I'M B-A-A-A-A-CK!

It's been quite a while.  We have been battling one illness after the next here in the Crazy Lane.  First, we all got colds.  That turned into RSV.  After we recovered from that, we were hit with Strep.  As the girls got better, I actually got ... are you ready for it?  Shingles!  Shingles?!  I'm not 80, for goodness sake! 

At any rate, the shingles have just about cleared up, right in time for ... PINK-EYE!  Cakes, Peanut, and I have all been stricken with goopy, itchy eyes.  Are you ready for my treatment?  BREASTMILK!!!  I learned from a friend of mine that breastmilk works wonders when it comes to ear infections and pink-eye. 

As soon as Peanut woke up with her eyes fused shut, I immediately took aim and fired with my organic home remedy.  However, as you can imagine, the "guns" were not designed for accuracy.  The result was 15 minutes of screaming and spraying before I achieved the desired result.  After that, I wised up.  I now collect the homemade antibiotic in a cup, line up the children, dump it into their eyes, and have them blink to flush their eyes out.  I even added Bean to the assembly line, as a pre-emptive strike.

It's working!!!!  Peanut's in much better spirits and is losing that goopy, glassy-eyed look that accompanies pink-eye.  Cakes' pink-eye has been contained to one eye, which is clearing up nicely.  And Bean has yet to be stricken.  My eyes are also clearing up nicely.

And so Mommy, the human pharmacy, carries on and is trying to catch up on the blogging.

GEARING UP FOR THANKSGIVING ...

... with turkey pancakes. Gobble, gobble!

Anyone have ideas for Thanksgiving crafts for homeschooling?

WORKIN' AT THE CARWASH

Here is another wonderful idea from The Toddler Busy Book. My girls have those ride-on toy cars that play irritating music until they get left outside in a downpour. It really was an accident, but I'm not complaining.

Anyway, The Toddler Busy Book suggested having a mini car wash. I sent the girls onto the deck with a bucket of soapy water and a couple of rags. They spent a couple hours detailing their toy cars and not fighting with each other. Priceless!

Their toys get clean, they get clean. It's a win-win situation!

WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?

Bean has always been pretty independent and self-sufficient. She's great at amusing herself. But lately, Bean has been wandering the house, singing (to the tune of "Are You Sleeping"), "This is boring, this is boring ..."

My wonderful mother witnessed this, and appeared one day bearing The Toddler's Busy Book. It's fantastic! A lot of the ideas are so simple that I wonder why I didn't come up with them myself. One of them doesn't require any intervention from me and keeps the girls happy and busy for hours. I just fill up a tub with water and stick it on the deck with a bunch of Tupperware.

The first day that I tried this, the girls had a blast! That is, until one dumped water on another one's head and hysteria burst forth. But, I had a good hour and half before that happened.

It worked so well that I set up two tubs of water today so that they wouldn't argue over the water. When I went to check on them, they had both stripped down to their birthday suits and were sitting in the tubs. Why isn't bath time this easy?

Don't forget, tomorrow is the weekly Kid Pics Carnival! Give your kids a camera and watch the creative juices flow!