In fact, I have so much to say, I think I'll break this post into two parts. The first on being an update on life, the second one being my Paleo Thanksgiving.
So, first of all, I can say that this fall/entering into winter has not been kind to us. We've been sick enough, and I'm sick of it! Okay so it could be worse - Harlee is the only one who got sick this month, the rest of us are hanging in there. But we've all had our turns! Wednesday Harlee woke up in the middle of the night/early morning with a 101 fever and a headache. We put a cold washcloth on his head and rubbed a bit of peppermint oil on his temples and within minutes he said his head felt better and he went back to sleep. The next morning the fever was still there, so I gave him a FluGuard tablet (homeopathic remedy) but wasn't real sure if that would do the trick - usually those homeopathic remedies have to be used right at the first sign of symptoms. I made up a remedy cocktail blend in his juice for him consisting of:
Childlife Multi Vitamin & Mineral
Childlife First Defense
Colloidal Silver
He will not take chewable vitamins. I've tried all kinds, he won't do it. So I've turned to liquids and I've been thrilled with the Childlife brand. This was my first time trying the colloidal silver, though. Silver is naturally antibacterial. It's pretty amazing, really. Have you ever heard of the Norwex cleaning products? Their cloths have silver imbedded into the fibers. I had a Norwex party a couple weeks ago - she smeared raw chicken on my counter. Yeah. Then swabbed it with a sanitation test swab from the health department to show it was, of course, unsanitary. Then wiped it down with the cloth - no chemicals, just wet with water - and then swabbed it again: sanitary. Amazing. So colloidal silver is silver particles suspended in water, so you can get those same antibacterial affects internally.
I went to work and instructed Justin to dilute some oregano oil and rub it on his chest and rub Thieves oil on the soles of his feet.
On my lunch break I ran over to the Healthy Nut and bought some liquid Olive Leaf Extract (seriously everyone needs to own this stuff (though I prefer capsule form) - it's so amazing) to add to Harlee's juice and boost his system even more.
Justin and I started taking more olive leaf extract ourselves, along with Young Living's Inner Defense capsules, added to our regular daily supplements (which includes Juice Plus). So far we've been in the clear!
Well, either it was a short-lived virus, or all the stuff I gave Harlee worked, because by evening he was all better and the next morning he was ready for Thanksgiving!
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| It snowed Wednesday, so I snapped a picture of our winter wonderland ♥ |
We went to my parents' house for an afternoon meal. I stuffed myself like I do every year...
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| I was feeling crafty! |
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| Dad and Harlee selfie |
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| Opa and Elliot |
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| Oma and Elliot |
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| No tryptophan crash for us!! |
Then Justin had to go to work :-P. Yeah, gotta love his line of work. He's a boilermaker, and basically the hall calls him whenever jobs come available and he can either take them or turn them down. So a job came up this weekend, Thursday through Sunday, night shift, and it's kinda hard to turn that down with that kind of pay soooo he packed up the leftovers and headed out. Same thing the next day - had dinner with his stepdad's family and headed out again.
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| Made one for Grandma and Papa too |
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| Harlee playing with Cousin Claire and Uncle Kirk |
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| He discovered the carrot cake... |
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| Elliot getting some love from Grandma and Great-Grandma |
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| Chilling with Great-Grandpa |
By the way, Justin is prone to sinus infections and he seems to get one almost every time he starts a new job on nights. He was hacking and carrying on Friday morning so I loaded him up with even more olive leaf extract, vitamin C, and inner defense. I also diffused Thieves oil in the bedroom while he slept. The hacking has since subsided and there are no signs of a sinus infection. Horray!
My friend Rachael came over to keep me company Friday night, which is always fun! Saturday my friend Kim celebrated her 30th birthday and annual chicken soup gathering, which was conveniently moved to the afternoon so Justin got to go, although it was only for a short while. I could have blogged that night... The boys both passed out and I honestly thought about sitting down to write but found The DaVinci Code on tv and decided to watch that instead because I love that movie.
I was determined to write tonight, though. Today (Sunday, which is now yesterday to you readers) was a rather productive day. Justin came home around 9am and went to bed, I dropped Harlee off with Grandma, and Elliot and I went to town to pick up a few things for dinner that night. I decided to have Paleo Thanksgiving with Rachael and Cassie after our Sunday workout, and I was super excited! Picked up Harlee and headed back home where I managed to get a few loads of laundry done, cleaned the bathrooms, swept and mopped the floors, got all the dishes loaded in the dishwasher, vacuumed the rug, tidied up Harlee's playroom, PLUS got the chicken marinading, peeled and cut up a butternut squash, trimmed and prepped green beans, got my vegan pumpkin "cheese"cake started, all while being mom to a 3-year-old who needs help going potty, needs a toy fixed, needs the channel changed, etc., etc., AND a 4-month-old who happens to have the remains of an earache and wants to be held constantly.
How the heck I pulled all that off I have no idea. But I got pretty much all of that done before Justin woke up at 2:30.
Earache - yeah, not fun. Elliot had been a bit fussy for a few days and then I noticed he was rubbing his fist on his ear. I poked around it and he fussed some more, so I put a homeopathic earache drop in it and he settled down right away. Got him in to see our pediatric chiropractor and she looked in his ear and confirmed that yes, it was a bit red in there. I started rubbing lavender oil around his ear (not in it - don't do that) and kept up with the homeopathic drops as well as adding in homeopathic Pulsatilla. Within a couple days he was back to himself again and caught up on sleep. Then I guess it must have crept back in because he was back to fussing this morning (which, again, to you readers was yesterday morning) and rubbing his ear again. This time I texted the chiropractor and asked what else I could do and she said put a little breastmilk in his ear. I had heard of that before... and I had heard of it actually working... so what's the harm? I'd give it a try. I syringed a little in his ear from what I had pumped the other day, diluted some Thieves oil and rubbed it around his ear and on the bottoms of his feet, and he was pretty content after that. I let him play on the floor while I got a few things done (see list above), then when he fussed again I'd hold him, put lavender around his ear, and he'd fall asleep, which is when I continued on with the above list.
Cassie was kind enough to bring over a bottle of wine this evening. As I recap my day I am amazed that I completely forgot to pop it open and toast my productivity and the fact that my sanity is still in tact... How did I forget about it?? Crazy.
Unfortunately Rachael wasn't feeling well so she backed out, but Cassie came over with her two kids and we got in a somewhat successful workout! By somewhat I mean we had to take a break for her son to go potty and for me to call Santa because my son was NOT behaving. Not sure what his deal was my holy moley he was crabby. So I got Santa on the phone and told him to put Harlee on the naughty list. I thought that would work better than it did... no, Harlee continued on with his meltdown so we continued on with our workout and let him be. With Elliot being fussy with his ear and wanting to be held constantly, we incorporated him into our workout and did:
5 Rounds20 squats holding Elliot
10 burpees
10 lunges each leg holding Elliot
10 deadlifts (90lbs)
Basically we passed him back and forth - she held him and did squats while I did burpees, I held him and did lunges while she did deadlifts, so on and so forth. All that up and down motion must have been pretty soothing to him because it lulled him to sleep, which worked perfectly - at the end of the workout I transferred him to his swing and we got on with dinner!
Cassie and I chatted about the whole Paleo thing, and our conversation gave me some ideas of what I can talk about here on the blog. I started writing my ideas tonight, but it got so long I decided to write a separate post just for that topic!
So that's a wrap for this post. Hope you learned something from my story about Harlee's bug and Elliot's earache! Can't imagine rushing my kids to the doctor over things like that and possibly getting drugs to treat them. Obviously that's necessary in some cases, but I feel like pharmaceuticals are way over-used in today's world. Being able to treat my kids with natural remedies that don't cause harmful side-effects is definitely something I am very grateful for!
And on that note, hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
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