This year, I resolve to do unto myself what I would have myself do unto others. Wait… what? Continue reading “Resolution for 2010”
Wart Remedy that Actually Works
The kids and I were going through old pictures today when we ran across a picture of the worst wart ever. You’ll have to click “more” if you want to see it — don’t look if you’ve got a strong gag reflex. And actually it wasn’t the worst wart ever, now that I think of it. He had some on his feet that were bigger than a fifty cent piece. (Bah! And after all that I forgot to add a More link so it displayed the whole thing! d’oh!)
But anyway, the whole reason I’m posting this is because we’d forgotten how bad it was, and what a miracle it was we found a remedy that actually works. And since someone had asked the other day how we got rid of his warts, I figured I’d post the solution here. If you want it and don’t mind the gross picture, go ahead!
You’ll need ALL of these things (getting the right combination is important)
– Apple Cider Vinegar
– Cotton Swabs
– Duct Tape
– Clear Nail Polish
– cheap, DISPOSABLE emery boards (a pack of 5 from Sally’s would work)
– hand sanitizer
On the first night:
1) Lightly buff the surface of the wart with an emery board. Wash away the dust and use some hand sanitizer, and throw away the board.
2) Break the cotton off the top of a swab. You should have a ball about the same size as the wart. In Ethan’s case, we had to use small cotton balls instead.
3) Dampen the cotton with the vinegar, put it on the wart, and duct-tape it in place, sealing off the edges as best as you can so you can sleep.
In the morning, remove the duct tape, wash everything and let it dry, and then give the wart a few coats of nail polish.
At night, pick off the nail polish and put on a fresh swab of vinegar with your duct tape.
After a day or two, you’ll notice some black specks on the surface of the wart. It’s dying. My son said this hurts a bit.
Keep repeating this process for a few days until the wart turns completely black. Then skip the apple-cider vinegar swab and duct-tape routine. Don’t worry about picking off the nail polish either at this point. Just add a fresh coat every day. After a few days, the wart will fall off and should be gone for good.
These are some things we had tried:
– Salicylic Acid Patches
– Compound W
– Freeze-it-Yourself Kits
– Freezing it at the Doctor’s Office
– Lemon Juice
– Wrapping in Duct tape only
– Wrapping in Duct tape With salicylic acid patches
– Tagamet / Zantac (supposedly can wake up a dozing immune system)
– Burning it with the end of a still-hot match
– Slicing the top off it with a razor (I think this is what made it bigger. NOT my idea and I don’t recommend it)
He even tried the suggestion to rub the wart several times per day with a washcloth and repeat, “Wart, Go away.”
None of that worked. The vinegar solution caused the wart to turn black and die in a matter of days, and within 2 weeks the wart was gone completely. In fact, even his smaller, non-treated warts disappeared quickly as well after that.
Anyway. Here’s the picture of the wart about to die. Hopefully yours isn’t this nasty. If it is though, take hope .. and start using some vinegar!
New Traditions
Weeks before Halloween, as I was tucking her into bed, Mary gushed, “I am SO excited for Christmas this year… we get to have TWO sets of traditions now!” Kids are so good at looking on the bright side! So over the past few weeks, we’ve been starting some new traditions. I thought I’d share two…
I’m not sure where we first saw the idea of Advent Socks — I’m thinking it was Better Homes and Gardens or Family Fun, but I’ve wanted to try it ever since, and as Mary put it, this year we get to start any new tradition we’d like! So just before Thanksgiving, I bought twelve pairs of cute dollar-store socks, and a set of clothespins to hang them up with. Each day we get to do a Christmas activity and read a scripture. One of our friends found this printable advent calendar at Kid’s Corner as a perfect list of activity and scripture suggestions.
Ethan came up with the idea for our tree. We bought three different colors of green paper and cut out seven hands for each of us. On each hand, we wrote down little acts of kindness we could do, and then we arranged them into a tree shape using pieces of poster putty. Any time the kids do one of those items, they can put a star sticker on that hand. And since Christmas is about giving and appreciating what we’ve been given, next we cut out round ornaments and wrote some things we’re thankful for on each one. We finished it off with a paper star and a trunk torn from a grocery bag. I think it’s adorable, and it’s really helping us get in the spirit of Christmas.
In case you couldn’t see so through the grain of my photo, the kids really are having a blast. 🙂 And we’re enjoying trying out other budget-friendly traditions too… what does your family do?
Pineapple Upside Brownies
Add a scoop of icecream to make this taste just like a hot fudge and caramel sundae with pineapple on top. It’s really just your typical Pineapple Upside Down Cake, only made with a brownie recipe instead. And I use the term recipe loosely.
Continue reading “Pineapple Upside Brownies”
New Ideas in Healthcare
Dichotomy is the death of creativity, and our political system is the ultimate example. Case in point: there have to be hundreds of ways to solve the collective set of healthcare problems we’ve got, and thousands of ways to solve the individual issues, but all our energy has been focused in fighting for or against the plan in place. So let’s brainstorm instead. Continue reading “New Ideas in Healthcare”
Not this “but” that
I bought the School House Rock DVD about two years ago, and got a pretty good laugh when I caught Mary running around the house singing “Conjunction junction, who lost function?” A funny chica she is.
That’s of course not exactly how the song goes. It says “What’s your function?” instead, and the function is to hook up words and phrases and clauses. And then we learn about several conjunctions and how they work. I’d like to focus on the word “but” since we’re sometimes oblivious to its power. Continue reading “Not this “but” that”
