by admin -

Changing Course

This week didn’t really go as I had intended. We made two unexpected trips to the doctor’s office, canceled the orthodontist appointment and didn’t really get to the cleaning and organizing jobs I had planned.

We did however give haircuts to all the boys in our house, vacuum all upholstered surfaces, vacuum all floors, and vacuumed all mattresses. We washed every towel, sheet, blanket, comforter, and pillow in the house, and then started all over again. We also packed away all of the stuffed toys. So much for going through the kids’ toys this week!

I decided this would not be a good time to go through our winter clothes. I am sure that can wait until next week until we are lice free.

Sometimes it is discouraging to have a plan and then get derailed. When I realized my week was going to change dramatically on Tuesday it was hard not to get into a funk and want to withdrawal. The thought of decontaminating my house was overwhelming. All I could think about was six kids, I have six kids and they are all going to pass it to each other, and pass it to each other, and pass it to each other. We will have lice until Christmas!

As each additional person was found to have lice, instead of being overwhelmed, I was relieved. I began to realize my task was completely overwhelming and that I couldn’t do it all. Over the past few days I have received numerous emails and calls from people letting me know they would be praying for our family.

I think sometimes as moms and wives we set a high standard for ourselves. As I have read many other bloggers’ goals this week I have been impressed with all the things they want to accomplish. I just hope we all remember to keep our eyes on the main goal, which is to do all things to His glory, not our own.

I hate the fact that most of my family has lice, but I love the fact that we have all worked together to solve this problem. It has been nice to have to stay home and hang out with each other. Although I am sad most of our plans were canceled, I know we can schedule them for another time. I have even enjoyed the quality “talk time” I have had with my kids as I picked through their hair each morning.

Even though we are all sleeping with one sheet and one blanket (less laundry to decontaminate), I truly feel like my home as become our haven this week.

For more havens visit The Homespun Heart. <!–

by admin -

Natural Cure for Lice

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It is totally unfair, because he took the easy way out…
Here is girl #2, she is doing the olive oil treatment.

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In a previous post I threatened to shave my head, but I don’t think I look good in a hat. My mother-in-law believes otherwise and sent me this picture.
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This might become a permanent look for me if things don’t improve soon!

I promise I am not going to change the name of this blog to
The Happy Lousewife, I will write about other things soon.

For more Friday Show and Tell visit Mary.

by admin -

Infestation

The bugs have spread to girl #2 and possibly girl #1. We are taking no chances and cleaning/washing everything in the house. During our washing frenzy a crayon went through the dryer… because it is not as if we don’t have enough to do right now. This has happened to us before, the crayons not the lice, so if you would like a tutorial on how to get crayon out of your dryer you can find it here.

So far the boys do not have it, but we are checking several times a day. Since we were all in a hotel together for a few days there is a good chance that we could all be infected. Not from the hotel, we have determined that girl #3 had it before the hotel, but from the close quarters.

Girl #3 has the prescription treatment, which I absolutely do not like and do not want to use on anyone else. We are trying olive oil on girls #1, and #2. We have canceled several planned family outings as we don’t want the kids to infect anyone. I took a picture of girl #2 with her olive oil head and shower cap. She gave me a big smile, and seemed excited to be getting some special treatment. After I took the picture she asked me to post it on the blog. I’ll post it tomorrow.

All the stuffed toys are being bagged up and we are attempting to wash bedding from 8 beds as well as towels, jackets, hats, and our regular dirty clothes.

The boys have been warned, if I find anything on them the clippers are coming out. I cannot have the kids passing this to each other for weeks. They are not happy with the thought of that kind of haircut so hopefully they will comply with all my other requests.

Meanwhile, I continue to scratch all over. I don’t think I have lice because I haven’t seen any evidence and weird places like my back, legs, and feet itch. I think it is all in my mind. My husband has already told me he wanted to shave his head because just the thought of it grossed him out. I might try an olive oil treatment on myself tomorrow, as a precautionary measure. I figure the chances of me getting it rise with each kid. I’d consider shaving my head too, if I looked good in a hat.

by admin -

Delouse the House

The Homespun Heart is having a week long challenge to help get your house in order. I was excited to read about this challenge because I have started my fall cleaning. Usually every year around this time we clean out the clutter at our house. This started many years ago when I realized that Christmas was quickly approaching and the thought of more stuff (toys, decorations, games, books, etc…) coming into my home was overwhelming. I also use this time to switch out our summer and winter clothes and make a list of all the winter items we need this year. You would think that with six kids I wouldn’t have to buy anything, but those pesky older kids keep growing and need new coats and boots!

We had a fun few days in Williamsburg (more on that in another post) and I was planning on returning and jumping right into my fall cleaning. But, my plans have been derailed. On Saturday my two year old was scratching her head, I looked at her head to see what was bothering her and found a little bug in her hair. I picked it out and threw it away, thinking nothing of it.

Then on Sunday, after we had arrived in Williamsburg and were eating dinner I saw another black bug in her hair. I picked it out, threw it away, and forgot about it.

On Monday I picked several black bugs out of her hair and started to panic. When we returned to the hotel room I googled “black bugs in hair” and was surprised to find out they were lice! I thought lice were white! Of course, I had to figure this out while we were at a hotel 120 miles from our house and we are all sharing beds! My husband washed her hair and combed out more little bugs while I went through everyone else’s hair to see if they also had little friends. Thankfully they did not, but it only added to my confusion as to why my two year old would have them.

She does not go to daycare, play group, mom’s day out, and even missed Sunday school last week because we were camping. The only people she has had contact with are us, and no one else seems to have them. I spent most of Monday night in a dark hotel room, while everyone else slept, trying to educate myself on lice. I also started scratching my head compulsively, not because I had anything in my hair, but because her constant scratching and seeing all those bugs freaked me out. Yesterday my husband and oldest daughter joined my in the compulsive scratching. We do not have lice, but now all of a sudden everything itches! Last night in bed my legs even started to itch!

So today instead of continuing with my fall cleaning I will head to the doctor’s office and hopefully begin the process of killing these little suckers. Then I need to sterilize my home so that no one else gets them. We also need to unpack from our trip, do school, and eventually continue our fall cleaning.

Update: I took the before pictures and there were so many I put them in a separate post. You can view them here.

Have a great day and try not to scratch!

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by admin -

Having Fun in Williamsburg

We are having a great time in Williamsburg. Unfortunately my camera cord is at home so you will have to wait for pictures.

I went to CVS last night, ( I am addicted again, I can’t believe I went while on vacation) and got a few good deals. I forgot my coupons so I had to work from what was in the paper. Still not too bad, I earned $9 in ECB’s.

I am pleasantly surprised with our hotel. We decided to go the cheap route and I was worried it might be really, really gross. It is clean, though dated, and seems very safe. The breakfast was good too. The kids stuffed themselves silly! For $39 a night, I can’t complain!

by admin -

Provisions

Don’t you just love it when God provides an unexpected blessing? Last Thursday at church I was chatting with friends about our camping trip and a friend offered to loan us Therm-a-rest camping mats as well as warmer sleeping bags. I followed her home from church and picked up the supplies. Those camping mats made a huge difference in our trip. We were very warm inside our tent even though it dropped below freezing the first night. The extra sleeping bags allowed the kids to double up and they stayed warm as well.

After our camping trip we had planned to stop on the way home to pick apples at a farm. We were all so dirty and tired we decided to skip the picking. The kids were disappointed but they all understood. Then on the way home we came across a pear tree. There were lots of pears just laying all over the ground in perfect condition. We took them home, but I am not sure about eating them. Can you help me identify these pears? Also do you have any good pear recipes?

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I came home from the weekend and had an email in my inbox regarding free Colonial Williamsburg tickets for veterans. I am so excited that we will be able go again and we will all get in free.

After our perfect camping weekend I couldn’t have dreamed that it could get better and yet now we have a trip to Williamsburg planned for next week. The kids are already counting down the days until we leave!

For more Gratituesday visit Laura.

by admin -

Our Camping Trip

This weekend while everyone else was trick or treating we went camping. The packing started last Wednesday, even though we weren’t leaving until Friday. I used my dining room as a staging area for all of our camping items. Everything was going great until Thursday afternoon when I decided to put up our tent in the living room.

I realize as I type this how ridiculous it sounds, but at the time I thought it was a good idea. I was very worried about the temperature and wanted to see if we could all fit into our big tent. Usually we camp with two tents, but I thought we could stay warmer if we crammed into our big one.

I am sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that the tent did not fit in our living room. So Thursday evening I had this mess in my dining room.

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I couldn’t really get the tent back into the bag because there wasn’t enough room, and the kids kept getting in the way….

I didn’t have time to deal with the tent anyway because I had another job calling me from the upstairs.

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I am not sure how many loads of clean laundry that is, but it is a king sized bed.

I finally got all the laundry folded and either packed or put away and went to church. The next morning we packed the suburban.

Oh for the person who asked about mountain pies… basically it is two pieces of bread cooked in the pie iron with stuff in the middle. My kids like cheese, pepperoni, and pizza sauce. Here is a picture of the pie irons.

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Okay, back to packing, we packed the back…

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We put stuff on the roof…

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And we even bought a hitch haul to carry more stuff, but don’t worry we didn’t drive with her on the back.

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When we were finally packed we headed to the campground. The campground was absolutely beautiful and we had a wonderful time. The jobs at the campground were much more fun than the jobs at the house.

Cooking hot dogs…

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Taking walks…

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Exploring…

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Skipping stones…

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I took your advice and didn’t make anyone take a shower while we were gone. It was way too cold in the morning and evening, and who is going to make a kid take a shower in the middle of the day? I think some of the kids wore the same clothes the entire trip, which at first grossed me out, but I now realize it saved me a ton of laundry.

The stuff they did wear was filthy so it is now soaking in oxy clean on my back porch.

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At least it was only one cooler full of dirty clothes, not two.

For more Talk about Tuesday visit Lara and for more Tackles visit 5MFM.

by admin -

Camping

This weekend we will be camping. For those of you living in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas I know you all are gearing up for your camping trips too. The bugs are finally dying off and the nights are actually cool enough to build a fire. I however, live in Maryland, and for some insane reason agreed to a camping trip in Delaware. It will be cold, very cold. I might not return, but at least we will have had some cheap family fun!

My childhood memories of camping involve throwing up, bug bites, high fevers, and food I didn’t like. Needless to say, as an adult I was in no hurry to share such wonderful memories with my children. We have friends who love to camp and after hearing stories of campfires, fishing, hiking, and delicious food I was willing to try one more time.

On our first camping trip, our friends were kind enough to pick a full service campground with plenty of playgrounds, bathrooms, and a Walmart just 10 minutes away. We had an absolutely wonderful time and began to make plans for our next trip. Our next trip was to a state park with fewer amenities and fewer people. We enjoyed boating, fishing, hiking, and my husband’s new love, Frisbee golf.

Over the past few years I have realized that camping is a wonderful thrifty vacation, especially for a large family. Most state campgrounds allow up to eight people at a campsite and the site are very inexpensive, especially when compared to a hotel room. Many campgrounds are located near activities that are also free or inexpensive. Camping is also great if you have little boys who like to run wild all day. Camping, hiking, collecting sticks, and tending the fire help to wear them out by the end of the day.

As for all the camping supplies, many can be found at yard sales or thrift stores. In fact while I was at the thrift store today I saw a man walk by with a Coleman stove in his arms. I often see sleeping bags, tents, lanterns, and other supplies while yard saling. Many stores clearance their camping items at the end of the summer and you can get some really great deals. If you want try camping, borrow supplies from a friend. The first time we camped we only had one tent but needed two so we borrowed one from our neighbor. Every military base I have ever been on rents camping items for a pretty low price as well. Many also have campgrounds.

If I survive our upcoming weekend with freezing temperatures, I hope to blog a little next week about some camping tips I have picked up from my friends. Until then you can download the camping check list, and pray for a heat wave.

For more Works for Me Wednesday visit Rocks in my Dryer, for more Frugal Fridays visit Crystal.

by admin -

A Funny Conversation

Dinner conversation from last week.

Dad: “Well kids, we have some exciting news….”

12yo son: “Are we getting chocolate syrup in our milk tonight?”

Dad: “Actually, we are going to need a bigger vehicle….”

All kids (minus one): Confused silence….

6 yo son: “Are we having another baby?”

Dad: “Yep”

All kids (minus 12 yo son): confusion, but this time it is noisy.

8 yo son to 2 yo daughter: “You are going to be a big sister!”

2 yo daughter: “I AM A LITTLE SISTER!!!!” (she is taking it well)

12 yo son: still looking a bit confused…. “Does this mean we aren’t getting chocolate syrup in our milk?”

So if you have wondered why the menu plans have been nonexistent and the posting has been inconsistent I’ve been a little preoccupied lately. I am finally feeling better and am trying to pick up the pieces from the last several weeks.

I am thankful to finally be able to eat a meal and cook one too! I am thankful for my husband and daughter who cooked and cleaned over the last several weeks and kept things running for me. I am thankful for my Happy to be at Home partners who picked up for the slack for me on several occasions.

This newest addition has been affectionately nicknamed #7 by our bible study. I kind of like it, so I guess it is going to stick, at least until we think of a real name…

For more Gratituesday visit Laura and for more Talk about Tuesday visit Lara.

For more Friday Show and Tell visit Mary.

by admin -

Off to Bed?

I really wanted to get another post up tonight, but I am starting a new habit tomorrow. My dh and I will be waking at 5:45 AM to go to the gym. Ugh! I am not an early riser, and to me 5:45 is still nighttime… but he needs to get in shape, and it isn’t going to kill me to hit the gym on a regular basis.

I’ll be back tomorrow, if I survive!