I am on approximately day 10 of the dreaded Winter Crud of 2014. The Cat Daddy taunted me about not getting a flu shot this year, and I was all "Flu shots don't work against a cold!" and besides, he got both the flu shot AND the crud, so either way neither of us proved anything. This is why it's good to live in the United States and enjoy the freedom to make one's own healthcare decisions.
Anyway, I'm this close to being all the way better, but one sinus is being a little stubborn about clearing, so I'm just waiting it out while I feel just a titch behind the curveball in wit and whatnot. So don't mind me if I stare at you more blankly than normal--it's not you, it's my sinus. Also I'm headed to the doc next week on an unrelated matter, so if it's not better by then I'll answer "yes" when they ask if I'm having any pain that day. It's awesome when patients bring up extra stuff to squeeze into a 15 min appointment, right??
...Speaking of healthcare, I've been seeing this hullabaloo about the FDA making companies pull their antibacterial soaps from store shelves unless they can give a whole lot more substantiation to their antibacterial claims, and also something about triclosan being bad because it's a chemical (Everything is a chemical, BTW. I'm certainly in favor of minimizing the weird made-up ones whenever possible, but the tricky thing about not being a chemist is not always knowing for sure if you should be as alarmed as the article says you should). I would like to jump on the bandwagon right now and say I was never fully on board with the antibacterial stuff anyway, because it's easier to say "I knew it!" than to have been the one along the way that may or may not have been perceived as "gross" for finishing a friend's gobstopper after she dropped it on the boardwalk a gazillion years ago (immunities!).
I will say this though--as little as I care for hand sanitizer, it has offered a baseline level of consolation in the absence of proper soap and water numerous times in my diaper-ridden season of mothering young children. What's more, it has given the Cat Daddy and me some much needed understanding and solidarity in times of trial, such as when we were road-tripping from Ohio back to Mass, and he was aggravated that I was taking so long changing His Highness's diaper, and went to put the diaper bag away, and I said "NO, I need that!" and he shot daggers at me with his eyes, and was about to launch into a speech about road trips and how getting started is half the battle, and for-the-love-of-all-that's-good-and-holy-we-need-to-GO-already, until I replied with great emphasis, "I have POO HANDS!" To which his demeanor softened entirely and he brought back the bag. Because once you've experienced poo hands, you understand the urgency...
...the countdown for Alabama 2014 is underway, although it's still in the early, I-Can't-Believe-It stages. Back when we used to move ourselves we'd already be gathering and assembling boxes by this point, and strategically planning packing order and whatnot, but we've agreed (some of us more eagerly than others) that the diaper-ridden season of mothering young children is a time to let go of a little control and let the moving company take most everything. This is extremely helpful when it comes to trying to move amid wrangling small kiddos, although it adds an extra phase at the beginning where you have to gather all the things you'll need ahead of time and hide them under lock & key, lest the movers pack them away and you don't see them for a month, as well as an extra phase on the tail-end of things, known as the Filing-Claims-for-Lost-or-Broken-Stuff phase, a subset of which is the How-On-Earth-Did-They-Break-THAT?? stage.
As for me, I'm somewhere between "Here we go again, we're winners at moving by now!" and "O God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?!?" We already have people in place on the receiving end, so we have that to look forward to, and if all goes well we will have quarters secured within the next several weeks. Some of our super-motivated go-getter friends have already signed leases--cycles turn quickly in the world of military school--but because of our holiday travel and overall hectic pace the past couple months, we are trusting there will still be some livable rental houses to choose from...
So overall, instead of a bang, I guess one could say our year is starting off with a kapow, or maybe a zoom, or something.
And speaking of the New Year, I've all but given up on resolutions. Much like (many) rules, I've not had much success or positive outcome with resolutions--at best I tend to stop after a few weeks, and at worst, well--I guess the worst thing that's happened is that I've stopped trying after a few weeks. So basically, I stink at New Years Resolutions.
I like that One Word thing, though. One word as an overarching theme doesn't rope me into certain failure at every occurrence, and it keeps with what God seems to do in my life anyway, which is to take me through seasons where I stew & meditate and learn about one idea at a time. So the One Word fits well, and my One Word is "act," which I'll explain in my next post...
Sitting safely on the side of "I used baking soda to clean my bathroom before it was cool" side of the Triclosan debate, I will say much of that changed when I had kids in diapers with no access to a restroom in site burdened with the stink of poo hands. Sometimes, it just makes you feel better to smear caustic chemicals all over your hands. At least it makes them smell better!
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