To Stitch or not to stitch, that is the question.

Perspective.  It is all about perspective.  A mother of one or two kids, runs to the doctor to sew up every little cut.  Now that I am a mother of five, I have seen my fair share of stitches and know when they are necessary and how many they will need.  But here's the thing the older and/or country doctors will tell you that the city/younger ones will not.  Most cuts don't need stitches.  You just need the wound cleaned and kept free from dirt and bacteria (that means $2 in bacitracin and bandaids).  Your body is made to heal itself.  So this is the decision I had to face today.  Should I take Keener to the ER?  Honey is gone, which means all of us would have to go.  It is not a decision to be made lightly.  A trip to the ER  for stitches will cost you 4 hours of frustration, $700, 5 whiney kids, AND whatever disease you happen to catch!!
Keener's forehead got sliced when she fell off of brother Christopher's shoulders onto a gravel driveway. This is 4th time I have seen this head injury in my kids.  This was a"borderline" case.  A country doctor would not sew it up, but a city doctor would.  I decided to save myself the trip, the money, the sanity and the health.  I got Keener all cleaned up, gave her some arnica, and some hugs.  Truly this is all she needed.  The bleeding stopped eventually and she is healing fine.

---and in case you are wondering.  Her hair is that short and crazy.   She keeps cutting her hair.  It is impossible to keep scissors away from her.  So for now, she looks like a boy.  and that's okay with me, I love her to pieces even if she has crazy hair

Again and again and again!

Not Again!  For the 10th time this year I have gone to start my car and the battery was dead.  Now you might think this is caused by a bad battery.  Wrong!  It is caused by my five little "ducks".  My little ducks are perfectly capable of opening a car door, but apparently closing the door is something they "forget" to do.  Please God, explain to me how you can open a door, still have your hand on it as you climb out of the car and "forget" that you are TOUCHING the door?! The problem is that I do not pass by their side of the car on my way to the house.  Then I might be able to alleviate this problem.
      Now with all this "experience" with dead batteries, I should be working for a car service and jumping cars for a living.  Uh, not quite.  I have a little too much of the "Scarlet Ohara" syndrome.  What is that?  Well, Scarlet is perfectly capable of doing anything she sets her mind to doing, but why do it yourself when you can get someone else to do it right?
     Hmm... right?
     Well of course!  I don't really want to get my hands dirty and stick them into the engine of a car, hoping that I don't electrocute myself or make the car explode.  I know how to set up the jumper cables but have never once done it.  I mean really, why?  Like I said about the flat tire, we have a car service with USAA, I have a Honey, and great neighbors.  But in this case, it was the unlikely but very lovable handyman who came by to give me an estimate for fixing the water infiltration problem in my house.  See what I mean about the Scarlet syndrome?  He barely knows me, yet got tasked with the job because he was "lucky" enough to stop by before my neighbors got home or I had a chance to call USAA.  And he was able to fix the water problem at the house also.   Yeah!

More Halloween.

Here is a picture of the kids from Halloween.

Keener was a Cinderella Princess, of course yesterday at the Navy game, she was an adorable elephant.  Elizabeth was an orange witch, Rolo made the cheapest costume ever (thank you Rolo!!) and was a robot.  It was only $2.50 for the can of spray paint.  Honey says I should add in the case of beer he "had" to drink.  Haha Honey, but no.  You don't get to count the recycled box!    Christopher is a Jedi, but the costume doubles as a monk outfit, so he was a monk for the All-Saints party.
Baby Tybee dressed up as a baby - I know, not very original, but it was COLD out.  So we had to go for practical.
It was a crazy  and busy day; church, lacrosse game, All Saints party with homeschool Group, Halloween Party with neighbors, trick or treating, then Honey left to go to Norfolk, Virginia for his two weeks of Reserve duty.  Needless to say, we were all exhausted and literally fell into bed! One Holiday down, two more to go!