tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189656152024-03-07T19:39:25.611-08:00Life With Full HandsThe Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.comBlogger871125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-35168039716429915102021-12-25T11:06:00.001-08:002021-12-25T11:06:33.231-08:00Getting ready for the new year<p> We had an amazing Christmas this year. We celebrated early with my sister's family, though my sister was not able to be here, who drove from KY. We had my niece, who I haven't seen since she was about 5 years old, drive down from NY with her boyfriend. And my dad came from VA (my mom was not able to make it). It was a fun filled night!!! I really wish I had taken more pictures. <br /><br /> Christmas morning started on the later side..around 9 AM or so. The girls used to spend the night sleeping around the tree, but times are changing. Flannery said she was too old, her back was hurting! Moira, well, she's in her own place with her own tree. Bella and Liam came home late from visiting family. So this year it was Saoirse, Merida (she lasted half the night), and the boys. <br /><br /> Everyone agrees that it just didn't feel like the Christmas season this year. None of us can put our fingers on it. I will say that this was one of the most calm Christmases we've had. Usually I am beyond ready to jump back into our 'normal' after all the celebrating. That is not the case this year.<br /><br /> We've had a slew of kiddos being sick, or spending some time in the ER. No worries, all is fine. Thankfully, nothing serious for anyone. Last year at this time we were eating horribly! We changed up our diet back in April, so I guess I am a bit surprised by how often they have come down with stuff. Though this year the illnesses have been minor compared to last years. But still...can we have an illness free winter? </p><p> Going back to the fact that I don't feel like I need to jump back into 'normal'. Part of that is that I am usually waiting for the new year to start fresh. This year has most certainly been different. I purposely did not wait until a certain time, or date, to start things. And instead of just trying to start all fresh for January, I've been slowly, little by little, making changes. Though the diet change was instant, we didn't wait until a certain time. We will be making some smaller changes starting this week. I've been getting in shape slowly over the past year and a half. I've added in a new program just a few weeks ago. Schooling, again, been making small changes through the year. Tweaking things to make them work for us.<br /><br /> I plan on writing more about those small changes coming up. For now, I leave with a few pictures that I have of the past few days.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEirhPGjVdJiQwdpYYrD8DYuVjWAKzVah0iT7iLbkoVKY9lIaYmxN5Xptzd4_O9GcJMMwCcAk6xirQT5chDrIxiHNSGZEmTbR5Yt37Cp4mjdvpmCJKdXsf_SHrDGOyI3mNxcgGKA-whdoOrXKDLOsLLQnAjWte8L_wPVfbENs6Gwibxkkou84g=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEirhPGjVdJiQwdpYYrD8DYuVjWAKzVah0iT7iLbkoVKY9lIaYmxN5Xptzd4_O9GcJMMwCcAk6xirQT5chDrIxiHNSGZEmTbR5Yt37Cp4mjdvpmCJKdXsf_SHrDGOyI3mNxcgGKA-whdoOrXKDLOsLLQnAjWte8L_wPVfbENs6Gwibxkkou84g=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>I will have to look for pictures that others took. This is the only group shot I have. <div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEichNtEkvTqJWnRnVsS-mLArB1NATqNrGuIAFCoCwx2zdBdPtAycn1V5Pbm1_Tbj4uW9WmwUxRo2HiYPQVBQ3TY1a5wqW_SIwem71-q4A1LqMRjjIkmgsJZNTy1ylaZV3WfWK6HqvDXdps9US2RM9U6AsLwVL4tATgZky7wz5PDqhSV0EXInQ=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEichNtEkvTqJWnRnVsS-mLArB1NATqNrGuIAFCoCwx2zdBdPtAycn1V5Pbm1_Tbj4uW9WmwUxRo2HiYPQVBQ3TY1a5wqW_SIwem71-q4A1LqMRjjIkmgsJZNTy1ylaZV3WfWK6HqvDXdps9US2RM9U6AsLwVL4tATgZky7wz5PDqhSV0EXInQ=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>We had an amazing tablescape, along with snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. Moira put it all together. Trees, animals, and lights in the middle of the table.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEinunMRk8zi2fLmbhK0EO-5Of1lt8eLWQko-yJNWiaZvYNEI79YzDqlhDpp2MsDNp0TqjV-PBFFnGSQi3My0nl28QEbWLpp1PvRg6wZKAQ97eqzKOZHrfinjWJmaSciGsM3Bkd1DtEVTP20PwyEULsKfwa78xC3fs6Es_sxVkTmJBCA4J4H3A=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEinunMRk8zi2fLmbhK0EO-5Of1lt8eLWQko-yJNWiaZvYNEI79YzDqlhDpp2MsDNp0TqjV-PBFFnGSQi3My0nl28QEbWLpp1PvRg6wZKAQ97eqzKOZHrfinjWJmaSciGsM3Bkd1DtEVTP20PwyEULsKfwa78xC3fs6Es_sxVkTmJBCA4J4H3A=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>A fun puzzle my friend gave us. It was a QRC code that you scanned and could win money. We won a whopping 25 cents!! Ha!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7WfVfEJe549a6n3iNdCf57E5_j1ogi2z6hlVpWQRhLaU6UCa0Y4i_lfJ4Uv_z6xweCTFKgxjxcNEDLlDBoh5E_sm3cnMtYyP_0jd6NW6HHxL9QF14xIng0gJDsSuJKz2LJwtFH29DJvj76r-cjKjwddvI38Rmoyq60swsXRotvx7m0DnXUw=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7WfVfEJe549a6n3iNdCf57E5_j1ogi2z6hlVpWQRhLaU6UCa0Y4i_lfJ4Uv_z6xweCTFKgxjxcNEDLlDBoh5E_sm3cnMtYyP_0jd6NW6HHxL9QF14xIng0gJDsSuJKz2LJwtFH29DJvj76r-cjKjwddvI38Rmoyq60swsXRotvx7m0DnXUw=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Kids waiting to open presents!! We had Moira and Adam over for Christmas Eve, and exchanged gifts with them.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8T41p89n3jZhKk-6y6vnx5UNDFbGWUWPJpnIk-UWDfNovtzT3CF45cer4OF2NfcqF4cWdpNqQdgTAerjdaSdhLE4tfGHPu9cNb85kItsmlRmWPc-4P2v91m0lqIK6pq2yQB0JF_65-9_dWuKEdRsfHOSIC5ke-VCLImv4-EpNKDl3fSDsUA=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8T41p89n3jZhKk-6y6vnx5UNDFbGWUWPJpnIk-UWDfNovtzT3CF45cer4OF2NfcqF4cWdpNqQdgTAerjdaSdhLE4tfGHPu9cNb85kItsmlRmWPc-4P2v91m0lqIK6pq2yQB0JF_65-9_dWuKEdRsfHOSIC5ke-VCLImv4-EpNKDl3fSDsUA=w426-h640" width="426" /></a></div><div><br /></div>We start with stockings.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFMsLGpb-pklDonlyDYowsOh12qnXOLVocouyG2T_1GeWdiJQ4TUfB0bLGQg1gIHUdWHsQbAIqRhVl6fHXBaxPknCfuZU1A-zXFzvqb5jlHipS2xW8srRqZ8jQa27z3BkuZpPNuFuWw3q9-vrdhUOJeMzAYX14avt5cW3pYIS0uD_I0x0s3g=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFMsLGpb-pklDonlyDYowsOh12qnXOLVocouyG2T_1GeWdiJQ4TUfB0bLGQg1gIHUdWHsQbAIqRhVl6fHXBaxPknCfuZU1A-zXFzvqb5jlHipS2xW8srRqZ8jQa27z3BkuZpPNuFuWw3q9-vrdhUOJeMzAYX14avt5cW3pYIS0uD_I0x0s3g=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Flannery and Saoirse waiting their turn to open a gift. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuEI3XWg0W82pLWu2dnsA4HPyYeL0Qnwus9vI8oxsW7wnK7TRhi-rhZ_zYAG2MyuqUMSeND-XGyvqcn6zINwXrf37t8LKlVTuolpuZpRvHdgLY10rHhVnrIqMmjlY3tm1oMKppNzTnRcbxOIMTFYpmPSobt232tUvlukVn9EJeQDffPxysRw=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuEI3XWg0W82pLWu2dnsA4HPyYeL0Qnwus9vI8oxsW7wnK7TRhi-rhZ_zYAG2MyuqUMSeND-XGyvqcn6zINwXrf37t8LKlVTuolpuZpRvHdgLY10rHhVnrIqMmjlY3tm1oMKppNzTnRcbxOIMTFYpmPSobt232tUvlukVn9EJeQDffPxysRw=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Minecraft is still all the rage!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEitEv0hQ72SqXWFiGUdWW0-Krrv9VN5LWXbY-X-GnU66TpiM-icOVxGTQwoU7nZNNG2cyACgLNebI9lPJm8BaeEAY1iVgsEBeSYxnndnHOi2jHpidkiytiAbG7SV3Ie1S_p2_heYD4K_-QUUSbiOYlO4jtB1hzTau8nA37TmQJdL_zKEli1zQ=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEitEv0hQ72SqXWFiGUdWW0-Krrv9VN5LWXbY-X-GnU66TpiM-icOVxGTQwoU7nZNNG2cyACgLNebI9lPJm8BaeEAY1iVgsEBeSYxnndnHOi2jHpidkiytiAbG7SV3Ie1S_p2_heYD4K_-QUUSbiOYlO4jtB1hzTau8nA37TmQJdL_zKEli1zQ=w426-h640" width="426" /></a></div><div><br /></div>My gifts, already broken in :-) A half gallon water bottle and a mini trampoline.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi3Vkyx65nN_PHQcLfttp0s2o4Qq12GQzvJXVDfd0suG5kuDlekALTDAcoujjbiRRphIeXtmcTHuNyu_llzo94fcXz5n922ZK6unNCVH39Gv36g-YT3A_7VbuskEeLpsUJsi2bTyocS3k8JmX5RxM2qoBLk4cdZCwNmwPAbW4nalgNKlfRQ4Q=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi3Vkyx65nN_PHQcLfttp0s2o4Qq12GQzvJXVDfd0suG5kuDlekALTDAcoujjbiRRphIeXtmcTHuNyu_llzo94fcXz5n922ZK6unNCVH39Gv36g-YT3A_7VbuskEeLpsUJsi2bTyocS3k8JmX5RxM2qoBLk4cdZCwNmwPAbW4nalgNKlfRQ4Q=w426-h640" width="426" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Jed wanted a picture with his stocking goodies.<br /><p><br /></p></div>The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-8800896629412365332021-12-16T09:05:00.001-08:002021-12-16T09:05:39.473-08:00My camera is finally fixed!<p> It took a while, but I finally got my camera fixed! Now I have to get used to using it! Someone in one of the homeschool groups I follow on FB asked what others do for outside time for their kids. She asked for pictures, if we had any. So I came here to this space to dig some up. And as I did so I realized that a lot of the things I was recommending, we no longer had! Oh my mommy heart! My kids keep growing up! We may not have some of the things that I recommended, but we have other things. I went outside to just take a look around.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhRuG30lSdXns4vXL5TQcTE6jvG1gGyGeob31KEeFOVfJ3_a-CYAPlF4G1Rj3nxoeF3jJBEZ387V78wKw01mESZmJYJP930nQPoJSrb2vKXx-FA0qz8UiLeJGstxI7bdIi5w2XPfXjzssrulg2TPER70haRCu6oIUQqq_BvggQQR_1CeeE_eg=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhRuG30lSdXns4vXL5TQcTE6jvG1gGyGeob31KEeFOVfJ3_a-CYAPlF4G1Rj3nxoeF3jJBEZ387V78wKw01mESZmJYJP930nQPoJSrb2vKXx-FA0qz8UiLeJGstxI7bdIi5w2XPfXjzssrulg2TPER70haRCu6oIUQqq_BvggQQR_1CeeE_eg=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><p>Our new back porch. We finished this this past summer. We hung up some Bistro lights that unfortunately one of the dogs chewed through the cord. Sigh. Until we get a gate to put at the top of the stairs we won't be getting new ones, or putting furniture out there. I was hoping to utilize this space during the cooler months to sit out there to eat, or do school. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMU4yaUecWpiib3p01pB463rtvKPaBqWccvh64NB_DZZUitVg6GQEykAfTsaz-7HmptAUfzuXs8r15d5GMZbAL0ds0-IoM-PvmUVvzvNrJWKA-fEwoMKg_gNVwF0ueNuIRPk2fqmafs2WDpmZCgucfqKI10IaUEBNd1G6a7knlFov55SQDhw=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMU4yaUecWpiib3p01pB463rtvKPaBqWccvh64NB_DZZUitVg6GQEykAfTsaz-7HmptAUfzuXs8r15d5GMZbAL0ds0-IoM-PvmUVvzvNrJWKA-fEwoMKg_gNVwF0ueNuIRPk2fqmafs2WDpmZCgucfqKI10IaUEBNd1G6a7knlFov55SQDhw=w426-h640" width="426" /></a></div><p>A new fort is being made! We already have one, but the boys LOVE building forts. I'm all for it. What ever it takes for them to not be glued to the computers! This is an old ladder for a bunk bed. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhnHujP6NkekDVgiYMKb6cW7Rx2ZvVjr1z9hvQDX_pvqyGGdMH4c69zCIYE7GLr4k_T4Di2hiELLwkF_JcBTK01uf2Ma2Cxy8UbPMstbhZuVOiTi5rEyBgJ5spNjM4F_Fb9u02yORIcMoFO5jBP56LRWwfgbrbiV7jp9Go1On0I0ZWbOLC2kA=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhnHujP6NkekDVgiYMKb6cW7Rx2ZvVjr1z9hvQDX_pvqyGGdMH4c69zCIYE7GLr4k_T4Di2hiELLwkF_JcBTK01uf2Ma2Cxy8UbPMstbhZuVOiTi5rEyBgJ5spNjM4F_Fb9u02yORIcMoFO5jBP56LRWwfgbrbiV7jp9Go1On0I0ZWbOLC2kA=w426-h640" width="426" /></a></div><p>They nailed a bunch of planks of wood between the limbs for seating. I am waiting for the railings to be put up! I do not trust a certain child to be up there and be safe. </p><p>They tried using the tire swing this summer, but we had some of the Asian hornets hanging out there for the sap that was running from the tree. We had to get rid of them first. Thankfully they are not quick to sting, but their sting is BAD when they do so. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7IpotfBywcwMbIXFpJd9cYovD0fzKNJgY6_NRWzRV7IRYan69LHJGXBToELdMdmYBwLNbqszL9GWlvGTuW6EKTWgRWUaJ-Hd9qbwZ_VyGOKJDjWtS8eRnjTWiqG6NQHjKLIormdNZ7-vg6eVDEMqxf6NYijqZdKNg7zaKifsL2FD3ftvz4A=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7IpotfBywcwMbIXFpJd9cYovD0fzKNJgY6_NRWzRV7IRYan69LHJGXBToELdMdmYBwLNbqszL9GWlvGTuW6EKTWgRWUaJ-Hd9qbwZ_VyGOKJDjWtS8eRnjTWiqG6NQHjKLIormdNZ7-vg6eVDEMqxf6NYijqZdKNg7zaKifsL2FD3ftvz4A=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><p>You can't see them in the picture, but Aubrey strung up some battery operated lights to decorate this space. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjVMr39qeFs8DCIT5GDz8FQvJKXunoPRTjBU72kdAQemN8fD5SOjHGAVp401wnGrUAfudbLl8s06Lg4mH1GGBkB9_h2Fclr-kFNr-sOuwFICogUmsZG3dENkL3BlpuNQs5XB2Xg0Kw1NZwi0_7_TkiY0cBw_8Lib1qTrYyXfmlJRNn1pc87SA=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjVMr39qeFs8DCIT5GDz8FQvJKXunoPRTjBU72kdAQemN8fD5SOjHGAVp401wnGrUAfudbLl8s06Lg4mH1GGBkB9_h2Fclr-kFNr-sOuwFICogUmsZG3dENkL3BlpuNQs5XB2Xg0Kw1NZwi0_7_TkiY0cBw_8Lib1qTrYyXfmlJRNn1pc87SA=w426-h640" width="426" /></a></div><p>Any walk around our property is not complete without an entourage of cats and chickens! Here are a few of our brown tabbies. In the background you can just make out one of our newer cats, he's black and white. We got two cats from a group that gives away free feral barn cats. They explained to us that the cats will never be really human friendly as they have been feral their whole lives. Well, they don't know the determination that Saoirse has for taming cats! It didn't take her long, a week maybe, for them to be coming up to her. We had them live inside for about 2 months. Then we slowly integrated them to the outside crew of cats. And now, no one would know the difference. They both come running up to us like the other cats when we come outside. They curl up with the other cats. They will crawl up on your lap to get attention like our other cats. So much for being feral!</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEji3EqVsfAbC2IQSEYnD_7uUFGklJO0j6jI51YsPk4SW38uQvnj_2Ubw2UdQ9441mX6dcfzASW1BMFMUzAho_P11s0z_wp9hsVNeOCXaTQmpoPq7AOXKqSZwuyW6vlx7JDWkooKmCAgXYedmycOorW6Yo1P0rjLwQKUtaCiRhOHI896kH6UGQ=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEji3EqVsfAbC2IQSEYnD_7uUFGklJO0j6jI51YsPk4SW38uQvnj_2Ubw2UdQ9441mX6dcfzASW1BMFMUzAho_P11s0z_wp9hsVNeOCXaTQmpoPq7AOXKqSZwuyW6vlx7JDWkooKmCAgXYedmycOorW6Yo1P0rjLwQKUtaCiRhOHI896kH6UGQ=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The old fort. Still being used. You can make out, in the foreground, what looks like a black rod with red caps. This is the end of the zip line. The beginning of the zip line is up by the fort where you see the ladder up front, and an orange strap from the tree. They get up on the plank at the top of the ladder, hook themselves up, and zip to the end. This is not just a park zipline. They have to wear a helmet, and have a harness to be able to ride this thing! </div><p></p></blockquote></blockquote><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiR-t5exRUFSc8bQZ3dNZ2ODk2jEKuZ52DJtwukkJjBMXuNoipxn4Bpy8ZOpMXjQw3hr_3UA1V03VLBaLnMqVZHsjkjG47xR-38XH0pX91Nmga2YPEaocSvhS-aSQOE1gxzjk8q3CC1TNFeoSRw62BvdFTWiFQSf6CgerO4n5xSgYvxDj9J1Q=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiR-t5exRUFSc8bQZ3dNZ2ODk2jEKuZ52DJtwukkJjBMXuNoipxn4Bpy8ZOpMXjQw3hr_3UA1V03VLBaLnMqVZHsjkjG47xR-38XH0pX91Nmga2YPEaocSvhS-aSQOE1gxzjk8q3CC1TNFeoSRw62BvdFTWiFQSf6CgerO4n5xSgYvxDj9J1Q=w426-h640" width="426" /></a></div><p>I was trying to get a picture that shows how long the line is, but you really can't tell from the pictures. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEie5Yz7BAvOVBOb5rnu3cvLrLSbgvVoz6FC6Hex5Mn6eWagyOULirUZIY7FfhEJdj-XDxmiDP1Ic2FOfLX6fyoo1K1NCEZUmk5D5HP9Vo7lUBKZgOGnIHhl9k6IJ8FwRKf-dhmP5zOb7Nz1kz2ZS7vTs1Z1F8xFt-opqi8lt0Myaw92dqptUA=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEie5Yz7BAvOVBOb5rnu3cvLrLSbgvVoz6FC6Hex5Mn6eWagyOULirUZIY7FfhEJdj-XDxmiDP1Ic2FOfLX6fyoo1K1NCEZUmk5D5HP9Vo7lUBKZgOGnIHhl9k6IJ8FwRKf-dhmP5zOb7Nz1kz2ZS7vTs1Z1F8xFt-opqi8lt0Myaw92dqptUA=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><p>We have very silly chickens. The boys always ask me why the chickens come running up to me. In the above picture I was trying to take a picture of our cats, and I feel my toes being pecked! They come running for two reasons...1. I don't chase them, like the boys do. And 2. I bring them treats! They will eat out of my hand, and will apparently try to eat my toes as well!</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYqtxlmpbk3A0XcJCcMbcaueUfbZWPeWsdHBuQGfZm7LY0aGEQ8u121zDyiTqjcrUGo7vhNOx6-DKVnTd1OFCSLmopGsrMpCUvM1_4gQdBqibFQ5Or0ojpyzTvcUcyLl3OMuBbPcQHPR1Jw29x2EOc_YJkpqRQGvoNzcrtvtvfk2_4N3kfkQ=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYqtxlmpbk3A0XcJCcMbcaueUfbZWPeWsdHBuQGfZm7LY0aGEQ8u121zDyiTqjcrUGo7vhNOx6-DKVnTd1OFCSLmopGsrMpCUvM1_4gQdBqibFQ5Or0ojpyzTvcUcyLl3OMuBbPcQHPR1Jw29x2EOc_YJkpqRQGvoNzcrtvtvfk2_4N3kfkQ=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><p>One of the chickies. Even though we secured the barn, we still had predators knock off too many of our chickens. I think we bought about 45 chicks last year. We now only have like 26 chickens left. Thankfully after a few more adjustments we haven't lost any recently. We will bring up our numbers with new chicks come spring.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYo1mrnRArJDalyO-shYbWRwtwgGGcg5MFc7f3rkhAdd6YUrJ437ifCV35nUfydyBwQWMMQNbVRARJ9AbK_XcDAWphqj3Tj7V0nUAACFTOaBWGlLpmzY3w4mM--aQBw5ZVY5tZmT4oVkq2mEHYYgkdcDaEAHL2BiHlw_hfINsQR1N3KmDA9A=s5184" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYo1mrnRArJDalyO-shYbWRwtwgGGcg5MFc7f3rkhAdd6YUrJ437ifCV35nUfydyBwQWMMQNbVRARJ9AbK_XcDAWphqj3Tj7V0nUAACFTOaBWGlLpmzY3w4mM--aQBw5ZVY5tZmT4oVkq2mEHYYgkdcDaEAHL2BiHlw_hfINsQR1N3KmDA9A=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>Can't resist taking a picture of our road. The pictures never do it justice. I love the long shadows in the fall/winter. The streaks of light seem all the brighter. Today and the next couple of days are supposed to be very mild temp wise...I think around 70 degrees. We have family coming for a Christmas gathering, so we will be out there cleaning things up. It is VERY evident we have lots of kids, and lots of animals! Ha! It's too bad that we can't train chickens to use one area to do their business in! Because let me tell you, it's a mine field out there!! </p>The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-86662343209601400742021-07-19T10:30:00.002-07:002021-07-19T10:30:32.383-07:00Time to Catch Up<p> Wow....it's been a while. That seems to be a theme here on this blog. Alas, I am making an attempt to get back on and track our days. I've mentioned it before that the boys would really like to have their memories preserved. We certainly have a few years that are 'missing'. Jonah turns 13 today and last night he wanted to hear the story of his birth. So we read through it on here, and then he and Aubrey spent time looking over past memories.</p><p>My first order of business will be to get my camera fixed. It needs a major cleaning or tune up. I haven't used it in a few years! It's been sitting unused due to the need to get it fixed. I just haven't made it a priority. I'm just not sure how to go about it. Find a camera shop or send it in to Canon. In the meantime I can make some catch up posts about what we are all up to, but the kids....they want pictures to go with the stories.</p><p>Life has been going pretty well. Definitely some snags, but also some progress as well. I spent two months being down due to covid. We've done a lot of work on the house! Still more to be done. One thing that I am in the beginning stages of planning is for a big overhaul of our spaces inside. Too much clutter. We have to make another attempt to tame the electronic devices as well. Lots of work to be done in that area. </p><p>So, stay tuned for our adventures in simplifying and renovations. </p>The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-68161606243914570052019-06-22T12:42:00.000-07:002019-06-22T12:42:10.932-07:00The Fit Journey gets a snag...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
EDIT: I typed up this post in the very beginning of March, about 6 weeks ago.<br />
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So my last post lays out three steps I was going to take for us to get fit. I tackled the third, which was to organize the kitchen. It's nice to be able to get something out easily without knocking things over. We have gotten out to the park multiple times, started a garden. Things were on a roll. And then.....and.....then.....<br />
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The first shoe to drop was a call on the weekend from Jeremiah's job agency (his current job was a contract, temp to perm). Um, that can not be a good sign. Phone tag ensued, until Sunday when they got to talk in person....oh, hey, don't worry about coming in tomorrow for your job, your contract was cut short. Sigh.<br />
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The second shoe to drop happened while I was washing down the walls to prep for painting. Moira decided it was time to fly the nest, leaving a room open. We were moving some of the boys over to her old room, and their current room was in desperate need of attention. Having moved here almost 13 years ago, with all our walls just primed, and not actually painted, I can assure you that it is not a good idea to leave such walls to be left unpainted for over a decade. Anyways, I'm cleaning the walls when my cloth dips between the wood laminate flooring and the baseboard (the trim was never put back on when the floors were put in).<br />
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To my surprise a black spider jumps out and attacks my cloth. The spider looked very much like a black widow, which we've had a few in our house over the years, so not out of the realm of possibility. The creepy crawly scooted back under the baseboard. Jeremiah decided to pull up the first board to get access to the spider, only to accidentally pull off about 4 boards to reveal, to our horror, black mold.<br />
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Well, that explains a LOT. It explains why after a year of just one cold, we had a winter full of back to back illnesses. It explains the inability to lose weight despite eating a whole foods, no sugar diet. It explains Jed's increase speech difficulties. It explained a lot. What's more, is when we went into the master bathroom to finally tackle finishing the shower, in preparation of dealing with the mold in the boys room and the bathroom on the other side of their wall.....only to find MORE mold. What was bad about that was the shower has not been used in 8 years....so it's not like we had a leak. Come to find out that the moisture from under the house, coming through the hole in the floor was enough to spark the 'fire'.<br />
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Needless to say that's put a snag in things. The painting has been put on hold, so we can now deal with the mold. BUT.....that means once the mold is killed off at their original sites, we have do the whole 'WASH DOWN' of every. single. thing. we. own. To say that I seriously thought it would be easier, and faster, to burn our house down, not only crossed my mind, but I entertained it. Yeah.<br />
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The pictures today are going to be a mix of what we all *want* to see. Having fun, doing things, etc. But, today I also show a few of the very, very nitty gritty reality. It's not all fun and games. It's no secret I don't always keep it together. But here it is in pictures.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTJfVYKokxm5_w5tlyu9XK_JvpJ2VeWHW2TDdUs-vs-KdBVrE6aOZyVmJnuIIlUMvMlaYx7NZKF3B5ucJN8v1tfuEaGdrsrD83Za47MZBnZNXfs3YYAXAVMySPUnVF4V69BMY6/s1600/20190428_215731.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="778" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTJfVYKokxm5_w5tlyu9XK_JvpJ2VeWHW2TDdUs-vs-KdBVrE6aOZyVmJnuIIlUMvMlaYx7NZKF3B5ucJN8v1tfuEaGdrsrD83Za47MZBnZNXfs3YYAXAVMySPUnVF4V69BMY6/s640/20190428_215731.jpg" width="310" /></a></div>
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Our spring baby turned 15 this year! This is a cake based on Saoirse's favorite band's animated characters. Not sure what they are called.....but it's from BTS.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwgjTUjb8SVIztSFMdCYIlpPhUz7YsE43nh2snuoPT90lFnkSI7-YopclmPR54heLxkDtT0ktvYx2NpqQhiY8UqxreNu7c4gigcKlDk-7ycwOD6m7_Pz7y_1Yns-TWIVlYzHI/s1600/20190429_171807.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="778" data-original-width="1600" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwgjTUjb8SVIztSFMdCYIlpPhUz7YsE43nh2snuoPT90lFnkSI7-YopclmPR54heLxkDtT0ktvYx2NpqQhiY8UqxreNu7c4gigcKlDk-7ycwOD6m7_Pz7y_1Yns-TWIVlYzHI/s640/20190429_171807.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Going furniture shopping with Moira. This was the table and chairs she decided to go with. Even<br />
though she moved in 2 weeks ago, she still has another 13 days till it arrives!<br />
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Chalk warriors running around the house!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKSC2TMXl0pa4SYpbATD5KLIQbOaw7B1ZoIf8_2szZifbodV65XXI_eT-lIEiBK7XBMAL6uJcoehwO-5EXzHaTo5eDDLybAWfU0ZU9zP40yYAUCF8dqJ-HwkdEa6_fg6kCBgpj/s1600/20190430_105919.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="778" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKSC2TMXl0pa4SYpbATD5KLIQbOaw7B1ZoIf8_2szZifbodV65XXI_eT-lIEiBK7XBMAL6uJcoehwO-5EXzHaTo5eDDLybAWfU0ZU9zP40yYAUCF8dqJ-HwkdEa6_fg6kCBgpj/s640/20190430_105919.jpg" width="310" /></a></div>
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First you tap the chalk on the board to make a powdery mess. Dip fingers in the chalk powder and apply to face! Repeat with different colors.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUMuuqYoOoC126HtHKTqmG2WNRqVAF77JNq6oEGA-Ha5jBKtEUHJymsXH1QCGRom7-K2qdJ6f3X0TDSF-ZUbuzD7e6M0YAtI5l0btsR3go9M7alY1it0mf5QSw4_kLTVp5fF6d/s1600/20190430_110019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="778" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUMuuqYoOoC126HtHKTqmG2WNRqVAF77JNq6oEGA-Ha5jBKtEUHJymsXH1QCGRom7-K2qdJ6f3X0TDSF-ZUbuzD7e6M0YAtI5l0btsR3go9M7alY1it0mf5QSw4_kLTVp5fF6d/s640/20190430_110019.jpg" width="310" /></a></div>
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Make sure to involve your baby nephew.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbpLM0lrodwGpvvQytn52Dqx-VAE35mDnTaaHZAOHCTmZmdUFjGEhZ1gDLcsOtYpJ90yhjurSnUitTS3TqJUVwnSwidzo5dC0o54YjqQjQkL0foSMS3c4XYuG5Cs0-Q22haNm/s1600/20190430_212016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="778" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbpLM0lrodwGpvvQytn52Dqx-VAE35mDnTaaHZAOHCTmZmdUFjGEhZ1gDLcsOtYpJ90yhjurSnUitTS3TqJUVwnSwidzo5dC0o54YjqQjQkL0foSMS3c4XYuG5Cs0-Q22haNm/s640/20190430_212016.jpg" width="310" /></a></div>
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If you give a girl the keys to her first apartment, she may want to run to Target to get the needed items for her apartment. If she needs to run to Target for new stuff for her apartment, her sisters and friend may want to come along. </div>
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Checking out the new dig!<br />
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Throw in Prom night to the mix. We had our oldest's last prom, and Saoirse's first prom. Too bad Merida is too young to go, but the four oldest girls all at the prom this year!<br />
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New kittens on the homestead! Only two. A boy and a girl. Names being debated. Very interesting names to be sure.<br />
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And there you have it...the wonderful, though not quite Pinterest quality, photos. Here we have the reality of behind the scenes. You can see some furniture in the middle of the room, awaiting to be moved to another room. The leftover items from my kitchen organizing, about 6 water bottles brought in from the van, and dishes.....they multiply like rabbits around here. Sigh.<br />
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You thought I was exaggerating when I said the boys room was in need of serious attention. No, no I wasn't. Never mind the other walls....sigh.<br />
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The mold we found in the boys room, that was coming in from the bathroom that is on the other side of that wall. Though devastating, I am very glad we found it and can now kill it, and stop the cycle of ongoing sickness.<br />
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The mold in the master bathroom. Joy, joy, joy. Lots to look forward to. As a matter of fact the food grade H2O2 just came in while typing this up. That will be used to kill the mold, then once dried we need to seal it. THEN we can finally finish off the master bathroom, finish the boys' room, and redo the main bathroom.<br />
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In the midst of the yuck, we still have to get outside. This was an amazing beautiful day temp wise! It was on the chilly side.<br />
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But this is reality too. When small things finally add up and I snap. Just two days before, Moira took the kids out of the house for 6 hours. I was able to get a lot of work done. That picture up there of the mess in the dining room and family room? Yup, all cleaned up. The living room, tidied, vacuumed. ALL the dishes done, counters cleared. It was a breath of fresh air. And two days later we have this. Just before I took this picture Jonah was going to take out a large vase we were getting rid of. Just the day before I had cleaned it out, as someone had dumped a bunch of odds and ends in there. Not only were those items *back* in there, but another container of odds and ends I cleared out of the boys' room had been dumped in there as well. My reality is that I take one step forward and am pushed 5 steps back. And sometimes, sometimes, I am not sure I can take that happening one more time.<br />
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I know we will get past this. I know we won't always have little kid toys in the house. I know I won't always be feeling puffy all over from the mold, and feeling like I can't move. In the mean time the little things can get to me. The big things can get to me. These are the days when I look around and realize this was NOT what I had expected or hoped for. And so, I need to dust off and try to make my dream in my head a reality.</div>
The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-38634094249787230002019-04-26T15:50:00.002-07:002019-04-26T15:50:46.302-07:00The Krew Gets Fit!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We have been busy, busy bees over here!! Soooooo much going on. As you know I can be long winded about one thing going on in my life :-) I shall try to break things up so I don't dump a novel on you all!<br />
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After a long winter filled with one sickness after another, too much computer time, and too much nutrient poor foods, it is time to pull up the boot straps! I talked it over with everyone and everyone is on board with making some big changes. We are all struggling with our fitness levels, energy levels, overall health, and for some of us....our weight. I hit a number on the scale that I don't even think I hit when I was 9 months pregnant....and for some pregnancies I had gained 50 to 60 pounds! I am having a hard time going up and down the stairs, and forget about trying to get off the floor without wondering if I need backup.<br />
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I got away to the library to make some plans. Things are pretty crazy in the house right now, and I wasn't even sure where to start. So I made a list of ideas. I had to go back another evening to iron some things out and mark out our first steps. So far this is what we've been doing:<br />
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1. Getting outside more! Right now there is a lot to do on our property, so I am starting there for a good reason to get out and active. We've cleaned up most of the 'yards'. We have various fenced off 'yards'. There's the dog area, the horse area, the middle area (where the swing and trampoline are), then we have two front areas (one with the fruit trees, the other just a yard), then there's the rock garden, and two more fenced in goat areas. On top of that we have the bike trail, and creek area. We only have 2.5 acres, but these are the areas that we've 'named', if you can call it that. The boys, Merida and I got out and pick up the middle area, horse area, rock garden, and the two front yards. So we still have some places left to clean up.<br />
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We also tackled the baby trees and brambles growing along side our dirt road. They've been increasingly creeping closer to the road each year. So some gloves, clippers, and a saw and we have that area free of those intruders. I think I should plant some shade loving plants/shrubs in that area to hopefully fill it in so the other things don't grow. <br />
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Jeremiah and the boys did a lot of work on the shed/barn. We needed to switch original plans since the pony kept getting out. This will help when we get goats in the future. There is still quite a bit of work to do for the chicken barn. Moira took a day to knock off the walls. The barn had some mold damage, and a rotting floor. We've made some plans to change that area as well. <br />
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On top of all that work, Jeremiah and the boys are starting to make 3 or 4 raised garden beds for the front. So lots of outside time!<br />
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2. Organize the kitchen. I know, seems odd. How does that play into getting fit? Well, I have like no energy. I need to go back to eating all plant based. The problem the past 9 months or so has been I want to eat plant based, but no one else does. So I have been making multiple dishes for meals. I. Am. Burnt. Out. We have resorted to eating junky foods (box mac and cheese, pb and j's, Ramen....ugh). It has to stop! So I told everyone I am only making ONE meal for each mealtime. And it will be plant based. I HAVE to, for my sanity, and for my energy and health.<br />
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The problem is that my kitchen was a mess, and cooking is hard enough when things go right. But when you have no energy to begin with, and you have to search for the foods you need to prepare...well, for me it is too much. So the past few days have been pulling everything out of each space and organizing it. Jonah has been my right hand man. He loves doing projects. He was watching the youtube inspiration videos with me! <br />
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3. Making an investment. We already have a Y membership, though we haven't been good about using it. So we have plans to make certain days Y days. Then I went online and bought some jump ropes and bouncy balls (the ones they sit on and bounce around on). Last week I bought two playground balls and a huge box of chalk. Next week I plan on buying a few more playground balls. I have plans on trying to put together a gym day for them to play group games. <br />
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We are also pretty excited to have a Greenway Challenge. We will print out the greenways around our area and we will walk/run, bike, skip the trails. The challenge will be to color in all the trails! <br />
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There is more to my plan, but this is where we are starting. I am excited to share this adventure! There are other things going on, some big changes, others not as big. I'll write about those another time!<br />
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Jonah working on the side of our dirt road. I tried looking for a before picture, but couldn't find a good one. Maybe I'll take a picture of the pile of stuff they cut down!</div>
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Aubrey working hard. There were many battles over who got the cutters! They were afraid they wouldn't each get a turn cutting down the small trees and brambles. Not to worry, there was plenty to go around!!!</div>
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Merida was there for moral support. Ha, ha! She did help to transfer the cuttings to the other side of the road. </div>
The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-697821096412157142019-01-28T14:54:00.000-08:002019-01-28T14:54:54.818-08:00First of the year birthdays!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After a wonderful New Years celebration, it is time to get ready for a couple of birthdays! Aubrey's is up first, and he turned 8 years old. I feel bad, as I can never seem to be on top of things to have a big birthday ready for him. Being that it is after the holidays it seems to always catch me by surprise. Aubrey wanted to make his own cake this year. Over the past few years the girls have been in charge of making the cakes. Now that the littles are not so little, they want to make their own cakes! So that's what he did.<br />
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Turning 8 kind of went to his head....quite literally. He was thinking that he could handle stopping the hay bale rolling off the pick up truck...all by himself. There were four of us lined up to stop the hay bale as it rolled off the back of the truck. It's just how we deal with huge hay bales around here. Anyways, Aubrey lunged...LUNGED...for the hay bale, and before any of us could react he found himself, face down with the hay bale rolling up on his head! <br /><br />He had a nice sized scrape. I watched him closely to see if he had a head injury. All seemed fine, until about 36 hours later when I realized he had bruising under his eyes! Yikes! His forehead was all swollen up, which I expected, but I was not expecting bruising to show up under his eyes! A trip to the ER showed that all was well. Phew!<br />
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A handful of days later it was little misses birthday. Merida turned 5! I can't believe my youngest is 5. For many, many years, the youngest was no older than 3. Merida wanted an ice cream cake, but wait, no a Barbie cake, no,no...a Paw Patrol cake....well, when we went to the store she ended up picking a premade Shopkins cake! <br />
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Merida also happens to be our youngest child to loose a first tooth. It was a few days before she turned 5 when she was screaming...SCREAMING...that her tooth fell out. There was blood, but all her teeth were there. She kept insisting it fell out. Nope, all teeth accounted for! She wouldn't let me feel for a loose tooth till later that night. And, sure enough, she had a tooth hanging by a thread. Like how did that happen? When? All my kids notice a loose tooth way before they are hanging by a thread. She was terrified she was going to swallow it during the night. Thankfully that did not happen, and the tooth came out the following morning. <br />
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Flannery made some comments on the amount of drama that went on for the loose tooth (by Merida). I laughed, a lot, and reminded her that she was the last to be able to speak on that!!! Flannery would FREAK out whenever she got a loose tooth. She freaked out until it fell out, which unfortunately was always a couple of weeks after she noticed it was loose. I mean, crying, and screaming! I started to get anxiety thinking we were going to have to go through that again with Merida. Though that was before she let me feel for a loose tooth, and I thought she was going to follow the same timing as my other children....taking two weeks for a tooth to come out...or even longer!<br />
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Homemade cakes by Aubrey! He had a little help from Merida. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth over sharing cake decorating duty! Aubrey wanted to do it ALL himself. <br />
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With the kids getting older some of our traditions are mutating. The birthday sign is supposed to be done the night before, and hung up for the birthday child to see on their actual birthday, as a surprise. The surprise being the design of the sign. However, Aubrey and Merdia, wanted to be in on the design and coloring of their own birthday signs. The older girls protested much, as this is NOT how birthday signs are to be done!!! Change is hard people....hard.<br />
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You can barely see the bruising under his eyes. I assure you it was very noticeable in person! But you can see his whole forehead is swollen. And to think that he didn't even have a headache after all of this, just the first night! No more hay bale tackling for you!<br />
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Merida is a total ham when she knows the camera is out. She insists on posing in at least 30 or more poses, which you must capture each one, AND show her them all! Taking her picture takes a very, very long time!<br />
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Pose 17. Ha, ha!<br />
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Merida asked for the 'cup game', which took quite a while to figure out what she was talking about. Then I realized it was the punch game that Jed had for his birthday party last year. Jed's was in the shape and color of a Pokeball. For Merida we made a cupcake.<br />
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She could hardly wait until we could take off the little plastic purse. Once we got it off she forgot all about it! Oy. Now she has some little trinkets and paper stored in it.<br />
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Although she didn't make her own cake, she did insist of putting on her own candles! <br />
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The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-31303288263957047822018-12-17T15:19:00.006-08:002018-12-17T15:19:54.429-08:00When they grow up....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have the unique position of being a mom to adults, teens, a tweener, school aged, and one about to exit the preschool age...along with being a grandmother. One minute I may be playing dolls, or admiring lego creations, the next I am putting my grandson down for a nap, and then the next....helping to plan a wedding. Yes, a wedding. So it seems that the doll days are very much done for some of my girls...ok, most of them! And now we have a room full of talk and excitement about colors, food, and guest list. Phew!<div>
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Don't worry, there is no date yet, nor has there actually be a proposal! I know, I know, you are probably thinking then why are we planning for a wedding. Well, the plan is that once there is a proposal that the wedding should take place no longer than about 3 months later. I don't make the rules! Just gotta follow them :-) </div>
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And so it is, that there are now Pinterest boards to be scoured, food choices to decide, photographer to be sourced, flowers, venue, and so on and so forth. All done between younger children yelling and running. Teens that need the latest kpop album. And lets not forget to keep an eye on any little tidbit of crumb or paper on the floor....because if we don't the baby will! </div>
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I had the privilege of doing a photoshoot of the said couple. It's funny to think that I remember first meeting him, as Merida, who was not 18 months old at the time, took an immediate liking to him. She didn't go to just anyone! We actually took a picture of her sitting on his lap because it was such an astonishing sight.</div>
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Moira and Adam's relationship has not been picture perfect (though, whose is?). But this has given them time to dig in deep and learn. I can honestly say they are much better prepared for marriage than I was. They strive to put Christ as the center, and all decisions based on the Word of God. </div>
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I might not have any details to give, but I do have pictures! </div>
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The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-69245383792844967792018-11-16T07:31:00.001-08:002018-11-16T07:31:28.933-08:00Party time!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We have had many years when friends were few. There were times when friends were made, and we then had to move. But along the way a friend here, and a friend there were gained...and kept. Over the years we've had a few parties. And in the recent past couple of years the party planning, decorating, and food prep has been in the hands of the girls.<br />
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It's been a while since we've had a party that wasn't a birthday party :-) So this Halloween was the talk of the house. Even though it was the *girls'* party, the boys were pretty eager to help out! The boys spent a couple of days getting the outside ready. Cleaning up, chopping some wood for the bonfire, and power washing the porch. The girls were busy with decorations, and food....and of course costumes.<br />
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The boys decided to go for some store costumes, as did Flannery. Everyone else put some outfits together with what they had. We did a little photo shoot, though Jeremiah, I and the littles took off to our church's Fall Fest so I was not able to get photos of all their guests as they hadn't all arrived.<br />
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It is a blessing to see a house full of wonderful teens. Teens that you can leave at home and know that all will be well while you are away. We came home to everyone either playing board games or hanging out in the kitchen snacking. Unfortunately the bonfire did not happen. The wood would not catch fire. That did not deter them. They just changed plans. Instead they hung out on the trampoline telling scary stories.<br />
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The littles had a blast at church. Lots of food and fun. A hay ride and games were a huge hit with the kiddos. The evening ended with trunk-or-treat. With only about 10 cars I was surprised to see my kids come away with more candy then they have ever received going door to door! Since we have started detoxing I didn't want the kids to be eating sugar on a weekly basis, so they got a good handful...or two...and then they traded it all in for a new toy each.<br />
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What really warmed my mama heart was when we got home and the bigger kids didn't ignore the little kids :-) I know it can be a bummer to have your little siblings running around when you are trying to have a big kid party....so I was relieved when they were included, at least up to a point. We tried to make sure that the littles didn't come in and take over! Ha, ha!<br />
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Saoirse was going to be Black Riding Hood, as we didn't have a red cape.<br />
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But that quickly changed to a vampire sort of character.<br />
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Flannery was going to be this cowboy cactus-bee-butterfly-cat kind of character, but she decided to just go with the cowboy cactus.<br />
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Merida was supposed to be Minnie Mouse, but her costume went missing that day. It ended up being in the closet...the one behind the photo 'booth' that the girls set up for the party! We found her costume the next day. So she went with what she was last year...a cat.<br />
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Kristi was a butterfly back from the dead. The one that you either killed by accident, or not....to get revenge. They have some imagination!<br />
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A close up of Saoirse's makeup artistry :-)<br />
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Heidi was a sorceress. We thought adding the cat in as a prop was the finishing touch.<br />
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Aubrey was Picachu. As soon as he saw this costume he insisted he HAD to have it. <br />
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Even Loki got in on the dressing up :-) Not sure how much he enjoyed it, but he did look festive!<br />
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I couldn't get the other boys to break from the group to get individual shots. Here are all the littles. Jed as Bonnie, and Jonah as Foxy from Five Nights at Freddy's.<br />
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Everyone decided to jump in to do a dab, or three.<br />
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Katie and Merida. Katie was a fair maiden. <br />
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Moira and Adam were trying to find a great couples costume idea, but they couldn't find one. So Moira decided to be a deer, and Adam was a lumberjack. Adam's mom had made him this yarn beard and I wish I had gotten a picture of it, it was really cool!<br />
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Isabella dressed up as a student from Hogwarts and Liam was Harry Potter....a *very* cute Harry Potter if I do say so myself!<br />
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The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-62673605098102426932018-11-02T14:55:00.000-07:002018-11-02T14:55:27.747-07:00Running Barefoot Through Fields of Blue<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Once upon a time, in a beautiful land where the skies were a brilliant blue, the grass an emerald green, and where the children ran barefoot without care....ehhhh, scratch that. I'm definitely in a land where the skies are a beautiful blue (Carolina blue for that matter :-) ), but grass is nowhere to be found. The children, well they do run barefoot without care. There is some sort of physics law that has to do with all things reverting to chaos. Yup, that's where we are at. We do have green, but it's all weeds. Like 6 foot tall weeds. And, no, I'm not joking.<br />
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The past couple of years have been trying. That would be putting it lightly. But amidst the storms there have been breathtaking breaks in the clouds where the sun seems brighter than it normally would. That certainly helped to get us through those dark days. The kids have been asking to go through the blog, to look at the pictures, to read the stories. There are a lot of missing stories for the past two years. For good reason. It was not the time to tell them.<br />
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We have battled a slew of illnesses. I am sure you have all seen that theme here on my blog....illness this, illness that. Diet this, supplement that. Health has most certainly alluded us. Black mold was found in our house, which we got rid of, and for the first time in years we had a winter that only had one case of the sniffles. Amazing to say the least. Unfortunately there are some signs of weakened immune systems here as we head in the winter of 2018/2019 that I am very much hoping have nothing to do with any possible mold hiding out. Only time will tell.<br />
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Then there was the year of separation in our marriage. It was very much needed. Still a long ways to go in the marriage department, so a work in progress.<br />
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Then there was the horrible car accident, that took a good 6 months of our life. However the ramifications have lasted much longer than that. I was finally ready to get back to life this summer (a year after the accident), when we were hit with whooping cough! And I had a lovely stint as an alternate juror on a murder trial. We were blessed with a reduced membership to an aquatic center, due to Moira being an employee. The first summer in NC, in a VERY long while, that we had access to a pool. We went multiple times a week. Thankfully whooping cough isn't as horrid as it is made out to be IF....please NOTE the **IF**.... you are taking very high levels of vitamin C. And then we had the wonderful blessing of making it to NY for my youngest brother's wedding. We had not been to NY in 14 years! The last time we were there, Saoirse was only 9 months old!<br />
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And then we had another amazing blessing, that was of course first met with rough seas. Our first grandbaby was born this past February! Isabella had a rough pregnancy. As in morning sickness all 9 months. A few scares along the way thrown in for good measure. But at the end of it all was a precious baby boy. His name is Liam Jeremiah. He is now 8 months old, and the star of the show around here. The months that followed his birth were very difficult. There was a stay in the NICU, then horrible, horrible nursing problems. Those issues were solved three months in with a tongue and lip tie revision. Isabella exclusively pumped for three months! Now they have a strong nursing relationship! There were a few bouts of thrush, and some horrid dental issues. Isabella was plagued by horrible, horrible heartburn, that literally rotted her back teeth :-( On top of it she had to get her wisdom teeth out. It's been a rough ride for those two.<br />
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Having older children has made things easier and harder all rolled into one. Flannery was blessed with her first job at Krispe Kreme. Having to drive her back and forth, Moira back and forth, and Saoirse to any events was taking a bit of a toll. Thankfully with another vehicle added to the mix that has made things a bit easier.<br />
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So we land here. Still in some chaos. Behind on many levels and in many ways. Time running out to find a way to get to the root of Jedidiah's issues. And like I mentioned early, signs of weakened immune systems. It was back to the drawing board. Plans were drawn up, and we've just begun implementing the plan. I'll have to share another day. The plan was not made till after I had a bit of a meltdown. Because, let's be honest, chaos is messy. In our case, very messy. Figuratively and literally. And so as a plan was being created I decided that I would attempt to get out at least once a week to try to make art out of the chaos. For me that would mean photographs. My kids do a good enough job making art messes in the house, I didn't want to add to that :-)<br />
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Hula hoops that have seen better days. Though we spent a lot of time poolside, not a lot of time was spent in the yard. It's time to pick these guys up and get moving!<br />
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See, weeds *can* be pretty! Actually there are a lot of weeds that are powerhouses of nutrition and healing. Just one of the many, many....many weeds in our yard. Our neighbor's goats have been getting out and hanging in our yard. Who needs a mower, when you have goats. We need to get some goats of our own...we miss ours greatly!<br />
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Chains. These in particular are chains to lock up the front gate. But figuratively I would say we were being bound by a lot of chains mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. With God's help all of them will be broken!<br />
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Another beautiful parting of the clouds was Moira's re-dedication baptism, and Jedidiah and Aubrey's baptism this summer. Jedidiah wrote this on the foundation of our house. Fitting. Jesus needs to be our foundation! When he's not....the house does indeed fall. Thankfully He is still in the business of miracles. Houses can be rebuilt, and rebuilt on a proper foundation.</div>
The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-32804533461935540122018-10-24T08:15:00.004-07:002018-10-24T08:44:11.987-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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jed and aubrey zzombe </div>
The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-68059525101511749042018-10-24T08:02:00.001-07:002018-10-24T08:02:05.270-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-64888934988311933642018-01-01T10:15:00.000-08:002018-01-01T10:15:03.342-08:00Happy New Years!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Wow, 2017 was something else! We did things differently this year. It's always been just us celebrating here at home. I think one year Isabella and Moira hung out with friends on New Years, but other wise, it's been just us. This year we celebrated with our church family. We rung in the new year with board games, running around (for the littles), and food. About 30 minutes before midnight we did some praise and worship. It was a wonderful way to start the new year. <br />
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Not wanting to miss out on our traditions of pot banging and change rattling, I brought those things along! I also brought many a bottle of sparkling juice so that we could clink glasses (or in this case red plastic cups) at the top of the hour. <br />
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It was a great time! <br />
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Happy New Years from our family to yours!<br />
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Our whole gang along with Isabella's significant other, and the girls' best friend who is family :-) <br />
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The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-18388163379368551082017-10-15T15:36:00.002-07:002017-10-15T15:36:35.999-07:00How life can change in an instant!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
**This post is kind of disjointed.... and I am sure you'll understand once you read it. One day I may be able to pull myself together to put it all 'together', but today is not that day :-)**<br />
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Things got busy after my last post (waaaay back in April). It was the typical end of the school year busy. I got a planner so I could make some plans for our summer. Plans that totally went out the window in a split second. In June we endured one of the 'parental nightmares' that one worries about when they have children.<br />
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It would be much, much too long to go into the very odd details that led up to our nightmare, maybe one day I will share those. But, make no mistake, what took place was a spiritual attack on our family. The scripture that says that satan comes to 'kill, steal, and destroy' has never been so real to me before June 6th.<br />
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Two weeks before June 6, three of my girls, Moira (17 at the time), Flannery (15), and Saoirse (13) were on our way to the homeschool graduation ceremony. We came to a stop at the 4 way stop sign not a mile from our home. I looked right, and there was a car waaaaaay way out, and on my left another car was approaching. We got to the stop at the same time, and though I was in the right to go, the person was not giving me a sign that they acknowledged that. Needless to say it took a bit more time to negotiate the stop than anticipated. I always, always, always re-look before proceeding through a stop sign....**except** this time. The car that was far off in the distance was RIGHT there as I started to go through the intersection.....they did not see the stop sign and were flying through. I slammed on my brakes, and they screeched and turned hard to their right to avoid hitting me. Thankfully we were spared a hit.....it would have been a t-bone hit! Both Moira and Flannery were on the side that the car would have hit.<br />
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I was shaking for a long while afterwards, knowing just how serious that car accident could have been. My girls were on their phones oblivious to what almost happened. A few minutes later, being ever so grateful that we escaped such a serious accident, I told the girls that we needed to be thankful that their lives were spared. They didn't quite 'get it'. And so I explained the seriousness of the near t-bone accident to them. Unfortunately, two weeks later, those same two girls were going to find out first hand what I had meant.<br />
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The girls met up with friends and their older sister for a movie. Isabella was supposed to drive them home from the movie, but she was feeling very sick and needed to leave the movie early. So their friend was going to drive them home instead. They called me to let me know they were going to stop by the park to get pics of the sunset. A little while later I realized that the park they were going to actually locks their gate at sunset, so I called them to let them know they needed to leave the park asap. They already had and told me they would see me soon.<br />
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Then Flannery called me and let me know they were grabbing a snack and getting gas. In the past the girls were not on top of letting me know when their plans had changed, so I was glad that she called me to let me know. About 15 to 20 minutes later, when I realized they should have been pulling in, the phone rang. I saw it was Flannery's number, and in my head I was thinking....ugh, if they changed their plans again, I am going to go crazy! I wish, wish, wish that I could have gone crazy, instead I picked up the phone and Flannery was sobbing, yelling that there was an accident.<br />
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oh<br />
my<br />
God<br />
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I knew it had to be bad. Flannery doesn't cry.<br />
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I screamed for Jeremiah, and seemingly at the same time screamed into the phone, Where's Moira, where's Moira!?!?!!<br />
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Flannery sobbed back, she's in the car....she's not responding (Moira was not responding)<br />
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oh<br />
my<br />
God<br />
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Where are you!??!?!!<br />
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She says she doesn't know....wait, we're at the white house with the purple shutters.<br />
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I scream to Saoirse to watch the kids, and Jeremiah and I are out the door running.<br />
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I drive there....another crazy story in itself.<br />
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They are only 3 miles away. I come around the small bend and over the top of the small hill I see a ton of lights...those big lights to make the dark look like day (it was 9:30 at night). Fire trucks, police cars, lights, cars, people....lights<br />
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oh my God where are my babies, where is Moira?<br />
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Then I see the car. Oh my God, Lord help me, I cry out. I can't do this, I can't do this.....<br />
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The back car door is smashed in and Moira's head is lying over the window area where the glass was blown out. (she was t-boned) Oh my God, I can't do this. All the while I am running. Running as fast as I can. I want to be there for her and at the same time I am petrified to look. Jeremiah got to her first (we got there right before the EMS crews did....though there were bystanders, one who was a nurse, and someone else there that were trying to help). Flannery comes out of no where. She is crying, sobbing, hugging me tight. She is freaking out. Their poor friend who was driving just kept repeating I am so sorry, I am so sorry (he didn't see the stop sign and ran it....with the other car coming at them going 55-65mph).<br />
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Now at this point the gracious Lord gave me strength from above. I told Flannery I had to see how Moira was, so she went and sat on this small hill where some people were trying to get information (the cops?) about what happened. I run over and see Moira move an arm. <br />
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OH MY GOD SHE'S ALIVE! THANK YOU LORD, THANK YOU!!!!<br />
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My heart was beating sooo fast. I start praying out loud....like, really loud. But I knew we weren't out of the woods by any means. Was her spinal cord effected? Is she bleeding? She wasn't responding to us, just moaning. By then the EMS crews arrived. They got her out on a board. I rode in the ambulance to the hospital (soooo happy we have a level one trauma unit near by...30 minutes away). About 5 minutes from the hospital one of the EMTs told me she was responding. Praise you Lord.<br />
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I had been praying that all internal injuries would stop bleeding. I knew she had to have internal bleeding.<br />
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It was a very long wait in the family waiting room, waiting for them to transfer her to the trauma unit, waiting for the initial CAT scans. Oh God the wait.<br />
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They bring us back, and she is awake, aware, but in a TON of pain. The nurse or doctor tells us that she is stable, but in serious condition. She lost her left kidney, the renal artery had over extended, and the blood supply couldn't flow through. We were told had it extended any further it would have ruptured and she would have been dead on scene. <br />
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oh<br />
my<br />
God<br />
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She had 3 broken ribs, some lacerations on her lungs and her spleen was really bad off. Out of 4 levels of injury for the spleen, with 4 being the worst, she was a 3. Basically her spleen was mush, and that mush was being held together by the spleen's casing, which was lacerated as well! Her regular doctor told me recently that with the lacerations she had she should have bled to death.<br />
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oh<br />
my<br />
God<br />
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She also had bleeding in her brain. We waited a long 4 hours for a repeat scan to determine if her brain was still bleeding or not. Thank the Lord it wasn't. Basically my prayers for the internal bleeding to stop were answered. By about day 5 or so I noticed something wrong with her right eye...it wasn't tracking with the other eye. A VERY long story made short, she had damage done to her third cranial nerve. An MRI was done, and it was determined that the damage was done in the middle of her brain. Basically though no one part of her brain bled a lot, there were a lot of parts of her brain that had bled, or were bruised. Weeks after she was released from the hospital it was determined that there was also nerve damage done in the back of her eye.<br />
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Moira's right eye was not able to stay centered, and it would wonder off to the side. Also her lid would not open all the way, just half way at most. She had extreme tunnel vision as well in that eye. This made walking very, very, very difficult (aside from the immense amount of pain she was in).<br />
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Basically, it is a miracle that she is alive. She spent 4 days in the ICU, about 10 days on a regular floor and about 10 days on the rehab floor.<br />
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Our summer was spent in the hospital and then since we returned home it has been just doctor appointments and rehab. It was slow going at first. We had to buy a baby monitor for her room since she couldn't get up unassisted. Thankfully she came home with no needed equipment. In the early days of the hospital she needed a walker to get around. It was very disturbing to see my once vibrant girl, who did cheer leading this past year, using a walker to move around :-(<br />
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***This post has been sitting here on Blogger in 'pending' mode for about 2 months. There are so many stories that go with what happened during this time. I think I stopped writing it because it really could be a book! We were so grateful the immense amount of help we received from family and friends. I could not imagine walking this road alone! It was long, it was hard. And praise God it is almost over! I say almost because there are a few things we are waiting to heal. Her right eye has improved so much. She has control over tracking, she no longer has tunnel vision, and she can open her eyelid all the way. At this time she still has some lost peripheral vision. A recent MRI scan showed she has a mild bulging disk in her spine. Looks like we may be signing up for more physical therapy! She just had her last physical therapy two weeks ago! And now we need to go back to work on this disk. I am not happy to have to do that, but it will sure beat possible back surgery for her in the future....and so "GO" we must!<br />
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We have some funny stories of the things Moira did or said while on pain meds. We have stories of worry and tears as we didn't know what the outcome was going to be with her injuries. We have stories of perseverance, and stories of wanting to throw in the towel. But above all we HAVE a story, one that ends with Moira living her life like she was used to. She is back to school, and back to work. She hangs out with her friends, and loves to go shopping, and do makeup. <br />
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Now, granted, Moira was the one badly injured in the crash, but Flannery didn't escape scott free. She was spared any apparent injuries at the time of the crash. But a few weeks after the crash she was complaining of extreme fatigue, hard time concentrating, and lights and noise were bothering her. We took her in to her doctor who didn't find anything wrong. But then we spoke with a therapist who said that it is possible she had a concussion that did not present itself at the time of the crash. It took a couple months for those symptoms to disappear, but she is back to normal. As a matter of fact she said she wanted to drive today! Both girls have not wanted to drive since the crash. Moira doesn't have any memories of the crash, but her body must remember as she does have anxiety at lights. But now both girls are ready to get back behind the wheel....I'm just not sure if I'm ready for them to do so :-) <br />
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In the ICU, getting a visit with her big sister. She had to have that neck brace on for 3 days before they determined she could go without it. It was a very long 4 days in the ICU. I know that is not a lot of time, but when you are in it, it seemed forever!<br />
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Not a good picture, and I am sure Moira will want to kill me for posting it, but this was during the very hard, hard days for her. You can see the pain on her face. It took so much out of her to sit up and 'do life'.<br />
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We made it a point to decorate her room. Some balloons, some lights, and some pictures from home.<br />
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This was during rehab. Jeremiah and I took turns staying with her for 24 hours. When it was switch off time we would sometimes bring the kids for a visit. Lights and noise were very hard for Moira to deal with. I assure you there is nothing quiet about our family! So visits were short.<br />
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Moira got to have a few hours out of the hospital with her therapists. She got this pirate cake pop since, well....she was in the habit of looking like a pirate during this time. The eye patch made it easier for her to walk since it helped to block the double vision.<br />
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Moira just getting home, for good! She had her "Independence Day" shirt on, that they give to all the 'graduated' rehab patients. It was literally only a couple of days till July 4th, so we joked that that was the most expensive Independence Day shirt EVER!<br />
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Here she is, finally able to read, at one of her doctors visits. All week long it was therapy and doctors visits. So. Many. Doctor. Visits. So thankful she was alive, and able to actually go to doctors visits, don't get me wrong!! It was just a trying time to be sure.<br />
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Moira, Saoirse, and Kristi just a couple of weeks ago. I have other pictures, but these were the ones I could get off of my current computer. <br />
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The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-31681428134614183742017-04-07T19:27:00.001-07:002017-04-07T19:27:37.241-07:00And so we Tweak!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So we are two weeks in on the full GAPS diet and here are the things going for us:<br />
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I have kept things SIMPLE...breakfast has only a couple of options, lunch is ala carte, and dinner is a soup or easy dish like chili.<br />
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We are still alive.<br />
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I'm able to eat milk based products without stomach pain, though I think there still needs to be more healing as I'm not 100%...no pain, but I do get a lot of rumbling sometimes.<br />
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We are still alive....like all of us!<br />
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I've noticed that Jed's face looks slimmer. We are NOT trying to get him to loose weight, as in cut back on calories, or such, but he is doing better with foods since he can't slather everything with ketchup. He had a love of sour cream, and would eat it like yogurt! So that's out too. But no differences in his speech or other health issues yet.<br />
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Did I say we are still alive? Yeah, that's a good thing.<br />
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The things that are not going well for us:<br />
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The kids are hating gaps. Merida has been sick with a horrid tummy bug, visibly lost weight, and for her we are allowing non gaps foods because she's having a hard time eating anything. <br />
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I knew we would feel hungry all the time, but I was hoping it wouldn't be as bad as doing gaps intro....and maybe it's not, but by golly my kids are eating ALL. THE. TIME! Did I say all the time? And did I say my kids are hating gaps? Yeah....<br />
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With a truck that needed fixing our grocery budget was cut back, and I was hoping we would make it on the food we had....not exactly. We have two days till shopping day and I made them up some gluten free pasta (not on gaps). It's not that we don't have food....but I'm pretty good with keeping things simple, and toughing it out when it comes to food...and I'm getting sick and tired of eating chicken and vegetables. I try to think of other people who don't have food and be thankful...I really do...<br />
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Actually the eating of the food isn't too big of a problem for me, it's all the cooking. Lots, and lots of cooking...lots. Did I say lots? Do you see a theme here? Yeah, me too.<br />
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Here is a rough estimate of some of the amounts of food we have gone through...in just under two weeks....<br />
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8 pounds of aged cheese<br />
4 full chickens, and just cooked up two more today, they are about 1/4 done.<br />
12 pounds of beef<br />
8 pounds of strawberries<br />
at least 12 bunches of bananas<br />
3 or 4 pounds of blueberries (we buy the bags at BJ;s, so they are bulk style)<br />
3 or 4 pounds of raspberries...see above<br />
1/2 a bag of frozen mangos....same bag size<br />
3 or more pounds of carrots<br />
4 jars of natural style peanut butter<br />
about 3 or 4 quarts of kefir (my kefir is just starting to get up and running)<br />
2 gallons of yogurt<br />
maybe 4 or 5 pounds of broccoli<br />
a bunch of other frozen veggies that we throw in soups or roast<br />
eggs...LOTS of eggs...crazy lots of eggs (maybe 8 dozen or more...no joke)<br />
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I think that is most of it....the bulk of it. Man, writing that out it doesn't seem like a whole lot...<br />
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So I am not sure what we will do going forward. My sister found an amazing probiotic that I feel can really help us out. I was going to pair that with GAPS, but the probiotics are crazy expensive...and I don't see how we can make that work with our food budget. I know that the first 2 to 4 weeks...maybe it was longer? you feel hungry ALL the time. So I'm thinking we will have to just eat gluten free, and do the probiotics and see what happens. Because money doesn't seem to be growing on any of the 200 trees we have on our property :-) Imagine that.<br />
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I really hate having to go back and forth, try this, try that...but really I am trying to do the best I can with what I have available. What really is horrible is that my husband took a huge pay cut so we can have better insurance. Waaaaaay too long of a story to put out here, just trust me on this. However, we are now paying more for insurance, and the co-pays are higher....sigh. Jed's speech is going to cost way too much, and we have to cut that out for now. I feel very strongly that he still needs it, and I am trying to find a way to make it work. So sometimes I feel like I am spinning my wheels. We get things going over here...but everything falls apart over there.<br />
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One thing I am trying to work hard on is to NOT STRESS over it all. I am one human, I can only do so much with what we have. I know I am doing the best that I can with the knowledge I have.<br />
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So we tweak. We had to take stock of our options and make a new plan. We'll stay gluten free, only fermented milk products, no sugar (save honey), but that allows a bit more wriggle room in the grocery budget to add foods that will stick with us better, hopefully ending the 'hungry all the time stage'. I will write an update once I get the probiotics in and we start that plate spinning :-)<br />
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Here are some pictures that have nothing to do with this post. But of course. <br />
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Aubrey has been obsessed with taking pictures with the cats, or trying to make videos. This is him with Simba, the cat we've had for the longest time (I think 6 years now?)<br />
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Six years old and trying to get the hang of taking a selfie!<br />
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Blurry, but so cute. This was when Merida was *finally* starting to feel better, and she wanted to dress up like a princess. After a week of not being herself, I was pleased to oblige!<br />
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More Aubrey :-) I seriously have like 400 photos on my phone of his selfies and videos! Ha, ha!<br />
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At the playground. She insisted her animals come to have fun too (a racoon and a very flat teddy bear...he's lost his stuffing).<br />
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The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-27739993729701263522017-03-28T20:07:00.001-07:002017-03-28T20:07:29.247-07:00Guess we'll have to take that two week break...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I mentioned that I was thinking about taking two weeks off of activities....well yesterday night Jonah was complaining of his legs hurting. I was hoping, REALLY hoping, that it was just growing pains. But then he started complaining of a headache. He woke up still in pain, and then Jed was acting funny. Although Jedidiah is not our most active child, he isn't one to just lie on the couch for the heck of it. He eventually fell asleep on the couch at 11 in the morning. Sigh. He woke up, and decided he needed to rid himself of the contents of his stomach, followed a couple of hours later by Jonah....and then a couple more hours by Merida. Oh joy.</div>
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Maybe, just maybe it's food poisoning. But at this rate, I'm not taking chances! So I called off all outside activities (for the younger kiddos). They seem to be the ones getting sick first. We did start on GAPS today, but it's going to be a while before we see some progress. My kids will readily eat yogurt, and I can usually get away with putting some fermented veggie juice in their soup or other meal...but I think this time around I am going to use some supplements to get us headed in the right direction faster. I don't need this to take any longer than it has to!</div>
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I made a bunch of GAPS food, and then most of it disappeared....down the throats of my kids! For the amount of time I spent in the kitchen I think there should be a **whole** lot more evidence that I was actively working, then there is in my fridge! As long as I stay a couple of days ahead, we should be fine. I think there is enough yummy food to be had on full GAPS, so I am not too worried of a mutiny at this time :-) There may be a whole lot of yogurt and fruit eating going on for a bit. Again, I'm not too worried, as the transition can be difficult, so whatever makes it easier I'm up for. </div>
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The other day I drove the older girls to a church that was having free prom dresses and accessories available to teen girls. This was amazing!!! My girls got some fabulous dresses and makeup! I didn't want to take Merida in since that was just going to be a recipe for disaster. Instead I took her to a park nearby, which happened to be a park I visited when I was a nanny, some 20 years ago!! I was walking up to it thinking....wow that looks familiar...oh, wait, so does that...<br />
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I am thinking of doing a playground hop this spring/summer. There are a ton of parks in the surrounding areas and I would love to bring my kids to them for a change of pace. We usually frequent the same two playgrounds. Maybe a new playground, and a new hiking trail each month. I started making a list and it will take us a while to get to them all!<br />
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A long standing dream....a tree fort! It's been a long wait. Unfortunately for my girls, they didn't get to see that dream in their childhood :-( But for the youngest four....this is pretty exciting! It is a triangle shape, and now has slats on it. I wouldn't let anyone up there, without an adult right there, until the slats were put on! This would be quite a fall, and with all the bad things going on over here...I really, really, REALLY didn't want to have another hospital visit for a broken arm. The kids always want to have a picnic, but between the chickens and the cats, that is impossible. But now, they can have a picnic in their fort and be chicken and cat free! <br />
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This was right before Merida became ill today. There is a LOT of driving to be had this week, between Moira's job, and Flannery's horse camp, and other get togethers, and events! So we dropped Moira off at work, and drove right to get Flannery, but we were an hour early. I had totally forgotten they had a little playground on the premises. It worked out great. The funny thing is that there were a couple of big carpenter bees buzzing nearby. Merida would just shoo them away, totally not afraid. But she saw these two little gnats on the slide and she freaked out! She is completely afraid of ants and other tiny little bugs. If she sees them on her swing, or a slide at the park she will refuse to use them! It may be a long summer! I tell all the other kids to NOT point out the bugs in the house, or outside. A crane fly got in the house and you would have thought the world was ending!!! Blood curdling screams. <br />
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Speaking of Merida, it appears she is still not feeling well. She is sleeping but keeps crying out :-( Off to cuddle with her.<br />
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The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-27984503510242638882017-03-26T16:51:00.001-07:002017-03-26T16:51:47.853-07:00Jumping into GAPS!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I should be preparing lots of food right now. At the moment I am immobilized....by fatigue. After a long battle of illness, the youngest is having a case of 'mama magnetism'....in other words, she is attached to my leg most of the day! I kind of need some space and time to get some things done, which I have not been afforded.<br />
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Other, very fun things, have been going on instead, like fort building! Now it is evening and I have to try to muster feeding my crew, and clean up my kitchen. It's not in too much disarray, but I have a lot of food prep to do....a lot! I can't think in clutter/chaos, much less cook and make more messes.<br />
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I would never tell someone to just jump into the GAPS diet, but we've been through (most, some....) of it about 5 years ago. In that time I've learned a lot more about why we are sick all the time. This time I do have a plan (a long range plan) to healing, but it may take time....how much time I do not know. I kept thinking that 'this' illness would be the last one, and we could move on....oh wait, 'this' one will surely be our last bought of sickness....no, wait, maybe this one? Yeah, it became apparent that I needed to do SOMETHING in the short term, and quick, before I lost my sanity.<br />
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So we are jumping in, head first. Thankfully, for my kiddos, I am only starting us on the full GAPS diet, not Intro. I need to get some ducks in a row before I do Intro. There are some supplements that I want to add to our arsenal, and I need to not only order them, but I have to figure out how much and when to take them all to optimize the best outcome.<br />
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The supplements I plan on putting everyone on (though Merida won't get them all) are:<br />
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L-glutamine<br />
probiotics from Custom Probiotics (they have low histamine strains)<br />
caprylic acid<br />
liquid garlic drops<br />
milk thistle<br />
apple cider vinegar<br />
vitamin C<br />
borax (topically for Jonah and myself...still battling ringworm....yes, for two years now!)<br />
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Some supplements that I need to do for my venture in healing a cavity:<br />
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cod liver/butter oil<br />
a supplement that has calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and boron<br />
wheat grass powder to swish in my mouth (along with oil pulling)<br />
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My suspicions are that we are all dealing with some level of systemic yeast, due to our black mold in the house. To help our bodies process all the 'yuck' that will surely come from killing off yeast, I will be booting up my rife machine to help with heavy metal detox, and organ support.<br />
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It's been a lot to try to plan out. Never mind the food planning....or the food planning that I still need to do. I went into shopping day knowing we HAVE to do GAPS, but with NO meal plan. So I just bought a lot of GAPS foods, and now I have to make some semblance of a plan on what meals we will actually eat! I'm not looking forward to it. Mostly because I know that despite a meal plan, we will all go through about two weeks worth of feeling like we are starving....all...day...long. Sigh. So whatever I make up will be eaten lickety split. I'm not even sure we will have enough food to get through the next two weeks without doing another big shopping! <br />
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I want to start GAPS in two days. So I am hoping i can get to:<br />
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rebooting my kefir<br />
making a TON of yogurt (like three gallons worth!)<br />
making some GAPS legal granola<br />
cooking a bunch of chickens<br />
putting those chicken bones in the crockpots for 'never ending' chicken broth<br />
hard boil a ton of eggs<br />
make mayo<br />
soak and then cook a ton of navy beans, then freeze them<br />
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I know from experience that you HAVE to have a bunch of food pre-cooked to make this work. None of these foods are hard to make, but they are not quick. I can't be thinking about dinner one hour before we need to eat. Having a bunch of foods pre-cooked will greatly ease the stress of getting our meals ready to eat. Plus it will give the kids something to grab if they are 'starving'.<br />
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I am not looking forward to the weeping and gnashing of teeth the next two weeks will bring. But I am looking forward to a break in the never ending sickness, fatigue, and other health benefits we will surely see!<br />
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The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-73022050358508999622017-03-23T10:27:00.001-07:002017-03-23T10:27:09.122-07:00Fighting the computer games....and winning!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm sure I am not alone in the fight against the computer games take over! To be sure I've read the 1,000 articles that talk about the negative effects of computer games, too much TV watching, etc. I'm on their side. But over the past couple of years, the computers have been winning in our household. It's not what I wanted, nor was it something we needed. It was survival. Being in survival mode is not pleasant. There are many other people who seem to be in survival mode, and yet still make their goals happen. Not me.<br />
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The good news is that I am moving on from survival mode. I am shaking off the dust, and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It has been difficult to face the damage that has been done. I am hopeful that the damage can be reversed. Currently the damage looks like this:</div>
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**short attention spans</div>
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**behind on school work</div>
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**bad attitudes and foul language</div>
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**laziness, chores not being completed, or started for that matter!</div>
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**everyone off doing their own thing, hiding in their rooms</div>
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**fighting and squabbling all the day long</div>
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**eyes glued to the computer screen, even if it wasn't their turn, they would sit to watch their siblings play on the computer</div>
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**too much phone time for the older kids</div>
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That would be a big overview, though I am sure I could list a ton more! And this list does not do the 'picture' of our problem justice. It's bad people, bad. I'm not the only one who sees it or feels it. It hurt to realize that my kids were looking to me to do something about it, but I didn't have the strength to carry out a plan. And so I decided to skip having a plan and to just do **something**. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. It would be better to take steps in the right direction, than to stay stuck in the mud. </div>
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For me that something turned out to be as simple as renewing our library card, and making computer time the last thing they could do in the day, right before bed. I've read the research on how screen time before bed time is not good, but for us it will most certainly be the lesser of two evils! And for my kiddos, they can sleep in if the blue screen is affecting their sleepiness sensors.</div>
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I had tried making it a rule that you can only be on the computer for so many minutes. However, during the middle of the day, when they would have computer time, I am pulled in many different directions. I have to take kids to and from things. I have work that needs doing (laundry, dishes, dinner prep, etc.), or kids who need help with their school work. I didn't have the ability to 'babysit' the computer clock. We had problems with their games not working, so they needed more time. Or possibly one of their siblings took over their turn, so they needed more time. Now, at night, since bedtime is looming...you have 30 minutes and that's it! Now I can come back with, sorry, but bedtime is in so much time, you have to get off so your brother can have his turn before bed.</div>
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This also means that all day long, they have the option to go outside (thankfully they've taken this option up more so), they can have a book read to them, they can color, play with toys, make plans for some game or some such, put on a play, paint....and so on. It's not been all easy peasy. Lots of, "How much more time before I can get on the computer?" But I am hearing that less now. Especially since I can point to outside and say, "Is it even dark out yet? No? Well then it's not even close to your computer time, so run along outside now." </div>
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We've taken walks, visited the creek, read the Boxcar Children (now they want to read the series!), are reading The 39 Clues, played Heads Up (a phone app), and watched homesteading videos (which they really watch, ask questions, and talk about afterwards). <br />
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Most of their time has been spent outside, building their own empire....or fort....or a big open space of their stuff:<br />
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Directions to their get up.<br />
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Lots of hammering going on.<br />
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Lots of weapons, mostly handmade.<br />
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Other supplies, just in case.<br />
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You never know when you may need a bucket of small sticks!<br />
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The only girl allowed in their area.<br />
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Bug finding and storing.<br />
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I keep telling them to pick up all the nails...or they are going to regret it.<br />
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Not sure what this is supposed to be, besides a hanging sheet.<br />
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They even hung up a swing.<br />
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Outdoor dining available as well! Or maybe a space to do some school work outside (shhhhh).<br />
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Must buy more hammers, as the one we have is a very prized item. <br />
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Aubrey and his weapons.<br />
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Not sure how the trees feels about all the nails! :-)<br />
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Exploring the woods.<br />
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Merida needed one of these sticks before we ended our visit.</div>
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The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-77315195224865585982017-03-17T12:00:00.000-07:002017-03-17T12:00:31.082-07:00Time to wake up the blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The other day I popped on my blog, looking for a site that I had hoped I had linked to in one of my posts. Unfortunately for me, I didn't link to it, but my boys were behind me and were very excited to see old pictures (I was looking at posts from about 4 years ago). They asked if they could get on my blog to look at all the pictures. They loved remembering what they saw. They asked me if I could keep taking pictures so that we could look back on these days in the years to come. It was then I that I realized that my 'record keeping' needed to continue, for their sake.<br />
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We were outside today, and I grabbed my camera. I wanted to use my 50mm lens which I hadn't used in over a year or year and a half. It does not seem to be working as most of my picture came out blurry. It kept having a hard time focusing. I'll have to get it checked out I suppose. But it is a start.<br />
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I have finally (nothing like taking 8 months to do so) gotten the boys off the computers! Granted they get a small turn at the very end of the day, but this is HUGE. We are going in the right direction. A lot more changes will be coming. Some welcome, and some not so much. Some will be temporary, some I am hoping will stick around. If I wrote everything out in this one post, it would be too long. I will just share things as they happen.<br />
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Since it's been so long since I've written, I thought I would catch everyone up on a bit of background, and how the kiddos are. <br />
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When I mention change, here and in the past....when I mentioned that things were difficult, that I was depressed...it was a real battle. Jeremiah and I had been separated for a year. He is back in the house now, but our marriage has a very long road ahead to any sort of recovery/healing/etc. The past two years have been exceedingly hard. I have come up out of the deep dark depression I was in, though I still have bad days. My focus now is to live life, not just survive it. There is a book I am reading that I think is going to really help us overcome the turmoil we have been living. The book is called, "A More Excellent Way". Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the author! <br />
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As for the kiddos....Isabella will be turning 20 this summer! She is currently living out of the house. I think moving out did her a lot of good. The mold was definitely adding to the health battles that she has been facing the past few years. She is trying to get back into horses. She found a great barn to exchange work for riding/lessons. <br />
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Moira will be turning 18 this summer, so our second adult child! She leads a very social life :-) She is into photography, drama, singing for church, and has a new job. She is busy! She is also facing some health issues, and we go to see our endocrinologist this coming Monday. There seems to be something wrong with her body processing her sugar during different times of the month. It is scary, and we are hoping to find answers soon.<br />
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Flannery is 15, and will be starting to work at the same barn as Isabella in exchange for lessons. Flannery will also being getting her drivers permit soon! Three drivers! Yikes. She and Saoirse are into Anime and cosplay. She still loves her Breyers as well, but I have noticed she has not been into barn making, or videoing Breyer horse stories. <br />
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Saoirse will be our 4th teen next month! The big 13! She has been in drama this year and really loves it. She is thinking about joining the homeschool cheer squad. Moira was on it this year, and she has tagged along to see if she wants to join. Moira will be stepping away from cheer after this season, so I hope that doesn't influence Saoirse's decision. <br />
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Jedidiah is 10. He is really into planets and space this year. He is still in speech therapy, but doing well. There are a few things we really need to work on with him, mostly due to his sensory issues. Otherwise he is growing well. A bit too well in the wrong direction, but he is growing up as well :-) I have made it a point that the boys get outside everyday, and that has really helped! Jed is finally reading! The reading has really helped with his speech as it seems to help him to see the sounds he is supposed to make (as opposed to remembering what sounds he should be making).<br />
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Jonah is 8. For some reason he is really into doing the laundry now a days! Ha, ha! Jonah, like the other boys is into Minecraft and watching youtube videos. He is finally making progress in reading. It has been a long slow process! I don't think it has anything to do with any issue....he just wasn't ready to read! We finally got our library card up to date (we use the libraries that are out of our county so we have to pay an out of residence fee, and then there were those pesky late book fees....) and we have made it a priority to get to the library. I think he is getting the idea that he could read these books himself...if he could read! He has been trying to sound out the words in the library books, so I am hoping that will be the push/incentive that he needs.<br />
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Aubrey is 6. He is still all boy! Always moving. He loves to rough house, and jump on the trampoline. He likes to do the things his brothers do too! He made it his own job to move all the old wood off into the woods. It has been in the area that we play in, so he moved it out. He used his wagon to haul off loads of wood to dump in our woods. Hey, it kept him busy! <br />
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Merida is 3. For those who know me, it may be odd to hear me say....I'm kinda happy that we don't have a baby in the house. Shock! A lot of that has to do with the almost 20 years of not having help with the kiddos. No babysitters, no helpers....just me. I have watched a little boy recently, who is 9 months old, and I have to say it is very nice once he goes home to realize that I get a whole lot more done without a baby around. I LOVE babies! It still saddens me to think that we are all done having babies, but it is also nice that Merida can dress herself, she can walk, etc. She still needs close watching, but not like a crawling baby! She loves to play with her doll house, or with playdoh, or to paint, or to run around with her brothers. She is a cutie and says the funniest things.<br />
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So that's it! I only have a couple of pictures to share today, but I am hoping to make it a habit to pick up my camera a whole lot more often.<br />
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Laundry time. Jonah really likes to hang the laundry outside. He says it brings back memories :-)<br />
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Waiting to see if Daddy catches the chicken....that's under the house! We put up new blockades, but one of them got knocked out (we have vents around the bottom of the house, and our original vents got knocked out, and Jeremiah made some new ones recently), and we didn't realize there was a chicken under there! The boys were hanging out by the back of the house when they heard noises under there! It was a chicken, and yes, Jeremiah caught it. It was quite hungry! I think it had been under there for 2 days!<br />
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Blurry. We made our way to the creek today. We didn't stay for long. Jonah asked me to untangle the disk swing that hangs over the creek. I did so, he got on, and the next thing I hear is CRACK SPLASH! Poor kid, the branch that the swing was attached to broke. Lucky for him, it wasn't a very long fall. <br />
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Merida's wild hair! She has hair like Isabella's, but not as thick. She has a bit of waves. I go back and forth on whether I should cut it off or not. I did take quite a few inches off not too long ago as it is a struggle to keep it tame. She hates getting it brushed. But it is so beautiful that I don't want to chop it off! <br />
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We always seem to have some sort of specimens in mason jars around here. It may be bugs, or rocks, or weeds, or seeds, or....who knows! Two rocks that Jed found at the creek and insisted on bringing home with him.<br />
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Rainbow plastic shot glasses. Really exciting, I know. I am hoping to have a success story on here of healing cavities naturally....my cavities! Never had a cavity in my life, until a few months ago. I have two, in the same tooth. So not fun. Done enough reading to know that cavities CAN heal, they do not need to be filled by a dentist. So far so good. I had pain that was radiating along my whole ride side upper jaw, even had a week of difficulty opening my mouth. With a change of diet, and taking a cod liver/ butte oil blend I am pain free! I've been sick for the past few weeks and if my sinuses are swollen up I can feel a bit of pain in the tooth, but it only lasts like an hour or two. I used these little cups to fill with some healthy lemonade, then plop the cod liver oil in and gulp it all down in one swish. <br />
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Looking forward to recording our days once again.</div>
The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-70412489905147254672016-09-07T09:22:00.001-07:002016-09-07T09:22:26.082-07:00The Seasons are **Changing**<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's been a mighty long while that I've been on here! I think I've posted twice in 4 or 5 months. I wish I could say it was because we turned off the computers and have been just busy living life ever since my last post. But such is not the case. That is ok, though. Because truth be told the computers did NOT get turned off. The day or two after I wrote my post we jumped head first into the mold remediation that needed to be done here at home.<br />
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We had to move our second oldest out of the house due to her loosing her hair from the mold toxicity. So I spent time finding her a place to stay, and getting her ready to leave. It wasn't what we wanted to do, but we also didn't want a bald daughter (for her sake!!), <br />
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Some time during these past few months there has been a stirring in my spirit. Coming to realize that we were in NO way shape or form living a victorious life. Some would tell me that we are where God wants us to be. But I couldn't accept that for one more day. I knew there was a better way, I had tasted of it many years ago, but fell away. <br />
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I had been praying in a very dark place. I could feel the wall that separated me from God. It was horrid. And I finally said, "ENOUGH!!! No more!!!" I determined then and there that Satan would not have one more day attacking us, and winning. August 23, 2016. That is the day when I took my stand that our family WILL be victorious, BECAUSE we already are in Christ!! I was determined that I wasn't going to let go until I saw success.<br />
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It's only been about two weeks, but a lot has happened during that time (spiritually speaking). I've decided I needed to go back to 'school'. No, not college. I needed to pour into me LIVING hope. To be frank I have not shared the Gospel with another person in over a decade. Sad, but true. The reason being is I knew that my life, my family, were the living poster to living in defeat. The Gospel is supposed to bring LIFE. We were not dealing with trials, we were living in them day after day after day after day! And this has been going on for years and years. Who would sign up for that? There had to be something I was missing from those verses in the Bible that spoke about having life, and having it more abundantly.<br />
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Now, to my friends who are reformed, no need to write to me to tell me how far off the wagon I have fallen. We have suffered much harm from the teaching of reformed doctrine. Don't get me wrong, the people had the BEST of intentions, they wanted to help us, they LOVED us. However there was no power in the religion that they offered. Of course, maybe it was just me? All I know is that I have had more victory (notice I said "more"...I've got a lot of growing to do!) in the last two weeks than I've had in a decade. The Word of God is active and ALIVE, glory to God!!! <br />
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We have been making a lot of progress on our mold remediation. More than we thought we could. We are hopeful we will be able to move our daughter back in soon. In the meantime I am filling myself with a lot of Bible reading, webcasts and books and DVD's.<br />
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I highly recommend the reading program from here: <a href="http://www.challies.com/sites/all/files/attachments/professor-grant-horners-bible-reading-system.pdf">Bible Reading Plan</a><br />
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Here are some pictures of the new flooring, works in progress and the things I have been devouring :-)<br />
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I colored my lists in rainbow order so I could more easily see which reading came next, as when the markers are all in a row you can not see the numbers too well. Here I have them splayed out to get a better look-see, but they would fall out if I kept them like that.<br />
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A close up of one of the markers. The "187 days" under the list number tells you how long it will take to read that list's books of the Bible.<br />
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My 'back to school' supplies. And here is the amazing part....this was ALL free! And lest people are worried, like I said I have seen more fruit in two weeks than I have in 10 years. And we've had a MAJOR testing during this time, one which would have had me totally FREAKING OUT. That will be another story for another day, but trust me, it was bad! BUT, we were victorious, and we saw the power of prayer at work in a very real, tangible way!<br />
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The new laminate in the family room. You can see a bunch of books off to the left. Those are what is left from moving the shelves back into the room. It took me half a day to get the other books back up on the shelves to where they belonged! I was all 'booked' out, and have been leaving these to when I am up to dealing with more books again :-)<br />
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The laminate flooring in the living room, and the new tile. The tile goes from the front door to the dining room. Eventually the tile will cover the dining and kitchen. There is just soooo much traffic that goes through this corridor that we knew the laminate would get ruined with the dirt, wetness, etc. from all of us coming and going. So we put the tile in. It is a dream to clean the floors, knowing I am actually cleaning them! I have to say, that will the amount of traffic, the amount of people in our house, the amount of mess we create, that our Kirby vacuum really did a great job. There wasn't as much 'stuff' under the carpet that I supposed there would be for 10 years!<br />
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A picture of the paint color the girls picked out. They are eager to move back in, but you can see there is a wee bit of stuff in the way!<br />
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Harder to see, but this is their sub-floor, they chose a tan color. We will have to go over some spots (and obviously clean it!) after we move everything back to where it belongs. This is a temporary fix, as we plan on having laminate throughout the house. But we need the carpets out now, so this is the best option.<br />
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The girls' closet floor. Here is what it looks like after the carpet has been removed. The staples and padding are still left behind. Jeremiah got those up last night and put the first coat of paint on.</div>
The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-12936447926452459312016-07-02T06:49:00.001-07:002016-07-02T06:49:54.494-07:00Too Much Minecraft<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I had to share this. Jedidiah's birthday was yesterday. Can you believe he turned TEN!?! Our first double digit boy! Normally by this age they are having friends over for birthdays. Well, at the moment our boys only have one friend, and he moved across the state. So I decided to try to make Jed's birthday a bit more fun by getting some small toys/prizes for the festivities. <br />
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My new favorite store is the Dollar Tree, where everything in the store is $1. Moira says that I should not be allowed to go into that store alone. I don't know what she is talking about! Ha, ha. So one of the toys I picked up was a Rubik cube. I actually got 3 of them, one for all the boys since they were obsessed with it when one of the girls' friends came over with one. Ever since they wanted one of their own. And here they were, only for one dollar each. <br />
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This particular cube has shiny/metallic colored squares. Jedidiah was out and about with Jeremiah and was not home at the time the other kids saw the fun stuff I had bought. I wanted everything to be kept up high until that evening, but before I put everything up Merida got a hold of one of the cubes. Ok, no biggie, I thought. She will tire of it quickly and then I'll just put it up. There were 1,000 things needing to be done around the house, and dealing with a crying baby wasn't one of them! <br />
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About 30 minutes later Merida is crying. She comes over to me and cries, "I want my diamond back!" Diamond? What diamond? But she keeps crying the same thing over and over, until I realize that the 'diamond' she is talking about is the Rubik cube! Ha, ha!<br />
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The only place or setting she has heard about the word "diamond" is from Minecraft! I'm not sure why that was so funny to me, but it was. <br />
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Hopefully I will have some pictures of Jed's birthday. We only got pics on a cell phone, and I am hoping that they came out ok. </div>
The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-54808777513393183292016-06-08T11:53:00.000-07:002016-06-08T11:53:02.248-07:00Still here!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Wow, time flies when you are trying to catch up!! So, so, so much going on over here. After that bought of illness things just haven't been the same. And that really needs to change because we are getting nowhere in life....very quickly I might add. <br />
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So for many years now I've wanted technology to take a back seat in my kids life. But, as it stood, I was the only one who wanted that. We had a go at it some 7 or so years ago, and it was an amazing time. After the first two weeks of tech detox, which means there was weeping and gnashing of teeth, my kids actually discovered that life was possible without a computer. They were reading a ton, fiction and how-to books, they were being creative in ways they never had been before. They actually interacted with each other as well! It was great. BUT, that all ended when everyone kept badgering me about watching a movie here or there. And that was the end of that.<br />
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Fast forward 6 years later, and my boys do not know how to think for themselves. They can't be still and thoughtful for more than a few minutes at a time before their brains hurt. And my girls think that they can not live without a cell phone. Between being in survival mode for the past year, and the house falling apart, I knew it was time for things to change. And this post, from Facebook, totally inspired me:<br />
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<a href="http://www.boredpanda.com/raw-childhood-without-electronic-devices-niki-boon-new-zealand/">Childhood in the Raw</a><br />
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You can visit her page from this article. There was a news story on this family and the newscasters were concerned about the kids living without computers since we live in a tech entrenched world. Really? I mean, REALLY? The one newscaster was saying how his 5 year old knew how to download apps already. <br />
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Sooooo, if a 5 year old can do it, don't you suppose that when these kids get older that they could figure it out too? And there is abundant, I mean **abundant**, studies out there about how children's brains work. News Flash: Kids need REAL, HANDS ON experience for their brains to develop appropriately. Computers are NOT real nor hands on experience. <br />
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This is one of the reasons we chose the type of educational philosophy that we did. But the world crept in. And it is sad to see. So I wanted that to change. I decided to have a:<br />
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The 'screen free' is obvious. The 'junk free' is being free of junk food. With this past year being one of survival mode our nutrition has totally gone down the tubes! Now, it didn't get sooo bad that we were buying boxed cereal, but it got close :-) We need to clean up our diets as I am seeing a direct result in poor quality diet and the kids health, behavior and energy levels.<br />
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I am not sure if we'll survive it all, but I need to make an effort at least! I mean, just 3 months (90 days) without screens or junk. There are a TON of projects that need doing around here. A ton!!! I made a video of that, and once it's edited, I'll post it, or link to it. I'm not sure if I can embedded videos on here anymore. <br />
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Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it. </div>
The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-17224235705546829732016-04-24T08:49:00.003-07:002016-04-24T08:49:54.065-07:00Finally recovering!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This was one long winded illness. It looks like we are *all* finally on the up and up. I am ready to move on to better things :-)<br />
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It took using my new machine to get Aubrey over his illness. Poor guy. I knew he must have been dealing with a secondary infection, I just wasn't sure which one (though I suspected it would go to his lungs). When he woke up the next morning it became apparent that it was going to his lungs. The first thought that came to me was, 'bronchitis'. So that is what I ran my machine for, and by the end of his session he was finally fever free!! Phew! I ran it a couple more times that day to be sure he didn't relapse. I finally have my Aubrey back.<br />
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Even though the kids have been sick, I tried to get them outside if they were able. In Aubrey's case, he just sat in the stroller the whole time. <br />
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Aubrey loves spending time with the cats. He doesn't look sick here, but he certainly was.<br />
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What does one do when they do not have a sidewalk to color on? Color on your house's foundation, of course!<br />
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Merida insists on wearing a hat when I do. It was quite warm out, but she chose this hat to wear. I wear my hat for bug protection (I **hate** when bugs fly in my hair and face!!).<br />
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Jed wanted in on the photo action. He was drawing Minecraft stuff on his side of the wall.<br />
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Being goofy.<br />
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Jonah wanted to help color in my sign.<br />
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The baby had other ideas of people helping HER color in my sign. Here she is trying to stop Jonah from coloring in this letter.<br />
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Meanwhile, I noticed that Aubrey was still hanging out in the stroller, and went to check up on him. Knocked out! He took another 4 naps that day. <br />
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Merida walked away from the wall giving Jed an opportunity to color in my sign.<br />
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Sleds are still useful in the spring. I suppose that is good, since we only get to use them for about 3 days during the winter.<br />
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Merida still in her pj's. Outside is fun if you are dressed or not :-)<br />
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The boys, particularily Jonah, are enamored with our new (to us) van. For one thing, it has a *working* radio! As soon as we get in the van, that is their first request....Put the music on!! Today we opened up the back door of the van to let the music pour out for some hooping.<br />
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Merida is able to get the hoop going around her a few times!<br />
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Yours truly. I was attempting to hoop as well. It was sunny out, and I was hoping we were soaking in some vitamin D. <br />
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The finished sign.</div>
The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-2578248933786633472016-04-15T15:19:00.000-07:002016-04-15T15:19:04.213-07:00And Then....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So my last post had us outside enjoying a fine spring day. Though we have been outside most days since then, we've also been dealing with some sort of flu type illness. And not the stomach kind. I was worried when it got to certain children as they do not do as well as some of my others with flu type illnesses. One night we thought we were gong to have to take Moira to the ER (only because it was the weekend and urgent care was closed). We didn't, as I found a homeopathic remedy that did the trick, and she was over the flu by the next day (though it took a few more days for her to regain her strength). <br />
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So a couple of days ago the last two kids came down with this munge (Bella and Flannery). The day after Jonah started up with a fever. Hmmm, didn't he go through this already? I must have been 'off' in keeping track of who had it. But then, a couple of days later (today) Aubrey comes up to me saying his eyes hurt. he had been eating an orange, so I thought he had gotten some juice in them. But minutes later I see him lying on the couch...looking sick! He just came up to me saying his head really hurts, and is now running a fever. Seriously? I KNOW he had this already. Though he had more of a fever and cough, but not much of a headache. The older kids have gotten a headache and fever first, then a cough added on. Not sure if this is the same bug going around for the second time or something different, but I know one thing for sure....I'm DONE with the sickies!!! <br />
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I think we started this two weeks ago?! I did run a program on my new 'health' machine for Flannery for her headache and within a couple of minutes her headache was gone. This allowed her to stop taking meds, so her body could let the fever do it's job. I was reading up on muscle testing for remedy choices (in homeopathy). I tried it out on Flannery. In the almost 8 years of using homeopathy I have only gotten the right remedy for Flannery *once*!!! She is so hard to get the correct one, something having to do with her 'taking on other people's symptoms' as another homeopath told me. Either way, she is doing better, though not back to health yet. But she feels a whole lot better.<br />
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I think I will try it for Aubrey. On his first go around, there really was no need for a remedy as he was handling the illness just fine. Even though he just started, he is really upset about feeling so horrible. Poor guy.<br />
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I was just catching up on my kitchen too :-( I had been doing great with keeping the kitchen clean every day, all day long. But multiple kids sick....well, that started to slide, and slide, and...well mess exploded. If I didn't have to do shopping, a chiropractor appointment, and help two girls get ready for a Ball, I am sure it would have gotten all cleaned up today. <br />
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Try, try again. Please pray for healing. When the littles get sick, that means they get little sleep, and that means mama little sleep. </div>
The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-81567688693643516712016-03-26T07:11:00.000-07:002016-03-26T07:11:06.126-07:00Outdoors<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am attempting to make an effort to get my kids outside more. It is not difficult for the older girls to get out, and not to much of a problem for the boys (they are allowed in the backyard, which is fenced), but baby girl....well, that is more of a problem. She doesn't go out unless I go out, or if I have an older girl take her out back. So each day I take a break from the work that needs doing and soak in the sun and fresh air.<br />
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There are more pictures of Merida only because I have to follow her around. Jed was outside with us, but he spent his time chasing down chickens or rounding up baby goats. The other two boys hung out a bit with us as well, though they had their turn chasing some chickens as well. </div>
The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18965615.post-20449278081423266262016-03-14T10:37:00.001-07:002016-03-14T10:37:57.521-07:00Battling Ringworm<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Not one of the more pleasant topics to write about. I've mentioned quite a few times that I had been battling 'stuff' for a while now. Well, I think I am ready to share what I've learned so far. I am not 100% clear. I have a couple of 'hot spots' that may be left over fungus, OR some scarring from some of the more extreme things I tried to get rid of it!<br />
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Back in June (2015), I spied the horrid red "O". At that time I had two or three, all under my arms. Having dealt with this on two other occasions with various children, I knew right off the bat some things that would NOT work. After our last episode (years ago) we gotten a hold of some Nystatin. That cleared things up within a couple of days! <br />
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We did not have insurance at the time, so I was going to have to make do tackling this on my own. I tried all sorts of things. Tea Tree oil, oregano oil (that will burn!), neem oil, and even bleach. I found that leaving things on contact with a wipe did better than just rubbing some on. This was taking a tole on me since I had to do this multiple times a day.<br />
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We finally got insurance, and had the money for a doctors visit. This was sometime around Sept. or Oct. By then I had multiple rashes over my body. He wanted to give me an oral medication, but I am still nursing, so we decided using a topical would be best. He gave me two prescriptions. He told me the first one he gave me was going to be more expensive, so I asked for Nystatin, since it worked so great the last time.<br />
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I went with the Nystatin because the other medicine, with insurance, was going to cost $140!! I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to drive home with that bottle of cream! The last thing I needed was a house full of children with ringworm. So I had been very careful in how I bathed, using baby wipes, so I could throw them away. I had to dry off in a certain order in hopes to avoid spreading this on myself any more than it already had. Then I had to wash all my clothing and towels in hot water (I increased our water heaters base temp. so that it would be hot enough to kill it off in the washer, but not hot enough for anyone to get burned if they were using the sink/tub.). <br />
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After about 4 or 5 days my rashes started to itch like crazy!!! I knew that this meant either really good things, or really bad things! In my case, it meant bad things. My rashes were going into hyper mode and growing! So back to my other natural, or in the case of the bleach, not so natural options, since it seemed to be keeping things at bay. However, that one week of using the prescription led to things spreading :-( <br />
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I was at the feed store one day when I asked if they had anything for ringworm, that may prove safe for humans. I have heard that a lot of meds for animals (not all!!) are made for humans and animals in the same facility, split at the end to go into different packaging. Anyways, they had something. I looked up online, and they do indeed have a human version, but the animal version is just cheaper. What I got was called Vetericyn. Now this did make a big difference.<br />
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Things started to clear up. As an aside, I knew this would be a battle, due to the mold in our house. My immune system is down because of that, which is why I probably caught ringworm in the first place. Again, I noticed bigger improvements if I held wipes sprayed down with the Vetericyn on my skin for 30 minutes at a time. But again, though it was improving, it wouldn't clear up. <br />
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We had a change in medical insurance so I asked for my doctor to prescribe me another cream, and an oral (I wanted that as a back up). This time our insurance had better coverage, so I didn't have to pay so much. I talked to the pharmacist about the oral medication and the fact that I was still nursing. She was surprised that the doctor had prescribed it since she says it isn't considered safe. Though she said it is prescribed as a last resort, and if I waited 5 hours after nursing, things should be ok. Ugh, not what I wanted to hear.<br />
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I went home and slathered on the cream (ok, not really, as you are only supposed to put a thin layer on). And, you might be able to guess this by now, but 4 or 5 days later, big time itching all over again!!!! I cried. I really, really did. I remember staring at the oral medication bottle and praying. I knew that with the track record I just had with using the creams, AND after reading online that many women find that once they stop the oral antifungal, their rashes just come right back, the oral medication would probably be a failure as well. I felt that the risk to my own health, let alone that of Merida's wasn't worth it.<br />
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But then I remembered something I had read in a homesteading book, written by Ben Hewitt, called Nourishing Homestead. He wrote how each winter his cows would get ringworm. After a few years of this, and learning more on how to take care of his animals, he figured it was a nutrient deficiency. He started giving them free choice kelp. Ever since then his cows have been ringworm free. I looked in my pantry stock of herbs. There on the shelf was a glass jar of spirulina. I had bought it two years ago, hoping to add it to my goats feed. For some reason that never happened. <br />
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I started adding almost 2 tsp of the spirulina to my morning smoothie. Well, the morning smoothies started because I needed something to put my spirulina in :-) I add other greens like kale, spinach and chard. Needless to say, besides those couple of 'hot spots' EVERYTHING cleared up within that first week!! In the week before I started to spirulina, I had 5 new rashes develop, FIVE! So the fact that all those, and my other ones are totally gone, is nothing short of miraculous.<br />
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My next step is to purchase some more spirulina (I'm running low) and some kelp. We've started on another supplement that is supposed to help heal your gut lining, and I will be having my alternative health 'machine' showing up on my doorstep this week. But those things will be to help my overall health, and not so much the ringworm, as that is not an issue at this point. Again, my body still needs a bit more, since I have these couple of hot spots left, but I am certain that the added spirulina is what finally helped me.<br />
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One very BIG step we need to take is to get rid of the mold in our house. Jeremiah killed it off as recommended to us by the mold removal company. But we need to go through the attic and get rid of all sources of dead mold, and then do a major cleaning downstairs. I am sure with all of those things checked off those hot spots will be a thing of the past. (These hot spots do not itch, are not actual "O"s, --though there are two that are light pink in the shape of a filled in circle--. and anyone who wasn't told I had ringworm would even consider those areas to be ringworm. I just know that is where some of my ringworm rashes were, so they are areas I am keeping an eye on.)<br />
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All I know is that it was very refreshing to use an actual cloth washcloth in the shower and to be able to towel off without having to do so in a certain order. <br />
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I try to tell myself that I've gone through all these things with these different types of "bugs" for a reason, but it's not always pleasant to deal with it on a daily basis. As a side note, ringworm, is NOT a worm, it is a fugal rash, just like athlete's foot. <br />
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Now for my disclaimer: This is what worked (or didn't work) for me! I am sharing this information with those who may be interested. Please do your own homework, and talk to a trusted health care professional to see what your situation warrants. <br />
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My new BFF :-) It may be two years old, but it is still potent. It will be interesting to see how green the new batch will be compared to this batch.<br />
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You can see I keep a child's liquid medicine cup in here to measure out what I need. This stuff is so powdery that it gets ALL over when trying to get a scoop. And since we are always loosing our regular teaspoons, I went for the medicine up.<br />
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The Southern Peach-Girlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285922048222762134noreply@blogger.com3