Tag: health

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Health, Inspiring, Wisdom

7 Ways to Beat that Stale Day

Posted on by Katharine
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 Believe it or not!, Health, Herbs

State Senators Seek A.G. Opinion on Marijuana Vending Machines

Posted on by Katharine
English: Snack Machine
Snack Machine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dear Friends,

Today The Arkansas Family Council held a press conference announcing they are working with State Senators Jeremy Hutchinson and Johnny Key, who are seeking an opinion from Attorney General McDaniel on whether or not the proposed Issue 5 would open Arkansas up to marijuana vending machines.

Marijuana is dispensed through vending machines in California. Some people are trying to get Connecticut to permit vending machines under its marijuana program. Vending machines seem to be the future of the ‘medical’ marijuana industry.

These machines are basically high-tech snack machines that sell marijuana and marijuana-infused food instead of potato chips.

Having read the measure, I don’t think there’s anything in Issue 5 that would prohibit vending machines. Hopefully Attorney General McDaniel’s office can shed some light on how widespread vending machines might become if Issue 5 passes, next week.

For instance, if Issue 5 passes, can a marijuana dispensary put a vending machine offsite somewhere? Can a dispensary in Magnolia or Jonesboro contract to put a vending machine at a convenience store across town? Can a dispensary put a vending machine out front for people to use in the middle of the night, when the dispensary is closed?

We don’t sell beer out of vending machines. We don’t sell cigarettes out of vending machines. I don’t know why anyone would be comfortable selling marijuana out of vending machines.

You can see the website for the marijuana vending machine (“Med Box”) popular in California here: http://www.thedispensingsolution.com/

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Posted in Blessings of Habit, Home School, Inspiring, Pre-schoolers, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

If Only They Were Perfect — If Only WE Were!

Posted on by Katharine

Toothbrush, photo taken in Sweden

If a child is non-compliant on purpose, he needs far more than another reminder.

This is the hardest part: Requiring.

Children do not automatically walk in goodness, contrary to popular opinion. Some want to stay in bed in the morning. Some want to skip brushing their teeth. Some want to play during chore time. Dogs eat a lot of homework.

We know it is better for them if they have good sleep, health, and work habits. Our good plans for them must cross their wills.

That is why God put them in homes with parents. Parents can place requirements on children for their own good. This is common knowledge in all cultures, except the current permissive. People who follow the original ways of requiring children to act sensibly, have produced sensible offspring.

Stating the obvious is necessary, these days.

I believe my children will always practice brushing their teeth daily, because they are accustomed to having white, clean-feeling teeth, so brown, fuzzy teeth bother them. The same is true for bathing, eating healthful foods, and Bible reading.

Oh, they may experiment with departure from the absolute best, but they also will sense a difference, a loss, and choose the right way. For instance, my daughter became a ramen junkie during college, but the other day she said, “You know, I am just starving for a good, crisp salad.”

Yes!

They were not born this way. We required it of them.

The child who habitually eats cake and cola will not sense the ill feeling from it in adulthood.

The child who habitually reads everything but the Word will not miss the Word as an adult.

The difference between those generalities is most usually the differing requirements they faced as children.

Who wants to raise a loud, interrupting, unhealthy, illiterate adult with crumbling teeth and no knowledge of the sacred?

Draw your lines.

Repeat.

Remind.

And require your children to heed.

Help them have the excellent gift of good habits.

_____________________

photo credit: wikipedia

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Home School, Inspiring, Pre-schoolers, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

The OUCH Factor — Beginning a New Habit

Posted on by Katharine

Foto einer Glühbirne (an),

We do well compared to guppies.

The human brain thrives on habit, grows larger on a diet of routine. The memory inside a human brain is frighteningly complex and magnificently comforting, at the same time.

Our children can reap what God intended from good habits, if, by the time our babies are crawling, they’ve had the pleasure of our instilling good habits into them.

They test us all the time. Why?

TO BE SURE. To make positively sure this boundary will hold and self is safe.

For instance, we know that because of the inherent danger, we should keep them out of the cooking area, so we train them to stay out. Eventually they learn such comfort, but sometimes this is the first clash of wills between the darling babe and the soft mom. It can seem like war, if Mom doesn’t know how to make it happen:

  1. In the beginning, you must teach the child what “hot” means. Use a hot light bulb and tell him “NO—HOT!” Act like you’re preventing him, but let him touch it briefly. Ask if he wants to repeat. If you see unwillingness, it’s a sign the child knows what you mean. If he cries, keep telling him it’s hot.
  2. Anger and yelling do not help. They hinder. Anger has a place, but not in teaching. Yelling is for long distance, loud environments, or extreme emergencies.
  3. Consistent firmness is the key. If you do not have time to be consistent, use a playpen or highchair to confine the child, or enlist a helper. “No” must mean “no”. If you are too lazy to be consistent, think about burn scars on your baby. That should help.
  4. You must not cave in to crying. Crying sometimes is good, but crying to get one’s way is bad. Do not teach the child it is good by rewarding him with his own way.
  5. Draw the line where you want, and make it stick. In our kitchen, one cabinet was permissible, but the rest of the kitchen was off limits, during cooking. At crawling age, a child can grasp this.

We know we don’t want picky eaters and do want well-balanced diets for our children, so we train them to eat. This can be another war, a bigger one, again avoidable, if Mom knows what to do.

  1. Be sure you do not serve food your husband will not eat when he is present. Save it for when he is gone. Be sure he understands this is a time of training, both in obedience and in habit, and you need his backing.
  2. Make a new rule that every person will take at least a bite of every food on the table and eat it all gone, no exceptions.
  3. Anyone who complains about one bite, gets two bites.
  4. All food must be gone, not just pushed around, before getting any seconds or any dessert.

All their lives, my children will be careful around off-limit things and unafraid of green things on the plate. It will be good.

More tomorrow.

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Health, Home School, Inspiring, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

All Parents Home School – 3

Posted on by Katharine

Still No Escape

No matter which decision we make, we teach them.

Mussolini (left) and Hitler sent their armies ...
Hitler sent armies to North Africa into Egypt against the British

When we keep our children with us so that we can manage their social learning, we teach them that socialization can be done in right or wrong ways. Using the Ten Commandments (talk about mandates-based education!), we instruct as we model for them the only way that works: God’s way.

When they are teens and actually need to socialize, they will walk in right habits of socialization, while turning to us and ultimately, to the God Who guides us, for further instruction.

If we abandon them to learn socialization willy-nilly from the same-aged social misfits that become increasingly more abundant in this world, we still teach them—that no matter how they socialize, that is how to socialize. They will learn that whatever is socially acceptable to their peers is the social lesson for today, and to abandon any semblance to their parents in their quest for some socially “caring” model. They will learn that it is okay to have two mommies.

When we take time to reveal to our children the glories and the tragedies of the history of man, we teach them that we can and must learn from our actions. From Genesis to Revelation, we help them see that God knows the end from the beginning and always has His way.

When they are teens, and learn to care about things on the outside, they learn that today many make the mistakes that wise ones will learn from in the future.

If we trust worldly institutions to handle their history lessons, we still teach them—that the past is unimportant to us. They will not care much about history, either, and in anger, will care even less once it conflicts with God’s Word. They will believe that they came from slime and that the future is debatable, at best, and purposeless at worst and will wonder if Hitler was not right, after all.

When we continue their health classes and physical education into the rest of their childhood, we teach them that our bodies are temples for God. They learn the good stewardship that gives careful attention to the feeding and care of our bodies.

When they are teens, strong and healthy, excited about expending their energy for good purposes, they will be able to say to God, “Here am I…”

If we thrust them into worldly lessons about the body, we still teach them—that the purpose of exercise is to be famous or formidable, and that ketchup is a vegetable. They will converse casually about euthanasia, believe that hormones are insurmountable, and toil under assignments to pretend to be married or expecting. They will grow increasingly comfortable with those conversations, beliefs, and pretenses, too.

More later.

__________________

photo credit: Wikipedia

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

Germ Warfare – 2

Posted on by Katharine

Cleaning the Food

Carrots of many colors.
Carrots of many colors.

Let’s start with root crops.

Ladies, if there is the least, remotest possibility that your potatoes, carrots, beets, etc., were grown in soil fertilized with commercial chicken manure, you really ought to hire the soil tested. The reason is that commercially grown chickens were, in the past, fed arsenic. It is harmless to them, even increases production, passing through the chicken, remaining in the droppings a long time, contaminating the soil.

It is fatally poison to humans. Cows have died from eating grass with arsenic laden soil clinging to it.

“They say” arsenic does not enter the plant, but it is imperative to remove ALL the dirt.

However, root crops will fail in raw storage, if you scrub them all nice and clean. So, do you bring arsenic into your root cellar? Do you scrub and can those veggies? You have to decide. Ask your County Extension Agent for free tests and pamphlets and the latest advice on these matters.

If your soil is O.K., you can do what I love doing—put the perfect potatoes and carrots, unwashed, into root storage and can the strange ones (the two-legged carrots and the potatoes with noses). Then as winter progresses and the cellar storage begins to dysfunction, can the things that are still good enough. You don’t lose as much in root storage, that way, but also don’t waste effort on unnecessary canning.

To can potatoes and carrots, most books tell us to peel them first. I just scrub my own home-grown veggies, because I like to eat the peel and it has many of the vitamins. First use a hose on them outdoors, to get most of the dirt. A patio or sidewalk is good for this. Then use a brush and clean water.

A friend of mine makes a few jars of diced potatoes all ready for quick potato salad or stew. I like mine as whole as possible for grating into potato patties. Canned carrots are best sliced, though I put up a few pints of tiny ones (fingerlings) whole. These I use for gifts or special company.

Wash ALL washable food before using. Think about using a little soap, too. Unscented home-style bar soap cleans apples, celery, potatoes, etc., just fine.

If this idea amazes you, think: who picked, wrapped, boxed, unboxed, unwrapped, and displayed your apple? You don’t know! Did any of these six people have a cold or the flu? Probably! Does the grocery store or produce truck have roaches? Of course!

Ant-climbing-on-apple-flowers__41042
Ant-climbing-on-apple-flowers__41042 (Photo credit: Public Domain Photos)

Even if you grew the fruit yourself, never sprayed it, and picked it yourself, you can be pretty sure that your tree has ants, roaches, and at least two types of flies. They can spread disease; it’s a fact.

One favorite way to store many fruits is in jams. Apples and pears go into applesauce and pear sauce, which we use like jam, too. (Make pear sauce just like applesauce.) We can a few peaches and pears. Try pears with a 1/4” piece of ginger root in the jar. Pear preserves are a real treat over vanilla ice cream.

Also, freeze a few bags of slightly sugared, sliced peaches and use them for blender ice cream or shakes, which are easy to make with chilled milk and frozen fruit.

I freeze blackberries whole. Just wash, drain, and package.

When you wash small produce, such as peas or snapped beans, use two sinks. Scour sinks clean and fill with water. Add produce to one sink. Stir gently with your hands and then transfer from that sink to the other. Drain and refill first sink while stirring the other. Continue until used water is clear.

While you are transferring, try this method for estimating the jars you’ll need: pick up as much as you are able in a double handful;  count it as about one pint.

Before I forget:

  • Wash greens in the automatic washing machine.
  • Use Vitamin C for fruit preserver. (One 500 mg tablet per gallon of water.)

Tomorrow: Special blanching tips and RECIPES

____________________

Photo credit: wikipedia

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