A new blog and more herbs

Okay, I don't have my initial blog idea up and running yet. But I do have the secondary one going. It's focus is on frugality and is called Homemaking Cents. I'm working on the layout bit by bit as time goes on. It's not a blog I want to spend a whole lot of time on, but it does give me a chance to talk about some things that I don't think will fit on the other blog.

Good gosh, now I have two active blogs. Will I be able to post on them as often as I like? We shall see.

As for the kids, Rachel and Sarah (along with most of their brothers and sisters) have been dealing with the stomach flu. It turns out, there's a lot of people we know here that can't seem to shake this thing, whether it appears as strep throat, a stomach virus, a bronchial infection or just a common cold. One member of our church has been fighting this for several weeks.

So, we decided we've had enough and are going to bump this up a notch. We'd been putting off getting our cold and flu herbs for various reasons, mostly because every other bug we've been able to battle off using food alone (not to mention the intense cleaning this house has gotten). This one seems to be pretty stout so we've gotten some of Dr. Christopher's herbal remedies that we discovered knock this thing back, but that we're very low on. Hopefully they'll arrive during the weekend and we'll finally get over this illness and back to work.

So, yeah, because we've been sick, we have done next to nothing in the way of school or therapy. Oh, well. I've always said one of the beauties of homeschooling is schedule flexibility.

(On a completely unrelated topic, we ended up giving the dog to our city's animal shelter. That has helped my husband more than either of us realized it would... within minutes actually and within an hour almost all of his symptoms were gone. Most of what he's been fighting off, it turns out, has been his allergies to the dog. Sad, but true.)

Goodbye pooch?

Bad news. We found out my husband is allergic to our dog. And we can't have him outside for reasons that I don't think I should mention. Suffice it to say, we have an indoor dog or none.

Which leaves the option... none. So, we're looking for a home for our dog. If you happen to know of anyone who wants one, please let us know and soon. There's a deadline looming on this. For sure, he's got to be out of the house within the month... that's how long my husband thinks he can take it. Personally, for the sake of my husband's health, I want Buddy gone within a week.

So, any takers?

On a side note: dog food

So, we have a dog now (I think I mentioned this) and we weren't sure for a while there if we were going to keep him. That has recently changed. Why?

Dog food.

I kid you not. We originally had him on Purina Puppy Chow and he was one hyperactive, crazy little pup. Now that he's not so little anymore, we got worried. Well, I took a good look at the ingredients, compared brands, got Iams Puppy Chow instead and he's a completely different dog. I kid you not. The first time we fed him the new kibble, he wolfed down twice what he usually does, then he slept a good portion of the day, and now he's incredibly alert and calm. Rachel and Sarah feel comfortable enough around him to walk around and even try petting him. This morning, Rachel even sat down on the floor and let the pup lick her face! :)

I'm not pushing Iams by the way. The point is that the previous brand had sugar, preservatives, and next to no meat-oriented stuff in it. We've since learned that dogs do best on a carnivore diet and the brand we got is one of many that list meat as the first ingredient. Point: any dog food that has meat (chicken, beef, lamb, etc.) not meat by-products as the first or second ingredient is a good choice. And the less sugar the better. It seems our dog, just like our kids, gets too hyperactive off the stuff.