Mountain Rose Herbs

My Mountain Rose Herbs order arrived today.  Oh my goodness the peppermint is yuummm!

Grandkids and Dinner

Dinner was compliments of  "The Country Cook" a casserole called Cheesy Chicken and tater tots.  The hardest thing about the recipe was cutting up the chicken and it tasted pretty good too.  I love our new crock pot too!  It's been a little while since we've had one.

I was hanging out at Herbmentor.com earlier and watched a plant walk video done by Jim McDonald and it was definitely an, "Ooooooh." moment.  This particular video was a plant walk vid about Elder and turned into so much more.  He spoke about how the body functions through a fever and what certain herbs do for the body, and that "diaphoretic" means so much more than it's description.  Diaphoretic means that it helps let out the heat, in other words, it helps to relax the system (blood vessels) to enable the flow of heat to get to the outside of the body.  I have been paying attention to the fact that most herbalist promote supporting the body through a fever not so much killing the fever because alot of "germs" are killed by an elevated temperature.  The fever is the body ridding itself of these invaders and is a natural process.  Very interesting and so grateful for the folks at herbmentor for giving me an affordable way to study!

Christmas

Oh my goodness it was so hard on my emotions!  I pretty much cried all day.  I was so happy for my husband and his present, it meant alot that he got something, but at the same time I was hurt because I didn't get anything from anybody.  Then, he goes to eat his candy and didn't even offer to share, so by now I'm in tears lol.  And everybody got a merry christmas text from our youngest son Jeremy, but me, I had to send him one.  Lol and the sad thing is I am still crying today!  It was a tough holiday to say the least, one I will not forget anytime soon I'm sure.  My favorite part of the day was when Josh and Jimmy came to visit.

Just to add, I know these things were unintentional, but boy did they hurt and I was kind of surprised by my sensitivity.

Time to expand that horizon

Just a bit :-).  This is the second time in less than a month that Mountain Rose Herbs .com has sold out of Elder berries.  So, it's time to find another herb or herb combo that I can use to aid me in our defense against cold and flu.  I was able to order some Elder flower and peppermint, yum, as well as a small bit of usnea to try.  I have never worked with usnea and am looking forward to it.

This is elder <3

Off the top of my head, elder works over a cold and/or flu.  I've made elder tincture and a simple elderberry syrup.

Recipe for syrup:

1 cp dried berries
1 cp water

simmer berries for about 20 mins, bottle, add honey, label.
dosages: 1tsp - 1 tbsp every hour on the onset of illness until symptoms abate.  My grandbabies love this syrup!

Peppermint is just yummers, and helps my hubby with his tummy, and usnea, usnea is "Considered a bitter, cool medicine, usnea is antibiotic, antifungal, antispasmodic, antipyretic, and analgesic." and this is a direct quote from HERE.

Day is almost over.  Hubby will be home soon.  And the world didn't end, that's always good.  That said, I leave you with this:

Sunrise

Heh, from here on out it's Post Apocolyptic

First snow of the season, yesterday, a very light dusting. Today is, Yule, the beginning of winter, and, of course, the end of the world.  I plan on staying home today.  Not because of falling meteors, but because some folks here in Wentzville, a small amout, but that's all it takes, seem to be losing their sanity.  And of course I forgot something yesterday when we went shopping...birdseed :-(. Plans for today are to call my kids and say I love you, and hope and pray the world doesn't fall apart from anxiety.  Will do a small ritual to  lend up my energies to our newly risen sun.  Always thankful in all things.

P.S. Finished Laurell K Hamiltons Kiss of the Dead, good read.  Starting Sally Dubats, Winter Shock! Settling in with my cup of coffee, looking forward to my husband getting home from work this evening.  Guh, and laundry and dishes gah! It WAS sounding like an pretty good day huh lol?

Article Bullshit

According to this Snopes article the following is false.  It takes an insensitive bitch to do something like this, not to mention that I am seriously fucked up, over sensitive, just not handling, and shit just keeps going south faster and faster.

"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.


It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.

You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."


Charlotte Bacon, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Rachel Davino, 29
Olivia Engel, 6
Josephine Gay, 7
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
Dawn Hochsprung, 47
Dylan Hockley, 6
Madeleine Hsu, 6
Catherine Hubbard, 6
Chase Kowalski, 7
Jesse Lewis, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Grace McDonnell, 7
Anne Marie Murphy, 52
Emilie Parker, 6
Jack Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Lauren Russo, 30
Mary Sherlach, 56
Victoria Soto,27
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison Wyatt, 6

original article

If you say can't

then you won't.  For now, I can't.  I'm angry, not as angry as I was, at first it wasn't enough that he was dead, shot.  I wanted him skinned alive.  Still angry, that children are no longer omitted from that type of violence.  I am angry that children, as a whole, are shoved to the back of the line.  Angry, because there should be no child murdered, ever, there should be no child to starve, or live in unsanitary conditions.  These things, in this day and age, are reprehensible and I have no idea how to fix it.  I have no idea how to fight because I meet everything with anger, which limits me.  I don't know anything else.  I have not found my peace with this, and probably never will.  Not with anything that has to do with any child that suffers an atrocity of any kind.  I would be a terrible child advocate, even though I carry much passion, I'm afraid I would do more damage than anything.
Gun control, stupid, murderous, people should not have guns, but they will always be able to get guns because they don't have to go through the bullshit the rest of us do to get one.
I think people are going to have to observe more, not suspect like, just observe, the people who are around you.  We don't have the privilege of trusting that people are, for the most part, not going to harm another.  I think it's become very apparent, this no longer is the case.

Innocence Lost

What does it mean, that now as a society, children are no longer omitted from this type of violence? I pray, not only for the families, but our culture, that has degraded to this point.  I pray that there are no copy cats, I pray that this doesn't bring on other shooters who were dormant.

Here are a few different recipes for pepper spray, for those of us who don't have a gun, or maybe prefer not to carry one, pepper spray is a good alternative.

You can also purchase stronger ones, just google pepper spray.

Thankful

I can't...please don't make me...

I know everyone is aware of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, and the stabbing spree in China of 22 school children all on the same day. I can't do this, I was ready for everything but that, please don't make me endure this....
It is all I can do to stop myself from uncontrollable tears.
We took off, seeking mothers great comfort and wisdom.

And this last one is a holly bush in front of Burger King.