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??

 

Field Trip Ideas, Part I

Looking for good spring field trip ideas? I have two today. One we participated in as a family, and one we attended as part of our small elementary homeschool group.

Just as the weather was warming up, we attended the first day of the Battle of Aiken (SC) reenactment. The Battle of Aiken was a Civil War battle (we ARE in the deep South), but there are both Civil War and Revolutionary War reenactments around the country.

It gave my son a chance to see what he had been reading about for a couple of months.

It wasn't always pretty.

But neither was the war.

But the horses were.

We just participated with a small group of homeschoolers to attend a nice older couple's small goat farm. They breed nubian dairy goats.

Did you know nubian dairy goats eat blue jeans?

Whoa, girl! Those are Levi's.

My son put together a nice summary of his new goat knowledge in his science journal.

So, we were able to work in a wee bit of writing, too, into the school day.
There were chickens and honeybees (not getting close enough to photog them, thank you) and a miniature horse.

Did you know mini horses can be trained as guide horses? Crazy, but true. But they have a slight reputation for kicking and biting. So they double as bodyguards, too.

And, in true farm spirit, we ended the visit with - what else - ice cream (in the a.m., no less) made of goats' milk and last year's strawberries pulled from the freezer.

Perfecto! In all my 40-something years, I had NEVER had ice cream in the morning before. Can't say that anymore!

Love,
TCB

Leave of Absence

I've been gone from my blog for a whole week. Did you miss me? I hope so, just a little bit anyway. I just had too much to do, and something had to go. There were taxes to gather for the accountant, software to install for my husband's small business, more taxes, a birthday (mine - you have to guess how old because I'm not telling you!), more taxes, a goat farm field trip (more on that later), a magazine article with a looming due date, a PR project, and MORE TAXES. Whew!

I may be back on track now.

This is what kicked off my weekend - a professional bull riding rodeo!

Followed by grocery shopping, laundry, and cleaning the guinea pigs' cage. So...the highlight of my weekend was obviously the rodeo.

We are babysitting a couple of guinea pigs - Chewy and Giggles - for the week while their family is on a cruise. I volunteered to go with them on the cruise, but they preferred we keep the g-pigs. I tried.

Cute, huh? I have to thank my friend Bridgette for asking us to keep them. I was actually considering letting my son have such creatures, as he has been begging for them. The babysitting gig helped me decide - NO G-PIGS for us! They are super messy. I let my son get the full benefit of cleaning up after them for the week. Sweeping (maybe 15 times a day?), feeding 2x day, and hosing out and cleaning out the cage (poop and all) every three days. He says he does not want to get guinea pigs anymore. Thanks, Bridgette!
Hope your weekend was wonderful, too.

Love,
TCB

Let's De-baby-fy my Room

Over our Wednesday lunch date, my son informed me we were going to "de-baby-fy" his room this weekend. He said this with chocolate and ice cream all around his mouth.

"What does that mean," I asked? I thought his room was a perfectly acceptable 8-year-old's room.

"We have to get it ready for visitors," he said.  It seems a light blue plaid comforter is WAAAAAYYYY on the baby side. It had to be replaced immediately with camouflage.

"And it needs repainting," he said. I balked at that. I barely have time for all the domesticity as it is, and painting is not something I'm willing to add to the list right now. He agreed to keep "baby blue" walls for now.

I thought this whole "de-baby-fying" thing was going to be extra work for me. Turns out, when an 8-year-old is motivated, he can do amazing things.

Today, while I was writing away on my laptop in my office, across the hall I heard scuffling in his bedroom. Next time I looked, he had cleared the entire floor, put away all the toys in bins, hidden the bins out of sight, shelved all his books, vacuumed and dusted his room, AND CLEANED AND MOPPED THE BATHROOM adjoining his room.

Did you get all that?????????????????????

I have to beg for weeks just to get him to pick up one toy. Let me tell you, I was MIGHTY impressed.

"Let's de-baby-fy my room tomorrow," I said.

Love,
TCB

The March Book

OK...here's a first. I'm only going to be able to read ONE book this month. Even though we are only a handful of days into March, it appears I have too much on my schedule to get through more than one book. Swim practice, swim meet, Cub Scouts, PR projects, writing projects, washing dishes, vacuuming, cooking, anyone??

So here it is....


The Best of Friends: Martha and Me


Were you expecting a thought-provoking best seller? Who knows, it could have been a best seller. Nevertheless.....I have always been enamored with Martha Stewart. Who else could pair housekeeping with cutthroat, kick-your-butt business acumen and make it seem both cool and easy?

This account is kind of a tell-all by one of her longtime best friends, Mariana, who it seems Martha tried to throw under the bus when she was on her way to prison (remember that?). If everything is as Mariana says, it makes you see Martha as a cold and calculating person behind the "It's a good thing" facade.

I'd recommend it for a good read - probably one step up from beach chick lit.

Happy reading always.

Love,
TCB