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Muddling Along

Soon they’re going to put a QUARANTINED sign out in front of our house.  Since last weekend, we’ve been dropping like flies around here.  I started out with some bronchitis-type of thing.  I had the chills and the aches and now I have the nasty, juicy cough.  Lovely. 

My two daughters have each had their bouts with it.  My 2-year-old seems to be on the mend, but my 5-year-old is on day 3 of running a fever.  Both are full of congestion and have trouble sleeping, which makes for fun nights.  In spite of my son’s stint in the school nurse’s office and early dismissal on Wednesday, he seems to be escaping it.  So far, anyway. 

Then my husband, who NEVER gets sick, who REFUSES to get sick, came home from work early on Wednesday with a fever and chills.  He’s been in bed the majority of the time since.  I honestly don’t remember the last day he took a sick day.  Unless it was because I was sick and he was helping me out.

Since I’m on the mend, I took the opportunity of having my husband at home yesterday afternoon to run to the grocery store unfettered by small snot-nosed children.  And since my son needed baseball pants for Little League Opening Day on Saturday, I stopped by the mall on my way.  Now sure, I could have just run into the sporting goods store and come right back out, but what fun would that be?  So I meandered.  I love to meander.  Especially when I am alone at the mall.

In my meandering, I came across these coordinating dresses for my little girls.  Aren’t they the KEY-utest?  Who can take it?  Honestly!  So I picked them up.

I even found a couple of cute t-shirts for myself.   I think I’m hoping in some realm of my subconscious that if I keep buying summer clothes, maybe summer will actually, you know, arrive. Why does it take so long for warm weather to come to Pennsylvania?  WHY?   

And thus begins the annual Month of Whining.  If you look back in my archives, I spend every April disparaging of the cold, nasty weather and whining that I want summer to Get. Here. RIGHT. NOW. ALREADY!  You’d think I’d learn that in the great northeast, April is just an extension of March and manage my expectations accordingly.  But no.  I have to whine and complain and generally make myself and everyone around me miserable for the entire unfortunate month. 

And if you are lucky enough to live south of the Mason-Dixon Line and are posting pictures of your enchanting spring flowers and budding trees, I will probably leave snide remarks in your comment section.  Be prepared.  You’ve been warned.

So anyway.  Enough of that.  Change of subject.

I got home yesterday to find in my mailbox a letter from our little sponsored Compassion child.  I could hardly read it for the tears in my eyes.  Somewhere in Africa, a little boy held this paper, wrote those words, and knows that somewhere in the United States a family is praying for him and sending money so that he can go to school and have food and clothes. 

I know that what we are doing is so minimal, given all that we have, but having contact with a child across the world makes the experience so much richer than just writing a check every month.  I got so excited when I saw that envelope in my mailbox.  I can only imagine the excitement those children must feel when they get mail from us. 

We will write back this afternoon, and I want to send something.  Last time I sent stickers.  If you support a child overseas through Compassion or a similar ministry, I’d love to hear your suggestions for little things you send to them.  Since it has to fit in a letter-sized envelope, the possibilities are fairly limited.  Any ideas you have would be most appreciated.

And this is where I hunker down with my second third cup of coffee and resign myself to another long, rainy day at home with sick kids.  I’m sure you are riveted to your computer, waiting in eager anticipation for another captivating tale of a day in the life of the Hacking Housewife.  Yeah.  Whatever.  I’m not buying it either.

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24 Responses

  1. Oh, praying for a good day there at the Musings household and for Spring to come along now in your corner.

    Great ideas for the Compassion letters! I will use them for sure. I love getting letters from ours. I also cry. It is just so amazing.

  2. I also just got the first letter from one of our Compassion kids. SO EXCITED! Thanks for the sticker idea, that’s a good one. I was also going to try to find coloring sheets to print out that are relative to what I wrote about. For example we just visited the Alamo so I am sending a coloring sheet of that. Hope that helps, I look forward to the ideas that people share. And….the silver Aerosole sandles you suggested are being delivered today! fun!

  3. I’m hacking and whining along with you, sister. I sound like a frog, look like a hag, and feel like a big moldy blob of mayonnaise. But it IS Friday, and that’s something, right? Hope y’all all get to feeling much better ASAP.

  4. I sent stickers to my World Vision child last time and a family picture. I think postcards of your town would be fun. I would love to see pictures of my child’s town and family.

  5. What store did the dresses come from? They are adorable!

    I know what you mean about wanting Spring. I’m desperate to have more time outside for the kids and to be able to wear capris and other spring clothes.

    Hope everyone is feeling better soon!

  6. We sponsor 2 kids in Ecuador through Compassion, and last year I started making scrapbook pages for them. We were living in England, and I tried to send a page a month. Sometimes I sent pages from places we visited (castles and cathedrals, France and Ireland, Christmas, etc). They LOVE it!! Love it love it love it. I make the pages A4 size (which is the common paper size in Ecuador and most of the rest of the world, and if you can’t find it, you can cut down 12×12 pages). They have both now found a binder to put their pages in (too big for me to send), and I make 2 identical ones at a time (one for each, saves time and creativity). I put lots of pictures, and “hide” the description/caption under the photo so there’s more room. I also always put the caption in both English and Spanish (just a tad OCD). You could do them 8×11 and then put them in the plastic sleeves so they are more protected (and don’t have to poke holes in them!) or you could incorporate the holes into your design.
    I also send stickers, postcards, coloring books, maps, regular photos, and if I find a good book in the Scholastic Book Fair that I think they might like, I send that, too.
    The rules are just that the mail has to be flat, and paper only…so I try to be extra creative!
    Plus, remember that we can email a letter to our kids…which is sometimes easier (though not always better) than sitting down and writing.
    Anyways, getting letters is THE BEST! :o)

  7. Sadly this below the mason dixon line southern girl is suffering from the weather blah’s. For a week straight it has been nothing but grey and rainy/drizzly/wet/muddy. We had a nice day, but the wind and the cold just made it near impossible to throughly enjoy it. I feel your pain. I just wnat the sunshine back. The spring warmness that you get to go out and put your face to the sky and say ahhh after a long winter of biting cold. But wait till June/July and I will be telling you to take this warmness and bring me the fall crispness. LOL I am a fickled southern girl.

  8. You know, here in Arizona it’s in the 80’s right now, but we all still have the same old colds and viruses, if that makes you feel any better. I was sick last week and now the baby is sick. Projectile vomiting and diarrhea are surely enough to balance out the good weather, aren’t they?

  9. Another comment from a southerner below the mason dixon line.
    It’s been a week of rain/drizzle/clouds/wind/and cold here where I am in NC too. Plus, like you I have been sick. All the grandkids got it first and past it to Nana. Luckily, I escaped the fever and chills. But, I have had NO voice for 3 days now. I would much rather have this sickness then the poor lady with the vomiting and diarrhea!
    At any rate, I love how you took advantage of the time in the mall and found those darling dresses. My 2nd granddaughter will be here in May. I can’t wait to find things for the girls to coordinate!

  10. Hey – You guys need to take some vitamins and go get some sunshine! No better place than Disney!! You are going to be soooo ready to go and I don’t blame ya. I am about to head out for our GNO (Girls Night Out) over at big sister’s house and wouldn’t you know the girls and I got caught up in watching a discovery channel special on ghosts. M. lives in like a 100 year old house. We’ll let you know if we felt any cold breezes overnight – that aren’t a fever setting in.

  11. So sorry the crud is at your house. Hope you are all feeling better quick!
    The dresses are a-dor-a-ble!
    I’m south of the Mason-Dixon, but I’m not exactly thrilled with the weather myself. We keep having teasers of beautiful-perfect weather, then BAM! A cold day or two. It was quite cold yesterday. Today it was warm, but lots of storms and the wonderful tornado watches! (The one thing I detest about Spring!) Now the temps seem to be dropping again. Who knows what tomorrow holds (because I haven’t bothered checking the forecast). But I’ll be complaining all too soon that it is too stinking hot!

  12. I sympathize – we have the crud here too, unfortunately, my teething 7-month old caught it too – needless to say, Momma is a bit worn out!

    I do love those dresses, they are so cute!

  13. Love the dresses! April is the same her for us but I have already bought bathing suits, just in case.

    Hope you are all feeling better soon!

  14. Hope everyone is feeling better soon!

    On what to send – stationery supplies are in big demand here in Mozambique – writing pads, etc. I’m guessing a few cute notecards, post-it pads, postcards that they can use or give to others would be a hit.

  15. First of ALL!! Those are the most adorable dresses ever. And secondly and not nearly as exciting….I so get the crud and how annoying it is. We’ve been hit hard all year. ug. Thank God for Ice Cream. It’s getting me through. feh. Hope your family is feeling better!

  16. Beautiful dresses! I love them! Where are they from?

    How about stationary sets? I saw some cute one’s at the dollar store even with Superman.

    BTW, I have just learned how to do a smilebox album for my blog. Please check it out and let me know what you think. I’m having so much fun blogging!

  17. We just received our first letter from our sponsored little girl in Uganda! It was an amazing feeling to hold it and to read. I sent a family photo and with this next letter, I’m adding some stickers,a bookmark, and some minature post-it notes with a scripture from the bible for her. I’ll keep checking back here to shamelessly borrow any ideas you blog about, because it’s difficult for me to think of things to send that will fit in the envelope.

  18. Wanted to add that I love the dresses for your little girls. I seriously cried when my children outgrew Gymboree. Oh how I loved Gymbucks too 🙂

  19. Oh, I’ve been wondering about what to send our compassion girl, too. I was thinking about paper dolls for her…but your boy probably wouldn’t dig that…

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