What Happens When a Hippie (and Her Kids) Catch a Cold

Nothing reveals how much of a hippie I am like when we get sick.  All of Aiduk girls came down with a really bad cold last week.  It was interesting, too, because I actually seemed to get the worst of it.  Which sucks, cause Moms don't get sick days!  And the littles were really whiny even though they weren't really all that sick.  So that kind of made everyone whiny!

I can't really complain about getting sick because it's seriously the first time we've had any illness in this house since the kids picked up Fifths' Disease in November (and got Jesse so sick we had to take him to the ER!)  All I can do is laugh a little because this batch of sickness came right after I was bragging that we have been so healthy this winter. Karma ;o)  

But we made it through and we're all on the mend... in less than a week.  And I wanted to share with you all the funny things I do that (I think) helped us get better faster.  No meds required!

#1: Ginger Lemon Tea.  This tea is seriously the only thing that made my throat feel better... I could barely swallow for a couple days and so the tea kettle was on pretty much nonstop.  I made sure they girls drank it right along with me. (they didn't seem to have sore throats, but everyone had crazy runny noses and congestion)  And we also added the punch of raw honey.  (Health benefits of raw honey)

Look at all those snot rags!  YUM.  We watched 1-2 kid movies a day while snuggling on the couch and stuffing cloth tissues into the fountains of snot coming from all three of our noses.  Cloth tissues are so awesome.  They are so much easier on your nose and they can take much more of a beating.  You know, like, it's a better tissue-to-snot-capacity than a Kleenex.  Too much info?  

We also napped and slept as much as we could.  And the girls went to bed at 6pm three nights in a row... I followed close behind at the awesome hour of 8pm at least twice.  And no one woke up till almost 8am.  I was thankful we were all able to sleep well so our bodies could recover.  

I started taking shots of raw apple cider vinegar.  Cause that's not weird.  My poor brainwashed children, God bless em, actually ask for this crap as "spicy medicine".  You would not understand why they ask for it if you could see them take it by the spoonful... they cough and sputter every time!  Poor things.

But yeah the first day when I was really really sick I took a half shot every two hours.  I think I was able to coax the girls to take about three tablespoons throughout the day.

I was so thankful that a couple weeks ago I made and froze some 24-hour chicken stock.  Bone broth is great when you're sick.  And any time.  But it's so comforting when sick.

Hippies get weird about food when they're sick.  It's like something happens to my brain and I start thinking of all the anti-bacterial, immune-boosting foods I can come up with.  And I throw them into a hippie-potion we'll call "soup" (which involved a lot of stock and chopped up homemade lacto-fermented vegetables.)  It was actually pretty delicious.

Oh yeah and let's not forget the amazing power of garlic.  Cause who doesn't love three coughing sniffling humans with garlic breath?  Jesse?  Whatever, he loves it.  I put LOTS of garlic in those soups.

So everyone's pretty healthy again, except me.  Still got the lingering cough and suuuuper runny nose.  But I'm functioning again, so that's good!  Especially since we have a crazy week ahead.

Between the doctor's appointments, Jesse's pin-removal surgery, the recovery, and trying to squeeze my birthday celebrations somewhere into his convalescent leave, it might be quiet on the blog this week.  I think I'll take the time to snuggle up and watch movies with the rest of em... that is, unless I'm bursting to tell you something or share some pictures.  Then you might see me.

Till then I leave you with this advice: don't brag about being healthy or you'll get slammed with a cold right before a busy week.  But then, if you do, be a hippie and try some of my weird concoctions to let me know if they work for you, too!