Head colds, chest colds, and other "fun" stuff

Son J and daughter S both came down with sore throats and runny noses this past Tuesday.  S had a migraine the day before, and had to miss kindergarten on Monday.  She and J both had to stay home from school on Wednesday.

Wednesday was a  big day for E.  It was the "Fifty Nifty United States" Fifth Grade Program.  (It was called a program, but it was really a pageant.  No lie.  The kids actually had to walk across the stage and pose in three different places.  They were referred to as "Mister" or "Miss" [name of the state they represented].)  E has worked hard for several weeks on her state.  Arkansas.  She and I made a costume to for her to wear in the pageant--I mean program.  It had to represent Arkansas.  Our choices were limited:  Huckleberry Finn, Hillary Clinton, Razorback Hog, and Diamond (did you know Arkansas is "the Diamond State"?)  We went with Diamond.

This is the diamond costume L and I created.  Hard to tell from the picture, but there were lots of rhinestones and pixie dust involved to make it very sparkly.  Like a diamond.  L plans to reuse the tutu for her Halloween costume.  More about that later.

I promised E that even though her siblings were sick, we would all be there for her program.  Like a fool I said the same thing when I left a message on the school's attendance line.  Less than an hour before the program, I got a call from the principal.  Yes, the principal.  Informing me that I was not allowed to bring my children to the school if they were sick.

"They will wear masks," I told her.  "They have no place else to go!"  The principal assured me that it was better for them to stay at home.  She was sure that E would understand, considering the circumstances.  "I have to be there," I told her, sounding a bit melodramatic.  "E has been experiencing a lot of anxiety.  She is expecting me.  I have to be there."  I started to cry.  On the phone.  With the principal!  I was both mortified and angry.

I hung up.  I scraped myself together.  It took only two phone calls to find a friend who was willing to let J and S sniffle and watch television at her house.  I wore my sort of skinny jeans with a white tee and black blazer and I even curled my hair, in an attempt not to look like the kind of crazy woman who would cry on the phone to the principal.  I dropped off J and S and made it to the school auditorium on time.  E looked adorable.  She waved at me.  She was thrilled to see me there.  We took lots of pictures.  E was pleased with her performance.

I said good bye to E and drove back to pick up J and S.  On the way, I cried some more.  I didn't want to have to spell it out for the principal.  How do you explain to someone who doesn't know your history why it is so important for you to be there?  The principal has no idea how many school functions I missed because I was at the hospital with L or S.  Or on my way o the hospital.  Or couldn't leave L with anyone else so I could go to the school.  The principal doesn't have a clue about all the things E has had to do for herself and her siblings in the last two years: carry a spare key just in case the school bus beats Mom home from the hospital, pack lunches, fix breakfast, complete school projects by herself because Mom and Dad were too preoccupied....the list goes on.  E is the oldest fifth grader I know.  And she's amazing.  But, like the rest of us, she has her share of baggage.  E experiences anxiety.  Not enough to interfere with academics or daily life, but enough for it to be a concern for me.

Anyway, so I cried.  And even though I cried, I totally understood where the principal was coming from.  Then again, as my sister, Nurse L, pointed out, "It is frustrating to think that there are children much sicker than your own who are attending school.  And no one calls their parents."

After an afternoon of playing in the warm sunshine, it looked to me that S and J would both be well enough to return to school on Thursday.  I was only 50% right.  J was well enough, but S was worse.  Much worse.  We hurried in to see the lovely Dr. B, our pediatrician, on Thursday afternoon.  Surprise!  Swine flu is running rampant in our area (vaccine doesn't arrive until next week), so S was tested for that, strep, and had her lungs xrayed.  Flu and strep tests were negative, but xray showed fluid in the lungs.  ARRRGH!  I've now lost count of how many times S has had pneumonia in the last year.

By that night, my head was pounding, my nose was dripping, and my throat was hurting.  S and I holed up in our extra bedroom with the humidifier, nebulizer, juice, and extra blankets.  We spent Friday together blowing our noses, coughing, and playing in Pixie Hollow.  Friday night, as I tucked S into our sick bed again, she told me, "Today was my most perfect day.  I got to stay home and do everything with you I've wanted to do with you for as long as I wanted."

Somehow, that made my own head cold more bearable.

Yummy! Healthy!

I've got a recipe for you!  This is my own recipe for homemade chicken fingers.  My children and husband LOVE them.  They could eat them several nights a week.  Guess what?  I use whole wheat flour to make them.  And they can be oven or pan fried in olive oil.  They are super easy, much healthier than the processed mystery chicken in the frozen foods aisle, and they are delicious.  So here you go:

I make these using the chicken tenderloins I buy in a large package at Aldi.  I defrost them, first.  This is about how much chicken it takes to feed my family of five dinner, plus have some leftover for B's lunch the next day.

While the chicken tenderloins are defrosting in the microwave, I prepare my whole wheat coating.  For this amount of chicken, I use about 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour.  I then add (dried/powdered) garlic, paprika, salt, pepper, parsley flakes, and basil (basil makes anything delicious).  I have no hard and fast measurements for these seasonings.  I do it according to whim.  If I want the chicken fingers to taste more Italian, I use more Italian seasonings.  If I want them spicy, I add more pepper and garlic, maybe even chili and cumin.  A tip: when using whole wheat, it is best to use more seasoning than you would with white flour.  This is how mine looks before mixing.

And after mixing well....

Next step is to get your eggs ready as part of the dipping process.  I prefer to use fake eggs (see below) since I don't have to worry about salmonella and cholesterol.  If you want the real deal, just beat two eggs well with a fork.  You could also choose to dip your chicken into milk.  Again, I prefer about 1/3 cup of egg substitute.

 

After preparing the egg dip, I pull out my large frying pan and put it on the stove.  I turn my stove on to medium low (my stove cooks prettty hot, you made need to adjust this according to the way your own stove works) and cover the bottom of the pan with olive oil.  While the oil is heating, I line up all my ducks in a row, so to speak:

I like to put everything in the order in which it will be dipped, just to save time and spare my stove and countertop from additional mess.  (Don't you love how shiny the stove looks today?)  So I put the bowls in order of chicken, egg dip, flour coating, and frying pan.  With the oil now hot in the pan, I begin to dip.

I dip each tenderloin into the egg substitute, then drop it in the flour mixture, coating it well on both sides.  Once coated, I throw it into the frying pan, where it is joined by other coated tenderloins until the pan is full.

I let them sizzle for approximately 4 minutes, then turn them.  They turn a beautiful golden brown color.

I let them cook for an additional 4 minutes on this side, then flip them 2 more times for approximately 2 minutes per side.  Before I take them out of the pan, I cut into the center of one, and make sure that it is cooke through.  I sometimes need to add a little oil to the pan during cooking, just so things don't dry out.  I repeat this process with the remaining tenderloins.  Here is a look at the finished chicken fingers:

Don't they look great?  The whole wheat flour gives them a slightly nutty flavor, and the other seasonings really add to that.  You can add a little chicken broth to the pan after they've cooked, to make a gravy from the drippings.  This is a must if you are serving these with mashed potatoes or biscuits.  Enjoy!

I've been busy!

"Hmmph," you must be thinking.  "So this is going to be one of those blogs."  The kind where the blogger posts lots of entries in just a few days.....then posts NOTHING for days and days.  (Perhaps even months and months.) 

I will reply to those of you who had the above thoughts with the following pictorial evidence.

Exibit A:  The back hallway and several kitchen walls BEFORE.  Okay, okay, it is really DURING. 

For those of you who may be thinking, "What color is that?"  My answer is, "Exactly."  That color is not due to my lack of photographic skill alone.  That IS the color of my walls.  I call it, "Gacky Sage."  I don't think Ralph Lauren will steal the patent on it.  It has been this color since we bought the house.  Previous Owner obviously loved it, because it is EVERYWHERE.  (Cue the scary music.)  We're talking on every wall of the 800 square feet of kitchen/great room, plus the front entrance, stairway, and upstairs hallway. 

Please understand, I love a good sage green.  B and I installed the coolest countertops in our Connecticut Cottage kitchen (first home) that were several shades of sage green.  They looked fantastic.  I'm just not a fan of Gacky Sage.  Everywhere.  And would you believe that before B installed new lighting, there were only three overhead lights in the entire 800 square feet?  Yes, three.  It was dark and dreary.  Sort of like vampire lair in a mossy cave.  That bad.  Anyway, new lighting helped considerably with the cave effect, but the walls were still Gacky Sage.  It has hampered my decorating considerably.  (Or at least been a great scapegoat.)  The reason we haven't changed it before now was there were so many other rooms that were WORSE.  Color-wise, I mean.  (Moldy Chocolate in the Master Bedroom, anyone?)  But I digress.  Let's move along to Exibit B, also known as AFTER:

Not the best picture, here.  Sorry!  But look at this one:

I'm so excited!  I've only finished four walls, and it took me several days to get them just right.  There was lots of prep work.  And lots of touching up.  Next, I'll be moving on to the dining area of my kitchen.  I want to get this project finished before our big fall party at the end of October.  Wish me luck--and don't expect to see daily blog updates until I'm finished!

Oh, and let me mention one other thing.  I forgot to mention why I'm so utterly proud of my work on this silly little hallway and two walls.  This is my first solo home improvement project.  B, my husband, is the most talented (fill in the blank, here) EVER.  I'm serious about fill in the blank.  Whatever he touches turns to gold.  The results of his home improvment projects are stunning.  So I tend to give him a few suggestions that lead him to believe something was his idea, then turn him loose.  When it comes to painting, I'm very good at prep work and trim.  This is the first time I've ever attempted the entire project myself.  I'm so proud of me!  (And so is B.)

In the words of Anne of Green Gables, "We must be Kindred Spirits."

I've recently discovered another fun blog, Tatertots and Jello.  On first glance, I thought Jennifer must be one of those superwomen who can do anything--with one arm tied behind her back and a baby in the other....you know the kind I'm talking about, the kind that you secretly hate because she can do anything and do it beautifully, efficiently, and her house stays clean the whole time she's doing everything.  (Was that a psycho sentence, or what?)  And she probably is.  But her lates offering shows that she is also a woman after my own heart.  And by that, I mean the woman can fake sew with a glue gun!!!!!  I cannot tell you how many costumes for children I have "sewn", ahem, glued.  But today Jennifer shows all of us how to go beyond that and glue KITCHEN CURTAINS!  Amazing.  Click the pink words to go to her blog or the (did I mention they are burlap? and only cost $20 to make?) curtain tutorial.

Want more?  Click here to take a look at how Jennifer decorated her house for fall.  She SAYS she got everything from the dollar store.  Why don't I find things like this?

Fall Garden

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

I am an intermittent gardener. That means I don't spend everyday in the garden. Sometimes I even go weeks without remembering to do anything to my gardens. But when I'm out there, I love it, I really do. I must have Gardener's Attention Deficit Disorder. So I purposely design my gardens to be very forgiving. (The results are disastrous and expensive if I don't.)

So, here are some pics of what my front garden beds do in early fall when just left to their own devices. Note: this requires lots of bark mulch and pulling out the stalk of corn growing randomly near the birdfeeder before taking pictures in order to achieve a similar outcome. Enjoy!

A Call from the School Nurse, cont'd

Okay, so after a full night of sleep (Hunter Puppy didn't wake up even once! He slept through the night!) let me return to the School Nurse story. Where were we? I told all about coumadin, and how crazy things were with the school....okay: basically, things being as they were before school started, they wouldn't even let me meet with the kindergarten teacher before the first day of school. B and I were able to meet with the principal and school nurse the week before school started. I put a lot of effort into making and illustrated handout that detailed all of S's medical issues, explained coumadin and the risk of accidents, went over emergency protocol, and provided every phone number I could. Wheew! I even brought them a stack of red towels to use for nosebleeds or other issues of blood. When B and I met with the school nurse and principal, our goal was to basically scare their socks off so that they would be committed to providing S with adequate supervision. It must have worked, because shortly after our meeting the school board approved the hiring of an additional kindergarten teacher.

But I was still nervous, sending S off to school that first day. I have worked so hard these last few years to keep her healthy and safe and help her to reach her full potential. It was terrifying thinking that a push on the playground could potentially erase all we've achieved in the past five years. So I prayed hard, mustered faith and hope, and put S on the bus that first day. (Then I jumped in my van and raced to the school so I could be there when she got off the bus!)

She looked so small getting off the bus! But she was SO EXCITED to be going to school, "just like E and J." How could I deny her that experience?

Obviously, I couldn't. But that didn't stop me from jumping every single time the phone rang for the first two weeks of school. Then I started to breathe more easily. Yesterday, when the phone rang, I was actually surprised to see the school identified on caller I.D. It was the school nurse. S was having a nosebleed. (My heart jumped up in my throat. S's nosebleeds can be really, really awful.) But it seemed to be stopping. (Really? Already? Yay!) And S had found her red towel herself and let her teacher know she was bleeding. (Good for S!) She should be able to return to class in just a few moments. (Easy as that? No way!)

And that was that. Anti-climatic, eh? Hope it stays that way!

Warning: Excessive Posting Occurring In this Jurisdiction

Yes, I admit it: two posts in a day is a tad excessive. Especially since I went, um, nine months between my first and second posts. But I'm enjoying this! (Hard to tell, right?)

Still haven't figured out the picture downloading stuff, and I don't dare try without supervision of technical wonderboy, B. It drives him nuts that I can't remember how to do this stuff after he shows me once. Good thing I'm around to keep him humble.

Anyway, after my two paragraph non-introduction to this post, let me tell you what I was going to tell you. (Drumroll please.....) I had my first call from the school nurse this year. About S.

Perhaps more explanation is necessary for anyone reading this who doesn't know us well. S's heart functions because of a prosthetic mitral valve that was implanted when she was a baby. (Actually, she's on her second prosthetic valve, the first was replaced last December.) The prosthetic valve functions because S takes a blood thinning medication, coumadin, that prevents blood clots from forming around it. Our blood is designed to clot around foreign objects, but in the case of a heart valve, you don't want a clot to form. So coumadin helps make S's blood extra thin. It also makes our lives very interesting.

Coumadin is notoriously hard to regulate. Many, many factors can change the way it works in the body. So we do regular blood work--usually at home, with our own machine--and I've learned to do the dosing depending on her numbers. S's numbers are all over, mainly because coumadin wasn't designed for children. But it is our only option, so we deal.

Coumadin can also be dangerous. When your blood isn't supposed to clot around an artificial heart valve, it doesn't do such a good job of clotting anyplace else, either. People who take coumadin are at an increased risk for bruising, bleeding, and (worst case) hemorrhage. This means that small injuries could have really, really bad outcomes if we are not completely on the ball. A bump to the head, for instance, could result in brain hemorrhage. Bloody noses can last, literally, for hours. Routine outpatient surgeries turn into multiple week hospitalizations. And minor accidents can cause bruising like this:

That is a picture of S, a week after she pulled a chair over that bumped her in--obviously--the eye. You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you that this occurred in the month of January, and in April of that same year my sis-in-law had to do some creative photoshopping to the SAME bruise so it wouldn't join us in the family portrait.

Above bruise was particularly nasty. We have been very, very blessed that our very active and fearless S has not had many other accidents like that one.

So, back to the school nurse. Imagine what it was like to face sending S to kindergarten this fall. I had been dreading the start of public school for well over two years. I was a little freaked about preschool, last year, but I had lots of confidence in the preschool I picked. The teachers were absolutely wonderful, and she only had eight children in her class. But kindergarten was a different story. Also a longer story. For the sake of brevity, let me just provide you with the barest details: principal resigned shortly before school started, school board thought they might save money by not hiring a replacement, decided to cut a kindergarten class, S was going to be in a class of 27 originally, board rethought previous decisions under pressure and hired a new principal and additional kindergarten teacher two days before school started!!!!!

Hey, I just looked at the clock. It is time to shut down the computer and have some Quality Time with my favorite (and only!) husband. This entry will be continued.......