Forest of the Plains

Jacob was diagnosed with his first ear infection last week. It started with a week of severe congestion. He seemed a little better for a couple days, then got sent home from daycare for throwing up and a temp of 101.6F. Two days of fever and a birthday party later, Jacob was uncharacteristically grumpy, clingy, and had a diminished appetite.

Doctors are very hesitant to prescribe antibiotics for ear infections any more. Research has shown that about 80% of ear infections will resolve in one week, with or without antibiotics being administered. Jacob’s doctor is very stingy with his antibiotic prescriptions and he has a whole speech that he gives patients to support his stance. (I got to hear that speech at our first appointment, and I wasn’t even asking for antibiotics!)

Jacob walked away (well, was carried away) from his appointment last week with a prescription for amoxicillin. How did he manage that? He’d experienced symptoms for about a week, is under 2, was in pain, and his ear was “extremely red”. Also, he really screamed when the doctor was messing with his ear!

I got the prescription filled and gave Jacob his first dose in the car. I shook the bottle, opened the lid, and smiled. I recognized the smell of amoxicillin from my younger days, back when they handed out antibiotics like they were candy at a parade!

Jacob's First Birthday Party was on Sunday. It's hard to believe that we've been parents for a year, and it's just amazing to think about all the changes in Jacob since his birth!

In planning Jacob's party, I really wanted food and activities that Jacob could enjoy. But, how do you combine things that a 1-year-old and adults will like? What I did was post a sign saying, "Catch the spirit of the party: Enjoy being young again!" Then, the guests got to make their own party favors (a craft kit where they decorated faces) and play Clue Junior.



The formal entertainment was watching Jacob open his gifts, followed by watching him eat cake. Jacob really enjoyed tearing the wrapping paper and holding the bows. He sort of got into the gifts, but it's really hard to find a toy as exciting as wrapping paper! (Since the party, he has enjoyed playing with his new toys a lot.)



We ended the party with eating cake, baby party mix, oatmeal Teddy Grahams, and punch.



The punch was just white grape peach juice and sprite. I put frozen peaches in the cups to make it feel festive.

I'm proud of my Baby Party Mix. (This is as creative as I get!) It's something that adults and babies can eat. We served it at the party, and Jacob also took it to daycare for his birthday snack.

Baby Party Mix
2 cups each of:
Kix
Chex
Cheerios
Gerber Puffs (I did half sweet potato and half cherry)
freeze dried apple bites

Mix it all together and enjoy! Serves about 15.

People with a martyr complex annoy me. They annoy me a lot.

The 40th annual Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale was held this past weekend at the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds. Relief Sales are held all over the country with proceeds going to support Mennonite Central Committee - a relief, service, and peace agency of the North American Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches. Many homemade foods and hand-made crafts (especially quilts) are donated by church members, then sold to raise a lot of money.

About 1:30am on Saturday a fire broke out, destroying or damaging 9 buildings. As a result the electricity service was disrupted and some food burned up. No problem! Generators were quickly donated by church members who had them at their homes. (I'll assume these were Amish church members...) And, since the homemade pies burned, empty pie boxes were auctioned off instead. The empty pie boxes raised more money than the pie sale usually does! Actually, proceeds from the sale this year were actually higher than last year. Did people see a crisis and want to give more, or was their another reason for the increased donations?

The Relief Sale site barely mentions the fire, but you can read about it from the Goshen News.

9/30/07 Sadly, supplies for over 100 school kits were burned in the fire.

I overheard this bit of a conversation:
“Kansas is really up there for the amount of roads paved. Some states have a whole lot less paved roads. And Kansas is a small state!”

I wish that I had heard the rest of the conversation, because this part just doesn’t make a lot of sense. I did check some stats. According to the ever-reliable Wikipedia, Kansas is the 15th largest state in area (82,277 square miles) and #33 in population (2,764,075). Almost anything that you wanted to have in a list about states is available at Wikipedia. Sadly, they do not have stats on the amount of paved roads per state.

But, I did find a handy site that ranks the condition of each states’ roads (among other things). Here’s how Kansas ranks:

Road Condition > Fair 4,514 [33rd of 51]
(per capita) 16.446 per 10,000 people [25th of 51]

Road Condition > Good 10,505 [5th of 51]
(per capita) 3.827 per 1,000 people [5th of 51]

Road Condition > Mediocre 3,726 [7th of 51]
(per capita) 13.575 per 10,000 people [4th of 51]

Road Condition > Poor 3,641 [3rd of 51]
(per capita) 132.656 per 100,000 people [2nd of 51]

Road Condition > Very good 1,232 [28th of 51]
(per capita) 4.489 per 10,000 people [23rd of 51]

Looks like we excel in being good, mediocre, and poor!

Today is the International Day of Prayer for Peace. This day offers an opportunity for church communities in all places to pray and act together to nurture lasting peace in the hearts of people, their families, communities and societies. The idea was proposed in 2004 during a meeting between World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and coincides with the UN International Day of Peace.

The way of peace is not an easy road. Peace takes guts! So, say a prayer for peace today.

Late this afternoon I discovered water in the middle of our basement, helpfully touching many cardboard boxes. I spent a little time trying to find the water source, but nothing was immediately obvious. So, I called John and his dad. Turns out that the water line that leads to our whole house humidifier had a leak.

Our evening consisted of unpacking wet boxes and spreading wet stuff around so it would dry out and not turn our house into a mold pit. John's evening had the added bonus of also mowing the yard and burning wet cardboard boxes. It could have been a lot worse, but it was bad enough.

Nothing says Albuterol like wet & dusty boxes in a basement!

A fun promotional add from Big Brothers Big Sisters is available on YouTube. My favorite quote: "If you're a man...it's not too late to help you!"

It is so hard to find men who are willing to spend time mentoring boys, that many boys spend several years on a waiting list for, and then never receiving, a mentor. If you have any interest in mentoring, please contact your local Big Brothers Big Sisters agency!

Hexmode has an interesting entry on faith. The first bit:

"The recent revelation that Mother Teresa was a doubting Thomas almost the entire time she worked in India but yet remained faithful shows the lie that Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens would like to promulgate: belief in God is comforting. (And here, I thought we were still struggling with Catholic Guilt.)

While I've no doubt that some believers gain primarily comfort from their belief, the religion that Jesus teaches isn't very comforting at all. 'If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.'"

Read the rest here.

"Sometimes the most urgent and vital thing you can do is take a complete rest." --Ashleigh Brilliant