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Wordless Wednesday #119 – Putting the whole family to work…

1. Shop with Me Mama (Kim) 2. Pippa 3. Run DMT 4. Tara @ Feels like Home 5. Laura

6. Frugal Fritzie 7. dominique 8. Dad of Divas 9. Cassie 10. Kati

11. Kati @ Kurtz Bros Inc 12. Mellisa 13. Alyson @ 3PsinaPod 14. Annie 15. You're next!

It’s been a long couple of weeks around here with everyone taking turns being sick. But – as of yesterday, the entire family is healthy and back to school and work (yay!). Hopefully everyone will stay germ-free for a while now. 

Over the past few weeks the house ended up pretty much trashed – which is why we spent a lot of time working on it over the weekend. Not only did we get the dishes done, the laundry folded and put away and everything generally picked up, but we also finally got the basement cleaned up and the playroom re-organized (again). So at the moment, the house is actually in fairly decent shape – for once.

So, the list of things that I’m going to be tackling today includes a lot of things other than housework.  Like continuing to rake the leaves out in the yard – we got the front yard done on Sunday, and Becca and I raked 1-1/2 bags worth in the side yard today, but there’s a lot left to do.

We also need to finish the invitations for Hannah’s birthday party after she gets home from school. She’s filling out and addressing them herself and got several done over the weekend, but we need to finish the rest. It takes a little longer with a first grader doing the writing, but she’s so excited to be doing the invitations all by herself. I may need to help her out though, just so we can get them out – the party’s in less than 2 weeks now.

And, I’ve got something that I want to tackle as well.  I’ve been teaching myself to knit on double-pointed needles. I’ve started a sock, but put it on hold when I got to the heel part. Then I made a hat over the past few days – it was originally supposed to be for Hannah, but turned out a bit smaller than I thought, so may end up as Becca’s (I finished it after everyone was in bed last night so couldn’t try it on any of the girls). I have more yarn to make a second hat for Hannah, but I really want to sit down and work on finishing the sock first. So I want to take some time to try working on the heel to see if I can figure it out.

Here’s the hat:

I’m not going to post any pictures of the sock until it’s done – I’m being optimistic that I can figure the heel, foot and toe parts out and get it done. I’ll let you know how it goes. 

The last thing that I want to tackle has to do with what I got for my birthday last week – a Wii Fit Plus. I’ve played around with it once, but want to take the time to try out the different exercises some more. So far I’ve pretty much realized that my balance isn’t as good as I thought it was (or as it used to be perhaps), but I’m looking forward to working on that – and on my general fitness level as well.

What are you tackling this week? And check out other Tackle It Tuesday posts over at 5 Minutes for Mom!

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Tackling… everything BUT the house

Mary’s kids have learned to get creative when it comes to finding new ways to play on their trampoline. Back in August, the kids all had a blast with the sprinkler underneath the trampoline, spraying water up for them to all jump in. And a couple of weeks ago, when I took Hannah and Becca down there to visit for the weekend, it was all about the leaves.

Oh they jumped for a while first…

But then they started piling the leaves on, and suddenly created a whole new dynamic. They threw them up in the air…

…threw them at each other…

…and even (attempted to) throw them at me.

Then they buried each other.

And Hannah even made quite a few ‘leaf angels’, lol.

Notice the shade difference between the top and bottom of Hannah’s jeans in that last photo? The leaves were a bit on the wet side, and by the time the kids came inside, they were soaked. Becca kept forgetting to put her shoes back on when she walked through the grass, and ended up going through a good 4 to 5 pairs of socks that afternoon.

But watching their faces as they ran, jumped and played in the leaves that day made the extra laundry afterward more than worth it.

Mary does assure me though, that the trampoline will be taken down for the winter long before any chance of jumping in the snow. Oh well.

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A whole new take on jumping in the leaves

Here’s my question for this week:

What month is your birthday in?

Mine’s in November. Today to be exact. So far I have a few plans set up. I’m going to be volunteering in Hannah’s class this morning. And at some point today I have to make it to the Secretary of State office to renew our license plate tabs since I never got a chance to do so online due to everyone being sick for the past couple of weeks (and me therefore forgetting). Plus we’ll likely go out to dinner tonight, depending on how Ron’s feeling – he’s home sick yet again today. And, I’ll probably go out shopping with Kristi tonight too. Other than that, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Be sure to check out An Island Life for other fun Aloha Friday questions and to play along!

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Aloha Friday #107

It’s been an interesting few weeks – I don’t remember the whole family being sick like this since the year that we moved into this house, back in 2003. That time, we all missed Christmas – so I’m at least very happy that we seem to be getting this all out of our system way in advance of the holiday season. And hoping that it stays that way – at least until January. 

Here are a few (mostly random) things that have occurred to me about having a sick family…

1. I have no idea if what we’ve had is the flu, H1N1, or something different altogether, but my feeling on the matter is that it’s probably H1N1. The girls all had their regular flu shots and in general we tend to be very healthy-ish. This hit us quickly and hard and seems to last a good week (full 7 days) in every case, with fever, cough, runny nose and general misery. No matter what you call it though, we’ve just plain been SICK.
2. Attempting to keep the house (aka the “germ-infested pit”) anywhere near clean when you’re feeling miserable doesn’t happen. In fact, you may even come to embrace the cluttered mess because the fact that you’re not at all capable of doing anything about it is strangely freeing in a way.
3. At some point you go from feeling stir-crazy to being almost afraid to leave the house. At least at home you’re dealing with familiar, comfortable germs. Out there in the world are all kinds of other things that could make your family even sicker.
4. Never mind about yawning being contagious – we’ve now proven the link between one family member coughing and setting off a whole cacophony of coughing fits.
5. Three-year-olds who can’t sleep because they’re coughing like to climb in bed with Mommy and Daddy. Which makes it even harder for Mommy and Daddy to sleep (see #4).
6. Thanks to the invention of the DVR, it’s completely possible to go from not having ever seen an episode of (Dora/Max & Ruby/Fresh Beat Band/Imagination Movers/insert name of any other children’s show) to having it completely memorized within a period of 8 hours. And not able to get it out of your head.
7. Your priorities change when your family is sick. The idea of limiting your kids’ screen time becomes almost laughable when all you want is a few minutes of peace so you can attempt to breathe without exploding into a coughing fit.
8. No matter how miserable you feel all day when you’re home alone with sick kids, the minute your spouse gets home and you can finally take yourself into the doctor, you make an amazing recovery and feel like an idiot for wasting their time and resources.
9. Mucinex rocks!
10. So does the cough suppressant prescription that makes having gone in to the doctor absolutely 100% worth it. Although your spouse, having spent an hour in search of a 24-hour pharmacy anywhere near home, may not completely agree.
11. Missing school Halloween parties makes kids feel sad. But only until big sister brings home a bag of candy your teacher sent along with your missed homework assignments.
12. Not every sick child likes to cuddle when they’re feeling miserable. Which isn’t always fun for a sick parent who wants to simply lie on the couch and not move all day.
13. Being sick for a week makes you that much more thankful for every day of good health you and your family have afterward. And absolutely grateful that nobody ended up with complications or anything worse than the fever, cough, runny nose and general misery that, although annoying, could have been so much more worse.

We’re on the home stretch now (hopefully) and I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the long, germ-infested tunnel. And just maybe, I’ll get that birthday present after all. 

Check out other Thursday-13 lists!

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All I want for my birthday is…

See more photos at Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes For Mom and Ordinary and Awesome!

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Wordless Wednesday #118 – Pumpkin guts still aren’t her favorite thing…

1. Thea @ I\'m a Drama Mama 2. crazyland: Tales from the motherboard 3. Pippa 4. Tara @ Feels like Home 5. Laura 6. Stefany @ ToBeThode 7. blueviolet

8. Jenna @ Newlyweds 9. Liz@HoosierHomemade 10. Frugal Fritzie 11. Brandy 12. Mellisa @ Getting all my Ducks in a Row 13. Happily Retired Gal 14. cathy (Ladyhightower\'s Meme Castle-my new blog for memes)

15. Corey~ living and loving 16. Kara @ His, Hers, and Ours. 17. Vixen 18. Alyson 19. You're next!

After a lot of thought, we ended up letting all three girls go trick-or-treating, although well bundled up, and Hannah and Becca were only out for a short time. Ron took Abby around the rest of the neighborhood afterward – but even she was only gone for about 45 minutes. There just weren’t nearly as many houses participating this year as usual in our neighborhood – which I think was a combination of illness (or fear of illness) and Halloween being on a Saturday. I have the feeling there were a lot of families who went to church or other gatherings instead.

Our three little purple fairies had a blast however, sick or not. We had a low-key day at home, and then got ready for the festivities. After a few (quick) photos to capture their costumes as intended to look, we added coats and mittens to the ensemble. We put the wings on over the coats, so they really didn’t completely cover the costumes entirely. Either way, they were pretty darn cute. Or maybe I’m biased. 

Having Ron take the girls (mainly Abby) around outside may not have been the best of ideas however – he’s now got a stuffy head and is starting to feel miserable. I guess it was only a matter of time…

Here’s how our pumpkins looked in the dark – I found some very cool lights to put inside:

The light in Becca’s pumpkin (left) had a strobe effect, the one in Hannah’s pumpkin (middle) flickered like candlelight, and the one in Abby’s pumpkin (right) changed colors. I like that they’re battery-powered, so much safer than candles – plus we can re-use them again next year.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! Now on to the birthday countdowns – 6 days and counting for me, and 29 and counting for Hannah. 

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Happy Halloween!

Me? Well, not so much – but getting there. It’s been a long week, so much going on you know. Ok, so no. Not so much going on. In fact, pretty much nothing going on, except attempting to breathe. Without exploding into a coughing fit. And it’s still a work in progress, but at least now I can cough without feeling like it’s tearing my head apart. Oh yes, and the fever’s finally gone too, so I’m actually starting to feel somewhat human again.

I’ve actually written a myriad of blog posts this week – however all of them exclusively in my head. Which tells me a couple of things. First, that I must finally truly be starting to feel better to actually have the energy to be bringing out the laptop and attempting to write something in truth. And that writing must be in my blood more than I ever thought – if even pain and fever can’t keep me from it, at least somewhat.

So here’s my somewhat lame attempt to catch up on things a bit. Not that I can sum up the entirety of the last week in one post, even if I wanted to try. And I’m not writing this so much to catch all of you up (even though I love you all!), but more to try and wrap my head around things. Because my head’s been a bit fuzzy lately.

Not to complain (because that’s really not the intention), but I’m starting to feel like my house is a germ-infested pit. And yes, I’ve disinfected everything I can think of and reach. It’s just going around, I guess. And it’s making a good run of it here. First me, a few weeks ago. Then Abby, last week. We did the hard thing, and kept her home all weekend, while I took Hannah and Becca to Mary’s for our planned visit. None of us were sick. I lost my voice all weekend (yes, I had to borrow Mary to yell at my kids when necessary, lol), but felt fine. Until after we got home on Sunday night. And by Monday afternoon, I knew I was sick. Commence the not able to breathe without coughing, the fever, and the girls watching way too much tv while I was too out of it for them to do anything else.

Then, of course, Hannah woke up on Wednesday running a fever as well. So we kept her home from school, while Ron managed to get Becca to and from preschool while still trying to do his assigned jobs at work (not an easy task considering he can’t transport her in his work truck, but can’t work without it – he did a lot of vehicle switching around that day, trying to get everywhere on time). Then – by afternoon, she was running a fever too. In fact at this point, Ron is the only one who hasn’t been sick. And I’m just hoping that I’m completely back to myself before he gets it.

So if you’re keeping score – that’s one fully-recovered daughter who missed out on a fun weekend with friends, but will be attending her class Halloween party today as scheduled. Plus one daughter who had a blast with her best friend over the weekend but won’t make it to school for her class party. And one preschooler who enjoyed the weekend away as well, but won’t be at her very first ever school Halloween party today. I told them both that we’ll try to have a little semi party here at home – they can put on their costumes for a little while and we’ll break out the Halloween candy a day early. And we’ll have to figure out something about trick-or-treating on Saturday.

Is it like this everywhere? I mean there have been school closings all over, and doctors offices are backed up from what I hear. I know mine aren’t the only kids who are missing out on Halloween festivities this weekend. I hate seeing them so sad, but I’m just glad that, so far anyway, there’s nothing truly serious that we’ve had to contend with. We’ll all get through this – eventually.

I have loads of pictures and stories to share from the past couple of weeks, and I’ll get to those sometime soon. Right now my priority is taking care of my family and making Halloween as enjoyable as I can for a couple of sick little girls who can’t go partying or trick-or-treating like they want to.

PS – I am slowly getting through e-mail and such, but please be patient! 

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Round and round…