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

How to Take Care of Your Eyes – Eliminate the Toxic!

Posted on June 3, 2011March 13, 2015 by Katharine

I knew it! I just knew it! We have more eye troubles these days because more facets of our environment are bothering our eyes. I just knew it.

And, oh boy! It is politically incorrect to admit this.

Is that why this is not on billboards, nationwide?

Study this set of posts. Link to them. Copy-paste them for your fridge. Someone you know needs this information!

Poison to Your Eyes

The eyes are physical parts of our physical bodies. Since they are so sensitive that they can communicate thoughts and emotions, we might think of them as ephemeral. But they are physical, influenced by light, something Einstein would be first to tell us we do NOT fully understand. And they have a few things to communicate to us about their preferences, too.

If you are in charge of children, you hold the keys to their continued eye health. You are duty-bound to make good eye health happen for them. Teach this to them and make it a permanent part of their overall health.

Lighting. Lighting is toxic? Yes, some lighting is toxic to several parts of the body, but we will concentrate on the effects to the eye. Flourescent, computer, and TV light is totally stressing to the eye and can even lead to glaucoma. We take for granted the accuracy of our eyes, but the truth is, they have to re-focus and re-compute every time a flourescent blinks, every time the stripe goes past on a screen, even if they are not looking directly at the screen or lightbulb. For this reason, many people, and most children, do poorer work when in the presence of these types of light. Eliminate them.

The best light for working is reflected or filtered sunlight. Halogen is next, if carefully filtered. Then comes incandescent, also very workable. The rest are bad. Period.

However, never look AT the sun, and always have sunglasses ready, should you be outdoors very long, especially on overcast days, when more sunlight can beam directly into the eye. A little reflected sunlight actually can do good, adding vitamin D, but don’t overdo.

Allergens. Although you may not have a classic allergic reaction to them, the fumes from new carpet, new paint, overheated cars, etc., harm more than your lungs. If you must install these things in your home, open the windows and use a fan to draw in real air. Ditto for tobacco smoke. If your favorite shopping place installs them there, shop elsewhere, or AT LEAST leave the children behind for a while until the fumes subside.

Also, when you turn on the tap, first thing in the morning, does it smell to the skies of chlorine? It quite likely is chlorine gas. Time for the fan and the open window, again. Let the water run and leave the room until it smells like–water.

Swimming pools and spas. Usually these either have chlorine, bromine, or bacteria in them. Wearing goggles is a good solution for those who have to swim in chemicals and bacteria, although removing them and doing yesterday’s massages every half hour is a good idea.

Heating and air conditioning. Dry air is not really a toxin, but harms the eyes as if it were. Use a humidifier and saline drops made for the eye when you are in these environments. Spend more time outdoors: you were made for it.

Dim lighting. Doing visual work without proper lighting is like moving bricks without gloves, or hiking barefoot. Body parts wear out, and unlike a cut hand or foot, the eye does not self-repair well. Always use a good light when you work. When you are reading or writing, the light should fall over your less dominant shoulder. (Left for righties; right for lefties.) Require this of your children, too.

Rubbing the eyes. A little goes a long way with this habit. Unlike the eye massage from yesterday’s post, rubbing the eye squashes the eyeball. Not so good. It also can introduce bacteria. Not so good. And, horrors!, if you have a foreign object in the eye, rubbing can worsen your plight. Just don’t go there and don’t allow the children to, either.

Use a warm wash cloth to remove crust or mattering, not a fingernail. Use a folded corner of tissue and/or sterile eye drops to remove foreign objects from the eye. Or go to a doctor, WITHOUT RUBBING, PLEASE.

Coming tomorrow, Lord willing: Resting–Resting–1,2,3, Resting!

Okay, now comes the part we have to say in this lawsuit-happy world: This post is meant to inform and to satisfy curiosity, only, and is not a substitute for medical advice. Consult your doctor for information concerning your conditions. Much effort has been made to assure this information is accurate, however, medical research is always changing the facts, and new findings may supersede currently accepted data. I am NOT a doctor, only quoting several of them.

Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Health, Wisdom

How to Take Care of Your Eyes – Exercise

Posted on June 2, 2011March 16, 2015 by Katharine

I have always wished I could exercise my eyes. I always thought it would be just as good for them as for the rest of me. Often I wondered if using them was the exercise, as with all other muscles. But not so, I have learned. Eyes become tired when used for only one task, over and over, just as the wrist does for typing. And exercise helps this.

Why isn’t this on billboards, nationwide?

Study the next few posts. Link to them. Copy-paste them for your fridge. Someone you know needs this information!

Exercise for Your Eyes

This is like jiggling your wrists to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome, or taking a walk to relieve varicose veins, but it is for the eyes. Everyone needs to know these tricks to keep the eyes from wearing out. I am so happy to have learned them! They even reduce “floaters”! I love these exercises first thing when I wake up, and any time my eyes are tired. Since I found exercises, I have so much more incentive to rest my eyes!

If you are in charge of children, though, you hold in your hands the keys to their continued excellent eye health. You are duty-bound to make good eye health happen. Teach this to them and make it a fun diversion in their day.

Begin with warm eyes. A warm wash cloth held over the eyes, or even rubbing your hands together to make warmth and then holding them over the eyes, will get the old circulation up and running. I prefer the wash cloth.

Roll ’em. This exercise involves using the full range of motion for your eye muscles. Basically, just look from the north position, to every compass point, in order, round and round, about 20 times, and then repeat in the opposite direction. So easy, but feels so good.

The focusing muscles. There are 2 good ways to do this one. You can hold your finger up at arm’s length and move it toward your nose, keeping it in focus at all times, then back out to arm’s length again about 10 or 12 times. Or you can stand at arm’s length from an object like a light switch and move your entire body toward it and away from it. This is more work, but coordinates the sense of balance with the sense of sight, something I need.

Massage. Mmm! This one I love. This is the one that can tear me away from my work! Using the pads of a couple of fingers, lightly rub circles over your crow’s feet wrinkles (or if you’re too young for those, just rub the temples.) Make about 20 circles on both sides, and then circle the opposite direction the same amount. Then make circles between your eyebrows and under your eyes about where the tear ducts are. Oh, it feels so good!

Close your eyes. Just for three to five minutes, give them a break. I find this is such a great help to my vision when I am working on the computer. And it relaxes the rest of me, too, like slipping into a dark, quiet room for a tiny vacation. When I return, I am like new!

Coming tomorrow, Lord willing: Getting Rid of Eye Poisons! Shocking!

Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Health, Home School, Homemaking, Inspiring, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

How to Take Care of Your Eyes – Nutrition

Posted on June 1, 2011May 21, 2015 by Katharine

Since I’ve been seeing things, all SORTS of things besides what is really there to see, I have studied a bit about eye health and visited quite a few doctors. So much knowledge floats around in space, these days, and so many preventive and curative measures exist for boosting eye health, waiting for someone to take advantage of them.

Why isn’t this on billboards, nationwide?

Study the next few posts. Link to them. Copy-paste them for your fridge. Someone you know needs this information!

Nutrition for Your Eyes

We know our bodies have various nutritional needs and we know all the old wives tales about carrots, but listen to this: The eyes desperately need the right nutrients to work, and to last a long time.

If you are in charge of several children, though, you hold in your hands the keys to their continued excellent eye health. You are duty-bound to make good eye nutrition happen.

Vitamins: The eyes must have adequate A, C, and E. They simply must have them. Eat foods like carrots (yes!), strawberries, and wheat germ. Look up these vitamins and build your menus around foods that provide good eye health.

Minerals: Copper and zinc are good for eyes. Add beans and red meat.

Antioxidants: Try whole eggs, spinach, pumpkin, and . . . guess what . . . CARROTS! Your grandmother was SO RIGHT–they help prevent macular degeneration.

Sulfur, cysteine, and lecithin: These come from the onion and garlic family. They put the brakes on cataracts, among other health problems throughout the body.

Anthocyanins: Blueberries and grapes contain these and help night vision, according to WWII pilots, and much further research.

DHA: Sorry, all you catfish lovers, this one is found in cold-water fish like salmon and sardines. You’ll have to try grilled salmon, though–it is marvelous!

Water: While not exactly a nutrient, pure water is totally necessary for the eyes. And, yes, it is 8 glasses a day, and it should be filtered if you use it from the tap. Anything created as wet as an eye would obviously need water, right? Think of the eye as an under-water camera that doesn’t work without the water.

Coming tomorrow, Lord willing: Eye Exercises! Who’d have thought!

Believe it or not!, Health, Who's the mom here?, Womanhood

There’s Killing; And then there’s KILLING.

Posted on May 31, 2011May 30, 2011 by Katharine

Number killed or missing in action in all wars in U.S. history: 1,343,812. Adding the wounded: 2,489,335.

Number killed or missing in action in U.S. wars since 1973: 12,387. Adding the wounded: 96,680.

Number of executions in U.S. history dating back to 1608: 15,269.

Number killed in the September 11 attacks: 2,977.

Number of detainees waterboarded by the CIA under President Bush: 3.

Number of abortions in the U.S. since 1973: 53,310,843 through 2010.

Number of abortions per year in the U.S. since 1973: 1,402,917.

Number of abortions per month in the U.S. since 1973: 116,910.

Number of abortions per week in the U.S. since 1973: 26,979.

Number of abortions per day in the U.S. since 1973: 3,841.

Number of abortions by Planned Parenthood in the U.S. in 2009: 332,278, more than 900 per day, or 27.6% of all abortions in the U.S.

Health

She’s Back!

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Katharine

Well, I promised a report from the eye doctor, and here it is.

I do not have glaucoma and I do not have macular degeneration. Whew!

What I do have, though, is somewhat serious: fluid on the eye.

Now if you are scratching your head and thinking ALL eyes have fluid, you are echoing my first comments to the good Dr.

Patiently, the explanation came: The interior of the eye is supposed to contain fluid, yes, but the tissue comprising the perimeter of the eyeball comes in several layers and my excess fluid is between those layers where it does not belong.

This fluid build-up warps the “screen” on the backside of the eyeball and in that way, causes my vision distortion. He says this condition points to high blood pressure, which mine was not great, but satisfactory while I was there in the office. So we are puzzled, but will find the cause.

At least it is something that is fixable. He says once we determine and eliminate the cause, I might find improvement, or else he can treat it at that time. Yea!

So, all you who have prayed, please keep up the good work as I try hard to be in better health, whatever that means, to keep my vision.

To the rest of you, I say, thanks for putting up with my couple of personal posts.

And to all, I say, “sorry” for taking off so many days for all the running around I had to do regarding this condition. Really good eye doctors are rare and booked to the ceiling at all times. My 9:00 a.m. appointment took until 2:00 p.m. to complete, simply because of the sheer multitude of patients there that day.

And the doctor, for some reason, said, “It’s not going to get better in the future.”

Blessings of Habit, Home School, Homemaking, Inspiring, Sayings, Wisdom, Womanhood

ABC’s OF HOMESCHOOL

Posted on May 20, 2011May 8, 2014 by Katharine

Hello, Friends!

This week I must devote entirely to several speaking chores. So I thought you would enjoy viewing the introductions to my presentations. Here they are in their approximate final draft. Enjoy!

RNLI at Boat Race 2012 (Photo credit: Annie Mole)

Raising children is like a boat race:

You never feel ready
You always feel watched
It’s hard to change your mind
Disasters can happen

Too often, a bad beginning can cause a disastrous ending.

What can we do to ensure we are even in the right boat?

Since we are SO FAR from the shore, what are some boat safety rules?

A. We can examine our attitudes. Many begin this race badly, with a bad attitude when they board the good ship homeschool.

Sometimes people begin home schooling because of a bad teacher experience. Often these parents are angry and the thrust of their actions is intended as a javelin thrust into some teacher or educational system.

They just want to rock the boat . . . .

We all need to get used to the fact that the State Institutions are failing everywhere. It is not personal. It just is a cosmic failure, such as comes every time we build a cosmic house of cards.

Those who begin for this reason, alone, often stop just as dramatically as they began, when they, for some reason, decide putting their child in a State Institution is not really such a bad idea, after all.

Some parents begin because the child is failing. Whether he is unable to learn, or simply untaught where he is, the parent decides to take the plunge because of embarrassment or natural protective instincts toward the child. This reason also fails the parent quickly, because soon as the child homeschools, he does better.

Amazing!

The parents allow this progress to lull them into a false sense of security. They opt for State Institutionalization for their beloved child, after all, thinking the problems were a false alarm.

They change boats in the middle of the race, and slow the progress of both methods.

The third reason is more stable. These people do not become quitters as easily.

They are the ones who begin because they see the rightness, the necessity of it. They see God’s commands to teach our own children. They see the State Institutions growing constantly more hostile to morality.

They see ketchup as a vegetable and “two mommies” as a norm, or even a goal.

These frightening observations rivet them and they realize homeschooling as a part of being a family,
homeschooling as a part of the decision to have children,
homeschooling even as a part of the decision to marry.

It’s just the natural, normal result, for them, of being alive and desiring to succeed.

And they do.

Blessings of Habit, Homemaking, Inspiring, Sayings, Wisdom, Womanhood

LET’S DON’T BE TURKEYS!

Posted on May 18, 2011October 31, 2015 by Katharine

Hello, Friends!

This week I must devote entirely to several speaking chores. So I thought you would enjoy viewing the introductions to my presentations. Here they are in their approximate final draft. Enjoy!

Disorganization vs. Order

We lingered over lunch, one day, with dear old friends, while they shared stories of life on their farm. They had owned a crazy bull, and some weird goats, and we enjoyed some great laughs at their antics. The story of the turkey, though, weakened us with laughter to the point of tears.

They say turkeys are stupid. Their turkey was a full-grown tom, and accustomed to life on the farm. It was so accustomed (and so stupid) that they had been able for two whole YEARS to keep it fully contained using only half a fence.

I do NOT mean just the bottom half, but just two adjoining fence panels, just the corner they made.

This poor, stupid creature did not know that it could escape by going past the fence. It had learned that the fence (at one time) was perpetual, like a circle with corners, and that was the only reality it could grasp: the fence never ends, is impossible to escape.

It had worn an L-shaped path in the pasture, walking back and forth from one end of the fence, around the inside corner, to the other end, and back.

Before we laugh too hard, though, we need to look at ourselves a bit.

Many of us resolve to make major changes in our organizational skills. Why do we do that? What is so important about it that it has become such a rut for us that it is a lucrative business?

One thing that motivates each of us, whether we believe it or not, whether we care to admit it or not, is that God has placed the desire inside each of us. Even those who do not know Him have this God-given love for the inviting beauty that comes from being organized.

We know it is true. But it takes so much mental energy to keep everything going, to remember everything, to think every thought necessary for progress . . . Rational thought breaks down. We gripe. And increasing voice volume does NOT increase productivity. We become unpleasant to live with. We retrace steps, going back and forth.

Like that turkey.

When we organize, though, daily chores run smoothly. Adding extra challenges is only slightly challenging. Our thoughts are only of adding a new emphasis or a special touch; of how best to bless someone; of what God wants from us. Instead of scowls of anxiety, we wear smiles of excitement.

Stress taxes our health. It causes illness, accidents, and waste. When we learn to flow more naturally within our daily activities, we add to our health, safety, and even our savings account. We become better stewards of the gifts God has given us.

Let’s go there!