Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Carving out "REST"

I had an excellent time last weekend at my women's retreat. The theme was "Rest, Relax, Rejuvenate, Recommit" which was perfect after the kind of week I had. This week is even busier, but I am trying really hard to remember that God has promised rest for his children and I am seeking to carve it out in my day wherever I can. Some days it is really tough. Yesterday, I had to be on the go from 10:00am until after 9:00pm. Iam, without a doubt, NOT a person who thrives on busy-ness. I need quiet days at home following a basic schedule. I need to have the time to keep my home somewhat in order, to plan meals AND have the time to cook them.



Well, as I have mentioned before, scrapbooking is a wonderful creative release that I get rejuvenated from. Yesterday, I was up early and was able sneak in a little time in the morning after doing some bible study to scrap a page.



I just got an e-mail about this fun kit that is a collaboration between Doris Castle and Dianne Rigdon over at Scrapbook Graphics. It is so fun and springy and playful. So, I was itching to play with it. I took these photos of my kids playing in this giant box full of packing peanuts. Luckily they are biodegradable so I could sit them on the back porch (not making a mess IN the house) and not have to worry about littering them all over the yard. They dissolved the first time it rained! Credits for the page can be found here. The box was from my Wheat Montana order. I got a grain mill for my birthday and ordered 50 lbs. of chemical free wheat berries to have on hand.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Stress



I have been feeling so stressed lately. I'm pretty sure it is because we have too many activities going on right now. Lots of new stuff is starting up and lots of old stuff is still going on. Within a month, things should get easier. I hope. I guess I am just a home-body at heart. I don't like spending my days running around. I feel like it just jumbles my mind. But for right now, I am feeling like I don't have a moment to rest. Hopefully, this weekend will help. I am going off to a women's retreat my church is putting on. I think the theme is "Rest, Relax, Rejuvinate." Sounds perfect. So, today, I am stressing trying to get things in order so that I can go, but hopefully I will return tomorrow night rejuvinated. I pray.
I am also sharing a scrapbook page I got done this week. I have been working on it a little here and a little there - whenever I could sneak just a few minutes on the computer. It is a group of photos from a basket weaving workshop my older girls attended with their 4-H group that was outstanding. It was at a llama farm where they had built this adorable little schoolhouse for classes like this. Credits for the page can be found here.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Soccer!


Sharing another scrapbook page...
Patrick and Abi along with two of their cousins are playing on the same soccer team called the Renengades. Because the team is nearly half Richhart kids, we have been calling them the "Richhart Renengades." Here is a big group of photos from their game last Saturday. Credits for the page can be found here.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Another scrapbook page


Just wanted to post this page real quick. Believe it or not, I snapped this photo during my daughter's soccer game while she was on the field. She happened to be real close to me. Then I played with it a bit in photoshop. I tried an action by the Pioneer Woman to give it an aged look.
Credits for this page can be found here.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Posting a couple of pages

I'm up a bit late trying to get a few things done. Right now I am waiting for some bread I just baked for a bake sale at church tomorrow to cool enough to wrap up. So, I thought I would post these layouts I have done in the past couple of days.

Today Patrick and Abi had their first soccer game of the season. It was Abi's first ever since this is her first year to play. They were so cute and excited. Here are a couple of photos of Patrick. He scored TWO GOALS. Last year he barely touched the ball, now he is actually scoring. Credits for this page can be found here.


Last week was my daughter, Anna's, birthday. Here is a page showing off our tradition of serving the birthday child breakfast in bed. Credits for this page can be found here.


I'm off to check my bread and go to bed...

Friday, April 18, 2008

Did you feel it, too?

Did the earth move for you? If you live in the midwest it did which is just wild. I am actually kinda disappointed because I slept through it. Barry and I did wake up at 5:40 to the sound of the window screen rattling, or at least what we thought it was. We had slept with the window open and the cat was sitting there. Barry yelled at the cat and the sound continued even after the cat jumped down. It was very mysterious. It wasn't until this morning when we were listening to the radio that we realized what it was. I think we must have slept though the actual quake and mere aftershocks were rattling things and woke us because we didn't feel a thing, just heard it.

The only other earthquake I have experience in my lifetime happen when I was a girl and wouldn't you know it - I slept through that one, too. Well, that one actually woke me. It was during the day, but I had had a swim meet or something that wore me out and had dozed off on my bed. I woke up to the bed vibrating. I had no idea what I was experiencing. Well, perhaps I will have to wait another 30 years to experience another earthquake. Maybe I'll get lucky and be awake for that one.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Head Lice: More than you ever wanted to know



It is more than I ever wanted to know. That's for sure! I have had several friends ask me how I know so much about head lice. This is all new to me. I have never experienced lice before my children came home with them several weeks ago. I had no idea what one even looked like. But, I turned to my trusty friend, the internet, which usually is the first source for info. I found a wealth of information. I was careful to avoid sites that appeared to be more concerned with selling their lice-killing product, however.





This site: HeadLice.org is full of very helpful information. I found photos, details about the lice life cycle, and tips for getting rid of them without the use of lice shampoos which are actually just pesticides. There is also some scary info about those, too.

The photo I used here is from this site which is a really nice fact sheet about lice.

Here is another informative site.

Here is what I have learned in a nutshell:

Head lice are small bugs that feed on human blood and live within the hair. They cannot live off of a human for more than a day or so, therefore a house cannot be infested with lice. Pets and animals cannot get lice.

Anyone can get lice and it has nothing to do with cleanliness. In fact, someone told me she thought that lice actually prefer clean hair to dirty.

You can have lice and not have any symptoms. (On the flip side, you can not have any lice, think about them and have your head itch like crazy.) The best way to detect them is through regular head checks.

Checking for Lice:
  • It is easiest to check a head for lice when the hair is wet. It is easier to see all the way to the scalp. You can, however, check a dry head, too.
  • Lice only hang out close to the scalp and attach their eggs on the hair shaft within 1/4" of the scalp because they need body heat.
  • Behind the ears and along the nape of the neck is prime lice real estate on a scalp because these are the warm and toasty spots. Check there first.
  • Use a nit or other fine-toothed comb to first part the hair to see to the scalp and second to comb through the hair starting at the scalp and pulling the comb all the way to the ends. Look at the comb after each pass to check for lice.
  • Lice run when they see light. So pay close attention as you are separating the hair and parting it to see to the scalp.
  • Be thorough. Check every part of the scalp carefully.
  • I found it helpful to have hairclips to clip off the hair that I had already checked.
  • Tweezers are good for removing lice.
  • Manicure scissors are helpful for cutting out the hairs that you find eggs attached to.
  • Be sure to thoroughly clean anything you use (combs, clips, etc.) before using it on the next person you check. Items may be boiled for 10 minutes or soaked briefly in alcohol.

Lice life cycle:

  • Only adult lice lay eggs.
  • Lice eggs (nits) take 7-10 days to hatch. They start off light in color and darken as they get closer to hatching.
  • Baby lice (nymphs) look like small adults.
  • Nymphs take 7-12 days to mature into egg-laying adults.
  • Adults are about the size of a seseme seed.
  • Lice live for about 30 days.
  • One female louse can lay 100 eggs.
  • Lousology 101

Treating your head for lice:

If you find lice, you have to remove them and their eggs. The question is: "how?"

You can go to the store and purchase an over-the-counter lice treatment and use it. This is what I did when we first discovered them on my daughter. After using the treatment which is supposed to kill or at least stun the bugs, you need use a lice comb and go through the hair thoroughly and remove them. Expect this to take well over an hour if your child has longer hair. Trust me - I speak from experience.

The day after we did this, I found info that these are nothing more than pesticides you put on your child's head. Many are know carcinogens and the prescription versions are the worst. Ick! But here is the kicker. Although I removed lots of dead or barely moving lice the night before, my daughter's head was still crawling with them the next day. And the package even says that this will not kill the eggs so you need to retreat in a week to kill all the newly hatched lice.

So our next play in the battle of the lice was mayonnaise. We slathered the heads of everyone we had found a louse on. And I mean slathered from the scalp to the tips. Everything was coated. Then we popped on a shower cap and slept that way. It was messy and unpleasant, but incredibly effective. The next day after we washed out the mayo, there was not a single living louse to be found. Obviously, mayo is not toxic to human or lice, but it does sufficate them if left on long enough. The only drawback with this (and all other treatments) is that it doesn't kill the eggs.

So, the next step is daily dilligence in checking heads. If you can find the eggs and remove them, tht is ideal, but they are small, hard to see and easy to miss. So the key is using a fine toothed comb (preferably a nit comb like this) and going through all the hair from scalp to tip to catch any lice that have hatched. Expect to find some, especially a week or so later. That was the thing that tripped us up and why we had to go round two with the lice. After a week of not seeing any, we relaxed. That's when the sneaky little devils snuck back and reclaimed territory on our heads. Check at least every other day for 2 -3 weeks. Ideally if you find any live lice, especially bigger ones, you should repeat the mayo treatment. With vigilenge you can beat 'em!

I broke down and purchased the Supermom's Complete No-Lice System. It includes a Robi-comb which electrocutes lice on contact. I have found that this is much faster to use in checking the heads of all seven members of our household than the nit comb (which is also include in the kit). The kit also includes the No-Lice Hair and Body Spray. I have to say that I love the smell of this. My son says it smells like candy canes.
Here is the decripton from the site:

Supermom/'s No-Lice Hair and Body Spray offers parents hope of never
experiencing a head lice infestation!
This herbal blend uses the best nature
has to offer to repel head lice when used regularly. Whereas most lice products
wait for you to have a lice outbreak, this one gives you a tool to keep lice
away with a simple spray every day. Commonly found head lice products use toxic
pesticides on the people that are most vulnerable to adverse side effects:
children.
Supermom owner Erica Johns used her knowledge of herbs to
formulate this unique blend for her own children, and later started selling it
to others. Several years later, the product is gaining in popularity as people
learn how to stay lice-free every day the all-natural way!
The spray has a
pleasant peppermint scent and has no chemicals, colorings, additives, or
preservatives.
The big 16 ounce bottle of spray will last most families a
year. Each bottle comes with complete instructions.
Supermom's No-Lice Hair
and Body Spray also works great to help keep fleas away from your pets!

So right now I am daily using the Robi-Comb on each of us and using the spray whenever we go our in public.

So that's how to treat people. Now, here's how treat the house and your stuff:

First, it is imprtant to remember that a house cannot be infested with lice - only people. Lice cannot live very long off of a human because they need their heat and blood.

  • All bedding should be washed in hot water and dried in a hot dryer.
  • All clothing and washable material that has been in contact with the infested person(s) in the last 2 days need to be washed in hot water and dried on hot.
  • If a fabric item cannot be washed, it can be merely thrown in a hot dryer for 20 or more minutes. (This is great for many stuffed animals.)
  • If an item can't handle washing or drying in hot, then quarantine it by sealing it in a plastic bag and setting it aside for at least 2 weeks.
  • Vacuum! Vacuum mattresses, upholstered furniture, and floors. Favorite stuffed animals that can't be washed and quarantining for 2 weeks would cause distress may be vacuumed thoroughly. The idea here is that if a louse or a hair with an egg dropped off a head, you want to remove it so that it cannot find it's way to a new head home. If the louse has been without human contact for more that a couple of days it is dead. The eggs probably will not hatch without the heat from a human head. If, by chance, they do, then the nymph need to eat immediately or dies.
  • Pesticide lice sprays (included in OTC lice kits) are not necessary and may be quite harmful, especially to young children.
  • All hair items like combs, brushes, barrettes, rubberbands, etc should be boiled for 10 minutes or soaked in alcohol. I will warn you that most items we own will not stand up to boiling without warping horribly. The nice nit combs did fine along with a couple of the sturdier brushes. On of our brushes, however, began to disinigrate in the alcohol. I have had to buy several new ones.

Here is the best advice I read:

It is important to put the majority of your physical and emotional energy into de-lousing heads not the house. Although the house is also important, diligence in checking the heads and removing lice and nits is the key to geting rid of them.

It is also interesting to note, that lice have no ability to fly, hop or jump. They can crawl and drop. That's it. There has to be direct head to head contact, or head to brush (or other item) to head contact, etc. to "catch" them.

So, there it is. That's my version of Head Lice 101. I hope this is information that you will never have to use because I really wouldn't wish this on anyone. It is a lot of work and is incredibly time consuming. I estimate that I spent about 7 hours a day JUST nit-picking my children's head during round one of our lice battle. Then every other waking moment was spent doing laundry and vacuuming. I am praying that we have a grip on this now.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Allergy tests and ice cream

Well, we are surviving. We have been lice free for over two days - yay! I did, however find several eggs on Abi's head this evening at bathtime which I diligently removed. Vigilance and diligence must be the name of the game for beating these little buggers. I am daily checking heads. Hopefully, if there have been any missed eggs, I will find the bugs before they mature enough to lay more eggs and thus break the cycle. I pray.

In other news, Patrick has been through his second round of allergy testing. Poor guy. When I told him that his "foods testing" was coming up, he got all excited. I think he thought it was just going to be having a mini feast. I had to burst his bubble and inform him that it would be just like before with the 100 or so holes in his back and shots down his arms. [sigh] But he survived and we were releived to find out that he has no severe allergies to foods only minor ones and we do not have to limit his diet. This includes nuts! This is so wonderful! I am still having him take it slow and watching him closely just to be safe. The scrapbook page is from the day of Patrick's testing. We discovered that Zestos, a local ice cream shop, is open for the season - a sign of spring. I treated Patrick to a little cone for being such a brave boy. Credits for the page can be found here.

As you can see in the photo, Patrick has his perpetual dark circles under his eyes. He may not have bad food allergies, but his inhalent allergies are terrible. We were disappointed to find out that along with nearly everything that grows, dust, and mold, he is allergic to dogs and cats. We have 2 cats in the house. The doc, thankfully, is not advocating getting rid of them. Whew! But because his he can't ever get away from the things that bother him, he is suggesting allergy shots. So, we started those for him which means that he gets shots twice a week for 6 weeks and once a week for 10 weeks after that. Then he is at his maintenance level and only gets a shot every 3 weeks. This is going to be a pain, but if he can be better by the Fall when he suffers the most, I will be happy.

Well, that's probably more than you ever wanted to know about the saga of our lives. I am off to bed as soon as my bread that is in the oven gets done. Sleep sweet!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Just one more...



I know - it is crazy how many scrapbook pages I have gotten done in one day. I can't tell you the last time this has happened. It is wonderful! I promise that this is it. I'm pooped and am off to bed.

But first, here is my son and my nephew. They are exactly 4 weeks apart in age and it is so much fun watching them grow up together as buddies.

Credits for this page can be found here.

A couple more pages


Credits can be found here.


Credits can be found here.

They're back and I'm stressed

Do you remember me mentioning that when I feel stressed I like to scrapbook? Can you tell that I have been feeling a bit stressed? Just when I been to relax about the lice, they returned with a vengence. So, I am back at the nitpicking, vacuuming and laundry. [sigh] I am finding it all quite depressing. My fear is that we are going to have to do this every two weeks indefinitely. I think I may go insane if I have to go through all of this again. The laundry! Ugh! I have piles and piles still to wash - piles and piles that are wahed and need to be folded or hung and put away - and NOTHING in my closet to actually wear. We opted not to go to church this morning just to make sure we didn't spread any of this around. Today was supposed to be Anna's birthday party (yesterday was the big day), but we cancelled because I worried about inviting people into our lice-ridden house even though I have vacuumed and cleaned it quite well. Poor Anna. We will try again next week if we are clean bug-free.

So, we are having a lazy morning and I spent some time scrapping:

Credits for this page can be found here.


Credits for this page can be found here.


Credits for this last page can be found here.







Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Barely keeping my head above water

Life has been crazy for the last couple of weeks (as you could probably guess from the lack of blog posting). Since my last post, I have celebrated my birthday and Easter, run the day to day rat race, battled lice and did my taxes. Whew! When I can find the time I will be scrapbooking about the week unlike any other which started on a high note - very busy, but good. Then, after a great time visiting with friends over chocolate cake, I came home to discover that my daughter had lice. A LOT of them. I raced to Wal-Mart for lice treatment and ended up getting pulled over by a cop. Whoops! Luckily, he felt sorry for me and just gave me a warning. Then the fun really began. I was up until 2 am de-lousing my daughter and doing laundry. My washing machine ran for nearly a week straight as I began the process of washing all the bedding, towels, and clothing that had been exposed to those little buggers. I vacuumed everything in sight and spent 7 hours a day nitpicking my children's heads. It was exhausting. The thing that really helped the most was slathering the head of everyone that we found a louse on with mayonnaise and leaving it on overnight. (4 out of the 7 in our family were affected.) The mayo sufficates the lice and we haven't had a live one since. After we got through that, I realized that I had my appointment with our accountant to get our taxes done and I had not gathered a single bit of information. Filing and financial oragnization are not my strengths, so this is always a big deal for me. Now that we are through all of this, I hope I can take a breather. We still have a lot going on, but hopefully nothing major for a while.



When I was desperate to de-stress, I did do a couple of scrapbook pages I'll share with you.




Here is one of my daughter, Abi, taken last summer during a nap time. I always tell my kids to "sleep sweet." I even have a little "Sleep Sweet" song I sing to the littlest ones. It started about a year ago with my baby, but Abi now always asks me to sing it to her, too. So, when I was going through some older photos, this one made me think of the song. Credits for the page can be found here.




Here is one of my oldest daughter. I don't get too many good photos of Elizabeth. She is majorly camera shy. Most photos of her are blurry from the fact that she is trying to escape the lens and consist of the back of her head or the palm of her hand. On this day, there must have been a bit of magic in the air, because she actually posed and semi smiled. Don't you love her hat and the fact that she is holding her wii controller? I think the fact that she was playing wii must have distracted her from hiding her face from the camera. Credits for this one can be found here.




Last but not least...I did this recipe page. The recipe for homemade mayonnaise can be found in an earlier blog post. I have been periodically scrapbooking recipes that I use. I hope to one day put them together into my very own cookbook for myself. Credits for this one can be found here.

I am really hoping to sneak a little more scrapping time in soon. It is so thereputic for me when I am feeling stressed.