Twenty Directions At Once
December 14, 2009
Filed under generic rants, shopping, soapbox
Tags: car shopping, Christmas giving
Okay, so I totally wanted to do a post about my efforts to do the 12 Days of Kindness… but it turns out the hardest part of that project for me is the blogging! Seriously, I can’t even believe what a lame blogger I’ve been this month. Our family has been doing some things for others this season – not sure we’re near twelve and also not sure I can remember all of them not – but anyway, that to me is the essence of the holiday season, doing things for total strangers just because it’s Christmas and we can. (Oh and on that note, I highly (HIGHLY!) recommend the new Veggie Tales DVD, St. Nicolas, A Story of Joyful Giving … it has a great message about the Real Saint Nick and what Christmas should be about and totally fits with the 12 Days theme too!)
I also have one little (okay, maybe slightly big) rant related to our society’s definition of “needy”. And since it feels wrong to put it in a 12 Days post, I’ll throw it into this completely random Monday post. Here goes…
Our church youth group has a “giving tree” expressly for the junior and senior high kids – they are supposed to take a tag, shop for a “needy” kid and bring the gift back to church where they’re all going to wrap them together at a big party. Sounds great right? I thought so too, which is why I encouraged my son to grab a tag yesterday. (Actually, I asked him to grab the tag last week, but he forgot. Bygones.) So guess what the tag told him to buy? A wireless adapter for XBox 360. Seriously. Now, my son, being the bright child he is, immediately realizes this means the “needy” child already HAS an Xbox 360. And he asks me, “If he can afford that, why does he need us to buy him gifts?” Good question. I tried to come up with some possible answers – maybe he was given the Xbox by a friend or family member who didn’t want it anymore. Maybe he won it. Maybe he saved all year for it? I mean there’s a lot of plausible ways that even a low income family could come by the game system, right? So that’s all well and good but then Son and Hubby went shopping for this wireless adapter thingy and guess how much it costs? $90. Yes folks, that is NINETY BUCKS. Can I just say, I don’t spend that much money on most of my family? Even my own kids I try to keep the total somewhere near $100 each – and I buy them multiple gifts. And if this tree is supposed to be for teenagers to shop for other teenagers, do they seriously think a 12 year old has that kind of money? Obviously not. Now, it’s altogether possible that the child on the tag has no idea how much a wireless adapter costs. Fine, I can buy that. But then my question is, how “needy” are you if your one wish for Christmas is an unnecessary add-on for an expensive gaming system?
Which pretty much sums up my problem with our society as a whole.
When I was a kid, socks and oranges were standard fare in a stocking. And clothes were given as gifts because we always needed them. (Not from a “never too many clothes” standpoint but from a “I have no pants” standpoint.) And we were excited and thankful for them. And I did not think we were “needy”.
Do you think Ma and Pa Ingalls, Laura, Mary and Carrie saw themselves as “needy”? They were happy to get their very own CUPS for Christmas. (Up until then the girls all shared one cup.)
I do not mean to judge too harshly here – I know there are truly people who have real, tangible, nothing to eat and nothing to wear needs. But unfortunately I think there are also many people who think if they can’t buy what they want when they want then that makes them “needy”. And that bothers me. Because if I only have a set amount of money to give away, I want to be sure it’s going to a child who really truly has a need. A child who literally won’t have ANYTHING under the Christmas tree without our gift. And it seems to me that if the charitable organizations who organize these giving tree things don’t start doing a better job of filtering out the greedy from the needy they are going to find fewer and fewer people willing to give. And that is the end of my slightly grinchy sounding rant.
And in the interest of full-disclosure and also because I feel just a wee bit hypocritical here… I had to take a break from this post so Husband and I could go out car shopping. Because I need a new car. Or so I’ve been saying for the last two years. Sheesh, what a spoiled American I am! But I am not asking anyone else to buy this car for me (ahem, aside from Hubby, of course) so there’s that. Oh and we’re looking at Government Motors cars, so maybe I actually am asking total strangers to buy my car. Yikes the angst car-shopping brings out in me!!
So the car… I need 8 seats, all-wheel drive, and I don’t want to drive a bus. You would think I was asking for the moon, and perhaps a few extra stars thrown in for good measure. I had my heart set on the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, until I realized the other day it only has 7 seats. Ack. So today we went to look at the Honda Pilot. Dang that thing is HUGE. As in, really high up compared to my Odyssey. It drove okay and it has this cool thing where there’s a back-up camera that comes onto your rearview mirror when you’re in reverse. But it wasn’t total love at first sight. So I’m doing some online research and I found that Buick and Chevrolet have a car (same car, different levels of goodness, or something) that fits my criteria. But I’ve never owned an American car and I’m rather not happy at the President’s takeover of GM and so that’s kind of a stumbling block for me. But we’ll test drive them and see what we think. Anyway, what I wanted to tell YOU (because seriously, why would you care what cars I’m shopping for?) is I found the greatest car review site EVER… it’s a car review site written by and expressly for MOMS. And all I can say is, what on earth took so long? I love these reviews – they highlight the stuff I care about, like how many passengers fit in the car (amazing how hard that info is to come by on most of the car websites!) and how easy it is to get kids in/out and how much junk will fit into all the compartments. And now I sound like an ad for the website. Anyway, if you’re car shopping, check out MotherProof
Less than an hour until the kids get home from school. And so far all I’ve done is blog and car shop. Ack.
Question for parents! When shopping for your kids, do you attempt to spend the same amount on every child, or to buy the same number of items? Or do you not really pay attention either way? I’m getting caught up in the “must be fair” thing and my goal at this point is to not shop just for the sake of shopping, you know? I want to only buy things my kids really want and will really enjoy/appreciate. And it turns out that is a hard goal to achieve for my 8 year old. Because really? She wants anything she’s ever seen a commercial for or saw in a catalog. But most of it would not keep her entertained for very long. What she loves is crafty stuff. Coincidentally, that is what I hate. Because it makes a HUGE mess, usually involves lots of parental help (and I am NOT crafty) and almost never turns out like the picture on the box. So at this point in the game I think R~ is pretty far behind her siblings in either measure – money spent or amount of gifts. So I’d like to find her maybe one more thing, but I don’t want to go off willy-nilly. So if you have any awesome gift ideas for 8 year old girls please pretty please share them in the comments!
Okay, I think I’ve taken this ridiculously random blog post in as many directions as I can stand at this point. My goal for the week: to post something about the 12 Days of Kindness, even if I have to put all 12 things in one post. And even if I don’t have 12. I’m sure you’re positively giddy with anticipation.
Things Have Been So Crazy I’d Use A Drowning Metaphor If I Didn’t Hate Drowning Metaphors So Very Much.
December 9, 2009 
Ye GADS people the last few days have just been… OY!
Two seconds after I hit “publish” on Friday’s post the phone rang – the school calling to tell me R~ had a fever of 102.5 and could I pick her up? (And oh how fun it is to go into the clinic to pick up your kid only to get a judgemental condescending look from the nurse and a little lecture on When To Keep Your Kid Home From School. Yeah, because I’m just stupid enough to send my kid to school with a burning fever?! Uh NO, she developed the fever WHILE AT SCHOOL.)
So that cancelled out our Friday night plans. Which? Was really okay because I was tired and I just love having quiet Friday nights with my family especially when we get to watch A Christmas Story together. (ahem – note to self: That is a movie that really really NEEDS to be watched on the ClearPlay player because there are just a few too many words I really don’t want my 6 and 8 year olds hearing and/or repeating…) But it’s still a very funny movie. R~ especially loves the part at the end with the goose. Reminds her of our family story about a chicken dinner in Cambodia. 
The rest of the weekend was filled with lots of snow which really was lovely and a good exuse to stay home and put up the tree and all was good. Until Sunday night. At which point I found myself choking to death on snot. Which I think we can all agree is not a good way to go. Hubby quickly diagnosed me as having a sinus infection. I don’t think I’ve ever had one of those before. But he was right – Monday morning I went to the doctor, she agreed with him and prescribed antibiotics. Lovely things those. Freaky amazing how quickly they made me feel better.
And then yesterday morning K~ said she was too sick to go to school. I swear people it’s never ending around here. But K~ has been complaining of a sore throat, various aches and pains, congestion, occasional nausea, etc, for like weeks (off and on) so I said enough of this and took her to my doctor. Where she was diagnosed with… Allergies. Dude seriously? Allergies? In DECEMBER? But the doctor said she has like all the “classic” symptoms so we’re going with that. Claritin at bedtime and a nasal spray in the morning and hopefully she’ll be good as new. Of course while we were there the doctor spotted a mole on K~’s neck and declared that K~ needs to get it checked by a dermatologist AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. (said in a voice that says DOOM! DOOM!) Now, this mole? Has been around since K~ was very very little. And it exactly matches a mole that I have that has been around since I was very very little. So I think the chances of it being anything other than a beauty mark are approximately NIL. Possibly ZILCH, ZERO and NADA. But the doctor was adament and said it was “SUSPICIOUS” and so I, being the good dutiful obedient mommy that I am, made an appointment with the dermatologist. For the end of January. Apparently dermatologists are very popular doctors. What with their ability to erase zits and wrinkles and whatnot. Anyway, I don’t care it’s a while out because I know it’s a complete waste of a doctor visit anyway. Well, not a complete waste. If I like that doctor I’ll make an appointment for myself – I really should have all my various moles and whatnot looked at. It’s not like I haven’t gotten some whopper sunburns over the years. (My skin knows two tones : pale sickly white and blazing fire red. There is no in-between.)
So anyway, those are my excuses for my absence. Oh also there’s the school craziness and the homework craziness (OY OY AND DOUBLE OY) and the band concert (surprisingly enjoyable) and oh yeah writing a Christmas letter (ALMOST KILLED ME)… which I now need to go finish. The picture is done, the letter is done. The address lables? Not done. And almost as stressful to do as the picture and letter. Why do I do this every year? Because I like getting them. And this year? I swear I’m going to keep track of the cards we receive because I’m quite positive that I send out like twice as many Christmas cards as we get from others. Which means that there are a lot of people who very likely roll their eyes when they see my card arrive. “Oh brother, it’s the Broccoli’s again. Not another cheesy Christmas letter! I hate those!” And you know? I don’t especially want to elicit that type of response from my friends and family if at all possible. It makes me cringe just thinking about it. So I shall put it out of my mind and tell myself that EVERYONE likes a good Christmas letter. Why not? I sure do. Christmas letters harken back to a simpler time, when people wrote more than 140 character missives to one another. Sigh, I miss those days… (Not that I have ever kept to a 140 limit myself. Clearly I am not capable of such a thing. Thus why I have a BLOG and not a Twitter account. DUH.)
Okay the babbly is getting out of hand and I still have to get those Christmas letters into the mail…
There’s No Way I’ll Get This Written Without Interruption
November 9, 2009 
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?
In Which I Am Overwrought About Being Overwrought
Husband recently started working at home 1-2 days a week. Working at home entails sitting in front of a computer and many many many (MANY) “conference calls”. Often these he does these calls by putting the phone on speaker, continuing to type away at his computer. This is somewhat annoying to me, being that there is a very loud voice shouting at me about random computer-y stuff. But whatever, I can close the door and mostly not hear it. But then today? Hubby noticed a call on the other line, from our neighbor. So he answered it – still on speaker – and proceeded to try to hand the phone over to ME.
I have this thing, I need to be mentally prepared when I answer the phone. Blame Caller ID, but I won’t even answer the phone if I don’t know who’s calling. I absolutely hate it when Hubby answers the phone and then summarily hands it to me saying “It’s for you” without a CLUE of who is on the other end. But this, this handing off a live conversation on SPEAKER PHONE no less?? Well, let’s just say my pantomiming skills got a workout and Husband (thank God) realized I was not taking that phone. For cripes sake he can talk to the neighbor as easily as I can anyway!!
Why did I just tell you that not so very interesting story? Well, it was annoying for one. And it just happened so it’s fresh in my mind. But also because it’s better than telling you about my morning. Then I’d have to tell you that I spent an hour re-reading the “novel” I wrote two years ago during NaNo and have come to the conclusion that as a writer, I SUCK. I write like a melodramatic fourteen year old. With excessive use of words like “suddenly” and “And”. It was overwrought and rambling and some parts were just downright boring. I almost fell asleep. Which may be related to getting up at 6am and the onset of yet another cold, but let’s be honest the truth is my writing is just that insipid and sleep-inducing.
I think I’m gonna cry. Either that or eat a very lot of dark chocolate m-n-m’s. Maybe both.
What Are The Chances?
We got back from visiting family in upstate NY yesterday afternoon. I’ll do a write up on the shower games (and how they were received) a little later. (Who knows, someone might find that information useful.)
Before we left, I cleaned the whole house. Not super deep down clean, but surface clean, because we have a pet sitting service that comes in 3 times a day to take care of the dogs and cats and well, I don’t want to be embarrassed. Also I like to come home to a clean-ish house. So the kitchen was clean. Okay, the floor needed to be mopped, but the dishes were done and the counters were wiped. I need to establish that bit of factual information upfront, so you don’t jump to conclusions when I tell you this next part.
In the five short days we were gone, ants took over my kitchen. Seriously, I think every tiny ant in Northern Virginia received an invitation to move into the Broccoli House. There was a steady stream of the disgusting buggers, from the window, down to the baseboard, along the bottom cabnets, up to my counter. Like a little ant highway, jammed with holiday traffic. So. Gross. I grabbed a paper towel, got it a little wet (so they’d stick) and put some peppermint oil on it (ants don’t like the scent, supposedly) and wiped at the ants near the window. I killed dozens, but a few managed to escape the towel and crawled up my arm. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeww! We have a contract with the local pest control service and they promise to come out within 24 hours. I would have preferred 15 minutes. They couldn’t come until this morning, so in the meantime I bought some (organic) spray and traps at the store. The spray smells like a mixture of mint and diaper rash cream and it never goes away. So now I have ants and a diaper rash cream smelling sticky spray all over my kitchen. Good times.
Then this morning, I’m sitting at the dining room table eating breakfast (as far as I could get from the kitchen) and I hear this loud THUNK on the big bay window in the kitchen. I went to investigate and found a small circle of white feathers stuck to the window. That can’t be good. Looked down… little bird, looking somewhat dead. And while that is a sad and awful thing in and of itself, it’s even worse with our dog Pixie around. Pixie fancies herself to be a savage hunter and I knew I had approximately 36 seconds before she started tearing into that bird. Thankfully, Hubby was still home. I told him he needed to go dispose of that bird ASAP. Hubby apparently translates ASAP to mean “As Soon As you Please, Which May Or May Not Be Very Soon, Since First You Have To Wander Around The House Looking For Shoes And Grumbling About How Much You Hate Dogs.” Unsurprisingly, Pixie got to the bird before Hubby did. My shrieking at her was only nominally helpful. Thankfully Hubby was able to grab her and we put her inside and then Hubby disposed of the (not quite dead but clearly seconds away from the Birdy Pearly Gates) bird. End of story.
Except not.
Because this afternoon? I found another practically identical dead bird in almost the exact same place. This time I was able to get to it before the dogs, thankfully. (or rather, thanks to Zeeb who dropped half his ice cream bar on the grass thereby fully occupying Pixie for a good long time) And no, it wasn’t the same bird… Hubby dumped the other one in the woods, and there’s yet another splotch of white feathers on the window. EEEEW.
An invasion of ants and then two dead birds in one day. Seriously, what are the chances??
