Creating an e-Sword Bible Module in ToolTip Tool NT

Recently I "upgraded" to an iPhone from an Android and boy has it been a learning curve. I'm going to let that be a whole other post, but for this post I needed to find a good replacement for my QuickBible Android app that I used and loved on my Android. Unfortunately QuickBible doesn't have an IOS version so I had to try to find something else. Something that allowed for custom modules and highlighting of text, something, it turns out, that was not terribly easy to find. 

At first I was hoping to find a free solution, but lacking that (more about that in the "whole other post"), I finally found e-Sword which is available for IOS, Mac & Windows and cost me only $3.99 for the IOS version. I was familiar with making QuickBible modules, but this method is quite different. I haven't found a ton of explanations aside from the pretty solid pdf that goes along with the ToolTip Tool NT program which is basically a word processor and compiler for Bible and other files used by e-Sword. However I have run into a few things that weren't addressed (at least not that I could see), or confused me in some way so I thought it might help someone else if I listed how I did it and how it hopefully ended up working for me.

Since I had a Bible module for QuickBible already in Google Sheets, I just tweaked it to work in T4 (ToolTip Tool NT [I'm just guessing here, also the previous version was called T3 for whatever reason]).

I made a column for paragraph indications if I decide I want breaks between paragraphs (seen more in paraphrase type Bibles). The next three columns are pretty self-explanatory, then the Headers column is also for section headers seen more often in paraphrase type Bibles. 

Column G is for a formula which says if there is something in the cell to the left (a header), put a squiggle so that I can Find & Replace soft carriage returns and paragraph markings in Word which will be useful just before I take it into T4 [=IF(F3>0,"~","")]. 

Column H is a formula which puts a ^ at the end of the last sentence of a paragraph in my concatenated column so that I can put in the right breaks in Word so that e-Sword will do what it's supposed to do after T4 does its thing [=IF(A4="p","^","")]. 

Column I is the actual verse text and Column J has the formula which puts all the other columns together [=CONCATENATE(B3," ",C3,D3,E3,"  ",F3,G3,I3,H3)].

Going to T4, in v2019.10.07 (the one I have), click on the Modules(3) tab at the top of the screen. 

Next, click on Module Define Variables and then on BBLX - Bible File

This will bring up a new file will all the important information at the top needed to make the whole thing work. This is described on p. 57 of the ToolTip NT-2.10.pdf so it would make sense to go read the instructions there. 

Mine basically looks like this:

#define description=Full Name of Bible

#define abbreviation=FNB

#define comments=bible information window

#define version=1

#define strong=0

#define right2left=0

#define ot=1

#define nt=1

#define font=DEFAULT

#define appropha=0

÷

description shows up when you hover over the Bible tab in the e-Sword desktop version

abbreviation is what shows up on the actual Bible tab (takes up less room)

comments is where you can put more information about the Bible/translation

For the rest except for font, 1 means yes and 0 means no. Again, for a full explanation, please see the PDF.

The ÷ at the end tells e-Sword where the Bible is starting. 

A very basic Bible (no headings, no paragraph breaks) will start like this:

#define description=Full Name of Bible

#define abbreviation=FNB

#define comments=bible information window

#define version=1

#define strong=0

#define right2left=0

#define ot=1

#define nt=1

#define font=DEFAULT

#define appropha=0

÷Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

all the way down to and starting a new book (they just all run together)...

Genesis 50:26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Exodus 1:1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.

Exodus 1:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

 With the paragraph marks set to visible, it looks like this:

÷Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.¶

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.¶

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.¶

etc.

You don't have to put those symbols in, they are just what happen internally when you press the enter key on your keyboard. 

Soft returns are made by holding the shift key down while you press the enter key. You use these when you add headers or paragraph breaks if you want to use them. If you follow the directions below for finding and replacing special characters as in my example, you don't have to worry about them unless you need to manually insert them inside T4.

I thought that I was supposed to put a ÷ in front of every book of the Bible, but I ran into errors when I did that so just the one at the beginning of Genesis is all you need.

If you want to get fancy and have headers and paragraph breaks, you'll need to copy your concatenated text into a word processor (I use Word, but Google Docs would work). Select all concatenated cells, copy and paste as text. 

Then do a Find and Replace (ctrl+H) and search for all ^s and replace them with ^l^p which is Word wildcard speak for "soft return" "hard return" which T4 understands.

Next do a F&R for ~ and replace them with soft returns (^l)

If you want to format the way your headers look, skip down to * before coming back here. (I'm kind of typing this as I work out the kinks for myself)

Now you can select your text in chunks (maybe 1/6 or less of the Bible at a time). If you try to copy and paste the whole Bible, you'll likely get a paste error (cannot read from or write to the clipboard) from T4 so slow and steady wins the race. Hint, I discovered that if I shrunk my font down to 5px in Word, I was able to copy the whole Bible and paste into T4 without the clipboard error. 

It wouldn't hurt to try a few verses of Genesis first and then when you feel comfortable, try more. To test your Bible module (which you can save in T4 as an .rtf file for safe keeping), click on Modules (3) tab, then Bible, then Save Bible File book chap:verse. (ETA, in v. 2019.0819, click on Modules > Bible > Save Bible File book chap:verse)

T4 will go through your file and make sure there aren't any errors. If it finds any (at first it did for me because I had the wrong combinations of soft and hard paragraph returns), you'll have to try to figure out what the trouble is. Oh, one of my other errors were division symbols at the beginning of every book which it did NOT like. 

If everything is as it should be, T4 will take anywhere from a few seconds for a small section to a few minutes for a whole Bible to check everything over, then pop up a window saying File Created and giving the location it saved to. At this point, you can copy the .bblx file from where it saved (probably in your Documents folder inside an e-Sword ToolTip NT folder) to the root folder (probably C:\Program Files (x86)\e-Sword or some such location). 

Next launch e-Sword desktop version and your Bible tab should be available. If you only have a few verses in to test, click on Genesis 1:1 and you should see your content. If you make any editing changes in T4, go through the Mod3/Bible/SaveBibleFirst... hoops to save it again, make sure it saves into the same folder where your e-Sword.exe file is located, and then you can go back to e-Sword desktop, click on another Bible tab, then back to your Bible tab and updated changes should show.

*If you want your headers to be bold or have a different color or be italicized, you'll have to do that in T4 unless you want to do some more with Find & Replace in Word (it can be done and here's how if you want to know).

First, make sure you don't already have any square brackets anywhere else in your Bible. Add a column before and a column after your header column. Paste this formula and adjust it to your first header cell in the cell to the left of your first header cell. My formula for F3 is =IF(G3>0,"[","") and for H3 is =IF(G3>0,"]","") 

Then you'll go back up to the directions for pasting it into Word and doing the tricks to exchange ^ and ~ for soft and hard paragraph breaks. Then do a Find and Replace that looks like this:

Make sure you check the More >> button at the bottom and then on "Use wildcards." 

In the Find what: window, paste (\[)(*)(\]) and in the Replace with: window, paste \1\2\3 (Go here for a better explanation than I can give about why it works.) Also while you are still in the Replace with: window, go to the very bottom in the Find section and click on Format. There you can set what you want the headers to look like (Font > bold, italics, size, color...). Now click on Replace All. 

Finally do a Find & Replace to remove the brackets by searching for [ and replacing with an empty Replace with: window (delete everything out if there is anything there). Uncheck Use Wildcards for top window, and when you click in the replace window, click the No Formatting button at the bottom. That will replace all left square brackets with nothing. Do the same thing for right square brackets. 

Now when you go to copy your text piece by piece into T4, you'll see the formatting you applied.

Adding after the fact: The formatting looked fine in the T4 window when I pasted from Word, but when I saved as .bblx and opened it in e-Sword, the headers were bold and italicized, but were black so the color didn't transfer over. The sample Bible I looked at (Lexham English Bible) has teal headers and they show up as teal in e-Sword so I'm not sure what they did differently. Ah, I just figured it out. You have to choose colors that are in the T4 color palate. I think that could be solved by selecting the color you want from T4, clicking on the Format menu, then Font and click on Other next to the text color. Copy the Red/Green/Blue values and make sure you have those same numbers in Windows in the replace section. 

My Bible is now in e-Sword and from what I can tell, I need to download the e-Sword PC to iOS User Module Conversion Utility (Apple Converter) and then transfer the IOS friendly file via iTunes to my phone. There is another way to do it using ToolTip NT, but supposedly this is the easiest way. We shall see. (Not bad, takes awhile)

I installed the program and searched in Windows for "convert" and e-Sword PC to Apple Module Converter utility popped up. The window is auto-populated with Bible as the type of file to convert so I left that alone. I browsed to where my .bblx file is located and clicked on convert. As I type, verses are flying across the converter window and a green bar is moving from left to right so it looks like it's doing what it's supposed to. After that, who knows. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Now it says "Conversion process completed. Created: cwb.bbli

Silly me, I didn't pay attention to where it said it saved it. I'm searching for it now.

Interesting... it doesn't give you an option of where to save it and it doesn't tell you at the end where it saved it. I did a Windows Explorer search and found it in C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\e-Sword so you might find yours there or somewhere similar, or you might have to search for it. 

To transfer it to your phone, connect your phone to your computer, open iTunes and click on the phone icon. Click on File Sharing in the Settings section. Then find the e-Sword app and click on that. You can either drag and drop the .bbli file from Windows Explorer into the e-Sword LT Documents section or you can go up to File and click on Add File Library (Ctrl+O). I think then you should be able to launch the e-Sword app from your phone and your Bible should show up. It did for me.

DIY Un-paper Towels

I’m sure many of you have seen the cutesy cloth “paper” towels with the snap-together sheets and, while I am not in any way knocking them--they are super cute--I am just way too lazy practical to take the time to snap the sheets together each time.

Without another choice, we have been going through paper towels so fast it feels wasteful and I wanted something that felt a little more self-sustaining, but didn’t have the ~$30 for a single roll of cloth towels which might last us, um, I dunno, half a day?

Meanwhile in another part of the house I had a problem which screamed a solution to my paper towel dilemma. I downsized clothes and some of the boys’ and DHs shirts were too far gone to donate, but I felt bad just throwing them out. Then it hit me… cut them up in paper-towelish-sized pieces, toss them into a basket and use them like paper towels. Yes! Just what I was looking for and didn’t know it.

I quickly was able to fill our rag basket with unpaper towels and I love my new rags! They bring me so much joy. They work. They are almost endless, we almost never run out (ahem). They are wonderful for drying hands, cleaning up spills, drying dishes (if you just have a few to dry)… I totally recommend this no-skills-needed project. They have successfully replaced 95% of our paper towel use (I still use paper towels, for example, when I season my cast iron skillet, cleaning up oil oopses, or really icky pet/child messes, you know the kind.).

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Here is a list of tools that I use/need quite often for fixing my washer/dryer (Kenmore Elite 90 Series from the late 90s). I’m writing it down here in case I need to be reminded of tools required for the job.

You might find this helpful too, who knows.

Affiliate disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by any of the companies/products I am listing, these are just products (or product types) that I actually use, a lot, and if I misplace mine or need to replace them, I have a handy list here I can order from. If you choose to purchase any of these items from these links, I will receive a little reimbursement from Amazon which would be a help to our family and we would really appreciate you for that!

• Shallow 1/4” drive 1/4" socket or a Deep 1/4" drive 1/4" socket (for dryer disassembly)
• 1/4” Quick Release Ratchet
• Shallow 1/4" drive 1/2” socket or a Deep 1/4" drive 1/2" socket (For washer transmission screws…)
• 1/4" Drive Extension Bar Set (This is helpful in hard-to-reach places.)
• Screwdriver (Phillips and flat)
• Precision Screwdriver (This might be overkill, but it looks awesome!)
• Needle Nose Pliers
• Multimeter
• 9v Batteries (For the multimeter; ask me how I know.)
• Joint Pliers
• Work Gloves (To avoid the two cuts and a scrape I received fixing the dryer.)
• Wire Cutter (This one strips and cuts wire.)
• Flashlight (I usually use the light on my phone, but this one has a nice clip feature.)
• Hammer (This one is short-handled to fit into tight spaces. Also used for building.)
• Drill/screwdriver (Also used for building.)

These are things I used when building our chickshaw:

• Yardstick
• Measuring Tape
• Speed Square
• Miter Saw (when I make things out of wood, this is my go-to saw)
• Circular Saw
• see also Drill/screwdriver and Hammer above

These things come in handy in our garden:

• Pruning Shears
• Bypass Loppers
• Digging Shovel
• Square Point Shovel
• Pitchfork (the one I have looks like this and I like it better than our other garden forks)
• Gorilla Cart (these get used extensively! so worth the investment, imo)
• Crocs (for chicken and/or garden chores)
• Leather boots (love love love my Justin Gypsy boots)

How To: Clean a Mirror with Water

When one thinks of cleaning glass, I’m sure most people would think of a person armed with paper towels or newspapers and an ammonia-based spray, often colored blue.

Maybe it’s because I love simple ways of doing things or maybe because I don’t like buying single-use products or maybe because I don’t like using chemicals when they’re not absolutely necessary, I found a better way (at least in my opinion) of cleaning a mirror. I specify mirrors because if you can clean a mirror and don’t leave spots or streaks, you can most likely clean any glass successfully.

Here’s what you need:

• 1 microfiber towel, wet, wrung out
• 1 hand towel, dry

Here’s what to do:

1. Wipe a section of the mirror with the slightly damp microfiber towel, cleaning toothpaste splatters, smudges, smears as you go.
2. While that section is still wet, dry with the dry hand towel.
3. Repeat to remaining sections.

There. Done. Simple as pie and no chemicals. Oh, and I never have flecks or smears either, just a super-clean mirror. You’re welcome.

Bye Bye Bladder Infection

I can probably count on one hand the number of bladder infections I've had in my adult years. I had quite a few when I was a teenager and was treated with antibiotics every single time. I don't think people realized, back then, the dangers of over-prescribing antibiotics, but I know now and didn't want to go down that path when I got a bladder infection a week or so ago.

As I recall, cranberry juice cleared up the last infection I had several years ago, but this one's being tricky.

I've tried cranberry juice (bleugh!), vitamin C (1000 mg. every 2 of my waking hours), drinking tons of water (at least 2 quarts and to me that's tons... um, probably why I got a bladder infection :/), kefir (probiotics), golden milk (yum), iodine, oil of oregano (yuck), 2 Tbsp. of ACV in 8 oz. water every two of my waking hours, 3-4 raw garlic cloves a day, hot and cold therapy (hot water bottle & ice pack and hot/cold showers) and only noticed a slight improvement, but it kept hanging around and sometimes it seemed like it was getting worse. On good days I had to run to the bathroom every 10 minutes or less and I had a powerful sensation of my bladder being about ready to pop when I was done emptying my bladder.

Today it got so bad that it felt like my bladder was going to explode at the end of peeing. It was the first time since it started that it felt more than VERY annoying; it actually felt a little painful. So I started searching again. I found that creating an acidic environment in the bladder (like I was trying to do with the ACV) works in many cases of cystitis (bladder infection), but in some cases, especially those caused by e. coli, this strategy might not work as well. Bummers!

During this journey I would think of something (especially things I had on hand) that might work and see if it had ever been used successfully to treat a bladder infection; ginger (check), coconut oil (maybe), turmeric (anti-inflammatory), garlic (yup)... today I remembered another one I hadn't yet investigated: grapefruit seed extract (GSE).

Sure enough, GSE has had some good results against e. coli induced cystitis. I knew I had some GSE at one time so I went digging. I came up with a mostly-empty bottle of GSE, but it did have a few drops left. I started off with 5-6 drops in a little water and swigged it down real quick (super yuck) and then chased it with a bunch of water.

This was around noon today and by 2:00 I was actually quite comfortable and wasn't in nearly the pain I had been before. Also, I wasn't having to run to the bathroom quite so often. I took another dose around 5:00 and by 10:00 I had totally forgotten that I even had a bladder infection.

Is GSE a cystitis wonder cure? I don't know, but I'm hopeful enough that I bought another bottle and have some vcaps on order so I can take GSE without the nasty taste.

The Washer Felt Left Out

Almost as soon as the dryer was working again, the washer decided that it was done spinning the clothes dry and went on strike. I did a quick search online to remind myself what might cause that and was reminded that it might be the drive coupler. I was hoping that would be the problem as it would be a relatively easy fix.

It wasn’t the drive coupler.

Then I thought maybe it was the clutch so I took a look at that and it did look a little worn so I ordered a new one. I thought I’d be back in business when it arrived, but no.

When I got it all back together, it was behaving strangly. The tub started rotating a little bit with each turn of the agitator during a wash cycle. That was different. Also, when it started to spin, I was able to stop the drum by just putting a little pressure on the tub (erm, don’t try this at home). I thought if I could stop it that easily, a load full of wet clothes wouldn’t spin out well. I asked the helpful folks over at Appliantology.org and someone suggested that I might have put the inner ring of the clutch in upside down. So a little while ago I checked and, sure enough, it was in the wrong way. I flipped it around, reassembed the washer (no easy feat in my tiny laundry room) and did a test load of towels. Hooray! It’s running quieter and better now than it has in a long time and boy did it spin the towels out “dry.”

#thankful

Fixing the Dryer

So the dryer decided to stop putting out hot air last night. Right after Geo said he needed clean jeans for piano lessons this morning. Oops. I always inwardly groan a little when the appliances need tending, but I still rolled up my sleeves and got started with the troubleshooting last night. I was SO hoping it was going to be the fuse as that looked like the easiest fix, but, no (and I’m actually thrilled it wasn’t the fuse). This is the video I watched that pointed me in that direction and gave me the courage to tackle the job.

As soon as we got back from piano lessons, Eli (11) and I set to work. We watched another YouTube video about the different parts to test to hopefully determine the problem. Bill was not as clear as I would have liked about what a normal multimeter reading looked like (vs. abnormal), but I think I figured it out enough to rule out the timer as the culprit. The next thing he suggested testing was the thermostat on the heating tube. He also said that if it registers as “bad,” that there’s a way to reset it. His trick made us laugh… Throw it really hard on the floor or bang it on a hard surface. If at first you don’t succeed, try again (and again if necessary). You know what? It WORKED! Eli enjoyed banging the daylights out of the thermostat, but after we tested it (after 2 or 3 bangs), it registered normal. Woohoo!!! Thanks, Bill, for that wonderful tip!

We hooked up the front door panel and plugged it in and turned it on and… the heating coil glowed red! I’m so thrilled it was a relatively simple fix (Eli did most of the unplugging (not of the power cord) of connecting cords, unscrewing screws, reassembling the drum cable… So really it wasn’t that much work for me at all. The dryer also got a good cleaning out while I was at it which is always a good thing! Now I’m off to dry some clothes.

UPDATE:

Ok, so sometimes when something seems too good to be true, it is. After a load or two, the thermal cutoff shut off again. I “reset” it and tried the drier and this time nothing happened. No heating, no turning on, nothing. Um, … now what?

So I went to my favorite appliance fixit blog to see what they’d say. 

I checked all the connection, everything was connected properly. I was getting power because the door light came on when I opened the door.

I tested the starter, the relay switch, circuit board, couldn’t find anything wrong with those. I tested the thermal fuse, it was still good. I tested the element, it wasn’t shorting out.

Finally I found a wire that had come unplugged that I had missed. I plugged it back in and voila, the dryer now turned on. But…

It still wasn’t heating. I did some internet sleuthing and found a site that said the felt seals on the drum get old and that might let heat into the cabinet causing the thermal cutoff to trip. Sure enough, my felt seal was very worn and hanging in strips. So I replaced the felt seal.

I took the lint screen out and scrubbed it with soap till it looked almost new.

Finally after taking the dryer apart and reasembling it more times that I can count, the new thermal cutoff arrived in the mail. I installed it and it hasn’t tripped since. Thank you Lord!

Easy(er) Way to Take Raw Garlic

Garlic is a mighty little veggie. It's antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties make it a veritable heavyweight in the natural remedies ring, if it didn't smell/taste so, um, ..."Whew, who's been eating garlic?!?" 

Also in the world of spice heat, I'm a featherweight and mild is about as hot as I can stand. Raw garlic has always burned my tongue and I have never enjoyed taking it when I have to try to scare off a sore throat or to ward off a bug that is going around in my family.

The flu, or some such nasty, is trying to make the rounds in my family (DH's has turned into bronchitis, one or two others had it as well), and I'm trying my best not to get it. Coincidentally while DH is battling bronchitis and one child got pinkeye, I've been fighting a bladder infection. Being a stubborn thing, I am determined to avoid antibiotics if at all possible. I know the danger signs of it turning into a full-blown UTI (fever, sore back, and/or blood in the urine), but not having any of these symptoms, I've been exhausting every natural remedy that seems reasonable. Among the things I tried was raw garlic, but didn't know how to get it in me to my satisfaction.

I tried blending it up with honey and that sort of worked, but the amount of garlic that I was making at a time was too small for my stick blender to manage to my satisfaction and so I went back to the drawing board. 

I started thinking of ways to camouflage the garlic and I remembered reading that some people put it on toast and eat it with avocado. That didn't seem too bad so I gave it a try. It tasted good, but every bite of the sandwich was still too spicy for my liking so I thought, "What if I mixed up a tiny bit of garlic guacamole and swallow it down in one gulp?" So I grated a clove of garlic, let it sit for 10 minutes to develop the allicin, mixed it with a teaspoon of avocado and a tiny bit of salt and swallowed it down. Then I chased it with an unspicy avocado sandwich. Yum!

I will suggest that you don't try this on an empty stomach (I did today and almost lost my guac). Ideally have a little something in your stomach, take the garli-guac and chase it with a little (or a lot) more food. If you try it, I hope it works for you as well as it did for me.

Easy(er) Way to Do Chest Fomentations

When I've done fomentations (hot and cold contrast hydrotherapy) in the past, I used proper fomentation pads that I sewed from flannel receiving blankets and sheets and the results were great albeit quite labor intensive. This was, however, back in the day when we actually owned a microwave.

A year or two (or three) ago, our microwave up and quit and we never did bother to replace it. We felt that it really wasn't the best way to reheat our food and didn't want to spend the money for something we'd just use for fomentation pads or heating up rice packs.

Recently DH got the flu which has turned into bronchitis. He had a really bad case of bronchitis two years ago and had it again last year so we have learned to take it seriously. This time, as soon as he felt it going into his lungs, we started hot and cold therapy. This time I tweaked it a bit. Here's what I did.

1. Spread a blanket or sheet on the floor.
2. Have patient lie down on the sheet/blanket.
3. Cover patient with enough warm blankets to keep them toasty warm during the treatment and put a pillow under their head (keep them comfy).
4. Get your supplies together:
1. Plate (to hold cold washcloth & ice)
2. Bag of ice (I use a gallon freezer bag)
3. 1 washcloth (for cold contrast, wet, mostly wrung out)
4. 1 hand towel (for moist heat, wet, wrung out)
5. 1 bath towel (for added layers, without it the heat would be too hot!)
6. 2 hot water bottles + hot water
7. A chair or comfortable place to sit next to patient (optional, but nice).
5. Fold warm, wet hand towel in half and place over chest.
6. Place bath towel folded in half and half again over wet towel.
7. Place hot water bottles over chest area.
8. Cover patient up to the neck.
9. Now I sit and wait to see if it's too hot or not hot enough. If your patient can't talk or communicate in any way, you would have to monitor them carefully to make sure they didn't get too hot. I thankfully don't have this problem and DH just tells me when he's hot enough, if it's getting too hot (needs more layers) or it's not hot enough (remove bath towel layers one at a time).
10. When patient has had enough hot, it's time for the cold contrast. Peel the layers back, move hot water bottles to the side, then place cold, wet washcloth on chest. While he's in the heat phase, I have the washcloth on the plate underneath the bag of ice to keep it good and cold.
11. When the washcloth starts to get lukewarm, switch back to heat mode. Do this 6 or so times or till patient starts to notice an improvement in breathing or pain or whatever you are treating for.
12. I have also seen the recommendation of doing at least 6 reps of 6 minutes hot followed by 60 seconds of cold, but when I tried to stick to the clock, he wasn't getting hot enough and the cold didn't have time to have much of an impact so I started leaving up to him which better results.
13. My husband has found that several reps on the front of his chest followed by a few on his back really help.

DH says he really can tell a difference after the treatment and he can breathe better. He says he knows it's working. That's enough for me to keep doing therapy every evening until he's all better.

Be prepared for it to take about an hour each time.

Maybe someday we'll pick up a used or free microwave just for doing fomentations, but at least for now I have a way to treat lung things that isn't too difficult to implement.

The Allure of Empty Spaces

A terrible picture quality-wise, but it exemplifies my point. My bedroom, previously one of the most neglected rooms of the whole house, is now a magnet. (Not pictured is my 2nd son on my bed). Nina is doing school at her desk my dressing table and Eli is writing a story while lying on my bed. I even want to be in there now which is unusual. Time to tidy up my room is now down to mere minutes if not seconds.

Next up, pallet desks and chairs so my niña can sit at her own desk in her own room. (What’d’ya think?)

 Nina says she can make her own stool/chair, but just in case… I would probably make a padded seat and seat back if I were to make this. The desk is cooool though!

My New Chore System

I can’t seem to stay in one place as far as chore systems is concerned, but I just go with what works at any given time. I think it’s ok to mix thing sup a bit, too. Adds variety.

In searching for chore apps in the Google App Store, I stumbled upon a new little gem of an app, MoneyOrc. Aside from the app being very useable and awesome, I have never worked with a more responsive bunch of people behind the scenes.

I set up my 4 with their rotating chore charts (the MoneyOrc team was very kind to bump up the rotation to 6 weeks from 4 to accommodate our needs, see I told you MoneyOrc is awesome!), and I even added myself with a child account so I could have a nice checklist of things I need to do each day.

The kids check off their chores as they do them, then I check their chores at the end of the day. You can view chores by week or by day which is my favorite view. If they didn’t do their chore or didn’t finish it, they don’t get credit for doing it and have to pay a penalty (of your chosing) which comes out of their weekly allowance.

You can also issue penalties for behavior which also cost them.

The whole point of the app is to teach kids about money using as many real world scenarios as possible (including investing, jobs, and insurance).

Check it out, give it a try. What can I say? It’s awesome :)

Minimalism and Me

I am so excited by how minimalism has effected me so far and I’m still near the beginning of my journey.

I believe that God has been bringing me slowly to this point for many years, but I’m so hard-headed sometimes that He’s gentle with me and is patient with my frailties. My mom is a cleanie, I’m a messy (so is my dad and so was his mom, so I come by that part honestly).

Our house was always neat and tidy and when I was young, we didn’t have too many things. But somewhere along the way I start collecting things. I’d see some pretty little thing and get it or someone would give me something and I never ever thought of getting rid of anything I owned. I was like a mockingbird hoarding all the pretty little things that caught my eye.

When I got married I already had things in boxes that I wasn’t using, but I still didn’t think of getting rid of them. When we moved to our first home, we didn’t downsize anything. When we moved to our 2nd home, we again didn’t downsize eough (aside from an attempted yard sale and one thrift store pickup) and some of the boxes that had never been opened up from the first move were carried along to the new house and put into our storage building to sit and rot.

After we had our first child, I was introduced to Flylady and tried her out for awhile, but for some reason I was never able to stick with her program. I do, however, remember some of her practices, one of which was decluttering every day for 15 minutes ("You can do anything for 15 minutes!"). I guess 15 minutes was never enough for me or maybe I didn't actually do that part, who knows.

When we lived in our last house, I had a friend who I now believe is a minimalist because her house was always neat and tidy and there wasn’t a lot of stuff everywhere. They had a couch/loveseat combo and some cushions in the living room, but not much else. I think she had 1 pair of scissors. I thought that was totally undoable, but it didn’t seem to bother her. Apparently her parents were the opposite of her and were consumers to the max, buying things all the time, filling their house with stuff so maybe she was reacting to this in her own way. She might not even have known she was a minimalist, she just was.

When we first moved to our current house, we moved gradually over several weeks. We came with the bare necessities (just enough clothing, just enough furniture, just enough kitchen supplies…) and it was lovely. The house was clean and light and lovely. And then we did the big move. Ugh. We were inundated with stuff. Our office was crammed full of boxes and furniture and stuff. That was the last time our house felt neat. We unpacked what we needed and a lot of it just stayed in boxes, but enough stuff came into the house for things to start to feel cluttered.

We were given some furniture which added more things into the mix. We were blessed with lots of free clothes for the kids, which was great. However, I wasn’t all that great about getting rid of clothes when the kids grew out of them. I have way more clothes for each size (especially for the younger 2), that they can’t wear them all.

Something else Flylady would say was, “You can’t organize clutter,” and that hoarding was a sin. Hanging on to things that you aren’t using when you could be blessing someone else with your abundance wasn’t right. That stuck with me, but I had a little kickback from D, “Shouldn’t we keep them ‘just in case?’”

He also thought we should have a yard sale and I kept balking at that idea since I’m not an organizer and didn’t want to try to plan something like that. Eventually he softened on that point and I did start sending things to the thrift store. We have taken several wheel bins full of things to the thrift store over the last 2-3 years which is great, but… Things are still just so cluttered and cleaning is taking too much of our time.

Last year my mom gave me the book The Power of Half about a family that cut their belongings in half and moved into a smaller house so they could help others with the money they got from selling their things. I got about halfway through the book, but life got so busy (taking care of stuff) that I stopped reading it. I think seeds were being planted, a little here, a little there.

We have had a dream, for awhile, of moving out into the country and, while for now it is still just a dream, but I want to lighten our load just in case we ever get the green light to “Go.”

A couple weeks ago I was feeling so overwhelmed with clutter and stuff and not being happy with my surroundings, but I just didn’t know what to do about it, I felt very unmotivated. I started searching for websites on decluttering and then I started looking for decluttering support groups.  I thought maybe having some people to hold me accountable or provide moral support would help me. I found a Yahoo group that looked promising so I tried to join and then sat and waited for a day or two for approval which never seemed to come. I started searching for “downsizing” and found a few articles about that, but I also stumbled on Light by Coco’s blog and started watching some of her videos on minimalism and immediately felt this might be a solution for me. I started getting excited, … and motivated!

In my bedroom I have a beautiful cedar chest from Malawi which is the place I keep our extra blankets, but we have more blankets than will fit in there so the rest were piling up on top of the chest. The first thing I did was to put all the blankets on my bed and sort out the less favorite or the bulkier/heavier blankets and I piled them all into a ginormous Space Bag, sucked all the air out of it, then snuck it under the boys’ bunk bed behind the under-the-bunk drawers. After I did that, I was able to get all the rest of the blankets into the cedar chest with nothing on top. Woohoo! (The front of the chest is decorated with stickers by Ana, at least for now.)


I started watching almost every YouTube video I could on minimalism* while I was doing my minimalizing/downsizing. This kept me motivated and inspired.
Here is a post I sent my sister (in-law) on September 25:

“Yesterday I tackled the closet and pulled out a few more things that I don't wear, won't miss and tossed a few pairs of old shoes which were falling apart. Then I neatened up the shoes. I took all of Ds clothes off his dresser (yes, they don't make it into the dresser, yet…), and re-stacked them neatly. I pulled out a few of his shoes which I thought might go for him to decide on. He did decide to get ride of a couple pairs, yay! I took the Tommy Hilfiger bedspread, ripped it apart, took out the old icky stuffing which was too heavy for us anyway and turned it into a temporary duvet cover for the bedspread that we had been using. Our bed look majorly better. I took everything off of D's night stand, dusted it and put it back neatly. I sneezed, sneezed and sneezed again, but it was worth it! I'm so happy with my room now! I don't mind the door being left open, lol.”

Somewhere in my searching I had stumbled on Project 333 so I gave that some more thought and tried to come up with a summer capsule (since it was ever-so-slightly summer when I started this journey) and put the rest of my hanging clothes in a Space Bag for the next few weeks until I feel the need of a Fall capsule. My girls had quite a  of clothes hanging in my closet that were too big for them so I went through them all, pulled out the one that might fit in the near future and put the rest in a Space Bag and then into a large wheeled bin for storage.

There was a plastic bin of cloth diapers in my bedroom taking up space so I pulled those out and I plan to wash them (freshen them up) and sell them. There were 2 bins of stuff that need sorting in our room taking up space and I was able to get them in the place of the diapers so they are there needing to be sorted, but are at least out of the way now. My dressing nook (with counter, 2 little drawers, and mirror) was piled with toilet paper and paper towels so I found better homes for them so I could clear off my counter. I cleaned out my drawer in my dressing nook and put my hair doo-dads/brushes/combs… in there. Then I was motivated to clean my bathroom and clear off the counter and top drawer in there.


We had brought in the winter clothes from the storage shed (all 5 huge wheeled bins full of them) and I washed them all (over the last month or 2) and I finally got around to sorting through them.
Nina (12) helped me go through the clothes and separate them into boys’ clothes, girls’ clothes, Mom & Dad’s clothes. The boys had 2 overflowing big wheeled bins full of winter clothes, the girls had a little less. Nina helped me further sort the girls’ clothes into her and her sister’s clothes and then helped weed her winter clothes down so that they now fit into 1/2 of a wheeled bin. Then I went through Ana’s clothes and got those down to the other 1/2 of the wheeled bin. Much better!

Ana does have some clothes that are too big for her that she will wear in the next couple of years so I put those into another Space Bag, shrunk it down and it’s also in the bin with the other too-big clothes. I went through the boys' clothes and anything (either boys’ or girls’) that was too small, but still in great condition, was set aside for friends’ children and everything else was put in the bin for the thrift store.

I downloaded & printed out the 2015 in 2015 Decluttering Challenge from Nourishing Minimalism’s blog and started keeping track of how much I was getting out of our house. So far we have gotten rid of (or will shortly) over 725 things! That is mostly clothes, but every bit helps.

I went through the coat closet near the entry and cleared non-winter clothes out so now there is plenty of room in there for winter coats/jackets.

I also got a bee in my bonnet to get rid of my dresser. I was only using about 3 drawers in it anyway and that was before I decluttered what was in it so I was pretty sure I could live with something smaller. D is convinced that Eli needs a dresser (beyond the 3 drawers under his bunk) so I decided I would move my dresser into his room (at least for now) and move in the antique dressing table, that was out of place in the music room just taking up space, and use that for my dresser. With a little help from my boys, I got them swapped out (much to the chagrin of Geo who wasn’t jazzed to have another piece of furniture in “his” room).

I moved the dressing table to the same wall that the chest is on (the dresser was on the wall catty-corner to where it is now (just to its right but you can see it better where it is now and the mirror helps to make the room look larger). I have my undies and slips in the right drawer, T-shirts and shorts in the left drawer and I moved jammies to the bottom drawer of my nightstand. I put a few things on the shelf of my closet, but otherwise, everything fit just fine. I love it in my room! (The little popsicle stick frame is something Nina made for me, waiting for some of her artwork).

Today I bagged up all the clothes I’ve gone through that are waiting to go to the thrift store to get them out of the music room where I was sorting. The music room still looks like Hurricane Joaquin made a pass through there, but with one of the bins out, there is more room to walk. I will get through it all, there is still much less in there than there was. Yay!

We have amassed too many sheets (fitted & flat) for the beds we have, but I’m still not sure D will be ok with me getting rid of them, so I put at least half of them into quarantine in the bottom of our hall closet and in 3 months or so, if we haven’t needed them, we might not need them ever.

That reminds me, I also quarantined a bunch of stuff in our kitchen. Actually, that was probably the first thing I did, even before the blankets, come to think of it. Our bowls… cupboard was overflowing and every time I would open the doors, bowls or measuring cups, etc. would jump out at me. I pulled out things I didn’t use, thought I could get along without… and put them all in quarantine. I weeded out our kitchen utensils and either quarantined them or stored a few in a high cupboard to see if we ever find ourselves reaching for them.

I also bagged up all our extra bowls and silverware and issued one spoon and one bowl to each kid and myself (D is exempt). We are responsible for washing our own dishes after each meal (if we want to have clean things for the next meal). I’ve also paired up forks & plates to everyone as well. Dishes were such an issue so I’m trying to think of ways to lessen the load on the dishwasher (Geo at this point) and to keep the dishes moving along so we don’t have to have a perpetually messy sink.

There is still a lot that needs to be done, but I’m so spurred on to keep at this until things are as minimalized as I can get them (within reason) so that we can live a more peaceful life. I still need to go through Ana’s summer clothes, go through our books, go through all the things in the office which aren’t in any particular “home,” go through our storage house…

I can’t wait to see what happens next!

See my next post about a chore system that is working for me.


*Some of my favorite YouTube minimalism videos:
Darci Isabella
Abundantly Minimal – Sarah
Light by Coco – Coco
A Rich Life with Less Stuff – The Minimalists
"Minimalism, Spirituality, and Why it Matters" – Joshua Becker
5 Reasons Minimalism Changed My Life - Samantha Lindsey
My Green Closet - Verena Erin
Simple Living - Love Raw Vegan

and favorite blogs:
http://www.theminimalists.com/
http://zenhabits.net/
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/
http://nourishingminimalism.com/

Mommmmmm! Water!!

This was heard yesterday from two of my blessings who thankfully were near the laundry room when my washer decided to not stop filling with water. My quick-thinking 8-year-old jumped up on the washer and pushed the off button and was also the cool head that suggested “Dad’s wet vac!” as a solution to the wet. Ya’ think? I was using towels. His idea was much better.

So after I got the floor mostly dry again, I took a look under the hood. At first I had assumed that the pump had gone, but the tank was FULL of water so I realized it just hadn’t stopped filling. I took the dashboard apart and I immediately saw a hose unhooked from somewhere… Eli, the 8yo, spotted where it was supposed to go (on the back of the level selector, made sense) so I plugged it all back in, did a test run (a small load, lol) and we’re back in business. Again. It’s always something.

Ode to Zacusca

A friend of ours is originally from Romania and introduced us to zacusca, a traditional eggplant and red pepper dip, and we really liked it. DH, the chef, went home and whipped up something that came close, but with a few additions. I’m no chef, but I made my version yesterday and it was yum. Here’s basically how to whip up your own zacusca-ish goodness.

eggplant(s)

red pepper(s)

garlic cloves

tomato paste

salt to taste

celery stalks (not in traditional zacusca)

garbanzo beans (not in traditional zacusca)

onions

olive oil (about 1 Tbsp.)

This is not so much of a recipe as an ingredient list because I was trying to use up some leftover eggplant when I made this and was just throwing things in. I put about 1 eggplant’s worth (maybe a little less), 1 1/2 – 2 red pepper’s worth (diced from the freezer so hard to tell), a bunch of tiny garlic cloves which probably equaled 4-6 regular-sized cloves, 1 pint of canned chick peas, a couple tablespoons (didn’t measure) of tomato paste, 3 celery stalks, about 1 onion’s worth and salt to taste. My ingredients made about 4-5 cups.

I put everything in a pot and cooked it all together till all ingredients were nice and soft and most of the water had boiled out, then I blended it with my stick blender. The recipes I saw didn’t call for blending the zacusca, but I like the smooth blended texture so it works for me.

I put in more eggplant than red pepper, but I have seen recipes that called for much more red pepper than I used. Some called for tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes instead of the paste and most called for the eggplant and peppers to be roasted. I didn’t roast either and it was still delish.

I hope you try it and if it comes out anything like mine did, you will not be disappointed!

The Washer Tanked Again

I need to rename my blog The Washer Diaries or Saga of a Failing Washer or something like that. Seriously, my washer keeps raising it’s ugly head, way too often for my liking. And yet, I love my washer (when it works) and I just wanted to share how God helped me fix it once again.

A couple of weeks ago DH was doing laundry and the washer blew the GFCI outlet it was plugged into. Now, some of you will know that washers and GFCI outlets are not the best match and, while I didn’t know that till now, it had never given us trouble in all the nearly 8 years we’ve been in this house. Suddenly it was tripping the little breaker every time we tried to run it. Oh the humanity!

My

heart

sank.

I did not feel like dealing with that washer any more. It’s always such an ordeal just to find the source of the problem, even though the people on the various forums I turn to are great; it just takes quite a lot of time and I felt quite defeated. I think DH realized this and for the first time since we got our washer way back in the late 90s, started to really consider replacing it.

The problem is that we just don’t have money for a new washer and, from what I read, used washers are not the best investment, especially the newer washers which seem to suffer a myriad of issues ranging from leaking to electrical malfunctions to more major part failures, often after only 3 or so years. They certainly don’t seem to have the longevity of the old workhorses that used to be built. Our washer would be considered one of the older ones though it doesn’t look that old, but the controls are all manual and much easier and less expensive to repair than the new, electronic driven ones. After nearly 2 weeks of no washer and behemoth piles of laundry, I finally decided I’d let my forum buddies have a crack at my washer’s symptoms.

There were a few different ideas ranging from a bad timer, bad GFCI outlet, bad capacitor, gunk in the motor connector causing grounding problems. The first thing we did was replace the GFCI outlet. The reason we put another GFCI outlet in is that the outlet is in a bathroom next to a sink.

Awhile back we bought a backup of our washer for cheap with the thought that if our washer needed parts, scalping them from the backup washer would be cheaper than buying new parts. So I pulled the timer out of the backup and put it in our washer. No change.

Next I pulled the washer away from the wall and tipped it back so that I could get to the underbelly. I got the pump out of the way, pulled out the motor to check the drive coupler and found a nearly spent coupler gasket, but more importantly, I found that the mounting plate that screws into the transmission, which the motor mounts onto, was being held on by one loose bolt!

Geo and I looked everywhere for the other bolt and could not find it. Where could it have gone? I’m still scratching my head about that one. So I asked DH to get me more bolts so I could fix that. I was hoping that it was the odd angle that the motor had to be at that put some strain on the motor causing it to trip the breaker.

As soon as I had the bolt, I put it all back together (both bolts present and accounted for and very snug) and … it was still tripping the breaker. Frustration. The next thing that I could try was to try swapping out the motor so I did that.

I went out to the backup and pulled out the motor from it. It was all rusty and not very convincing-looking, but I tried it anyway. You know what? It worked! The breaker held and did not trip. Hooray! I was still a little unsure about the backup motor because it seemed so tight/hard to turn compared to the zapped motor, but one forum guy suggested I let it run by itself, unattached, to see if that would loosen it up a little. It did seem a little easier to turn after I did that so I hooked it all up and I was back in business!!! I think what happened was that the missing bolt caused the mounting plate to hang at an odd angle which put pressure on the motor, causing it to blow out. I feel a little bad about that because I was the one who put in the transmission last so the missing bolt has to point to me though I do know how to put it all together and I’m just not sure how I would have missed that. :\

For the first week or so I had been praying multiple times a day for a new washer, that God would give us a new washer. It turns out that God knew what was best for me and when I submitted to the possibility that a “new” washer may not have been God’s will, I quickly found the cause and was able to remedy it. For the cost of a few bolts, I am back in the laundry business, praise the Lord!

I don’t know how long this motor will last, but when it dies, we can still replace it for much less than the cost of a used washer. The washer has a new transmission, relatively new clutch & timer, new drive coupler, new feed dogs, new lid switch. There’s only a few other things that might likely fail in the next few years and we basically have a mostly refurbished machine which might give us years more of use. God is good and I thank Him for all His help!

Origami Folding Mat

Recently I have been totally absorbed in transparent window stars AKA Waldorf Stars. On browsing one page, I noticed an origami folding mat which looked pretty handy for folding little pieces of paper. I looked around online and not finding anything else similar decided to make my own. I had to fuss with Excel a good bit to get it as square as possible, but I finally think I got it as close to square as possible. Print on cardstock for more stability.

(Click image to download .pdf file)

Yarn Baseball

So we had a baseball mitt, something of a bat, but nothing in the line of a ball. My darling children made a ball from yarn and a plastic bag (complete with huge piece of gravel inside! ), but when it hurt my daughter’s knee, I told them I’d make them a ball. The rock idea, as it turns out, wasn’t half bad, but I knew it would need to be well padded. Here is what you’ll need if you want to make your own yarn baseball:

Small rock or stone for center weight

Newspaper to coat the rock (remember rock, paper, scissors? … paper wraps the rock, lol)

Polyfill

Yarn

Yarn needle

Baseball stitching pattern (optional)

Begin by wrapping the stone(s) with newspaper, then cover the newspaper with a layer of polyfill or quilt batting. Wrap snugly with yarn and keep wrapping, turning the ball constantly to keep the shape nice and round until you reach the desired size. To keep the yarn from unwinding, string some of the yarn onto the needle and sew in and out all around the ball to anchor the layers of yarn. Optionally, you can print out a baseball stitching pattern and stitch along that to make it look a little more authentic looking.

The kids love their new ball. It’s a little bouncy (but not overly), it is a good size for playing catch, and it’s soft enough that it won’t cause any injuries to inexperienced ball players. Mission accomplished.

Who would have thought?… Vinegar!

I have always heard that there are tons of uses for vinegar from relieving bee stings to extending the life of cut flowers.

But the use that has me so excited is one that helps me embrace my inner hippy just a little bit more—natural deodorant!

I think it’s been years now that I haven’t used any antiperspirant because of harmful additives, but I have never been all that impressed by the staying power of the natural deodorants we bought. Even one that claims
didn’t last past a few hours. I generally don’t have underarm odor problems, but under stress or when I’m in a rush, things can go south in spite of deodorant use.

I have been looking for alternatives to lackadaisical, pricey store-bought deodorant but until now hadn’t found anything that was satisfactory. I tried some coconut oil and baking soda, but the soda was rough on my skin. Recently I did some more reading on natural recipes and still many of the diy recipes contain coconut oil which can stain your clothes so I wasn’t all that interested. I looked into the natural deodorant stones, but they contain alum which makes me nervous so still looking until…

I happened upon a comment on a forum about the use of vinegar for body odor. The explanation was that the microscopic critters that love your sweat and actually cause the stink can’t live/thrive in an acidic environment. Now, I did get the sense that users’ mileage may vary, but I thought it was worth a try.

Sabbaths tend to be my rush-about getting ready, get out the door on time, teach/lead… kind of days and are prime time for deodorant failure (terrible time for deodorant to fail!) so this was my first trial.
I took a cotton swab and dipped it into a little jar of white vinegar, squeezed a little out and wiped it on. Then, so I wouldn’t smell like a pickle jar, I took a little TP and fanned my armpits until they were dry (the vinegar smell goes away).

Results after a typical day of teaching, rushing, running about… Zero stink, Vinegar WIN!
So, feeling emboldened, I decided it was time for the working in the garden, sweating much test. That happened the next day. Now, granted I was only in the sauna-like greenhouse for 3 1/2 hours and wasn’t doing anything terribly strenuous, but I was sweating quite nicely.

Results? Hubby got his nose right in my armpit at the end of the day and didn’t make the tiniest bit of a face (because there was NO smell!), Vinegar WIN!

We just went to the garden again yesterday and this time it was 4 hours of hot, sweaty planting in the greenhouse and still, NO stink. I’ve even gotten teenage Geo in on the action and he reported no odor as well.

I wonder if other acidic solutions (like a citric acid solution) would work. Apple cider vinegar would doubtless work but the fumes are so strong that I prefer white vinegar for this. I did read that lemons work as does witch hazel, but for now, since I know it works so well, I’m happy with vinegar. It does the trick and it’s cheap!

ETA: Due to the acidic nature of vinegar, you might not want to apply it right after shaving…ouch! Wait a bit (or try the witch hazel) and you should be good.

Gimp Autosave Hack

I like Gimp, I really do. Yes, it has a learning curve, but it’s not unreasonable, considering all the tutorials and how-to videos available on the web. One thing has kept me from loving Gimp, at least until recently.

My laptop’s battery has been going downhill recently and sometimes won’t hold a charge for longer than 20-30 minutes so I keep it plugged in all the time. The problem is that my unreliable charging cable sometimes charges, sometimes doesn’t. So I experience more than the usual number of unexpected shutdowns (if I forget to diligently watch the battery meter). A project I have been working on has had me editing quite a few images in Gimp and also subsequently losing a lot of work when my computer dies without warning. I searched and searched for something that would work as an autosave feature since Gimp for Windows doesn’t come with that feature (it should).

Finally, I found something that works (as long as I remember to get it started when I start Gimp; next for something to automate that).

Here’s what you do: Download and install AutoHotKey. Create a script in notepad and save it as AutoSave.ahk (I keep mine on the desktop for easy access).

Paste this code (I have no idea if all of this is necessary, but it works):

;
; AutoHotkey Version: 1.x
; Language:       English
; Platform:       Win9x/NT
; Author:         A.N.Other <myemail@nowhere.com>
;
; Script Function:
;    Template script (you can customize this template by editing "ShellNew\Template.ahk" in your Windows folder)
;

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.

 

#Persistent

; Save the file every one minute.
SetTimer, AutoSave, 60000, On

AutoSave:
   IfWinActive, ahk_class gdkWindowToplevel
      Send {Blind}^s
return

If you don’t want it to save every minute, just change the 60000 value to a multiple of 60000/minute.

You might have to change the “ahk_class gdkWindowToplevel” entry. With Gimp open and AutoHotKey running, I right clicked on the icon in my system tray and selected “Window Spy” which brought up a window with the ahk_class name next to it.

Working Washer! (Finally, Again)

So much for going many years before another major repair…

In the not too distant past, the washer started not spinning out the clothes sufficiently and left them damp enough that I could squeeze water out of them after their spin. I could put them on spin again and that would usually do the trick. But then the washer started not spinning out heavy loads (no, I try not to overload the washer, but some loads are just a little heavier than others). I could get the tub spinning if I was right there when the spin cycle started. I would lift the lid, push down on the lid switch with my finger and pull the tub clockwise and that would usually work. Finally it was so bad that it was doing it all the time and that was becoming inconvenient very fast.

I went online and tried to find a solution. There were several things I thought it could be, but one post I read said something about oil from the transmission could get into the clutch causing it to slip and not spin. The poster said that if there was a line of oil about 6” from the ground on the inside of the cabinet, that the transmission was leaking oil. Sure enough, I had the 6” line of oil. It took me awhile to figure out the cause of the leak, but most people agreed that it was mostly likely the shaft seal on the top cover of the transmission that was the culprit.

So I ordered the part and 2 days later got down to business. I pulled the transmission out and opened her up. She was filled with black sludgy oil with lots of floating plastic slivers in it. I dumped out all the old oil and attempted to replace the seal. It…wouldn’t…..budge. I couldn’t figure out why the rubber was SO bonded to the metal. I carefully scraped at it with a knife but it wouldn’t come off. Maddening! I froze it hoping that the rubber would become brittle and come off. I sprayed it with WD-40 hoping that that would weaken the bond of the rubber, no good. Then Geo (13) came at it with a screwdriver, figured out what I had been doing wrong and in no time flat, had the other part of the seal out. Whew! So now to just pop the new one in. Wrong. It….wouldn’t….go….in. So back to the net, I read about how one person used a “tail piece” plumbing part to muscle it in so I took our bathroom sink apart and borrowed what I thought was a tail piece, but it just wouldn’t work. So DH brought home the real deal (like this) and after a little “persuasion,” finally got it to go in.

Great, so now to put it all back together again and we’d be in business! Not so fast. I had to buy some RTV gasket maker stuff and some 80W-90 gear oil to refill the transmission with. Got that, had Geo help me steady the transmission so I could pour the oil in (made sure I had all the parts in the right way), applied the gasket, screwed it all together, waited the 1 hour curing time and we held our breath… Filled for a small load, agitated properly on all the speed settings, drained and then just sat there, making a spinning noise, but NOT SPINNING! Agrivating. I couldn’t think of anything else to do but take it all apart again. Something was wrong in the transmission still because at least it was spinning (sort of) before I took it apart and now, nothing. I took pics, videos, uploaded them to my appliance forum and waited for replies. Some thought maybe I hadn’t waited long enough for it to spin, some thought maybe the spin gear was warn, which it is, but not seriously. Finally, one good Samaritan noticed that I had installed the spin gear cam upside down which wasn’t allowing it to activate neutral drain. I flipped it over, but still had to wait for DH to bring some engine cleaner so I could get the oil off the gasket surface before making the new gasket.

Finally it was ready to install this morning and …. it works! It works great! I’m so happy about that! So now I have our backup washer running in the carport (just till we get caught up) and Old Faithful working away in the laundry room, I should get caught up on laundry in no time. 

Now I pray that this fix lasts a LOOOOOOOONG time and I won’t have to look at the underside of my washer till a far and distant time.

Washer Update…Fixed!

Well, in spite of my high hopes for the agitator dogs fixing everything, the washer was still behaving insanely. The bottom agitator was only spinning in one direction which is why the clothes had gotten so tangled.

So I posted to my favorite appliance DIY forum and in an hour and a half, had a diagnosis that I needed a new transmission. Ugh.

If I chose to DIY it this time, I’d be on my own, DH wouldn’t be available to help me, but on the other hand, we’d done this once before so I figured with my awesome SIL’s help (and a video of the steps), we ought to be able to avoid the trip charge and hourly fee of a pro.

I decided I could do it, so we ordered the part day before yesterday, it was in yesterday and I think I had the part installed in less than an hour from the time I started. It was a nerve-racking few minutes waiting for the washer to fill up to see if I’d done everything correctly, but it came on and did what it was supposed to do… whew!

It’s kind of good that I had to do this because in the process of everything I discovered the agitator dogs needed replacing and when I got the motor off the transmission, I saw that the rubber drive coupler gasket was just about to self-destruct. One hole had already broken through. Thankfully we had an extra from another repair so I was good to go in that department.

So… here’s hoping we can go for a few more years without any major repairs.

Next on my list… putting up a clothesline to keep up with all the clothes I’ll be washing.

Whooping Cough makes a visit

I’ve always thought that whooping cough was something that people used to get and was something from my grandparents’ and maybe my parents’ generation. You don’t hear much about it in this day and age tho. We had never given it a passing thought … until …

At the beginning of September, our kids had a mild cough that was annoying, but finally went away. Then later in September, we were over at a fellow homeschooler’s home and their daughter had a nasty sounding cough. She had gone to the doctor and was just starting antibiotic treatment that day. We warned the kids not to get too close to her and that was that (or so we thought).

No one knows for sure who gave it to whom as whooping cough starts with seemingly innocent cold symptoms and progresses into mighty scary from there. I do know that according to recent reports, whooping cough cases are on the rise, and not necessarily (as some argue) a result of under-vaccinated populations.

We’re racking out brains to try to remember when symptoms actually started, but as far as we can remember, Eli started coughing around the first of October with a cough that started sounding (as my SIL puts it) like someone with COPD. Next to fall was Geo (who actually has had it the worst), then Ana & finally Nina. I think Eli is in the convalescent stage (never had the whoop), Geo is almost to the end of the paroxysmal stage, Nina is at a lower level of the paroxysmal stage (no whoop), and Ana is in the paroxysmal stage, but only coughs (with whoop) 2 or 3 times a night, then goes right back to sleep. My sleep-deprived brain can’t remember if she woke up at all last night to cough. I almost don’t think she did, but if she did it was mild and only once.

Geo has the terrible coughing, followed by an inability to breath for a few seconds before he starts making a whooping sound as air starts making its way back into his lungs. Poor guy, he looks so scared when he can’t get air. We rush to him, speaking calmly and slowly, trying to help calm him down. We thump him on his back, give him a bucket to spit the phlegm into (sorry, but it happens) and after a minute or two, he is calmed down enough to where he is mostly breathing normally. After one of these attacks, he looks totally exhausted. He had been having 6-8 attacks a night (it’s worse at night which is totally exhausting to the parents who are up with sick kiddos all night), but is now down to 2-3. He says he feels that there’s light at the end of the tunnel, he’s finally able to cough gunk up from his lungs (at first nothing would come up) and he can breath easier in general… so yay for that!

As soon as we started suspecting WC, we started researching the daylights out of it. Turns out that OTC meds and antibiotics don’t do anything to help the symptoms. We had been trying OTC cough meds and homeopathic cough remedies, but when we found that out, we kinda quit using them. The only thing antibiotics do is to make you not contagious to others (after 5 days of taking it). So we started looking for natural ways to treat this nasty, pesky cough.

Thanks to helpful posts like this one and this we developed a quick plan of action. Here is what we finally did/are doing:

N – Nutrition

    We have increased fresh fruit and veggies, and whole grains (minus wheat which can cause increased mucus buildup)

E – Exercise

     This one you have to be careful with WC as too much can trigger an attack, but some exercise is good. Walking, lightly playing outside, we’ve allowed and encouraged (while the weather is so nice).

W – Water

     Ever hour I have the kids drink water to loosen up the phlegm in their lungs.

 

S – Sunshine

     We are getting them out in the sun every day for as long as possible. They don’t go out and sunbathe, but whatever sun they get while playing outside should help.

T – Temperance

     We’ve cut out gluten, flour, sugar, dairy, soy, potatoes, anything from peanuts, most oils…

A – Air

     They get plenty of fresh air when they play outside each day.

R – Rest

     We get them to bed at a decent hour and let them sleep as much as they want in the morning (since they are up multiple times during the night). We also encourage and sometimes require naps during the day (depending on how they did the night before).

T – Trust in God

     Last, but most importantly, we are trusting in God to bring healing to our dear children. He loves them more than we ever could and we call upon his powerful hand to heal these dear ones as no earthly physician can. Many prayers have gone up at all hours for these kiddos.

 

Additionally, here are some things we’ve done:

• Vitamin C – WC has been successfully treated with vitamin C for many years.

     We have been trying to get 1000 mg. of vitamin C into the children every 30 minutes. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t, but they are getting much more vitamin C than usual, that’s for sure. We will keep this up for several weeks after their symptoms are gone as any colds they contract in the convalescent stage could lead right back to the whooping till the cilia in their lungs grow back.

• Vitamin D3 – Helps keep you healthy, fights disease 
• Vitamin E
• Colloidal silver – We did research on colloidal silver and bought the kind that will not turn our children blue. We have them breath in while we spray a little into the back of their throats (and hopefully a little gets down into their trachea and makes its way to the lungs) and we give them 1 tsp. to 1 Tbsp. of colloidal silver, usually before meals. My nephew has also tried it in his sister's nebulizer, but only once. If we had a nebulizer, I’d be trying it more often.

     Daniel and I have felt like we were getting something a couple times over the last week or two and have gargled with colloidal silver and that knocked it out each time. It works better than gargling with H2O2, IMO, and doesn’t taste as bad either.

• Turmeric – The kids aren’t fans of the taste so I give it to them in capsules that they can swallow.
• Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) – I put 6 drops in a little grape juice to mask the taste. I give this with the silver and anything else that would kill the probiotics which I give at a later time. Eli was just singing, “Just a spoonful of grape juice makes the GSE go down, the GSE go down, the GSE go down…” :D
• Oil of Oregano (OoO)– I have rubbed this on my little ones’ feet as well as giving it orally, either straight (for Geo who can tolerate it), or with honey for those who can’t. I’ve backed off this one a little because of the taste and because I’m about out of capsules which I could put it in for easier application.
• Olive Leaf Extract – I had some of these left over from something else I was fighting so I add them in sometimes.
• Bio Solutions Frequency Generator a.k.a. “The Zapper Machine” – There is not a setting specifically for Pertussis or Whooping Cough so I have kids run the Bronchitis and Bronchial Pneumonia routines as I don’t want their WC to develop into either. They do this once a day.
• Son Ancon Chi Machine a.k.a. “The Fishy Machine”  - When they or I remember, they lie down on the Chi machine 1-3 times a day for 10 minutes each. This helps oxygenate their blood and increase circulation.
• Probiotics – This is to counteract the bactericide (good ones not excluded) happening in their systems due to the silver/OoO/GSE. We give these after meals.
• Ginger Tea – We give this when they are having a hard time in the night, after a cough attack, to help settle them back down.
• Thyme Tea – I made this for the last 2 nights with great success! I boiled several branches of thyme in water till the water was yellow. I let the water boil off a little so that I could add ice cubes to cool it off and not effect the concentration much. Oh, while still hot, I added enough honey to make it palatable. I can’t tell if the coughs are just naturally starting to get better or if the thyme tea made that much of a difference, but it did seem that Nina’s coughing lessened drastically and quickly after giving her thyme tea after an attack. Also Geo went from 3 a night to 2 last night (only 1 after I went to bed).
• Onion Poultice on Feet – Several people from church mentioned this as a remedy for cough. For the last 3 nights we have put slices of onion inside their socks and put plastic bags over the socks before tucking them in bed. I’m not sure if this has helped or not, but our nephew (who is visiting and hasn’t developed full-blown WC, yet) has been coughing for the last few days, but the last 3 nights that we put onion on his feet, we noticed a decline in the amount of coughing.
• Vicks Vap-o-Rub – We rub this on their chests, necks and backs (also feet if not using onion) each night before they go to bed, also in the middle of the night after an attack.
• Fomentations – I did these a couple of times but didn’t notice much of a change and since it is so laborious and because I didn’t find much on the internet about fomentations used for WC, I have put that one on the back burner.
• Hot/Cold Showers – I suppose this would be pretty similar to fomentations, now that I think about it. I don’t think it hurts to increase blood flow and circulation which H/C showers do.
• Russian Penicillin/Rocket Fuel… – The version I made called for:

1 onion

5 radishes (sub horseradish or cayenne)

5 garlic cloves

juice of 10 lemons (I think I only had 5 or 6)

honey to taste

This one is a very pretty pink and not too strong for kiddy palates.

I’ve also made a version calling for garlic, onions, cayenne, ginger, lemons, honey & water. Potent stuff!

• Quarantine – As soon as my kids started coughing, I told them to cough down into their shirts or into their elbows away from people. My older 2 haven’t been to their piano lesson in 2 weeks, church in 2 weeks or the evangelistic meetings that are going on at our church (which they would dearly love to go to) because things were starting to get a bit worse and we didn’t want to share any germs. When Geo and Nina did go to their piano lesson (about 3 weeks ago), I told them to wash their hands with soap before playing piano and cough into their shirts if needed. After Ana started coughing, for the 2 weeks that we did take them to church, I had her sit in the back of her class, well separate from the other children, “just in case.” Eli (7) has been great about coughing into his shirts, to the point that some of his t-shirts are sadly stretched out in the neck area. That’s fine with me, tho, I’d rather that than someone get sick from their germs. Since we suspected WC, they haven’t been out anywhere. I bet they are getting a little stir-crazy, but it’s what I feel we must do for now, at least for another 2 weeks and until everyone is not coughing in the daytime anymore (at least that would be my preference).

 

These I haven’t actually tried but are on my list:

• Garlic Juice – Press a bunch of cloves and press them through a sieve to extract the juice, give by the 1/2 teaspoonful several times a day.
• Mullein Tea
• Slippery Elm
• Sage Tea, Garlic Tea, Turmeric Tea, Fenugreek tea…
• Hot food baths (followed by cold before drying)
• Tepid bath, cool cloth on head for 10-15 minutes (supposed to bring some of the blood from core [lungs] to skin to warm it up easing congestion)
• Steam treatment in shower and thumping on chest (well, we do run the humidifiers in their rooms at night and thump Geo on the back when he has a coughing fit, but I read about one lady who took her kids into a steamy shower and thumped their backs to get them to cough stuff out of their lungs).

 

I use the School Assistant and the Carbodroid Android apps to remind me what the kids are supposed to be doing next (i.e. taking their vitamin Cs, or drinking water or going outside to get sun…). This helps to keep me on schedule and make sure nothing gets missed.