Our Dearly Departed Goldfish

Last year, the husband and I decided to get the little man an aquarium. Ezra's therapist mentioned it was good for vision development. Being the researcher I am, I began to scour the internet for information on the best aquariums and fish for our situation. We decided on goldfish, since they are the hardiest fish we could afford and very brightly colored. There is a small, local pet store in town that we visited to find our new fish. Micah and I enjoy the british sci-fi show Doctor Who, so we named our fish after the main character, The Doctor, and his companion, Rose. Here they are below...



The Doctor, left, and Rose, right

On Christmas Day this year, our Rose passed away. She had been sick for awhile and we tried many things to help her, but she decided she was done. We gave her the proper goldfish burial, down the toilet, and said goodbye.

 Today the mourning period was over. We piled up in the car and went to the pet store once again to find a new goldfish. Ezra loved watching all the fish swimming. I found this little cutie. He is much smaller than our other goldfish and has some black coloring as well as gold. Being the Doctor Who fans, we once again came up with a name from the show. Our new fish is named, K-9. Here he is below...


K-9 is a goldfish, however the picture isn't clear enough to see the orange coloring.



He has been spending most of his time behind the car.

Here's to hoping K-9 will like his new home as much as his last one.

Laundry Day!!!!

I have a confession....I love doing laundry!! I love taking a pile of dirty clothes, making them clean, then folding them up nice and neat. I love the satisfaction of taking my nicely folded clothes and putting them away!! Chaos into peace!! Sick, I know....but it is the ONE chore that does not bore me to death.

Why, you may ask, did I decide to write about this topic today of all days? Well (thank you for asking by the way!) today is laundry day in the VerHage house. I am washing and folding to my heart's content. Our dog and cat also love laundry day. For some strange reason, they love to get in a laundry basket full of clean clothes, so I have to work quickly when folding!!



This is our first dog, Luther. He also enjoyed a laundry basket full of clean, folded clothes!!



Due to Ezra's eczema and allergies, we have to use a natural detergent with no dyes or fragrance. About a year ago, I decided to make laundry detergent here at home. I found a website that had a few recipes to try. I opted for the powder recipe. Check it out for yourself....it's really easy!!

Enjoy laundry day!!

Life and Death of a Gingerbread House

This year, Micah decided we needed to make a gingerbread house. I thought it would be cool! I began making plans to go buy the supplies: gingerbread graham crackers, canned frosting, and candy for decoration. My planning soon came to crashing halt when Micah informed me he wanted the gingerbread house to be made from scratch. Ok, I thought, it would mean a little more work, but Christmas was only once a year....let's do it!!

We began to plan out what we wanted the house to look like and find the perfect gingerbread recipe. The pictures below are a representation of our first ever attempt at making and then destroying a gingerbread house....

Some of our supplies as we were getting ready for the adventure....the cardboard was cut out in the pattern of the house and yes, the candy made it until we began decorating!!

This is the first ball of gingerbread....after running to the neighbor's house to borrow spices, thank you Rhonda, and chilling in the fridge for several hours. Let the fun begin!!

Cutting out the shape of the house....after a few tries, I learned to flour the cardboard first...



Our first two sides done and ready for the oven!!!




Setting out the pieces to cool....



cooling....



Putting on doors and windows before the house is set up.



The house is now all put together and iced up....and no, I did not use baking soda or powder in the decorating....they are just left over from making the gingerbread!!

Drumroll............the completed gingerbread house in all her glory!!!!!!



And boy did she taste good!!!!!!



Adventures in G-Tube Feeding

Over the last few years we have embarked on a journey into the world of tube feeding. Since Ezra cannot swallow yet, we decided to get him a g-tube. This is a small device that is put directly into the stomach and sits on top of the skin. We have special tubes that fit into the device (button) to give Ezra his food. He was first on infant formula, then around six months we gave him a homemade formula. This worked great for him. Ezra got chunky, his eczema cleared up, and he looked healthy. The new formula was time consuming for Micah and myself, but the benefits outweighed all that! This last spring, however, we hit a problem with the homemade formula. Ezra got kidney stones!! After a few trips to the nephrologist, we decided the diet was to blame for the stones.

So now we were left with the decision of what to do next. Micah and I decided to keep Ezra's diet natural. We did some research and came up with a few recipes to give him. We wanted to keep his diet as close to a "normal" toddler diet as possible. After some trial and error (like discovering Ezra had many food allergies), we thought we had successfully transitioned to the new diet. At our last nephrologist visit, we discovered Ezra was losing weight. Great.......back to the drawing board!!!

This week we began some new diet ideas. Ezra needs more calories and protein according to his doctor. We also give him lots of good fats to help his brain development. So far things seem to be going well. I'm sure I'll be writing about this topic much more in the future.

This is a picture of a g-tube with the feeding tube attached for those of you curious as to what the tube looked like.

Noodles and Co.

we were just introduced to this restaurant today!! it was fantastic! our friends, the sanborn's, met us for lunch before ezra's appointment at St Vincent's. The last time we met for lunch, they took us to Five Guys burgers (which was also very good). warsaw has very little in the way of variety of restaurants, so these lunch excursions are quite the treat for us small-town bumpkins!! anyway, if you haven't been to Noodles and Co, you must try it. if you are in the indy area, go to the Noodles and Co on W 86th St. The staff was great and so was the food. Be forewarned....the indonesian peanut saute pasta is super spicy, but well worth the burn!!

ps- i was in no way compensated for this blog post by the good people of Noodles and Co, i just really enjoyed my lunch today!!

Charlie

We decided to get a puppy this spring. We went to our local pet shelter, where we have gone for our other pets. Charlie was part of a litter, this winter, that got left in a cardboard box on the side of the road. They were only about 2 weeks old! The animal shelter took them in and got foster families to take care of them until they were of age. The day we went to look for a puppy, Charlie was there!! We took Ezra with us because we wanted to see how Charlie handled Ezra's suction machine. Charlie didn't scare at all! We knew right then he was the puppy for us.

Charlie still thinks he is this little. He loves to sit on our laps, even though he doesn't fit anymore! Isn't he cute?

Charlie and Ezra were friends from the beginning!

Ozzy

After my whiny post yesterday, I thought you readers would enjoy meeting our pets. Today I am starting with our cat, Ozzy. We got Ozzy about a year after we were married. She was a pound kitten and very ratty looking, as you can see from this picture!

We soon discovered our cat was not like other cats we had known. She loves being around people and loves to play fetch!


Ozzy loves anything designed for babies. Everything fits her perfectly. Ezra had to learn to share very early on!

Ozzy loves to cuddle and stay warm.

We enjoy having Ozzy around. She provides much needed comic relief in our house and is a great bug stalker/killer! She greets people when they come over and thoroughly checks out all their stuff. She has gotten herself into trouble by being a little too curious at times though.

Up on deck for tomorrow....our puppy, Charlie!

TGIF?

Fridays are usually the highlight of the week for me. I know that Fridays mean two whole days of family time, sleeping in, and fun are in store for the weekend. That is until it's my husband's turn to work a weekend (this weekend is his weekend). My husband, Micah, works maintenance at a retirement home. All the maintenace guys take turns working weekends due to the fact things still break down on Saturday and Sunday. With all the guys taking turns, Micah only ends up working a weekend about every 5-6 weeks. When he works a weekend, he get Friday and Monday off to avoid overtime. We then use those Friday and Mondays for our son's doctor appointments or to run errands.

Now I know this may not seem like a big deal, but as a stay at home mom I really look forward to Micah coming home and spending time with him. Most days, he is the only adult interaction I get. Micah also works part time with his dad, who owns his own HVAC company (in fact, as I write this, Micah and his dad are out working). So, our time together is important to us. When Micah works a weekend, I feel cheated. We have lost our weekend. I know I am whining now. Sorry....I'll be more upbeat in my next post!

My Minty Muse

This is where everything started. My peppermint lip balm was the beginning of Bohemian Botanicals. For years I was using a name brand all natural peppermint lip balm. These Indiana winters are harsh and said lip balms were a lifesaver with their soothing, cooling feel!! I bought as many as I could at one time and had one in every coat, my purse and even around my house! Then this company decided to keep raising prices on me and I couldn't afford to get the lip balms I needed. I got fed up!!

I took to the internet and researched how to make my own lip balms. I wanted to know how to get that cooling peppermint feeling in my homemade lip balm and discovered peppermint essential oil. The ingredients and supplies were soon bought and I began a journey. Knowing not everyone would like peppermint, I also chose raspberry and vanilla flavors for lip balms. I made my first batches and gave them out to friends and family. They were a hit!! And I was hooked! Since then, I have added to the flavors I make and also to my product line, but I am still in love with my peppermint, my muse!!!

You never forget your first!!

They're Here.......

Just in time for Fall and Halloween....Bohemian Botanicals all natural Candy Corn lip balm!!! Full of buttery goodness, you’ll swear it’s the real thing!! So good!!!!!!

Go to my etsy site, http://www.bohemianbotanicals.etsy.com/ , and get yours today!!!

New at this....

I have started a blog for Bohemian Botanicals!! Just to let you know up front, I am not a great writer. My grammar is bad at times. However, being an introvert, I find something appealing in talking to the world through a blog. Not a lot of face to face contact, not that I am anti-social, but there is safety in a blog!

My goal through this blog is to share with all of you about my life with my wonderful family in my little house. Our days aren't like most other families and sometimes I get frustrated about this. I hope through writing here, I will continue learning how to appreciate our family "oddities"!

I will be writing about all things family and all things natural! If you read something you like, great.....leave a comment! If you read something you don't like, great.....leave a comment. You can even follow my blog through the little "follow" button on the left side of the page!! I have even posted my etsy site, www.bohemianbotanicals.etsy.com , on the left side of the page as well!

Here we go!!

new blog

this is my new blog......