Wednesday, October 03, 2012

So long September, Welcome October!

Waking up this morning, my eyes flew open and my mind raced to determine what today's pressing requirements would be.  Generally speaking, I am one of those extremely fortunate people who work until tired, go to bed, and rise when the sun comes beaming through the window.
Lately though, there have been many mornings when the alarm clock has been pressed into service.  The Nov/Dec deadline for The Essential Herbal Magazine was on September 15th, and almost immediately upon that date we were also hit with a mountain of soap orders for my sister's wholesale company.  And the kid was preparing to move out of state.  And there were a couple of shows we'd signed up to do, and a few early morning trips to the train station for pick-ups and send-offs.
Don't get me wrong... we've been having a blast meeting our deadlines, pumping out soap, and delivering orders.  We love that stuff!  It's just been hectic.
Somewhere in there, Maryanne came down with some upper respiratory crud and I attempted to stay as far away from her coughing as possible.
She used a little elderberry - not enough.
Eventually she used the osha/elecampane syrup we shared on Mountain Rose Herbs' blog last week, so it's time to put another batch on for myself.  Why?  Because last night after every single one of our commitments were completed, I began to succumb to the creeping crud - but I'm going to fight it hard.  Somehow we nearly almost manage to hold it together and stay healthy until the moment comes when we can fall a little bit apart.  She was sickest during 2 days last week that were not critical. I don't know how we pull that off, but it's been that way ever since we went into business over 20 years ago.
I froze some concentrated elderberry juice this summer and last night took out a 1 cup bag to thaw.  A good glug of it last night and again this morning seems to be helping a lot, and I'll continue as long as needed.  In fact last night when my throat got that familiar warning ache, I took a chunk of the frozen juice and sucked on it while the rest thawed.  Now I think that next year I will find a smallish ice cube tray and make them up just to be able to do that regularly.

By the way, we have decided to cancel our fall classes, so I'll be placing calls later this afternoon.  There hasn't been enough interest for us to give up the next 6 weeks of weekends, so we're taking them back :-)
Who knows - there's an herb conference this coming weekend, the AHG conference in the end of the month, and all sorts of local agricultural faires and seasonal celebrations to attend if we so desire.  Wow - imagine!  Maybe we'll just have fun!

I sure don't mind waving goodbye to the last month, and it looks like October will be a great time.

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