June 8, 2011 3:20 p.m.

Little by little I have improved each day.  Each day I have more energy and less joint pain.  Today is the best day yet, although I still need to recharge my batteries once or twice a day (usually I can keep going all day long on an “overnight” charge).  Anyway, Fifth Disease really surprised me.  I had scarcely even heard of it before this year, never realizing how insidious, and how commonplace, it is.  Yesterday evening I was able to remove my rings from my left hand (my fingers had swollen up so much that it was impossible).  My knees are still a little stiff, and my fingers and toes are weak and sore to use after awhile, but I am not in any severe pain.  As you see, I can even type!

Anyway, my children have been very helpful, volunteering to serve me in any way they can (even as Chips has been dealing with the rash and swollen feet from this illness, himself).  The other day, Chips just began to straighten out the lower shelves of my pantry.  He did it on his own initiative, without even a suggestion from me, and it made a big difference.  Sweet Girl has cheerfully brewed some iced tea and made some instant pudding.  Chips is really maturing.  This week, when Sweet Girl claimed not to be able to find a library book  anywhere in the house, and after hearing that we would have to pay for the book, Chips went into her room and did a thorough search – enough to recover the book.  He also did not hesitate to telephone his violin teacher after leaving music at her home and request that she mail it to us.  When a friend of mine could not open up a Word file I sent to her, Chips went ahead and converted the file to a different format and sent it back to her.  So you see, Chips is really growing up.

Another word of praise I have is for the Calvert curriculum, once again.  Even when I was fatigued and sore, I was able to continue to homeschool without missing a beat.  I barely even had to think about it.  Chips, as you know, does most of his work independently, but Sweet Girl was able to assist me in teaching her because of the layout of the Calvert Lesson Manual.  All she had to do was look ahead to the next subject, go get the materials, and sit next to me as I did some “recliner homeschooling”.  She could then get the answer keys and wait while I checked over everything.  In this way, we have been able to keep up our normal pace of a lesson a day, with allowances for me to recharge (nap) as needed.  So that has given me real peace of mind.  All it takes is a week like this to make me really appreciate my health, and my kids, all the more.

April 19, 2011 7:04 p.m.

Sorry to leave you hanging, friends, really, I am.  But this past week was anything but typical.  There were so many different things going on; we have been out of our routine, and unfortunately the first thing to go was my bloggy life.  I hope you don’t feel too neglected.

Thank you to Linda, and anybody else who was concerned about our well-being over the past week, especially as my prior post was so foreboding.  Sweet Girl, I am happy and thankful to report, is completely back to her normal healthy self, and has been for several days now.  So much so, that she happily went swimming yesterday for the second time this season.

Besides, that, Monday the 11th was Chips’  11th birthday!  He had a nice, quiet day at home with us.    His birthday was a bit unusual in that the celebrating part of the day was long in coming.  We always wait for Self-Reliant Man to arrive home from work before celebrating anyone’s birthday, however Self-Reliant Man was slow in getting home that day.

It went something like this: in the morning, he drove his silver car to work, except he got a third of the way there and the car started acting up, so he drove back home and instead took his red car to work.  After work, he began the drive home except the red car turned out to have a problem and had to be driven into a side street and parked because it never would have made it all the way home.  This was when history was made, for Self-Reliant Man determined that he would not be able to fix his car on the side of the road and that he would actually need a tow!  This is the first time this has happened in all the near 17 years we have been married, ladies and gentlemen.  Usually Self-Reliant Man is able to fix his car well enough on the fly to get it home, even if it requires a quick trip or two to the auto parts store in the process.  But he knew that type of miracle wasn’t going to happen this time, so Self-Reliant Man called a tow truck.  Did you hear that, everybody?  SELF-RELIANT MAN CALLED A TOW TRUCK!  Whew.  Got that off my chest.  Here is a photo from that eventful evening.

This is the silver car, that could not make it to work in the morning.

And this is the red car that could not make it home in the evening.

These are the two children who are enjoying every minute of the experience, as well as the husband who is not enjoying the experience. 

Any questions?  Yes, we recovered from the history-making day, and yes, Chips eventually had a pleasant evening celebrating his birthday with cake and presents.

Other highlights from the week included…

Another Science Day at our house, this time to learn all about BLOOD!  That is our wonderful teacher holding up a giant model of a red blood cell. 

Here was our first brave participant in the blood typing part of the lesson.  What is your blood type?  Do you know?

Speaking of science, here are Chips’ models of hydrocarbon molecules.  I know I didn’t know what a hydrocarbon molecule was in sixth grade.  But then, there are a lot of things in the Calvert Sixth Grade course that I never had that early in my education.

Finally, best of all, is the next photo…

Here is a peaceful moment of team work between Sweet Girl and Chips, folding the laundry together.  This was too sweet to miss with the camera (although it isn’t that rare, this level of mutual cooperation certainly isn’t an everyday occurrence, you know what I mean?)

So, bloggy friends, things are moving along pretty well at our home.

So far this week, other opportunities have included:

1. Both children did a violin performance for a very elderly woman who is in hospice care, the mother of our neighbor, and the actual owner of the violin that is being loaned to Chips.  I have to say that, although she was largely unable to speak, this lady thoroughly enjoyed the music!

AND

2. Today and tomorrow the children are taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.  They actually eagerly anticipate the “Iowas” and consider these days to be “free days”.  Go figure.  I am glad that tests don’t make them nervous.

AND

3. Today we paid a visit to a luthier to have an adjustment made to the violin loaned to us in this post.  Nothing serious, just an error in setup on the part of the violin shop it visited last (way up north of here in Vermont).   This is a man in his seventies, who supports himself staying very busy in his in-home shop where he doctors string instrument such as violas, violins, cellos, and basses.  A neat short documentary about him is here.  It was neat visiting him today, after seeing him in this video. 

Well, I am truly humbled if you made it this far in this post, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

October 8, 2009 6:28 p.m.

This flu is keeping me guessing. Little Son seems to be all over it, since Tuesday morning, except for an occasional cough.

I really thought that Baby Girl was over it as of Tuesday morning, just like her brother. Except her temperature never really went all the way back to normal: it kept hovering in the 99 degree range. Also, she was complaining about pain in the back of her neck and legs. But she was okay, otherwise.

Now today, she is coughing more, and ba-da-boom, she has a fever again, up to 102 at times. Combined with a headache, it was enough to make her very miserable this afternoon. But now it is over four hours since a dose of acetaminophen and she seems much better. Called the doctor's office, and they told me that many kids' bodies are taking as long as seven days to fully get rid of the virus. We are only on day five, so I will not jump in the car and bring her back to the doctor yet. Other than her frequent cough, she doesn't appear to have any breathing problems.

Self-Reliant Man, although he keeps going to work, has reported to me all the classic symptoms of the flu except fever.

As for me, I have managed to escape this illness so far, and I am extremely thankful for that.


I have to close by saying that even our state has the flu. It is experiencing a fever as well. Here it is, early October, and the temperatures topped out in the mid nineties again. Surely this cannot last much longer...... can it?

I am so ready for autumn to begin.

October 3, 2009 9:41 p.m.

Well, as of this evening, we have two sick children in the house. Little Son just finished up his third day with a fever and cough. Little Son never gets a fever. I can't remember the last time he had one. Baby Girl just began to have a fever this afternoon, and she has been coughing since yesterday, too. I took Little Son to the pediatrician on Thursday and they are following the CDC guidelines, which means not to dispense any antivirals to anybody who is not considered "high risk", or hospitalized. I was advised that he has the flu-like bug that is "going around the community". The trouble is, we haven't been "around the community"; rather we have been traveling through five states in the Southeast where H1N1 is widespread, eating in restaurants (including buffets), visiting restrooms, museums, a theme park, etc. So you can guess what my conclusion is about my kids' illness right now. I don't think any doctor will actually tell you that in all likelihood you have H1N1, because they aren't going to write a script for an antiviral anyway. Therefore, it will merely be referred to as the flu-like bug that is "going around the community". That way, you will still come back and get the vaccine next month (even though you won't need it anymore but you won't have any way of knowing that).

I checked out the CDC website, and a high percentage of flu-like persons who are tested are coming up H1N1. Specifically, if you have been told you have "type A" flu, it turns out that 99% of type A is H1N1. A friend of mine has a neighbor who tested "type A", right after passing it on to her family. The flu went through 5 members of her family about a week or two ago. So I know it is definitely around.

So that's where we are right now. As for me, I plan to hit the supermarket tomorrow morning and stock up on food for a week, before I get sick, too. Self-Reliant Man is doing okay, except he said something about feeling some mild cold symptoms. I hope things turn out better than I expect right now! I am thankful that we are at least not considered in the high-risk category, anyway.

October 1, 2009 1:26 p.m.

We returned from our camping vacation in the South, and I have decided to simply leave you with short, delicate, literary sketches of our trip. I learned from last year that it is too cumbersome to attempt an exhaustive description of the experience. Those of you who read last year's account will probably agree [insert mischievous grin here].

You may recall that our weather forecast upon departure was not good. In fact, we did dodge raindrops throughout almost all of the trip, but amazingly, it did not really interfere much with our plans. We were still able to do and to see almost everything that we had planned to. This, despite a historically wet and "floody" September in much of the South.

Quick summary of trip: Three nights at a KOA in west Florida while visiting my in-laws. Then a night stop at a campground in Gadsden, Alabama where we dined at a recommended restaurant - Top O' the River. Next, a couple of nights at a KOA near Chattanooga taking in some sights there. Next, three nights stay at the Fall Cre*k F*lls Inn, one of the prettiest state parks in Tennessee. Then a couple of nights at a campground in Pigeon Forge to visit a well known theme park in that location. Finally, we made a stopover at a KOA near Savannah, Georgia before returning home.

We camped in four states and drove through five states. All camping nights were spent quite comfortably in our 23 mpg diesel van.

Whenever we are on the road, we always try to stop at Cr*cker Barr*l. It is always consistent, always good. Food is good with plenty of variety, service is always good. We have never had a bad server at a Cr*cker Barr*l. We probably stopped at six different Cr*cker Barrels on this vacation. I remember living up north as a kid, and the only time I ever saw one of these restaurants was on the highway signs whenever my parents took us south of New Jersey. We never stopped there because we never knew they were restaurants. The signs say: Cr*cker Barrel Old Country Store, so we thought they were stores! Sigh.. All those wasted years.
Hand sanitizer was our best friend during this trip. We went through a bunch of the stuff. I used it obsessively, and tried to get my family to do the same. Since we were in theme parks and museums, the children were forever touching surfaces touched by lots of folks. Unfortunately, as of this afternoon, Little Son reports a fever of 102. I cannot remember the last time he has had a fever. I am going to have to watch him closely. Baby Girl is starting to sneeze now, too. Right now, I have them both sequestered in their rooms reading library books. I hope they don't get too sick. I am always thinking about H1N1 these days.

Now is the part where I scatter some photos with captions and comments.


Before we left, Little Son came up with a nifty invention to solve that awful problem of being hot and thirsty while hiking.

Here we are somewhere on I-10. The children have gotten to be excellent travelers over the years.

There were those days when it was too wet to play mini-golf, but not too wet to do a puzzle. Like I said, we had our fair share (or maybe more than fair) of rain, but it didn't really get in our way. Just slowed us down a bit, so we could keep the trip somewhat relaxing.


Here we are eating fried seafood at Top O' the River. Baby Girl thought it was the "funnest restaurant". Maybe it was because we could see turtles in the lake just outside the window.


Here is Little Son and Baby Girl just outside the entrance of the Ruby Falls attraction. We never did get in to see Ruby Falls, though. It was closed due to flash flooding.

We did get some decent reading accomplished at night when it was too wet to stay outside at a campsite. Baby Girl read all of Little House in the Big Woods. Little Son completely read Redwall. Breezy Point Mom finished When the Heart Cries, by Cindy Woodsmall, (a novel set in an Amish community) and Self-Reliant Man read portions of The Ultimate History of BMW by Andrew Noakes.


This was the view from the top of the Incline Railway on Lookout Mountain.... moments before the clouds rolled into view. I have to say that the uppermost portion of that railway was a little scary for me (steep!).
Wow! The sun is out! Making the best use of it by playing tether ball!

A truly great attraction was the Tennessee Aquarium. And yes, they had a wonderful butterfly exhibit. Who knew?

I was surprised and impressed by their amazing jellyfish exhibits.


We answered the call to "See Rock City!" We had a good time there, too.


Like I said earlier, Fall Creek Falls was a beautiful state park. I highly recommend it to anybody visiting eastern Tennessee. I'd like to go back there some time.
There were a few too many of these types of swinging bridges, though. They gave me the creeps.


The Cane Creek Cascades were cool and pleasant, and we found we wanted to spend a lot of time there. See the swinging bridge above the cascades?

During the hikes, Baby Girl got in plenty of climbing up rocks. She loves to climb.


And this is the theme park we visited in Pigeon Forge. In case you hadn't already guessed. We were blessed with beautiful weather on the only day we had in our schedule to see this park! The day before, the rain had been torrential.


As an aside, we discovered why, when you camp at a place called "Creekside" RV park, it isn't always so great to have a creekside site. Especially when there are flash floods. In four hours, the creek had become a rushing river, and then a rushing lake! We checked in the hour the flash flood warning was announced, and fortunately were able to change our site assignment to a high and dry site. Within a few hours we discovered why we needed a different site.


Here are Little Son and Self-Reliant Man at the top of the ferris wheel.


This was the exact smile that was on Baby Girl's face throughout every ride. Our kids spend about one day every two years at some theme park, so it is a big deal to them. This park was very nice.Unexpected surprises.... baby and adult swans born and bred at the KOA in Savannah. Little Son was trying to snap some pictures of them with his camera.


A vacation well done! Baby Girl and Little Son finally relax and sleep during the final legs of the trip. And yes, Bear Blanket is always on hand where Baby Girl is concerned.

And finally, I wish I had a picture of this one, but I couldn't get one. A sign, in front of a Baptist church outside of Pikeville, Tennessee. It read:

On account of this post of a month ago, some of my faithful readers and friends have inquired about Baby Girl's eyesight. I apologize for not updating this topic earlier.

It turns out I have not taken her to the optometrist. Since she has a history of causing me to take her to the doctor on false alarms, I decided to sit tight in this case and try to make my own surreptitious observations of her reading and eyesight habits without talking about it.

It turns out I have several times caught her in the act of easily reading books and signs from both near and far distances. In fact, I confess, I even set her up a couple of times to determine this (i.e. the time she was reading the book to her daddy, and daddy moved the book away from her so he could "see the pictures better" and she kept on reading just fine).

So, I firmly believe that Baby Girl has good eyesight, and that this matter can wait until our regular eye appointment in July.

Thank you for asking!

Yes, there has been a cease fire in my battle with perimenopause. And it has been all about better nutrition.

First of all, many thanks to Paula over at A Large Room for recommending a good book to me: "What to Eat", by Marion Nestle. This book was a whopper, over 500 pages, but I read all of it, and it was very informative. Just when a previous book I read about Perimenopause and nutrition had me thinking I had to go to a different planet to find safe food, this common sense nutritionist showed me I didn't have to. I highly recommend this book! This lady is smart. She is a good analyzer and thinker. She writes in an engaging, and often humorous way about a subject that can be pretty dry. She has done hours of research into the politics of food marketing, and how it should affect our choices on what to purchase and what to eat, and how to choose well at the supermarket.

Second of all, thanks once again to Leanne Ely for helping me get on the good nutrition wagon again. Thanks to her recipe plan, we are once again eating well at dinnertime. And these dinners often mean plenty of healthy leftovers for lunch later in the week.

The result is that I have been doing better in the hormone department. The symptoms and issues I reported back in this post have largely improved. There have been some days with a couple of symptoms, but not nearly to the extent that I complained about during the summer. I know that our diets left a lot to be desired. My DH and I had emerged from our successful weight loss year (he lost 35 pounds last year and I lost 30 pounds) without a decent eating plan for sustaining the weight loss, so we ended up eating too many packaged "calorie--controlled" meals without enough nutrition in them. Hey, Stouffers can be a good thing in a pinch, but too much of this sort of eating will take its toll. Not to mention the high sodium content. So now we are happily home cooking a wide variety of foods, and this is one area where it has been helping me.

Another things is that the book I mentioned above helped me to identify what may be the emerging signs of lactose intolerance in Baby Girl. So, after recently upgrading to organic milk for her benefit, I now find that I need to purchase organic and lactose free milk for her. I have been doing this for a week now, and her tummy aches have gone away. That is, until this morning when she complained about it again. I thought about what she had eaten and remembered that she ate a large portion of a casserole I made last night that contained cream cheese. Whoops! I guess I forgot about the lactose content there.