The Scourge.

Life as of late has been just a wee bit interesting, to say the least.
It's been busy.
In a whirling dervish sort of way.

Not only have I been trying to keep the house "show ready" for whenever the Realtor calls, but London has taken it upon herself to just want to cat nap in little thirty minute spurts during the day.  That's not so much my favorite.  But, the crowning joy of life right now is the fact that we are in the thick of the worst poison ivy episode that we have ever had.  To date.

And that's saying a lot.

When Dad and Mom were here earlier last week, Dad took it upon himself to do a little bit of research on various poison ivy remedies that are out there.  We have done the Aveeno oatmeal bath, the washing with dish detergent to remove the oils, the soaking it in bleach water and in salt water, the rubbing of alcohol, the applying of cortizone cream and calamine lotion yadda yadda yadda.

We. have. done. it. all.
Or maybe we haven't.

Dad found a bunch on remedies online involving Jewel Weed, and since my neighbor Lew has a plethora of it growing wild in his backyard, I figured what do we have to lose?

Last week, Kaden's face was plastered with it so badly, and his face was so swollen that he didn't even look like himself.  Seriously, people.  His face?  What in the world?!!!

And this week, Jesse's entire bottom leg down to his foot is plastered and swollen up to almost twice the size of his other leg.  And with each successive day...the blisters....they grow.

Praise the Lord and pass the biscuits.  We are a leprous generation.  Unclean!  Unclean!

And so, this week, I took it upon myself to become the hippie Mama that I saw in all of these YouTube videos that Dad and I watched about various Jewel Weed remedies and figured that we have absolutely nothing to lose in trying some out.

The first one involves cutting up a whole whack of the stuff and cooking it on the stove for twenty minutes in a quart or so of hot, boiling water.  It actually smelled really fresh and nice.

We cooked it down, down, down, and then ladled it all - "broth" and plant - into mason jars, and we store it in the fridge to keep it nice and cold.  I also put some of the "broth" in ice cube trays, and whenever the itching makes the boys crazy, they can take a paper towel and dab the mixture in the mason jars on their wounds, or they can take an ice cube and rub that all over them - both soothing and numbing the itch all at the same time.  So far, they have said that this is their "remedy of choice."  Instant soothing.

One of the really uber crunchy Mamas also said that you can drink the liquid.  She calls it "Cortizone Tea."  I figure that we aren't that desperate just yet.  Soon maybe.  But, not yet.

And then I also found this little topical remedy, as well:

In case you don't know what fresh plantain is....because I know that I surely didn't....it's the stuff that grows all over people's lawns:

Here's a picture up close:

We pureed up a batch of that stuff this afternoon in my handy dandy food processor.
Dee-lish.

And then, I slathered a whole whack of it all over Jesse's leg.
I must say, that he was highly unimpressed with the entire procedure, but he did say that it soothed him.

It just looks gross.
But then again, the poison ivy and the swelling and the oozing blisters are no picnic to look at, either.

Cheers!
I'm off to check into the Funny Farm....