Month: January 2011

Nature’s Best

kanniduba23 Comments

I have been wanting to share this little find with all of you for quite awhile now, so thanks to Scott for pushing me in that direction (even though I’m a day late and a dollar short as always!)

This, my dear friends, is the best kept secret on the planet.

I have come to swear by this little mix of teas (Tulsi, also known as Holy Basil, and Lemon Myrtle) and really think you all should order some as soon as you leave here.  Get it wherever you can find it.

I discovered my little tea shop through an out-of-town friend.  She has been ordering tea from Sensibiliteas for a long time, and wanted to visit the actual shop when she came to visit a couple of years ago.  I had no idea this place even existed in my area, but upon entering, became a total convert.  An entire wall (someday I will photograph it for you) is lined with paint cans filled with teas…I had never seen anything like it.  And the teas are fabulous.  I will never enjoy a bagged tea again.

Last year I was desperately seeking some natural aid to my “little” joint swelling/back aching problem.  My Tea Lady suggested Holy Basil, otherwise known as Tulsi.  She said it *might* help, but even if it didn’t help my joints, it would help a lot of other things.  “You’ll never get a cold again, and even if you do, it won’t be a bad one.”  So I drank it here and there, never quite taking the stuff seriously.

However, I started getting sick with some throat/respiratory virus the Saturday before Thanksgiving this past year.  Desperate to kick it to avoid being sick for Thanksgiving a second year in a row, I started drinking my store of Holy Basil, three cups a day as prescribed.  I swear it kept me going, and although I lost my voice, didn’t need the help of a doctor this time.  Off I went to the tea shop the day after Thanksgiving with absolutely no voice.  She suggested mixing Lemon Myrtle (for throats) with the Holy Basil.  I did, and I got better within two days.

I continued drinking a cup a day all through the holidays.  Every time I felt something coming on, I upped it to a pot (or three cups) back to back a day.  I thought one cold was going to get me…I woke with a fever and feeling miserable.  By the end of the day, I was on my feet with nothing left but a drippy nose.  Seriously.  It left as quickly as it came.

Add to this the fact that, about a month ago I observed to my husband, “You know, my joints haven’t bothered me as much lately…and my back is so much better finally.  It only took a year.”  And he said, “You’ve been drinking that tea.”  Lightbulb moment.  I had been drinking it to avoid getting sick all winter, but I think it has actually helped everything else too without me even realizing it.  I am now a believer.

You will find information on the benefits of Tulsi here and here.

You will find information on the benefits of Lemon Myrtle here.

Just Google each and you will find more information.

If you can’t find it, send me an e-mail and I will put you in touch with Donna-Lynn, my trusted Tea Lady.  Here’s to health! *raises tea cup*

Ice and Broken Budgets

kanniduba9 Comments

So, my 112 year old house is topped by a 112 year old slate roof.  That 112 year old slate roof is beginning to show signs of it’s age, and has not been very reliable in recent years.  Hard driving rain shows it’s weaknesses, as does ice.  We have several buckets under the eaves catching most of the leaks, but now and then a new one presents itself.   Right now my roof is topped with about 4, if not 5 inches of ice along it’s edges, along with several inches of snow which is becoming crusty and more frozen by the day because of the severe temperatures in these here parts.  This of course means that more leaks become evident as water sneaks under the loose roof tiles and gets trapped there by ice.  The icicles are a good four feet long is some areas, and none have come crashing down yet.  Each day I wait for the earthquake-like crash of the roof letting go, and each day passes without it.  Of course, the icicles are quite beautiful to photograph.

The only way I could think to show you how huge some of these are was to place my finger on one.

So my dear friend (*waves to Sue*) always says, “It all starts with a throw pillow!” or in this case, a leaky roof.

Zan and I figure, well, if we have to replace the roof, why not raise it while we’re at it?  Raising the short roof over our kitchen in the back of the house would allow us to add a Master bedroom and a second bathroom.  Right now, our girls share a room and we only have one bathroom…As they get older, we can see the wisdom in having a bathroom of our own.

Of course, this leads to all sorts of issues…

First of all, the cost of replacing a slate roof is astronomical.  But I am irrationally against replacing it with asphalt…I can’t explain my emotional reaction to the topic, but putting asphalt on this house just seems sinful.  The thought of losing the anchor that was designed with the differently colored slate on one side of the house, and the diamond on the other brings me to tears.

Then there’s the issue of moving interior walls in order to access the new bedroom in the addition…this would require stealing room from the present bathroom, which would mean a new bathroom, AND a bathroom renovation at the same time.  All very exciting (and very much needed in the near future) but also very, very expensive.

When I say expensive, I mean more than we spent buying the house 12 years ago.

And I have thought about this plan every which way to Sunday, and still can’t come up with a better configuration for the extra space.

So, we ponder…

The roof HAS to be repaired, half of it completely replaced (at the very least…the main roof may need the same full rip and tear treatment as well…not sure until someone gets up there to investigate more thoroughly.)   So do we spend a small fortune repairing/replacing the slate roof, and leave it at that?  Or do we spend a large fortune and add a room, bathroom, and bathroom renovation on top of the roof replacement?  Do we cut the costs by replacing a slate roof with modern materials?  *yuck*sniff*  Do we bag the whole thing and move to Florida?  *just* kidding*

Oh, well.  That’s what we get for buying a 100 year old fixer upper.  No more Disney trips for us for awhile I’m afraid…glad we played so much last year since this will be the next few years of our lives.

Rant of Mass Proportion

kanniduba7 Comments

Teachers are payed well.

Teachers have excellent health benefits.

Teachers get summers off…and weekends…and snow days.

Teachers are represented by strong Unions.

Teachers cannot be fired on the whim of an adminstrator, or because they have climbed too high on the payscale.

All true.  Also true:

Teachers have to earn and pay for a Masters Degree in order to earn permanent certification.

Teachers cannot earn promotions.

Teachers are not paid for their summers off.

Teachers cannot earn more pay for better quality of teaching.

Teachers do not earn bonuses.

Teachers cannot take a sick day without preparing and delivering plans for the full day of work even if they are on their deathbed.

Teachers pay out of pocket for classroom supplies to the tune of hundreds of dollars which is unrecognized by most.

Teachers spend hours and hours of time outside of school business hours preparing lessons, doing research, writing reports, correcting papers, recording grades, tracking progress notes, making phone calls, answering e-mails and notes from parents, attending meetings, writing curriculum, and developing methods…nevermind that the public *thinks* (I use that term loosely) that we only work seven hour days.  If you are a Special Education teacher, add about 40 hours a year that goes to writing IEP’s (Individualized Education Plans) during your “time off.”

Teachers manage to teach children, all children, irregardless of race, socioeconomic status, mental and emotional health, ability, and parental involvement (or lack thereof.)

Teachers manage to bend to the whim of State Ed which passes unfunded mandates and then three years later retracts them once we’ve revised our entire methodology to suit the initial mandate.

A teacher’s mission everyday is to instill an interest and love of learning in a classroom of 25 or so students made up of the willing and the unwilling, the smart and the challenged, the healthy and the emotionally unstable, the well cared for and the neglected, the loved and the abused, the motivated and the unmotivated, the content and the angry, the calm and the overactive, the sweet and the nasty, the well-behaved and the aggressive, the serious and the jokers. And that’s the easy part of the job.

I am SO SICK of schools being blamed for every societal crisis, from suicides, violent acts, societal apathy, teen pregnancy, to overprescribing of ADHD medications, to the inability of Americans to compete in the world market…and I am SO SICK of teachers being torn apart as overpayed and underworked leeches of Federal and State resources.  Is the school system perfect?  Of course not!  Is every teacher worthy of their position and salary?  Of course not!  But I  find it maddening to have my profession lambasted time and again by people who don’t know the first thing about what it means to be an Educator.

<Rant Over>

And now we return to our regularly scheduled non-controversial programming.  🙂

Did You Ever Wonder…

kanniduba10 Comments

…what the INSIDE of your Speedlight looks like?

Well, wonder no more.  (Folks, don’t try this at home.)

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Photo tip of the day:  Do not leave your batteries in your Speedlight when it is not in use, otherwise the batteries might explode leaving you with no alternative but to do drastic surgery.

This (my brother-in-law’s) Speedlight is very lucky it was in good hands…it survived the surgery and came out working.

Nerf Madness

kanniduba4 Comments

Zan thought it would be a great idea on New Year’s Eve to secretly arm all five girls in the house (aged 9-17) with Nerf Blasters, with the instructions to attack their other uncle (his brother.)   Of course, they willingly obliged, pounding through my house, giggling and screaming to wake the dead.  It was all fun and games until Uncle chased down one of the girls and stole one of their Nerf Blasters…the tables were turned!  The chase was on in the other direction, and the girls unthinkingly blockaded themselves in the bathroom thinking they were safe.  Little did they realize that the Uncles wired our house and know exactly which button to push in the electrical panel to render total darkness within the locked bathroom.  I believe the neighbors could hear the screams of delighted “terror.”  *sigh*

Of course, all I could think was, “It’s all fun and games till somebody loses an eye!”

Thank goodness the girls emerged after calling a truce, unscathed and with all eyes intact.

My Niece/Goddaughter, displaying her weapon: