Friday, May 31, 2013

Homeschooling and Life: May 28-May 31, 2013

We had a pretty good week. It would have been better if my kiddos didn't all have colds, sore throats, and fever...ugh! We still managed to do school, though, and here are our pics:

Treat of the week

Books for Doodles' Africa study

Plant that Doodles used to demonstrate phototropism.

Bug learned about the mandoling as part of his Narnia unit study.

More mandolin videos

More Narnia studies: World War 2 ration books

Learning about food rationing in WW2

Bug's cursive sheet from Thursday

Bug also learned about first aid

Bug learned about volcanoes as part of his Narnia study. He was so interested in them that it sparked.....

Doodles' interest as well.

Doodles and I demonstrated water erosion as part of her Africa/science study

Baby Girl joined us at the dining room table for school

Baby Girl crashed on the couch

Bug took a picture of this damselfly in our backyard.

Bug and I read two poems in this book: "The True Nature of Gnomes" and "Salamander"

Baby Girl's new verse with the picture I painted to go with it. The verse came from this wonderful book.

Baby Girl's painting

Bug's painting of a volcano

Doodles' painting of an African savanna

My painting of the sun

Giveaway

Would you like to win a beautiful handmade Waldorf doll? I would! If you'd like to have a shot, just visit this site.

WHAT?!? No coffee?!?

  First of all, yes, I labeled this post as "2013 Fun." Why? Because my life would be LOTS more fun without migraines. I've suffered with them for 20 years. I've taken preventive medications, both of which helped, but one made me gain about 20 pounds...so it HAD to go. I still take the other. I also have two triptan medications to take when I get a migraine, but I just want to PREVENT them from ever occuring in the first place. So, off to research natural preventions I went. And what did I find? A gold mine, that's what. I've been praying and asking God to heal me of these dreaded, debilitating headaches, and I believe He answered.First, an online poster on a site I frequent recommended that I read  this book. Then I found this cookbook, which is helpful, but I'll have to tweak some for it to work for my low carb lifestyle. I discovered this little jewel of a book as well. Now, you guessed it, relief comes at a price. I found out that certain foods trigger migraines, but I never thought they triggered mine. I thought it was just stress, heat, humidity, changes in weather, lack of sleep, or getting off schedule in my meals. Now, while these certainly are factors, there is a migraine "threshold." So, according to the author of Heal Your Headache, you greatly reduce your chances of getting a migraine if you remove dietary triggers. Then the other factors that you cannot control can still occur but not put you over the threshold. If you want to know more, then I highly recommend his book. And, yes, I am having to give up coffee. Why? Because caffeine is the number one dietary trigger of migraines. Read his book-you'll see the science behind it. Well, if you know me, you know I'm a JAVA JUNKIE. But, I have slowly tapered off my daily coffee intake, and will be completely off it by next Thursday. He recommends cold turkey, but that "ain't" happening here! I'd have to be in bed with a killer headache if I tried that, and this mama doesn't have that option. So I am slowly weaning off my caffeine fix. And, so far, praise God, no headaches as a result. It may be the baby steps I'm taking in tapering off, or it may be that I'm not eating/drinking other triggers, such as chocolate (yep, another of my faves is gone) and nuts/nut butter (yep, more faves.) I am just learning to embrace what I can eat, which are still some of my faves: blueberries, strawberries, cream cheese, most veggies and meats. And is it worth it? Oh, yeah, you'd better believe it! 
  Also, I have upped my exercise from 4 to 5 days a week, and from 30 to 45 minutes each day. I feel great! I am drinking LOTS of water, as dehydration is also a migraine trigger. I am also doing yoga for stress relief, as well as applying the principles I'm learning in this book given to me by a dear friend. I also take a high dose of Vitamin B-2 and magnesium daily.
  So, I am already feeling better. I am hoping that 2013 will be the year that I can finally kiss migraines good-bye or at least decrease their frequency and severity.

Oh, yeah!!! A low carb, migraine free pizza: low carb whole wheat tortilla, ricotta cheese, homemade Ragu sauce recipe from one of the books I bought, topped with fresh spinach leaves

Herbs my sweet hubby bought and planted for me

Books, DVD, and my new "coffee" - caffeine free herbal Chamomile tea

Treated myself to a movie and some eye makeup

All smiles! I am really feeling fabulous.




Sunday, May 26, 2013

May 20-26, 2013

We had a terrific week! Baby Girl was in a great mood, which helps us all. Also, Bug had some really fun school projects this week, and Doodles finished her favorite book (so far) from Oak Meadow 6 this week: The Rainbow People. I'll now let the pictures tell the story. :)

Treat of the week

My watercolor painting. I've decided to paint with the kids each week. I am loving it!

Doodles' watercolor painting

Bug's watercolor painting

Baby Girl's watercolor painting

Bug and I read about Carlsbad Caverns and speleology.

Bug's worksheet on speleology and the layers of the earth

Bug and I read about phobias. Then we took a survey of our friends and families to find out about their phobias.
Results are:
Claustrophobia and acrophobia: both six votes (top phobias among our friends and family)
Aquaphobia, ophidiophobia, arachnophobia, coulrophobia, and haphephobia: four votes
Enochlophobia: three votes each
Ergophobia, agorophobia, nychtophobia, katsaridaphobia: two votes each
Thalassophobia, atychiphobia, dentophobia, musophobia, gephyrophobia, potamophobia, trypanophobia, bathophobia, climacophobia, monophobia, and ornithophobia: each received one vote

Bug drew this picture of reflection in a pond

Doodles performed this play

Doodles wrote this summary of one of her favorite tales from The Rainbow People.

Baby Girl REALLY enjoyed her banana at breakfast!

Doodles and Bug played Magic together

Monday, May 20, 2013

A Mini-Vaction Week: May 13-19, 2013

No, we didn't leave town for this little break. We just had a week off from "school." But you know what? We were still learning! While I look forward to getting back into the "regular" school routine this week, it was nice to have some down time last week. Doodles and Bug performed in our homeschool group's play on Monday night, and everyone did a fabulous job! They all earned a little time off for fun...that's for sure! I discovered a tasty little low carb product, plus I gathered my summer "teacher" reading materials. See, lots of learning still went on here. Just take a look:

My summer reading :)

Treat of the week

Baby Girl at our picnic lunch

The kids enjoying some time outside...Doodles keep her hiding her face. Silly girl!

Baby Girl chilling out at our picnic

Our lunch: chicken salad, homemade hash browns


Trying to surround Baby Girl in a giant bubble...BAD idea. She just kept splashing the bubble solution in her eyes.

Bug read some of Aesop's Fables. He LOVES these!

Paper football tournament

Park Day: Baby Girl on the swing

Baby Girl playing near the slide

Getting ready to slide

She did it!

Enjoying some refreshment at the park

Cuddling at the park...mommy and Baby Girl

Bug and Doodles on the swings

Bug at the park

Bug and I enjoyed an afternoon on our swing

Doodles and I sitting on the swing...she showed her face this time!

Bug being silly with a leaf

Baby Girl LOVES to hang out with Daddy when he plays the guitar

Baby Girl and Daddy

More Daddy and Baby Girl jam session time!

I tried bronzer for the first time. I like it, but it took some time to get the hang of it!

This is REALLY good! I drink lots of water, and sometimes I need a little flavor in it. This has 0 calories and 0 carbs, so it's great for me. This is pineapple coconut. They also have strawberry kiwi and pink lemonade, plus a few more flavors I don't recall. Very tasty!



Self-Care That's Not So Fun

As promised in my previous post, I am now going to talk about self-care that's not so much fun. This kind of self-care involves thin...