Hi all, I haven't been keeping up here :( ...(Brace yourself for a long whine, or skip this part) ...Kiddos are both sick, and DH is out of town (isn't that the way it always happens)... DS has Flu A *and* B, and DD (a toddler) has strep throat, but was negative for flu. We are quite the petri dish here. DS is being treated for strep, too, though his test was negative. My mom came up to visit and help out while DH was out of town, and everyone ended up sick - she did, too! Aaack. To boot, she is covered in hives. I am sick as well - I have that all over skin hurting feeling someone mentioned above, plus sore throat, headache, body aches. Whew. Poor DH comes home from Germany tonight, and plans to don his hazmat suit at the door. My grandmother used to say that if things don't get worse than this, I can handle it... That's what I keep telling myself. :) I just skimmed the last few posts, and wanted to add that I also took higher doses of Vit D to get the level up. I took 50,000 IU weekly, and 2,000 daily. 2,000 is my maintenance dose. So if one's level is very low, it really may help to take a higher dose to get it up and feel better quickly. One quick Addison's question... (for my Addison's Buddies)... I am stress dosing at my doc's suggestion, since I'm sick too. My plan was to stress dose for 3 days. Does that seem adequate? How do you know when to stop? I am still new enough to Addison's that some guidance would be great...

It does get harder! Here's a good one that Indy might like - you know those little bath tablets that turn the bath water colors? Take a half of a blue and a half of a green, unscrew the little thing at the end of the faucets in the house (usually there's a little piece with a screen on the end of the faucet, depending on the style), then tuck the little tablets up in the faucet, put the screens back on ... You'll have green faucet water!

Library Momma, I can't quote you on my phone but our kids caught potatoes last year, too. The leprechauns turn into potatoes when you catch them! Our potato did all sorts of crazy things on St Pat's Day last year. ;)

I am so sorry for your loss. Thinking of you, and your children...

I'm so, so sorry.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: We will all cry with you.

Yes, the Urgent Care we went to on Sunday has X Ray capability. They didn't do one, though, and said they didn't think it was necessary because his lungs sounded clear. I would have preferred to have one done. I have an appt for him to go in in the morning - he'll see his pedi, who knows his history well. He does have preventative meds - 2 of them daily, plus a daily allergy med. He saw his asthma doc last week when all this started - but before I felt this concerned. She's an hour away, or we'd have hopped in the car to see her already. I will watch him like a hawk tonight, and get him seen by the pedi in the morning, I just wish they'd have gotten him in today and we didn't have to do another night like last night. If I see any signs that he needs help, will take him to the ER. To add to the fun, our little one has just spiked a fever, too. These things always seem to happen when DH is overseas. Blech.

Thanks. I called and got him the soonest available appt - which is tomorrow morning. I will watch him like a hawk tonight and if we have to ER it, we will, but I certainly hope not. He does have an asthma specialist (that's who we saw last week), and takes two preventatives daily. I could call the specialist, but was planning to take him to his local pedi. His pedi also has asthma, and has been very good with his care whenever it overlaps with asthma. She's also a 5 minute drive rather than an hour. :) Thanks for the validation. I really felt like the Urgent Care doc kind of blew us off on Sunday...

Do I need to take DS back in to the doc? He has asthma, and this is my first kiddo with asthma - we have a few years under our belts but I don't have a lot of experience with asthma and colds/flu. He's got a history of pneumonia, and I'm a bit on the paranoid side... DS had a high fever about 10 days ago. It was a holiday weekend, so we figured it was the flu and instituted home care to keep him comfy. Within 2 days, the fever was down, and he was feeling pretty good, so I didn't take him in to the pedi. He had a follow up for asthma anyway, so we took him in - told the doc about the previous weekend and she checked his lungs, etc - said he looked good to go. DS seemed to be recovering well for a few days. 3 days ago, he spiked another fever and started coughing. Talking and moaning in his sleep, usually a sign of asthma issues for him. I worried about pneumonia since he'd been recovering and then suddenly spiked a fever, and took him to an urgent care on Sunday. Doc said his lungs sounded clear, pulse ox was 95 - 98. She said to take him home and keep an eye on it. As long as the fever is trending down, not up, not to worry. Other than the pulse ox, she ran no tests. But here we are now... Our nights consist of neb treatments, and endless coughing and wheezing. He feels a bit better during the day, but he looks sick :( and he is not acting like himself. I know it could be that he had the flu, and it just takes a long time to recover. But I don't want to miss something important, and I'd feel better if he saw his regular pedi, I think. Is that paranoid of me? Asthma mommies, what would be your feeling on this?

The big question in my mind is ... Will you be replacing the bike? ;)

Hmmmm. Same type of day here with DS, also 9. Must be something in the air.

:grouphug: Sent you a pm.

Ours is around 1400. The layout is more important to me than the footage, and it could use some tweaking - that is why we're considering moving. We will probably downsize when we move, but for the right layout, I think it will be a step up in comfort and convenience. We have a yard the size of a postage stamp, but we love it - patio, a fountain, and room for a step pyramid square foot garden, plus lots of container gardening. We are walking distance to playgrounds and libraries. We're not looking for more space, so much as *better* use of space. :)

I would want to pay for it. My sister would probably refuse, actually, but I would not feel right about having backed over a bike, and not paying for it.

Just popping in to send warm wishes to all. Dealing with sick kids here, and that's taking all my energy. DH is out of town, so it's on me, and I'm pooped. Hugs and hoping everyone is having one of the glorious good days today...

Yes! Ulterior motives work here, too. DS has watched documentaries on food with us (most recently Hungry for Change), and that gets him thinking about food differently. Right now he is really turned off by processed sugar and high fructose corn syrup. He just turned 9, so he might be a bit older than your kids, but don't underestimate the power you give your kids by teaching them about healthy food choices. Earth Day is coming up soonish... put some emphasis on living greener (less packaging, etc)... get the kids involved in that. Less waste from the convenience store. Using reusable water bottles, bento boxes for car snacks, all of that stuff is fun, but better for the environment, too. Thinking about the ulterior motives was so important for our family, when we made big changes. We actually became a one car family - not for financial reasons, but for green reasons. Though we do save quite a bit each month, even when we need to rent an extra car once in a while - the overall savings is pretty hefty. Maybe you can find the ulterior motives that motivate your family, and take the focus off of frugality.

Yes! Ulterior motives work here, too. DS has watched documentaries on food with us (most recently Hungry for Change), and that gets him thinking about food differently. Right now he is really turned off by processed sugar and high fructose corn syrup. He just turned 9, so he might be a bit older than your kids, but don't underestimate the power you give your kids by teaching them about healthy food choices. Earth Day is coming up soonish... put some emphasis on living greener (less packaging, etc)... get the kids involved in that. Less waste from the convenience store. Using reusable water bottles, bento boxes for car snacks, all of that stuff is fun, but better for the environment, too. Thinking about the ulterior motives was so important for our family, when we made big changes. We actually became a one car family - not for financial reasons, but for green reasons. Though we do save quite a bit each month, even when we need to rent an extra car once in a while - the overall savings is pretty hefty. Maybe you can find the ulterior motives that motivate your family, and take the focus off of frugality.

Yes. :)

This thread is full of excellent ideas. :) DH and I had to shift in the same direction - not because we needed to make changes to make ends meet, but for our long-term financial goals. It was hard, and we had fits and starts - sometimes one of us was more on target than the other. The discretionary spending account for each is such a help in that department. Things that helped us... Hmmm... I won't wish this on anyone, but when DS developed severe allergies, DH and I both had to reexamine our eating out. We couldn't just stop for Happy Meals or run in the convenience store - and it was a hard transition. We started with finding food we liked, and could keep in the car. In our case, it was stuff we could buy at Costco that wasn't available at a convenience store. Or stuff we'd order by the case from Amazon. ...It was special to get a bag of *whatever* in the car, and it was a treat. As I began figuring out more allergy safe baking, and making sure we had treats on hand... It was so much more appealing to eat those yummy treats than stuff from the store anyway. So... If i you can't convince DH that a bag of something from Costco is yummy, then how about making the cookies or salty/crunchy treats that he can't resist? Make them so good that he'd rather have them. :) For drinks, get everyone a special to go bottle. We now have a great system, but it has taken a lot of tweaking. We started with brown bags in the car for each person - with a selection of junk and healthy treats. It was fun to open them and see what was in the bag each day. When DH got into it, he was much better at loading the bags! Now we have a picnic backpack, and a great system. We have a picnic tradition for after museums - and we do them at least twice monthly. I love that we have the family memories of tons of picnics. But it was a hard transition. It also sounds like your DH doesn't know what to do with the kids that doesn't involve food? Could you make a list, put it on popsicle sticks or something, put those in a jar, and let the kids take turns drawing an activity for the next day... So your DH doesn't have to think of ideas, and the kids are looking forward to the non-food activity? Hmmm... If he *needs* to have a convenience store run in that list, maybe you could make one activity Diet Coke and Mentos???

What about creating a Montessori inspired bedroom? Google for ideas, but the idea is the entire room is safe and child sized. A floor bed means no falls. Low bookcases, low furniture, no pulling things onto heads. Look at pics of them online and you'll see they are safe havens. Put a baby gate in the doorway. On my phone, or I'd give links and have more to say. :) We did this for our littlest, and it's been wonderful.

Yes. This.

I have a 9 yr old visual learner. Read up on learning styles as much as you can - it really helps. We do use a lot of manipulatives, although as he gets older I find we use them less. We use the whiteboard often - either one on the wall or handheld smaller boards. DVDs, etc - I use them as supplements only, but we do use them. We don't do TV or computer time otherwise, so this is considered fun screen time: We love the ideas that Arcadia threw out, plus BrainPop is a huge hit here. Huge. The Happy Scientist is great, too, and I usually schedule it to match up with our science. Hands on science experiments are good, and we've used a lot of the Discover and Do DVDs as jumping off points. Oh, and Mathtacular was big for a long time. Horrible Histories is available on iTunes - love that, too. Lots of documentaries on Netflix, etc. Vi Hart's math videos on youtube are dearly loved. Teaching Textbooks has been good for us, in the math department, as well as Life of Fred and a slew of living math ideas/books. MCT's language arts has gone over well - visually appealing.

:grouphug: I'm glad you found a solution. The laundry baskets are a great idea. Just wanted to pop in and say that the teen years do go quickly. My DSS is a 20 something now, and looking back - I wish I had let more of the battles slide, as they simply were not worth it. I loved what a PP said about having a piece of their hearts when they are adults being the best outcome.

Excellent thread.

I used Am Ex. Can they help?