At Least We’ve Got Our Health!

….Thank goodness for that!

Honestly, after this extended 9-day weekend that we’re in the middle of, it would be JUST MY LUCK for a few of the kids to come down with strep (our family’s weakness) and have to spend their first week back to school STILL AT HOME.

Winter can be torturous for a large family. When one member of the family catches a bug, it is never too long before it spreads through the rest of the clan. There have been plenty of weeks where I’m been stuck inside with a trail of sick children. One day, one child is sick. They get better just in time for another child to come down with it.

Heaven forbid I get sick somewhere in the mix.

The year that Twizzler was in preschool, I joined a gym. I thought is would be ideal to drop him off at school, take the other two kids to the gym day care center, and then exercise and take a shower (with no kids coming into the bathroom to interrupt!). It was the perfect situation. I loved my mornings at the gym all Autumn. I was into a great routine. And then Winter came around and kids started getting sick. For 2 months straight, I was not able to go to the gym more than once in a single week. And that’s when I determined that it wasn’t worth the money I was paying for my membership. Grr.

Does that mean I can blame my kids twice for my extra weight?

We have missed play dates, school, concerts, scouts, church, and dates because of illnesses, but I think the worst “missed opportunities” occurred when I was pregnant. Not only did I miss the chance to go with CandyMan on a business trip to Jerusalem (it killed both of us not to be able to visit Jerusalem for free!!), plus a humanitarian trip to Cuba (CandyMan took 7 year old KitKat instead!), but I missed my Grandfather’s funeral because I couldn’t travel.

Bernie Mac said it best on one of my favorite episodes from his show. If you have an extra 5 minutes, it’s totally worth the watch.

Luckily, unlike missed opportunities from being pregnant, the illnesses my kids bring home are treatable. Sometimes they’re just not treatable fast enough…. Similasan, a homeopathic company that makes products to ease symptoms of everything from pink eye (who hasn’t missed a date due to pink eye?) and ear aches (ouch!) to anxiety (pass me some of THAT please), is on the JuiceBox this month (see my sidebar). They are offering a hefty and immediately printable coupon for all those that register on their site. I bet every mom can find at least one of their healthy products that they could use.

Not only does Similasan have great products to help with many common childhood bugs, but they are also running a fun photo contest along with Shutterfly. You can enter your pics for a chance to win a $500 gift card. What do they want? Photos of happy, healthy, smiling children that “take your breath away” (in a good way – they’d rather not have images of your toddler kicking Dad in the crotch). Their photo contest is running through March 28, 2010 and all the details can be found on Similasan.

Do you have any classic stories of things you’ve missed because of an illness? How do you treat your child’s sicknesses? Do you have any tips to share for how you avoid getting sick altogether? I’d love to hear your tricks!

Dislosure: Similasan and JuiceBoxJungle sponsored me to write this post, and they asked me to talk about the things I’ve missed because of kid-illnesses, and to mention this sweet contest!

© 2010, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.

About Lolli

Lolli has written 3741 post in this blog.

I became a mom in 1996, and in 2005 I had my fifth. Yes, 5 kids. In 2007, this blog was born (my 6th baby that will never grow up) and I've been sharing recipes, photography tricks, parenting tips, and everything in between. (Formerly Better in Bulk)

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