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Archive for October, 2009

What’s your rule for taking kids to the doctor?

31 Oct

My son has a runny nose and cough.  Par for the course at this time of year, really.  He has asthma and allergies and we go through this a couple of times a year.  It sounds bad but he’s not running a fever and says he feels OK.  He certainly acts like he feels fine.  So I’m letting it go.  We’re giving him Zyrtec and making him use his inhaler and it will probably go away once allergy season goes away.  I don’t go to the doctor for every sniffle and sneeze because we’d be in the doctor’s office constantly if we did that.  That place is way too germy for us to be there when it’s not necessary!  Plus our children currently have state medical insurance (Medicaid for the little ones, CHIP for my oldest) and I don’t want to waste the taxpayer’s money.  We feel very fortunate to have these benefits available to us during our time of need and don’t want to abuse that.

This week, though, he came home and said he needed to go to the doctor.  I asked him if he felt bad.  No.  Was he running a fever?  No.  Why does he think he needs to go to the doctor?

Because his teacher told him to tell us that he did.  Um, WHAT?

I missed the part where she had medical credentials.  I try to give the benefit of the doubt because I know my son isn’t the best at communicating what exactly was said or what happened.  But this is the most recent in a long line of things that have really irritated me with this particular teacher and I’m ready to explode.  There was no note home, so I’m trying to assume that it was just something she said in conversation and that she’s not really telling him to tell us when to take him to the doctor.

If you’ve been reading my blog since the beginning, you may remember our bout with pneumonia in both boys in the spring of 2008.  It was terrible…we kept going to the doctor and they couldn’t find anything.  But I knew something was wrong.  They had fevers, felt terrible, and my instincts told me they were really sick even though the doctor’s kept blowing us off.  To be fair, several doctors were completely unable to hear the pneumonia through the stethoscope and thought it was just a virus.  When they finally ordered a chest x-ray, the pneumonia was pretty bad.  Even I could see it clearly and I’m no radiologist.  My mom (who was an x-ray tech back in the day) saw the x-rays and was horrified at how bad they were.  It was a very scary time in my house and has made me realize I should always trust my instincts when it comes to them.

Right now, I’m trusting my instincts.  I don’t think there’s anything seriously wrong and we’ll be keeping an eye on it.  If he develops a fever or starts feeling bad, we’ll make an appointment.  The only problem is that I’m now doubting myself and I hate that.  If you’re a mom, what’s your rule for taking kids to the doctor?  Is my plan reasonable or do I need to be more concerned about this?

 
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Posted in Health, Parenting

 

Good Problems

30 Oct

When I whine about something that is a little silly, my mom calls it a “good problem to have” and I have one right now.  My weight loss efforts have paid off big time and I’m suddenly able to shop in the normal section instead of the sad little area they save for us fat girls.  But sadly, there is no money to be had for new clothes and I’ve been wearing clothes that are too big for a while.

The biggest problem is jeans…the ones I was wearing when I got pregnant with Violet are gigantic on me.  Like falling off of my body and requiring me to constantly hitch them up.  I tried shrinking but they’re still way too big.  Good problem, right?  Well, my mom gave me some money for my birthday and I decided to use it for a few pairs of jeans.  I found 2 pairs in the size I thought I needed on clearance at Old Navy and ordered them because my husband won’t take the time to go shopping with me. (Will someone call the waaaaaaaaaahmbulance for me?)

They got here yesterday and I tried them on, somewhat nervous that they’d be too tight.  They were two sizes smaller and I thought I might be pushing it a little bit by ordering so small.

No.  TOO BIG.  And not just by a little bit…at least one size too big, and potentially more.  I am convinced that Old Navy’s sizing is way off, because if I get the size that I think I need I’ll be wearing the size I wore when I graduated college.  I still weigh a good 10-15 pounds more than I did then and that was long before I had 3 babies.

I am reveling in this right now.  The hard work is paying off.  Now I just need to stay motivated!

 
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Posted in Health, Me Stuff

 

Taming the Laundry Beast

29 Oct

Having 3 kids means I have more laundry than I ever thought possible.  It seems like we go through wardrobe changes on each of the kids once (and sometimes more) each day, which doubles the amount of clothes you’d expect to have, plus they all seem to think they need a new towel (or 2) each time they bathe, and let’s not even get started on what it looks like when there is a stomach virus making the rounds.  During season changes (like now) my loads are doubled as I wash the new clothes and hand me downs that people give us or that we pull out of storage so they’re nice and clean for my sensitive-skinned children.

Since my back injury, the laundry has piled up and though my husband is good about doing it when necessary, we’re way behind on things like sheets and towels and hanging up/putting away the clothes that are clean.  I’m desperate for a new plan.  I asked a few people and got some great ideas for a new method.

It started with buying some small laundry baskets, one for each of the children.  I was lucky to find some small round ones at KMart on clearance for less than $2 each.  I also got larger ones for my husband and myself.  Now when I sort, I line the baskets up on the couch (or floor, wherever I’m sorting) and sort each person’s clothes into their own basket.  My oldest son can put his away himself.  He then leaves his basket in the floor of his closet and puts hangers in it as he takes clothes out of the closet to wear.  This means when it’s time to sort again all I have to do is take the basket out of his closet.  The hangers are there for me to use while I sort, so no more going back and forth.

So far, so good.  I don’t mind putting up my clothes or the little kids’ clothes because I can organize their things the way I want them since I’m the one who picks out their clothes.  And with the putting away being taken off of my shoulders, it’s a lot quicker and easier now that I have a system of sorting!

I really don’t mind doing laundry, but it seems like the putting away always gets ahead of me.  This new plan will (hopefully) tame that beast just a little bit!

 
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Posted in House/Home

 

Tasty Tuesday — Quick and Easy Favorites

27 Oct

One of my favorite quick and easy meals is lasagna…from a box.  I know, I know!  I do enjoy making lasagna but sometimes I just don’t want to put all of the effort into it.  And frankly, my lasagna is hit or miss.  I haven’t found a recipe that consistently turns out really good for me.  Enter Stouffer’s, with their various versions of lasagna, all of which are delicious and easy.  Now that they are preservative free, I like them even more and feel a little less guilty about serving them to my family.

Last month they were on sale at Food Lion (2 for $10) and I bought several to have on hand for days when the meat doesn’t thaw or things get busy.  I’ll be single parenting a couple of nights this week while my husband is involved in other things, so I’m looking forward to lasagna one night already.  Add some garlic bread and a salad and you have a super quick and easy meal.  It’s a favorite at my house!  What’s your family’s favorite quick and easy meal?

(And just to be clear in case you are the FTC, I received no compensation for this post.  However, if you are from Stouffer’s I’d gladly take a truckload of free meals and be happy to review them all for you.)

 
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Posted in Food/Recipes, Sites to See, Tasty Tuesday

 

When it rains it pours!

26 Oct

Last week is the best week we’ve had in a while financially.  Though we didn’t get any actual money, several things happened that kept us moving forward and feeling better about everything.  And today we got another bit of good news.  I feel like my patience and faith is finally being rewarded and I feel so very blessed.  For the past 16+ months, we’ve never once come up short.  Every time we needed cash for something, it appeared.  Every time we’ve needed something we couldn’t afford, it’s fallen into our laps.  And now, finally, it seems like things are turning around.

I’ve never thought you had to go to church to be a good person or a true Christian.  But when we made the decision to start attending church again something in our lives changed.  I still don’t think it makes me any better than someone who doesn’t but I think it’s changed my heart.  I’m trusting God and I know that He will provide one way or another.  It’s a big step forward for me in my spiritual journey and one that I needed desperately.

If you’ve been praying for us, don’t stop yet…but someday soon I hope we can say we’re out of the woods.

 
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Posted in Faith/Religion, Money/Finances

 
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