A friend told me she picked up on two common threads through my blog: chocolate, and coffee. I’m beginning to think there is a third: vomit. Sorry, but it’s a part of my life. If you have kids, you probably know just what I mean.
So, on to the vomit-topic of the day:
Having experienced quite a lot of morning sickness, I can also say I have tried quite a few morning sickness remedies.
I’m reviewing them now for my sister Steph, who is expecting her first baby just 6 days after our own baby is due. We are both beginning to get queasy.
I have found that nothing really cures my morning sickness, but many things do take off the edge for a short time. Many other traditional remedies really don’t help me at all.
I think rotating through remedies (along with lots of patience) gives me the greatest relief.
Here are some ideas that have given me temporary relief with past pregnancies:

• Crackers or other dry salty food, esp. before getting out of bed
• Cinnamon mints (strong and not too sweet – Altoids were great)
• Sea bands (elastic bracelets used for seasickness – I was very skeptical but these actually helped!)
• When it’s bad, eat whatever sounds good – don’t worry so much about eating healthy as just getting something to stay down
• Eat small, easily digested meals
• Cold stuff: ice cream, frozen veggies, ice water, etc.
• Have company, or go somewhere fun: my morning sickness was often “distractable.”
• Take vitamins just before a meal
• If you’re going to vomit, don’t fight it. I always feel better immediately afterward, and this can be a great time to eat.
• Lemon juice, sipped straight from the bottle (not lemonade, but ReaLemon, or something like it)
• Tonic water: it’s bubbly and not sweet. A sip every few minutes during acute queasiness really helps!
• Enzyme-based digestive aids
• Chew thoroughly and drink at least a little whenever you eat (helps it come up easier when that becomes unavoidable)
• Get plenty of rest; I find I’m more prone to sickness when I’m tired or stressed.
• Rejoice in the nausea – my midwives tell me it’s a good indicator that the pregnancy is strong, and this has been borne out in my own experience. Out of 10 previous pregnancies, I have had 3 with little or no nausea. Two of those ended in early miscarriages.
• If you have an older baby that is still nursing, keep it up. The other nausea-free pregnancy I had was when the older baby was still nursing. Some mothers say this makes them too tired, but I felt it was a good trade for the constant vomiting that I usually experience.

What helped you?

Taking off their shoes after a day in their new initialled socks, the children found a little surprise: their shoes are now initialled. Very convenient, since all their dress shoes are black and there’s only a small variation in size.
This also has implications for those prone to borrow others’ socks and shoes without permission.
I suspect that they may have initials on the bottoms of their feet as well, which will make for a very good answer when people ask if we ever have trouble keeping names straight.

I just received my copy of Richard S. Taylor’s book “The Disciplined Life” thanks to the confronting culture blog for tipping me off to it.

I found the following quote by TR in the first chapter

The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at
any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and
the get rich theory of life. – Theodore Roosevelt

His words were incredibly prophetic. What are some of the biggest threats to America today?

How about prosperity at any price (san you say free trade with China – a Marxist God and America hating nation that we are determined to call a friend because it makes the prices at Walmart oh so much cheaper)

How about Peace at any price …Can you say Patriot Act or Son of Patriot? We are so determined to have peace that we will give up all our freedoms to obtain it. Yet some where way back in the history of this country there is a man crying out “Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. “ How long till we learn.?

As for the Love of soft living and the get rich theory of life … porn is THE largest/fastest growing industry in a country where most people identify themselves as “Christian”.

What is the connection?

Discipline, or lack there of.

I am determined to kill the beast of undisciplined living in my family once and for all. It is discipline that separates the giants from the masses of mediocrity.

To that end I would welcome any other suggestions of books on discipline that you have found useful and techniques you use to cultivate discipline in your own lives and in your family life.

I thought I would post about the opening night of the League of Grateful Sons at the SAIFF tonight, but I also thought I would be home before midnight, and I further thought I would be in bed before 1:30 AM. Since I had to drink coffee on the way home to stay awake, I no longer think so.
I am still awake. However, my brain is mush and I certainly couldn’t put together a coherent post right now, so here’s what we do at such times:
We take an inane internet quiz.

You are ‘Gregg shorthand’. Originally designed to
enable people to write faster, it is also very
useful for writing things which one does not
want other people to read, inasmuch as almost
no one knows shorthand any more.

You know how important it is to do things
efficiently and on time. You also value your
privacy, and (unlike some people) you do not
pretend to be friends with just everyone; that
would be ridiculous. When you do make friends,
you take them seriously, and faithfully keep
what they confide in you to yourself.
Unfortunately, the work which you do (which is
very important, of course) sometimes keeps you
away from social activities, and you are often
lonely. Your problem is that Gregg shorthand
has been obsolete for a long time.

What obsolete skill are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

The reason I thought this was worth posting (besides the mushy brain thing) is because it struck me as funny that I actually learned Gregg shorthand when I was in high school. I learned it because it seemed like a fun, old-fashioned skill that could actually be useful. This is very much like the reasoning I used for learning Latin, but somehow Latin proved far more useful.

Speaking of mushy brains, have you ever heard the theory that your brain actually shrinks when you’re pregnant? This was presented as a serious scientific theory, and may or may not have been proven. I think it has to do with the baby sucking up the cholestrol in your own brain, to manufacture a new baby brain. No fear: according to the theory, your brain does recoup after the baby is born.
I’m not sure if there’s any scientific merit, but I really don’t want to know. I like the idea, because it makes me feel better about the fact that I tend to be a little dingy when I’m pregnant. So please just hush if you happen to know that it’s a silly hoax. If, on the other hand, you can present documented evidence that it really happens, jump in!

Does God’s Law allow the freedom to Christian’s to get tatoos?

I know what I beleive and can defend it from Scripture….can you?

a good post on weekly communion!

With much fear and trepidation, we’re changing our sock system. Actually, there is no current sock system, so it couldn’t possibly get any worse.
We once tried that system where you use a permanent marker to mark everyone’s socks with dots corresponding to their birth rank: 1 dot for the oldest child, 2 dots for the second born, etc. As the socks are outgrown and handed down, they get an add’l dot to show that they now belong to the next child. In this system, everybody has white socks that will match any other sock with the correct number of dots. Theoretically, as socks naturally diminish you just buy more of the same, and everything still matches.
Sounds great in theory, right?
We ran into a few problems.
First, the dots rapidly became hard to identify. This was partly because we marked them where the balls of the feet fall, and the dots blended into the permanent grub.
This time, we’re marking them on the arch of the foot, which should stay relatively clean even when disobedient children go running about outside in their socks.
Second, the socks just didn’t last long enough to pass down. And Walmart kept changing the styles slightly, so we had a bunch of not-exactly-matching socks.
Another problem, surprisingly enough, was that the permanent marker quickly faded. I attribute this to the superior Melaleuca laundry soap we used at the time and to the lovely city water in Coshocton, OH.
I don’t think we’ll have that problem this time.

So here’s what we’re doing this time:
Everyone chose a pack of 6 new socks, any color. This required an initial investment of ~$5/child, but socks were sorely needed for all.
Using a permanent marker, I put the owner’s first initial on the arch of the foot of each and every sock. I’m not concerned about passing them down. Socks cover quite a few shoe sizes, and if 6 socks will last a child until they pass into the next size, I will be abundantly satisfied. We can have a sock burning ceremony and cremate the remaining threads of her old socks as she is initiated into the next size.
When laundry is sorted now, socks need not wait for a mate; they can go directly into the owner’s pile, since we know exactly who they belong to. This has been a problem for us. Until now, the sock sorting policy has been:

• throw it in the odd sock basket.
• wait til someone needs socks (usually Saturday night in prep for Sunday morning)
• check the sock basket to see what fits, and try to find another in a similar size and color.

Now, in theory, everyone will have their own socks, and no one will have someone else’s socks. Socks left in the middle of the living room floor will be easily identified, as will the ones the dog leaves in the front yard. If someone can’t find her socks, it won’t be because her sister has been hogging all the socks in their size. There will be no such thing as an odd sock basket. And even the 4 year old knows what is expected.

I think this system will run on its own, with no need for training. I think it will be self-correcting (I can hear it already: “Deanna, Natalie is wearing your socks!”). I think everyone will have socks in their drawer when they need them, or it’s their own fault.

I also think I might be fooling myself, but I’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, all the girls are tickled to have new socks, which they badly needed anyway.

guess where I was when this picture was taken. …..

see the red curtain?

right behind that

Men fought for women.

Great post from Matt Chauncey!

Shipping is what I do for the big VF. Its what I’ve done to provide for my family for the last 12 years. I didn’t wake up one day and say “Hey I’d like to be in shipping” but as opportunities have developed over the years of my work career, they have been in the shipping business.

I started at a company called Organic Technologies when I was 20 on the very day Deanna was born. I worked my way up to manager and then after 5 years in that job I had the chance to come to San Antonio, Tx and work with the men at Vision Forum.

I have learned a lot about almost every aspect of shipping and trucking. I’ve loaded and shipped haz-waste and coffee decaffinator called Ethyl Acetate (a solvent that was five nines pure 99.999%). I’ve received and unloaded everything from tankers of acetone and vinegar (100 times stronger than what you buy in the store) to truckloads of books and toys.

Well I digress.

From time to time I will post under the title “shipping tips” a bit of the mundania regarding shipping that I have picked up over the years that will hopfully save you all a bit of money.

So here it is Shipping Tip #1

1.) For small packages under 3 pounds always consider Priority Mail. With the all the surcharges that the big guys are inposing after the freight, Priority Mail (for now) is always cheaper for a residential package of 1 or 2 pounds and sometimes less expensive for 3 pounds packages.

Surcharges are fees that the Big shippers impose on certain packages – especially rural and residential – because it takes more work to deliver them.

Residential surcharges run about $1.75 over the cost of freight and rural – Delivery Area Surcharge is running about $2.00.

Priority Mail has a (according to the USPS) 95% delivered by the third day rate.

Always do a cost comparision. The post office has been approved for rate increases that begin to take effect on April 2006.

For instance

1 pound to Chicago zip 60617 residential with fuel surcharges shipped from 78212

UPS Ground Residential
$7.61
Priority Mail
$3.85

2 pounds
UPS Ground Residential
$8.33

Priority Mail
$5.05

3 pounds
UPS Ground Residential
$8.75

Priority Mail
$7.15

Happy Shipping!

2 of my favorite keyboard short cuts are

1. hold down the windows key + d = show desktop (minimizes EVERYTHING)
2. fast spell check (outlook and word) hit the f7 key and it will automatically start the spell check
3. ok one more F5 refreshes all windows (even browsers)