Many Hands Make Work Light....I Hope

This week I began a full time job. No, not outside of the home. I am now caring full time for a precious baby girl while her mama returns to work. I adore this little girl, she is seriously the best behaved baby ever. She adores her sleep and goes to sleep happy as can be every time simply by being swaddled and laid in the pack n' play. She takes her bottles of her Mama's milk like a pro. And when this little girl is awake, so long as she has one of my four boys near by to watch, she is just as content as can be. She is so cute.

Having her in our home full time 5 days a week is going to be a big change. When she's hungry, everything stops so I can feed her. When she's tired, the boys have to be quiet so she can nap. Obviously they will have these changes in four months, God willing, anyhow, but this time it's for someone outside of our family and came on with rather short notice. They are handling it beautifully and adore having her here. They are all now unanimous that they want the baby in my belly to be a sister.

So, we work to view this in the eyes of Christian service and think "this makes me rich in my vocation". We have yet another opportunity to serve our neighbor and a family in Christ and be a loving home for this sweet girl for the next few years during the day.

We are also working on a major home "renovation" and making 3 big room changes. The main floor master is becoming a study/play room/baby nap room. The second floor room that was home to our four boys is now becoming my husband's and my room. And the second floor play room is now the boys' room. This is a lot of furniture to move. This is also a lot of cleaning to do. The old boys' room is requiring a ton of work as a drop down ceiling needed to be removed, fake paneling ripped out, and then we discovered some mold on one wall behind the paneling because an air return had been covered. So, dry wall had to be ripped out, the insulation removed, and fresh insulation and new dry wall placed. We have to repair the other dry wall from the paneling, paint, refinish the wood floors in that room, and move our furniture from the downstairs bedroom up the stairs and down to hallways into our bedroom. Then we will move the toys that are in the guest room and basement down to the new play room. This will give us a definite sleep area upstairs (which will keep us from needing to use the upstairs during the day and give me better oversight over little ones) and a definite living and play space downstairs. The new play room has a door that can shut so it will also make a good school room for older boys as they need quiet with more intensive studies.

And just for kicks we decided to refinish our kitchen table and deep clean the basement this week, you know, since we don't have anything going on. :)

We have four months until this sweet baby is due. In that time we need to finish these projects, make a trip to see some dear friends about 12 hours away, and complete a few other home renovations before winter sets in.

Oh!!! And I just got some supplies in the mail today to finally give sprouting grains a try! I bought ancient Einkorn wheat that I'm going to sprout, dry, and grind to make into baked goods because I discovered my allergic son can have sprouted Einkorn wheat! We bought a barrel of berries so I need to get sprouting. I also bought some glycerin so I can make my own child friendly herbal tinctures for fall and winter illnesses. I want to get those made before October so we are prepared for cold and flu season.

Finally I've started my pregnancy work out regimen. With my 4th I began working out at 22 weeks in an attempt to make labor easier. It worked. I was in such amazing shape by labor that my ability to handle the pain, stay ahead of it, and not get exhausted was greatly improved. My husband was so impressed that he's been really encouraging me to get at it again and I know he's right. But it's hard going because during my year of miscarriages I was afraid to work out much in case working out too hard was hurting my pregnancies. We found a treadmill at a garage sale and I've been doing 45 min workouts on a high speed and decent incline doing different arm workouts while walking fast.

And of course, home schooling continues and the boys are all loving their new math books while we continue to work through Bible/catechism, reading, handwriting, history, and science.

Did I mention I have about 35 tomato plants that are mass producing right now? Anyone want to come help make ketchup, salsa, and spaghetti sauce to can? :)

Fresh start

Our Lord sure knew what He was doing when He gave us the seasons, calendars, the sun, moon, and stars. Isn't it funny how really each day is no more like any other day before it but because of the seasons and calendar we have this comfort, this familiarity to our days. And so with December and the start of Advent came a fresh start. How wonderful to start a year with a penitential season...to take time to cry, pray, and lament sin and death. But after a time of weeping comes the morn of song! Christ has come!

On Christmas Eve my oldest who is now a big 8 yr old said, "Mom, why do we have to go to church tonight AND tomorrow?" After chuckling my husband and I explained that Christmas Eve is when we sit in the darkness and penitence of Advent one more time and watch our sadness turn to joy as God's Christ comes. Christmas Day is when we enter in the light of His coming and He fulfills the reason of His coming: to give Himself to us. Jesus marks the door posts of our mouths with His Holy Precious blood and points us to the cross. Oh what a wonderous time is the season of Christmas!

On another note is the sickness that inevitably comes with the months of darkness and rich foods. For years now I have been studying natural healing through herbs and natural remedies. I have probably read enough herbal text books to become a certified herbalist but who has time for that? Besides, I do it for my family.

My biggest find has been bentonite clay. Haven't heard of it? Click here. Bentonite clay will be your new best friend during the months of not so fun stomach viruses! My family began coming down with it two weeks ago when my oldest dropped with a headache, fever, and then threw up. I ran for my bentonite clay and gave him 1/2 tsp in 5 oz of cold water. I also mixed in 1/2 packet of tangerine e-mergency. I whisked it with a fork hard and he drank it up....right after puking. Think he puked it right up? Nope! Instead an hour later he was up watching Duck Dynasty with my husband and me. :) The whole family took the bentonite and not one of us got it after my oldest!

As for colds my favorite go to for kids is Hyland's cold and cough. It can be found at Target, Walgreens, etc and works even better than non homeopathic cold meds. I know, I use it too. :) It comes in day and nighttime versions, both are great.

For adults my go to remedy is home made tinctures. Whaaaat?! Fear not! It's so easy! I buy pre-mixed combos from www.bulkherbstore.com. This is a young family owned business who home schools their kids and all of their products are wild cultivated or organically grown. My favorites are their "cough tea" and "double E immune". What I do is get some mason jars and fill them 1/3 full of herbs. Fill the rest of the way with vodka. Let sit in a cool dark place for 3 weeks, shake jars gently each day. Then strain the herbs out and keep tinctures in a cool dark place. My husband and I take 1-2 tsps of each tincture at the first sign of colds and if we're getting hit hard we take them up to every hour until symptoms improve. We also drink e-mergency and I make tons of home made soups, esp with home made bone broth.

What's bone broth? Save beef bones, lots of beef bones, esp marrow filled ones. If you buy your meat from a local ranch where the cow is grass fed, healthy, and all from one cow, even better. As your saving up keep them in a freezer safe bag in a deep freezer. When you have enough to fill a large stock pot about half way, put them in the pot and fill with water until the water level is about 2-3 inches over the bones. Add celery, onion, garlic, pepper, carrots, etc. bring to a simmer and keep a spoon with holes nearby for skimming off stuff that rises to the top. Let simmer for 3 days. Yup, THREE DAYS. At night you can turn it down so it's barely bubbling at all and then increase it a tad during the day. Keep a lid on and make sure you don't gave it going too hard/boiling or water will evaporate and you'll have to add water. Every so often you can lift a bone or two out of the water and be amazed as the marrow dissolves into your broth leaving the bone hollow! (See picture above.) I also added beefy soup bones to mine for greater beef flavor. At the end of three days, scoop out bones and discard and pour broth into mason jars. Let cool and then put in the deep freezer. If you have a pressure canner, canning is an option too. Now you have home made broth that can grow back a limb* and bring incredible healing. I thaw and make it the base for any soup with beef broth and a base for beef gravy, etc. I used the left over beef and veggies from the making of the broth to make chili for supper that night.

my broth with a little cutie-patootie. :)

Now, if I'm really desperate...like...REALLY  desperate, I've been known to do some crazy things. Once, while we lived in the middle of nowhere, 2 1/2 hours from any Walgreens, Target, etc. and it was near midnight and I was burning up with fever and felt like I was swallowing razor blades, well, desperate times called for desperate measures. I juiced an onion, got myself about 1/4 cup worth of the juice, added a tbs of raw honey, and threw it back like a shot. Then I sliced up a fresh clove of garlic and put it in the sides of my cheeks and slowly chewed on it while watching TV. An hour later I began sweating, got into the shower, swallowed the garlic with some e-mergency and woke up the next morning as good as new! I haven't done that since but I have been known to mince up raw garlic and swallow it like a pill with e-mergency or orange juice. I HATE being sick.

So here's to health in the new year and learning to bring healing to my family even more without the use of drugs. God has created so many amazing things in our world that help our fearfully and wonderfully made body heal itself and I'm so thankful to have access to them.

* OK, so it may not really grow back a limb and none of these statements have been approved by the FDA, so, you know, use your head and talk to whoever it is you see for medical help/advice/care in your life before trying anything new. I am not a doctor, I'm just a mama with four boys who prefers to strengthen and aid my body rather than drug it, whenever possible.