Monday, December 31, 2007

New Year's Eve 2007. It's been a year of very trying times but a good year. How can it not be good when you consider the faithfulness of our God? I am sooooo grateful.

Here is a picture of Grace's foot. This is 27 hours after we discovered her injury and treated her. I'm going to call the doctor to ask them if I'm treating the injury correctly. We don't go to the doctor for Pink Eye or Strep but we'll go for an injury if we don't have the means or knowledge to treat it ourselves.



The curvy cut around her ankle bone has already healed up quickly but the raw skin patches are what concern me. I just can't imagine not being able to control the writhing and jerking of my limbs in order to keep from hurting myself. She was scraping and cutting herself so badly but she couldn't get out of the situation. I'm sure she didn't get much sleep Saturday night. I should have set my alarm for about 1:00 a.m. to go check on her because I heard her squirming on the bed before I went to bed. Dad and I talked about a rail around her bed. This is something I've thought of before but it has to be a solid rail. No hospital bed rail will do for Grace. She'd slither through and possibly hang herself. No we'll probably have to build a big box out of plywood and lay the mattress inside the box - sort of like a sandbox. I'd have to upholster the box with either a coordinating fabric to match curtains, bedskirt, etc. Or I could use a faux leather fabric. The frame would also have to be made to come apart because trying to remove that huge box for out of town guests would be too difficult.

The kids are all home this entire week so going to the doctor would not be fun. However, I'm going to see if I can email them this photo so that they can see the injury that way and possibly tell me over the phone what I need to do.

Speaking of kids being home, it's so tempting to stay up later but funny thing about kids...they don't necessarily sleep as long as you need them to after you stay up so late. I'll do better ...well, it IS New Year's Eve ...so I won't be going to bed early tonight. Maybe we can take naps this afternoon...HA!!! While on vacation we eat differently and we sleep differently making vacation not as restful as it should be. It's funny how we think we can splurge in these areas and "treat" ourselves when in reality we're beating ourselves up. I RARELY buy cold cereal but I do a buy a box of it maybe 3 times a year. I bought a box of Honey Nut Cheerios for Christmas break as a "treat" and the kids finished it off this morning. A little trick that doesn't make the cereal any more healthy - it just adds a little nutrition to the breakfast is crushed nuts. I take walnuts and crush them in the food processor and sprinkle it on top of their cereal - no matter what the cereal is. It adds a little protein, a GREAT flavor and substantiates the meal just a little bit so they're not feeling weak and poor 90 minutes after they eat. They tell me they don't want nuts on their cereal but if I don't mention it they can't tell and even if they know they eat it all anyway.

Speaking of nutritious breakfasts I saw a commercial the other day about cereal. It starts out with animated cereal characters speaking to each other. They're talking about doing a good job at what they do because "Johnny has a big test today" and they were going to make sure he did good on his test. Then the narration in the commercial goes on to say that if you take your milk and warm it up in the microwave and then pour it on your cold cereal, you'll have a very nutritious breakfast that will cause your child to excel in school. Now, I hope you don't fall for such a bunch a bull. Think about it. You take your cold cereal which, fortunately some people are realizing it's not a healthy breakfast and you heat the milk before you pour it on, then you have a healthy breakfast!....just because it's warm?????? First of all, the milk is pasteurized and homogenized and it's full of harmful antibiotics. Then you NUKE it. Then you pour it over your (the ingredients on the box of Honey Nut Cheerios is: whole wheat flour, sugar, cornstrarch, honey (again, pasteurized) modified cornstarch, brown sugar, salt, defatted wheat germ, tricalcium phosphate, vitamin C calcium carbonate, trisodium phosphate, molasses, iron, vitamin A, color, almonds, niacinamide, zinc, preservative, canola oil, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, vitamin D, vitamin B2, folic acid, vitamin B12) and now you have ...nutrition??? Just because you see the vitamins listed on the box doesn't mean you're getting very much at all. Sugar IS the second ingredient. You're getting more sugar and tricalcium phosphate than you are vitamins. This commercial made me wonder, "How stupid do they think we really are?" Don't fall for those commercials friends. Splenda is NOT good for you. Splenda is chlorinated sugar. It's actually worse than sugar. I used to say that if you keep to the outer walls of the grocery store you'll stay healthier. However, that's not so true anymore with processed, drugged up lunch meats and ...how 'bout that Activa? I haven't read the label so I can't say for sure, but just remember the lactobacilius acidophilus and other beneficial bacteria can NOT survive with sugar. So if there is sugar in the ingredients (corn syrup is sugar) you're not really getting very much friendly bacteria. ALSO, if there's fruit in the yogurt - there's SUGAR in the yogurt. Yes, fruit is a natural sugar but it's still sugar.

I teach a two-year-old Mother's Day Out class at Bethel Baptist Church and I have been shocked at what I see in these children's lunches! One little sweetheart has been on antibiotic after antibiotic for ear infections and yes, yeast infections followed that. Mom gave her YoBaby every day for lunch to give her the nutrition she thought she needed. Mom had the best intentions but when I looked at the label of YoBaby, I saw that the first ingredient was milk (again, pasteurized - the beneficial bacteria and enzymes are killed in this process) and then the second ingredient was SUGAR! Mom didn't realize she was throwing her money away and making the situation worse because yeast thrives in sugar.

Food for thought! You HAVE to use your brain and THINK for YOURSELVES when it comes to what you eat and how you take care of your body. Think about it. We have the greatest medical technology in the world yet we're the fattest, sickest people in the world. Do you really think you should believe commercials?

Have a happy, healthier 2008!

A healthy on-the-go breakfast that we have quite often at our house is smoothies...and they're not warm. Recipe below:

The amounts listed below are guesses. This drink has evolved and varied greatly over the 8 or so years I've been making it.

Enough bananas to fill 2/3 of the blender
Enough frozen strawberries on top of the bananas to make the blender heaping full.
Enough raw cream (start with 1 1/2 cups) to blend the bananas and cause the strawberries to lower down into the blender leaving room for more ingredients. Use the pulse button to get the bananas and strawberries mixed up with the cream, then add:

3 raw fresh eggs from free-range chickens
1/2 cup of wheat germ
1/2 cup of raw oats
1/4 cup of raw (unpasteurized) honey
Blend and drink.

(This amount is enough breakfast for all 4 of my children.)

Use your imagination when it comes to the fruit you use. You can use fruit juice instead of cream - just leave out the honey. Remember that you can sneak an herb or vitamin into a smoothie a little more easily than you can into cereal if you're trying to treat your child. One more note: The bananas will cause this drink to gray in color in a short time. If you make this smoothie the night before, it will have an ugly color to it the next morning. However, this is how my kids drink it because I make the smoothie on Saturday for Sunday morning breakfast. The taste is the same - just not the pretty pink it was when you first made it.

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