The Pure Genius of Oil Pulling + Health Conscious Kids--And it has Nothing to Do With Health

Well, okay.  I do oil pulling for the health benefits as well--and it really has helped.  I have some terrible tooth pain and I'm hoping to avoid a root canal.  Oil pulling helps immensely.  It also has the awesome side effect (happy surprise!) of making my teeth whiter, and helping my smelly breath- which I've had a problem with for years.  Yay.

My children are obsessing over health at the moment, probably because their mom does it.  And they are still at the stage where they want to be just like me :).  As I have worked on this tooth, Olie and Demetri have given up or minimized refined sugar with me, passed up pasta and other yummy things for dinner to have just a big salad, and most recently, started doing oil pulling with me.  Today I set the timer for 15 minutes (none of them have actually made it that long until today), and handed out the spoonfuls of oil (I know, bleck!).  Teddy sauntered up to me and bravely asked if he could try too (for the first time).  With Shawn at work, a very asleep baby, and a usually quiet 2 yr old (unless riled up by big brothers), do you know what I had for 15 solid minutes?  Silence.  15 minutes of total and complete silence.  In my house.  It was glorious.  We should definitely do this every day.  But I imagine the novelty will wear off fairly quickly.  Still, one can dream.

Time Passes Too Quickly

Demetri is crying.  Maybe I am too.  Olie is saying he loves his Grandma Wilcock and doesn’t want her to go.  Their great-great-grandma is still here, but fading quickly.  Her 92^nd birthday was just a few days ago, and she seemed to be doing great.  Now she doesn’t recognize anyone and is being taken down to Hurricane, UT, where she grew up and raised a family.

I’m not brokenhearted.  She has lived a good, long, and full life, and I’m sure she is ready to be with Grandpa again.  I have wonderful memories of being with her, living in her house when I was 19, visiting, taking my children to her house to visit and take pictures. 

I am, however, very upset about living so far from family.  (I’m also very sad that I didn’t send the letter my sons wrote to her with the pictures of Lorenzo- still sitting on the table in my entryway).  I like Hawaii just fine, but I HATE living so far away from everyone.  I don’t believe it is supposed to be this way.  I think children should grow up knowing their aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents.  There is nothing I can do about it right now, so I might as well just learn to accept it, but I’m sad that my kids can’t just walk over to Grandma’s house to give her flowers, or at least drive over for Sunday dinner.  I’m sure technology is a great “cure” but we don’t use it like that very much.

There is always the wish that you had more pictures, remembered things more clearly, had asked for more advice, listened better, spent more time…

My favorite memories of Grandma Wilcock are of washing clothes with her in her really old washer (with a wringer to put the clothes through before you hang them on the line); listening to her play the accordion, piano, and sing (usually with Grandpa); playing with toys and puzzles on her living room floor- and watching my kids play there; gardening with her, and listening to her tell stories about Grandpa.  I also loved to play with the prisms in her window.  She would get them down for us to hold and tell us how they worked- and let us make rainbows.  I was quick to point those out to my boys when we brought them. 

I would love to live up in the mountains of Idaho, and raise my children near family, sharing and doing all the things I got to do when I was growing up.