Friday 31 December 2010

Natural treatment of winter infections

I seem to be surrounded by people coughing, sneezing and spluttering at the moment.  Coughs, colds and viral infections are an unfortunate fact of life during winter, particularly if you have school aged children.  Over the counter cough and cold remedies are not only ineffective but, they can also be dangerous.  The medicines aimed at children contain high levels of artificial sweeteners, colours, syrups and some dangerous chemicals.  These medicines are usually labeled for use in children over the age of 6 years

Thursday 30 December 2010

Childless and irresponsible

I hope you all had a very happy, merry Christmas!! 
My Christmas morning went off as usual with little fingers prodding me and whispering “Santa’s been, can we open the presents?” so, I got them to practice their new skill of making Mummy a cup of coffee before getting them to drag all the presents onto my bed.  They didn’t get as much as usual (I explained a while back that even Father Christmas has had to make cut backs and there have been a few Elf redundancies...) but, they seemed very pleased with what they did get.  Their Dad had managed to get a second hand Wii (I may have to get the controller surgically removed from my youngest's hand) before he went back to the UK and my eldest got a mobile, something he’s been going on and on about for the last couple of years.  I’ve finally given in as he’s becoming more independent and keeps wandering off and I'm so fed up of screaming his name out of the window like a Burberry clad chav, I caved!  It’s not an iPhone 4 but I’m assured that “it’ll do - for now”!

Having seen the boys off at the airport to spend some time in the UK with their Dad and other family, I find myself alone and able to do whatever I want for the first time in over 10 years!!  For the first couple of nights I’ve acted like a naughty teenager, lying in bed watching rubbish on TV until 5am and falling asleep with my glasses on then, only getting up in the morning to make a cup of coffee and then crawling back under my cosy duvet to slob out until late afternoon.  Today I’ve been a little more productive.  I’ve done some laundry, cleaned the kitchen, swept and dusted.  I miss my noisy little monkeys and even miss the constant arguing and shouting but, not as much as I thought I would.  We’ve spoken on the phone a couple of times every day and it’s lovely to have some time to myself.  Being an only child, I’ve always been used to my own company and have missed it.

So now it’s the eve of New Year’s Eve and I’m planning my first childless, irresponsible festivities in a long time.  Shall I go to a bar that I’ve been invited to and get drunk and disorderly and dance the night away?  No, I shall be spending it with a good friend playing Trivial Persuit and sipping a few Baileys on the rocks...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Saturday 18 December 2010

Perfect remedies for Christmas

Well, Christmas is now but a week away and the Christmas parties are in full swing.  We all have a tendency to overindulge at this time of year with the abundance of alcohol and rich food.  Personally, I only really drink a couple of times a year, at Christmas and my birthday although, I do have the odd cold beer on a hot sunny day (well, it’s got to be done hasn’t it?).

There are some great homeopathic remedies for such overindulgences;

Nux Vomica 30c 
A fantastic remedy for hangovers and for eating far too much rich food.  You’ll probably need to keep this one handy into the New Year!

Arsenicum Album 30c
If you have heartburn, acid stomach or food poisoning from meat, vegetables, watery fruit or that 3rd helping of prawn cocktail starter! 
Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda in water will also help neutralise heartburn and acid stomach.

Arnica 30c
For bruising and shock from tripping drunkenly over the coffee table/down the stairs/on the rug...

Chamomilla 30c
For angry tantrums from children who didn’t quite get what they wanted from Santa.

A double <insert alcoholic drink of choice> and a Nux Vomica for adults who didn’t get what they wanted for Christmas and had to listen to tantruming children all day.

As usual I am still totally unprepared for this year’s festivities.  The food shopping will be done tomorrow but, as usual, I’ll still be doing last minute present shopping on Christmas Eve.  I’ll probably be needing lots of Arnica afterwards for bruising, after elbowing my way through the crowds and getting into the odd fight for the last item on the shelf.

If I don’t manage to get another blog post in beforehand, here’s wishing you all a very happy, merry and pain free Christmas xxx