CHILDHOOD ILLNESSES, DENTAL PROBLEMS GETTING ME DOWN

This time of year I expect the common cold to visit at my humble abode. I might even accept that an off brand version of the flu virus might slip in under the protective covering that I've laid upon my little ones in the way of the latest round of flu vaccines. But I was not expecting dental problems. That's right, one of my kids has CAVITIES!

I've been so careful and mindful of letting them fumble around with the toothbrush to get the feel of it and then taking matters into my own hands for a good scrubbing. Up and down brushing as well as carefully prizing their little jaws apart for a half baked flossing. Apparently my efforts towards dental hygiene were all for naught because the oldest girl woke up with a toothache yesterday.

After a trip to the dentist, it was confirmed that indeed she had a rotten tooth. Or to be kind, she has a cavity in between two of her back teeth which was the reason I had not spotted the evil sucker. At least she didn't embarrass me by having a mouthful of cavities which would be a sure indicator that I was a complete failure as a parent. A few buzzes of the drill and some magic tricks with the hypodermic needle performed by my dentist and his technician and we were out of there.

Then to make things even more fun and fanciful, the youngest woke me up at two am. having thrown up in the bed. Cavities and viruses! How lucky can I be?

So what do you do for children's stomach virus symptoms but wipe up vomit and clean up diarrhea but wait it out? That's about it other than to give them Pedialyte popsicles and pray that feel like sleeping in between episodes. That's where we are right now, the little one is peacefully napping and I'm catching up on my mommy blog and hoping that the other two miraculously immune to this particular strain of stomach virus.

So what's your method of alleviating stomach virus symptoms in your kids? Please feel free to share!

AN IDEA for SAVING the PLANET

Even in the dead of winter, I like to sleep with a fan running in the bedroom. I don't allow it to actually blow on anybody, but the white noise is very addictive when the neighbors dog is having a barking spell or the teenager's stereo has way too much bottom blasting out of the sub-woofer.

Last night, we had sudden fan failure. I tried to flip the switch on the fan in our bedroom with no results. There was a scramble to replace the fan right at bedtime which left me wired up and too awake to drift off very quickly. During this wakeful time I reviewed the situation and realized that this large floor fan was only one year old! That's a lot of plastic and metal to be dumping into the garbage for only one year's good service, isn't it?

To help you make a decision, I will tell you about the rotating fan that we pulled into service to replace our year old wonder. I had to run next door to mom's house to borrow a fan and she gave me a small table top model that her mom had bought to keep HER cool when she was born in the days before every house had air conditioning. The sad part is that this fan ran like a top and has been used year after year since the early 60s with no more than a tiny drop of sewing machine oil shot through a tiny hole for lubrication.

It came to mind that if companies still made stuff out of real metal parts and use quality construction, THAT would help to keep our landfills from filling up! Am I thinking correctly when I say that quality products even if they are more expensive are more eco-friendly because they last for years? I made a mental calculation at how much space 40-50 floor fans would take in the garbage dump and it was pretty alarming.

It caused me to make the mental note to buy quality stuff even if it costs more. How long can this throw away society keep going? I see how we can help the environment by recycling, but wouldn't it help to build machines and cars that LAST, too?

The Pros and Cons of Christmas

After running through my favorite dofollow mommy blogs and seeing lots of posts stating "I haven't been online for awhile" it makes me feel better that I have let my nice new blog languish with no entries for about two weeks. My how time flies this time of year. On one hand, I'm ready to hit New Year's and clear the Christmas tree and trappings out of the house and on the other, I'm gently applying the brakes to prolong the magic of the season.

WHAT'S DIFFERENT - The PROS of the Season

I take the long route through my temporary seasonal neighborhood each and every trip to the discount store. Kudos to my neighbors for their prize winning, creative decorations. One house that I've never been able to view from the street for the trees gets the prize for the most breathtaking display even though I STILL can't see the front door! She (or they or whoever)has done an extremely artful job of stringing twinkling white lights throughout the forest. I'm sure that the folks who are working their way through the devastating ice storm up north would not appreciate the faux ice storm, but in the quiet of the dark 80 plus degree southern night it is truly beautiful. This property owner took lemons and made juicy, flavorful lemonade by working with what she had and the (mostly) natural beauty has outdone the multitudes of door wreaths, reindeers and Santa Claus vignettes hands down!

GOTTA HAVE SOME CONS

I hate to say it, but the cons take the award this year for sheer numbers. As I mentioned a few posts back, my mother refused to come this far south....period. I must admit that I have enjoyed calling her to inform her how very lovely the weather has been until a day ago. This woman never ceases to amaze me as to how she can spin everything to be so incredibly about HER! With less than two weeks before Christmas, she has informed me that she has a health issue and needs to go to the doctor. And guess what? She expects me to travel north to take her! What the heck??? Here I am with children, animals and more on my shoulders than I can handle some days and she can't drive (or take a taxi) to the doctor's office?

I know that she is getting up there in age and she may have something going on healthwise, but I also know her and her manipulative ways. She has realized she is going to be alone for Christmas as she refused to come south. This is her way to get me up there so that she can have it her way. I can't believe the self centered ways of some people when they get older. Is this the same mother that sacrificed her time for me as a child? Blazing cannons would not have pulled her away from her children during the holidays. Why is she expecting this of me? Is there any wonder that depression runs rampant during this time of year. With all of the demands it's a wonder that more people don't crack open a bottle and cock the pistol! Not that I'm to that point, but I can see where people might go there.

I Almost Forgot the Tomato (Fruit or Vegetable) Debate

I almost forgot the other interesting topic of conversation from our evening out. Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

It was amazing at how much conversational mileage this worn out debate carried! I will repeat my opinion here: The tomato is a FRUIT! To the jerk with the bad hairpiece and the ugly tie, I repeat The tomato is a FRUIT!

The reason that they are classified as fruits and not veggies (no they are not sweet but that doesn't make them a veggie Mr. Philosopher Want to Be).

Their very name comes from the Latin words for "Fruit Bearer".

The reasons tomatoes are classified as fruit are as follows:

• They grow on trees. No matter how spindly their prickly stems are, they are considered to be branches.
  
• Tomatoes have seeds
  
• Tomatoes have skin
  
• Tomatoes have juice
  
• Tomatoes contain the fruit gene (and who wants to argue with the DNA these days?)

There you go Mr. Know it All! I hope you read my blog about this burning hot topic and realize I DID GET THE LAST WORD!

BEATLES SONGS HAVE ROOTS IN THE BLUES - Not Your Usual Holiday Cocktail Party Banter

The cocktail parties are starting already. It seems as though hostesses are in a hurry to "get it over with" rather than looking forward to holiday gatherings this year. If they think that their guests are not picking up on the sentiment, or lack of, they better think again.

At the party we attended last night the hors d'oeuvres lacked the creative display and enthusiasm of past years. I am one of those people that graze their way through festivities and most of the fun is sampling new recipes and to engage in stimulating conversation. I could hardly believe my eyes when last night one of the more innovative hostesses of the past had resorted to blocks of cream cheese covered with pepper jelly surrounded by plain old Ritz crackers. I'm not being critical I just couldn't help but notice the change in style.

And the conversation was pretty stimulating, but rather combative! Not unusual because there's always somebody breaking the rules of polite chitchat, but surprisingly the arguments were not based on politics or the war in Iraq, it was whether or not Beatles songs had roots in the blues. No joke, one of the more lively conversations that I witnessed was a discussion of early Beatles music and which artists were their inspirations.

Usually, I don't allow myself to be pulled into this kind of thing. However, my mom was a huge Beatles fan and I grew up spinning her old lps (I still can't believe how casual she was about my handling of her precious vinyl records) from the early 60s.
I had to throw in my two cents worth and voice my opinion that I really don't hear much blues influence in songs like "I Saw Her Standing There" or "Twist and Shout".
Although in their next album, they did include a Chuck Berry song, "Roll Over Beethoven", but I don't classify that song as blues. Money (That's What I Want) was on that album, too but that's not really blues either. My next question is how the conversation on whether Beatles songs are blues songs got started in the first place! Now, Eric Clapton songs? There's no argument that lots of his stuff is blues...but the Beatles? That's a stretch.

If you'd like to argue this point with me, give me a shout at Oooh Baby Baby.

Brett Favre the Darling of South Mississippi's Injury

What a shame that Brett Favre was injured and had to leave the Packers game against Dallas. I saw where some of the commentators were being accused of focusing way too much on his injury to the extent that the rest of the game was virtually ignored.

Pardon me if I don't mind the extra attention that this player gets! Any and all love and bias sent in the direction of Brett Favre is just fine with me.
This shining star straight out of South Mississippi is in my opinion one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and a good guy to boot! If I had a houseful of baby boys instead of all these girls, I would be on my knees praying each and every night that my sons would follow in his footsteps. Well, actually it would be a tossup between whether I would ask for devine guidance for them to follow the Manning boys or Brett...either would make this SEC loving mama very happy!

Some of the blog comments are that the replays of Brett's injury were overplayed and that Grant's touchdown was not given the attention that it deserved. I agree with that, but I can also see that when one of the shining stars of football is hurt a little extra coverage is bound to happen.

Personally, I would much rather have more information on Brett Favre's injury than players who involve themselves in disgusting activities like dog fighting.

If you don't agree with my opinion on this, you can always yell at me on my baby blog.

RECIPE for BASTING a THANKSGIVING TURKEY with a BACKACHE

Several days of dreary rain, fog and chilly weather drained me of the energy to perform all the household duties, start shopping for Christmas and participate in Thanksgiving. Good news is that the turkey and dressing were both moist and delicious. It's never a good thing to turn out a feast that's dry and unappetizing because the lack of quality is remembered until the next time that you do turkey with all the fixings. I think I found the answer to a beautiful bird worthy of a Martha Stewart photo shoot: basting.

Yes, indeed there are multiple benefits to pulling that heavy roaster in and out of the hot oven for three hours every thirty minutes or so. Other than burning my knuckles on the rack during the process, I believe that to baste is indeed best. I had read that the food that is in magazine photographs is virtually inedible because it is not actually cooked to eat. The recipes are created to look sharp, not taste good. I should have invited the photographers to come and take pics of my turkey! It was baked at 325, basted as I mentioned above and the breast was a beautiful, crisp golden brown with just the right number of spicy flecks for good measure! And it tasted positively wonderful. Eat your heart out Martha! Kiss my hiney, Rachel Raye, it IS possible to have a pretty entree that you can eat!

Here's the recipe for basting a Thanksgiving turkey that everybody loves except one of my kids' but the majority of the votes are positive!

1 stick of salted butter
1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp. basil leaves
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves (I didn't have any leaves so I used ground..so shoot me)
1 tsp. black pepper

I melted the butter and stirred the spices in.

I LIGHTLY sprinkled salt all over the turkey inside and out. I put the bird in the oven with a tent of foil for about 30 mins. Then every half hour I slop some of the butter mixture inside and out of the bird, replace the foil tent and back in the oven she goes for another half hour. For the last half hour of baking, I baked without the foil tent, but with lots of basting mix on the skin.

There you go! Easy as pie so long as your back doesn't go out from bending over to baste like mine did! LOL Really, it did. My lower back went wonky on me that morning and it's just now getting to the point that I can stand up straight so the rest of my holiday recipes may have to wait until Christmas!

Healing Foods for ADHD

Occasionally one of the girls or one of the cousins might drink just a little too much sweet tea. The after effects are that they will begin to chatter non-stop while displaying an inability to stop moving their feet. The adults might laugh and tell them that we didn't know ADHD come on so suddenly!

For those of us who don't suffer from it, I suppose it's easy to joke about something that is so hard for other parents to deal with on a daily basis. What brings this to mind today is that we recently got some new neighbors in the house next door. I was so thrilled when I saw that they have children similar in age to my own. Before the moving van had pulled away, I had my "Welcoming Committee Casseroles" in the oven so that I could help out with their supper that evening.

Within a few hours I was tapping on the door ready to introduce myself. The lady that answered the door looked tired, but excited with her new home and that neighbors had been so welcoming and friendly. She invited me in, but I sensed some resistance and I really didn't know what to make of it. I assured her that I didn't want to impose on such a busy day and just wanted to drop off something that she could heat up whenever she felt like it. She looked so relieved that I thought that I had indeed intruded. I was about to duck out the door, when we heard a crash from the other room.

I felt I should go with her to investigate because of the kids and sure enough one of hers was standing to the side of the scene of the accident, another in a child carrier just out of harm's way and the other was right in the middle of the carnage. Mom seemed to know which child was responsible right away and took him by the hand to walk me to the door. The little boy was pulling against her all the way and seemed distressed. She took this opportunity to explain to me that he was ADHD and that she had wanted an opportunity to talk to me about his condition before I met him as they didn't believe in medicating for it and there were times when he got pretty out of control.

People, I felt that the Lord had sent this lady into my orbit! My sister had a child with much the same symptoms as this little fellow and also has the belief that medication may not be the answer. She was determined to try natural means before resorting to meds and she has had amazing results. She has come to believe that many cases of ADHD could be helped if not completely eliminated by dietary changes! She got lots of tips from Dr. Melanie Beingessner product resources. She's the doctor who wrote the Calm Baby Cookbook. I am in no way affiliated to this lady, but have seen firsthand the benefits of following some of her suggestions!
I had real problems with my baby having severe rashes when I was breastfeeding that disappeared once I identified and eliminated trigger foods.

I told my new neighbor about this and I hope she gets some good results, because she really looks worn out and at her wits end. If anyone else has suggestions to add, I would love to forward them to her!

Other Than Starving the Pilgrims Had it Pretty Good

I'm taking a break while the cornbread for the dressing is baking in the oven. I usually take a few minutes to make a list of the things that I am thankful for each Thanksgiving but for some reason this year I'm having trouble focusing.

I believe that the making of my traditional, annual Thanksgiving list is being overshadowed by my “stuff that I need to do” list.

My “to do” list is filled with entries such as:

• Try to fix the vacuum cleaner
• Get the cat a bigger litter box
• Check to see why the county didn’t send us our tax bill yet
• Clean out the hatch of the car
• Peel potatoes for my signature sweet potato pie

If I tried really hard I'm sure I can add least 10 more things to my list. I'm sure that the participants of the first Thanksgiving had a few things on their “to do” list, but somehow I picture them as being much less stressed than people today.

Think about it: they grew the food, they cooked the food, and they ate the food. Most of their immediate concerns in the New World had to do with food. No running hither and yon to pick up dry cleaning or to take the cat to the vet. I certainly don’t want to diminish the desperate circumstances is of that early time in our history that you have to admit in some ways they had it pretty darn good.

PAYING FOR MESSING WITH MY TEMPLATE

I'm really paying for messing around with my template, as I'm working with a BRIGHT rosy pink background that I'm not crazy about. The other template I was using had a much more pleasing color, but I was not crazy about it. I'm making a mental note to learn more about web design and learn how to make templates that I like. Maybe that can be my New Year's resolution that I don't keep?

On the upside, I'm sure that I got the dofollow thing going again and that was really important to me as I had tried to get the word out about that and didn't want to get branded as a storytelling blogger.

I Have Completely Screwed Up

Ok everybody! I have screwed up by playing around with my template. All my roomie, do follow attributes and blogger chicks widget and everything have been lost! That's what I get for trying to combine childcare, recipe troubleshooting and blogging! Please give me a day or so to reconstruct my blog and get it back to normal. Work with me y'all! I could use a little support if anybody could send it! Ouch.

I was trying to install an odiogo wigdet and it seemed not to work on my old timey blogger template. So, I get smart and start to monkey around with templates about the time baby was having a mini meltdown and whammo a wrong button is pushed and all is lost. I apparently pushed a "switch to" button rather than my "gimme a preview" button. Well, I like the colors ok, so I'm going to try to make the blasted thing work. Pray for me y'all!

Skipping Thanksgiving - Jumping Straight from Halloween to Christmas

I know that you all have taken note that Christmas decorations and open houses were in full swing the day after Trick or Treat. Does anyone else remember when people who started hanging lights on their gutters on first day of December were thought to be jumping the gun and pushing the holidays?

I remember the year that we got our tree on the third of December. What a year for the record books! Mother had previously said that to put decorations up any earlier diminished their importance. It was her opinion that special things should be kept, well...special. We didn't question her when she announced that we could kick off the season early and started cruising the fence lines in the pastures with enthusiasm. We found a cedar that only had to have three or four feet chopped off so that we could get it in the front door and thought we were the luckiest kids in the world that we were the first to get our tree up on our block. We were the envy of our friends and looked forward every afternoon to the moment the lights were plugged in and our living room was magically transformed into a sparkling winter wonderland.

How wonderful it was to have those extra weeks of expectation and fun. As an adult and looking back, I realize that the reason she bent the rules a bit was that money was so tight that year. I can honestly say that I never noticed that mother didn't seem to be as thrilled with the early onslaught of Christmas cheer as we kids. Maybe she thought that the joy of decorating earlier than normal would divert attention from Christmas wishes that didn't get granted in the way of gifts? Whatever her thinking might have been, it must have worked. We considered ourselves the luckiest kids in town that we got our tree up before our friends!

It makes me wonder if the need for a spiritual lift is the reason that people are putting up their Christmas pretties earlier and earlier.

Willing Your Frozen Eggs and Embryos to Your Kids?

With women of advanced maternal age having put off having their babies until late in life, I'm hearing more and more discussion about the fate of frozen eggs and embryos. I'm surprised that nobody's given the fate of these precious little bits of life some thought before now.

What happens to the frozen eggs if the mom never uses them? Are there any laws on the books for this situation? One discussion that I heard said that maybe they should be part of a person's legacy and left to their children. I can see where this might be a viable solution. What if something happened that your daughter's eggs were damaged and she couldn't have children? Having a few of mom's unfertilized eggs lying around could really simplify things (and reduce the cost of?) in case she needed to opt for in vitro fertilization. What is the shelf life of human frozen embryos anyway?

On the other hand, what if you have no children and the future of your fertilized or unfertilized eggs needs to be decided as part of your estate planning? What should be done? Is it ethical to just toss them? Are there facilities that welcome donations or do people sell them? Ethics aside, what is the price of frozen human embryos? I have to admit that I'm not knowledgeable in this area but I would love to know more about it and can see where there might be some controversy because of the disagreement of when life begins.

TELEVISION PROGRAMS

This is not a rant about how ABC,NBC or CBS is not putting enough child friendly television programs out there. There's more than enough excellent programming out there for kids. Today I'm being a selfish mom and I'm complaining that the tv shows on the networks stink!

I'm not a chick that spends her days on the sofa eating chocolates and watching soaps. When the kids are asleep, at preschool or visiting elsewhere I tend to enjoy the company of the television while I fold the laundry, dust, and try new recipes or new crafts. Is it just me or are television shows just getting less interesting?
Where are the Raymonds and Seinfelds? If I never watch another reality or game show again it will be way too soon! I know the networks have to be marketing to some audience but who might they be?

And the cop shows, MY GOSH!!! Do people not get enough crime through the network news? And another thing, the trend of flashing from one scene to another like lightening is enough to trigger a bout of epilepsy in a person.

Do you want to know what I think? If you've stuck with me this far, you must care, right? I think that producers are resorting to guts, gore and camera tricks to get out of writing a decent storyline.

And you know what it's doing for them? It's breaking society from the tv addiction! Yep, before I made this post I made a point to ask 5 women what their favorite television show was and 4 out of 5 said, we really don't watch television like we used to! Whoa! What is Les Moonves going to say about that? Probably not that much, because 5 out of the 5 women I queried said that they try to make a point to record David Letterman and Craig Ferguson to watch the next day.

What do YOU think about the new fall television shows? Please tell me that my friends and I are not just old fashioned, out of touch fuddy duddies!

POST HALLOWEEN BABY BOREDOM

Here we are the day after Halloween! It seems like only yesterday that I was bitching about the hot weather and the drought. Just goes to show that time flies when you're having fun or not as the case has been at my house lately.

On the upside, trick-or-treating went well. There was no crying about a costume that didn't fit right, look right or that was duplicated by another kid down the street. This was our first time for trick-or-treating this far south. Southerners really make Halloween a major production! Churches have Trunk or Treat where the entire church parking lot is filled with parked cars with the hatches open or with open trunks filled with candy, baked goods and small toys for the children.

Even with all the festivities at the local churches our neighborhood was filled with little ghouls and goblins and their parents. The kids wanted to visit some of the neighbor's houses, and I went along with it. We were actually invited in for a light supper at two of the houses. The last one would not take no for an answer and treated us to a wonderful Halloween dinner of chicken chili served in hollowed out rolls. I had never a eaten any chili that was made with chicken before but I begged for the recipe!

Did anyone else feel that Halloween was so much more fun since daylight savings time had not kicked in yet? I hope that they don't turn the clocks back till after the 1st again next year!

Here's a recipe chicken chili

1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 pound skinless boneless chicken breasts or the chicken meat of your choice that has been cut into bitesize pieces
1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 cans (or a 29 oz can of ) diced tomatoes including the juice
2 cans (or (a 32 oz can of )Great Northern beans that have been drained
1/4 cup lime juice or fresh juice of 1 lime
2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed, or 2 cups of fresh or canned kernals
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup finely chopped onion (southerners swear by Vidalia onions for obvious reasons)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
PREPARATION:
Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once the oil has been heated, slide your chopped onions and garlic into the oil

Stir and saute until onion is tender

Add your chicken and stir till lightly browned on all sides

Next add the chopped jalapeno pepper, coriander, cumin, tomatoes and juice and drained beans.


Turn the heat to low and let simmer for around 5 minutes

A lime juice and kernels of corn. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Continue to simmer the mix, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking, for 5 to 10 minutes more.

Serve with sour cream, chopped Vidalias and cilantro for guests to add to this easy recipe for chili.

HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS on the ROAD

I took the babies on a little road trip the other day and to keep them from squabbling I try to come up with games to play in the car with the older two. To make a long story short, I think I may have created a monster.

One of the games we play is to count the cell phone or microwave towers or road signs. I figure that this is a good way to begin teaching the older two about counting as well as their surroundings. Since it is so close to Halloween time I made an attempt to adapt our popular car counting game to cover Halloween decorations; pumpkins in particular.

The way we play it is that each time one of the kids spots a pumpkin of any kind they count it AND before they do they shout BINGO. On that particular trip I considered myself a virtual genius for coming up with this as it seemed to be so festive and entertaining they forgot about complaining about who was touching or leaning on them for a little while.

The problem is that between now and Thanksgiving we will not be able to ride through our neighborhood without having BINGO ringing in our ears. Is it just me or was this a bumper year for pumpkins?

HEY EVERYBODY! Please Can the Racial Slurs and Hate.

Mom still refuses to come down here and after I broached the subject of humidity being a lame excuse, she came forth with a few more details of why she doesn't want to visit "down here".

When I quizzed her, she said that she knew people who wouldn't even ride through some of the southern states to get to another location. Apparently they would rather go hundreds of miles out of their way rather than risk riding through the cradle of racial inequality. It's obvious that she's been convinced by somebody that the state song for all southern states is Dueling Banjos straight out of Deliverance and that all the citizens are snuff spitting backwards inbreds.

This is very insulting to me (as well as the area) as I've been telling her how much we enjoyed our time here and how many wonderful friends we have made. Has she been secretly harboring thoughts that our family was being joyfully recruited into one of the racial hate groups? Maybe she really doesn't feel like hopping on a plane and flying into Memphis and seeing the Home of the Blues up close and personal and doesn't want to tell me. That would certainly make a lot more sense than the garbage that she's spewing.

I have seen just as much racial bias in the northern reaches of this great land as I have in the southern areas. But, you know what? I have not seen much....PERIOD! People of all colors and races are hating crime and drugs and terrorism, etc. but very rarely each other! At least in the circles where I am.

On that subject, mom needs to get that racial bias can be all colors. I was floored when I watched Queen Latifah's movie Beauty Shop with Alicia Silverstone and Kevin Bacon. The racism coming from the characters of color was shocking and unpleasant. The whites in the movie were reduced to uncool social misfits or stereotypes and some of the racial slurs coming from the African Americans would NEVER have been tolerated coming from white people. In fact, most white people I know wouldn't lower themselves to that level. I love Queen, but EVERYBODY needs to can the hate!

LOOK MA NO WILDFIRES - THANK HEAVEN FOR HIGH HUMIDITY

We are down south right now and look to be here for awhile. For once we are southerners at the right time of year! I have mentioned to my mom that it would be nice if she came down and spent some time and we'd make it a point to do some sightseeing and travelling (that SHE loves to do) while she's here.

She got down right snarky about it and said no thank you, I doubt there's anything that I'd care to see down there. DOWN THERE???? Where does she think I am? In another country or in Hell? I have told her time and time again just how lovely the countryside and the people are here and she's completely ignored me. You know what she said this time along with other negative remarks? "It's so damp and HUMID down there" Again she's with the "down there" thing.

Well, I talked to my poor cousin in California today and she sent me pics of the wildfires raging within sight of her bedroom window! She said she would ADORE to come here but didn't feel she should leave her home. I told her she was welcome whenever she could come and told her the reason mom wasn't interested in taking me up on my invitation for the winter. She laughed and said that the entire state of California and many others would be thankful for more good old fashioned humidity. In her book, humidity is preferable to out of control fires any day of the week.

My feelings are hurt that mother uses humidity, which is only an issue in summer anyway, to not come. I plan to clear my mind by going to some of the charming towns that I've heard about while I'm in the area. I've been to Oxford many times, but may make another trip. You would be amazed at the movie stars, writers and famous musicians that are on that square at any given time. I've stood side by side with John Grisham at Square Books and chatted with the director/producer of some Cameron Diaz movie (Something About Mary?).

Hear that mom? Even famous people love it "down there".

A WAHM BRAINSTORM QUESTION

I'm always brainstorming for WAHM ideas and last night when talking to one of my friends who manages apartment complexes, an idea hit me. I suppose it's not really WAHM, as you have to leave the house to do the work but it's a business that would be easy to start with little if any at all start up cost.

My buddy, Marie, was fussing about how every time an occupant moved out of one of the units she had to go in and clean and repaint. The apartment complex has a painting crew but the cleaning has to be done before they show up to paint the walls.

I think that it would be an excellent home-based business to provide cleaning services for unoccupied or recently vacated apartments only.

The reason that I think a cleaning service for unoccupied apartments or homes would be preferable over occupied homes is that there probably would be no need for bonding or insurance. Right? I mean the reason those home and office cleanup crews have to have insurance is due to the risk of damaging a homeowners belongings so if there ARE NO furnishings in the space why would you need insurance?

I picked up a few houses to clean once and frankly it was a headache. One lady supplied pictures in each bedside drawer of how she wanted her pillows arranged on the bed and I had no problem with that, in fact it helped! But, there was just no way that she was going to pay a reasonable fee for how much time it all took. Maybe I tried to do things TOO well? I know that for awhile I had more houses lined up than I could do. I think it was because I was (a)Thorough (b)Too cheap

Which brings to mind, how much should one charge for occupied home cleaning vs. empty home cleaning services?


Anyway I would love to hear some thoughts on the apartment cleaning thing, since my friend would be happy to throw business my way if I ever wanted to jump in and start a business. DH wouldn't mind keeping the tribe at night for a few hours and it would be a super way to get some extra money for emergencies.

Meds for MRSA or the Plain Old Stomach Flu?

Well, we started on meds for the MRSA condition for the littlest one, the middle one started complaining of a headache and the oldest one said that she jammed her finger. Well actually what she said was that she was sure her pinky finger was "splintered".

Then about 10:30 last night the little one who was getting in a little sympathy co-sleeping time woke up throwing up. It was very strange in that I became aware that she was wiggling through the fog of my sleepy exhaustion, but assumed that she would settle back into sleep. To make a long story short, she did not. She began to vomit up what she had eaten for LUNCH ten hours earlier! I know this is gross and disgusting, but what would cause food (chickpeas to be exact) to just sit in her tummy, undigested for that long a period of time? Would it be caused by the antibiotics they are giving her?