Tuesday, October 7, 2014
The Sweetly Decorated Life: Protecting our Children from Enterovirus 68
The Sweetly Decorated Life: Protecting our Children from the Enterovirus 68: I don't mean to scare you. I watch the news. I've been watching the news more often lately and I like Anderson Cooper, I can't...
Protecting our Children from the Enterovirus 68
I don't mean to scare you. I watch the news. I've been watching the news more often lately and I like Anderson Cooper, I can't help it. My daughters will turn 5 in November. That scares me-I like them home here in our town-the town where I grew up. They are all growing up so fast, our children. More in the news: Ebola and Enterovirus 68-I cringe if I hear about another case but we must be prepared and on the lookout.
The latest news, a young boy my girls age dies in New Jersey-he was only four years old-a triplet-he leaves his twin sisters behind. A tragic loss for the family and those close to him-a loss for everyone. The link below is not related to the child in New Jersey but to a previous loss. Dr. Sanjay Gupta does discuss the virus here.
My husband is a big fan of washing hands. Believe it or not and my loving mother will say I was taught to wash my hands but I absolutely disagree, my younger brother and I were not taught to wash our hands as a precaution. We just didn't. When we were young, we lived all summer by the beach in a small neighboring city called Mayo, where Nanny Gwen lived, by the beach. I cut my right foot in the surf there one summer-sliced deep by a beer bottle.
I remember my Nanny Gwen running to the beach to catapult me into the ambulance, her bravado running in the summer wind, no fear, running to save me. She was my hero. No infection, no weird disease from the sand, just a few stitches in the 1970's. I'll never forget the day or how strong she looked that day. Thank you Nanny for everything. Nanny's been gone for a while now. We all miss her.
In 5th grade, I ran smack into a running mate on recess and my nose obliterated, his head needing several stitches and a young fellow 5th grader named Cynthia, in her white eyelet cardigan coming to my rescue, running me into the nurses office, her cardigan soaked with my blood. I required plastic surgery that day. She was my hero that day. A special thanks to Dr. Strawberry for my nose. (1984)
Today in 2014 we have much more to worry about. The CDC recommends "avoiding those who are sick" since the virus is spread through saliva and phlegm as well as stool and they say washing hands is most important. Stating that sick people can avoid spreading the virus by covering their nose and mouth when sneezing and coughing cannot be overstated. Cleaning surfaces and toys is another important measure for prevention.
I don't think when we signed up as parents, we thought heroes would be beside our names but aren't we supposed to be-helping our children along the way, teaching them, preventing illness, preparing them for the world, being safe, looking out and with hope-We must. I'm glad I waited until I was 36 to have children. They have my life now. As my friend Ron Minor says, "Steph, your blessed" and so I am..............................
I hope this blog did not offend anyone in anyway. My goal is to inform and educate. I pray for the family in New Jersey and all the families who have experienced pain and loss due to this virus.
The latest news, a young boy my girls age dies in New Jersey-he was only four years old-a triplet-he leaves his twin sisters behind. A tragic loss for the family and those close to him-a loss for everyone. The link below is not related to the child in New Jersey but to a previous loss. Dr. Sanjay Gupta does discuss the virus here.
My husband is a big fan of washing hands. Believe it or not and my loving mother will say I was taught to wash my hands but I absolutely disagree, my younger brother and I were not taught to wash our hands as a precaution. We just didn't. When we were young, we lived all summer by the beach in a small neighboring city called Mayo, where Nanny Gwen lived, by the beach. I cut my right foot in the surf there one summer-sliced deep by a beer bottle.
I remember my Nanny Gwen running to the beach to catapult me into the ambulance, her bravado running in the summer wind, no fear, running to save me. She was my hero. No infection, no weird disease from the sand, just a few stitches in the 1970's. I'll never forget the day or how strong she looked that day. Thank you Nanny for everything. Nanny's been gone for a while now. We all miss her.
In 5th grade, I ran smack into a running mate on recess and my nose obliterated, his head needing several stitches and a young fellow 5th grader named Cynthia, in her white eyelet cardigan coming to my rescue, running me into the nurses office, her cardigan soaked with my blood. I required plastic surgery that day. She was my hero that day. A special thanks to Dr. Strawberry for my nose. (1984)
Today in 2014 we have much more to worry about. The CDC recommends "avoiding those who are sick" since the virus is spread through saliva and phlegm as well as stool and they say washing hands is most important. Stating that sick people can avoid spreading the virus by covering their nose and mouth when sneezing and coughing cannot be overstated. Cleaning surfaces and toys is another important measure for prevention.
I don't think when we signed up as parents, we thought heroes would be beside our names but aren't we supposed to be-helping our children along the way, teaching them, preventing illness, preparing them for the world, being safe, looking out and with hope-We must. I'm glad I waited until I was 36 to have children. They have my life now. As my friend Ron Minor says, "Steph, your blessed" and so I am..............................
I hope this blog did not offend anyone in anyway. My goal is to inform and educate. I pray for the family in New Jersey and all the families who have experienced pain and loss due to this virus.
 |
| Nanny Gwen and her birthday cake for me. Look at my little cousin Cody. I've always loved babies. |
Friday, October 3, 2014
Coconut Oil-magical for the hair, skin and nails!
Okay, in order for me to have a sweetly decorated life, I have to be fed, watered, and given ample amounts of sun. Do I sound like a plant? I know I do, like one of those indoor ones.
We'll more often than not, we think we need more than we actually do, when really it's actually pretty simple: we just need the basic things to be happy and so does our skin. Here's what I'm talking about and more:
Today, Friday October 3rd, I visited Gary's Gardens in Severna Park and Chik-fil-a. Nice people. Good food, the sun was out and I love flowers and pumpkins. I spoke on the Iphone to a couple of my distant friends in far off lands. It was nice. One gf in New York. She's lovely and another gf in North Carolina, she's lovely as well. It's been a great day so far. It's approaching 2 pm and my husband is home (he works from home four days per week) and he happens to be watching what he can of the Baltimore Orioles playing the Detroit Tigers in the American League playoff series.
He went to the game last night and they won, 12-3. I'm happy for him. But tonight is my night with him. No Oriole game, no hockey game, no Ravens game. Just he and I. We will go to dinner together and he will take me to Marshall's to peruse the skin care aisle and yep ladies, he looks too, patiently. I love it because inevitably I find some cheap form of skin oil/cream that I can take home to try to fix the damage done to my face via sun, smoking, laughing out loud and crying.
Life happens and now at 41 I want to blend the lines around my forehead and stay youthful for as long as I can. Why you ask? Because I like the way it looks and feels and that's okay, and it's healthy and good. My sister in law asked me why I get Botox (I haven't for a year) and I told her I want some of the wrinkles smoothed, gone, bye-bye-I don't like them I say. She then asked me why not enjoy my age and where I am in life? We'll I do but it's also okay to admit that some of those wrinkles got there from squinting and going through some rough times in my life. I'm over it and ready to take better care of my skin. I no longer get Botox but I do love the line of skincare treatments available to us ladies today.
My recent discovery, it's lovely,
Coconut Oil is the main and first ingredient. I've noticed in just one week my skin looking brighter, more even, and once applied, my skin glows for hours. I apply it again right after my shower and follow it with DMAE cream on the hands, neck and chest. I love, love, love this new anti-aging oil!!!
With any skincare regime, try to exercise and eat well and drink water always-
I found it in my Marshall's store for retail $6.99. Happy Shopping and enjoy.
We'll more often than not, we think we need more than we actually do, when really it's actually pretty simple: we just need the basic things to be happy and so does our skin. Here's what I'm talking about and more:
Today, Friday October 3rd, I visited Gary's Gardens in Severna Park and Chik-fil-a. Nice people. Good food, the sun was out and I love flowers and pumpkins. I spoke on the Iphone to a couple of my distant friends in far off lands. It was nice. One gf in New York. She's lovely and another gf in North Carolina, she's lovely as well. It's been a great day so far. It's approaching 2 pm and my husband is home (he works from home four days per week) and he happens to be watching what he can of the Baltimore Orioles playing the Detroit Tigers in the American League playoff series.
He went to the game last night and they won, 12-3. I'm happy for him. But tonight is my night with him. No Oriole game, no hockey game, no Ravens game. Just he and I. We will go to dinner together and he will take me to Marshall's to peruse the skin care aisle and yep ladies, he looks too, patiently. I love it because inevitably I find some cheap form of skin oil/cream that I can take home to try to fix the damage done to my face via sun, smoking, laughing out loud and crying.
Life happens and now at 41 I want to blend the lines around my forehead and stay youthful for as long as I can. Why you ask? Because I like the way it looks and feels and that's okay, and it's healthy and good. My sister in law asked me why I get Botox (I haven't for a year) and I told her I want some of the wrinkles smoothed, gone, bye-bye-I don't like them I say. She then asked me why not enjoy my age and where I am in life? We'll I do but it's also okay to admit that some of those wrinkles got there from squinting and going through some rough times in my life. I'm over it and ready to take better care of my skin. I no longer get Botox but I do love the line of skincare treatments available to us ladies today.
My recent discovery, it's lovely,
Coconut Oil is the main and first ingredient. I've noticed in just one week my skin looking brighter, more even, and once applied, my skin glows for hours. I apply it again right after my shower and follow it with DMAE cream on the hands, neck and chest. I love, love, love this new anti-aging oil!!!
With any skincare regime, try to exercise and eat well and drink water always-
I found it in my Marshall's store for retail $6.99. Happy Shopping and enjoy.
Friday, September 26, 2014
The Sweetly Decorated Life: Attending the Maryland Renaissance Festival with K...
The Sweetly Decorated Life: Attending the Maryland Renaissance Festival with K...: Every year in the fall I get gussied up (that's my fancy word for dressed up, make up and all) to attend the Maryland Renaissance Festiv...
Attending the Maryland Renaissance Festival with Kids, the Joy of Both
Every year in the fall I get gussied up (that's my fancy word for dressed up, make up and all) to attend the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville, Maryland, just outside of my birthplace of Annapolis, Maryland. I love it. It's my thing I tell everyone.
I think it all started with me in high school English classes and then the art of language came into play. We moved into Shakespeare, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. In my senior year of high school I took a course I believe was called, Mysteries & Suspense. I loved it and the teacher was just as disarming. It was only a few of us in her class but she loved it and that made me love it too. Then when the Lord of the Rings Trilogy came out, directed and written by the talented Peter Jackson, I was the first in line to get tickets. The battles, the pageantry, the romance of it all.
Those movies, ideology, and the history of the Renaissance period enchant me. There was certainly pomp and circumstance, luxury in survival, and love, lots of love I imagine. It thrilled me to wait every Sunday to view HBO's series, The Tudors. How brilliant a show and well done with costumes.
In 2009 I was blessed to attend in my 8th month of pregnancy the fair with friends and family. The weather was full sun but a lovely breeze would make its way through the food court and I was in heaven. Like most people, the Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. There in October, so close to my due date, fried macaroni and cheese on a stick sounded pretty good! There all I did was people watch and there is a lot of good people watching going on. How about how those who chomp on those turkey legs! Wow!
We made the rounds of the games (we had my stepchildren with me so that was required) and mastered the costume shops; with little space to get around in most of them (my belly didn't help either)! I believe we even caught a couple of vignettes, one at the Globe Theatre and the other, the name escapes me. It's location set deep in the woods of this brilliant festival. Loads of seats and close to the privies just in case, the potty is required. Laughter abounds here and happy faces. Mine included.
It's been five years since I've attended the Maryland Renaissance Festival and I do gather it's expanded a great deal. On our way in this year with kids in tow, a rather large elephant passed us going on his break for the day. I think the kiddies loved that and it proved this fair was going to be AWESOME and it was.
In the photo above, we had just finished snacking on our steak on a stick entree and we all agreed it was delicious when I snapped this photo. We were then deciding what next to do and what direction to take when I saw happy times evolving. I love taking photos while people aren't watching. It's brilliant most times and it works out. I capture them. Here the little Tudor style village housing and tall trees bringing light to a beautiful family moment entrapped my consciousness. Did I do all the wonderful things I wanted to do that day-no I didn't. Do I regret it. No. We had our children with us and I wouldn't change a thing but I am going back. I think everyone had a good time including my elegant friend Aunt Jane.
At $22 a person with no Groupon available, I AM GOING AGAIN. I did not see the jousting and like any good renaissance lady I have to attend the jousting and cheer on the king at 6 pm. You see the older ones in our group or the less enthusiastic didn't want to hit the millions of cars leaving at 7 pm when the venue closes. I can't blame them and so with that, the show closes and I, full from pints of beer and fried food trample on through the dust and bid adieu to my fine costumed friends and promise I will see them next year.
I have to convince my husband to attend in October and this will be a feat in and of itself. Merriment always my friends.........
 |
| At the Ren Fair with Mom in the background |
Those movies, ideology, and the history of the Renaissance period enchant me. There was certainly pomp and circumstance, luxury in survival, and love, lots of love I imagine. It thrilled me to wait every Sunday to view HBO's series, The Tudors. How brilliant a show and well done with costumes.
In 2009 I was blessed to attend in my 8th month of pregnancy the fair with friends and family. The weather was full sun but a lovely breeze would make its way through the food court and I was in heaven. Like most people, the Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. There in October, so close to my due date, fried macaroni and cheese on a stick sounded pretty good! There all I did was people watch and there is a lot of good people watching going on. How about how those who chomp on those turkey legs! Wow!
We made the rounds of the games (we had my stepchildren with me so that was required) and mastered the costume shops; with little space to get around in most of them (my belly didn't help either)! I believe we even caught a couple of vignettes, one at the Globe Theatre and the other, the name escapes me. It's location set deep in the woods of this brilliant festival. Loads of seats and close to the privies just in case, the potty is required. Laughter abounds here and happy faces. Mine included.
It's been five years since I've attended the Maryland Renaissance Festival and I do gather it's expanded a great deal. On our way in this year with kids in tow, a rather large elephant passed us going on his break for the day. I think the kiddies loved that and it proved this fair was going to be AWESOME and it was.
 |
| Mom, Debbie, my niece, my brother, my daughter and Stepfather |
At $22 a person with no Groupon available, I AM GOING AGAIN. I did not see the jousting and like any good renaissance lady I have to attend the jousting and cheer on the king at 6 pm. You see the older ones in our group or the less enthusiastic didn't want to hit the millions of cars leaving at 7 pm when the venue closes. I can't blame them and so with that, the show closes and I, full from pints of beer and fried food trample on through the dust and bid adieu to my fine costumed friends and promise I will see them next year.
I have to convince my husband to attend in October and this will be a feat in and of itself. Merriment always my friends.........
Thursday, September 25, 2014
The Sweetly Decorated Life: The thought of having another baby again....at 41
The Sweetly Decorated Life: The thought of having another baby again....at 41: Pregnant at 36 was fine but 41? I don't know. I've dabbled with the thought over and over again. My twin daughters are turnin...
The thought of having another baby again....at 41
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| Pregnant at 36 was fine but 41? I don't know. |
Would a baby bring the family closer OR would a new baby bring more stress and isolate us from each other?
Those questions and more haunt me. I can only divulge them to my husband so many times before he actually closes the case and says it's too late. I definitely don't want another one. ugh. How would that make me feel and what would I do then?
I discuss this with my close friend Scarlett who hails from Brooklyn. She's awesome. She told her husband whom she met late in life, "Look I know you feel like you'd get lost in the whole second baby thing but I want you to know, if I don't do this, I'll always wonder what if. I'm not asking for a third and I promise I won't let you down. Our time together will be there, but my baby carrying abilities will not."
She wowed me with her strength of character. She knew what she wanted, she put it out there for her husband. He bought it and they delivered a son nine months later. He's a beautiful sweet boy and his name is Tristan. They now together have one of each, a girl name Brisa and a boy named Tristan. They together make a sweet family. I've never met a more sincere and caring person than Scarlett. She is earth incarnate. Did I forget to mention she was 42 when she had him? She's the Gwen Stefani of Conway, South Carolina!!!
But one thing that Scarlett didn't have to do is go through fertility. Lucky for me I have one embryo frozen and that means I don't have to go through trying to fake my body into being pregnant, or be there for my hubby's out-patient extraction of sperm, and putting the egg and sperm together to make an embryo. Whew! No not all of that again. That's a whole long process of creation and taking my blood through a tiny vein in my hand (I have tiny veins so getting my blood is vicious!) we'll can anyone say ?!/?*%!^#
According to BabyCenter.com there are several pros and cons to having a baby in your 40's so it's going to be all about my attitude in the game:
Baby Center said, "All these downsides can be disheartening — but don't forget that some women do get pregnant well into their 40s, and many of them have complication-free pregnancies and healthy babies. And while older mothers may be at higher risk for negative pregnancy results, the overall number of such incidents is low."
Another quote to take note of: "Miscarriage rates begin to skyrocket in your 40s as well. From age 40 to 44, the rate is 35 percent, and it rises to more than 50 percent for women 45 and older (compared to 10 percent at age 20 and 12 percent at age 30). After age 40, the risk of pregnancy complications, such as high blood pressure and diabetes is twice as high as it is for a woman in her 20s."
We'll you know what I didn't want a baby in my 20's......and my 30's we'll that idea progressed slowly until I met the right person. I'll be 42 in July of 2015 and I'm hoping to be at least pregnant by then!!
The help part of the equation is to be debated. I'm hoping to have a mothers' helper in all of this, not b/c I can't manage all of the kids, the schedules, the laundry, being there for my husband or the taxi driver but because I can admit I CAN'T DO IT ALL.
I rest on this debate about having another child. I want one. I want another girl, another boy, whatever. Healthy please!!!
Are you thinking about all the sleepless nights I'm going to have? I've done that already. It's worth every sleepy day lying next to my baby in my dream house. Yep, I dream. It's okay for you to do it too.
Now back to my being something to everyone. My 14 year old stepson is coming over for an extended weekend visit. Oh, the energy that kid has................... I hope I have enough chips in the house.
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| Pregnant at 36 with twins. My hubby and stepson. |
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