Goldenrod for health and some Auntie Leila rapid responses
The goldenrod is in bloom and I just found out that not only is it good for just everything, but it’s specifically good for urinary tract infections, so make a note in your book in the chapter about UTIs!
Fortunately, goldenrod is a lovely wildflower found just about everywhere, and if you simply make sure you can tell it apart from ragweed, you can harvest your own and preserve it for the coming year.
As I said here, it’s probably good for us to have some home remedies that don’t cost a fortune (because of course you can order it, but supplements get pricey)*.
I went to the liquor outlet (over the border in New Hampshire; find the cheapest place for you or order online) and got Everclear (high-proof vodka — you need at least 65 proof; Everclear is 151) for the purpose of making tinctures, which is the best way to preserve herbs long term. I store this bottle on a high shelf in the pantry so that no one uses it in a drink by mistake! Not that there are roving bands grabbing shots over here, but I just want to have it secured. I keep the tinctures with the other medicinal herbs.
Use the flowers for the tincture and cover with the alcohol.
You can also dehydrate the leaves and flowers to make a tea, which is what I will do with today’s harvest. I already got started with the leaves from the stems I stripped the flowers from for the tincture.
I’m always torn between talking about these little doings happening here and the more abstract “Auntie Leila” questions that I get all the time, so I thought I’d do some rapid responses, indulging myself in both! Hope you don’t mind!
So on to a few topics I’ve had a bunch of emails about recently:
Two- or three-year-old boy who seems impervious and even defiant to reprimand and punishment:
Don’t worry! Yes, it’s true, and I know this thought is lurking in the back of your mind: sociopaths suffer from having had their development arrested at age 3.
But your toddler is not going to endure this fate, because the behavior is normal for him! And you love him.
The key: wait out this stage by helping him find his place in the hierarchy, the good order of the family. Affirm his newly awakening feelings of power (“you’re a big boy for sure!”) but know that he is actually afraid of being the alpha, so a calm assertion of your position is appropriate, while you also ignore most of what he says and does, moving him to where you need him to be, delivering swift retribution (not threats) when necessary, and prioritizing naps, high-calorie foods early in the day (not worrying too much about what he eats at supper for now), and early bedtimes. Give him extra hugs (even when he’s being the most frustrating) because it’s not easy being two. A long walk in the stroller followed by free running at the playground could be a good routine for a while.
This will pass and he will be a good sweet boy before you know it. Still a barbarian, but not bound for the penitentiary.
I’m pregnant/so busy/getting older and there are so many little kids running around and I’m just tired.
Do less. Really. Look at your schedule and be ruthless. Your children do not need to go everywhere and do everything. The reason God gave you all these kids is so that they can play with each other, which they will do if you stop intervening, even by reading to them or putting on an audio book.
Lie on the sofa with your book and let them run wild for a while. Also tell them about the things that you would love to do but are just too tired to handle and see what they say. “Kids, I’m so tired but I wish these things were done — I wish I had a magical visitation from the wee brownies to help me.”
You might be surprised at how they decide to clean up the kitchen, not perfectly of course, but then, you didn’t have the energy to do it at all. Imperfect is better than nothing! I personally don’t do it perfectly when I’m at my best, so…
My kids used to give me what they called “First Class Comfort” — pillowing my head, putting my feet up, and maybe doing a little tidying. It was super nice!
When you have a baby and teens, make sure you are making lists for for those older children to check off. They can do way more, and it’s not good for them to be in “taking” and not “giving” mode. They need to be useful members of society, not moochers, and contribution to the greater good starts at home.
By the way, this is why I am totally opposed to requirements for the sacrament of Confirmation that have the child logging in hours spent in “outside” service. Mom driving you somewhere to do something imposed on you has no merit and only makes her life harder, yet she already has that sacrament! (Not that things being hard is any indication of virtue!) Charity for a child means helping out in the family or offering a person in the neighborhood a hand. If you need me to come down and tell you pastor all this, I’m on my way.
My 10-year-old girl thinks I’m against her, ruining her life, and mean for not letting her wear clothing that can only be described as trashy.
You’re not going to like this answer because it requires a real purgation in your life — and in hers — but it is not normal for a 10-yo to act this way. I know that popular culture insists that even young children will display rebelliousness arcing into a sort of acid hatred, and that this is normal, but they are wrong and serving their own ends.
It’s true that a 10-yo girl may begin to experience hormonal changes that are the early distant warnings of puberty, and that these hormones tend to make her a bit emotional. But you know, my purpose here is to preserve the collective memory; before the current time, and where girls are sheltered (fighting word I know!), they simply do not display this behavior as described — certainly not anything remotely like the bitter opposition parents experience now. I have raised four girls and I am here to tell you this.
The cause is in those outside influences which we as adults protect ourselves from. Someone is exposing her to this attitude. And that someone has a device connected to social media. Your job is to detach her from that. She needs, desperately, a chance to develop fittingly, and to have a trusting relationship with her mother and father.
It’s not enough to “opt out” of certain influences. The truth is that you also have to opt out of those who have been inundated by those influences. If her little circle of friends are all going home to watch Disney Channel (“Little Demon” anyone?) and have older sisters immersed in TikTok, you’re fighting a battle that you will not win.
Ten-year-old girls who are not connected somehow to the onslaught out there still enjoy pretty dresses and play with dolls, while also running around outside, climbing trees, and getting interested in taking part in the interests of family members (repairing things, making things, cooking things, creating things, singing, dancing, playing instruments, enjoying tennis, swimming… )
This is two feverfew plants — the one in the back is “regular” (don’t know the name) and the low one is “Feverfew White Stars” — the little double flowers are darling!
Please don’t let anyone tell you that it’s normal for a girl to turn against her mother. Please protect her from all that. (See my further comment in bits & pieces though… )
I discuss all these topics and way more and in greater depth in my book set, The Summa Domestica — and give you the help you need to establish order and wonder in your home!
*I have heard rumbles that supplements are going to be restricted. In any case, it’s better and way cheaper to collect herbs yourself where possible. Grow them in the garden or collect them from toxin-free areas. By the highway isn’t a good place. Not only is the exhaust from the cars settling on the plants there, but fluids and salts run off into the ground where they grow. Use your common sense!
bits & piecesWe got a propane smoker off of FB Marketplace, so I’ve been researching. Do you actually preserve foods with your smoker? I’m of course looking forward to just smoking all the things and eating them ASAP!I love Shelby Foote — love his voice! — and am currently watching/listening to this in depth interview and visit with him.
We’ve been talking here a lot about husbands and marital communication. I thought that it’s well to contemplate what John Cuddeback says here, briefly, about being willing to receive reproof. Auntie Sue says that if you listen, you’ll hear your husband say what it is that bothers him… but you have to be willing to listen. (I suppose this goes for children as well! Even though I said, above, that your daughter shouldn’t be saying how mean you are, and I do think that the outrage behind the behavior is learned, there could be a grain of truth about how you are not willing to let her be herself rather than just a reflection of you.)
Fr. Pokorsky: The Ten Commandments and the Restoration of Civilization
liturgical living
from the archivesFive Quick Answers from Auntie ThereseCriteria for choosing books and movies for all the stages of your children’s development
follow us everywhere!
My book, The Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life is available now from Sophia Press! All the thoughts from this blog collected into three volumes, beautifully presented with illustrations from Deirdre, an index in each volume, and ribbons!
My “random thoughts no pictures” blog, Happy Despite Them — receive it by email if you like, or bookmark, so you don’t miss a thing!
My new podcast can be found on the Restoration of Christian Culture website (and you can find it where you listen to such things) — be sure to check out the other offerings there!
Stay abreast of the posts here at LMLD, when they happen:
Consider subscribing to this blog by email. In the current situation, if we can’t meet here, it would be good for us to be connected by email!
We share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram, Rosie’s Instagram, Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow)
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest (you can still get a lot of inspiration here! and say a prayer for her!). Bridget’s Pinterest.
The post Goldenrod for health and some Auntie Leila rapid responses appeared first on .
