Thursday Thoughts- I'm Random

Yes, I forgot to blog on Tuesday. I'm so sorry. I blame it on the drugs. :-)

I've been sick for the last week- no voice for four days. Seriously- all I could do was whisper. My kids loved it. They thought they had complete reign of the joint. I put a stop to that immediately. Amazing what can happen when you take the media fix away from children. Snaps their bottoms in line pretty quickly.

I'm thankful for my doc, who called in the script without making me drive all the way into the city while I felt like poo. The trade-off is, of course, I have to come in for my yearly check-up next month, but at least he doesn't make me do both. I can live with that.

We are so close to the first complete rough draft of The Caregiver Organizer for my aging parent. In a couple of weeks, we'll be ready to give it to close associates who will go through it and tell us what they think. That's always a little nerve racking. After all, who wants to hear that their baby is ugly, right?

And for now, I have two more weeks of the kids being in school, while my school gig is finished for the summer. Oh how I treasure May. Love, love, love the month of May!

Yep, completely stream of consciousness today. But hey, at least I'm conscious. Which beats the last five days of zombiedom. I'll take it!

Yours, now getting ready to play catch-up,

Melissa

Tuesday Tidbit- So What Does This Say About Me?

Here at the B House, we have had another bout with the flu. This time, it struck Z1. Poor little bear. It's not the achy, hurt all over kind, but the kind where you wretch your guts out for two days until you have absolutely NOTHING left inside of you. He was finally able to hold down food yesterday and got some of his energy back, much to my relief. It's just hard to see your little ones so miserable and lethargic.

His flu started in the middle of the night. Normally, I am the one who gets up in the middle of the night for everything. When we first had children, I was barely working, so I always got up since the Hub had to go into work the next day. And when it comes to cleaning up puke, I ALWAYS have to do it because he can't take the smell (as if it's roses to MY nose). I'm usually gagging the entire time I clean it up. I can't tell you how many times I have had to do it.

Right now I'm working seven days a week, so it's a whole different ball game. It's a busy music season for me, on top of a busy work season at The Caregiver Organizer. (Which, BTW, that book has come in HANDY the last few weeks! Lots of sitters, lots of schedules. . . ) Anyway, so when Z1 first came to me in the middle of the night, I was really groggy. Generally, I am up before he can get three steps into the hallway. It's just how I'm wired. But this night, when he came back a second time, I was still pretty unresponsive, so I've been told. All I remember was getting shook by the Hub and hearing an,"AAAACCKKK!!!! The New Carpet!" and a quick ushering of a little body to the nearest bathroom.

I promptly rolled over thinking,"He said Let's. As in Let US have a baby. US meaning both of us.Go ahead, Honey."

And I slept soundly for the rest of the night.

Does that make me a bad mom? Or wife?

Yours, not losing too much sleep over it,

Melissa

OH, GROW UP AND BE A MAN!

I don’t want to get on a male-bashing tirade, but seriously, why do men act like babies when they get sick? Did their mothers coddle them too much? Uh, oh, does that mean I’m setting up my own boys to be big babies for their wives when they get sick? Should I just tell them to “suck it up” and “be a man” when they have a fever? Okay, obviously I won’t do that, but I sure would like to say that to my DH!

After all, when I get sick, there certainly isn’t anyone around to take care of me, is there? I’m still expected to carry on with my mommy-duties as if everything was fine and normal. I don’t get time off when I’m sick, do you? But the really funny thing is that DH doesn’t see this at all. He somehow has this convoluted idea that I lay around all day and night when I’m not feeling well, and he does everything around the house for me and the kids. Is he kidding?

Okay, I sound like I’m whining. And I guess I am male-bashing a bit, or at least DH-bashing! And although there have been times when he overreacted a bit (Once he had a cold and seriously thought he was dying and should go to the emergency room! No, really!), he definitely is sick this time. So I should be much more sympathetic, right? After all, he is my husband and I do love him, and I did promise to care for him in sickness and in health and blah, blah, blah.

(Shoot, there I go again. I’d better stop before somebody shows this to him!)

So I want to know: Is it just me or do other wives go through this also? Please give me some hope that my boys won’t turn out this way!

Karen

Monday Minute – Home Remedy

If your household is anything like mine, viruses make the rounds pretty quickly. Of course, not quickly enough that we’re all sick at the same time. We each get to have our very own few days of feeling badly and being pampered.

(Hee Hee! Oh, that was funny! Of course, I didn’t mean to include moms in that bit about being pampered!)

So we are all getting sore throats and fevers. The fabulous nurse practitioners at the Take Care Clinic at Walgreens have given me a home remedy for sore throats. No, it’s not the dreaded warm salt water, it’s something I’d never heard of and wanted to share with you:

• Mix together equal parts of Liquid Benadryl (generic is Diphenhydramine) and Maalox (generic is Aluminum Hydroxide / Magnesium Hydroxide / Simethicone).
• For adults, usually about 1 Tablespoon of each; gargle and spit the solution out.
• For Children, about 1-2 teaspoons of each; gargle and spit the solution out.
• May be done every 4-6 hours as needed for pain.

Now, I must admit that I have not tried this. (Anybody who knows anything about me, knows that I am the biggest BABY when it comes to liquid medicines. Cough syrups, gargles, anything that doesn’t come in pill form!) However, it MUST be better than the salt water gargle, right?

So if anybody tries this, let me know how it is, okay?

Karen

You Thought It Too. . . Don't Judge Me!

     So the last twenty four hours have been full-on Mommy Duty. No escaping it. It started out like this. . . I brought my little girl (hereafter referenced as Z2) home from school on Thursday afternoon. She attends half day kindergarten. I mentioned that we had some errands to do after lunch to which she replied," Mommy, my tummy hurts."

   "Honey," I said, "It's only one errand. It will be very quick." You see, when Z2 doesn't want to do something or doesn't want to eat a particular thing, she will say her tummy hurts. So of course, when I received this default answer, I assumed nothing was wrong.

   "Okay, dear. If your tummy hurts, let's try some chicken noodle soup," I said in my best, semi-cheery, patient Mommy-voice. I made her the soup and she ate some of it. Off she toddled after lunch to get her socks and shoes. She came back, we loaded up into the car and drove to the craft store.  Our assignment for the day was to make a Valentine box for her "Friendship Party".

(Rabbit Trail: I am so tired of PC Party Names. It's a V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E Party. Just like the Fall Party is a H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N Party. But that, my friends, is another blog for another day.)

So we are going quickly through the store, trying to find the appropriate decorations for an empty oatmeal carton wrapped in pink paper turned to a Valentine Castle Box. We make our selection and go to the line, which is six people long and the lady currently at the counter had THREE FULL CARTS. I'm not even kidding. And she's going through the carts saying,"Yes, I think I want this. . . . No . . I'm going to wait on this." 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that was what the whole shopping process  was for. You know, beFORE you enter the checkout lane. But I digress. 

So Z2 and I are standing in line and the four other ladies move to another checkout lane (there were only two). She looks up and me and says,"Mommy, my stomach really, really, BuLLEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHH!" all down her front, splattering everywhere. Before I could even react, along came the next wave. And the next. And the next. 

It was all over her, and splattered onto my shoes and jeans most everything else within a five foot radius. Sensing a break in her sickness, I quickly moved her to the door, all the while exclaiming,"I'm sorry! I'm so! so! so! SORRY! Really, I-I-I- I'm just so sorry!"

I get her outside and she starts another wave, leaning her tiny, little head out into the street filling up with rain. She finishes and looks up at me and says,"Mommy, aren't you going to go get my stickers?"

Poor baby. Here we are, in the rain she's sick, I'm thoroughly splattered, we both stink and she is worried about not having her stickers. So I settle her in front of the glass door where I can see her, take a deep breath and walk back in the store. All the moms were watching and beginning to giggle.  They called another cashier to the front to clean up. She comes up, gets one whiff and immediately begins to get sick. Seriously. 

The cashier grabbed my stickers, rang me up and got me out of there ASAP.

All I could think as I walked out to collect my child was," Thank You, God. For once in my career as a mother, I will not have to clean up the puke from the floor."

Yours, completely grateful to whomever had to clean it up,

Melissa