The Most Peaceful Time of the Day

I'm writing this during the most peaceful time of the day. In the spring, that's around 7 pm to 7:30 pm. The sun is fading, the birds are calling their last calls, and any close neighbors (I don't have too many) are either inside eating dinner or running their kids to sports practice. I happen to be alone, which is peaceful enough. But closed up inside the house is not the kind of peace I'm talking about. I'm working at the computer with my office door open onto the outside porch, and I am hearing only nature. That's so much more peaceful to me than even pure silence. I hear the cry of the owl-monkeys...uh, pileated woodpeckers....it's a joke name we give them around this house because their cry sounds like something in the Amazon jungle.

After the unpleasant activities of the early afternoon - paying taxes online and finding a collection agency for clients who don't like to pay - I started to unwind with a little springtime planting, adding cucumber and sweet red peppers to the vegetable gardens. And a WHOLE BIG BUNCH of impatiens to the shady deck. I noticed the clematis were looking lovely on the trellis.

JT, my baby, did a little farming on the tractor.

Did you buy that? (A) My "baby" is not allowed to plow the field at his tender age, and (B) Doesn't this look suspiciously like a tractor from about 1920? It's actually a photo from our field trip this week to Biltmore House, the nation's largest house, in Asheville, NC. It was one of the few things he was allowed to touch there.

Anyway, I digress. If you need to decompress, grab yourself a glass of iced tea and head outside to sit on the porch around 7:30. Your blood pressure will drop a few notches.

Take a load off -
Love,
TCB

The Book I'm Reading in April

I'm focusing on one book this month, as it is a busy spring month for finishing school activities and planting my garden and flower beds. I'm re-reading an important book my sister-in-law was so nice to give me some time ago: Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp.

The main premise of this Christian child rearing book is that, as stated in the Bible, "out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." Tripp teaches parents how to address heart issues and not simply require rote obedience from their children. God has put us parents in charge of our children, and we should direct them toward a biblical perspective when it comes to obedience, not just make them obey because it is convenient for us.

This book contains deep spiritual lessons about parenting. I read it once many years ago when my son was an infant, but it is so much easier to digest now that I have a "tween." There is also a section for teenagers, and who doesn't need help with that??

Happy reading. I'd always like to hear about what you're reading now, too.

Love,
TCB

Pollen Fighter

I've found the perfect pollen repellent for my screened porch furniture. Yes, you can afford it. No, it isn't high-tech at all. Yes, it works 100% of the time.

Ta-da!

Plastic.

It took me 11 long years to finally get smart enough to outsmart pollen. It falls and blows like nobody's business around our house in the spring since we're surrounded by hardwood trees. And every April and May, I watch it pile up on our porch furniture, dreading the day when I will HAVE TO TACKLE THE HUGE MESS AND SPEND MY ENTIRE SATURDAY CLEANING IT UP.

Enough said.

No, this isn't your Grandma's stick-to-your-rumpus plastic for the good parlor couch. You don't want to sit on this stuff. Your b-u-t-t will be yellow. But I think the ugliness is just fine by me for a few weeks. This spring, I'm spending my extra Saturday at the mall. And Starbucks. And Mellow Mushroom.

How did food work its way in? Sorry, I digress.

So take a lesson from me - the I-finally-had-a-simple-idea-that-saves-me-tons-o-time girl - go get you some plastic at your local big box retailer and cover up the furniture! Save the party for late May when the sheeting comes off!

Happy homekeeping,
TCB

Why I Love Saturdays

Everyone loves weekends but for different reasons. I actually like to work on weekends, but it's a totally different kind of work from weekday activities, so I really enjoy it. All week long I use my brain - homeschooling math and grammar and 10 other subjects, writing for magazines, and completing PR projects for clients. So I love physical labor on Saturdays. It's a change of pace, and I enjoy the sense of accomplishment it brings.

So this Saturday was "getting the raised vegetable gardens ready" Saturday.

First, I put together my new beds. Yay!

Then I made my soil concoction - vermiculite, cow manure, mushroom compost, chicken manure, and peat moss - and added it to the beds.

I'm trying the Square Foot method this year, so I added my grid.
Looks easy but it took a couple of hours and some muscle.

Next came a few tomato transplants. I love tomatoes! A Southern garden is not complete without them. Amen.

This is what others were doing on Saturday.

PS. I did not color coordinate his outfit.

My husband was actually helping me mix the dirt and drive the four-wheeler (hey, wait a minute - that's not work, it's fun).

Then I snuck around back and planted this mossy ground cover in the large patio pot that holds my Japanese maple tree.

The goal is for it to cover the inside of the pot at the base of the tree within the next few weeks.

Then I took a few pictures of the finishing touches added to the new chicken coop.

Hope you had the perfect weekend, too. I'm missing it already.

TCB

Why Does My Freezer Look Like This?

Why does my freezer look like this?

Well, actually it doesn't today. This is how it looked at the beginning of the fall season. Now all the little white packages take up about 3/4 of the same space in my freezer. The little white packages are all venison, in various forms. Did you know deer meet is very low fat? I often don't even have to drain it when I brown it for recipes. If it is prepared correctly in the field, it doesn't have a wild taste. Often, my family doesn't have a clue whether they're eating beef or venison.

Why is this important today? Other than it's another way to sneak a little healthy into your suppertime?

It's raining today. Just like almost every other day this week. And I've run out of groceries. Who wants to drive all the way to town and then lug groceries in the rain out to the parking lot and into the car? Hallelujah for the stockpiled freezer. Looks like we're having venison meatloaf tonight.

Know where I got my stockpile? I knocked a hunter over the head as he was loading his truck at the meat packing plant.

April Fools.

I'd never do that, silly. I just asked him real nice-like at the beginning of the season if he'd save a couple for me. I only had to pay a $55 processing fee per deer. Seems like a good deal for 6-12 months of meat (depending on how much you eat!).

Love to you,
TCB

Treating Headaches Naturally

My son has suffered from migraine headaches for the past three years. Along with a pediatrician's help, we discovered they may be triggered by drops in blood sugar caused by going too long between meals. Adding snacks seemed to help the headaches dissipate somewhat, but they still sometimes cropped up without warning.

If you've ever suffered with migraines, you know the onset of one pretty much means the end of your day. My son would have to go to bed in a dark room and sleep it off until the next morning. He missed a few fun activities along the way, like a Monster Jam and fishing trip with Dad.

Since I am a big proponent of natural remedies, I decided to see if we could treat his headaches in a manner better  than a daily dose of ibuprofen.

One product we tried is called PastTense, an essential oil that comes in a roll-on bottle. I purchased mine from a company called doTERRA, whose oils are very pure. When my son feels a headache coming on, we roll a "stripe" of PastTense across his forehead and at the nape of his neck. It almost always alleviates the headache within 1-2 minutes. I have lent my PastTense to others to try, and they all have experienced similar results. I have written about essential oils before, such as in the post Essential Oils for Good Health.

PastTense contains many individual essential oils:

• wintergreen
• lavendar
• peppermint
• frankincense
• cilantro
• roman chamomile
• marjoram
• basil
• rosemary.

We also are experimenting with making sure he adds more magnesium into his diet, so he never gets to the point where he needs PastTense. Our sources have been nuts (almonds mostly), seeds (roasted pumpkin seeds are a favorite), broccoli, raw spinach, and brown rice. Magnesium deficiency can cause migraines. Magnesium is known to relax muscles and blood vessels. This magnesium focus has been helpful in alleviating headaches for my son. Every headache case of course is not simplistic, and I'm not suggesting doing what we are doing will solve everyone's problems. But for us, this natural course has worked. I am happy to put away the ibuprofen.

In good health,
TCB

Life-Work Balance

I got a chance to visit my college friend Jolie in a neighboring state last week. I realized how blessed we are (and I know we are not the only ones) to be able to add to our household income by working without excluding our children.

She is able to work as a part-time preschool teacher, taking her three children to work with her most mornings when they are "tracked out." They attend year-round school, so some months they are off during non-summer months. How wonderful it is to be able to provide while still keeping an eye on your children and teaching them the value of hard work.

I homeschool and am able to complete media relations projects and writing assignments at my home office during non-school hours or while my son is studying independently. What a blessing to be able to finish a last-minute magazine article assignment during the evening while my son is snoozing or on the weekend while he is having fun with dad. With the proliferation of technology, it is possible to do both and do them both pretty well.

Although technology is often blamed for creating a 24x7 stressful environment, my experience has been that if you know how to put it all in perspective, technology can be an enabler to true work-life balance.

Hope you find your balance on this Monday.

Love,
TCB

My friend Jolie doing her "teacher thing" with her kids and mine at a science museum. I know, I know, some of the kids are blurry, but did you really think I could get four kids to stand still at the same time??