How Things Are Going...

...Well, we're planning my mother's 80th birthday party. The birthday has already happened, but with other stuff (including the birth of her most recent great-grandchild) going on, it got busy. 

So my SIL texts me and says, "What are we doing for your mom's b-day? [Brother] has no idea."

Well. It was HIS idea. And he even set the menu! After consulting with Sis, and agreeing that Brother was a MORON, I texted back with a repeat of the menu and we have it all straightened out. 

I dropped off some cake totes to my mom (shower, baby, which I thankfully didn't have to attend!), and we discussed it. She asked, "Are you letting [Brother] pay for all the main course?" Well. Yeah. You're dumb enough to forget what you said you'd do, you get to pay for it. 

Besides, I'm doing cupcakes, tortellini salad, baked beans and likely something else. For years, I've organized these things - time for someone else to step up... 

I'm making small cupcakes. Mom likes cupcakes. And I'm using these Russian frosting tips. I have 3 of the tips set aside - the complete set is something like 20 tips, and there are no numbers on them, so we have to figure out a way to identify them all, and lucky me - I get to play with all of 'em to see what they make! Mom and I talked, and she prefers the smaller ones - cupcakes, I mean - particularly since this is a LOT of frosting! I'm going to practice, and we'll see how they come out. I'll just fiddle with some waxed paper. I want to get a feel for them. All I should have to do is make a batch of frosting, tint some green and tint some pink, and maybe coral. She likes pink. So - roses and tulips. 

Clean Eating...

I'm working toward clean eating. Or at least cleaner than I used to eat. One of the things is that I have to clean out my kitchen. Today, at the store, I saw this. 

Look at the ingredients lists. I've circled them. Yes, the Daisy costs more. But look at the INGREDIENT in it. 

The store brand is more economical. And the ingredients include something double-starred that says "an ingredient not normally included in sour cream." Yikes... What the heck?? Bad enough that one of the ingredients is cellulose. That's wood fiber, folks. 

I have also cleaned out my cleaning equipment. I've gotten rid of the toxic stuff. I use vinegar and water for windows, I use Thieves Fruit & Vegetable wash on the produce I buy. I use Thieves cleaner for the rest of the cleaning. I use a natural dish soap. 

I've also cleaned out my personal care products. Got rid of everything that I found with formaldehyde (nail polish), parabens, phthalates, triclosan, SLS, toluene, and propylene glycol. 

And yeah - left my shelves pretty bare. But the stuff I'm using? At least I know I'm doing the best I can to "detox" - and I know that in today's world, it's impossible to totally eliminate toxins from your body. But I can do what I can do. 

And it can start with something as simple as sour cream. 

It's a Dog's Butt...

So Quinn's at it again... There's a cyst that's bothering her. I'm using an essential oil and ointment to calm it down. The vet doesn't want to do surgery on it because of the location. 

Tonight, she got a treatment with Young Living Essential Oils Animal Scents line. I cleaned it off, used Puriclean, then used InfectAway and finally, Mendwell. I sealed it all in with just a dab of Animal Scents Ointment. And yeah - she's in the "inner tube of shame," so in order to assuage her doggie dignity, I gave her a smidgen of cheese. 

Her dignity will be further affronted when Hubby trims away some of the hair, so that the area has air circulation. Even though I'm "sealing in" the beneficial oils, the Elkhound double coat is pretty dense, and it can be a problem with wounds healing. 

She's in the bathroom, only mildly offended. Tippi sniffed, but left her rear end alone. 

Each of them got a little head-rub with Lavender, since there are fireworks going off, but they're not as bothered as they were on the 4th of July. Of course, the entire neighborhood wasn't shooting them off tonight either!

I'm hoping that the essential oils work. Many oils are good for animals and many oils are good for the skin (human and canine). Essential Oils have been used a lot. It's something you do have to get your dog used to, and some dogs - they just don't like them. Like humans, they all have opinions. 

I've been gradually introducing them to the dogs, and I think they're at least getting used to them. 

Random Picture...

So I went into the bathroom this morning to brush my teeth. This is my furry grey bathmat (who had her head up and was smiling till she saw the phone...). And somehow, it hit me... She's going on 10 - she'll be 10 in January. 

Our Elkhound group has had a lot of losses lately. The dogs - they don't live forever, and that 15 or so years? Goes by in a blink. And with Tippi? It's less than that because we didn't get her till she was around 2. So we're in the dark with the actual history of her mom and dad, and any potential health problems. 

So far, we've been lucky, though she REALLY needs to lose weight. And no, we don't feed her a lot. She gets fed 3x/day, and in total gets about 1 1/4 cup of high-quality dog food. It's not a lot of food. She got really heavy after she was spayed, and it wasn't because she was getting treats. I don't use a lot of treats. Even in training, I was breaking those things up - practically into molecules!! It's like the weight just gloms onto her. 

Kind of like what it does to me... Hmmmmm. Maybe I was an Elkhound in a prior life??

So anyway. It hit me. One day (sooner than I want - no matter how long she lives), I won't have my furry grey bathmat. She won't be here. My heart actually dropped. 

I've had a few special dogs in my life. She's one of them.