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Sunday, 01 November 2009

Which is it - a cold, flu or H1N1?

I found this great chart on m_elder_48's site, and I thought it was great enough to post, too. There's so much hysteria out there, we need some balance. Knowledge is power

. I especially liked the tip about singing the ABC's or Happy Birthday while washing hands, so you know when you've washed them long enough. That's something any parent can teach their kids to do very easily.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COLD, SEASONAL FLU & H1N1 SYMPTOMS

SYMPTOM	COLD	SEASONAL FLU	H1N1
FEVER	Fever is rare with a cold.	Fever is common with the seasonal flu.	Fever is usually present with H1N1 in up to 80% of all flu cases. A temperature of 101°
COUGHING	A hacking, productive (mucus-producing) cough is often present with a cold.	A dry and hacking cough is often present with the seasonal flu.	A non-productive (non-mucus producing) cough is usually present with H1N1 (sometimes referred to as dry cough).
ACHES	Slight body aches and pains can be part of a cold.	Moderate body aches are common with the seasonal flu.	Severe aches and pains are common with H1N1.
STUFFY NOSE	Stuffy nose is commonly present with a cold and typically resolves spontaneously within a week.	A runny nose is commonly present with the seasonal flu.	Stuffy nose is not commonly present with H1N1.
CHILLS	Chills are uncommon with a cold.	Chills are mild to moderate with the seasonal flu.	60% of people who have H1N1 experience chills.
TIREDNESS	Tiredness is fairly mild with a cold.	Tiredness is moderate and more likely referred to as a lack of energy with the seasonal flu.	Tiredness is moderate to severe with H1N1.
SNEEZING	Sneezing is commonly present with a cold	Sneezing is common present with the seasonal flu.	Sneezing is not common with H1N1.
SUDDEN SYMPTOMS	Cold symptoms tend to develop over a few days.	Symptons tend to develop over a few days and include flushed face, loss of appetite, dizziness and/or vomiting/nausea. Symptoms usually last 4-7 days, depending on the individual. Diarrhea is common.	H1N1 has a rapid onset within 3-6 hours. H1N1 hits hard and includes sudden symptoms like high fever, aches and pains. Symptoms usually last 4-7 days, depending on the individual. Diarrhea is common.
HEADACHE	A headache is fairly uncommon with a cold.	A headache is fairly common with the seasonal flu.	A headache is very common with H1N1 and present in 80% of cases.
SORE THROAT	Sore throat is commonly present with a cold.	Sore throat is commonly present with the seasonal flu.	Sore throat is not commonly present with H1N1.
CHEST DISCOMFORT	Chest discomfort is mild to moderate with a cold.	Chest discomfort is moderate with the seasonal flu. *If it turns severe seek medical attention immediately!*	Chest discomfort is often severe with H1N1.

PREVENTION TIPS:
cough & sneeze into your elbow
wash hands with soap and warm water for a minimum of 15 -20 seconds. Sing your abc's or happy birthday to you
use hand sanitizer when soap & water are not available
avoid touching eyes, nose or mouth without washing or using hand sanitizer first

One final word, from an old favorite television show from the 70's: "Let's just be careful out there!"

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Edible Eyesicles - Gotta love 'em

I have been really REALLY busy lately, and part of that is the wedding that happened at Brookfield Zoo this past weekend (Congrats Tony and Shannon!). Temps were in the mid to high 40's, so it was really chilly to be outside without coats. The wedding party bravely managed to take their walk with bare arms and backs, but once the vows began, they gratefully accepted their coats from the wedding planner's assistant. The bride toughed it out, and never wore anything on her back or arms. I found out later her dress weighed 20 lbs! She looked gorgeous in it, though. I really wish I had a decent picture of it, but sadly, I don't.

I'm also deeply into working on my Christmas gifts for my sons and their brides. I don't have much money since I am unemployed; but I do try to do something for the kids in the family as well; so I might resort to winding some of those balls as ornaments with prizes tucked inside. We'll see. I'm just thinking it's not a good idea doing that too soon after having done them; but fun is always fun - like candy.

I have Bingo to call today, and some friends to meet as we celebrate another friend's birthday, so I have to hurry and get moving! Here's a recipe that I posted on my Facebook a week ago, but I thought you all would enjoy as well.

Edible Eyesicles

No Halloween party is complete without some kind of gruesome treat to serve the guests. Here is the best one I’ve seen yet!

INGREDIENTS

3.4-ounce box vanilla pudding mix
Jelly beans (we use the black ones)
LifeSavers Gummies
Plastic Easter eggs
(we use the smaller half)
2 empty egg cartons

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Make the pudding according to the directions on the box. Fit a jellybean in the center of a gummy Lifesaver and place it in one half of the plastic egg.

2. Do this for each eyeball. Fill the egg with a dollop of the pudding (so it’s the size eyeball you’d like) and place in the egg carton for support. Place in the freezer for about 3 hours.

3. You want them to be firm. To remove after they’ve set, let them rest at room temperature for about 5 minutes and then gently squeeze them out of the plastic egg. Ready for use immediately or place the eyeballs into a freezer safe dish and keep for up to 2 days before use.

Yield: 2 dozen or so eyeballs

Happy Halloween
PS: the Gummi Lifesavers were the challenge for me. A friend found them at Target.

Sunday, 11 October 2009

Halloween Goodies - **How the Kids Enjoyed Them** and IDEAS for another time!

My grandmother sent my two sisters and I something for Christmas that we thought were just balls to play with or display. There was an Indian, a pretty girl, and a puppy dog, and we divided them between us. My one sister noticed something shiny was inside of hers when it began to unwind, so our parents went ahead and unwound it to see what it was. There were five prizes in each of those balls, and we were delighted! They weren't much, but we were young enough to love the fun of finding treasure in them.

So, I wanted to do something like that for the kids in my family this year, too. However, I decided not to wait until Christmas to do it, but to go ahead and make some for Halloween, since my sister is having a birthday party for her son this weekend. She's invited all the kids to wear costumes, so it will be great to have them tell me trick or treat to get their balls.

I began with deciding what prizes would be inside of the balls that I would make. I finally found these items in dollar stores, and generally got two or more items for that $1. Nothing cost me more than 50¢ per item. There are cloth bracelets, stampers (the orange thingys), bugs that will take off once you push them backwards, candy corn packets, a sliding puzzle, and stickers. I decided to make the balls ghosts and jack o lanterns. As some of you know, I had a real hard time finding orange streamers to wrap the balls with! I went back to my one dollar store and found that they had just restocked the orange streamers, so I can make four jack o lanterns and four ghosts. I'm happy :D. It took one whole roll of white streamer to make the first one.

As I made the first one, I had a hard time figuring out how to keep the streamer from being too kinked as I went. Figuring out how to keep the ball round was part of the fun, too. Then I used glitter glue to secure the end to the top of the ball. I bought some craft foam when I went to get more streamers, so I might secure something like a disc or hair swirl made of that foam to the top so it won't unwind on accident. I used acrylic paint to make the face, since tempra paint might mess up with sticky fingers, and magic marker tends to "bleed" too much to make a neat face. You can see that I am not very talented when it comes to drawing faces, lol. My intentions are good if my abilities aren't :wink:.

Ok, so I'll go to work on these before my son arrives for dinner. The bread is warming up to raise on the stove top, and I have the soup ready to turn on once the bread smells good. If I'm good, I might talk him into painting faces for me. He's the artsy fartsy one in the family. But first, I have seven more to wind...!

**Update** My son Ben stopped by, and just as I hoped he was agreeable to helping me decorate the Trick and Treat Balls (I liked that name, cause they kinda do both, lol). I wound the crepe streamers around the goodies, and put the glue and toppers on the end of the streamers to secure them. Then I'd hand them to him and he would decorate the faces. I was thinking ghosties with the white ones, but we both thought that Mummies were more right since they were obviously wound. Aren't his faces much cuter than my first try? I had to laugh as he brought each one to me when he'd finish them. I was busily winding the next one for him to decorate so I didn't see them until he was done.

So....here they are, on the counter near the wall that follows the roof peak in my kitchen area:

So there you go! Happy Halloweeen!

**How the Kids Enjoyed Them**
I showed my youngest sister (the Hostess and mother of the birthday boy) what I had and made sure there were no kids present who didn't have one (whew!). She decided to save them for when Jason (the birthday boy) began to unwrap his gifts, so that the kids would leave him alone with his stuff. What she didn't realize is what kind of competition the double unwrapping situation caused, lol. He was thanking people present for their gifts and they were distracted by his siblings or cousins as they were unwrapping their Tricky Balls. I honestly don't know who had more fun, the kids or we adults who watched them and then got to help the kids with the sliding puzzles the rest of the evening (as well as having our hands and arms stamped with their stampers). The pile of streamers on the floor became fun stuff to play with, too.

So if you were thinking of making these, I have some more ideas to offer now that I had a chance to discuss them with everyone at the party. In keeping with the Halloween theme, you can use green crepe paper and have some Frankenstein balls as well as making the white and orange ones. Instead of paint, you can use those paint pens so the work you do on the faces can dry faster, too. For other themes, we were thinking of Christmas ornament balls (a kewl stocking stuffer!), or even the faces that I remembered getting from Grandma's box back in the late 50's or early 60's. Someone said that they'd make great Easter gifts, too and our creative juices were really going at that point. Why just make them for kids? How about making some for adults, with some keychains, lanyards for work ID's, fishing items, or coupons in them? Candy is good for the grownups too if it's chocolate, lol. A nice Grandparent ball might have all the kids pictures tucked in them with the kid's autographs on the back.

So here's the materials recap for EACH ball you will need:
One roll of crepe paper streamer

Prizes that will be hidden inside the ball. Make sure that only 2 of them are really largish so they can go on the inside portion, and then let the others be more soft so they can be added to make the shape of the finished ball work out better.

Paint or paint pens to make the face/decorations on it.

Craft foam for the top (make it hair, or plant leaves, or ??)
Glue to secure the end of the streamer, and the craft foam.

What other ideas do YOU have now that you have seen them and saw what my relatives came up with?

Tuesday, 06 October 2009

A good day

I've had so many posts where I had to admit that not all things have been simple or easy for me lately. Happily, I can change that tone today.

I did some shopping yesterday, and I had decided I was going to make soup and fresh baked bread for a dinner I am having with my youngest son today (I should be in bed, but I'm not). So after going to bed early (it must have been the fresh air, lol), I got up and put some beef shank bits on the stove with some water to boil them in. I skimmed the foamy stuff off, and discarded it, and while the stuff boiled I cut up the turnips, celery, onion, parsnip, and chopped the stewed tomatoes. I save the potatoes, cause they will discolor and need to go right into the broth when it's ready. When the meat was done, I took it out, cut it up and tossed the bones in the trash with the trimmed off gristle and fat. I divided the broth and meat and put half away for another day. The first half I added to the cut veggies in the crock pot. Then I cut up the potatoes (I used both Idaho and sweet potatoes), and tossed them in with some frozen corn and peas.

I had to go to the store and try to find some orange streamers for my Halloween gift project, and I wanted to get some frozen bread dough, cause I don't have the kitchen surfaces for making it from scratch (no room to knead, and no table to do it on). I had gone to Wally World, Target, Michael's and none of them had any orange colored streamers. I went to Hobby Lobby in desperation, and found ONE package left. God loved me :D. I ended up buying some glitter glue to use on my project, and thankfully it was half price. Actually, MOST of the stuff in Hobby Lobby is half price, so if you are looking for high end decorations, go there first!

The frozen bread dough had also been unavailable at Super Wal Mart, Freshmart and Aldi's, but I finally found some with an employee's help at Jewel (Yaaaayyy!). So, my son will have his tasty dinner and I will be able to complete my gifts in time for the party on Saturday. I have to make 5 girl gifts and three boy gifts. That's not too many, but enough to feel like I have been a good Aunty =].

So when I got home and walked in, this heavenly smell hit my nose: the soup was done. What was even better was the warmth of the moisture in the air that went with it. Of course I had a bowl for dinner though I didn't have any bread to eat with it. The dough will thaw overnight in the pan, and be ready just in time for dinner baking tomorrow.

I scanned some stuff for my birth mother, so when I see her on Wednesday, she'll be happy to see that it got done. I scanned some patterns from crochet magazines so I could toss the magazine and save on clutter. I am pleased with myself on that.

I will need to begin working on the crochet projects I have assigned myself for Christmas, so I will be off more than "on" the internet as I work these things out. I will post some pictures of my home in its Harvest decor pretty soon too.

I miss seeing LoquaciousLady's posts, so if anyone knows her well enough to send her email - tell her that for me, will ya?

Lord, I thank You for the warmth of soup, and how it does more than just feed an empty belly. I thank You for the crisp air that sends allergens away from my stuffy nose, and makes it easy to see the gleam of the moon. I thank you for the sukka fun that is going on this week with families who observe the festival of the tabernacles, and how we get to enjoy knowing we have a God who asks us to do fun things on a routine basis. You amaze me, Father, and I like that. Amen

Saturday, 03 October 2009

Thrifty? I sure am. **Added Edit**

I am responding to the call to write about being Thrifty from Featured Grownups' site assignment.

Growing up with limited resources taught me many ways to make resources stretch, that I revert to whenever times get tough. My kids remember "camping at home" when my (now ex) husband had to let the electric bill go for other expenses to be paid off first. We used the freezer compartment like a cooler, and most housework was done during daylight hours. Since it was summer, we had plenty of daylight to work with. The only problem might be in surviving hot days without fans. We did a lot outside, or we went into cool stores and libraries to escape the worst of it.

Making "More" of "Some": For now, I find that I'll add a little water to the last of the shampoo, and the same for the dish soap. That way I get all that I can out of the bottle before I open more. I'll do the same for the ketchup and salad dressing, too. Paper towels work nicely for napkins as well as cleaning up spills, and I save the towels for clean dishes being dried by clean hands so I don't have to wash them so much. I use a laundromat, so I try to avoid going too often. Some things still get tossed in the laundry after one wear (think "small clothes" aka underwear); but some will be worn carefully and removed as soon as I get home so they can be worn again without having to be cleaned.

**Added Edit** I remember what I wanted to, now! I use lightly stained cotton shirts as pajama tops, since I am single and have no one to impress with my nightwear, lol. These aren't awful looking, but since there is a visible stain that I can't remove, I can't wear it for work or other public places. It's great for sleeping in, though. That way I only need to buy the bottoms at the store. Honestly, this is a great way to save a lot of money on not only pajamas, but I used to put distinctive stained or ruined clothing in a box for our sons and their friends to use as "role play" clothing. We were happy to dig into it frequently when trying to design costumes for church plays as well as Harvest festivals.

I buy generic more than any brand name unless the brand name item is on sale. I don't buy soda anymore, instead I buy flavored water or I keep the empty bottle and reuse it with a powdered packet of flavoring added. Soup is good food and I eat it more than a regular meal, so that the food goes farther. I like it most during this weather, too.

Gift Giving Thrift: It's never good to stop being generous when you are broke. We need to know we still have something valuable, and that's where we have to get more creative when we have to be thrifty. I am making most of my Christmas gifts this year, and since my recipients might see this, I won't say all that I am making. I will say that there is some crocheting, and kitchen work involved for both.

I already make most of the greeting cards on my computer. When I buy ink and cardstock as well as glitter pens (3 for $1 at the dollar store), it's still cheaper than anything I can buy at the store. Since I bag most gifts, I don't need an envelope, either. I just tuck the card inside the bag. I make my gift tags, too. I bought stickers when I had the money, so all I do now is create the design from pictures I find on the internet and then print them in inkjet (laser printers schmutz up the stickers after three or more passes through- so that's a bad idea).

Here's an idea for those of you who have kids that I got from a Grandma when I was younger. She sent us some balls of crepe paper that had faces painted on them. One was an Indian, one a dog and one a pretty girl. We thought they were just balls, until my sister's began to unwind and she saw something shiny a few layers in. My parents began to unwind it and they found prizes tucked into the ball as it was unwound. Total of five gifts each were found inside those balls! I'm going to do something like that for the kids on my list this year, after going to Walgreens or dollar stores for little trinkets to tuck in. I'm not above going to those quarter gumball machines, and hey! I can even tuck in a quarter here and there! [I actually did these for Halloween, and posted about it here.]

Job Skills and Job Search: When I go to Shabbat services with my Messianic church, the Goodwill store is just four blocks south of there. I go there to look for work clothes since I would be working in an office environment if I can just find that next job. I have also been meeting with several folks here and there to help them by making their resumes like I used to do in college. I don't charge for this, cause most of the time the folks I am doing this for are already beaten down by the process of losing a job to begin with. When I do it, I generally not only create the resume, but some letterhead for them to use for their cover letters, as well as 20 business calling cards for them. If they want more, they can buy some blank ones, and then print some of their own in the electronic formats that I send them via email. If they don't have email, they do before they leave :wink:.

I still go through the online sites at least once a week, but usually twice. That way I am still putting myself out there. I'm not letting myself get discouraged because I am getting no responses; but instead I see that there are more opportunities each week than there used to be just a few months ago. I do volunteer work where ever I can, so I can keep from being too shut into my own "world", too.

So, there's my list of what the economy has done to me, and how I am responding to it. I am going to enjoy seeing how everyone else saves money. I honestly like this idea!