New Teenager, Singing, Frozen Pipes, Cubs, Exercising, Free Haircut

M turned 13 years old on December 3rd. Wow, I can't believe she's a teenager. She wears mascara to church now, and she's so mature. But she's still short and has an young physique, so I have a little time to get used to her growing up..

I've been practicing with the stake choir since November. It's been tough to fit it in to our already busy schedule, but OHHH so rewarding. The songs are wonderfully complex and I love the special feeling I get when I sing music in a unified choir, especially music about Christ.

The water in the cottage froze when the renters didn't keep their pipes dripping. Who knew it was going to get so cold!!! I love clean, readily available water, and I glad that I can normally take it for granted every day.

At the last pack meeting, S earned his Wolf and A earned two more WeBeLos pins--he's getting close to his Arrow of Light.

Hubby has a 3 months free gym membership through his work, at a gym near his office. We've gone 5 times now, at 5am (so we can get back before baby M wakes). It feels really good to work out like that. I'm glad Hubby's going with me since I am a social exerciser (exercises best with other people)! And I’m really hoping that 5 times makes a habit!

Sth gave a talk in Primary. He did a great job. He talked about being a wiseman in our Christmas Eve Nativity play, and giving the gold that Jesus's family used to flee to Egypt.

E cut her own hair. She was wearing a headband and some hairs were sticking up. Clip Clip. We can hide it if he bangs are curled. That didn't happen this past Sunday, so she got some knowing comments on her hairdo. I need to take a photo!

I was holding baby M in sacrament meeting when he looked over, saw S, yelled "Hi! Hi!" and dove from my arms into S's. I'm glad he made it, and it was so cute to see how happy he was to be held by his brother. He saw M give a talk in that same Sacrament and I had to take him out because he kept yelling her name.

For Christmas Sth handmade books. The coloring books were titled, “A Great Book To Color” and filled with hand sketched drawings. To Hubby he gave a book called, “A Book of 50 Dinosaurs.” Watching Hubby read aloud each dinosaur name, and the accompanying fact and look at each hand drawn dinosaur sketch—Sth was so excited and proud of the appreciation of his gift. “It took me four days to make that book!” he told Hubby. Very precious.

Aunt K hand stitched the names of A and S onto their own apros and oven mitt. They are very excited to cook in their “chef” apparel. S made cookies from a mix with great enthusiasm. Alas, someone turned off the timer and so they ended up too burned to eat. But he’s ready to try again.

I tried on 60 pairs of jeans all over the mall before I found one that fit just right! I am so happy about finding jeans. I wear out the knees of my pants doing kid things and I needed pants! Hubby gave me the pair for Christmas. In fact, I am wearing them right now. And, no knee holes!

Primary Children Video

This is a video I did of the Primary Children in my ward. We have the best Primary kids!!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from us to you!!!

Elder D comes home

My brother in law, D, returned home from a mission to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Here's his Mom (on the left) rushing to greet him in joyful happiness.

Now isn't that a Mom who hasn't seen her son in two years. What a hug!

My 4 year old didn't want to hug her Uncle-stranger, as you can see by the way she's looking at him. My 7 year old just waves the American flag to welcome him.

The plane was late. My kids were getting squirrely. So I took pictures of them. Can you believe that I didn't even ask them to pose? They're naturals. Ha.

Disneyland!!!

Disneyland! The name is full of magic and fun and so is the reality! Here's the Matterhorn. My Mom lived in Anaheim as a girl, and she saw the Matterhorn being built (sorry Mom, that dates you).


Disneyland is also full of walking, crowds and hurrying up to wait in line. Ok, this'll sound so geeky, but if someone offered you a way to decrease your line wait and walking around Disneyland for $15, it would be worth it, right? It's totally worth it! Ridemax is software that takes your day, time and desired rides, and figures out the best, quickest way around the park to those rides. At first some of the family thought I was a little overboard (who, me?). But when we got into line at Ridemax's suggested time, and within 10 minutes there was a huge line BEHIND us, then I didn't seem so OCD. After that happened 3 times in the first day, then we all were impressed with Ridemax. I was able to map out a toddler itinerary and a teen itinerary, and it sure helped our group enjoy Disneyland and California Adventure more.
This is only part of our group. We didn't take that many photos. It was so hard to get a group our size to stand still--everyone wanted to be off having fun.
Something that I hadn't considered about Disneyland is that there is no place for infants to get out of their stroller and crawl around at Disneyland. California Adventure has a play area. Universal Studios has a GREAT play and water area and so does Sea World. Disneyland has very few spots, but the Tikki Room is one. We'd been walking and playing for hours, and taking time out for the Tikki Room was perfect. We got to sit on benches (MMMM, sitting) and I could get baby M out of his stroller. He couldn't walk yet, so he held onto the benches and smiled so much. He was very happy to be out of that stroller. The show was a little corny, but we felt grateful for the interlude. And the little kids still can sing the chorus, "In the Tikki, Tikki, Tikki, Tikki, Tikki room...."
Family is the main reason we took this vacation. Hubby's sister and her family were going, and they invited us all to go at the same time. This is A playing with his cousin I--and firming up relationships between cousins was one of the main reasons we went to Disneyland. Look at those two friends! I love it. And they had such a good time together. Nice expression Uncle J (behind A and I).
This is SL who is so excited to be riding a horse, even on a carousel. Especially without hands. And that's all the photos we had. Too much fun for photography, but now I regret it. I'll have to grab photos from the other relatives.

Renting John Wayne's old house

We stayed at the most amazing home in Pauma Valley, California. It was 45 minutes from San Diego, and used to be owned by John Wayne. It slept 26 people--in beds--and so with our group of 20, it was perfect. Even better, my sister in law negotiated a deal, since it was the off season. With a huge kitchen, tables enough to seat us all, comfy beds, on three gorgeous acres, in a luxurious, yet comfortable style--you'd think I was a walking commercial. We had our itinerary planned out so full that we weren't able to enjoy the grounds except for Sunday, but it was cheaper than hotel rooms for our group and so beautiful!

The only problem was its distance from Universal Studios and Disneyland. After a full day of theme parking, it was hard to stay awake driving home.
Aren't the gardens beautiful? Here I am admiring them.
E liked pretending she was Cinderella outside.
ST had a great time, digging and collecting "treasure" outside.
Some family game time. It would have been an awesome vacation just hanging out at the Wayne house. Going more places took the vacation into the realm of AMAZING.

Traveling to California

We drove our 12 seater van full to the brim with our family (our six children and Hubby's parents and two siblings) to California. It took us 16 hours to get there. Did we really take 4 hours worth of potty stops? And we have four boys!

ST enjoying the ride--and he did, for the most part.

This is A pretending to be car sick. No one was carsick. I consider that a blessing from God. He knew we wanted to like each other after the trip.

This is a chipmunk that the kids fed at a rest stop. It obviously had been fed before. We didn't get a photo of the fattest chipmunk ever. Theodore???
See A feed the wildlife. I know, you're not supposed to feed the wildlife--could these tame chipmunks be considered rest stop pets?

Scienceworks during Spring Break

During Spring Break we took a trip to Scienceworks, a local kids museum. There was a show and M got to hold an exploding film case (filled with vinegar and soda) and SL, wearing very cool safety glasses (can you see the nose), got to pour a clear liquid that turned purple in a different beaker. The bubbles were very huge and cool.

Laundry Jackpot, Voots, Mulch Gardening Theory, Bribes

Getting ST (6) to take vitamins has been an eternal battle. We’ve got him to take what we call “dots,” which are small pink B12 chewable pills. Anything else I’ve had to sneak in. At Costco I just found Voots, which concentrate 3 servings of fruits and vegetables into 2 chewable pills we’ve been calling Giant Smarties. ST has been taking them for a week! It’s a big deal around here. His diet is so self-limited that I’ve been worried about his health. Last night, for the first time in his life, he said he didn’t want any milk before bed. You have to be around our house to know that he’s been very attached, addicted actually, to milk and cutting it down to one cup at bedtime has been a marked achievement that took a long time. To have him say he doesn’t want milk----that’s huge! I consider it a large step on his road to recovery from autism.

Our soil is decomposed granite—which is very useful for making roads, but not so good for growing gardens. My outdoor garden area is currently grass. So I have two things I need to do: improve the soil, and not till it because I’d be picking grass out of the garden beds for ages. Plus we have unknown amounts of underground pipe and wires that we’d have to till around. This has led me to mulch gardening and raised beds. In Utah our raised bed garden had so few weeds I could keep up with it pregnant (and with my sick pregnancies, that’s saying a lot). This week we laid down cardboard over the grass (to kill the grass and to decompose eventually) in three large garden beds. We layered in four inches of leaves, and put a couple inches of a garden soil/compost mix on top. I’m very excited for these large beds (we’re going to have a huge garden this year) and I’m hoping that all the theoretic information I got from books really works in real life. My favorite gardening books are: The Mittleider Method, Square Foot Gardening, Lasagna Gardening, Jeff Ball’s 60 Minute Gardening Book, Four Season Harvest and The No Dig, No Weed Garden. Any ones you think should be on the list?

A’s (10) job is laundry. The deal is, if he finds any money, up to $1.00, he can keep it as a tip for doing wash. Any money over $1.00 is returned to me—since it’s probably mine (if my children have that much money, it’s either in their bank or in their pockets on the way to a store). Adam found a whopping $20.00 floating in the washing machine. He asked Hubby if he could keep it, and a distracted Hubby said, Yes. It was spent soon after on a Lego set (A, SL and ST pooled their spending money to buy two Lego sets). I was appalled that I’d lost that much money (although pleased to see my boys combining resources…) and I re-iterated the laundry tip rule with A. But since then, I find myself checking my pockets before throwing my jeans into the laundry pile. It was a $20.00 lesson, but I’ve finally got it down----Check Pockets Before They Are Washed. Tuition in the school of life.

We got a truckload of compost and that hill has turned into a cool bicycle track and jump. That bike track/jump has increased the risk level of our household to level Orange. SL got a huge, bruised goose-egg (and scraped up everywhere else), and E’s foot got caught in bike spokes so her ankle is swollen and bruised. Normally the first-aid needs of our family is just burns, but with this track we might just make it to broken bones.

E(3) has been putting herself to bed for naptime this week. I made her a deal, I’d give her a treat if she did. Before, after I’ve put her to bed, she'd sneak around and quietly play instead of napping, and as long as she stayed upstairs I pretended not to notice. But since she pops out of bed at 6:45am, she’s been needing the sleep. Yah for bribery—I mean positive habit re-enforcement!

status king photo shoot part 2

For those of you who were asking, here is the link for four more photos from the status king photo shoot.

Apostle, Kamikaze Stairs, Ninja Maps, Audition, Wonder Woman, 2 Chickens,

Elder L.Tom Perry, an apostle for The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints came to speak at our stake conference this weekend. M, A and SL got to meet him. They stood in a line in a hallway where he was sure to pass. He talked to them as he shook their hands. He told M, “You’re the eldest. The others look up to you. You need to be a good example. Sometimes they’ll follow you when they might not follow their parents. Be a good example to them.” To A he asked, “Do you two get along?” I could see A really thinking about it (remembering the times Mandy pinches him), but he decided they did, he nodded his head and said “Yes.” Elder Perry said, “Good. That’s what I like to hear.” Elder Perkins, a regional representative, shook all their hands too. He asked their names, and told them, “Ah SL, a wise name.” “A, the first man.” He got to M and for a second was perplexed, her name doesn’t fit with the Biblical pattern, then he said, “Well, you look like a M.” It was a great experience for them.

I got mastitis last week. It was awful. Everyone has been sick with colds and some fevers, and then I went down with that infection. Ugh. The only thing that saved me was Mom H, K, and M being healthy and taking over. A and S helped with the young ones—but they used a lot of t.v. and video games. In fact, we’ve banned video games for this week to make up for their tremendous use last week. Baby M went on a hunger strike when he had ear infection, sore throat, and teething, and that’s what tipped my body over I think. I’m just glad the mastitis is OVER! It’s the 3^rd time since Baby M was born, and I think that’s quite enough of that.

Baby M has learned how to climb up the stairs. I heard him cry, rushed out of my room, and there he was at the very top of our wooden stairs, unable to pull himself over the last stair (which is covered in carpet). My heart about stopped! Since then, all he wants to do it go up, and he cries when I teach him to crawl down. Kamikaze!

ST has created an elaborate Ninja-Map game that he was playing with SL and A. From what I can tell (it’s enormously complicated), you draw a map that looks like a game board trail. You add scary things along the trail. Then you act it out. One of his maps had an alligator pond, and so they had to fight alligators in order to continue. I don’t know what their quest is or where they’re going, but I do know they’re enjoying the dangerous path to get to it.

Status King has 19,848 users today—it is just growing and growing. We did a photo shoot with models (i.e. friends and family of J’s in Provo) wearing the status shirts. The photographer took almost 2,000 photos and they turned out spectacular. I uploaded three of them to this blog, but plan to upload more as the photographer finishes with them.

M tried out for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at her school. She’s one of the candyman’s children. Yah for her.

We were all sick the day of SL’s baptism. So it is now postponed to March 28^th at noon.

ST said, “I’m a transformer. I transformed into a…” I expected to hear he’d transformed into a car, since that’s what the toy transformers do. Nope. He said, “I transformed into a chicken!”

The chicken saga continues....We are down to two chickens now thanks to a neighbor's dog (we think). And the kids are wanting us to butcher them. I told them we’d butcher them if they plucked them by hand. So we still have two chickens. But we’re wanting to start over with lots of chicks. These two adult chickens don’t lay eggs often and when they do they often peck them till they break. Ah, but they’re survivors (for now….).

Now that Baby M is more healthy, the last two nights he’s only woken up ONCE. I’ve been getting deliciously long stretches of sleep. MMMMMM. I love sleep.

My upstairs bathroom is in desperate need of a remodel. The sinks, in particular, are so stained! I scrubbed them and decided they’d been so abused by the previous home owners that all I could do was bide my time until I had enough money to replace them. But K is wonder woman. She used some of her Airemaster secret cleaners and worked on those two sinks for a long time and….drumroll please….she scrubbed them until they’re white again. I couldn’t believe it and honestly had thought it was impossible. Then she hand painted two cupboard pulls, bought a new shower curtain and put together some rocks and shells I had already, added a blue day lily, and now the bathroom looks clean and beach-themed. I am so impressed with her talent and hard work.

I love having a greenhouse. I have a four foot pea plant! No flowers or peas yet—but wow, what a stem.

Status King Photo Shoot

Some of you asked me how the Status King photo shoot went. Wow, it turned out fabulous. You can click here to see three of the photos on the status king blog, but above is one of them (I will post more photos on the status king blog as soon as the photographer is finished with them). The models are some friends in Provo, but wow what a good looking bunch!

Narnia Strikes Out, Tiger Eye, Breakin’ Free, Clapping, Humungalous,

We had a Narnia birthday party all set up for Solomon’s 8^th birthday. ALL his friends forgot. So we went bowling as a family. I was relieved when he told Theron, “I’ll have to tell my friends I’m glad they forgot, I got to go bowling and I’ll still have a birthday party” (we’re going to make another try a different day). Whew, no emotional scarring (when he’d been staring out the window, straining to see a car for 45 minutes, I was getting worried).

We had two talent shows this week. That was not a typo. Mandy had her school talent show and the next evening was our church talent show. Mandy and her friend Erika Adams did a rockin’ dance to Eye of the Tiger. See the video below for their 2 minute performance. Their extreme 80’s outfits were like, totally awesome dude. She slathered on the green eyeshadow and the blush and said, “Mom, why did they dress up like dolls in the 80’s?”

Adam, Solomon and I sang “Breakin’ Free” from High School Musical 1. We almost had a poster calling it “Home School Musical,” but didn’t get to it. They did a great job. Solomon even added some surprise moves (we had to bribe them with Dairy Queen blizzards in order to get them to perform this year). Click here to see the 3 minute performance.

Baby Matthew can now clap. It’s soooo cute. If you hold out your hand, most of the time he will ‘give you five.’ And he’s only 9 months. Genius child.

Last newsletter I mentioned that Seth likes clouds. Yesterday he said, “Look at that cumulo-nimbus cloud. It’s humugalous.” Maybe there’s a weatherman in his future career…his made up words would certainly liven up the news.

Status King passed 10,000 users this week! It's moving along...

Minotaur cake, tow truck mud, Clouds, Big Foot, Texas, Status King, Happiness

A had a Narnia birthday party. Click here to see more photos. Hubby made a minotaur cake that was outstanding! M was the white witch and we even had a lamppost (thanks to my Mom’s collection of wedding reception stuff—thx MOM!). We’re doing it again on Saturday for SL, who also wanted a Narnia birthday party (he’s turning 8)

A tow truck came to our house to take our red minivan to the mechanic’s. We’re getting everything fixed on it so we can sell it (since we’ve outgrown it). The children gathered around to watch Carl the tow man work his equipment. E came running out of the house in M’s boots, and she tripped and fell flat out in deep mud. She stood up, dripping in mud, crying. Carl took a clean towel out of his truck, I wrapped her in it and she got to push the levers to lift the car up on the truck. The boys wished they’d had the foresight to trip too.

I was teaching a short segment on lightning. I happened to turn the page of the weather book to a section on clouds—and suddenly we were talking about the differences between cirrus and cumulous clouds. All week when we’re driving around the kids look at the clouds. Hearing ST say, “Look at the cumulous-nimbus. It’s Huge,” makes me laugh every time. Sometimes a lesson really sticks.

A and SL went on a cub scout hike. Click here to see more photos. They hiked the Gin Lin trail, and then went to visit a famous (around these parts) Big Foot Trap. It no longer traps Big Foots (big feet?) but it collects tourists. Whether it was successful at trapping Big Foot or not, depends on which “local” you talk to…

ST is into geography right now. We have a states puzzle he can put together really fast. When we had a brother of the ward helping my in-laws move in, ST brought down a map and was firing geography questions at him. His favorite questions involve Texas (Is Texas bigger than Alaska?). He’d like to believe Texas is the biggest state, since most maps don’t draw Alaska to scale, but he knows the truth and will ask you. Now you are forewarned.

A got Legos for his birthday. He’s been in his room setting up armies who battle it (out with sound effects). Uncle J (18) has been known to join him. Legos are for all ages after all.

SL created a 3 dimensional paper village. It reminds me of the stories of Hubby growing up (he and his brothers created elaborate paper cities and toys with moveable wheels—even paper robots that really transformed into vehicles/dinosaurs). He even made a Welcome sign to his village and stood it up on paper columns.

I’m teaching the Primary children a new song, My Eternal Family. It starts out “I am a builder…” I asked the senior primary to help me make up signs to go along with the song so I could teach it to the junior primary. They made up hand signs more creatively than I would’ve done, and they all got into it—even the 10-11 year old boys. It’s been my most successful way to teach a song yet. And I love the song too.

Status King is such a fun, interesting business to watch evolve. I’ve been learning how to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and between Aunt K and I have prepared lots of Status King t-shirts for the printer. I love to learn new things, and it’s neat to see a status that I laid out in Illustrator show up on a t-shirt. I also started up a Status King blog, collecting the web news about it.

I just read a book that I’m dying to discuss with any of you—someone please read it. It’s called Happiness Is A Choice, by Barry Neil Kaufman. It’s along the lines of Bonds That Make Us Free, but coming from a different perspective. Please read it and we can discuss it! I’ve been trying to apply the ideas in my life. Choosing to be happy no matter what has been a good experience and it reminds me of that Elder Wirthlin’s talk in General Conference Come What May and Love It. It also reminded me of the scripture 2 Nephi 2:25, “Men are that they might have joy.”

Status King-funny Facebook statuses-is Taking Off!

I just figured out how to take screenshots. Do you like the tee I made? Status King is the place for THE funniest Facebook statuses. Although its funny-ness depends entirely on the creativity of the submitters. And as you can see, I was feeling excited about the application, and not feeling super witty.

I was so excited last night about a certain reporter from a national newspaper interviewing my brother in law about Status King, that I could hardly sleep. The interview went well this morning. I'll post a link and complete information when the article surfaces, but until then I have to be mysterious!

On February 4th we got picked up by Mashable and the article made the top ten for the week

Then another Mashable article referred to Status King and thanks to both of those--we have this national newspaper interview (WOW) and thousands of new visitors to the app.

I am so excited I can hardly contain it!

Toostie Roll Legend, Piano Ode to Joy, Baby's Facial, Early to Bed, Teach Easy Lessons, Mandy's 80s

My two eldest children keep asking me to do something with their toosie pop wrapper that has a star on it. Supposedly, if you have a toosie pop wrapper with a star, you send it to the Toosie Roll company and they give you a prize. I vaguely remember a similar story circulating when I was a child. But my children are a lot more determined than I was, so I looked it up online. Check out this website for the full story, but just so you know, it’s an urban legend! http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/business/a/tootsie_pop.htm There’s no free ride my dears.

I’m reading the book Power To Save The World, about nuclear power. I’ve been most surprised by the reality of radiation. I thought that radiation came mainly from x-rays and nuclear power plants and bombs. I considered it very dangerous in any amount, and I would be very suspicious of irradiated food. The science and scientists referenced in this book shows my ideas to be unfounded. We are surrounded by low levels of radiation in our natural surroundings—rocks, well water, and our body knows how to deal with it—just keep healing it. And irradiated food doesn’t continue to give off radiation afterwards just like lamps don’t give off light after they’ve been turned off. I’d still wonder about nutritional value of food that’s been irradiated, but I found it eye opening to learn that there’d be no retention of radiation. Another interesting thing—radiation by itself is a weak carcinogen, when it’s on the outside of our bodies. It’s when it’s inside us that it can wreak havoc (or kill our tumors). Scientists found that people who smoke around radiation get cancers when non-smokers don’t—in part because the radiation latches onto the smoke and then is breathed in.

Matthew was eating avocado and he spread it all over his face. It was his first facial.

I went to bed one night at 9:30pm. It felt sooo good the next day, that I went to bed the following night at 9:00pm! I feel so great when I get enough sleep. I just wish it wouldn’t crunch so much into my time with Theron.

I’m starting Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons with Ellie. We’re on the 3^rd lesson and she’s really enjoying it. I hope her interest remains. After 78 lessons with Adam, he just couldn’t stand it anymore (it’s pretty repetitious). But she’s so young, that I think it’s the perfect pace for her.

Mandy is trying out for the Talent Show today. She’s wearing very old fashioned clothing—from the 80’s! She and a friend are dancing to Eye Of The Tiger, and they’re dressed up in the most outrageous interpretation of 80’s clothing. When I get a photo, I’ll upload it.

Every Wednesday for a whopping 4 weeks in a row, I’ve taught my children piano lessons. We go to my parents’ house, the kids watches Magic School Bus except for the child I’m teaching. In 2 hours, I teach five kids their individual piano lesson! I’m hoping that this is sustainable, but the way they’ve latched onto music and practicing it has been soooo great! And the price is certainly right. Solomon and Adam learned how to play a simplified version of Ode to Joy on piano. Their excitement in playing the song was fueled by this Muppet video:

That video is imitated almost every day since, and I caught my children singing Meep Meep to the Ode to Joy tune here:

What Cold Sores or Ridged Finger Nails Tell Us

I just got the most fascinating email from an online doctor newsletter (Dr. Marcus Laux ND). He gives a list of physical indicators that can show internal problems. I have looked at my nails and wonder what a white spot it, or I notice my son's cold sores and wonder why he gets it sometimes and not others. Here is his list, hope you get something out of it too:

Sign: cracked, calloused feet

What this can signal: a deficiency in essential fatty acids (EFAs). To maintain suppleness and integrity, the skin needs these moisture-giving fats. “Tough” areas such as the feet, elbows, and knees will be the first to show signs of deficiency. If not corrected, EFA deficiency can affect hormone balance, heart health, and immune function.

What to do: To boost your dietary intake of EFAs, snack on nuts and pumpkin seeds and consume more fish and healthy oils (olive, avocado, and macadamia). To soothe your skin and speed the healing of sore feet or any other calloused area, apply a small amount of flaxseed oil or extra-virgin coconut oil directly to the affected area and massage.

Sign: cold sores

What this can signal: immune deficiency or poor calcium absorption. Immune deficiency can often be traced to poor antioxidant support.

What to do: Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables and supplement with a high-quality antioxidant. Two nutrients that help boost immune function and eliminate cold sores are:

• Selenium (100–300 mcg daily) boosts the body’s defenses against dangerous bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Onions are an excellent source of selenium, as is the powerful herb garlic.
  
  
• L-lysine (500–2,000 mg, two to three times per day) is an amino acid that helps prevent viruses from replicating, which can speed healing.

Sign: easy bruising, spontaneous nosebleeds,
or bleeding gums

What this can signal: early signs of vitamin K or vitamin C deficiencies. Vitamin K is necessary for forming prothrombin, which promotes healthy blood clotting. Easy bruising may also point to a deficiency in vitamin C, and suggest the need for more bioflavoiniods.

What to do: Boost your intake of green, leafy vegetables, and supplement with 5 mg per day of vitamin K for six weeks. As you notice improvement, reduce your intake to 300 mcg per day. Also, be sure you’re supplementing with 1–3 grams of vitamin C daily and that your multivitamin has adequate levels of bioflavonoids. For more bioflavonoid support, eat some of the rind and seeds from your oranges, lemons, and grapefruits.

Sign: dandruff and troubled skin

What this can signal: digestive system distress, leading to metabolic missteps. A diet high in refined sugars, processed foods, preservatives, saturated fats, and trans-fats can overwork the gastrointestinal tract with systemic effects. This can lead to poor functioning, slow waste removal and increase the toxic load on your skin.

What to do: Reduce your consumption of refined foods and increase your intake of EFAs. I recommend taking one tablespoon of fish oil, borage, black current, or flax oil per day, with a high quality multi-nutrient supplement, digestive enzymes, and probiotics for 2-3 months. Your skin can show improvement in days, and months later be completely renewed.

Sign: discolored or misshapen nails

What this can signal: diabetes, stress, allergies, immune deficiencies, or simple illness. Since nails are made of protein matrix and mineral synergy, they can be clear messengers of deficiencies. Specifically:

• Green nails could signal infection in the nail bed or in the system generally.
  
  
• Bluish nails point to lung trouble, such as emphysema or asthma. A simple dark blue line in the nail bed suggests skin cancer.
  
  
• Reddish-brown spots are indicative of folic acid, protein, or vitamin C deficiency, or injury.
  
  
• Yellow nails signal potential internal disorders, such as diabetes, respiratory problems, or liver dysfunction.
  
  
• White lines inside the nail may mean fever, heart trouble, kidney disorder, or in all likelihood, a lack of iron or zinc.
  
  
• Vertical ridges that can be felt on the nail warn of iron deficiency or poor absorption of nutrients.
  
  
• Horizontal ridges point to elevated levels of harmful stress hormones—indicating a need to control physical, mental, or emotional stress.
  
  
• Flat, thin nails suggest a deficiency of vitamin B12.
  
  
• Square, wide nails may be caused by hormonal imbalances.

What to do: See your nutritionally oriented doctor to help you pinpoint and address the underlying cause of your nail symptoms. Use the list above as a starting point.

Sign: Poor night vision

What this can signal: low levels of carotenes, the precursors to vitamin A. Vitamin A is responsible for good vision, especially in dim light, and for the formation and maintenance of healthy teeth, skeletal and soft tissue, mucus membranes, and skin.

What to do: Make sure you’re supplementing with at least 7,500–10,000 IU of vitamin A daily. Boost your dietary intake with liver, organic eggs, and pro-vitamin A carotenoids, which are found in green leafy vegetables and orange and red produce.

Sign: yellowing of eyes or skin

What this can signal: liver or gallbladder disease or even high levels of carrot juice consumption. If none of these are the culprits, you could be experiencing a B12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 helps manufacture DNA, which is essential to growth and development. It’s also a key player in many enzymatic functions, the formation of red blood cells, and the maintenance of a healthy nervous system. Severe cases of B12 deficiency can lead to immune weakness, congestive heart failure, impaired vision, or impotence.

What to do: Determining if a lack of B12 is a problem is as simple as a blood serum test ordered by your doctor. If you need to improve your B12 levels, increase your intake of soy foods such as tempeh and tofu. Meat, shellfish, clams, and crab are excellent dietary sources as well. Your doctor can also prescribe monthly B12 injections, or you can try Big Shot B-12 oral supplements from Naturally Vitamins, which are available through numerous online retailers and health food stores.

Sign: blurred vision, reduced peripheral vision,
black spots, or light halos

What this can signal: an early warning sign of diabetes. The onset of diabetes weakens blood vessels. Since blood vessels in the eyes are tiny and fragile, they can easily leak, burst, or become blocked, and damage vision. The most serious eye condition that develops as a result of diabetes is diabetic retinopathy. Others include glaucoma or cataracts.

What to do: The best thing to do when you notice any change in vision is to visit your eye doctor ASAP. After that, make your family practitioner aware of your vision changes and request further examination, including blood sugar and blood pressure workup. When caught early, diabetes and the many outlying effects can be controlled, and then reversed. Don’t wait or ignore the symptoms—take definitive action. The sooner you make a commitment to live a healthier lifestyle, the better off you’ll be!

Sign: bloating and other gastrointestinal disturbances

What this can signal: Possibly, a Candida (yeast) overgrowth. When allowed to proliferate, Candida can cause inflammation of the intestinal mucosa leading to mucosal damage and eventually to a “leaky gut,” food allergies, and poor nutrient absorption.

What to do: Combating Candida is a two-step process. First, boost the beneficial microflora of your intestines by taking a quality probiotics supplement such as my BioComplete GI or Enzymatic Therapy’s Acidophilus Pearls (www.enzy.com or 1-800-783-2286) Then, identify existing food allergies and begin to eliminate them. Intestinal allergic reactions only feed a cycle that will continue to breed Candida.

Sign: swollen ankles

What this can signal: increasingly poor heart function, hormonal imbalances, and kidney problems. A weakened heart often leads to a condition known as edema, or an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the body tissues. This is especially true for the ankles and legs, where the laws of gravity allow the blood to pool.

What to do: The first thing to do is have your heart checked out. If you get a clean bill of health, you can turn to other solutions for reducing edema—including daily exercising, compression socks, elevating your ankles above your waist several times a day, and practicing deep diaphragmatic breathing throughout the day. Breathing deep into your belly will help increase circulation and can reduce the effects of edema. Also, natural recommendations such as Hawthorne, CoQ10, magnesium and ribose can help to strengthen your heart, and clear out any excess fluids.

Sign: swelling of the hands and tissues around the eyes,
especially first thing in the morning

What this can signal: kidney disease. Other symptoms of kidney dysfunction include decreased urination, blood in the urine (tea-colored or bright red), nausea and vomiting, itching, sleep disturbances, back pain, lack of energy, and loss of appetite.

What to do: To help maintain healthy kidneys, drink plenty of pure, fresh water every day—8 to 10 eight-ounce glasses. Once every three months or so, go on a 24-hour fast. During your fast, drink fresh juices, both fruit and vegetable, like organic apple juice mixed with small amounts of cranberry or carrot. Both support kidney cleaning and clearing. Melon juice, coconut water, or diluted orange juice are also favorites that can support healthy kidney function.

A Rare Princess, Syllable Game, Science Experiment Discovery, Sweaty Brow

Ellie loves playing with Polly Pocket toys, and she has a Disney princess set. Her favorite is “Sleeping booty.” Theron calls it the princess who sat too long.

With my in-laws moving in soon, I’ve been organizing everything. It feels so cathartic. If you ask me where anything is upstairs—I will be able to tell you! That kind of thing only lasts as long as things get put back where they’re supposed to, which may not be long at all. But I am enjoying it for now. This is a picture of our school room. Mandy came rushing in this morning asking where her backpack was—I told her exactly where it was without even leaving my bed. Ahhhh. (In case you are thinking I got to sleep in—no such luxury--I was feeding the baby).

My neighbor took Mandy, Adam and Solomon to a Rogue Valley Opera Field trip. Three singers showed this homeschoolers group what opera sounds like. They sang songs from Romeo and Juliet. Solomon rolled his eyes at the love songs, but I think they all enjoyed it overall.

I find traveling in the van one of the best teaching times. We’re all strapped in, I don’t turn on the radio, and we start talking. Last week I started teaching Ellie and Seth about syllables. By the end of the van ride, I thought they had it down. I was showing Theron what Ellie learned. Ellie was doing great until she suggested a word with 3 syllables: Ellie said, “Math-uh-ew.”

Matthew is crawling all around, digging in trash cans when I forget to put them up high, and pulling himself up to the bathtub and wanting to go in and get wet. He has started to sing. Whenever we break out in song (which happens mostly in the car to stop any fighting or crying or complaining) Matthew starts to sing along with a hummmmm.

Our master bath needs a remodel. We haven’t fixed up anything in it except for rolling out a path of leftover glueless vinyl flooring to cover the ugly/broken floor so we can walk on it barefoot. After a while, we didn’t even notice the exposed parts of the floor that we avoid walking on. Glueless vinyl is amazing stuff—it can be cut with a knife and then laid in place without anything to hold it down. And we had some leftover pieces. So, I did what I’ve been wanting to do for two years—I cut up the pieces and fit them and now our bathroom floor looks so much better. It’s an amateur job—but it is covered. And every time I walk into that bathroom I smile. I wish I had a photo of the before. Just picture ugly and you'll get the idea.

We have two birthdays next month. Adam turns 10 and Solomon turns 8. They’re going to be Narnia themed (it’s a friend birthday party year). It looks like Solomon will be baptized on February 28^th. Without pressure to attend, you are all invited.

Mandy did a Science experiment for the Science Fair. She compared name brand cleaners with homemade substances with very interesting results. Vinegar made all the stains worse. Can you believe it? Normally I add vinegar to smelly towels to help kill the smell—but I won’t anymore. With blackberry stains nothing got it out—but I think I already knew that. And grape juice lifted up easily, which I didn’t know, I thought the opposite.

Seth now loves primary. His new teacher, Sister Adams, took him on a treasure hunt last week—and he loved it! Now putting on church clothes isn’t such an ordeal, although going to church at 12pm instead of 9am makes a difference too.

We’ve been starting each homeschool day with a fitness section. It fulfills a WeBeLos requirement for Adam, and it’s good for all of us anyway. Yesterday we were doing situps. Adam said, “Sweat is glowing on my brow.”

Top 25 funniest facebook statuses of all time | facebook app

"Status King-A newer facebook app that will have you rolling with laughter. You don't even have to add the app to see it." This article just appeared on Digg.com. Check it out and digg it when you get a chance.

read more | digg story

A Collection of Crafty Facebook statuses

This blogger has created a three part series of craft-based Facebook status ideas. Today she blogged about Status King--the place where a clever status can win you a free t-shirt! The word is getting out. Yah!

read more | digg story

Trash, Inventing, CP3, Roomates, Talk, Ugly Chickens,

We buy raw milk from a dairyman in Grants Pass. He comes to Medford once a week and we exchange clean bottles for full in the parking lot of a sports center (where he plays racquetball). We’ve been doing it every Friday for about a year now, and it has made a big nutritional difference for our family, particularly Seth.

Baby Matthew loves trash cans—he’s dumpster diving already. Wow he moves fast.

Solomon invented a Block Picker-upper using a small car, a pencil and tape. The block sticks to the tape and then you can drive it wherever you want. He said, I want to be an inventor and a spy and a math-magician, whew, there’s so many things I want to be.

Adam calls his new mp3 player a CP3 player. A bit too much Star Wars? He’s listening to books on tape all the time now. Sol complains that Adam doesn’t play with him enough now. But when I try to limit Adam a lot, he says I wouldn’t do that if he were reading a book… He works while he listens, so he’s doing his chores really well. Still working on that balance.

Theron’s parents and two siblings still at home, Kaylisha (15) and Jordan (17) are moving in with us next month.

I got mastitis (a nursing mother’s infection that feels like terrible flu) again. This is the third time since Matthew’s been born. At least it wasn’t as horrible as the first two times I got it. I’m recognizing the symptoms earlier and throwing myself into bed as fast as possible—it makes a big difference in recovery and how bad things get.

Mandy gave her first talk in sacrament meeting. She did a fabulous job. Her talk stuck to the principles and she didn’t sound like a 12 year old speaking. She said she felt nervous, but you couldn’t tell based on her composure. She’s growing up!

I spoke at the same sacrament meeting. I also sang a duet. I also led the music. I had agreed to sing and give the talk at separate times and then, to my embarrassment, discovered that they were on the same day, the song right after the talk. THEN, the chorister didn’t show up so just as the opening song was to begin, the organist leaned over and asked me to lead. So there I was, very visible and feeling like I was taking over the meeting even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. Oh well. Nothing to do but smile and pretend it’s all on purpose. At least I was too busy to get nervous. Ha.

Chickens molting are very ugly birds. They look like they’ve been in a fight where some animal tore out all their neck feathers. They’re so embarrassed, they stopped laying until yesterday. I guess they finally got enough feathers so they could stop thinking about their appearance and start thinking about eggs! We got 3 eggs, yah!

Mandy went on her first temple trip, doing baptisms on behalf of those died before they were able to be baptized themselves. When she came out of the temple she said, “I feel more relaxed than I have in a long time.” I could tell in the way she smiled and spoke gently and hopped up to help a sibling without being asked that she felt very good inside. She wants to go every month. I’m going to look into it!

Theron’s been getting up at 3 am this week to work. We hope that after this week his schedule will normalize. He’s working so hard! And when he’s home he’s swarmed by us all.  He gave a great lesson on Gratitude and Service for Family Home Evening. Out of our list of possible service projects, the kids chose Secret Service to do this week. So we drew names, and we’re supposed to do secret acts of service for a member of the family. Which reminds me, I better go do that right now!

Chilestalk, Holy Smokes, Status King, Matthew Crawls, Stinkyball,

For Family Home Evening we painted desert scenes as a backdrop for our Stupendous Play, Jackie and the Chilestalk. Solomon drew a cactus and a trapdoor spider. Adam drew a curled up snake and a boulder on a hill. So much detail! We performed the play the evening after Christmas. We recorded a video of it. It’s 24 minutes long and you can see it here.
Mandy directed it. My favorite parts are: Adam's cow costume and the way his golden eggs keep falling to the floor, Solomon's jokes and Star Wars imitation, Theron's fake Spanish accent, Jordan's Giant voice, Kaylisha's care of the golden goose, and Mandy’s love of chiles, “The hotter the better.” Mandy is going to use it as a personal progress sign-off, but it was so fun we’ll probably do another.

Christmas morning as Seth played a new game he yelled, “Holy Smokes!!! I lost my tooth out.” He had tried to use his tooth to open a part of the game and out it popped—his first one. He got a quarter for it under his pillow, so he’s anxious to lose the other three that are also loose. I’m just glad he lost this first one. His permanent tooth was already grown in behind it so he looked like a shark with two layers of teeth.

These Christmas holidays have been particularly good. Neal and Trisha and their four children stayed with us for a week and a half. It was loud and chaotic and so fun. I love to have my children know their cousins so well. I loved having Neal and Trisha around. It’s so great to have another pair of hands to do the work and such an interesting adult to talk to and share ideas with, in between taking care of children. We went caroling, out to pizza, had several game nights and I’m sure I’m missing some of the fun activities we did. We ate dinner together as a whole entire Harmon clan every night, rotating the responsibility, and I thought that was such a good idea. Since Jenny and Nate (and little Lydia) were staying at Mom Harmon’s house, it brought us together every day. Cousin Michael cried when it was time for him to go home, and that means that it was a good visit!

A significant topic during the Christmas holidays was a new Harmon business idea: Status King. It’s a Facebook application that is a contest, the person voted with the cleverest status wins a free t-shirt. It just started and the energy is exciting. People are really enjoying playing it and the fan base is growing fast. The commerce part of Status King is selling t-shirts with a Facebook profile photo and status on it--Individualized, custom t-shirts that are affordable and interesting. That part is being programmed and put together right now, but I think it’s one of the best business ideas I’ve come across in quite a while. It’s like Café Press (if you know that business) for Facebook. Very Hot idea. And taking it from idea to reality in a week has been soo exciting.

Matthew just crawled. He’s been making crawling motions—pushing himself backwards, rolling towards what he wants, but today he crawled using all four limbs. It was the electric heater—he wanted to touch it. I got there in time, but WOW I’m going to have to go through my entire house and lift everything up high again. I forgot about that part. Still, it’s so exciting to see him crawling. If you’re on Facebook you can see a 46 second video of him crawling for a red ball.

The Cub Scouts just picked up our Christmas tree. As they drove away I remembered that last year at this time I was miserable-pregnant and our Christmas tree made it as far as our front porch. And there is sat there for months! Not this year. Yahh, I’m starting 2009 better than 2008.

Seth called a basketball a “gas-ketball.” Solomon explained, “It’s a new game. When the basketball goes through the hoop, it lets off a smell.”

Happy New Year.