Get ready;Get Set;Get Tylenol

It’s that time of year again! Time of colds, coughs, stomach flu, throat and ear infections. Yippee, sounds like fun to me. It seems as soon as 1 kid gets better, the other gets sick. It becomes a vicious cycle of disinfecting and airing out germs. Doctor appointments and check- ups, become pretty standard in these months. Picking up the kids from school because they threw up all over the carpet..lol. It is just, oh fun, oh joy.

We are indoors for 6 months and it is pretty common to “catch” a cold. We breathe the same air, share the same space and touch the same germ infested door handles as everyone else. Wash your hands; it is the strong message that we have been hearing on the airwaves in the recent weeks and months. It seems we have a new violent flu strain and we should be diligent and adamant in our hand washing and sanitizing. Purell, and other hand disinfectants are flying off the shelves because we don’t want to get sick.

When you have children, it is almost impossible to keep the germs away. They touch, eat, and lick everything, and anything they want. They don’t care if their little friends have a leaky nose, they will share the same crayon as them, and then put it in their mouth. Kids are not like adults; we get grossed out at the thought of another person touching anything we touch, let alone in our mouths. I don’t know about you, but I use my foot to flush in public places because I can’t imagine touching something someone just touched after peeing..lol.

I remember when I was little, my friends and I would lick the fence in the winter to see if our tongue would stick to it. We didn’t think about the fact that a dog may have peed on it, or that another kid had the stomach flu and was sharing the same spot as us, we were kids and we were curious. I encourage my kids’ everyday to wash their hands when they walk in the house. They have become accustomed to going straight to the bathroom to lather up. We have all become obsessed with germs and how to get rid of them.

The flu bug has always been around. Colds have always been part of winter, and infections have always needed some kind of anti-biotic. This is our great old Canadian Winters. We get snow, ice, and we always get seasonal viruses. We try our best to keep the germs away and sanitize our hands, our kids’ toys, and our common household appliances. We have the choice of Lysol and we have the choice of Natural Green products. Whatever we use, we hope it helps. People are not even shaking hands anymore because they are afraid of getting H1N1.
Every time this year, the beginning of Fall and Winter, we stock up on Buckleys and Halls for our throat, we make sure we have a working cold air humidifier, we make sure we have Pedialyte for when our kids’ get the stomach flu and we have our thermometers in hand. So I say; instead of running away, closing your doors and staying inside, just get ready, get set and get Tylenol!
That’s my peace today!

Gnocchi
6 potatoes
2 eggs
6 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
a fork

Boil potatoes, mash with hand masher (the one that shreds the potatoes).Put in bowl and add eggs, salt and flour 1 cup at a time. Once you have reached doughy consistency, cut a piece off (about 3 tbsp) and roll out into a long string. Cut pieces about 1 inch in length, roll off a fork to make lined pattern. Continue until all dough is done.