Monday, September 5, 2011

Lavender Love...and a bit of a rant.


My most favorite scent!
I try to incorporate it into nearly anything in our home; from room sprays, to soaps, to candles...
It instantly relaxes me and makes me feel like yawning.
The above is a beautiful hand made soap I found at a Farmer's Market this weekend..
I also found a handmade Lavender sachet to lay with at the end of a long day..


I'm loving the Weleda Lavender body oil...


I grow French Lavender in our small backyard garden..
The children know it is time to "wash hands" when I whisper to "please pick three pieces"...
they run out back, pick three leaves, and place them in our handwashing bowl..

I wash each child's hands with this water before snack time.
(more on this later)

              The stuffed turtle above has a lavender sachet pocket; a gift from W's Granny Smith.
It smells lovely and hopefully gives him good dreams:)
As you can see from the photo above, our home is a bit in shambles this weekend after I've been out of commission due to some nasty food posioning. Friends, it was just terrible. I missed out on so much great food during our family Labor Day picnic, and what's worse...a ton of knitting time with our great friend who was visiting from out-of-town.
I was down for the count and pretty miserable.
Everyone is out for breakfast right now, and I'm home trying to pick up the pieces here.
Somehow, oh somehow, I have also been left with 3+ days worth of poopy diapers to clean...
Oh, because what I really feel like doing is cleaning poo after nearly every and any smell nauseates me.
Hey. I am one of those odd women who actually loves doing chores. I really do, and I know many of you are with me on this! But not when I'm barely able to move. I could use a little help.
That means....
-Please put soiled diapers in the wet bag. Not on top of it. Come on now.
-Please flush poo in the toilet? Right? Don't leave it sitting for 3 days thinking I'll get to it when I can walk again?!
-We never leave dirty dishes in the sink. So why are we doing it this weekend?
-Groceries go in the cupboards. They shouldn't remain in the bags, on the counter, all weekend.

The one and only photo of Jay washing a poo diaper a few months ago when I couldn't get my hands wet due to a deep cut. Notice the latex gloves and shirt wrapped around his nose and mouth.
 What a WUSS!

Here's a big virtual ::hug:: to all the women and mothers who run their houses!!
Look how everything stops when we...stop.
oxoxox



26 comments:

  1. I hope your feeling better by the time you read this; but I must say that your 'shambles' still talk lovely photos. Take time to heal and to be with family and W as you can. I'm reminded for some reason of this poem that used to hang in my mother's house, "Cleaning and scrubbing will wait ’till tomorrow, but children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs! Dust go to sleep! I’m rocking my baby. Babies don’t keep" By Ruth Hamilton

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  2. I am so with you on this!!!! Hope you're feeling better soon!!!!! Xoxo

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  3. Hope you are feeling better! Food poisoning is so not fun! My mom always used to gently remind us that chores didn't have to come to a halt even if she was sick (which was rare!)...I realize now that it seems to be true :-) My 'favorite' moment was when I and our two little ones (probably about 1 and 3 at the time) were out with stomach flu...gnarly one too. I had been feeling nauseated all evening and then our son comes out from the bedroom and says I spit up (poor thing had not spit up!) I go in his room (my husband is not best at bodily productions...) take one glance, have to run to the bathroom and throw up...back in and clean up, cause I figured I wouldn't be able to throw up right away so I should make it. Yeah...the things we do for love! My husband did clean a lot of messy diapers and sheets that weekend, I will give him that!

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  4. Oh I feel for you this morning friend! I am almost phobic when it comes to being sick so I'm so sorry it happened to you!

    Most of the time my husband is a gem when I'm out of commission but he never did like poopy diapers! We have a deal ~ he cleans up after the top end and I do the bottom! ;o)

    Sending you anti-nausea energy and a big hug...!
    xoxo
    ~ joey ~

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  5. So sorry to hear about your food poisoning! I had food poisoning once when I was 11 weeks pregnant with my second son. It was the worse! Keep some activated charcoal on hand and maybe some nux vomica. It should help lessen the severity. Healing thoughts your way <3

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  6. I hope you are feeling better! that last pictures is hilarious and exactly what my husband does when he helps me clean up the kitty litter, no kids yet. I'm sure he'll wear sometime of protective suit when he cleans up a poopy diaper.

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  7. I'm so sorry to hear about the illness and the diaper troubles. When I was pregnant with my twins and couldn't bear to wash out my toddler's nappy, I would kindly as for help at the end of the day. He didn't refuse - but he didn't remember to do it either. After a couple of days, it was so much worse.....so I ended up putting every soiled diaper on the deck outside where he would have to step over them to get in the house. (Thankfully, we lived in the middle of nowhere at that time.) After a day or three, he got the hint.

    My fiercely independent and self-sufficient partner is often reduced to an older child in our home. I'm definitely captain (and cook!) of this ship. :D

    Hope you're feeling better,
    ~carrie~

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  8. Oh this brought a smile to my face. Being a mother and getting sick in the process is not easy...the house, well, it falls apart a bit.

    But the ranting is accepted - and understood :)

    I pray that you will begin to feel better soon...and thank you for sharing the bit about the water and lavender. I also grow lavender all over my garden, and I never thought to try this. I will now!

    be blessed and feel better,

    b.

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  9. Dear, all my kindest thoughts, and a lot of mental suport to you ... having gotten so much inspiration and encouragement by reading your blog, your comments and your thoughts I wish there was more I could do.

    Even so, I hope you feel better now, or will do soon!

    Thanks for letting mom-wannabe-readers like me be a part of your life and your work!

    Kindest regards, L.

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  10. oh jeeze. I hear you there... without mama, nothing gets done!

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  11. Oh, it's so true and so unfair! If my ex stays here with our girls (if I'm out for the evening) he leaves me piles of pee and poopy diapers. And you know, by the time they've sat there a while they're so hard to get clean.
    Hugs right back at you, I hope you're feeling better.

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  12. Oh Rebecca, I am so sorry about your being sick! It is so true, Mama can't be sick- she isn't allowed. Even when Mama is down, the work piles up. . . but I had to laugh with that photo of Jay rinsing the diaper! We Mamas, we're made of steel.
    HUGS, hope you are recovering well!

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  13. The HUGE virtual hug goes out to you! Please take it easy as you're recovering, do what you can and do the rest AFTER a rest, and grow more lavender to help with poopy diaper duty!!! {{{{{{{HUG}}}}}}}

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  14. I think if I were in your situation I might be tempted to buy a pack of biodegradable disposables and keep them for just that reason. Your husband can obviously deal with changing them, then he can throw them away. If/ when your son grows out of that size you can save them for another child or pass them along to some other cloth loving mama who might need them. xx I am so glad you are feeling better. x

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  15. food poisoning is awful!both Haley an I had it this spring and then he had to work an i had to clean up...and i was pregnant and already nauseous! Really hope you feel better!

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  16. Oh, goodness!!!
    I can't believe he left all those diapers for you! And the groceries in bags all weekend?! Aaagh! So unfair!

    I so, so feel for you. I hope you are feeling better and able to rest some as you recover. Sending you much love.

    ~Take care~

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  17. Oh, I so sympathize! Every time I ask my dh to change a poop diaper he makes such a deal of it. It's actually quite funny, yelling ughs and yucks from the next room, followed by the exit with the diaper at arms length while gagging! Lol, I don't get it. Sure it's gross but the theatrics!? It's hilarious. Needless to say I don't put my little one through this very often, tho I'm sure he's giggling at Papa.

    Anyway, I'm so sorry to hear you were ill. Ginger water is so soothing, Although I'm sure you already know that. Feel better.

    Becca

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  18. Oh how I understand. :) I hope this finds you feeling better. Love the photo of Jay too funny.

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  19. I know exactly how you feel. I have 4 children now, and the one thing I can tell you is that husbands learn with time and more babies! In the beginning, hubby wasn't too helpful if I was ill. I mean he would do his best with the child/children, but forget the house. By the time I had the third one, he was able to realize that one occasionally needed to do dishes and cook some food. By the 4th one, WOW, he was amazing. In fact, the day I came home from the hospital with our 4th baby girl, I had a c-section was OUT of commission. That night our three year old came down with a stomach virus, and he took care of her the whole time. He tried his best to help me too, because incision pain is absolutely terrible in the beginning. He would take the three older girls with him wherever he went so I just had the baby.
    So, it takes lots of talking (you with him about it, cuz they don't get it!) and experience :)I sort of got mad at my husband last week, because I came down with a UTI and had to go to the doctor for medicine because it was bad. The whole time he is all crying over a tiny patch of poison ivy on his hand. I'm thinking, " Itchy hand vs. burning crotch and fever, hmmmm, which one would you rather have?" Sheesh, those men just don't have any idea what pain is :)

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  20. Diaper tip #17: I never washed poo out of a diaper in my years cloth diapering a toddler. My secret was this: wash and dry disposable baby wipes after using them. Save them and use them as a liner in the diaper. If kiddo poops, just toss the liner and etc. into the trash...diaper is still mostly clean and can just go into the pail.

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  21. You poor dear! I'm glad to hear you're on the mend. I hope your 100% better soon. I must recommend a diaper sprayer--they save so much trouble and no poo has to go into the washer. We've recently had the same "diaper on the floor" problem at our house. Bless their hearts. ;-)

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  22. oh my lovely girl ... hope your feeling better soon ... organic candied ginger is wonderful for nausea ... and peppermint tea is also --- i know how hard it can be to feel awful and still have your life to run .... take special care of yourself.... much light and love to you ...

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  23. That picture of Jay is priceless. Your rant cracked me up. But I do hope you are feeling better soon!

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  24. Yes, hope you're feeling better by now! Maybe we'll see you at VegFest if we're back in time and you're there! :)

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  26. I love lavender too. Such a versatile fragrance. Sorry to hear you were so sick. I understand certain jobs don't seem to get done when mama is out for the count. Kinda happens in this household too. The photo of your hubby is so funny. My cousin's husband only changed a couple of nappies in his kids babyhood and even then wore a diving mask!!
    I just thought I'd let you know I have a little Steiner/Waldorf giveaway you may be interested in too. Jacinta

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