Using Lemon Balm To Treat ADHD Symptoms

While searching for natural ways to treat my daughter's ADHD symptoms I came across various herbal remedies. One of the most commons herbs used is Lemon Balm, also known as Melissa Officinalis. Lemon Balm has been known to promote a calm demeanor, reduce stress and anxiety, ease the digestive system, and help maintain proper blood pressure. Lemon Balm can be easily purchase in capsule form, however I couldn't imagine trying to get Corky to swallow a pill.

So.... I bought this:

... a Lemon Balm plant.

The leaves (dried or fresh) can be used to make tea which should be easy enough for Corky to drink. Also, the leaves can be plucked and frozen to preserve until needed. This is definitely a trial period to see how this works so I'll post results later.

Here is a recipe for Lemon Balm Tea:

1 heaping tablespoon of dried leaves or
2 tablespoons of fresh leaves 

1 cup of boiling water
(Or make sun tea by placing herbs and cool water in covered jar in the sun for a few hours.)
 

Strain before drinking.

Your Kids ARE What They Eat... so stop feeding them junk!

Since Corky started preschool, I have spent a lot of time worrying about what she's eating. I pack her lunch every day but the school provides snacks. At first I thought: Oh, this is good. Schools have to serve healthy snacks, right...
Wrong.

Cupcakes, cookies, candy, Cheetos... just to name a few of the more prominent options. There's also chips of all sorts and various other "snacks" that Corky has never liked. Oh, but she likes them now....

Yes, gone is the child that loved broccoli and carrot sticks. Say adios to the kid that would choose a banana over a piece of chocolate. They have corrupted my baby!!! *boo hoo*

Anyway, I could go on and on about how awful the eating habits are in our tiny town and how disappointed I am in the schools... but that would take all day. So, I've been trying to make the best of things by reinforcing our eating style at home...

So....
When we were at softball practice the other day and the coach announced that the team would be provided fruits and vegetables for game snacks, I was ready to whoop and holler (that's southern for "shout with excitement"). Actually, I kind of got vocal about it...

"Yeah, that's great!" I said, way too enthusiastically.

You could have heard crickets chirp. There we were, a group of about twelve parents, and I was the only one who was glad about the fruits and veggies. Several (and when I say several, I mean more than half) of them made comments about how their kids wouldn't eat the fruits and veggies. Several of them suggested snack cakes as an option.

I was mortified. Horrified. And most of all angry.

This is the health of our children we are talking about here, people. Good eating habits start at a young age. Your kids will like what you like. They will eat what you feed them. They will value what you value. I understand this well, being someone who has struggled with being overweight my entire life.

My experience with the school taught me that good eating habits have to start in the home. My experience with the softball parents taught me that the schools (and other public associations) will change their good intentions to suit what the kids will be more inclined to eat...

So where does the buck stop?

When does someone put their foot down and quit feeding kids junk?

Sorting Colors

This is a project that I did with Corky before our sick break. She doesn't like sorting projects very well so it didn't last too long (I guess I will keep trying) but it got a few giggles.

I used three colored bowls and then gathered various small objects of like colors: pieces of pipe cleaners, ribbon tied in knots, hair bands, small squares of construction paper, foam shapes, ect.

I let her match the colors of the objects to the bowls. It was easy for her-- maybe that's why she doesn't like sorting that much. Other kids love this stuff but not mine! Anyway, maybe this will help another mother!

Fun Fridays: Our First Gingerbread House!

This year Corky was old enough to make her first Gingerbread house! It turned out beautiful* and she was surprisingly cooperative! For those of you who know my daughter, you know that she is extremely independent and stubborn. So I was thrilled when she let me show her what to do. She normally doesn't give you the chance to give any instruction, she just wants to do it herself. So... going into this project, I expected the end result to be something like a pile of gingerbread pieces with huge blobs of frosting and candy pieces scattered everywhere! It was nice to have some toddler cooperation!

* Notice that the chimney is sideways?? Mommy's fault!

                                      

She had lots of fun decorating the "gingy" house. This is something we will have to do again next year!

                                       

So, your wondering right?? Well, this is a project that Corky and I did this summer (I'm just getting around to posting about it) called Color Adventure. She named it herself, after the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode of the same name! In that episode, Mickey and friends discover that all the color is draining out of the clubhouse. To fix it, they must go on a scavenger hunt to find an object that represents each color of the rainbow. Well, when I made this little game I didn't realize that it was basically the same thing! She did however (so perceptive)!

Anyway, to make this, all you need is an empty egg carton and paints of various colors of the rainbow. Simply paint the inside of each crevice with a different color. Then take your child on an adventure. It is amazing how you can find each color right in your own back yard (flowers, rocks of various colors, a penny, some paper, mysterious piece of black plastic, leaves, a marble...)!! She still plays with her Color Adventure around the house when its too cold to go out!

Happy Birthday Corky!!!

My little baby is growing up too fast!! We had her third birthday party at Fun City, on Saturday. It was a Minnie Mouse party. She was so excited when she walked in and saw all the Minnie Mouse things! My mom and I made her a Minnie Mouse cake that looks like a cost a hundred dollars. However, I am pround to announce that it costed next to nothing - somewhere in the ball park of fifteen dollars!

She had so much fun playing in the ball pit!

Opening her presents...

Happy Birthday baby girl!!!

Ice Paint!

This week Corky and I made Ice Paint. To make it, you just fill an ice tray and add food coloring. Then cut drinking straws into thirds and add them to the tray (these serve as handles) and freeze. We made the ice on Wednesday. I let her put the food coloring in the tray (once she figured it out, she squeezed the little food coloring bottle as hard as she could- so funny). She also got to put the straws in. When it was time to put them in the freezer, she was a little reluctant! She wanted to paint now! I told her that we would paint tomorrow. As soon as she woke up on Thursday, she said, “We play with Ice Paint?” So of course, that is exactly what we did!

This was a really great summer project. We just took the paint outside that way she could get a little messy (it kept her cool outside too since she decided to eat the ice when she was done painting)!

*I got the idea for this project from the blog, Chasing Cheerios.

Arts and crafts...

Friday and Saturday, Corky and I had fun making some things:

First, She decorated one of those foam visor hats with foam flower stickers! Oh how she loves stickers! I didn't get a picture of it but she went a little overboard! Foamy sticker on top of foamy sticker... It was on both sides of the visor... so cute! Afterward, she carefully peeled the stickers off so she could put them back on again!

While she was busy with that, I decided to make her some play food out of those foam craft sheets. I got the idea to do this because I caught her using real food in her play kitchen! She was also trying to feed her stuffed animals with real food! I don't really know why I didn't think about getting her play food before. She has a play kitchen, play dishes, play silverware... but no play food! Silly mommy! Anyway, it turned out pretty good and she played with it for hours when I was done! I got a picture of it, but by the time I peeled it from her Chef Boyardee hands, she had already misplaced the orange, broccoli, a piece of bacon, and a pretzel!

On Saturday, she made Papa's birthday present! Papa has a huge boat and ship collection, so we got him a little wooden toy boat and Corky "painted" it with markers. She had fun doing it but then she wanted to give it to him right away. I tried to explain that his birthday is tomorrow, not today... it took a lot of convincing. I think I had success when I mentioned something about happy birthday cake!

The Ramp

My parents recently had a wheelchair ramp put in for my dad. It is huge and we all think it's hideous! The shiny metal blares against their beautiful log home! Everyone think it's ugly except my daughter... Corky loves it. She thinks it is a big shiny new toy, just for her! She likes to roll her ball up and down and chase it. She also likes to hang on it. She has a lot of fun at Papa and Granny's!

Puddin' Paint

We spent father's day weekend at my parent's house. My dad is very sick (terminal) so we often travel 120 miles to their house and stay for the weekend. This is good because they get to see Corky and we all get to visit. She loves to go to Granny and Papa's house! Today, she was in a very crafty mood so we made Puddin' Paint! It's easy, all you need is some vanilla pudding cups and food coloring. You can also use different flavors of pudding if you don't want to add the food coloring. Or you could color it with natural things like blueberries. Her favorite color is purple, so we just made purple and pink. The best part is that it is completely edible. Surprisingly, she painted more than she ate! Here are some of her masterpieces!

Well, summer is in full swing. Most people love summer, but it is actually my least favorite season! I like it for like a week and then I’m ready for the cool weather. The one great thing about summer is the swimming! I love to take Corky to the local pool- she absolutely loves it! I love to watch her at the pool because she has so much fun! It just makes me happy! Most of the time when we go, she has a blast and it’s great. But today was a different story…
She knew we were going to the pool after her nap, so she refused to go to sleep! I guess she was excited. Anyway, by the time we got to the pool, she was very tired and extremely cranky. To make matters worse, I forgot to bring her Mickey Mouse floaty (or donut, as she likes to call it)! Well, apparently she can not swim without that Mickey Mouse floaty, so my husband walked back home in the 95 degree weather to get it (we had walked to the pool- five blocks). By the time he got back, we had already had a severe meltdown! I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw him approach with that lovely red and blue “donut”! I thought, “Now everything will be okay- no more meltdowns!” Regretfully, that was not so! The remaining two hours that we were there, were a disaster! Sometimes I wonder why I bother to take my two-year-old out in public! I mean, I really didn’t want to go swimming. I would have been content staying inside with the air conditioner! I was doing that for her! Then she repays that act of kindness with tantrums, screaming, and even KICKING!!! My mom says, “She’s two...” That’s her answer to every tantrum (really that is the only answer that makes sense)!! So I wonder… She turns three in four months… will three be any better?! God knows I love her to pieces, but can three PLEASE be better?!
When we returned home, I realized that our house was rather warm. I ignored it, thinking that I was just overheated from dealing with a cranky toddler. By the time I was done cooking dinner, I realized something was wrong with the air conditioner! It was 80 degrees in our house and the thermostat was set on 72. So, I’m guessing that our AC is going out soon… Ahhh, summer!!! Don’t you just love it?!!

Corky's Garden

When spring first sprung, Corky and I planted flowers in front of our house. We used seeds because I wanted her to see that those tiny little seeds could "grow up" and produce beautiful flowers! So we cleaned out the flower bed together- dug out all the rocks and weeds (she loves to play in the dirt). Then we planted all the seeds and watered them as needed. Soon after, we began to have horrible thunderstorms in our area (mid-south) and we had 19 days of rain in a row!!! We were a little worried about our plantlings (I make up words all the time), but after a few dry days we began to see lots of sprouts! They are coming along slowly, due to the extreme rain, but soon enough they will be flowers! When I was thinking about this post I realized that Corky is growing so fast I can hardly believe my eyes!! Just "yesterday" she was a little seed! Now she is a sprout. Soon she will be a big beautiful flower! I would like it if she could remain a sprout forever!! Well, I better stop before I cry. Here is Corky and Daddy watering the flowers!

Potty training. Oh the dread! No, seriously! DREAD! We first got a potty chair for Corky when she was about 18 months old. Since she was a very musical baby, we got one that plays music when you “go”, thinking that it would help our case. She loved it. Until she realized that she was supposed to put her pee-pee and poo-poo in there. Because why would she want to go and put her stinky poo-poo in her brand new, musical toy? Because she was still so young, we decided not to push the issue. While we waited for her to become ready to use the potty, my husband and I read every potty training article, book, method that you can imagine. Finally we chose one that claimed you could potty train your child in one weekend. Yeah right! I figured it couldn’t hurt to try. So a month before she turned two, we tried it. It’s the one where you get rid of all the diapers and put your child in big kid underwear. Then you make your child go to the potty every twenty minutes, whether they need to go or not. Eventually they go in the potty and you reward them with stickers and they love it and they go in the potty forevermore!!! NOT! We tried this method for four days. We dragged her, kicking and screaming, to the potty for four days and she didn’t go pee or poop in the potty once! She has a bladder of steel. She would hold it until time was up on the potty, then she would go in the floor, on the bed, on the couch… There was no amount of bribing or coercing that was going to convince her to put her pee-pee in the potty. So we waited another three months. Next we tried a potty seat that sits over the big toilet. She loved this. She could sit on the big potty just like mommy! She still wouldn’t actually pee in the toilet, but she would pretend. She would even pretend to wipe with toilet paper. Still, no success! At two and a half, we tried to force it. We made her sit on the potty “until she went”. That didn’t work either- bladder of steel. She sat there for three hours straight! And we got nothing!! I felt horrible about doing this, so we haven’t done it since. To this day, she has not gone pee or poop one time in the potty! Since then, I’ve tried to just bring the subject up on a daily basis. Every time I do, I am met with grunts of annoyance (she grunts when she doesn’t like something). She says, “No. I no want go pee-pee in the poddy!” She even “helps” me change her diaper. She loves to wear her diaper… I can see her, twenty years down the road, getting married in her diaper! Okay, maybe not, but I will be so glad when potty training is OVER!