I Dare You To Eat It

So, I meant to share this weeks ago, but you know how wonderfully busy (code for totally nuts) life gets during the month of December. Thanks to the great comments and suggestions for homemade gifts, I felt like I should go ahead and share my personal 911-cheap-wheat trick.

Right before the holidays, Lizzie had all four impacted wisdom teeth pulled and it was not a fun experience.

In fact, she experienced numerous complications and was down and out for almost two weeks. At one point, of course late at night, the pain was terrible and the meds were making her sick. With the majority of our junk still boxed after our move, I had no idea where I had stashed our heating pad. Somehow, and thankfully, I remembered hearing that you could make homemade heating pads using old socks filled with basic grains or beans. So, while she lay moaning on the sofa, I decided to give it a go.

Mike and I quickly filled the socks using a large canning funnel but I’m sure a regular funnel would have been fine. I’ve also heard that using an empty TP roll makes a ready substitute.

Because the socks weren’t especially long, we closed them with rubber bands, and thought we were ready to go.

“Houston, we have a problem.”

Lizzie continued to moan.

Dang! What is it with me and anything even remotely related to cooking? Turns out I grabbed a pair of not only lace socks, but slightly worn lace socks.

Lesson learned.

“I know! I know! I’m hurrying…and just taking a few more pictures”

Next, I tried these awesome striped babies and was grateful that they only needed a quick knot to get them securely closed. I didn’t know how long to heat them in the microwave, and of course guessed wrong. Turns out 4 minutes is way too long. After the emergency heating pads cooled off, and the smell of burned over-toasted wheat began to fade (a little) we gently…ever so gently…snuggled them up to Lizzie’s Chicken Run cheeks and the little squirt could finally get some sleep. Wish I had not forgotten to take the most important picture.  Oh well. And she’s not really in a gang.

Homegirl’s feeling much better thank you, and those little heat pups were a huge help.