7 Quick Takes: More Asthma Exacerbation Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Sigh… Trick-or-treating on my cul-de-sac almost killed me because of asthma exacerbation (thank God Daniel only wanted to do five houses!) and I had to stay home from class on Tuesday to rest my lungs. I hate missing class but I also didn’t want to be puking from the asthma attack I would get from walking to the classroom from my car. Thankfully, it wasn’t a quiz day so I didn’t lose points for being absent.

— 2 —

World Series. My back-up boys have prevailed and Cleveland is back to stinking at sports! My only regret is that the Cubs didn’t sweep them; but at least they triumphed in Game 7 while playing *IN* Cleveland. (For those who are wondering, I hate all Cleveland sports teams and root against them at every turn. Thank various seminary classmates and obnoxious bloggers for this one.) Here’s hoping this is the beginning of some baseball dominance for the Cubs! They definitely deserve it. I’m so excited for my Illinois friends who are headed to a victory parade that has been a long time in coming. 🙂

And seriously, the rain delay was a joke. These men are being paid millions of dollars — if volunteer softball teams can play in the rain and football teams can play in -20F weather with blowing snow, baseball players can man up and play in the rain! I mean, are they going to melt?

— 3 —

The Write 31 Days challenge. I have prevailed over the Write 31 Days challenge! I need to do one more post aggregating all of the resources I linked but I’m glad I managed to write every day in October, even when I really didn’t want to write or when I was bogged down with homework.

— 4 —

Daniel and ENT fun. The munchkin had an early ENT appointment on Wednesday and was pretty good until we had to restrain him so that the doctor could examine his ears under the microscope. (To be fair, I’d hate to be restrained and have someone poking things into various orifices so I don’t really blame him.) He’s got serious ear wax preventing them from being able to do a decent exam and they couldn’t get it out so they’re going to have to sedate him to clean it out. This should be… interesting.

— 5 —

Election blah. I am so sick of the election that I’m pausing and then fast-forwarding through anything election-related on TV. I voted almost three weeks ago because everyone registered in Washington gets their ballot in the mail and they can choose to mail it back or drop it off in person. Seriously, there should be some chip in the ballot that automatically gets rid of political ads and all political content from TV once a person votes because this is too much.

— 6 —

Interesting… A small town in Macedonia has become a hub for pro-Trump websites. It’s a bit disturbing that Macedonian people are profiting off our electoral dysfunction.

— 7 —

*facepalm* I heard from one of my favorite $tarbux baristas that she had people whining about not having eggnog lattés on Halloween and that there’s some controversy about the green pre-holidays cup. Seriously?!?!?!?!? Eggnog lattés are foul-tasting and it’s not like it’s even Advent yet, let alone Christmas.

Some people seriously destroy my faith in humanity and I’m not even talking about Trump supporters with this one!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

{five favourites}: Miscellanea (LXXIX)

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#5Faves

One

The resident I saw last Thursday. I had to go in for asthma/bronchitis issues and got a resident who listened to me and didn’t tell me just to suck it up. I just sent her a thank-you email because I felt like she took my concerns seriously.

Two

My Accounting class. I’m doing extra problems in each chapter for *FUN*. That is crazy!!!

Three

The band NEEDTOBREATHE. I am in love with their songs “Brother” and “Testify”. “Washed By the Water” is also pretty awesome.

Four

The weather lately. It’s been beautiful and rainy. I am in heaven.

Five

My grey kitty Homer. Someone is being a needeh kitteh and is wanting to come and sit on my chest. He’s also my homework buddy.

Go love up Bonnie, DeBalino, and the others.

31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs: Vaccines and Autism

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31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs

I saved this particularly scary topic (at least for some people) for Halloween. For those with a delicate constitution who are going to be easily offended by me disagreeing with them, I recommend something more soothing to read… like maybe a science book! For everyone else, go look under the cut.

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31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs: Food Issues

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31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs

If you have a kid who was born prematurely, there’s a good chance that they have some texture issues in their mouth. Add in autism or sensory processing disorders (SPD) and you have a kid who refuses to eat what you put in front of them. As frustrating as this is, here’s how I’ve coped.

[+] Supplement with Pediasure or Boost. It is almost impossible to get enough calories into Daniel so that he can gain weight. A nutritionist put him on Pediasure when he was 2 years old and they were finally able to plot him on the growth chart. It’s not ideal for kids to get most of their calories that way but it sure does help.

[+] Gummy vitamins. If your kid likes fruit snacks, this is a way to get extra vitamins in. Again, it’s not ideal but it works.

[+] Pick your battles. Your kid only eats food shaped like a dinosaur? Congratulations! They’re typical. Order a dinosaur-shaped cookie cutter for sandwiches, stock up on those chicken nuggets, and explain that the broccoli on their plate are palm trees. No kid is perfect and it’s likely that they won’t eat what you put in front of them every time. If it is making mealtimes into battles, rethink your strategy.

[+] Find whatever you can get your kid to ingest and stick with it. Daniel has his own peanut butter jar because we use it to give him his meds and because the kid eats it out out the jar with a spoon! We allow it because it’s extra fat and calories for him, two things that my painfully thin kid needs! He loves whole milk so that’s why we buy. (I find that my crabby gut tolerates whole milk while nonfat milk makes it stabby. Lactose-free milk is twice as expensive which is why it isn’t in the budget.) We go through tons of bananas and shortbread cookies because that’s what he likes. Ditto with goldfish, cheese sticks (calcium and protein!), fruit snacks, apple juice.

[+] Model good habits. If your kids see you eating your broccoli, they are more likely to try it.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: October 30, 2016

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For Today…

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… a little cloudy and chilly. It hasn’t even broken 50F yet today!

I am thinking… about what to blog on for today in the Write 31 Days challenge.

I am thankful… for a few minutes of quiet after getting home from church. Mom took Daniel to Fred Meyer and they aren’t back yet.

One of my favorite things… good choral music. We sang this for the Offertory this morning.

I am wearing… an indigo shirt and jeans. For church, I switched out my jeans for my black paisley skirt.

I am creating… Access databases.

I am listening to… various songs by NEEDTOBREATHE.

I am hoping… the Cubs win the next three World Series games. I hate all Cleveland sports teams and am wondering what deal they made with Satan for two of their teams to be doing as well as they are this year. (Usually, their teams are a joke.)

I am learning… about how to journalize and post closing entries in Practical Accounting.

In my kitchen… not sure if we’re having “family dinner” tonight with just the four of us but I’m kind of hoping we are.

In the school room… Daniel continues to do really well with his program.

Post Script… it’s Reformation Sunday today so I’m sharing the Reformation Polka.

Shared Quote…

Spider fun!

A moment from my day… My latest addiction:

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs: Blogger Spotlight on Cammie of “Beyond Pearls”

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31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs

It’s another busy homework evening (Accounting) so here’s a blogger spotlight post to give you something to ponder.

Why I’m spotlighting this blogger: Cammie has been a friend of mine for probably 4 years now and we commiserate with each other about our kids’ conditions. Her daughter Sadie has ADHD, Maggie is severely autistic, and her boys have their own issues. She recently had her daughter Tessie and she’s got what seems to be some vision and hearing issues.

Cammie is amazing. Her kids have probably 50 appointments per month with all their doctor’s appointments and therapies… and she manages to juggle it all. There are also a number of food allergies and sensitivities between all the kids and she has to a huge amount of cooking from scratch. I can barely cope with one kid with special needs and she has five of them!

The woman seriously amazes me and I think you need to go check her out!