Preparing for the flu or a stomach virus works! About a month ago I read we need to have hands on things for anyone that may be ill in your family. As long as you don’t go overboard it works!
Gator had been acting a bit odd on Monday and Tuesday. I did my best mom face to not give in and ask him if he felt okay. I did ask more than a few times if he was okay, but I never said the “felt” word. With Dunk I learned if you give a kid an inch he will take a mile. Anyway the nurse called me on Tuesday and told me Gator will ill and needed to come home.
Today I am happy to report I just took him to school. I will share with you my magic solution to get him over the stomach flu!
Everytime I would think about it I would pick up some illness supplies each time I would pick up other groceries.
I saw a report that said by the time you are sick, you are too sick to do the shopping for the stuff you need. So here is my magic list!
Chicken Ramen Noodle Soup (the broth in it is supreme)
Sprite or seven up
Those plastic Popsicle liquid tubes (freeze a few the moment someone is sick)
Kleenex boxes (didn’t need this but eventually I will use them)
Saltine crackers (perfect to eat with the soup)
straws( yes they are fun, but they also give you protection from spreading germs)
There you go the magic illness supply list is complete. That way you never leave the house, the kid is absolutely to rest, sleep and hydrate until they are perky like Gator was last night. We new he was much better!
I highly recommend this preparation, I usually spend a lot of time worrying about my sick kids plus figuring out what to buy when and how much. This time I just gave what he needed when he needed it. I still have plenty of supplies for the next illness except the Sprite. Gator did not crave rice, but I always have rice on hand.
I cannot say enough how proud I was of Gator. I saw plenty of other kids doing very little, or following their parent as the parent took the animal to weigh or wash. Gator would take his 90% of the time all by himself, one time he said he needed me to a hold a bucket. I followed so happy behind him and the goat. He would allow every once in a while Sconicle to take the goat out to get ready to feed while Gator would be hanging feeders. Mostly we just got stuff for him, handed him stuff or went where he needed us to.
He is a great kid, that is what his FFA teacher was telling me. Another parent that is a vet tech told me he was a dream kid, I was not surprised. There is a reason why he is the goat breeder and it is his herd not ours. At a young age he begged to do this, there have been days he wished he hadn’t wanted so many goats. Regardless they are his responsibility and we only help out.
Our kids are required to work, it is something that none of the get out of. There is nothing easy about livestock and farming. Those that don’t understand why we do what we do don’t absorb that hard work only makes you stronger and more determined to make a better life. Kids are better off working for it, then being given everything. If it drives them away from agriculture, they will make more money, if not they know first hand how hard it is to make a living.
This is my favorite picture of Gator from the fair. It is after he has showing and he is just chilling. I had tried to take a candid shot from a bit farther when he and Sconicle where standing there talking. But Gator caught me, and the shot was blown.
This is the Gator I know, confident and loose. He is Gator, the little boy grown tall out of biker shorts and cowboy boots. The kid who loves that hat when I saw another hat that I thought looked so much better. He shot that idea down, and picked that hat instead. It was much cooler he said.
Just moments before this shot, is Gator walking Brownspot out of the ring looking like he stepped out of a 20X catalog. Do you recognize that kid?
So let me say without question I have been a Kelsey Grammer addict since Cheers. Good TV is hard to find these days. This new show is finally about a family downsizing in TV life. Personally whether Kelsey was in it or not I think I would like it, but since I was Frasier Addict (own every DVD season) I am already hooked!
So watch for yourselves!
Patricia Heaton had me “Ray…”. She played a mom you worried for, laughed at and cheered for. The saddest thing to me about the comedy Patricia and Kelsey did together was the timing was not there. I tried to love it, but I just couldn’t. This on the other hand looks like a winner to me. Real Life is so many times funnier than fiction. Scienfeld was based on truth, Cheers started around standard characters and Everyone loves Raymond was basically Ray’s real life.
So watch this preview! I can so relate in many ways.
The Best show Ever! Last night as I was cutting onions, potatoes and snapping green beans I watched bits and pieces of the ACM Artist of the Decade show honoring George Strait. He and his wife looked wonderful, he was his handsome tan self. Bubba had a girlfriend I guess or maybe by now Bubba is married. Anyway the parts I loved was watching all these “big stars” singing his songs. Everyone loves George! He got off his boat, down from his horse to sing just one song, and watch so many artists perform. To pick out one great song to sing from 57, what to pick?
Here is a little video of George answering questions.
So many great artists, but to listen to all the hits was just great! Here is a glimpse of who all came to honor the King!
Okay I have to add just one more. Watch Miranda at the end, she speaks from such a deep truth. Ahh George…
This week Gator and Sconicle are on spring break. Our county show is less than two weeks from now. To say I am busy would be an understatement!
I am doing some cleaning out as I have been for months. I am also getting ready to paint Sconicle’s room. Who knew after raising three normal boys there would be so much ick on the walls? I downloaded a homemade cleaning solution that I hope will clean as much as I can before I prime the walls.
In the meantime I did find a great website for inspiration. It is called Van Dykes. Go HERE for some wonderful ideas to spruce up your place. Looking is free just remember!
I think we all need to window shop from time to time!!
I am always looking for new and different ideas. My original thought was to make some fake money, since that is about all we will have left! When I became sane again, I started looking for fun projects to make.
Here is the first one. We have too many broken crayons, and Sconicle is no longer crayon happy. I hate to throw away perfectly good crayons, and I do have younger nieces and nephews that might enjoy them in another way.
I have been very busy. Dunk’s truck needs some work, so I had to take him back to school and back. A wonderful short six hour trip was done in a few short six hours. There are times with Hubby that he is too busy to do the farm feeding. So I have to help the boys pick up the slack, and this week is filled with us doing that.
My day was a whirlwind between the college drive, parent teacher conferences and feeding of the animals. Not to mention feeding my family.
Don’t think I didn’t think of my blog, I did just couldn’t find the time to do anything about it!
This picture is one of Dunk’s favorites. He is in the tractor plowing, you can see the plow behind him, and he is carefully trying to stay in line. Anyway I thought I would show my readers Dunk in action.
I did some jean shopping Sunday, good gravy jeans have gone up. Once you have four people with holey jeans you have to buy some. I bought two pair instead of three pair this time. Hopefully the two pair will last some time! Dunk has actually found a brand at Wal-Mart that is cheap and he likes. His were the cheapest! If I had bought the jeans that fit Sconicle at Wal-Mart his would have been the most expensive! I am going to the local farm supply store and getting a bargain.
There is a lesson to be learned there, Academy had been the cheapest on Wrangler jeans. Wal-Mart used to not carry the particular style, now they do but they have very few sizes. For kids jeans, good luck finding a cheap price! Wrangler kids jeans are high! It is the only brand that Sconicle to fit into easily everytime! All other brands are too wide, legs are too short or some wierd look on him. Sconicle is a tall lanky kid, and apparently that size is not easy to fit!
var _sttoolbar = {}stBlogger.init(’http://w.sharethis.com/widget/?tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=da1e60b6-b8c1-4c65-ba16-8f7115ace32e’);
There are days I read the news and shriek inside. I think to myself where do I live? Is this truly the America where I was born? I am pro gun and proud of it. I grew up in a house where we had dozens if not hundreds of guns. Not one of us shot anyone, never even thought about it. At ten I was taught how to load a bullet by hand, yes I am that firearm educated. My dad took me to a gun shooting range as long as I can remember. I was taught shoot to kill, you don’t wound someone who is going to kill you. That is my history, that is my reality. I think more women ought to learn how to shoot, God knows there would be fewer victims if every criminal had to think twice about attacking a woman. It is a powerful feeling knowing you can shoot a firearm, not miss and be safe if a predator is after you.
So when a teacher in Wisconsin was suspended I was horrified. Not only because she has every right to have a face book and pictures that she likes on it. But the real issue is New York has more than their fair share of convicted sexual predators on staff. Matter of fact Governor Patterson had to actually go after the teachers because the teachers union has been protecting the teachers. This is not to say it was a good idea to post the picture on her face book, but it is a true quandry why convicted sexual predators are okay but a teacher with a personal site with a gun picture is horrendous.
I pulled out the important part of the Governor Patterson statement
Current law does not provide for a mechanism to automatically revoke the certificate or to immediately terminate employment of a teacher convicted of a sex offense for which registration is required under the Sex Offender Registration Act. This legislation provides for this mechanism by streamlining the process for revoking a certificate and terminating employment of a teacher who would have already received due process in a criminal proceeding, and includes appropriate provisions to prevent errors through misidentification of the person who has been convicted. The process for the administrator crimes is identical to the teacher sex crimes: immediate revocation.
For my personal take I think teachers on my space, face book and the like are not doing a great thing. There is more reasons for a teacher not to be on face book and my space. In researching this post I was looking up New York teachers sexual predators, the list across the country of teachers charged with this crime is startlingly!
I was reading the news thinking it was a misprint. But here is the article that got me started. Chicago students were abused by teachers, read it here.
This revelation of what is happening to young children on the tax payers dime, while the administrations are waving off real action is down right frightening. Chicago kids in public schools are not safe, that is clear. The Chicago Public School CEO Arne Duncan is headed to DC without a care in the world, why worry about kids being abused when you have money to spend on buildings for kids?
Yep it is truly a living nightmare for kids unable to afford a private school like the Obama kids. var _sttoolbar = {}stBlogger.init(’http://w.sharethis.com/widget/?tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=rotate&publisher=da1e60b6-b8c1-4c65-ba16-8f7115ace32e’);
The Chicks have arrived! Aren’t they cute? They were hatched today from what I know. They will grow up to be huge chickens. We are aiming to over eight pounds. Hopefully we will have a few that will get bigger than that. We as a family will do our best for these chicks. Tomorrow morning we will be up bright and early. The chickadees will be hungry and thirsty. Until April we will feed the chicks twice at day at least. I would love to tell our secrets but others read my blog. The boys will work sometimes, play sometimes, and in the end we will all be closer to each other. During show season as we call it, the time we are raising show animals my kids rarely get a night or half a day away. No time for them to run off, they have to hang in there and focus long enough to raise animals to show.
I look forward to this time and dread it at the same time. My biggest obstacle will be to keep up the housework while spending most of our time away from home. Cooking nutritious meals when you get home late is tough, which is why I use the crock-pot a lot. I can feed the boys well and I can feed the chicks well but this year I will attempt to do both at the same time!
When you look at these baby chicks is hard to believe they will be big chickens a few short weeks. At 6 weeks they will be fully grown. Every day they change before your eyes. Dunk will miss seeing the chicks, he won’t miss scooping the poop! You trying eating enough to gain that rate of weight and not poop! Poop happens, and we are used to it.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://brazoscowgirl.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter3.png){kind=icon}
