Better living through science

I'm not big on medications except for the occasional Aleve or two. I get every horrible side effect that a drug can produce, ones that usually outweigh the original symptom. But, every spring, I'm hit with horrible hay fever for the 30-or-so days that the Live Oaks pollinate. I don't even have to be outside. If I see a live oak with its huge clusters of yellowish pollen I'll immediately start sneezing, itching, tearing up, etc. Anyway. This year is the first time in the last three pollen seasons that I've not been prego or nursing so I decided to take a little Benadryl to help me through the day. Wrong! After three days of taking one measly Benadryl per day I was completely stricken for 24 hours yesterday. It wrecked my stomach, gave me a fever(!), palpitations, dizziness, extreme drowsiness (fun with two kids!) and joint aches and pains. We thought it might be the flu, but I stopped taking the Bendaryl and bam! all side effects gone. However, all the allergy symptoms have come back, so I consulted with my friendly neighborhood pharmacist and now I'm trying some OTC loratidine, aka Claritin. It doesn't work quite as quickly as Benadryl did, but I don't feel like I'm dying either. Yay OTC scientific breakthroughs!

And don't think for a minute I'm exaggerating about the dying. M took one look at me when he got home last night and VOLUNTARILY stepped in to handle bath & bed time for the kiddos. I have to be really bad off for that to happen. I only recall three other times, actually. And two of them were before A was born. So, I was able to sleep for two whole blessed hours and then rallied to catch American Idol and most of Lost. I still can't believe that during what was probably the most interesting, mind-blowing and revealing episode of Lost ever, I managed to fall asleep for the last 7 minutes. Thank goodness for TiVo.

Dear Mr. Winter

I love you! I love cold weather (hey, 43 is cold for Florida); I love my cozy sweaters; I love my new parka; I love hearing the radiators hissing away; I love actually needing my flannel pjs; I even love a little wind chill. BUT, do you think you could've waited until the weekend to make an appearance? When we all could have had a nice little sleep-in, then wake up lazily and have hot coffee/cocoa and pancakes in our pajamas?

Instead you choose TODAY, when:
1) I've been up since 3:00 a.m. with a weird little fever and undefined aches & pains - I've imagined I've had everything from meningitis to toxic shock syndrome - AND....
2) I had to get up at 5:00 since M was flying out early AND....
3) That means I have to walk the dog myself, in the cold, and the really strong winds, with poor little A bundled up in his measly assortment of winter gear AND...
4) I had planned to be outside this afternoon, since this month's Daisy meeting is an outdoor activity. Which means, between the cold and wind I am going to have a flare up of my winter exzcema.

Boo. Come back and play on Saturday!

A cookie is a sometime treat...

7:00 Update: I was kinda kidding earlier about the MommyKarma thing, but really I may never leave the house again. I just spent the last hour and a half cleaning up A, his high chair, and the kids' bathroom after the worst case of exploding poo I've ever seen. Why do these things happen at dinnertime? Anyway, I'm down to 3 pb cups and one caramel roll. And M & I don't even want to think about our dinner. I may need a drink instead.
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3:30 Update: When I posted this morning I forgot to post WHY I've eaten most of my batches of pb cups and caramel rolls this morning. Basically, last night Sister Debbie took me out for a wonderful, belated birthday dinner. And this morning I had a hair appt. at 10:00. I guess I used up all my MommyKarma by scheduling two nice, relaxing kid-free events within 24 hours of each other because A was up at 3:30 this morning and now D is running a fever and is complaining of aches, pains and a sore throat. Oh, and don't forget the tree. Because I haven't. There are huge chunks of it lying everywhere. So that is why I've had 6 pb cups and almost a whole pan of caramel rolls today - it goes without saying that one of my weight problems is consolation eating.

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...but not peanut butter cups or homemade sticky caramel rolls. I made both this past week and both are almost gone. Happy, happy Saturday. On an unhappier note, we had another giant - like 30ft - tree limb come down last night. It's lying (laid? lain?) across our front walk until the tree guys can come chop it off. We're calling ourselves the "Near Misses" since it's the second humongous limb that's come down that's barely missed damaging the house. If our cycle holds true, something horrible will happen to the dog next. (Knock wood.)

Pass the nutmeg

You know how you have that one recipe that calls for some semi-obscure ingredient that you never remember you already own so you always buy more? Like ground cardamom or marjoram or whatever? Well my ingredient is ground nutmeg and I pretty much only use it in my pumpkin-cream cheese roll that I make for Thanksgiving. I always mean to remember I have some for next year, but of course I always forget so I have about 8 damn bottles of the stuff, all of which I couldn't throw out when we moved so I packed them up right next to the 7-year-old bottle of fennel seeds, the McCormick tin of whole cloves that my beloved grandmother gave me to me when she moved to a retirement community (they must be at least 15 years old, since she's been In Heaven with Jesus for 12 years - but there is no way I can toss them), and the jar of celery seed that isn't even open. Waste not, want not right? So every thing I've made recently has gotten a little dash of nutmeg on the way into the oven, pot, microwave. However, I learned the hard way (is there any other?) that you can't mix it with your kids' cinnamon-sugar and try to pass it off as "spice toast." It also doesn't blend well with the aggressively pre-packaged taste of Eggos, our go-to breakfast on the mornings that we are running behind and need something that can be consumed quickly.

If you have any good recipes calling for scads of ground nutmeg, please send 'em my way. And someone please remind me next Fall that I DO NOT NEED any more.

Feelin' groovy

I may be on the wrong path here, but I believe that indoctrinating introducing the children to classic rock n' roll, 80s hits, New Wave and even the occasional foray into folk, blues and clean punk music is much better for them than letting them "discover" rap, hip-hop or (gulp) Hannah Montana all on their own. So that is why my 5 year old can belt out Talking Heads, Squeeze (she looooves Cool for Cats) and Simon & Garfunkel songs. I can't think of any reason why she'd ever watch Hannah Montana, Lizzy McSuckFest or any the other dreck on Nick or Disney. I'm sure as she gets older and starts spending time at her friends' houses she'll encounter such things, but for now, she doesn't even know they exist. It's also why I'm such a fan of hosting playdates at our house. A bit of a mess to clean up is nothing compared to the peace of mind I have knowing what my kids are doing, saying, eating, watching. The more the merrier, actually, since having friends over means less time for me sitting on the floor playing MailBox or Garage or Bunny TeaParty. I'll take any excuse for down time to blog, clean or cook...

which leads me to my latest Naptime Foray into the Kitchen... Easy Peanut Butter Cups from the March issue of Everyday Food. I will have to hide these from myself or I'll end up eating the whole batch. Give them a try if you want an easy sweet treat.

Blast from the past

So maybe this weekend you saw some of the news coverage of Kosovo's historic vote for independence. Maybe you asked yourself why this was so important. Maybe you wondered what all the fuss was about. Maybe you've never heard of Kosovo before. Well, I hadn't heard much either before my bro-in-law was stationed there as part of the international peacekeeping force helping the area after the war. Then in February 2005, M was selected by his law firm to work in Kosovo as part of a joint UN-USAID-NCSC project to help develop and implement Rule of Law for their emerging country, in anticipation of one day declaring their independence. M spent several months there and then, because these things always take longer than expected, and I was tired of being stuck in Florida with a 2 year old and no husband, in the summer of 2005 D & I packed up our suitcases and went to live in Pristina, Kosovo for almost 2 months while M worked with the people at NCSC. It was an absolutely amazing experience, complete with homesickness, language barriers, visits to Albanian pediatricians and lots of Balkan-style exploring. I will never, ever forget living there. We are so happy for all the Kosovars and other internationals that we met, got to know and spent time with while we were there. I hope that things can remain peaceful for them throughout this transition.

Here's a picture of D on one of our first mornings in Pristina looking out of our back door to the fields and mountains behind our apartment building:








And here's another of the street leading away from our neighborhood, Sunny Hill (not-so-Sunny in this pic though):







Here's a picture from the medieval city of Prizren of the road leading to the city Center:







Besides Kosovo, we also visited Greece, Slovenia, Macedonia and Hungary. Here's a link way back to the beginning of my blog, which I started in honor of this journey. (Scroll down the page to get to the first posts, pre-trip.) If you have time, take a look!

Feeling the love

M surprised me for Valentine's Day yesterday by both remembering before I did (rare!) AND bringing home a beautiful present, complete with box of chocolates! He got me a pair of really lovely pajamas - I love them and can't wait until tonight when it will be a tad bit warmer and I can wear them.

Today the kids and I are joining some friends for our Third Annual Trip to the Florida State Fair. It's been a tradition since D was 3 and I'm so glad we can continue for at least one more year with the older kids (A might get a few more chances -- at least til he's in school full time). The fair is awesome, the rides, the 4-H exhibits and my favorite part - Strawberry Shortcakes made with Plant City Strawberries. Everyone thinks Florida is all about oranges, but our delicious winter strawberries are our secret weapon. They are so good they even have their own festival.

Have a great safe weekend! See you on the giant slide!

Clean sweep

Our cleaning lady comes today. Back in my working mom days, we had weekly service because it was a total stress reliever for me to have one less thing to worry about. It was one of the little luxuries that we gave up a while back though. But now with a much bigger home, and especially one that was left in the condition that this one was, M has agreed to let someone come in to help with the hard stuff (like mopping 3000 sq ft of hardwood floors) once a month. However, my house is never so clean as right before the cleaning lady comes. I'm a freak about picking up all the junk, cleaning the kitchen counters, etc. The first time Nadia came (last month) I even went so far as to clean the bathrooms the day before. To M's amusement. This time, I successfully avoided the compulsion to vacuum last night -- or scrub the toilets -- but you can bet the playrooms look neat as a pin.

Sister Debbie is coming over this afternoon to hang out and have dinner with us. It's especially nice because M's been out of town for two days and the lack of adult conversation is beginning to get to me. Anyway, I'm making french onion soup, salmon, roasted asparagus and orzo. Yummmmm. And did I mention the meringue with roasted pears for dessert? I'm attempting the recipe that Jamie Oliver used on his show this past Saturday. Without the chocolate sauce, since I am bitterly doing without gave it up for Lent. And by the way, if you're NOT watching his new show, Jamie's Kitchen, you really should because it is both entertaining and really "doable" for a cooking show. Plus his house and garden? AWESOME. I wish I had that kind of land. Oh wait, I do. I just hate gardening.

39 days to go

Woke up this morning with a splitting headache, upset stomach, vague feeling of anxiety. Classic withdrawal symptoms. I am now 24 whole hours into my Lenten sacrifice: No Chocolate. I shall be tried and tested. Or maybe just testy, given the little argument I managed to pick with M at 8:30 this morning. Anyway. I had my usual Diet Coke this afternoon and it felt mighty strange not to have a little piece of something sweet to go along with it. Now I'm not expecting a Religious Epiphany, Spiritual Clarity or any kind of Divine Enlightenment. And maybe my "sacrifice" will end up being a little self-serving if I end up losing weight. But I like the idea of a Lenten sacrifice anyway. And I sure don't mind a few weeks of meatless Fridays aka, Breakfast for Dinner.

And there's always Vanilla.

Cuppa joe

I did something yesterday afternoon that I've never done before -- had a cuppa coffee about 4:00 pm. I was desperate. D had the day off from school, I had a JL puppet show in the morning, A only took a 45 minute nap: it all conspired to drive me into the welcoming and loving arms of Caffeine while I was cooking dinner. Result? I was up until 1:00 a.m. watching DVR'd episodes of What Not to Wear. Now I'm paying cause I'm BEAT, but have a really busy day of busy work and busy-ness and busy stuff ahead of me. So I'll probably end up drinking some coffee again this afternoon and isn't that how cycles of addiction start?

In other news, tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and I'm trying to figure out how I can get to Mass with A. I'm also contemplating what my Lenten sacrifice should be and if it should be something that impacts the whole family or just an individual thing. I haven't done any food-related sacrifices for a few years now what with pregnancy and nursing and baby-related issues, but this might be a good year for it. In terms of both a meaningful sacrifice AND good for my waistline, which is totally nonexistent at the moment. We'll see.

Full house

We are finally getting a chance to break our house in - both sets of grandparents are here for Grandparent's Day at D's school. My in-laws are actually staying all week so we'll see how we manage with two more people under the roof! So far, so good though and it's wonderful to have a place for people to sleep instead of having to have everyone schlep off to a hotel at the end of the day.

My mom was talking to D yesterday about where in the house she spends the most time (the playroom). For me it was the kitchen. For A it was wherever I am. But for Daddy, when asked where he spends the most time, she replied "work." Hmm. But it's true, at least during the week. He's here in the morning but rarely home for dinner and most of the time he gets in just before her bedtime. So I guess it seems like he's never here. I do wish he had time to eat dinner with us during the week -- everyone says how important family dinner time is -- but I just don't see it happening. And given how stressful dinner can be I can't say I blame him.

I am truly, truly blessed to have a husband who helps provide such a wonderful life for his family though. And, while the kids may not spend much time with him during the week, I get him all to myself!

Please, no

These are A's two favorite words right now. I'm not wild about the "no" thing, but at least he's being polite about it, right? It's also becoming the refrain for my days, as in "Please. God. No." because I highly suspect he's trying to give up his nap. He's been down to just one for a few months now, but he's fighting the one he has left tooth and nail and I am half-dreading the sheer exhaustion of trying to keep up with (and keep happy) an active little 18-month old all day long. I don't whether it's his age or mine, but I'm just tired, TIRED all the time. There are some pros and cons, of course. PRO: I won't have to worry about rushing him home from activities so he can nap. CON: we'll all have to survive on quick dinners until he can learn to play by himself for more than 3.5 seconds. PRO: We can go to the park to play and have a picnic lunch. CON: No more quiet mornings baking, crafting, blogging or catching up on mail. PRO: A good excuse to put off the housework. CON: You know what happens when you put off the housework.

Oh well. It was bound to happen sometime. At least he still goes to bed by 6:30.

Adaptation

We don't like change much here. Really. M is loathe to change anything, ever. D is OK with change unless she is personally affected, for example if you insist she were to change into jeans instead of wearing shorts to the park because it was only 50 outside. A is a toddler he's been in a constant state of change for his whole life. And me? I don't mind change in itself, but I dislike chaos and indecision and not feeling like things are set up, so I tend to make stuff worse for everyone because one change begets another in mind and so suddenly we haven't just moved into a new house but also, in the first few weeks, gotten all new appliances, a new TV (see previous blog entries), invited not one but both sets of parents to visit simultaneously next week and have begun to compose a list as long as my arm of the "small" projects I'd like done in the next 6 months. I'd prefer to have them done in the next 6 days, but because of the "antichange" reasons listed above, I know not to push my luck.

But we are all starting to get used to the house and it's new (to us) creaks and groans and quirks. M has even started using the dishwasher, which he didn't want to do for the first week or so (he really hates change) and so I would load everyone else's stuff and he would handwash his plate and utensils. Fizzy is also getting used to the house and last night, for the first time, she crept upstairs and slept in the hall outside D's door. So the following exchange is based on that:

6:45 a.m.
Me: Wake up, D! Time for school!
D: (Incoherent mumbling)
Me: Guess who was sleeping outside your door this morning?
D: Ummm, Santa?
Me: Noooo. Think furrier.
D: Daddy?
Me: (Choking back laughter) Wha..?! Do you think Daddy is furry? No, think four legs.
D: Are you laughing at me? Was it a chipmunk?
Me: Ok. No. Think something furry with four legs that belongs in the house.
D: Oh. I don't know.
Me: (A bit exasperated) It was Fizzy!
D: Is today a school day?

The rest of the morning was a bit like that too.

Day off

Today is a day for peace and reflection. Also a day off from school, so I don't anticipate much of either but so be it. I'm sure Dr. King would appreciate the thought anyway.

M & I watched "Blood Diamond" (one of my "Must See" movies) this weekend on the new big-ass TV. Yes I know it came out in 2006 and yes it has been on my list all this time. It was an awesome movie and very thought-provoking. Many years ago, my bro-in-law and I had a really interesting conversation about conflict diamonds and the world market's role in perpetuating the demand for them and the ruthless tactics used by the govts. and companies (specifically DeBeers) involved in mining them. Even more heinous are the absolutely disgusting marketing tactics that they use to convince us to buy their goods. I've never bought into the whole "three months of salary" guideline for diamonds because I just don't get the idea of a dollar amount or price tag being placed on love. I'm pretty sure that M loves me more than three months salary and I'm much more moved by the history behind my ring. Even worse diamond marketing were those horrible ads with the couple walking along in some piazza (I think we're supposed to think they're in Europe) and she is getting all embarrassed over something he's saying like "I love this woman" UNTIL he presents her with the Big Ring and then she gets all gushy and affectionate. Don't even get me started on the more recent "journey" necklaces which I truly DO NOT understand at all. I guess they're pretty necklaces, but the commercials are ludicrous and I think it's weird to market what should be a very personal piece of jewelry. But don't get me wrong, I like jewelry as much as the next girl, but it's the marketing and commercialism that get me. And, if we were to ever buy a piece of diamond jewelry, I would want to make sure that it was NOT a conflict diamond and that the company that we get it from did not support the trade of such.

OK, so that's my Monday Morning Rant. Go see the movie if you haven't yet.

Time out

Well, barring emergencies, we are officially done fixing up the house. Everything got resolved on Wednesday - our boilers, the toilet (clogged for reasons that I really won't go into here), EVERYTHING. Yesterday was my first tradesperson-free day since we moved in. Also, we're unpacked, the laundry is all caught up and we've got plenty o' food in the house. Hurray! Downtime! I hung up some pictures and have started to do the layout for the family pictures that will go in the upstairs hallway. Today I'm going on a serious all-out hunt for my cardreader for the camera. I've got great before-after pics of the kitchen, the kids and I want to get pics of the living room before our new TV gets installed on Saturday.

It's great to finally be "living" in the house.

One thing AND the other

Misery loves company around here. To recap: remember the toilet that needed replacing? Well we managed to convince the warranty company that they should pay for it. So we thought - thought - that we were done with house repairs for awhile. M & I even (foolishly) talked about how we were going to stop doing stuff and focus on "fun things." And then we bought one of those ginormous HD TVs this weekend. And then today? The damn antique gas/heat/furnace thingy goes out on us. And of course we're in the middle of a Florida winter cold snap and it's gonna be in the 40s tonight and the high tomorrow is only like 61. Brrrrrr. So we'll have to call the warranty company again and get a gas/heat/furnace person out here.

And to top it off, A took a header off a packing box this afternoon and smashed headfirst into the hardwood floor. (He was trying to imitate D jumping off.) His sweet little forehead immediately swelled to the size of a golfball and so I rushed him to the pediatrician where we found out it was not a piece of broken skull (like I thought) but a hematoma - scary looking, but not usually serious. So we have to keep an eye on him for a few days and supposedly the blood will eventually drain and may make him look like he has a black eye. Poor baby.

Hopefully tomorrow will be less eventful.

Pay it forward

Let's play Pay it Forward!

Basically, someone posts something on their blog they are willing to give away to three other people and, if you are one of those people, you agree to do the same.

I was catching up on my blogroll and found this fun concept at Kim's. I'm getting a tube of homemade lipbalm from her. So, in turn, I am going to give a delicious batch of homemade cracker candy to the first three people to email me at tandmj@mac.com or leave your email in comments so I can contact you. So if you want to play put on your thinking caps- I'm sure you've got a lot to give!

Oh @$%@@$!

Great. Now I have to tell M that we need a new toilet in the master bath. In addition to being utter slobs, The Previous Owners were apparently careless enough to drop something large and immovable (is that a word?) down the potty. Crap. Literally. And toilet replacement? Not covered by our home warranty. At least not right now. We'll see after my attorney has a little talk with them. At least we have two other bathrooms we can use.

Have a great weekend!

Appliance love

All of the appliances are here and installed after an absolute whirlwind yesterday culminating in the delivery of the washing machine at 7:00 pm. Right in the middle of bath/bed time natch. They are all beautiful and work perfectly. The only one that gave any trouble was the range, and that's mostly because the gas inlet pipe is in a weird place under the house and couldn't be moved. So we have a bit of space behind it. M calls it a gap. I call it ventilation.

Anyway, I'm laundering my first HE load right now. The new machine is a lot quieter than any other washer I've ever heard, but the noises it does make are new to me. It's spinning like a top though and is advanced enough to sense if it is unbalanced or overloaded (apparently humans can't be trusted to make those judgement calls). It also has all these codes that will display to let you know how it's doing, if it needs anything, etc. If only kids were that easy. But the thing I love the most about it is the "F__" (or F##) code that means you're supposed to call Sears immediately. As in "f'ed" up? Those Kenmore guys have a sense of humor! Of course, it also means that the machine will fit in perfectly with some of the more potty-mouthed members of the family.

Today was supposed to be the end of the whirlwind, but we had some plumbing issues this morning (speaking of pottys) so the plumbers will be here tomorrow. THEN we'll be done. Except for the rest of the unpacking and we have a hard deadline for that since we're getting ready for both sets of parents to visit at the end of the month. Whew.

Always something...

Here's the schedule for today:

9:00 - Electricians here to install new 220 line for Dual-Fuel range. They've been here for over an hour already so I'm thinking they encountered a problem related to installing a new 220 line in a house that is over 80 years old.

11:00 - Tree service here to fertilize/inject huge old oak tree dying slowly in the front yard. (This is the one that dropped the limb on the roof our second night in the new house.)

Noon - Dishwasher install

3:00 - Gas installation for new dryer and range. (At this point we should be cooking. With gas.)

3:15 - 5:15 - Sears to deliver new washing machine, haul away all other appliances.

Whew!

Tomorrow the pest control service will come to treat the house. And Fizz gets her sutures out. I can't wait to get back to a normal routine of chasing after the kids, cleaning, doing laundry and cooking meals. This whole moving business is crazy!