Sick Solutions

Everyone keeps talking about the kids getting sick. Devanie was complaining about the doctors always telling her the same thing and charging her $30 (I assume that is a co-pay).

Doctor angst is what turned me to more natural methods of easing disease. I was sick of hearing the same thing from them all the time. When I was pregnant, the only answer was, "that's normal." I was not looking to be part of the crowd. I wanted to understand what was going on. I expected the doctor to be an educator. All they said was, "If it bothers you, take some tylenol." I learned nothing from them.

Now when my kids start to get sick, I give them collodial silver and/or echinacea. Sometimes I have used Sambucol for kids from Nature's Way. I pump them with fluid (just water with a little sodium chlorite, not gatorade or 7 up). For congestion, they get Vicks rubbed on their chest and a vaporizer at night. Saline nose spray a couple of times during the day (with the other things above). I will also do scalp and face massage that I learned in beauty school. Press the pressure points between the bridge of the nose and the eyes, work out in tiny circles with fingertips along the eyebrow and just under it. Work around the eye. Gently bring fingers to the sides of the base of the nose. Hold and press. Move down to the sides of the mouth. Hold and press. I just did a quick search for a diagram to help you visualize.

Andrew is really susceptible to pneumonia. I do this even when it as advanced as wheezing in his lungs. When that happens, I also break up the gunk in the lungs by firmly patting his back with my hand cupped. When he was in the hospital with it, the nurses did that with a thing that looked like a cup with a rubber rim and a knob on the bottom.

When we were children, the doctors told mom what to do with an ear infection (antibiotics were for things like pneumonia and scarlet fever). Put a little alcohol in the ears, plug it with a cotton ball. To loosen up the gunk and ease the pain, apply a hot water bottle (or a warm rag in a ziploc bag).

For fevers, take a tepid bath. It doesn't surpress the bodys immune response like drugs. Devanie and the twins are probably too young to remember mom cramming everybody into the doctors office all at once for a group rate. Mom stopped taking us to the doctor after she realized she was experienced enough to diagnose and treat her children. She, too relized it was always going to be the same thing. If my kids have something that hangs on and keeps getting worse for four days, then I will take them in. I mean, they have to have a high fever that keeps coming back. I don't even give them tylenol unless it is nearly 102. Cool rag on the forehead first. Cool water to drink.

For all lingering illness, or any time a fever gets over 102, a preisthood blessing is a must. One time Claire had a fever and 3 different skin infections at the same time--one bacterial, one viral, and one combination (after sleeping outside and being majorly bitten by mosquitoes). One of those was "untreatable in children" with a 3-6 month recovery time. After a blessing, and some natural treatments, she was clear in three days. (Emylie contracted the 3-6 month skin infection, had no blessing, and had it for a year. I had it for 3 months.)

My kids have no more than 2 sick days a year usually. Emylie has had perfect attendance. I never worry about driking and eating after others--we share germs freely--and the family never takes more than a week to cycle through the sickness. I also never use antibacterial soaps of cleaners. Alcohol and H2O3 do the job fine. I have noticed that the only time we really have a problem is after a weekend of junk food. Those who have been battling sickness, you can expect a resurgence after Hall0ween.

I am not promoting or getting paid for any company's products anymore, so this isn't a plug for myself. I just want my family and friends to be healthy and happy, and I don't want them to throw their money at ineffective solutions. It is what works for me and my cheapskate self. Take it for what its worth. Hope it helps.

Weather n stuff

Last week Isaac played in the band at a football game for the first time. The weather was beautiful. It finally got cold enough here that I can wear long sleeves every day, but my electric bill for this month (which still included some A/C time) is still over $180. I turned on the heat for about 15 minutes 3 days ago to ease the chill, but this morning I am wearing 3/4 sleeves because the rain and humidity have locked in a little warmth. Mike complained about the heat this morning.

Isaac also went to the temple for the first time last night. It is funny to me that his first experience has nothing to do with a four hour trip in a van full of adolscents. After he got home from school I got him something to eat, took him to the house they were meeting to carpool from at 5 , and he was back by 8:30. I am concerned that he will never learn to appreciate the sunrise just after 5 a.m.--certainly not over the San Francisco bay. The air today has a San Francisco feel to it. Thankfully, though, there is no essence of fish scum.

Now I must go to what I have been avoiding--My term paper.

First Week of School

This week Isaac changed schools. He is living with me full time now because his dad did not have enough time to help him be successful in school, nor the ability to deal appropriately with the situation. So Isaac now goes to Coppell Middle School, East. He has band, english, drama, Texas history, and Pre-AP Math and Science.

He is really excited about being in a new environment and having a fresh start. He is really motivated to get home, do his homework, and asks me what he can do around the house. That has something to do with wanting to play the XBox 360. He is a total junkie for Tony Hawk American Wasteland. As much as I hate video games, I must admit, they are a very useful motivational tool. All digital interactive entertainment should be so utilized. Sure we like it to occupy the kids time when we need to get something else done, but they don't know that. Get them to work for you to earn it then get them out of your hair when they play it. Maybe god had a hand in their invention after all.

This week for some reason, my van wasn't starting. I had a neighbor jump it and it was fine, but an hour later it wouldn't start again. It probably has something to do with the starter or fuel injection system. Who knows. It is a Chevy Astro. I am beginning to appreciate more, the reliability of my old Nissan that I just sold to my brother-in-law. All I ever had to do with it was change the oil and tires. Well, sometimes I killed the battery, but we replaced that for Max before he took it off our hands.

We are actually in a major trial phase where it seems like one thing after another is piling on us. I was so blessed for the two years I was not married. God was merciful and saw to my needs. He knew what I could handle at the time. Those days were about just getting through. Now he is pushing me to be a better person. That always comes with growing pains.

Just so you know, I really didn't feel like writing anything, but I figured I would start getting hate mail in my comment box if I didn't come up with something soon. I am willing to sacrifice for the group.

A Little Girl With Nothing Wrong

It has been a pretty introspective week. I found a song by Norah Jones that made me cry with happy memories.

Spinning, laughing, dancing to
her favorite song
A little girl with nothing wrong
Is all alone

Eyes wide open
Always hoping for the sun
And she'll sing her song to anyone
that comes along

Fragile as a leaf in autumn
Just fallin' to the ground
Without a sound

Crooked little smile on her face
Tells a tale of grace
That's all her own

Spinning, laughing, dancing to
her favorite song
A little girl with nothing wrong
And she's all alone.

The song is on my Norah Jones showcase at Excitone.com

I remember dancing in circles in the orange-carpeted living room of the mobile in Carson City. I would put on my fullest skirt dress and spin until it was horizontal with my waist then fall to the ground, not as a leaf, but to make myself and the dress a flower. Sometimes a record was playing. Sometimes daddy was playing the organ.

When I was not in the living room, I was looking for an audience. Sometimes they asked me to sing. Sometimes I asked them if they wanted to hear a song. Sometimes I just started singing. Other times, I would let my favorite record play over and over while I sang every word as I sat on the organ bench. Maybe there was an auditorium full of people listening to me. Maybe I was lifting my mouth up to a microphone with headphones on in a recording studio. But always, I was all alone--in a house full of people. It was a happy place.

I came to a profound realization in my 'Group Behavior in Organizations' class while I was doing my reading. The book was discussing the nature of groups. Do groups exist as an entity distinct from individuals? Theorists with a group orientation believe that the individual is only a part of the whole. The individual is formed and influenced by the social group to which they belong. Theorists with an individualistic orientation see a group as a sum of individuals.

I have never paid much attention to the nature of a group. I have always been very individualistic. My independent mother instilled that value into all of her children. My introverted, introspective father showed us how to avoid the crowd while standing in the middle of it. We all had strongly developed individual identities (I did, at least) but we never had a family identity. We were a collection of individuals, not a unified group. Maybe the other girls had a sort of group-thinking, group-identity as twins with Devanie being the third twin. That concept was foreign to me.

I like the idea of a unified group. We have a sort of group thinking with our blog postings. Our blogs are journalistic and communicative. I don't do mine that way because it is what I really want to do with a blog, but those who regularly read the blog don't want to hear my intellectual and philosophical tangents, and I don't want a bunch of snide comments about things that are interesting to me. To be part of the group, I behave as the group does. Mike's blog (every month or so) has a lot of politcal advocacy. He is not part of our group, but he is part of my group. That's good.

I'm a little girl with nothing wrong. I belong to a family who loves me. I'm all alone right now, but I am connecting with a group that spans across the country. It's a tale of grace that's all my own.