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?

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

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.

* 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.)

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.

Whew! I survived another Halloween. This one wasn’t so bad – R and Zeeb both chose to wear costumes that their older siblings wore a few years ago, thus simplifying my life immensely. And wasn’t it great that Halloween fell on a Saturday so we didn’t have to worry about them getting to bed on time and all that and we had the whole day to get ready? Anyway, it’s not my favorite holiday but it is a good one for photos. Sadly, most of my pictures show the kids’ faces and you all know how over-the-top paranoid I am about posting anything identifying and all that. So you’re stuck with the faceless, anonymous-type pictures. Let’s call them “Artsy” – it sounds better that way.

Here’s Zeeb, reaching into his pumpkin to pull out all the goop. He didn’t really like that part much. Tried to be done after the first scoop. But the goop was worth it when he got to the good part – drawing the face and directing Daddy on how to carve the perfect Jack O’ Lantern. He had a lot of fun with that.

R~ had no qualms about sticking her hand in a goopy pumpkin. The more goop, the better!

A~ chose the cover art from his favorite computer game, Portal, for his pumpkin design.

This is K~’s pumpkin, design chosen by her, carved by yours truly. It’s the cover art from one of her Birthday Massacre CD’s. Kind of creepy and yet pretty at the same time, don’t you think?

Zeeb and K~ were playing around with my flip video camera – thus providing me with a semi-anonymous picture of him in his astronaut costume.

And now I happily wave Good-Bye to Halloween. It’s time to pull out the Thanksgiving music (yes, I actually own a CD of Thanksgiving music - and I LOVE it.) and enjoy the coziness of November. I’m learning to love this time of year. Sitting by the fire, or sipping a cup of vanilla tea in my little kitchen cafe, the gray skies reminding me of home… (except when the skies are not gray. Which around here is pretty often. Sunshine in November?! What a concept! Yet another thing to be thankful for!) I admit, I am already thinking about Christmas shopping, but I want to try to savor the pre-Thanksgiving time too. In years past we’ve done “thankful leaves” – where I cut out a whole bunch of construction paper leaves and each night at dinner everyone writes down one thing they are thankful for that day. I put all the leaves up on the windows or whatever and it looks pretty and reminds us we have so much to be thankful for. I might try that again this year, if I can get my stuff in gear and get all the supplies this week. But I’m open to trying something new too. Do you guys have any ideas? Do you do anything to anticipate Thanksgiving? Any special crafts or family traditions for the days leading up to the holiday? Do Share!

1. I swear, if it weren’t for Friday Quick Takes, I’d never get anything up on my blog. It’s so weird, I think of all kinds of things to write about but then I sit down in front of my computer and suddenly my mind is a blank. Which is a rather bad thing to happen especially if you dream of being a writer and your laptop is your primary vehicle for writing.

2. Speaking of writing… I haven’t done any. BUT! I’m reading ABOUT writing. Does that count for points? I took Jennifer’s advice and ordered Writing The Breakout Novel from Amazon. She was right, it’s very good. This coming from someone has had read exactly zero other books about writing. (Because I’m just that committed to my craft.) The author, Donald Maass, besides having a bonus “a” in his name is also a literary agent and knows of that which he speaks. His advice is good, but also very daunting. I’m highlighting and nodding my head as I read, thinking of all the great books I’ve read that fit his requirements for a breakout novel. (And then Self Doubt smacks me on the back of the head and says “And you think *YOU* could write such a book?”) (Luckily Self Doubt looks nothing like Mark Harmon, so I don’t listen to him – much.)

3. The other reason for my bloggity absence this week is that it’s the end of first quarter. Which shouldn’t matter given that I haven’t taken a class in approximately 16 years (EGADS, I AM OLD) … but parenting four kids who are all in school means I get the fun of helping K~ work on her giant quarterly project for history class that she put off until 2 days before it was due and then had a total meltdown when she realized it wasn’t as good as she wanted it to be and there was no time to improve it; and help R~ study for her big test in social studies where she had to memorize answers to questions like “What is a Democracy?” and “What is the Difference Between Rules And Laws?” ; and then I had to help Zeeb find a costume and a corresponding book for “Storybook Character Day” which is this year’s teacher’s way of letting the kids dress up for Halloween without actually calling it that. Ay yi yi, what a week it has been.

4. Also there was my brief stint as a Fundraiser. THANK YOU to my friends who stepped up and made donations to Bykota House on Tuesday as we feebly attempted to win the Daily Prize in the Giving Challenge. We came ever so close. Only about 400 donations behind the first place winner. But! We raised over $600 and that is no chump change when it comes to helping the kids in Cambodia and so I am very very thankful to everyone who donated. If by chance you wish you had donated but didn’t get around to it in time, don’t let that silly Daily Challenge deadline stop you… feel free to contribute right now! No pressure… just felt like it ought to be said.

5. On top of all those things, today is a Significant Day around these parts. It’s exactly three years since we adopted Zeeb. We don’t really celebrate adoption days, for any number of reasons not the least of which is that birthdays stress me out so much I don’t need to add anymore personal holidays to our calendar. But also because it seems odd to make a huge celebration out of the day that Zeeb was taken from everything he’d ever known and the foster family he loved. It’s a special day, it was a big momentous day that I waited insanely long to see and I’ll never forget it. But mostly it’s an important day because of all the non-momentous days that have come after it.

6. I’d say I can’t believe it’s been three years, but that would be a lie. In many ways, that day seems like a lifetime ago. We’ve gone through a lot as a family since then. A lot of hard stuff, much of it not adoption-related, and yet probably greatly influenced by the adoption too, you know? I look back and I’m like “Dang, how did we get through all that?” (Answer? God’s grace alone. Pure and simple.) Not that it was all bad, but it was a pretty rough three years. But things are really good now. Not perfect, but really good. And I am so thankful.

7. I really wanted to make a video for Zeeb of his adoption day and our time in Vietnam. He has a photo book of all that, but he’s been asking to see video too. Unfortunately, I can’t find the videos. They’re on miniDV tapes and I’ve searched all over and I found tapes of Christmas 2004, and R playing soccer in first grade, and all kinds of other things (including very long school band concerts – why do I always feel the need to tape the ENTIRE concert? It’s boring watching it the first time, why would I think I’d want to watch the whole thing again?!)… but I can’t find the tape from Vietnam. I am bummed. And almost to the point of panicking. I’ll save panicked for after Hubby looks. Because I have a feeling he stashed the tape somewhere “safe”. BUT! The good news is, we did take some short videos with our camera. I’ve been getting all misty-eyed watching those. Even better news – I took one from behind, so I can share it with you! Check this out… Hubby and Zeeb reading a children’s Vietnamese-English dictionary book together just a few days after we adopted him:

What an amazing, sweet, adorable kid! And the Husband’s not bad either. LOL. Yep, I am blessed.

More Quick Takes Here.

I’m going to tell you about some kids who have seen some very sad, very difficult things in their short lives. And then I’ll tell you how just ten dollars can make a difference for every one of these kids.

After the death of their mother, Mekera, 14, and Volet, 12 were brought to an orphanage in hopes they would have a brighter future there than at home with their five siblings. The orphanage, its income based on the money from international adoptions, ran out of funds.

Because of intense poverty, Chatreah’s family decided that she and her younger brother would be placed at a provincial orphanage. The two children were told to be strong and to not cry. When it came time for the family to leave, Chatreah’s brother couldn’t help but cry. The family relented and took him back home. What Chatreah remembers is that because she didn’t cry, she has never seen her family again.

Often Peroom’s photos show his red eyes because he suffers with chronic allergies. When she left him at the orphanage, his mother told Peroom she was leaving him there because he was a “bad boy.”

Samuel was blind. Unable to get the medical care and nurturing he needed, years of darkness and neglect took their toll. At five years old, Samuel shows all the signs of Institutional Autism.

Visoth is 10 years old. He is positive for Hepatitis B and suffers with very poor health. Because of his illness he has suffered much abuse and neglect.

Bee was sold by his birth family to a family who could not have children. His new mother never bonded with him and often abused the little boy. Bee acted out his abuse by biting, scratching and kicking other children.

17 year old Hosanna is disabled and uses a wheelchair. All too often in Cambodia a sick child is seen by her family as “Bad Luck”or even “Evil”. This is what happened to Hosanna. One day she got sick with a fever. When she woke several days later her legs no longer worked. Hosanna was sent away from her home.

When Peter’s mother passed away he was sent to Phnom Penh in search of a better life. After a few days on the streets he was taken to a shelter for teens. The staff at the center knew Peter was too young to be there among the street hardened teenagers. He needed a safe place to live.

Abandoned. Neglected. Abused. Alone. Common threads in each of these childrens’ stories. Thankfully, their stories don’t end there. Because today all of these children live at BYKOTA House.

Volet says, “BYKOTA House is the house of one family.” (The name for the home is an accronym of the Bible verse which admonishes us to Be Ye Kind One To Another.) This “house of one family” was founded by Mark and Rhonda Benz who moved to Cambodia five years ago, feeling led to do something for the children left behind after adoptions shut down. Staffed by two full-time caregivers, the vision of BYKOTA House is to provide the children with a safe place to live and the opportunity to be part of a family. In addition, BYKOTA house provides a strong education for every child, including english lessons and opportunities for the older ones to learn a trade.

BYKOTA house is the place where Mekera excells in her studies and dreams of owning a business one day.

Where her younger brother Volet sings and dances (his favorite dance style is hip hop).

It’s where Chatreah finally has the opportunity to attend school.

Where Peroom is told often he is precious and loved and is such a strong student he’s been invited to join a special accelerated class at school.

Because of BYKOTA house, Samual had the cornea surgery he needed and his sight has been restored.

Visoth has attentive loving care for his health issues and the chance to attend school with other kids.

Bee feels cherished and loved and has blossomed into a happy boy who no longer strikes out at those around him.

Hosanna? She studies English and Korean, takes Piano and Voice lessons, finds her inspiration in art, and believe it or not she even takes dance classes!

Peter has found his safe place.

Today there are seventeen children at BYKOTA house. Mark and Rhonda say, “We believe future growth will occur with additional house parents. There is a great need for safe homes for children to be raised in. These children deserve to live without the fear of molestation, abuse or being forced into servanthood. BYKOTA House exists to be their safe place.”

It’s an overwhelming task the Benz’s have taken on. The needs are many, and the funds are few. But we can help. By giving even just a few dollars, we enable them to continue in this work, to care for these children who had no one to care for them.

Never has there been a better day to give than today.

Because today BYKOTA House is participating in America’s Giving Challenge. Sponsored by Parade Magazine, the Case Foundation, and Facebook Causes, participants in the Challenge compete for daily and overall cash awards of up to $50,000 for the nonprofit organizations they care most about. Awards will be distributed based on the number of qualifying donations generated for a cause, not the total dollars raised.

BYKOTA House is a small organization. And so we have our eyes on the Daily competition prize. If we can generate the most “unique” donations in a 24 hour period, we will win $1,000. And while a thousand dollars might not seem like a lot in America today, in Cambodia that money can make a real difference. For that matter, so can just ten dollars.

Ten dollars is all it takes to join us in this Challenge. With that small of a donation, you will help us to reach our goal. Of course if you’d like to give more, you can. The needs are great. The potential to make a real difference is even greater.

The 24 hour period starts TODAY (TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27TH) at 3:00pm, Eastern Time and runs until tomorrow, Wednesday October 28th at 2:59pm, Eastern Time. Please consider making a donation to BYKOTA House during this time. And while you’re at it, share the link with your friends and family. We can do this. We can work together to make a real difference. Trust me, it will be the best ten dollars you’ve ever spent.

1.  I have noticed an odd and slightly depressing phenomon in my blogging. On the days when I write something that I think is pithy and fun and well, just sort of super awesome, I totally expect that I’ll immediately get comments. Lots and lots of comments. And then? I don’t. Conversely, there are those times when I type random babble and people come of the woodwork to comment. WHY IS THIS? What’s the trick? Have you solved the secrets of the fire swamp? If so, please, have some pity on my poor soul and share them with me. Because I? Clearly don’t know how to write for an audience AT. ALL. Which is a bad thing if, like me, you dream of writing a novel that is read by someone other than a family member.

2. Speaking of novel writing, I do believe that my dear friend AprilMay has come up with a Genius Idea. In response to my pathetic whining on Monday about the Colossal Suckitude That Was My Nano Novel, she suggested that this year we do our own modified version of NaNo. (“NaNo” being National Novel Writing Month, of course.) Our version, currently dubbed “MamaNaNo”, would be the busy mom’s approach to novel writing. Instead of trying to pound out 50,000 words in 30 days our goal would be a solid outline for a novel and a couple of good opening chapters. Anyone interested in joining us?

3. Helpful Financial Tip of The Day: If you have plans to sell stocks, just check with me on when we are selling some, and then sell yours a week later. I guarantee, the price WILL go up. Like for instance today the stock we have lots of (because it’s Hubby’s company and they give them to him for bonuses and whatnot) went up a whole whopping lot today – a week or so after we sold a bunch. DOH. Of course this experience positively pales in comparison to the time back in 2000 when Hubby was putting in a sell order and HE wanted to sell LOTS and *I* was all “No, we should hold our stocks LONGER and let them go UP more” and so he only sold what we needed to buy a piano. Well wouldn’t you know but just a few days later the whole tech bubble burst and BAM down went all our stocks, never to see those prices again. I? Would make a HORRIBLE stock broker.

4. R~ has been invited to be part of a reading-tutor type group three mornings a week before school. On the one hand, it’s nice they are making extra efforts to help my kid. On the other hand, it means she’ll lose an hour of sleep, three days a week. Which doesn’t seem ideal during cold/flu season. Also it means she’ll be sitting at a desk that much longer too. And it will wreck havoc on our morning schedule because I’ll still have to get Zeeb on the bus at the usual time. Doing “what’s best” for your kid isn’t always so easy to figure out.

5. The vet just called. Happy, our collie, is there for the day, getting up to date on shots and tests and getting groomed. Like a spa day for dogs. Only a lot less fun. Well it turns out when they did the heartworm test she came back “lyme positive”. Meaning a tick with lyme disease bit her. Caught completely by surprise (I didn’t even know they were testing for lyme disease) I didn’t think to ask if this means she HAS lyme disease, or was just exposed to it? Then the vet went on to say they could vaccinate her for lyme disease. I didn’t say yes, because I just read an article this morning about how pets are way over vaccinated and how some of the vaccines can actually cause cancer and stuff in dogs and cats. Also I thought I heard that the lyme disease vaccination was only like 50% effective. Should I call back and tell them to give it to her? What do you other east coast pet-owners do? (There’s no lyme disease in the Pacific Northwest. Thus why I’ve never had to think about this stuff before. I tell you, it’s a land flowing with milk and honey, Washington state is. Well, rain and honey is probably more accurate. But you get the idea.)

6. I’ve about had it up to HERE with the bugs already. Stink bugs, giant bees, swarms of ants, beetle looking things with wiggly antenae (killed one in my kitchen this morning) and now lyme disease carrying ticks. I’d say it’s about time for a good hard frost to kill them all off, wouldn’t you?

7. Maybe I’m not quite ready for frost and snow. But I am ready for November. I kind of hate Halloween. All the stressing over putting together costumes and the massive consumption of candy (mine and the kids’) and all the icky scary evil crap in every store and on every other house we go by. Just not my thing. But Thanksgiving? Relaxed family time with no gift-giving stress or special clothing requirements? Now that’s a holiday I look forward to.

More Quick Takes Here.

I bought a box of gourmet truffles today. For my kids’ bus driver. Because this is the official “Bus Driver Appreciation” week in our school district and I completely failed to bring in a “baked good” on Monday or Tuesday when our school was doing some sort of brunchy thing for the drivers. And while I do appreciate the bus driver – she’s extremely punctual and always says “Good morning!” and “Have a great afternoon!” in a very cheerful way – I wonder if a box of truffles is an overboard gift for this occasion? Hallmark hasn’t come out with a guide for this holiday yet, and so I’m rather in the dark you see. On the one hand, I really can’t afford to shell out $9+ for every single person who comes in contact with my children each day. On the other hand? If I were driving a bus full of elementary school kids day after day, I think chocolate truffles would feel like a very appropriate thank-you present. What say you?

Speaking of gifts, yesterday was Hubby’s birthday. He’s finally joined me in the two-years-from-forty club. Young ‘un. I’m not very good at birthdays. They stress me out like crazy – all the preparations and going out of my way to be extra super nice the whole entire day. Aren’t I awful? A total Birthday Scrooge. This year I was so proud because I ordered Hubby’s gift online like two weeks in advance. But then? I got a notice from Am@zon that it wasn’t going to ship anytime soon because it was out of stock or some such thing. One day before his birthday. Thanks, Am@zon.

So there I was out shopping like a procrastinating ne’re do well on the big day. And of course they didn’t have the thing I bought online, so I had to think on my feet and buy something else. I got him a frappacino maker. Can we say Unneccessary Counter-Cluttering Gadget? I know, I’m ashamed of me too. But Hubby loves a good frappacino so I’m hoping it actually gets some real use and maybe even saves us money. Kinda’ doubtful since we generally stop at Starbucks on a whim while we’re out, but it sounded good in my head at the store. I am the Impulse Buyer that merchandisers everywhere dream about. Ooh Random Factoid Alert! Did you know that seventy percent (70%) of the items shoppers purchase are things they had no intention of buying when they entered the store?! SEVENTY PERCENT. Which explains how I can drop at least $100 every time I go to Target even when I’m stopping in for “just one thing”. Coincidentally, it also explains the box of truffles. Funny that.