Random! Tabby health update, homeschool, stopping bedwetting with essential oils

This picture of Tabby says it all.  Still waiting to find out what exactly is wrong with her.  Even our mail carrier told me today that she is praying for Tabby and for answers!

Tabby had to repeat the stool test earlier this week.  (What "fun.")  The company changed up their testing.  But the good part is, they are now doing a far more extensive test and we still pay the original price.  Have to wait about 2 weeks for the results.

Last week Tabby took a saliva test that checks a bunch of things.  Still waiting for those results.

Yesterday I had our well water tested.  Just in case.  Will find out next week if there is any bacteria present in the water.  Then in 2 weeks, we'll get results about any "non-organic" matter.

I've got Tabby on a strict diet.  Lots of meat, veggies, and fruits.  Also some nuts and goat milk and a little goat cheese.  And I found a farm that has duck eggs and I'm getting some today from them.  I thought we should try them in cooking and baking and be sure Tabby's body agrees with them before I invest in ducks.

I reviewed several paleo cookbooks and have been cooking some from them.  But I've found that a lot of the recipes use some variation of coconut which she can't have.  And many use ginger or garlic.  She can't have those.  I've decided baking gluten free things doesn't necessarily make them healthy.  Several of the gluten free flours heavily relied on raise the blood sugar levels.  So we're using Trim Healthy Mama recipes (just tweaked when necessary) as that is low glycemic cooking/baking.

Sunday evening, Tabby suddenly got a "lull" in the pain.  (That is what we've dubbed those brief times when her pain level suddenly drops.  It's still there, but is much lower.)  When the lull comes on the first thing she does is take a shower, as on a normal pain day she just can't stand up long enough to take one.  Then after her shower she does homework.  The lull lasted all through Monday so she was able to go to school!  (Only the 3rd time in all of October.)  Tuesday morning she was getting ready for school and wham.  Pain came back so hard she hobbled to the recliner.  And has been there or her bed ever since.

This really blows my mind.  She's had the constant pain since September 7th!!  SO beyond sad.  :(

And ... Solomon's health update - I've had him on a dairy free, gluten free diet for about a week and a half now.  He has not thrown up any at all.  He is still getting some stomach aches but they are much briefer.  I plan to continue his diet for another week or so and then slowly reintroduce diary.  (He think's he's dying without getting cheese every day!)  If that goes well we'll try gluten a couple weeks later.

On happier news, Solomon has been loving homeschool/preschool.  He really wants to learn to read so we've been working on phonics.  He knows all the letters of the alphabet and so we're learning the sounds.  Each week I've been introducing 5 letter sounds.

I bought wooden letter "plates" at a yard sale and Solomon lines them up.  He matches the blue magnetic letters to the proper letters on the wooden plates.   I have a 77 cent metal baking tray for putting different foam magnet objects on.  We talk about the sounds each letter makes and then he lines up picture magnets with the right letters.  ("Lion" starts with "lllll" etc.)

He usually takes this very seriously for 2 days.  Then the third day he get silly and puts the pictures by the wrong letters on purpose.  Which really is fine, because we sound out that picture using the wrong sound.  (Ex.  "Drum" becomes "Trum.")  Then on the 4th day I get out a timer and set it for 3 minutes and he hurries to beat the timer.  We usually do the same thing on Friday and it's a breeze then.  Then we start the next week with new letters/picture magnets.

Then we reinforce letters with some free alphabet "Do-A-Dot" printables.  Solomon loves Do-A-Dot paint markers and is always asking for printables to use them with, or making up his own pictures.  (You can find free printables for all sorts of activities including fun pictures and math and reading, etc. just by doing a search.)

Solomon is my first kid that seems to naturally love math.  He walks around doing addition and subtraction and asking me to verify his problems he comes up with.  Ex.  "So does 2 + 3 = 5?"  Last spring I bought "Farmyard Math" from Timberdoodle during a sale.  My only regret is that I waited until last month to introduce it as a lot of the lessons are too easy.  I thought it was for "preschoolers" but it seems more at a "toddler" level.  But that is OK!  Solomon loves this math and I make up harder problems for him with it.

Farmyard Math comes with a tub of farm animals, farmyard mat, and a 36-week curriculum guide.  (We've blazed through the whole guide in just a few weeks and I'm making up stuff now.)   For each lesson, there is a little story, and the child follows instructions in the story.  They learn basic counting, patterns, and some easy addition and subtraction.  It really does teach the child to listen carefully to the details in the story so they can do what it is asking.  (You can see a video about this math program on the Timberdoodle webpage here.)

Hunter really enjoyed a science experiment we did last month.  But I warn you - it is not for germ phobics!  Like me.  :(  We tested for bacteria on a range of different things around the house.  We swabbed objects then rubbed the swabs in petri dishes of agar. (Kit I bought is here.)  Then we waited a few days.  YUCK!  Seeing bacteria growing is gross.  But interesting.  (The only thing I didn't like about this kit was it didn't tell you how to identify if it is good or bad bacteria.)

I found the most bacteria covered thing that we tested for was one of the kitchen sink knobs.  (Really!  Why would someone put knobs at a kitchen sink?  You have to get it all gross when your hands are filthy with say raw chicken, just to turn it on to clean your hands.  I told Hunter we must replace those knobs with something else as soon as we can afford to!  In the meantime I clean the knobs several times a day now!)

On a different note, if you've never read Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington, I HIGHLY recommend it.  Tabby and I both read it yesterday and thought it was incredibly inspiring.  And as it is an autobiography - there is no re-writing of history!  ;)  This is one of those books that challenges the reader to better develop their character.  My boys will be reading this as soon as they are old enough.  (Fun aside - we lived in Tuskeegee when I was a toddler.  My dad taught at Tuskeegee University.  He said he used this book in his humanities class and it was always received well.)

Finally, I just wanted to share an essential oil blend to help combat bedwetting, that Donna, one of my reader's makes and has had good results with.  (Her 9 year old son stopped wetting after several days of consistent use.)  To make the "Clean & Dry" blend, Donna adds 10 drops each Cypress and Copaiba and 5 drops Frankincense to a 10ml roller bottle, and tops with a carrier oil.  Her son applied it his lower belly, lower back, and the bladder vitaflex points in his feet. 

I hope that helps someone reading this!  I actually got a lot of feedback from my posts last winter on Hunter's bedwetting.  (He has been dry since January.)  This is a problem that more kids face than I realized in the past.

Well I know this was a long post.  So if you've made it to the end - thanks for reading!  :)