Including this blog, LOL!
I need to go on hiatus here folks. Personal reasons, and all that good stuff. I need to go on lock-down for a while. It's been real!
Apr 26, 2012
Apr 25, 2012
Apr 24, 2012
Chicken Pox Magic Cream
It's official. The itches have started. ;-)
I'm not a fan of Caladryl, and it says RIGHT on the package - Do not use on chickenpox. There's a reason for that. If used too extensively this antihistamine cream can end up in your blood stream. A lot of people just slap that on for the itch relief, but you can actually overdose on it (yes a topical cream). Anyone choosing to read up on it at all would see that.
So, what's a Mom to do? My kiddo has the itchies. The Redheaded Wonder is of course doing the standard oatmeal-in-the-sock bathtub soaks. Relief is pretty temporary, however. I have, right now, a completely content kid sitting next to me. Why? Coconut oil.
Yup, that wonderful anti-microbial, all natural, coincidentally tasty magic oil. Redheaded Wonder is calling it Magic Itchy Cream.
Magic Itchy Cream
Equal parts of coconut oil and aloe vera gel
Woah, complicated. ;-)
The aloe vera gel I use is from Trader Joe's and it has calendula and arnica in it as well. (Bonus). You could add in lavendar essential oil or tea tree essential oils. But I didn't (mostly because I am out of both). But this worked so well, it probably doesn't even need it unless you are worried about possible infection (or active infection) of specific spots.
It's good stuff. And it works a heck of a lot better than the over-the-counter, chemical laden, lazy person crap that you can go buy at the store.
I'm not a fan of Caladryl, and it says RIGHT on the package - Do not use on chickenpox. There's a reason for that. If used too extensively this antihistamine cream can end up in your blood stream. A lot of people just slap that on for the itch relief, but you can actually overdose on it (yes a topical cream). Anyone choosing to read up on it at all would see that.
So, what's a Mom to do? My kiddo has the itchies. The Redheaded Wonder is of course doing the standard oatmeal-in-the-sock bathtub soaks. Relief is pretty temporary, however. I have, right now, a completely content kid sitting next to me. Why? Coconut oil.
Yup, that wonderful anti-microbial, all natural, coincidentally tasty magic oil. Redheaded Wonder is calling it Magic Itchy Cream.
Magic Itchy Cream
Equal parts of coconut oil and aloe vera gel
Woah, complicated. ;-)
The aloe vera gel I use is from Trader Joe's and it has calendula and arnica in it as well. (Bonus). You could add in lavendar essential oil or tea tree essential oils. But I didn't (mostly because I am out of both). But this worked so well, it probably doesn't even need it unless you are worried about possible infection (or active infection) of specific spots.
It's good stuff. And it works a heck of a lot better than the over-the-counter, chemical laden, lazy person crap that you can go buy at the store.
Low Simmer to Rolling Boil
Man, someone turned up the heat in here.
The shit has hit the proverbial fan. End of the semester in nursing school going horribly, horrifically awry? Check.
I'm having issues with a professor regarding a particular assignment that I'm trying to hash out. I'm trying to do a make-up clinical. I have several appointments that I kinda CANNOT miss over the next few days. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue except for one pesky little issue.....
Oh yeah. My darling daughter has chicken pox. This right here, this is the first time that I have truly felt and had problems with being a single Mom. I can't be five places at once, and quite frankly I don't want to be. I also have no issue with the fact that I am in this alone. It's just a cold bucket of water to the face when you find a need to be five different places at once and you can't figure out how to keep all the balls juggling and up in the air.
This also reminds me why having family around can be such a blessing. It's hard to ask friends (even very close ones) to take time away from their families to bring me things, or help watch Redheaded Wonder. It's a very lonely feeling. I miss my Sister and my Mom and all my other siblings deeply. We are a tight knit family. I had a picture perfect time growing up, and I have amazing parents and siblings to show for it. I just wish they were here sometimes. It's hard without them.
We'll manage, we always do. Next week/month/year there will be a whole new set of challenges. And we'll rise to the occasion just like we always do. Kicking and screaming if need be. My nursing instructor made fun of me a bit today - "It's like a movie! Every thing that can go wrong just does!". She laughed, but it was also a bit of sobering moment.
Survival of the fittest my friends. /pity fest.
The shit has hit the proverbial fan. End of the semester in nursing school going horribly, horrifically awry? Check.
I'm having issues with a professor regarding a particular assignment that I'm trying to hash out. I'm trying to do a make-up clinical. I have several appointments that I kinda CANNOT miss over the next few days. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue except for one pesky little issue.....
Oh yeah. My darling daughter has chicken pox. This right here, this is the first time that I have truly felt and had problems with being a single Mom. I can't be five places at once, and quite frankly I don't want to be. I also have no issue with the fact that I am in this alone. It's just a cold bucket of water to the face when you find a need to be five different places at once and you can't figure out how to keep all the balls juggling and up in the air.
This also reminds me why having family around can be such a blessing. It's hard to ask friends (even very close ones) to take time away from their families to bring me things, or help watch Redheaded Wonder. It's a very lonely feeling. I miss my Sister and my Mom and all my other siblings deeply. We are a tight knit family. I had a picture perfect time growing up, and I have amazing parents and siblings to show for it. I just wish they were here sometimes. It's hard without them.
We'll manage, we always do. Next week/month/year there will be a whole new set of challenges. And we'll rise to the occasion just like we always do. Kicking and screaming if need be. My nursing instructor made fun of me a bit today - "It's like a movie! Every thing that can go wrong just does!". She laughed, but it was also a bit of sobering moment.
Survival of the fittest my friends. /pity fest.
Apr 22, 2012
Your Mom Goes to College
BUT NOT FOR MUCH LONGER!
Oh my goodness. I am so excited everyone! SO EXCITED! By the time I leave this program I will have spent almost three years getting this degree.
I graduate in Mid-August of 2012. That means I have one more semester, and I will be eligible to sit for the RN boards (aka NCLEX). This transition scares me a bit. I won't lie. Being a student has sort of become my identity. There is a seasonality to the whole experience. Every semester starts and it's exciting! And by the end of it....you're just ready to move on to the next one and get this one over with. With nursing school (at least with mine) it goes straight through the summer without skipping a beat. Three straight years.
What WILL I do with myself?
Well, actually....
Yeah. I'm probably going straight back in. I know that's crazy talk. I had a goal when I started this crazy adventure, and that was to my Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner, or ARNP. ORIGINALLY I wanted to get my Certified Nurse Midwifery, or CNM. But, I do believe I would prefer to get my Family Nurse Practitioner, or FNP. This would allow me to see a wide range of clients in a more general way. I've always loved working with babies and women. Big fan. So who knows. Maybe I'll even get my Women's Health, and my Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. I DO know that I plan on doing this all at Frontier Nursing University.
I'm obviously still sorta figuring the details out.
But the important part of this message is this - I will be able to take care of myself and the Redheaded Wonder. By myself. It won't be a glamorous lifestyle, but I don't need glamour. I just want comfortable. Happy. Self-sufficient. Independent.
Honestly, I love being a nurse. It's a great job for me, I think. I love the critical thinking, and the teaching, and the skills, and customizing care plans for patients individual needs. My original motivation was essentially to extend my doula role into a larger childbirth specific role - but I have discovered that the entire field (while there are still floors I don't like) happens to be something that I think I am pretty good at. It's nice to feel that way.
So here goes fifth semester. I've got my eye on you. And I'm taking you DOWN.
Oh my goodness. I am so excited everyone! SO EXCITED! By the time I leave this program I will have spent almost three years getting this degree.
I graduate in Mid-August of 2012. That means I have one more semester, and I will be eligible to sit for the RN boards (aka NCLEX). This transition scares me a bit. I won't lie. Being a student has sort of become my identity. There is a seasonality to the whole experience. Every semester starts and it's exciting! And by the end of it....you're just ready to move on to the next one and get this one over with. With nursing school (at least with mine) it goes straight through the summer without skipping a beat. Three straight years.
What WILL I do with myself?
Well, actually....
Yeah. I'm probably going straight back in. I know that's crazy talk. I had a goal when I started this crazy adventure, and that was to my Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner, or ARNP. ORIGINALLY I wanted to get my Certified Nurse Midwifery, or CNM. But, I do believe I would prefer to get my Family Nurse Practitioner, or FNP. This would allow me to see a wide range of clients in a more general way. I've always loved working with babies and women. Big fan. So who knows. Maybe I'll even get my Women's Health, and my Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. I DO know that I plan on doing this all at Frontier Nursing University.
I'm obviously still sorta figuring the details out.
But the important part of this message is this - I will be able to take care of myself and the Redheaded Wonder. By myself. It won't be a glamorous lifestyle, but I don't need glamour. I just want comfortable. Happy. Self-sufficient. Independent.
Honestly, I love being a nurse. It's a great job for me, I think. I love the critical thinking, and the teaching, and the skills, and customizing care plans for patients individual needs. My original motivation was essentially to extend my doula role into a larger childbirth specific role - but I have discovered that the entire field (while there are still floors I don't like) happens to be something that I think I am pretty good at. It's nice to feel that way.
So here goes fifth semester. I've got my eye on you. And I'm taking you DOWN.
Apr 20, 2012
Defining Success
How do you define your own success? In what way do the stars need to align in order for you to feel successful, happy, fulfilled?
An interesting issue has come up for me. This phenomenon that in order to successfully have completed this journey and this transformation that I need to become involved again in a relationship....just leaves me pondering the underlying message that sends.
I think a lot of people pity 'the single girl' (or Mom as the case may be). Ya know what? I am a truly happy person. I mean, not all the time every single day of the week, who's like that? The pressure of being perfect and wonderful all the time is just too much. I mess up, I screw up, I make mistakes, but it makes me human and I get to learn and grow. What a gift, truly.
But, back to that underlying message - why is it that success is measured on whether or not you choose to take up a partner? That's not success, that's a conscious decision. Just like choosing to NOT involve a partner in your life for whatever reasons you might have is a conscious decision. I don't want a rigid ideal prescribed to me. I don't need a partner in my life to feel like the picture is complete. It's not complete, it's different. Just like having a dog makes some people complete and makes some people crazy.
I often sit back and ponder on my actions and what things I have chosen to do over this last year, and I think it's important that I do that. I journal about it (this isn't that journal, by the way. Although I'm sure it seems that way sometimes, LOL!) I know with 100% certainty that I have absolutely zero regrets. What would the point of that be? I'm not going to make myself a prisoner within the regrets of my actions. Whenever I have a regret, or worry about whether or not I have done the wrong thing, I try to justify it. But that's just masking my regrets. I don't regret a SINGLE decision, choice, interaction, anything that I have done. Because I am so comfortable and have no regrets, any criticism for my actions truly does for the most part just leave me pitying the person with nothing better to do other than decide that they would have done it better. I don't need to justify doing the right thing.
Because I have zero regrets, and because I am choosing to define my success by MY standards and not some societal set of rules, I get to be the person I want to be. What a gift! Find your bliss. Define your own success. Live by your rules. Screw anyone that tries to put you in a box. And tell them to get a hobby. ;-)
And by the way....who says that I don't? I don't tell you all everything. ;-)
An interesting issue has come up for me. This phenomenon that in order to successfully have completed this journey and this transformation that I need to become involved again in a relationship....just leaves me pondering the underlying message that sends.
I think a lot of people pity 'the single girl' (or Mom as the case may be). Ya know what? I am a truly happy person. I mean, not all the time every single day of the week, who's like that? The pressure of being perfect and wonderful all the time is just too much. I mess up, I screw up, I make mistakes, but it makes me human and I get to learn and grow. What a gift, truly.
But, back to that underlying message - why is it that success is measured on whether or not you choose to take up a partner? That's not success, that's a conscious decision. Just like choosing to NOT involve a partner in your life for whatever reasons you might have is a conscious decision. I don't want a rigid ideal prescribed to me. I don't need a partner in my life to feel like the picture is complete. It's not complete, it's different. Just like having a dog makes some people complete and makes some people crazy.
I often sit back and ponder on my actions and what things I have chosen to do over this last year, and I think it's important that I do that. I journal about it (this isn't that journal, by the way. Although I'm sure it seems that way sometimes, LOL!) I know with 100% certainty that I have absolutely zero regrets. What would the point of that be? I'm not going to make myself a prisoner within the regrets of my actions. Whenever I have a regret, or worry about whether or not I have done the wrong thing, I try to justify it. But that's just masking my regrets. I don't regret a SINGLE decision, choice, interaction, anything that I have done. Because I am so comfortable and have no regrets, any criticism for my actions truly does for the most part just leave me pitying the person with nothing better to do other than decide that they would have done it better. I don't need to justify doing the right thing.
Because I have zero regrets, and because I am choosing to define my success by MY standards and not some societal set of rules, I get to be the person I want to be. What a gift! Find your bliss. Define your own success. Live by your rules. Screw anyone that tries to put you in a box. And tell them to get a hobby. ;-)
And by the way....who says that I don't? I don't tell you all everything. ;-)
Apr 15, 2012
Insert Witty Title Here
I don't even know what to call this blog post. Random conglomeration of updates? Eh, whatever.
It has been many, many days since my last blog post. What's been going on since then? Well let's see -
Redheaded Rosie - this child has turned into a bottomless pit. I don't know where she is putting all this food. I am just positive that she will be having a huge ol' growth spurt here soon. We've also been having some emotional upheaval, for several different reasons. She's just been advised that she is about to have a Stepmother. For the most part, she reacts well to this news, but she has her occasional breakdowns about it as well. I think it's all pretty normal, but her whole last 12 months have been a series of ups and downs. This is just another detour, we'll manage.
Funky Mama - well.....things are still going pretty well for me! There is always the underlying drama revolving around the other household, but quite honestly I don't really have or want to spend too much time or effort worrying about that. It's a lot of pot stirring. Nothing that can't be managed.
School is going well. I'm in the final weeks of my 4th semester - so I have one more semester after this. I got my confirmation on where my preceptorship location is. I'm pretty excited about that! It should prove to be a wonderful experience, I got the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). Not my first hospital choice, but I don't mind Mercy Hospital either. It'll be great.
My love life....hmm. Yup, not going there yet. Not ready to talk about that ;-)
Short, sweet, and to the point. One day at a time over here. And my days sure have been nice lately!
It has been many, many days since my last blog post. What's been going on since then? Well let's see -
Redheaded Rosie - this child has turned into a bottomless pit. I don't know where she is putting all this food. I am just positive that she will be having a huge ol' growth spurt here soon. We've also been having some emotional upheaval, for several different reasons. She's just been advised that she is about to have a Stepmother. For the most part, she reacts well to this news, but she has her occasional breakdowns about it as well. I think it's all pretty normal, but her whole last 12 months have been a series of ups and downs. This is just another detour, we'll manage.
Funky Mama - well.....things are still going pretty well for me! There is always the underlying drama revolving around the other household, but quite honestly I don't really have or want to spend too much time or effort worrying about that. It's a lot of pot stirring. Nothing that can't be managed.
School is going well. I'm in the final weeks of my 4th semester - so I have one more semester after this. I got my confirmation on where my preceptorship location is. I'm pretty excited about that! It should prove to be a wonderful experience, I got the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). Not my first hospital choice, but I don't mind Mercy Hospital either. It'll be great.
My love life....hmm. Yup, not going there yet. Not ready to talk about that ;-)
Short, sweet, and to the point. One day at a time over here. And my days sure have been nice lately!
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