February 16, 2025

Alternatives to the Flu Vaccine

Please don’t get the flu vaccine.

About 80% of the flu vaccines out there contain 25 micrograms of mercury per dose. The EPA’s safe limit for mercury is 0.1 mcg/kg. Talk about an overdose. Thimerosal is the mercury based culprit to look for. Phenol and aluminum are also highly toxic. And the new FluMist nasal spray and its sidekick (the same thing in needle form) are full of them.

Plus, one of the world’s leading immunogeneticists–Hugh Fudenberg–says that your chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease is ten times higher if an individual has 5 consecutive shots than if they have one, two or no shots. Is this a proven link between the influenza vaccine and Alzheimers? No. But we need to be aware.

Dr. Mercola has a fascinating article to back me up. Even better, he suggests alternatives, such as avoiding all sugar to help build up your body against the germs we all fear this time of year.

Go to the National Vaccine Information Center to use the Mercury Calculator. Enter your child’s weight and the brand name or manufacturer of the vaccine, and it will let you know if the mercury levels have exceeded the EPA’s standard. I’d call the doctor’s office or health department before vaccinating to get the brand names. Be forewarned.

From the same source (NVIC) you’d read the following:

“Mercury is a known neurotoxin and drug companies removed mercury preservatives from over-the-counter products in the early 1990’s but the FDA has not enforced its 1999 directive regarding vaccines. While mercury has been reduced in many childhood vaccines, some flu vaccines given to pregnant women and infants still contain so much mercury that a person would have to weigh 500 pounds to safely get a flu vaccination according to EPA standards.”

The CDC Web site’s main message: “The single best way to protect against the flu is to get vaccinated each fall.” And babies 6-23 months are listed as one of the priority groups for flu vaccines.

Consumer advocate Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the NationalVaccine Information Center, has a different perspective.

“Children these days get so many vaccines that they almost always get them together on the same day. Use of the flu vaccine in combination with other childhood vaccines in babies this young amounts to a national medical experiment on American babies. The science should precede the policy and not the other way around.”

Check it out. At the very least, do a search on mercury-laden vaccines and autism. I have three friends who’ve been devastated firsthand by vaccines. That’s a few too many.

Oh, and if by chance, you or a loved one succumbs to the flu, try this simple remedy. Hydrogen peroxide. Half a capful in each ear several times a day. If you need more info, simply click on the link I included above (Hydrogen peroxide).

79 thoughts on “Alternatives to the Flu Vaccine

  1. WOW! I’ve never heard about using the hydrogen peroxide. Good article. I had no idea there was mercury in flu vaccines–something no one ever discusses. Especially since it was such a big deal to get rid of old dental fillings with the mercury. Thanks for posting the info Mary!

    P.S. Great new design!

  2. I wasn’t going to get it anyway, I’d much rather combat the flu naturally with echinacea etc. I think there are too many vaccines out there that our bodies should be able to fight by itself.

  3. oh btw, not sure if I’ve mentioned this before so apologies if I have but about a couple of months ago there was an interesting documentary on tv here whereby it’s now been proven scientifically that MMR vaccines between 1995 and 1998 contained 6 times the amount of mercury that was safely allowed back then which accounts for why that era has the highest amount of children with autism/aspergers syndrome, my oldest son being one of them. Sad huh?

  4. Fun new blog look!

    I think the last flu shot we got was when my 12 year old was 4. We haven’t gotten the flu shots OR the flu in almost eight years. I attribute most of our health to the Shaklee supplements we’ve been taking. I notice when we slack off or miss our vitamins, that’s when the colds set in.

    BTW, I’m also avoiding tuna because of the Mercury content, which is a big bummer because my picky 12 year old LOVES tuna fish, but I also suspect he may have too much mercury in his system due to ADHD like symptoms.

    Thanks for sharing this!

  5. Mary, I have known this for many months now, unfortunaltely. Mercury and vaccinations, general risks with vaccines, dubious agendas of the pharmacological industry.
    I am thinking of putting together my testimony soon, and it has much to do with the topic of Your post today, Mary.
    I believe we are being too naive to trust those “who know better”, and then we reap the results of this. We trust our doctors to give us right medicine, but very often the only thing they care about is money. we trust the teachers to give our kids a decent education (in Sweden you cannot home school your children), but we end up with children who are rebellious and deprived of God. And we trust our governments… Here starts my testimony, but not now. Not yet. Had I not found a similar one on line, I would think myself crazy at least. But I am not crazy.
    For now – yes, according to Romans 13:1-7 all civil power comes from God, but obeying does not mean watching and drawing conclusions. Do not ever be naive.

    Anna
    PS. The old background was better, this design is clearer… Well, I do not know – it is different 🙂
    PS2. My tooth is ok now. Nice dentist.

  6. I love the new look in here! It is pretty cool!

    I have always thought that it was a waste of time getting the flu shot, because there are so many variations of it. And plus you get sick after taking it. No thanks!

    I am glad you warned us about the mercury.

  7. Loved all the comments!

    Georgiana, you had mentioned a friend of yours came down with Bell’s Palsey after getting a vaccine of some kind…while I was researching vaccines, I found where that was really common problem…thankfully they’ve discontinued what caused it!

    Gina, with my last pregnancy I learned of the dangers of tuna! And I just love fresh tuna (west coast in me!), but we seldom eat it. Especially now that I know. Funny that that isn’t something you learn about at prenatal visits!

    Anna, so glad your tooth is fixed! Your upcoming testimony has me intrigued, can’t wait to read it!

    Yes, I changed my look around here…I’d had a couple people say that my dark burgundy sidebar was hard to read…how’s green? ;O)

  8. Hello, somebody over at glutenfreeforum posted this website on a thread where there is an ongoing discussion about the flu shot.

    Amy, do you have any specific info (studies, links, whatever) about the MMR’s having contained mercury? I had thought that it was the only vaccine that never had contained thimerosal–what was the source of mercury in it?

    Gina, most recipes for tuna (salad, noodle casserole, etc.) work great with salmon!

    Thanks for letting me “drop in!:

  9. Sorry Alison, I’ll have to look that up, my comment stemmed from a tv program that was on about 6 months ago on Closeup on tv 1 and it was mentioned and proven on there…

  10. Thanks for posting this! I would never have known! I have only gotten the flu shot once, while I was in Nursing school (I only took 1 year of it) and it was mandatory for all Nurses and students to get it. I was sicker than a dog that year, and normally I have a strong immune system. So I never got it since, but that is good to know all this info. just in case my Dr. pushes it on my son.

    I was a little upset when we were getting all of his shots done (4 sets of 4 shots I think…all the boosters that infants get nowadays) and on the last shot I figured it was the same stuff that he had at all his previous appts. but after he was poked the Nurse told me that he got a chicken pox vaccine too which was optional. No one had asked me if I wanted the optional shot and I had planned beforehand to say no to it since I had chicken pox as a child and it was no worse than being covered in mosquito bites! I was really angry but at that point what could I do? He already had gotten the shot so it was too late but I still wish that someone would have asked me if I wanted the optional shot or not…or that I had the foresight to ask beforehand what he was getting but I had just assumed it was the same as all the other times. I think they push vaccines way too much nowadays and people’s immune system gets even more run down because of it.

  11. Geri, it’s amazing how much we have in common…yet you are so much further along than I was at your age, raising my first child. I did say no to the chicken pox vaccine for all my girls, but thankfully, I had a great family doctor at the time who encouraged me to NOT have the girls vaxxed for CP. She said it was basically a safety net for working moms to not have to miss a week of work to stay home with sick kids. Now kids have to have it to enter Kindergarten, unless you can prove by their medical records that they’ve had it naturally already. So I made sure to call up our pediatrician each time we had the CP, so they could record it! Since I homeschool, it’s not that necessary, but just in case!

    We actually haven’t vaccinated our last daughter at all. She was born at a birth center with a midwife, and the whole process was such that since they didn’t push the birth shots and the series that follow, we decided we’d skip it altogether. I have several friends in real life who don’t vaccinate and their reasons were valid enough that I feel good about my decision. But it’s a really tough decision to make, with both sides very die-hard one way or the other!

    One thing that really bothered me, was that the oral polio vaccine had just been introduced when my firstborn was getting her shots. Then 3 years later, when my middle daughter went in for her shots, they injected the same vaccine. I asked why it wasn’t given orally anymore, and they said there had been too many adverse effects (deaths, etc) that they went back to the old way! YIKES. Please don’t experiment on MY child, okay? That was my first indicator that vaccines were a scary proposition. Prior to that, I just rested in my doctor’s good judgment.

  12. Wow that’s crazy! That makes me want to question alot of stuff now! Each time we go to the Dr. for check-ups and stuff it makes me want to make double sure I know exactly what is going on because I am the same way (or I was…now I will be different) and always have trusted my Dr.’s judgment.

    Reading your comment though, I have a question: how was it with the midwife at the Birth Center? I have heard so many things nowadays about it that I was curious and was thinking about it when I was pregnant. Although I ended up having an emergency C-section so I don’t know if I would be able to now for my future child/children should we be so lucky!

  13. Well, I agree…though it would probably vary according to midwife. At the birth center I used, they didn’t take high-risk patients. If they thought your situation would be a repeat, for whatever reason you needed the emergency C-section, then they probably wouldn’t go for it. But you never know. And Geri, it was the most wonderful experience ever! I had my first two at hospitals and the difference between the two is more than can be described. No IVs, no internal fetal monitors, being able to keep hydrated naturally with all sorts of healthy drinks and snacks, letting birth be the natural, special experience it’s supposed to be. I was incredibly thankful we went that route, and you can bet if we have any more children, we’ll go there again!

    May I ask why you had to have an emergency C-section? And don’t worry about going long, I love birth stories!!

  14. LOL okay. Well I was 10 days overdue (by the Dr.’s dates anyways) and so I had to go into the Hospital on the 18th of August to get induced at 6:30AM. I spent the day at my family’s mostly. We went to in-laws and walked my other baby (Bowser) because he was staying there while I was in the hospital. Anyways nothing happened till the afternoon, when I was trying to nap I could not get to sleep because my back was starting to hurt. So me and DH went to pick up some pizza (which I had to have one minute and could NOT eat once we had it haha) and went back to the hospital. Then we hung out there till evening. By the late afternoon I was starting to have more back labour but it wasn’t excruciating yet. It was still pretty bad though, so in order to get to sleep (since I knew nothing was going to happen during the night anyways and I had no sleep due to worrying the night before) they gave me a little morphine to at least let me get some Zzzz’s to be ready the next day. Plus I wasn’t dilated.

    Next day, at 6AM I got induced a 2nd time. By 6:30AM my water had broke and from there I was in active labour for the next couple hours. They gave me 2 epidurals (the first one worked; the second one didn’t since they were giving me oxytocin at the same time to speed up contractions). Pretty much what happened from that is I would get a few minutes relief from the epidural and then I was having constant contractions from the oxytocin (no pause in between). And I still wasn’t dilating. Kyle had moved down as if preparing to be born (and my body was pushing already but I wasn’t supposed to…so I was trying to fight the pushing urge) and then he had somehow and for some reason moved back up. So the Dr.’s were saying that if I didn’t dilate within an hour (around 4ish at this time) then they would do an emergency c-section). Since I hadn’t dilated much anyways and I didn’t think I could handle one more hour of constant pain with no breaks I asked if they would just prepare to do it now (since if I waited it still takes 1-2 hours to prep for it). So they did, although it still took about 1 1/2 hours to prep. And Kyle was born at 6:30 PM on August 19, 2006. I had never seen myself having a c-section. The thought had never crossed my mind actually. But my body just wasn’t reacting the “proper textbook case” way to all the different meds and I don’t think Kyle was ready to come yet. He had a comfy spot in my belly and wanted to relax a bit more before coming into the noisy world!

    I feel badly about it all too since I wasn’t able to enjoy my first moments with him. I was feeling sick from the meds the moment he was born so I couldn’t be as excited as I actually was. And then I was in recovery for a few hours after and never saw him till they brought me upstairs. I missed his first bath and I had told my DH that I had to be the first one to hold Kyle but since I wasn’t there several grandparents and other people got to hold him before me. I was pretty sad about that. So all in all, it was good to have my Lil’ Man with us but I wish I didn’t miss on all that initial bonding stuff…but I have the rest of our lives to do it now anyhow!

  15. Right you sure do, but wow what an exhausting labor, to end in a C-section anyway! That’s the only thing I envy in women who always schedule their babies! They know the due date and get it all over with in a small amount of time. Everything else about it is not enviable!

    I want to write more, but real life is calling…I’ll continue this though…

  16. I’m back! 😉

    Anyways! Pitocin, yikes! BTDT, with my second child. No fun…neither are long drawn out births, which mine always tend to be. You’re probably right that it wasn’t time for Kyle yet–he was definitely ‘comfy in your belly’! Maybe you’re one that will go overdue on each baby, a horrible sentence for us moms (yes, I’m a two week overdue mommy…ugh!) but once it’s birth time, it goes according to plan. Are you with a doctor that would consider trying VBAC?

    My heart broke for you as I read your last paragraph! Can’t imagine everyone else getting to see him and hold him before you…after carrying him close to your heart for 9 months, what a hardship! I’m really surprised that the hospital staff allowed that anyway! You’re a sport about it, but I know it had to sting.

    Really loved reading you and Kyle’s story. Sorry it all turned out like it did, so much for great expectations!

    With a couple experiences like yours, sans the C-section, I was so surprised at how the midwife dealt with spurring on my labor…for one thing she had me take Evening Primrose Oil and drink red raspberry leaf tea…and then when I was a week overdue, she had me try the castor oil diet. It didn’t work the first day, so we skipped a day and then did it and bam! It worked! I was in labor that night. When the labor got sluggish the next day, she started me on doses of quinine, and that was much better than pitocin and accomplished more, faster! I don’t know why hospitals don’t go that route. It only took 2 doses and my youngest came into the world!

    I really don’t recommend the castor oil to anyone–never had anything so incredibly HORRID in my whole life! But when you’re sick of being pregant and overdue, you’ll try anything. I suppose I’d do it again!

  17. Hi, I know I’m new here, but I love this stuff! My husband and I have 10 children. I’m 45 and he’s 50. 9 of them were born at home with a certified nurse midwife. Our first was born at the hospital. The first two had a few of the vaccines, and the other 8 have had none. None of them had the immediately after birth eye ointment, and we were able to bond as long as we wanted before cleaning up either of us. It’s lovely to birth this way (wish it were painless!!!) I have been able to successfully breastfeed all of them for at least a year. We homeschool our children. (I’m not boasting, just trying to give you me in a nutshell)
    In California, when you register your children for school and have to list the vaccinations, etc, the back side of that very form is a waiver the parent can sign because of various reasons for not vaccinating. This is never shown to parents. It may very well be in every state. I found out recently that the high school principal in our town truly did not even know it was there, until a parent last month showed it to him on the back of the form after he insisted that their child could not be enrolled if not immunized. He did apologize, by the way:)
    Whenever we hear of someone having the chicken pox, we have a play date. Usually the child is 12 or 13 and had the vaccination! Anyway we have finally succeeded in all 10 receiving the c/pox and living through it. So, no more sick play dates:)
    I don’t know much about the mercury stuff except that I have 2 friends who have had to have extensive dental work and then cleansing body work done to rid themselves of the excess because of sensitivity. I also have a friend whose son was diagnosed as autistic and was a mess after vaccinations. They have eliminated as many of the things (food, environment…) that they have found that set him off, and now you’d just think he was a little hyper. Unless you saw him a few minutes after he had wheat or gluten…then you’d run for safety. Google Dr.Doris Rapp for great info on this subject (environmental allergies.) Oh, the mother of this boy had CPS called on her at the hospital when she refused a tetanus shot after her other child needed stitches due to a bicycle accident (not a dirty, or rusty, or manure laden accident.) Nothing came of it, but there’s probably a red flag on their medical computer file…
    Anyway, needless to say, we won’t be taking the flu shot this year or any year.
    My mother was a registered nurse from WW2, and she found Shaklee products in the late 70’s and we were raised with those excellent vitamins and products after that. She went to nutrition meetings and as a little girl I went with her. We learned about REAL food and our whole family’s habits changed some. She taught me that doctors and nurses are trained professionals, like a lawyer, or an excellent mechanic. You go to them for advice, pay them for it, then decide what YOU want to do. Doctors know drugs and surgery exclusively and can give you great advice based on what they know. But they do not know your body. They often do not listen thoroughly, nor do they trust your instincts. She taught me to watch and listen to my body. Keep an eye on what is eliminated from your body. Pay attention to how your tongue looks, feels, and how your breath smells. Haven’t all of you as mothers KNOWN your baby was ill because their sweet breath was strange? The first time I saw my midwife she didn’t require a blood test to determine I was pregnant. She simply believed me! When my blood was drawn for all those tests, she commented that I might be low in iron because of the color of my blood, but she would let me know when the test results came back. She recommended I take a liquid herbal iron supplement I could find at the health food store in the meantime that had a lovely array of vitamins and minerals in it. Two weeks later the test results showed she was correct, but I was already feeling tons better and the nausea was much less. I think I fell in love with her that first day:) My husband asked her a hundred hard questions before agreeing to a home birth. But when our second child, James, our first son was born at home, he called his brother and exclaimed that barring an emergency, he wouldn’t want me to do it any other way. He went on to say he truly thought it was safer for mom and baby. What a blessing for me to overhear that phone call!

    Anyway, obviously I could go on and on (even more…) about these subjects, but my eldest has an online test to take for a college course, and is trying to bump me out of the computer chair. Everyone else is watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers…
    Cena

  18. Wow that was a wonderful read Cena. LOL I have so many questions now! Oh one thing-you said you nursed each of your children at least a year…and you have 10 children. I was wondering (you don’t have to answer btw if you feel it’s too personal) if you were able to get pregnant while nursing? My DH and I want to have more children and I am still nursing my son (he’s 15 1/2 months and needs a sibling!) and I’m wondering if it’s because I am nursing maybe.

    Also, the Shaklee products-is that a brand?

    Mary-yes I was so sad at first. The day after Kyle was born (I would not let go of him after that. He stayed in bed with me constantly) I was still recovering from all the meds so I was extra emotional and I was crying because of it. I think the worst was that my DH knew what I had wanted and I was more upset with him for “forgetting”. I know it would have been so exciting for him and remembering anything at that time would be difficult but that at least I would think would be something you wouldn’t forget. And I was alone in a hospital room for almost 2 hours after surgery, listening to Dr.’s and Nurses who thought I couldn’t hear them so it was probably the longest 2 hours of my life waiting to be able to see my baby again. But enough of my rant!

    I’m not entirely sure if my Dr. would consider a VBAC since my Maternity Dr. is different from my Family (regular) Dr.. I spent the first 3-4 months with her before getting switched to the Maternity one (thought they usually wait till 5 months but since I had some fluid-sorry if TMI-they switched me early).

    That’s interesting to hear what your midwife did. I love hearing about those natural alternatives to what hospitals do and it’s great to hear about what works! I read that early on in pregnancy women aren’t supposed to drink raspberry tea because it could start contractions. Did the tea work at all for you?

  19. P.S.-Cena I have heard so many wonderful things about home births and I would love to do one for the fact that after my C-section I was in the hospital 8 days. I would rather be in my own bed rather than the hospital one (although it could adjust up and down 😉 and I missed my pup who I’m sure had thought I abandoned him! And then the cooking at the hospital was better than anything DH would cook for me hehe…but still it’s home! That is one thing I wish I could have recovered more at home for the initial recovery because I think it would have taken a shorter time than it did.

  20. Wish you could see the big grin on my face at what this thread has turned into, just like you, Cena, I LOVE this stuff! Am so glad to hear the you “in a nutshell” story…and to welcome you here anytime…so much to glean from your wisdom! 9 at home births! I’m jealous, lol! That is so wonderful. Perhaps one of your daughters will look into becoming a midwife? My oldest talked about it a lot while we were making our jaunts to the birthing center and back (45 minutes away, not too bad).

    I, too, am big on breastfeeding at least a year, and homeschooling is where it’s at, definitely for this family! 🙂

    Glad to know about the waiver on the back of school admittance forms…I’ll pass that info along, it’s worth looking, even if it might not apply to all the states. Somewhere in my file cabinet I have a document that gives legal reasons for not vaccinating, reasons that hold up in court, should it come to that! I agree that that was one of the most appealing and refreshing things about having a natural/midwife assisted birth. No shots, no eye ointment…etc. My youngest has been so healthy too, compared to her older sisters who had their vaccinations.

    Your mercury stories line up with others I’ve heard about people having to have their old dental fillings removed and replaced with porcelain ones. I asked my dentist’s assistant what kind of fillings they use, and it’s the mercury ones! I then asked if she’d heard of the problems people have from them and she kind of nodded but played it down as to an individual reaction, not a normal one. Um, if it happens as often as I’ve read it does, why not switch over completely to porcelain??? Now I’m anxious to google Dr. Dorris Rapp!

    I have another online friend who raves about Shaklee supplements, Gina from the Portrait of a Writer website. She says they are rarely sick, and just have had fantastic results from using them. I really need to look into how they work, which ones for what, etc.

    What a great post, Cena! I need to re-read it and let it all sink in. Great practical advice about the medical profession, and about going with your gut. I’m so glad you shared all this!

    Geri, my mid-wife didn’t have me drink the red raspberry leaf tea till later in my pregnancy, to help scoot things along for the birth. I still went a week and a half overdue, and had to have castor oil to nudge baby #3 along. But it made me feel pro-active to drink it, and the practice contractions seemed stronger.

    I can’t believe you were in the hospital for 8 days! That rarely happens here in the US, seems like they like to kick you out asap! You must have been pretty touch and go, poor thing! At the birth center, they sent me home 3 hours after birth! My mil kept the older girls overnight and then it was back to regular programming! Lol. One of my birth center friends had her hubby take her and their newborn to a hotel after birth, so she wouldn’t have the long trip home, and recovery surrounded by chaos. I really like being home though, no place like it.

    After Cena’s story, it really makes me want to try a home birth!

  21. Geri,
    I never gave my babies a pacifier or a bottle, ever. I nursed thru the night, etc, etc. I always got my period back in three months. None of my friends did, No one I knew did. It was perfect easy child spacing for everyone else but me. I’m over it now, I think:) And yes I became pregnant while nursing. I even nursed baby AND toddler for awhile after the new one was born. But usually the older child stopped on their own before the new baby was born. I used to take alot of naps!

    Shaklee is a brand. They, among a few other good companies (always expensive!), make vitamin supplements which are more like concentrated food. The theory is that isolating (or making synthetic even) vitamins and minerals discounts the fact that vitamin C (or whatever) is not isolated in nature, it is surrounded by other substances which may make it more effective. Some of these substances are very likely unknown or not discovered by science yet. They also create their supplements at very low temps to keep things alive. Look for these types of products when looking to supplement your diet. They actually work, the others are dead.

    A note about red raspberry leaf tea: it strengthens the uterus, and does not actually bring on contractions. But when you have contractions they will be more effective overall. My midwife always asks me on my first appointment if I’m drinking 2 to 3 cups a day! She claims that if women would just drink the tea their whole lives long instead of coffee, etc, they would never have “woman” problems. It strengthens all the reproductive organs. I tend to like a variety in my tea time rituals. So I will get a box of some new tea like “liver cleanse” and add my raspberry leaf to it, and drink it over the course of a few weeks until it’s gone. Then I’ll get “pregnancy tea” or “mothers milk tea” and add my raspberry to it (even if it already has some.) If I’m down with a cold I’ll mix “throat coat tea” with the raspberry, etc. I believe herbs are important and this is my personal way to use them. Except for the nasty tasting ones like echinacea, those types are best in other forms!

    About VBAC: I would look hard for a doctor or midwife who would be willing to help you. There is a type of incision that is unusual anymore, but that makes a VBAC not doable. The specific incision actually completely weakens the uterus to the point that a vaginal delivery could easily burst the uterus, which is life threatening to the mother. Unfortunately many OBGYN’s simply say no way, your uterus is weak now, and don’t bother to find out what type of incision you had previously. That may not be true at all. I would request (and pay for a copy, likely) of my medical records with every notation from that c-section experience and bring it with me to other doctors/midwives. I would ask until someone helped me. Gee, I used to be so shy…

    I feel so wordy!
    Nice to meet you all, Cena

  22. My oldest daughter, Jessica, has attended my last two births. Oh my, was she spellbound. She could hardly contain the miracle. She talked to my midwife alot those two times and asked if the miracle ever seems “normal” after thousands of deliveries, and my midwife said, “no, never ever.” The chatted about the schooling required for the profession, but my midwife asked Jessica what she wanted to do with her life if she could do anything. Jessica’s response was that she wanted to stay home and be a wife and mother. (I was thrilled, unable to say that out loud at 16 years old myself!) My midwife commented that she is on call 24 hours a day, and 85% of babies seem to want out in the middle of the night. She disclosed that after her stay at home husband had had enough he divorced her. She said she tried to do it all, homeschool, career, loving wife, make cookies, etc, and no-one can do it all. Choose wisely at a young age and never look back, she said. Jessica thought about that and has decided not to go away to school, but is at Jr college nearby. She refuses to go into debt for an education and then stay at home and hand her new husband her student loan papers for a degree she may not use for a career. She also has stated she would miss much of the growing up of her youngest siblings, and she would hate that. A gentleman asked her at church if she had a boyfriend, and she said she didn’t want to date. He asked if she planned to marry some day. She said yes. He said “Well little lady, how ya gonna get a man without dating?” She said, “Watch me.” Actually we have no idea how, but so far it’s been fun going…a totally ‘nother subject.
    Cena

  23. Wow…such long posts…I have so many things to comment on but I hope I don’t forget anything!

    I will definitely look into Shaklee! Sounds interesting and I like what you two have said about it.

    The 8-day stay rarely happens here in Canada too, but I think since it was difficult and the hospital I was in happened to be fairly slow at the time they were more lenient. I could have left on the 7th day but walking was still really hard (I had to walk hunched over because of the stitches in my abdomen and I didn’t want to chance hurting myself hopping up into our truck). For several months afterwards I had to have my DH put a stool out for me getting in and out of the truck, bed, etc…I hated it! I felt so dependent and I just wanted to enjoy being a Mom, not feel like a baby myself.

    I agree with you about the naps Cena! I used to have one long nap each afternoon with my son but now he only has one nap a day and I usually have tons to get done so only get naps on days when I’m really tired!

    After I had my son my Dr. suggested that I went on BCP because they didn’t want me to get pregnant right away (they wanted about 2 yrs between so my belly could fully heal). So I went on for 1 month, had a 2-wk long period and went off because it was so annoying (the 2wk period). Ever since then I have gotten my periods but I don’t know if that’s because of the one-month on BCP or not. I think going on the BCP messed up my body’s schedule maybe…so hopefully I can still get pregnant while nursing! I don’t want to stop until Kyle’s ready but at the same time I don’t want him and his siblings spaced too far apart and I want to have lots of kids so I would like to get going!

    That’s interesting about the raspberry leaf tea. It’s too bad it didn’t help things along with you Mary, but it’s good to know about it helping “women’s problems”. I always get really, really sick with each period (vomiting, cramps that seriously feel like I felt my first day in labour, and dizzyness, etc.) and so I wonder if that would help. My sister and I ave been afflicted with this and no Dr.’s have given us anything that has worked (well I went on BCP for that and it did help alot but I don’t want to do that now that we want to have kids).

    I noticed you said you drank “Mother’s Milk” tea. I have been contemplating ordering some on-line lately but haven’t heard anything (good or bad) about it. I bought a box of Weleda Nursing Tea (not sure if they are similar) and have tried the Mum Ma Milk. How did you find the Mother’s Milk Tea? I agree with you about herbs and I love hearing about what is used for what, etc.

    And thanks for the info. about the VAC…when the time comes I will definitely look into it!

    I agree with you Mary and Cena…I love talking about births, parenting stuff…I think it’s a woman/motherly thing but no one (other than my sister) I know is at this stage in their life so it’s nice to talk to you guys on here! And thank you both so much for your insight and experience!!

  24. Ohh…reading Cena’s last post I was thinking at first it was Mary…I was confused that you had a 16-yo lol! But I got it figured out now! That’s great that your daughter got to experience it! My Mom had 5 children and for the last one (I am the oldest and my brother was born when I was 17) I wanted to be there but my Mom didn’t want it…so I had no idea really (other than the Discovery Health channel and prenatal videos) what was going to happen. I never would have thought of a c-section!

  25. Cena, bless your heart for being so informative. I’m not the one needing the VBAC info, but what hope your advice must bring to Geri and others who may happen to read your words! It’s so sad that up until a few years ago VBACs were really popular, and now hospital regs seem to have thrown them out the window.

    I want to come to your house for tea! I drank Mother’s Milk tea a lot…love your idea of mixing teas. I’m so uncreative about tea, having just switched fully from coffee to tea last May. Had to, my migraines enforced me off caffeine and I knew decaf wouldn’t be any better. That is fascinating, what your midwife said about drinking Red Raspberry all the time, do you buy yours in bulk online or at the health food store? Our health food stores here leave so much to be desired–I LOVE what they do have, but when I hear of what is available in bigger areas I wish it was available to me! Thank God for the internet!

    How heartbreaking, your midwife’s story. I kind of wondered about that. The birth center we used had two midwives and they worked a lot. Then one of the midwives moved on and now the remaining one, a single, older woman, is doing it all. I don’t know how she keeps up, but she’s definitely one of the called ones! I’m sure you’re incredibly proud of your daughter for her choice to plan for marriage and to be careful of debt. I don’t know how most couples make it these days, both fresh out of college with mortgages and huge student loans. Well, I do know how they make it, the wife is a slave to her job for years. Thankfully dh and I never had the college loans to worry about. We have enough problems financially w/o them! But living on one income is well worth the sacrifice, and God always provides, which gets pretty exciting sometimes!

    Great info on the Shaklee brand! Thanks, again for being willing to “teach” us from your experience!

    And Happy Thanksgiving to everybody!!! 🙂

    Geri, I really don’t know anything, so don’t take this wrong, but that just seems crazy that you had 8 months of suffering over that incision. I’d be getting a new doctor, or wondering what they did wrong at the very least. And here you are ready to jump back into childbirth–you’re my hero! I had excellent births, albeit long labors, and immediately after all of them I was so happy I could have done it all over again. But with so many complications…mmm, you were made to be a mom! I pray that you follow Cena’s advice and get your medical records and begin now to ask around about midwives/doctors willing to do VBACs, if it’s possible that your incision will allow you to do it safely. Hopefully your hubby will be on the same page. If he’s like mine, he’ll be scared to take you out of the hospital environment after such a complicated first birth.

    ((hugs)) dear for all you went through!!!

  26. Thank you Mary! Yes my DH is more confused than anything I think, by everything that happened. I had taken my first year of Nursing, plus studied alot in extra Biology classes so alot of the meds, etc. I knew what to expect and stuff. My DH always reacts by being mad when he doesn’t understand something, so when my labour didn’t go how he expected he is now angry with the Dr.’s, even though they were only doing what they thought. When the labour wasn’t progressing the Dr.’s kept giving me more oxytocin till the contractions were continuous and I begged them to stop giving it to me. And then it would be only a matter of minutes before they wanted to give me more oxytocin again. I’m sure they had their reasons (wanting me to have Kyle asap for infection, etc.) but the oxytocin wasn’t doing anything to help me dilate so I didn’t want more. And since I didn’t want it and they kept giving it to me then DH chose to be upset with the Dr.’s. Luckily he wasn’t angry till after we were back home and he had a chance to mull over things. I think since everything went so terribly last time he would be more than happy to try something more natural. He doesn’t realise that it’s alot harder for lots of other women than I had it. I was lucky to have a baby and my health (although my health took awhile to catch up) after all that.

    Also, I wasn’t ready to have a child again after that. I missed being pregnant but after having a c-section I had never thought I would have, I was pretty upset for awhile. When I was younger I had modelled and having a scar across my belly like that was disappointing to me. This was when I still was in the “transition” phase; confused with what my Life had been and missing it…still learning how to be a Mother and a Wife…now I would never go back to my old Life and am entirely happy and utterly contented with my DH and son that I just want to have a big family and make a Home with them. I think all first time Moms go through that phase to some extent, where you think that after you have a baby things can still be the same but you just have a baby to bring with you everywhere. But once the Baby is born you change and grow up…you want your Baby to be your Life and the rest can all wait.

    Did you find the Mother’s Milk tea helped Mary? I am thinking I should order it now hearing that both of you have used it…it’s so hard to find here but I have a few shops when I order my cloth diapering supplies I can order it along with them.

    Oh and about the incision…I have heard both ends for different people. Some people go in, have a c-section and in a month are back at it. Then there are other people who have a few months of recovering and aren’t back at it for up to a year. I think because I had never known anyone who had a c-section, was never planning to have one, didn’t know anything about them I was one of the latter. I had a little help from DH afterwards but he was still getting used to my Bowser and refused to help clean after him so (vaccuuming is one thing that you are NOT supposed to do for several months after a c-section) and DH would not do that since alot on the floor was dog fur. For the first month or two I rarely left my room anyhow so it didn’t bother me but once I was more mobile it bugged me alot. I kept asking DH to vaccuum and he was stubborn as a mule. I couldn’t figure out (still can’t actually) how the man I love would not do something so small for the Mother of his Child when I had just gone through all that for him. So one day I got mad and (even though he had told me not to) I vaccuumed the house. That day I was in pain and couldn’t leave my bed and next day I had some bleeding. I was furious with him. There were a few more episodes like this and finally I told him I would not have anymore children if he was going to be so stupid about a dog when my health was at risk…he’s grown up alot in the last year though and has realised that he’s got to be less stubborn. I think he wants more babies so badly that he’s willing to do anything anyhow, including vaccuuming.

    You are lucky you don’t have the student loan worry. I had one (a small one but it still adds to expenses when you have a new family). Luckily DH didn’t have one and is getting his schooling (he only goes in for a few months each year being an electrical apprentice) paid for by his work. I can’t wait till mine is paid off though. It’s $70 a month that I can put towards fun stuff for Kyle (or pay more bills with I am sure!).

    At our health food store they have a bulk herb section where they have huge jars of herbs…I got the raspberry leaf there. Does your’s have that Mary? It is sooo cheap buying it there rather than boxed…I hope yours has a section like that because then it is loose too, so easier to add to other teas if that is what you were planning to do. I didn’t realise I had some but when DH was on his crazy diet that was one of the herbs he was using in one of his teas that the diet called for. So we have a huge bag of it luckily so I can start drinking some now.

    Cena-did you drink it while nursing?

    Hope you both have wonderful Thanksgiving’s!!

  27. I haven’t ever noticed the bulk bins at our health food store…it’s so tiny, I’d think I would have noticed. I have soooo many things to check out there now! Stevia, red raspberry leaf tea, Shaklee supplements… 😉 And I could easily kill hours in there, even as small as the store is! They have great reading!

    The Mother’s milk tea was great! I always had plenty of milk, and I’m sure the other properties in it boosted my system, as well as the baby’s (?).

    Smiling at your dh story. I can see how it wouldn’t be a priority to him, not being used to the dog yet and all, but definitely see how it would have bothered you. I think we ALL have these newlywed types of stories to tell, in which nothing at all whatsoever is funny while it’s “in the now” but years later we can look back and laugh it off. All part of becoming one together. The dog hair wouldn’t have bothered my dh at all either. I don’t think I’ve EVER seen him vacuum, except for his own outdoor messes with his shop vac! He is so laid-back about housekeeping it used to drive me crazy…to the point that he used to get upset with me for cleaning our back porch AKA “mud room”. That’s his domain, and I’ve learned to relax about it, but it took years! Now I only wince at it when I have guests and I remember how much of a fanatic I used to be about it! Sigh. So I feel your pain, sistah, but can see how it wouldn’t be important to your dh. Men and women. What’s that about Venus and Mars? 🙂

    Thanks for the Thanksgiving wish! It was wonderful…I have two sisters and they were both there with their husbands and all their kids. We had probably the best Thanksgiving we’ve had in years. It’s bittersweet seeing my nephews and nieces all grown up and embarking on marriages of their own! My siblings are all a lot older than I…the closest one in age is 12 years older, so they were starting their families when I was only 8 years old. Fun for me being an aunt that young, but my kids are the youngest of the cousins.

    You’re the oldest in your family, right?

  28. Yes. I’m 24 and my youngest brother is 8-or 7-I think he’s 7 but he wants to be older and always gets me confused by saying he’s older! So I understand the age gap thing!

    And thank you about your Mars and Venus story…knowing that other marriages have survived similar challenges is very reassuring!

  29. Well, you know *they* say not to sweat the small stuff and that it’s ALL small stuff? It really is, when you consider the marriages breaking up because of infidelity, or abuse. Just rest assured that if you get in the habit of letting some of these things roll off your back, eventually, you won’t really even notice them anymore. And in the meantime, your dh, like mine, might even change a little bit! When wives back off a little bit, it’s amazing how it affects their men. At least in my experience!

    Wow, I can’t imagine what it would be like to be the oldest, and of so many all the way down to age 7. I bet he LOVES Kyle to pieces. I was 8 when I became an aunt and was a baby lover before that anyway! The really admirable thing is that you survived being the oldest and still want a full house of your own! I’ve heard that sometimes the “oldests” have had enough responsibility to last them a lifetime!

  30. LOL at first I always claimed I would never have children for a LONG time and that I would have to be with the man at least 10 years before I married him…but once you meet the right one I guess all your ideals change! My sister had just gotten pregnant and then married that summer and Wade was there for all that so I think seeing her married and pregnant made him think of it sooner than most guys.

    My little brother ADORES his nephews! He was so proud to be the only kindergartener (back when he first became an uncle) to be an uncle! It’s so cute because otherwise he is as manly as they come but when it comes to his nephews he’s got this maternal instinct.

    And I agree with you. In the cases where I act like something is not bugging me (with DH) those are the times where he is more likely to work on it…when I nag him then it only makes things worse. My parents had a really bad relationship so sometimes when me and DH argue I forget that we actually have a great relationship compared to what I have seen and I think that I just am always cautious because of what I have seen growing up. My Mom has that book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”.

  31. We had a lovely Thanksgiving in the California foothills at another family’s home. My three oldest girls (18, 15, 14) went up Wed to help bake and cook. The rest of us came up there (it’s 2 hours away) Thur noonish and we stayed till Friday night. The other family had 3 boys when we knew them here in our town. Now they have 6 more (3 boys, 3 girls), a sibling group by adoption 4 years ago. She is an amazing mom. All the kids are friends and the mom and I, and the two dads too. It’s such fun and unusual for every one to be so happy and no one left out for even a minute. We always stay an extra day so my husband (who is a carpenter by trade) and the dad there ( a fireman) can do a project together on the property. This year they finished the fence around their pool that Dan mostly did 5 years ago so they could fill the pool. Out here you must have an in ground pool fenced before filling for safety. They got it all pretty this year, as before it was only functional. Last year Dan replaced french doors that had always leaked during rain storms and put in a picture window. My dh is one of those who would much rather do a work project with a crew (even kids) than sit around having MORE PIE and coffee. Anyway, the wife, my friend, challenged me to do the Halleluia Diet with her for 12 weeks starting Monday. We gotta lose weight. I ate only raw last year for 2 months to get rid of candida like symptoms and it worked. This diet is less strict, but still a challenge. Have any of you done anything like this before? How do you manage to eat different than your family for a purpose like this? One thing I’m going to try is to assign different nights for different kids to cook, so I’m not handling so much food that would tempt me. We’ve gotten lax about meal prep and I’m doing it alot again (because I love to) but there are several more good cooks here.
    One of our reasons, besides health and vanity, is that others look up to us in our respective churches, sometimes with health questions, and the witness of our weight problem looks bad. Does that sentence make sense?
    Oh, I get most of my teas in those glass jar bins at the health food store, too. I get the raspberry and throat coat through a coop in bulk (cheaper) because we go through it fast enough. Yes, I drink the raspberry while I’m nursing too. I just stopped nursing my two year old a few weeks ago . It’s the first time in almost 20 years that I’m not pregnant or nursing a baby. It doesn’t feel too weird yet…maybe when he’s potty trained. No diapers would definitely be odd but fabulous. My older daughters actually commented that it would be appropriate for my dh & I to stop having babies before they get married and begin. I decided not to be offended (a great and valuable talent I’ve found) and pretty much agree:) Then they decided my hair was too gray. I’m overweight and gray, and my husband is a cross between an blond surfer and that muscly armed carpenter look, if ya know what I mean… So we dyed my hair a nice brown, that washed out black. Anyway, after going thru the afternoon long, expensive, hair damaging highlighting ordeal by a professional to lighten it up, I think I’ll stick with the pro’s. I used to dye my own hair in college and never had any problems. We had a good laugh (after I nearly cried!!!) and my girls say I’m a good sport. It looks good now, but I can’t pay for the whole streaking thing again, no matter how nice it looks. By the way, I’m using Best Foods mayonnaise in my hair once a week, wrap in a hot wet towel, then a dry towel on top, and sit till it’s cool. Then I shampoo it all out. It’s the cheapest, best intensive conditioner around. My severely damaged locks are mostly soft now…
    Better go, want Baby Brian to go down for a nap.
    Cena

  32. Aw you poor thing! Such a long ordeal for your hair and thank you so much for the tip on the mayo conditioner!! I will definitely have to try it. Since I first got pregnant with LO until now my hair has been frizzy and unmanageable, when it used to be so soft and lovely so I have been trying everything under the sun and nothing seems to work.

    As for the diet thing…my DH just finished a crazy diet where everything he ate had to be organic and from a list of certain foods. It was VERY hard to cook for him because he wasn’t allowed dairy, sugar, almost anything! In the duration of the diet we decided we would eat more like that (organic) all the time and just get used to that for a lifestyle. We’ll still go out now and then (like we ever go out now! With a 15mo it’s hard) and we won’t be worried at Christmas time, etc. with treats and goodies but it’s worth it to us to try most the time. SoI understand your dilemma with cooking (before we made that decision I would cook something for me and something for him…till finally I just would let him fend for himself 50% of the time since what I made for him I would not thinking put something in he couldn’t eat). Anyways I think your idea of handing off the cooking job to others is a good idea because then you won’t be tempted or forget and go eat something. It would be hard with a family of your size to try a diet because with us we just wouldn’t buy the stuff that my DH couldn’t eat and so the temptation was not here. But you have so many more people so it’s not like you can’t buy something cause you’re not eating it because chances are you’ll have 3 or more people in revolt for it. (J/K). I hope your diet goes well for you. You will have to keep us updated.

    And it sounds like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! So nice you have a family to connect with like that! It must have felt so cozy having everyone included and together.

    I’m so excited…we got SNOW yesterday! It was so beautiful, the big, fluffy flakes floating down! Now I just hope it stays!

  33. Snow sounds pretty, but 1/2 hour ago my husband and I just picked a huge bag of lettuce from the garden, and I washed and bagged it for the fridge. I love California. We must have gotten frost though because the tomato plants are black…we picked what had color.
    The diet starts tomorrow morning and I have to buy organic carrots and celery for juicing. I didn’t get a chance today, with church and stuff.
    Have a great beginning of a new week to all.

  34. Ohhh…that sounds nice! Fresh lettuce from the garden! Now you have me missing summer! Do you have a juicer? Or do you just use a blender?

  35. You know, Geri, I never knew there was a book by that title!! Is it any good? And guess what??? We got snow yesterday too! A 2 inch blanket and it was still coming down, huge floating flakes for a good two hours…but then the sun came out and melted it in no time! Only mud left now! As to Cena having lettuce in sunny CA…lucky girl! Can’t imagine…only way I’d have that is if I had a hay bale cold frame, and believe me, I’ve considered it! Enjoy your fresh veggies for me, Cena!

    My Thanksgiving was the best yet! Reading between the lines of Cena’s thankfulness to have such kindred spirits to spend the holidays with…I can say that I’ve always longed for my husband and brothers-in-law to get along more than just “because their wives are related”. My sisters and I would love to have “couple” type friendships with each other, but alas our dh’s are so different. Despite this, Thanksgiving was a long day of never wanting it to end (even though, or maybe because of! all the dhs left us to each other and went their various ways mid-afternoon!).

    What a great day for you all, Cena. Friendships like that are rare, when everyone in the family has a mate to enjoy. Talk about soul-feeding, it sounds like you had a day steeped with it! So nice that your hubby has those kinds of skills too. Mine does also, he can fix anything, he just never has the time, it seems like! Great idea to have a catch-up project with a friend over the holidays. My hubby and his bils (on his side of the family) spent Thanksgiving afternoon shooting clay pigeons! 😉

    So is the Hallelujah diet the same as the Genesis 1:29 diet? How about Genesis 9:3? 😉 (“Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you: even as the green herb have I given you all things.”) Sorry, couldn’t resist…going on a vegan diet would be impossible for us. My hubby is soooo beef oriented, down to being a fulltime working cowboy. I am very interested in your candida cleanse…been thinking we need to do that here too. But you have to eat raw for 2 months? I was hoping for a tea-cleanse or something “doable” for our lifestyle! I’ve been reading some of Kevin Trudeau’s books on health…yikes!

    I’ve only dieted twice…and used the no-carb Adkin’s diet…lost weight easily on it, but it all came back once I started eating normally again. My girls were so little at that point that they didn’t pick up on the fact that I was eating differently. I was really careful not to advertise the fact, because I hate the “diet mentality”, and don’t want any issues of self-image to start eating at my girls in this anorexia-thin media culture of ours. It would be much harder to hide a diet from them now, though in your case, if the whole family did it, as Geri suggests, it could be less about dieting to lose weight and more about eating to stay healthy. The best and most succinct advice I ever heard about losing weight was “Eat less. Move more.” Since I started this blogging/writing, I’ve definitely noticed a few added pounds. 🙁 This is a good/bad time of year to start a diet! Yikes, I’d welsh on it all the time. Winter is my favorite time to bake and leaf through cookbooks for inspiration.

    I totally understood your reasoning behind needing to lose weight, to be credible. There is a family in our church who over a two year time frame completely became fit and lost weight/age, etc…I’ve often wanted to ask her their secret, because they’ve all kept the weight off, and just look so much younger and more energetic.

    But, I have many trusted older women in my life who are far from svelte and I so value their wisdom in the avenues of health, so don’t let that bother you too much. I think that mothers especially in their child-rearing/nursing years are going to be a bit overweight. Unless they’ve inherited a great metabolism and keep it off without trying! Sometimes, the loved ones in our lives are more important than constantly struggling to keep the weight off.

    Do you have an exercise plan in mind? I’m a walker, but outdoors! This time of year that theory gets buried in snow or mud…which wouldn’t be as much of a problem in CA, I guess!

    I loved reading about your mother-daughter makeover! Wish the hair had turned out better, but at least you saved it! I’m too scared to dye mine, never have. Probably never will unless it’s horrible when it finally completely grays. My dh has told me again and again that he does not want me to ever color my hair…and it has been going gray (on the underneath side thankfully!) for 2 years now. He loves long gray hair on women, my luck! I’ll be the only woman in her early thirties that looks like her kids grandma!

    What color are you normally, Cena? Geri?

  36. I’m a redhead…more like a strawberry blonde (or auburn like my Dad calls it). I had always wanted to try being blonde when I was younger so this summer I decided that it was now or never and dyed it blonde. A few months ago when I was trying to get it back to normal I ended up with pink hair for the first few tries…I don’t know how many dye jobs later and I finally got slightly close to my natural colour. Thank goodness after a month or so the dye seemed to kinda wash out of my hair! I just thought I should do it now otherwise I would always wonder what I would look like otherwise…and I looked awful so now I’m back to my strawberry blonde.

    I haven’t done much dieting either. I truly do not have the willpower to say no to food…I love it way too much! I only seriously commited to a diet while I was modelling (and even then I caved at least once a day!). I would eat oatmeal for breakfast, steamed veggies for lunch, oatmeal and popcorn for snacks (or apples), and usually steamed veggies, or rice or something for dinner. I did that for the summer while I modelled and then have never done anything since…and I totally understand you Mary about not wanting your daughter’s to get the wrong idea about it. Our society pushes girls and young women to believe that skinnier waistlines, bigger busts, less clothing, etc. is perfect. It really is very sad. It took me actually modelling to see how skewed the images that we see are and, in modelling, I realised that I was promoting that to others. It makes me cringe when my younger sister (16yo) says she’s fat (she is in SO many sports she has no time for anything else…there is no fat on her!!) and it makes me so angry at the media out there for making her feel any less than the beautiful young woman she is.

    Mary I love your Biblical quote!! I know what you mean about never being able to go vegan though…I couldn’t. Growing up with a Dad who hunted I just cannot live without meat-especially wild meat is the best! I always said I would marry a hunter (no my DH isn’t a hunter LOL).

    That’s great it snowed there Mary!! It’s too bad it’s all slushy and muddy though. That’s the worst cause then it gets the entrance to the house all messy. I would rather clean snow than mud! Our’s is now just a thin misting of snow…enough for Bowser to go hog-wild in (he loves the snow!) but not enough to make snowmen or anything…soon I hope! Tomorrow is DH’s birthday though, so I had better get to bed.

  37. Whoops! I replied to this earlier, but it must not have submitted!

    Happy Birthday to your dh, Geri! Hope it’s a great day for all of you…

    I would never have pictured you as a Strawberry Blonde! Lovely! My dh has red-gold hair (as opposed to red-orange) and it’s so beautiful…I always wanted a little boy with the exact same hair color! (Maybe twill still happen someday?) Our girls take after me, with the exception of my middle daughter who has gorgeous auburn hair with threads of gold in it. I’ll have to send you a picture of my girls…anyway, I always wanted auburn hair, so it was a treat to see she inherited a good blend of her daddy and me!

    It’s amazing that you used to model, yet have such a healthy “mental” approach to life and dieting. It sure could have affected you the other way! I’m glad your sister has you and your input to aid her in her self-esteem. I really valued my older sisters advice, even more than my mom’s sadly. Mom had more wisdom, but there’s just something about being a teenager and feeling like you can’t talk to just anybody about these things.

    Our snow is completely G.O.N.E. Yet the cold remains. And the mud. But it’s not too bad. I brought it all on myself last week when I washed the Suburban. Never fails!

  38. My original hair color was brown. It is 2/3 gray now and my husband has blond hair without a single gray strand! But if he grows any facial hair, watch out. So my hair is dark brown with beautiful light brown highlights at this time. And I do have a couple of strands of facial hair which I pluck diligently;)

    I have a juicer for juicing and a blender for smoothies. I inherited an old vita-mix (the stainless steel kind) from my mom and I’d hoped to grind wheat into flour in it, but the blades are too dull to get the flour fine. But it makes the best smoothies and soups.

    Yes, the Halleluia Diet is Gen 1:29, and I think I’ll be adding Gen 9:3 in at dinnertime once in a while. The all raw diet was an experiment to see if it would clear up the yeast/candida problem “quickly” because all the Trudeau related methods were going to be pretty strict and last at least a year! It’s difficult to get the candida out of the body if you eat ANY sugars/starches, fruit included. I read, online, that if you go totally raw you can even have fresh fruit, so I did it. And it works. I did it in the fall, (last year) but summer would be easier with all the fruit and veggies in season. By the way, I NEVER had so much energy EVER in my life. The raw food really feeds your body (it’s the enzymes), it’s just so raw and crunchy all the time. I remember just longing for some hot soup or a steamy baked potato with butter and sour cream. I like meat, but when I eat vegan for more than a month I lose the taste a little. Don’t worry, it comes back:)

    Thank you for the encouragement that I don’t need to be svelte! My daughters are all doing well with their weight, the older two just eat small meals when they are hungry, and they don’t eat when they aren’t. They also like mostly healthy foods: lots of fresh fruits & veggies, a big salad every night, whole grain everything, etc, because they were brought up on it. They prefer the flavor of brown rice because they are served it, my husband was willing early on in our marriage, and got used to the flavors soon and now prefers them too. We make a French Bread and pizza dough that are mostly unbleached white flour, but everything else is whole grain. WW pastry flour is useful for lighter muffins, tortillas, and pancakes.

    As for exercise, I’ve been walking 3-4 miles 5 days a week for almost 2 years now with a friend in the mornings. Funny, I haven’t lost any weight, but my husband claims underneath it all I have hot legs. He’s a sweetie, and probably right. I do have more strength, which I could tell when we’re gardening or camping, hiking, etc.

    I’ve read Trudeau, he’s enlightening, but a little strange and quite the money maker… But I learned alot in his main book. We try to eat organic…so expensive, so I garden as much as I have time. And we get pork from our pastor who always raises a couple pigs, eggs from a neighbor who raises them out in the fresh air, and on grass and pasture with the cow and sheep. We get lamb from same neighbor with the sheep…and are going to go in and get a grass finished steer from a guy we call Farmer Bill. Bill has a CSA farm where he takes your money (145.00) up front, then he brings you a basket every week for 15 weeks of organic produce. His fil has the cattle. I don’t have a good place to get chicken except Trader Joes stores, but it’s a little pricey for us. I try to have room in my freezer to get a few good turkeys this time of year that at least are not injected with stuff…

    Take care, and God Bless. It’s so nice to get to know you gals. Made Amish Buddy Bread again today with lemon extract and lemon peel, the kids said it’s good. I had fruit this am, salad for lunch, fruit for snack, and I’m going to have another salad and a little bit of soup for dinner (Jessica made potato/chard soup for dinner!)
    Cena

  39. LOL Mary I know all about the “red-gold”…I always hated when people called my hair orange growing up so I would correct them. Whenever my siblings would get mad at me they would say something about my “orange” hair or call me “carrot top”. So growing up I hated my hair coloud but then when I was about 18 I realised that it was unique and I learned to like it for that. And I would love to see what your girls look like. And I’m sure one day you’ll talk your DH round to having another (or just keep mentioning to him how he needs a little man around to train to do manly things and sooner or later he’ll be wanting to try for one!).

    And my outlook wasn’t always like that. If I didn’t lack willpower back then I could easily have been swayed in the opposite direction while I was modelling…I just liked eating way too much to even think about not eating or eating less. If I’m hungry I eat LOL!

    Our snow is barely there now too, but apparently we are going to get tons tonight so I’m hopeful it will be a cozy night around the fire here for us. I took Bowser for a walk around 4:30 it was getting dark and just seemed like a Winter Wonderland…so nice. Where we are we are “downtown” in this tiny town (downtown being the residential area) and around the corner from our house is “the country”…so it’s nice to walk and see fields and fields of snow…looks gorgeous at night!

    So Cena-do you make your own flour? I was looking into that because I read an article that says it is SO much more nutritious than boughten flour. If you do what kind of mill do you have and do you buy/grow your own grain? We are the same way with eating whole wheat everything. I only buy whole wheat flour so everything we make ends up being whole wheat so I’m not tempted to use white flour (I have a HUGE weakness for home made white bread…YUMMY!!). It was actually my DH who wanted to start going whole wheat with noodles, etc. and then pretty soon we just switched everything over. At first you notice a difference in flavours but soon once everything in your cupboard is WW then you just get used to it.

    LOL my exercise is limited. I chase Kyle around the house all day, him and I walk into town to get the mail, and then him and I walk Bowser after that…that is the extent of my exercise for the moment. I love days like today though, when Bowser gets “Mommy time” to himself. It’s so much easier walking just him and me…Kyle is SO heavy now! So carting a 30lb baby and tugging a 130+lb rottweiler around for a walk is pretty strenuous! I have a Gentle Leader harness for him though and Bowser is the gentlest beast on his walks!

    That’s great you have access to all that fresh food Cena! And organic eating is WAY more expensive I agree. I was telling Mary before that my DH plans next year to start his own garden to hopefully cut on costs plus it will be incredible to just go out and pick a head of lettuce for salad with dinner. Unfortunately I’m not much of a green thumb!

    Sounds like your diet is off to a good start! Soup sounds yummy!

  40. Cena, so glad you survived day #1! Aren’t walking partners the best? I’ve had one off and on, whenever her osteoarthritis isn’t flaring up. 🙁 That would be discouraging to walk for so long and not see any weight loss…but the added energy and fitness is huge at any age!

    I’m afraid I’d be the same way if I tried to go vegan, even for a candida cleanse. I do like my hot foods too much, probably! And soups…this time of year especially. Btw, your daughter’s soup sounds intriguing! I love it that she does soup each Monday night!

    Wish we had a Farmer Bill! I used to get all our eggs from a friend of my parents who had more eggs than they knew what to do with, but recently they’ve been low so I’ve gone back to the grocery store. I’d really like to find a dairy nearby, one that sells organic, but I don’t think there are any like that here. It’s rare to find one that doesn’t use growth hormones at any rate.

    I have access to my mom’s wheat grinder and we love ww homemade bread…I need to get a good cookbook on how to do mostly ww cooking, etc. Do you have any recommendations? Do you just substitute it equally for white flour in recipes? Have you needed to add gluten or anything? We are definitely brown rice people! Yum. And just this last year I finally figured out the trick to getting it cooked perfectly. I knew about the “no peeking rule” but I didn’t know to leave the lid on for another ten minutes after turning the heat off. What a difference!

    I sympathize with you on the hair…and you’d mentioned what great shape your dh is in! Mine has no gray, until he goes a couple days without a shave (what is it with that??) and he still weighs what he did in high school…very lean and fit. It’s amazing! He eats like a flood-starved dinosaur! But aren’t we blessed to have men who love us no matter our physical shortcomings? And not only that, they truly mean it when they compliment, they’re not just trying to make us feel better!

    Hope our daughters get so blessed in their future mates!

    Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on Trudeau and health, I’m soaking it all in. Wondering if I could stand a vegan diet for two months! Do you remember what site, or book you found that gave you all the info on that fast? Did you lose weight doing it?

  41. Geri, your walk and scenery sounds beautiful! I would love to see Canada again…and I’m really longing for a lot of snow this year. Wouldn’t mind at all an excuse to hunker down here at home and not have to run hither-thither-and-yon so much. Used to get my wish before we got a four wheel drive vehicle, now I pretty much don’t have an excuse, except for being leery of the other drivers out on the icy stuff!

    I didn’t realize/remember Bowser was a Rotweiler! They are such beautiful dogs…my ex-bil had one that was so protective of my nephews, he really endeared himself to our whole family. His name was Tacu, he was from Alaska!

    I grind my own flour, but haven’t gotten in the habit of using only whole wheat flour, sadly! I need to…so much better for us overall. Here’s a post I wrote about my homemade bread and tips, and I linked to the website of the grain mill I use and love.
    http://homesteepedhope.com/2006/08/10/home-made-bread-and-jam/

    Well, I have some girls that need to go to bed, and then I’ve got to get busy myself, finishing up a meal we’re taking to a friend tomorrow at our homeschool co-op. She just had her fifth baby girl!

    Have a great night’s sleep!

  42. Thank you for the info and site on the mill! I am heading there after I post this.

    5th baby girl!! Lucky her!! I can’t wait to have a daughter…so fun to dress up in little dresses with cute little mary janes! I hope she and the baby are doing well!

    I totally understand you about the worry of other people on the road. It is scary because no matter how safe we drive there are other madmen/women, drunk drivers, etc. that can put us at risk. It almost makes me wish that we were back in the wagon days; even though there were many dangerous situations with wagons at least they weren’t travelling at the speed that some people do. And I would much rather run into a drunken wagoneer than a drunken car!

    Yes my lil Bowser is a rottweiler. I had always wanted a rottweiler because I think they are such beautiful dogs (and cute and fat and I love their stubby little tails!). Then when me and DH moved away for a few months while I was first pregnant for his work I was SO lonely so I started buying newspapers to look for if there were any breeders nearby with pups for sale. I found one and within 2 or 3 weeks I had him! They are very protective dogs, so I can understand Tacu being protective of your nephews. Bowser is very protective of me and Kyle and doesn’t like if big men especially come near us. We’ve been working on him with his protectiveness/aggression (since he is still quite a pup…he turns 2 on December 9) and he is now quite good with strangers (other than a bit of barking…and he has a deep, throaty bark) but he mostly just wants attention. I loved having him when we moved into our first house because when I was in my 3rd trimester in the summer heat him and I would lay belly up in front of our big fan in the living room for hours! And Wade worked nightshift then so I loved feeling safe. I am (don’t laugh…) really scared of being home alone at night and so Bowser was a lifesaver. And now it’s so nice having the feeling that no matter what he is taking care of me. I’ll have to send you some pics…lol if you can’t tell I adore the big mutt! And that’s neat! A rottie from Alaska! Do you know if he was German or American?

    Oh and about the WW flour baking-I’ve only used boughten WW flour but I have been using Rogers All-Purpose Whole Wheat flour and just used it in place of white flour (same measures) in all my baking. Everything turns out fine; I haven’t had a problem with anything so far…in fact, your ABC pretzel recipe was fantastic with it! I would really like to get into making my own flour though because of the added nutrients of using fresh flour.

    Hope you both have a wonderful night!

    PS-it’s snowing outside here…(sighs contentedly)

  43. Bad Geri, rubbing it in… 🙂 Tis okay, we should have another snow before spring…here’s hoping anyway!

    I’m not sure which kind of Rotweiler Tacu was, I guess I didn’t realize there were two kinds. Do they look the same?

    Okay, I guess I have no excuses to not incorporate more ww flour into my baking. I do love it in muffins, so it stands to reason we’ll adjust okay. Guess I need to borrow my mom’s grain mill and grind up a huge quantity! I’m still curious from Cena though, if she has to add gluten to her homemade flour…I know the store bought ww flour has it.

    Well, big day ahead, and I really shouldn’t be taking this peek at the blog comments!

    Have a great day all!

  44. You too Mary! Just curious…do you buy the grain you make into flour or do you grow it?

    American and German rottweilers look the same as far as colouring, docked tails, and basic shape goes but there are several differences. Rottweilers are originally from Germany (Rottweil, Germany) and so are a more pure version of the breed. The American rottweiler is more of a friendly dog, less aggressive, has a distinctly smaller head and chest, and is taller and leaner. German rottweilers have a massive head and chest (you’ll know for sure it’s a German one from this alone). Then their tail end is small in comparison to the front. They are not short, but because of the size of their front end they look stocky. Bowser is German (his grandparents were from Germany) so he’s pretty big. The German ones retain alot of the protectiveness, loyalty, and aggression that the American breed has filtered out through selective breeding. I wanted a big baby though so I chose a German one; I probably should have gotten an American one though because now when Kyle is older no one will be wanting their kids to come over to our place! We will make a big fenced off pen area for Bowser when that time comes though. He really is a big baby when it comes down to it but his bark scares off alot of people.

    Oh and sorry…I wasn’t trying to rub it in about the snow…I was just really excited!

  45. My parents buy the grain in Montana, in bulk, and graciously share it with all of us!

    Grow it? Bwah-hah! Didn’t we already establish my green thumb deficiencies? 😉 And no, dh doesn’t grow wheat either…

    Thanks for the great description of the differences between German and American Rotweilers! You’re an expert, sounds like. It’s been so long ago I wouldn’t know what Tacu must have been. I thought he was big, but I was 7-8 years old! 😉

    I won’t hold the snowfall against you, bask in it all you want! I’m happy for you…you sounded so cozy!

  46. Ok thanks about the grain info. I just had no idea you could buy grain…I better start looking around here and see if anyone sells it!

  47. Good news:I bet your health food store sells it! Ours does, it’s just more expensive because it’s in smaller amounts. And if our small bitty health food store has it, then your’s surely stocks it also!

  48. Ohhh…yah! something for me to check next time I go there! I love going there…so many interesting things! But I won’t be buying it till I get a mill…lol another thing to put on my wishlist for Wade to get me!

  49. LOL just start making it by hand and he’ll love it and just mention how time-consuming it is squeezing all those oranges, etc. by hand and how easy it would be with a juicer…but I guess that would only work if he really loved the home-made juice.

  50. Well, he’s made me fresh squeezed OJ before, one of the real treats of my life, because he is sooo not comfortable in the kitchen! So he knows what a pain it is! He also loves fresh squeezed lemonade…but I’ve gotten in the habit of just slicing lemons, putting them in glass quart sized jars with some sugar and shaking the dickens out of them…it’s even better if I plan ahead and let it sit in the fridge overnight! Mmmm!

    My friend Deborah once spoiled me with the best juice…she owned a very nice quality juicer and made a carrot-celery-apple juice cocktail that was TO DIE FOR. I’ve wanted one ever since. That was oh, 12-13 years ago!

  51. Yummy, what an interesting combo…I will have to remember to try it if I ever get a juicer. I love lemon-water (I’m lazy and just make lemon slices in water).

  52. CENA-I wasn’t feeling well with cramps and nauteous stomach yesterday so I tried the raspberry leaf tea yesterday…I don’t know how but I felt much better and so I had several cups throughout the day. I have never been able to get stuff done on Day 1 before! Normally I am so incapacitated I have to be in bed all day. Thank you!

  53. Hurray, Geri, and we thank my midwife…who also helped me cure varicose veins by drinking fresh juiced pineapples during my pregnancies. This is by far the most delicious drink in the universe.
    Oh, there is a house I drive by to go grocery shopping that sells 40# bags of organic oranges from a help yourself stand, and yesterday the stand was up!!! I was so excited, and put in my $5 and we are loving the sweet oranges. They only have the stand up for about 2 1/2 months, but oh, yum. I have been juicing 2 at a time, sprinkling a little stevia, and filling the glass with water, just like lemons, and my personal favorite grapefruit. The oranges are cheap, the lemons are usually free during the winter, but I need a grapefruit tree. I think I’m going to stop and ask people who have a tree if I can pick and buy them. I have 2 scoped out in front yards…dare me? Have you ever asked strangers for fruit like that , when it just falls on the ground?

  54. I WISH! We don’t have many neighbors with fruit, especially no oranges, lemons or grapefruits! Wrong climate, boo-hoo. I bought a bunch of naval oranges at the supermarket, that, I’m sure can hardly compare to your lovely native juicy organic oranges! Yum. Enjoy them for all of us less fortunate ones! We try to get to the orchard each fall for pears and apples, but even then, it’s not an organic orchard, and the past two years there aren’t any apples to be found locally due to late frosts killing everything off. I did get some big bags of Gala apples at a buy 1 get 1 free special yesterday…so some apple treats are in the making.

    Thanks for sharing that tip on the fresh pineapple juice! It does sound delicious! Thankfully I’ve never had vericose veins, but know several ladies that were plagued with them…poor things! I’m ever amazed at the natural preventatives that the MD’s don’t know enough to recommend!

  55. I know what you mean! I am shocked at how the raspberry leaf tea worked!! Please thank your midwife for me…me and my sister have been plagued with this ever since we “grew up” and I am so glad to have found something that relieves the symptoms and even more happy that it’s natural. And hearing you talking about the fruits!! I wish we had that here…we are in foot-deep snow here…so no chance of anything growing right now. I love how those fresh oranges sound though! Yummy!! And interesting about the varicose veins and pineapple juice. I hope I remember that if I encounter that in the future!

    Mary-you changed the site background…looks great!!!

  56. Cena, you have a smart hubby! 😉

    Geri, yes, I was playing around with the site colors last night but didn’t really do much in the end. Somehow I changed that header bar to red…strange! Now I can’t get it back, but it’s Christmasy, don’t you think? 😉 If I had more time, I’d love to do a makeover here, but I don’t really have the time, especially as it would take FOREVER since I’m not very websmart!

  57. I searched for vaccines on your blog, Mary and came across all the wonderful comments! My daughter is 13 months and is overdue for the MMR and Varicella. I had decided not to give her these vaccinations, or at least to postpone them until I was more sure. I have been fretting over this since pregnancy. Anyway, it turns out that my husband is going on a mission trip to an area that has a huge outbreak of Measles and Mumps. This has caused concern with our Pediatrician, who pleaded with me to vaccinate her. I am so unsure now. I don’t have a gut feeling, nor am I leaning in a direction… it changes each hour. It would be easier not to vaccinate her if I was at least fairly sure she wouldn’t be exposed. Measles & mumps can live several days on a surface and only bleach can kill the virus’. I’d love any thoughts on this.

  58. It’s such a tough decision, Amy! You know though, in places like China, they don’t vaccinate for these things till the child is much older…not sure on actual years…I’m wanting to say 2 years old? We had a whooping cough epidemic in our area two years ago, when our unvaccinated youngest was only 1 year old. Believe me I had my anxieties, but nothing happened to us. “They” say that it’s much more likely that our unvaxxed children will be exposed to these viruses through other children who have just been vaccinated…evidently they carry contagions for a couple days afterward.

    I think, in your case, I wouldn’t vaccinate yet. Since it’s just your hubby going and not you and your daughter…and most likely, your hubby can decontaminate himself and his clothing, etc upon arriving home. What is his gut feeling? I’m sure it’s harder than ever for you, with your nursing background!

    I hope Cena weighs in on this, she’s really knowledgeable about these things. What little I have read just has me more scared of vaccinating than of actual exposure to these childhood diseases.

  59. Well, I had both mumps and German measles as a child, with no ill effects. My mom was an RN. I wouldn’t vaccinate my own children in this situation, but I sure would bleach my husband;) Actually, I would do all his clothes from the trip in the wash with a very mild bleach solution, and he has bathed in a very, very mild bleach solution to stop a bad (horrible) break out of poison oak once. It didn’t harm him. I would wipe down everything I could find from his trip…But most viruses/bacteria die within 3 minutes of being thoroughly dry, right?
    Also, like Mary said, I would probably go with my husbands opinion in the situation, he has a tendency to see clearer about what I have made emotional or attached fear to. I would pray diligently and ask God for that gut feeling that seems to be missing. Also, when my husband & I both pray aloud together about anything, God gives us a similar opinion and peace soon afterwards.
    Most people who get communicable diseases, even in unclean 3rd world countries, have pre-existing conditions which have horribly weakened their immune system.
    My thoughts, Cena

  60. Thank you so much, Mary & Cena. My husband is so funny…he just basically tells me to make my mind up. He he says, either way, God is in control and His will shall be done. He suggests I become as knowledgeable as possible and make the best decision based on that knowledge. That sounds great, but is much easier said than done. I don’t have a gut decision on this yet, but it is looking as though I will not vaccinate. I have decided against the flu shot for Lydia. As for the MMR, she has a bit of a cold now and I think it unwise to vaccinate her with a cold (although my pediatrician said she’d be fine). Last night it occured to me that toddlers need 2 MMR shots and she’d only have time for 1 before Frankie returns from Moldova… that means she wouldn’t have immunity anyway. Also, we’re leaving for SC this weekend, so there’s no time to vaccinate her before he leaves and returns. Frankie has been vaccinated, so there’s no reason to think he will return with measles, mumps or rubella. And we have several gallons of bleach. Pray that God will give me peace and renewed trust in Him. Really only He can protect Lydia anyway. And thank you ladies again for your time and insight. Good grief…I hope this parenting thing gets easier!!

  61. Cena, I second the advice to bathe in a light bleach bath…I’ve done this too with success to ward off poison ivy and it worked! 😉 Your last paragraph about people from 3rd world countries having weakened immunities makes so much sense…and gives me great peace just to rationalize it out that way. I know my youngest has been the least sick of all my children, and she seems to stand strong against the viruses that attack our family. She’s the only one we haven’t immunized at all.

    Also, my middle daughter recently got an inch+ long piece of wood jabbed into and along the bottom of her foot…I got “lucky” and got an inch of it out, but we had to take her to the dr to get the rest of it…of course, they wanted to give her a tetanus shot, so we let them. But the funny thing was she had never had her kindergarten shots and since she was past age 7, they said she was too old to get them. The RN said it wouldn’t make any difference anyway, she would still be covered from her first two series… I wanted to laugh and ask why then, do we get raked over the coals for not vaccinating, if indeed, it really makes no difference? As it was, I was just glad she wasn’t giving me trouble for not keeping middle daughter up to date.

    Amy, your husband sounds much like mine! It’s nice but also a big responsibility to be trusted so much!

    And don’t worry, parenting does get easier…or rather, we learn a TON on our first couple of kids and realize that there’s not enough time to waste worrying! I remember being paralyzed with fear several times when my firstborn was tumbling off tables and fighting off colds…you are way ahead of me thinking out the vaccination options with your firstborn! I wish I’d known more back then…

  62. LOL it’s funny this post is picking up again because I just made the appt. for Kyle’s last immunization. He alreadyy had the first 3 before I read this so I figured I might as well do the last one. But I agree about the flu shot. I will not do that again for me or my children. I had to do it once in nursing class and that year I was sicker than I have ever been…I got every cold and flu out there!! Both me and DH totally agree with all your comments though (I got him to read them and he was pretty much leaving it up to me then because he wants nothing to do with the shots now after reading this!) I’m glad that he is more open to the more natural way of things. In future with our children we will have to sit down and talk about whether or not we will do the immunizations at all. At least I know for this last set of shots for Kyle to ask them not to give him the chicken pox one (if they do it this time, I don’t know). I was so mad last time when the nurse gave it to him, although it was my fault for not asking first what she was giving him. I had the chicken pox and survived with no horrible side effects!

    And I totally agree with you Cena about the vaccines being more for the people with weakened immune systems that are closer in contact to those diseases in the first place. Most of these diseases are rarely over here anyways so the chances of picking it up are very rare. Plus, I think vaccines were way more useful in the old days where when a person got one of these diseases then they would die from it but nowadays with the technological and medical advances I think that the medical professionals would be more prepared for the diseases, should they happen. I think the medical system should spend a bit more money on prevention of other growing health problems out there.

  63. Oh I hate to be cynical but the prevention angle won’t be researched until there’s billions of dollars to be generated from it. And natural God given ways of healing just aren’t too expensive, many can be grown in a pot on the porch for pennies!
    Mary I’m glad the nurse was so sensible and kind about your daughter. My 3 oldest kids went to Mexico on a missions trip that required a current tetanus booster shot. We decided to go ahead and do it. When we went to get it, my oldest daughter joked that she was an adult technically, they couldn’t put her in a foster home for my lack of proper care. Not really funny. It’s alot of hard decisions to be a responsible parent, and the fear of doing it wrong where it can really matter is tough.
    Praying for our parenting.
    Cena

  64. LOL I agree about the prevention method not being used until people will make money from it! Isn’t that the truth! And I wish it were more common for Dr.’s to use the naural God-given methods rather than doling out a prescription instantly!

  65. I’ve only recently realized or thought about how much money is being made on prescription drugs…and how simple remedies are too cheap for the “big guns” to bother with, especially as they can’t patent something like hydrogen peroxide, etc. Money screams and with no billions to be made from the natural “cures”, prescription drug companies won’t make them available. I’m just thankful that chiropractic care and other alternative approaches are becoming covered by insurance. And like Cena says, if we really research we can provide our own home remedies for pennies…

    And Geri, the immunization question is definitely an agonizer. My two oldest seem no worse for having had them, but I wonder if they’ll be at higher risk later for auto-immune diseases, which have really become abundant since the use of vaccines became so widespread.

  66. I’ve got an old book called “How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor”…it’s written by a former pediatrician (scary!!) named Robert S. Mendelsohn, M.D. He goes into detail on more of these things…

  67. I also recommend “How to raise a healthy child” by Mendelsohn. This book helped me so much to feel I wasn’t making decisions ignorantly. I’d look on Amazon.

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