My 5 year old Grandson Cracks Me Up!

My 5 year old Grandson cracks me up!

You have to have a bit of background to appreciate this little tale.  My daughter and her husband have a lovely home and recently decided to do some renovating, upgrading in the kitchen, if you will. They had these counter tops that were that ceramic-type tile, kind of cream-colored with the grouting and all.  They decided to upgrade to granite counter tops.  They chose black, with a smooth as glass finish with a bit of sparkle throughout. The sink got replaced with a new sink, all black and with a matte finish. A graceful high-flung faucet in what looks like an aged brass with a trumpet-shaped water spout competes the scene. Absolutely gorgeous!  Without a doubt!

My daughter had a penchant for paperwork and magnets all over her refrigerator (hey! look at mine, same thing!!) but, of course, hers was school papers for the kids, and pictures and all manner of kiddy magnets and even kid's toys that were magnets.  Everywhere. 

Next to the frij to the right is a sort of cubby-style desk under a cupboard.  It holds the kitchen phone and is usually covered with some more paperwork. Another counter in the kitchen was also dedicated to even more paperwork....things to review, things to deal with. You know how it goes.

But.....

When the new smooth-as-glass granite countertops appeared.....things were bound to change.

I walked in the house last Friday to take care of my precious baby granddaughter, and there was not paper one on the counter tops, not magnet one on the refrigerator which I discovered was a beautiful stainless steel with black trim,,,,,, every nook and cranny was cleared. Cleared.  (I wonder as I write this - what DID she do with all that paper?)  Shiny.  Spotless. 

Then my daughter came down from the upstairs,,,,and asked,,,,what do you think?  Did you notice?  Did I notice?  Are you kidding?  It looks beautiful!!  She said, I know, I went crazy, worked like mad, (mind you she was sick but you know, that happens when you are sick sometimes,,,,,you get a cleaning bug like you would not believe and off you go!  Maybe that is a way God has of sweating that toxic whatever you have right on out of you! Could be you know!) and cleaned everything.....she added.....come here I want to show you the laundry room.

Now I have to tell you, the laundry room was pretty full as a rule......of laundry.  After all this is a family of FIVE and three of them are female.  That oughta tell you something!  I had offered to help with the laundry because, yeah, it did look a bit overwhelming, but,,,,as other mothers will note having had the very same experience and same reaction from their daughters had they offered to do the same,,,,,"NO, Mom!  I have my OWN way of doing my laundry.  Just leave it alone."  Hey, I know better.  Don't argue with that one.

But here I was, being shown the laundry room.

GOOOD heavenly days!  It was PRISTINE!  ORGANIZED!  AMAZING!  The laundry room has a washer and dryer to your left, under all the cupboards, then on your right is one of those wheel-based clothing racks holding dry cleaning and other items of clothing hanging on hangers there, and dead ahead on the far wall, an outside wall actually, is a counter, and to its right, a sink, with cupboards below.  The counter was completely CLEARED.  Nothing piled anywhere.  Nothing in the sink.  ALL was completely organized.  It was quite a picture.  And she was pleased as punch with herself, and proud of her new space.  As well she should have been!

Then,,,,,,

She told me what Paulie said when he saw the laundry room,,,,,,,and more specifically,,,,,how he addressed the completely cleared off and spotless laundry room countertop. 

"HEY,,,,,,,, WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?"

Like - ok - wait for it - like he had never seen that counter before or even knew it was actually even there......... LOL .....and I daresay.....that may have been quite accurate....hehe

And, of course, he immediately made it into his new playground,,,,climbed all over everything,,,,the washer, the dryer, the countertop, into the sink and back again.

What better way for a 5 year old boy to spend an afternoon after school?  On the NEW (not) Laundry Room Counter. 

My 5 year old grandson cracks me up! 

[new one: my daughter tells me the other day my 5 1/2 (now) yo grandson said to her: "Mom, you are a woman who just doesn't accept things." Whaaaaaatt??? ROFLOL]

Hiway 101

I was viewing a gallery of photos of the "Most Beautiful Coastal Drives in the United States."  And after reading some of the comments I was driven myself to respond in kind as to my own personal experiences driving the Oregon Coast.  One comment in particular mentioned that there wasn't that much to see from Seaside north.  Well, that has a grain of truth but don't let us forget about Fort Stevens and the Astoria column (and the INCREDIBLE view from there).  However, I would agree that driving SOUTH from Cannon Beach you pass through some of the most gorgeous scenic routes in the U.S.A. Start early from Cannon Beach....Over Mount Neahkanie where you will take MANY pictures,,,,but watch your hat....my husband's blew over the edge and I thought I was going to have a heart attack when he and my son went over the rock wall to get it back,,,,but then,,,he was a cedar logger and very used to repelling down into the ravines where all the cedar had been left years before by loggers who then had no use for it (interesting side note).  Coming off the mountain, take a hard right down into Manzanita, stopping at the ONLY local market in town, grab a drink and a snack and go down to the beach and look back up at the mountain you were just taking pictures from; now pop down into Nehalem, stop at the parking lot across the street from the market in that town, where you can go down on the dock and feed the ducks, (decent restroom on the other side of the utilities bldg there btw), then on down through Wheeler, Rockaway and Garibaldi to Tillamook. Take 3rd street east out of Tillamook for maybe 3-4 miles or so, take the right at the fork in the road at the end of all the pastures, driving along the bay (Bayocean Rd), and if you are really adventurous go straight to what I call Road's End where the sign says to turn left to Cape Meares,,,,continue your drive out Meares Ave toward the spit, you'll see 3 or 4 other cards parked there no doubt, and climb over all the rounded stones on the spit where a very few silvery windblown trees stand, and look back north at where you just came from,,,, then back round the Three Capes, being SURE to make another hard right at the top of the hill into Cape Meares Lookout; park there and take a short walk past the restrooms veering to the path on your right to find the "OctopusTree."  If I go, I weep when I get there, so many memories, so many visits. Google it. :o) Swing down into Oceanside, great roadside park for parking, walk the beach to the tunnel to the far right that goes under that big hill, have a bite to eat at the almost 5 star Roseanna's Cafe (see TripAdvisor) and watch the sunset at Oceanside - been going there since my 51 yo son was a pre-teener; round back into Tillamook, checking out Happy Camp Hideaway along the way. Oh if you have TIME,,,,be sure to get and ice cream at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. That should do you for a day trip all right!  And a happy sleep at the end of it. And that's just one day. Hiway 101 is one Hiway that should be driven all the way into California (Bandon-by-the-Sea is WONDERFUL), and then just keep going! And when you can, south of Garberville, find the cutoff to Hiway 1,,,,,down through Bodega Bay, Point Reyes, and stop in at Bolinas, all the way to thru Mt. Tamalpais, to join up with 101 again and then......the Golden Gate. I'm ready. :o)

What to Do When You Have the Flu or a Cold !

I sent an email with all of this great information in it to a good friend of mine today.  I have been using these herbal remedies for some time now, quite some time, I might add, and I know them to be true helps for bad things.  So I just decided to copy and paste most of the email here on my My Life blog.  Just to say ---- this is good stuff, folks.  I have included links to articles and links to where I get most of my supplements on Amazon.  I have NEVER had a problem with buying through Amazon.  Or, if I did have a problem, it was HANDLED completely to my satisfaction and then some.  So.....here goes:

WHAT to Do When You Have the Flu or a Cold! 

First - here's just one fairly concise article re: Andrographis

http://altmedicine.about.com/od/herbsupplementguide/a/andrographis.htm

This article speaks to the clinical trials done with Andrographis (which is what first sold me on getting some) [note the part where it mentions eleutherococcus; i.e. Siberian ginseng]

http://healthlibrary.epnet.com/GetContent.aspx?token=e0498803-7f62-4563-8d47-5fe33da65dd4&chunkiid=21485

**Here's what I order on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002I6Q30/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Here's a fancy web page about Siberian ginseng (it is NOT the 'regular' ginseng):

http://examine.com/supplements/Eleutherococcus+senticosus/

By the way - this one is a very cool website -- can look up a variety of "supplements" there - check out ashwagandha for example.

This is often added to the combo of Andrographis & Siberian Ginseng - Schizandra:

**Here's what I order on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Natures-Way-Schizandra-Fruit-Capsules/dp/B001E8KCPK/ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2UILHLLDUMCAM

Elderberry: 

I love this. Gonna see if I can make some for my young grandson.
http://wellnessmama.com/1888/how-to-make-elderberry-syrup-for-flu-prevention/

** Here's what I order on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/review/RPL23TF1I3L50/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#RPL23TF1I3L50

I suggest reading the first review on this page (the 'snake oil' one) on Amazon.

The rest of the list are the "usual suspects" including:

Echinacea & Goldenseal in a combo:

** http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00068UA4W/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1PNXUPE6E2BJ4

You can trust Swanson's anytime - I just usually get everything from Amazon now because the prices are always right and I get free shipping with a $35 order AND they carry Swanson's anyway.

Zinc - just get a bottle at Costco and use it in combo with the above when a cold or flu hits (Pastor is the one who put me on that one and then I began to look at the ingredients in ColdEze and AirBorne [expensive] and see - AHA! - Zinc

Vitamin C - same - Nice BIG bottle at Costco was just on sale for $10

Now ------ I put all this in here and I will say this.  The other thing I hear a LOT is recurrence after recurrence after recurrence of the same type of thing.  Flu-like symptoms.  Cold-like symptoms.  Sinus infections. Chest congestion. Long durations of symptoms.   1.  Yes, I got sick finally a week or so ago.  But - I immediately started at the first sign - the regimen I have talked about here - all in gel cap form (you can see those little green herbs in there ;o)

Andrographis

Vit C

Echinacea / Goldenseal

Zinc

and

Elderberry

And yes, I was pretty darn sick.....BUT.....2. I got over it in about 7 days; and very importantly,,,,3. It DID NOT go into my sinuses, or become bronchitis in my chest,,,,OR recur!.....all of which I KNOW can easily happen if you don't NIP it....and the above (for starters) is how I NIP it.

btw -- many people I know suffer from Migraine headaches.  I did some research in particular for my son-in-law, who I watched one day as a migraine came on - it was awful and he was suffering - and so it put me 'on the case' - so to speak.  I found that Butterbur (also clinical trials proving the benefits had been conducted) and Feverfew were, in combo, PREVENTATIVE.  I got him some and he found COMPLETE FREEDOM from migraine headaches.  Now, he says he just takes it upon occasion as needed.  I'm sure he would go back to a regimen if the need occurred as well.  The problem is most people don't really get it.  A young lady at my church was another one that told me once about her 'migraines.'  I talked to her mother and sent her the info, but whether they ever picked up on it,,,,I have no idea. Nothing was ever again said that would have tended to acknowledge. So be it.  My own 22 yo granddaughter has the same problem, but instead, she is on every known pain killer and tranq there is,,,,and way too much of any of it to be beneficial!

I have a profound belief that the leaves, plants, roots, that God has already put on this planet - when wisdom is applied - are here for our use.  Yes, doctors are good, but medicine; i.e. drugs from a laboratory, is often complicated by the money mongering big pharmas.  So be it.  I will go back to my trusted sources, starting with "Back to Eden" by Jethro Kloss, who I discovered in the 60's - a born again Christian....and P U S H from there.  The article below speaks to Butterbur and Feverfew.  I get a combo from the NOW brand on Amazon.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/12/natural-migraine-relief_n_1666726.html#slide=1214297

I threw the above re: migraines in just cause it is pretty unknown info and IT WORKS!!!

I know this is one heck of an email to try and read and click on everything.....I am actually going to throw this info into a blog I have just because now that I have written it all out....it would be good to preserve it for future reference. 

I have a couple of blogs.  It's rare I find time to write anything in them....but here are the links...just fyi anyway.  One is mostly stories that have happened in my family, life, etc. and a lot of it is humor. It's just called My Life. Another is about things that I have found that made an impact on my thinking.  It's called - oh guess - Impact.

http://hunnytree.blogspot.com/  "My Life"

If you read ANYTHING on this blog - try to find the one that's entitled: Sandy and Me Go To The Beach.  It's pretty darn funny.

http://1corinthians2-2.blogspot.com/   "Impact!"

Haven't done much with this one in a longggg time.

Well, that was pretty much the substance of my email to my friend,,,and I decided this was a good place to put it so the info would not get lost.  I am definitely going to make that Elderberry syrup, just as soon as I figure out where to buy fresh elderberries !  :O)