to the baby I did the following:
AM-take 1 TBS of bentonite clay
Mid-day take one tablet of chlorella
PM- take 1/2 tsp of diatamatious earth (DE)
PM take a warm bath with 2 cups of epsom salt and 1 cup of baking soda
Daily- 15 minute T-Tapp workout
Daily- skin brushing
Yes, that is a lot, but I was trying to give my body ways in which to process the toxins. The clay, chlorella and DE all have the ability to draw and bind to the toxins. This prevents them from being reabsorbed when they get into your intestines. T-tapp helps get your lymph pumping. After a workout I would then do some skin brushing which helps stimulate your skin to release any toxins. The bath with the salt and soda helps your body to give off toxins as well. My goal was for the toxins to be taken care of safely and not be released into my milk. I am sure some did, and for insurance I gave the baby some clay as well. So if he did get some toxins, he had a way to deal with some of it.
Well, I am getting very, very sleepy. Time to catch some z's. I wish I had some pictures. That will have to wait. Until? That's ok, life happens. We are trying to be careful. We are making emergency preparedness a priority and as such some things will have to wait until we have obtained some needed supplies. Man I wish money grew on trees :-) Ha, ha!! There are so many things on my wish list and it can be hard to leave that list in God's hands, for His timing. For example, besides my camera, there is a homeopathic course that I really want to take. Not only is it a year long, but you also get to have personal tutoring with the homeopath. But God knows this, I am sure He can make a way, should He really think I need to take the course :-) I am at peace with this.
Ok, off to get some sleep. I'll need it to tackle our spring cleaning. Thankfully we will be headed into our day with at least a decently clean house. That will save us time, so we can jump into decluttering, organizing and deep cleaning. Can't wait!
Monday, April 09, 2012
powering down
I know, I don't write in ages, then two posts in one day. Actually I am hopping on here to say that in a wee bit I will be powering down our computers for a spell. We have so, so, so much work to do around here and the computers are a temptation to all. I've been doing a bunch of dehydrating, the kids and Jeremiah have been doing a bunch of outside work, and in the process our house is a heap of a mess. It has become evident that we do not have a firm foundation in chores and diligence. There will be a ton more gardening to do, goat babies are due to arrive in two weeks (MILKING soon, woo hoo!), more dehydrating, and I am hoping to try my hand at pressure canning meat. We are taking an early break from schooling to jump into more decluttering and totally devote ourselves to working on being diligent in the everyday small stuff. I will probably be checking email here or there, but I am really going to try to stay off till we get our house in order.
My main goal will be to get the girls working on their own, without me having to stand over them. I think it will help if we have set times during the day that the work gets done. Although they each have an assigned room, things like laundry and dishes have been a hassle. Not to mention that they would be involved in something when I call out it's time to to tidy their rooms, making the whole process take forever because they would want to finish up what they were doing. There are a lot of things they want to accomplish, but we keep putting time in nonessentials, there by decreasing our time to put towards the things we really want to get done. Not sure how this will all work out. I do have two sheets that divide the work of the dishes and laundry between us. Set days/ or times to accomplish those tasks. Plus, for a time I think I am going to box up a bunch of stuff to put in the attic to make cleaning up an easier task. It is obvious that the decluttering I have already done was not enough, since we are not taking care of the things that were left down here. So box, box, box. Or maybe bag, bag, bag as I do not believe we have any boxes on hand.
I am looking forward to this time. It will be difficult, but I am sure it will pay dividends in the long run. Please, if you think of it, do pray for us. This is going to require a LOT of work on my part. I am ever so thankful I have more energy, due to taking a week to do a juice fast. Seriously, I was thinking I would never have energy ever again! GAPS has done a lot for my health, but having energy wasn't one of them! I will write more about the reasons, and how we handled the juice fasting (Jeremiah and myself). I plan on juice fasting every other week for a couple of months. I wanted to do just one long juice fast, but that is not financially possible. So far so good. I've been making sure to do a LOT of detoxing supplements to make sure they do not get recycled. I am assuming it is helping as only the first day of the juice fast was hard. After that I was fine, more energy by the day.
My main goal will be to get the girls working on their own, without me having to stand over them. I think it will help if we have set times during the day that the work gets done. Although they each have an assigned room, things like laundry and dishes have been a hassle. Not to mention that they would be involved in something when I call out it's time to to tidy their rooms, making the whole process take forever because they would want to finish up what they were doing. There are a lot of things they want to accomplish, but we keep putting time in nonessentials, there by decreasing our time to put towards the things we really want to get done. Not sure how this will all work out. I do have two sheets that divide the work of the dishes and laundry between us. Set days/ or times to accomplish those tasks. Plus, for a time I think I am going to box up a bunch of stuff to put in the attic to make cleaning up an easier task. It is obvious that the decluttering I have already done was not enough, since we are not taking care of the things that were left down here. So box, box, box. Or maybe bag, bag, bag as I do not believe we have any boxes on hand.
I am looking forward to this time. It will be difficult, but I am sure it will pay dividends in the long run. Please, if you think of it, do pray for us. This is going to require a LOT of work on my part. I am ever so thankful I have more energy, due to taking a week to do a juice fast. Seriously, I was thinking I would never have energy ever again! GAPS has done a lot for my health, but having energy wasn't one of them! I will write more about the reasons, and how we handled the juice fasting (Jeremiah and myself). I plan on juice fasting every other week for a couple of months. I wanted to do just one long juice fast, but that is not financially possible. So far so good. I've been making sure to do a LOT of detoxing supplements to make sure they do not get recycled. I am assuming it is helping as only the first day of the juice fast was hard. After that I was fine, more energy by the day.
Interview over at Gaps Diet Journey
So a few weeks ago I received an email. It came from Starlene, who writes over at GAPS Diet Journey. Her blog was one of the first one's I came across, writing about the diet. I was in full research mode, trying to read all I could about other people's experiences. So it came as a surprise, a delighted surprise, to see an email from her asking if she could interview me on our family's experience with the GAPS diet. We chatted this past weekend. It went well, I had a lot of fun talking with her. We had a lot in common. I learned a few more things as well. She passed along an awesome pizza crust recipe (GAPS legal) that we tried out yesterday. Yes, we did have pizza for Easter. It was wonderful, though I do feel bad that we were lacking any sort of tradition for this holiday. I need to get on the ball with that, you know, before all the kids leave home. Sigh.
Anyways, on to the interview. You can check it out HERE. Starlene wanted to know how a large family managed GAPS. By the way, she happens to be the oldest of seven :-)
Anyways, on to the interview. You can check it out HERE. Starlene wanted to know how a large family managed GAPS. By the way, she happens to be the oldest of seven :-)
Sunday, April 08, 2012
He is Risen!
HAPPY EASTER
It is early here, only a few are awake. I thought I would take a moment to wish everyone a wonderful Easter. We do not have any plans...at all. I feel poorly about it all, since we usually do a little something special for Easter. But the past month has been a very busy one. Which evidenced itself with my lack of blogging. Believe it or not, I took maybe two pictures this whole past month! No crafting either. Wow, what a sad state of affairs. Things were just a wee bit busy in other areas of life, and so a necessary break for the above mentioned activities. As a side note, my camera is not working :-( It threw me an error code a week ago. From what it sounds like, it may be an expensive fix. There is no foreseeable way for us to get it fixed as there are so many other more important things that need money to go to, the camera isn't one of them. Thankfully I do have the family camera, but that just means no more bokeh :-) There is much to catch up on, lots of things that we have accomplished. I will wait till another day. Plus I have to share with you all about my interview with Starlene from "Gaps Diet Journey"! Lots of fun. She has opened the door to new recipes!! We were in need of some new recipes around here. I try to keep cooking simple, so that throws out a lot of possibilities with many GAPS recipes. We only use common ingredients, and quick prep times. I'll link up to all of that tomorrow. Until then, have a blessed day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
