Odds and Ends

Here are some little snippets I've been meaning to post on.

Does anyone believe in the healing power of Apple Cider Vinegar? Just wondering. I have taken it before with great results for a very sore throat (half honey, half ACV). I saw a tip on passionate homemaking about it and decided to try it when I had a bad cold a week ago. I tried 1 tsp. in a 6-8 oz. glass of water 3 times a day. All the gunk in my throat was gone within a day or two! My nose had been running like a faucet non-stop for a few days and I was going through Kleenex and hankies like crazy, but after the ACV, I've only used one or two Kleenexes a day! I've heard it's amazing stuff and now I believe it! I was using the organic kind, "with the mother" as they call it, and so that stuff is probably much more potent than the cheap grocery store stuff.

I'm feeling SO GOOD lately! The last two weeks have been mostly nausea-free and I am even taking my giant prenatal vitamins, which is miraculous! I can hardly keep a Flinstone gummy down in my first trimester, let alone swallow a horse-pill without throwing up. Pregnancy vitamins ALWAY make me nauseous so it's truly wonderful to be able to keep them down by eating them with a large meal and lots of water now. When nausea ends, you feel like a whole new person! However, I still can't take many sweets and chocolate still makes me sick, which is so weird since I was fine eating it through my past two pregnancies.

It looks like I will lose another grandparent in the next few days. My Grandpa Brown has been in the hospital for 4 months with serious complications. When he first went in, his heart had stopped for 5 minutes in the ambulance on the way there. They discovered a stroke, heart attack, clot at the base of his brain, and he had pneumonia on top of all of that! His doctors said they hadn't seen someone with all of those challenges at once. He did get better and was improving, but still in the hospital and I'm thankful we all got to see him at Christmas. He loves kids and was so happy to see them. Lately, he has had a blood infection and now a lung infection and his children and wife have made the decision to stop resuscitating him as his doctors say there is no hope of recovery. I'm so glad he knows the Lord, but it will be sad to no longer have his presence in our lives. My dad has already started building his father's casket and if I can, I will hitch a ride out to MN with my folks, with the kids, for the funeral. It will no doubt be an exhausting trip though!