Next time when your children or yourself want to chew something, try to chew a small cinnamon stick! Chew it occasionally helps fighting tooth decay, teeth and gum diseases! My children just love it!

There are a lot of ways to boost up the immune system when the first sign of cold/flu appears. One of the ways that I often use is a warm drink with ginger, cinnamon, lemon juice and raw honey. Adding 1 to 2 sticks of cinnamon and a couple of thin pieces of ginger to 1 L of water. Let it boils and then remove from heat. Coverd and let it stand for 1 to 2 hours. When the liquid turns brown and not too hot, squeeze in the juice of a fresh lemon and stir in some raw honey. Too much heat will destroy the vitamin C in the lemon juice and the enzymes in the honey. Drink it warm a couple of times throughout the day.

Ginger is an amazing herb that stimulates blood circulation, helps remove excess toxins from the body, relieve congestion in the sinus cavities…..etc.

Cinnamon is a stimulating aromatic herb same as ginger, which helps to increase the energy of body tissues, improves digestion, clears blocked respiratory passages, fights infection…..etc.

On Feb 18 the family day, we had a pot luck with a few families. We had a good time! Just that starting the next day, each of us started to throw up! After throwing up once, we started to have diarrhea! Thanks God that whatever it was, the dairrhea only last 2 days in our family! We used slippery elm to help us at that time. It’s a wonderful herb to help us heal faster, pull poisons out of our body through the bowel, heal the intestinal tract lining…etc. It’s nutritious and safe for babies too!

Since what we have is in powder form, we mix it with hot milk and add some honey to it. For Shoshana the baby (8 months, too young for honey and cow’s milk), I mix it with a tiny bit of molases and water. She loved it!

During the weeks that cold/flu was circulating in our house that I mentioned in my last post of 'Remedies', Sonia (age 3) complained that she had great pain in her ear one day. I immediately suspected that she had ear infection. I peeled a fresh clove of garlic and cut it in half, put it in the outer part of her ear and taped it in place. I explained to her that this garlic will make her pain go away. She understood and did a good job waiting! It sounds weird, but after maybe 3 hrs, the pain is totally gone!! That night, she complained that her other ear was very painful. I did the same thing and she went to sleep. The pain was totally gone in the next morning!

It’s been quite awhile since the children got sick. I was busy with the illness in this family since November til now….during this period, only one week break (in December) for me to live ‘normally’…thanks God for that one week though as the children got the chance to act in a Nativity and skated in our swimming pool just in time! What happened during all this time was the children took turns having fever, coughing, sneezing, vomit, etc…and the last sick child pass the illness to the first sick but recovered child again…and the cycle went on and on…for I believed 4 times. The days were crazy for me, as for weeks I had to be up more then 2 hrs in the middle of the night. Derek and I were down too just before Christmas Eve, to a point that felt like dying.

To be honest, I was pretty discouraged and depressed after the first 4 weeks. As we don’t believe in drugs, I had to make herbal remedies, squeezing lemons etc for the kids to help them feel better . However, as I was doing it every day and the cycles kept going on and on, I was not able to see when it will all ends. I felt helpless and exhausted. I kept asking myself, “Did I miss something?” And we already had try to eat healthy!

Then one day, thanks the Lord that I have to read Psalm 127 with the kids…
“Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” So true. No matter how much and how right I have done, it’s all in God’s hands. It’s important to try my best to do the right things, but it’s more important to look upon the Lord. Since then I have peace again.

The cycles finally stopped around 3 weeks ago. However, believe it or not, just two days before the kids were all well, my skin got problems til now. The skin of my two thumbs and my right palms was full of liquid filled blisters, and when they broke, my skin will sore and itchy. So I can only use 8 fingers to do chore slowly. I had to apply comfrey poultice on it several times a day(sure was busy). But it’s good to know comfrey really works!! And as it finally started to heal last week, my arms and legs and belly have itchy rashes til now. I’m now still using comfrey tea to wash my skin and drinking burdock to purify my blood…

Anyway, emotionally I’m totally fine though. Just quite an experience. And the Lord’s reminder is just awesome. Looking forward to get back to our ‘normal schedule’. Today is the first day to feel quite ‘normal’ after all these =D