To make it easier on myself (and, oh my, for anyone who is actually reading this blog on Thanksgiving) I will be listing items for which I am thankful…with a twist. These items won’t be generalizations, but rather, specific to today.

Today, I was thankful for:

1. Ibuprofen

2. Blue Sky

3. The WaterPik SinuSense (This is a battery-operated sinus rinse that I got for free at the BlogHer ’11 conference and you would not believe what it got out of my son’s head today. They’re not paying me to talk about them, but I SAW the sinus infection come out of his nostril, onto a tissue and it was kind of amazing. I’m not kidding. After days of yellow globs, during multiple sinus rinses a day, tonight a thick green PLUG came out. You’re welcome.)

4. Caffeine

5. The mailman (Is there anything better than having Christmas presents delivered to your door?)

6. My iPhone

7. The ability to walk, without pain or disability

8. Our church

9. Sleepytime tea (counteracts #4)

10. A gas stove

11. My readers! Happy Thanksgiving!

Follow

Email

My son has been sick for over a week. I took him to the doctor on Saturday and he was diagnosed with pneumonia (again) and a sinus infection (he is prone to them, even with a sinus rinse every day). Sigh.

Because he is also prone to gagging, the congestion and post-nasal crud he has can cause vomiting in a split second. One drip in the wrong spot down his throat and he’s heaving.

Since my new, amaze-bed has an adjustable base, he’s been sleeping with me and his dad for the last week. We can prop the head of the mattress up with the push of a button…you know, so his crud can drip properly and I don’t have to wash vomit-laden sheets. You’re welcome.

So, yeah…he’s been in our bed. Oh, hey, have I ever mentioned that I’m an insomniac?

He’s finally improving, but having him in my bed, just inches from my face, with his sinus-infected snoring and feverish shivering, plus the fact that bacterial infections are always scary for us, means that I haven’t had much sleep in the last seven nights. I’m exhausted. Talk to me wrong and I’ll burst into tears. Just try it.

This morning, my almost-teen daughter came downstairs to find me staring into space and sipping my coffee with one of our dogs, Daisy, next to me on the couch. I had just seen my reflection a few minutes prior. It wasn’t pretty. Let’s just say there was some epic bed-head going on.

My daughter sat down on the couch and asked, “Are you tired?”

I replied, “Yeah. I’m beat. Your brother has been keeping me awake, so last night I tried to sleep in his bed, but it’s all springy, which is fine when you’re 45 pounds, but I AM SO NOT 45 pounds. I’ll be drinking coffee all day to stay awake and tonight? Well, tonight he has to go back to his room no matter what. I have GOT to get some sleep!”

A few minutes passed. I watched the news, sipped more coffee and we both petted Daisy, who was still laying between us on the couch.

Then Daisy yawned.

And, my daughter again asked, “Are you tired?”

This time I replied, “Wait, when you asked me earlier if I was tired, were you talking to the dog?”

Yeah, that’s right.

She’s so lucky that I didn’t burst into tears.

Follow

Email

I hate winter. Actually, I hate fall, winter and spring. There, I said it.

There’s a lot that bothers me about every season except for summer; I don’t like the cold (not even a little bit), I don’t like gray skies and I really don’t like dry skin.

Short of picking up my family and moving to another part of the country, these are all things I have to deal with. I can wear sweaters, soak up the sunshine every time it peeks out from behind the clouds and I can moisturize. A lot.

I have lotion everywhere: the car, my purse, kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom, and, although it’s only November, I have already noticed the need for moisturizer is increasing. My hands are a little drier and I’m finding patches on my arms.  Grrr…

My kids don’t mind the change of weather patterns, especially when there’s a snow day, but, they too, have that darn dry skin. My son actually suffers from it worse than I do. I am always on the lookout for something that will make it better.

I have tried a lot of different soaps, with varying degrees of success. Long ago, I realized that Dove Beauty Bars worked the best at keeping my skin looking and feeling hydrated. It’s the only kind of bar soap I buy.

But, my skin…it is extra lizardy. So the good folks at Dove offered to send me Dove Nutrium Moisture Body Wash.

They know me. They really know me.

See, I was always worried about using a body wash because I thought that the extra scrubbing with a loofah would dry my skin out even more. I was way wrong.

After less than one week of using Dove Nutrium Moisture Body Wash, the dry patches on my arms were gone…without the need for lotion after my shower! Do you know what that means? It means that I can save a lot of money AND time from now on.

This body wash has become part of my daily routine to nourish myself. I’m trying to get more sleep, I’m drinking more water, taking time out of my work day to stretch and, generally, feeling really good on the inside, and Dove is taking care of the outside.

Dove wants you to feel good inside and out too, which is why they’re giving one lucky commenter a $100 Spafinder gift card!

Just leave me a comment on this post telling me how you nourish yourself every day and you will be entered in the sweepstakes. It’s that easy. This contest runs from 11/21/11 – 12/21/11.

Now for the official stuff…

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older

Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.

You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be

Visit the Prizes and Promotions section on BlogHer for more chances to win!

Visit the Official Rules here.

Follow

Email

So, you know how you go to the eye doctor because your eyes are SO dry and he replaces the plugs you have in your tear ducts…the ones that keep moisture on your eye instead of letting your tears drain down the duct…and he says your left eye needs a plug in the upper and lower duct, but after he places them your eye won’t stop watering for the next two days, so you take a pair of tweezers and pull out one of the plugs and a day later you get a bill for $500 from your eye doctor for the plug you just threw in the trash, and then you go away on, what should be, a relaxing weekend because you have done nothing but work for months, and it’s anything but relaxing, and then you come home to 211 emails and a sick kid, who you try to heal with ibuprofen and sinus rinses (even though he vomits almost every time you give him one) because he was JUST on antibiotics for pneumonia, but his fever lasts for four days and he has congenital heart disease, so you can’t mess around with bacterial illnesses, so you hike up your compression stocking (because you just had vein surgery) and take him to the pediatrician and the doctor says, “Good thing you brought him in, because he has an awful sinus infection and pneumonia again”, and once he’s started on a new course of antibiotics, and you’ve spent many sleepless nights with a shivering, barely-breathing nine year old, all you want to do when you get up on Sunday is drink a steaming cup of coffee and take a hot bath, but they’re fixing the water main on your street, which means you don’t have any water?

Yeah, me too.

Follow

Email