I, Dr. Liz will now answer any questions concerning the swine flu (a.k.a. H1N1R2D2C3P0 flu)  I will share with you some questions I have received in the past week.

1. Dear Dr.Liz,  I am really worried our family will catch the H1N1 virus and we won't know if we have it.  What are some of the symptoms?

Nervous in North Dakota.

Dear Nervous,

Here are the following symptoms: 

High fever, low fever, seizures with fever, no seizures with fever, you may become delirious with fever, you may not become delirious with fever, fever that won't go away with aspirin, fever that will go away with aspirin, fever that only goes away with advil, fever that stays low only with Tylenol, fever that lasts two days, fever that lasts 5 days, fever that comes and goes for 3-5 days.  Aches throughout your entire body, aches in only your legs, back aches, neck aches, no aches at all, really bad headache, mild headache, headache that goes away with tylenol, hardly a headache, headache that may or may not go away with aspirin, bad sore throat, mild sore throat, no sore throat at all, vomiting, no vomiting, mild coughing, coughing your head off, you may want to sleep a lot, you may have insomnia (this symptom only happens to three year olds), stuffy nose, no stuffy nose, burning eyes, eyes that don't burn, loss of appetite, gaining of an appetite.  

Those are the most popular symptoms I have seen this past week.  I hope I summed it up for you.  I got most of this helpful information off the government website.  They made symptoms of the swine flu, uh, sorry H1N1 very, very clear. 

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2. Dear Dr.Liz, What kinds of food do you recommend eating while you are sick with the flu?

Worried in Washington

Dear Worried,

It depends?  If you are healthy, and you are the primary care taker of the sick ones, make sure you give them lots of healthy liquids. Natural juices, fresh squeezed if possible (if you have a juicer, carrot juice is great) lots of vitamin C, water and of course, homemade chicken soup.  Banana bran muffins or oatmeal is a warming and calming breakfast.

If you are sick, and your children are also sick, then you are allowed to eat whatever you want.  Old sour gummy worms found in the back of the cabinet, ice cream, maybe a cookie, these things are fine!  If they want 7-up from the basement that you were saving for Thanksgiving dinner, go ahead and give it to them.  They will not die, they will actually be happier sick kids!   

Proverbs 17:22 "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones."  Do you want your children's bones to dry up???

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3. Dear Dr.Liz, I have been coughing so hard it's starting to worry me.  I can't take a breath without having to cough.  My ears are sore, my head is hurting, and I feel like my eyeballs are going to fall out, are they?

Coughing in Colorado

Dear Coughing,

So you have no voice left, hot tea and honey aren't doing a thing for you, the cough drops only work while you breath through your nose and concentrate on NOT coughing, and you can't get out one sentence without hacking away!  Am I getting this right? 

Well Coughing, there is no, no, no need to worry!  Look on the bright side, you may be in pain now, but by the time this is over you will have the tightest abs your side of the Mississippi!!!

P.S. No one has ever lost eyeballs from coughing!

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4. Dear Dr.Liz,  Our whole family has come down with the flu except my husband.   The sweety has taken the past couple days off of work to care for us even though I said he could go in.  But I am beginning to now sense some impatience in him.  One minute he is fine, and the next he's, hmmmm, how can I put this.....not fine?  He firmly tells me to lay back down when I get up.  He has the entire house sterilized with alcohol and bleach, and he really doesn't want any of us touching things like refrigerator door handles, or cabinet knobs.  So he has made and gotten all of us juice himself, cooked homemade soup and brought us anything we ask for.  I don't understand why right before bedtime he looks like he's going to explode and isn't very happy when someone asks for a story or yet another drink of water.  I feel terrible that he has been thrust into the role of mommy and nurse all at once. I feel as if I should get up out of bed and take some of the load off of him even though I too have a fever of 103?  The guilt is overwhelming! I need some advice here.

Ill in Illinois

Dear Ill,

If hubby has taken off work even though you said to go, that's the first sign that he's a compassionate and loving man.  It's hard for a husband to jump in and do all that a mom does, especially when everyone is sick.  Right now he's feeling overworked and under appreciated.  He is probably missing having your help with the children, and he's probably missing his wife's "companionship"!  The combination of these two things will often create a cranky husband.  Don't worry, he loves you, and he doesn't mean to occasionally be short tempered.  After all, we women get this way too after taking care of little sick people for days and days with the worry of becoming ill ourselves!  Your dear husband just needs to know that you love and appreciate all that he is doing for you and your family!  Try and defeat the urge to punch him should something sarcastic come out of his mouth. Your chance to care for him may be coming up shortly should he suddenly come down with this sickness.  And the man swine flu is much, much worse than any other flu women and children get! That's what I've heard! 

P.S. You wrote that he made you homemade chicken soup???  That alone should make you stop writing whiny wife letters!!!  Most husbands would open up a can of Campbells!!!

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5.  Dear Dr.Liz, We have swine flu in our house.  My daughter has been in the same dress she picked out to wear on Sunday morning after her bath.  It is now Tuesday night, she is currently still wearing it and  just went to bed with it on again.  Should I be concerned about changing her clothing yet?

Tired of seeing it in Texas.

Dear Tired of seeing it,

Let me see, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.....Oh no, no, no absolutely NOT!  Don't you know there is a "week change" grace period when there is sickness in the house?  One week's worth of  wear is only a one day's worth when sick. As long as you change your daughter by Saturday night you are juuuuust fine! She still has a couple more days to go!   No need to worry, the fashion police won't be showing up on your doorstep!  You should also be thankful for the lack of laundry you will have waiting for you when you are all feeling better!!!

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Ok, well that's all I have time for today folks. Join me next time when we discuss "How to repair your marriage after your husband reads question #4 on your xanga post!"

If you know Jeff and I, you know we joke with each other all the time.  He is doing a great job taking care of us, and I really do appreciate him!!!

(Thanks Jeff, I love you!)

Try and stay healthy!!!

...for Sunday worship in the back seat of the Suburban with mom's camera!

Little boys, that's all I can say!!!

I saw this dessert on Gabrielle's blog and had to try it!  Her pictures are much, much more appetizing!  Go check them out. 

My picture will make you say ~ " Hmmm, I'd maybe eat that blurry thing if I was starving to death!"

Her picture (as all her food pictures will) make you say ~ "I NEED to eat one of those right now!!!" 

Even though the picture isn't that great, in real life, these apples tasted fabulous!  I made a caramel sauce and poured it over the tops to add extra calories....I mean sweetness!  I baked seven of them, and they looked really pretty all sitting in my pan together!  Not to mention the wonderful aroma!!!  So fall-ish! =)

   I wish the weekend was longer. =( I asked Jeff to take off work tomorrow as I do every Sunday night and got my usual......."Uh, No, I need to make money.  Why do you ask me every Sunday if you already know my answer?"   Why?  Because I am holding onto the smidge of hope that one Sunday he says " Yeah, sure! I'd love to, we don't really need money anymore!"

Speaking of money, today in church, that is what the sermon was about.  Very, very insightful!

I Timothy 6:9 ~ But they that will be rich......

"Who are they that are rich" Pastor Lutzer asked us??? 

If you have food on your table, if you have clothes on your body, if you have a decent house to live in, if you have a job, the writer is talking to YOU!  Who is it that we are comparing ourselves to?  People with more or less than us?  We must learn to be content with what we have!

If we sit and dwell on what we don't have and think about all that we want and "need", we will soon be ungrateful and discontent!  

There is great gain in Godliness with contentment! ~ I Timothy 6:6

Well, I must go and be content with having only an hour left of the weekend with my husband! 

Have a good night!

The kids are all quietly finishing their school (except for the melodious whistling I am hearing out of child #2!), my house is all tidy, the washing machine and dryer are gently humming, and the aroma of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies is filling the air.  How did I get this all in place?  By being firm for one day!  By sticking to my word instead of just threatening!

Yesterday, 1:00 in the afternoon and morning chores are STILL NOT DONE!  The boys beds are unmade, and their room is only half clean!  They all woke up between 6:00am and 7:00am, which means they had now been awake for at least 6 hours!  I had mentioned more than once for them to get their work done.  So what was it that they were doing all day besides ignoring me???  Well, their was a tent built in the living room, a Lego helicopter constructed on the dresser, coloring papers and crayons out, and a few books scattered here and there.  I had been busy doing my own things, and hadn't realized how out of hand the house was getting.  Now I was mad!  We have been very busy the past couple months, and our schedule has been a little topsy turvy.  I can see that we have gotten into some bad habits around here, and the house not being very organized and scheduled was becoming a problem.  Now that we're calming down, I have had time to get things in order ~ switch over summer /winter clothes, clean closets, keep bedtimes...etc.

The boys have been being a little lazy when it comes to their work around here.  I was at my wits end, when God blessed me with the most wonderful idea EVER!!! 

I called the boys upstairs to my room and told them we were switching jobs for the rest of the day.  The three of them were now mom, and I was three little boys.  I wrote out a list of everything I still had to do for the day and handed it over.  All tasks were to be completed before bed!  Tyler read it out loud for everyone.

~Laundry was to be washed, dried, folded and put away. (They ended up doing five loads!)

~Dinner made - I cooked a roast the other day, they had to slice it and put it in the crock pot with BBQ sauce.  They also had to take care of all the side dishes to go along with the sandwiches.  (They almost had to bake bread, but lucky for them, Jeff brought a loaf of french bread home!)

~They had to make sure the entire kitchen and dining room were cleaned and swept after dinner. We usually share jobs, but tonight it was all them! 

~I had bought a case of corn on the cob to freeze for winter, that needed to be done.  Husks taken off, blanched, bagged and put into the freezer.

~Kitchen floor washed.

~ Monday- the girls bath night.

~The girls also had to have their story read, and be put into bed.  (Remember to brush teeth!)

~The house at the end of the day needed to have a quick pick up.

Since I was now "the boys", I had two bathrooms to clean, a hallway to sweep, area rugs to vacuum, a family room to straighten and dust, and a bedroom to clean up.  (I even went as far as rearranging all their furniture for a little fun. The room got a great big scrub down!)

Their work load didn't take me long at all.  Ahhhhhh, now what to do with all this free time I had???  It felt a little awkward to have nothing to do.  I always have a million things running through my mind that need to be done.

I started feeling a little harsh around 6:00 when I could hear them still cooking dinner. (we normally eat around 5:00)  I felt very, very out of place.  Usually I'm the one in the kitchen working, now I'm sitting here reading a new fall decorating magazine!  They had  been working all afternoon.  It took everything in me NOT to go in and help.  I so badly wanted to make it easier on them, but they had to learn a lesson.  I didn't want them to continue ignoring their responsibilities.  Jeff and I want the kids to have a good work ethic. People today view work as a bad thing, and it's not!  

I am married to the hardest worker I know.  Jeff gives 110% to any job he does.  Big, small, it doesn't matter!  He is dependable, and thorough, and I want this character quality passed down to my kids!  Boys especially! They are going to have to provide for their own families one day. Good work skills are better learned at a young age!!! 

So I stayed out of the kitchen and dining room until I was called in for dinner!

Our plates were set at the table ~ BBQ sandwiches, corn on the cob, applesauce, cut peppers, and potato chips.  Glasses filled, complete with ice!  I was very impressed.  After dinner they cleaned up the kitchen,  picked up the house, got the girls ready for bed and were now ready for bed themselves.  They were only an hour behind our normal schedule.  Not too bad for three new mommies.

They finished the whole entire list without complaining. Not even once!  

Each one of the boys came to me on their own, before bed and apologized for not doing their chores earlier in the day.  They asked if I would forgive them.  One of the boys was crying and said thank you for always making dinner and washing his clothes for him.   Yay!  It was all sinking in! 

When I went up to kiss them goodnight, they all said they were very happy to NOT be me!  

Thank you God for the lesson learned! I could've sent them to their room, I could've taken something of theirs away, but this had a much greater impact!  This morning, I didn't mention once to get a job done!  Without being told all chores were finished before school was even close to starting!!!  There were no complaints, and everyone was in a happy mood.

Creative parenting!  It relieves so much stress!  Don't get mad, get creative!!! 

A few random pictures ~

jk

If tomatoes need to be picked from the garden, wait until it's pouring down rain!  That way you can find a need for your new ponchos!!!

Remember when I wrote about the big pumpkin patch we had growing in the corner of our yard?  We ended up getting around 40 pumpkins and gourds!  This one was the biggest.  It was growing high up on the corner of the fence. It's so heavy, I can't believe it didn't fall!

The front of our house all decorated for the season.

This is one of those posts that has been written over the past couple days.  Write a little, get busy, come back, write a little, save on private, come back to it...!!!  It's been two days now since the boys had the big work load, and today they were still good about chores!  We have some sniffly noses this week, and one sore throat.  It's dreary and cold today, high 47!  It's a great day stay in and bake!  I think it's going to be a chicken pot pie night!  It's so cozy inside, all we're missing is Jeff!  I wish he could be home all day with us!!! 

 I hope you have a fabulous day!

 Last Thursday, it was Alex's birthday.  He turned 10, which now makes Jeff and I parents of two kids in double digits .  I can't believe how time flies. 

~Some birthday traditions in our house ~

The chair you sit at around the table is decorated. (this is a passed on tradition in my family)

You get to eat an egg souffle of your choice at Panera Bread.  (the rest of us eat bagels!)

You also get to choose a meal for dinner, whatever you want! (The strangest one we had so far over the years....sugar cereal, or as we call it junk cereal. Yes, we had Fruit Loops and Cocoa Puffs for dinner!) 

If your birthday lands during the school year, we take the day off!  (Just one of the many perks of being homeschooled!)

The morning of Alex's birthday, I had my brothers Caleb and Ben over.  They had spent the night.  So all of us went over to Panera.  I ordered our bagels and Alex's four cheese egg souffle.  The sweet girl taking care of us started asking questions.....

"Are these all your kids?"

"Don't they have school today?"

"Do you like homeschooling?  I don't know if I could handle doing that."

"Are you guys Italian?" (she herself was very Italian!)

"Are you Catholic?"  (Ok, she didn't ask this one, but it usually follows the "Are you Italian" question!)

As we were talking, I told her how we come here for birthdays, and how the birthday boy or girl always gets an egg souffle.  She thought that was a great idea, but said she thought everyone should have one on this particular day.  She pulled out a big box with a pretty paper doily on the bottom and filled it with egg souffles for everyone!!!  That was $32.00 worth of egg souffle she gave us for FREE!!!  Wasn't that so nice???!!!???

After we left Panera, we went to this great park to eat our breakfast.  I used to take Tyler and Alex there all the time when they were younger and just hadn't been back for quite a while.  At least 5 years!

There was the giant hill........

There was the baseball field........

A baseball field, and we had NO bat and ball!  So they played a very short mock version before getting bored of imagining hits and runs!

It's a HIT! He's running to first, he rounds second......he makes it to third and slides into home plate...IT'S A HOME RUN!!!

There was the pond.....

Oodles of toads to find.

There was the bridge.....

I just kept picturing myself jumping into lily pads and slime to retrieve someone.  Thankfully no one went over!!!  I should've believed them when they kept telling me they wouldn't fall!!!

The Paths........

The illegal flower picking....Shhhhh....they didn't know!

Hope the start of your week is wonderful!

Psalm 117 ~  O Praise the Lord all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.  For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.  Praise ye the Lord!

Happy Monday!

We haven't had much of a summer here this year.  It stayed in the 70's and low 80's most of the time. Today is 90% chance of rain all day, high 69.  It's quite chilly.  I made cinnamon french toast for breakfast while the kids stayed bundled up in blankets all morning.  It was only 59 when we woke up. Brrr.....  The kitchen smelled like a morning out of the month of October.  But when I look out the window, I see all my green tomatoes and wonder......are they ever going to turn red???  The temperature feels like it's not summer anymore, but it is!  It should be hot and sunny this time of year.  What happened to the dog days of August???

In the late 1800's they had a summer similar to the one we've been having, but even colder.  They got snow in July which killed all the crops and made for a very lean winter.  A lot of people died from starvation.  Isn't it amazing that even in the middle of a Chicago winter, we are able to get fresh fruit these days!  We can find anything we want in the grocery stores.  We don't have to plan ahead to survive like they used to.  We could get away without canning and freezing and storing up.  We have the convenience of running out to one of the many stores nearby to pick up whatever it is that we need!

I still like to can and freeze and store up.  It's nice to have it, especially during those snowy, freezing weeks that I don't feel like going out!  I also just like doing it!  Thinking about the weather that will be upon us in a couple months is giving me cabin fever already!  So for now I am trying to hang on to as much of summer as I can!  Spending as much time as we can outside, riding bikes and going for walks.

The other day the kids and I went to the park and played tennis.  I get a very good workout playing with them.  Running back and forth across the court you're thinking....ummm, no, let me explain. 

Playing tennis with a seven year old ~

1.Serve ball to seven year old.

2.Wait while seven year old retrieves your serve that passed him by even though he did indeed swing his racket.

3.Seven year old serves ball back to you, which flies into next court.

4. Go get the ball, run back to your court.

5. Serve ball to seven year old again.

6. Repeat steps 2-4.  

7. Repeat steps 1-6 again and again and again and again and again and again and again.......and again!

8. Seven year old serves ball, ball sprouts wings and flies off to Neverland.

Game Over!!!

The two older boys are getting a little better.  Especially Tyler, he can carry on with me for a while.

Then we were on our way home and took the short cut through the state park, and stopped for a quick walk on one of the paths.

Tyler posed everyone for a picture! A little blurry, but oh well!

Found these guys eating the leaves on some plants.  I have no idea what kind of bugs they are, we're assuming some sort of caterpillar.  They were pretty creepy looking to me.

Whenever these yellow flowers start to bloom, I start to sneeze and itch and sneeze and sneeze!

The fall months are such a fun time to decorate.  I am always looking forward to the cozy look of pumpkins and gourds, cornstalks and candles that smell like fresh baked apple pie!

I do end up buying lots of pumpkins and gourds.  I put them all over inside and out!  At the end of every season, the boys and Jeff have what they call a pumpkin smashing festival.  I was trying to find pictures from last year, but couldn't.  These were from 2007.

They go out in the backyard and smash up every gourd and pumpkin they can find!

Well, this spring we were delighted to find a little surprise sprouting up in the back corner of our yard!

PUMPKINS AND GOURDS!!!  All different kinds!  They are taking over the back fence and creeping over into our neighbor's yard.  We told them whatever grows on their side they can keep!  They do have some pumpkins over there!  How fun, I can't wait to pick them all and see what we get!

I hope next year some of the seeds take again!

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I wish I they made scratch and sniff computer screens so that you could smell my wonderful thyme and basil!  I have both of these in my herb garden this year.

Thyme is one of my favorite herbs to cook with.  I use it in so many things.  And I absolutely love the way it smells!

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A couple weeks ago we had Jeff's mom, sister and cousin over for the day.  The kids went swimming and ran around playing like kids do!

We also sang Happy Birthday to Allison with her cousins.

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Last weekend Jeff's cousins came over for a backyard camp-out!  We roasted marshmallows, made smore's and had a dinner of real outdoorsmen....Chinese takeout!(pizza for the kids!)

I found these enormous marshmallows at a little Mexican store out here. You can see how big they are, Jeff is holding one in each hand.  They were almost too big to eat, I can only handle so much marshmallow!  The kids on the other hand thought they were great!

Well, there's a bit of catching up I did.  I haven't posted in a while.  It seems like xanga is blooming again, I am seeing posts from people that haven't really posted that much this summer.

Hope you have a blessed day!