Happy Stove, Happy Family!

So its hard to believe that the 5 plus years we've been in our house it never occured to us to get our chimney swept. Heath says he remembers thinking about the first couple years we were in the house, but the stove seemed like it was working well and didn't need it. Well, for probably the past couple months (or more) it seems that we can't make a fire or even open the stove door without smoke billowing out (ok....I exaggerate.....but only just a little). It has gotten really bad in the past month to where it is really starting to bother me.....why in the world would we have such a smokey stove. Duh!?!? My "mom brain" must have been really kicking in to not even dawn on me that it may be because we have accumulated 5 plus years of soot in our chimney. Maybe Heath thought about it, but it totally didn't cross my mind. I take pride in knowing that I try my best to keep a toxic-free home....free of pollutants, household chemicals, artificial perfumes, etc. Here we are the whole time (ok probably just this past fall/winter) polluting our house with wood smoke....which I know can be quite the culprit for carbon monoxide poisoning, allergies, asthma and who knows what other health issues. My friend Terese' was over early last week and couldn't figure out why her eyes were watering so bad......it was because I just put more wood on the fire and smoke had lingered out. Hmmm.....you think that may be the reason we can't figure out why Grayson still has a lingering cough since October (about the same time we start up the stove). Of course he did get a cold with cough at the end of September, but he can't seem to shake this cough thing.....which usually is an out-of-control dry tickle cough in the middle of the night or during nap time. We had been to his doctor a couple different times to see if we can figure this thing out. Our doctor prescribed Singulair which is used for allergies/asthma....but since I try to be au naturale I just could never use the samples or fill the prescription. Don't worry, his cough has gotten extremely better....if it hadn't I would have given in to the pharmaceuticals. Anyway, we did have an inkling that the wood smoke may be a contributor to his cough....but again, it still never occured to me that we could possibly remedy that issue in a pretty major way. So, last week as Heath and I were discussing it again, chimney sweep came up. I was all over that! Today was the day for our long overdue sweep. The guy showed me just how much crap was all over the chimney cap. Yikes!!!!! He pointed out where the smoke is supposed to go out and how it is supposed to be open....well, ours was totally blocked off with carcinogenic toxic nasty soot! No wonder the poor ionizing air filter is working over time.

For the future we will be getting our chimney swept every other year....maybe every year! I'm so glad we finally got it done. We will keep you all posted on how Grayson's cough seems to be getting and if it improves. I didn't mention that Heath has allergies and asthma....this couldn't possibly helping him at all.

Now I'll just sit back, take a deep breath, drink my detox tea (Arbonne of course) and eat my dark chocolate (for antioxidants, hello!?).