Allergies and Yeast Infections

This is just a quick post, since I have to get ready for school. I have to print a couple of things for the kids and then we get started. This also isn't the post you think it is. It's about cleaning out our systems.

Our allergies have been going completely haywire. I'm not sure when it happened, it's been so long. When we were going to our chiropractor regularly, we rarely had issues. I am a firm believer that if you are straight, you're body will be healthy. Everything in it's place and a place for everything type of thing. We also have had a few more fast food and junk days than we normally do. All of that has contributed to out of whack systems. Now we need to put them back in place. Here's our quick plan.

Sometimes your allergies can get out of whack because of a discordance in the balance of candida yeast. We all have it, and it's essential to our overall intestinal health. The problem is that when you feed your body junk, it puts junk out. Too much junk, too much candida, too much ick floating through your body can cause an overabundance of cruddy allergies. It's your body fighting to right itself. Hubby, the boy and I are going to do a cleanse.

All that really means is that for two weeks we are going to eliminate all sugar, including fruit, and grains. We do have some red quinoa that we are going to use in place of grains. I am looking at some gluten free side options for the family. It's hard to make that decision since we have never been gluten free. I don't know if the taste is different or even good or bad. The grains aren't going to affect the boy, but the lack of fruit. The boy is my little fruit eater. If it belongs to that food group, he is all over it. We will focus primarily on eating chicken, meat, eggs, nuts and seeds, and vegetables. We will also be taking acidophilus. It's a probiotic that will encourage good bacteria growth instead of crazy bacteria growth. It's also great for upset tummies, or tummies that seem to stay upset. It works the same way as the yogurt they advertise on TV, only it's better for you and not as expensive per serving.

One of the major pros of this is the the boy needs to be eating more eggs anyway. He has a B complex deficiency that presents in his bug bites. When he gets a mosquito bite, they welt up pretty good then get bumpy and crusty. I thought he might be allergic to them until I started doing the research. Today I start making him scrambles eggs for breakfast every day. I wish he would eat them boiled since that is so much easier for me. Sometimes, it isn't about me, I know. Just for a little while, I sure would like it to be, though.

Good bye to candy, cup cakes, and all that tastes good but is horrible for you stuff. I'll miss my rice for a couple of weeks, but hopefully I can get back to it, just not as often. Once we get our bodies back where they need to be, I don't want to throw them too far out. It also means no more sugar in our coffee. I almost can't drink coffee without sugar. We'll see if we can get rid of our caffeine addiction, too. We start next week. I'll keep you posted.

Blech!

The iPod is plugged in, I've gotten a couple new stamps on Wii SPorts Resort, I'm blogging. But, dude, do I ever feel like blech! I think it's because my lap top has bitten the dust. I loved that thing. I used it every day for school this year. Our history curriculum and some of our science is on disc. It has all my iTunes stuff on it and the boy's Zune stuff for his MP3. I just spent two hours waiting for various programs to load and waiting for Norton to not uninstall so I could load a McAfee.

I am not a patient person. People question that when I say it, but it's true. How do you home school your kids if you have no patience? I have patience with my kids, I just don't have any with technology. If you tell me your computer is super fast and efficient, I expect to be able to turn it on and go. I don't want to wait. Push button, and go. I want it to do what I want it to do when I want it to do it.

And what's with people creating viruses so they can crash other people's computers? Really? You don't have anything better to do? You can't take those programming powers and find a cure for cancer? Or come up with some program to eliminate genetic diseases that are rare and deadly? You have to use your abilities to piss other people off and make them not like you very much? You are wasting your talent and are useless. Yeah, go ahead, crash my shit. Wouldn't be the first time, you big loser! Now that I've gotten that off my chest.

Now we wait for the tax refund. We have two accounts that are getting paid off and a lap top to buy. Whatever's left will go in the vacation fund. I really wanted to take that lap top money and buy the four day pass to Disney. Oh, well. At least we get something cool out of it. We'll start looking around to see what deals we can find. I'm not a bells and whistle kind of gal, so I don't need a ton of stuff. Of course, bells and whistles are nice to have if it comes with.

Anybody have a lap top they like? Or know of a good one? We saw a neat little Toshiba at Office Depot last night. The problem is that I'm used to a big honkin' screen and this one had a little screen. That would take some getting used to, but the price was within our range. I could get used to it. As long as it works well and will keep up with us. Wish me luck!

Organization

Ugh! It's that time again. It's time to get things put in a place and not just thrown into a corner or closet or wherever it will fit. I know it has to be done, but I don't want to. Normally, I don't have an issue with it. I just feel so overwhelmed at this point.

I have already cleaned out the baby's closets and drawers. The big girl is at a sleep over and today would be the best time to get her's done. I may have hubby take the other two with him to pick her up. That would give me time to do the boy's clothes. And I wish it were just the clothes. There are all the toys.

The baby is great at spreading her toys all over her room. If I step on one more Polly Pocket shoe or tiny lego or some other sharp, pointy thing that really hurts, I may explode with rage. The shoes used to be made of really soft plastic and they only stuck to your foot and felt uncomfortable. Now they're hard plastic and hurt like the dickens. And when I say her toys are all over her room, I mean every corner, every base board is covered. You can't see it. She has a day bed that sits pretty high off the ground. It scares me when I have to go under her bed to look for stuff. Maybe I should do it when hubby is home so he can help rescue me. Or I'll just tie a rope around my waist and try to pull myself out.

The boy has a huge toy box. His is the bottom bunk of a trundle bed. The whole drawer is super full. I need him to crawl behind it and get all of the toys that have fallen under his bed or out of the drawer. That is a scary thought as well. He also has a tendency to put his clothes in there. I found several socks, no pairs. Single socks that don't match. I'd like to know where the other ones are. No, wait, I take that back. When he starts wearing mismatched pajamas, I send him into the toy box. If he can't find his favorite shirt, into the toy box. The day he falls into another dimension and doesn't come back will be his own fault. I'll do what I can to find the dimension, but really, in a 9 year old's room, there are so many.

I have to say that our closet is the worst. It's the catch everything, not just the catch all. Company's coming, where do I put this? Oh, yeah. The closet is stuffed as full as it's going to get. I need to go through clothes (ugh!), clean out all the trash, and find a place for all the stuff we need to keep. There are some days I don't want to keep any of it. I would just rather get a dumpster and heave it all. It's the commercial where the woman goes to open the closet and everything falls on top of her. Yeah, that's where I'll be. Buried under a huge pile of shit!

I guess instead of griping about it, I just need to get started. Wish me luck!

Brrrrrrrr!

This is sort of a foodie post. It is cold here. I don't want to get into it's colder here or there. Cold is in the eye of the beholder and it's cold. When the temps in Florida get into the 20s, it's cold. Are you getting the picture? It is too much for my Hawaiian blood. I need at least mid 70s, I prefer the low 90s with low humidity, but I don't get to special order the weather. When it gets chilly like this, I think people like good, rib sticking, hearty food. I do. So here's what's been on our menu.

Last night we had lentil stew. The two younger ones are not much for it, but hubby, the big grl, and I eat it up. I had never made or eaten lentils until a couple of months ago. I actually made them for a history activity. We had a monk's dinner. I looked at my recipe I had and the one that came in our history curriculum and combined them. One of them called for a can of tomatoes and one called for a small can of green chilies. I didn't have the chilies, but I had a can of diced tomatoes with chilies in them. One recipe called for a small chopped onion and one called for onions and celery. I used the onion and celery and added some chopped carrots. I used most of the spices that one recipe called for, but also added about a third of the garlic and herb seasoning packet that came with the lentils. I probably won't do that again. It was good, but it had a twang I'm not sure if I liked or not. I made corn bread from scratch, but also served it with corn tortillas. I actually prefer the tortillas, but did have a piece of cornbread. With melty butter because it was still hot. Hold on, I need to wipe the drool. I added three boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you could use any chicken or even turkey pieces that you might have), dumped everything in the crock pot with two containers of homemade chicken stock and let it cook all day.

A couple of nights ago we had turkey burgers. We are trying to not eat so much red meat, even thought we just got our pasture fed beef. I just took some ground turkey and spiced it up a little. I let it sit in the fridge and soak up good flavors like fresh garlic and sliced ginger. After a couple of hours I brought it out of the fridge and made burgers out of it. Leave it in the container you have it in and form the patties when you are ready for them. Place the patties directly in your pan or on the grill. They tend to fall apart and get mushy if you put them on a plate. I could have used bread crumbs or cracker crumbs to hold them together better, but I didn't. They were much more filling than a regular burger and were so darn good. Ground turkey is on sale at one of our local grocery stores, so I stocked up a little. I may go back and get three more packages. You can use it for tacos, or burgers, or just about anything else that you use ground beef for. I will say I don't care for it much as meatloaf. Weird I know, but that's me. Maybe if I mixed it with ground beef for meatloaf. There's a thought. I also have a huge turkey thawing out in my sink right now. Hopefully it'll be ready to cook tomorrow. If not, there's always Tuesday. I wonder if it will fit in my crock pot?

Before the turkey burgers, I made chicken tortilla soup. That was a new one for me. I made it Wednesay morning while we were schooling and took a large container with us for lunch. We invited one of hubby's friends to share with us and I brought none home. Hubby and his friend both had two bowls, with hubby cleaning up the boy's as well. It was still warm when we ate it and that made it all the better. That night we had rice for dinner. When I put hubby's dinner together that night for the next day, I put the left over rice in a container, added a generous helping of tortilla soup, and didn't want to give it to him for lunch it looked so good. It didn't take more than 35 minutes to make. I cheated and bought a rotisserie chicken on sale at the grocery store so I didn't have to cook any chicken for it. I had home made broth again, which always adds extra flavor and texture. Once again, I added our good organic garlic and onions and peppers. It was about three hours from the time I made it until we ate it and it had time to soak in all the flavors. I served it with corn tortilla chips and sliced apples, pears, and pineapple. Nice and warm and filling without being heavy.

I think after the turkey, I might make some chili. I have the ground turkey and will mix it with some pasture fed ground beef. I don't like kidney beans, but I might add some garbanzo beans. I'll have to think about that. I don't usually like beans in my chili. Normally it's too hot here for this cold weather food. I do have a great recipe for white chicken chili, but that's not what I'm in the mood for. Some cheese and some crusty bread for dipping. Maybe slather some hot dogs in it a couple of days later with home made french fries. Somebody stop me!

What are some of your favorite cold weather meals? Do you like lots of soups and stews or do you stick to your regular? Or are soups and stews your regular and you do different things when it's cold? As cold as it is, a cup of warm tea, a blanket, slippers, good book, and cuddle time on the couch is what I like. But, a girl's got to eat.

Up All Night

Insomnia has plagues me for years. It's like that friend that annoys you. You know the one. Great company for the first hour or two then you're ready for a break? Lately, I can't get insomnia to go home. I tell it to go somewhere else, you don't have to go home. Just get away from me. Not working.

I had a friend tell me just wait until I start the "change". I can't stand that. It's bad enough now. I need encouragement and comfort, not a slap in the face. And I think I'm already "changing". I'm always hot, too, and then there comes that comment again. I'll show you waiting for change. And snarky does not even come close some days. I try very hard to not take it out on my kids and hubby. It's not really their fault. Sometimes it is. Hubby and I got in a fight shortly after we were married while we doing dishes. My comment was "Will you grow a brain?" I know, not nice. That's how I feel some days. Can everyone just grow a brain?

When I lived in Vegas, insomnia wasn't that big of a deal. I still had it, there were just more options when I had it. I could just throw some pants on, hair in a scrunchy and off to the casino up the street. Or the jiffy store. Or really anywhere else. Even WalMart had slot machines and video poker. Not much actually closed in that town. I would pump $10 in a video poker machine, have a drink or two, then go home when my money was gone. Some nights I won a decent amount of money and cashed out. Most nights, I lost it and went home $10 poorer.

When I lived in Austin, I would go for road trips. That has always been a good way to wind down. I would just drive around for an hour or so. I would explore some areas that I had visited only a couple of times before but wasn't really familiar with. I would find the back roads or short cuts to wherever. Gas was cheaper then, too. At 99 cents a gallon or cheaper, I could afford to drive a little. After about an hour I would head home and go to bed. I loved that town. I was incredibly lonely most of the time, but the town itself was amazing.

This was certainly not the bustling metropolis it is now when hubby and I moved here almost 15 years ago. Most of the stores and restaurants that we have now weren't even here then. There was no casino, no 24 hour stores. Most of the streets would roll up before the sun went down. There wasn't much to do but sit up and flip through channels until I fell asleep. That's pretty much what I do now. Only I also have the option to blog (doing that now), send emails (did that last night), facebook (will probably do that later). I really just want to go to sleep.

Here's the plan for tomorrow. No caffeine except that first cup of coffee in the morning, no caffeine containing foods or drinks after 2 pm, and no naps. The nap part is going to kill me. We have youth tomorrow night and I like a nap before we tackle that. Wish me luck and happy dreams.

Out With the Old

It's getting closer to the end of the year. This is the time that people start wrapping up the old stuff and making plans for the new. We took some time to look at our lives earlier last year and made some changes that I hope we can continue with. We have also made some new commitments to us, to our family, and to our lives.

One of our first commitments was to our health and the health of our children. We have done so much research on various aspects of our lives and our health. After awhile, the info starts to run together. Hubby and I decided that where we wanted to start was discontinuing vaccinations for the kids. I have said several times that this was not an easy decision and it wasn't. People have shaken their fingers at us and told us what bad parents we are. Do the research yourself and then make the decison that best suits your family. Leave ours alone. We also will not do flu shots of any kind.

Another big commitment was organic fruits and vegetables. Did you know that growers can use over 40 different pesticides on an apple? It doesn't matter if you peel the apple, the fruit has already absorbed the poisons. You eat the apple, you ingest the poisons. We have decided that we don't want to do that to ourselves. The produce that we consume is certified organic. That means that not only has the soil that the produce is grown in has been pesticide free for so many years, but the farms around them are also pestcide free. We eat most of it raw, but we do steam some of the veggies. I will say that there is nothing like fresh green beans that are cooked with ham. I know, where did all the goodness go? Into the flavor of the beans. I am from the south after all. It's good with corn bread, too. The kids are eating more fruits and veggies than they ever have. I believe the freshness is the key. Good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle are so important in preventing and curing many diseases and disorders.

I have made a commitment to not be so busy and running all the time. One of our biggest complaints last school year was that we were car schooling more than we were homeschooling. That isn't fair to the kids. It makes it hard for them to learn when they aren't being taught anything. I have made an effort this year to slow down. We do spend several days at home, instead of running like fiends. I am trying to check school work at a decent hour instead of two or three or four days later. That's not fair to my kids. It's also not fair to yell at them because we're running late for something I overscheduled. I am trying to stick with that commitment and learn what the word "NO" means. It is more important to make sure that my kids are getting a quality education than to drive all over town and forget our education.

Another important thing we have done is buy a crockpot. It doesn't seem that special, I know. It has saved us a ton of money on take out and allowed us to eat together as a family at a decent hour. On the nights we're out, it was cook and then reheat when we got home, or stop and drive thru. Those options weren't always the best. We would have to wait for dinner to reheat which could be as long as 45 minutes. That would put us eating dinner as late as 9:30 some nights. By then, we're all so tired, we just want to go to bed and forget dinner. Or we're so hungry we can't do anything but snap at each other. The drive thru option costs too much and just pumps junk into our bodies. The crockpot allows up to sit down at a decent hour and have a nice meal together, and not after 9.

Hubby and I made a commitment to spend more time together. We are reinstating our walks in the evenings. Granted we are power walking, but the warm up and cool down are great times to talk. We are turning the TV off more and just having conversations. I am making a bigger effort to turn the computer off when we are together. He had such a crazy schedule this past summer and it was hard to spend time, but the effort is always worth it. It helps us get connected and stay connected. We get to focus on our relationship, which is so important.

We decided that we will surround our family with people that genuinely care about our family and our kids and share the same core values that we do. That did mean cutting the ties on some friendships that were years old, but also forming new bonds. It has had a phenomenal effect on our family and the way we treat each other. We all still have our moments, but don't we all have those? We needed to pull our family closer together, not let outside influences tear us apart. We spend too much time together to have that happen.

Speaking of outside influences, we started censoring the shows that our kids are allowed to watch and the music they are allowed to hear. At this point, that is necessary. We have seen the negative effects some of the shows were having on our kids and we put a stop to it. The things the kids were saying, and sometimes the things we were saying to the kids, were not acceptable. So we started censoring ourselves as well. If it worked for them, it can work for us as well. And it has. Some of their friends can't believe they don't watch certain shows, but our kids just tell them how our family lives. I am very proud of how they handle the situation when it comes up.

Those are some of the things that we have done. It has made us a better family and drawn us closer together. We are the crazy people that love to spend time together. We will continue to focus on our family in the new year. It is important to us that our kids know how important they are to us and how much they are loved. It is also important that hubby and I focus on each other and continue to grow in our relationship with each other.

Here's hoping your new year is fruitful, prosperous, and joy filled.

Time keeps on ticking, ticking...

Steve Miller had that right. I don't know where the time has gone. Yes, I do. I was busting my hump trying to prepare for about 12 events in three days. But don't let that fool you. I loved it. I am one of those freaky people that likes to have lots to do. Not house work lots to do, but other stuff lots to do. And suddenly, it's almost Christmas.

I was preparing for our home school Christmas party. I love to have people and entertain and kids running crazy through the house. We don't get much company where we live, so I offered my house for a Christmas gathering of our park families. It was wonderful. The kids ran and played outside until it started to rain. Then those wet, smelly kids came pouring into the house. I handed out towels as they came through the door soaking wet. Loved it! When it stopped raining, they went back outside. Everybody brought a dish. I had a meat and cheese tray, made brownies, and put together a fruit tray. The moms, and one dad, talked and talked and talked. That is my favorite part. The conversations were varied and informative and I have a couple of new websites to go to. The company makes all the work worth every minute.

While I was cleaning like a fiend and making sure I had everything I needed for that event, I was also preparing for a Christmas workshop at church. This year we did a Santa's workshop theme. The kids were able to come in and make gifts for their families. They got to make their own wrapping paper to put it in. They were able to make snow globes, decorate hats and shoe strings, paint sun catchers, put together angel and toy soldier clothes pin ornaments, decorate their picture with Santa, paint the inside of a glass ornament, and put together snowman soup. Santa came to make sure they were working hard like good elves, which they were. We had a toss the bean bag into Santa's bag and pin the beard on Santa. Everybody was a winner and got a prize. Then we had story time and milk and cookies. They all had a great time, and so did the adults that volunteered to help. I have heard nothing but rave reviews. Of course, do you think they would tell me to my face that it was bad? I hope not. At least email me.

While I was shopping and preparing for that, I also had to get ingredients and supplies together for a lasagna Christmas dinner with the youth. I made two, and brought a whole one home. Cool by me. That meant I didn't have to cook the next day. That was a lot of work, too. Setting up, tearing down, cleaning up. The youth enjoyed it and we got to say good bye to our associate pastor, who was with us for the last time. She is moving to a new church and we are going to miss her to pieces.

And if that wasn't enough, hubby and I had to do the Christmas shopping. Aaarrrrgghh! Will it end? Yes, too soon. We took our time and even managed to stop and eat sushi for dinner. He had to stop yesterday and pick up a couple of things we had forgotten. I got most of it wrapped, and will probably finish it tonight. Just in time for it to get torn open. I'm pretty excited about the kids opening their presents. We didn't go huge this year, and even put some Christmas money in the Hawaii account. We also were able to do birthday shopping for January and February.

We have all the fixings for Christmas dinner. While I'm out today, I'll pick up black eyed peas for New Year's dinner. We pick up our pasture fed beef on December 31, just in time for dinner. I wanted a roast or a big cut of beef and there it is. We're also having roasted potatoes and butternut squash, broccoli, and maybe some homemade rolls. If you're coming over, let me know. I need to figure out a dessert because we are going to need something sweet. Maybe a cheesecake. Who knows?

So, I've been busy. It has been a great Christmas break for our school. We've taken a break until the New Year, and I am glad to not have that on my plate. We are on hiatus from dance and co-op as well. Hubby has four days off for Christmas and we are going to enjoy every minute of it.

Merry Christmas to you all! May God bless you this upcoming year and through all time. May peace and joy and love be your constant companion.