Burdock and B&W

David is my accident prone child, I have had him in the ER 3-4 times. He had a needle in his knee, a sledding accident where he split his eyelid, damage to his eye from playing in the creek and now his latest.. Which thankfully did not send us to the ER.

We were mowing our neighbors yard, we had two mowers running with everyone alternating turns on the mower. While on his break, David decided to explore the woods.

Suddenly he comes screaming to where I was mowing, blood flowing from his foot. It was an awful lot of blood, considering it was his foot. I had him take his shirt off  and used it to apply pressure to stop the bloodflow.  When I finally examined at the wound I was surprised to see only a small but very deep puncture wound.  Thankfully he had been wearing his barn boots, I hate to imagine what could have happened had he been barefoot.

I cleaned his foot up and had him sit until we were done. When we came home, I carefully cleaned it. But didn't really think to much about it, until the next morning when he complained of it hurting.  Suddenly I realized that this was RUSTY old fence that he had stepped on.. Rusty.. Fence.. Puncture wound... I should probably be taking extra precautions. Especially since there was now some swelling and yet the tiny surface cut was healing shut.

I called his Dr to see if he was uptodate on his tetanus shot. Then I called the B&W lady. She is a local mennonite lady that does the burn and wound treatments for hospitals.

She loves, loves working on people and I have seen the results of her burn care.
She was happy to see us that afternoon. Her whole family gathered round to take a look at his foot.

She wrapped him up and send some extra supplies home with us.  I dropped David off at VBS with his foot wrapped up in burdock leaves. When he came home it looked soo much bettter all the swelling was gone, but there was still a small red mark. 

Crappy picture but it was late and I was tired.. the little white mark is where the fence went into his foot.

First I boiled the burdock leaves in hot water..

Then I carefully wrapped them around is foot..

3 leaves

I am def not a nurse..

I finished it off by wrapping  it in gauze  and a stretch wrap.

He went to sleep with this on. 10 hrs later, I took all the wrapping off and found the foot perfectly fine. No swelling, no redness and very little pain. So I applied the homemade salve and a gauze for the day.

I love finding ways to protect my kids without it affecting their bodies. This was a natural product that was easy to use and made a big difference for him.

Friday Encouragement

Today hug your kiddoes, look them in the eye, listen to their stories and remind them that you love them. 

Love them enough to teach them, to correct them, to tell them about Jesus, teach them to care about others!  

Because someday they will be gone. Someday they will be the ones making decisions about your care. :)

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me from your presence

    or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation

    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

    so that sinners will turn back to you.

14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

    you who are God my Savior,

    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

15 Open my lips, Lord,

    and my mouth will declare your praise.

16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;

    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

17 My sacrifice, O God, is[b] a broken spirit;

    a broken and contrite heart

    you, God, will not despise.

Zucchini: cooking for a big family on a budget

 Feeding growing boys and keeping a clean house with lots of kids are both endless tasks.
A friend gave me a couple zucchinis. I decided to see how many different ways I could cook zucchini.

This was our #2 favorite. Zucchini personal pizzas. I brushed the zucchini with oil and grilled one side. After I flipped them I added garlic salt, cheese, pepperoni sausages and pizza sauce! I grilled them for almost 15 minutes! They were so yummy!

I buy shredded mozzarella in bulk, 10 lb bags at a time. I take each bag and divy it out into small freezer bags!
I make my own pizza sauce from local tomatoes.
The sausages were from a foster parent food program. One of those weird foods that require great creativity to use up!
I have also made large batches of gluten free zucchini bread (not cheap, even when you buy in bulk).
I have made zucchini with butter, garlic salt and cheese. I have made zucchini with butter and garlic salt. Sauted, grilled and baked....

I also made zucchini patties with eggs and cheese... Zucchini pizza crust was another hit with the kids.


I currently have 6 zucchini's needing attention. Elizabeth is going to shred 4 of the larger ones and freeze the zucchini in large baggies. The 2 largest ones will be more pizza!