Tea from my backyard

Warning... this is not the usual herbal tea and some might be shocked at its content!



i sometime feel the urge to do something drastic in my quest for a bit more energy. ok, a LOT MORE energy. my philosophy is, the closer to nature as possible and it should be readily available in the region too. not just some far exotic plants, fruits or what not.

so i eventualy discovered that the one single plant or "weed" we work the hardest at trying to eradicate from our green lawn is a gold mine for the health. medicinaly and nutritionwise too. altho i'd avoid the one in high trafic, the one snow have been piled on all winter and from lawn where they use pesticide and herbicides... yes. Dendelion, very valuable... some even make wine with it... i wouldn't go that far, then again, our yard is big enough that i'm sure i could gater more then enough for that hehe

now you know one ingredient in what i'm drinking right now, are you sure you want to know the rest?

ok, ok, i'll get with it... a few bunches of pine needles with the branches. it's loaded with vitamin C and other good stuff. saved Jaques Cartier and his ship crew from scurvy along with spruce and probably other conetrees. watch out for hemlock and yew, those are toxic. i yet have to gather some spruce needle and make spruce beer. i'm a bit nostalgic of the spruce beer non alcoholic soda we used to drink as kids in Montreal. some gives it quite a list of benefits

the other ingredients i added are more for flavor. i know that dendelion by itself can be bitter and cinnamon stick help a lot to make it pallatable, i never tried it in combination with pine needles before but i thought the cinnamon couldn't hurt. and also a stick of licorice root... also tonic, good taste and very much used in chinese medecine.

i guess time will tell what kind of results i'm going to pull out of it. i didn't think it was all that exciting to make a whole post out of it but since it was a special request, i tried to make an effort. and as you can see, it's not green, it's brown... probably not a whole log of vitamin C left in it as it simmered a bit too long... started boiling as i was captive by the bedtime routine with the kids.

Chantal the walking green lab (as in laboratory, not the dog breed :p)

Too tired to blog

but i guess i'll try to anyway. seem i'm perpetualy too tired lately. and i just rememeber to blog when it's time to shut down the computer. oh wow. Nancy just came online! just what i need to make me procrastinate about getting a good night sleep again hehe.

i just dumped half a bottle of vitamin C in the garbage today. i started to feel funny about them, and took a second look at the label and there it was staring at me... sucralose... a chlorinated sugar molecule somewhat akin to pesticide :| and i've been popping them for hmmm, since Vivian had her croupe. i was also indulging Vivian and Owen to them, and my mom found that Owen was regressing lately... could that be linked together? or the fact he's been tromatised with his burn... he now feel hot meals. will wait till they've cooled down considerably or just not eat.

feel like we havn't been home very long today, left early morning for the farmer's market and kept shopping from there and came back home around 7 pm. it's the 3rd time this week for me, but making a pitstop at some friend's place helps take it a bit more relax.

I was expecting a phone call this week from doctors and still waiting, it's the weekend now so maybe next week? or maybe they decided to keep me second guessing till the psychiatrist give me her report on her evaluation of our son. seem like a far way to go but the pediatrist seemed confident that i should have some help in place by the end of the month?

i feel like i'm just blurting random thoughts, and it's probably what's happening. so i guess i'll stop now and go to bed like i should

Chantal, resisting sleep expert

So, i was told i should blog

*yawn* if i can stay awake that long. i'm so tired. feeling like i'm catching some cold, but so far it hasn't bloomed. my dear daughter on the other hand really got it, bad enough that i had to drive her to the hospital at midnight with 103 degree farenheight and a cough that was chocking her. i was affraid to drive as i was quite sleepy already and i didn't think driving 30 minute in that state would be safe, but i made it. at the hospital they called it a croupe... aparently it's worst the first day. they gave her a medication that was suposed to last 3 days and that's about how long the virus runs for.

they said that i could go home but if it happened again, i'd have to drive back and they'd give her something stronger. but i said, drive back? i'm not even sure i can return home in the state i'm in, i'm soo tired, especialy after 2 hour wait and what if she choak while i'm driving? so he said, it's very simple, since we live a considerable distance they could admit her for the night. so we did... only we got our room at 4:30 am!!! not much of a night left! i might have slept 2 hours at the most. i guess it's better then nothing and the daylight was a bonus to keep me awake on my way back.


I requested for my mom in law to come help some that day, since me and my husband were both so painfully tired that day... he was on his swing shift, suposed to stay up as late as possible and sleep part of the day but had to get up early with our son who had a full night of sleep. so she came and it was really nice to be able to get 1 hour nap.

Owen's hand is healing nicely, he didn't ware any bandage for the first time today.

don't know what else to say, i shoud go to bed, i've just been requested to talk about my healthy lifestyle hehe. well, i try to eat organic, at least for animal product. i don't eat meat at restorents. and well, while i was stuck at the hospital for a big part of the night i got hungry, so i went to check what they had at the cantine... all i could find that was semi acceptable was a whole wheat tuna sandwich...ironicaly, i rarely eat tuna but i had already eaten a can of tuna that day :| ah well, it was better then starving, especialy with a sick kid that just want to nurse for the most part since she's not feeling too well. i also bought a can of V8 and a snack pack of honey roasted peanuts. that's the best i could find at the time. but righ now, the best i can do healthwise, is go to bed. sleep is very important too and i've been neglecting it for quite some time. so i guess it will be my point of focus for the next while... getting in a good sleep routine.

night night, sleep tight
Chantal

Like the change?

I think i do, let me know what you think...

the change wasn't motivated by an urge for something different, just looked like my template was messed up, and then after i made the switch, it was still messed up and then i realised that some image was taking too much space and was the cause of all the missalignement... all fixed, will keep the change for now. i might get nostalgic at some time... or just grow into my new look... when i asked Nancy if i should go for a change, she said, that change was good, like a new haircut and it's free! hehe, so why not? i could also need a new hair cut... seriously. i haven't had my hair cut since some time before vivian was born! over a year ago... when i decided to let them grow a bit. they aren't all that long but they could use a trip to even them out... altho i was somewhat surprised to find no split ends.

now i should go and make fire before i go to bed... gonna be an other cold night
Chantal, working on my firecraft

Insert title here

Now that the kids are done pooping, i'm all pooped. it was a long day today, spent just me and my dear son in town. first for a visit to the spychiatrist, she'll be doing some evaluation on his behavior. after lunch, we go see the ortophonist. it's amazing what change learning to say yes and i want can do to a kid. and after that, was time for an other change of bandage.

I just assume that i have 2 blog readers and my dear husband who drops in every now and then, and all already know what happened to my little Gizoux. if, by any chance, i had any other readers, on labour day weekend, at a family cornboil, he fell in the ashes of a firepit that was not outlined by rocks and was pretty much flat to the ground. no one suspected it was still hot. but his hand found intense heat and burned pretty badly in the short time it took him to get back up and scream his lungs out. it looked so bad, i screamed too when i saw it. my mom had to snap me out of it... good thing also that we now have a nurse in the family. was the longest 30 minutes i can remember, driving to the hospital.

now he's getting his bandage changed every day. it's been over a week and starting to heal. it look much better now that a skin is forming. it would be amazing if there are no visible scarring after all is said. but at such a young age, he seem to have very good healing capabilities. already i find it amazing how it improved in such a short time.

so we spent all day in town, just the 2 of us, it was geting around suppertime and i just wanted to be home as soon as possible. we needed orange juice and diapers, so i stopped at superstore, picked a few clearance items on the way in hehe and through it all, i also had the pleasure to say hi to Nancy. wish i could've chatted longer. it was just one of those long days and i needed to get home quickly. i was expecting the same joy from my son as we were getting near home. i assured him. we're almost home... "no!... don't want to go home!" what? "not home!" but dear, where are we to go? "don't want home" :| i never thought i'd hear him say something like that so young. i guess he really enjoyed the one on one with mommy. we so seldome have that previlege. i guess one on one with dad is really nice but it don't replace quality time with mom at times too. at home it's so hard to do one on one with the demand of 2 kids. what would it be like with 3? or more? i have a hard time imagining it at this point. I still look forward to a 3rd kid when the time come, hopefuly in no less then 2 years.

i was also expecting my one year old daughter to want to nurse like there was no tomorrow when i get home, but again, was surprised. she only sipped a bit and returned to her occupation. and again at bedtime, she did with amazingly little and even walked on her own to the bedroom. what's going on? one day out of the usual makes for a big difference. I think i like it and would like to plan more, our of the usual days. but before then, my mom will be gone for a week and i'm not gonna be able to enjoy the usual help i get from her. so it will be a challenge to gove more one on one until she come back.

just one question totaly on a different subject before i go to bed... anyone seen the new bloger beta? and know anything about it?

sorry for the lenghty post that drags on. maybe if there were more readers, i'd feel more compelled to try and up the quality. that doesnt' mean i don't apreciate my 2 faithfull readers. otherwise, i wouldn't post at all...even if most of the time, you already know everyting i'm posting :p

Good night, sweet dreams, i'm late again, i'm late, i'm late, i'm late....
Chantal

For a good laugh, or not

Lotapooloozoo

Say what? hmm yeah, its a poo zoo here, one after the other, if one poops, you can be 94% guarantied, the other pooped too, or is just about to. and if not, is because one of em has pooped more then his share. poopy!!!! yeah, 2 kids in diappers, both having the runs and a red bum. so i decided to cancel Owen's apointment to the ortophonist in the afternoon, he will stay with Memere and Vivian home while mommy and daddy goes to town to meet the psychologist that will assess what kind of learning dissability he might have. We suspect some spectrum autism tendencies, in a high functionning way but still would need some help getting some things under control.

now i'm relaxing sipping a few glass of wine and, euh well, the piece of cake is gone now. it was good. nice b-day cake. angel cake, with butter cream and straberries/blueberries in a gelly to top it off.

my dear husband announced me this morning that we have a mouse in the house. our cat has been camping in the family room for the past while trying to get it. he say she had it in her mouth a few times but failled to kill it yet. she's good at killing mouses and shrews outside, so what is she waiting for here? in any way, i put a humaine mouse trap near the place Andy suspect she's hiding. it don't kill mouses, it just trap them in a container with a bit of peanut butter and a metal door that flip so it can't get out. we'll see if the trap or the cat will get it first.

and today was the first day ever that i can remember that Owen woke up and darted out of his room saying, "thomas le train, thomas le train" and rushing to the play room... we just bought him a thomas the train play set, and he seem very fond of it. we were gonna buy him a Little Peoples garage station from fisherprice, with a few add ons sets. but for the past few days prior to our b-day gift shopping, he's been requesting to see the thomas the train short shows. and we decided to give the train set action figures a try. we'll see over the next while if he keep some entousiasm for is. or at least enoug interrest to grant expanding on the set in the future. his sister on the other hand, like to be the giant and climp on the table to take the track apart. she's quite the climber lately, she even started climbing on the kitchen chairs so she could climb on the kitchen table. she's quite good at it too. i cought her doing it a few times. but the one time i wasn't looking. she missed her stunt and fell, while i was changing owen's diaper.... remember... the runny poop? so hopefully, this poopy deal will end soon... i think i'll try to stop at a pharmacy to ask about kid's diareah's remedy tomorrow if it dont' get any better.

Night all
Chantal, all pooped out

TIMBERRR!!!!!

today my inlaws came so my father in law could help my dear husband cut some wood for the winter, and also thin out the forrest, because it's terribely thick. By clearing around some trees it give them a chance to grow without so much competition and get bigger. My mother in law also brought me some yellow string beans and some beets, i love beets, especialy with the greens on top. after they left, i called my mom to look after the kids so i could help cut some branches off to clear some of the lawn that is occupied by trees right now.

grumble, grumble, getting late again, grumble grumble, got.. to .... go ....crash down, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Chantal out

No more leaky roof

Finaly, this week, we had the roofers over and they replaced the shingles on both the house and the garrage. it's so nice not to have to worry about heavy rain anymore. it took them 4 days, they were only 3 of em, except on the first day they were 2.

found out, that the fans to draw the moisture from our bathrooms were venting directly into.... our atic : did i mentionned earlier that that atic don't have any ventilation to the outside?
we also finaly fixed the leaky toilette that we had put out of service for probably a month. now i don't have to leave my bedroom to go pee, hehe

now, next on our priority list is:

cutting wood for the winter
getting the furnace inspected and serviced
finding someone to look at our water softener, if it's still usable
and much more

i wish we could have the windows done but after the cost of having the roof done, it will have to wait a year or 2 if it can

we also bought a push reel mower this weekend, it might take a bit longer and be somewhat more physicaly demanding, but it's quiet and no gas cost. considering that it cost us $10 of gas everytime we mow the entire lawn, it can get quite expensive, and our mower is either in bad need of service or about to kick the bucket so we need something else. at the speed the lawn is growing, i can see us spending $100 of gas easily for the summer, if not more. having owen follow the gas mower around bare feet made me quite nervous, that pushmower has me more at peace and it stops as soon as you stop pushing hehe and i can enjoy the bird singing while mowing, something impossible whit a gas mower.

Chantal
P.S. i've had wierd dreams too, but i'm too tired to remember hehe

Empty Septic

Today was an other of those days when andy get home from work in the morning to sleep a few hours before to start his weekend. and i was sitting at the table feeding vivian some food when i saw the septic tank cleaning truck drive in his driveway. and i thought, hey, now's my chance to find out where the tank is and get it cleaned. good thing the guy just invested in a new way to locate ceptic by flushing a "pill" that can be sensered with one of those bleeping wand. so after flushing it, he spent some time searching for it with no sign of it what so ever. he then thought about the original owner of the house and that he knew him and could get in touch with him and so he did and got good direction to where it was... good thing he did cause we'd be still looking for it. it was nowhere near where it usualy is(the back of the house about 11 feet from the place where the toillette pipe goes in the ground) instead, it was at the other end of the house near the front and 32 feet away. and for a bonus, since our dear neybors are getting their septic tank changed, the excavators were on location and were able to dig down to the opening of it. and it was due. nevermind that the sale lady last year told me it was done that year. it's a big 1000 gallong tank and it was full. so very glad i made that move today.

and Andy went to buy a propane tank to try the BBQ that was sitting in the garrage when we bought it... and woooohoooo we have a BBQ that work!!!! yum yumines to yummy yum yum it was goood. after that once the kid were in bed we burned some of the tree brances from the trees that we've cut a little while back and after we ran out of branches we sat to a nice campfire with a bottle of wine. it was a verry nice evening to end a very nice day.

tomorrow is more of a day of running around and it's getting verry late : so hopefully will sleep like a logg, not a burning one, just a log

Chantal blogg a log and a bug bite