Oink, Oink

Look what one of my visiting teachers brought me.

She may be having too much fun at my expense, what do you think?

Get it, Swine Flu. Swine as in piggy, Oh good, I'm glad we're on the same page.

That's OK, I guess it is pretty funny.

Jay could not stop laughing when he brought it to me (I was half delusional in my bed).

And look what we found inside when we cut into it after lunch!

She really does love me!

Triple layer chocolate cake!

We could not get enough.

I do have to say Mr Bird has been amazing this week.

He took the whole week off to help with sick kids and to take care of me.

Isn't that sweet?

He has been cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, playing with kids, taking people to the pediatrician, running to the store for things we need, reading to the kids, bathing them, putting them to bed, feeding the animals.

Really the list goes on and on

And the best part is I have not had to change one dirty diaper all week!

I really do love that man.

He is my knight in shining armour. I know that everything he has done this week has been out of love for me and the kids.

He hates cooking, yet he has not complained.

I had to laugh this morning though. He made breakfast for everyone and waited patiently while the kids ate.

Then he went up stairs to play with the kids for a while. After a while he went back to the kitchen to clean the breakfast dishes and clean the floors.

When the chore was done he came down to the office to sit and relax a little, it was quarter after 11 by then. Not 2 minutes after he sat down Doodle came in and said,

"I'm hungry! Is it lunch time yet?"

He just looked totally shocked.

What? I have to do this all over again?!?!

I just finished!

But guess what! It's never finished.

There is always another meal around the corner.

He just looked at me with disbelief in his eyes and said,

"How do you do it?!?"

Music to my ears.

It's true, taking care of 4 kids is a lot of work. Feeding them alone is a big job.

But when it's all said and done I love it.

There may be parts I dislike more than others,

like laundry, ahem,

but I really do just love being the mom.

I miss taking care of my family.

I miss school time with my kids and learning something fun and exploring different cultures.

This swine flu may have knocked me around a bit, but it has not won.

By the way, none of my home remedies has helped me to avoid infection, not even my friend the cute little clove of garlic.

Today I found out not only is my ear infected, I also have pneumonia, just like poor sad little Beano. So I finally caved and am taking antibiotics.

I just hope that means I can stop wasting time and get better and get back to doing what I love best.

Being the mom!

Friend or Foe

Hello, my blog!
Hello, my bloggy friends.
Oh, how I've missed each and every one of you.
(yes, even you)
I think I may be back on this side of death, for a few days there it was pretty ifey.
Wanna know what saved my life?
Well, I can tell you it was NOT the doctor.
No offense doctor friends, it's just that swine flu is a virus and can't really be treated, merely tolerated until the magic of the human body cures itself.


Well, this thing we call swine flu has done a number on me and my family.
We've had day after foggy day of high fevers and pain and night after night of no sleep.
Yesterday morning I woke up to clogged ears and pain, a sure sign of ear infection.
So I did what any rational person would do.
I doused my body in garlic oil and popped 2 cloves in my mouth and quickly chewed and swallowed (not too bad when your sense of taste and smell are gone).
During the day I stayed low and tried, to no avail, to pop my ears and get the crud out.
By 7:30 that evening I was exhausted so I fell into bed, after popping 2 more cloves of this stinky stuff.
As I lay in bed unable to sleep yet again I could feel the fever coming back.
The chills, the burning lips, the inability to care or move or do anything about.
As I lay there I wondered how the night would go.
I wondered if the garlic would do its job and take the infection away or if morning would find me in the doctors office begging for his merciful antibiotics.
More than once this remedy has helped my kids skirt ear infections, in fact Doddle had one just a few days earlier that was cured by this stinky substance.
The intensity of the fever had me convinced it had not worked, that I must conform and take their drugs.
But guess what? Sometime in the early night I fell into a sound, regenerating sleep and slept all night long.
When I woke up the fever was gone, the pain in my ear was gone, my throat was no longer sore, even the canker sore I had had in my mouth was gone. I'm not perfect yet, but I am amazed at the difference from just the night before.
Wanna know what else?
My sense of smell was back and boy did I smell...bad.
I guess I'm not the only one that doesn't like the way garlic smells.
Bacteria and viruses hate it, so do vampires.
And so does Jay.

On a Side Note: The little reading I have done on garlic are nothing short of astounding. Civilizations the world over have used this powerful gem for healing for thousands of years. Taken raw it has antibiotic and antiviral properties. Here are a few facts from Wikipedia:

• Garlic has been found to have antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal activity.
• It was used as an antiseptic to prevent gangrene during World War I and World War II.
• Garlic has been used reasonably successfully in AIDS patients to treat cryptosporidium in an uncontrolled study in China.
• Garlic cloves are used as a remedy for infections (especially chest problems), digestive disorders, and fungal infections such as thrush.
• Garlic is also alleged to help regulate blood sugar levels
• The Cherokee also used it as an expectorant for coughs and croup
• Garlic is used as a treatment for intestinal worms and other intestinal parasites

Warning: May cause sever halitosis, do not try this if you plan on leaving your house in the next week or so.

Baby's First...

Can you guess what 'first' I am referring to?

First step?

Nope.

First words.

Not yet.

First Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich perhaps?

Wrong again.

Baby Cakes got his very first stomach virus last night. Since he is technically one year old I could feed him our family lunchtime favorite, but alas, he is sick-o.

Dubs started off the puke fest around 11 pm and Baby Cakes joined in the party around midnight.

Poor baby, he puked every 10-15 minutes until almost 2am. Here is something how our night went. Puke sounds, mom and dad come running, one cleans kid, the other cleans bed. Put baby back to bed, Lysol everything we touched, wash hands, go back to bed, repeat, again and again and again.

The washer was running non stop all night, and I still have a load waiting for me to rinse so I can start it.

Do I have to? Why me?

Oh ya, I almost forgot, cuz I'm the mom.

* yipee for me*

Why does it seem we end up with the stomach virus every December? I am always hoping it will leave as soon as possible so none of us have to be sick on Christmas. Now that we have so many people living here one of these years I know it will last the whole month and Christmas will be ruined.

I don't want to clean up puke on Christmas!!!

I want to be busy opening presents and eating fresh baked cinnamon rolls and taking a nice peaceful nap and visiting family and singing Christmas songs and eating fudge, without having to scrub it out of the carpet at 2 am!

Is that too much to ask for? I almost want to let the other kids drink from their cups so they'll hurry up and get it before Christmas comes. Is that mean? Or just plain disgusting?

Hey, I never said I was going to, it was just a temptation.

Temptations are only sins if you act on them.

I won't, I won't that is just gross and wrong.

...Maybe

Not Today, Sorry

I know I promised an inspirational quote every Thursday and today is Thursday, but sorry, it's not happening today. I feel like a real mom today. It started at 5am with the Sound that every mother knows well and dreads. A sound that means 5-7 days of at least 5 loads of laundry a day. A sound that means no sleep for mom for days on end. A sound that is worse than finger nails on a chalk board. A sound that makes me wish I were anything but a mom, just in that instant. A sound that no one can ever get used to. Yup, you guessed it, the sound of one of the heathens PUKING. The sound of one of the heathen PUKING IN THEIR BED, all over themselves and the blankets and the walls and floor. I have been dealing with puke all day long. So far it has only hit Dubs, but I'm sure the rest will have their turns. So sorry if I neglect the blog for a few days, I'll be in the trenches of motherhood.

Wish me luck!

UPDATE:See what kind of day it has been? I was just looking at my newest blog post on my blog and I realized it is not Thursday! I have not missed a Thought for Thursday yet. I still have hope. Maybe you'll end up with some sort of thought after all! I'm going to bed while I can!

Couch Potatoes

I bet you all have been wondering what we've been up to this week.
Well, since you asked...
We've turned into full fledged couch potatoes!
We have watched hours and hours of the boob tube everyday for 3 days straight.
Doodle even told me the first day, "Mom, we should turn the TV off, we've been watching it WAAAYY too much today!"
Ya, I did a double take too, a six year old being worried about watching too much TV!
I bet you all think there must be some educational series that will only be on this one week to warrant so much TV watching.

Well, you'd be wrong! We've been watching cartoons, Disney Movies, The Olympics (which I don't feel totally guilty about), Talk Shows. You name it, we've watched it this week.

I bet you want to know what we've been eating this week too.
Pizza, macaroni and cheese, fish sticks, Wendy's hamburgers, Carl's Jr. hamburgers, ice cream, pop cycles, soda, junk, junk and more junk!
So what has happened to the lover of educational programming, health nut that we all know and love, you ask?
She has been sick!!!
I'm not talking about some silly little cold with a runny nose and body aches.
What I had made a cold feel like a vacation.
I was knocked down on my bum sick. I had a fever of 102.5 Wednesday night. I took Tylenol or Motrin every 4 hours to the minute and it still only got my fever down to 100.7
That fever stayed with me all night long. My whole body ached. My head , my hips, my joints, my muscles, everything.
The thing that hurt the worst hands down was my throat.
I could not swallow anything.
Swallowing my own saliva felt like eating little steel balls covered in tiny needles that were on fire except worse (and that was with all the pain pills I dared take!)
So while my family was pigging out on all the junk food they could get their grubby little hands on, I was on a saliva only diet, and I wished I did not have to swallow even that.
Yes, that's what happens when Mr Bird is in charge of meals, heaven forbid I should die, EVER.
So after two torturous nights like this I finally went to the doctor yesterday morning.
You guessed it, strep throat.
The Doctor gave me a choice of antibiotics for 10 days or one shot in the bum. I chose the shot just so I would not have to go to the store to get it. For one thing I felt totally miserable and could not picture myself standing in line waiting for a prescription.
Secondly, I thought the shot would start working faster since I could have it right then and it might take 20 minutes off my total suffering time.
Totally worth it.
As a bonus they include it in the copay for the office visit and I did not have to shell out more money for a prescription.
So one pain in my big bum and one night's sleep without a fever, later and I almost feel like new, almost.
So for any of you that have seen me earlier this week and end up sick, I am so sorry. I will come to your house and take care of your children and make them healthy meals while you are
gagging down your own saliva.
For those of you we have not seen in a while,
count yourselves lucky!

The Power of a Kiss

A mother's kiss is magic. When a brand new mother kisses her newborn for the very first time something magical happens. It instantly binds that tiny little heart that is beating wildly to hers. It is that bond that prevents her from doing rash things to said child for the fist 5 years of it's life.

Only a mother's kiss can make it all better when a 3 year old drops his cookie and it breaks. The 3 year old magically becomes OK with having two cookies instead of just one.

A mother's kiss has magical healing powers. They can magically suck the pain out of most minor bumps and scrapes.

A mother's kiss can make a 5 year old girl all better after her friends were mean to her at the park or at church (DRAMA!).

A mother's kiss, when paired with a short prayer and a quick verse of I am a Child of God at

2 am, can make even the scariest of bad dreams go away.

A mother's kiss can magically turn into raspberries when those lips find a cute naked tummy. Suddenly those raspberries render all those obnoxious battery operated toys that have mysteriously crept into your house useless for at least an hour as all the children line up for their turn at the fun game.

I'm starting to pray now that when I have teenagers my kisses will be more desirable than any smelly boy or girl's ever could be. Think it will work? I sure hope so.

A kiss is the only thing I know that can make a mother who has just dropped her 18 month old off at nursery for the first time feel better when he does not cry when she leaves. Doesn't he know he's supposed to miss you terribly when you're gone? Doesn't he know he's supposed to through a terrible fit because all he wants is you? All the other kids do. But it's OK. Just gather that cute little boy up and give those sweet little lips one gigantic kiss and your heart will be soaring all the way through your magically peaceful church meetings. You know, the ones you have not been able to actually listen to for about a year.

Now that's power!

A mother's kiss makes 7 1/2 months old stop crying after their mean older sister takes away the crumb they've worked for 5 minutes trying to get a taste of.

A mother's kiss has magical sleep inducing powers. After the good night kiss even the most wide awake, hyper child can settle down and get ready for sleep.

A mother's kiss can over power tears of most any kind. When the tears start flowing all it take is a kiss to find the magic shut off valve.

You know what else kisses can do? A quick one on the forehead can determine that the reason your 3 year old has gone potty 3 times during the night before 3 am is because he has a fever and not because he drank too much water before bed.

And no, the reason he has a fever is not because he was standing in the rain looking at the water without his coat on (where was that child's mother? tisk, tisk, tisk). That was weeks ago and it was not my fault. I was trying desperately to get him into the car but he was just too fascinated with the little rain droplets on the water.

Poor Dubs! Feel better soon buddy.