The following article was sent to my inbox today, and it was too good for me to just pass it by and not share it. It truly does amaze me what media and pharmaceutical companies play out when it comes to vaccines and scares. I am sure that vaccines do have a place and that they can save lives. But this article is yet another reminder not to just jump on the scare-wagon and make haste choice based off of media pressure/fear. Any thoughts or comments on this I would love to hear!

Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic – Fact or Fiction?

By Dr. Mercola

American health officials declared a public health emergency as cases of swine flu were confirmed in the U.S. Health officials across the world fear this could be the leading edge of a global pandemic emerging from Mexico, where seven people are confirmed dead as a result of the new virus.

On Monday April 27th, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised its pandemic alert level to four on its six-level threat scale,1 which means they’ve determined that the virus is capable of human-to-human transmission. The initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection already traveling at higher velocity than did the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu.

swine fluThe number of fatalities, and suspected and confirmed cases across the world change depending on the source, so your best bet — if you want the latest numbers — is to use Google Maps’ Swine Flu Tracker.

Several nations have imposed travel bans, or made plans to quarantine air travelers2 that present symptoms of the swine flu, such as:

* Fever of more than 100
* Coughing
* Runny nose and/or sore throat
* Joint aches
* Severe headache
* Vomiting and/or diarrhea
* Lethargy
* Lack of appetite

Top global flu experts are trying to predict how dangerous the new swine flu strain will be, as it became clear that they had little information about Mexico’s outbreak. It is as yet unclear how many cases occurred in the month or so before the outbreak was detected. It’s also unknown whether the virus was mutating to be more lethal, or less.

Much Fear Mongering Being Promoted

I suspect you have likely been alarmed by the media’s coverage of the swine flu scare. It has a noticeable subplot - preparing you for draconian measures to combat a future pandemic as well as forcing you to accept the idea of mandatory vaccinations.

On April 27, Time magazine published an article which discusses how dozens died and hundreds were injured from vaccines as a result of the 1976 swine flu fiasco, when the Ford administration attempted to use the infection of soldiers at Fort Dix as a pretext for a mass vaccination of the entire country.

Despite acknowledging that the 1976 farce was an example of “how not to handle a flu outbreak”, the article still introduces the notion that officials “may soon have to consider whether to institute draconian measures to combat the disease”.

WHO and CDC Pandemic Preparedness Seriously Broken

The pandemic warning system has failed as it simply doesn’t exist, even in North America and Europe. To improve the system, massive new investments in surveillance, scientific and regulatory infrastructure, basic public health, and global access to common sense interventions like vitamin D optimization are required.

According to the Washington Post, the CDC did not learn about the outbreak until six days after Mexico had begun to impose emergency measures. There should be no excuses. The paradox of this swine flu panic is that, while totally unexpected, it was accurately predicted. Six years ago, Science dedicated a major story to evidence that “after years of stability, the North American swine flu virus has jumped onto an evolutionary fasttrack”.

However, maybe this is precisely what public health authorities desire.

This is NOT the First Swine Flu Panic

My guess is that you can expect to see a lot of panic over this issue in the near future. But the key is to remain calm — this isn’t the first time the public has been warned about swine flu. The last time was in 1976, right before I entered medical school and I remember it very clearly. It resulted in the massive swine flu vaccine campaign.

Do you happen to recall the result of this massive campaign?

Within a few months, claims totaling $1.3 billion had been filed by victims who had suffered paralysis from the vaccine. The vaccine was also blamed for 25 deaths.

However, several hundred people developed crippling Guillain-Barré Syndrome after they were injected with the swine flu vaccine. Even healthy 20-year-olds ended up as paraplegics.

And the swine flu pandemic itself? It never materialized.

More People Died From the Swine Flu Vaccine than Swine Flu!

It is very difficult to forecast a pandemic, and a rash response can be extremely damaging.

As of Monday April 27, the worldwide total number of confirmed cases was 82, according to WHO, which included 40 cases in the U.S., confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control. But does that truly warrant the feverish news headlines?

To put things into perspective, malaria kills 3,000 people EVERY DAY, and it’s considered “a health problem”… But of course, there are no fancy vaccines for malaria that can rake in billions of dollars in a short amount of time.

One Australian news source,3 for example, states that even a mild swine flu epidemic could lead to the deaths of 1.4 million people and would reduce economic growth by nearly $5 trillion dollars.

Give me a break, if this doesn’t sound like the outlandish cries of the pandemic bird-flu I don’t know what does. Do you remember when President Bush said two million Americans would die as a result of the bird flu?

In 2005, in 2006, 2007, and again in 2008, those fears were exposed as little more than a cruel hoax, designed to instill fear, and line the pocketbooks of various individuals and industry. I became so convinced by the evidence AGAINST the possibility of a bird flu pandemic that I wrote a New York Times bestselling book, The Bird Flu Hoax, all about the massive fraud involved with the epidemic that never happened..

swine fluWhat is the Swine Flu?

Regular swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease, caused by a type-A influenza virus that affects pigs. The current strain, A(H1N1), is a new variation of an H1N1 virus — which causes seasonal flu outbreaks in humans — that also contains genetic material of bird and pig versions of the flu.

Interestingly enough, this version has never before been seen in neither human nor animal, which I will discuss a bit later.

This does sound bad. But not so fast. There are a few reasons to not rush to conclusions that this is the deadly pandemic we’ve been told would occur in the near future (as if anyone could predict it without having some sort of inside knowledge).
Why a True Bird- or Swine Flu Pandemic is HIGHLY Unlikely

While in my opinion it is highly likely factory farming is responsible for producing this viral strain, I believe there is still no cause for concern.

You may not know this, but all H1N1 flu’s are descendants of the 1918 pandemic strain. The reason why the flu shot may or may not work, however, from year to year, is due to mutations. Therefore, there’s no vaccine available for this current hybrid flu strain, and naturally, this is feeding the fear that millions of people will die before a vaccine can be made.

However, let me remind you of one very important fact here.

Just a couple of months ago, scientists concluded that the 1918 flu pandemic that killed between 50-100 million people worldwide in a matter of 18 months — which all these worst case scenarios are built upon — was NOT due to the flu itself!4

Instead, they discovered the real culprit was strep infections.

People with influenza often get what is known as a “superinfection” with a bacterial agent. In 1918 it appears to have been Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Since strep is much easier to treat than the flu using modern medicine, a new pandemic would likely be much less dire than it was in the early 20th century, the researchers concluded.

Others, such as evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald,5 claim that a pandemic of this sort simply cannot happen, because in order for it to occur, the world has to change. Not the virus itself, but the world.

In a previous interview for Esquire magazine, in which he discusses the possibility of a bird flu pandemic, he states:

“They think that if a virus mutates, it’s an evolutionary event. Well, the virus is mutating because that is what viruses and other pathogens do. But evolution is not just random mutation. It is random mutation coupled with natural selection; it is a battle for competitive advantage among different strains generated by random mutation.

For bird flu to evolve into a human pandemic, the strain that finds a home in humanity has to be a strain that is both highly virulent and highly transmissible. Deadliness has to translate somehow into popularity; H5N1 has to find a way to kill or immobilize its human hosts, and still find other hosts to infect. Usually that doesn’t happen.”

Ewald goes on to explain that evolution in general is all about trade-offs, and in the evolution of infections the trade-off is between virulence and transmissibility.

What this means is that in order for a “bird flu” or “swine flu” to turn into a human pandemic, it has to find an environment that favors both deadly virulence and ease of transmission.

People living in squalor on the Western Front at the end of World War I generated such an environment, from which the epidemic of 1918 could arise.

Likewise, crowded chicken farms, slaughterhouses, and jam-packed markets of eastern Asia provide another such environment, and that environment gave rise to the bird flu — a pathogen that both kills and spreads, in birds, but not in humans.

Says Ewald:

“We know that H5N1 is well adapted to birds. We also know that it has a hard time becoming a virus that can move from person to person. It has a hard time without our doing anything. But we can make it harder. We can make sure it has no human population in which to evolve transmissibility. There is no need to rely on the mass extermination of chickens. There is no need to stockpile vaccines for everyone.

By vaccinating just the people most at risk — the people who work with chickens and the caregivers — we can prevent it from becoming transmissible among humans. Then it doesn’t matter what it does in chickens.”

Please remember that, despite the fantastic headlines and projections of MILLIONS of deaths, the H5N1 bird flu virus killed a mere 257 people worldwide since late 2003. As unfortunate as those deaths are, 257 deaths worldwide from any disease, over the course of five years, simply does not constitute an emergency worthy of much attention, let alone fear!

Honestly, your risk of being killed by a lightning strike in the last five years was about 2,300 percent higher than your risk of contracting and dying from the bird flu.6 I’m not kidding! In just one year (2004), more than 1,170 people died from lighting strikes, worldwide.7

So please, as the numbers of confirmed swine flu cases are released, keep a level head and don’t let fear run away with your brains.

So is the Swine Flu Getting More or Less Dangerous?

On Sunday, April 26, The Independent reported that more than 1,000 people had contracted the swine flu virus in Mexico, 8 but by the afternoon that same day, Mexican President Calderon declared that more than two-thirds of the 1,300 thought to have contracted the disease had been given a clean bill of health and sent home.9

Additionally, the number of actual confirmed cases appears to be far lower than reported in many media outlets, leading me to believe that many reporters are interchanging the terms “suspected cases” and “confirmed cases.”

Interestingly Mexico is the ONLY country in the world where someone has actually died from this disease.Mexico has reported 152 fatalities in flu-like cases in recent days, seven of which have been confirmed as swine flu. Another 19 patients have been confirmed as having swine flu but surviving. About 2,000 people have been hospitalized with symptoms.
By contrast, the United States has had 64 confirmed cases, five hospitalizations and no deaths

According to the World Health Organization’s Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response site; as of April 27, there are:

* 64 laboratory confirmed cases in U.S. — 0 deaths (reported by CDC as of April 29)
* 26 confirmed cases in Mexico — 7 deaths
* 6 confirmed cases in Canada — 0 deaths
* 1 confirmed case in Spain — 0 deaths

Additionally, nearly all suspected new cases have been reported as mild.

Personally, I am highly skeptical. It simply doesn’t add up to a real pandemic.

But it does raise serious questions about where this brand new, never before seen virus came from, especially since it cannot be contracted from eating pork products, and has never before been seen in pigs, and contains traits from the bird flu — and which, so far, only seems to respond to Tamiflu. Are we just that lucky, or… what?

Your Fear Will Make Some People VERY Rich in Today’s Crumbling Economy

According to the Associated Press at least one financial analyst estimates up to $388 million worth of Tamiflu sales in the near future10 — and that’s without a pandemic outbreak.

More than half a dozen pharmaceutical companies, including Gilead Sciences Inc., Roche, GlaxoSmithKline and other companies with a stake in flu treatments and detection, have seen a rise in their shares in a matter of days, and will likely see revenue boosts if the swine flu outbreak continues to spread.

As soon as Homeland Security declared a health emergency, 25 percent — about 12 million doses — of Tamiflu and Relenza treatment courses were released from the nation’s stockpile. However, beware that the declaration also allows unapproved tests and drugs to be administered to children. Many health- and government officials are more than willing to take that chance with your life, and the life of your child. But are you?

Remember, Tamiflu went through some rough times not too long ago, as the dangers of this drug came to light when, in 2007, the FDA finally began investigating some 1,800 adverse event reports related to the drug. Common side effects of Tamiflu include:

* Nausea
* Vomiting
* Diarrhea
* Headache
* Dizziness
* Fatigue
* Cough

All in all, the very symptoms you’re trying to avoid.

More serious symptoms included convulsions, delirium or delusions, and 14 deaths in children and teens as a result of neuropsychiatric problems and brain infections (which led Japan to ban Tamiflu for children in 2007). And that’s for a drug that, when used as directed, only reduces the duration of influenza symptoms by 1 to 1 ½ days, according to the official data.

But making matters worse, some patients with influenza are at HIGHER risk for secondary bacterial infections when on Tamiflu. And secondary bacterial infections, as I mentioned earlier, was likely the REAL cause of the mass fatalities during the 1918 pandemic!

Where did This Mysterious New Animal-Human Flu Strain Come From?

Alongside the fear-mongering headlines, I’ve also seen increasing numbers of reports questioning the true nature of this virus. And rightfully so.

Could a mixed animal-human mutant like this occur naturally? And if not, who made it, and how was it released?

Not one to dabble too deep in conspiracy theories, I don’t have to strain very hard to find actual facts to support the notion that this may not be a natural mutation, and that those who stand to gain have the wherewithal to pull off such a stunt.

Just last month I reported on the story that the American pharmaceutical company Baxter was under investigation for distributing the deadly avian flu virus to 18 different countries as part of a seasonal flu vaccine shipment. Czech reporters were probing to see if it may have been part of a deliberate attempt to start a pandemic; as such a “mistake” would be virtually impossible under the security protocols of that virus.

The H5N1 virus on its own is not very airborne. However, when combined with seasonal flu viruses, which are more easily spread, the effect could be a potent, airborne, deadly, biological weapon. If this batch of live bird flu and seasonal flu viruses had reached the public, it could have resulted in dire consequences.

There is a name for this mixing of viruses; it’s called “reassortment,” and it is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created in the lab. Some scientists say the most recent global outbreak — the 1977 Russian flu — was started by a virus created and leaked from a laboratory.

Another example of the less sterling integrity of Big Pharma is the case of Bayer, who sold millions of dollars worth of an injectable blood-clotting medicine to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in the mid-1980s, even though they knew it was tainted with the AIDS virus.

So while it is morally unthinkable that a drug company would knowingly contaminate flu vaccines with a deadly flu virus such as the bird- or swine flu, it is certainly not impossible. It has already happened more than once.

But there seems to be no repercussions or hard feelings when industry oversteps the boundaries of morality and integrity and enters the arena of obscenity. Because, lo and behold, which company has been chosen to head up efforts, along with WHO, to produce a vaccine against the Mexican swine flu?

Baxter!11 Despite the fact that ink has barely dried on the investigative reports from their should-be-criminal “mistake” against humanity.

According to other sources,12 a top scientist for the United Nations, who has examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS victims, has concluded that the current swine flu virus possesses certain transmission “vectors” that suggest the new strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon.

The UN expert believes that Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and the current A-H1N1 swine flu virus are biological warfare agents.

In addition, Army criminal investigators are looking into the possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick — the same Army research lab from which the 2001 anthrax strain was released, according to a recent article in the Fredrick News Post.13 In February, the top biodefense lab halted all its research into Ebola, anthrax, plague, and other diseases known as “select agents,” after they discovered virus samples that weren’t listed in its inventory and might have been switched with something else.

Factory Farming Maybe Source of Swine Flu

Another theory as to the cause of Swine Flu might be factory farming. In the United States, pigs travel coast to coast. They can be bred in North Carolina, fattened in the corn belt of Iowa, and slaughtered in California.

While this may reduce short-term costs for the pork industry, the highly contagious nature of diseases like influenza (perhaps made further infectious by the stresses of transport) needs to be considered when calculating the true cost of long-distance live animal transport.

The majority of U.S. pig farms now confine more than 5,000 animals each. With a group of 5,000 animals, if a novel virus shows up it will have more opportunity to replicate and potentially spread than in a group of 100 pigs on a small farm.

With massive concentrations of farm animals within which to mutate, these new swine flu viruses in North America seem to be on an evolutionary fast track, jumping and reassorting between species at an unprecedented rate.

Should You Accept a Flu Vaccine — Just to be Safe?

As stated in the New York Times14 and elsewhere, flu experts have no idea whether the current seasonal flu vaccine would offer any protection whatsoever against this exotic mutant, and it will take months to create a new one.

But let me tell you, getting vaccinated now would not only offer no protection and potentially cause great harm, it would most likely be loaded with toxic mercury which is used as a preservative in most flu vaccines..

I’ve written extensively about the numerous dangers (and ineffectiveness) of flu vaccines, and why I do not recommend them to anyone. So no matter what you hear — even if it comes from your doctor — don’t get a regular flu shot. They rarely work against seasonal flu…and certainly can’t offer protection against a never-before- seen strain.

Currently, the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza are the only drugs that appear effective against the (human flu) H1N1 virus, and I strongly believe taking Tamiflu to protect yourself against this new virus could be a serious mistake — for all the reasons I already mentioned above.

But in addition to the dangerous side effects of Tamiflu, there is also growing evidence of resistance against the drug. In February, the pre-publication and preliminary findings journal called Nature Precedings published a paper on this concern, stating15:

The dramatic rise of oseltamivir [Tamiflu] resistance in the H1N1 serotype in the 2007/2008 season and the fixing of H274Y in the 2008/2009 season has raised concerns regarding individuals at risk for seasonal influenza, as well as development of similar resistance in the H5N1 serotype [bird flu].

Previously, oseltamivir resistance produced changes in H1N1 and H3N2 at multiple positions in treated patients. In contrast, the recently reported resistance involved patients who had not recently taken oseltamivir.

It’s one more reason not to bother with this potentially dangerous drug.

And, once a specific swine flu drug is created, you can be sure that it has not had the time to be tested in clinical trials to determine safety and effectiveness, which puts us right back where I started this article — with a potential repeat of the last dangerous swine flu vaccine, which destroyed the lives of hundreds of people.

Topping the whole mess off, of course, is the fact that if the new vaccine turns out to be a killer, the pharmaceutical companies responsible are immune from lawsuits — something I’ve also warned about before on numerous occasions.

Unfortunately, those prospects won’t stop the governments of the world from mandating the vaccine — a scenario I hope we can all avoid.

How to Protect Yourself Without Dangerous Drugs and Vaccinations

For now, my point is that there are always going to be threats of flu pandemics, real or created, and there will always be potentially toxic vaccines that are peddled as the solution. But you can break free of that whole drug-solution trap by following some natural health principles.

I have not caught a flu in over two decades, and you can avoid it too, without getting vaccinated, by following these simple guidelines, which will keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you’re far less likely to acquire the infection to begin with.

* Optimize your vitamin D levels. As I’ve previously reported, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency is likely the TRUE culprit behind the seasonality of the flu — not the flu virus itself.

This is probably the single most important and least expensive action you can take. I would STRONGLY urge you to have your vitamin D level monitored to confirm your levels are therapeutic at 50-70 ng.ml and done by a reliable vitamin D lab like Lab Corp.

For those of you in the US we hope to launch a vitamin D testing service through Lab Corp that allows you to have your vitamin D levels checked at your local blood drawing facility, and relatively inexpensively. We hope to offer this service by June 2009.

If you are coming down with flu like symptoms and have not been on vitamin D you can take doses of 50,000 units a day for three days to treat the acute infection. Some researchers like Dr. Cannell, believe the dose could even be as high as 1000 units per pound of body weight for three days.

*

Avoid Sugar and Processed Foods. Sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately, and as you likely know, a strong immune system is key to fighting off viruses and other illness. Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice.
*

Get Enough Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you’re tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu. Be sure to check out my article Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep for some great tips to help you get quality rest.
*

Have Effective Tools to Address Stress . We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness.

If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma. You can check out my free, 25-page EFT manual for some guidelines on how to perform EFT.
*

Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads. You can review my exercise guidelines for some great tips on how to get started.
*

Take a good source of animal based omega-3 fats like Krill Oil. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health. It is also vitally important to avoid damaged omega-6 oils that are trans fats and in processed foods as it will seriously damage your immune response.
*

Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don’t use antibacterial soap for this — antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to.
*

Eat Garlic Regularly. Garlic works like a broad-spectrum antibiotic against bacteria, virus, and protozoa in the body. And unlike with antibiotics, no resistance can be built up so it is an absolutely safe product to use. However, if you are allergic or don’t enjoy garlic it would be best to avoid as it will likely cause more harm than good.
* Avoid Hospitals and Vaccines In this particular case, I’d also recommend you stay away from hospitals unless you’re having an emergency, as hospitals are prime breeding grounds for infections of all kinds, and could be one of the likeliest places you could be exposed to this new bug. Vaccines will not be available for six months at the minimum but when available they will be ineffective and can lead to crippling paralysis like Guillain-Barré Syndrome just as it did in the 70s.

I want to know why Bensen can practically sit on Jenavieve or run over her with his toy lawn mower and she doesn’t make a peep or giggles about it…but when Sean or I bump or disturb her in the slightest she sure lets us know about it. It truly amazes me. I don’t know if she thinks she has me that fooled, or what it is, but it’s starting to drive me crazy. I think it’s cute that her and her big brother get along so well! He loves her to pieces, sometimes literally. lol jk! It sure is precious though. I can’t believe some days that God chose to give me these two wonderful children! As crazy as I may go, as much as I want to cry, I have never felt so much love and joy!

21 Days, is that really all it takes to form a new habit? I can’t say that I really know for sure. But, after some of the research I have done, I have decided to try to put that theory to practice for getting things in my life the “way” i want them “to be”. I know it won’t even be close to perfect, but I know that I can give it my best, so that’s what I am going to do!

I started a few weeks ago with my morning “routine” so to say. I was very quick to get on the computer as soon as i got up and checked my facebook, etc…but over the past few weeks, I really have been working at not spending so much time on facebook, originally I said, ok no more than 30 minutes. Realistically I haven’t been that good, but my time has been cut back significantly. I really have been wanting to spend more time actually reading the Bible to my kids, so now the mornings have gone a little bit more like this. I get the kids out of bed, start to get breakfast ready for Bensen. As his breakfast is cooking, I tend to “clean” the kitchen. Wipe down and disinfect for the day. Do any left over dishes, etc from the night before. Then while he’s eating breakfast I’ve been reading the correlating Proverbs that goes with the day of the month to Benben and Jenavieve. We’ve been really enjoying that time together, and I know that the kids don’t understand yet, but I’m forming that habit of morning devotions now. It’s been really exciting! So I have this whole “list” you could say of new commitments and habits I want to form. So what I’ve been wanting to do and working on is developing a system of sorts that has a list of 10-15 things on it I am taking each one at a time and taking 21 days devoted to making sure it happens. Reminders everywhere and even if I “don’t feel like it” making sure it happens. Now that sounds easy in theory, but it’s not of course. So if I don’t do it even just one day, the 21 days start all over again. I feel like I am actually getting somewhere. and I’m not overloading myself either, I’m only focusing on one area at a time, adding in only another one after 2-3 weeks (at least that’s the plan). That means that in a years time I can take 21 days only one area in life at a time and change 17 things in that year. It’s worth a shot! We’ll see how it goes I guess, but I’ve been feeling quite motivated and for once not completely overwhelmed and feeling behind before I start.

The next step I’m working on is keeping a specific spot in each area of the house as clean as possible. I tend to let my dresser pile up, the sink/counter pile up and the end wall table in the living room stack a mile high. I’m going to make it my new 21 day commitment to keep those areas clutter free and clean at all times. I’m going to try to develop some other “system” to putting away things that I want to stack up on there. In other words, it is simple enough to put the dishes right next to the sink in the dishwasher, or wash them right away. And find a new place to throw my purse when I walk in the house. Why in the world I feel the need to stack everything in sight on my dresser I don’t know, but these are the major areas I want to work on for 21 days starting this week. We’ll see how I do. From there after they are “working” out for me, I’ll attempt another three areas of the house, perhaps the kids dressers, the steps and the coffee/end table! LOL
Anyway, I guess that’s all for now. Meanwhile I’ll be working out the “list” and figure out the priorities and see how this whole thing plays out for me! I also just got a new book from my neighbor called “The House That Cleans Itself” I’ve read a few tips from there in the past and I’m very excited to dive in and really work on it! Ok, tah for now!

So I’ve been doing so research because now that we’ve got warmer weather approaching it seem as though are house has been breeding grounds for little crab spiders. And not to embarrass anyone here, but the standing deal in our house is, I deal with insects and my hubby deal with rodents! (Ahhh I HATE Rodents! AHH Getting chills just writing this!) Anyway, so I’ve been doing some research here on what to do about these “little” problems. Sean has been a little irritated with me that I won’t allow him to spray for these spiders that he hates so deeply. So I have recently decided to do some research on natural ways to deal with this dilemma. Some have actually worked, some I’m waiting to find out!
Spiders Top 3 Natural Deterrents:
1) Vinegar and Peppermint Essential Oil
2) Baking Soda
3) Eucalyptus leaves

Ants:
1) Vinegar and Peppermint Essential Oil
2) Bay Leaves
3) Dried Sage and Cinnamon

I read that ground cloves and cucumber peels also helps to deter ants, spiders, moths, mites, beetles and house flies too? Dunno because I haven’t had them all and haven’t tried it yet, but I think I’m going to!

Boric acid is also effective in actually killing silverfish, earwigs, stink bugs and various other insects too. I actually got a tip on using Borax (which I’ve been using to make home cleaners anyway) by itself sprinkled in by/behind the trashcan, refrigerator and dishwasher to stop insects from coming to those common problem areas. We deal with centipedes pretty badly in the winter too, so I am hoping that the borax will help with them. Along with spraying down the basement with the vinegar/peppermint mix. I know people probably come to my house and think that it stinks awful cause of all the vinegar I use. I try to cover it up and evaporate it with other things, I don’t know if I’m successful because I don’t even know if I can smell it anymore. But I can tell you, I swear it is a miracle product! lol I also read a few things about using Olive Oil as a deterrent, but I have no idea for what or how it works.

Anyway, so that’s about it!

Spraying down the basement again and hoping to get a lot of the dust and dampness taken care of too. Should help! We’ll see!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that mice are supposed to hate peppermint and cinnamon too. Again I don’t know how true that is because honestly I just want those suckers dead on contact! Alright I’m done for tonight, I really need to get to bed.

I can’t believe that it’s already almost 5pm! Where has this day gone? It’s so beautiful though, we really enjoyed a lot of fun playing outside today with the neighbors.

Anyway, Miss Jenavieve is growing up fast, and she is so ridiculously smart! I’m not saying that in a bragging way about my daughter at all, (I don’t think she’s anything special from other 4 month olds out there) but she has definitely got some things figured out at 4 months that I am sure took Bensen much longer to realize. Today for instance, she was inside in her exersaucer while Bensen and I were outside. I could hear her and could peak in a see her, and for no reason (other than she was done playing) decided to start crying. I left her go for a little while because just like Bensen when he was 3 months old, refuse to just pick up a crying baby just because they are crying. She was starting to get pretty upset and I could tell (or so I thought) there was something actually bothering her or wrong. So I came inside, she stopped crying completely for a second, looked at me, smiled a big smile with almost a giggle to it, then…get this…started up crying almost a totally fake crying scream! I couldn’t believe it was that blatant! I know that babies learn early how to manipulate and cry to get what they want, not because they are trying to be bad, they just learn cause and effect really early. I just want her to learn Mommy will take care of your needs make sure that you are dry and full, but just because you are “done with a toy” doesn’t mean I’m going to entertain your every whim! Anyway, so that’s exactly what my daughter did to me today. I’m also starting to have a little issue all of the sudden where she will cry for quite a while at night. Not because she is hungry or anything is wrong, and she doesn’t even necessarily want to be held (even if she did, I don’t just hold her anymore) she just cries. Weirdness! She is so different from Bensen, I love to watch her observe things and play with things now too. She loves her little toys and rattle dollies. Watching Bensen makes her giggle so sweetly too. Anyway, there was my brag on her ;0)

I guess it’s just another reminder of how hard it is to be consistent and to work at training up your children! Even when they are screaming crying babies about it! I always laugh at Sean whenever he asks, “Why are they being such babies about it?” Which reminds me often as to why I have to be such a baby about my own issues? lol Prayerfully we will have a better night for baby Jena, I pray these little crying fits aren’t because of some kind of pattern she’s learned. Early on I would hold her all night because she wouldn’t sleep unless she was being held. At newborn ages, it takes awhile to get used to just being alive, I have no problems with that. But she started really sleeping through the night awhile ago. She would go to be around 9:30 maybe wake up once or twice, fuss a minute or two, sometimes I would give her her binky and not get up to eat again until 5:30am or so. But it seems like the past 2 weeks or so she’s been waking up earlier and earlier and crying longer and longer!

Alright, I guess I am off to feed the fam…I’m happy it’s Friday night, I think we are going out to eat! Woot Woot!

We’ve been doing a semi-monthly Bible Study at my house on Managing Your Moods. This past weeks chapter was on Temper. When we first started talking about this, I thought this was the least of my “struggles” with moods and that I’m not out of control when it comes to temper. But after reading further and asking God to show me where how I can learn, I learned a lot! Too much. Let’s go back to my last two posts, (chuckling inside here) they were all about venting anger and frustrations. I seem to be doing that more and more. I get angry and think, I’m justified to be upset, “you” (whoever you are) aren’t doing it my way and you are just stupid because you aren’t doing it “right” or sensibly or BIBLICALLY for that matter! Oh yes, I go there in my head, and it’s really funny to me that I do because that’s something I strive so hard against and hate soooo badly is when people get all on their spiritual high horses about things and act like they got it all together and God is going to bless them beacuse they are doing “right in His eyes”. Ok, that was off topic, and YES God does bless us for practicing righteousness, but He gives us trials too. Anyway….this isn’t my point and I think I have a jumbled up mess in what I was trying to say….SO I’ll just say it.
I’m so guilty of a temper in my own selfish way! Truly and honestly, I do want to seek after God, and His ways and His blessings, but who do I think I am? We read Jonah 4:9 and God asked Jonah if it was right to be angry about the issue. And Jonah basically had a temper tantrum and said, YES it’s right to the point of death! Basically saying He God, back off, I can feel exactly how I want to feel, don’t tell me I shouldn’t be angry, I’m so angry I’ll just die! Pretty pathetic and pretty much me. I know i already shared Proverbs 29:11, but I also found Proverbs 18:2 that says, “A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart”. ouch for me! I always think for some reason I need to share what’s on my heart. I mean, it’s what is on my heart, so it’s real and should be shared with the world. Heck its why I even write on a blog or post facebook statuses LOL! Makes me wonder if I should even keep writing a blog, lol, not really, but in a way! So to those poor souls who actually read this, I am sorry. I would love to bless people and help them out with my writings, but that’s just not a gift God has given me thus far. SO, I write more for myself, as a journal and something to share with my kiddos later on in life. I’m really rambling off the point of my thoughts today. Well the point is, I really want to get into what Foolishness is. In God’s eyes. I don’t know that I take the word “fool” seriously enough. I’m not sure our culture takes that word seriously enough. No one wants to be called a fool, but sometimes I think that word carries deeper meaning than we give it. Like when Proverbs 29:11, or 18:2 or even 14:29 talks about it. Ok, more on that later. Baby crying and I must get going!

Ok, So I spent 45 minutes yesterday on my “venting” and what do I read in my devotions today?

Proverbs 29:11 -
“A FOOL VENTS all his feelings, but a WISE man (woman) holds them back”

Nice Megan! What a fool and oh how God works! Who says He doesn’t have a sense of humor and doesn’t speak to you daily? I guess the trick is actually looking to Him huh!?

Anyway, I’m not going to delete my “venting” entry only simply because it proves the point. I’m willing to learn, even though I am still so weak. Praise God for His Word, Instructions and Care!
His Grace and Love ARE Abundant!
Working on how to be wise, and holding my peace! Especially with these self absorbed “feelings”!

Ok, I’m going on a little venting rampage right now. I feel like total crap about my life and about who I am for God. I guess that’s how I should feel because I am worthless before God, but I KNOW the truth about who He has made me and WHAT He has done for me.
Its completely ridiculous and totally self indulging here to rant like I want to and am going to. But I am completely and utterly frustrated with me. I want one thing and I act completely differently. I hate how certain people make me feel, well I know they don’t make me feel that way, but the way that i respond to them. That’s not the point though. I don’t like who I am around them plain and simple. I want to grow and I feel like they keep me in it when I’m trying to get God to pull me out of it. I think thoughts that are absolutely horrific and sinful. I get self righteous and then just down right angry to tears, and it’s for sure not the be angry and sin not kinda anger, its just madness. I feel totally sick to my stomach and I just want to scream. I’ve been sitting here all afternoon thinking, should I call someone? My Mom? My friend? Even take Sean from work? Instead I’ve spent the past 10 minutes yelling at God for how I feel and now feel even worse, so I’m sure I’m writing this all to feel worse too. I don’t even know exactly what the issue is to “fix it”. I just know that I am hurt, frustrated and angry. Of course that’s get misconstrued by others as completely different emotions, which is turn gets me yet more hurt and more angry! Vicious little cycle I have going on here. Oh the immaturity of me really! The dirty rotten sinfulness that’s filling every part of me right now, and instead of cutting off the peptides that are filling my mind, I believe I am feeding them and I’m not sure why. And quite honestly when I feel like this, I’m not sure how to make them stop or if I want them to stop. I just want to have a reason to BE MAD. Ridiculous, this is NOT who I want to be…but it’s who I’m choosing right now!?!? WHAT?!?!?! Alright, I’m done for the moment. I think.

It started last night as I was reading A Mother After God’s Own Heart. I was feeling very convicted about the time I am spending for Him with them. Yes I play with my kids everyday, I even read to them everyday, and I pray with Ben at almost every meal and every nap/bed time. But the time I am really spending for God with my kids, is far too lax. I found several places of research that say by the time a child is between 4 and 5 their characters of who they are are pretty much set and is more difficult to change. That doesn’t mean at 5 I’m going to give up. But I find myself as an adult having to “redo” all kinds of things in my life when really, I wonder how much was set by age 4 or 5. (I’m not blaming my parents in anyway shape or form here. We are all dirty rotten sinners.) I just have been thinking, we are almost half way to that point with Bensen. And I would so much rather work two times harder with him now, than have him have to work at it ten times harder as an adult. I think I talk myself into believing that Bensen, or Jenavieve for that matter, don’t really understand. I can’t sit and just read the Bible alone to them. Stories about God, sure all the time, but the actual Word of God? They’ll never understand! WHAT LIES!!!! I don’t think you could believe the amount of conviction I am under and the tears and prayers to God right now over this very issue. I read Proverbs 31 today, I’ve read it a million times, but today, for the first time ever…the verse “she does not eat the bread of idleness” hurt me in a very deep way. I spend far too much time on facebook or playing games. I make excuses like it’s “down time” for me, or there is nothing else I feel like doing, or I’ll get to work later, or Jena’s eating, i can’t get up anyway. My poor husband has been concerned about the time I spend on the computer for a while now, and I’ve been getting mad at him, thinking, how dare he tell me what is or isn’t too much time! He’s on there all day, albeit for work! But it is all day. I’m horrible!
In any case, I have decided to limit my time to no more than 30 min a day on facebook, and no more than that on games. There isn’t anything wrong with it, and I’m not trying to make it out to be anything here. Just for me, I’ve made it something it shouldn’t be. I want to truly spend more time for God with my kids. I want to structure my kids days a little better than I have been. I know I’m going to make a thousand and ten mistakes in raising these precious kids. But I feel like the least I can do is “protection” control right now. I am replaying the verse in Deuteronomy over and over in my head, “my words shall be on your hearts and you shall teach them diligently to your children”. I don’t want to be some type of wonder mom here, but if I’m not diligently teaching them God’s Word, than who is? This isn’t easy for me. This isn’t even something I picture myself doing. I don’t want to “be fake” with my kids about God. I don’t want to “do it” just because I know I should, but because it’s out of love for God and my children. I desperately want my kids to be excited for Christ, and I know that won’t just happen. It needs Him to pull them to Himself, and He put me in charge of being their guide. “A child left to himself will bring shame to his mother” Proverbs (?I forget already!?)
Anyway, that’s my little rant right now. I’ve got much to do and much prayer is needed. I’m worried to be honest, not of doing it, but of my own wicked heart. I’m worried that my kids are going to think “oh mom, here she goes again” and push them away instead of pushing them towards God and towards their Daddy’s and my hearts. It’s not easy. Anyone that does actually stumble on this and reads it, I ask you to just pray for us. And I will try to do the same for every Mom of God out there! It’s a battle for souls that’s for sure!