While it is not as commonly Doctor-recommended as it once was, I still use the BRAT diet as my guideline whenever we are dealing with an illness that results in vomiting.  Or more accurately, I use my own version which does not have nearly as cute and catchy a mnemonic device acronym as its more commonly known predecessor.

It is comprised of foods that are easy to digest and are bland enough to not be too harsh if they are regurgitated.

Many of the foods on the list are binding, which help to combat diarrhea.

I don’t worry so much that it is not nutritionally complete, odds are the patient will only be on it for a few days.

B – bananas are rich in potassium (depleted by vomiting and diarrhea)

B – broth is a good way to mix up the liquids your “patient” drinks

R – rice can sometimes help lessen diarrhea

A – applesauce is generally well tolerated

P – plain boiled potatoes

T – toast with jelly (but no butter)

T – tea, sweetened, but little or no milk

Y – yogurt can work wonders in normalizing intestinal function

S – saltines, plain, or with a bit of jelly

S – soda, real sugar-sweetened cola or ginger ale can settle a queasy stomach when allowed to go flat and given a teaspoon at a time (but too much sugar can aggravate diarrhea)

Just remember that less is more. A bite of food, a sip of liquids. Small amounts at a time. Allow time to pass, without ill effects, before honoring requests for “more, please.” With younger children it can help to make it a game of sorts:

• serve food with a demitasse spoon or a shrimp fork
• cut toast into 1/4ths or even 1/8ths
• serve oyster crackers instead of saltines

Also remember that the general guideline for return to school is 24 hours after the last episode of vomiting.

Blessings

Jia

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sephoni missed her first day of school this year, and spent the day home on the couch.  I’m not 100% sure what she has.  Originally it seemed like something she ate Saturday night (while out with a friend and her family) didn’t agree with her.  Sunday seemed to point more to a food-borne illness.  Today found her able to eat a bit, but unfortunately still found her vomiting and since the school guidelines are to keep a child home for 24 hours past the last episode of vomiting she’ll be out of school again tomorrow.

Of course this means we’re not even out of September and have already kissed perfect attendance goodbye. But then, this isn’t a big deal because neither of my girls have ever earned that particular accolade.

I have a niece who has had perfect attendance every year and she’s a Freshman in high school this year.  And while I am, of course, proud of her (she’s determined to reach that goal every year until she graduates), I also wonder how many other kids wound up missing school because my niece went to school even when maybe she really should have stayed home sick.

And even assuming that the child/teen in question truly never needs a sick day all year long (or during their entire school career) what exactly are we rewarding with the award. Good luck? Better genetics? Stubbornness?

But, this practice is not limited to the school system. There are companies as well who reward those employees that never take a sick day.

Are we insane?

While I applaud the impulse to try to motivate kids to make school a priority, and while I understand the impulse for a business owner to discourage employee absenteeism, having a policy in place that results (intentionally or not) in the further transmission of disease is just irresponsible.

Just my 2 cents.

Jia

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Well Fall is finally upon us.  Even if it doesn’t particularly feel like it today – felt like a steamy summer evening when Accolan and I went out to Sam’s Club for the week’s supplies.

I’d like to be able to say that I marked and honored the sabbat of Mabon.  I would like to say that I paused to acknowledge the full moon that coincided with the equinox.  But, I have been lax in that regard for so long now and I’m thinking it may take some drastic changes to my life to change that particular pattern.

Reya’s mental health issues still take up a good deal of time and energy. Things seem to be going better. She started back at her old high school. She’s starting to be able to lessen the frequency of the outpatient program she has been attending. We are in the middle of obtaining additional services for her, for us, as well. She’s starting to open up more, share more, take responsibility a bit more.

Sephoni is doing well overall. She seems stressed. She seems a bit overwhelmed with the addition of her joining the Tae Kwon Do school’s demo team on top of 5th grade, the gifted program, regular Tae Kwon Do classes, and flute. She seems fed up with most of her sister’s issues.

As for Accolan and I? We’re doing ok.

Our wish for all of you, the few who read this blog, is that your larders and coffers always be full. Our hope for you is that you never know hunger and never know thirst. Our prayer is that you and we find ourselves renewed by the dark months ahead.

Joyous Mabon
Happy Fall
Blessed Be

Jia

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I am so behind on so many things. Blogging being just one of them.

Some of it is simply adjusting (yes still) to spending our evenings downstairs after giving up our upstairs TV room so that Reya and Sephoni could be given separate rooms.

Some of it is the fact that my father (who we live with) not only feels the need to comment on the amount of time I spend on the ‘puter, but has the habit of wanting to read over my shoulder to boot.

Some of it dealing with a stressful job that, when combined with the stress at home, leaves me bursting into tears several times a day and wanting to do nothing other than mindless web surfing when I am on the computer.

But, a lot of it is that I have been using crochet as both a means to de-stress and to develop stock for our sad little Etsy store.

I spend the bulk of my evening crocheting. I have even managed to learn a few new techniques in the process.

I have a number of finished items that just need me to weave in the ends (Gods I hate doing that), take photos, and list.

I have a larger number of projects in varying degrees of completion.

I am, in short, being taken over by half-finished shawls, scarves, and skeins of yarn; and am spending so many hours crocheting that I am doing it in my dreamtime as well. Too bad that I, lack access to a house elf and, unlike Mrs Weasley, can’t train my hooks to do their thing all on their own

Im sure my obsession will taper off soon and I will find my way back to these pages soon.

Blessings

Jia

image by peggytoes

“Always Remember, Never Forget”

Three years ago over on my other blog, 2 Witches, I made the comment that for me 9/11 “was, and is, a reminder of how transient this mortal life can be (that) it was, and is, a reminder of how none of us ever know which day is our last.”

That feeling is a true today as it was then, as it was on that horrible day when I watched the towers fall, when I waited hours without word for my father to make it home, when I wondered what kind of world I had brought my children into.

Trust in the Future

Patti Digh authors the blog 37days, which challenges her readers with the question: “what would you be doing today if you only had 37 days to live?”  This is not an arbitrary amount of time.  This October marks the 7th anniversary of the passing of her stepfather, a mere 37 days after his diagnosis with lung cancer.

Her blog and her books are not only a living memorial to him, but both a reflection of her own personal journey, and a call to arms.  Her readers are challenged with living each day to the fullest, living each day as if it were their last, living a life that is full of meaningful moments and memories, and living a life of authenticity – one that reflects their own truth.

Live Life Without Fear

Her blog is a reminder that any given day may mark the beginning of my (or your) own 37 day countdown.

Over the past few years that I have read her blog on a daily basis I have found myself moved or amused, touched or amazed, but most of all inspired. Inspired to live the life of my dreams as much as possible in the place I currently live. Inspired to be a better mom, a better wife, a better resident of Mother Earth.  To focus less on what shouldn’t matter and focus more on living a life driven by love.

Recently, I was given the opportunity to take part in the Blog Tour for her latest book.  A book which follows the line of thinking that yes life is complex but, it can be made better with “simple daily actions – a touch, a smile, a yes, a hug, a voice, a story.” (Digh)

New Day? Fresh Start!

In Four-Word Self-Help: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives you won’t find a list of admonishments but instead practical advice dispensed in four word phrases (enhanced by a handful of short essays).  Advice which varies from silly to serious.  Advice which strives to assist each of us to live fuller, happier, less wasteful, more fulfilling lives and to above all “know it will end” (Digh) so that we never take a day, a moment, for granted.

Advice like:

• create  your own tribe
• do what you can
• stand up for something
• let the tears fall

Her advice is less about looking at what you’re getting wrong than it is about seeing how you can do better, how you can try harder, how you can move one step at a time (four words at a time) closer to a life that sustains you, that fulfills you, that leaves a legacy of love and light and laughter in your wake.

What does any of this have to do with 9/11?

On September 11th Accolan and I (along with countless others) watched the towers fall.

On September 11th Accolan and I (along with countless others) waited for a loved one to come home.

The victims of 9/11 never expected to die that day.  Their families never expected that they might not come home.

The countdown may have already started for all of us. We may never know that time is running out, until it is too late. So, unless your life is perfect as is in every single way (in which case God & Goddess bless you), start making changes now. It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, that’s the whole point of Four-Word Self-Help: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives.

If you’ve ever used essential oils you know that in one drop you can recreate the aroma of a field of flowers.  Patti’s phrases are like that … they are our problems, our worries, our concerns, our troubles … distilled down to just a drop of truth … the seed of a solution.

Perfect not only as “pithy, provocative, poignant advice on a variety of self help topics” (Digh) – community, love, stress, travel, soul, wellness, success, green living, activism, children, generosity, and endings – but also as phrases to use as journal prompts, meditation mantras, and even lessons to pass on to our children.

I close this post with a poem.   A poem I think that Patti would enjoy. A poem which not only speaks to the tragedy of 9/11 but calls on each of us to use that horrific act not as a call to arms but as a call to “make love, not war” … to “beat swords into ploughshares” … to wage peace.  A poem which reminds us that we can remake the world. A poem that reminds us of our power. A poem that gives us yet another four word phrase of wisdom “hearing sirens, pray loud.” A poem which can be summed up in a four word phrase … breathe in, breathe out.

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children
and freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion
and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music,
memorize the words for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.

wage peace – judyth hill – september 12, 2001

Blessings

Jia

Disclaimer: For my willingness to participate in this blog tour I was sent a free copy of the book Four-Word Self-Help: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives.