A New Tradition For Halloween This Year - Reverse Trick-Or-Treating

Every year for Halloween, I put out a bit of candy, and then allow the kids to pick out some jewelry out of the treasure chest next to my Pirate. 

Here is a link to 2015 my first year post. 

Here is the post for 2016. 

Here is a link to 2017 post. 

Here is a link to 2018 post. 

Here is the post for 2019.

With covid causing such craziness in the world, and with my health issues, I knew I can't do the normal jewelry picking thing I have done in the past five years. I know that people will still allow their kids out, but I don't want them in my home. I figured even handing out candy can possibly be an issue as there are sometimes many groups of kids coming to the door at one time. 

I was pondering on what I could do this year and had a wonderful idea come into my mind. I bought a tote full of candy necklaces at Easter time for our Easter family camp out this year as we haven't gone the past three years. This year was supposed to be the big camp out with everyone coming. Then covid-19 hit. 

The camp out was canceled and I had a tote full of candy jewelry! I left it in the tote thinking we could use it for our lake camping family reunion we have every year in August. However, Covid was still causing problems and we ended up only going for one day and no nights and most of the family didn't go so I didn't take them for that. 

I had the thought after pondering that I may not be able to give out the real jewelry that I give out, but I can give out the "candy" jewelry! So I still give out my jewelry, just candy. I then thought that I wouldn't have enough for kids to come to the door and don't really want to come in contact with that many people as I am trying to stay healthy. 

I talked to one of my neighbors asking what her family is going to do, and their entire family is going to a cabin and each family is going to take a treat and activity. I thought that was fun. Since Halloween is on a weekend, I wonder if many people are going to be out of town. I asked that neighbor if it would be weird for me to deliver a treat to their home before Halloween so that I can still give a treat to my neighborhood kids, but not have to subject myself to those who come to my neighborhood just to Trick-Or-Treat. 

It isn't that I don't want to share with others, it is just the Covid thing going on. I decided to put a little note on the treats a few days in advance and then let them sit for a few days to make sure I don't come down with any symptoms, and then I can deliver them out of the tote wearing gloves and deliver them to my neighbors kids! 

I don't know what other communities are doing, but I think this is a good way to still give out treats without putting anyone at risk. I am going to turn off my lights on Halloween to discourage people coming, but since I will be dropping off treats early, my neighbors will have already gotten a treat and won't come to my house. 

I will be so happy when this health crisis is over! I am glad that I found a way to still celebrate the holiday and bring joy to my neighbors. I added some new gloves for the older girls and a few other boy items so everyone can get a treat. 

I hope you have a safe Halloween! Have a Blessed day!

Grapefruit Seed Extract = GSE - Natural Antibiotic Life Saver

In the past ten years of blogging, I have posted about most of the medicinal stuff I use in our house. I like to post about how I do things so my kids will have a place to go and reference things when they have their kids.

I have posted about GSE, Grapefruit Extract Oil. Here is a link to a post where I share about using it in dried out mascara to moisten it and also kill off any bacteria in the mascara as sometimes that can be a problem in mascara. My mother had eye infections for years as her mascara would get infected and then she would reinfect herself over and over. 


Here is a link to the page where I discuss it and how I use it, but I guess I don't have a regular blog post on the subject. 


I finally made a video talking about GSE only. I know I have many blog posts where I share about GSE and how I use it in different situations but it is good to have a page where I can share about it and what we use it for regularly in the house. 

If you have allergies to antibiotics, this product is a life saver literally. I gave it to my mother when she had sepsis and at other times and it really did save her life. Most of my extended family have used this product as long as I have as well. It is such a blessing in our life! Our family has suffered from chronic yeast infections so anything we can do to avoid making those worse is a blessing. 

I want to share that I haven't found any good results using the pill form of this product and forgot to share that on the video. I also don't like their nasal spray as it stings somewhat with some peppermint oil or something. I prefer another brand of nasal spray that actually has GSE in it called "Seagate" nasal spray which I made a video about, so keep an eye out for that post coming soon. 

It seems like every company has one or two really good products and others I am not so excited about, but I have used both the regular and the concentrated form of GSE for many years and love both products. 

Have a Blessed and healthy day! 

Lighter Hair in Two Ways and On Stage Again

Princess Five has hit the ground running. She didn't waste any time after getting home from her two week tour. She is in the community play "Mary Poppins" and the practices are getting going in full swing and taking up time most week days. She is struggling as there aren't any speaking parts for teens in the play but I think she is a trooper as most that tried out have now stopped coming to practices as they are so time consuming with all the production numbers so who knows how many will still be in the play by the time it comes around. I am in it just for her as I have lots to do but feel it is something we can do together.

I was able to get to highlighting Princess Fives hair this week and also made it lighter by giving it a quick trim. When I say trim, I don't know another term for how little hair I took off as she loves how long her hair is but I took off about 1/3 of an inch tops. I would have liked to take off about four or five inches as her hair grows so fast and she is nearly sitting on it but it is what it is, BEAUTIFUL hair!
It is so thick and heavy that she pulls it up most days now that it is getting hot but she still loves it. I have to keep mine shorter as I get so hot during the summer working on the yard and house.

This summer is going to fly past with all we have going. I know it will be good as I am doing everything in my power to make it a memorable summer for Princess Five as it will most likely be her last at home. Most of the girls don't come back for summers as they have jobs at the school so I really am doing my best to spend any time I can with Princess Five.

I haven't worked on my mothers stuff since she got back from her trip so I really need to get working on that but you will be happy to know, or maybe not, but I am SUPER happy to have my laundry room put back together after our flood a few weeks back!

Princess Five was so excited as she can get into her bathroom again and we were both excited to be able to do washing as it has been two weeks since I did laundry other than one load the other day of non clothing items. She wasn't able to unpack her suitcase from the trip as I couldn't get into the laundry room to wash!

I am happy to share that we have done two loads of laundry as Princess has a date tomorrow night with a boy she really enjoys spending time with so before she heads off to college in a few months, I hope she fills her time with fun events like that. Tonight she went to a bon fire with a group, two nights ago, she had them here to watch a movie, and on and on.

In some ways it is her last summer to be a kid and I hope she takes advantage of it while she can. I remember my senior summer and have good memories of time spent with friends!

I shared one picture of her hair outside catching the light and one inside showing how the light really makes a difference when inside giving highlights when it is dark.

I hope as we are keeping so busy, that you are having a BLESSED Summer and Day!

The Hairiest Blog Post Ever - Rapunzel Hair

We have had a busy few days with Princess Five getting home, trying to put carpet back in the hall, and getting Princess ready for an event she has next week. I have so much going on that I keep waking in the night not being able to get back to sleep with everything I need to get done this summer before Princess heads back to school among finishing my mothers book edit, sorting, scanning and a few personal issues along with the parasite stuff.

I was helping edit a few songs together tonight as well as putting together a costume for Princess Five and helping a friend whos only daughter is getting married this weekend. I had a migraine all day yesterday and then didn't sleep well so today I dragged a bit even though it was a full day. I didn't get everything I needed to off my list but did get a few things done.

I was supposed to highlight Princess Five's hair tonight but the editing the three songs together kept me from getting to it. I was sitting behind her when she was transferring the song to her phone at the computer after we finished editing it and I noticed how long her "accident" hair had gotten in the past year. Next month will be exactly a year from her terrible rollover and near scalping. Those hairs have stood up through most of her senior activity pictures this past year and no matter what we tried to keep them down, nothing would keep them from sticking up for many of those pictures.

I mentioned today how blessed she is that she has my mothers genes. We have thick, lovely hair and it grows super fast if you haven't noticed from many of the hair posts over the years. I will put a few links on the bottom of this post but I wanted to show you that that spot grew from 3 - 8 inches over the past year. How blessed we are that it didn't cut into her brain and just followed her scalp for a short ways only shaving the hair and causing a small cut.

We know Angels were watching over her and I am grateful that soon, she won't have that hair sticking up as a reminder of that event. We are truly blessed and I hope you also are BLESSED!

The accident blog.

Her hair four months later.

Men Love Long Hair.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.

A Foot Off and Highlights.

And She Wins By a Hair.

Noahs Linens And The Magic Yarn Charities for a PRINCESS or SUPER-HERO

I found an article in an Alumni college magazine from a school that one of my girls attended. In the magazine, I read an article that touched my soul. The charity it highlighted makes wigs for cancer patients that look like "Princess hair." Maybe I liked this one as the hair is a "Rainbow" wig and reminded me of my mother and her costume shop.
 
As a child, I had many surgeries at a young age (click here for a post about that) so I can empathize with the fear that being in a hospital at a young age can bring up. With that history, I saved the article and have been thinking about getting a group together to make some of these wigs, maybe designing more for boys, and donating supplies as I have a TON of craft supplies that I am not using presently. 
 
The charity's name is The Magic Yarn Project and they also make "Jack Sparrow" wigs for boys. If you are interested in helping, they have a wonderful website you can link to above and it is very easy to manage with links to contact them and links if you want to donate items, money, time etc. 

I woke in the middle of the night the other night and had a thought of somehow providing dresses for the kids that get the wigs so that they can truly feel like princesses and give them a tiara as well. In the morning, I wrote on the top of the article the idea to contact Disney and see if they would be willing to donate the dresses and tiaras to go along with the wigs made by this charity. 
 

Flash forward two days. I had a meeting with a company that I have ties to in another city. I have not attended the meeting in many year as the distance to drive to it is long and I usually just get someone to give me the "cliff note" version of the meeting as it isn't worth 6 hours of driving to attend. 

I felt like I needed to attend the meeting so I drove by myself up and back on the same day to attend this meeting. Anyone who knows me would be shocked at that because I have a hard time sitting that long and had a migraine that night as well so it was VERY odd that I attended. 

The first thing they talked about that night was one of their charities which I heard in concept awhile back but I was SUPER excited when they started talking about this charity. They take old table clothes and fabric from weddings that may have been damaged and they have 100 seamstresses around the nation that sew "Princess dresses" from the discarded linens! 
 
They have teamed up with "Ronald McDonald House" and the "Make a Wish" foundation and have been distributing the dresses. More recently, they have been holding "events" where they have Disney Princesses come and recently "Prince Charming" showed up and they give the girls dresses, tiaras and scepters and give them "Princess" lessons on how to walk, sit, curtsy along with treats. Prince Charming even danced with a few of the Princesses! 

Not only do they make dresses for the girls, but they make capes for the boys. They have an event where they are making tons of mini capes for the ICU babies and bigger capes for the older siblings of those babies! I thought it was so wonderful.... 

I don't need to call Disney to get dresses donated, I just need to connect the two organizations that already exist to see if they would be willing to partnership with each other! 

I had also been thinking of something other than a larger wig for the boys in the chemo situation who have lost their hair and have come up with a knitted beanie that would cover the head and can be made to match the capes being made out of the used table and wedding fabrics! 


They make masks to match the capes which they make with several different designs on the back. How cool would it be if we could make a beanie with the mask knit right in it so that they could be a super hero and the beanie would cover the bald head! The colors could match the cape and the mask portion could be the color of the contrasting design on the back of the cape like the lightning flash etc. 

When you go to the wig website, you can see that they have all sorts of different wigs so if they saw the dress, they could make the wig to match! What little girl wouldn't LOVE a matching dress and wig! 

The linen company has a website (HERE) where you can order wedding linens but you can see how the lovely cloths work with the dresses. Both organizations have many people willing to donate their time. The wig charity even gets inmates to make them. They also have tutorials for others to follow to get involved. I really love the concept that people who have lots of down time can do this wherever they are and yarn is super cheap, especially from second hand stores or if you ask your friends on facebook or the local yard sale sites. Many people will donate it to a good cause. 
 
Truly, I am excited about maybe being able to put the two groups together and give the kids a "Whole" experience. This is something I would like to be involved in more in the future once I get my life back in order after dealing with my moms estate etc.  

It would be wonderful to have the kids enjoy a whole day as a Princess or Super hero and maybe end the day with being "Special Guests" at a concert where they can enjoy the entire day and feel special. 

There are so many generous and amazing people in the world coming up with these great ideas and making it happen. They are allowing people to be part of something that brings joy to fragile children!

ShakeGenie Probiotic Yogurt Maker - Part 1 - SUPER EASY

I got a new product in the mail this week. I was really eager to try this product as in the past, I have spent LOTS of money buying probiotics due to my digestion problems and allergies. 
 
I got the product within two days priority mail and since we don't drink milk, I had to go purchase some before I could make it. I talked to the inventor about it at length an he said he lost 25 pounds drinking the skim milk probiotic shakes. He wanted a way to make a high protein and efficient way to make probiotics for his kids. He uses the whole milk for them and the fat free for himself. 

He was able to share all sorts of health benefits and studies done when people take probiotics regularly. He spent many hours figuring out just the right temperature so that you can use a gallon or a half gallon of any type of milk and in about 8 - 10 hours, you have fresh cultured probiotic milk shakes with a high protein content!

The little culture packets I got with the ShakeGenie have five different cultures in them. This week, they are coming out with packets that have eleven types of probiotics in them! 

I am super excited for the eleven probiotic packets as I have always had a problem with chronic yeast infections due to the Hepatitis B shots which are based in yeast. I was also on lots of antibiotics for about ten years so my "gut" hasn't been the healthiest of places that way as all the natural flora had been killed by the antibiotics. 

The product is a heating element inside fabric that acts like a sleeve and goes over the gallon of milk. It is so easy to use that I couldn't mess it up! I told the owner when I talked with him that I tried to make yogurt before and messed it up. I tried to make yogurt cheese before and messed it up. I tried to make Kim-chi before and messed it up so I was a bit worried I may mess this up! 

I think they have a "Mess up free" product here! Basically, you pour a little probiotic packet into a gallon or half gallon of milk and shake it, then slip the unit onto the gallon of milk making sure the heating side is touching the non-handle side of the milk container. Plug the unit in and set a timer. Literally, it takes about 30 seconds to set it up! 
 
I show on the video in part one how easy this is to use and truly, for one who has never had luck with the yogurt thing, it was truly easy. I know Princess One makes yogurt all the time and I have been there and had to wash up the pan after she boils it and the jars on the counter and in the fridge, also leaving it in the oven etc. Lots of steps and lots of work. 

I truly did nothing to make this! It was so easy and because my house is a bit cooler than most, it took a bit longer than the 8-9 hours and I unplugged it at 10 1/2 or so as I didn't pay super attention but just kept setting the timer for another half hour until it looked and smelled done! 

I opened it up at about 9 hours and I could smell the "yogurt" smell coming out of it and tried a cup without any flavoring and it had a mild yogurt taste which I didn't mind. I did want more of the probiotics so I let it process for more time. Basically, the thicker and more tart you want the yogurt, the longer you leave it in the unit! I am not big on thick tart yogurt so I kept it fairly mild. 
 
Check in tomorrow for the second half to see the video of how it looks once it has processed etc. 

Seriously, EASIEST yogurt maker I have ever seen. I have probably purchased 10 over the years for emergency prep and have NEVER had luck making it even in the little jar units! This was by far the easiest, cleanest, surest method ever!

DrainWig - Easy Way To Keep Hair Out Of The Drain

I found this cool thing at a second hand store this past week. 
 
Having had five daughters with long hair all their lives, I have had my share of drain clogs. 

I have three bottles of drain cleaner in my "stash" and have had to use them over the years. 
 
I have also had to unscrew the tub drains and "snake" the drains several times but it has been less and less as the girls leave.  

Princess Five lived with my uncle for a year going to her senior year of high school at a theater arts school.  

We visited him a few years ago after she lived there and we had a funny conversation about how much hair they found in their drain after she left. 
 
She then shared that she had cleaned it out several times while living there. My uncle has all boys but one daughter who didn't have long hair and it isn't thick so it was quite funny and they couldn't believe she had cleaned it out. I could verify that she had as I remember telling her how to take off the cover and get the hair out.  
 
I have taught my girls to clean the drain guard after every shower as the hair collects fast but the item I found at the second hand store for $.75 is great if it works. 
 
It is called "DrainWig" and is something I have never seen in any form before. It is a cheap chain with what looks like little rubberbands tied to it at different intervals and directions to catch the hair. 

You thread it through the drain once you have cleaned it out. I had to push it through which took a minute. I think it all depends on how big your drain holes are. I think in my upstairs shower, it would have just slid through but in the tub shower, I had to push the elastic portions through.  
 
Once you have it through, it snaps into place and then you turn on the water so that the chain goes down the drain rather than balling up at the top. I was worried it may slow the drain but Princess Five tried it out and said it worked fine so we will see how it works in the next few months and I will let you know. 
 
With the family getting together this week, it will be a good test as most still have very long hair so I will post about it when I take it out and let you see how it worked. 

I searched online as it says it was sold on TV and online and it costs $5 each. If you go through one every 3 months, it would be $20 a year but you can only buy them in the "buy two get two free" format for $20. 

Still, $20 a year is cheaper than a plumber and if it is as easy as it states, it is much easier than a hanger, or a snake / plunger. It is less caustic than drain cleaner so it may be worth it if you have lots of kids with long thick hair!  

And She Wins By a Hair - Actually, It's A Tie

I am not quite sure what got into Princess Five today. She asked me sometime last week to trim her hair but things got a bit crazy like my life is and we didn't get around to it. 

Her friend at school that everyone thinks is her twin trimmed her hair recently and I think that may have been on her mind when she asked. I trim their hair regularly as it gets a bit rough on the ends and I like it to look neat and healthy so we trim off the rough edges to give it a straight line when that happens. 


Today, Princess Five asked if she could measure Princess Four's hair. We have been talking about cutting her hair some as it may be easier to manage on her mission shorter so that also may have been on her mind when she asked if she could measure her hair. 


I walked into the room carrying my camera to take some pictures for another blog post and found her with the measuring tape like the top picture. I figure it was a cute picture and fun memory to see how long their hair is so I took a picture. 

Funny that Princess Five wasn't planning on measuring her hair so I asked her to measure it so we could see whose hair was longer as they are both thinking of cutting it anyway.

I thought it was wonderful that Princess Four's hair was an amazing 27+ inches. She didn't believe that her hair was over 2 feet long. 

So, we then measured Princess Five's hair and wouldn't you know it.... It was just a "hair" over 27 inches. 

Neither believed they had the same hair length so we measured Princess Four's again with a bit more attention. Once again, it was the same length! They were both trying to hold it in the exact same spot on their head.
 
What are the odds? I don't measure their hair when I trim it, I just take off the bottom until the healthy hair and then even it up so it wasn't planned or because I use some measuring device when I cut their hair. 

I think they were both a bit awed that they had the same length of hair and don't think either thought that their hair was over 2 feet long. I trimmed Princess Four's hair right before the pageants she was in when I highlighted it which wasn't that many months ago but it has already grown quite a bit.


I don't know how long their hair will be the same length but it was just a fun fact that we discovered today. I am not sure why they all like long hair but Yahoo for long hair! I haven't had mine super long in years so I don't think it is from me.....

Hints For Symptom Treatment for Horeshair Nematomorpha The Kraken

I have gotten several hints from readers on what has worked in getting the parasites to come out of the skin on the head, neck, hair, and face area so I thought I would do a quick update on this. I just put their posts and a few of my replies. Hopefully their suggestions will help others who are looking for some relief. 

 

September 14, 2016 at 3:32 AM

Hi,
I have tried the hydrogen peroxide thing and I get the same as you on my hands but worst place for me is my neck, jaw line and face. That is until I used corsodyl mouthwash to wash my neck hoping to relieve the itching. We what happened probably will sound insane but loads of seed shaped things and worm like things came out instantly and painlessly while rubbing and the skin after looked as if there was never a problem, no bleeding or exit holes. So strange. I've been doing this several times a day and the numbers have greatly reduced so I'm hopeful that I'm getting to the source of the problem or at least preventing these "babies" from maturing and depositing more of their disgusting offspring into my skin! I hope this helps someone gain some relief as it has helped me.

TejaeSeptember 15, 2016 at 1:30 AM

Thank you so much for sharing what has worked for you. I will share this in an update post so that when people search my blog, they can see this. The neck thing is that they come out of the lung between the first and second stage of life and crawl up the back of the throat where they pop out and irritate causing a dry, tickling cough. Then they get into the lymph for the second phase just under the skin so you are getting them in transition from stage one to two. Yahoo for finding something to take the numbers down!!! Thanks again for sharing.

GardenerJuly 2, 2016 at 1:50 PM

I used lavender Castille soap as a shampoo and left it in for a good 10 minutes. It felt as if ants were crawling around my scalp. I left it on till the sensation stopped. I am going to continue to use on my head and body. Also, it feels like something is in my nose and ears. I keep getting small hairs out of my ears on cotton swabs. Has anyone gone to the optometrist and did they see anything in your eyes? Also, I Did not have tinnitus prior to this. Now the noise is constant and loud.

 

tuckerJune 17, 2016 at 11:25 AM

I am 100% sure my family and I (5 kids age 3-10 included) have this and I am terrified and don't know what to do!! The er said I was crazy! my fiance had them in a sore on his face and put orajel on it trying to get the pain to quit but they absorbed the orajel and it either paralyzed them or killed them and they all started falling out! So that might help! Please email me!!

Replies

 tuckerAugust 8, 2016 at 1:05 AM
Has to be the baby orajel 




I hope that this information has helped someone and I will continue to post what I find that works for me.