Monthly Archives: December 2006

12.04.06
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My cough

I’ve had a cough for three weeks now. It’s been more annoying than anything else, but last week, I also started to feel short of breath and very lethargic. Sick? Me? The cough was bad enough to actually get mentioned in conversation with my sister (who suggested bronchitis) and with my mother (a RN and my personal health line who suggested a trip to the doctor). So I went to the doctor.

I hate going to the doctor. Especially when the diagnosis is basically we-don’t-know-why-you’re-coughing-here’s-a-drug-to-make-you-stop. I hate taking drugs. I’ve been pregnant or nursing for 9 years now, and basically anything and everything is not recommended to take while your body provides nutrition for another body.

And yes, I’m still nursing that 17 month old who is at that obnoxious, demanding and possessive stage that signals to me it’s time to start seriously weaning him.

“What is your plan to wean him?” asks my skeptical husband as we debate the prescription drugs sitting on the table near me.

“I’m already working on it,” I claim. He cocks his eyebrows in doubt. “It’s a gradual process.”

I asked the doctor if the cough would go away untreated. “It’s been three weeks,” she said. I agree that three weeks can seem like an eternity, but it’s really not.

We talked about possible causes – something triggered the cough. A cold? Maybe, I can’t remember that long ago (it seems like an eternity). An allergen? Maybe, we did start closing all the windows and turning on the heat, and I have a bad habit of starting fires in the kitchen which generate smoke.

Bill and I decided that changing the air filters in the house was a good idea. It had been about a month since he replaced the 30 day filters with other 30 day filters. We went to Home Depot and bought “up to three months” filters with extra allergen filtering capability. They are a bit more expensive than the standard 30 day filters. We also bought an air freshener that goes right on the filter. Right now my house smells delightfully like cinnamon. Cool. But probably releasing an irritant into the air with every cycle of the heater!

And for the cough? I’m taking the one medication at night after Pete goes to sleep and skipping the morning dose. I’m a really bad patient. But I am noticing an improvement – not only am I coughing less, but my minute per mile pace is getting better – not good, just better. Yeah, I’m sick, but I’m still going for my morning run when I’m motivated to do so. Not only am I a bad patient, I’m an annoying sick person too. See, look at me! I’m sick but I’m running two miles anyway. And making dinner, and doing the dishes and tending to the needs of the whole family. And you think you can spend the day in bed because you have a witty bitty cold?

Ah, time to go to work now. I’ll consider being sick some other time. Perhaps when I hire a nanny and a governess and a cook.

12.04.06
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Happy New Year…

…liturgically speaking.

If you haven’t already visited the Catholic Homeschool Carnival at O Night Divine it is definitely worth the time – homeschooler or not. The Advent ideas are fantastic. I’m taking a clue from Love2Learn Mom and have added Advent tasks to our paper chain countdown. My kids’ tasks are things like making Christmas cards for different people on different days (our pastor, soldiers at Walter Reed), saying prayers for people who are sick or lonely, and taking canned goods to a food bank.

On Friday night, I made the usual mistake of getting all the Advent decorations out at once. So now I feel like I live in a holiday debris field. Tomorrow we will get to work and find seasonal homes for the Jesse Tree, the Christmas books, the perpetual Advent calendars, the nativity sets. We’ll hide Jesus, set up the kings in a faraway land and put Mary, Joseph and donkey en route to the stable.

I’ve just about completed the gift shopping for Christmas. I think if I take a few hours without kids to go shopping, I can take care of a few minor details and be done. We were out today running errands, and I’m glad I did most of the shopping online – oh, the lines, the attitudes! I’ve made my to-do list, and now I just need to schedule the baking and cleaning and wrapping and decorating. If the kids ever go to bed tonight, I hope to make some chocolates. A few years ago, I decided that Christmas and Easter warranted special treats – Hershey Kisses just weren’t good enough: too ordinary. At that time, there was a specialty chocolate shop near me, and I bought at least one treat for everyone. But they went out of business and left me hanging, so I started making my own. It’s actually really easy, really fun, and an act of love.

This will be a busy week. Tomorrow, Katie’s Little Flowers group has a craft co-op which means a big playdate for the kids with another family who’s daughter is in the group (we play while the girls are at the meeting). And then Tuesday afternoon, this same family will come over for a St. Nicholas Vigil Feast Day party.

I’m telling myself I really need to let go of the school cirriculum this month. I’ve always derived much comfort from “checking the blocks” – from doing everything listed on the to-do list of school work. But that’s not why I homeschool. I chose homeschooling so I could celebrate the Church seasons in all their glory first and foremost and not as an afterthought. Tis the season to prepare our hearts and minds and homes for the beautiful celebration of Christ’s birth. Math should be the afterthought, not the Jesse Tree. We can learn about Henry Hudson in January – really, we can. This month should be St. Nicholas and St. Lucy and Our Lady of Guadalupe and delivering cookies to a neighbor with no kids at home and buying some presents for those who have little money. It is as hard for me to do this (let go of the cirriculum) as it is for me to sit still for my 15 minute daily rest. But my heart tells me it is right and that spelling can wait…as long as the kids are learning and doing all these things with me.

And so it begins. May this new Church year be a holy one for us all.

And as a post script…for some reason Blogger is no longer showing the WYSIWYG editor for posting or editing. All those links above were done in HTML instead of with the little icons that make life so much easier. What gives? Anyone have any clue what is going on?

12.01.06
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New Month’s Resolution for December

In this hectic month of planning, shopping, decorating, and baking, I resolve that every day at some point between the hours of 2 and 4 pm, I will rest for 15 minutes. I will make a cup of hot tea with lemon and put on some nice music. I think I have a CD of Advent themed Gregorian chants which will be perfect.

I will not address Christmas cards at this time. I will not flip through cook books. And I will do everything I can to turn off the nagging voice that constantly adds things to my mental to-do list.

What’s your new months’ resolution? What is a new month’s resolution?

12.01.06
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Decorating for the holidays

Even though my husband is military, he works in an ordinary office building in an ordinary, mixed-zoning neighborhood. You might think his office was just any other civilian office building.

Except that the entrance is gated. And the guards are armed. And you have to show – not one, but – two forms of ID to get in, one of which they confiscate until you leave. And they inspect your bags to make sure you don’t have bombs hidden between the diapers and the wipes. And the majority of workers bees running around are dressed in camouflage.

Except for those minor details, it’s just an ordinary office building.

And like lots of ordinary office buildings, they are decorating for the holidays. There is a decorating contest for the different sections or departments. Last year, my husband’s office (the one he is in right now, not the one he was in last year) nearly won. They are determined to take the blue ribbon this time.

The theme is something about supporting the soldier and his/her family no matter where in the world they are (I’m sure someone came up with much nicer phraseology than that, but I don’t know what it is). The entrance to my husband’s section is pretty big, so they have lots of physical room in which to work. They’ve decided on one side of their big foyer to have a living room scene with a Christmas tree, cookies for Santa, stockings hung with care. Only it’s obvious that Dad is deployed. Maybe the letters to Santa ask him to bring dad home safely. Maybe there is an overseas package with wrapped gifts for the kids and notes from Dad saying he wishes he were there. There’s a photo of dad in uniform.

Are you crying yet? No? You’ve never had your husband deployed, have you?

Well, it gets worse. On the other side of the room, will be a scene depicting the soldier’s Christmas away from home. Ruck sack, boots, mini-tree, mini-nativity set, care package from home.

I have to go to his office in a few weeks for the Holiday party. I really don’t think I’ll look at the decorations.

I offered to have the kids draw pictures for “Daddy” away from home for Christmas. Blogger won’t let me upload their drawings right now, but they each took to the task with gusto.

But Billy, my sweet Billy…when given the assignment, he excitedly described his plans for what to draw. “I’m going to show Dad in battle with all the bad guys dead!!!”

“NO! No blood and guts in the Christmas picture! No, no, no!”

He paused while he thought about that.

“But Mom…red is a Christmas color, right?”

Oh. My.

He drew a house with Santa landing on the roof. And seven presents under the tree, plus an 8th wrapped dog bone.

Maybe later I’ll post the pictures.