This week's winner!

We have another fantastic book to give away this week! Christina Rich has a novel out entitled The Guardian's Promise. I love the cover and it looks like a fantastic book.

Congratulations to Ceil! She is the winner of this week's giveaway! We hope you enjoy the book.

I hope you will all come back next week because we are giving away a copy of Falling to Pieces by Vannetta Chapman. See you all next week!

Natural Remedies for Acid Reflux

I'm doing something a little different today. I've suffered from acid reflux for sixteen years, and since I've heard of other people mention they suffer from the same thing I thought I'd give you some tidbits about what induces mine and what helps bring relief.

I know what you're thinking, why not just take an over the counter medication. I've tried those, I also spent quite a while on prescription medications, but my body decided it couldn't tolerate them.



My acid reflux inducer

caffeine
chocolate
tomato sauces
white potatoes

Surprised? I was. No, not by the chocolate and caffeine, and certainly not by tomato sauces. I was, however, shocked by the potatoes. And I'll tell you, that little discovery was a God thing. Since my acid reflux was so bad, and I had this little voice in the back of my head telling me that prolonged Gerd can cause cancer, I had decided to eat nothing but potatoes. They're bland, right? So I shouldn't have had a problem. Boy, was I wrong. And if I thought my acid reflux had been bad before, the potatoes brought it to a whole different level, or two, or three. I can honestly understand how people can mistake acid reflux for a heart attack. It felt as if my chest was ripping apart. Turns out I'm allergic to white potatoes, and tomatoes, and I guess you can say all the other nightshade plants.

My acid reflux relief

sauerkraut
ginger
apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda in 8oz of water
apples

As you can probably imagine, if you even like sauerkraut, it can only be tolerated for a short time. Ginger works, but it's not as effective as the apple cider vinegar. The baking soda water takes a while getting use to, and it doesn't always last as long with the severe cases, but it's great for your alkaline once you do. The absolute best thing I've found for relief is eating or fresh juicing an apple. Fuji apples work the best, followed by Pink Lady. I think the juicier they are the better.

You know the old saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor away? Well, I'm finding there is some great truth to it, and not just for treating acid reflux, but that's another blog for another day.

What are some of your favorite natural remedies?

Crafting the Quilt

I love quilts, old-new, contemporary-traditional. It doesn't matter. I love the creativity and the art work that goes into each one. In September, I went to the Kansas State Fair and found quilt heaven. My mother and I can get lost in the varying layers of quilts. The initial impression, and the the close-up detail. Not that I'm an expert, but since I work with furniture and sew I can usually spot a crooked line with no problem.

I have made a few quilts. and although I've made a small pieced together quilt, most of my quilts have been simple squares tied with pieces of yarn. I've never appliqued and I've never hand-quilted one, both are on my bucket list. And ever since my visit to the fair, I've had an itch to get back to stitching.

The first one I want to do isn't one on my bucket list, but it is one I believe has a great deal of importance. It's a scripture quilt. Notice how this is just one piece of fabric? I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do with it. My initial thought was to cut out the individual scripture squares and sew them to an accented fabric to make a queen/king sized quilt. Now, I'm not so sure. That might be a bit too much for the person I intended on making it for. So now I'm considering making four separate wall size quilts, one for each of my children.

What do you think? If someone made this for you what would you prefer?