They can, apparently and however, pick our noses. Or at least FireDad’s nose.

This picture was quickly snapped yesterday evening (before I went to Mandy’s Shutterfly House Party) as my three favorite men sat in the recliner watching the Penn State versus Ohio State game. And, no, we don’t want to talk about the final outcome, thankyouverymuch.

We hope that our readers are experiencing a similarly amusing weekend, sans football outcome woes.

This particular photo came about when I was trying to get the boys to look at me while I stood above them in our leaf pile. They never did. But I like this picture all the same.

We never seem to have a nice, dry fall in which the kids can romp in the leaves. Until this year. Today it is 60 degrees. The sun is shining. The leaves have been dry for quite a few days. And so, out we went. They squealed. They laughed. They threw leaves in the air. They jumped into leaves. They tripped on each other. They whined a little bit. They laughed some more.

And I just kept snapping the camera. And occasionally telling one not to sit on the others’ head. You know, the act of mothering in a pile of leaves. I’m still picking leaf parts out of my own hair. They’ll probably still be there when I run into the newspaper later today and, after that, onto a friend’s (Shutterfly House Party) party. Someone might see them, might point out the leaf pieces in my hair. I’ll smile and laugh and say, “Yes, I had a good day with my sons.”

Even when they sat on my head in the leaves.

The truth is that spouses of firefighters aren’t magically immune from germs. We get sick just like any other parent. While every parenting unit has unique challenges when it comes to issues like these, fire families are often dealing with a schedule that is both beneficial and frustrating. Beneficial in the fact that for most professional firefighters, the sick spouse gets a two day reprieve while the firefighter is home. Frustrating in the fact that the spouse often has 24 hours at home, alone, sick with sick kids. 24 hours can seem like an eternity when you’re feverish and overtired with feverish and overtired children.

Here are some tips for parents who are sick when their spouse goes off to the fire department for a 24 hour (or longer) shift:

• Drink your fluids! Not just coffee. Keep a water bottle with you at all times.
• Don’t forget to eat. Even if you don’t have an appetite. Eat light but you need energy!
• Make sure you have all medicine before your spouse leaves for work. It’s really discouraging to realize that you don’t have enough cold/cough/fever medicine part way through the day.
• Rest! Nap when the kids nap. If the kids don’t nap, spread sleeping bags on the floor and watch a movie. By watch a movie, I do mean that you should be dozing.
• Keep in contact with your spouse. Don’t be brave just because your spouse is working. If you need to go to the hospital, be honest.
• Leave the house clean up for when you’re feeling better. A clean house makes everyone feel better, it’s true, but you need to be resting. Get back in bed. The dishes will get done.
• Accept help! If your mother, father-in-law, best friend or neighbor want to brave the germs in your house to bring you a meal or watch the kids for an hour, allow them to do so. Time “off” for a bit allows you to rest. I cannot stress how important resting is while you’re sick!

Furthermore, when your spouse comes home in the morning (or whenever the end of their shift occurs), give them a hug, an update on the kids’ health and head to the shower for a very steamy wash off and then get thee to bed! Your spouse did just work 24 hours. (Or more!) But you’re sick. Your spouse will understand. Get steamed up and get some more rest. Everyone who has tried to nap in a house with two kids who were awake knows that it doesn’t result in a very restful rest. Go rest now, while you can.

We’re surviving. I still have a lead balloon in my lungs. BigBrother, on one hand, is almost completely well as he’s just dealing with a runny nose and some Grumpies right now. LittleBrother, on the other hand, is now spiking a fever and dealing with those early days of this sickness. Thankfully, I’m well enough, minus the inability to breathe deeply, to care for him in a mostly coherent way while FireDad is working a 36 hour shift. I think I’ll still go back to bed when he gets home tomorrow but I really hope it’s the last day that I have to do such a thing. I’m tired of being sick while my kids are sick! It’s exhausting.

Now if we can only keep FireDad from catching our germs. Maybe he should have stayed at work all week…

As such, my creativity was also somewhat limited this week. I did escape a few times at various points during the week to snap some shots of these random berries just over the fence in our backyard. I don’t know what they are and I certainly haven’t eaten them. (Perhaps they’re the magic flu-cold-thing healing berry and no one will ever know.) They’re not blueberries. But they’re pretty in various types of sunlight throughout the day. And so, for my Free for All challenge, I have three pictures of these random berries.

All taken in different times of daylight, all the same berries. Whatever they are, they were fun to shoot this week. Who knew berries could be that much fun? I love how you can see my reflection in the second shot. Berries! WHO KNEW?! You should go see what the other photographers captured this week. Next week’s challenge is “Your Real Life” which is weird because I don’t remember what our real life is like anymore. Cold medicine head. Woo.

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For more Wordless Wednesday, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Say what?

Forget about politics? What strange universe does that particular person live in? More over, why would you want to live in such a place? We only have to worry about things of the political nature every four years? Really? Here I was, thinking that it is important to be involved! I’ll admit it, though… even with the Ohio elections taking place today, I’m tired of the political ads on my television. I’m glad election day has arrived and that people are out doing their civic duty. Or ignoring it. Or perhaps living under a rock. As I got out of the truck at our local precinct today, unbuckling carseats so that TheBrothers could tag along, I heard a woman comment to the janitor who was busy sweeping up the leaves that came down this weekend, “I didn’t even know today was an election day.”

How?

We don’t just vote once every four years. While a national election like the one that picks our President is very important, one could and probably should argue that state and local elections are of vital importance to the citizens of any given area. Those that are elected to city and state government go to bat for us or against us depending on their personal agendas. The proposed laws on local ballots affect us in many ways, good and bad. To not know about such a thing is to drop the ball so horribly and so uselessly that I cannot even begin to justify their lack of action or knowledge. It is not as if this election hasn’t been discussed, in great detail, in all local news outlets including television, radio and news print. I understand that perhaps people are cutting back. Maybe that individual cut her cable out and ceased her newspaper subscription. But, really, shouldn’t you almost expect an election to be held in May and November (at least in Ohio)? Shouldn’t the “Elect Joe Schmoe City Council President” and “Vote No on #58876″ signs in peoples’ yards be an indicator that something is going on? Really, under what rocks are people living?

I’m really touchy about this particular election as our local (city) government is trying to pass a Municipal Income Tax increase that directly affects my family. Without its passing, the fire and police departments will be forced to cut back in many ways. Layoffs are not an impossibility. That’s scary. To know that people didn’t even know that there was an election today is frustrating. FireDad went out with his fellow firefighters and walked door to door, hanging information about the issue on door knobs and talking with citizens. Don’t tell me it’s because your television is broken and you don’t get the newspaper. Wake up. Look around you. Ask questions. Be involved!

I share this rant with you because I want my readers, even those not in the state of Ohio, to do more than the lady in the parking lot. She obviously had done no research on any of the important issues on the ballot, local or state wide. She hadn’t paid attention to any of the local candidates vying for roles in our local government. She hadn’t done her research. Did she think the signs in everyone’s yards were a new kind of “For Sale” sign? Let’s get real. I don’t care how people vote as long as they do it with a bit of knowledge before heading into the precinct doors and pressing buttons all willy-nilly. Civic duty includes knowing what’s on the ballot. And when your election day happens to be.

While you’re at it, take your kids with you when you vote in any and every election. Voting for President is cool and fun and has lots of excitement attached to it. In fact, there are great books about the subject to teach kids about the matter. The truth is that our children need to know the importance of local and state government and how our votes in such elections make a difference. The change we all wanted to see last November has been, at best, slow moving. Teaching our children that change can and should start in our local communities is a great way to teach them about personal responsibility, the role of people in government and the process of democracy.

Plus, stickers are fun.

If you’re in Ohio, there’s still time to vote today. Most precincts close at 7:30 this evening (it varies; research!). If you live in another state, are you voting today? (Maine is. I can see that all over twitter.) Did you vote today? If you didn’t vote today, do you know when your next local and/or state election will be held? Learn the answers now so you don’t sound like the lady in the parking lot and get featured on some ranty lady’s blog.

See that sticker on my shirt? I can rant if I want to.

Did I mention that FireDad was working his normal 24 hour shift on Saturday?

Have you ever tried to parent from the couch or the bed? I have before, having been placed on Level III bedrest while pregnant with LittleBrother. BigBrother was not-quite-two during those ten long weeks of my life. To be honest, I wasn’t all that great at bedrest. It was hard to be good at it when the not-quite-two year old needed to do things like, oh, eat on days that FireDad was off doing his duty. Still, I did my best. My best then, while hugely pregnant with a malfunctioning kidney, was a million and one times better than what I had to offer two children, not-quite-two and not-quite-four, this past weekend. We seem to have survived. I think.

I am thankful that they are quite adept at amusing themselves and one another. It would have been a smidgen more awesome if BigBrother had napped considering that he was sick as well (read: whiny) but you take the good with the bad. Or, really, the bad with the bad. He did not attend preschool today though I did manage to drink enough cold medicine to make it through my first day of work. I did, however, forget to take my own camera to my first day of work… as a photographer. Medicine head fail. (That said, I will be getting a swanky Nikon for the newspaper. Hooray!)

I must admit that this illness did me one fabulous thing. How can an illness give you anything fabulous? Since I was so sick and so preoccupied with being sick, I didn’t have time to be nervous about today’s first trip into work. Or leaving my kids (with their father, mind you). Or any of that normal anxiety that creeps into my psyche on the eve of any big life change. In fact, I wasn’t all that nervous this morning. You know, when I was busy leaving my camera behind. Maybe I could have stood to be a slight bit more nervous, no?

We’re all on the mend. I can’t tell if LittleBrother is getting our cough or not. BigBrother’s temperature did spike to 104.3 on Friday night but came down immediately after a dose of ibuprofen and never went back over 101 after that initial spike. We were afraid, as we usually are when it comes to his health, that he would lose the ability to breathe properly. So far, knock on wood, he has not. His cough is mostly dry and scratchy now, like mine. I had some pretty nasty junk going on in my chest for most of the weekend. As the flu, whatever the variety, is a manageable illness as long you are a healthy individual who pays attention to your symptoms or your kids’ symptoms, we didn’t take a trip to the doctor’s office. I won’t be able to tell you if this was “the” flu that everyone is freaking out about unless we end up with the letters-and-numbers virus at a later date in time. (Like any flu virus, you can only get it once (per strain, per year). That means we can still get that “scary” flu if we haven’t yet or another strain such as the normal seasonal flu.) Whatever the case, we are feeling much better. Glad to be on the mend and looking forward to a busy November.

But, please, could you wash your hands? And teach your children not to cough on my children? As much as I can handle the flu, my poor little nose is tired of tissues, however soft and lotion-laden they claim to be.

I’ve taken the pink off the site as it is no longer Breast Cancer Awareness Month. November is Adoption Awareness Month which I’m sure I’ll write about elsewhere. Our header features Thanksgiving celebration images. It’s also National Novel Writing Month (of which I will not be participating in this year, thankyouverymuch). Thankfully, it’s also NaBloPoMo which I may or may not succeed in finishing. I did find two desktop backgrounds that I liked this month but, sadly, they each only offered room for one picture. Despite having some great solo-pics of the boys this month, minus their costume pictures, I don’t have a great one of them both. So while my desktop is pretty the photo itself is rather boring. Oh well!

Here’s the one I chose. (And this is another great option which includes an iPhone background that I think I’ll use.)

Considering our busy schedule and the fact that I start my new job tomorrow, I’m sure November will be a very hectic month. Here’s hoping that we remember to stay thankful day in and day out. (Even if we do seem to have some respiratory malady up in here. Ugh.)

We did a lot of walking earlier this week when it was still warm and beautiful. You know, before the rain moved in and knocked all the leaves off the trees. Such is Autumn: a fickle beast. In my experience, those which are fickle are also beautiful. Take, for example, a shot of a street near ours. Beautiful.

And this glorious, fire-blazing tree on the street just past that one.

And then, another two blocks later, we arrived at the park only to be greeted by a golden, shiny tree.

And then, walking all the way back home, one lone little red leaf floated onto the porch, just at my feet as the boys ran around the yard, taking advantage of the last days of warmth. By warmth, of course, I mean hooded sweatshirts over long-sleeved t-shirts and jeans. With or without jackets depending on if the sun is behind a cloud or not. Warmth is relative. But back to the lone red leaf!

The thing that amuses me most, of course, is that at the beginning of fall, the boys were happy to sit in the leaves and let me take their pictures. They smiled and posed and thought it was a great time. Remember? You can tell that fall has progressed. The leaves have lost their magic spell. They’re annoyed that I keep asking them to sit down. They’d much rather be running around, crunching in the leaves. Or at least pushing each other off of their tractor. All the same, boys in the leaves wearing orange is all about Autumn.

Next week’s theme for You Capture, hosted by Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry, is a Free For All! I’m thinking some more shots of fire trucks might be necessary. Or maybe a few Halloween shots. Or the huge six layer cake that I’m in the process of making as I type. Or perhaps I should document my first few days at my new job? Or maybe a series of total randomness. Very exciting!

(So, yes, we’re ready for Halloween!)

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For more Wordless Wednesday, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.