Life

This is from my 10 yo daughter:

music leader: I want everybody to sing every word using your best voices

my daughter, raises her hand and asks: well, I don't know if I can sing every word because I have a cough.

She was not trying to be funny, she was just really concerned about following instructions. Then tonight:

Dad: It is time to read scriptures and none of you have anything important to say so be quiet until I'm done ( they had all just been reprimanded for wild behavior)

my daughter: Well, what if it is about the scriptures?

I tried to explain to her later that when someone is upset- you should not talk to them and you should wait for an opportunity to talk to them like after reading scriptures. Good thing we grow up in families where we can learn this stuff.

4 yob -- " I can't do that because I don't want to"
later I say: "your teacher says you are really smart and a good singer"
4 yob : "no, I'm not"
me: " do you know that being smart is a good thing?"
4 yob: " Say that again"
me: (I say again a different way)
4 yob: "no mommy, say that again"
I have to start over the exact same way to make him happy. Lots of things have to be his idea.

We have soooooooo much snow. I tried to go to the grocery store last night and ended up sliding on the freeway. Fortunately other people were smart enough to not travel on the snowy roads where you could hardly even see outside so I didn't crash into anybody-- but it was really scary and i called my husband and he told me to come home. There was a scraping sound on the car, so I pulled over and the tires looked fine, so I kept going and eventually something sounded like it popped off and then the scraping sound stopped. I hope the car still works. I'm ready for spring!!!

Sleep Deprived Mothers

This made both me and my husband laugh & laugh:

Starting Flylady again

In my previous life -- before the twins-- I loved following fly lady recommendations. I cleaned my sink each evening and swish and swiped my bathrooms each morning. I started decluttering and it was very rewarding to see my house come together. I was not born organized-- it's not in my nature-- so I needed somebody like fly lady to teach me how to prioritize and make housework doable. I really didn't know-- it didn't come naturally. She helped me so much it was awesome. I never did the full program, but my house was way more under control and a nice place to be.

Then I got pregnant with the twins-- pretty much everything went out the window for 6 weeks during the 1st trimester and for 6 weeks during the last trimester-- all I really did was make dinner and wash the dishes. Then I had the two babies to nurse and care for-- huge amounts of time required. They started getting easier as they grew and I started to focus on my children helping out more their zones and rooms are looking pretty good. Now the babies are one and sleeping well through the evening and night-- it's my turn to focus on my responsibilities.

So this week I'm going to follow Kelly's missions-- I try to include the kids in these and also work on the decluttering habit found here .

Fly lady has been a very good thing for me!! Someday I will be organized and my laundry will be done! There is hope.

My Recipe Blog

I remembered my password so I updated my food blog. I have a new page on menu planning and a couple new recipes up. Enjoy!

Herbal Remedy for Dry Eye

I woke up yesterday with my eye feeling like I had an eyelash in it. When I went to check and try to get it out, there was nothing but red. So I figured I must have scratched it. It was annoying, but I was able to go about my day. By the evening though it was starting to hurt and I didn't think it was getting better. I thought mabybe it was infected so zi started putting in colloidial silver drops. It gave a tiny bit of relief so I started boiling water and made a tea of some herbs I already had that I thought might be good for eyes. After the kids went to bed I started researching on the internet and found out it was probably dry eye-- I had all the symptoms. There didn't seem to be much I could do about it and I wasn't sure how long it would last. I put drops of the tea in my eye and wet a washcloth with the tea and laid down with it. that seemed to really help. Then I thought to mhyself that I really needed to check Dr. Christopher's website www.herballegacy.com I could hardly open eye at this point and it even seemed hard to open the good eye. I really felt blind and started to worry about getting through the next day. I was incapacitated. I managed to look up the eye ailment and got this formula which I have made before:

1 part eyebright
1 part goldenseal
1 part red raspberry leaf
1 part babyberry bark
1/8 part cayenne

I had all those herbs in powdered form, it was tough to find them all, but I managed to make another tea with these, let it sit for 15 min. and then put those drops in my eye and got another washcloth soaked with the new tea and put it on my eye. I couldn't even feel the cayenne I was in such pain. I felt relieved, but when the washcloth felt too hot I remembered reading that alternating between hot and cold water can help stimulate the blood an tissues of the body. So put the now cold washcloth from previous tea on my eye for a little bit and then put the warm one back on and fell asleep.

I got woken up about 2 hours later by my 3 yob and after giving him a drink of water I realized that my pain was gone and it no longer felt like I had something in my eye. I looked in the mirror and found that there was a little bit of pus and a tiny perfectly round beige ball that looked like it had been expelled from my eye.

My eye feels tired and sore now, but there is no pain and I'm sure it will be fine. We appreciate what we have until it's gone. I will appreciate my eyes so much more in the future and I will feel more empathy for the blind. I'm thankful for my eyes!!

The Best Kimchee Recipe

This is a link to an awesome kimchee recipe. I've made it several times and we love it!! Just thought I'd share!!

http://drbenkim.com/recipes-kim-chi.htm

Menu Planning and This Week's Menu -- mostly vegan

Not that anybody cares what I plan to make for dinner-- but this should help me remember!!

1- Hummus and pita bread
2- Mexican-- probably lentil tacos
3- Baked potatoes or potato wedges
4- Veggie pot pie
5- white bean soup with bread
6- some kind of stir fry or peanut butter rice
7- vegan lasagne

Plenty of green salads and cut veggies to go with each meal.

This is a pretty easy menu. I find it's easier to plan meals by dividing the days into types of meals. Each week we have 1 or 2 nights of Mexican such as tacos, fajitas, burritos, tostadas, or enchiladas. One night we have some sort of potato main dish usually baked potato wedges. One night we will have something that involves fresh bread like soup or sandwiches. These are the main meals that most everybody likes. That only leaves 3- 4 nights of other kind of food. I usually make one of them a stir- fry or rice dish, one an Italian or pasta dish, one something with beans like chili, and one ethnic meal such as Indian, Korean, or Chinese. This keeps it interesting. I'm also learning to make huge batches so we can eat leftovers for lunch. I also make extra beans for meals later in the week and extra bread whenever I make it. Same with rice and quinoa. It has been working out pretty well lately.

I've also been making some good cookie and raw treat recipes. The kids also like pancakes- those are easy too. Oh and I have learned to make Kimchee and we are loving it!!

When I find my little phone book with my password to my recipe blog- I'll post some of these.