November 9, 2010 – Turkey Fun~

Little hands making turkey feathers…. all make for a happy mama today.

  

~K

November 8, 2010 – Genuine Gratefulness

My son is sick.  He is just little.  But he’s going

to be just fine.

That’s the bottom line here today and what I am the most genuinely grateful for.   It is all that matters at the end of a day.

He’s had a cold for a couple of weeks.  It seemed to be lingering.  We have insurance and it’s a minimal co-pay and so on Friday I took him to the doctor, just to be on the safe side.  Probably overreacting, I thought.

‘I think it’s just a cold’…. the pediatrician told me.   She then proceeded to hand me a paper prescription, ‘just in case it looks like it’s turning into a sinus infection over the weekend.  But I really think he’s going to be just fine.’

I left, with a peace of mind, feeling just a tad bit silly at overreacting.  I hastily folded the paper script, threw it into the bottom of my purse and went on with my weekend.

The weekend came and went.   It seemed she was right and his cold was getting better.   His nose wasn’t runny at all anymore!  No fever, chills, vomiting…. all very good signs by anyone’s checklist.   Lots of coughing though.   Lots and lots of coughing.    I dug out the paper prescription, filled it and started it just in case.   Something still didn’t feel right.  I call the on call nurse, available to me 24 hours a day through my pediatrician’s office.

“Coughing is good,” she sweetly tells me over the phone.  “Please remember to wash your children’s hands and use lysol around the home.  He’ll be fine… it’s just the end of the cold, I believe.”

The nagging in my gut persisted.   Today I took him back in, and for a minimal co-pay it was worth me again, surely overreacting, but thankfully, getting one more go to look with the doc.

We waited patiently.   She listened to my baby’s chest.  I could see a look of, while not panic, certainly concern come over her face.

“Walking pneumonia.” she said matter of factly.  “There’s a serious infection in his lungs.   He’s going to be just fine and you’ve seen the worst of  it.  It’s a really good thing you started him on the antibiotic 2 days ago.  This is really what has made the difference.”

A good mom, right?   I knew something was wrong and now my  baby will be safe.   Ta-da!

I went to bed comfortable in this thought and the most grateful for the bottom line-  my baby could have been far more seriously ill at this point and rather, he will be just fine now.

It’s hardly a ‘good mom’ though.  Lots of people would be okay thinking this and taking the credit.  But this is where I believe they are so genuinely wrong.  The truth of it is that I am a good mom with an exceptional support system. 

I wondered as I tossed and turned in the bed… those two ‘overreacting’ doctor visits, which cost me a grand total of $30.00 in co-pays,….  I wonder if I would have had to pay out of pocket what these would have cost, if I would have been as proactive or if I’d have either chosen or forced to choose to take a ‘wait and see’ approach. 

A wait and see approach would have my boy in a hospital bed tonight and rather, he’s tucked in sweetly sleeping… healing… dreaming… in his footed car pajamas.

I wonder what ‘choice’ I would have made. My heart knows the answer and it terrifies me.  

While I am so beyond grateful tonight that my baby is safe, my heart breaks for the other ‘good moms’ who can’t afford to overreact when their gut instinct tells them that perhaps they should.  

We need to think about health care.   It shouldn’t be about this.  We should all have the ability to take care of all of our babies…. not just the ones in car pajamas whose ‘good moms’ have good insurance.

Food for thought-   for today….

~K

November 7, 2010 - Dream Big~ Reach for the Stars!

 

 

  “All of our dreams can come true….if we have the courage to pursue them.” 

                           ~Walt Disney

 

 

 

 

Sweet child, may you always dream big.  May you always feel confident, brave, self assured and strong, my little one.   And may I always have the knowledge, strength and ability to do my job to help you get there.

~K

November 6, 2010 – Thirty little Piggies

I took my little girl and her friends for a ‘spa day’ today…

Thirty little piggies.

Three smiling faces.

Three little girls feeling so very special on a Saturday morning.

Flowers on their toes.   Pinks and purple polishes.  

Perfect Little Piggies.

~K

November 5, 2010 – Three strangers

And so my crabbiness continued as the gray outside wore on.  I wasn’t feeling much positivity and without the help of some warm air and the sunshine, everything seemed to be going in the wrong direction and I needed to shake it.

Then there were three people… in no particular order and none of which I know well, certainly nowhere near well enough for any of them to know my gray day funk.   Each of them at separate moments in the day said the kindest words… each about something different,  but each to me.

And wouldn’t you know?  It makes the largest difference.

I will try this today-   it’s amazing the power of a positive word.  And to think it costs nothing and requires such minimal effort.

Thank you to these three people, who without knowing it, brightened someone else’s day with their goodness.

~K

November 3, 2010 – An Otherwise Gray Day

It’s a cold and rainy day today.   Winter is approaching and quicker than I’d like.  I’m a hot weather kind of girl.  This cold gray yuck does nothing for my mood and really gets to me… not in a good way.

Today though I found a fix.   My little guy and I braved the elements and went to the store for all the ingredients we needed to make vegetable beef stew.   Homemade. 

We came home and he pulled up a stool.  We talked while I chopped and he ate fresh vegetables.   We browned the meat and deglazed the pan.   We added and poured, tasted and stirred and then we sat back and waited, simply enjoying the comforting aroma that began to sear pleasantly through our home.

The rainbow of vegetables simmering on the stove, a reminder of dinner waiting for us, of the promise of an evening where the four of us could reunite at our kitchen table to laugh and to talk about our days over this deliciousness- certainly proved to be a wonderful high point of an otherwise gray day. 

~K

November 2, 2010 – Lessons in & on Character

A few weeks ago, my daughter, who is six, for the first time noticed that two women friends of ours were a couple.  We’ve been friends with these ladies for some time, but I guess she saw things differently now because she found it odd.   She told them so.   To their face.  With me standing there.   While this was certainly an uncomfortable moment, my friend and I laughed it off with no hard feelings, yet I found myself sad as she walked away.

What saddened me is this was the point I knew was coming.  I knew that eventually society would spill over… the ‘norms’, the stereotypes, the ‘oddities’.

Well, no time like the present, right?   We sat down, my little girl and I and we had a talk.   It’s a talk I hope she and her brother both engrain into her soul and what I will share today.  It will become your character, this lesson, I told her.  

Judge people based only upon WHO they are, for what KIND of person they are, for what kind of FRIEND they are, NEIGHBOR they are and based only upon their CHARACTER.  

Easy enough, really and the rest simply doesn’t matter.  

If my children learn nothing else after living in this home with us, I do hope this is a lesson that they carry with them forever.  

It would make me proud.

~K