A Bunch of Burts

Last week, Ema’s eye began hurting her.
She was developing a sty. I hate those nasty things, they hurt and ache and even blinking becomes a bother. And for the sty-ee, they seem to take forever to clear up.

My friend, MR, noticed Ema’s eye and gave a great tip.

She said her mom always rubbed a gold ring on a sty when it was beginning and it would clear right up. Ema’s sty was more than just beginning, but we gave it a try. In the morning after breakfast, and at night before bed, we gently rubbed Ema’s eye with Greg’s wedding band. (His is wider than mine and easier to use). After one day: a marked improvement, and after two: all the soreness was gone and the redness had pretty well disappeared. By the looks of her eye before the gold treatment, I would have given it another 4-5 days to clear up on its own.

MR said she asked a doctor why this works, and he replied that both gold and silver are natural antibiotics. (Caution: gold and silver are also heavy metals, DO NOT take internally. although if you have the wherewithall to be eating gold, may I send you our contact info? )

You know, now that I think about it, burn patients often have bandages impregnated with silver too, to help the healing process.

Wow, what an awesome God we have, He really thought of everything didn’t He? I love finding little bits of info like this that make me appreciate the Creator and His creation more and more.

There is more valuable advice, yummy recipes and helpful hints waiting for you at Shannon’s Works for Me Wednesday Have fun searching!

Just before we left for our holiday adventure in the NE, Ema had her birthday too. We were able to find an afternoon for her to have her party in the midst of packing and preparing to leave.
Can you believe she is 11? Yikes!

She had a backwards theme for her party this year and it turned out to be lots of fun.

Of course, you eat cake first.

hmmm, there appears to be some sort of madman in the background. Better serve that cake quick and placate him!

And blow out your candles and then sing Happy Birthday, backwards, what else?. (That is not as easy as it sounds. )

We even came up with some backwards style games.

Silent Chairs : you sit when the music comes on

I am Who? : each child gets ‘tagged’ on the BACK with an animal and they must guess who they are by only asking yes or no questions. But here is the tricky part. The answers are backwards!
Yes= no and no=yes. Tricky and silly

Pencil in the bottle: This is a game of partners. The one with the pencil tied to a string around their waist is blindfolded, and they must try to dip down and get the pencil in the bottle by only using the verbal directions of their partner.
Of course the pencil is hanging down the BACK side.

You may be wondering why all the girls are dressed alike. They came home with Ema from school, and had all just had PE. Does make for some nice coordinated pictures though.

Happy Birthday Ema, we love you!

P.S.
We are always on the lookout for great and easy birthday ideas. Zach turns 10 in March, do you have any suggestions? As a girl myself, boys parties are always harder for me, and I could use some help.

After the scorching temperatures of April, we have warmly welcomed the cooler breezes and mercury readings that have come with many days of rain and wind and storms. The overcast and sometimes drizzly days remind us of home and make us a bit homesick. I know, most people look forward to the sun and not overcast skies, but we are a bit strange that way. Well, at least I am.

Zach likes it too! He is getting drenched in some very heavy rain!

We have discovered that with the rain has come an alarming multitude of bugs! We had a fie dap, a power outage, earlier this week. When we arrived home around 7:30, no power at all, so we went around finding candles and dispersing them throughout the house. As I carried the only light in the house, I was attacked by every flying bug around! They were crawling in my hair, down my shirt and in my face. yuck! After the lights came on, it appeared that every crawling thing in Chiang Mai had decided to move in under cover of darkness! Thankfully they generally stay downstairs.

We have also been amazed to discover the ingenuity and hardiness of ants. Our house is made of concete, from the foundation to wall to floors, and yet, the walls seem inhabitated by many hordes of ants, which have become more brazen the longer we live here. We daily have an ant battle in the morning, among other creatures. That is the real reason I have Greg get up before me! Oh yes, and the bit of extra sleep too!

We are often amazed at the places the ants get into and the tunnels they disappear into that seem to have been dug into the cement walls. It should have been no surprise then when I found ants in my eggs. I do not mean just walking all over the eggs, but they had drilled into an egg and were eating it!

God has certainly allowed us to acclimate to many things here, and the insects are no expection. When we first arrived, a couple members of the family who shall remain nameless, (right Ema?), freaked out at the sight of every gecko and lizard and bug they saw. But now we can all brandish the broom to kill the cockroaches and gleefully wipe out a column of ants with the best of them.

Earlier this year, Ema’s class put on a play about the Pied Piper and I thought to myself, he can get rid of hordes of rats and a whole town of children, how about masses of ants? But wouldn’t you know it, he is never around when you need him, and probably so booked up, he now has an unlisted number!

I do not have any pics of the ant battalions, but here are a couple of other interesting bug pictures.

What appears to be some kind of moss or lichen are many little fuzy bugs. They have a sort of moth-like body, but instead of wings, have fuzzy white ‘hair’. When you touch them, some kind of white powdery stuff comes off on you. They jump too! We have been told that they are delicious too, but will take that as fact without requiring empirical evidence.

This one jumped onto Zach, you can sort of see the shape better here.

Need a place for a science project? We have some great bug studying opportunities here!