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sandst

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Everything posted by sandst

  1. We did SL 3 & 4 and replaced their spine with SOTW3 & SOTW4. We really enjoyed the Outline sheets that came with SOTW 4. Before I re-invent the well has anyone have files with outlines for SOTW1 & 2. We are doing Core G next that uses these books... Thanks
  2. Rubix would you kindly share your GF cookies recipie. We have only been GF since January and I am yet to find a goog recipie. Yours sounds amazing...
  3. We got a few junk rooms not junk drawers and seeing that the kitchen is in the mist of renovations and the dining rooms has all the kitchen stuff in I cannot do the stuff on the list. I started last week cleaning and organizing the classroom. So that will be my focus...
  4. If you were short of built in what cheap solution would you use to store linens, out of season clothing.
  5. Would love to join in. Have cleaned the garage 3 times for the past two years since we moved here and it still looks like a bomb exploded in it. We got double the rooms but triple the junk. We inherited and moved into my in-laws 43 years home after their sudden passing in a tragic aircraft crash. My BIL decided to move to South East Asia and dumped all his furniture and stuff in this house as well and then there was all our stuff to deal with. Three households in one. It is also hard to determine what to keep and what to toss when I am dealing with my in-laws possessioons and the boys (hubby and brother) cannot give you any direction. I hate clutter and feel that I am living in a bad episode of Clean House. It is not filthy but some rooms have been turned into storage rooms. The dining room has all the kitchen stuff stored in (we have a dismantled kitchen because when we moved it all went for a loop and I have been working off a temp kitchen for over a year). The garage is Horder's Paradise, the master bedroom (the box storage room, random papers from in-laws, their stuff, BIL rubish that has overflown from both Garage and outside storage room), the master on-suite is the tool room, the office has my business papers that need to be sorted. Piles of papers are now being stuffed into funny places because when we moved I lost my 'filling system'. The classroom is full of boxes that are overflowing from other parts of the house. I keep the kitchen, sun room (use as a classroom), lounge, the guest room with on-suite that we are using as a master, kids bedrooms and bath as clutter free as possible. But the other problem is that this house has no built in storage so I am having a hard time storing out of season clothes, future curriculum, bedding, toweling .... I feel so overwelmed but maybe joining in will help sort out some of this mess. :ack2:
  6. Please be careful, peanuts and tree nuts can turn bad with no warning. I have a son that has extreme allergies and it is hard but we adapt. :grouphug:
  7. Praying for your and your family. This is so hard.:grouphug:
  8. My son had anaphylaxis twice because of peanuts and once for nuts. The peanuts were always a no-no but the nuts we did not know for a while. Please have your child tested. As far as people I feel that ignorane motivates their reaction. We do not a full dignose as some of his most extreme symptoms have only developed in the past ten months. We went from 5-6 food allergens to 12 now and I suspect this number will be growing. As far as enviroumental we got them all overed pretty much. He went into Hyper IgE and his own antibodies were attacking his skin. Skin would fall off by the dust pan full several times a day. Big chuncks until we were dealing with a child covered in special bandages (similar to burnt patient about 75% of his body)... Also I kept telling the daughter that I was almost sure that the parafin or petroleum based products in the creams were agravating the problem. Even though he got a bit better he skin was still cover with sore and some peeling with still occur until his birthday when I had enough and replaced his creams with natural bee wax products and coloid silver gel. It seems the skin reaction to the base creams were worst. All 'some friends' could say, it is only eczema :glare:. Some backed off when they came to my place and saw my 'mummy child', the array of nebulisors, humidifiers and air purifiers. We identified the problem in Feb and after many months on the diet we are starting to see progress. We had three doctors say there is nothing they can do until we saw an allergies specialist in Feb 2012 and even he would not listen to my concerns regarding the base creams. Depending on the base and its concentration of petroleum base products the worst he would get. We are in the process of trying to find another allergy specialist but the one we were seeing was suppose to be the best one around here. We are seeing a good dietitian next week and are trying to get an appoitment with a professor in Cape Town, 1600 miles away... I am in bio-tech and work mainly with the food industry and even I can find the labeling here hard to navigate. The best option is to stay with foods as natural as possible, there are a lot of hidden ingredients and also the source of the additives can also cause problems. Keep strong. I will be praying for you and your family...
  9. I really get it and living in Africa most people get offended when you cannot eat what they are sharing. Yesterday I was assisting the ladies with the setting up and catering at one of our congregations in the area and the ladies were trying to nod him to choose and eat something. I had to explain several times that due to his multiple allergies we annot risk it. I had him go to the car and get his lunch box and some of the old ladies were commenting in Afrikaans (old dutch) how cruel I am and what is wrong with their food seeing that he was eating hot dogs, no bake oat choc cookies, chips, some raw veg and fruit (gluten, soya, egg and so on, $1.25 per hot dog bun and allergy free, nitrate free organic beef franks $4 for 6. GF oats to make the no bakes at a cost of US $10 for 1.5 lb of , US $ 3 for less 1/2 lb organic sunflower spread for the same cookies, almost $5 for the organic corn chips and so on , you get the drift)... People can be cruel and in places like Africa or Asia where allergies are less common and with lots of poor people, do not expect understanding. You will just be the foreigner with the funny quircks. (Maybe that is just me because I HS in a country that has only made HS legal in 1994). I have been living in this country for almost 20 years (ex MK kid) and people still assume that because I cannot speak one of the local languages I cannot understand it.:glare: We stopped eating Asian and Chinese food in 2005 because of the peanut and MSG allergies... Give yourself time and be careful with ingredients. Here the law is not very clear so lots of time they would say emulsifier which could be casein... :grouphug: Praying for you and your new normal. P.S. Sorry for the typos...
  10. The peanut one is pretty critical around here. My son stops breathing within 10 minutes. then we have the tree nuts and sesame seeds. We move on to Gluten, soya, dairy, eggs, olive oil, olives, wheat, msg, tbhq and all sorts of food coloring and preservatives. Still growing, having a few more tested as soon as we can get a cancelation so more foods on the no eat list... He is also allergic to parafin and parabens as well as some other skin stuff. So it has been hard to find the right creams and even phamaceutical stuff. Some creams and soaps would just make him peel off chunks of skin until we could see open flesh wounds. Horrible, it is like leaving in an horror movie. Add this to a child with SPD, anxiety disorder, ODD and ADHD it has not been a walk in the park. Living in Africa does not help because most companies do not declare ingredients properly. We had some of these since 2006 like the peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds, soya, msg, tbhq and the food coloring and preservatives but some other ones are new. The only specialist that was willing to help us after four other ones is 1600 mile away and I keep on phoning or sending e-mails because ingredients change. It has been a batle, first to get the special bandages, then special soaps and creams, then just now he was getting worst and one of his meds is now sweetened with lactose. Atarax one of the medications that seems to help has been out of the market for over 6 months. I managed to get it from Europe but we are close to runnig out again. I have a friend going back to Europe that will try and get some more. October last year he went into Hyper IgE and we had to deal with it. After having my son bed ridden and covered in sores, sweeping buckets of skin up off the floor and bed and having to change bandages over 75% of his body every twelve hours for the past 10 months I would be so mad if someone told me it is on his head. We had to handle him as a burnt patient and he was on antibiotics. Besise the above our life has also been a windwhirl of humidifiers, air purifiers, nebulisers, medication and pumps for the past ten months. He also has severe allergies to a bunch of enviromentals, dust, mold, fungi, cats (he always got extreme hives and stopped breading from cats), fur, feather, dirt, grass, polen... He should be a buble boy!? We have had to learn to deal with it and there is a certain mourning and uncertainty. For me the biggest problem is cross contamination. Alergy free foods are extremely expensive here and limited that we can spend US 500 just on food for this child. We cannot afford to put the entire family on the same diet. Food prep and kitchen cleaning is very hard but we survive. Because of our uncrtain financial sitution my biggest fear is that some time from now we will not be able to provide this child with what he needs. For me the hardest part is the uncertainty of its all. He was having and OK time up until Sunday. We spent the whole afternoon in between services at church, I was working in the resource room prep and writting the manuals for our Spring Holiday Kids Program (VBS type program) and he was playing in the hall for a while and outside on the jungle Gym. By the time we got home on Sunday he battling to breath and is skin was red, blotchy and hot?!? So we went into intervention mode (will refrain from describing it here as I have taken too much ofyour time) and he spent most of Monday sleeping because he was feeling so sick. This is messing up our HS and our entire life revolves around this child. My DD is starting to rebel because she feels 'negleted'. People in our church do not understand and complain if only one of us attends services because the other one has to stay home with a sick child. Also some people feel offended because he uses a beanie on his head the entire time. I have tried to explain that he has sores and bold spots on his head and that most of his eyebrows have fallen due to the sickness. He is embarassed (just turned 11) and this is the only way he will leave the house. Please feel free to grieve and give yourself permission to ignore people comments. :grouphug: I will be prying for you and your family...
  11. I answer No, but we do own an iron. Kids here in school are expected to have crisp and iron uniforms and my husband used to work for an airline where he was expected to wear a crispt and ironed uniform. So at that stage we did quite a air of ironing. Then 2010 we took the kids out of school and my husband was retrenched so no more need for ironing.In all truth I took the stuff out of the machine and streched it and hang it on hangers to dry (we have a tumble dryer but it is only used on an emergency only) so during winter we only iron cuffs and collars on the shirts.Also my husband did most of the uniforms ironing. I had a cupboard where I put it in and we ironed as needed everymorning. Our washing machine got a spin setting for RPM and I usually set it on the lowest or second lowest and it airates the clothes during its last spin so that might help. I am the queen of stretch, shake, hang and dry. Most of our clothes come out straight that people do not believe me when I tell them I do not iron. I got a few 100 % cotton or linnen items that need ironing but I only use these suits when traveling in Africa for work and most of the time the hotel will handle these.My mother was the queen of ironing, everything including socks and cotton underwear... In a previous life I used to iron (sheets, pillows and everything) but I have decided that life is two short.Kids are expected to learn to iron their school uniforms and also polish their shoes. It is part of life skills school training so at one stage or another I guess I will have to teach them how to iron. I doubt if they will ever do it.
  12. We also need "We sing South Africa"My kids have heard We sing America over and over again. The fact that we spent two years studing American history also does not help for our local knowledge content.I have thought on investing in a date stamp. I really need to do that because my kids do not like writtng date and names on any papers.We know the tune of the national South African hymn but are lacking in South African history...
  13. Several Chronic conditions here. Would be interested in joining a group like this.
  14. Parrothead, he actually asked me if we did not have one of those snow machines that picks it up and blows it out. That was before he got his shovel so I guess he was taking of a snow blower. For the life of me I could not get what he was taking about?!? I guess he would love your snowblower.Most of the snow had melted by tonight. My husband checked the aviation weather and it should snow again tonight from 10pm (in twohours time) until 6:am. If that happens that should be a record since 1981 it has not snowed more than once. Even last time it snowed 2007 was only one day and during the night.What was so nice about it is that we had snowfall throughtout the day and they actually saw it. So if there is lots of snow on the ground tomorrow we might have to play in it again tomorrow
  15. wintermama I guess I will have to send them to you. My son was upset because there was not enough snow to shovel up on the driveway (again he has also seen that in movies). He took his foldable camping shovel and walked to the front all ready for shovelling and there was not enough. It is so unfair?!?
  16. My son did the same. But he says he is saving several snowball in the freezer for a future snow fight.
  17. We called it day and went outside to play.The kids built a small snow man, we did not have that much snow, and have snow ball fights.We put out a bowl to collect some snow and make snow candy. My husband was saying it is so nice to feel the crunchy snow under his shoes.The principal, me, called it a snow day... Thanks for all the encouragement.
  18. Hannah, I am not sure where you are in South Africa but we are in Gauteng and I started another thread about the kids going outside and playing in the snow.
  19. Our church runs a small food pantry. They tend to ask for what they are low on on the bulletin but to be honest I am not very good on reading these things. On the other hand I would never donate expired foods.They have some funds that they use to buy toiletries and some protein to add to the boxes.On the other hand I would hate to think what we would do if we needed assistance because we have a household with severe allergies and would be unable to use most of the foods and toiletries.The members at our church are very nice and the sunday school teachers have been known to buy special sweets for my kids due to their allergies, it is hard to think what to do when in need.
  20. We can swap. We get plenty of nice warm sunny days. Even in winter it can get -5 Celcius (23 F) at dawn but by midday it will be around 20 Celcius (68 F). Winter is also very dry. We are used to summer rains and thunderstorms. But my kids are known to run like mad outside in the rain as well.The lady that cleans for us onece a week is here today and she is shouting at the kids to get out of the cold... My kids do not feel cold my daughter will wear slip-slops the entire year. No socks, sometimes a jacket...I miss long nice cold winters and houses with central heating. In winter by midday it is colder inside the house than outside.
  21. It is winter here and they have started this new thing of Christmas in July so that we can have an heavy meal rather that the treditional 'braai', barbaque', by the pool we have in December.I do not buy the Christmas in July hype but today I feel like nice Christmas dinner but that would mean trying to find warm clothes and brave the stores. Nope it is not going to happen we will just settle for hot cocoa and cookies...
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