Hello there ~ love your work...

 

Look, really over this flu.  Enough.  I can't cough laying on my back, I need to be on my side or the pain of the op site is unbelievable. I can't keep coughing, it just plain hurts now. Each time I cough, my head hurts.  I have the most terrible headache...

But up at almost sparrows fart this morning - it was a wonderful morning, even if it was raining just a little.  Even had my muesli for breakfast, did a little this and that, warmed up in front of the heater, switched on the TV for a moment - and dozed off.  My head, face and throat are definitely saying ~Mands! is not a well chook.  As I said to the Husband, thank goodness I knew what we were having for dinner.  It was a quandary what we could have tonight, but we are having another 'freezer surprise' pie adding some extra beef in for the iron. *grins*  The sauce might be the remains of a slow cooker meal, we shall find out.

Trying to 'kill' this beast of a flu I've been taking horseradish & garlic tablets which made me think about the benefit of extra garlic, raw or cooked.  We have a 'witches brew' I probably should have, its been a few days, because it is an evil cousin to the lemon and honey drink.  It's crushed garlic, crushed ginger, a little cayenne, honey, a few other bits, orange juice and a little boiling water to make it tepid to warm.  Stir it up and drink it, bits especially.  The Brew does help, it packs a punch and eating some parsley or celery gets rid of the garlic odour and taste.  I've also had a spoonful or two of apple cider vinegar most days, can't go the olive leaf extract and haven't bought tablets.

In a way old copy of the Readers Digest, there was an article on the power of raw garlic - how it prevents blood clots and lowers blood pressure - pondering the benefits of cooked garlic.  So, as all good American and Argentinean scientists do, they checked the benefits of both.

They heated the herb several ways and found that when baked or boiled for up to three minutes, it’s just as healthy as raw. Crushed garlic is even better: it retains some benefits when cooked for up to six minutes (crushing seems to release more of the healthy thiosulphinates). Microwaved garlic, however, was no good: nuking it for even a few minutes neutralised garlic’s anti-clotting effects.  The next time you’re making a garlicky dish, such as pasta sauce, add the stinky stuff near the end of cooking, and crush it for more taste and benefit.  Garlic has antibacterial, antiviral and anti-fungal properties: it even seems to kill bacteria that are resistant to pharmaceutical antibiotics. Six or more cloves a week can also slash your risk of colorectal, prostate and stomach cancers in half.    ~ Readers Digest - Oct 08  

Interesting that the microwave, yet again, seems to do something dodgy to food.  Also interesting the suggestion to add garlic to the end of cooking the dish.  We tend to add it after onions, a few moments before the meat to heat but not cook the garlic.  Garlic is one of those herbs you can grow yourself and have on hand all the time.  Ideally you would pop a clove into soil between April and July for bulbs later in the year.  We've planted as late as November and had success.  A tip when it comes to harvesting, like onions, make sure they get no water for 3-4 days before pulling up.  

We have been getting Readers Digest for about 15 years, evident by the amount of issues we are finding during the cull.  The toilet reading has never been so good!  Proudly admit to having RD at hand when you need to sit a while.  Can be frustrating when a child is 'occupied' after breakfast on a school morning...

Bit annoyed . . . 

It is getting frustrating to not have a set routine going when one was developing and trundling along so well.  Having this flu has added to the blah, it is taking a lot of energy, it is zapping me especially when you add cold weather to the equation.  Plus I have returned to the bad shocking habit of the odd smoko or 10 each day.  This is a real bummer because I got to nothing or 3 at most in a day.  Having the Husband home, who does like quite a few more, means he's having one or two so I'll have one, or a half (bugger the expense) so today I start the wind back to none again, if only for health, motivation and energy.

Oh I do procrastinate.  Even more so I put off, defer or simply refuse to get those clothes off the table, folded and away regardless of how much it annoys me and therefore keeps me out of the Alcove - so things to be 'dealt with later' are moving into here.  No fair - that's supposed to be the spare room's role.  For me it is a lack of motivation, boredom almost, that stops things getting done.  Embarrassment means I won't take up the offer of help getting it done, so its all cool and doesn't worry me - and sometimes this is true, it doesn't.  Hope keeps me going, thinking now Husband is home all these millions of things are going to be fixed, covered, done in an instant and we'll talk and plan while being so productive.  But lethargy, boredom and procrastination all intervene at some point.  

So how do we beat that? OK - yes, the biggest hurdle is this lack of sleep pattern, going to bed at reasonable o'clock, even if just four days a week, and it needs to be a team effort.  Perhaps we need a printed up reminder to see every day what it means to be refreshed and complete a full day as planned.  But then this little voice of 'why start now when you are about to go to sun and rest' and it is stronger!  I hope to set an early up, early bed while away, it should be easier in the warmer weather and then continue it to work with the school term.  The day must start and keep going. But I've got a terrible headache.  And it is cold.

There are going to be times when the budget is going to worry the crap out of me.  At least for our break I have the $600 for car hire, $1000 for spending and hope to stay under on both so it only from when we return I need to start panicking a little.  If we get tax done quickly for the past two years, there is the instant Family payment $600 or something, plus any difference in DSP entitlements and family entitlements if there is a refund due.  There should be an over estimation of about $5k, maybe that will alter the tax threshold.  That would be nice! :D

Head like cotton wool - thanks for sharing the fog inside my head, today I feel like I've flipped and flopped about nothing more that usual...

Might quit while I think about it and Go To Bed...

It's a little known story

A hardly spoken tale

The spoilt little princess

The ruin of betrayal 

Of giving forth a kindness

Returned ruined by the lies

Twisting all the helpfulness

Forces tears fall from her eyes

A wise wizard waits

Knowing her time will come

Truth and honesty always prevail

The lies of princess' get undone

And the trusted heart

Pushed pulled for too long

Will turn back to the one

Who gave it her song

  -ஜ۩۞۩ஜ-♥ 

lΦϑє, lℐﻪ℧ჭɦʈeʁ & ʆίφђϮ 

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