Had our first *real* emergency room visit the other night. (I'm not counting the one where dear little son had stuffed about five peas up his nose) Guess who? -- my four year old. She had been running in a portable at church, slipped and banged her head on the metal ... after some web searching "threshold" is the word I'm looking for -- the opposite of lintel. She struck it firmly with her forehead and was brought to me, bleeding and crying and it was very obvious she needed to go to the emergency room. This was around 8 pm. Fortunately we were all there and so we bundled into the minivan, me applying a wad of paper towels to the area in question, and by the time we got there the bleeding had stopped. Her face, clothes and my sweater were quite bloody, but she had ceased crying. The ER was fairly empty but it still was about 30 minutes before we were seen. She was worried about the spots of blood on my sweater and her clothes, but I reassured her that cold water would take them out just fine. They weighed her and took blood pressure and showed us to the room and applied some numbing cream and left us with a stack of picture books for another 30-40 minutes, then they came and put down some chux pads around her neck and two nurses held her arms and the third gave her some numbing shots and reopened the cut and washed it out with saline. She was such a brave little girl. Whatever they gave her made her forhead puff out a bit so they could get the needle through -- the cut was up near the hairline and there is no flesh there to speak of. She had 5 stitches.
I've, in the back of my mind held onto the idea of doing a nursing course someday -- probably from all the Cherry Ames books I read. And I generally don't mind blood too much, but I must admit after about the first 3 stitches, I needed to take of my sweater and sit down, as I felt just a bit woozy. I wonder if it is just because of the surgery -- or that I was emotionally invested in the patient??
:( Afterwards she came over to me and I held her while they described the after care and applied a bandaid and bacitracin. She was cold and clammy, with sweat on her brow and complained that her tummy really hurt and wanted to throw up, plus and her eyelids kept wanting to close -- like you do if you're really tired. However, it was either a reaction to the medication, or reaction to the pain itself. The doctor was a little concerned so we were to stay and keep her awake until her color was better -- so we waited another 10-15 minutes, and she was feeling a little more like her old self. We left at 11 pm. She fell asleep on the way home, and I carried her up to bed, but upon her head hitting the pillow, she popped up like a cork, asked to have her clothes off and reminded me to soak them in cold water and that she wanted to wear her nightgown. The stitches should come out in five days -- but that would be Memorial day and everyone is closed, so we have an appointment Tuesday.
I take the younger two kids to pre-school library storytime on Mondays, and this last time they had a really neat project that can be done by the younger crowd. You need: a sugar cookie on a stick (stick not necessary, but it is cute), a tablespoon of white frosting, a yellow or orange M&M and a large standard size marshmallow -- and a pair of scissors. Spread cookie with frosting, put M&M at center and then using scissors, cut the marshmallow into 5 "circles" -- Of course, being a squishy object the circles will come out more like ovals, which is all the better. Then place the 5 ovals evenly around the M&M on the cookie, and you'll have a lovely daisy. They really do turn out cute.
Oh, and in Reader's Digest this month I came across a website called StickK.com which is a free service that helps you keep your resolutions by offering to force you to put up a stake which will be donated to charity, or an anti-charity (you choose a cause you personally hate) if you don't keep your goal. I went ahead and signed up to try to lose a pound a week and wagered some money on it -- not a lot, but enough to keep me mindful of what I put in my mouth. If it works for the whole time I will be very pleased and will get my money back.
I heard back about the library job; mostly more details of the position and the compensation; and I talked to the principal and found that it *is* a requirement for staff to send their children to the school. The salary is about half of what I could make as a Librarian I substitute in the public library and the hours are 9-5, so I'd never see my kids except for the commute and an hour or so before bed and if you take the job compensation before taxes and subtract the tuition for three kids minus the small tuition break for staff, I'd about break even. If you include the taxes, tithe, gas for commute, wardrobe, extra money for dining out because I'd be too tired to cook meals, it would be a loss of several thousand dollars; plus, I'd hardly ever see my children, they'd not see each other much and they would never be home during daylight hours for most of the year. If it were a 9-3 job, paying a bit more, I'd be tempted, but really it wouldn't be a good fit for the moment.
The things that intrigue me about a "real" school are the extra stuff: speech meets, plays, book clubs, etc. Otherwise I'm quite happy homeschooling and with three children there is plenty of social interplay and we can even play a good round of three or four square, too.
The other day we decided last minute to attend the school play at Benjamin's school. The play's title was completely unfamiliar and I wasn't expecting much, though it being a Christian school I knew it would be appropriate for children, however About two minutes into the first scene I got the funniest feeling I knew the play, and then five minutes in I was sure of it, but it wasn't quite the same. It reminded me very much of "Hello Dolly" -- but in the following scenes no matchmaker was to be found. At intermission I checked out the program and sure enough, "On the Razzle," the name of the play was the English version of the original German play which both "The Matchmaker" and "Hello Dolly" were based upon. Gone was the music and instead it was rife with spoonerisms and puns and other wordplay, most of which went directly over the heads of anyone under the age of fourteen, and some of which went over mine as the amateur dramatists tended to rush their lines occasionally. The script can be read in part at "google books" and was cleaned up a little for production at a Christian school, but it was enjoyable.
Having a nice weekend here. Benjamin did his jog-a-thon fund raiser at school, and I even joined in for several of the laps, as did Rose. In her dress shoes and velour dress she ran the whole time with the kindergartners, then proceeded to run with the first and second graders as well. Her motivation? Well, after the initial couple laps it was the occasional promise of a ride in a wheelbarrow decorated with pink feathers around the track -- a provision for the younger grades who were tiring. For every series of 20 laps they were allowed to take two of them as wheelbarrow passengers. After the jog-a-thon Benjamin ducked out to attend T-Ball practice, then back to school for the school-wide barbecue and staff/parent baseball game. The kids and I played four square instead, and Rose attempted to fly and fortunately ending up completely unhurt despite a fall of 10 feet. Her intended goal was to slide down a pole, but she missed -- that after skinning both knees. She slept fairly well last night.
The kids are doing crafts today -- a paint by numbers seashore scene for the two older. For Rose we pulled out a sand art set, a sticker surface with built in stencils. She did a pretty good job finishing the scene.
Oh, and the title phrase. We did get our refund direct deposited the other day. No sign of any stimulus check, but not really holding my breath.
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