Art

A couple of weeks ago, two very fine ladies stayed with us for a couple of days. One of them brought out some araucana eggs that had been blown and cleaned, a bottle of decoupage glue, some pretty napkins, and invited Richelle to decorate an egg with her.

Richelle loves doing anything artsy and got right into the project. They cut out butterflies, flowers, blades of grass, and whatever caught their fancy that would fit into the space and idea of their eggs. Next, they peeled away the two layers of white napkin, leaving only the thin tissue with the picture. Then they brushed a layer of glue on the egg and carefully placed their pictures. Finally, they applied a couple more layers of glue on top and let it dry.

They learned that if they weren't careful, the glue stuck to their fingers and then peeled the tissue away from the egg. Careful application of glue fixed nearly everything and strategically placed pieces even covered the holes in the ends of the eggs.

I think it'd be fun to make some more with eggs stained with tea, beet juice, or yellow onion skins.

Snow in April?

That's not normal for this part of the country. Yet we woke up to snow Tuesday.

It melted within three hours but was amazing while it lasted.

Menthol

The first and most common symptom of this virus we had was coughing. Not just ordinary coughing but the kind that occurs often and is difficult to stop. Cough drops worked well in quieting the fits and opening the airways.

I was also giving Richelle elderberry syrup every day, trying to help her immune system beat the virus. I didn't notice the "other ingredients" which listed eucalyptus, peppermint, thyme, and myrrh oils.

One night, after about two weeks of all this, Richelle woke me up with her non-stop coughing. It took me about fifteen minutes to gather my thoughts enough to remember the Vick's vapor rub on the feet trick to stop coughing. I stumbled around finding the Vick's and then slathered probably more than was necessary on each of Richelle's soles. It was dim and I didn't have my glasses on. You're supposed to put socks on afterward but I wasn't awake enough to search for a pair. Richelle stuck her feet back under the covers, flopped over in bed, fell back asleep...and never coughed once until morning.

Three days later, Richelle broke out in what I thought was poison oak. She insisted she hadn't been in the brush but I sent her to the shower with the bottle of dish washing liquid - my first line of defense for poison oak.


Of course it wasn't poison oak. It was an overdose of menthol. She ended up with a rash that covered most of her body. It started here on her cheeks and she looked rather squirrel-like for probably a week. It didn't help that I forgot about the Vick's on her feet and Mike had to remind me to change her sheets.

Catch-up

No, we've not fallen off the edge of a cliff. We've succumbed to the nasty infections that's been wreaking havoc in this part of the country. For about four years my family has avoided doctors except for the chiropractor and then whammo! Three of us are dragged into the urgent care clinic within two weeks.

Richelle had an ear infection (I think it started as tonsillitis), Nick had a really bad sinus infection, and I had a pretty bad case of bronchitis. Mike and Cameron fought/is fighting a sore throat. Mike's cleared up after a week of home doctoring and Cameron's just started yesterday.

I'm looking forward to sunny weather and good health for all!