Our Family

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love notes

At the end of a long day, cleaning up mess after mess and feeling overwhelmed…. 4 little notes found on my pillow, sure do bring a smile to my face.

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rocking out

My kids rocking out….lol they make me giggle! wordless wednesday

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tug of war

This week I got to help with my sons 4th grade field trip, Wagons Ho.  This hands on experience shows kids how the pioneers lived and the skills they needed to survive.  The kids get to do everything from shake cream into butter, use a saw to cut shingles for a home,   start a fire with a stick and bow, rope a steer, wash laundry on a washboard, drill holes into wood with primitive tools and so many other fun things.

It was cold most the day but the kids seemed to enjoy every second of it none the less.  As I watched my sweet little Matthew interact with his classmates he made me smile.  He was loving every single second of it, he was ready to jump in and try every challenge they gave him.  For those of you who do not know my son is special needs, he was born missing half his heart, but complications and seizures have also left him behind kids his own age developmentally.

He is half the size of most the kids in his class, he can’t run as fast as them.  He can’t read or write at their level…. But none of that matters to him.  They are his friends and he loves every second of being at school.   Most the kids adore him as well and enjoys his happy, fun loving attitude. It makes my heart so happy to see him thriving and doing  well.  That is just it, Matthew never focuses on the things he can’t do instead he just JUMPS RIGHT IN and does the best he can.

tug of war winner

The very last event of the day was a tug of war contest.  They had all the 4th grade boys on one side of the rope and all the girls plus 5 teachers on the other side of the rope.  They counted down ready, set, go….  you have never seem kids more determined as they pulled on that rope.   The Mommy in me wanted to go snatch him up, worried he might get hurt with all those big boys tugging on the rope… but there he was grinning EAR TO EAR pulling with all his might.

And then it happened the red flag was pulled to their side and they beat the girls!  They clapped they cheered, they where the champions, they WON!  And right  in the middle of the crowd my was sweet little Matthew  giving his friends a high five, feeling 10 feet tall.  Moments like this are such a blessing from above and I am so grateful for every day we have healthy with him!

I am also so very grateful for this classmates and the kindness they show him, being “different” in anyway is never easy.  But so much easier when you have a group of kids embrace that difference with open arms.

wagons ho idaho

You can read more about Matthew and being Hypoplastic Left heart here under I’m A Heart Mom. 

mommy moment

 What is a  Mommy Moment, click here

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silly things our moms say1My friends and I were laughing the other day about the silly things our Mom’s use to say to us when we got hurt or were sick, when we were little. Some of the things they said where wise wisdom and others were down right ridiculous.  We were laughing so hard we had tears coming from our eyes. So I ask my readers the question what did your Mom say to you when you were little and Had a Head Ache, Thirsty or had the Diarrhea?  I got a good laugh from your replies….

  1. You’re too young to have a headache!
  2. No matter what the ailment the first question would be “did u try to go poop.” I say it to my kids now just to be funny
  3. The funniest thing has come from my husband. When he would fall or get hurt and was bleeding, his grandmother would say – with a twang -, ” I hope your satisfied”. LOL I don’t know why that makes me giggle!
  4. It’ll be better by the time you grow up!
  5. My mother told me if I peed outside I would get a sty in my eye…then I got one…I was busted!!!
  6. Are you bleeding or coughing up a lung? No? Have a good day at school. Just kidding but it wasn’t far off from that
  7. My parents would say up chuck instead of vomit
  8. U r a headache (lol)
  9. Hello I am friday meet me saturday and we will have a sunday.
  10. Suck it up, get your own water, don’t crap in your pants… lol..oy vey lol
  11. You have currutaca (diarrhea)
  12. If you peed in the road, you’d get a sty on your eye, I had a lot of them. If ya’ gotts go, ya’ gotta go.
  13. If we got the runs we were told to… Eat more cheese
  14. And for everything else, if you are not bleedin or your bones are not broken then you are fine go outside and play
  15. LOL!! It must be a southern mom thing- first answer no matter the ailment “go sit on the pot” bahaha
  16. Well my mom and I always got really bad seasonal allergies and we called it “buffalo head” because it felt like a huge fluffy buffalo was clogging up our heads!
  17. Sad but my mom would threaten to give me a laxative if I had ailments. I learned to suck it up and go to school.
  18. You have a headache? Let’s chop off your head… that’ll take care of the problem:-/ Lol
  19. My mother told us “everything” was Gas…. Didn’t matter what it was.
  20. Did you poop today?, Go get a glass of water., Go drink some Pepto!
  21. Walk around the block and fart
  22. The other thing she said was “unless you are bleeding or on fire, then I don’t wanna hear about it,”
  23. My papaw always told us if we had a headache that ” with a head like that how could you not have a headache!” gotta love them lol
  24. My young women’s leader used to say for anything wrong, “Just go poop! It’ll make you feel better!” Haha!
  25. I’ll wash your mouth out with soap!! (sad thing, our neighbors mom actually did this)
  26. Any type of stomach issue “Drink and drink tons of water to flush out that nasty virus. It will come outta one end or the other.”
  27. My dads response was always, “its a long way from your heart,” or, “we’ll just smash the other one so you forget this one hurts.” Lol.
  28. You’re Thirsty? I’m Friday! Lets get together Saturday and have a Sunday!!
  29. My moms answer for everything was “go sit on the toilet” lol as I can see a lot of moms used to say that too
  30. If we were thirsty “Drink your Spit!”
  31. Any other possible ailment, my Mom would say, “Put on some lipstick, you’ll feel better!”
  32. It will feel better when it quits hurting
  33. My mom always asked if we had tried to got to the bathroom when we were sick. It seemed no matter what was bothering us, it might be caused by the fact we hadn’t pooped in a while. Was she right? Who knows. My I was only suffering from a constipation induced headache.
  34. Hi Thirsty, I’m Donna.
  35. Love all the pooping…apparently there were a lot of BM’s going on when I was a kid.
  36. My mother’s answer for any ailment or injury was “yellow Triaminic”. Stomachache, headache, sore throat, stubbed toe… It didn’t matter what the problem was, Yellow Triaminic was the answer. Horrible stuff. We didn’t fake sick in our house!
  37. It wasn’t headaches, thirst and diarrhea I got the crazy advice on. It was earaches, stomach cramps and hiccups. If I had an earache she insisted on blowing her nasty cigarette smoke into my ear (I learned never to complain about earaches).
  38. My grandmother would say, “It’ll get well before you get married.” I cried so hard when (I don’t even remember what minor injury) happened within 24 hours of my wedding day and I realized it wouldn’t get well in time. lol I miss her so much!!
  39. A headache got a children’s aspirin or 1/2 a regular aspirin. As the oldest of 6 kids, I never bothered to tell her I was thirsty — I just got myself a drink of water. And, for diarrhea, it was the horrible, awful, most dreadful of all solutions: Pepto Bismal. To this day, just the smell or sight of it disgusts me! uggggg!
  40. I tell my kids when they say their thirsty to “swallow their spit” always get a good laugh outta that one. And pepto for anything else that was wrong when I was a kid.
  41. My dad always asked, Did You break My (insert whatever you tripped over or fell on)??? If You broke It you’re in TROUBLE!!!
  42. Linda Hansen my grandmother and mother would fix me campbells chicken noodle soup dry toast and hot tea. tuck me in bed and feel my head for fever
  43. A headache was ” what do you expect with a watermelon for a head?
  44. I remember a time when my mom gave me M & M candy for a headache told me it was medicine.
  45. My mom used to always tell us to take a warm bath- no matter what the ailment was she would say, “take a nice warm bath n you will feel all better” the amazing thing was it always worked
  46. Every time we were sick to our stomach we got cola syrup its tasted horrible. lol
  47. “If you’re not thirsty enough to drink water, you’re not really thirsty at all”
  48. When my kids get hurt, I’ll say, “why did you hurt me like that?”, kid will respond, “I didn’t hurt you, it’s my ( ) that hurts.” Then I get to explain, “You are mine, anytime you hurt, I hurt! Now stop hurting me.” I’ll usually get a smile and a calmed down child.
  49. My grandmother gave us baby aspirin for headaches…rubbed us down with vicks vapor rub or campho-phenic for most ailments and pepto bismol for “the trots”!
  50. Baby aspirin, loved the taste. She would try pepto bismol but it would end up making me barf, so she would make jello, soup, hot tea and crackers for tummy problems. She would force me to wear hideous scarves by saying we would end up with a shot at the doctor if I didnt wear it.
  51. Get some water. (Water doesn’t taste good though). Then you’re not that thirsty, are you?
  52. I used to tell my daugher she wasn’t sick she was just sickening!!! kind of mean old mom. Ha Ha!!
  53. When my daughter tells me she hurt something, I get all dramatic and say “ohmygosh! Are you okay?? Do you need to go to the doctor?!? -snicker-*no* ” do you need to get a pop???( that’s what she calls shots) -snicker-*no!* then I guess you’re okay! Then I kiss it, she says thanks n goes on about her business
  54. My mom and I still joke about this, but whatever the ailment,she would say “take an Advil.”
  55. We also got a lot of Vicks vaporub for various ailments.
  56. Aspirin or Vitamin C. That was my mom’s cure-all. It didn’t matter what was wrong with you.
  57. No matter what was wrong with you my Aunt Cathy would always tell us to go take a big healthy dump….. It would cure whatever was ailing you. Ugh….
  58. Cant remember what she said about these circumstances,but i do remember she used to say to me,”if you get hurt and break your leg don’t you come running to me”, lol!
  59. A big turd with fix your problem
  60. Castor oil and granny chasing you with a spoon of it
  61. My dad would tell us “You will forget about it by the time you kiss your boyfriend” of course that would make us laugh then he would say “See you forgot about it already!”
  62. A headache meant you were tired–go to bed; thirsty meant get yourself a drink, I’m not your slave; diarrhea (or any other gastrointestinal disturbance meant pepto bismol
  63. My Dad would always say, “It’ll feel better when it quits hurtin!”
  64. My dad would always say when we hurt ourselves in a minor way, “give me your finger. I’ll bite it, then you’ll stop thinking about your (foot, shin,head,etc)
  65. When I was stomach sick my dad would make me toast with butter and brown sugar on it. Wish he was still with us.
  66. Are you bleeding? No Are you on fire? No Are you breathing? Yes Now go back to class! (we used to try to play sick to come home early from school; as you can see it never worked!!)
  67. My grandma Always said I was too young for headaches!
  68. My dad always offered to stomp on my toe. He said I would forget all about anything else.
  69. When I was thirsty my mom told me to swallow my spit.
  70. If we were coughing badly, my mom used to say “Cough it up… might be something we can use”. Grossed me out then and grosses me out now….but I still have the urge to say it to my kids when they cough.
  71. I was raised by my grandmother, any complaint we had, the first thing out of her mouth ‘have you pooped?’ Prunes were here cure all, unfortunately I have asthma and the prunes didn’t solve that so I had recurring hospital stays. My sister and I always laugh about how everything was supposed to be solved by pooping!
  72. For head aches, mom would say to go lay down…For a cold she would put vapor rub and crush aspirin under our feet and make us sweat it out. AND for an upset stomach she would give us crackers and 7up…or yerba buena (herbal green tea)…R.I.P Mom…she always tried to make us feel better…silly sometimes the things we had to do or take but we felt loved…
  73. Drink more water…. No matter what’s going on, the answer is always drink more water!
  74. My dad’s thoughtful answer for my ailments?- life’s tough then you die. Not related to above but my when climbing trees or rough housing my grandma would quip “if you fall and break both your legs don’t come running to me!”
  75. I alway tell my kids neosporin and a band aid .If it’s not gone in a week then we will worry. Fixes everything! LOL
  76. My mom used to ask me if I had had a B.M. if I told her I had a headache. What she thought one had to do with the other, who the hell knows?
  77. Well, I always say…”we will need to amputate” thank you dad for that one!

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Survival emergency disastersMatt here- We see it all the time in the news but never really realize the impact of what it actually means in our own life. Ever wonder what it would be like without power? How about with out running “clean” water or better yet with out water at all. How about even surviving without shelter.

No matter if it is a natural disaster or man made, there will be a point in everyone’s life where you are without power or with out any of the basic survival needs. In the late 80′s we lived without power for weeks due to Hurricane Hugo. Bet you didn’t realise that without power you can’t make ice and all of your food in the fridge and freezer will go bad in about 2 days. I remember it well, we had a neighborhood BBQ just to cook off the food before it spoiled.

Just like every hurricane we see the damage on TV, we say ahh those poor people and then the toaster pops up and the microwave distracts us from the news. And in just a few days there is something else on the news that changes the focus and we easily forget the people still struggling. Without getting into politics too much, I feel the nation has become reliant on someone else to come to their aid. As an Eagle Scout of about 25 years – I got mine at 13 and half – I still remember the Scout Motto – Be Prepared.

Be Prepared does not mean – Wait till some one helps you, or make sure you know who to yell at for food and shelter. It means get it yourself  ”before” something happens to you or your family. Get your life in order before the order is taken from you. Before mother nature or deranged people take away what you know to be safety and security.

Being Prepared does NOT take a lot of time, nor does it take much money either. The other thing is that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out either. When any human is put in a survival mode – most likely their inner caveman will come out when they realise their hair dryer or their cell phone stops working. At one point or another we have all seen an episode of the TV reality show Survivor. Without basic supplies and basic tools the human body will shut down. So how do you do it? Where do you start?

Start small, but be consistent.  Make it a goal that every paycheck or every month you purchase at least one thing to add to your survival kit. Start with a Backpack. You need something that can store items, that is easy to grab, and can be carried easily. A box is nice but a backpack is much better. If something happens where you need to hike for safety or hike for help it is best to bring your survival bag with you at all times.

Once you assemble a bag for yourself, make sure you continue to build on that. Each person in your family should have their own bag that they can carry. If you have children, make sure you pack age appropriate supplies. Like a 5 year old shouldn’t have to carry a fire starter, but should have their favorite toy thats is small and their favorite blanket or something to help them feel safe. Also if you have young children, there is no reason why they can’t carry their own small backpacks with diapers and powdered milk and baby wipes.

Below is a list of items to start off with. Whether you know how to use it or not is not what you need to worry about right now, you just need to have these basics to survive.

emergency backpack kitEmergency Backpack – any will do, but one big enough to hold many items, rugged enough to withstand abuse. They can start as low as $10

emergency blanketEmergency Mylar Thermal Blankets (Pack of 10) ( on sale for as low as $6.99 for a pack of 10 and free shipping) An emergency blanket can help not only keep you warm but will help you get warm. Just like a wrapping of aluminum foil will keep the heat in on your picnic lunch, it can help you if you are becoming hypothermic. And can be used to flag down help!

firestarter kit emergency survivalFirestarter – No matter the season, a fire will help with warmth at night, to signal for help, and what many do not realise it will help you feel secure. Why not a lighter? The gas in the lighters can leak, evaporate, and in heat might combust.

water proof matchesWaterproof Windproof matches –  Having a fire is a key to surviving as well as a way to signal for help. And with something that is high on the list it is best to have backups in order. A good match that will light when wet and also you don’t have to worry about wind is a key to any good fire.

 water filter straw emergency survival

Water Filter – A good water filter will help you simply live. A human on a normal day needs between 2-3 liters of water per day. In survival circumstances you are working hard, hiking and stressing your body so much that you need much more to live. A water filter straw is only about nine bucks and should be one of the first things in your kit.

water purification tablets emergency survivalWater Purification Tablets – Water is a must in a survival environment. Having more then one backup is key to coming out healthy and alive. Water purification tablets are one of the most reliable ways to make sure your water is save to drink.

survival paracord emergencySurvival RopeParacord – Why do you need rope? The real question is what can you not do with rope? Use this to tie up a signal for help – Fishing line – Anchor – boot strap – Backpack strap – First aid brace – Use it on a stick to help start a fire – Sewing thread – Tourniquet in First Aid – Snare to catch food – Hammock – Trip line and more…

survival knife emergencySurvival Knife – From the ole 80′s movie Crocodile Dundee – That’s not a knife – This is a Knife – Use it to cut food, cut cords, chop trees for a fire, shave wood for tinder for a fire, break glass, clear a path, make a shelter, and more….

There is always something else you can add to your Survival packs like hand wipes to feel clean, toilet paper for the comfort of home but make sure you zip it in a plastic bag. Also don’t forget the snacks like trail mix for the protein and carbs, a good protein bar collection for energy, and a can of chicken chunks or tuna or some meat or your favorite meal in a can. Mainly you want to think of storage. Think of how long it will last and how often you actually will rotate the food or perishable items out of your survival bag.

One thing that many people forget about is to save your memories. If there is a disaster that wipes out your home, what about all of the family pictures that you see people rummaging through their torn down home to save! Take the time after the kids go to bed and scan or take digital photos of all of your memories. Over Christmas one year I scanned every old photo album, every birth certificate, and every colored elementary picture I brought home when I was a kid and my mom saved. Scan, photograph or copy every thing that you can. Save it on a Solid State Drive, or High capacity SD card or USB memory stick. Why only those and not a normal and cheaper hard drive? Hard Drive have spinning parts that are more likely to break and malfunction then a chip inside of a USB drive or SD card. They have no moving parts, they are lighter weight, and are easier to carry with you. This way you can always replace a home, but the memories you will always carry with you. Now once you make one, make sure to make a duplicate copy and store it at your relatives home. Just incase your’s is destroyed or lost you still have a backup in a separate location.

Make sure you put your survival bag close by where you can grab it and go. We have ours on the outside, front edge of our garage. So if there was a fire in the house and we all ran out, it would be easy to grab it from the garage. Just remember that in an emergency you will not have time to plan out where and when you will need to grab it.

 

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