Eating Coconut Oil

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I have been converted to coconut oil.  
I spread it on my bread instead of butter or marg.
I mix it into my boys' porridge.
I can't get enough of it.
Why?
Because it is good for you!  Yes it is!  Read here for some awesome information on how it might help you with:
* reversing the effects of Altzheimer's
* diabetes
* metabolism
* weightloss
* Candida
* skin conditions
and so on!

I am giving it to Liam to help his brain function and general well-being
I am eating it to lose weight, control my sugar addiction, increase my energy levels and keep my cholesterol in check.  And to help my memory.

This is how I ate it today!

My favourite bread is Aldi's Pane di Casa.  Does your Aldi have this bread too?  I know it is not everywhere (couldn't get it in Hervey Bay for instance). Try it.  It is so yummy and chewy and when toasted it is crunchy as!  I have even dipped it into melted chocolate for a quick churros alternative.  And Aldi's bread apparently has no preservatives.  Good-o!

Toast it, spread it with extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil, top with sliced banana and lightly sprinkle it with cinnamon.  You will thank me for it hahaha.  The coconut oil offers a slight extra tropical flavour but isn't over powering.

Y U M M O!

Hop over here for some great recipes too!

Do you like to include a particular food into your day for health benefits?  

xx

Thieves Oil

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What an oil!

I had a recent sinus problem.  My first ever.  The chiro relieved the pain but the infection was still there.  What to do?  It was flaring up everyday and I was tired of popping pills.

My SIL told me about essential oils and found this info for me.  So one capsule filled with 10 drops of Thieves oil and 3 drops of frankincense, taken before bed one night totally did the job.  The next morning the infection had gone!  No more pressure and the mucous gone!  After two weeks of suffering with no end in sight, my miracle oils killed the infection in one hit!  Whoop whoop! (Can you tell by my overuse of exclamation marks that I am H A P P Y ?!!)

It is called Thieves oil as a similar blend of oils were used by thieves during the bubonic plague in France.  There are a few stories floating around but this one seems to be the general consensus.  So whether they were robbing the dead bodies and exchanged the recipe for leniency or were caught before the plague and were punished by burying the plague victims, these robbers are the inspiration for such an awesome oil blend today.

Have you used essential oils before?  What is your favourite?
Do you have a go-to natural remedy?

What joy to be able to breath through my nose again!  *sigh*

xx

How my neck gave me carpal tunnel syndrome

Or rather, how I thought I had carpal tunnel syndrome, only to find my neck was the culprit.  My neck apparently has an extra vertebrae!

As you know, I recently went to my local chiropractor to fix my dodgy sinuses.  She massaged my face from inside my mouth and adjusted my neck.  The pain relief was instant!

But the real cherry on the cake was the vanquished pain in my arms, wrists and hands.  This is a pain I have lived with for 3 years now, since early in my pregnancy with Dean.  The GP said it was carpal tunnel syndrome and will go after the pregnancy.  But then it didn't.  And I feared that it was there to stay.

Reading Jane's and Posie's battles with carpal tunnel syndrome, I thought I was staring down the same barrel.

What joy I am feeling now.  I can run my fingers through my sons' hair without pain.  I can knit, without pain.  I can rub Rick's shoulders, without pain.  I can type, without pain and I am guessing I will be able to machine quilt without pain when the time comes.  Yippee!

I heart my chiro.  She's the bomb.

My little strawberry man

When Liam was born, he had a small patch of red squiggles on his right cheek.  They looked like faint broken capillaries and were almost invisible on his jaundiced little face.  The only thing we were told at the hospital was "it will get worse before it gets better".  They didn't even tell me what it was!  It took a lovely doctor at my church to tell me it was an haemangioma (blood lump/benign tumor/strawberry mark).  And it did get worse!

I used to never really notice it getting worse, or rather didn't want to as all I wanted to do was to love and nurture him.  But I was always reminded of it in public.  Really stupid people would come up to me and blatantly ask me what was wrong with him! What's that on his face?  Did you burn him?


The crazy thing is, no one wanted to actually listen to my answer.  It's like their eyes and tongues were disconnected from their brains and they just blurted out their shock of his appearance like an uncontrollable verbal fart.  In my head I would scream don't ask if you don't want to know!  I did tell more than one person to mind their own business and what's that on YOUR face?


And then there were the double-takers and the starers.  Some people, I've discovered are extremely underdeveloped socially.  I would come home and have a little cry.  Not out of embarrassment or shame of his face, but from fear that this silly red splotch on his face could one day tell him he was a freak or worthless because that is how some adults were viewing him.  Even at my church a few people recoiled in disgust at him!

Not everyone though.  There are some people in our lives who have always seen his beautiful eyes, smile and funny personality.

I started doing some research on haemangiomas and was overwhelmed.  I went to a plastic surgeon at Sydney's Westmead Hospital who told me that there was nothing you can do and it may go after 20 years!  This is after he stuck his unwashed, tobacco stinking fingers in Liam's mouth!  It took me months before I went to a private surgeon for advice.  Months that were critical and therefore meant I missed the boat with one of the treatments available.

Then I just gave it over to God.  All of it.  And I believe He told me to wait.  Wait and see.  And you know what, it began to involute quite quickly.  The redness and bulkiness have all but gone.  We are still facing the possibility of surgery but I also believe God may have another plan yet.

This is the same little man who suffers random seizures and yesterday I was told he has significant hearing loss in his left ear.  I am praying for God's direction and trust Him to guide me as Liam is not only my son, he is His son too.

xx

Surprise feelings

Some cheerful spring blooms from our garden last year.  My internet connection is having a bad turn so I couldn't use the image I wanted 

I have to laugh at myself.  This morning I managed to sneak a bit of time online before heading out for a busy day.

I jumped on my blogger dashboard to check out the comings and goings of the blogoverse and noticed immediately that I have one less follower.  What a surprise I got from the instant emotion that I felt.  What?  Who doesn't like me?

I laughed because I have been quite happy having a low readership.  There is less pressure and I still feel like I blog for myself and my bloggy friends, not for comments.  And along the way, some of the most delightful sweet souls have encouraged me, instructed me and empathised with me.  There is something amazing in this virtual world.  I do love your comments but I don't worry if some of my posts don't attract even a page view.

But when I saw 35 instead of 36 I felt a pang of sadness.  Like I have let someone down by my erratic posting, or tardy replying or a simple lack of interesting content without any creative photos (I'm an impatient photo taker).  Or perhaps because I wasn't following back?

Do you follow everyone who follows you?

I would like to think of myself as an honest person with interests in many different things.  I follow a stack of beautiful blogs.  But I don't follow blogs that I can't relate to, aspire to or learn from.  For no other reason than I get overwhelmed by so much out there.

But then tonight, as I opened up my dashboard to tell you about Liam's trip to the audiologist, I saw that I had a new follower!  Welcome!  (I'll be over to your blog soon, The Pistachio Tree, once my mobile internet finds a better connection as it currently is crashing on your site**).  And the new total of 36 once again, did make me happy.  But it's not a number thing, it is that someone else finds a chord has been struck here.  That's nice, really nice.  Ta for that.


That's all I can muster tonight. 

Today ::
I laughed at: this post by Maxabella
I ate: extra virgin coconut oil and felt great
I listened to: my little boys sing when they thought I wasn't listening
I felt: the pressure points in my back get massaged by the chiro before she adjusted me and now I feel incredible!
I watched: Liam fail a hearing test.  I will tell you more later as I digest this and figure out what I am going to do next. Don't worry, it wasn't conclusive as he wasn't really co-operating (no surprise there!)

**Apologies to any regulars that I haven't reciprocated a visit, it would have been an oversight not a deliberate act xxx

Today ...

I am nursing a bad tooth or an angry sinus.  I don't know which.  The two seem to be amazingly connected in the worst possible way today.

These are my symptoms:
1) A really really sore tooth but it isn't 'cavity sore'.  It was root canalled 17 years ago and now it feels like all the internal scaffolding is jabbing into my jaw, sending pain straight into my left sinus, left eye and above, across to my ear and then back down again into my lower jaw, directly under the offending tooth.

2) A horribly painful sinus which may be caused by the tooth or my sinus may be the culprit!

3) Inflamed gums around the pain

4) Super-duper cranky pants at every body.

I awoke a few days ago, in the early hours with a dry mouth and aching teeth.  It was arctically cold and my blocked nose caused me to mouth-breath all night.  Can you get a 'chill' in your mouth like you can in your back if left sitting in a draught?  I am momentarily relieved by hot drinks much like a heat pack would for a twinged muscle.

Everyday I think that it is going to get better so I don't call in the professionals.  But today I couldn't bear it any longer.

I rang the dentist - no appointments, and he will be going away for 3 weeks.  The dental nurse patiently listened to my list of symptoms (well, she did ask!) and suggested it could be my sinus and to go to the GP

I rang the doctor - booked out, perhaps tomorrow? (car is in service tomorrow)

I rang the chiropractor - tomorrow at 2.30, which made me laugh because that is exactly what I am feeling 'tooth-hurty'!  I figure the chiro can crack and adjust something in my neck, ears, face (!) to relieve the sinus pressure.  And by 2, the car should be ready or Rick may be home.

I can't do/think of much else right now.  My little business venture has come to a grinding halt.  As it turns out I am not very good at being a nurse and housewife while starting up a business.  That's ok, slow and steady etc.

But I had a little time to myself and used knitting to divert my attentions elsewhere.

In my newly converted ways, I have knitted up two more dishcloths.  But these are not for me.  I am actually going to give them to an expectant mother for baby wash cloths.  They are quite small due to the small yarn and needle I used, and better as wash cloths than for dishes.  Here is the flower pattern and here is the rain drop pattern.  You need to register to their website- its free

And I knitted up this little newborn sized beanie.  It will be cold when the little fella is due to make his entrance, so a woolly cap may be handy.

A few notes on the pattern.  There are errors in the pattern which I found out after I knitted it up originally (no photo).  This is the first time I have made it since I found the errata on Amanda's website.  I think there are errors in her corrections too.  I can't tell you what they are as in the end I just went with my instincts. Now, that is dangerous considering the amount of blinding pain I am in!

Then I couldn't decide on a pom-pom or not.  I wouldn't normally go with a pom-pom but my free-styling toward the end may have caused the slight pointy-cone look to the top of the cap.  I guess I can attach it and tell my friend to cut it off if she doesn't like it.

Knitting is so therapeutic.  I often rustle up beanies when the distraction is needed. These I did a few weeks ago for a friend's pigeon pair.

What do you do to distract from pain or stress (other than painkillers!)?


xx

A dishcloth convert

Well, I figured you were all making dishcloths, so I would give it a go too.  Initially, I thought it would be an exercise in practising pattern stitching.  I didn't think I would actually use it.  

But I am using it. 

I love it.

It wipes better than any sponge or chux wipe I have ever used.  (I am using it for wiping down surfaces, not actually for my dishes as I prefer the little hand mop or brush thing)

I will pop it in the wash when it needs it.

I am knitting up more.

The pattern for this one is here

I am also knitting up this one

I used Alpine Spritz 60% cotton 40% acrylic as that was the only cotton I had in my stash- hope it still works as well as pure cotton.  I also adapted the pattern by adding some more stitches and rows.

And you can find some more patterns here. 

What's your favourite pattern?  I'd be really stoked if you could leave me a link in the comments.

And yes, I was so proud of my new dishcloth, I took a stack of photos of it.  Sad.

xx