Domestic Geek

I used to have really bad heartburn all the time up until about a year ago. I thought it was the result of the carbonation in the excessive amount of soda I drank every day. When I eliminated soda from my diet last January, I stopped having constant pain. Since I've been back at work, though, I've started drinking coffee and hot tea and the heartburn is back. It turns out one cause of heartburn is our good friend caffeine. It relaxes the valve that keeps your stomach acid out of the esophagus. I guess that explains why chocolate also gives me heartburn. I guess I need to cut down on the amount of caffeinated beverages I consume. I don't want to use any medications to treat it, because I've read that those interfere with your digestion and keep you from getting nutrients from your food. I read that Ginger is a natural remedy and I've been meaning to try it. Supposedly chamomile is good, too. I had heard that peppermint was good for heartburn, but unfortunately it has the same effect as caffeine. When I tried that, it actually ended up making the problem much worse. I had totally forgotten peppermint's effects until a couple of days ago when I ate a bunch of Altoids after a particularly bad cup of coffee. Big mistake!

Sorry I haven't been around here much lately. Between a little bit of blog burnout and being under the weather, blogging hasn't been a priority. Between the grief of losing Skippy, my insomnia, the change in my schedule...it was inevitable that I get sick, I guess. Oh, and it's that time of month. For some reason, I tend to get sick around this time. Does the body's immune system drop or something? I keep meaning to research that. I know I tend to get cancre sores right before it starts. Oh, the joy of womanhood.

Not much is new here. I get my first full time paycheck tomorrow. Yay!! I've been given archiving responsibilies at work, so in addition to backing up the computer data, I get to file the hard copies of stuff that gets printed, too. The file room was a mess, so I've been sifting through and purging old stuff. It's horribly dusty back there.

When I got out of the shower yesterday, I looked in the mirror and the skin all over my face was dry and flaky. Ewww. I've also been scratching a lot and have noticed a couple of dry patches on my arm that aren't usually there. Since I don't have these problems in the summer when we're running our swamp cooler most of the day, it's got to be the result of the dry Colorado winter air. I do have a small vaporizer than I run when I'm sick, but it barely puts moisture in my bedroom, let alone the whole house. Plus, the dang thing is noisy! I know I need to get a humidifier to run when we kick the furnace on for the winter, but have you seen all the choices in the store? While hunting around online, I found a complete guide to buying a house humidifier. There's a page that breaks down the different types of home humidifiers as well as desirable features in a model. There is also some information on the top brands of humidifiers. If you suffer from dry skin and sore throats every winter as well, a humidifier just may be the answer—check out all the useful information at HumidifierInformation.com.

One thing I miss since the Coomers crafts malls went out of business is the one seller who had a booth with Burt's Bees products. Burt's Bees produces a really good lip balm. Sure, you can go to the health food stores to get some of them, but I really hate going there. For some reason, I feel out of place. I found a great online site called N101 Nutrition that not only carries a lot of products in the Burt's Bees line, but many other well-known brands of nutritional supplements, vitamins, herbs, sports nutrition and natural beauty products. That reminds me that I really need to find a new vitamin supplement. I'm almost out of mine and though it worked pretty well, it was really expensive. Fortunately, this site offers everyday low pricing and many of their items include volume discounts. N101 Nutrition also has a rewards program where you earn 1 point for every dollar spent that can later be redeemed for select product discounts or free merchandise.

Besides just listing the products for sale, the company provides detailed information including ingredients and facts about each one. There are also many articles and guides to help you choose the right products or to get more information about health and supplement topics. I'm definitely going to be delving further into this site.

Note to Self: Stop drinking carbonated beverages, especially now that you don't drink them all the time. I had a Coke with dinner because the place we went to dinner doesn't serve brewed tea (only that nasty fountain crap). I have got the worst case of heartburn right now as a result. Ugh. This sucks because I had intended on going to bed early to get a good night's rest (still trying to fight off sickness). Does a woman's immune system drop right before her period? It always seems that when I do get sick, it's right around this time of month. *sigh*