When a woman marries a man, she gains an extra seven hours of housework each week. The man drops an hour. The findings are part of a detailed study of housework trends, based on 2005 time-diary data from the federally funded Panel Study of Income Dynamics, at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research (ISR). Obviously, she’s doing his laundry. The new lovebirds are also eating out less, so she’s cooking.

Once the woman has three children, her household chores go up to 28 hours per week, while the man gains ten hours. (The study stopped at 3 children; but if they would have asked me, I would have told them what happens when you have four boys. The number shoots up to 1,432, exactly.)  Housework is defined as laundry, cooking and cleaning, and this study excluded the time moms spend scheduling doctor’s appointments, sports and play dates and keeping track of everyone in the family. But dads do much of the maintenance, yard work and car repairs, which was also excluded from the study. Yet, those tasks only took about one-quarter of the hours women spent on core household tasks.

But what about men working outside the home? That should count for something, right? Michael Burda of Humboldt University in Berlin, Daniel Hamermesh of the University of Texas, and Philippe Weil of the Free University of Brussels have analyzed data from surveys in 25 countries and found that in the United States, men average 5.2 hours of market work a day and 2.7 hours of homework each day, while women average 3.4 hours of market work and 4.5 hours of homework per day. Adding these up, men work an average of 7.9 hours per day, while women work an average of 7.9 hours per day.

Yet, mothers have not always done all the housework either. In her book More Work For Mother, Ruth Schwartz Cowan reveals

Mother’s Day Art: My Mom Can Do Anything

(and hey, you, my own flesh and blood, my eyes are BLUE, remember?)

that it was the man who once held the primary responsibility of putting bread on the table — literally. Man tilled the soil, grew the wheat and had it milled. The man grew the grain, fed the livestock and butchered the animals. Once meat was available in tins, livestock was no longer necessary to feed the family. It was the industrial revolution, really, that relieved men and children of their chores: Men went to factories to earn the money to buy the goods they no longer produced at home, (meat in tins, white flour, woven cloth), and children went to public schools. Mom was left behind, alone, with her new labor saving devices, and higher expectations to do and create more. Mountains of laundry, for example, hardly existed until factories made it possible for families to buy cloth cheap. Until then, people only owned a few items of clothing that were hardly washed. Today, we need walk-in closets to handle all of our stuff.

We never expected as much from our brooms as we do of our vacuum cleaners. Our appliances may make our homes cleaner, but they come with the accompanying advertisements, and guilt, for spotless sterile homes that hold no evidence that humans, pets or the dust of the earth has ever crossed our thresholds. It’s tough to relax among the standards the media places on us.

Thankfully, these new labor saving devices have greatly increased the cleanliness, safety and hygiene of our families. Did they really save us time? Cowan says, “Women still spend as much time on home maintenance as they did eighty years ago, with less help.”

Women today are the victims of what Sharon Lerner, author of The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation, says moms are part of the “great sea of beleaguered and overburdened people in America—mostly women, but some men, too—stuck between the need to support their families and the desire to live a decent life with them.” She adds, “Moms do not have enough time to handle the inevitable overflow of domestic responsibilities.”

So many moms feel literally choked by our unrelenting responsibilities. Is the reason our to-do list grows instead of shrinks simply because it is impossible? Are we still living by the household standards of our ancestors, who had husbands, children, and extended families pitching in and helping with the chores? We’ve been trying to find balance all this time, and society can’t even begin to support what we’ve taken on.

A little publicized fact came out in the University of Michigan research is that while moms still carry the heaviest load of core chores, men’s housework has increased to 13 hours in 2005, from six hours in 1976. Women’s work was never meant to be a woman’s work alone. It’s nice that dads are agreeing to share in the chores, just like their forefathers did.

From my Newspaper Column for the SNP

She has removed the password from his Caring Bridge site, because she wants to spread the word. Seth needs prayers. The next 24 hours are critical. Feb 5, 2010 was supposed to be a day of celebration. The date would have marked the end of Seth’s 6-year battle with leukemia. Instead, Seth received more chemotherapy for the illness that was supposed to leave the 13-year-old alone by now. They also received the devastating news that not one of his 3 sisters is a bone marrow donor match.

Yesterday, a throbbing headache led Seth back to the hospital, where they learned he is now septic. He has no white cells to fight the infection. You can read the details and updates here.

All I can think about is the day, 9 years ago, when Seth was dressed like Robin Hood, running around the tree house in our backyard. Wendi, loving mom, made the costume. She made all of Seth’s costumes — including the Obi-Wan Kenobi , Buzz Lightyear, and Jedi Knight costumes. We were always impressed by her talent. The sun lit up Seth’s golden hair, and his blue eyes twinkled at me as he gripped his light saber, wondering if I was going to take away the light sabers because they were all hitting too hard. Our boys were so young and small then; we could pick them up with one arm, and hold them tight. All day long, I’ve been stuck on that day, trying to will it back. I just want to help my friend.

But we are not there. We are here. His parents want to help spread the word about bone marrow donations. I will do my part. Wendi says, “It’s one of the few organs you can donate without being dead to do it.”

Each year, we donate our blood to stock the blood banks, and this is as routine as filling up the car with gas. But how many of us have ever considered donating our bone marrow?

For some, fear is the reason we’ve never considered this gift. Fear can always be traced to unknowns. Here is what is known: No pieces of your bone are taken. Seventy five percent never need surgery; in most cases you’ll only need to give peripheral blood stem cells, which is similar to donating plasma. A bone marrow donation is a surgical procedure, done under anesthesia. Yet, both are treated as outpatient, and you go home the same day. Some donors are sore afterwards; some are not. In 2-7 days, most donors are back to normal. Most donors say they would do it again to save a life.

Thanks to advances in medicine, many of us will be hearing more about transplants; they’re increasingly becoming a path to save lives. Sometimes, it’s the only hope people have. Just like Seth, over 70 percent are unable to find a donor match within their family. Yet, even with a registry of millions, many patients still cannot find a match.

You can visit www.BeTheMatch.org to join the Be The Match Registry online. They’ll mail you a kit so that you can simply swab your cheeks at home and mail it back. Or, you can register in person February 20 at Premier Women’s Health, (614-459-1000 Ext 2007), from 8 a.m.– 1 p.m.

Since he won’t be getting a bone marrow transplant from one of his sisters, Seth hopes to get his marrow from “someone famous…. that would be cool.” Wendi wrote on Seth’s Caring Bridge web page, “In my eyes, the person who shares this gift of life with my son may not be famous, but will be truly heaven sent. An angel. A lifesaver. What more could you ever hope to be in this world?”

Is having more time to look at the stars. I know Winter Solstice is bringing us longer days… but it’s still pretty dark around here. Here’s an article from my newspaper column.

I saw no stars on that cloudy night at the Perkins Observatory. Instead of stardust, the astronomers there sprinkled my mind, and the minds of the first- and second-graders there, with wonder.

They reminded me that when we look up, we see the past; the light is already billions of years old. They reminded us that our vast galaxy is just beginning its life. Our 4.5 billion-year-old sun is still less than halfway through its life. The future lying ahead is more prolonged than the past we’ve seen.

These concepts are staggering to comprehend, but the gem here comes from remembering what my seventh-grade history teacher used to repeat: “You can’t understand the future until you understand the past.” Four hundred years ago, Galileo turned his telescope away from the sea and began to look at the heavens, and thus 2009 is our International Year of Astronomy (IYA).

Galileo’s shift of his telescope changed the world not simply because he looked, but because he observed the sky night after night while meticulously filling in the details in his observing log. He saw that the stars do shift positions, and when one star vanished, he discovered not a star, but a moon hiding behind Jupiter.

Because our word shares the same sky, astronomy is a great unifier, and may even hold our potential for world peace. Satellite pictures of our earth show us the geographic boundaries of our continents, while the political boundaries vanish.

This revelation led astronomers in Iran to create StarPeace, a project of IYA to hold joint public star parties near the borderlines of two neighboring countries. On Dec. 4, people from Indonesia and the Philippines came together to make a peace bridge on South China Sea, with teachers and astronomers offering free public viewings of the stars through high-powered telescopes.

The amateur astronomer George Eric Deacon Alcock discovered five comets on his own through meticulous viewings and recordings in his observing log. Backyard astronomers, like you, can use their eyes, telescopes and binoculars to create their own observing logs. Binoculars provide a wider field of view than telescopes.

In the winter, no other constellation is more distinct or bright as Orion, the Mighty Hunter. This month, if the sky is clear — a minor  miracle — look for three bright stars that form Orion’s Belt. One of the brightest stars in the night sky, Rigel, represents Orion’s foot. His two shoulders are made of the stars Bellatrix and Betelgeuse.

Orion will wait for you; he will remain recognizable in the night sky for the next 1 to 2 million years, making it one of the longest observable constellations.

As we stand solidly on earth looking up, we can barely fathom our place in a galaxy that is showing us our billion-year-old past. But imagine, for a moment, looking at earth from space, where there is no solid footing. An astronaut once revealed to me the universal secret astronauts hold: They are homesick. Not for earth, but for space.

He described the familiar heavy pull of gravity as the carrier sped back toward earth, and he instantly felt a longing for the lightness he knew in space. With tears in his eyes, he also added, “The earth looks beautiful from space. The earth glows, and it pulsates with energy.”

UPDATE:  Nate has received an abundance of cards, and he is overwhelmed with gratitude. You have helped him reach his dream. He is now very weak, and volunteers and family are opening the cards and reading them to him. If you would like to make a donation earmarked for hospice in Nate Elfrink’s name, you can do so at Nationwide Children’s Hospital Foundation. You can mail donations to the foundation at 700 Children’s Dr., Columbus, OH 43205.  You can read an update in the Columbus Dispatch here:

Nate Elfrink is 7 years old. This will be his last Christmas. Since he was 20 months old, he has battled a brain tumor, which led him through three surgeries, and many rounds of radiation and chemotherapy. The tumor fights hard; it keeps coming back with a vengeance.

Because his tumor is so close to his brain stem, a fourth surgery is not possible. His doctors at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee, have found a new chemotherapy treatment that will shrink Nate’s tumor. But not fast enough.

Nate is the kind of little boy with a big heart, who manages to leave a mark on your own heart. An article in the Columbus Messenger says, “Nate has never complained about treatments or doctor’s appointments, she said. He has always just asked what was on the schedule and how soon he’d be able to play. In fact, when Nate and Tod (his Dad) got off the plane from their last visit to St. Jude, Nate wanted to go straight to Wal-Mart to get ingredients for cookies he is making to personally deliver to teachers, friends and family.

“We will not pursue any further treatment. He has been through enough,” Dode Elfrink, Nate’s mother, wrote in an update to friends and family on Dec. 4. “We plan on having the merriest Christmas ever and cherishing each and every day that we have our wonderful, brave, handsome son.”

As you wipe away the tears to see your computer screen, Nate wants you to know that you can help make one of Nate’s last wishes come true. All he wants is to receive one million Christmas cards this year.

I know I have readers in Australia, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, India and Hawaii — so get your stamps and mails those cards. Get the kids to get out their colored pencils, the glitter, the construction paper and send Nate a personal message.

On December 11, at 6 p.m., hold a light in your heart for Nate and his family. Nate will help Santa flip the switch to turn on light display at Garrette Park, in his hometown of West Jefferson, Ohio. On Dec. 12 at 5:30 p.m. Nate will ride with Santa on a float in the West Jefferson Christmas in the lighted parade. May Nate’s spirit light your heart this year.

You can grab this badge by going into your blog’s html editor and copying and pasting this code:

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As parents, we have done a respectable job of teaching our four boys that smoking is a dirty, smelly, dangerous habit that is highly addictive and one that could ruin their lives. I think our plan has worked; our kids are repulsed by the smell of smoke — not just the smell, but the very idea of breathing harmful chemicals sends them reeling in disbelief. “Why would anyone ever do that?”

My sons have visited the hospital room of a dying relative, a life-long smoker, who had his voice box removed because of cancer. The facts from this post were referenced from my 7th grade son’s persuasive essay homework assignment.

I don’t think we have been too harsh in our portrayal of creating smoking as the evil killer that it is. While smoking directly kills, the Centers of Disease Control say that each year 65,000 people die from secondhand smoke in the United States alone. In just 20 minutes, secondhand smoke can do great damage to person’s health. Secondhand smoke is unfiltered, making it more harmful than inhaling a cigarette. That filter, that protects the smoker, blocks some of the 4,000 chemicals (250 are toxic) that are released when the cigarette is burning. The result is cancer, respiratory illnesses and heart attacks.

Because they have faster breathing rates, children inhale greater amounts of smoke than adults and inhale more chemicals. “A child who spends just one hour in a very smoky room is inhaling as many dangerous chemicals as smoking 10 or more cigarettes.”

I have no problem with the smoking ban in public places.

The ramifications to recent smoking bans have, presumably, wrecked havoc on tobacco companies. Understandably, they are fighting back with a vengeance. “You don’t like smoke? Fine. We’ll take the smoke out of the cigarette.”

The R.J. Reynolds Company has responded with new smokeless tobacco products. Camel Orbs are similar to breath mints. The same breath mints my kids like. Camel Sticks are like toothpicks, and Camel Strips are similar to mouthwash strips. The packaging looks similar to gum and candy packs. It’s handy, small, and appealing to small hands.

These new dissolvable tobacco products leave no smell behind — cleaner than cigarettes or chewing tobacco. There is no hacking cough, and no odor. They are specifically designed to dissolve quickly in the mouth and disappear entirely. These products do not carry the health ramifications associated with second-hand smoke, because there is no smoke.

The Camel Orbs, Camel Sticks and the Camel Strips deliver up to three times the nicotine dosage of a single cigarette. Nicotine is found naturally in tobacco. It has no odor and no color. It is, however, both physically and psychologically addictive and makes you its slave.

Despite its ability to appear as almost invisible, nicotine carries grave health consequences, more so without the smoke. Smokeless tobacco provides a more efficient means of delivering carcinogens into the body through the bloodstream. In the August issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, researchers at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center report that users of smokeless tobacco are exposed to higher amounts of tobacco-specific nitrosamines — molecules that are known to be carcinogenic — than smokers. In a study comparing 182 oral snuff users with 420 cigarette smokers, the Minnesota researchers found that snuff users were exposed to higher levels of NNK, a carcinogen known to produce cancer.

So, while I may have done a great job of teaching my children the dangers of smoking, I have failed to pound home the dangers of toothpicks, mints and breath strips. The tobacco companies are poised and ready to create a whole new generation of addictive customers: our children.

Today was the big race; the pink wigs, the survivor signs, and the “in memory of” signs. The Race for the Cure that started more than 20 years ago, with a promise between two sisters; and yet there is still no cure is in sight. Breast cancer continues to take our sisters, our friends, our daughters and our mothers. But for one day, this race symbolizes the survivor spirit that glows behind every woman.

This post is adapted from my newspaper column.

Cancer is that dark subject we try to avoid, especially when it comes to our own health. We’ve been know to delay scheduling that screening appointment because we’re just too busy. We believe that what we don’t know about can’t hurt us, so we stall, despite the public service announcements that clearly state, early detection saves lives.

On one day this month, our perspective will change. May 16th is the Komen Columbus Race for the Cure. This event give us a forum to honor and celebrate lives, and release our hope for someday finding a cure. The motivation we’ll need to give our time, buy the raffle tickets, run the race and give our dollars will come from within our hearts.When we reflect on the tragic ways cancer has touched our own lives, we can’t help but privately promise ourselves to eat better, find more time to exercise, and schedule those screening tests, whether they’re for skin, colon, or breast cancer. Knowledge truly is our power.

Ten years ago, I walked the race pushing a stroller with a friend. “I don’t need a mammogram,” she said. “My aunt died of breast cancer, and it skips a generation.”

No, it doesn’t, my friend. “When I call you Monday at lunchtime, give me the date and time of your first mammogram.” The conversation may not have happened, and the appointment may not have been made, if not for the time we shared at the race that day.

Out of all the uncertainties and unknowns that come with a cancer diagnosis, one thing is clear: treatment will be expensive. Global sales of cancer drugs will reach $80 billion by 2012, according to Norwalk, Conn.-based consultant IMS Health Inc. A 2006 survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, 33 percent of cancer patients have trouble paying medical bills and 43 percent report skipping treatments or not filling prescriptions because of the cost.

Statistics like these prompted Stefanie and Chris Spielman to create the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Patient Assistance, which allows families to buy groceries, nutritional supplements, Wendy’s gift cards, wigs and transportation to appointments.

On a global level, the cost of finding a cure for cancer is staggering. The reality that we still don’t understand what causes breast cancer led Dr. Susan Love to create www.armyofwomen.org. Her goal is to eradicate breast cancer by linking patients with research scientists and clinical trials. They’ve already created a low-cost band-aid-like test strip that indicates cancer risk.

The Spielmans hoped to raise $250,000 for breast cancer research, but have instead raised over $5 million — so far. The dollars allowed the creation of the Spielman Breast Cancer Tissue Archive Services and the Spielman Breast Cancer Tumor Bank that allow scientist to test discoveries on human breast cancers.

Cancer is a frightening disease that comes with little answers. Hope, sometimes, is all we have. Whether the medicine does its job or not, cancer always gives us the opportunity to show our love.

Whether they are plug-in, gels, sprays or solids, air fresheners are loaded with harmful chemicals and bring the health risks that we associate with second-hand smoke. The chemicals reach our noses, and enter our body systems and wreck havoc. We assume that because the product is readily available, and carries a nice picture of natural flowers permeating a room, that the product is safe. They are not.

The chemical byproducts included in these air fresheners include benzene and formaldehyde, and phthalates. These can aggravate asthma, and are linked to developmental problems in babies and cancer in laboratory animals.

Why isn’t the consumer informed about these risks? Fortunately, there is a petition to have the products regulated by the government. Warning labels would be a nice addition.

Until then, you can have some fun creating your own healthy alternatives to air fresheners. These natural aromatherapy air fresheners are not only free from harmful chemicals, but can kill germs, help you breathe better, and create a more relaxed and comfortable environment. For centuries, people have used essential oils for their healing benefits, and this is just one more way to get the good stuff into your system. Nevertheless, they smell good too.

Once you have the basics down, vodka, distilled water, essential oils, you’ll be able to experiment and mix your own combinations of oils, based on your mood, or health issues. For example, eucalyptus would be a great scent to use if you have a cold or allergies, while cinnamon would be great in a house plagued with the flu. The oils help clear the germs out of the air. Plus, they give you the feeling of doing something, when there is nothing you can do.

What you’ll need is a virgin spray bottle — one that has not been used for chemicals before.

The following recipe makes a bit more than four cups of spray, so make sure your bottle can hold more than four cups, so that you’ll be able to shake the bottle without everything spilling out.

Here’s the basic formula for making a natural air freshener from essential oils:

Method
Mix the essential oils with the vodka, and then add the water. Once the mixture is made, let it sit for a couple of days, to test the strength of the scent. The scent will get stronger as it sits. Shake well every time you use it.

Here are some combinations to try

Citrusy

• 12 drops lime
• 14 drops bergamot
• 4 drops ylang ylang
• 2 drops rose

Good Mood

• 1-teaspoon jasmine oil
• ½-teaspoon bergamot oil

Natural Scent

• 1 teaspoon lavender oil
• ½ teaspoon sandalwood oil

home Comfort

• 1 teaspoon vanilla oil
• 2 drops ginger oil

Clean and Fresh

• 15 drops Lavender
• 10 drops Orange
• 10 drops Lemon
• 10 drops Grapefruit
• 6 drops Lime
• 3 drops Nutmeg

Remember, shake well!

The small-town  hardware store serves a integral part to the well-being of a neighborhood.  The stores once sat on Main Street, but are now a welcome feature in strip malls serving cul-de-sac neighborhoods across our country.

When children stick their fingers through the screen on the screen door, it is the small hardware store that does these minor repairs. A short on the electrical wiring in the lamp, the broken mirrors and broken outlet switch plate are all easily repaired in the back room of the small independent hardware store.

Dick Thomes stands ready to help, from the Star Tribune,
Dick Youngblood: Selling hardware the old-fashioned way works.

The broken items are unhinged, unplugged and carried to the back of the store where the hardware store guys peep their heads out through the circular opening in the back, and say, “What can I help you with?”  The repair is usually complete in three or four days. The price for these jobs is scribbled on the brown paper used to protect the work for transport, and  hovers around the single digits; sometimes even cents. The hardware store give the structures of our homes soul, a history, by letting us keep them around with a squirt of oil here, a tightening here, and a fresh coat of paint on top of the surface we’ve sanded.

While I’m sure the big box hardware stores might have men like these, walking through the big store with its brand new screen doors, entire lighting departments, and decorator mirrors, the message becomes clear. “Throw that old stuff out! Buy New!”  The men in the aisle are there to direct you to aisle numbers where new stuff is sold; rather than the repair aisle.  The big warehouses have their places; where else can you walk out with an entire door or a chandelier, when you really need one?

The closing of a hardware store in any neighborhood is a sign that things are going downhill.  Screen doors will swing loosely hinged when it’s not so convenient to run out a get a bag of two-penny nails.  The vacuum cleaner with the short in the cord will be replaced with a new one; at the end of the month.  Spare keys are not as easily to get without a big trip out to the shopping centers.

Here’s my advice to the small town hardware stores: Reach out to the kids.  Offer help for science fair projects; give them ideas for summer lazy days — like how to power a radio with lemons.  Show them how the wires costs mere pennies, and once you know how to connect them, you can create magic.  Line up a row of each hardware store guy’s science fair projects from years gone by, with the accompanying models and message boards, to inspire kids who still can’t figure out “what to do.” (The parents will be eternally grateful.)  Show them that hardware, truly linked to science, can be fun too. Teach us, maybe for the first time, that light bulb filament can be made out of picture frame wire; and that filament was once horse hair wire.

In the spring, plant a few of the green beans and peas from the seed display, right at the front door, and tie them up with twine on bamboo, and get their kids to beg their parents to buy some seeds so they can have a fort too. Teach us how easy it is to grow beans — even magic ones. Grow some sunflowers on the other side of the front door, and sell the edible seeds to the kids in the fall; brown paper bags with $0.15 scribbled in pencil on the side.

Show us again, how canning all that surplus from our gardens, can be done without blowing the roof off the house. My Mom always bought the rubber gasket for her pressure cooker at our hardware store.

For the kids not interested in gadgets, forts or snacks, show how a simple chair can be transformed into the latest PB Teen Style with a simple can of spray paint. Or a display board crafted from cork tiles, more spray paint, and grommets.

The small town hardware store holds the keys to the life of the neighorhood.

Russian and Chinese cyber spies have inserted software into our electrical grid that could disrupt our system, says, The Wall Street Journal. Should a war or national security crisis hit the United States, the officials said, the spies could shut off our power. In addition to the electrical systems, nuclear power plants and financial networks, water and sewage systems are also at risk. Senior Central Intelligence Agency official, Tom Donahue said last year there were cyber attacks in “multiple regions outside the U.S. The outage was followed with extortion demands.”

The silver lining, if there is one, lies in our national trade relationships. Officials say they “don’t see an immediate danger. China, for example, has little incentive to disrupt the U.S. economy because it relies on American consumers and holds U.S. government debt.” Was this the reason they exported our jobs to other countries?

Shaken to my core, I put the newspaper down, sipped more tea, and walked back to my bedroom to adjust the blankets so it looked as if I really did make my bed. I turned on the light without even thinking, and then I realized how much I take for granted.

The story itself sounds more like a fictional plot for a James Bond movie than a riveting account in my morning newspaper. A story so creative and fantastic that I almost wanted to spin the tale out for my boys to hear, as entertainment, like the pirate stories we read. But I won’t say a word to them. The story stays with me, and my lips are sealed.

The Associated Press photo of Robert Moran, who wears that blue-checked shirt and monitors the electrical grid in Dallas, could be our new everyday American Hero, like the flight crews were on April 14, 1970.

I need to dissect another miracle; to reassure myself these good things do happen. I peered over to Wikipedia to read the account of Apollo 13, when they said, “Houston, we’ve got a problem.” When the number two oxygen tank of Apollo 13 exploded, the cause was tracked to an unlikely chain of events where one problem fell like dominoes on the next. “Considerable ingenuity under extreme pressure was required from the crew, flight controllers and support personnel for the safe return.” The world watched the riveting drama on television. Electrical power was severely limited, making even voice communications difficult. There was a point when the crew was asked to suspend urine dumps, as that could alter the trajectory of the spacecraft. The lives of the crew hung in the balance like the flutterings of a feather.  As a result, one crew member even ended up with a severe urinary tract infection from limiting his water intake. Ironically, or miraculously, depending on your view, the crew’s lives may have been saved by the same malfunction that caused the danger.

Our world is rich in stories like these; stories of successful failure. Cyber spies are really birthing the stories of our next generation of American Heroes.  Although, I can wait to read it’s next entry on Wikipedia.

Inside my mind, things look different today. That mountain of laundry doesn’t make me cringe. I can’t wait to turn on the washer and watch that hot water spill out at my command; it is my privilege to wash those clothes today.

In case we ever do reach the point of a flu pandemic, these essential oils, especially oregano essential oil, will be my weapon.  Besides the usual remedies,of  Oscillococcinum, and Dolivaxil, which always work, I’ve found an even cheaper way to fight the flu and ease an achy tummy.

Peppermint 100% Pure Essential calms an upset stomach. You can drink the tea if you have some… or you can use the oil. Mix one or two drops of peppermint oil with 1/4 cup of olive oil. (The essential oils must be diluted before they touch skin; they are too strong for skin contact.) Rub this on your belly, and you will soon notice an instant feeling of release in your belly. This is GREAT for kids; they want to be touched and cuddled anyway when they’re sick, so they love having you rub their belly with the great smell of peppermint. Peppermint is so soothing, that even the smell alone will calm an upset stomach.

Oregano Oil is a known anti-viral, anti fungicide and anti-bacterial agent. Oregano oil has a bitter, medicinal smell, too harsh for direct contact with the skin, and you only need a tiny bit of this powerful oil. I mix one drop of oregano oil with the olive oil (just add it to your mixture above) and the oil will soak into your belly and kill the bugs that are swarming around your belly. I’ve even used oregano oil to get rid of the effects of a “bad meal,” that left me sick.

Cinnamon oil is a natural anti-viral oil that you can add. The anti-flu formula pre-mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg and thyme is known as the Oil of Thieves. The reference to thieves is not because the oil “steals your sickness,” rather this is related to the legend of the band of thieves who raided houses during the Black Plague during the 17th century. The thieves were stealing from the sick, surrounded by the plague, yet never became sick themselves. The thieves were caught, and appeared before the judge. “How have you escaped the great plague?” he wanted to know. The thieves were actually from a long family of perfumers who knew the power of oils, and covered themselves with the “Oil of Thieves” to protect themselves.

Just a note on essential oils. The bottles are small, and inexpensive. You only use a drop at a time, and they last for years. They are a great investment, and they work so hard.