A 'DUH!' Moment

As a young girl, I loved hot cereal. My mother would make Cream of Wheat or oatmeal once in a while (most often, I had cold sugar cereal), drop a pat of butter in the bottom of my bowl, add the oatmeal, sprinkle on some sugar and cinnamon, stir it up and place it in front of me. I felt so special!

When my eldest was ready, I prepared her hot cereal in the same manner. When my next began eating it, I simply added a bowl to my routine. Then we became foster parents and added twins. Soon, it became a trial to make hot cereal. As soon as I was done preparing bowls, someone wanted seconds and I was getting tired of it. Slowly, without even thinking about it, I served hot cereal less and less and cold cereal more and more.

After a few years, we had many Smalls and just a couple of Bigs. Hot-cereal-more-often became a necessity for financial reasons, and I had learned the dangers of cold cereal and felt guilty about serving it anyway.

After sitting down and trying to eat my serving and being asked AGAIN to prepare seconds for someone, I had my most humiliating DUH moment.

"You could season the whole pot and they could serve their own seconds!"

DUH!!

How much easier is it now, to serve hot cereal? Sometimes common sense is hard to come by in my brain.

Care to share your simplest tip or your own DUH moment? You might make someone's day!

Illness in a Large Family

My dear friend has four children four and under. She is in the trenches of Littles-only parenting and it.is.hard! Her children recently were ill for a couple of weeks. It reminded me of a period of time that I'd rather forget.

My five Lambies were 6 and younger. I also had several foster children. They caught something that went round and round and round for THREE months. It wasn't a simple runny nose or an annoying cough. It was a puking thing. Awful. I had some throw up all over the place, every week, at least once, for three solid months. I remember picking chunks off of someones sheet for the umpteenth time and crying out to the Lord for help. I was at the end of my rope! I couldn't stand it any longer and needed help!

He whispered, in that moment, "Change their toothbrushes". Really. I dried my tears, finished the job and did as I was told. The sickness cycle ended with that. Praise God....He really does care about the little things and will help those who call out to Him!

Here are some pointers for those of you with little ones to keep the sickies at bay:

Replace toothbrushes every few months! Sterilize them occasionally with peroxide between fresh ones.

Of course, wash everyone's hands often, including yours, Mom!

Boost the immune system with wholesome, natural foods so you have less chance of getting sick in the first place. One of the best to add is real, fresh from the cow, raw milk. It truly does work wonders!

Cut out or drastically reduce processed sugar, especially if you've been exposed to a cold. Sugar greatly reduces your immune system's ability to fight off buggidies. Increase zinc and vitamin C, through food sources, not mad-made synthetic garbage.

Use coconut oil as a moisturizer on hands and faces. It has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties.

Load up on fresh, raw garlic. Yeah, you'll stink. It's better than being sick! Mince it fine and add to applesauce or yogurt for little ones. You can use a spoonful of honey, too.

Make a soothing throat syrup with honey and garlic. Lemon juice added to hot, hot water with some salt and honey is very soothing and helps heal as well.

If all fails and your kids are sick with tummy troubles, take this hint. We bought eight identical buckets, with handles and pour spouts in the cleaning department of Target. When someone complains of nausea, all the buckets come out of the garage and each person gets one on their bed. Since doing this, I haven't had anyone miss and barf on the bed. Even the toddler is able to get it in the bucket (thankfully!).

Just 15 Minutes

Most people wonder how in the world large families 'get it all done'. We know the secret....we don't!

Most of us do, however, know to use small amounts of time wisely. Ten or fifteen minutes can so easily slip by with nothing accomplished, or it can be put to good use and something memorable can be done! I use the time spent eating in the morning, and at lunch, for some read aloud time.

Reading Scripture in the morning leads to some wonderful discussions. We are all gathered anyway, let's use that time! Memory work can easily be done at the table, too. Choose a family read aloud for lunchtime. The kids will enjoy hearing it, and they will look forward to the story every day.

We also read aloud before bedtime several times a week. It's the 'Daddy-book' since it's only read when Daddy is home. Currently we are reading "The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge.

Making memories doesn't have to be expensive or time-consuming. It can be as simple as snatching a few minutes to read with the kids consistently.

Two-Minute Clean!

One of the strategies I use for keeping the house clean is "A Two Minute Clean". I began teaching this to my oldest when she was only two and a half or so. I call out loudly "Two Minute Clean!!!!" so everyone can hear it, and they all rush around the house grabbing anything in their way, putting it where it belongs or throwing it away. Many hands can really make a difference in just two minutes! Do this three or four times a day and watch the piles and clutter disappear.

Jars, Oh, Jars!

(originally posted on my other blog 11-12-08)

I've been canning this year and was blessed by a friend, Lori, with a good number of jars. I was actually able to fill them all up! A couple of weeks ago, I went to the store to buy some jars and was surprised by how reasonable they were. I put two boxes of pints jars in the cart. Later in the trip, I bought something unexpected, and ended up putting the jars back, expecting to get them the next week. When I went back, the price has risen by three dollars a box! I changed my mind, that's for sure.

I went home and put another wanted ad on Craig's List. I had previously asked, and received a half dozen quarts and a dozen and a half pints. This time, someone answered in a huge way!


Joe, a man in his mid-70's, wrote that he had about 60 quarts and 60 pints that he'd let me have for free! I drove out and met him, and collected the jars. He had a real-and-true in the ground fruit cellar, a rare thing in these parts. He and his wife canned often, over 25 years ago. These great jars had been waiting for me all that time! They were quite dirty, but after being washed, I only had to throw out two for damage to the rims. WHAT A BLESSING!


The final count was 71 quart jars, 9 pint and a halfs, and 118 pints, along with several neat old glass Gatorade bottles with lids that will store kombucha well. I think I'll have enough jars for a little while!

Missy Speaks!

The smaller children were playing with playdoh this afternoon. I let them get the playdoh toys out as well, which is a special thing. I was in the kitchen making dinner; Missy was using the playdoh press. She spoke very clearly, these words: "Momma, look at me. I made poop. I know how." It warms a momma's heart! (originally posted on my other blog 10-27-08)

Cranial Helix Aspera

(originally posted on my other blog 9-22-08)

My son Troubles and daughter Missy love snails. They are entertained for hours by finding a snail or two and playing with them. They are very gentle and rarely ever crack a shell, let alone crush one. I don't mind this slimy past time, as long as they wash their hands when they come in. This however, I did mind...a little bit.


But who can resist that face?

That Terrible Salt

My three year old son is allergic to MSG. Really allergic. If he eats it, he throws up violently until it's purged from his system...just like his Daddy. We discovered this last Thanksgiving. It's not a big deal, because we rarely eat anything with MSG in it. I have shown the kids the mega-container of MSG available for purchase at Smart and Final (a warehouse store) and mentioned that I could kill their Daddy with it. The other day, Troubles was not feeling well and told me he felt like he had "The Terrible Salt" in his belly. How's that for reasoning from a three-year-old?

My Oldest Thing

(originally posted on my other blog 7-09-08)

What's the oldest thing you have? Here's mine:

It's not too much to look at, but it's a great old book from 1743. It's bound with hide and written in Latin. It's Volume Seven of a series on Catholic teachings, I think. I'm pretty sure this page mentions the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and eucharist.

I don't read Latin, so I'm not certain of the specifics. If you can translate, please comment!! It has a coverplate from Sutro Library in San Francisco, CA as a lovely valley with a few log homes and a man with a pickax working on the soil.

I got a bit curious about my old book last night. I didn't have the Internet when I bought it! I googled Sutro Library and found it still exists! I also read about Mr. Sutro, who loved books, was mayor of San Francisco for a short time, made millions in the railroad industry and mining, built the Sutro baths, (I had heard of them, but hadn't put the two together). Some of his library was burned in the 1906 earthquake, but some still exists in the Sutro Library. Here's a link about him.

Adolph Sutro

I called the Library this morning and described the book and asked if they had any information about it's history. The lady on the phone took the information, searched in the computer, took some more info about the book, then asked if she could have the Head of Antiquities call me tomorrow. She said "This is very interesting....I know she will be eager to speak with you."


Here's hoping they want the book back for a cool $25G! One can dream, right?? I actually had it appraised years ago. The hippie with the pot smoke floating about his head said it was worth about $200.


I'll let you know what happens with it!

*Update* The Librarian called me back and said that they do indeed have a copy of the book, and she hasn't any idea how this copy ended up in a swap meet in Rocklin, CA. Poof- there goes my 25G...oh well.

Camping Pictures

(originally posted on my other blog 7-7-08)

As you may remember, we camped a little over a week ago. We went to our lovely Sequoia National Forest, which we SO enjoy visiting.

After setting camp, we explored, enjoyed and relaxed. We were blessed to be with our dear friends, R and E and their three kids. R is quite adventurous, and among other things, knows how to rock climb. He brought his equipment and all the children got to climb up and repel down!
I have many more pics, Grandma, if you want them. All the children made it up to Daddy, even Troubles! They had a great time.

We also fished in the pond, with a few little fish being caught. We hiked, enjoyed smores and learned that crushing fern and rubbing it on nettle burns makes the stinging stop.

I found a wonderful exoskeleton of a dragonfly nymph that had "made the change" while clinging to a blade of thick grass. I collected it, but it was accidentally crushed before I got a picture. We also got to see a newly emerged dragonfly resting on his discarded exoskeleton. Here is a photo essay on the process. We observed chipmunks, squirrels, birds of various kinds, water skimmers, trout, and lots of insects. We collected pond water and creek water for observation under the microscope.

At home, we found tiny plants and microscopic little worms in the pond water and had a discussion on why you always boil water from natural sources before drinking it! We haven't looked at the creek water yet, so we won't find anything living, I think.

Here is a picture of all of us in front of the Sequoia in our campsite. The 'cave' in the tree that is behind me was big enough for most of the children to fit inside, all at once. Sequoias often have these hollows.