Posted in Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Health, Herbs

Whatever Works. A Code

dose globules de 1 gramme

I’ve had a “code id by doze.”

But in one day I was well.

This was an entirely untimely disease that struck me very suddenly and flattened me.

In one day, I was well.

On last Wednesday afternoon, I was fine. By nightfall I was sneezing, weakening, and worried. By Thursday morning, I had a fever, aching sinuses, and zero energy.

We were leaving for a 12-hour car trip to an important destination on Saturday morning, very early. North.

However, by the very next night, I was well enough to realize I need not stay home, and on Saturday morning, very early, I felt cured.

I think you would like to know how I did this, so I will explain and you must believe I do not get any reward for mentioning the products I used. Here goes:

  • On Wednesday night, when I started feeling bad, I was out of the house, but had one very wonderful product in my purse: Sambucol. I keep that in my purse if at all possible. It is for taking at the first sign of a cold. I was sneezing and chilling. So I took it often. More than once I have found this product stops a cold for me. The directions call for melting the tablet in the mouth, but I know that works best for many people if we consider inside the cheeks the best melting place for these types of supplements.
  • Once I got home, I took Oscillococcinum. I took another dose right before bed, too. We try to keep this wonderful cold and flu stopper on us at all times, too, and I should have had some of it in my purse, but did not. My husband keeps this at work, too, because he, too, finds it supremely effective at stopping viruses. Again, it is to be melted and held in the mouth for as long as possible.
  • I often use another similar product called Coldcalm, and because I was worried about missing out on the trip, I chose this occasion to use it also.
  • Finally, I added Umcka Cold Care drops to my treatment. I was serious about getting well, you can tell.
  • With supper, instead of my usual beverage, I’d had water with Airborne in it. I always drink this when I’ve been around sick folks or when I feel my immunities need boosting. So by the time I knew something was amiss, I was already geared for action.
  • I keep a box of Celestial Seasonings Complete Care Echinacea tea , and made myself a double of that at bedtime. Mmm.
  • Also at bedtime, I took one Benedryl capsule, since my nose was beginning to burn and stop up. I also rubbed Mentholatum over my nose.
  • Because I ached and could feel fever coming on, and because I cannot tolerate aspirin, I took a couple of white willow bark capsules.
  • I went to bed early. Sleep is very important.
  • In the middle of the night I woke and drank a large glass of water, following it with another dose of “Oscillo” plus another dose of Sambucol.
  • All day, Thursday, I rested in a recliner and repeated all the above as often as needed. One exception: I used Sudafed in the daytime for my stopped nose and ears, at a half-dose.
  • I had absolutely NO sugar. Sugar zaps immunities. I seldom have sugar anyway, but was extra careful at this time.
  • By Friday morning, I felt quite a bit better; by Friday afternoon, I knew I could go on the trip.
  • By Saturday, although I took all those meds with me on the trip, I never used them, except for Benedryl at night. I was well.

The important aspect of all this is that I was able to catch the progress of the disease in the very smallest beginnings of it. Once a virus gets the upper hand, these products do not work for me. Nothing does, then.

You may price the above products and if you think them expensive, you have not been to the doctor lately, and you certainly have not had to go two or three times before you got well. We consider the price of these products health insurance, or even health “ensurance”.

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Inspiring, Scripture

Sunday Scripture – Kiss

 

 

The Kiss of Peace 1869 albumen print 36.0 x 27...
The Kiss of Peace 1869 albumen print 36.0 x 27.8 cm. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Psalm 85:10

Love.

It’s been on our minds a lot, lately. And of course we think of the kissy kind of love first.

But what else can love be?

And what else can a kiss be?

Moms kiss away booboos because of love. Some people die because of love. Others kiss because of treachery.

Love and kisses don’t always go hand in hand.

Seldom, though, do we think of anything other than people kissing. I mean, dogs actually lick. Perhaps the sun kisses a peach or a wave kisses the shore, but that’s about it.

In the verse above, righteousness and peace are treated as animate things that can kiss

We call kissing a sign of love or the glue of marriage. If we mortals grasp anything at all, maybe these ideas are right.

And maybe peace is so interconnected with righteousness that the two are one, as in marriage.

It sure is true that when we know we’ve done wrong we lack peace and when we know we’ve done the right thing we feel peace return.

Maybe it is a kiss of peace.

So, love the ones you ought to love.

Remain faithful at it.

It’s the right thing to do.

And you will know the kiss of peace.

 

Posted in Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Inspiring, Pre-schoolers, Who's the mom here?

It’s the Thought that “Counts”

Offering Box
Offering Box

There is a sweet little boy attending our church, who reminds me of Count Zinzendorf.

How?

His grandmother is raising him in a large, friendly home in the country, because his momma is having trouble in life right now. Zinzendorf was born to a recent widow, who then remarried a common soldier who didn’t really like the boy. Both she and Zinzendorf’s grandmother thought it better to prepare him for the life of a count by letting him grow up in the grandmother’s castle.

Our little boy is quite bright, as was the count.

He has an amazing interest in the things of God, memorizing prayers, for instance, and wanting to pray them aloud in church like the men do. Ditto with Zinzendorf.

But the big similarity I see is this:

He loves putting money in the offering boxes inside the entrances of our building. Being only six years old, he has no income for putting into the offering boxes. His interest in these boxes is constant. He’s been told the money is for God, for God’s work, etc. One day he caught the church treasurer taking the money out to be deposited later, in the local bank. This would be what most churches would do, but our little guy was completely appalled because he thought the dear lady was robbing God’s money.

She was quick to explain to him that she was not taking the money for herself, but only taking it out of the box to make sure it stayed safe so it can be used for God’s work.

This set the little wheels inside his head to turning. What else could he think but that this church treasurer had an “in” with God Almighty. He was totally awed, then.

And he had a plan.

Knowing a bit about writing notes and taking notes, he has confused the two. Sitting between his gramma and his auntie every Sunday, and watching them take notes in church, he’s begun imitating this practice. Whatever the preacher says, that gets through his normal-six-year-old distractedness, he writes down, asking the adults around him for help with spelling.

He is taking notes.

Then the word-confusion begins. When church is over, he folds up his paper and inserts it into the offering box, commenting confidently, “This is a note for God.” He fully expects the church secretary to make sure it is delivered.

And the comparison, here, to Zinzendorf? As a child, he used to write prayers on small pieces of paper and climb to the top of the highest turret in his grandmother’s castle, tossing them out the window, to get them to God.

The townspeople would find these small prayer offerings floating around on the ground very touching and inspiring .

We’ve got a similarity there, too.

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Herbs, Inspiring, Recipes, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

$aving of the Green – Blog Carnival

"Waste No Food... Food is Wasted... Food ...

I’ve been writing about saving money (saving resources, saving the ecology, etc.) for years, but all that work is scattered around on this site, and rather hard to find amidst over 700 posts.

Now I’ve been invited to help a fellow blogger create a “carnival” which is basically a collections of bloggers using the same topic. Rather than rewrite so much content, I am creating this list as my entry in her project.

Saving resources in a sort of do-by-self way has been the theme of our great country for many centuries. We were not always motivated by the same exact ethic when we scraped and made do, but we always just could never feel right throwing away perfectly good stuff.

I guess it came too hard. My mom always reminded me of all the starving people in some far-away place. Many of them have since moved here, but still, how cruel to throw away that last bite of food on the plate, when they would do almost anything to obtain it for themselves! Ahem — except work, that is.

Well, and then there are the ones who have managed to get the food off our plates, but that’s another subject.

The facts remain, though. If you own a patch of dirt and some seed, you can eat. If you bother with putting food up in jars, you can save our tin resources. If you eat leftovers you save food. If you grow your own, you save money on groceries.

In other words, whether you save out of poverty, stubbornness, habit, frugality, guilt, or greed, DO join in this grand, centuries-old fad and $AVE something!

Now, enjoy the list, and don’t forget, several others are contributing on other sites you can find here.

That’s all for now. I probably lost some, so let me know if you find them. Thanks.

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Health, Inspiring, Wisdom

7 Ways to Beat that Stale Day

English: Stale water during a drought at Old M...
English: Stale water during a drought at Old Mill Dam at Cedarock Park near Burlington, North Carolina. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Do you ever have stale days at home?

I don’t mean the air in the house is stale, although it may be, and that may even be part of the trouble. No, I mean one of those days when you cannot put your finger on it, but something just seems off. Missing. Sinking.

Stale.

It can be a job hazard for the home-based woman, because it can quickly lead to a small bout of self-pity, which could turn into a medium-sized bout of disappointment, which might even develop into a big case of the blahs. Mullygrubs. Discouragement. Fear. Anger.

Don’t ask me how I know.

But DO ask me what I’ve learned about how to fix it!

I have learned how to fix it.

Many ways.

I learned from watching the animals, from watching other people, and from “watching” (keeping my eyes fixed on) Jesus. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

  1. Catch a few rays. Open the curtains and blinds and let the sun in. I know you don’t want to. But you know the fastest way to get away from anything is to run in the opposite direction, right? Well, when we’re all darkness inside, it’s best to let in some light. In fact, going outdoors is even better, because sunlight gives us vitamin D, which makes us absorb calcium from our diets, which they say is a catalyst for every chemical reaction that is supposed to happen in the body. Often, when we think shopping, gardening, or taking a walk cheers us, it’s largely exposure to daylight that does the trick. Just sitting on the porch in the sunlight for ten or fifteen minutes may be all you need to get more D. To get more calcium. To get more MO.
  2. Breathe. Open a window. If the north wind is blowing, open a south window, turn down the thermostat, and put on a sweater. Allow some fresh air into the house. Lack of oxygen slows the body and the mind. Not hard to grasp that, but usually during extreme hot or cold weather, we hesitate to let oxygen in. Those are the days we think we have cabin fever, spring fever, or just a blue funk. How little we guess we’re oxygen deprived! I wonder how many of us even acquire Alzheimer’s Syndrome from it!
  3. Get a drink. Not that kind of drink. You don’t have to wag water all day, but if you’ll just chug a glass or so, now and then, you would be surprised. It revs your metabolism, dilutes toxins in the blood, and gives the kidneys something to work with. Even your VISION can become clearer right after a big drink of water. Imagine what it does for your thinking.
  4. Sing. Music has charms. We need it. Be sure you sing a happy song, heh heh. If you cannot sing, whistle. If you cannot whistle either, play a CD. Loud. Let happy music take you where you ought to have been. I am amazed at how much more I like everything about my life when I sing or listen to great, uplifting music. And for ages, I was totally unaware of that about myself, until I found a survey asking if I worked better with or without music. I answered “without” and instantly realized I was WRONG. I constantly whistle while I work, something I learned when I was teensy and viewed the premier of Disney‘s Snow White classic cartoon. Yes, I’m old.
  5. Move it. Get up. Tie on some comfy shoes. Get going. Take a walk. Sweep the front sidewalk. Scrub the tub. Pull weeds. Knead some bread. Clean out a closet. Scrub a smudged door. WHATEVER. Just make yourself a bit breathless. It does wonders for the lymph system if you keep it circulating by moving your major muscles. You just feel better when you move more. I’m not a medical professional, but I’ve heard that major movement even can work like a pain-killer.
  6. Combine all the above. Had you noticed? You can do all the first five ways in one 20-30 minute goal by taking a big glug of water and then taking a walk. Too simple.
  7. Bathe. I don’t mean to say you’re dirty, but don’t we always feel better when our hair is clean and our clothing is fresh? Sometimes, that morning can seem to drag on forever, but after a hot shower or soak, we just have more confidence or something. I think I first noticed this, too, as a child, whenever I would be ill. The first day “back to the land of the living” Mom would make us bathe, although we might still feel weak. She would change our bedding then, and we’d go back to recuperation in clean sheets, clean nightie, and clean skin. I was always surprised that such a big effort on the part of my little sicko self could make me feel so much stronger and rest so much better.
  8. Read your Bible. Get one. If you’re not experienced reading the Bible, get one with red letters, and read the red parts first. You’d be surprised. Sometimes I pray this shorty first: “God, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but just tell me something that will fix it, please.” Then I read until it hits me: Oh, what a great truth I forgot! And it ALWAYS hits me, because He is so much more interested in getting me going, than I am.

Okay, there you are. No more excuses. Kick the stale out of your day!

And share with us, PLEASE, what are your tricks for freshening your day? And THANKS!

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Inspiring

An Amazing Toast to Amazing People

“This post is my raised glass to the third shift faithful, the round-the-clock warriors, the on-call, ever-ready, what’s-a-day-off few who stand in the gap while others sleep and sip eggnog around the fire.

“Here’s to the men and women around the world doing mighty, heroic, compassionate, sacrificial things that no one sees or knows.

“Spouses holding and calming disoriented husbands or wives who awake with panic because of Alzheimer’s or who wrestle with pain from chronic illnesses.

“Moms and dads praying late into the night over sleeping children, straying children, or sick children – battling for them on a celestial plane, bathed in the glow of night lights, listening to hospital monitors, or watching for headlights in the driveway.

“Caregivers and first responders in a myriad of circumstances . . .”

. . . and on it goes, line after line of beautifully poetic prose. I’m not much into all the red and green hoho of Christmas, but I have to admit, sometimes the season just brings out the best in us.

This post I found is certainly an example of that.

And always timely, no matter the season.

You have to go there and read the rest of this. You will not be sorry!

Thanks, Lori, for letting me showcase this beautiful post.

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Good ol' days, Inspiring, Photos

The Top Ten from Twenty-Twelve

In order of most traffic generated, here they are:

1. Is This Happening in the USA? Yes!

2. Launch

3. Ode to a Wringer Washer

4. Dreaming . . .

5.  I Have a Confession to Make

6.  Wrong

7. Movement

8. Blue

9. One Mom’s Description

10.  Create

And with that, I’d like to add my own favorite:

How to Save the US $20,000,000,000

Okay, now you have some great reading material to get you through the long night. See you in a couple of days, I hope!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!