The philosophy of herbs

Herbs are good for different things:
To beautify our homes with their colors, shapes, and scents.
To flavor our foods.
For medicine.

I believe God did not leave the entire human race without help for medical problems until the last century. In fact, I believe that the common idea of modern medicine is clearly evolutionary: “There was no help for any medical problem until modern doctors evolved enough to help us.” “See how much more advanced we are today?”

Truth is God provided help for most ailments through the plants surrounding His people. In fact, many of our current medicines are derived from those very plants (Aspirin, for example, is taken directly from the white willow’s bark. Our ancestors used to just make a tea from the bark to stop pain.) the pharmacies just remove everything but the one ingredient that they believe to be active.

The advantage of herbals is that they still have all the “extra” ingredients. So if you take a regular diuretic, for example, you pee out the extra liquid plus many necessary minerals. Dandelion, however, will cause you to pee also but is also very high in the very minerals diuretics cause you to loose. Herbals work not just buy giving you the active ingredient but also by building up your body so it can heal itself. And they tend to have fewer side effects.

Now, I do believe we should use modern medicine when necessary. When my daughter broke her arm last fall I did not go look for any herbs to help her. I loaded her up in my car and rushed her to the emergency room.

I follow Shonda Parker’s recommendations for dealing with ailments:
Change your diet and/or lifestyle.
If that doesn’t work, than take herbal remedies.
If that doesn’t work than take over the counters.
Then comes prescriptions
Then surgery.

Herbals themselves fall into two categories: food and medicine. For example, dandelion, alfalfa, oat straw, and bilberries are all foods. They are high in vitamins and minerals and you can eat as much as you want without overdosing. They work mostly by giving your body what it needs to heal itself. On the other hand, comfrey, lobelia, and angelica will make you sick or even kill you if you get too much; but in small doses they work as well as or even better than medicinals.

So, unlike medicines at the drug store, you have to do your research and know what you are doing with herbs.

The place I buy most of herbs from is here:
http://www.bulkherbstore.com/

For those that know Michael and Debi Pearl (To Train Up A Child, Created To Be His Help Meet), Debi be3gan this business. It is now owned by their daughter and her husband. These people are very trust worthy and you know you are getting what they say you are getting. Their information is very good.

Children Raising

Do your children do what you tell them to? Do they embarrass you in public? Do you have to get a babysitter to take a shower? Than you need some help.

My basic philosophy:
1. Children are humans and should be treated with human respect. I try not to have to discipline my children in front of other people. If you see my children do something wrong and it looks like I am not doing anything, don’t assume nothing will be done, especially if it is an older child. Little ones have to be “taught” in public occasionally, but older ones (6 or so) can be dealt with later, and will be.

This also means I can’t take my frustrations out on them and must say “please” and “thank you.”

2. Children are blessings. I have made it a habit to smile at my children when they come into the room and to speak to them with nicknames of fondness; Sweetie, dear, love, etc. I do NOT engage in child bashing (“you wouldn’t say they were sweet if you lived with them” or any other statements that make it seem like they are problems)

3. Children are creatures of habit. I teach them to obey starting very early; before they are walking in fact. Then they never develop the habit of disobedience. I know this works because it is the way my mom raised me and I still do what she says, automatically, out of habit (I am 40 yo!) My 16 yo still obeys me without arguing or even rolling her eyes. (Now part of respecting them as people is that I am careful not to take advantage of this obedience and make slaves of them.)
Also, I schedule our day carefully and keep it as close to the same everyday as possible. This eliminates problems caused by children not knowing what is expected of them. It also develops good self-discipline.

4. Children are sinners. They are humans, after all. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Romans 3:2) “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24) The Mosaic law taught Israel (and us) what righteousness is and showed us that we can’t accomplish it ourselves. It shows us the need for a Savior. The parent’s law to a child accomplishes the same thing. A child can not appreciate the Grace of forgiveness without the knowledge that they are a failing sinner and deserve punishment. For their own future good, we parents must make rules of behavior (be polite, treat others the way you want to be treated, obey mom and dad, don’t leave the lid off the toothpaste, etc.) We must be consistent in enforcing punishment for the breaking of those rules too. If we are not, our children will never really know what rules are nor how to obey them (if there is no punishment for breaking a rule, than it isn’t a rule, only a suggestion.) Please note; God told our children to obey their parents. If we allow them to disobey us, we are allowing them disobey God (SIN!) No, we as parents don’t deserve this obedience. But God does.

5. People tend to obey God as adults with the same attitude they obeyed their parents as children. I don’t want my children yelling “You are unfair! No I don’t have to! Make me! I hate you! Etc.” to God. So I can’t let them treat me that way either. When God tells them to jump when they are adults, I want them to say “How high, Sir?” I must teach them that by teaching them to treat me that way.

6. “Discipline” is another way of saying “teach.” When I set rules, reward, or punish a child I do it with his ultimate good in mind; what do I want to teach him with this. For example, when I spat the leg of a baby who won’t lie still during a diaper change, I am teaching them what the word ‘no’ means and that they must obey it. This saved at least one of my children’s lives. She was crawling and reached for the cord of a waffle iron to pull up on (one of the older children had left it hanging and I hadn’t seen it until that moment). I was too far to reach her before she pulled it off on her head. I calmly but firmly said “Jennifer, No.” she sat down and contemplated what I had just said, knowing she would be punished if she disobeyed (a light though stinging smack on the hand is what she would have expected.) This gave me time to get to her and move the cord and appliance where she couldn’t reach it. At 8 months, she understood “No” and what it meant to obey. (And I had a teaching session with the older children explaining why we don’t leave cords hanging!)

You decide what you want your child to look like as an adult and work towards that goal. You don’t want an adult who throws tissy fits? Don’t let the 2yo throw one. You don’t want and adult who is selfish? Don’t let your 5yo be.

I also talk to my children explaining all the logic behind everything I can. This teaches them to think and eventually to be able to take over decisions for themselves.

7. I will never have a more important job than teaching the eternal souls God gave me to be warriors worshiping at His feet. This shows in my attitude and attention to my children and the decisions I make in seemingly unrelated areas.

My two favorite web sites dealing with child raising:
http://www.raisinggodlytomatoes.com/ Mom of 10 teaches about “staking tomatoes.”

http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/ Minister dad of 5 teaches about training to bring joy to your home.

Not a holiday to repeat

This has been a long autumn and holiday season. I feel like Job (though thankfully not quite so bad).
My four year old broke her arm in September, about the time I was diagnosed as gestational diabetic.
We had two life threatening (to the baby) complications during birth making it the hardest most painful birth I have had (she is fineJ)
Baby is allergic to dairy products, which make up, or I should say USED to make up a good forth of my diet.
We have had three leaks; the sewer line from our bedroom, the spray nozzle in the kitchen, and two in the dishwasher. Sub floor in the kitchen is now ruined and under the house is going to stink in the summerL.
All four cars have broken down.
My dad had a heart attack on Christmas (he is recovering fine now).
When my mom went to pick my dad up from the hospital, she got violently sick (food poisoning? Lasted about four hours) and my husband and I had to go rescue them.
We hit my dog Sunday; broke his leg. We had to have him put down. He was old and had arthritis bad. We knew it was going to come in the next year or so but gee...
I broke my glasses last night.
Sigh.

God, I would be real happy to not have another year quite like this again!