Want something new to obsess over?

Check out this post from Siri, our newest visitor from India. Welcome, Siri and hope to see you back here often.

She posted her answers to the meme in the comment box as did Kathleen C. Several others picked up on it as well and answered on their own blogs. It's fun watching the way these things spread.

Jennybee, thanks for the suggestion about tea which indeed helps with many things. I remember my mom swearing by witch hazel pads on her eyes. We have several visitors who are very sharp with old fashioned and herbal remedies. Anyone still using it these days?

Susie, we had one prescription, probably after Elcie or Rebecca (or both) had their eye surgeries for strabismus, which was clearly labeled "otic". That's ears. The instructions which accompanied it gave instructions for eyes and ears both. Very strange. It's evidently used for middle ear infections in young kids and for preventing infection after surgery.

I love it when I write a post saying I'm too tired to post and still have six comments.

I have three sickly girls at the moment. Elcie woke up first looking just awful and running at both ends. She spent most of her day being sick and may be out tomorrow too. If she's still as sick as she was today, I'll see if I can get her in to the doctor. Rochelle came out with her conjunctivitis in both eyes (Pinkeye sure is easier to spell). By tonight they looked clear but I kept her out and we'll see what the morning brings. Rebecca was last up, holding her tummy and looking almost as grim as Elcie. I had her crawl into my bed. By afternoon she was feeling better so she'll probably go back tomorrow.

Today was first of the month shopping on top of everything else. Ray was fine with the girls so my friend and I made most of the rounds as soon as we dropped her little girl and my neighbor's son at school. I bought one of those ear thermometers. I'm getting very tired of losing them, this one was on sale, and I like the way they work. One second - that's it. They don't have many fevers but when they do I don't want to spend 30 minutes hunting down the thermometer. Yes, I put it away in the same place each time but it grows legs between uses.

Nobody had much appetite tonight (not surprising). I was inventorying the freezer somewhat and making room when I ran across a "mystery" dish. I must remember to label these things. Thawed it out thinking it might be spaghetti sauce. Nope, it was red beans in chili sauce. Dinner!! Ray cooked a pot of rice while I was napping and we had some flour tortillas to sop it up with. Rochelle's tummy was fine so she and the two of us ate. I gave the other girls some Ramen noodles. They usually go down and stay down.

My browser went on strike this morning and wouldn't let me paste anything, even a link. I had asked one of my online friends for her rice pudding receipe. Today she posted it. I did all the copying, came over here, and couldn't paste. God forbid I should have done something absurd like write down her name. WRITE?? People still do that? I was so sure I'd remember. Anyhow, I'll find it again, feel really stupid, and post it. Friend, if you recognize yourself, I apologize.

While I was searching back through bloglines for the rice pudding recipe, I stopped to see what my friend Gawdessness was saying. She wrote a post about research into Fetal Alcohol Syndrome along with links to studies. Many of you who visit here are also regular visitors there, but for any who wish to know more about FAS, it's well worth looking at. Even if it doesn't affect our families directly, the ripples affect many of us, one way or another. It's heartbreaking to see innocent kids damaged through no fault of their own. Note: the link directly to the post didn't seem to work but the link on the blogroll at the left does.

Today, I read post hip chick's post talking about the same thing from a teacher's point of view. She was discussing a student's "right to privacy" as opposed to a teacher being able to help her students. The school wanted me to include that sort of information in the girls' permanent files and I refused. At the same time, I included a letter saying I'd be willing to discuss anything which would help a teacher understand my kids' problems. I don't want anything in their records which might come back to bite them later in life. We aren't dealing with FAS but there are certainly issues that might affect them in class. The teacher should know, at least generally, what's going on. I never heard anymore from them. For me, it was a right to privacy and the school crossed the line.

School conference for Rebecca this week and annual IEP for Elcie next week on her birthday, March 9th. I'll have a teenager. She tried to talk me into letting her play hookey on her birthday and when that didn't work, tried to convince her teacher to skip the homework that day. Didn't work either but she'll do her spelling ahead so all she'll have is math and we can whip through that. I'll take her out to dinner somewhere after the IEP.

See what happens when I skip a day? I have a load of clothes (always) to put in the dryer, it's after 1:00 a.m., and I still want to find that recipe if I don't keep getting sidetracked.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Good night (unless I post the recipe later on)