Sick with Sores, Scriptures and Chores

My little Bingley is a sufferin'!
He's got a sad range of symptoms: aching ear (and on augmentin), prickly rash all over his arms and legs, and flamming hot rash on his little bum. He scratches until he bleeds! But the worst part is Monday, after visitng the pediatrician, he developed white pus filled sores on his lips and tongue. Tuesday they showed up on the soles of his feet. I semi-self-diagnosed "hand foot and mouth disease" with the help of the mayo clinic's web site. It is nasty, painful and very contagious. We've been giving him Tyelnol with Codene to help him sleep. The little trooper keeps his tongue stuck out and drools while he plays. Making matters worse, this sweet little guy got into my drawer of hair tools; it's the drawer where I keep blow dryers, curling irons, flat irons, etc. (Quick aside: my boy has a strong affinity for anything with a cord attached to it. It is his greatest joy to grab something with a cord and drag it behind him like some blower dryer puppy pet on a leash) This time he befriended my old flat iron and took it to his sister's room where he proceeded to plug it in, turning the darn thing on! PLUG IT IN! He can do that? I didn't know he could do that!! And the Hot Tools brand heats up to burning flaming hot in a matter of seconds. (Like think of Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White in the 1985 murder mystery Clue saying "Flames on the sides of my face." It's that kind of hot.) It's a miracle he didn't burn himself worse, like grab the plates by the palm of his little hand, but he did lean over the thing and get two thin lines on his chubby little rash covered thigh. As a mother, this makes me feel so bad, I am wondering why I include this detail for the world to know his pain and my guilt?
Ai, yi, yi! But now you know.

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Sunshine's been reading the scriptures with mom during the day when the other kids are at school. I decided after reading Elder Bednar's talk that I'd done much better at teaching my twins the scriptures when they were little than I have of my younger kids. He's promise of "spiritual warnings" gave me the motivation to start back up with Sunshine. We cut out pictures from old Friend magazines and glued them onto the front of a little notebook for her to record where she's at and ask questions as we read out of the Book of Mormon Stories book. She does ask lots of questions, including: "Where is God? Where is heaven? and Where is my Dad?" In fact, any time she brings up God she tends to ask about her dad in the next sentence. I like to think this means she feels very strongly and highly of her father. Yesterday I overheard her playing with her toys saying things like "Let's build a boat Nephi!" That made me laugh!

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After another frustrating morning of trying to get my kids to actually finish their morning chores before going to school (we've got a rotation that covers "unload the dishwasher" "unload the utensils" "put away dishes in the drain" and "help clear up breakfast") I finally posted a NOTICE. Any child who fails to get their morning chores done before they go to school will owe mom a dollar for that day.
WELL.
You should have seen how well that worked this morning. I didn't have to even remind them, it just magically happened. And first thing, too, so as I was making the breakfast waffles, I could put the dirty dishes straight into the dishwasher. I was ready to do a little dance and make up a song of thanks giving I was so darn pleased with how well things went with that this morning (as you can see, I am blogging pre 9:00a.m. and that means my kitchen is looking a-okay. It's a mini miracle, I tell ya!)

And that's what's going on folks! It's sick sores, scriptures and chores around here.