here at home
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Sep. 7, 2007
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more happenings
This week has been interesting. Very tiring! I rarely ever get sick, but I've been down for 3 days now. What happened, you say?
I do child care for a living. 'nuf said, right? This would seem like an easy task - I know lots of women who have 8 children all the time, but I can bet most of them don't have the state telling them exactly how to raise them with the threat of a 25,000 fine and jail time attached if they take one misstep. That's my life. Anyway, that's another topic.
So, I have one mom who has 4 kids. She's a single lady, God bless her, and her kids are ages 6, 4, 3 and 2. God bless her again, I would be certifiable. She doesn't like to miss work as it's her therapy - her oasis of pleasure in a life full of sibling arguments, dirty diapers, runny noses that get picked more than breathed thru, and piles of laundry. I understand her predicament, but there is only so much I can do to help. So this last week, her 3rd child came in with a sudden case of 'allergies' with symptoms of itchy goopy red eyes, runny green snot, coughing and sneezing. He's wiping snot and boogers all over my house. Hmmmm...Allergies, you say? We sterilize every one of the 50,000 toys in the place anyway. Well, 2 days later, child #2 has the same symptoms, but no goopy red eyes. Again, with the boogers and the bleach following. I think the toys are multiplying, though. Off to the doctor they go, who is anti-antibiotics and sympathetic to a mom who would do almost anything to NOT miss a minute of work, so naturally they come back with, 'it's allergies!'
Understand the dilemma here: I am looking at the first consecutive 3 days of total and complete rest - no kids - coming in 2 days (which was, consequently Thursday). I don't take holidays off, I don't take sick days, I don't get days off. She works 5 days a week, but rarely takes her days off together. When she has a day off, I have her kids replaced with a bunch of other kids. Wednesday rolls around and I wake up with allergies. Wow, those allergies were contagious? Who'da thunk! So I do what I can to fight it, and let the mom know, for the 200th time, "HE"S GOT A COLD!"
She says no it's allergies because he's not running a fever and heads off to work. Since i'm spineless, i allow this to occur. Thursday, my prized day off that has been a month overdue, comes calling and I'm running a 102 fever, and have a full blown head cold. Hmm...allergies, huh? So I talk to her today, and she's convinced i got the cold from someone else because her son didn't get a fever, so obviously it's a different set of germs. Mind you, everyone else i know has the stomach flu, which i have been great at not catching because i haven't invited them to share the symptoms in my house by picking their noses and wiping the contents everywhere. Sorry to be gross...we know it's true...kids invariably wipe whatever is on their hands onto whatever isn't moving, either with hopes of making it squeal or just concealing the evidence of their pleasurable mining expeditions. Since i don't TRULY have eyes in the back of my head, there's only so much i can do in the war on germs. So, every 4 minutes, they all line up in the bathroom and wash their hands - properly. and every time i catch them mining for green goopy gold, off to the bathroom they go, to wash their hands with more soap than necessary for the length of 'happy birthday' twice. you've never heard anything sweeter than a 2 yr old singing happy birthday with a forced vibrato to the bathroom sink while squishing a bar of soap between his fingers. all the while, i'm running around behind them, spraying sanitizing spray on everything they've touched, and i still catch a cold.
So now it's Friday night, and I missed the moms night out party i have made my annual tradition because i am so stuffed up i can't smell the dirty diapers in the pail, or taste the 'super hot chili' that the lady at the chinese restaurant assured me would melt my fingernails when i touched it. I expected to get the use of at least one nostril, but i got nothing from eating the whole tub. It will probably burn later, but really, in the whole scheme of things, I don't think it would hurt me too much to lose a few pounds now that i've eaten the whole super sized tub of Boy Scout caramel corn i bought the other day. I needed something to make me feel better since i couldn't get everything else on my list finished, thanks to these 'contagious allergies.'
thanks for reading! |
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Sep. 2, 2007
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Imparting wisdom of sorts
I tell ya, this week has just been crazy! I have been accomplishing a lot, however, so I shouldn't feel so bad. My children have tested the limits, and I have overcome them, hopefully. Who knows, maybe they'll look back and say the dreaded, "You were the worst mother" but I have wishful thinking employed and hold out hope that they will have children twice as naughty as they were, so they can come back and ask, 'Was I THAT bad?' instead!
This week, I have canned, cleaned, landscaped, and played chemist. My chickens are now getting a good allotment of calcium to fortify their egg shells, and a healthy serving of kitchen scraps. I am going to take my cousin's advice and give them ground up egg shells in their food, too. The more the better, right? lol!
As for preserving, I have canned 21 pints of green beans, 8 pints of pickles (not enough, I know), and about 40-60 jars of miscellaneous jams and fruits and such. I think it's so important to teach our daughters the 'old ways' for so many reasons. Since my kids are home schooled, they are learning more than they know just by watching me carry on traditions. They are learning by example of what good mamma's do and say. My daughter, who is 12 now, is so close to being a woman that it scares me, especially since I'm only 30. Yikes! I don't feel that I have given her at all what she needs to take on the world in 6 more short years, but I see her blooming into this thoughtful, contemplative, intelligent woman every day, and it scares the daylights out of me! I tell them all the time, You are so much smarter than I was at your age! and they agree! lol! Being single also makes me feel like less of a parent sometimes. Maybe I'm trying to take on too much? The Bible says that we're supposed to give our children a yoke in their youth - I don't remember where it says that...Proverbs maybe? But I agree! I have watched parents say that they don't want their children to do any chores or work, and most (not all) have turned out to be lazy freeloaders for adults. It's so important that we teach them the way they should go NOW so they won't depart from it in the future.
anyway, the relish is done being processed, so I had better get a move on. I still have peaches and piccalili to do. (sigh) The phrase is so true! A woman's work is never done! |
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Aug. 31, 2007
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Just the usual
Lots going on here of course. I haven't had time to sit down and breathe the past few days, so here I am, enjoying a little bit of rest. The floor needs mopped, the laundry needs moved, but I'm so tired! The average is mopping twice a day and 7 loads of laundry a day - it can wait a minute!
So it says I don't have enough room to add pictures, so I'll just have to tell you. My chickens started laying eggs! It's been so wonderful to have fresh eggs! I made some banana bread with the first batch, and they turned the dough bright canary yellow - it was so nice looking! Then today I walked out to collect and they had hidden the eggs from me. I found one, and it was very weird. There was no shell. Just the membrane around the egg, and the egg neatly encased within. Very strange. Not sure what happened with that, but it got squished in the dirt shortly after I found it and we'll see what happens tomorrow. I let the chickens into the garden because the wind knocked down my 7' tall tomatoes and a lot of the tomatoes fell on the ground and got squished. They really loved that treat! plus, they found the old compost pile and lots of bugs to eat!
Also today, I started watering the dirt with hopes of germinating all the weed seeds and planting a lawn next week. It will take a good amount of effort since I have free range chickens eating all the grass seed, but I may keep them locked up while i'm trying to make it grow. It will be easier to find the eggs, too!
Oh what else...I still have 2 more cases of peaches to can, and my counter is covered in cucumbers and tomatoes too. what a great thing to have too much of! I am anxious to start canning the rest, but with everything else going on, it's a little further down the list lately. The house is nice and clean now, which has been a long time coming, and I am looking forward to waking up to 'no morning chores!'
Well, that's it for now. when it says i can add more pictures, i'll try again!
Jen |
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