First Aid Kit

First Aid Kit includes: Christopher's Lobelia, GSE drops, Gal Pal Hot water bottle, Comfrey salve, Arnica gel, and Sting Recover

I was brainstorming baby gifts and thought a first aid kit would be a cute gift. It would have to come with plenty of suggestions, so I'm blogging the suggestions. If I were on a deserted island (which I kind of am, up here in branson), these are the essential ingredients I would put in the first aid kit.

The first item is Lobelia. Well, before I describe the items, let me say I have and enjoy other supplements, this is just the cheapest and most effective items in my arsenal.

LOBELIA is an herb. It's also known as puke weed since you can vomit if you overdose. You'll have to google and read about it for hours like I did, but the PRIMARY use of this herb is for a "wet cough". I have never had an infant get sick until Miley. Even with the others in the babies' face before, mine just are completely resistant to any kind of cold or flu symptoms even if the whole family has something, but THIS time, very very tiny Miley got some wheezy soundy chesty fluidy thing at just a couple of weeks old. I had everyone taking the Lobelia and gave it to her as well. The best way to administer yuukkyy drops to a baby is to do it while they are nursing. I gave her 2 drops per nursing session. I just got the dropper with 2 drops in it, and slid it into her mouth next to my breast as she was nursing. this was wonderful. She almost did not notice it when I did it like this. I guess it's like taking pills and swallowing water really fast afterward. For the other kids, they get 4 or 5 drops every 30 minutes or so. If they are getting too much, they will hurl. Just stick to the low dosage plan...I've had one child that gets a strange "bronchial" type "attack" when her immune system is low. We have a breathing machine or a "nebulizer" and she does that, but I have done that and I HATE how the medicine that you breathe is. It tastes like heavy metal. So for me, finding the Lobelia was huge. It dries her chest up in a matter of 24 hours or less and has no side effects. The reason I ran into this whole "wet chest" thing is because my kids were all coughing and so I gave them cough suppressant to sleep. One of them developed pneumonia because she wasn't coughing and fluid went into her chest. It was horrid. God protected her from death, I'm sure of it. Needless to say, I WILL NOT do cough suppressant ever again.

GSE or grapefruit seed extract is my next fabulous cheapy find. You can make eardrops out of it with some olive oil and do lots of other things with this. My favorite is to keep this and a small cup next to the sink. The kids make their own "gargle" by putting 10 drops of GSE and warm water in the cup. It kills all the bacteria in the back of the throat. If they start to cough or complain of a sore throat....time to gargle. I wish doctors would make their antibiotic fluid bags with this stuff instead of drugs. It kills all the bad bacteria but leaves the good. I like to make a huge drink of water and put 2 or 3 drops in there every day. It seems to keep overall health up-good for candida and other items. Thousands of uses, really and SUPER cheap option.

The Gal Pal is just a fun item to have on hand that I have used SO MUCH since I bought mine. It's a tiny hot water bottle/ ice bag. It's $15 and you can get it at www.gal-pal.com. I really really like these. I like the tiny size of them. Tonight I am battling an ear infection in one of the kids, so I'm putting olive oil/garlic drops in the ear and then she is holding the gal pal with hot water on the other ear and it seems to help. It's nice and tiny and useful in in travel. Makes a GREAT ice pack fast. Just fill with ice. It has a nice wide opening. These are GREAT gifts! They come in fifty different fabrics or so. Shipping can take forever, so order before you actually need this product.

Comfrey salve or any kind of olive oil based salve with echinacea, comfrey, calendula and a couple of other skin healing herbs is SO NICE to have on hand. Everything from diaper rash to cuts to rashy poo poo bottoms...this will help heal skin issues in double the time they would heal on their own. I grab this whenever I see it. Farmers markets, whole foods, little country nutrition shops...usually will have a pot of salve for $5.

Arnica gel is GREAT for bruises. I also like the arnica homeopathic tabs for bruises and trauma. Just rub the gel on and bruises disappear in half the time they take to heal. A side note on bruising. If your child likes to eat ice, or bruises pretty easily, they are low on iron. You can find a yummy supplement called tri-iron at www.trilightherbs.com. They have AWESOME herbs in glycerin bases with great descriptions on their site.

Last item in my first aid kit is Sting Recover. This is $13 per bottle and will last you the lifetime of your children. Have this on hand before you need it. I have used it for 50 fire ant bites on one child and for 2 wasp stings on another and it worked WONDERS. It is a dry clay/dirt, and you add water to make it into a clay. Rub clay on the skin and leave for 20 minutes. Wash off with hot water. What this does is it pulls the poison or toxin to the skin surface out of the bite. It is effective for scorpion stings, ant bites, wasp stings, bee stings, spider bites, any type of sting or bite, this works on. Get this miracle stuff at www.solarrecover.com. I like it because it has a long shelf life, travels nicely, just add water, is a nice amount, and it works VERY WELL. On the fifty fire ant bites with Michael...the normal pus at the surface of an ant bite the next day was NOT THERE. It literally pulled the poison out of the bite and there was just a scab on 90 percent of the bites and no itching on his part. Very nice! So, if you are one of my friends and get pregnant in the next few days, this will probably be my next gift to you, this little first aid kit. Oh, and check out the solar spray at that last website (www.solarrecover.com)...it is FABULOUS for sunburns, literally turns the burn into a dewy tan. Last summer, we went to the beach and I bought this solar recover at a little vitamin shop in destin florida. We used the whole bottle in a couple of weeks. Love this stuff!!

Party Time

Boston is decorating his "volcano" cookie. It was a little girl's "shift dress", but definitely looks like a volcano from his perspective

Today we celebrated Mackenzie's birthday. It was a fun fun party. Only four children came, but when joined with our four, any amount becomes big quickly! We had a baking party and I think it may have been the best party yet.

Mackenzie got face paint for her birthday on Thursday and she has been practicing on everyone's face (or whatever body part had no clothing), so she painted faces. She was supposed to paint cupcakes, but the two girls I inspected looked like they had cat faces. Not sure what that has to do with baking, but it was fun. We made chef's hats (just take two pieces of legal paper, tape them together longways, have kids color them, then fold them like an accordian, unfold them, fold up the bottom of the paper and write chef kid on the front, wrap it around kids head, and BOOM, instant chef. Oh yeah, staple or tape it to fit correctly). Those were cute.

My gracious mother in law made 100 sugar cookies pre-party and so I just had to provide colored sugar and icing for the cookies. There is an amish place close by here that sells colored sugars in every pretty color for $1.50 a "tub". The icing is powdered sugar and water. So, I set up that "station" with kids chairs and icing in little cups with plastic knives and then the colored sugars.

Another "baking station" was the pizza making table. Last night, I whipped up some pizza dough, made small balls out of it, and refrigerated it. This morning, I got the dough out first thing and let it rise. In the meantime, I put toppings in tiny little ramekins from the restaurant supply store (23 cents each). I did onions, bell pepper, olives, artichokes, pepperoni, and then cheese and sauce. I covered our kitchen table with a plastic tablecloth and put flour in a salt shaker type deal. Every child got a child's sized rolling pin (www.growingcooks.com) and rolled out their own dough, put the sauce (ragu) on top, cheese, and any toppings. I had made 24 balls of dough so the parents got to make their own pizzas as well. This was really a LOT of fun and the dough turned out just right. Oh yeah, after the kids rolled their dough into a circle (or whatever), they put this on a piece of parchment paper and I wrote their name on the paper (with a pencil). THEN, they topped the pizza. This worked beautifully. I have a double oven with 3 racks in each oven, so we just popped 3 pizzas in and set one timer, then 3 more and set another. The pizza turned out SO SO well and everyone was fed by the end of the party. The dough can be frozen or refrigerated for three days, so we will make more pizza on monday for lunch leftovers. The kids took home their rolling pins as a party favor.

Finally, I had a "feel and touch" station with different cups of ingredients that go into pizza. The kids were to close their eyes and feel the items (garlic, onion, flour, oil, rosemary...), but we just ran out of time. Megan did the feel and touch and I wish I had video taped it....so funny!

I got the pizza dough recipe from this site: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001199.html

The article is called "The Best Pizza Dough Ever Recipe"

All in all, a very inexpensive and fun party. Would love to do this again any time.

Happy Birthday Mackenzie! Number 7

November 12, 2009

Dear Mackenzie:

Happy Birthday! Seven years old is such a BIG girl age! I am enjoying you as you grow. You are girly and pretty and crafty. You like animals and people and playing games and you do some nice little practical jokes as well. You take good care of Malachi and Zoe and Peaches and make sure they get lots of “pets” during the day. You like to shop. You know how to make lots of money by doing your jobs. You can do almost any craft. You are an artist and VERY good at drawing, painting, coloring as well as playing the piano. I will teach you backgammon and some other new games now that you are seven.

Also, now that you are seven, God will start to show you more and more about Himself. This will be the year you start to develop really really good habits that will go with you for the rest of your life. The main habit when you are seven is to read your Bible every day. You may not like doing this at first, but it will be the habit that is more important than any other habit you develop. “what is a habit?” you ask. Well, here is the dictionary definition for habit: Function: noun

1 : a costume characteristic of an occupation, rank, or function

2 : a usual manner of behavior or thinking

3 : a way of behaving that has become fixed by being repeated often --

4 : characteristic way of growing or occurring

I put the ones in purple that apply to you. As you develop the habit of reading your Bible out loud every day (one chapter a day), you will get to know God for yourself. Up until now, I have read the Bible to you, or stories to you, and we have memorized scripture. All of those things are VERY good, but the very purpose of learning to read itself is that you may develop the habit of reading the Bible for yourself. Now that you are seven, you are responsible to read it aloud to yourself. When you read it aloud to yourself, your brain in your head and your spirit in your belly both hear it. The Bible is not just a book. It is God’s letter to you. The words in the Bible are alive and living things. It is different than any other book in the world. When you read it, it will change you. When you love it, it will speak to you. When you open it and take time for it, God will visit you. Every answer in the world is in the Bible. Everything you ever wanted to know, you can find in there. When you open it, ask the Holy Spirit to show you something special. Expect to find out something new about Jesus. Don’t just read it to get the prize at the end of the week, but read it with expectancy. Read it like you are expecting to get a “present” or a “treat” out of what you are reading. God has “treats” in His Word, but you have to EXPECT them, or you will miss out on HIS treats. I started this when I was seven. I started reading my Bible every day and God has shown me Himself through His Word. When you have the habit of reading your Bible every day, you are building your life on the “rock”, not the “sand”.

Mackenzie, build your life on the rock. I am your mom. I can only show you the right way and guide you in your life, but you are seven now and you have to start doing things with more purpose and choosing the right way yourself. If you choose the right way, God has LOTS AND LOTS of good surprises for you. So SO Good. But you have to take more responsibility this year than you did when you were six. God loves you. He has a plan for you. He knows who you are going to marry and what you will do and He has a road for you that is WONDERFUL. But, He gives you the choice. You choose to walk on His road and you choose to do it every day. The best way to understand HIS road, is to understand God. The best way to understand God is to read your Bible AND to pay special attention at church AND special attention to anyone who talks about God.

The other gift you have in your pocket is the Holy Spirit. Once you can pray in tongues, this is a special gift from the Lord. PRactice praying in tongues every day. I like to practice when I am taking a shower. You are old enough to take your own showers now and it is a good time to pray in the spirit. Try to pray in the spirit the whole shower long and you will find that praying in the spirit is like having your “battery” charged. You have a spiritual battery, just like your new scooter has a battery. When you pray in tongues, you don’t understand what you are saying, but it is charging your battery. There is a lot more about praying in tongues and things you can do with that gift, but for this year, just practice charging your battery every day for at least five minutes a day. Or, when you take a shower.

This is the year of GOOD habits. It is nice to run, and play, and explore the woods, and to ride horses, and to play games. Those things are wonderful. But, it is time for you to build your life on the “Rock”. And EVERY day, before you do THOSE things, you need to practice your good habits.

I am so happy to be your mom. You are a wonderful gift God has given to me. Can you tell that I like teaching you? It is one of my favorite things to do. Now that you are a BIG BIG girl, I will get to teach you even more and we will get to play some really cool games (like Backgammon and cribbage). But my favorite thing of all is to watch you grow in God and get to know Him. May you grow more this year that the last.

Remember in The Silver Chair, when Aslan tells Jill to REMEMBER the SIGNS and say them over and over? This letter is like Aslan’s signs to you. Don’t just read it and forget it. Remember the signs, or, the HABITS for this year. Keep them in your mind and practice them. I will put a little reminder in your bathroom, but I want you to do this on your own as well. Each day, after you read your Bible chapter, I want you to bring me your Bible popsicle stick and after seven days or seven popsicle sticks, you get to pick a prize from the goody bag. And they are GOOD prizes! You could earn 52 prizes by your next birthday, but you have to do your habit, to get the prizes. The best prize of all is that you will know Jesus better by November 12, 2010 than you did this year. But I want to help you get on your way to a lifetime of good habits, so that will be our little “game” for the year.

I love you very much. Daddy loves you very much. No matter what, we will always love you and always be here for you, but no matter how much we love you, God loves you 1000 times more than we do. He saw you before WE saw you. He saw you when He made Adam and Eve. He saw that we were going to be your mommy and daddy. He saw that you were going to have brown eyes and love animals. He put that inside of you. He saw you inside of my tummy and gave you lots of hair and perfect eyebrows. And now, He wants to talk to you. Open your heart and He will show Himself to you. Don’t fill your whole day with just yourself, if you do that, you will never truly be happy. It’s only when you make room for Him that your life will come alive. And as you walk hand in hand with Him, He will show you secrets. SEcrets about Him, secrets about you, secrets about life. He will show you how to draw people and how to play the piano better than most mommies and daddies can. Because with God, you can do everything BETTER.

I love you!

mommy

Housekeeping

Miley's getting BIG!!

O.K. So we have moved to Branson, Missouri. It may be temporary, it may be forever, we just are following what God wants us to do for now. Mark is looking at the possibilities of expanding the aviation business here. We still have our house in San Antonio and Mark's parents are living there while renovating THEIR house.

I have not blogged in awhile.

I'm back.

First of all. I ovulated once and had just the dinkiest period ever, so I thought I may be pregnant. Ha ha. Very funny. I ran to Walmart and peed on a stick as fast as I physically could get there. Not pregnant. BUT, it did make me research people who had gotten pregnant on the iud and it does happen. One in one hundred times. I may double up with another form of birth control??? Or should I be the test tube child for this form of birth control and see how many years I can go without getting pregnant with just an i.u.d. in. It's a little vicarious, but thinking the latter would be a fun plan. I DO NOT want to get pregnant, but I'm not opposed to six children. It's a nice round number. And after that ...ABSOLUTELY NO MORE! (i Think)

Enough about that. What have I been doing for the last month? Well, the truth is, I've been cleaning my new home. I lost Gloria and a few others in the quick move (Natalie, my fabulous assistant is still with me-hold on girl), and otherwise, we don't have much help and are taking our time finding help. I am SO BLESSED to have been following flylady for the past few years. She has helped me with tips and talks and books and flylady dusters and now I am putting all of her tips and talks into practice and it seems to be working pretty well. What helps is a tidy husband. If you are messy and/or your husband is messy, I think that makes things harder. I guess having 5 kids that aren't perfect at pickup thrown into the mix makes for an interesting housecleaning chart as well. And, while we're at it, let's throw the 3 dogs into the whole mess and lastly, chalk up that 2 acres surrounding this house with bugs and mud and worms and you've got a picture of my easy housekeeping job. Let's just say-I wear my ipod while I'm cleaning.

But seriously, whether you work or stay at home, look up www.flylady.net. That woman will give you the tips and tools you need to stay on top of your home. You need a timer for sure. And I like to keep cleaners in every bathroom. I found a great deal. The dollar tree is close to us here (everything's a dollar), and I found some great toilet cleaners and window cleaners for $1 each. I could pretty much stock every bathroom and sink in the house for around $10. I put a rag or two and a cleaner under each sink or over each toilet. When I leave that bathroom, I swish and swipe really fast and that seems to keep the bathrooms happy. I do the Master sinks and toilet in the morning and then other various toilets and sinks as I use them. This is just one of the many "tips" that flylady gives and it has helped me tons during this process.

More later!!!

Dear Michael, A Birthday Letter

September 12th, 2009

Dear Michael:

You turned 2 years old, today. You LOVED singing “Happy Birthday” to yourself and clapped along with the rest of us. You are my bright firecracker, blessed child that enjoys singing and clapping. Ever since you could clap, you have clapped. You clap at the end of every song on the c.d. and if you ever hear anyone else in the room clapping, you clap along with them.

You are totally a truck and car guy. For your birthday, you got a big ‘ol wagon and remote controlled fire truck from Cici and you have been running around playing with these. Your favorite gift was the “lil coupe”. It’s a little red car with a yellow roof that you can either move with your feet, or sister can push. Of course, sister Megan enjoys pushing you all over the place in your new car. It has cup holders in the back of it, and today, I caught you with your little snack cup of cashews. You had them in the back of the car in the cup holder and you were grabbing a little snack “to go” as you sat in your new coupe.

You still call Mackenzie, “Megan”. You call all the dogs “peachy”. You call Max, “mahhk”. You have lots of cute phrases you use a lot. If you really want something, you always add “please” on the end....which makes me wants to give it to you. You always like to say: “come on, mom! come on, Dad!”, ALRIIIGHT! Let’s go!! Come on! What’s the matter? What’s happening? Here we go! Yay!! I’ll think of some more as soon as I finish this letter. It’s super cute.

You are a big guy. Your shoe size is almost as big as Max’s. Right now, you wear a 9.5. So far, your feet are the biggest the fastest (out of all the kids). You eat the most and eat just about anything put in front of you. You like all kinds of food, but if you get some bread....it’s hard to get you eating something else. You REALLY like bread. If you like something, you announce it. MMMmm, good!, you’ll say. And you have been the most complimentary of my cooking, thus far.

I love you. You have been a little piece of sunshine in my life. You surprised me by being a boy. You surprised me with your blonde hair. And you keep surprising me every day with your fun, challenging, exciting, personality. You were the clingiest and huggiest the longest. I was shocked when you stopped breastfeeding. You loved being close to mom and really enjoyed breastfeeding. I thought you would want to nurse forever....but all good things come to an end. And now, you are a big boy. You are two years old. And I am the most blessed mom in the whole world, for you are my son, and you give me great pleasure and joy.

love, Mommy

The IUD Test Drive, Part 2

All day after having the IUD put in, I had mild cramping and some spotting. Last night, cramping seemed more severe...I was having second thoughts. When I woke up, there was nothing today. No cramps and no spotting. I HAD heard horror stories about the IUD and when I asked Lois about it, she said the old version IUD was really bad. So, I guess the newer ones are not related to the old. So far so good.

Birth Control-My New IUD-and other Various Forms of Birth Control

There just HAS to be a blog on birth control. Otherwise, it would not be a good blog, right?In the last few months of my pregnancy, I could not stop thinking about the I.U.D. (intrauterine device), and many times, when something keeps coming to me, I check it out. It could be a God "Breeze". I was thinking we needed a form of birth control that was more permanent than what I used last time, and the IUD kept coming up in my thoughts. I researched them, I found a couple of people who have them inserted and have had great experiences, I had the baby, I called, made an appointment, I went today and I had it put in. So easy. God helps make my life so simple...I love it!

About mid-pregnancy, I started thinking about the IUD (intra-uterine device), and began researching it. There are two different ones. ParaGard has a copper wire wound around it. It lasts for twelve years. Mirena releases progestin and lasts for five years. The Mirena IUD is hormonal and the ParaGard IUD simply sits in your uterus and the copper kills sperm, so when the sperm hits the copper wire, it dies. No hormones....fairly natural. I am opposed to anything foreign in my body, but this seems more natural than my diaphragm, fingers, and spermicide every night...right? The following is my story on the insertion of the IUD:

Miley ate twice last night, so I took a chance on her not needing to eat for awhile. I drove to Lone Star ObGyn (midwives who practice in the hospital), and parked. It took me a good 15 minutes to fill out all the forms. One hour after my initial appointment time, I got to go weigh (oh, fun), and then got my blood pressure taken. I finally got my own room and waited a little longer for the midwife. (I LOVE Lois Stauffer...favorite chick on staff, there). Lois comes in, chats for a minute, shows me a photo of the uterus with the IUD inserted, talks about side effects-possible heavier cycle, and then give me a cloth wrap. It takes me all of two seconds to don the wrap, I wait 5 or 10 MORE minutes. She comes in, I get on the table, and two minutes later, she's done. Honestly, it was nothing of a procedure. I would say it felt the same as a pap. Basically, she stuck what looked like a soda straw to the back of the uterus, then took a little something else and pushed the IUD down the straw. It popped out and into my uterus in no time flat and that was that!

Lois' tips: first of all, the IUD has a string that hangs out of the cervix. This is the string they pull to get it out when you want it taken out. She said she likes to leave a little length so as not to "lose" it. She said if it's too short, it can get pushed up into the cervix and get a little lost. Apparently, your uterus is either straight, tilts forward, or tilts back. Women with extremely "tilted" uterus' (?) or extra heavy periods, are not great candidates for this birth control. Everyone else, it sounds like, can do it. The OPTIMAL time to have it inserted is around 8 weeks after the birth. She prefers for you to be breastfeeding, have just had a baby, and not to have a cycle for a month or two while your uterus gets "used" to it being in there. One can have it inserted at any time, but the easiest best way is post-partum. My insurance paid for it in full, I just had a co-pay. So, for forty bucks, I have a twelve year "pass" for free sex without babies. (should I write that out loud?)

I cannot promise you the same experience. Your doctor may be mister big hands and it hurts horribly or something, but for me, this was one of the easiest, smoothest transitions of my life. I'm not big on getting parts "tied". God forbid something would happen to me, or my husband, but we do things in life so that we may be prepared. We have our wills ready and we have our tubes free from snips.....just in case.

Lois said that a lady comes in every year for her pap and that woman has had hers in for six years without one issue. She said the lady's doctor cut the strings too short, so she does a sonogram every year to make sure it's still there.

It sounds as if once your uterus gets "used" to it being in there. There's not an issue. I went on a jog tonight and wondered if jogging might push it out. I know they can expel themselves, but don't know how common this is? If mine falls out, you will be the first to know. This is my third birth control trial. The first was the diaphragm...great place to start, by the way, and I liked that, but DH thought he could feel it. Then I went to the cervical cap. A nice neat little "hat" for your cervix made in England. LOVED this one. So easy and comfortable, I would forget about it was the only bad thing. One must use spermicide with both of these and I found that American spermicide irritated me. So, I found a yahoo group that uses caps and diaphragms and I joined the group. That group gave me a link to a natural spermicide (called FemProtect) made of vitamin C that you could order from Europe. It's $25 per tube and is fabulous. If you are frequently using your cap or diaphragm, this stuff is worth the cost. It's totally non-irritating. The email to order FemProtect is as follows: enquiries@naturalgynae.com

Simply email Elke Sedlmeier and she will hook you up. You pay with paypal. I really really like the midwives at the Baptist Hospital for this. They are very well informed on all of the birth control methods and seem to be pro's at doing what they do in this area. I hope this blog helps someone. I will blog again if I have any problems with this method or issues along the way. Birth Control is a big subject with lots of ways to go. Hormones and tube ties are just not for me....any other suggestions, shoot 'em my way.