The Pollen Among Us

Although I love the warm weather and the beautiful sun we have been enjoying, not to mention the gorgeous flowers starting to bloom (our cherry trees are almost ready to bloom!), there is one thing about spring I do not enjoy: allergy season.

And,Oh, my allergy season is here and it has hit with a vengeance!
Both guys have severe tree pollen allergies, and now that the maple and pines have begun to unleash their yellow coated fury, allergies have kicked into high gear, along with the accompanying sniffing, sneezing, itching, sore throats and discomfort that makes sleeping difficult and outdoor activities fairly misserable. Even Girl and I have not been immune to the scratchy eyes and sneezing, abeit on a much lesser scale than Sniff and Snot over there. A few extra Kleenex and a couple spoonfuls of local raw honey and we're good.
The boys haven't fared so well. Boy is actualy doing pretty good, since these allergies don't send his excema into over drive like some others do. A new allergy medicine added to his regime, the spoonfuls of raw honey 2-3 times a day and a change of clothes every time he comes in from outside, plus limiting his outdoors until the worst has past and he seems remarkably unaffected.
Husband, on the other hand has steadfastly refused my repeated attempts to get him to let our allergist put him on some allergy medication, nor will he take any home remedy, preferring instead to cough,sneeze,itch and moan his way throught the day and night, waking me up periodically to tell me just how badly he is feeling. I don't think my three a.m. response was very comforting, although I do believe it was a quote from a book-in this case Go The **** To Sleep.
But after several near sleepless nights and my paitence wearing dangerously thin, I did finally convince him to take an over the counter allergy med, pop a couple herbal throat drops and take some honey. I think the last bit was only to cover the taste of the herbal drops, which, admittedly taste like gym socks dipped in ass. Not that I know what either tastes like, mind. But I've heard stories...
The effect? He was down for a rest and a couple of hours later, he is up and if not fully 100%, at least he is able to function for the most part. Yeah! Maybe we can both get some sleep tonight!

Food Rules-The Book

So I bought this little book by Michael Pollen-you know, the same guy who wrote The Onmivore's Dilema and In Defense of Food. It's basically a complilation of bits of common sense, housewife wisdom and healthy eating tidbits.

It is a nice, easy book and not a bad way to spend a nice afternoon,which is all it took me to read through.

Since we are trying to do much more whole foods type eating, I thought this would be an easy introduction for us all-and I love the way he is very laid back about most things-not in your face-you-must-eat this-or-die type sermons!

No School Days

Every once in a while, we take a day off from school, not because it's a holiday or vacation day, but for the simple reason that we can. Today was one of those "school free" days.
Everyone is having a hard time adjusting to daylight savings time, so I used that as an excuse to play hookie today! We normally school 10 months out of the year and generally don't do spring break at all, so I don't feel to badly taking a random day off once in a while-not that I would feel bad anyways, mind. I figure as long as we keep up what is legally required for school and I remember to occasionally feed my kids and they remember to occasionally bathe, we're doing just fine.
So what did we do today? Almost nothing! And you know what? It feels really good!
We planted a few plants, spread some straw, and walked the property. Did a quick inventory in the storage room. The kids pulled out some MadLibs and took turns writing marginally acceptable things while I caught up on domestics. Took a walk down to the lake.
Over all I would say this has turned out to be a great day to play hookie-so nice, I'm tempted to do it again tomorrow!

Growing Things

I've been restlessly waiting for the weather to get warm enough to begin my seeds, but in the mean time what's an anxious garden-a-holic to do?
Why, grow celery of course! I recently came across a great little article explaining how to grow your own celery from store bought celery, and just couldn't resist giving it a try myself.
Especially since it takes 2 minutes and zero effort on my part-my kind of project!
Basically this is what you do:
Buy your celery,bring it home and cut off the bottom end, about 2 inches from the bottom. You could skip the second step and do this in the store or your car, but people might be alarmed seeing a chubby middle age woman wielding a knife to poor defenseless vegetables. Then again, in my area, they most likely wouldn't even notice anything out of the ordinary.
Anyway, once you have removed the bottom off your celery, simply place in a container of your choice with a couple of inches of water and wait 3-4 days.
I chose used cottage cheese containers, because I like to keep it classy.
After a couple of days, you should see fresh little leaves beginning to grow from the center of the celery, and tiny new roots sprouting off the other end. Once your celery is growing, plant it with just the new leaves peeking out, fertilize well, and mulch with 3-4 four inches of well, mulch. I just used leaves from the compost pile. Again, I like zero effort. Don't forget celery likes to be kept pretty moist all the time!
You can plant yours outside in the ground-I chose to put my celery in a medium pot, because if left to it's own ways, celery will span out like the petals of a flower and take up a lot of space. I am going to solve this problem by setting a 2-liter bottle with top and bottom cut off over the plant, thus confining it to it own space. Plus I'm hoping to move it indoors when it gets cold and keep harvesting!
Celery can be continuously harvested I have been told-I have never done this, so I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully we will be getting celery until it freezes in the fall!
One added thing-I happened to have 2 celery bunches, one organic and one not, so I did this to both of them. The organic celery grow at almost twice the rate of the regular one,providing an interesting comparasin, even Hubby could appreciate. We wonder if the regular bunch had been treated somehow to prevent sprouting somehow. Hmm... Even Hubby mentioned the organic celery looked healthier than the regular one,so it must be true!
We'll see which one does better when I plant them both. Unless the squirrels eat them that is. Do squirrels even like celery?

Back to the Start

This ad first aired during the Super Bowl, but I only recently got around to watching it. I think it speaks volumes as to where we came from, where we are going, and where we should be heading. Plus, you get some Willie Nelson as well!
Perhaps this ad will give us something to think about, perhaps it will spark some good dialogue,who knows?
It's a much gentler way of getting the message accross then some other ways, and to me, is much more likely to make people stop and think, not just stop and cringe as some more in your face ads can do.
Take a look and tell me what you think of it!

Just a Thought

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It's Tuesday!

We attended an open house at a local prep school this morning, which was both interesting and, as always, a bit eye opening to me. You see, we live in a fairly affluent part of the county, and this particular school touts itself as both a private prep school and as a supplemental program to augment homeschooling. The open house itself was very nice-the school is a private, Christian centered prep school, and I must say I was impressed with the variety offered and the rigorous classes. The school was warm, welcoming, and unfortunately prohibitively expensive. Like $1200 a month expensive, which is about $1198 above our budget.
But what struck me, as it always does when faced with situations like this, is the behavior and attitude of the parents. I was asked what my husband does for a living, what kind of car I drive, weather I have a degree, and what "spa" I go to to get my hair done. I can only imagine how disappointed the women were to learn that I not only color, but cut my own hair,that my car is a 1997 Jeep with windows you roll down yourself, and that I the only degree I have is a Master's in BS.
Although a very nice school, I was struck by the curious fact that none of the women attending asked me about my kids-the whole reason we were there in the first place.
It seemed much more a social evaluation than an opportunity for my kids. And we all know this chicky doesn't do the social climb. Complete lack of social skills and a shocking tendency to swear during casual conversation aside.
Quite simply, I decided a long time ago that if I had to choose between liking myself and being liked by others, I would take the former in a heartbeat, that I would conscientiously choose a full heart over a fat bank account(although that would be nice,too) and that if the only thing my kids came away with as adults is to be true to yourself, then I would be pretty darned lucky.
Plus, I have a sneaking pride in my quirky, redneck tendencies. Give me a couple of cinder blocks, some plywood and a roll of duct tape and I can do anything! I make my own cleaning products! I have kids who can name every villain in every Nintendo game ever made-EVER! We think shows like Mythbusters and Sons of Guns are cinematic gold!
So, I guess even though the school itself wasn't a good fit for us, it did leave me feeling pretty satisfied with what I do have and what I choose to do without, and that maybe, just maybe my kids will grow up to be just fine.