Category Archives: Life

To flu vaccinate or no….

An interesting debate to be sure and I’m curious to see why YOU have to say about this. Of course, this won’t be all serious, I do have some funny-ish stuff to report as well 😉

So, a few months back I heard Mac and Katherine on Catholic in a Small Town podcast discussing Katherine’s preference NOT to get the flu vaccine….#203, you can check it out on iTunes…and it got me thinking about the flu vaccine and WHY do I bother each year? Is it worth it? What am I subjecting myself to? It opened up an internal can o’ worms for certain.

Anyhoooo…I work in the medical field, my employer provides the vaccine to me at no cost each year and so, I get the vaccine. I’ve not had the flu in 10 years and quite frankly, would prefer to not have it again. However….due to the controversial issues on the flu vaccine for our kids…I’ve not had them get a flu shot. Ever. That I remember, anyway. Questionable ingredients, 62%ish effectiveness rate, roll of the dice on which strain we’ll actually come in contact with, ACK…it’s too much, so we’ve opted out. However…..things ’bout to change in these parts!

Our 15 yo son came down with Flu B last weekend. I already blogged on all THAT fun here if you missed it the first time around and the kid ended up missing a WHOLE FLIPPIN’ WEEK OF SCHOOL!!! yes, High School. Good times. The kicker is that I actually started getting sick at the end of the week last week, sucked it up for a couple of days (chalking it up to allergies and pollen), however, by Saturday afternoon–after an ENTIRE day of solo and ensemble stuff with our 13 yo and tag-along 9 yo daughter, I came home and went to bed and got up yesterday. Monday. Ugh. Fever’s gone and I was back to work today, but still…..ain’t. quite. right. And I WAS vaccinated!!! WTH??!?!? So when I brought the 15yo BACK to the doc yesterday for additional antibiotics for “possible” pneumonia still not resolved as a result of his flu….I decided next year EVERYONE gets the vaccine. Mine didn’t last as long as his, certainly wasn’t as brutal and you know “Ain’t NOBODY got time for that” to be staying home with sick kids, for kids to be missing a week of schoolwork (the stuff the teachers didn’t email…) and we ALL know Mama don’t have time to be sick..even though Daddy is a pretty fantastic taker-carer.

So, what’s your take? Flu vaccine or no?

On the upside…..I got a TON of reading in. Finished Screwtape letters, almost finished A year of biblical womanhood, completely caught up on my Daily Catechism readings—(I MAY have been 3 weeks behind). Mailed a long overdue encouragement card and ordered The Power of Positive Thinking to go with said card. Slept so much my back ached. Lost a few pounds. Woke up from a nap to find Hubby and 75% of the kids playing Monopoly….WITHOUT blood shed. True. No joke. Prayed. (It was a good few days to be on my heart…you are so covered it’s ridiculous). Continue to play with PicMonkey and learn a little more.

Phew. It’s been a long couple days.

A day off: spring is springing and the flu has flung!

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Don’t worry, the WHOLE post won’t be a play-by-play of all the sick deets of our household, just the funnyish bits and lo, they are a plenty.

Our swell journey o’ sickness began Saturday afternoon when our oldest son phoned for a pick-up from his skate day…..at 4:30!!! For this kid, who will skate from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. given the opp, when he asked for a 4:30 pick up, well….that wasn’t ’bout to be good for anyone. And so his day ended with an early shower and to bed.

The fun really didn’t begin until about Midnight thirty (smack in the middle of REM sleep) on Monday when our sweet little almost 6 footer stumbled in our bedroom with a nice little rage of a fever and some apparent hallucinations. We managed to get him out in the living room just as he went completely limp with Hubby catching him on the way down and myself mildly assisting (and slightly pulling my back). Fortunately, he didn’t get hurt…unfortunately when he went to use the restroom a few minutes later, it happened again….fortunately the shower curtain/wall combo is strong like bull and Hubby is quick like lightning. 2 concussions averted in a matter of minutes. Adrenaline rush? Yup. Finally managed to get him to take some ginger ale and Tylenol and after some cool compress apps, he managed to settle down and slept on a palette in our room until 2:30 a.m…..when he opted to return to his bed….no, the couch…ugh. Spinal needle to the eye, please.

Last night/this morning, almost the same time frame, we had another visit, another episode of big boy managing to get me out of bed to help him only to have him climb in and take my spot. Then back to his bed where he curled in a ball and said “C’mon guys, you can fit, c’mon up, there’s room”…then back out to the living room couch, cold compresses, yada, yada, yada and settled him down much quicker. Hubs grabbed the youngest who fell asleep on the couch after her migraine/vomitosis episode and put her in her bed lest her big brother hallucinate again and sit on her.

I will just say that it’s been a looooooooooong time since I’ve had regularly interrupted night sleep and I. don’t. miss. it. one. bit.

This morning with some “changes” in symptoms (I’ll spare you the deets) we headed to the Ped where Flu B is confirmed and possible pneumonia. He’s on the antibiotics now, managed to hold some ChickFilA down for lunch and is currently on Star Wars Ep 2…with plans to finish up the series tomorrow–as he will be home again. With Dad. I’ll be at work. Recuperating. Pray for us for some sleep….Mom and Pops are terribly out of practice. I’ll be praying, too and knocking on all kinds of wood that everyone else is healthy.

Because as Sweet Brown says…Ain’t nobody got time for that

In the meantime, I’ll keep calm and Lysol on!!!

ah, PicMonkey, you are my new favorite obsession! Thanks, Cari!!

Spring comes early in these parts and since it is 79 beeeeyoooouuuteeeeeful degrees out and gas is a gut-wrenching, throat strangling $3.91, I forced myself to ride my bike to Publix to pick up the script. <sigh> A mother’s sacrifices never end…ammiright??

7QT Return, Ta DAAA!

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With my whole social network fasting apparently I have more time to blog…who knew??? So, I’m jumping back in with the tried and true at Conversion Diary with Jen and her peeps…of course, I’m not #1 like Grace, but she’s a new mom again and clearly not sleeping anyway…so go check ’em all out…

1. Fresh into Lent, folks…Fresh. Into. Lent. You know what that means, right? All those sacrifices and desires to help more, pray more, do more, etc are FRESH and “technically” two days in we should be going strong. Ammiright?? Riiiiight, so remember…no meat today. And if perhaps, halfway through that double with cheese you remember “ACK…it’s Friday!!!”, just start over. We are imperfect people, God knows this. His joy is in our TRYING to do better. And when we screw up, dust ourselves off and try again….that’s what we can choose to do. So, in the classic words of Dori from Finding Nemo…”just keep swimming”!

2. What did you give up for Lent? Perhaps you are instead focusing on praying and have some plans of monastic retreat or super fasting to add some oomph to your prayer life, or maybe working in the soup kitchen or homeless shelter….what’s the plan, Stan? I gave up Facebook and Twitter. It’s quite freeing and I actually look forward to this each Lent. Now, you might say, but “Tracy, your blog shows up on Twitter?” Yes, it’s set that way automatic, but I am not CHECKING said Twitter account.

3. Did you get your ashes? We did. I must say it was practically WW3 getting there. A serious force of crazy, crappy, grumpy, tempers came over our household IMMEDIATELY prior to leaving. We persevered anyway and let me say, people….GOD prevailed. Oh yes he did defuse that 13 yo, 15 yo and 2 young ladies who readied themselves in their Mass finery only to see EVERY to the ONE was in their regular clothes (including yours truly, fresh off the JOB train in her scrubs). Hubs took everyone home after the distribution of ashes and I stayed to wait for our 7th grader to take him home after his RE class. We came home to fish and chips awaiting. (AKA, fish sticks and fries) God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good.

4. Ash Wednesday I also went to Adoration (a weekly Lenten practice for me this year). Unknowingly, I arrived during the church’s Mass celebration, therefore the Eucharist was not in the chapel, but in the church. ENNYWAY….I still prayed the Rosary and intentions and fully enjoyed my quiet time. If you have noise in your life (you don’t need to be a parent for this) you should take time to go to Adoration…shoot, even if you’re not Catholic….just go…it is AWESOME. Peace, quiet. Total gift. I’d live there if I could. Really. Logistically though, just not going to work.

5. Saved me some cash this week. Went in to quit the gym, just not feeling it, and I’ve been working out at home (not this week so much…but mostly-ish) but they love me so much they comped me 2 months and lowered my monthly rate to $5. Sheesh, alright. I’ll come back. $5, c’mon. Who CAN say no to that???

6. Along with my social fasting, weekly Adoration visit and prayer intentions….I am also trying to focus on some spiritual reading. This week I finished C.S. Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters”…wow. wow. wow. If you haven’t read it….do it. Next up…”Visions of the Children” by Janice Connell. And continued reading of Saint Faustina’s Diary (although that is taking YEARS. Literally. YEARS!! tremendously rich reading. small bites only)

7. Finally, if you read yesterday’s post on our little Romeo and his Valentine’s flower promise…I’ll tell you how it went: He made his first deposit to his math teacher (who, although killing him, has been incredibly helpful and challenging) and from then on out had “hordes” of ladies following him around for roses. He had them labeled and did have a couple extra (to which I was also a recipient….smart boy!)…but he admitted at dinner that it was an impossible task to please all the ladies on Valentine’s Day. Not to mention expensive. He’s a mess that one. A sweet mess. **For all you Bachelor fans out there….I asked him if he was prepping to do a teen Bachelor and he was unaware of the show/concept etc….PHew. I don’t watch either, but have the gist of it from some of you…who will remain nameless for the obvi reasons.

Have a great week y’all and enjoy the weekend!!! We won’t be shoveling snow…thank you, JESUS…but will be wearing jeans and hoodies this weekend here in Central FLA. Brrr. High of 50ish tomorrow. Yikes!! 😉

It’s almost here…..

Closet Re-do #1

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We live in an older house…70’s ranch-y style. It’s truly perfect for us, not too big (because I don’t have a maid ya’ll, just 4 kids and sometimes we have to go behind them) and when we bought it, it was move-in ready–my favorite kind of house to buy. Semi-sorta updated, at least no orange/green/yellow in the kitchen and an assortment of neutral colors, which are perfect for US. Anywhoooo, the down side is that apparently in the last 20 some years we (collectively as Americans) have garnered a lot of “stuff” and “need” more closet space than was available back in the 70’s. Our current list of to-do’s is for us (and I really mean my Hubby) to finally deal with the bedroom closets. We started with the boys closet, mainly because they are boys and if it got goofed up they really aren’t going to care so much (the girls will be next and we will save the most important–ours–for last).

For the boys, their dresser (in the closet to save space) houses the majority of the clothing, but they have a fair amount that gets hung. The clothes that get hung knock all their miscellanea on top of their dresser over and behind and creates a chronic MESS. The top of the closet was just a shelf and tons of dead space. We wanted to give them some more storage and maximize that dead space. We opted on cubbies and worked around the brace in the middle of the shelf. We are pleased with the outcome and hopefully these fellas can manage keeping their stuff in one spot and not lose chargers, memory sticks and all that other stuff. Without further blah blah, here’s the pics and once we finish the girl’s I’ll post that, too. I know, you can hardly wait. Try and contain yourself. 😉

Empty closet BEFORE

New cubes

Maximizing the dead space on the shelf

well, we had to put the closet stuff somewhere…

side by side view of the B&A

AFTER….hear the angels sing??? I do!!!

A useful shelf space now!

making the trek

Trekking through life: Faith, family, friends and a whole lot of coffee!