Surviving At Home

As I’ve been browsing some mom blogs this morning, there seems to be a common theme: moms who are upset that their children are starting school.

This is a huge change in your lives, both for yourself and your child. The change will be even greater if you’ve been a stay-at-home mother whose primary job has been caring for your children. Even though you might be nervous and upset, just know that you will get used to this change, you will get into a routine, and at the end of the school year you’ll wonder why you ever got upset or nervous.

We live in a really good school district and have had a wonderful elementary school experience so I’m probably spoiled. But I still remember 6 years ago, getting ready to put my oldest on the bus for the first time. I couldn’t imagine doing it, since she was so “shy and quiet” like I used to be as a child.

But this was one of the biggest changes in her life and SHE WAS EXCITED. That’s what made it better for me, knowing that SHE wanted to face this experience head on. That SHE wanted to make new friends and ride the bus. She’s still quiet and shy but she has enjoyed the whole school experience.

I remember the anxiety like it was yesterday and do my best to help some local friends make the adjustment. This year my oldest starts middle school and some of those same anxieties have risen in my chest, but once again, SHE is excited. SHE is ready for the transition.

How can I be upset that she’s excited about this adventure?

photo credit: TheTruthAboutMortgage.com

Twitter has been all abuzz lately about green smoothies. Some natural moms are touting how easy they are to make and all the health benefits of drinking them. Until today, I just shooed this news with a shake of my hand and resorted back to my unhealthy ways of eating.

After doing some reading of my own I actually started to think that maybe… just maybe… I could make a turn towards a healthy life by trying these green smoothie concoctions. I’m usually complaining about lunch because I get so sick of sandwiches, so why not try a healthier alternative.

I must say that my first smoothie concoction was pretty good! I blended up 2 plums, 1 large peach, and 1 handful of spinach and voila! Yes, it was a pretty strange green color but I figured if it still smelled like fruit, how bad could it taste?

There’s part of me that is still skeptical. I drank this only 30 minutes ago and already my stomach is growling but I guess I could make another smoothie, or at least eat some fruit. Anything other than opening up that deadly pantry where all the snack foods are kept.

Of course, the key is to add the smoothies into your diet while keeping the bad foods out. I’ll just take it one day at a time and hope I don’t go broke buying so much produce!

Here are some resources if you find yourself curious about these green smoothies or healthy eating:

Green Smoothie Girl

The Green Smoothie Queen

The Cravings Coach podcast about Raw Food

Goddess of the Garden

OK…so you know how I just wrote yesterday about our jellyfish stings? Well, don’t you know it, our local paper ran a story TODAY about how to treat jellyfish stings!

Apparently the number of jellyfish is on the rise due to breeding conditions and climate changes. Not really an interesting tidbit by itself but it might have grabbed our attention TWO WEEKS AGO prior to vacation.

And good golly…the number 1 tip they list is going straight to the doctor because death can occur with some types of stings!

Luckily, we’re all here, safe and sound. But again, I ask you, WHY couldn’t this have been published 2 weeks ago?? (and how exactly do you know, at the beach and in the discomfort of getting stung, what kind stung you??)

Courtesy of Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia, here is how to treat a jellyfish sting:

Seek immediate medical attention. Death can occur within minutes with sea wasp and lion’s mane stings.

If you know for certain that the person has been stung by a Portuguese man-of-war or sea nettle, wash with salt water (ocean water is OK, but make sure you do NOT get sand in the wound). Protect affected area if possible. Soak the area with a solution made of 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water for about 30 minutes. This helps remove the tentacles. Rinse the area and then resoak with more 1/2 strength vinegar.

You may also remove tentacles by applying a paste made of flour or shaving cream and scraping the area with a dull instrument such as a credit card.

Apply a cream containing a painkiller, an antihistamine, or a corticosteroid.

And, ironically, do you know the number 1 tip for avoiding getting stung by jellyfish??

Check with lifeguards to find out if jellyfish are abundant at your beach this summer. If so, stay out of the water.

Yes, this is Murphy’s Law at its finest…

photo credit: dunk_

Did you see my picture from last week? Those are my girls at the beach. As much as I love to see their smiling faces, there’s something about those “behind” pictures that I just love!

My family had a great time down in Hilton Head, SC last week. We always look forward to our big summer vacation although this year I was distracted with work so I wasn’t nearly as organized as usual.

The biggest worry was how to survive 16 hours in the car without killing each other! Even my youngest kept saying she was scared about vacation because of the long drive. For that, however, we had a plan!

Virginia Beach is exactly the half way point between our part of NY and Hilton Head so we planned on breaking up the trip by staying overnight there. We embarked on our journey at 3:45am (to avoid NYC traffic and so the kids could sleep for part of the trip) and we arrived at Virginia Beach around lunchtime.

We continued our trek to SC the next day (at a reasonable hour!) and arrived at 4pm, unpacked, had dinner, and hit the pool (nope, no jellyfish in the pool).

We own a timeshare through the Marriott Vacation Club so the resort we stayed at had easy beach access but even with that easy access, holy cow! What a production is was to get to the beach! Between the towels, the chairs (which broke after Day 2), the umbrella, the boogie boards, the sand toys, the snacks & drinks…needless to say, we have a new appreciation for those shopping-cart-type-strollers that everybody seemed to have.

What no one warned us about, unfortunately, was the fact that the lifeguards put up yellow Caution
flags when the jellyfish are in the shallow water. So there we were, hanging in the incredibly warm water, enjoying the sun and our time together, when my hubby gets stung. We had no clue what it was, figured it was some weird bug (duh!)

**Note: They only look this glowing red color in the aquariums. They might as well be invisible at the beach!

Then I got stung, not just once but multiple times, and then each of the girls got stung. No, we weren’t very smart about getting out of the water immediately but there were still other people in the water so we followed the crowd.

Only after we all got stung and got out of the water did my husband talk to the lifeguards and they confirmed that it was indeed jellyfish that stung us. However, it’s not like we had to rush to the ER for treatment. The sting is strong, like multiple bee stings or severe razor burn, but it fades after maybe 20 minutes.

But it was enough to kill the beach for that day.

My question is: do jellyfish leave a mark on your skin when they sting? I was the only one with red marks on my arm, which I assumed was from the sting, but nobody else has marks. AND, now that we’ve returned home, it’s red, puffy, itchy, AND spreading!

Me thinks this creeping crud isn’t from the jellyfish…

photo credit: Editor B

photo credit: dunk_