Treating Psoriasis

You wouldn't know it to look at this sweet face, but Boy #2 has psoriasis.  Thankfully, it is only a minor case. However, after looking at some pictures of some children and adults with severe psoriasis, I decided to look into treatments.
We've taken Boy #2 to two different dermatologists in our town.  The first one, after three expensive visits and 3 different topical prescriptions, could never diagnose the problem. The second one took a quick look at him and said, "This is psoriasis."  Once I had a name to go with the problem, I looked it up, and that seems to me to be exactly what we're dealing with.  She also wrote at least two prescriptions and also recommended Vanicream.  It says on the container that it is "formulated without dyes, lanolin, fragrance, masking fragrance, parabens, formaldehyde."
Although, the prescriptions the second doctor gave us eliminated most of the redness and irritability of the affected skin patches, most of them have not gone away after almost a year of usage.  
With Spring quickly approaching, Boy #2 will be outside with more skin showing. Many people say that sunlight helps the condition. He says he will be "suntanning naked" as soon as it is warm enough.  Of course, I'll monitor the time he is out to make sure he doesn't get too much sun. And, we have no neighbors nearby, so no indecent exposure citations should be in our future.
Yesterday, during my internet-surfing, I read that many people used oats to help their psoriasis. Some even said that it went away...  When I mentioned this to Boy #2, he said he wanted to take a bath. So, I put a cup of oats into a piece of cheesecloth and tied off the top.  I held it under the running warm (not too hot) water. He soaked for about 20 minutes and even rubbed the oats (in the cheesecloth) over his dry patches.  We then coated him with Vanicream. We're going to do this two or three times a week and see if anything happens. BTW, after I read the ingredients in the Vanicream, I realized that this is not something I want to continue to use on our skin. But, until I can replace it with an all-natural product, we'll keep using it.  
I'll post soon about any results that we see.

My Boys' Toxic Lunches

Since attending the South Georgia Sustainable and Local Growers Conference in Reidsville, Georgia, last month, my husband and I have been paying more attention to the ingredients in our food.  Yesterday, I was reading posts from Food Babe,  100 Days of Real Food, and stopkillingmykids.com.

This morning, I started looking at foods from my pantry that we regularly eat.  I did not know until yesterday that we were eating such horrible things:  MSG, also known as yeast extract;  Partially or Fully Hydrogenated Oils, also known as trans fats; High Fructose Corn Syrup;  Soybean Oil; ...

Today, in my kids' lunches, I sent sandwiches made with

Hydrogenated oils, Mono- and Diglycerides

 and

Corn syrup, HFCS, maybe Sodium Citrate is bad and
I just haven't figured that out yet!

They also have this for a snack

Animal Crackers - Soybean oil, HFCS, Soy Lecithin,
Natural flavor - I'm suspicious of that not, too.

 Furthermore, I looked at the bottle of ketchup.  I love ketchup, and this is my favorite.

HFCS, Corn syrup. I suppose I'll be learning to make
my own ketchup this summer!

I am so mad right now.

Birdwatching

One of our family's favorite pastimes is birdwatching.  Birds, no matter their size, color, or type, are fascinating creatures to me.  Over the years, we've become quite familiar with the personalites of several species and have made favorites. 

Goldfinches are one of those favorites. They are beautiful, friendly, and easy to please.  This is a picture I took of a male in my garden in Virginia. Unfortunately, we only have goldfinches in South Georgia in the wintertime when they are not nearly as colorful. Their personalities are the same though, and I've enjoyed keeping an eye on them the past several weeks.We try to get out to state and local parks as often as we can with the boys. Here they are on a Birding Trail in Smokemont Park in Cherokee, North Carolina, last June.

And, here they are at the lodge in Amicolola Falls State Park near my parents' house.  We happened to go there for lunch on the day of an owl exhibit.

I never knew about killdeers until I moved into my house in South Georgia.  They are in the gull family and lay their clutch of eggs on the ground. They have a fascinating way of protecting them. If a perceived predator gets too close, they will pretend to be wounded and lure it away from the nest.  Here's a picture of a nest in my front yard.

Of course, we have a bluebird box.  They love it, but have had horrible luck hatching out babies. Maybe they'll do a better job this year. This morning, I saw a pair taking nesting materials into the box. Here's a picture of four beautiful, but doomed, eggs from last spring.  Our cat killed the male, and the female's new mate threw out these eggs and started over.

I wish I had a better picture of our hummingbirds, but they are just too fast for me.

This is a pine warbler that stunned itself when it flew into one of our large windows. He eventually made a complete recovery.

Snow

I hope that anyone, especially back in our old Commonwealth of Virginia, that was snowed in or without electricity last week has gotten back to normal. All the talk of "Winter Storm Iago" (when did we start naming winter storms, anyway?) had me thinking about the fact that it will probably be another fifteen years before I see any snow here in South Georgia.  

For some of my Christmas decorations, the boys and I cut out paper snowflakes. We put them up with fishing line in the foyer.  We've never done this before, and we LOVED it.  I'm saving the ones we made this year and will add more next year. When I took the Christmas decorations down (yesterday), I decided to leave up the snowflakes because I love them so much and it is still winter.  They're probably the only snow we'll see this year.

  

Happy New Year!

 We've had a wonderful, restful Christmas break here in South Georgia.  Here are a few pictures from last week.

Christmas Eve Church Service

Christmas Eve at our house

Christmas Eve with a new 11-year-old

Christmas morning

A Christmas present!

15 Rhode Islands for the boys

One of my resolutions is to start blogging again - at least one post per week.

Happy New Year from South Georgia!

First Day of School

I cannot believe the boys started school yesterday (and I started last Monday)! It was only a half day for us all, and I'm too tired right now to write about it other than to say that it went well.

The highlight for me was when one of the coaches told me that he thinks Boy 1 and Boy 2 are the best dressed boys in the school.

Maybe Boy 2's choice of garden clogs was not the best, but it's too hot to make him wear socks and sneakers if he doesn't feel like it. I'm proud to report that Boy 1's shirt was tucked in when he came to my classroom at the end of the day - impressive.

Hospitals are Fun - Who Knew?

In my small town, there are not many things to do on a sweltering end-of-July day. So, where do my boys like to hang out on a day such as this? Our new hospital, of course! Why? "They have free wi-fi and good coffee!" they will tell you.

Is there a career in medicine in their future? More likely, video game design.

The wi-fi is for them, and the coffee is for me. They have learned that, if they mention coffee, it increases the chance that I'll take them where they want to go. And, by the way, I don't care if there is a heat index of 109 outside. I love my coffee! Inside the hospital it's quite cool, so I can sit and drink away while the boys play games at lego.com  or www.spongebobwhatever until my computer battery runs out. As an added bonus, I always run into someone I know (from church usually - we are good presbyterians) who works there, so I get the chance to do some "visiting."

Would you like to take a guess at how we rounded out our Friday?

Yes, we went to a bull riding tournament/contest (or whatever it's called). A first for all four of us. The event was a fundraiser for a local medical clinic, and Mr. Perfect was a sponsor. It was actually pretty entertaining - the crowd as much as the contestants. (Why, young "country girls" do you need to wear boots when it is 96 and humid at 8:00 in the evening? I guess they do look better with your Daisy Dukes than a comfortable pair of flip flops would.) Sorry, I have no pictures of the actual bull riding as I was too busy swatting killer gnats to take more than this one photo.

Mr. Perfect, is it just me, or is your neck turning a peculiar shade of red?


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Visit a State Park

Mr. Perfect and I have decided to visit every one of our state parks.

So far, since moving back to Georgia, we've been to four. We have a very long way to go. There are several reasons why we've decided to challenge ourselves like this:
1.  Usually, the only cost to enter the park to hike or see the historic sites is an admissions fee of no more than $5 per car. That is certainly within our budget. Reserving a camp site, group shelter, etc. will cost more, but it's reasonable.
2.  Both of our boys are active Cub Scouts, so state parks give us lots of opportunities to earn badges and work on rank advancements.
3.  It's good, clean fun with the family.
4.  Our taxes help pay for the parks, so we want to see our "investment" in action.
5.  I actually feel closer to God when I'm observing His creation, so I want to see as much of it as possible.

We spent Memorial Day weekend Pioneer Camping with the Cub Scout Pack at Skidaway Island State Park in Savannah. Boy, was it hot! We had a great time though. It was a fun and educational experience for us all.  Many state parks have lectures, guided tours, and hands-on lessons that you can attend without reservations.

Here's one where the boys learned about Georgia's birds of prey.

At twilight one night, we learned about bats. See the big bat house?

The boys are watching other Georgia birds, particularly the painted bunting.

We camped at a site that was 1/2 mile from the parking lot and 3/4 mile
from the bathroom. That was a new experience for me - and, it wasn't as
bad as I expected. 

Last weekend, we went to George L. Smith State Park in Twin City - about an hour from here.

This park is most notable for its lake and historic mill house.

Boy #1 was very interested in these diagrams of how the mill operated.

Boy #2 quickly found a walking stick for himself. Notice the camera he
got for Christmas. He loves to take pictures of things he finds outside.

State Parks have very clear markings and information. If you stick
to the trails, it's just about impossible to get lost.

I love these old trees!

This fall, we're planning to go camping at Amicolola Falls State Park - home of a beautiful waterfall. See what neat things you can see at a state park near you.

Windows and Our 1st Garden

Well, we are almost "dried in." That means that the house is wrapped, the windows are in, and the under-roofing is up.  It's looking so good, and we feel very blessed. Tomorrow, the boys' bathtub should arrive with the rest of the bathroom plumbing to show up early next week. I was not able to take a picture of the front of the house because it was way too muddy after yesterday's torrential rain. Here are a few pictures of the rest of the house:

Back of the house

Back of the house

Looking at the front wall of my bedroom

Upstairs hallway, down to the landing, and up into the guest bedroom.

The boys' playroom

Another  view of the boys' playroom

Boy #2 is giving his bedroom a thumbs up!

Boy #1 also loves his new bedroom.

We are addicted to plants, so we could not wait until the house was finished to start growing things. The green clumps are day lilies transplanted from Mr. Perfect's sister's yard. We also planted dahlia bulbs which should come up in a few more weeks, a cabbage plant (part of a school project), a hibiscus we brought down from Virginia, and a fern. I'm planning on sowing some lettuce this weekend. Also, I think we're going to bring our bird feeders out this weekend and start doing our best to attract all the birds within a 10 mile radius to our yard!

Boy #1 and #2 in our temporary garden.