Dog gone SICK!

Sweet! I LOVE a good surprise, especially when the surprise is news that my husband has the entire day off tomorrow!!! (Just for the record: It's a paid day off for his school and entire district since the teachers had to stay extra late two nights this past week to meet with parents regarding students grades)... I wasn't expecting it, but I'll gladly welcome any extra help around the house that he can offer, not to mention it's also nice to have his company--- maybe he can keep the boys distracted while I work on disinfecting the whole house.

We're all starting to feel a lot better here after two miserable weeks of being sick with the flu and pneumonia- yes, my doctor confirmed today after examining my chest x rays I had taken on Monday I had full blown pneumonia--- he said he was surprised I wasn't laid up in the hospital for a couple of days... hmmm... I guess I was really sicker than I imagined I was--- that explains why the lady who helped me at the hospital on Monday asked me if she should get me a wheel chair... perhaps that also explains why it felt like doing something as simple as driving our car too and from my doctor appointment felt like real labor--- I could hardly hold my hands on the steering wheel. I'd get up in the mornings, shower and get dressed and before I could completely finish putting on my make up (a process that normally only takes 10-15 minutes) I'd already be ready to crawl back into bed again. I told Spencer if pneumonia is what old people die of, I don't want to grow old--- I don't EVER want to get it again! I must admit though, it was kind of nice not having to prepare meals for the time being since no one was well enough to enjoy them... we were all pretty much living off of popsicles, Gatorade and Pedialyte, rice, bananas, broth-y-soups and dry cereal... surprisingly no one complained.  We all still have lingering coughs and some of the boys still have runny noses but I think we're pretty much in the clear from here on out-- fingers crossed... I'm anxiously hoping for a warm sunny week next week- we've been cooped up inside for WAY too long- we NEED to get out and soak up some vitamin D!!!

One may ask his or herself what a sick mother with 4 young sick kids does stuck at home, all day, every day for the duration of two weeks... well, matter of factly we slept, A LOT!  Thank goodness! (Actually the boys slept a lot... I on the other hand couldn't sleep because I had trouble breathing and needed to stay propped up--- easier said than done, especially being 30 weeks pregnant, so I rested in the LoveSac pretty much all night for 4 nights in a row watching The History Channel, the news and paid advertisements).. Between steaming hot showers, nebulizer treatments and administering doses of medicine to the sickies, wiping snot, changing diapers filled with nuclear waste every 5 minutes through out the day and changing and washing bedsheets or anything else that might contain sick germies or be soaked in throw up, we watched A LOT of movies...

I l.o.v.e. this picture of the boys... 

it reminds me of an Indian pow wow...  

only instead of dancing around a ceremonial fire, 

the boys are gathered around a bowl of popcorn.

We colored a lot....

And we even got crafty at times... on this particular day we decided to make slime. REAL authentic slime--- you know the same kind with the same smell that you used to be able to buy packaged in those little plastic bubble container thingies for a quarter from the vending machines outside the grocery store when you were a little kid growing up in the 80's.

I found the recipe for slime online here...  

Up until last week when we made our slime, I'd never heard of Borax before but let me tell you,that stuff is pretty darn amazing!!! It has multiple purposes and the thing I LOVE the most about it is that it's cheap too! I haven't tried using it to clean any of our dirty laundry yet but don't you worry, I fully intend to... if it does a good job cleaning clothes and can do it for a fifth of what it costs to buy regular laundry detergent I'm all over it!  Anyhow, now I'm on a tangent, back to the slime...

The boys really enjoyed making the gooey gunk.  It was so quick and simple to make.  We made a couple batches of the stuff so that they could have it in a variety of colors... by the time we were ready to make our 3RD batch, the boys knew completely all on their own exactly how to make it... it's that simple!

First, Noah combined 1 teaspoon of borax powder to 1 cup of water... then he stirred it together for a minute or two until it completely dissolved, after which he set it aside.

While Noah was busy completing the first step, Ian poured a whole 4 ounce bottle of glue into a bowl and added 1/2 a cup of water.

I added a couple of drops of food coloring to the glue mixture...

After which Cohen mixed it all together until it was smooth.

Remember the first step that required Noah to mix borax powder and water together until it dissolved, then he set it aside for later use??? Now is the time to add that mixture to your glue/water mix and stir until it starts to get gooey.

You can stir the combination together with a stick or a spoon, but I found it worked best when I just kneaded it together using my bare hands... and in the matter of just minutes VOILA! You have sloppy goopy SLIME!

F.Y.I. We made our first batch of slime using clear Elmer's glue, but we found that when we used the regular white Elmer's glue we liked the consistency and look of the slime even better... I'd recommed trying both glues to see which one you like better.

Just for the record:  My boys LOVE playdough but I Hate, with a capital "H", HATE the stuff...  not only because most playdough is made with flour (which makes it potentially lethal to me- and that's no exaggeration) but also because it dries out, gets crumbly and makes an AWFUL MESS if it gets stuck on clothes or the carpet SO that being said, my boys rarely ever play with the stuff... I know, I know, I'm a terrible mother BUT don't you worry, this slime we made is cheap and virtually mess/allergen free SO I'm more than happy to let them play with it when ever they please... ok, well maybe not whenever, but often.