Oregano to the Rescue

In October I was introduced to the idea of using oils for more than aromatherapy. It overwhelmed me, to say the least. I ended up with a box of 10 essential oils and a book that told me how to use them. I let the box sit for a month. It taunted me though--every time someone had a sniffle or a fever I wondered if maybe those oils had some value.

I decided I needed to do an objective test. A test where I could see if oils had an medicinal value. When one of my children showed me this toe, I cracked open my usage guide book--a little nervously. I looked up "warts" and oregano was the oil suggested to use for treatment. I asked some veteran oil users how to apply it and started putting one drop of coconut oil followed by one drop of oregano on the toe every night. There was immediate change and consistent improvement over months. After about 2 months, I omitted the coconut oil and just used the oregano. And, now, just about 5 months later, the warts are completely gone.

I use oils here and there. I have given up my stove top candle for a diffuser. I can't say that I swear by oils medicinally, but for this issue oregano was definitely the best way to go. I'll let you know if I have any other huge successes!

The Crazy of this Week

Jeremy and I had a fabulous date weekend last weekend and it was a good thing because I was rested and calm to deal with the craziness that I didn't know was going to happen this week!

Crazy 1: I picked up the children Monday morning only to come home to find that the water pressure downstairs was very low and upstairs there was no water. I texted my man and he told me to press the restart button the water tank--which is under our house. After I did some whining and tried to get Josiah to do the job for a dollar I crawled under the house. There was no reset button. Jeremy told me to go back under to tell him what the pressure gauge said. So I crawled under again. And then I was done. I told Jeremy he married a girl. We just waited for Jeremy to come home for supper. He went under the house and fixed it. 

Crazy 2: I had two babysitters lined up to take care of my kiddos during my endocrinology appointment. They both had sickness issues and cancelled the morning of the appointment. I had a feeling this was going to happen, but I still had a *bit* of anxiety about taking four children with me to an adult doctor's office. Thankfully, I do not have four toddlers and all of the children acted age appropriate at the office. The 10 year old read, the 8 year old played on my phone, the 5 year old sat quietly on a chair and the 1 year old ran all over the office. Our entire time in the office was only 45 minutes. It was nice to walk out of a public place without being embarrassed. I still felt like I accomplished something big that morning.

Crazy 3: We have mosquitoes already and lots of them. I made an anti itch spray using peppermint and tea tree oils. It really works. I've used it. The children have used it when they were really complaining about a bite and shortly after using it the complaining stops. If it didn't stop the itch, I can promise you I would continue to hear about the bites!

Crazy 4: The hole turned in to a cave. The next morning there was water in the hole and it hadn't rained. Jeremy told Josiah that he needed to fill it in to a safe level.

Josiah did. And now it's a perfect hole for Isaiah. Josiah is scouting out a place for a new hole.

Crazy 5: Josiah came in with a balloon with a handful of dirt in it. The idea was to blow up the balloon and pop it--a dirt bomb. So he hopped up on the counter and blew up the balloon. I tied it. He hopped down and I said, "Now get outside because I don't want that thing to pop in my kitchen." As I'm saying that I see that Josiah is holding the balloon and an open safety pin in the same hand. And just as I saw that the pin touched the balloon and it popped--in my kitchen. It was the dirt bomb that he had hoped for. He just hadn't planned on having to sweep up the mess. 

Celebrating Spring

Isaiah's first Easter egg hunt! He had had own eggs and got to "find" his eggs first so that I could watch him and his Daddy could take pictures! We've been having a lot of conversations about entitlement in our kids so it was interesting to watch Isaiah be perfectly content with one, maybe two, eggs. But we kept on encouraging him to find more. (There were six for him.)

The cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents watched from inside. It was cold!

Then the big kids were off! There was no wasting time. Aliza had scouted out eggs while she was watching Isaiah and found her limit in no time. Aliza also announced her retirement from Easter egg hunting.

Anna particularly enjoyed coloring eggs. I tried to explain to her that the longer she keeps the egg in the color, the brighter the color would be. Waiting was not Anna's idea of fun!

Watching Mom and Laura put the quilt in the frame was pretty interesting for some of the children to watch. It was interesting for me! Mom hasn't had a quilt set up in a very long time. This was the very first step. I was busy handing out pins later so I didn't take any more pictures.

Now that we've celebrated spring, it is cold and rainy again! I'll just enjoy every day as it comes.

Thank goodness we live in the country!

Here's what is happening---we are digging to China apparently!

It has been a lovely spring week. We've been outside as much as possible, squeezing school in the spaces.

Singing with a Huge Smile

Aliza had the opportunity to sing with a local church choir in preparation for last weekend's Children's Choir Festival. The children learned 7 pieces since January and on Saturday they had a full day clinic with an accomplished guest director. From the first week of practice, Aliza and I really liked her choir director. Miss Pam is warm and welcoming and really made Aliza feel at ease. Practices got much more exciting when one of Aliza's friends from dance class joined. =)

The day of the festival I dropped Aliza off at 9am. It did not escape my notice that this was the first time that I dropped off a child for a full day activity. I was very happy to see her walk on the stage with a huge smile on her face. She told me it was the best day ever. They had a rehearsal in the morning, lunch, some rhythm activities after lunch and another rehearsal before the concert at 3pm.

If you would like to listen to a song or two, they are posted on youtube. The link is https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWYxKJrjeZ5SlGkt7qCGle29ihD1hljcJ Aliza's favorite songs were Teach Us to Love and Bwana Asifiwe.

The Kids Best Prank--So Far

It was sort of a strange time for a bath--the middle of the afternoon--but I had 3 kids in the bathtub while I was finishing school with the 4th kid. We finished school and I laid down for a bit because I just wasn't feeling that great. It wasn't too long until I knew naked children were running around and then there were exclamations of "Ew...Isaiah...why did you poop in the bathtub?" I hopped up faster than any person who doesn't feel that great has ever hopped off the bed and made a beeline for the bathroom. I rounded the corned to see this:

And I exclaimed, "Why didn't you call me right away?" "AND WHY ARE YOU STILL IN THE BATHTUB????!!!" Then I'm thinking baby child of mine how did so much stuff come out of you? Are you sick?

There was some silence and snickers and no quick movement of the remaining child to exit the bathtub. Aliza says, "Mom, it's CARDBOARD." A wrapping paper roll was brought into the bathroom and got wet and then was easily shredded.

They laughed hysterically. I had to chuckle that they had honest to goodness tricked me without even meaning to. It wasn't a pre-planned scenario. I kept on the Mom face with a stern "You better clean up this bathroom." On second thought I grabbed my camera. They still cleaned up the bathroom.

Joy Dare--February

3148. Evidence of a beautiful day--bike, shoes and jacket thrown aside, shadows, and bucket, sand and shovel

3149. Impromptu catch up visit over chai with Mom
3150. Making dinner for friends
3151. Light enough to play on the playground during choir practice
3152. Spending an evening with a friend that I had lost contact with
3153. Good discussion at Bible Study
3154. Mission accomplished: Aliza after looking at her scrapbooks tells me how she realized how much she is loved
3155. Quick day of school
3156. Waking up to big snowflakes
2157. Getting away
3158. Crossing paths with Meghan's sister
3159. Speakers and seminars
3160. Home with my loves
3161. Opened my mouth which led to sharing without planning ahead
3162. Football--food, family, and a late night

3163. Helpers
3164. Isaiah loves Aunt Janell's shoulder. She gets the best snuggles.

3165. Aliza shares her heart with me.
3166. Pigtails

3167. Mail in Valentines mailboxes
3168. Breakfast for supper
3169. Calling my Dad
3170. Giving myself a break
3171. Mom shopping for me
3172. No little people in my bed last night
3173. Sitting here watching my children run around playing some kind of crazy game
3174. Isaiah just chattering away to communicate what he wants
3175. Anna comforting Aliza--the sweetest thing I witnessed today
3176. One black skirt on the rack and it's Aliza's size--exactly what she needed
3177. Time with nothing required of me--so I talked on the phone
3178. Aliza's first performance singing in choir
3179. Invited a friend to sit with me in church and she showed up
3180. Giving a couple Valentines to people who didn't expect it
3181. A warm house when it's bitterly cold
3182. A propane insert in the fireplace for when the heat stops working
3183. A day already planned to be at Mom's when my house is cold
3184. Doughnuts and milk
3185. A lovely play date
3186. Six kids in a car for way longer than I expected--they exhibited great patience--and I was glad I had my computer and 2 DVDs
3187. The sun broke through the clouds for a few minutes
3188. Hot water for a shower
3189. The bats made so much noise that Jeremy detoured them before they got inside
3190. Being a friend
3191. Josiah doing his schoolwork without complaining
3192. Mom staying with the children so I could go birthday party grocery shopping alone
3193. Happy play day
3194. Aliza must like choir if she's singing a piece at 10pm--when she's supposed to be long asleep
3195. Finding this gem by Anna (Happy Valentines Day, written backwards)

3196. Sinus medicine took care of the headache
3197. House cleaned for company before they arrived
3198. Visiting
3199. Josiah so pleased with his doughnut volcano
3200. Dance party
3201. So happy and excited that children do not want to go to sleelp
3202. Beautiful warm, sunny morning
3203. Her training wheels on a bigger bike

3204. Gramma's Valentine banana split and dessert buffet
3205. Josiah interested in picking out a new book series to read
3206. Phone call from Mexico!
3207. Five children waiting in the car quietly--thanks to a laptop and a DVD
3208. A novel that I am thoroughly enjoying
3209. Dropping off my kids to their classes this morning
3210. No more weather drama than there was
3211. Jeremy was home to eat supper with us
3212. Just enough time for Mom to give me an extra hand in the grocery store with 4 children
3213. Aliza is truly a help to me--and is usually a happy helper
3214. The whole Sheats family together for a meal
3215. My boys on my lap this evening
3216. Isaiah's ways of communicating
3217. Just getting to Friday night feels like a success this week.
3218. Some time to play with Isaiah alone
3219. Giving Anna my eyes--right now she wants to know that she is seen
3220. Aliza had so much fun at the trampoline park
3221. Reaching out and feeling like I make a connection
3222. Calling this boy my son

3223. Finding silliness on my phone
3224. A house with so many windows
3225. Josiah so excited to go with Caleb that he didn't say good-bye
3226. Lydia curled up beside me on the couch
3227. Neighbors who come over to inform me it's been too long since they've seen us--so we visit

Happy 10th Birthday Aliza!