You Put Your What in Where?

For the past 2 months at least one member of our family has been ill. Many days it has been multiple sickies and I'm fed up with it.

After spending all of Sunday in bed due to a serious sinus infection, I finally broke down and called the doctor. He called me in a prescription, bless his heart. On Monday Sofie began to run a temp and Chase continued the fever he'd been running all weekend. Again, I rang up the doc and he invited us all to come in for a little look-see.

When I arrived, I received both the news I'd expected AND a little surprise as well. Sofie was diagnosed with a sinus infection. Seems she takes after her mommy. The doctor looked in Chase's left ear and pronounced it infected. He moved to the right ear and peered into his ear canal for quite some time as he contorted himself to get a better view.

Feeling guilty that I'd not cleaned Chase's ears prior to the visit, I asked if it was filled with 'gunk'. Doc said it wasn't 'gunk' but he was not sure what exactly it was he was seeing.

After irrigating the small boy's ear, we left the office with a diagnosis of double ear infections AND two small pink beads wrapped in gauze.

Knowing my little dress-wearing gender-bending four year old, he was only trying to wear 'eeings' (earrings) when he placed the beads into his hear.

Now that Chase's ear is beadless and we are all on antiobiotics, hopefully we can all be well at the same time. If not, look for the national headlines, 'MOTHER OF SIX CAUGHT TRYING TO FLEE NEBRASKA IN HOPES OF FINDING WARMER CLIMATE'.

My Sofie! 

All Dressed Up & No Place to Go

It has happened again. I made plans to go somewhere and a kid got sick. Of course, sick kids are the norm around this house lately. Every time one of them gets better, another falls victim to the lastest malady circulating through the public school system. I can't even say that things would be better if I homeschooled. With six children, sickness just perculates among them all. I've spent a fortune this 'cold and flu season' on waterless germ killers and Lysol.

The sickie today is seven-year-old Sofie. She has had a fever and her tummy hurts. Bless her heart, she really wanted to go to the surprise birthday party we had plans to attend this evening.

Since she's under the weather I thought I'd post her picture on here so she can see herself on the computer. Vanity is high on her list of attributes and I know this will cheer her right up. She joined our family at the ripe old age of 19 months from Bulgaria. Being born with only her right leg has not slowed her down one iota. She wears a prosthesis and informed me last week that she is in the 'toppest box of jump-ropers' in P.E. She is a major chatterbox and talks in a cartoon-ish voice. She loves to admire herself in any shiney surface. When she was younger I'd often find her gazing at her distorted reflection in doorknobs.

So, here is a picture of my little one-legged Bulgarian. She's joy in my heart and I hope she feels better soon. And I'm not just saying that because I have plans to go away for the weekend, either!

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Why Can't I Catch Up?

Where do the days go? Does time fly by so quickly because I'm getting older? If so, well that just stinks. It's now that I'm older that I NEED more time. No fair that it zips off more quickly just when I'm really needing it.

Every day when I get up I have a plan for the day. My plan normally includes making meals, making sure kids get to school and then activities, getting our business bookwork completed and meeting various other deadlines involved with running a household of eight. My plan just doesn't have room for some things...like cleaning up my office, giving my shower a serious scrubbing or organizing the stray Tupperware lids and precariously stacked cookie sheets and bundt cake pans in the kitchen.

Every morning I think I should be scouring the shower while I'm scouring myself. Sadly, I shower so quickly I don't even have time to scrub the shower while I'm in there. I usually just feel guilty and go on with my day.

Tomorrow I'm taking a big step. I'm having a professional organizer come over and attack my unruly kitchen! She says I don't have to be right beside her the entire time which is good since my kids don't have school tomorrow and my 2nd grader has a fever today.

Carrie (that's her name) has her work cut out for her. I'm busy, ADD, disorganized and I don't like to cook in the first place. My kitchen is a mess. I told her organize it however she thought best and then just tell me where my stuff is!

Next week we will attempt to organize the office. Wish us luck! Well...wish Carrie luck. :)

Is Blogging for Me?

Well here I am. Quietly slipping into the world of Blog. Given that I'm virtually inundated with random thoughts on a daily basis, I thought I might just 'blog' a few. Writing my weekly column in the Columbus Telegram is exciting and all, but it requires so much actual thought. I'm looking forward to just a little daily blogging.

In the days to come you'll meet my big crazy family. I'll introduce them one by one and I'm sure that out of the 7 of them you'll find at least one that you can relate to.

I'd write more now, but my column was due at noon today and I haven't even started it.