it’s that time of year again…

… when blogs go silent & the number of daily readers plummets.  I am obviously no exception.

I’m busy running around to farmers markets, collecting pick ups at my CSA*, walking, finishing the house & plotting our belated honeymoon.  Which, by the way, we’ve finally come to an absolute conclusion.  I’m a little bummed about giving up Iceland on this trip – though, I came up with that idea while we were stuck in constant sunshine.  Iceland isn’t forgotten, just on the back burner.  I found out that we have more time than we thought, so we’re going to do our foodie Basque Country trip (complete with a stay in a medieval fortress cum luxury hotel across the water from beaches of France) and a couple days in Holland.  That way, I’ll get to see Lynn again – something I was hugely looking forward to – and we’ll get our Holland fix. This trip will be hugely different from all our others – we’re looking forward to seeing different parts of Holland (a train ride or two here and there) and POSSIBLY – Mr Nikki was talking about taking the train to Belgium for a half a day.

In JANUARY, it sounds like we’ll finally be heading to Boston for a long weekend or so.  The college that Mr Nikki went to has been asking him to speak again, about audio in the video game industry.  I’m looking forward to it because I’ll be able to A) wander Boston, as we both love Boston B) see my friend, Maria C) meet up with Sarah and Sarah (I hope.  I think.  Assuming they want to meet up with me, that is!)

This past weekend, I picked up my first farm share (CSA) and holy crap.  I had no idea.  Not only do I get a weekly box of whatever they’ve harvested, there’s a pretty big field of greens & a large herb garden.  You go out into the field with a pair of scissors & cut whatever greens you want.  This week I got lots of kale, some collards, and some vita greens (I’ve never heard of these before & am eager to experiment.)  Those aren’t the only greens available, just what I took this week.  And I learned a good trick – since they ask you to cut the leaves with a long stem, from the outside in, when you come home, put your greens in a glass of water (or vase, as I did.)  They’ll keep longer that way.  Plus, it’s kind of a cute bouquet that I have now, on my windowsill.  After the greens, I went into the herb garden and, feeling overwhelmed with possibilities, I only took some chocolate mint, basil & thyme.  Next week I plan on bringing a small container with me, just for the herbs & cutting lots of fresh chives.  I was afraid it would all get lost in my bag o’ greens.

Then I got the greatest news ever, something I was unaware of when I chose to join this CSA.  They also offer a fruit share, for another $30/week, but I opted not to do this – I’ll get my fruit at the farmers markets.  However, in August, there will be a giant field full of blackberries & raspberries, which are available to everyone in the CSA as a “u-pick” option.  No extra cost.  This alone is worth the CSA.  You know how much raspberries cost, right?  I LOVE raspberries.  Granted, it’s on the honor system and they ask that you not rape & pillage the berries, but I can get a good weekly supply, and then still buy a huge flat or two at the farmer’s market for freezing/canning.

Best of all, Nugget goes with me on these weekly trips, to pick our own greens.  I am so happy that he’s getting so much exposure to all of this – the farmers markets, trips to farms to pick vegetables, seeing the actual goats that supply his milk – from the word go.  I can’t wait till he’s old enough to help me cut the greens & pick the berries, himself.

(Speaking of milk, a little experiment was done on calves – pasteurized milk versus raw milk.  Granted, I’m sure raw milk opponents will cry out about this not being the most perfect of scientific experiments, but the results are still rather telling.  Glad my little Nugget has never had so much as a drop of pasteurized milk.  That stuff doesn’t enter this house.)

Lastly – I’ve always had sleep problems, as you’ve probably heard me say one and a half billion times, already.  It’s been particularly horrific this past couple weeks, as Nugget is teething (or appears to be.)  I have a hard time falling asleep, then I can’t stay asleep, then he wakes me up a hundred times each night – he even woke up every two hours a few days ago.

Chamomile tea used to work really well on him, but not so much now that he’s bigger.  I am completely & utterly against things like orajel, for obvious (I think) reasons.  Also not a big fan of any type of OTC infant drugs.  I was trying to imagine the kind of pain he might be having (and trying to come up with ways to get through this, as we were EXHAUSTED) and I remembered when I had my wisdom teeth pulled.  I got something called “dry socket” – it’s when the holes left by the teeth don’t automatically fill over and you have gaping holes in your mouth with exposed nerves.  They didn’t warn me about this ahead of time, so I went for two days with excruciating pain, thinking this might be normal.  By the third day, I was starving because I couldn’t eat.  I couldn’t sleep, because it hurt so badly, and I could barely talk.  I decided this was NOT normal, and called the dentist.  They told me I should have called immediately, because this dry socket thing is rare, but happens, and you need to take care of it.

I was in tears, truly.  It’s god awful.  I went to the dentist, and he shoved two huge squares of gauze, soaked in clove oil, into the holes & promised that the pain would be gone within minutes.  I doubted it, because it hurt too much.  However, I felt absolutely no pain withing 5 minutes & ate everything in sight.  Clove oil, it turns out, has been used since the beginning of time in dentistry & for help with oral pain.  So I thought, well, can you use it on babies?  Why not?  I find it strange that, if you google something about “teething pain,” nothing about clove oil comes up.  But I went to an herbalist and found out that it is, indeed, a great remedy.  About 3-4 drops in a tablespoon of carrier oil – such as olive oil (since the odds of him being allergic to olive oil are slim to none), dip your finger in it and rub it along his gums.  Voila!  Also, bathing in chamomile water – absorbs more readily than the small amount I’d give him to drink.

As for me, I was given a “sleep well blend” tincture, that consisted of passionflower, skullcap, and valerian.  This is supposed to help you fall asleep – it tastes god awful, but tinctures are far more potent & faster acting than capsules or tea.  So help me god, it actually works.  There was a noticeable different the past few nights, in terms of not laying awake all night, staring at the ceiling.

For the problem of not staying asleep, they suggested nutmeg.  You take a whole nutmeg, grate about 3/4 teaspoon (it has to be freshly grated) into warm milk or some such (you can add honey, too, if you’d like) and drink about an hour before bed time.  Supposedly this will help you stay awake, or get right back to sleep if something wakes you up.  Nugget woke up ONCE last night, around 5 am, and went right back to sleep until 8:30.  I don’t remember waking up at all, before or after the 5 am wake up.  This is completely unheard of, in my life.   I’m going to try it again tonight, and if I stay asleep all night, again, I’m sold.  I feel more well rested today than I have in almost a year.  I am going to be a kick ass postpartum Doula, because I feel like I’m a wealth of information that people don’t really talk about or know of.  Honestly, it was pretty fascinating, talking to the herbalists and I wonder… maybe that’s something I should get into, too.  I already know quite a bit about it, already.

So that’s all my pre-summer stuff.  Though I wish we could skip summer & get right to fall.

2 thoughts on “it’s that time of year again…

  1. velvet

    love, love the farm share. we are into the herbs and tinctures here, too – so glad you found something to help you sleep. and the clove oil for teething! awesome. you would be a great herbalist/natural healer with all your knowledge already – it would be so interesting to study that!

    Reply
  2. Jenny

    I’m so jealous of the CSA share! I’ve wanted to do it for so long but need to find someone in the Atlanta area to split it with, because I know the boy and I won’t go through everything we’d get in a week. The herb garden sounds heavenly.

    The herbalist thing sounds really cool as well. I’ve thought a lot about that–I’ve done a good deal of experimenting in aromatherapy and making my own products. I’d love to find some classes in herbal and/or traditional chinese medicine.

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