Mellow Mom Blog

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A lot of people have been asking me lately if I think they should get a flu shot.  As winter gets closer and closer, it’s becoming a concern to more people.  Flu season is almost upon us, folks!

Whether or not you should get a flu shot should be between you and your doctor, but there are a few things that would make you more in need of a flu shot than other people.  If you have one or more of these factors, I personally believe you should get a flu shot.

* One or more children in daycare living in your home.

* One or more children in elementary school living in your home.

* More than one child in middle school or high school living in your home.

* Under the age of 5 but over the age of 6 months.

* Over the age of 50.

* Compromised or weak immune system.

* Pre-existing illness that could be made worse if you got the flu.

* Pregnant women.

* Anyone who might be exposed to flu often such as teachers or health care workers.

There shouldn’t be a shortage of the flu vaccine this year, so I would recommend getting one if you feel you should.  The flu is a terrible thing to go through, so it’s better to be safe than sorry, in my opinion.  The shot isn’t approved in children under 6 months of age, so they’re the only people who should definitely avoid the flu shot unless your doctor tells you that you have a condition that might exclude you from getting one.

The flu vaccine isn’t dangerous, and it won’t make you get sick with the flu.  Go get one.  Now. 

Did you know caffeine can cause panic attacks in some people or at least make them worse?  When my panic attacks were at their worst, I was drinking around 2 liters of caffeine drinks daily!  I was drinking nothing but high-caffeine sodas.

When I read that caffeine could make anxiety worse, I immediately cut my caffeine intake down to nearly zero.  I switched from drinking mostly Coke Zero (can you believe there’s no caffeine free Coke Zero yet?) to diet A&W root beer.

This alone didn’t get rid of my panic attacks, but it did significantly decrease their severity and their duration.  Cutting out caffeine was an important first step for me on the road to reducing my anxiety and panic attacks no almost nothing.

If you have a lot of anxiety or panic, I suggest you look into reducing or eliminating caffeine from your diet, at least until you have them under control.  Once your attacks are under control, you might be able to add some caffeine back into your diet, but you should always keep it to reasonable levels so you don’t risk bringing the attacks back.

Panic attacks are a horrible, horrible thing.  A little over a year ago I started having panic attacks.  I’d been having them rarely since around age 10, I just never knew what they were.  I would get sweaty, dizzy, shaky, and nauseous.  I would have to sit down while I was out with friends because I thought I was going to faint.

I started having them occasionally a little over a year ago, and they gradually got closer and closer together and the symptoms got a lot stronger.  At first I just had a little nausea, dizziness, and heart flutters.  Gradually they got worse and worse, and soon I was vomiting several times per day almost every day!

It would literally feel like I was having a heart attack.  I called 911 on several occasions only to be sent home and told nothing was wrong.  I couldn’t figure it out.  How could nothing be wrong with me when I felt this way?

I started doing a little research online and I found out I might be having panic attacks.  The next time I experienced severe symptoms I went to the hospital.  Again I was checked out but nothing was found wrong with me.  I told the doctor I thought my symptoms might be similar to panic attacks.  He left and did some checking into panic attacks, I assume, and when he came back he said my symptoms were indeed consistent with panic attacks.  He gave me a prescription for .5 mg of Xanax and some Phenergan to help my nausea and vomiting.

When I got home I was still in panic mode.  I took one of the Xanax and 15 minutes later I felt completely normal!  (Although slightly high.)  It was like a miracle to me.

Of course, I HATE taking medications.  I’m always afraid I will have a reaction to one.  I don’t know why, but the thought scares me even though I’ve never been allergic to anything before.  I am also terrified of becoming addicted to anything, so I don’t drink, or take drugs, or even smoke!

But these pills made me feel NORMAL again, so I took them.  I just took them very carefully and only when needed.  Once the pills were gone I thought I was “cured”.  I didn’t have any more panic attacks for a few weeks.

Then they slowly started coming back.  It was the same as before, with me being just a little sick at first and then gradually getting worse.  Soon I was throwing up almost everything I ate.  I was sick constantly and I was constantly terrified that I was dying.  After several weeks I couldn’t take it anymore and I went to the emergency room.  The ER doctor ran tests and of course found nothing.

I asked him if he was sure and he said yes.  Then I told him I’d had panic attacks before and I figured it might be a reoccurance.  I mentioned I’d taken Xanax and it had gotten rid of them, so he gave me a prescription for them.

Again, I took them only when absolutely necessary, stretching them out for much longer than they were supposed to be for.  The panic went away for many weeks.  Then… you guessed it… they came back.

By now I was MAD.  I was sick and tired of my mind doing this to me!  It had to stop.  I bought a ton of books, read a ton of websites, visited forums, tried herbs… nothing worked.

Then a friend of mine told me she used to have panic attacks and she got rid of hers permanently with some system she found on the internet.  I decided to try it out.  At first it didn’t work at all.  The first two weeks I must admit it made no difference at all, but she encouraged me to keep trying.

Soon I was noticing my attacks didn’t last as long and weren’t as severe.  Within a few weeks they were almost gone!  She hasn’t had another one since, but admittedly I still have about one mild one a week, but they are nothing like they were before.

If you want to try it to see if it works for you, you can click here to try it yourself.  They have a money back guarantee, so if it doesn’t work for you, you can get your money back.

Getting your kids to eat vegetables can be about as difficult as getting them to sit still for an immunization or a haircut!  It’s not easy.  Most kids are very finicky eaters and won’t touch most vegetables.

There’s a very short list of the vegetables most kids will eat.  But kids are different.  My kids love broccoli, but most kids can’t stand it!  The vegetables my kids love yours may hate, and vice versa.

Here’s a list of the top vegetables most kids like:

• Potatoes
• Tomatoes (technically a fruit)
• Carrots
• Sweet potatoes
• Cauliflower
• Cucumbers
• Peas
• Green Beans
• Salad (lettuce)
• Cabbage
• Radishes

If you can’t get your kids to eat vegetables, you’ll have to sneak them into their food.  Let’s look at some ways you can sneak vegetables to your kids.

• Put extra vegetables into a salad.  Most kids have a favorite salad dressing, so just make a salad with extra vegetables and give them salad dressing.
• Serve fresh vegetables like carrots and cauliflower with a dip like ranch dressing.
• Chop them up very finely and add to their favorite soups, stews, and sauces.  You can chop up carrots, broccoli, spinach, peppers, and much more and add them to soups, stews, chili, spaghetti sauce, gravy, meatloaf, hamburgers, and so much more.
• Slice them thinly and serve them on sandwiches with other foods they like.

You’ll have to get creative to get some kids to eat vegetables, but if you’re willing to be a little sneaky, your kids won’t even notice!  If you have to, steam some mixed vegetables and then blend them to a smooth consistency and pour the mixture into spaghetti sauce or into the sauce for a pizza.  You can also put the mixture into a bowl of ground beef and mix it up into hamburgers or meatloaf!

What are your best ideas to get your kids to eat vegetables?  I’d love to hear from you!

Vitamin C is important for keeping your immune system healthy.  If you get sick, taking larger doses of vitamin C is said to help you heal much faster.

It’s long been believed that the vitamins taken in pill form weren’t as potent as those in natural food sources, so when you’re sick, what do you need to eat?

Well first I’m going to reveal the top 10 everyday sources of vitamin C.  Then I’ll reveal the top 10 exotic sources.  Exotic fruits and vegetables are actually by far the best sources of vitamin C on the planet!  I’ll list the number of milligrams of vitamin C they contain per 100 grams of food.

Top 10 Everyday Food Sources of Vitamin C:

1. Red Pepper - 190 mg

2. Parsley - 130 mg

3. Guava - 100 mg

4. Kiwi - 90 mg

5. Broccoli - 90 mg

6. Brussels Sprouts - 80 mg

7. Papaya - 60 mg

8. Strawberry - 60 mg

9. Orange - 50 mg

10. Lemon - 40 mg

(Tied for 10th place are lemon, cantaloupe, and cauliflower.)

Top 10 Exotic Food Sources of Vitamin C

1. Kakadu Plum - 3100 mg

2. Camu Camu - 2800 mg

3. Rose Hip - 2000 mg

4. Acerola - 1600 mg

5. Seabuckthorn - 695 mg

6. Jujube - 500 mg

7. Indian Gooseberry - 445 mg

8. Baobab - 400 mg

9. Blackcurrant - 200 mg

10. Loganberry - 80 mg

(redcurrant is tied with loganberry for number 10)

As you can see, most of the very best sources of vitamin C are exotic foods you’ve probably never heard of or at the very least never tried.  But there are still a number of very good sources you can find in your grocery store.  Try a fruit salad!

Vitamin C Fruit Salad

chunks of guava
chunks of kiwi
chunks of papaya
chunks of strawberry
chunks of cantaloupe
raspberries
mandarin orange slices

Mix all together and drizzle with agave nectar.  (Bacteria thrive on sugar, so you should NOT eat real sugar while you are sick!  Stick to natural sugars.)

I make 100% of my living at home on the internet.  I do it in many different ways, and I have tried dozens of different ways of making money at home.

I have finally come up with a great balance of things that bring me a full time income while I stay at home with my five children.  I have time to homeschool all of them, which is a real blessing to me.  We hardly ever get sick in my home, and when we do it is because we visit with a public school child who is sick.  I also know what my children are learning, what they’re doing, who their friends are, and I have a hand in all of it.

Working at home is a blessing, but it took me a lot of trial and error to get here!  I wasted a ton of money before I finally managed to get where I am.

I tried envelope stuffing, making crafts, selling cosmetics, home parties, selling novelties, telemarketing vacation packages and magazines, and even a telephone psychic!  I never made much at any of them.  With most of them, I lost a lot more than I made.

I finally found a few GOOD ways you can earn money at home as a stay at home mom, and I want to list some of them here for you.  These are all totally legitimate and I’ve tried them myself!  Best of all, every single one of them is FREE!

• JustAnswer - They pay you to answer questions posted by others.  Some are quick and easy and the pay is only a few dollars.  Some are quite complex and difficult and pay over $100!
• AssociatedContent - They pay you to write and submit articles.  You can get paid a little up front (usually $2-$5 per article) or you can get a share of the recurring revenue.
• Squidoo - You create single web pages using a VERY simple online wizard and you can make a portion of the advertising revenue!
• HubPages - Similar to Squidoo, you make pages and get a portion of the advertising revenue.
• ExpertBee - Another site where you get paid to answer questions for people.
• Mechanical Turk - Run by Amazon.com, this site lets you complete very small, very easy tasks and be paid any time you reach at least $10.

You can also do freelance work.  If you can write well or design graphics or web pages, you can make decent money at some of the freelance sites.  Here are a few to get you started.  Make a profile, get some samples ready, and start posting bids on jobs you think you can handle.

• GetAFreelancer
• Rent-A-Coder
• eLance

Remember, if you want to work from home you need some serious discipline.  It can be very tempting to say things like, “I’ll just take 5 minutes to watch a little of my favorite TV show.”  Then you get interested and you can’t stop.  Then that show ends and you remember that a better one came on after it.  Then the phone rings and your sister asks if you want to go for coffee.  When you get home you….

Well, you get the idea.  Don’t let this happen!  Eliminate as many distractions as you possibly can and commit to working for at least 50 minutes.  Then take a 10 minute break.  Don’t work longer than 50 minutes without a break.  Get a timer if you have to and time your work periods and break periods.  Don’t let yourself burn out, but be careful your breaks aren’t TOO long.

You can work at home as a stay at home mom, but you really have to discipline yourself.  Good luck!

Does salt water help a sore throat?

Yes!  The salt water sore throat gargle DOES work.

My two oldest boys woke up with very sore throats yesterday morning.  My oldest had glands that were so swollen I could see them without even trying!  My second oldest (age 10)  was crying it hurt so much.

They were each given a strong solution of warm salt water and told to gargle until the water was gone.  Then they waited one hour without eating or drinking and repeated the process.

By afternoon they were feeling quite a bit better.  By night they said their throats were still sore but a lot better.  We are going to give them more to gargle every few hours until they’re all better.  We expect it will take a couple of days.

If you want to try this, simply make a coffee cup full of warm salt water (pretty strong) and gargle with it.  Gargle each mouthful for about 30 seconds and then spit it out.  Repeat until all of the water is gone.

I’m actually off to do this myself right now, because my sore throat has been getting steadily worse all day!

Welcome to Mellow Mom!  This is my little blog for other moms.  I hope you enjoy it.  Right now it’s going to be pretty boring.  It will get much better as I add more posts!