these are a few of my favorite things!!

i haven't blogged since mom died. i haven't felt inspired enough by anything to blog about it. i've been in a funk since october. the weather in portland isn't a big help either. i've been in a slightly sour mood since fall. having gone through a whole range of emotions, i feel stuck in this anger phase. throw into the mix that it's a busy time in politics, which gets emotions all stirred up...uugghhhh! i need to snap out of it!

life is speeding by!! mom's death was followed by the holidays, teaching a lot of yoga, several house fix-it projects, big middle school decisions, guinea pigs, soccer carpools, classroom volunteering, more soccer...it seems never ending! but we make it work. i'd love about 10 more hours in each day, then maybe i could get some actual sleep. i love being supermom and i'd take on the world for my family, but i pay the price with sleep. or lack of it. my new years resolution was to nap. i really need them, but it's hard to chill when there's so much to do.

as jack and the girls prepared for their lake tahoe vacation, i was looking forward to the staycation i would get in their absence. as much as they begged me to come, i had to decline. while sitting in front of a roaring fire in a cozy lodge sounds appealing, sitting in front of a roaring fire in a cozy lodge for several days straight sounds boring. you know my motto..."mama needs mama time"! i know all moms do. but it seems like moms who were only children need it more. i don't know, sometimes i feel guilty that it excites me to not have to play mom for a while. but i need the time to decompress, to not hear a little person (or a husband) needing something from me, to sleep in uninterrupted. bliss!!

jack came down with a nasty cold last week. everyone else was sick too! i have preached and preached my recipe for wellness to countless people. i swear by it! in more than 3 years, i have not been sick. i don't get flu shots and i have kids that bring home the snotty germs of others on a daily basis. only twice in those 3 years have i started to come down with something, but it's been because of my laziness. i slack off and forget taking this magic potion for a few days because i get cocky and feel so invincible to germs! it matters not if you are fighting off a common cold or a flu bug, this concoction works for it all!!!


emergen-c

my favorite flavor is the super orange. it best masks the foul flavor of what you'll be drinking. also, my advice is to avoid similar products like airborn, which uses artificial sweetener, or poison, to make the product stick together in a tablet. thanks, the powder form of vitimin c is fine by me. the best deal i have found on emergen-c was at fred meyer. trader joe's recently raised their price on this, i stock up when it goes on sale and i can get it for about $7 a box. be sure that you drink lots of water when taking vitamin c. studies suggest that prolonged intake of larger amounts of vitamin c may cause kidney stones. but you should be drinking lots of water anyway...one ounce daily for every 2 lbs you weigh! (150 lb person > 75 oz. of water/day)



vitamin d


vitamin d is just as important as vitamin c for staying well. most people don't know this...i recently learned this too. vitamin d also builds up in your system and time releases as needed, so there should be minimal fear of overdosing. carlson is the best brand out there, in my opinion. they make drops that you can easily take and there are 365 drops in a bottle. they aren't the cheapest out there, but who wants to skimp in that area? here is a link to a site that sells carlsons cheaper than anywhere i've seen. http://www.drugstore.com/carlson-liquid-vitamin-d-drops-4000-iu/qxp342689 i take 4,000 iu's a day, but the girls only need about 1500-2000 iu's a day, so i give this to them every other day. then if i forget a day, i'm sure they have some stored up in there!



and now...the most important ingredient of all...

grapefruit seed extract


you'll develop a love/hate relationship with this stuff! it's the most disgusting thing you'll ever taste, unless you eat beets. gse comes in a pill form too, but they're harder to find and way more expensive. i feel like if you taste how sour and wretched this stuff is, you'll KNOW it must be working! you'll get a lot more bang for your buck with the drops, plus you'll have the option to utilize all the other uses the drops offer. it's wonderful benefits go way beyond it simply being an immune system booster, a natural antiseptic, anti-fungal, antibiotic, antiviral, antimycotic and antiprotozoan capacities against many bacteria and viruses, including e.coli!! you can disinfect a cutting board that has had raw chicken on it, use it with water as a throat rinse when you have a sore throat, dilute it and use to clean your produce or as a bug and plant spray in your garden. and it's all natural!!! how cool is that!???? i put a few drops in an ounce of rubbing alcohol and use them as drops for ear aches. no antibiotics needed! this stuff is so awesome and will kill any germ it meets. hell, check it out for yourself! this is a great link that shows all the great things you can do with gse!! http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/benefits-of/grapefruit-seed-extract

i have figured out the most painless and quick way to take this. truthfully, it gets easier to take and there isn't as much grimacing from the girls as there used to be. the couple of moments it takes to get down are totally worth it to stay well.

in a small glass mix one package of emergen-c, 12-15 drops of gse and one drop of vitamin d. i only put the d in one of the 2 of these i drink per day. i get all my d in that one drop, so no need for anymore until the next day. increase your intake before flying or any other event that may trigger sickness....like at the beginning of the school year when everyone gets sick! if i can get this into my kids once a day, i'm happy.

if you feel like you may be getting sick, start taking this!!! i swear you'll feel better in no time.

also helpful when sick, or even sore from working out, is taking a hot bath with epsom salts. this is a great way to detox harmful and unnatural substances through the skin... fevers too. just fill a tub with warm water with about 2 cups of epsom salts. don't make a bath with cool water to reduce a fever, this is very dangerous! the body may think that it needs to boost the temperature even more to stay warm, so warm water is the safest.



and for boo boos, cuts, bruises, strains, sprains, surgeries, whatever is traumatizing your body, arnica is the best thing around!! i swear by this stuff! i don't have much experience with the gels and other topical arnicas. the internal version of arnica is easy and works like magic, i swear! every mom should have a bottle of this in her bag!



this is great to have around when you have kids. they're always falling and skinning knees and messing themselves up. that's what kids do! but boo boos hurt and i simply will not give them ibuprofen and other pain relievers for every boo boo. i do my best to never give them things that their little livers have to work so hard to process. arnica is great because kids feel like they're getting "medicine" and they always feel better quicker when they feel like they're getting what they want. jaymes cut her thumb with a sharp kitchen knife pretty good last summer. she stabbed herself right there in that webby part between her thumb and forefinger. that knife went in really deep, we could see guts in there and it bled for what seemed like forever! i gave her arnica right away and every 20 minutes or so for the next few hours until bedtime. the next morning she started taking it every couple of hours. by the following day, it was almost completely healed! if you get a bruise, take arnica and by the next day it should be pretty much on its way to gone! i recommend that same dosage for whatever the injury. lots at first, then taper off to every few hours. it's great post surgery and post accident. stubbed toes? paper cut? wake up with a sore back? poke your finger in your eye? stretch too deeply in yoga? get your ass kicked in a dark alley? get your ears pierced? get a lobotomy? boob job? maybe a anvil dropped on your head? whatever your particular issue, arnica will make it all better. seriously!! oh, i should mention, don't touch arnica with your hands. the oils in our skin have a negative effect on the little pellets, so just pour 5 of them into the cap and you can toss them under your tongue from there. they don't taste bad at all, they're kinda chalky and they melt away pretty quickly. additionally, it is important also to avoid caffeine, garlic, chocolate and mint within an hour of taking arnica. it doesn't have a childproof lid, so if your toddler happens to get a hold of your arnica and eat the entire bottle, give your kid a shot of espresso or a mint julep, it'll be ok.