WFMW

No big intro today…still suffering the effects of the Johnson Family Plague of 2008…  My big secret for you is a little product called Nature’s Miracle.  I have to date only been able to find it at pet stores.  This, my friends, is the miracle of all miracles for a mama with four kids and a large, messy dog (although we don’t have a dog anymore I still consider it a miracle).  This product with remove odors, and stains, of any natural element I have come across.  I have used it to remove coffee stains in carpet, blood, red wine, chocolate, mustard, catsup, vomit, poop, urine, mud, etc, etc, etc.  About 2 months ago, my daughter vomited in the car, and it was EVERYWHERE!  The smell was awful, and I feared we would never get it all out, but my dear husband set to the task of scrubbing it down with Nature’s miracle and lo and behold, after about 3 days, the smell had vanished.  I have not yet come across a stain I cannot get out with this stuff.  Sometimes it takes a while, (as in the coffee stain in the carpet–it took about a month for the stain to fade completely), but eventually it works.  If you’ve got a stubborn stain or odor, give it a try.  Head over to Shannon’s at www.rocksinmydryer.typepad.com for more useful tips and tidbits!

Spring Fever

Tomorrow begins Spring Break.  And boy this year I was prepared for it.  I planned activities, and trips and things to do with the four buggers.  I didn’t want them to be bored, I wanted to have a lot of fun with them.  I checked out the farm to see what baby animals had been born that we could go see.  I planned a trip to the garden center so that we could pick out cool-weather flowers for our planters and plant them.  I invited all the kids’ cousins over for an afternoon of fun one day.  I even planned a trip to the park and a picnic.  I was ready.  And then…Saturday morning Kate woke up with a fever.  And she sat like a lump on the couch for the majority of the day.  She was so feverish that evening I didn’t sleep much, worrying and checking in on her.  Her fever was 104.4 this morning.  She is still feverish.  And then Henry came over with that look on his face.  That glossy-eyed, flat look that can only mean ‘here it comes.’  Sure enough, he’s got the high fever too.  It is only a matter of time before William shows up with that look.  And I pray not, but probably Ella, too.  So it looks like all those plans are probably out the window.  You know what?  The weather for the week didn’t look that good anyway. 

Hearing the Rain

One of my favorite sounds is the sound of rain.  It is refreshing and cleansing, and it always gives me that cozy, snug-and-dry-in-my-house kind of feeling.  I could sit and watch it fall, and hear it’s gentle drumming on the roof for hours.  So it has always bothered me that Henry cannot enjoy that same sound.  Even with his hearing aids in, he does not seem to be able to hear it. 

We were in the car last week at a stop light, and the skies suddenly opened up with a downpour.  Rain is so much louder in the car! 

“Henry, do you hear the rain?”

With a look of wonder and amazement on his face, my little Henry said ”Oh, yeah!”  and he turned his head to look out the window, grinning ear to ear.    

A few minutes later, I was chatting away to him, when he said to me in his sweet little four-year-old voice “Hey Mom, can you stop talking, because I need to hear the rain.”

And you better believe I didn’t speak another word. 

This Mama Loves this Baby

Henry can’t hear.  Well, he can, but you have to nearly yell in order for him to hear you.  When I first found out that he had a hearing loss, I felt a terrible sense of sadness.  Sadness that he couldn’t hear the rain, or the birds, or the wind in the trees.  He probably didn’t know my voice.  He didn’t hear me when I sang to him.  It broke my heart that he was surviving and coping in a hearing world, but couldn’t hear what we all could.  At night, I would snuggle in his bed with him until he fell asleep.  I watched him drift off, not knowing whether or not to sing, not knowing how to communicate with my beautiful little boy.  The tears rolled freely down my cheeks on more than one occasion.  Then one night, I looked at him and he at me, and I put my finger to my nose and said “This Mama…” and then I touched his nose and said “Loves this baby.”  He grinned widely, and signed “more” to me, so I repeated it again, and again, and again.  And this became our bedtime ritual.  And this ritual reminds me of how wonderfully lucky I am to be the mama of this baby.

pink ballet slippers

I was sorting through some of Kate’s old clothes that I had saved–or more accurately couldn’t bear to part with–and came across Kate’s first pair of ballet slippers.  They were so tiny!  I sat there, clutching those tiny pink slippers, remembering when I was pregnant with her, my first baby.  I didn’t know whether I was having a boy or a girl, but I felt for certain that I would be a much better “boy mom” than “girl mom.”  I was not interested in tea parties, or ballet or really anything pink.  Until my little Kate came along, that is.  Suddenly, there was nothing more precious than a little two year old girl in a fluffy pink tutu holding a fairy wand streaming with ribbons.  I loved to sit and watch her ballet class, to see my little baby girl dancing around on her tippy-toes.  She was so darling, she was precious, she was mine.  And I was so thankful that the Lord knew that I would be a good “girl mom” too. 

WFMW

Today is a backwards edition of Works For Me Wednesday(visit Rocks in my Dryer for more questions!), so I thought I would ask anyone out there in the blogosphere if it is possible to get that black mildew out of latex shower caulk (thank you for the suggestion Shannon!)  No amount of bleach is working for me, no amount of scrubbing, no amount of mildew remover–to this point–has worked.  Do I just have to remove and recaulk the entire shower?  HELP! 

Popcorn up my nose

Henry and I were watching “Clifford the Big Red Dog” the other day, enjoying a bowl of popcorn together.  I looked over at him and he had an uncomfortable, worried look on his face, and teary eyes. 

“Henry, what’s wrong?”

“Something hurts.  Something’s in my nose.” 

“What is in your nose, Henry?”

“Popcorn.”

“There is popcorn  in your nose?”

“Yes.”

“How did popcorn get in your nose?!”

“I don’t know!”  At this point he is beginning to come unglued as I am trying to figure out how on Earth he got popcorn IN his nose.  (How do you arrive at the idea of putting it in there in the first place?)  The tears are welling in his eyes, and his bottom lip is quivering as he realizes it doesn’t feel good and he doesn’t know how to get it out of there! 

“Oh honey, come here” I said, and he burst into tears.  I told him to blow his nose, and sure enough, out came the offender. 

“Henry, don’t put popcorn in your nose anymore. ”

“Okay, I won’t.”