Violet's Secret Garden

The weather has been glorious the last bit, but it has its drawbacks. The biggest problem is the dry weather that is ever-increasing the pollen count. The pollen is so bad that this morning, after washing it yesterday afternoon, my car is covered in a fairly thick patina of yellow pollen. I might as well have not bothered doing it at all and just wiped my windows down so I can see clearly through them. 

The increase of pollen has us all miserable. The kids are snotty all the time and cranky because of being stuffed up all the time. My fuse is shorter than normal, and even though it's been lovely outside, we've been slightly lethargic and wanting to stay inside. It's so bad that even the seasonal allergy meds like Claritin and Zyrtec are not working for any of us.

I've been looking for places that sell locally hived honey, but the store they told me about at the vitamin store is unfindable by me and the local farm that sells what may or may not be thier own hived honey is only open on weekends. We shall see if we can find something in Redmond or Woodinville, but I may have to wait until farmer's market season, which is, thankfully, soon. 

Posted by Karen Backman at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My stomach has been upset a lot lately for no good reason. I've been slightly less tired than I was, but still a bit lathargic. 

I got my sorry butt out of the house today. We were all going to go to Marymoor and fly a kite, but Ingrid had a meltdown and so I took Finn to the mall to play. He fell asleep as soon as we got into the car, so I took the long way and he woke up as we pulled into the parking lot. He had a good time playing with the loads and loads of kids there.

We headed home and since Ingrid was feeling better, Peter took her to the park down the street, and I met them there for the kids to play. It was very sweet. She saw Finn running toward her, and ran to meet him and gave him a hug and a kiss. Alas, Finn took off into the grass and took a faceplant, which resulted in him being COMPLETELY covered in mud. Face, rainjacket, pants, hands, all smushed into him. 

I brought the poor tike home and gave him a bath. 

Then my lovely husband made us a dinner of chicken quesedillas. They were good. 

Posted by Karen Backman at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So last night I had finished feeding the children and was working on a dinner for Peter and I. Ingrid was trying to twirl in the kitchen so I sent her to her room. Finn followed her down that way and was outside the room. The next thing I hear is screaming and Finn is at the gate screaming bloody murder. 

His hand is red and has abraisons on it, he only holds it out straight and he continues to scream. He shrieked for 20 minutes straight. I had just gotten him calmed a tiny bit and Peter came home so I gave Finn to Peter so I could take the food I'd been cooking off the stove. I called the 24 hour nurse line to see if they thought I should get him checked out.[ I do that because my dad only took me to the Dr. when I very very obviously needed it, and sometimes not then (ie when I begged him not to do anything to the gash on my face).] They suggested I take him to urgent care, so I did. I got there at 7:15. By 7:30 he was using his hand and acting fine, but I'd already paid for the visit and I figured I should get it checked just to be sure. At 8:30 they took us to the back. At 9:00 we had our x-rays and answer that he was fine, which the Dr and I both expected seeing as he was using his hand without indicating pain. 

His hand is still very red on the finger tips of the middle three fingers on his right hand, but the swelling is down. 

Even though he was not seriously injured, Ingrid is in her room for half the day today. She really hates being alone when she knows someone is around and I can't really think of anything else to do with her. I talk to her about the severity of hurting her brother, but she says, "yes mom, I understand" and then does it again the next minute. 

This parenting stuff is hard. 

Posted by Karen Backman at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)