Thursday, March 31, 2011

Arnica

For Thursday is Herbs Day I wanted to tell you how wonderful arnica is.

Its wonderful!

The End


Just kidding. It really is wonderful! I use the cream all the time for aches and pains. Not that I have a lot of aches and pains but when I do...Arnica cream is for me!!!
Its so much nicer than Icy Hot or other creams like that. I don't like the hot and cold sensations of those types of treatments. Arnica has no "feel" and it really works!

Here's when I really learned how wonderful it is:

Picture this:

Its a nice summer day. There is a woman and a horse in a nice, shady round pen working peacefully with her loving mate sitting peacefully. He's enjoying the day watching the woman and her horse perfectly synchronized and in tune with each others movements as if they were two seasoned ballet dancers that have been dancing together for all time.......

................

uh...yeah. That didn't happen.

The part about the woman, the horse, and the husband was true but that's really where the truth ends. What really was going on was I (the woman, just in case you didn't know)was working a very green horse in my round pen. (oh yeah, it was shady. So that part was also true) My mare (his mama) was running up and back wildly along the fence the whole time we were working. He was doing okay except he kept stopping at the point in the round pen where he could watch her. I calmly turned him away got him back on track. This whole time, the loving mate portion of the story is that my husband was sitting in the shade in a lawn chair watching and chatting with me. That part was okay too. What I forgot to mention is that I had scheduled to go on a big trail ride with a friend of mine for Labor Day weekend which was coming up that very next weekend. So, that horse needed to be ready!

So, I decide he needs to be out of the round pen in the back yard. My trees need to be trimmed really badly and the low branches were catching the horn of my saddle spooking him. My husband, meanwhile, is informing me of my bad decision in bringing him out of the pen. I very politely (he will tell you differently but he drinks on occasion so don't believe him!!) told him that I was taking him on a ride and if he can't behave in the back yard how in the h... oh yeah, I said politely. How in the WORLD (yeah, that's what I said... :) is he going to behave out in the wide, wide world of horses???? So into the big yard we go! I get up on him and he's dancing around a little. I keep him turning into the fence line away from his mama and all is well. I really was only going to ride another 5 minutes and turn him loose. Then, at one point, he decides his mama has more pull than my reins so lifts his front feet off the ground in a pirouette (well, not a pirouette, because a pirouette is pretty and what he did was just plain naughty). I wanted to make sure he knew that wasn't a cool thing to do so I smacked him on the neck. Not a hard smack, geesh!!! And that's where all heck breaks loose!! He starts bucking, my husband starts yelling "Misty!!!! Make him stop!!!!" I'm yelling or maybe I'm just thinking, because in that situation who really knows 'Yeah Right! Don't you think if I could make him stop, I would have already done that????'

And then, BOOM! I'm on the ground. Well, let me just say that BOOM! may have been an over reaction. I'd like to think I'm petite enough to maybe just go boom. But, anyway, he asks me if I'm okay. "Yes" I say because I try not to make people worry. As an aside, when I was a teenager I got hit by a speeding car as I skipped, yes I said skipped across the street. As I was rolling or spinning, because in that situation who really knows, I had the thought 'I bet whoever's driving thinks they probably killed me' so when I stopped spinning I jumped up, threw my hands in the air and yelled "I'm Okay!!!!"

But, back to my original story. Where was I? Oh yeah... "I'm okay." As it turns out I really wasn't okay. I think I probably had a mild concussion and I for sure had a fractured pelvis. I didn't know about the pelvis for a couple of weeks though. I'm tough that way.... :)

Anyway, the whole time I'm in excruciating pain. I say tough, you say stupid....tomato, tomato....

But, I just happened to have some arnica cream laying around because my good friend Barb had some at her health food store and I bought it when she went out of business. But I will tell you that it really made me functional. That's why I didn't know my pelvis was fractured for weeks!! By the time I had X-Rays, the doc said "Just don't do anything extreme and it'll heal by itself." Okay, define extreme........

I continued my yoga teaching, Tae Kwon Do, working cleaning pools, and riding horses....all with a fractured pelvis.......arnica cream my friends...arnica cream.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Sinus Relief

Guess what this is a picture of!!

Go on, guess.......

*insert waiting music*

Did you guess Neti Pot? If you did, then you are correct. If you guessed Genie Lamp, well then, I'm sorry to say that you missed it. :(
But, Hey! go ahead and rub it and see what comes out!!

If a big green thing comes out....you COULD make a wish to it buuuuttttt.....I don't think you'll get lucky. Unless getting all the green junk out of your sinuses makes you feel lucky then....Ding, Ding, Ding...YOU WIN!!!!

Okay, all tomfoolery aside. I know what you're thinking. Well, maybe I don't. If you're thinking about Jimmy Crack Corn, then I can't really help you. If you're thinking 'What the heck is a neti pot?' or 'Ewwww...that's gross!! I could never do that!' Then, I can help.

A neti pot is the little pot in the picture above. In it you mix 1 teaspoon of non-iodized salt (sea salt, kosher salt, or pickling salt), 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and about 2 cups of warm water.

Then, you place the tip in one nostril as you tip your head to the side and let it drain out the other nostril. When you feel like you've used about half the solution, switch to the other side. I usually stand up and blow gently at this point. Once you've finished gently blow. And voila!! All done.

I know it sounds kinda gross, but I tell you that your nose will feel so clean and you'll breathe better than you ever have in your life. Its really good to do this every day, especially if you have allergies.
I really only use it when I feel like I have a little stuffiness coming on. You know its also good to gargle with salt water when you feel a sore throat coming right? Well, it's the same principle, here.

The saline solution helps to reduce inflammation and remove allergens. If you want to try it and you live in the same general area as me you can get these neti pots from our local co-op. If you don't you can get them at your health food store. Some Wal-Marts even carry them now. You might be able to find them at the pharmacy as well.

Go ahead, make a wish, wash out your nose, take a deep breath, and enjoy the rest of your day!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Etiquette

Okay. So here's what's been going on with me.

We moved our store. Its been great for business. We are in a building with more visibility. Hooray. Biz has been good so far.

We got a puppy. Just yesterday. It was stupid of me. The puppy is only 4 weeks old. 4 weeks is too young to separate from its mommy and little puppy siblings. The puppy cries all the time. She sleeps. She eats. And cries. Alot. In the middle of the night. I'm sleepy.

Also, I've been on facebook. I'm going to have to limit my time on there, seriously. Just the other day, for instance, a friend I went to high school with got into some kind of argument about religion. I can't really be sure because the original status updater apparently deleted the thread before I saw what was going on. But, apparently feelings were hurt and she unfriended a lot of people and it was very sad. The few of us who know her felt for her and know that she has a good heart.

Since then, I updated my status about the muslims who are protesting the hearings about "The Radicalization Of Muslims" My argument is that the protesters are defending the terrorists. I won't get into the whole argument as its irrelevant to this entry. A dear friends daughter is either ignorant of what's going on or didn't understand what I was trying to say and made an argument of her own. Two other friends that know my thoughts chimed in to help enlighten her. Another dear friend of ours jumped in with his own argument as he's very sensitive of the subject as his wife is Muslim and is not a terrorist or a supporter of terrorism. I explained to him that I was not talking about all Muslims, only the protesters.

Enter my previously hurt high school friend. She came in with guns a blazin, telling us to quit fighting on fb!!!! Uh...... what??? I explained to her that we weren't fighting, we were discussing and everyone else agreed. She then retracted her fighting stance and said she was just looking out for feelings that may have been hurt in the process insulting another friend that was part of her original scuffle that led to all the "unfriending". I reminded her that all the people on that thread were real friends whose opinions I valued greatly!! Again, she backed off.

Since then, she updated her own status to say that she was never again going post anything "touchy" or personal, only mundane, ordinary life things and stated that we should all follow suit. In addition to that, "it would be really cool if the people selling stuff would get their own page and if anyone wanted their crap they could go to that page, because I'm tired of seeing it."

silence.........

Okay. That's where we have a problem. I tried to say it nicely but peace can't be had.

Everyone's facebook page is their own. It is the Status Updater's page NOT the reader of the status!!! When someone posts something, we have options. We can like it. We can ignore it if we dislike it. We can "unfriend" them if we strongly dislike it. And we can comment on it if we find it interesting.

Really.

Those really are the only options one has in that situation. What isn't an option is taking it upon oneself to police everyone else's facebook page.

If you don't like it, refer to the above and see what your options are!!! :)