There are a bajillion (well, actually, there are 100) comments on the Blogtoberfest giveaway post for this week. In the past, my son would help me select the winner, using his toy animals and assigning each of them a number… well, I’m sure he has 96 toy animals, but I don’t think our method will work for so many entries!

I turned to an online random number generator to select the winner. I think our computers are sentient, because the winner is… #42 of our 100 commenters!! Charline, come on down!

Chaline is the winner of author and beauty expert Wendy Lewis’s latest book, Plastic Makes Perfect: The Complete Cosmetic Beauty Guide. Wendy is also giving our winner a custom “Plastic Makes Perfect” tee shirt, and a one-hour phone consultation to discuss image enhancement.

Wendy is known as a product guru, anti-aging expert (she recently spoke to a group of editors at an Oil of Olay event on this topic) as well as an image enhancement and plastic surgery coach.

Thank you, Wendy!!

I love that the winner for this week’s giveaway is Deep Thought’s ultimate answer to life, the Universe and Everything.

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I know it’s hard to watch your kids sniffle and suffer, but there are some natural remedies that will help alleviate the worst, and we can simply suffer through the rest of it with them.

An ounce of prevention…

Don’t catch a cold in the first place.

I know. We’re germy people. But let me tell you something… when I lived in Dubai, I caught every darned thing I’d never had before in my life, including strep. We disinfect too much. While a sterile house sounds good in theory, in practice, you are depriving yourself and your kids the exposure we all need to build up immunities. Dump out that disinfectant hand soap and use natural cleansers in the kitchen.

Teach your kids how to cough.

Weird, I know. But if we’d all stop coughing into our hands and cover our mouths with our arms instead, we’d stop passing around so many germs. Wash your hands frequently. Teach your kids to use tissues, not sleeves and fingers.

Home remedies

Often, what we want is to relieve our children’s suffering while the cold runs its course. Take it from me: I don’t remember the discomfort of being sick… I remember the care and love my parents gave me while I was sick. My dad used to bring me these special pastille candies to soothe my throat, and would lovingly toast bread and butter it just right. They would tuck the covers up around me extra tight, and sit with a hand on my forehead while the thermometer percolated.  So fresh squeezed orange juice, hot water with honey and lemon, special foods and special care alleviate symptoms as well as OTC medicine can–probably better. A steamy bathroom or a hot shower for a stuffed up kid will work wonders.

What do you do when someone you love gets sick?

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Who am I really? Well, I’m a newly-forty-something, overworked, underpaid, out of shape, mom-woman-friend-daughter.  As you wander through Solomother, you’ll find rants and laughs, and musings on the importance of ritual and simplicity in our daily lives.  I’m a big believer in tribes, in the power of women to sustain and nurture each other, and in the magic of the unexpected in the ordinary.

Welcome to Solomother. I’m glad you’re here… I know I couldn’t have made it this far without you.

–Christina

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Drug companies are voluntarily recommending that no cold remedies be administered to children under the age of four. The bottom line? Problems with children and over the counter medications send around 7,000 of them to the hospital every year, according to an article on Yahoo

thanks to Sondra over at Happy Healthy Hip Parenting for posting the Yahoo link!

This is a Blogtoberfest Sponsored Post. If you would like to enter for a chance to win the surprise gift behind this blog post, please leave a comment. Prize and Winner will be announced within a week. Check back to see if you’re the lucky winner and what you’ve won! You also have lots of chances to win great Blogtoberfest prizes!

Today, October 7th, your chances (and prizes) are hiding at the following blogs: A Creative Journal, All Holiday Cafe, Busy Family Meals, GenBetween, Mad Cropper, Our One Heart, Robust Cooking, Solo Mother, Widows Quest, Kettle and Cup, and Quilting and Patchwork. Visit them all and leave a comment - you may win even more!

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I came across an image on Indexed that is sure to make sense to all of us as we struggle through this economic crisis with Ramen noodles and our bus passes…

(big version here, please click through and see all of what Indexed has to offer. I think you’ll get a grin out of it).

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Well, the blogosphere stumbled me onto an amazing post about being a father–and this guy is a single father, who has chosen to live near his kids and make his life really work within that structure. Kids first.  Perhaps if I hadn’t been gifted with so many tickets to baseball games this season, I wouldn’t have been able to so clearly see this image for what it is… but wow. Just… wow.

Enjoy Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Please.

Photo courtesy of Stock Exchange — renegat59

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This single mother got a visit from the FBI because she occasionally receives calls from Pakistan. As far as I know, Pakistan isn’t overflowing with terrorists. It’s not 100% terrorist. There are some law-abiding citizens in every country in the Middle East. Really. But this woman’s account is as funny as it is scary:

I do want to add, Chris and his (mostly silent) partner were supremely nice guys – very friendly and decent and clearly just trying to do their job – but dammit it still sticks in my CRAW that I can’t talk to a friend from Pakistan without the FBI stalking me and then finally calling my cell phone to set up a time to grill me about it.

I’ve lived in ‘one of those’ countries for a while. I’d live there again if the laws didn’t favor the husbands over the wives. I want to go back to visit my friends there some day. I do not want the government telling me who my friends can be.

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• I’d say that you have to make a will that names who you would like to take care of your child in case something should happen to you, especially if there are caretakers in your child’s life who have added more, and been there more than any biological father has been.
• Build a tribe.  Gather up-beat, funny, sensitive, supportive, honest, strong women around you who will give you the straight talk and hold you up when life gets hard. And be sure to be there for them when it’s their turn to falter. Go to church or get involved in local community groups.
• Put money in a college savings account. Make it a direct deposit from your paycheck so you never even know you had that money in the first place. Put a little in that account with every paycheck, and encourage family members to do so, as well.
• If money is a problem for you, do a little something on the side and save that money for a rainy day–sell art on Etsy or resell on Ebay. Write articles for a little cash. You’d be surprised how fast little bits of money add up to enough for a vacation… and if what you do is creative, you’re feeding your soul as well as your wallet.
• Do what you love. There’s something to be said for returning to the things that first sparked your passions. Was it writing, mathematics, design? If you’re happy, your child will be happier.  And if you have to work to provide for your small family, which means sacrificing time with that family… then do something you love.

Kristen Darguzas writes over on Work It, Mom, and I liked her take on best bits of single parenting advice:

When I started writing online again in 2007 after a year hiatus, I found that advice to Single Moms was a little less common. I get a lot of “Not sure how you do it!” and “You’re doing great!” but few are reluctant to say: “I’ve done it. This is what worked for me.”

Visit Kristen to read her Five Best Tidbits of Single Parenting Advice. 

And then tell me… what advice would you give your single mother friends?

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Lyrics: Single Mother - Last Emperor

This is a single story, for every single one
On a single planet, under a single sun
In a single solar system some think it’s odd
Entire galaxy created by a single god
With a single thought, and a single plan
Single earth fashioned by a single hand
7 continents separated from a single land
Many nations are created from a single man
A single nation taken to a single place
Where they simply aren’t familiar with a single face
Yet this is not the story of a single struggle
A single symbolism, nor a single couple
A young couple, who raise a single seed
Sworn protectors of her every single need
Forming a single balance, under a single order
From a single act of love they have a single daughter
Along her way she put her faith in a single lover
And from a single lie she became a single mother
Of a single son, born to a single girl
Single home alone, in a single world
Though her kids felt her single pain
With a single kiss she makes everything okay
I wrote this record in a single way
So the radio will play it every single day

I dedicate this to every single mother
Just to let you know that were thinking of you
If you’re a single mother too…
Hey lady, this ones for you

Dedicated to every single mother
Just to let you know that were thinking of you
If you’re a single mother too…
Hey lady, this ones for you

You were my first teacher, my first friend
Gave me my first vision, and my first glimpse
Of a bigger world, given me my first look
Tuck me in my bed, and read my first book
And as I fell asleep, for the first time
Little did I know you were showing me my first rhyme
I want to thank you for showing me
How to be a man and turn my pain into poetry
Break my silence, express myself vocally
How to show the world what was once done locally
First one to take me on my quest for learning
First one to help me through life’s stressful journey
And every single step, I’m coming with ya
Cause I belong to a strong single mother figure
You were the first one to tell me I was something bigger
I was an Emperor not just another nigger
First one to show me how I might be strong
The days seemed shorter and the night seemed long
Maybe that’s the reason that I write these songs
To set the record straight and try to right these wrongs
This is the saga of a single mother
That’s been provided by a single brother
I had to write it in a single way
So the radio will play it every single day

I dedicate this to every single mother
Just to let you know that were thinking of you
If you’re a single mother too…
Hey lady, this ones for you

Another lonely day, another lonely night
I dedicate this to y’all yeah its only right
Another untold truth is now brought to light
Another lesson is learned cause you taught me right
When I lost my way and the road got lonely
Only you…you were the one who showed me
Only you…you were the one to hold me
Sometimes I feel like you’re the only one who knows me
And if you gotta stay single, hey
You should know this, I wrote this in a single way
The only thing I can do is pray
That the radio will play it every single day

I dedicate this to every single mother
Just to let you know that were thinking of you
If you’re a single mother too…
Hey lady, this ones for you

Dedicated to every single mother
Just to let you know that were thinking of you
If you’re a single mother too…
Hey lady, this ones for you

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It’s funny how folks make assumptions and rarely wonder if they’re right. I once helped a friend sell his house, sitting with him the whole weekend of the open house, and the folks coming through the door assumed I was his wife.  Or the time I went to the Renaissance Festival with a group of friends and my son, and a merchant complimented one of the guys on his son’s beautiful blue eyes. I’m sure folks around my neighborhood think I’m a married woman, with my child in tow. I wonder how many men won’t approach a woman with a child because they automatically assume we’re ‘taken’.

Well, Single Parent Dad deals with assumptions of a different flavor in his latest post. Go on and have a read.

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