I thought it might be fun to get a Supermom’s Health and Wellness group going on Facebook.  We have a discussion board for sharing tips and recipes, so I think this could be very fun!  Just go to Facebook.com and then do a search for Supermom’s Health and Wellness.  Click to join!  And tell your friends–the more, the merrier!

Here we are, in the car on our way to the Games. We took 7 kids + 2 adults. Woot!

The next photo is of my oldest son, demonstrating How Not To Sit While Wearing a Kilt. His was given some skirt-wearing pointers, but as you can see, he didn’t take the advice.

The first thing I did when we got to the Games was to fall and hurt myself, thanks to a sharp difference between the pavement height and the grass next to it. Somehow, I was so skillful as to have my right foot get half on the pavement and half off of it. So my right foot kind of rolled sideways downhill, and my left knee went crashing into the cement. So here is a picture of my scraped up knee, just to prove it. (thankfully, I was wearing cropped pants that covered my knees. I am so thankful that I didn’t hit the concrete with bare skin. And, extra bonus!, my new cropped pants *did not rip* which I thought was pretty great)

I got right up and kept walking. My husband has been ahead of me, as had most of the kids, so they hadn’t seen what happened, although they heard me say ouch. They checked in with me and I thought I was fine, so we kept on truckin’ for another few feet, and then I decided that maybe I should get some ice.

We found an ambulance so walked over to it, only to find not a single emergency services type person in sight. What a crock. We couldn’t find any ice near where we were, and then we saw a pipes and drums band starting, so we just went to watch that. I toughed it out.

After that we had to go to the farthest reaches of the grounds to find The Old Man, who is the vendor with the cheapest array of wooden swords, knives, and muskets. THIS is what our boys were looking forward to more than anything.

As you can see from the next photo, they had fun selecting their weaponry just in time to take the closest hill in a battle.

The thing that I was most looking forward to was seeing NeedFire play again. We just loved this group last year and have listened to their CDs since then. Well, they did not disappoint! Such a fun group to watch on stage, and super nice to their fans off the stage. Four of our kids had t-shirts that they got signed by the band members. Cool people. Very fun to see them again.

The one and only down side to the concert was that as I sat there, I noticed my foot starting to hurt. It had hurt just a little bit after it twisted as I fell off the pavement.

I don’t know if it was sitting for so long, or the amount that we walked, or just the amount of time since I fell, but the pain started intensifying and then extending all the way up my leg, almost to my hip. And that was just when I was sitting.

When I got up to walk…zowee! The pain was quite intense, and all I can say is that having birthed six babies, I do know how to breathe through pain. However, constant pain is quite a bit different than intermittent contractions with a cute baby to show for it at the end.

My husband stopped at a store on the way home to get me souvenir meds. (My daughter said to him, “Maybe you could find something herbal and natural for mom..” He was like, “Honey–they aren’t going to have anything herbal here….” It was nice of her to think of that, and I realized that I really, really need to get that first aid kit made up for the car like I’ve been thinking of doing for….years!) Neosporin for the scrape, Blue goo to make my foot feel cold, and Aleve, which ended up saving the day.

I could walk on my foot without too much misery by the time we got home. Yay! Thankfully, by Sunday my foot was feeling quite a bit better, although I took a lazy day to mostly stay off of it, seeing as how *Monday* we will be helping my husband’s sister’s family move into their new house, near us! They are moving here from 14 hours away.

Overall, it took a lot of energy and patience to take the kids to the Games, particularly when speaking through teeth clenched in pain. They had fun, though, and say they want to go back next year.

True to my make-lemonade-out-of-lemons personality, I have decided to experiment with a wonderful herbal healing salve on my knee scrape. One side of the scrape is getting the herbal stuff, the other side I am leaving alone. I already notice an obvious different in how much each part hurts. (the herbal side feels much less painful) I am thinking of offering this new product after I return from my vacation. This is a perfect opportunity to give it a good test.

So it’s been a year since my husband and I first went to the Glasgow Highland Games, and the whole family has been looking forward to attending in 2008. Since we knew we’d be going back, we started accumulating some good Scottish garb for the children. Would you like to see…??

This first little Highlander is my 5 year old. It was kinda sunny that day, so he did a lot of squinting.

Pained squinting, to be exact….

And this is my 6 year old. Cute, eh?

My daughter was quite happy with her costume.

Wild clan of cute young men…

Here’s one of all the kids together.

We had these kilts and my daughter’s outfit made by some very sweet and talented young ladies. You can go to their web site here. I highly recommend them.

Tune in next time for actually photos from the Games!

It’s time for another blog party! Welcome to the fun!

I’m Erica, and this blog is where I focus on health and wellness issues, including stuff related to my business, Supermom’s Health and Wellness. You might enjoy checking out some of my articles that are pretty popular among moms:

Supermom’s Healthy Lemonade recipe: Great for your health, great for weight loss, tastes excellent, kids love it, and –get this– NO SUGAR! (You’ll love it!!)

Read about the two supplements that have given me tons of energy to keep on keepin’ on with my six kids, homeschooling, and running my businesses.

Here’s something I wrote about my children’s liquid multivitamin that we are so pleased with.

Some fun things I have going on right now:

Get a free ebook: The No-Cry Parenting Guide. Yours when you sign up for my free newsletter here.

Listen to my interview with Cindy Rushton, where we talk about healthy eating, without having to go to extremes.

I am also hosting a great sale on my two healthy eating books right now, with 50% of the proceeds going to Zoe Children’s Homes, which is an organization that rescues children from the evils of human trafficking. You can read more about this here.

In celebration of The Ultimate Blog Party, I will be giving one of you a bottle of the wonderful ENERGY GIVING supplement that I love so much, Bee Strong. To be entered into this giveaway you need to leave a comment here telling me what you would do with more energy! Make sure that I have an email address to contact you if you want to win. (Hey–if you’re allergic to bees, this product isn’t one for you. OK?)

You can visit my Baby Boutique Blog here, and my Supermom’s No-Lice Advice blog here. I have giveaways going on at both sites.

Enjoy the party!!

I thought it would be fun to start featuring one favorite soap variety each month to give you a discounted way to try something new.

My family just loves all of these natural soaps that are hand made by a talented mompreneur (and personal friend of mine) in the USA. They are very moisturizing, and they smell WONDERFUL!

Cinnamon Stick is one of my new favorites. One side of this soap is soft and smooth, and the other side has ground cinnamon in it, making it naturally exfoliating–which feels SO GOOD and smells yummy enough to eat.

Ingredients: saponified coconut, olive, palm, canola, and castor oil, shea and cocoa butter, cinnamon essential oil, and ground cinnamon

These soaps are very mild and moisturizing, and are made with all-natural ingredients. All of the naturally occurring glycerin is retained during the process of creating the soap, unlike commercial soaps.

Each bar of this soap comes wrapped in fabric that makes it adorable enough to give as a little gift to a special someone.

Check out our Soap of the Month here!

Tiffanie is the winner of the two free ebooks that I gave away for the Bloggy Giveaways fun last week.  You can go congratulate her here.

There’s lots of fun going around the blogosphere this week. Bloggy Giveaways is hosting a giveaway carnival! Right here at Supermom’s Health and Wellness I will be giving away my ebooks,

Supermom’s Simple Guide to Healthier Eating for Beginners and Beyond,

and Supermom’s Simple Guide to Super Salads to one lucky winner. All you have to do to enter the contest is to leave a comment here to let me know you want to be in the drawing. Also–in your comment, tell me what your biggest challenge in eating healthier is. Make sure that you enter your email address when you comment, or I’ll have no way to get in touch with you if you’re the winner.

I also want to tell you that EVERY ONE of my visitors here can get a FREE ebook, The No-Cry Parenting Guide by parenting expert Elizabeth Pantley. All you have to do is sign up for my newsletter by going here. Also, you’ll get a $5 gift certificate as well!

I am hosting other Bloggy Giveaways this week at my baby boutique blog, and at my Supermom’s No-Lice Advice site. Lots of good opportunities!

After you sign up for all of my giveaways, head over to Bloggy Giveaways so that you can cruise around and sign up for some other fun contests as well! There will be hundreds of new blogs to check out and prizes to be won. Woo hoo, fun!

I always found it funny that Christians pray for food to be blessed to their bodies, even when they are eating total junk. Tim Hawkins has a funny comedy shtick about this. This video takes a little while to load up, but totally cracked us up.

Anybody want to go shopping at my baby boutique? This week you have the chance to win a $30 gift certificate here. Spread the word and have fun!

You are invited to a special screening of Pregnant In America this
Friday, September 28th in Portland, OR
Pregnant in America examines the betrayal of humanity’s greatest
gift — birth — by the greed of U.S. corporations. Hospitals,
insurance companies and other members of the health care industry
have all pushed aside the best care of our infants and mothers to
play the power game of raking in huge profits.

There will be Q&A after the movie with Pregnant in America’s
director, Steve Buonaugurio and experts from the movie.

This special screening is on Friday, September 28th at 7:00pm in
Portland, OR in the Portland Convention Center as part of the Gentle
Birth World Congress.

Click here to access your ticket.

Simply print out the ticket and bring it with you.

Seating is limited, so be sure to arrive early to get your seat. See
you friday!