We are just about 100%

So this is my post on natural healing. Before I begin I want to give a little disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nurse or other health care professional. I don't pretend to be one, nor have I played one on TV. What you read here is for informational purposes only. If you decide to try any of these remedies you are taking your (or your loved one's) health into your own hands. (Which is where it belongs after all) I don't promise that any or all of these things will make you better. If you have any doubts or questions please talk to your own trusted health care professional. Phew, OK, onto the good stuff :-)



We have been battling illness in our home for a month. Seriously I think we could have only had to use a couple of things in the below picture had we the opportunity to do this all correctly. You see our TBA practitioner was beyond booked. So she did what she could based on what others in our family were experiencing. It's not a sure bet when she does that, but I was desperate to get us well without antibiotics. Antibiotic are well known to suppress your immune system. Due to the stress and unhealthy diet we were having over the last couple of months our immune systems were already suppressed, which is why we got so incredibly ill. I believe with some extra vitamins and the proper TBA we would have been done in a few days...and no I am not joking. Or if we had the money, which for some reason does not grow on trees around here, we could have seen the homeopathic doctor. Homeopathy is amazing as well. If caught early and with the right remedy you will be feeling better in a few hours. Not back to normal, but clearly better, and by the next day after some good rest you should be back to your own self. But we didn't have that option either so we had to do all of the following. Now, would it have been easier to do antibiotics? YES!! However there is a price to pay with antibiotic AND natural alternatives. With the natural way you pay now (in time), with the antibiotics there is a now (suppressed immunity) but also a later price to pay. Antibiotics of course wipe out a lot of your good bacteria, which play multiple roles in your gut, one being a part in your immunity. There are a lot of health problems from antibiotic that do not present themselves until years later. Am I against antibiotics? No, but I certainly do not believe they should be your first choice. So here are some things we did to get ourselves well:






A

Apple cider vinegar, baking soda and Epsom salt



We used these in the bath. Do not use the Epsom salt or baking soda if you are dehydrated. The vinegar will soak into your skin which is helpful when little ones won't take it by mouth. We also used the Epsom salt to soak Flannery's infected scratch. We had ALL sorts of secondary infections going on around here! I also alternated soaking with hydrogen peroxide (C), and some oil of oregano (I) as a topical afterwards. Make sure to dilute your oil with some olive oil.

The baths were taken three times a day. I soaked Flannery's foot twice a day.



B

Nasal wash



This was very helpful in battling my sinus infection. I had been afraid to use this in the past, but I was desperate enough to give it a go. Wow, it really helped to clear my sinuses up! I did this three times a day only in the last few days, as I was too afraid to use it sooner.



C

Dixie cups and food grade hydrogen peroxide



The Dixie cups were indispensable! We used these for our gargles and colloidal silver. With what we had there was no way I was going to let the germs keep passing on to each other, and every cup would have had to been washed in the dish washer before each use. We don't have enough cups for that to happen, so I bought a couple of boxes of Dixie cups.



Next to the cups is the food grade hydrogen peroxide. This must be diluted. We diluted it to 5% for our gargles. I bumped it to 10% for my gargle and for my ears. However I watered it down to only 1-3% for my sinuses. Anything higher would have burned like crazy in the sinuses. Only I did the ears and sinuses. The girls just gargled with it. We did these hourly.



D

TBA remedies and colloidal silver (in large container)



Each hour we took the remedy, unless it was time for the silver. The silver was taken 5 times a day. So one of these was taken every hour.



E

The book, "Practical Homeopathy", my home kit (containing 50 remedies) and a remedy bottle.



Jonah and I came down with ear infections this past week. Jonah's was a clear and cut case. He woke up one night soon after we put him to bed. He was pulling and rubbing both ears, crying, and one of his ears was bright red. I then noticed that I could not put him down without him losing it, and that the only way he would settle is if I rocked him. I got out my book and found that he fit two remedies. I made them both and alternated each every hour. The next morning he awoke totally fine!



F

Essential oils



We used two, lavender and eucalyptus. These were put into just boiled water, then we draped a towel over our head and inhaled. Be careful as these are strong at first. Make sure to keep your eyes closed as well. When you exhale make sure you exhale to the side, and not into the bowl. Only Jeremiah and I used this as just boiled water is not safe around children. This really helped to open up the sinuses and lungs. We did this only when we remembered to :-)



G

Good bacteria, raw apple cider vinegar and baking soda



The good bacteria, again plays a role in your immune system, so you want to keep their numbers up.



Apple cider vinegar is believed to help all sorts of ailments. It can be hard on the stomach. Which is why the baking soda is there. Put one to two TBS of apple cider vinegar in a cup and add 1/4 of a tsp of baking soda. When it is done fizzing you can then drink it. To make it more palatable, water it down or add juice or a little juice concentrate.



H

Vitamins C, D and zinc



Please look into the following information for mega doses of vitamin C and D.



Vit C



Vit D--look for articles on amounts to take and about vitamin D's role in having the flu.



We took these hourly, amounts varied depending on their age. we have cut back to about every 2 or 3 hours. You don't want to be taking mega doses of vitamin C and then suddenly stop. You will have a rebound effect. Stopping suddenly will mess up you immune response. The C helps to support your immunity, it gets it pumped up and then if you suddenly take that "food" away...well your immune system isn't happy and doesn't know what to do then. So cut back slowly.



I

On the left is Ear Oil, on the right, Oil of Oregano



I put a few drops of ear oil in my affected ears at night. The oregano oil was diluted (IT MUST BE DILUTED) and put on the back of the ear, and the surrounding area. I also used it on Flannery's infected cut.



J

Ibuprofen



Much needed with some pain that we each had. Again, had we been on top of all of this from the very beginning with the TBA or homeopathy it wouldn't have been needed.





K

Garlic



I had read that by cutting a clove in half and holding it right outside the ear canal could take care of an ear infection. I remembered this only after day 5 or something like that. Best results are obtained if used at the first sign of infection.





I used this helpful chart for acupressure. It made my sinuses run clear. Results vary depending on what you have going on, and of course how long it takes to work varies as well.



Not pictured:



Humidifier

Important to have in the dry winter months. Make sure to clean it often, as they can harbor mold.



Chiropractor

After doing multiple treatments for my ear, and not getting better, I went to the chiropractor. Two hours after her adjustment my ear opened up and drained. However I used the oil of oregano improperly and I think I damaged my ear tissues, resulting in inflammation making it impossible to clear my infection. I am now taking a homeopathic remedy which should clear things up. I am really, really looking forward to that!



I am going to make a video on two techniques I learned from the chiropractor. But for now I have children to round up and some cleaning to be done.



Oh, and we also needed to change our diet. We went sugar and dairy free. Boy that was hard at first. But it was necessary. As a side benefit Flannery's hyperactivity has noticably lessened!

I don't know about you, but I am sick of all this sick talk :-) So to end my post I will share with you something I have been working on for Saoirse. I have made all the other girls and Jed a blanket so far. I had a hard time getting the right combination of yarn and pattern together for Saoirse. But we came up with a winner. It is not complete yet, but almost. And yes, that is our Christmas tree in the background. It is our custom to take it down the weekend after New Years. But we were ill, so it has had to wait.

*Sorry for the extra spaces and the bold font, I have tried to correct it, but it won't do what I tell it to do! I didn't bold those words on purpose in item D.

We are on the mend

at least I think :-) So Jeremiah and I had strep, the girls...well I'm not sure. They had fevers, aches, sore throats. With some TBA remedies, plus a bunch of other things (garlic, ear oil, apple cider vinegar and the like) we seem to be on the mend. The boys have a cough and runny nose. Everyone seemed to have something a little bit different than the next person. My throat cleared up, but then I came down with a secondary infection...an ear infection. So along with the above, I pulled out a big gun idea. We are currently only consuming raw fruits and veggies. So there is a lot of apple and orange snacking going on over here. Plus big salads for meals, along with some hefty smoothies. Today's smoothie was packed with the following: apples, pear, banana, strawberries, blueberries, celery, spinach, red leaf lettuce, carrots, cucumber, and a yellow squash-oh and some good bacteria, stevia and some ground flax seeds. I am hoping to stay with this all fruit/veggie diet for the next five days. That should knock out any remaining buggies! From there we will remain on the extra immune boosting "potions", and then add in other types of foods (like beans). A bit at a time, letting our bodies heal from the onslaught.

We were able to keep up with school this past week. The laundry and dishes were attended to, but other than that......hmmm well it got a little bit out of control. But today while I got to sleep in :-) the girls cleaned up the house. With the food prep that needs to be done, this made it a lot easier with things clean. Anyone with a juicer knows that a juicer can not be 'left for later' to clean. We will attempt to go to speech therapy tomorrow. It's been a while since Jed has gone.

On Jed news....he's been eating a whole lot!!! He almost attacked a bag of animal crackers. He also at a ton of chicken the other day. I was a bit worried that he wouldn't eat any of the raw foods, or the smoothies. But he totally surprised me and downed some fresh juice and drank up all his smoothie! Then he also ate some apple slices. Amazing! He is still getting his homemade formula during all of this. His system is not up for a huge change, so instead I am making sure to give him all the immune boosters.

I am looking forward (that would be an understatement) to getting back into the swing of things. The time down has afforded me a bit more time to crochet, and read. Not much....little boys, unless seriously sick, don't seem to lack any energy. Speaking of energetic boys, we have crying Jonah that needs attending to. He might be running all day, but he has been conking out earlier come bed time.

more editing fun

So I continue to try my hand at editing photos. I only have one to share today. Right now Jonah is in meltdown mode and I need to go :-) Which means I don't have the time to figure out how to make the photos lay side by side.

So I continue to try my hand at editing photos. I only have one to share today. Right now Jonah is in meltdown mode and I need to go :-)

Here's to a great New Year!

I do hope that the outcome to our new year is not indicative of it's beginning. We took the children to their favorite park for a picnic and of course some playing. It was dreary and chilly, a lot of wetness that made it hard for little boys to stay upright on two feet. We forgot our beloved fruit salad at home. And in Isabella fashion it seems like we will have a night or two of limited sleep. I have been sick the past couple of days. I really thought that it wasn't anything major. I still don't think it is anything major....except that it is more than I was hoping for. I can count the number of times I have taken ibuprofen in the past 4 years. I took it after both boys births for about 5 days, and on one other day during that time period. Therefore I had every reason to believe that when I took it for my very sore throat and achy body (I needed a bit of support in light of going to the park to be running after little people) that I would have wonderful relief in about 45 minutes. Forty-five minutes came and went, and hour went by, an hour and a half....my throat still in tons of pain. Ummmm, that can't be good. Finally after eating it felt better. I suppose this was the reason for Jonah's extreme fussiness not long ago! Now I know why!!!

So it wasn't surprising that Isabella told me she had a sore throat. Of course, I thought. However she kept complaining that she felt cold. No fever.....hmmmmm. Well a few hours later Isabella has a very painful throat and now has a fever. No one else got a fever with their sore throat. But leave it to Isabella.....I know, like she can help it! That child has always been like that. If she gets what is going around she gets it in triple strength! Nothing like starting the new year off with a bang!

And so it is timely that we will soon (not on the first though) be revising our diet. It was upsetting to us to know that one, if not two of the girls actually gained weight during the soccer season! We will go with our diet plan from last year that we had such success with, but failed to stick with for various reasons. One of them was financially. Fresh, whole foods are expensive!!!! Some people see a savings when they transition to a whole foods diet, but for us that won't be the case. We already keep away from packaged foods and chips and cookies. Although I think in the last few months we had a few too many cookies :-) So for us there is an increase in cost. But we can not justify keeping our current diet when we see what it is doing to our health. All of us are excited, well all but I think Flannery. Flannery seems to have an "allergy" to green foods. I think she has "hives" just thinking about it :-)

There will be a couple of other changes going on here as well. A lot will be hard to put into proper context without writing a semi-novel, but I don't have time to write a novel so I will try to keep it short. Our family crisis has had us re-examine our priorities and the way we do things around here. We've come to some new conclusions and have been slowly implementing some changes. Although I don't recommend a crisis for anyone, this one is coming with blessings. It has been hard, and some days are still hard. But overall there have been many blessings. There is a lot of uncertainty as well, but we are learning how to really live by faith and wait for the Lord to reveal what He has next for us.

Some of the 'fun' things that will be new will be for ME! :-) Some of it you may have 'seen' already. That being my growing love of photography. I suppose since it is much harder to carve out time to paint or draw, it was only time that I would turn to photography. I've downloaded some free photo editing tools recently and have started to learn how to use them. Another thing that we have been doing already, but has had a stirring in my soul, is to dig in deeper with our learning sign language. It is hard to explain, but Jeremiah and I both feel that the Lord has a purpose for us learning this. (outside of it being our only way of communicating with Jed) And the other.....well, I hesitate to talk about, as we have gotten some negative feedback on this in the past.... Jeremiah and I both agree that I should start to study TBA, which is the therapy that Jedidiah is receiving. I am VERY, VERY excited about these 'new' adventures. I'm not sure how far I will get with any one of them, but it is an adventure that I am looking forward to and I am continually giving them back over to the Lord for Him to do with what needs to be done in my and others lives.

I would love to write more about our changes, but being that I am still ill, I need to go lay down for a while. After maybe doing some natural remedies. I pray that everyone has a blessed New Year!

A fun day at a new museum

New to us anyways! There used to be this little kids indoor play spot called "PlaySpace". I suppose it got a lot of use as they moved to a larger building. They were there for quite a few years before they moved again, into a very LARGE building. They now have two stories and a ton more displays. For those of you up north, it's a lot like the kids museum there. The difference is that the museum in NY has much more intricate displays. The one here has more space and probably a few more things to do, but not as intricate. The one in NY has a very cool pretend grocery store to shop at. It has isles, and a few cash registers with 'working' machines. The one here has a little grocery store, more in the open, with one pretend toy cash register. Never the less the kids loved it! We had a lot of fun as well. Take a look at what they did.

Jedidiah couldn't pass up the opportunity for a spin (the car does not actually move). I was surprised by how patient he was while waiting for his turn at the wheel.

Jonah really loved the bead play. He's the only one of the six that loves to play with these types of toys. Jedidiah comes in second, the girls were never interested in them....at all.

This one is blurry, but it was too funny to pass up. Jed got this lovely steal of a deal at the pretend grocers and carried it around playing with it. He didn't seem to get the shopping theme. Another one of those "Jed moments". Jonah, on the other hand, got himself a cart and started putting in the groceries. He even went out and shared his purchases with other people!

They had this neat little 'tree house' set up with a bunch of play houses. Jed seemed to enjoy these.

This museum has a play ambulance, and nursing station set up. Here the girls are examining some x-rays.

They also have a water play area. This area is smaller than their last place. The kids didn't know this :-) They loved it! The water was freezing though! I was surprised at how long they played in it.

Jonah and Jed love to pull up chairs to our sink to make a mess...er I mean, to help with the dishes. Jonah was fascinated to be able to walk right up and splash in.

Jed playing with some boats.

Flannery and a funnel.

Jonah at a command station. Behind the water play they have this neat room with a fish theme to play around in. Outside of that room is a pretend submarine, and a pirate ship. Jonah first took command at the sub.

Then he was off to take command of the pirate ship. This was a neat ship, with three levels. It was a bit chaotic since school is out due to winter break. We are hoping to go back on a less busy day.

They have a traveling display on the second level....Mr. Potato Head Goes Exploring. Seriously, it was really neat. Here's Jonah going down a slide.

You get to pretend you are on an archaeological dig. They had a bunch of black chips, for dirt I suppose, that you would put on a conveyor to look for treasures. The girls spent a lot of time there.

Flannery getting ready to put her dirt on the belt.

Isabella and Jed going down the slide. It was great because the stairs were easy to navigate so that even Jonah could climb up by himself.

What's a Mr. Potato Head exhibit without the main potato himself! Jed LOVES Mr. Potato Head. He was head over heals about this exhibit.

The easy climb stairs that I was talking about earlier.

Jed and Jonah in command central of a space ship. Jeremiah made up a very, VERY funny spoof dialog for this photo. I don't think he saved it though. I'll have to look because it was too funny.

They had these enormous legos/building bricks. The girls went goo-goo over them once they saw their potential.

After a while Jed decided to check out the 'build-a-car'. After building a car you could then challenge other kids to a car race on this declining race track. The other children did not appreciate Jonah's help....as he would wait at the bottom of the track to collect cars to keep for himself :-) Silly boy!

Here are the girls at the start of their project. They decided to make a house. You can see the large structure on the left of Jed.

You can see that they added a window to their house. I took the two boys downstairs to the train play area while they continued to work on their masterpiece. They tried putting a roof on, but it caved in. Bummer. They have plans for another model for the next time we go back.

Here is Jonah at the train play. They have three train tables, that are connected. The boys spent a lot of time here. The girls eventually came down from their house building and went on to the stage area to put on a play. Isabella was a natural at directing!!! She had given everyone roles, and told them what they were to do/say. They spent most of the time planning and directing. It got to be closing time, so they quickly did their play. I was running after a boy and didn't get to see the final outcome. I heard though that it was a hit :-)

Jeremiah took the girls to Bible study tonight while I stayed home with the boys. I woke up sick and it seems to be a bit more than a simple cold (nothing serious, but more than the sniffles). I downloaded a couple of photo editing softwares to try out. We downloaded GIMP the other day, and I suppose if it came with a written manual that it would be the size of a book. At least that was my first impression. I've downloaded Photoscape and Adobe's Beta version of Lightroom 3. I like what I see in Lightroom so far. I am excited to give them more time to try them out. So far as far as ease is concered Picnik is the tool. With Lightroom you have more control over the editing as far as colors and exposure. It doesn't have any of the special effects that can be done at a push of a button like Picnik. They each have their strengths. I can't wait to dive in and give it more time to learn how each works.

Everyone is home now. Need to go.

before and after

Here are some pictures that I've edited using various tools (you have to scan down, as my styles are messed up) ...

Before:	After:
This is Isabella's first photo transformation. Pretty neat.
A simple transformation to sepia.
I really liked this one. Although the orientation did not come out right for my blog. This was made to black and white and then the color of the wagon was brought back in.	I made the wagon's color bold in this photo. With the photo below, I muted the color.
I really love the transformation of this photo. I adjusted it's position, made it black and white and then added text.
With this photo I wanted to put the emphasis on the wrist warmers. So I did the same technique as with the wagon photo. This is very simple to do in Picnik.
Here I just did a 'focus blur' or something like that! I'm so technical aren't I? Then I gave it a border.
I tried taking a bunch of photos without the flash. A lot of them came out grainy like the above photo. However I really loved Jonah's expression, and so I set out to see what I could do with it.	I cropped the photo, rotated it, and then used the '1960's' action on it. Pretty cute.
I love both of these photos. I love the color in the original. I cropped the photo, added a bit of blur around the edges and then muted the colors.	I like this one because it seems dreamy. I've been having a blast editing my photos. With all of the above photos I think I also adjusted the exposure.

a photoshop collage trial

Having fun with Picnik

I really want to yell! UGH! I can not get my photos to move or my text to copy and paste, which means I have to type everything over again. I have been playing around with a free online photo editing tool today. Probably spending too much time. Actually the online tool is easy, but then I went on to try to make a collage in Photoshop and I can not for the life of me figure it out!!!! I saw that I can make a collage in Picnik (the free online photo editing site), but I only saw my unedited pictures available. Maybe that is how they snatch you into becoming a premium customer....or I just haven't figured out how to get my edited pictures to the collage page. Either way I have maxed out my patience with it. I must get up and do some tidying. So here are the few pictures that I did today. In another post I think I will post them as before/afters. But I won't attempt that until I can figure out how I can move the photos around in Blogger. I don't know why I seem to have this problem every few months. If anyone has the answer PLEASE tell me :-)

I tried putting text under the photo at the top of this post, but then it made the photo disappear. Um, I'm about to call the people at Blogger and let them know how I feel about that! I thought the photo above came out kinda neat. Picnik has a tool to select an area of the photo that you can have in color while the rest goes black and white. I was having fun trying out the different options!

Here I made the photo black and white, then unmasked to wrist warmers to put them back in color.

This photo was originally in color, and I made it b/w, rotated to photo and added some text.

With this photo I selected to option to keep one part of the photo in focus, leaving the rest of the photo in blur. I also added a border to the final image.

Lots of fun, with a bit of frustration mixed in.

Have a Merry Christmas!!

Ride 'Em Cowgirls!

Wow, I've been missing in action for a while now. Besides my very limited computer time we had our internet go out, and then camera batteries die. But finally I was able to pull it all together and I made up a long montage. I hope you enjoy it. I hope to have a written post up sometime soon.