One Not-so-fun Day

Cold & Flu Season.

Yuck.

Yesterday was, well, was not fun. At all. Luke and Libby got hit hard with the virus that Abby had last week. Coughing and sneezing, green gunk flying, clear gunk flying, fevers running high, the kids spent most of the day in front of the TV. They didn't want to eat anything, just sit there. And I was 100 percent fine with that because there wasn't any whining involved. I don't know what happens as we get older but kids (or at least mine) don't have the "oh, poor me" attitude that I know that I have when I get sick. So I'll look to that encouragement as I'm starting to feel a little tickle in the back of my throat. I suppose it is bound to happen, I've been around this stuff 24/7 for about 6 days now. How long can one's immune system hold out?

So I was able to sort and do the laundry. I was so excited because it looked like I was going to get it all done. Record time. I threw in the last, smallest load. It was a load of whites. Diligently, I went through and did the pre-treating; setting the stained clothing on the top of the washer. Swoop - I threw it all into the washer, put in the soap and set it for the Kid's Care setting - a super hot, long wash cycle meant to get the toughest stains out (we got a new awesome washer and dryer thanks to Mike's bonus). Finally, after the 1 1/2 hour cycle - I went to put the wash in the dryer.

Oh, horror!!!!!!

Everything looked HORRIBLY dingy. Like it had a brown tint. Like our new washer just bled rust into the whole wash. I felt sick. I came down to show Mike one of his shirts.

"Umm, is it just me or does this not look right?" Sincerely, hoping it was just me.

"No, it's not just you. It looks horrible. Like you washed something new and brown with it."

Thinking there was no way that that could have happened I went up the stairs to the laundry room. I start pulling out item by item. Could that have done it? There's a bit of orange on this white t-shirt. How about this? There's red elastic on these Spiderman underwear (Luke's of course). Then I pulled IT out.

A pair of almost new brown tights, from an earlier load. These were not supposed to go in the dryer, so in my haste I put them on top of the washer instead of hanging them up. Right where I threw my pre-treated clothes that I swooped into the washer. Honestly, I said, "Wow, this day can't get any better, can it?"

I'm probably living in an illusion but I plan on getting some Rit Dye Remover and hopefully, it will work on all the pure white items. The rest I'll just have to live with or turn into rags or maybe cover up tender young plants in the spring with. But, I've learned my lesson. Don't try to do too much when your kids are sick, you're not thinking straight and you are too much in a hurry.

*sigh*

Snow Baby

Doesn't she look just like those porcelain snow babies?

Yesterday's Lesson

While sometimes it is advantageous to save yourself some time by tossing items down the stairs to be taken care of at a future time, there are some things that you should not use this time-saving method for. Yesterday, I received that lesson as I tossed down a bag of, er, used diapers.

Here is the result:

I am very thankful that no loose, er, messy diapers landed open. :)

Hope

There's always the hope of spring, right? Even when the high is supposed to be "8" on Saturday, I have the ability, dare say I - the right, to look forward to spring. Right? And that is why I just purchased seeds on-line. Can't wait to get those pansies started in the basement!

I don't have spring fever. Well, at least not yet anyway.

Disturbingly Healthy?

So, last Friday, as I had a touch of the stomach flu, my sweet husband brought home dinner for us from Panera. Yummy! I had a some chicken noodle soup, the kids had some PB & J and Mike had a tasty soup/sandwich combo. The kids meal happened to come with a drink and since we are on a chocolate milk kick here, choco choco is what he chose. (Choco choco happens to be our code word for chocolate milk) Being a foo foo kinda place, the milk was organic. Horizon Organic, to be exact. I decided to look at the labeling and noticed these words.

Refrigerate After Opening

This is organic milk, there are to be no preservatives in it and as far as I could see, I did not see any listed. The expiration date was sometime late 2008. Now, I have to ask, is milk that is not refrigerated with an insanely long shelf life really safe to drink, let alone healthier for you? Hmmmmm?

Latest Statistics

Libby had her 9 month check up yesterday. She's getting to be such a big girl: crawling, clapping, giving kisses, shrugging, making faces at cameras, and pulling herself up. It is fun to see what has changed in her physically as well. It seems to be more of the same. She weighed 16 lbs 14 oz (but I think we were robbed because she had a big b.m. before we went to the doctor) and she was 29 inches long. Now, that puts her between the 15-20th percentile for weight and the 90th for height. Super-model in the making, huh? Like I've posted before, I keep feeding her but it just keeps going into length and not girth.

The sad news is that she has developed an ear infection. Apparently, they go hand and hand with pink eye which all three of the children have had in the past two weeks. So that is a bummer for us (although I never would have known it if we hadn't gone because she's not been acting as if it hurts). So she is on antibiotics and I've been giving her probiotics to hopefully stave off thrush. Lord willing, it will work but if it doesn't I still know He's faithful to us.