COUGH ELIXIRS and BUSES and CARDED AT THE DOLLAR GENERAL!

School is in session folks!  Have you (cough) noticed?

And, by chance, are you already struggling to get out the door on time to make it before the bell?  ME TOO!

But last evening my high school senior daughter urged us to new heights!  She set the bar high, and we experienced the absolute exhilaration this morning of pushing out the door for school at an earlier time than normal!  Cheers all around!

Cheers… until we found the main road out of our country plot only to be plunged right into the middle of those ever faithful, tireless yellow school bus schedules that we have long forgotten?  Humph.  After we groaned over the unexpected delays of the school bus stops that we could not legally or safely thwart (although my husband was scheming), the thrill of our “early-out-the-door” margin trickled down to “well-we-won’t-be-late” and “who-are-these-little-kiddos-in-the-neighborhood-never-before-seen-but-out-with-mom-in-robes-for-this-shamefully-early-shuttle-to-higher-education?”  Party was over; bus routes were sketched and etched in our pre-coffee brains for future reference should we ever again be so daring in our attempts for early arrival to school (honestly… not likely).

And this little post may feel just the same to you, dear Reader.  I am trying to make a good point, but those bus stops along the information highway are creating distractions.  Forgive me…  I am now pulling in the floating stop sign and getting in gear (teehee)…

As with so many other millions of households across the land, our little crew has been hit with the “welcome-back-to-school” germ invasion!  Raise your hand if you know the drill.  Ok.  Thanks.  Please put your hands down now.  Let’s all peek over at the obvious reasons for this (cough) present predicament and prepare to be grossed out…

I recently explained to my 7th grade students the power of math (again) as we examined the potential to share microscopic slime and sludge with 42 people a day, just by sitting in their assigned desks!  With a schedule of seven classes taught in seven different classrooms, think about the exposure!  Each desk is shared by 6 other students.  6 other students per desk multiplied by 7 classes equals 42 students contributing to the germ pool that each student sits in for 50 minute sessions throughout the day!  Freakish!  Now, let us all commit to re-train those pencil chewers… imagine the horror of slimy pencils rolling around desks, and then the bell rings.  In comes your little Johnny.  You see the amazing power of math too, don’t you now… Yuck!  Disgusting!

But hang on… in case you ever doubted… let’s pause for applause because YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM IS AMAZING!  Before you reach for the highly promoted, but wildly damaging anti-bacterial squirts, wipes, sprays, and tubes to stuff into tomorrow’s back packs, perhaps we should seriously marvel at the brilliance in each cell of the human body.  Folks, we are truly fearfully and wonderfully made!  Otherwise, wellness would never be possible!

If, however, even now some little microscopic influence has left its toxic mark on your system (or Johnny’s), let me (with great joy!) remind you of the inexpensive tools you have at your disposal to win the battle!  But… well… the brake lights are starting to flash and that floating stop sign is starting to swing out to the left of ye old halting yellow shuttle…

Just because this one is so funny!

So, my oldest gal, has really been hit hard with these pesky bugs.  She is studying for her upcoming LSAT test in addition to working part time and taking full time hours of college courses for her junior year at local big university (Go VOLS!).  She is becoming the poster child for adrenal fatigue (another post for another time)!  And she is 20.  And she is independent.  And she is heavy on this momma’s heart as I know she is doing great stuff, but the price she is paying in her health is tottering too close to the cliff.  Low immune system function in combination with pesky virus or bacterial invaders equals seriously miserable throat, cough, fever, swollen glands, and fatigue!

What is a mom to do?

I truly believe that my daughters should be well along in the journey of wellness-understanding to make their own decisions on how to care for their bodies.  Anger is truly the emotion that surfaces in me when I see them ignoring warning signs from multitudes of symptoms.  I don’t want my ladies to grow up dependent on a broken system for answers.  I want them to think through their symptoms and cherish life and do the right thing, naturally, for their well-being, for their futures, for the next generation, which might I add… will one day (waaaaaaaayyy out there, of course) be my grandbabies!

So…  I presented the solutions.  Cultured Veggies!  Chicken Broth!  Wait on the kefir until mucous is not a problem because the extra dairy is not helpful when battling chest congestion, coughing, runny nose… although kefir IS the miracle food, as we all know (wink wink)!  To everything there is a season… even to kefir, of course.  I offered whole food supplements of zinc and b-complex and sub-lingual vitamin D.  Normally, supplements are not a daily routine(except fermented cod liver oil for those in my family who will take it.  Not this gal though.  Just sayin…), but when battling the bad dogs you might need to pull out the reinforcements!  She was improving, but a miserable night-time cough set in and her sleep was extremely lacking.

Remember that a 20 year daughter needs to chose her own path.  The cough was debilitating.  So, I did the irrational thing in the name of presenting options.  Yep.  Don’t judge me, please, but I found myself at Dollar General at 9:57 p.m. purchasing cheap honey (because I was out of the good stuff) and standard cough suppressant (sssshhhh!).  The guilt felt like I was purchasing a dirty magazine and trying to sneak out before the sirens went off.  Without any doubt, I know better options exist for overcoming a cough, but my gal needed to make her choices for her own body.

The most ridiculous moment of shame came when the exhausted cashier swiped my purchase across the scanner and declared that she would need to see my ID.  Excuse me?  “ID, please.  These are regulated substances, and we have to ID everyone who purchases these cough suppressant items.”

Oh, the flood of emotions here.  Shame.  The world was spinning and the bright fluorescent lights were flickering as time moved in slow motion capturing the utter frustration within…  awareness that our government allows genetically-modified-organisms in all of our food supply, vaccines are laden with harmful ingredients and plunged into our babies, amalgam fillings have been legally poisoning the population with mercury for decades, public water sources are contaminated with added chemicals of scary proportions, BUT the government draws a line with over-the-counter cough suppressant medicine for 7 bucks!  What poison was I purchasing?  What in the world does it matter my name or age if I have in my hands a potentially mind-altering, body-shocking chemical neatly packaged under the label of cough suppressant? Oh the broken systems we all swim within…  the inconsistencies…

All of this rambling to say… my lovely lady did find sweet relief and deep sleep after a couple of swigs of a homemade cough elixir that I am really happy to share with you!  (Bus is loaded and back in motion!)  In addition to cultured veggies (sauerkraut that evening) and lots of reverse osmosis water, I mixed together in small juice glass…

• 3 tablespoons of honey

• juice of a lemon

• added turmeric powder (I used 1 tsp from the Megafoods brand purchased at Earthfare)

• (Crushed garlic would have been a wonderful addition to the mix, but I didn’t have any.)

• Swirl together and swallow at bedtime.  Repeat in morning, if necessary.

Cough… ELIMINATED!

The Dollar General cough suppressant was a wasted $7 bucks, but a great reminder!  All we need is naturally all around us!

The body deserves tender care, not the damaging effects of harsh chemical concoctions!  I have learned that supporting our immune system is our duty as conscious overseers of this human body.  Every cell is incomprehensibly more intelligent than we know!  Providing informed support, not harsh domination, is the sweet and rewarding contribution all of us can bring to our own state of wellness!

And you know, these are ideas that have been around for centuries!  Our great grandmothers knew so many homemade poultices and elixirs that truly worked!  (OK… there were surely some bad ones too, but they didn’t stand the test of time in most cases!)

As I journey further into healthful daily decisions, I am in awe of the wonderful voices available to anyone interested in such an approach!  Let me close this post today by referring you to a doctor who posts all sorts of upbeat, motivational, and encouraging wellness tips and strategies and recipes.  Check out Dr. Josh Axe by clicking here.  I follow his posts and have enjoyed gleaning super recipes and ideas from his straightforward articles.

This one just doesn’t get old. Still funny!

Be blessed TODAY dear reader!  Thank you for joining in the journey to rethink wellness!  Behind the bus is much better than “under it,” right?

Joyfully,

Deana