Do One Thing: Week 4

Week 4: FIRST AID KIT: alcohol, wipes, band aids, neosporin, moleskin, tweezers, nail clippers, medications, Rx meds. if you can, flashlight with batteries, sunscreen, bug repellent, sunglasses, etc.

Below is one example of a fully stocked kit from the
American Red Cross website:

First Aid Kit
Assemble a first aid kit for your home and one for each car.

• (20) adhesive bandages, various sizes.
• (1) 5" x 9" sterile dressing.
• (1) conforming roller gauze bandage.
• (2) triangular bandages.
• (2) 3 x 3 sterile gauze pads.
• (2) 4 x 4 sterile gauze pads.
• (1) roll 3" cohesive bandage.
• (2) germicidal hand wipes or waterless alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• (6) antiseptic wipes.
• (2) pair large medical grade non-latex gloves.
• Adhesive tape, 2" width.
• Anti-bacterial ointment.
• Cold pack.
• Scissors (small, personal).
• Tweezers.
• CPR breathing barrier, such as a face shield.

Non-Prescription Drugs

• Aspirin or nonaspirin pain reliever
• Anti-diarrhea medication
• Antacid (for stomach upset)
• Syrup of Ipecac (use to induce vomiting if advised by the Poison Control Center)
• Laxative
• Activated charcoal (use if advised by the Poison Control Center)

Do One Thing: Week 2

Week 2: WATER: One gallon per person per day, plus water purification tablets (water for cooking and drinking; sanitation may require more). Think about the water in Louisiana after Katrina, plenty of water, just none you want to drink or bathe in- also make sure to calculate and provide enough formula and water for the baby.

We'll start filling that container soon, stay with me!

Now if you want to do more, why not take the following quiz, provided by the

California Volunteers....

Get Ready! Family Assessment

In California, it’s not a question of if a disaster will strike, but when. Whether it’s wildfires, earthquakes, winter storms or even man-made disasters, the Golden State faces its share of problems. Do you know what to do? Do you have a plan?

When disaster strikes, emergency workers may be delayed in responding, so you need to learn what to do, have a plan and be prepared to take care of yourself, your family and your community.

WE Prepare by being ready! Are you prepared? Answer the following questions to find out if you have taken steps to be prepared in an emergency.

Do you have a family disaster plan?
Yes No

Do you have a disaster supply kit?
Yes No

Have you identified local emergency contacts?
Yes No

Have you identified out-of-state emergency contacts?
Yes No

Have you identified a family meeting place?
Yes No

Have you talked to your children about what to do in an emergency?
Yes No N/A

Have you practiced what to do at home in the event of a disaster?
Yes No

Have you duplicated important documents (e.g. insurance documents, birth certificates, deed to your home)?
Yes No N/A

Do you know your child's school disaster plan?
Yes No N/A

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, please take a few minutes to fill out a customized family disaster plan.

Awesome Information at "We Prepare"

We Prepare. Here in California we are aware of the different natural disasters that can happen just within the state! California's First Lady, Maria Shriver, has worked with others in designing a great web page to help guide you to lists, self evaluations, special needs links, guides, government agencies, and other preparedness sites!

This web site was designed for California, but it is useful to anyone, anywhere!

I'm going to walk through a couple of these with you. The first page is a ten point questionnaire (a great way to get you thinking), followed by a fact sheet about the site volunteers, and at the bottom of the page is one more link to a PDF emergency checklist (which is really cool also, but later...later!).

One of the first links takes you to California Volunteers (I love this page! Sooo many goodies!) After the click, open the page that says Get Ready! Holy Cow! That page will open up to even more pages!

Two of my favourite things on that page is the Determine Your Family's Risk and Customize Your Family Plan and Children's Book.

It would be a great idea for mom and dad to go to both of these pages, take the assessment, and then make a customized plan and download and print a personalized book for your children (for FREE!). Seriously, this is a great idea! They have a basic outline for the book with blank spaces for you to add your own information and names. Wouldn't this be a fun FHE?

Mom and dad could design a lesson activity to go over the assessment with the kids and then afterwards reinforce the new plan by reading a book with all the kids' names and important info! I love this idea.

I will explore some more pages next week and we'll continue to tackle that Elephant!

In the meantime, I was directed to this site and invited to review it. The folks back at headquarters are going to be peeking in on the blog and checking the comments, so comment away. There are only 50 blogs that are being selected to do this -so lucky us! Let them -and us- know what is effective, what could be improved, and if they have left anything pertinent out.

Do me a favour, 'k?

Alright, it's the weekend and you probably have tons of other stuff to do. But, if you have an extra 20 minutes (I promise it's really only 20 minutes), take a gander at the link to the right. The one that says "The Story of Stuff, with Annie Leonard".

It's easy to understand, has basic information we all need to know, and doesn't really preach at the end, just lets you decide what to do with the information she has given you. That's easy.

Please, please, please, if you do choose to follow the link, give yourself the 20 minutes and actually watch the entire presentation. She makes some very good points, most of us already know, but, for most of us, we need reminding of. Now shoo, go on now, watch and relearn.

Thanks.

Let's Make Up ---part duex!

Holy Hannah! The tech-y gods are after me! I totally biffed the whole link-up this morning. So if you went there and it didn't work (meaning there wasn't anything there...duh!) well they links are up now! Whoot!

Trust me - they are fantastic for ideas and techniques... go!

Halloween is the time for make up; and do I have some links for you!

Links for the beginner mummy or daddy to videos of professionals doing their best work. Terrific stuff. Scars, bruises, monsters, vampire eyes, you name it!

Panacea 81 has video tutorials on Fabulous Eyes! This woman is adorable, very unpretentious, and she demos her eye make up versions via her love of MAC cosmetics. Very dramatic! (After reading more about her I found out she is an "eye model"...and I believe it!)

If you'd like to "link up" click here!

Sweet S'mee Linkage- Flickr Pools

Hehe! "Links" get it? So here we are in our first official capacity as linkage! Here what we have today:

Autumn/Fall/Halloween Flickr! Group has some amazing photos, Some scenery, some spooky and this one takes my breathe away, from Mailman who just got a place in my personal favorites! Whoo!

You all know I got into hearts and finding them out and about a few weeks ago... hey they have a Flickr! pool for that also! This is fabulous in so many ways I can't tell you via I see Hearts Flickr! pool.

Flickr! has so many different themed pools I could spend all day just searching! I really like this one! via Faces in Places Flickr! pool. (Oh, and btw, Chronicler has recently joined this group. Be the first to write back in the comments and describe her "face" to S'mee and receive another chance at those fabulous gifts and prizes! No, sis, you are exempt form this particular contest!)

So that's all for today folks. It may not seem like much, until you get started, then watch out. You may be looking at these wonderful photos all day long!

Organize Yourselves!

Last night was my class on organization. It went fairly well with the evening beginning in a way I think should become a tradition for "Enrichment Night"a. Fondue! In the familiar LDS exclamation: OH MY HECK!

Is there anything as delicious as naked fruit dipped in chocolate and caramel? So simple, yet yumminess was at it's height. Who knows, maybe I was the only one who wanted to take their shoes off, grab a snorkel and just swim in the pot with fresh pineapple rings as my water wings.

I have never visited the wardb where I taught last night and I must say the ladies there were interesting and welcoming, as well as fun and interactive. The speaker before me gave a very informative talk on tackling the paper tiger we all seem to cage on our desk. Simple file systems followed by a question and answer period. There was a small debate over how long to hang onto bills and other documents for legal and tax purposes, other than that -smooth sailing!

One sidebar: The question of a home safe came up. Advice from our Fire Fighter son came to our family quickly after the large CA fires a while back. If you store your precious papers, documents or belongings in a "fire-proof" safe know that the safe will indeed be fire proof, your item inside will not be. It makes sense when he explained why. The fire proof safe is made to withstand a certain degree of heat before becoming invalid. If the fire becomes hotter than the safe is made to withstand, the hinges and locks, etc. can melt and weld the safe into a huge metal block without means of entry. Something to think about. Your items inside are not made to withstand those same degrees of heat without becoming baked to a cinder! Imagine taking your insurance papers and baking them for an hour in your oven set on broil. They would come out very fragile if at all. It works the same in the safe. Most home fires get pretty hot and you should not risk truly important unreplaceable papers anywhere other than a safety deposit box. Last night one lady brought up that banks also catch fire, what's the difference in safety? Banks and bank vaults have fire sprinklers which if they don't eliminate the fire will at least keep the heat degree down and the articles inside the vaults have a better chance of survival.

The meeting was to end at 8, and it was 7:45 before I even began, so it was a rather short and hurried version, but went well. The gal in charge gave me an extra 10 minutes, but I could have gone on for much longer and there were so many unanswered questions! I stayed afterwards and caught up as many queries as they wanted and still made it home in time to watch the Donald say "your fired". (yeah, I know, but for whatever reason I like that stupid show)

As always the big hit was a chart I made for our family to eliminate arguing and disobedience. It, basically, is a training for mom! I think when we realize that we are indeed the mom, the kids will catch on and that's where the change begins.

I don't have the space to review all my personal ideas and tips but a great resource on line is

organize tips

Organize tips . com has great FREE down loads for all kinds of "stuff", check lists, schedules, charts, and articles to help get you started. It also has a gazillion things for you to purchase, so puruse carefully and enjoy!

More on the whole organization later. I need to send some good mojo vibes to Flickr and see if I can help them get back in gear! ugh!

a. Formerly "Homemaking Night" or "Work Meeting", a once a month meeting where LDS women (18 and older) gather together to be enriched and educated on a variety of Spiritual and Temporal subjects. Usually very informative, fun and social, sometimes with dinner being served or refreshment. b. An LDS term having the same meaning as "congregation".

Six Years of Childhood

I was traveling this morning and ran across sohoman.blogspot.com.

I read through some of his words, feelings really; and they triggered old memories.

When our eldest child was 6 he was diagnosed with a rare form of a rare (then*) blood disease. For a "rare" disease it was normal that a child would acquired it and could then go through it relatively unchanged, recovering unaided within 6 weeks. Then the secondary group of kids who would recover aided via steroid and drug therapy. Third group: recovered after therapies that involved "unproven drug therapies". Our son was in a 2% group that was totally unresponsive and would "never recover" and have potential for fatal repercussion. He, as a result of the disease, had a dangerously enlarged spleen, extremely low platelets, high white count, constant severe bruising, spontaneous bleeding - internal/external, extremely lowered immunities, acquired Hep. C, Cytomegalovirus, pneumonia several times a year, viral meningitis, and other complications that kept him out of school for 3 years and then some, and away from church and social situations (read: pretty much any where but home). Blah, blah, blah.

We set our lives on auto-pilot and went to hospital/clinic visits (1 hour commute one way) sometimes daily and most often at least twice a week, for six years. During this time we prayed. A lot. We pleaded with the Lord to relieve our family from this disease, to heal our little boy, to make everything right again. Once in a while we would throw in a "if it be Thy will", but I'm being honest here - I wanted my miracle, not His will. I did however, maintain my faith through it all and I (looking back on it now) can't remember ever being "WHY ME? WHY US? OH CURSES!!" and being angry with God. I remembered that everyone has their trial and all that, this was just one of ours. (there would be more) I definitely had my "please feel sorry for me" pity parties and there were times when I was so tired of it all I just went silently crazy. I can remember burying my child several times and rehearsing in my head how I would explain to younger siblings that he had died. I would breakdown and cry almost every month in the shower - especially after a particularly hard treatment or exam (lumbar punctures and bone marrow checks were devastatingly painful to witness, and much more painful to go through as my son had to).

There were those who tried to comfort us, me. They would call and chat and visit when appropriate. I looked forward to these angel friends. They saved us many times just by showing up and staring with us into the green hued light of a sterile room. There were those who seemed to delight in our misery. They would point out that if we were truly faithful the Lord would stretch forth His mighty hand and cure our son. Thanks. That helps. The truth is -and I understood this then- that the Lord is in control and although having faith is a good thing, unless I have the faith of a prophet, I wouldn't changed the Lord's plan in this matter. Tough luck, too bad, stinks to be me. This was a nice test and there you go. Deal with it. The words still hurt, then, and still now. Don't tell me I do not have faith when it comes to my little boy. I wanted to hurt this person back, but there is no equal to the pain her words caused. So move on.

We were in and out of the hospital so many times we had a specific room assigned just for us. The nurses knew us by name. The doctors were open and friendly. The routine became routine. Pajamas were home made so that he could have firemen and dinosaurs, trucks and other fun prints on his bleached and funky smelling hospital snap up the sides IV accessible nightwear. Special body pillows to alleviate the bruising of his body and bloodied nose just from his turning in his sleep. Mornings would be met with mouthwash to rinse the blood from his mouth so he could taste his breakfast. "Mint flavored everything in the morning." Hugs were forbidden at times because of the bruising. A spleenectomy was suggested, but his platelets never rose high enough to accommodate the surgery. And there were no trips to parks or slides or swings or school with chums. He was home schooled by a grumpy old lady who came twice a week. Eventually his levels rose enough to merit some activity, and then they would drop and he would be pulled from having a normal kid life a again.

Year six met us with quite a surprise. His levels began to rise. Each week a little more until he had enough to seem like a remission. Time was now monitored and eventually he was in a "remission". After a year they called it a full remission and we were allowed to come in for check ups once a month, then every 6 months and eventually once a year. Now there are blood counts and checks for various diseases every 5 years. So far so good.

He's married now. Almost 18 months. He still has some minor situations in his body that are directly linked to his childhood disease. But he's a big burly fireman. One of those that was on the first strike team a few years back when CA was on fire. His team was right there next to the team from up north, the team that lost one of their men down saving San Diego. My son fought 40' and 50' flames in the hills above Claremont, then San Berdoo, then San Diego. If they needed a strong team of fire fighters, they sent in my son's group. He's my hero.

Heavenly Father has a time schedule and a plan for our son. Our son is one of the healed. He is a miracle. There are moments when I am plagued with guilt because he was healed while other little children, some with more terrible diseases, grew up and are still tethered to the clinic, the 4th floor, to seclusion, to IV poles, to not being big and burly. These little children and their families are still in my heart. They are still heroes to me. I know their hope and they trial and their faith. I know that there is sometimes nothing left to say or do, but breathe in the sterilized bleach scented air and gaze into dotted ceiling tiles. Learn how to run and repair your IV pump. Find all the words hidden in the letters of your disease. Mentally destroy all your "mean white cells". Count the squares in your room, the holes in the curtains. Rent a video. Pray for the hug that can come when the count rises. Eat chocolate-hazelnut tofutti. Scare the nurses. Race in a wheelchair when no one is looking. Knock on the morgue door after 9 p.m. Replace the urine specimen with apple juice and drink it in front of the lab tech. Have your mom paint a smiley face on your tush with lip stick for the night nurse to find. Decorate your room, you're going to be there for a while.

There are other children who face different challenges. I feel empathy for them, their families, mommies and daddies. My hope is that they know they are not alone and that they are receiving hidden gifts and blessings. I pray for their strength and knowledge of eternal truths. My heart stays with them all.

Thank you to the friends we have. Thank you Heavenly Father for saving the little boy who now saves others. Thanks for the whole experience that helped our family stay together and prioritize what really matters.

* Idiopathic Thrombo Cytopenia Purpura or I.T.P. - I.T.P. as stated above, is usually a very harmless and dull disease in which patients basically recover without incident in about 6 weeks; and thus go unrecorded. Back in our day, not one case had been recorded in Southern California for 14 years prior. Severe cases such as ours, required hospitalization and treatment. Less severe recored cases require in and out patient treatments. By the time we were into 3 years of the disease there were 12 more boys in the same hemotology/onocology clinic. Idiopathic defines this as an unknown cause for disease. We believe it is environmentally charged as the disease is claiming more and more children each year. The cause is unknown, however boys seem to have a higher incident of illness than do girls. There is a strong indication that one acquires I.T.P. after a severe lung problem, such as a strong cold, or pneumonia. This was not our situation; we had no illness prior to the discovery of this. Although our son continues to have severs colds, allergies and bouts with pneumonia on a regular basis. On the plus side, he also has a more efficient use of his lungs, which enables him to use less air than most people in a similar situation. This is a good thing for a fire fighter using an air tank!

Easter Sunday

With so much going on- today will be brief. As will most of next week. My 18 yr. old is headed up to the "Bayou" (B.Y. - U.) to check out housing. Ma is tagging along so that I can check it out too, and take in a few classes on Wednesday. Lots of friends in Utah will keep us all busy and therefore probably away from a computer.

One definite trip will be to the LDS Church History Museum, where a young friend of mine has her work on display. Last year I encouraged a 9 year old girl who has a keen ability in art to use that gift and participate in a worldwide event that asked young children to draw a picture of a Prophet. It could be from any era in time. She chose to depict the greatest prophet of all time, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. She drew Him calling His disciples after they had fished all day. Her drawing was chosen to be on display for one year along with other honorees. I am very excited and glad for Ms. Allison! (Allison treats me to weekly installments of her original cartoon series. She has developed characters and heroes and plot lines that keep me coming back for more. That and other drawings she does in her spare time. She will be famous some day!)

Other than the difficulty in extracting a small snickers from it's crackly cover and the really good grilled fresh pineapple that accompanied the roast - today is pretty tame.

Happy Resurrection Day everyone!

Mister Rogers

Every once in a while you come across a post, or a comment that makes you sit up and reread it. The following is one that did that for me. Following the passing of Mr. Rogers, a thread began on
MetaFilter, analyzing the personality of Fred Rogers. Some of the comments were nostalgic, some were cynical, some were a comment, not only on Mr. Rogers, but our society.

There are some misspellings, and some terms and words that I don't approve of, but all in all, I believe that "Pastabagel" has said something important.

You know, it's quite a strange thing. The single most common adjective applied to Mister Rogers in this and other thread is the word 'creepy'?

I think I know why he strikes people as creepy. It's because his isn't at all 'cool'. There is no cynicism, no irony, no condescension in him at all. He is not simply unhip, he is ahip. And this is what people calling him creepy are picking up on.

We are conditioned to traffic in cool. You have to look cool, not look nice or distinguished or presentable, but cool. But it's all so generic. Everyone seems to have the same new haircut that no one 5 years ago had. We all have the same cynical politics.

Something about the counterculture from the 60's is still with us but it has been co-opted into a form of synchronized periodic obsolescence and mockery of that which came before. There is something fundamentally anti-intellectual about this, but I can't quite articulate it. There some element of arrogance there. Like everyone is perpetually 18.

Cool is America's code, and I really do think this is an American problem, because cool is propagated mainly though mass media, and there is no greater media saturated culture on earth than America's. Will I look cool wearing this? Will I sound cool saying this, or reading this or doing this. We're committing mass murder in other parts of the world because somebody figured out how to make violence cool and tough-talk politics cool, and then they combined the too. Swagger is cool. Cowboys and fighter jets and JDAMs and war porn are cool. So that's what we have. We are the Kingdom of Whatever.

Of course he hated ad-libbing on camera, because ad-libbing on camera is inexcusably lazy. It's what you do so you don't have to write or rehearse. Actors and comedians and musicians improvise as a way of living within a moment that is in some way artificial. A method actor may improvise because he is trying to become the character, but he isn't the character to begin with. A Jazz musician improvises because while the structure and the changes are the same, and the audience is familiar with them, the particular moment of performance is not, and that has it's own emotional context.

Mister Rogers was the same guy, so why improvise? The show wasn't about his character, it was about the kids, os you have to work out ahead of time how best to communicate with the child viewers. Everything was planned.

He talks slowly not because kids are dumb but because as studies have shown, children's brains are considerably more active than adults', and they need time to return to the original thought communicated to them after branching off in multitudinous directions.

The puppets? Puppets are good because they are considerably smaller than the human actors around them, and thus kids perceive them as safe. They look like toys. Contrast this with a giant seven foot all yellow bird, and ask yourself which inspired more nightmares.

The show is glacially paced and had the same structure with the same things happening in the same order because children respond to structure and routine is a source of comfort, particularly in children whose lives were anything but predictable.

Maybe that's what cool is - withdrawing from the context of one's life into an artificial one, in which the cool perceives itself to be somehow outside of reality, looking in and commenting on it. But this isn't insight, it's not reflecting on the world. It's standing at the edge of the world sniping into it.

Mister Rogers isn't creepy. CSI with is gruesome bloody corpses every Thursday at promptly 9:14 EST is creepy. Thirty million people looking at that and snaking on chips while they watch is creepy.

Listening to some rapper sing about his genitals and sexual conquests is creepy. Approach crowds of people and talk to them about the aroused state of your genitals, and watch how quickly you end up in a squad car. But somehow it's ok on TV because...why exactly?

Watching a war unfold on television in near real time is beyond creepy. It is obscene. You watch people screaming over their dead loved ones, and then you turn it off and go have dinner, or go to bed? No empathy, no revulsion. What the hell kind of civilization is this?

You know, I watched some 9-11 footage on youtube the other day (because I'm a masochist, apparently), and it occured to me that in the 6 years since it happened, I've never once heard anyone say "I'm sorry for those people who are so consumed by hate for people they've never met and places they've never been. What can we do to lift that burden from them?"

Because that isn't cool. That's being a pussy (or a fag if you are on FreeRepublic). There's no posture to be struck there, no pose. It's something that has to be done in earnest, and that's what's been lacking in the American culture.

Think about the Pope, entering the cell to confront his assassin. He forgave him, we all know that. But can you imagine the conversation? Can you imagine either someone being so perceptive that they can reach into a perfect stranger and expose their soul, or someone whose personality is so shallow that their emotions or ideologies are so shallow that any attempt to probe their depth displaces them entirely?

Mr. Rogers may have been the last earnest man.
posted by Pastabagel, on June 1,2007 at Metafilter