Safety First

Our family does a fair bit of hiking/exploring/camping.

It's usually 4 of our 5 kids, us & 2 dogs.

We are quite fond of State & National parks & spend a lot of time off the beaten path.

Being the uber prepared soul that I am (read that as highly paranoid), I like to feel we are as prepared as we can be for what ever situation we might find ourselves in.

Back-woodsing it with little kids especially, makes one aware of the dreaded "L" word.

No not that one guys...

Lost.

Always the scary thought at the back of my mind.

 We try to mitigate the dangers of that by training & preparation.

We talk to our kids.

We do scenarios.

We employ the buddy system (EVERYONE should use the buddy system. Regardless of your age, rank or status. Being alone just makes you vulnerable. I'm right & you know it.)

The biggest thing being if you get lost, once you realize you are lost sit your buns down.

Hug a tree. (the only time tree hugging is endorsed by our family by the way)

And each child has an emergency pack.

They are to carry them always when we are on the trail.

You might have noticed them in previous pics of our adventures.

The packs themselves have changed over the years but the contents remain pretty constant:

a reflective emergency blanket

a water bottle

a snack of some kind

a small flashlight

and an emergency whistle 

(a whistle carries farther than a voice & it doesn't wear you out like yelling does)

If you are old enough you get matches & a knife as well.

No, these items may not save you from an angry bear but if you get separated & lost, the ability to have a snack & stay warm & start a fire for warmth or a signal could be the difference between happy endings & tragedy.

And knowing to sit & stay & not wander to exhaustion or until you fall off a cliff are important tips.

If you haven't had 'the talk' with your kids yet please do!

We've been very fortunate & in the 20 or so years I've been schlepping kids thru the woods I haven't lost anybody.

Praise the Lord.

But I'm not arrogant enough to think it will never happen to me.

I prefer to be prepared.

This concludes your Public Service Announcement for the day.  :)

Blessings.

Confessions of not-a-morning-person...

I must confess: I am not a morning person.

For many years I have tried to transform myself into a morning person.

But, try as I might, I just do not wake up bright eyed & bushy tailed at 6 a.m. & spring out of bed like some deranged jack-in-the-box (no offense to all the morning people out there).

I grew up with morning people.

Die hard, cheerful, wake up in full swing & get the day going folks. (I was actually told once~at 9 a.m. mind you~ that I had slept half the day away)

People who expected the same out of me.

(It really sucked on birthdays or special occasions when I would try to get up 'early' & surprise them by doing the chores. I could never beat them up. Ever. Sigh.)

I was woken up bright & early every morning & sent off to the bathroom to brush & shine.

I was known as a bathroom hog because I took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. just to get the basics done...

You want to know a secret?

I would go in the bathroom, lock the door, curl up on the rug & go back to sleep until somebody pounded on the door :)

But see, I know I am not a morning person. I have accepted my limitations.

Unlike some people...

Some people labor under the delusion that they are 'morning folks'.

That they spring out of bed bright & early every morning like some kind of deranged jack-in-the-box...

When in fact "King of the Sloth People" is a much more apt description.

But these people go thru life convinced they are happy & awake at 6:30 in the morning.

Ha.

And they continually make appointments for first thing in the bloody morning.

Appointments which they are not around to carry them out.

Which is how **I** came to be heading out the door to the orthodontist at 7:30 in the morning & what inspired this post.

Blessings.

Love is...

Happy Hearts Day!

Hope you have a lovely day with your lovelies :)

Be sure to start your day out right with a heart healthy breakfast...

(I have heart shaped cookie cutters & I am not afraid to use them)

Blessings!

Ugh.

I don't know what is in the air but whatever it is it  does not like us.

Or maybe it likes us too much?

My family has been sick.

 Sick. Sick. Sick.

So far, in 2014, we have logged more sick days than healthy.

I do  not think we have ever been this sick, this long or this often.

Over Christmas everyone had a nasty respiratory flu.

In fact, my poor 7 year old (who is not exactly a calm child) was so sick on Christmas morning, that he just sat there with glassy eyes while we opened presents.

It was SO sad!

All told we were sick about a week & half with that.

Then barely 2 weeks later we had a lovely stomach virus. And my husband ~ who never ever actually throws up~ was throwing up.

We got thru that only to have ~ 2 weeks later~ another stomach virus  go thru 5 out of 6 members of our household.

And I, alone, escaped.

I spent a solid week tending sickies. Washing carpet & walls & PJs & blankets. Dumping puke buckets. (By weeks end my 5 yr old's bucket even had a name. Sigh.) Fetching water & yogurt & pushing charcoal & probiotics.

And doing all of the cleaning, feeding, milking, laundry, maintenance & whatever needed doing, I did it.

Boy, was I glad when my kids took their chores back!

It is safe to say that I am so sick of puke I could...well...puke.

But it seems that we are finally FINALLY finally on the mend & it is my fervent prayer that we will STAY that way.

For more than 2 weeks this time please...

Blessings.