smitten and sick

After another horrible night of sleep last night (even after I have drastically changed my diet again - more on that later), Baby L and I came downstairs to see my girls. I should probably mention here that every Saturday night is 'Daddy snuggle night' for my girls. Since they only get to see him one or two days a week, they get this special night of bonding with him alone. Kevin puts our futon mattress in front of the wood stove downstairs and he and the girls all sleep there together. It's such a sweet little tradition they have going on. When we reached the bottom of the stairs C came rushing up to greet us. I looked at the bed and saw K and Kevin still asleep. Then K must have heard me walk in and in a sad voice she said, " Mama, we can't go to Mass today." I asked her why, knowing that it must be something major for her to feel the need to miss Mass. Then she burst into tears saying, "My ear really hurts!" I rushed over to check on her and then Kevin informed me that she hardly slept all night because she was in so much pain. He said he didn't want to wake me (but I wish he did). This was the first ear ache in our family's history so I had to stop and think about what to do. I knew I didn't want to take her to Urgent Care as they would just give her antibiotics. (I made that mistake when she was a baby. They misdiagnosed her with an ear infection and gave her antibiotics. When I took her to her regular doctor the next day she said K didn't have anything wrong with her ears. It was a big frustrating mess.) Instead I remembered a remedy I had come across when she was a baby. Back then I was certain any child of mine would get earaches as Kevin and I both had them all the time as babies, so I tried to prepare for them. We kept a bottle of this homeopathic remedy in our medicine cabinet at all times. It sat there unopened for years and eventually expired. I actually just recently threw it away. Of course following Murphy's law - now one of my children gets an ear infection/ache. I ran upstairs to our kitchen and grabbed some garlic and extra virgin olive oil and then I proceeded to make her an ear remedy.
I put some in her ear and she fell asleep. She slept for hours but still woke up in pain. I gave her another dose of the ear drops and she slept again. The next time she woke up she was feeling better. By the third dose she was able to sit up and play with her baby brother again. We'll see how she is in the morning but I plan on continuing the drops for another day. Thank goodness for natural remedies made from things we have readily available in our home!



Ear Remedy:

Pour two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a small saucepan and warm over low heat. Mince 1-2 cloves of garlic and place in the oil (or use a garlic press). Warm the oil for a few minutes on very low heat. Make sure your garlic doesn't brown, you only want to infuse the oil. Strain the garlic out of the oil and pour it into a sterilized tincture with a dropper. Have your child lay on her/his side so that the affected ear is facing the ceiling and apply 2-3 drops in the affected ear. Cover the ear with a cotton ball and keep your child laying down in this position for 15-20 minutes. Make sure the oil is at room temperature or warmer when applying it to the ear. Cold oil can make her/his ear hurt more! Apply 3-4 times a day until it appears to be cleared up.

Store in the refrigerator. It should last for a couple of weeks, but honestly to be on the safe side I will just dump out the remaining mixture once she is all better. It's so fast and easy to make I could just make it as we need it.




Ahem - yes, Baby L will be wearing his new sweater in every picture from now on...

In other news - meet Marble. Isn't she the sweetest little dog? I promise you we didn't adopt another animal into this zoo of ours. She was lost last Friday and made her way to us. I swear, lost dogs just seem to know to come to us. I heard our dogs going crazy outside and when I looked out the window I saw marble in our driveway running back and forth. I opened up the front door to see what was going on and she ran into our house. The girls we ecstatic over this and Baby L was quite smitten, too. Thankfully, she had a collar on and a microchip so I was able to contact her owner. Marble only stayed with us about a half hour but it was a half hour of pure joy. The girls were sad that she had to go but once they saw the relief and happiness on her owner's face they felt better about letting her go. A nice little lesson of compassion (amongst other things) for the day.



Smitten I tell you, absolutely smitten. I think the feeling was mutual. Thanks for the fun Marble!!

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smitten and sick