Have you ever heard of Fiverr? It is a website where people can post little ads saying what they will do for you for $5.00. I found this great guy who said he would ‘:enthusiastically talk about your ANYTHING like an Australian Nature Enthusiast”. So of course I wanted him to talk about my blog. What a hoot! Enjoy the adventure:
General
How Much Do You Know About RSV?
I have heard about RSV all my adult life–but I never fully realized what it is or how severe it can be until last month when my grandson, Owen, was in the hospital fighting for his life. While he is a four year old, his immune system had been compromised by surgery to remove his tonsils. The doctor said he was probably exposed to the germs before his surgery, but had displayed no symptoms until the night after the procedure. His diagnosis was Human Metapneumovirus, which is related to RSV. I can not imagine going through this same ordeal with a newborn or tiny baby.
Normally, young babies are the ones affected by RSV. One of the biggest threats to new babies is a very common virus called respiratory syncytial virus. This virus is of special concern because it’s extremely common and spreads very easily. RSV can live on surfaces such as doorknobs, countertops, toys, and bedding for several hours and is often spread through touching, hugging and kissing. Because of this, almost 100% of children contract RSV by their second birthday. In most older children, RSV runs its course with mild symptoms similar to the cold or flu, and many parents may not even know their child has the virus. But in very young babies—and especially preemies and those with certain lung and heart diseases—it can lead to a serious respiratory infection.
Because of these dangers, parents of new babies need to be cautious about exposing infants to visitors. But communicating your concern to family and friends eager to meet your new child can be difficult. It is a struggle to be appreciative of people’s excitement and wary of their contact.
So, if you are going to visit a family with a new baby, it is your responsibility to know how to act and prepare for a visit. It is important to remember that babies are susceptible to germs, so physical contact can be risky. Always wash your hands, ask before you touch a baby, and stay away if you have been sick recently.
If the new parents aren’t ready for visitors, remember that their concerns are valid and don’t be offended. There are other ways to show support of families with newborns such as doing the laundry for them, making dinner, or babysitting older siblings. Respecting the parents’ efforts to keep their baby safe from germs during their first few vulnerable months is one of the greatest gifts you can give them.
Some tips to remember:
- Call before you visit. New parents need time to set up a routine and bond. By giving them time to do so before you visit, you are respecting the new family.
- Postpone a visit if you feel that you may be getting sick, have recently been ill or exposed to illness.
- Remember that parents know best. If you feel they are being overprotective or overly cautious, just consider that only they know what’s best for the health of their new son or daughter.
- Offer to do something to ease their responsibilities as they spend time as a family, such as laundry, cooking or dishes. Sleep-deprived moms and dads will appreciate your help!
If you do schedule a visit with a new baby:
- Wash your hands frequently—upon entering the home and especially prior to holding the baby. Parents, and the new baby, will appreciate it.
- Leave toddlers at home, especially during the winter months. Young children, especially if they attend day care or preschool, often carry germs and viruses, like RSV, that are easily spread.
Find out more about RSV and how to prevent it at RSV Protection.
I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of MedImmune and received promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.
Out And About: West Georgia Museum In Tallapoosa
While our friend, Richard, was visiting, we decided to go to the West Georgia Museum in Tallapoosa. We saw it a couple of days ago when we went to the library, and talked about going there someday.
I was really impressed with this museum. It has quite a few displays depicting early life in the west Georgia area, including arrowheads and other native American artifacts; birds and animals that were native to the area; and life sized replicas of dinosaurs that may have lived here.
A local resident created a miniature replica of the town of Tallapoosa as it looked in the late 1800’s, using an old map as a guide. Each building is labled with the name of the business or family name who occupied the house.
There are several display rooms showing typical tools of the trade for professions such as shoemaker, doctor, and dentist from the late 1800’s.Each of those rooms has a doorbell to “ring” that plays an audio telling what you are seeing in the room. My favorite was the one showing an old telephone operator’s cord board, because I used to be an operator and actually used one of those cord boards on the job!
I also loved seeing the general store display, especially the dry goods section with fabric and sewing notions:
The West Georgia Museum of Tallapoosa is located at 185 Main Street, behind the library. They are open Tuesday thru Friday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m, and closed on Sunday and Monday. Call 770-574-3125 for tours and information. Admission is $2.00 for adults and $1.00 for children.
It’s Over
The voting for Favorite Grandparent Blog 2012 in the Reader’s Choice Awards ended last night, but the winner won’t be announced until March 30th. Whether I win or not, I FEEL like a winner to have had such wonderful support from my family and friends in the blogosphere, on Facebook and Twitter. I planked you already for your votes, but there is that little matter of a “campaign promise” of posting a pic of me standing on my head if I won. Because I FEEL like a winner, here it is: (remember, there are some things you can’t unsee)
The other four nominees were all good at their respective blogs. I had only known of one of them before this, Grandma’s Briefs. I read her blog and love it. Grampy’s Little Acre, Painting for Hailey, and Googie’s Attic rounded out the list.
It was a month of begging for votes everywhere I could think of, and no matter how or what I tried, the poll results showed me and Googie’s Attic trading places for first place every day. I said on several occasions that she was a formidable opponent, so I did what anyone would do: I googled her.
Googie is also known as Debbie Noland. She’s a writer from Sedalia, Missouri and author of “The Legacy of Plywood U: A History of State Fair Community College 1966-2002.” Noland taught writing for 29 years at State Fair Community college. She also wrote a column for the Democrat (a Sedalia newspaper) called “About Town.” And she has published a children’s book, “Sweet Dreams: A Bedtime Rhyme.”
A very formidable opponent indeed, considering I didn’t graduate high school because I failed ninth grade English four times. I got my GED when I was in my thirties, though, and went on to Mercer University where I aced English Lit 101, which made my head swell with pride.
Thank you all again for your support!
What Crafts Do You Do?
Because March is National Craft Month, I thought I would take a minute to tell you about all the different kinds of crafts that I do. I mostly talk about sewing and quilting, but I also make jewelry and soap, and crochet. I am one of those people who loves to create things and am happiest if my hands are busy doing something.
When we lived in our last house back in 2000, I had a craft room, where I had plenty of workspace and places to store craft supplies. There were several stores nearby that sold the supplies I needed. But, since we started living in the RV and moving around frequently, there haven’t been many places where I could buy things I needed to complete a project, and I don’t have much room to store things. Because of that, I naturally started looking online for for a large variety of craft supplies.
FactoryDirectCraft.com is one of those places where I can usually find just what I need for any project I am working on. I especially like their selection of pattern books, and just looking at their online catalog sometimes gives me ideas for things to do.
What crafts do you do? Do you have a favorite online supply store? What are you making for National Craft Month?
Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, When I’m 63?
I loved that song way back when. I’ve been singing it all day in my head because my sweetheart, my honey, my love, turned 63 today. He has been a good sport to pose for my camera on many many many occasions, and he knows that every thing he does could end up the subject of a blog post.
I decided to take a look back in history to see what else happened on March 13 over the years. Here is some of what I found:
483 St. Felix III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1519 Cortez lands in Mexico
1677 Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000
1852 Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the New York Lantern weekly
1884 U.S. adopts Standard Time
1923 Lee de Forest demonstrates his sound-on-film moving pictures (New York City)
1949 U.S. Mens Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button
1961 Pablo Picasso (79) marries his model Jacqueline Rocque (37)
1965 Jeff Beck replaces Eric Clapton of the Yardbirds
1969 Apollo 9 returns to Earth
1992 FCC rules companies can own 30 AM and 30 FM stations (formerly 12)
1993 Blizzard of ’93 hits north-east U.S.
Happy Birthday, honey!
Girls Day Out With My Daughter, Emily
Did you know that yesterday was the 100th birthday of the Oreo Cookie? To celebrate, my daughter and I decided to take a day off and get pampered. Ok, so we didn’t know it was Oreo’s birthday. I didn’t know until I got up and found this posted on facebook by my OLDER brother:
Emily and I had our outing planned for a couple of days. We went to breakfast at IHOP, then went to Top Nails in Douglasville for manicure-pedicures.
It was way past time for my pedicure. So far past time that they charged me an extra $5. Yes, it was not pretty. At least not until they were finished:
Emily chose her school color for her nails:
A little bit of wax on the old eyebrows and we were out the door. But look, next door was Cold Stone Creamery. Who can resist that?
And look, they were celebrating Oreo’s birthday, too:
I Never Thought I’d Agree With Neal Boortz…
I’m not someone who listens to radio very much. As a matter of fact, I listen rarely. When I say rarely, I mean, I have only listened to a radio about three times in the last year. So, it is amazing that I would tune in to a radio talk show on this day, and have the radio talk show person actually say something that I agree with 100%.
Most of the time when I go somewhere in the truck, Fabgrandpa is with me. When we are together, we listen to and talk to each other. We don’t turn the radio on, or even put a CD in the player most of the time. Because even after almost twenty years together, we still have a lot to say to each other.
It just so happens that while I was gone to Maryland to look after Amelia while Owen was in the hospital, that Fabgrandpa went out by himself several times. And he apparently had the radio tuned in to WSB AM 750, probably trying to find a weather report or a traffic report.
This morning I went out by myself to meet my daughter,Emily for our girl day out. I turned on the radio to have some noise going on during the forty mile ride to Douglasville, and there was Neal Boortz. I used to listen to him in the late 90’s when I had to drive in to Atlanta every morning to go to work. But towards the end of my other life, I got tired of listening to him because somewhere along the line our viewpoints began to differ. A lot. So, I stopped listening to him, and as time went on, I stopped listening to radio at all.
Anyway, this morning I turned on the radio and Neal was talking about the pink slime that McDonald’s used in their hamburger patties. He talked about that, and then, he started talking about eating gluten free and how wheat is not good for us. I was definitely paying attention to him at this point, because you know, I have been gluten free since 2007. He said that the wheat we eat now is not the “bible wheat”, not the same as the staff of life from two thousand years ago, and that is because of genetically altered wheat that is being grown these days to increase the amount of gluten it contains.
I agree with that 100%. The corporate folks have altered the wheat that is being grown to increase the amount of gluten it contains because gluten gives products made with wheat the springy, high rising capabilities that we all love in our breads and cakes and pastries.
Boortz went on to explain that he had been having some issues and went to the doctor for testing and was diagnosed as gluten sensitive and possibly Celiac. And he has been eating a gluten free diet for a couple of months now. Mr. Boortz then said that the number one thing he has noticed since eating gluten free is that “His mood, his dispostion, has been changed.” He says he is happy, more alert,since eliminating gluten from his diet. He also recommended reading Wheat Belly. (Personally, I couldn’t tell the difference in his disposition now as opposed to fifteen years ago, but that’s just me.)
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I have known for a long time that symptoms of gluten sensitivity can mimic many diseases, including migraine headaches, arthritis, Chron’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, periphial neuropathy, and many others. It can cause behaviour disorders in children that can be mistaken for ADHD, ADD, and autism. It can make you feel depressed, moody, fatigued. Boortz mentioned in passing Type 3 diabetes.
I was not surprised to hear that because I have read about this new form of diabetes before. My own experience with eating a gluten free diet is that I have been able to keep my blood sugar under control much better since I eliminated gluten from my diet, and that what I thought were symptoms of Peripheral Neuropathy caused by my type II diabetes completely disappeared just a couple of months after beginning a gluten free diet. Now, I’m not a medical professional at all, but I do know how my own body has responded to eating gluten free. Thank you, Neal Boortz, for giving me a topic of mutual interest for about twenty minutes this morning.
Also, Neal, if you ever read this, I have to tell you that while your ordering instructions to the the silly clerks at McDonald’s may sound perfectly clear, they must not be if you get your order incorrectly filled 100% of the time. Whenever I got to a fast food burger joint, I always order mine this way: “I want a hamburger, no bun please. Put the cheese in between the two patties, please.” And I get my order correct, 100% of the time. It just may be the delivery that throws them off.
