July 07, 2009 in Keeping the Home, Mom Stuff, webcam fun, weird wild stuff, Whining | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
June 23, 2009 in Keeping the Home, Mom Stuff | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Playing with friends (sweeping the yard?!)
Being a crazy sister
Taking apart the pantry and purging and sorting and reorganizing (I really need more pantry space in this house!)
Being put out by all of the work going on around us
Letting sisters try Lego Robotics for the first time (and to think I told Sadie that she's too young -- this has become a new shared hobby for her and Josh, much to my surprise!)
Practicing being the cutest little muffin (when we're not practicing being the grumpiest little hellion)
Laughing out loud
Being the big brother math teacher
Since our friends, the Elmers, are back in town for about a month, we've taken Terri and William with us to hike around McKinney Falls again last Friday, and also to the Austin Nature Center on Tuesday, to enjoy being outside before the arctic air hit us yesterday. I've been working on getting Josh passed off on various Webelos badges, and making sure Delaney is ready for her first dance competition on Saturday. I've also been working on getting all of the kids attired for Easter -- I did find a dress I loved for myself, too bad it was $300! Getting serious about finishing the fence for our backyard, still working on food storage plans and garden plans (my garden stuff will arrive from Burpee next week!). Finally, I've been making all of my plans for everything that needs to get done while Ryan is home with us all of next week (thank you Freescale for mandatory quarterly unpaid leave!).
March 12, 2009 in Family, Gardening, Homeschooling, Keeping the Home, Look what my kid did!, My dang cat, Shopping for fun stuff, The great outdoors | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I was thinking about what Misty said regarding the devastating wildfire that her family endured last week. I realized that my thoughts would be way too long for a "comment," it would take a post on my blog to cover it. :-)
The best thing about being prepared for emergencies is that if you are not the one in line to receive help, then that frees you up to be the one who can help others. It is so wonderful that someone who was probably on their way to safety themselves was able to stop by Misty's family's home and take a few minutes to use the available hoses and water the area enough to prevent their home from being lost. That simple act of charity will have a profound impact on her family's life.
When I think back to emergencies that I have witnessed or experienced, I am haunted by pictures of mothers with young babies during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, babies wearing the same diaper for days and drinking from bottles of sports drinks because that was all that they could come up with. I remember preparing for my extended family to stay with us during Hurricane Rita. The stores here sold out of everything useful within hours, but when my stepfather left to go pick up my brother's stranded family, we were able to come up with enough portable/lunchbox kind of food to put together several quick bags of food that were a godsend to those who received it.
When you consider your preparations, please also remember to prepare to be charitable. I know that if something happened and we (as a community) were forced to eat whatever was in our house, I would not be able to watch our neighbor's kids starve while mine had enough to eat, even if that means that my family runs out of food a day sooner.
Here are a few simple ideas to consider:
You get the idea. We all know how good it feels to be able to help someone else, so don't forget to plan for charity!
March 06, 2009 in Keeping the Home, Pontifications | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
(to go along with Ben's germ theory)
I have overcome the urge to strip all of our carpet, replace all of our furniture with plastic IKEA versions, and install a detox shower in our house. Between our encounters with lice, and the fact that all kinds of nasty flu, strep, and stomach cooties are striking all around me, I feel a wee bit paranoid.
I have still not found a single live bug this round, but have found a couple of eggs here and there on the two girls throughout the week. I know that it's going around in our area, so I really don't even know if this round was from something in our house or they got lucky and picked something up somewhere else. My brain is a pile of powder from figuring out where I could have missed something. I know, I need a chill pill, bad. Nonetheless, I took advantage of Ryan's presence this weekend and had him totally remove the girls' beds from their bedroom (they're taken apart and sequestered to the garage) and then vacuumed and steamed their carpet really good. I am planning to paint the girls' room finally while they're out of there, and then sometime soon when Ryan brings our stuff back from CA they will use the beds from out there. I have psychological issues with their beds here now. :-D
I ordered a super duper magic lice comb that will come this week. I also spent a good chunk of yesterday reading about and then ordering some magic lice potions, that will also come sometime this next week.
Lice -- BRING IT.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
For those of you who would like to close your ears and sing LALALALALALALALALA really loud when I talk about that, here is a nice picture of my kitty.
She doesn't give a diggity dang about lice. Or germs. She sneaks into the bathroom after someone uses the shower, and licks the leftover wet spots. Mmmm.
February 22, 2009 in Health, Keeping the Home, My dang cat, Shopping for fun stuff, Whining | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Well . . . Monday evening I discovered about 5 nits (lice eggs) on Delaney's hair while I was getting her ready to go somewhere (I have been checking everyone regularly and we'd been free for 2 weeks). I had a semi-nervous breakdown, but I got over it. Either that night or the next morning I found a couple on Sadie's head, too. No actual bugs, mind you, but obviously there must be a couple in my house, somewhere. So -- back we go with all of the laundry, etc. I am starting to wonder if there is something in the girls' mattresses, even though I have sprayed them again with the chemicals, so for now we are back to camping out in the living room on an air mattress. Their real mattresses are going to be sequestered for three weeks to make sure that there is nothing alive in them before they are returned to their rightful owners. Joy.
At least THEY think it is fun!
And note Delaney's kitty blanket and pillowcase that Grandma made for her birthday -- she loves them.
February 19, 2009 in Health, Keeping the Home | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Good thing we decided NOT to go on our trip this weekend.
This one now has strep.
This one thought it would fun to get strep, too. For the second time this month.
This one fell off her bike yesterday and had x-rays today -- she officially has a broken right thumb. Awaiting appointment with the orthopedic specialist.
At least this one (and the above one) don't seem to have lice anymore. I am very nervous to say it's gone yet. Just for the record, two straight days without a single nit to be found. She has beautifully soft hair from all of the mayo. ;-)
This one -- going to stop planning trips to Utah. They seem to be cursed. Maybe Vegas next time? Also, gets to add "bleach the hell out of my house" to the list again. Wouldn't you think all of the hell would already be out of my house??? There is apparently still a little bit left somewhere.
February 05, 2009 in Family, Health, Keeping the Home, Look what my kid did!, Whining | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
The last several days haven't been very fun. I had two sick kids and two licey kids. That involves a lot of things that kids think are pretty darn boring, like laundry, sanitizing, isolating, don't sit over there, don't touch that, don't go in that room, etc. To top it off, I was feeling sick for a couple of those days. I have tried to make it as fun as we can, though. For the last two nights we've had a mayo-head sleepover in the living room, and the night before that we had lice cupcakes. I am happy to report that our encounter with lice seems to be coming to a close, and Josh and Ava are not running fevers anymore. If I can keep things under control, Ryan and I might actually be able to continue with our plans to go to Utah this weekend (!).
(Josh is the only one who literally made lice cupcakes and is explaining to me what the different sprinkles on top represent -- some were lice, some were poison)
(Do ya think Sadie likes to pose for the camera, or what?!)
(Josh has been passing the time with LEGO activities, of course.)
(Happy that she didn't have to sleep in mayo last night -- wooot!!!)
Good grief, I sure hope that no one gets lice again anytime, ever (and that this particular bunch doesn't come back for another round). I can attest to the fact that lice are pretty well immune to the chemical treatments. My methods have involved extreme sanitation (keeping in mind that lice can't take heat); one-time use towels, clothing, pillows, sheets, blankets; overnight mayo heads; using tea tree oil shampoo; using the blow dryer on extra hot until your kids think their scalps are cooked; checking hair and picking out nits every two hours (sanitizing that comb inbetween uses); shutting down closets/dressers for 2 weeks -- only using clothes that are very freshly laundered and are kept in the hallway away from beds, etc; ANYthing fabric moved out to the garage for 2 weeks, including rubber bands/hair pretties, Barbies, doll clothes, etc; spraying furniture, mattresses and car interior with chemicals (twice), vacumming them, steaming them, and now spraying them with tea tree oil; throwing out all of our hair brushes; taking all of the jackets & coats out of the hall closet and washing them; wrapping the girls' mattresses with painter's plastic, then putting sheets on them. If the lice come back, I think my only other option is to burn the house down.
ETA: Erin reminded me that yes, everyone got haircuts this weekend to make lice searching easier (and the boys short enough to make lice inhabiting impossible). I am also adding a few drops of tea tree oil to each load of laundry that has any bedding in it.
I forgot -- there is one more thing that helps.
February 03, 2009 in Health, Keeping the Home, Whining | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
January 30, 2009 in Health, Keeping the Home, Look what my kid did! | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)