There’s No Way I’ll Get This Written Without Interruption

Zeeb is finally over The Swine. HUZZAH!

Now R. has it.

I think.

At first I definitely for sure knew she absolutely had it because she woke up in the middle of the night on Friday with a very hot forehead (I did not take her temperature, I just kissed her, because my lips are better at gauging temps than the best thermometer on the market. Seriously.) and gave her some motrin and back to sleep she went, this time on our couch. Saturday morning she was feeling just Sort Of Icky but we kept her home from gymnastics because we didn’t want to be Those Parents who bring their sick germy kid to class and thus infect everyone else. Also I was afraid she’d use her last bit of energy on gymnastics and have nothing left to fight The Swine.

By Saturday at noon, R had a temp of 102. (I used a thermometer that time). So then I was very positive she was victim #2 of The Swine in our family. And not the least bit happy about it because R can not afford to miss an entire week of school as Zeeb did.

So then I got all Proactive and called the doctor. And guess what they said?

“Sucks to be you!”

Okay, no, they didn’t say exactly that. But they may as well have.

What they actually said was I could bring her in but even if she tested for The Swine they wouldn’t be able to give her a prescription for Tamiflu. Because they are saving their Precious Supply for those who are “at risk”. So then, I ask you, what on earth would be the point of bringing her in?? So that she could infect everyone in the waiting room? Or perhaps catch something else while her defenses are down??

Next we tried the E.R. Or rather, we tried calling the ER. See above for why we didn’t just go right in. And good thing we didn’t because we got the exact same answer. “Sucks to be you.”

And can I just say, there is nothing more annoying than being lectured REPEATEDLY about how IMPORTANT it is to get the vaccine – only to then be told you CAN’T GET THE VACCINE because you aren’t “high risk”… and THEN to be told that if you get sick the best thing to do is get yourself on Tamiflu ASAP … oh but sorry, we didn’t actually mean “you” specifically. Because you aren’t high risk. Or living with someone high risk. Or even facebook friends with someone high risk. And therefore YOU CAN’T HAVE ANY TAMIFLU.

It was at that point I decided to (aaaaand there’s the interruption I knew was coming. K got home from school. Which meant 20+ minutes of talking about her day. And then I had to get A from the bus. And then I had to get the Littles their snacks. And then help Zeeb with his homework. Decorating a turkey with stuff from around the house. I hate assignments like this, we never have cool crafty junk just lying around like colorful feathers or whatnot. All I could find was some popcorn and a bag of 15 bean soup that I never cooked. A pox on all things crafty!)

Anyway, SO I WAS SAYING…

We couldn’t get the Tamiflu. So I had to turn to Alternative Methods. Go “rogue” if you will. I sent Hubby to the store for elderberry syrup. Thanks to Nicki I even knew the commercial name of the stuff: Sambucol. Research has shown that taking black elderberry at the beginning of the flu can lesson symptoms and even shorten the duration of the flu. I’m not usually big on herbal remedies but since going the pharmacutical route was clearly not an option, I was willing to give it a try.

We gave R two doses of elderberry on Saturday and one on Sunday morning. (you’re supposed to take 4 doses a day if you have the flu, we started her on it Saturday afternoon). And then she lost her lunch. So then, I didn’t know what to do. Because at that point, aside from the tossing of her proverbial cookies, she was actually looking and feeling much better. Her fever was almost gone and she had a lot of energy. But did the medicine upset her stomach? Or was the upset stomach a symptom of The Swine? No idea.

Meanwhile today she woke up feeling sort of “blah” and since she had a fever (100) yesterday I figured I had to keep her home today, just in case. But she’s really been pretty fine all day. Ate a normal lunch, talked my ear off all morning long. But still with the low grade fever. So what’s the deal? Did she have The Swine and the elderberry made her (mostly) better? Did she not have The Swine but some other random fever-inducing ailment? And what do I do with her tomorrow?

So to sum up: The Swine = Evil. Public Health Officials = Evil. Elderberry = Mostly Good, Possibly Miraculous. Having To Make A Decision On Whether To Send Your Slightly Sick Kid To School = Impossible Task.

And now I have to go color some corn for Zeeb. Because plain corn and pasta noodles make for one very bland looking turkey. Anyone know a quick easy way to color corn? The rubbing alcohol and food coloring method doesn’t seem to work very well on corn kernals. Did I mention how Very Not Crafty I am?

Quick Takes

1. Day SIX of the Swine Flu. Am officially sick of this sickness. And I’m not even the one who is ill. But then? I’m thinking that might be easier. Or at least, less gross. Six year old boys are not the best at keeping their germs to themselves, KWIM?

2. I’m now completely torn on the swine flu vaccine debate. On the one hand, the swine flu really isn’t that bad, and the vaccine is basically being tested on all of America. On the other hand, the flu lasts 6+ days, which would be really bad for the older kids or Hubby or me to deal with, and the vaccine is supposedly very similar to the regular flu vaccine. What should we do? What is your family doing?

3. We ran to school this morning to pick up Zeeb’s missed work. This involved me leaving Zeeb in the car for a moment, because OBV., I couldn’t bring him into the school all germified and swine-flu-y. I felt very conflicted doing so and was totally afraid someone would yell at me for leaving my child alone in a car. Thankfully I was in/out of the school in like one minute. I really think I have an overactive guilt complex. Also next time I’m going to be smart and ask Zeeb’s teacher to put the work in R’s teacher’s box with a note asking her to send it home with R. For some reason I couldn’t figure out how to get Zeeb’s work to R, until I was standing there in the office realizing all the teachers have mailboxes on the same wall. DUH. (The school is so. dang. BIG compared to their old school where it would have been no deal at all to ask a kid to walk it from Zeeb’s class to R’s class.)

4. Now we’re sitting at the table while Zeeb does various letter-themed worksheets. One of them is even too hard for me. It has 10 pictures, five for K and five for L. But when Zeeb sorted them, he came up with 6 for K and only 4 for L. And I totally think he sorted them right. There’s one that looks like a “kitten” – we’ve decided to draw a mane on it and call it a “lion”. I hope his teacher doesn’t think I’m a total moron.

5. I went downstairs to get the bucket of crayons for Zeeb. It’s kept on the shelf above the computer desk. Zeeb left the computer mid-game when we went to the school for his work. Reader Rabbit something or other. As I walked away from the computer desk I heard a voice say, “Oh what a beautiful view!” Naturally I took this as a compliment.

6. Zeeb is finally upstairs taking a nap. Or reading books. Whatever. This is now officially “Quiet Time” which means he is not allowed to come downstairs until 3pm. I have nearly 90 minutes TO MYSELF. If I can get Pixie the mutt puppy to stop barking I might actually be able to think a complete thought. What a wonder and a miracle that would be.

7. What shall I do with my 90 minutes? Answer these questions:

“What do you care about? What gets your blood boiling? What makes you roar with laughter? What human suffering have you seen that makes you wince in sympathetic pain?”

Because I am attempting to write a novel (or, um, come up with an idea that could become a seed that could one day grow INTO a novel) and according to Donald Maass if I can answer those questions I’m on my way to writing a Breakout Novel. If you would like to answer one or more of these questions in the comments section, well that would be just plain awesome. Because I could really use some help getting the brainstorming thing going… right now, I’ve got barely a trickle. More like a few sad drips.

More Quick Takes Here

Countdown to Thanksgiving Thursday – Books, Videos & Toys

Day 5 of The Swine… between caring for my feverish and slightly dizzy son and trying to disinfect every surface in the house, I haven’t made time to even pull out the few Thanksgiving decorations we have or cut out those Thankful Leaves. (But I WILL. I am DETERMINED. Therefore it SHALL HAPPEN! Ahem, hopefully more than one day before Thanksgiving.) I was however able to take five minutes to pull out our Thanksgiving books. And since Zeeb’s watching a lot of TV this week, I actually thought to pull out one of my favorite Thanksgiving videos. And then I thought “Hey, why not blog this stuff?” Because I’m in a Helpful Hints kind of mood, apparently. Just call me Heloise. (except her hints are all about cleaning. And I’m definitely not your go-to girl for cleaning hints. So nevermind the Heloise thing.)

Call me Politically Incorrect, but I really wanted my kids to know the history of Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims, the Indians, all that good stuff. And since they barely teach any of that in school anymore, I’ve made it my mission to find good books on the topic. Here’s what we have in our collection:

The First Thanksgiving by Linda Hayward. This is geared toward younger elementary kids. It’s a good fact book told in story form.

The Story of The Pilgrims by Katharine Ross. Slightly simpler version. Ours has a bite out of one corner. Not sure if the description of the feast made someone hungry? You might say it’s so good the kids just eat it right up. Ha ha.

Don’t Know Much About The Pilgrims by Kenneth C. Davis. We just got this one via book orders last year. I like it because it points out interesting facts and tidbits that don’t usually make it into the basic narrative stories. Like did you know that “among the Mayflower children were Love and Wrastling Brewster, Remember Allerton, Resolved White, Humility Cooper, and Desire Minter.” Hmm… apparently the Pilgrims landed on the wrong coast – clearly they meant to find port in Hollywood.

Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness. Told from the perspective of three of the Pilgrim’s children. Obviously. It has good illustrations and interesting details at the end.

On The Mayflower. This one has photographs (of a reenactment. Since I’m pretty sure the camera wasn’t invented by the pilgrims.) It has a realistic feel and tells what life was like from the viewpoint of a ship’s apprentice and a passenger girl.

Squanto’s Journey by Joseph Bruchac. I liked the idea of getting the viewpoint of one of the indians – and Squanto has an amazing story to tell. But this book is just okay. It’s kind of trying too hard. Doing that “talk like an indian” thing (“only six winters have passed”). I just ordered another book, Squanto And The Miracle Of Thanksgiving that got very good reviews, hopefully we’ll like that one better.

We also have books that aren’t strictly “Thanksgiving” books but teach about gratitude so I think they are ideal for this season.

My absolute favorite is Counting Blessings by Debby Boone. Yes, that Debby Boone. It’s a fun book about how we can count blessings every day – make a game of it even – and makes the point that if you focus on the good in your life, you’ll be happier. I just think it’s a great message and the kids really liked this one too. (And I’m bummed because it looks like it’s out of print! Ack! Quick order a copy before they disappear!)

Another good one is The Berenstain Bears Count Their Blessings . The premise of this one is that Brother and Sister Bear are getting greedy and materialistic and are reminded to be thankful for what they have… a good reminder just before Christmas, don’t you think?

…
Moving on to the audo-visual side of things… There’s a similar “be thankful” theme in The Veggie Tales Madame Blueberry video.

I LOVE this video. I like all the Veggie Tales, they are so good at making a story that appeals to kids while also being entertaining enough for adults to watch a few hundred times. But this one is a favorite of mine – it’s often quoted in our family and the silly song is just awesome.

For more traditional Thanksgiving entertainment, we have William Bradford – The First Thanksgiving. It’s an animated movie, and every year I hope the kids will sit down and watch it (or you know, the younger kids) but they never really get into it. I think it’s good, but apparently not exceedingly watchable.

Somewhere around here (not sure if we own it or I taped it? And yes, I seriously have VHS videos of holiday specials that I taped like 15 years ago, commercials and all) we have the Pooh Thanksgiving special. (it’s combined with some other generic “winter” episodes, I think.) I’ll have to track that one down, Zeeb and R do enjoy a good Pooh holiday special, and are not all that picky about the quality of the plot.

But of course the all time Thanksgiving Classic Award goes to Charlie Brown. It’s just not Thanksgiving until you’ve seen the Peanuts Gang pull out the folding chairs and make a huge pile of toast.

Whew! This is a long list! But wait! Just one more thing. Something for the “Toys” category. Technically my kids are too old for this one, but I’m getting it out again anyway. It’s the Little People Thanksgiving set.

Isn’t this so stinkin’ cute?

Okay, that’s all I got. I hope this was somewhat useful to someone out there. If nothing else I now have a comprehensive list of our Thanksgiving collection which would come in awful handy if we ever lost it all in a fire or something… which you know is the very first thing I’d worry about. “We lost everything! But wait! I have a list of our Thanksgiving books and videos on my blog! Oh, Thank HEAVENS for that!” Dude, I seriously need help. Also a concluding sentence. Looks like I’m not getting either one. Bummer.

A Few Thoughts Before I Watch NCIS And Go To Bed

* I love election day. Even when I lived in the heart of Liberal America and I knew my vote was getting tossed to the wind (sometimes literally, thank you King County corruptocrats)… I just loved the feeling that I have a voice in America. That each and every citizen really does matter. And today? Well, today I extra love it.

* Yesterday we put Zeeb on the alternating Tylenol/Motrin schedule, because Motrin alone just wasn’t cutting it. At bedtime we realized the only way to keep him dosed up was to give him some in the middle of the night. Hubby said he’d take a turn, because I did the night before. Well imagine my suprise when his alarm went off at 4am, so that he could give the dose at the exact right time. Very impressed with Husband was I.

* This morning when the Motrin wore off, Zeeb didn’t have a fever. I was glad, but also worried. I keep hearing the thing to be alert for is if the fever goes away for a day and then comes back. So I was strangely relieved when his fever returned this afternoon. It’s not as high as yesterday so hopefully this thing really is on the way out.

* I managed to find about half an hour to work on my writing today. Which consisted of making a list of fiction genres and then crossing out the ones I definitely don’t want to write. Here are the kinds of novels you won’t find with my name on the cover:
Horror
Mystery
Crime Thriller
Western
War/Military Fiction

I know, shocking that I’m not going to write a war/military novel isn’t it? I’m so knowledgable about such things and all.

* My 14 year old just called me “self righteous and mean”. Guess that means I’m doing something right, huh? (The aforementioned insults came after I told her she couldn’t have a Tori Amos CD because the lyrics are really inappropriate. Yes, I’m that kind of mom.)

There’s Just Something About A Monday

Zeeb is sick. Like initials and numbers, farm animal disease name sick. Or at least he has all those symptoms.

It started yesterday morning, with a 103.6 fever. That? Is very hot. Kind of amazing how hot a kid can be and still keep going. He also has a cough and a sore throat. (He kept saying his “neck” hurt, but I figured out he meant his throat.) And sometimes he complains his stomach hurts. To which I always reply, “like you’re going to throw up?” and he always answers, “I don’t know.” Which does not instill much confidence. We’ve spent a goodly amount of time sitting in the bathroom together, reading toy catalogs, just for fun. (This training paid off for Hubby today when “my stomach hurts” actually meant “I’m going to toss my cookies” and Zeeb made it to the proper place at the proper time. It is a huge feat when all of your children have reached the age where their being sick no longer equals you having to do major disgusting clean up jobs.)

Last night we dosed Zeeb up with ibuprofen and got him off to bed and I thought we were off the hook for the night. I thought wrong. He was up crying at 11:00pm. Strangely, at nearly six and a half years old, Zeeb still hasn’t figured out he can just come down stairs and find me if he needs me. Instead he cries and cries, in bed, and makes himself hysterical. This is probably partly my fault, because we still use a baby monitor. But that’s because this house is ridiculously big and I can not hear the kids at all from our bedroom. And as I just said, Zeeb won’t come get me. It’s a vicious cycle, I tell ya. So this is what he did last night. He cried for a while, got himself good and worked up, and then sort of wandered in the upstairs hall, crying, until K~ came out of her room to see what was wrong. She walked him downstairs and proceeded to chide me for being a neglectful parent. She, being 14 and all, clearly knows a great deal about good parenting.

So Zeeb slept in our room last night, on the couch. (Our bedroom is monstrously large. It was built to be something between a master suite and a mother-in-law apartment, so the bedroom is really the size of two rooms. I’m explaining this because normally there is no way we could fit a couch in a bedroom, but this bedroom is so humongous that we were able to move our entire sectional into the room and still not feel cramped. Meanwhile, the master bathroom? Is tiny. One sink, door hits the bathtub, TINY. The whole suite is just begging for a redo. But I digress.)

At 5:30 his ibuprofen was wearing off and Zeeb was sort of wimpering in his sleep, very pathetically. So I got up and re-dosed him, and went back to sleep. At 8:00, I heard the sound of a child running up and down the stairs, through the monitor. I assumed it was R~. But no, it was Zeeb. He ran upstairs to see if the tooth fairy came.

Criminy, I was supposed to remember there was a tooth under his pillow? After a night like that? (Hubby went up to try to do the “hide the money while pretending to look for it” move. Not sure if it was convincing, also not sure I care at this point.)

Today was a repeat of yesterday, only Zeeb’s temp spiked a little higher and he was doing this slightly delirious thing. I think he was having a bit of vertigo or something.

Meanwhile, I had to go to the elementary school for teacher conferences. Thankfully it was a MUCH better experience than last year. Zeeb’s teacher went on and on about how wonderful he is. “He lights up the room.” I believe were her exact words. Amazingly, she said Zeeb’s working at grade level in reading and slightly above in writing. R~’s teacher is approximately one kazillion times better than Mr. DingDong from last year. One example – she told me she doesn’t think tests should be designed to “trick” students. So she’s careful to make sure to cover everything that will be on a test, multiple times in multiple ways. And then if a student misses a problem on a test she’ll hand the test back to them and give them a chance to try again. (unless it’s like a true/false or yes/no type question, obviously.) This is in huge contrast to Mr. D. who seemed to take twisted pleasure in marking an entire section wrong when it was perfectly obvious that R~ misunderstood the directions. R~ still has some work to do to get up to grade standards in reading, but her teacher totally emphasized that she can tell R~ is working very hard and that is what really matters.

After the conferences it was off to the orthodontist. K and A both got assessed for braces. Big surprise, they both need them. K~ was relieved to learn she gets to have “adult” braces – the ceramic kind that don’t show as much metal. And she’ll only have to have them for about 18-24 months. Unfortunately for A~, his overbite is worse. So he’s stuck with the old school braces and a term of 2-3 years. But at least he’s younger (7th grade) – all the kids his age have braces so it’s no big deal. K~’s late to the game. Our last dentist kept telling me to wait because he thought K needed to learn better brushing habits before she got braces. And truth be told I was just as happy to put it off. The positive to both of them starting braces at the same time is the orthodontist is giving us a two-kid discount. It’s still crazy expensive, but the word “discount” always makes me feel a little better.

It should be no surprise that by this afternoon I had a whopper of a headache. Two advil couldn’t touch that sucker. It was all I could do to lay on the couch across from Zeeb and pretend to watch a movie with him. Day Two of MamaNano and I couldn’t think a creative thought to save my life. I just need to have a genre and plot figured out by Wednesday… starting from absolutely zilch, that should be no problem, right? Oh what a funny funny girl I am.