safety – Page 2 – Home's Cool!

'Tis the Season, Blessings of Habit, Homemaking

Need 3 Good Reasons to Spring Clean?

Posted on March 11, 2015March 6, 2016 by Katharine

1. I’ll start at the beginning, with fear.

You do not want your children to be bitten by a black widow or a brown recluse. Period.

So you must take every everything out of bookcases and toy boxes, from behind freezers and washers and dryers, and turn everything upside down looking for the black widow’s distinctive web. It is strong, as if made of nylon, even making noise when you rip it, and crazy, as if the weaver were drunk.

I’ll emphasize the strength of the widow web by saying I recently tried to pick up one spray bottle sitting next to another and got both. Between them in all that web, was a widow. I’m glad she had died, first, but I wonder where her egg sac is. Brrr. Probably up inside my deep freeze, which I cannot turn upside down by myself. Yikes.

However, if you do find a widow egg sac, it will be tan, about the hue of khaki fabric, but maybe lighter, and roughly teardrop-shaped. See this photo and notice the aimless design in the supporting webwork.

What you need to be most concerned about, though, is the bookcase where children’s books are kept, and the toy boxes. Black widows prefer wooden places. And undisturbed places. Well, just read that link, above, to get the whole scope.

Oh, and the brown recluse is not much of a web maker and loves to hide between papers, so it’s time to get those newspapers and magazine corralled before the kids decide to do it for you . . .

2. What about mold?

All winter you’ve been heating your house, and not dusting as much as is wise, right? Don’t worry, winter doldrums get us all. But now is the time to fix all that. When you open the windows to let in the lovely, balmy breezes of Spring, you’ll also let in something you haven’t experienced in a while: humidity!

Humidity works with dust to make a moldy life for us all. There will even be moldy dust on your window screens, themselves, and in the windowsills. You should at least clean the screens and sills when you get ready to open up to the warmth out there, but if it’s all taken apart, might as well get the glass, too, and have everything sparkly.

Sometimes I wait with it, though, until the worst of the pollen has subsided, since we won’t have windows open much during that time, anyway. I can clean pollen off the screens and sills when I get the rest, that way. Saves work.

Screens drying I choose a hot, windy day for the job, and use a pan of hot water with about a teaspoon of dish soap in it, and a toilet scrub brush (that I keep just for windows) . Remove the screen and lay it on a deck or sidewalk for support. Hose it, then scrub and rinse. Stand it up to dry while you do the window the same. Then dry the window; I use an old bath towel. I know it leaves a tad of lint, but it’s faster that paper toweling and is free. Once all windows are done, begin replacing screens. It should only take about one morning to do this job.

3. Looks.

You and your family deserve to see the place shiny at least once a year. Go for it. You will be glad. It boosts everyone’s morale and causes all sorts of happy feelings in your heart.

For “spring-cleaning-without-spring-cleaning” how-to’s, start here. Have fun!

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

The Blessings of Habit –- Basic Beginnings

Posted on January 6, 2015April 14, 2018 by Katharine

Stick to basics in the beginning.

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

For instance, we know we should keep them out of the cooking area, so we train them to stay out. 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:

Train in Good Habits

Habit training

In the beginning, for instance, we must teach a child what “hot” means, to fear when a thing is hot, and to trust our word on the matter. 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.
Anger and yelling do not help; they hinder. Anger is for the devil, not for teaching; yelling is for long distance, loud environments, or extreme emergencies, not for teaching.
Consistent firmness is the key. If you do not have time to be consistent, use a playpen or high chair to confine and thereby protect the child, or enlist a helper. “No” must mean “no”. If you are too lazy to be consistent, thinking about burn scars on your baby should help you feel stronger.
You must not cave in to crying. Crying sometimes is a good way for a baby to communicate. Crying to get one’s way is bad. Do not teach the child that crying to get his way is good.
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.

Overcome Picky Eating Habits

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

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.
Make a new rule that every person will take at least a bite of every food on the table and eat that one bite all gone, no exceptions.
Anyone who complains about one bite, gets two bites. This is all done very pleasantly, not in a way that causes mealtime to be a war.
All food must be gone, not just pushed around, before getting any seconds or any dessert, again, all communication is friendly, matter-of-factly.
The only consequence is no other food offered at that meal. Eat one bite (or two for the grumpy) of everything if you want seconds of anything. End of discussion.

You likely are seeking the next step, here, but that is all there is. This process, based upon natural hunger, applied consistently, teaches the child to like all foods and to clean the plate.

All their lives, my children were afraid around off-limits things and unafraid of green things on the plate. It was good.

Christian Persecution, Home School, Who's the mom here?

Amazing Gall

Posted on September 27, 2014October 9, 2014 by Katharine

The dead are buried.

The wounded are learning a new normal.

Those who are left with this ominous weight on their shoulders have been formed into a committee to figure a way to keep kids safe that all of us might have to follow. Yikes.

Although this committee is assigned to improve safety at public schools, it is trying to extend its tentacles into home schools, too.

Read here.

_______________

Photo: The oldest working lighthouse in the US, built in 1764 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Believe it or not!, Christian Persecution, Health

Should an Ill Mother Have Any Rights?

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Katharine

A most horrific case of the State taking over in a family’s life, stripping them of all rights! Read this introduction and please click through to see the whole outrageous and terrifying story:

Even Sick Mothers Have Rights

HSLDA Seeks Justice for Mom Accused of Faking Her Kids’ Illness

When parents have a sick child, the last thing they should have to worry about is being falsely accused of child abuse. Unfortunately, this appears to be a more and more frequent pattern in the United States.

HSLDA is undertaking a new case that reveals a very troubling example of this problem. Any of us could be this family. We could be the parents falsely accused of abuse. We could be the ones who have our children removed from us at the very moment when they most need us—when they are genuinely ill.

Lane Funkhouser, his wife Susan, and their two children (whom we will call James and Kat) were all very sick. They went to their family doctor, who was unable to diagnose the problem.

Because the children were not getting better, their attendance at public school became an issue. So Lane and Susan decided that they would homeschool James and Kat while they searched for a diagnosis and treatment.

School officials filed truancy charges against the family, which were quickly dismissed. But, as a result of these charges, the family became embroiled with a social worker named Michael Austin, an investigator for the Clarke County, Virginia, Department of Social Services (DSS).

False Diagnosis

Austin is not a doctor. He is not a nurse. He is not a psychologist. He is not a medical professional of any stripe.

But Austin determined that Susan was suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy. This outdated term refers to a psychological disorder in which a parent contends that her child is ill to draw attention to herself. It is extremely rare, and it requires a proper diagnosis by a qualified professional.

There’s one thing we know for sure about this case: laboratory results showed that the children were actually sick with difficult-to-treat illnesses, and it was not the result of Munchausen by proxy.

Now go here and see how much worse it became and why we must keep watch over our homes!

Blessings of Habit, Inspiring, Scripture, Wisdom

Look Up.

Posted on May 1, 2014May 1, 2014 by Katharine

With all the tornados floating around lately, come many more words about tornados. It’s a real storm out there and I’d like to add to the din.

I wrote a couple of years ago about my close call with a really big, destructive tornado. People like to read about these events. Not just y’all; I read these stories too.

As I was re-reading some of these writings today, I noticed something. I think the events that shape our lives prepare us for living a successful life in the end. I think we can look back on our childhoods and see how God was preparing us to face our future.

If we pay attention . . .

One thing in particular that stood out for me, as I read these old stories today was this: It was no time for hurt feelings.

Not then; not now.

I wrote about my six-year-old self:

I knew it was a tornado up there, whatever a tornado was. I looked up, too, and stumbled.

Mom scolded me sharply. “Don’t look up! Don’t look up! Don’t look up!” She seldom scolded sharply. It hurt my feelings but I knew it was no time for hurt feelings. Her words were like a mantra, a warbled charm against bad omens . . . don’t look up, don’t look up . . .

As I notice the world today, I realize how much I knew back then, and how much my mom knew, and what good I could make of it if I only paid attention and applied it to my current life.

When we look at the troubles, we stumble. It IS huge storm all around us, but the storm should not be our focus, at all.
If someone is trying to save our lives, we should not get hurt feelings. Those who know the way to safety are life-savers. Some of us probably should be slipping into that role, but we enjoy ignoring the storm, more.
We are in a huge storm, like it or not, and it is NO TIME FOR HURT FEELINGS! Regardless of what happens, hurt feelings are a distraction and not deserving of our time or attention.
DON’T LOOK AT THE STORM! DON’T LOOK AT THE STORM! DON’T LOOK AT THE STORM!

One caveat:

We should look up.

Jesus told us it would get worse, and when it does, to look up. To stand up. To lift up our heads.

Why? Because our salvation will be very near.

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke21:28 KJV

So much devastation.

Image• Posted on April 28, 2014April 28, 2014 by Katharine

Homemaking, Winter, Womanhood

Well, the Coons Got Us Again.

Posted on March 25, 2014December 20, 2016 by Katharine

As a counselor and a retired professional mom, I must say:

Coon! Raccoons are incorrigible wasters, ruiners of all things good, heartless beasts that care neither about boundaries nor animal rights. Their ability and seeming desire to inflict gross horror is limitless.

As people who tend six hens, our job was keeping them safe at night in their own warm place during the past winter, and one we did not mind at all. In fact, I found myself enjoying the challenge and making sure my hennies had fun treats to ease their trials during the cold. I carried all sorts of tidbits down the hill to them, through all sorts of weather, and thawed their water tank I-don’t-know-how-many times, even adding sugar to it, to assure meeting their energy needs. I literally had one of them eating from my hand.

And that one is among the five survivors, I’m glad to say.

We lost one, in a most horrific way, which I will not detail here.

Chicken coop, Sabine Farms, Marshall, Texas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And I had nearly to rebuild our chicken coop and to visit them often, really often. Hourly. And they were terrified, of course, and were slow to re-learn their trust of me.

Today, though, when they hear my footsteps approaching their little home, although they still grow very still, as if trying to be unnoticeable, if I call out to them, they answer me with seeming great excitement.

And another one is learning to eat from my hand.

That feels good.