The Wonder of Elderberries

We have discovered the magical qualities of elderberries. I first came across a recipe using elderberry syrup for cold relief in a blog I regularly read. I made a couple of batches earlier this winter and felt like it did indeed help with coughs and sore throats. Upon doing more research (thank you Katie) we now know that elderberries are indeed wonderfully healthful.

Here is our syrup recipe:

1 part dried elderberries
3 parts water

1 part local honey

Simmer elderberries in the water for about 45 minutes. Strain, mashing berries in sieve to extract all the juice. Add honey (best done while still hot) and mix well. I use 1 cup elderberries, so the recipe fills a quart jar, which we keep in the fridge. It will last until it's gone.

Dosage: Adults take one tablespoon daily for 5 days, skip two days, then continue in the 5-2 pattern throughout the winter. Take an extra dose or two daily if you have a cold or the flu. Children follow the same pattern but dosage should be 1 teaspoon.

Our testimonial: Alanna developed a fever around 10 am yesterday morning. I made the syrup in the afternoon, and she took two doses: one at dinner and one about 4 hours later. Her fever broke at 2 am (less than 18 hours!). We have all taken our doses the last two days and do not expect to get sick (and after this testimonial, I don't know if I'll reveal if any of us get sick anyway. We're Believers.)

I get the elderberries at Vitamin Cottage, and the honey is from New Mexico in the bulk section at Whole Foods.

Through the Photographer's Eyes

Rhys will occasionally commandeer the camera and go on an extended photo shoot.  I've deleted most of his compositions because, well, they... lack a certain oomph. And they're generally not in focus. Or of anything but the floor or the the chair cushion. But he's only 4, so I'm being too harsh, right? But really, they usually aren't much to look at. This small collection (his first published batch!) are recognizable. I think I coached him on trying to point the camera so he could get faces (the last shot). My favorite, of course, is the one above of Alanna's butt.

Tendy-Two!

Rhys loves kiwis. Really loves kiwis. We had three of them, and after eating one he told me we needed to get more. I told him I'd look for more the next time I went to the store. He informed me I needed to get "tendy-two" of them, which, I can only assume, is the largest sounding number he could think of. It does sort of sound like "twenty-two", and that sure would be a lot of kiwis!

Playdough Snowman

Rhys made this delightful snowman last week out of playdough. I'm so excited to see him sculpting! The second (out-of-focus) photo shows the snowman's red arms and eyeballs and his huge blue smile. He's so adorable. Rhys's artistic tendencies are starting to really appear: he's frequently "writing" me a note, or making a book, or drawing detailed pictures with lots of action and plot. It is a very enjoyable experience to have him share with us his creativity.

Rhythm of the Home

It's actually an online magazine that I find very comforting and wholesome (if a little hippie....)

http://rhythmofthehome.com/

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And a photo of our home:

Christmas 2010

We had a lovely Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Idaho. Grandma prepared these elf jammies for the grandkids- their names were on their shirts. We did a lot of wrangling to get this photo above (well, actually, Aunt Ginnie did most it).  

This is what most of the photo session looked like:

 

Howdy!

Cowgirl Alanna

FYI

Just so you know, "Bambis turn into Reindeers." At least that's what the 4 year-old sitting next to me just said.

Congratulations, Dad!

My dad has had a photo picked by the editors of a contest at National Geographic. The photo is below, and if you want to see it on the site, click here. Way to go Dad!

I Can't Help It...

I have been keeping our browser open on this page so I can admire our two cuties... We had so much fun cross country skiing in Idaho on this day. Rhys is such a skier! He skied twice over the holiday and he really seemed to enjoy it. He has shorty skis with snow boot bindings, and he scoots them along like he was born to do it. He was excited to try ski poles, but they got in the way (and were terribly distracting- he had to poke them into every bush and snow bank and they tripped him up when he poked them in the ridge of snow that formed between his skis). We pretended ("tended") to be trains on a train track as we skied along, and while we didn't get too far (15 minutes out, I think), we did enjoy the day immensely.

Some more pics from the day:

Making Cookies

We made some sugar cookies before Christmas that were really terrible. That's because I don't eat cookies so I don't like to make them. The kids had a lot of fun baking, and even ate the cookies afterward! (I guess my bias against cookies shows in the first statement. They weren't great looking cookies, but I didn't actually taste them so I don't really know if they were tasty cookies.)

As a note, I do eat chocolate chip cookie dough, which is much better than a baked cookie, in my opinion.

And, just so you know, Aaron is an excellent baker and does all of the important baking in the house. I bought a bread maker for my birthday so we could have "homemade" bread products, but all I do is dump ingredients into the pan and push a button. Exactly my type of baking!

Here I Am

I'm back. I flirted with Facebook for a while, and decided I have many, many better ways to spend my time. And, over the holidays I found out more of you were reading my blog than I had thought (thank you for asking!). I may slowly catch up with the last couple of months, or I may just go forward.

A current blog/lifestyle of interest:

www.zerowastehome.blogspot.com

In fact, the above is consuming a lot of my time and brain power right now. I need to go to bed.