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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2008 at Wisdom of the Moon

I thought I'd do a little recap of some of my more popular posts over the last year. But, then I realized that I could just direct your attention to my left sidebar, which has a ready-made list. Jeff's opinion, however, is that those who read this in a feed are hugely inconvenienced to have to click through to see the actual site. He knows this because he is one of those people.

Recap of 2008 at Wisdom of the Moon

So for Jeff, and others like him, here are my favorites from 2008.
Thank you all so much for stopping by over the days, weeks and months. I appreciate each and every one of your visits and comments.

Here's hoping that you all have a fun and exciting or cozy and mellow New Year's celebration (depending on your energy level).

Stay safe.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

A Very Merry Homemade Christmas

Whew.

We're not completely done with every last Christmas present, but I can see the finish line from where I'm standing.

Homemade Christmas

1. PC210110, 2. PC210103, 3. PC210092, 4. PC210082, 5. PC210075, 6. PC210073, 7. PC210071, 8. PC210066, 9. PC200061, 10. PC200056, 11. PC200053, 12. PC190041, 13. PC190036

I'm really looking forward to a nice, relaxing Christmas day at home in front of the fireplace... doing nothing.

Note- I've added any relevant links over on the left side under Inspiration From Around the Web.

But, I suppose I should copy them in here for when I change up my sidebars.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Weird Kid Wednesday- Additional Lyrics

Sarah McLachlan (singing): Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Kam (also singing): Treeeeeee.

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Family Christmas Ornaments

The first Christmas after I moved into my own apartment I realized that besides one or two metal engraved ornaments, I didn’t have anything of my own to put on the tree. It turned out to be the beginning of my love of all things crafty as my roommate and I worked to fill our tree with ornaments we made with our own two hands. Lots of sea glass, grape vines and seashells. It was the one and only time that my tree had a theme.

As pretty as that tree turned out, I didn’t want our kids to face their first Christmas tree without a box full of ornaments.Thus the annual ornament swap. Every year on the day after Thanksgiving we draw names. Then we have a little over a month to craft a unique ornament especially for that person. Usually the ornaments have something to do with their current interests and sometimes they’re just holiday pretties.

Each of our four kids now has a box of ornaments of their very own. Even if it does create an escalating issue with available real estate on the Christmas tree, it’s one of their favorite things about Christmas.

These are from Jeff to each of the kids.

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Here are the ones that Kenzi received when she was in her Spongebob phase, which apparently lasted about 3 years.

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Music has been an ever widening theme.

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And these two make me grin every time I see them.

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(Joey made this one for Jeff when she was 3.)

We have ornaments to commemorate trips to the emergency room and nicknames, hobbies and spiritual ideas. Mostly what I love about these is how ridiculously unique they all are, just like my family.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Gratitude Tree

For Thanksgiving we decided to add some leaves to my little necklace tree.

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The girls painted some packing paper (scrounged from the local health food store) with autumn watercolors. After it was dry, we cut out simple leaf shapes and, using a needle, strung each of them with a bit of thread.

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Then we put them all out in a basket for everyone to write on.

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This is one of my favorites.

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It’s from my father-in-law who is grateful for short grandkids and tall sons. I'm guessing that he was probably just being a goof, but I thought it was rather poetic.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Weird Kid Wednesday- Random Note

One of my favorite things about being a mom is finding random evidence of their strange senses of humor.

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Note- None of my kids are named Meggy, Lisa or Izzy.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Fighting Heartburn with Peppers

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had more and more heartburn. For awhile, it seemed like every passing year awarded me more frequent and more painful episodes. At one point, I actually went to see my doctor because I felt like there was something seriously wrong with me. Like I was about to drop dead of a heart attack at the ripe old age of 31. He told me that I had acid reflux and that he could prescribe something for me to take every day for the rest of my life.

Naturally, I wasn’t too keen on that.

Eventually, I found my way to an Ayurvedic remedy, Trikatu. It actually contains a fairly spicy pepper, which, I know, seems counterintuitive to the whole idea of heartburn. But, Ayurvedic doctors believe it’s very important to strengthen digestion with herbs and spices, not douse it with water. Which, honestly, is why I think I used to get heartburn after eating spicy foods, I always drank too much water with it.

Anyway, back to Trikatu. It is a mixture of ginger, black pepper and long pepper.


(This is what whole long pepper looks like. Picture by Charles Haynes.)

I buy mine here. When I remember to, I take it preventatively, like when I know I’ve eaten a whole bunch of stuff that I shouldn’t (pizza late at night, too many beers, giant Thanksgiving dinner) and I also take it after I’m already feeling bad. I never take it on an empty stomach.

And it works. Quickly. Like faster than any regular over the counter stuff I’ve ever taken for heartburn or indigestion.

Once I was describing Trikatu and my stomach problems to a friend of mine. How I don’t think I’m lactose intolerant, but cold milk in the morning tends to give me a stomach ache and how Trikatu helps. She decided to give some to her daughter, whose story sounded a lot like mine. She had actually thought her daughter was suffering from car sickness or extreme stress at school because she got nauseous almost every morning on the 30 minute drive to school.

Two weeks later she called to tell me that her daughter was taking Trikatu every night (it was too hard on her stomach to take in the mornings) and that her stomach problems were almost completely gone.

I feel sure that there are quite a number of people out there that just couldn’t tolerate it. My dad, for instance, tried it and told me that it hurt his stomach. Probably those with ulcers or sensitive stomachs couldn’t handle it. But, for those people whose doctor has given them the go ahead, it has worked wonders for me (and Joey and Jeff and Kam and Jenny and Brad).

IMPORTANT NOTE-
I do not feel that just because something is natural, that it is completely safe. They wouldn't work as medicines if they didn't cause significant changes in the body. And even though something may be safe at the suggested dose, does not mean it's safe in higher quantities. Also, it's important to remember that what works for one person, may actually exacerbate problems in another person with a different medical history. It is for these reasons that I suggest you check with your doctor before taking anything new. (Also, in case you haven't gathered, I am not a medical professional. Nor do I play one on the internet.)

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Related Posts-
Spicy Pee (Natural Help for UTIs)
Acupressure for Constipation
Growing Pains