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!