Big brothers

Aaron decided he was going to fix Anna's hair for her the other day and this is the finished product. I thought it was pretty cute.

Battle of the un-digesting tummy.

So I'm sitting here, on the computer, way past my bedtime, sipping ginger tea. "Why is that?" you may ask. Well, it is very simple really. My tummy hates meat (or maybe it hates me, I'm not sure which) . Especially certain meats like pork and beef. It won't digest. It'll just sit there and of course I'll get sick as a dog. I think it has to do with my gal bladder, and not being able to digest high fatty stuff, but I'm not sure about that, and I'm not going to the doctor. Tonight I ate these yummy chicken brautworst type things. They were rather greasy. I can usually eat chicken with no problem, but apparently not tonight, and not this type of chicken. So now, I'm sitting here in misery, drinking ginger tea in hopes that it will help my food to digest, so I don't spend the rest of the night on the toilet (I know you really wanted to know that).

So, any of you naturally minded people out there have any suggestions for me and my issue?

For your viewing pleasure, two cute fellows outside my window the other day.

iherb.com

For some time now I've been getting all of my herbs, supplements, bathroom toiletries, and some of my teas from www.iherb.com . I love it, they have great products that we've all seen at the health food store, not to mention the fact that it is considerably cheaper. Even with shipping you still save a ton of $$$. Well they've started this deal where if I refer people, the person will get $5 off of there first purchase and I will get a better discount on my orders. So if you've been looking for a place to get great discounted vitamins and would like to get $5 off in the process (not to mention help me out) then go to the above site and when you check out type in this code

SAR417 .

Thanks!!!!!!!! Sarah

Grumps

Everybody in this house seems to have the grumps this morning. Is this a typical Monday? No not really. We had a long weekend of working hard on the house and staying up late playing games and watching movies. So now we are all pooped out and on each others nerves. This is kind of a recipe for disaster for homeschool ( uncooperative children, and a testy mother). So today we will probably take it easy and only read interesting books and forget about book work.

Ben has been reading Prince Caspian to the kids at night, so maybe I'll read some of that. What else?..... Maybe our Christian Liberty press Nature Reader, and the science book Our Fathers World. Maybe we'll color a bunch of pictures. Or go outside and roll in the mud (or not). Who knows.

Kids microscope set

We got this for Aaron for part of his Christmas. It was $23 from Rainbow Resource. http://rainbowresource.com/product/World+of+the+Microscope+Kid+Kit/032376/1263224312-1566855

Aaron absolutely loves this thing. It's a nice way to help him enjoy learning (and the fact that I can count it for part of homeschool is a bonus). He's looked at all kinds of things. Blood, yeast, dead skin, finger nail, yarn, cotton, tea, coffee, mold, sand and the list could go on and on.

The microscope is made out of plastic. It really is just a starter set. And the x600 setting doesn't work that great, but other than that we've had no problems with it. When ever the kids are older we'll get a more expensive one.

Ode to my electric blanket

So I have a very sweet husband. He bought us our very first electric blanket. (not sure why we didn't by one years ago) We've been fighting the cold in our house this winter and it had become impossible to sleep in our room. We've used it 2 nights in a row now. It makes it sooooo warm. And I don't have to feel trapped under a massive pile of blankets. We got to sleep in our own room last night, and it felt so good to have things back to normal and not feel like I was in "survival mode". I'm sure you really wanted to know all of this, but as you can tell I'm excited. ! :)

Rooibos tea and there benefits

I really enjoy drinking Rooibos tea with milk and raw sugar. It is soooo yummy. I thought I'd let you all know what the benefits are from drinking this stuff. All of the following information comes from www.sbsteas.com

Rooibos is a member of the legume family of plants. The shrub can grow up to 2 meters in height and produces many small yellow flowers in the spring thru early summer. Only the leaves and twigs are used and harvested in the summer and similar to other tea processing methods, the leaves are oxidized which gives the tea it's distinct reddish-brown color. It is often referred to as red tea or red bush tea.

Here are some of the health benefits of Rooibos:

-Completely safe for pregnant and breast-feeding women as well as for young children because it is naturally caffeine free

-It is also extremely effective in combating iron depletion during pregnancy and breast-feeding because it contains no tannins which affect iron absorption.

-Contains no oxalic acid and people suffering from kidney stones can safelydrink it.

-It can help you build stronger teeth and bones because of its calcium, manganese, and flouride content

-Soothes your skin--ise a weak solution applied topically as a face wash or to soothe sunburned skin

-Toss some tea bags in your bath to help revive skin.

-For infants use as relief for diaper rash. Apply topically with a clean cotton ball to the rash with each diaper change.

-Put used tea bags in the freezer to use at the end of a hard day on tired eyes.

-Contains potassium and copper which are good for metabolism

-Rich source of anti-oxidants.

-A cup of Rooibos soothes headaches and eases digestion

-Studies show it contains anti=spasmodic agents, which can relieve stomach cramping and colic in infants

-Rooibos is used in South Africa as a sports drink to help replace fluids because it provides measurable amounts of minerals and electrolytes.

-The longer you brew it the stronger the antiozidants become and will not become bitter even if you brew it for 10 mn.

-Good as a bedtime drink to help soothe the central nervous system

-It contains significant amounts of Vitamin C

This can also be brewed into ice tea. I add 10 drops of liquid stevia to sweeten it and I don't have to be concerned if my children drink it all summer long.

Hibernating

Brrrrrrrr, it's awful cold here. It got down to 2 degrees last night and the next few nights it's going to get in the negatives. That probably seems warm to some of my northern friends but when you have no insulation in your walls and a small stove to keep it warm it can get rather chilly in here. So the past few nights we've brought our beds in by the stove so that we can keep on top of the fire and hopefully stay a little warmer. It sure makes you want to hibernate and never leave the house, but the chickens and cats still need to be fed and watered and wood has to be brought in. The past 2 days it's been to cold to even let the children go out and play in the snow. It has to be at least 20 for that.

We did go sledding one day out of the weekend with our friends Pat and Emily. That was a blast. And it was still snowing when we did it. One person slid into a tree (no injuries) and several people almost slid into the creek (not very deep). The kids really enjoyed getting to be with other children and getting to have some fun.

Ben and I have been talking about starting a homeschool coop. And not just for christians or conservative christians. I'd like for my children to be around some non christians so they don't have some sort of skewed view about the world and who lives in it. Anyway, I have one friend on board and am excited to see what happens from it.

So what are you doing this very moment? I'm sitting here drinking some yummy Rooibos tea which leads me into my next post. .....

Putting up the Christmas Tree

What's new?

So what's new around here? Not a whole lot. Except Aaron broke his arm a couple of weeks ago. He fell backwards and caught himself kind of funny. It was pretty obvious that he had broken something by the way he was holding his arm and crying. It's not a bad break, nothing was out of place. It actually looked like a bubble on the x-ray and the doc said that in a year or so you'd never even be able to tell by x-ray that he'd ever broke it. Unfortunately it is his writing hand and that kind of puts a kink in home school. I'm "dictating" for him. It's amazing how much faster school gets done when I'm writing for him. ;) Here a picture of the Boy with the ER "cast" and sling. He milked it pretty good for several days and enjoyed all the attention he got from strangers. :) He'll have to wear his cast for another 2 weeks.

Thanksgiving!

Wow, it's been a while since I posted ANYTHING on here. What on earth should I post about? I have no idea.

So this is thanksgiving week. What do you all have planned? We will be going to my Dad's at noon and then to my grandparents at 5pm. I wonder how much weight I'll gain? ;)

So since this IS thanksgiving week after all, I guess I'll post some things that I'm thankful for. ....

I could put the usual stuff. You know, house, clothes, food, family..etc. But I won't. What I'm most thankful for this year and every year is Jesus. Without him, life would be unbearable. I would have no hope or reason for living. Lets face it. If we did not have the hope of an eternal future with Him our lives would feel meaningless. All the the mundane things in life could drive a person to a midlife crisis at least once a week. :) But the thought that all of this isn't for naught, gives hope. What we do each day has meaning and consequences. I'm so thankful for a heavenly Father that pursues me. Who isn't content to leave me as I am. Who changes me and moulds me into what I'm supposed to be in Him. Without Him there is no Hope! With Him there is LIFE!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Baby snapping turtles

Caleb came in a few days ago to tell me he found a baby turtle. So I went out to look and sure enough, there was a baby snapping turtle. Well then we realized there were three, and then i started looking for the nest and found it in front of the shed. There were 26 all together and who knows how many more had already left before we found it. We kept 4 of them, gave 4 of them away and took the rest a few miles from the house and put them in a creek. They are sooo cute!

The order of the pictures are a bit messed up.