The Unruly Patient

First of all, thank you for your prayers! The doctor said tht Liam should be feeling better by Wednesday and he doubled the RX just in case Aiden gets sick. Please continue to pray as we pack up to head out on Thursday!

So I took the boys to the doctors office. Liam had been all excited to go, was excited in the waiting room, talking about how he was going to step on the scale, get his ears checked and his temperature, and the doctor was going to listen to his heartbeat with the stethoscope.

Then the nurse brought us back...

...and he threw a fit and would not cooperate. Imagine an almost 3yr old on a baby scale because he wouldn't stand on the normal one. Sheesh. They didn't even try to get his height. He wouldn't stop wiggling when they checked his blood pressure, and he refused to talk to her afterwards when she tried to make amends.

Appalled, I asked him what in the world happened after she left (no amount of reasoning and demanding was helping when she was around). Do you know what he said?

"I have doctor appointment. She not doctor."


Are you kidding me?!?!?!


And sure enough, when the doctor walked in, my kid acted like they were old buds. (and wouldn't stop asking him for cough medicine... You'd think my kid was a druggie!)

Sheesh. Night and day difference.

Joel said that he can't stand patients like that. Yup, me neither.




In other news, the temperature today was supposed to be 75 with light breezes.

And my son told me...

"Mommy, it's cold outside. We need jackets."

I guess since I was wearing jeans, my apparel agreed with him.

We are in for a rude awakening, I'm afraid.

A Birthday Prayer

So technically my sister was the first person to wish me a "happy birthday" on my actual true birthday, as the earlier church party, she said, didn't count, and my husband and I went to bed at 1130pm.

But I didn't receive her well wishes until after my son decided to give me his birthday present.

And thus, I was woken at 4am, when he came coughing (he's had a cough for the past month it seems; I figured I'd check into nebulisers next week, when we were back up north.) so he came inside and snuggled in bed with me. Then proceeded to cough and vomit phlegm on me. His cough sounded shorter and more abrupt then his usual empty hack, and he was having difficulty breathing from his nasal drainage, so I picked him up and took him out to go blow his nose... Where he proceeded to vomit multiple times on the kitchen floor (thank you, Jesus, for making an easy cleanup!)

His frequent cough had an alarming sound to it. So I awoke the doctor to get the diagnosis I had suspected... Either croup or pertussis.

My son doesn't seem to mind yet. Even he had diagnosed himself, as he crawled along the floor, saying "I'm a dog... [hack hack]... Hear me Mommy, I'm barking... [hack hack]!"

Sheesh.

Despite such a serious prognosis, you can't help but smile.

He has since lost some energy, and is contentedly sitting on the couch, with warm "honey lemonade" and a DVD. Except for the drainage that he no longer likes to blow out (it makes him short of breath), his laboured breathing and his occasional cough (that has already lessened- which I believe is due to my prayer warriors already beseeching the Lord on my child's behalf), he appears to be alright for now.

And thus, we come to the title of this post.

If you wouldn't mind saying a prayer for our family's health this morning, I would be grateful! Thus far, Aiden seems to be doing fine, but I am rejoicingly thankful that the baby seems miraculously healthy thus far and that this came up before moving day (Thursday).

Thanks in advance for your prayers!

Absence

When my blog is absent from posts, it usually means that I've been unable to sit down at the computer. This time is no different. My husband had an opportunity to do some extra work...

And he took it.

Craaaaaazy, I know.

But apparently it will help him in our pursuit of a fellowship. So I "let" him. Add that to the fact that he is Q2 for the month of April, and well, he pretty much stays overnight at the hospital every other day. That's one of the positive points about the fact we only have 1 WEEK left here!

Eek!

Back to my absence...

In order to perform the research efficiently, he uses two computers, the hospitals and the laptop. And I figure you wouldn't want to have any posts without pictures... Sooooooo they are all in queue for as soon as I have access to the pc and hard drive, because Apple is once again trying "to control everyone's lives" (my husband's words-- a man after my own heart!) and not make the iPad USB compatible. Sigh.

Frustrating, I know.

An inconvenience, I agree.

So my blog may celebrate Easter, a conference in Orlando with Danya, our last days here in Tampa and everything else a month late. Sorry!


Stay tuned...

Easter Eggs

I have a confession...

I am a hypocrite.

Yes, you are probably thinking, "what's new? You just figured that out??"


No.


But its times like these that I remember that I am one.

Take today (April 4th) for example. My son has seen all the propaganda for Easter and keeps talking about "coloring Easter eggs".

No problem, right?!


Wrong.

You see, here's another confession...

I've always been grossed out by eating colored eggs.

Yeah, Sam I Am would not be too pleased with me. He'd probably chase me around with a mouse and a fox and ask me to eat them in a house or a box.

So the thought of making them in our house was kind of repulsing. And messy. And we won't even get into the dyes red-40, yellow-5 and the like, and their health controversies.

Which leads me back to my first confession... although I gave my mother-in-law a hard time about putting red hots in her applesauce, I readily will still use a few drops in a good sugar cookie icing.


Sorry, Beth.


Whew, I'm glad I got that off my chest.

Anyways, I thought to myself that there had to be another way, and two secnarios reminded me of it...

1. Cooking beets.
2. My son leaving restaurant crayons in the back seat floor of a 90+ Tampa day...

I figured I'd have to google it when, voila, in my email inbox, Kimi was nice enough to try it for me!

And since I had most ingredients on hand (and Publix is only a 15min walk away), Liam and I did the food version... I think there's less of a chance for him to want to try it alone, then if I were to have attempted it with crayons.

Getting to eat pickled beets and cabbage was just an added bonus. I felt so green, not that that was what I was going for. But it feels good to know that I didn't waste anything. :)

And I guess since I'm a grownup and have to eat about everything now to be a good example, at least I know that it is somewhat natural.

So here's to colored eggs, a tradition that I'm not too fond of keeping.


It truly was pretty simple. But to get the rich red and blue, I did have to wait overnight for the deep hues. We tried purple, that didn't come out too well. The splotchy blue was the result of wrapping one of the eggs in cabbage leaves and then placing it in the dye. I didn't have any fern-y herbs on hand (rosemary or dill I'm sure would have looked pretty) so I used celery leaves and rice. And although I didn't have a cheesecloth, I did find an unopened package of surgical bandaid/gauze material... Worked like a charm :)

Onion Skin Eggs

 Red Cabbage (1/2 a small cabbage, 4 c water, 3 T vinegar, 1/2 T salt boiled 30 min)

Beets (1 bunch/4 med beets, 4c water, 3T vinegar, 1/2T salt boiled 30min)

(The three yellow/orange ones are from the onion skins. The "Liam" one in the front was the egg that had been in the dye a couple of hours. The blotchy blue was a 4hr cabbage-wrapped bath. The bottom one was in the beet dye 30min. The darkest hue ones were left overnight.)

You can make a deeper hue of yellow ones with turmeric, but I didn't have it on hand and didn't see a need to buy it. Green can be obtained from spinach or kale concentrates or chlorophyll.

Dairy-Free (and Regular) Truffles

So how do you thank a doctor who can buy (and pretty much already has) just about any material thing he desires?

You make him truffles. :)

Simple. Doesn't make too big of a mess in his kitchen. And the cookie sheet fits well when the refrigerator is mostly empty!

I'm sure he's had better, but at least mine were homemade with love.

And for the sake of my husband, I made dairy free ones for his enjoyment, and "normal" dairy hazelnut ones. Suuuuuper easy. If you guys haven't made truffles before, you should try it (that means you, Katie!). It is a fool-proof recipe... I mean, I did it, right?! Pick whatever kind of chocolate (dark, semisweet, milk, etc though I'm not sure if carob chips would work) that suits your tastebuds. If the ganache (that's all the cream/chocolate mixture is!) gets too hard, you leave it out on the counter until it softens according to what you want. If it's too soft, throw it back in the refrigerator! The hardest part is rolling them into a round shape- unfortunately my melon baller was not "essential" enough to make the relocation with us. ;)

The recipes below are mostly for my reference, but feel free to try them (or the plethora of others on the internet if you prefer)

Dairy-Free Coconut Truffles

1/2 cup coconut creamer*
a generous 1/2 cup good quality chocolate, chopped if not using chips
1-2 tsp flavoring (vanilla, instant coffee/espresso, liquor, etc)
coconut

Heat the coconut creamer to a gentle boil and then remove from heat. Pour into the bowl that contains chocolate (and dry flavoring ingredient, if using. I used instant coffee. Otherwise add the liquid ingredients at this point of time if you want to burn off the liquor, or later if you want to keep that "kick"). Stir together until smooth. Place in the refrigerator until it is hardened into a moldable consistency (use the freezer if you are in a rush!). While the ganache is cooling, toast your coconut in the oven on a cookie sheet. Then use a knife to cut the longer cocnut shreds into smaller pieces. When the ganache is cooled, scoop out round shapes and mold into balls (your hands may get kind of chocolate-y during this point... mine did! Feel free to wear disposable gloves if you prefer! Also, parchment paper might be helpful). Place back in the fridge. When hardened again, pull out and coat with the coconut, rolling it around until covered. Place back on cookie sheet (or plate) and place in fridge until you are ready to eat serve...Yum!!

*I used So Delicious French Vanilla coffee creamer, because I had it on hand, but feel free to use any creamer (I'm sure soy would work just as well), or heavy cream, if you can have dairy. I may try scooping the cream from the top of a can of coconut milk next time, and possibly adding a bit of the milk as well!

Hazelnut Truffles

3/4 cup heavy cream

10 oz good quality chocolate, chopped or chips (I used 4oz of semisweet and 6oz of 60% dark)

25 mL of hazelnut liquor (I used kahlua hazelnut. Frangelico would work too)

cocoa powder or crushed hazelnuts for coating

Using a double boiler*, heat the cream and chocolate until melted, stirring. Pull off the heat and continue stirring until smooth. Add the liquor (feel free to add more as well. I just wanted a subtle hint of it as I didn't have hazelnuts on hand to coat anyways) after the chocolate has begun to cool if you don't want to chance some of the alcohol burning off. Place in the fridge until cool. Scoop out balls and place in the fridge again. Roll the truffle balls in your coating of choice and place back in fridge. And voila, you are done!

*My double boiler consisted of a saucepan with a pyrex bowl on top. I filled the saucepan a couple inches with water. I brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat to a gentle simmer. Make sure the water doesn't touch the bowl, and voila, a cheap double boiler! Or I'm sure you could use the microwave or the method I used with my dairy-free truffles.

I forgot to take pictures of the process, and even the finished product! These are a few that had been thrown in a large styrofoam container and transported back to our place when we moved back in.

And now I can cross "truffles" off of my bucket list of things to make-- not that it was ever on the list to begin with :)



God in the Details

It all started last Monday when the neighbouring landlord stopped by to warn us that "our" cat would need to avoid their place for the next few days. She said she was an animal lover and would hate to know she had been the cause of an animal's death. I shrugged it off, and told her that it kind of lived with the house, and there was NO way my husband would let it inside. (nor was I willing to chance it wrecking my possibilities of coercing talking my husband into getting a dog).

The next morning, I saw them putting up the black plastic. I was humoured when I saw what appeared to be a guy spraying paint on the tarp. It looked like he was trying to mask the fact that there was duct tape on it. We watched them work for a bit (I'm all about cheap entertainment, what can I say), and then ate lunch before I put the boys down for a nap. I then started doing my devotions. A bit into them and I started smelling a slight scent somewhat like vinegar. I concluded it must have been my Greek yogurt breath. :)

But after it started to annoy my nostrils, I went and brushed my teeth. It still lingered. I started investigating drains and rooms of the house. It seemed to be the strongest at the desk and in the hallway. After finally concluding that there was no fermenting food left by toddlers around, I gave up looking. And then it hit me. Next door.

So I started doing a bit of research.

And making some phone calls to a variety of different governmental acronyms.

And only the NPIC believed me. The rest mostly didn't give me the time of day, chalking it up to a hypochondriac of a SAHM. But my nose apparently didn't lie, because our duplex resident smelled it too. And both us wives (who have asthma) had respiratory problems when at home. And conveniently, it was less strong when I followed the NCIP's advice and turned off the a/c (in 90 degree Tampa humidity). Oh, how I wished for my old chemistry lab at that period of time. I still think that it's possible that less then 1ppm (yes, it seems a small number, I know, but 4ppm can kill you) could have gotten into our place, causing irritated passages, without harming the eyes. Course, maybe I'm wrong. I guess I may never know, because My pride got the best of me and I got sick of being thought of as a unintelligent, delirious mom.

But it doesn't stop me from seeing that ever so "conveniently"...

GOD WAS IN THE DETAILS.

Was it coincidence that Joel's parents happened to fly in that day and got us a hotel room with them?

Was it coincidence that Joel was given a second month to rotate with Dr. Infante, whom, when he heard about our plight, offered us his empty house nearby?

Was it mere coincidence that he has children the same age as ours, so the couple hundred outlets (I'm not exaggerating) were almost completely covered with safety covers, there was a safety gate built in at the top of the stairs (and one conveniently nearby for the bottom), the pool was fenced in, and all the doors that led to the backyard had key deadbolts, so my toddler wouldn't be able to go outside without my help.

The plush rocker, huge kitchen and having a separate bedroom for each boy was just the proverbial whipped cream and cherry on top!

It made me laugh to think that we increased the square footage of our living space 10-fold (500 to 5000sqft). I told Joel to enjoy the luxury, because we wouldn't ever be living like that again. But it was fun while it lasted. And I'm so grateful to the kind Infante family and to my Lord for such a brief, but sweet respite.

Especially since during that time, my son slept a couple long shifts (4-5 hours) without waking. It's amazing what the extra square footage, and corresponding quietitude will do!

The only downside to the house, was although it still had it's massive entertainment system (which I didn't utilize), it was lacking it's internet capabilities. So I was forced to go MIA for a week.

But maybe that's a good thing. :)

So once again, God in His great mercy and love, showered us with blessings above and beyond all that we could ever even imagine asking.

"And it makes me want to shout..." :)

Our normal smaller happy abode

Our 1 week vacation home

The kitchen :)
And my first experience with a gas stove... I kinda liked it!

 Upon this sight, we pulled out the other gate and sectioned off part of the living room for Aiden

(Stay tuned for pictures of Grandpa and Grandma's visit...)