Back home after Christmas

Lexie loves Christmas. We are in front of the tree at the Moring's.

I am back home after spending a wonderful week with my sister and brother-in-law, Gay and Stu. When I walked into their house, Christmas enveloped me. Their tree is always perfectly decorated. The mantel, table tops, buffet and dining table offer lovely Christmas themed arrangements.

They attended church two times while I was there. They sing in their choir and take their responsibility seriously. In spite of having been sick for over two weeks with a bad respiratory virus, they were able to attend rehearsals and sing the cantata as well as participate in the Candle Light Service at Alpharetta Presbyterian Church.

I felt sad as I left today, looking at the tree for the last time. Both Gay and Stu loaded my car for me and it was loaded! They are generous and very caring people. I will get out the things I need tonight, but the rest will wait until tomorrow when I have help.

We went out to eat several times and Gay and I went to see Mary Poppins Returns, a lovely musical with good acting. We did a little after Christmas shopping, as well.

I have been fighting a respiratory illness for the past few weeks and eventually was prescribed an antibiotic. I was doing much better until Christmas night. We had such fun at the home of my niece, Lee, and her family, eating and laughing so hard we could not stop. But later that night I developed something new or my original illness worsened. Now, I think I have bronchitis. I coughed so hard my chest hurts and my throat does, too. It was good that I came home. Now I can stay in bed or just do nothing until I get over this malady.

Any time I am out with people, it is easy for me to become ill. I can be exposed to a small amount of chemical such as perfume, cologne, candles or things I am not even aware of and in a short time I am sick. I believe that I react badly to live Christmas trees because they are treated with chemicals to keep them green and pesticides to kill insects you don’t want to bring into your home.

Today while reading about toxins in our home, I found some interesting facts that pertain to all of us.

Formaldehyde is in many of the products we use and have in our homes. Who would think our sofas or chairs could be hazardous to our health.  https://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/search?tbl=TblChemicals&queryx=50-00-0

Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen. Formaldehyde is in most manmade fragrances – perfumes, scented items people use on their bodies every day. Learn more on Toxnet.  https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search2/f?./temp/~3Tzcp3:3

An article in Readers Digest is very helpful for those of us who want to only use natural cleaning products in our homes. If everyone would use these kinds of products, people who have health issues with manmade chemicals could go almost anywhere and not become ill.

Great cleaning tips with natural products that do not contain dangerous chemicals. https://www.rd.com/home/cleaning-organizing/natural-cleaning-products/

I look forward to 2019 and am making plans now for good things to come. I hope you have stayed well during the holidays and that you will usher in a wonderful new year.