Thanks for stopping by! I'm Magi, a scratch cooking, homeschooling mama, learning to raise good kids, good food, and good fun on our teeny-tiny little farm!
Hold on, it’s a wordy one! One of the things I mentioned in my last post about letting go of things that are no longer working for us, was bringing our girls home for the upcoming school year. My long-time readers , all three of […]
As I started the new year, I had one major goal in mind: Getting Dressed. I’m only half joking. For the past year or so I’ve pretty well been living in the same crusty clothes, because I’m not going anywhere, and let’s face it, someone […]
Let me start this post with a rant.
We are farmish people. We like critters. We consider a certain amount of dirt good for our health. We like the idea of our kids digging in the mud. You can tell by looking at us. We are almost never totally put-together and spiffy.
But there is one little line I just have to draw when it comes to filth.
Head lice.
I hate those guys.
They are constantly going around in our kids school, and we’ve caught them more than once.
Naturally, we treat our heads, wash all of our clothes and bedding, vacuum all the rugs and furniture, comb, comb, comb for nits, and repeat. It’s a lot of work, taking all the necessary steps. It’s exhausting for me, painful for the kids, and absolute murder on the drain field, not to mention the pocket book.
When we’re sure we are lice free, we re-enter society.
We send our kids back to school, where they pick up a fresh case and bring it back home.
AAARRRGH!
Okay, it’s not that they bring it right back. It’s usually a while before we make the fatal mistake of forgetting the anti-lice detangling spray
Most schools have abandoned the “No Nit Policy” citing information such as this.
So we’re just supposed to be OK with our kids getting lice on a semi-regular schedule?
I’m not.
In case you’re new to the wonderful world of cooties, here’s the scoop. This is not the official scoop, which I happen to think is part of the problem, but the real dirt. This is what I’ve learned through our own experiences and by talking with other moms.
. Since the majority of the OTC treatments do not kill nits, you will need to do several nit-checks with the comb after your initial treatment. I’ve taken to doing them every single time I wash my kids hair.I’m well aware that this is something most families with school aged children will deal with at least once, but I’m pretty annoyed at the frequency with which it’s happening in our neighborhood.
I feel that the treat and return policy is a major player here, and could very well be responsible for Super Lice. It makes perfect sense that if you can’t return your child to school, and get back to work yourself, until your child is nit-free that you will be extra vigilant and make darn sure you’ve gotten every one of the buggers.
On the other hand if you can treat your kid and get back to school and work the next day, it’s very easy to get swept back into being a busy parent, and forget the subsequent nit-checks. Now you have the most resistant nit hatching into a new stronger louse. I agree with the folks at the National Pediculosis Association; a couple years of this and it’s easy to see why we now have Super Lice.
GROSS.
Please people, when the cooties come to town, whatever your school’s policy, I’m begging you to check, treat, and make darn sure your kids are lice and nit free before you send them back to school, daycare, sports and church.
Thank you.
What have I missed, Mamas? Please feel free to add your advice in the comments.
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I come to you today, folks, with my head hung low. I have to ask forgiveness for thinking I had all the answers about grumpy babies. “Jut put them on a schedule”, I said. “They thrive on routine”, I said. “It only takes three days […]
I have to admit something embarrassing.
I’ve put on almost 20 pounds since little Hazel joined us.
This is especially embarrassing, given that I only gained 10 pounds over my whole pregnancy, and was about 15 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight when I came home from the hospital.
There are a lot of factors (excuses!) involved, which I’m going to share, only because some of them really just dawned on me even though I know how it all works.
The first issue, is that I have slipped off the low-carb wagon. For me that’s bad, m’kay. I passed my 6 week postpartum diabetes test with flying colors, and celebrated with a trip to Jack in the Box. I don’t go to town very often, so thankfully fast food isn’t really an issue for me right now. It does speak to a larger problem though, which is that with my personal and family medical history I should be watching my diet very carefully.
I’ve been joyfully eating carbs, taking comfort in my normal blood sugar, and wondering why I’ve been putting on weight. Then it dawned on me… My blood sugar is good, yet I’m still gaining weight, because my insulin is doing it’s job–moving extra sugar (which I’ve been providing!) out of my blood to be stored as fat.
The next issue is that I haven’t been exercising like I did when I was pregnant. I have a million excuses for that, running the gamut from our crazy summer schedule, to my unpredictable baby, no sleep, and the fact that it’s been 172 degrees here all summer. Okay, not quite that hot, but genuinely too hot to feel like moving much.
You know what, though? I have to do it anyway, or I’ll end up diabetic for real, and I don’t want that.
I also don’t want to be fat after the “I just had a baby” phase. I don’t want to keep holding my baby in front of my sagging belly, pretending that you can’t see the body flaws past the cute baby. (I’d need a much larger baby to hide it all!)
Most of all though, I want my energy back.
So when I ran across the 30 day walking challenge today, I decided that now is as good a time as any to jump back up on the wagon, and invite you to join me!
The plan is designed to build you up to 10, 000 steps per day, but don’t let that put you off, whether that sounds too easy or too hard. The main thing for me is to get back in the habit of deliberate exercise every day. No more pretending that gardening or playing with the kids is a good enough long term plan. Those things are great lifestyle choices, but someone like me needs to exercise for exercise’s sake most days.
I’m walking today, because I don’t want to let this turn into another “I’ll do it tomorrow”, but we’ll start day one of the challenge tomorrow, since it’ll be August 1. So you have the rest of today to find and dust off your walkin’ shoes!
If you want to join in, we can stay in touch via Half Acre Heaven on facebook. I’ll also be tracking my progress on myfitnesspal, which is free for those of you who want to join.
Myfitnesspal also gives you the option to track food choices, so it’s a great tool for keeping you on track with whichever meal plan works for you.
Who’s with me?
I love summer. Despite the heat wave and drought we’re enjoying in our corner of the world, the girls and I are having a great time. I love having them home, and they love being home. We’re doing summer homeschool Charlotte Mason style, and it’s […]
Spring brings changing weather, changing wardrobes, and changing routines. It’s a perfect time to update your skincare habits to reveal your best skin. I know, this isn’t my usual food/dirt/baby poop kind of post, but I bet you didn’t know I was a skin […]
We are so fortunate to live in a place where there is abundant game. No joke, this is something I thank God for every day, and twice or three times when I go to the grocery store and look at the price of the crummy beef, let alone the higher quality stuff.
It also helps to have a dedicated hunter in the family.
When I first saw this photo I thought he was goofing around, but it turns out he was hunting overlapping seasons. I won’t lie. He’s quite studly and I have a huge crush on him.
So do some of the neighborhood girls. 😉
Enough about the man though, this post is about a different beast.
When I tell people we eat bear, I get a range of responses.
I could never eat bear, you can tell they have a soul by looking in their eyes. Although I don’t think she ever actually looked a bear in the eye.
Ewww, do you like it? It’s so (insert adjective, greasy, pungent, stinky, …)
Wow, I’d love to get your recipe!
First I’ll give you some background on our local bear population. We live in a very bear friendly country. Apple Country. Actually these days its really more pear or cherry or wine country as more and more farmers are pulling out their apples in favor of more lucrative crops. But you get my drift. Lots of low hanging fruit. We also have plenty of wild fruit such as elderberries, service berries, and choke cherries. In the summer it is very easy to pick out a berry bush that has had a bear foraging in it.
In fact there is no shortage of bear sign, from tracks, to scat, to mauled branches, it’s obvious we have a healthy bear population.
Despite all the sign, it’s very easy to forget we live in bear country. Unlike some of our neighboring communities, we have never had our garbage raided, never had one in our camp, never seen a bear when we weren’t specifically looking for one. The raccoons give us more trouble than the bears ever do. They just don’t need to venture into our neighborhood because there is plenty for them to eat in the hills and orchards. I suppose they also eat small critters and fish sometimes too, but with such abundant fruit, they can pretty well rely on easier meals.
Fruit eating bears are mild-flavored bears. I have no experience cooking or eating bears from areas where they mostly eat fish. From everything I’ve heard, if you’ve had bear that tasted “pungent” it was probably a fish eater.
We usually have our bears processed into jerky, German sausage and summer sausage, but we also have a bunch cut into roasts. My absolute favorite way to eat bear is as a pot roast.
I cook it the same way I would a beef or pork roast.
Pop it in the crock pot and give it a generous coat of minced garlic or garlic powder, and black pepper.
Toss in some coarsely chopped onion and one or two bay leaves. You don’t need to add any liquid.
Put the lid on and cook it on low for around 4- 6 hours. More won’t hurt, but you’ll want to baste it if you go much past 6.
Chop a couple potatos and carrot, or whatever veggies you like, and add those for the last hour of cooking.
Really that’s it! It’s tender and juicy, and as good as any roast beef I’ve ever had.
Leftovers (which we rarely have) make awesome sandwiches, or stews.
Enjoy!
It’s definitely looking like spring around here! And some gratuitous baby spam.