head cold and sinus/ear infections....

this is a tough week for me...connor started with a slight temp of around 99 degrees at the beggining of the week, and i figured it'd break if we just waited and treated it gently and naturally, but then it went up near 103 two nights in a row, even though it was about 99 during the day...so to the dr we went. ear infection and sinus infection, i called the school to tell them and 15 minutes later they said declyn was cringing and holding his ear while blowing it so they took his temp which was 101 degrees...fun!so my mom took him to the dr before bringing him home...double ear infections...then i realised that the sinus stuff i have been fighting was turning into a nasty headcold...so the whole family is ill, but we are not going to let that keep us down for long...it does take me twice as long to get anything done and the dishes are not getting done today, or yesterday, so i'll HAVE to tackle them tomorrow. i've been doing my best to make simple nourishing foods that the kids might actually eat, but they are being picky and have very small appetites at the moment, so will only nibble things...so far my appetite is not quite as affected, but i feel like my head is in amajor fog...so then why am i writting this??? because i said i'd blog on thursdays and i want to stick to my word.
i know what is happening, it's the great spring clean out...i nearly always get a "cold" when i start cleansing and cleaning and clearing out old garbage (physically and emotionally, etc), but i didn't realise that the kids would go through the same thing...i guess we are all going through a spring cleaning...we haven't been doing our yoga, but i intend to get back to that in the next day or two, as i'm sure that it'll help. but i did take a lovely detoxify bath today...i tub full of really hot water (as hot as you can stand) + 1 TBs baking soda + 2 cups epsom salts...soak and relax...the kids wanted to help and i layed down on my stomach in the tub and they poured cups of the water over my back then they both remarked on how nice the tub felt...now i realise most families don't bathe together, but when i was little in idaho i remember bathing, and swimming in the creek in the summer to get clean...and i really want my kids to feel comfortable that bodies are bodies and not to be shamed so i said "ok, family tub time!"... they loved it and declyn said "i know no one is supposed to touch my penis but me and i am supposed to be in private, but can i wash it in the tubby?" i said that washing his own was ok, as long as he didn't wash anyone else's or no one else was washing his.it was fun...we all got to hang out together and everyone washed themselves and then we all climbed out of the tub, put our towels on and put our own coconut oil on our bodies, then i got dressed and helped them dress and we had medicine and a light supper. tonigt we are all going to bed early. now the truth is that soon they will defintely be too big physically to take a bath with mommy but i figure that if they see me being uncomfortable about my body and/or about bathing or dressing in front of them it is going to cause them to think negatively about thier own and women's bodies than just telling them which parts are private and not to be groped and touched. my mother was never one to hide her body form us...half the time one of us was taking the shower the whole family would end up in there, s o to me it's not really a big deal, though since my children are boys i think that as they get older i will need to set a few boundries and discuss privacy more.
now i'm off to snuggle my tired little guys and get ready for bed.

making time...

okay, so i've said before that i'm not very good at blogging...i tend to post whenever and not really stick to a schedual. i've had tons of ideas for things to write and then not written them... so i've decided to make time. i'm going to schedual myself some time every week to update my blog. i'm writting this on a sunday, but i'm thinking that thursday nights are usually the best time for me to blog, at least at this point in time.
some other things about making time...i realised that it often seems that i have little time for anything but washing dishes and doing laundry and otherwise clening or spent on tactics to avoid doing cleaning that i don't feel like doing, so i've decided to schedual times for that as well...carve out 30 minutes after dinner each day for doing dishes (also having the kids help...at thier age it is fun to help) and having a specific day, say mondays for laundry. i'm planning to limit time on the computer, for me and limit time watching tv or playing wii for the kids in order to make more time for the things we really want to do.
so i've found some blogs that mention parenting ideas that are pretty much in tune with what i aim to practice and found out about non violent communication and simplicity parenting...both things i want to read more about and work on incorporating into our lives...i hadn't even realised that there were books and blogs out there about the subject, but wow! it's so cool...i think i'll do more about that in another post since connor just climbed up in my lap and fell asleep (he's not feeling well today, so i'm hoping the rest will help him feel better).

accentuating the positives and elimintaing the negatives

ok...so i've tried blogging many times before, but finding something i really wanted to write about or that seemed really worthwhile has been a challenge, however my friend Ilara had been posting on faceboook about negativity and needing more love in the world and someone had commented about the idea that the brain doesn't process the "no" or "not" in front of a word so thinking "no war" your brain processes "war" so it's better to think "peace"...i started thinking "well, how would that be to raise kids with that in mind and to not only use that with our kids but hard wire our whole brain and thinking to eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive". now this will take quite some time and a lot of work since for 35 years my brain has been pretty much trained to be the way it is and unlearning the negative thoughts and reprogramming to think positive and training my 4 and 1/2 year old twins to also focus on the positive could take quite a bit of work...i know when i'm angry i snap into the kind of mode i've always had people react to me...with yelling and aggressiveness, which is going to be a huge hurdle to navigate, but i believe that it can be done.
i'm formulating a plan...my sons and i will do yoga and i'll need to make mediation time for myself as well as doing some journaling and some meditating with the kids and while there are just my sons and i i think we would benefit from "family meetings" and the use of a talking stick, which i will make...i'm also looking into connecting more with our environment and with our food really getting to know our food and food sources better (and eliminating processed foods) as i think that what we eat greatly impacts our moods (partially due to our bodies toxic load and the energetic values of food, etc.). at this point i'm only reiki 1 certified, but would like to work my way up to reiki master and i want to work more with the kids on the reiki energy and reiki training...they are already aces at making reiki energy balls. i found that for the first week or so after receiving my reiki 1 attunements(many years ago) that i was less stressed and less aggressive (aka...much more relaxed and positive). another thing i think would help is to clean out and declutter our home and in fact our whole lives as much as possible (this may take quite some time and lots of baby steps).
people talk about holistic health and i'm a huge fan of holistic health approaches, but i want people to think of parenting holistically as well...nurturing the whole child...their mind, their creativity, their spirit and their body and whole foods and clear clean actions, intentions etc would really help in doing so. i'll be checking back in with progress on our accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative progress and on other radical parenting notions as regularly as i can.