Pinewood Castle

Prayer for All Saints Day

The Church today honors all Saints, those holy souls who, during life, loved Jesus and strove to imitate Him and to practice His virtues.

Almighty and everlasting God, You have granted us to venerate in one solemn feast the merits of all Your Saints; we beseech You, that since so many people are praying for us, You would pour forth upon us the desired abundance of Your mercy. Through Jesus Christ out Lord, Amen.

I Think the End is Near

Of the flu, that is. Not the world.

Even though we are having yet another dark and rainy day.

Since I have been out of the house once in the last eleven days I'm setting up a breakfast date with a friend for Saturday.

The last fever appeared in Sunshine's tired little body yesterday at lunch. No one has a fever today. Yet.

At least two of us are still coughing. Last night as I was putting fresh sheets on the children's beds I coughed so hard I tooted. My husband laughed at me and of course got me laughing too. Laughing and coughing so hard I could hardly breath and my head hurt. It was quite the memorable moment.

Really, though, isn't it a privilege to nurse your children through illness? To smooth their brow, bring them a cold cloth for their feverish forehead, administer medicine and just rub their back and let them know how much you love them. That's what mom's are for. I know I still want my mom when I am sick. Somewhere I heard that wounded soldiers on the battlefield call out for their mothers, not their wives. I want to be that kind of mom, don't you?

My problem is that I feel so guilty when I am sick as well and cannot attend to their needs as well as I would like. I get into airplane survival mode and take care of myself first. I am known to take the last of the orange juice, or the last oscillococcinum. Selfish creature am I. 

I am also feeling extra cranky about going to OB checks and waiting in the same waiting room with sick patients. Why should pregnant women, who are considered high risk for H1N1 increase their risk by sharing space with infected patients, masks or no masks? We came down with this three days after my last appointment. Maybe that's not where the bug came from, but it sure makes me wonder how many appointments I can skip. It also tempts me to reconsider home birth. I really would if I were not so messy in labor. My water breaks first, I vomit and I have such terrible back labor that I am resigned to getting an epidural after experiencing three excruciating labors and one manageable epidural labor. In the meantime I fantasize about clinics offering separate waiting areas for sick/well patients.

Anyway.

We are now stocked up with elderberry and echinacea if a flu bug should strike twice this season. Puffs with lotion we need more of. Ditto Emergen-C and Lemon Ginger Echinacea juice.

Hope you are well. Guard your immunity!

More Fall Fun

In between coughs and fevers . . .

Pumpkin treat bag - kits from Oriental Trading Co

Leaf Mat weaving from Oriental Trading

Pumpkin grid drawing from mathwire.com -

beeswax candle rolling kit from Magic Cabin

still life

ideas from Jamie

Hope you are having a wonderful fall day!

Is It Too Late . . .

to get rid of this crud?

I am not sure if we have the flu or bad colds. Everyone has had a fever except me. Everyone except DH is still coughing. That's all I have heard all day - the sound of coughing and PBS. All day, meaning since 1:30 pm when I finally woke up. I have never slept that long in my life. I've been coughing for seven days straight.

DH went to the store for elderberry, echinachea, and more soup,  juice and kleenex. I hope the end is near!

Cancelled

Ever have one of those weeks? We had to cancel piano lessons, violin lessons, make-up piano lessons, my hair appointment, our babysitter and our birthday date. I didn't feel well enough to make my DH's favorite potato-cheese soup on his birthday or make a birthday cake for either of us. At this moment, he is making a quick trip to the cities to sell our tickets to tonight's A Prairie Home Companion show.

Even though Joe's bout with a fever earlier this week left him run down, he still helped out with the rest of us. I felt like I had bricks in my head for three days, unable to accomplish anything but a lot of moaning and lying about on the sofa or in bed. I am still stopped up and coughing way too much to sit through a live radio show without being kicked out. All the other kids have taken a turn with this, suffering through fevers and congestion. We managed to celebrate Joe's birthday in a very understated sort of way. His birthday dinner featured home-made chicken soup instead of his dairy-laden favorite. And of course he received plenty of hand made gifts ~

 

King of the Castle

He even had planned to take off a few days to paint the den and get some household tasks checked off, only to take over as head nurse instead. Now that we are staying home today, the den might still get it's promised new coat. See the red on the left? I hope that will brighten up this north-facing room.

I am really trying not to pout about this perfectly planned and much anticipated week being canceled. Sometimes you just have to suffer the loss with grace. We will just have to reschedule our birthday celebrations for next week. At least that can be rescheduled, unlike actually birthing-due-dates. A friend of mine who is due next week and several of her children have been sick with the flu. So please, if you would be so kind, would you send a few prayers Tricia's way that her children recover before their new baby arrives? Thanks. I knew you would.

Last Weekend's Fun

 

 

 

Cheap Fun

Fall Fun Things

Here are a few activities we picked to tie in with Fall Circle Time themes -

From Be Nice to Spiders

 

$1 at Michael's

 

 

afternoon snack

 

From Art Projects for Kids

A Big Thank You

For all of your birthday wishes (here and on Facebook) and for all of the maternity clothes advice I extend my most sincere appreciation. Your tidings cheered me as I camped on the sofa with a head cold on my birthday. Yes, the night before my DH came down with a fever and I with a sinus headache and cough. My birthday was spent on the sofa in PJs with honey-lemon tea, my iPhone to keep in touch with the world, and this DVD given to my by my DH and Wild Strawberry.

It's my all time favorite. Yours too?

The children, for the first time ever, did for me what we usually do for them - read to me A Verse for the Night Before Your Birthday (Sunshine reverses numbers easily and said I would be 93!), woke me up with singing, and had a little gift at the end of the yarn that I followed from my bed to the kitchen table.

I was treated to sprinkles on my oatmeal 

and several hand-made gifts. This one from Dancer is an ear muffler to use during toddler tantrums:

A little figure from Sunshine

a necklace from Dino

 

and a beeswax ring

Who could wish for anything more?

Well, me I guess. I wished for homemade chicken soup and my DH felt well enough by evening to deliver. It was divine. And in spite of illness that persists even today, it was a Very Happy Birthday indeed.

 

the Queen of the Castle's Throne for the day

Weekend Notes

I made a menu plan for the week featuring pumpkin, squash, apples and potatoes. I stocked up on butternut squash from the gardeners down the road. I plan to make the three layer Maple Spice Cake again this year.

Last week I made a double batch of pumpkin bars. We are still eating them. One perk of this pregnancy is that my sweet tooth almost disappeared.

Now that I can stomach coffee again, no coffee tastes as good to me as Starbucks these days and the nearest one is 30 minutes away. Caribou tastes too syrupy and my DH's strong French press brew tastes like mud. sigh. ( *** I just remembered that our SuperTarget has one!)

My DH (and the budget) let me take advantage of the 25% off a case of wine sale. Now we are stocked with six Merlots and six Rieslings from Badger Mountain Organic Winery.

I finally discovered L'Angelus. Now I know what all the raving is about.

A friend and I went out to lunch right here in our little downtown. We took our child=free opportunity to pop in and out of some shops like the antique store, the arts alliance gallery and the Catholic bookstore. The grilled meatloaf sandwich hit the spot and the three hours off duty was quite refreshing. My DH was somehow able to get oodles done without me.

Thanks to our "St. Luke's Little Summer" we finally had weather nice enough to enjoy the pumpkin patch and corn maze. Since the leaves have yet to turn, we will skip ahead in Circle Time to pumpkin & spider week.

I am now 16 weeks and showing. I think my grueling first trimester symptoms might have come to an end (thank you for your prayers!). I am feeling a bit more "back in the saddle" though I do tire easily and require nine hours of sleep at night.

After much deliberation I finally settled on a female O.B. in town. After three times with nurse-midwives and one time with a laid back family practice dr. this might be a different experience for me. At least I know the ropes now and can confidently advocate my wishes. I think things will turn out alright. Now that I am almost 39 I feel a bit more cautious about pregnancy than I did at 29.

I need new maternity clothes. I think I do, anyway. Most of mine are ten years old and either black or burgundy.  I just don't like most of what I see or try on! I've never been impressed with Motherhood's quality and so many other stores are way. too. expensive. I think I might have found some colorful tops and sweaters I like at Old Navy.com. Many tops might require a layering cami to cover what the neckline leaves out. Please tell me before I click to check out if you like Old Navy maternity clothes.

Speaking of clothing, how about coats in pregnancy?  I would really like this long coat rated -5 to -30 but don't want to pay $$$ for an XL (or XXL) size that might be too big when I am not pregnant.

Skirt or no skirt when pregnant? I do wear skirts frequently, though not 100%. Not even 80%. I like wearing skirts and so do my girls, both for modesty and just old fashioned femininity. I just feel like a cow in them when I am pregnant. (And I need to restock my maternity tights supply.) Anyone else feel this way? Is this just vanity? I just wish they made cute, colorful, comfortable clothes like my daughter's LL Bean dresses in maternity sizes!