March Learnings

Are you ready for an onslaught of pictures? March was a loooooong month, which left lots of time to learn!

The biggest accomplishment by far was that about 10 days into this month, someone was walking!!

We may or may not have bribed him with food :o)

Someone learned what a Timbit tastes like. Speaking of food. This boy eats a tonne!! We have decided to start a grocery fund instead of a college fund for him.

I learned that I will never, ever tire of watching my husband and my daughter together.

Now that Lincoln is walking, I don't hear his hands smacking against the floor. And so he has learned to sneak up on me quietly and quickly, scaring me half the time. This kid is a s.t.i.n.k.e.r.!!!

Keziah learned to do her own zipper!

I learned that taking a picture of my opened pantry shows evidence that I shop mostly no name brand, hence all the yellow in my cupboards!

Someone learned that waiting for brownies to cool can take a very. long. time.

Nathan and I now have to spell certain words or else the boy will understand and head straight for it, like b-a-t-h, e-a-t and b-e-d. We also found out that we can't even talk about our plans of leaving to go somewhere. If we do, Lincoln disappears and will come back with the following:

Now that he knows how to get them, he has started his first chore: putting them away when we get home.

I thought girls can be expensive with all their accessories and girly stuff, but I found out over the last 7 months that boys can be very expensive as well!

I learned that the pink hat and sunglasses were not actually bought just for me for my birthday. This is what came walking into my kitchen the other day! Roll out the red carpet!!!

We all learned that our tough brave boy is not always so tough and brave:

Nathan learned that this is what he looks like in his daughter's eyes (boy, was I relieved that was daddy and not mommy!!!):



I learned the tough lesson that just because we were dressed like this last March.....

...doesn't mean every March will be that warm!!

I also learned another lesson, one that was slightly emabarrassing, and that is that Oreo crumbs go rancid if left in the cupboard too long!! Good thing my friends have tact and were able to tell me nicely while trying to eat the Toblerone Mousse Cheesecake I had made for them for my birthday :o)

Looks like it was a month of more tough lessons for me. This time it was the lesson that it most likely won't be the kids who ruin the furniture around here. No. Leave it to me and my laundry basket, which left a nice, big, loooong scratch on our new table. Sigh. The first scratch always hurts the most....

Both Nathan and I learned that at the first sign of a cold, put some drops of this "yummy" stuff under our tongues and tada.....the cold goes away!! If you think Buckley's tastes awful, well then, after taking this stuff you'll think Buckley's is dessert!!!

Another lesson Nathan and I learned; that it doesn't matter how long you are married, it never hurts to brush up on our marriage, which we did by participating in this course set up by our church. Fan.tas.tic!!!

Much to this child's excitement and to her mother's hurtful ears, she has learned to whistle!! Next step? To learn to whistle more than one note!



Another lesson learned was that to take a picture of this stinkerbutt is getting way too tricky as he just won't sit still for a second!

Once I got a picture of the two of them, I learned that my heart can beat super fast!!

And finally, the other day, Keziah discovered something about Dora and her......can you guess???!

Duct Tape

What would we do without that stuff?? When was it invented, anyway? Who invented it? Why was it invented? What was it all used for? How did it get its name? For a quick read up on duct tape, you can go here.  I am sure the makers of duct tape never imagined the variety in which this tape has been used (Red Green anyone?). I remember it being very handy when I was a teenager, as it kept my sister's old Jimmy truck together!

I am absolutely positive they never thought it would be used for..................warts.

Some of you have noticed the duct tape on Keziah's thumbs:

Many have asked me (and her) if the duct tape is on her thumbs to keep her from sucking them. Well, without meaning to, that did help her to quit.......until the tape came off. Oh well, I am not pushing her to stop sucking her thumbs as we have more surgeries/hospital stuff to get through yet. We'll deal with that once all her surgeries are done.

But no, the duct tape was on her thumbs because her thumbs were covered with warts. Ewww, gross. I know. It started out as one 2 years ago. My doctor recommended using tea tree oil and duct tape. I tried that for a number of weeks/months but instead of getting rid of it, they multiplied!!!

Seeing as 75% of my family has warts, I turned to Google to see if I could find a way to get rid of these awful looking things. I refused to have them burned off.....she's been through enough already (and she's not done). I was not about to make her go through that. Thankfully, Google gave me an answer. And it has worked like a charm!!! Right now all the big ones are gone and there are only a few teeny-tiny ones left.

How, you ask? Well, if you are stuck with these ugly things, read on. And remember, I didn't come up with this idea.....it was through some research that I found it.

What you need is the following:

apple cider vinegar
cotton ball
band aid
duct tape

Soak the warts in very warm water, for at least 5 minutes or more:

Dry off the area with a rough towel really well. Then take a tiny piece of cotton ball and roll it to the size of the wart. Dip it into the apple cider vinegar so it is well saturated:

Place saturated piece of cotton ball onto the wart:

Put a band aid over it, then cover it all with duct tape. You do not want air to get at it.

Leave it on for 24 hours, until you repeat the whole process again. The key is consistency (isn't that the case with so many things in life??). We found that to do this routine worked best before bed, that way it had 8-10 hours of "working". Within a week, you will notice the wart becoming black. Another gross factor. But that means it is working!! Once it is black, it is getting ready to be peeled off. This usually happened after soaking it for a bit and then rubbing it with that coarse towel.

Once that black layer peels off, keep repeating the process with the apple cider vinegar until there is no bump. I did take a day off here and there as the cider can sting if there is an open cut or wound.

I'll attach a link here, which is a YouTube video of the step by step process.

So there you have it.....gross but effective! It has worked for 50% of my family. The other 25% has warts on the foot.....and it is taking quite a bit longer as they are planter's warts. Hopefully by summertime, we will be 100% wart free (and by the looks of outside, we have a lot of time yet before summer comes, so we shall keep at 'em!)

So what do you use duct tape for?!