denise

Daily Dose of Health – Vacations

Health and Wellness, Travel Log /

They say vacations are good and we should all take them whenever possible, but we don’t. I personally hate vacations but love days off. Vacations make me think of tired kids, struggling to find a restaurant where everyone can find something to eat (but not too much to eat ala the Shoney’s buffet on our last “vacation”) and the dread of returning to all of the work that will be waiting when we return. I am one of these driven personalities and that’s fine by me.

Leisure sickness, ha there are worse kinds of sicknesses so I’ll happily take this one as long as I don’t take some yukky tasting banana flavored penicillin or prednisone for it. I’ll avoid vacations as often as possible and when I can’t avoid them any longer I’ll make sure to take plenty of advil and cough drops (and all of these things too) and survive to work another day.

At least I don’t worry about how to survive a plane crash and stuff like that. I leave those sorts of worries to TW, she’s good at them.

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Daily Dose of Education – Homeschool

Kid Talk, Sights & Sounds /

For months now I’ve been reading the homeschool mommies (you can see some of my favorites in the blogroll on the right, just scroll down) talking about their curriculum and school plans for the fall. And they’ve been sort of driving me nuts with this.

Driving me nuts because they have such great plans laid out. They’ve chosen interesting curriculum. They’re excited! I, on the other hand, have one 15 year old, (10th grade), homeschooler who is getting most of her learning courtesy of Florida Virtual School. Sigh.

Part of me loves this, no worries about planning or teaching curriculumn that is just not my strong suit (Maths, Sciences, Spanish) and part of me hates it because these people have COOL IDEAS!

I wouldn’t be sighing so much if Michelle was actually HOME and we were really doing school but she isn’t. She’s doing her schoolwork, some of it, while in NJ but the fun stuff that I’ve planned, (Or Michelle and I have planned), hasn’t started yet because she’s so far away. No daily world religion, no new books to read and write about, no SAT of the day fun stuff and no journaling. I’m feeling totally unfulfilled by homeschooling at the moment and the homeschoolers are making it worse!

You didn’t know that homeschooling was intended to make the homeschooling parent feel fulfilled? Ha, you don’t know much about homeschooling do you (or if you do, you aren’t honest about it then). We’ve only been doing this for about 15 months but I have really loved it, even when the child has driven me crazy with her music or her rambling or her complaints about not getting enough “socialization”. Ha, that socialization in public school is why we pulled her out! 😉

I’ll feel better once she’s home, and I’ll probably overwhelm her with all of these cool things I want to do and she’ll lock herself in her room for a couple of days to punish me – gosh I can’t waittttttttt!

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Daily Dose of Music – Ani

GLBT, News and Politics, Sights & Sounds /

There are about ten posts I want to make, maybe even need to make, and here I am writing about Ani of all people/things. What is up with that? I can’t even say it is because Michelle is asking me if she can use Ani’s poetry for her honors American Government assignment on Ayn Rand’s Anthem. I was already thinking about writing about Ani before Michelle woke up!

Anyway, what was I thinking about? A whole muddle of things, which makes sense because Ani is a whole muddle of things, isn’t she? First, the poor thing can’t tour because of some pretty severe tendonitis. I know there are a whole lot of disappointed people out there but I’ve not been all that impressed with her shows. The first time I saw her, with her band, there were some annoying chicks standing next to us and that might have colored my experience a bit. The second time was at Calliopefest without her band – boring, boring, boring.

And since I’m blogging about Ani, I should mention PBS is rerunning the River of Song series in some areas. I’ve never seen it so maybe I should just see about getting the video or something?

And then there’s the song “4th of July” song that I keep hearing on this Yahoo Launchcast station that I listen to. What CD is this on? I’ve owned them all and been a fanatic over them all at various points in my life and this one has just never caught my ear before.

Oh and if that’s not enough Ani rambling, I need a baby just so I can dress her in this, lol. I don’t think it would suit the heir to the throne, darn it.

And none of this Ani stuff actually led to anything, except that it’s felt like an Ani sort of day. Maybe because I’m not feeling very “user friendly”, something Ani also isn’t. Maybe because I miss my kid again. Mabye it’s all of the Choice stuff flying around the Blogosphere – who can think pro-choice and not think of Ani?

Whatever the reason, I felt like an Ani post and that’s probably reason enough.

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Daily Dose of Success – Blogathon

Health and Wellness /

I do believe Blogathon 2005 was a success! It looks like the final stats are:

  • 219 Participants
  • 1799 Sponsors
  • $55648.47 Total Pledged
  • Kerry (aka Webgrits) and her crew raised $660 for CCFA
  • Rickie Beth raised $140 for Planned Parenthood
  • Danielle raised $60 for GLSEN
  • Chris & Crew raised $340 for Elton John’s AIDS Foundation
  • Annissa raised $2056 for PFLAGThey are still accepting pledges, through Tuesday, so it isn’t too late! Click one of the links to bloggers I supported or head straight over to Blogathon and find your own cause to support.

    Way to go super blogathoning bloggers! And way to go, Rickie Beth! The Bloggerwocky! is terrific!

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    Daily Dose of Sexuality – Blogathon

    GLBT /

    Danielle on Coming Out is blogging for a great and often overlooked organization – GLSEN.

    GLSEN stands for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and their goal is to make sure that ever single student is treated with respect, regardless of orientation. GLSEN does great work on campuses all over the country but because their focus is on kids and young adults, there’s often a shortage of funds for programs.

    Visit Danielle, she’s talking about when she realized she was a lesbian, how that felt in school and how it felt coming out 15 years after she realized she was so not straight. Offer a comment to her to keep her blogging and sponsor her if you can, kids and young adults need your support. (and she had a disappointment today, so cheer her up, please.)

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    Daily Dose of Sexuality – Blogathon

    GLBT /

    Annissa on Life as His is blogging today for PFLAG – way to go Annissa (she’s anything but, umm, boring, lol – adult content, folks!) and way to go PFLAG! She’s already raised $1000 as of this posting and that’s fantastic!

    PFLAG stands for Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (and Bis and Trans too!) and they offer tremendous support of the gay folk and the families of gay folk. You know those older, straight looking people leading the pack in small city PRIDE events, that’s probably PFLAG. They always look pretty happy, don’t they? 😉

    They’ve got great education material, they work hard to be advocates for the cause and you can find a chapter near you to join if you’re so inclined.

    Stop by and wish Annissa well in her blogging today and sponsor her if you can. PFLAG is a very worthy cause indeed.

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    Daily Dose of Health – Blogathon

    GLBT, Health and Wellness /

    Chris is blogging for Elton John’s Aids Foundation and seems pretty lonely on her section of the Blogosphere! Stop by and offer your support, financial or moral – both are encouraged!

    Speaking of lonely, is there a lonelier disease than AIDS? If there is, I can’t think of it. Just imagine. Sigh.

    When I was surfing through the Blogathon Campaigns I didn’t see many people blogging for AIDS charities and it made me sad (and a little surprised – I thought I’d see more).

    I have spent a lot of time talking to people on AIDS message boards over the years. Sometimes as a volunteer and sometimes as a paid moderator and their stories of loneliness and fear are heartwrenching, to say the least. And then there are the people who don’t have a clue about what HIV/AIDS is, how it can be contracted and who is actually at risk (which is anyone, not just gay men!).

    Elton John’s Aids Foundation is working to raise money to help increase education and awareness and care for those with the disease. It’s a worthy cause and a cause that has touched you, whether you know it or not.

    Stop by and encourage Chris as she blogs today (and tonight). Sponsor her if you can or just say hello! She’s doing a good thing, make sure you let her know you support her.

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    Daily Dose of Women & Children – Blogathon

    Health and Wellness, Love or Sex, Money Talks, News and Politics /

    Rickie Beth is blogging for Planned Parenthood on JadeDaisy so I thought I’d offer my support here by talking about why I think PP is important.

    Too many think “abortion” as soon as you mention Planned Parenthood and while they are a pro-choice organization and they do offer abortion services, they are much more than that.

    They are vocal in support of choice and have played a vital role in protecting women’s right to choose. Planned Parenthood offers a huge amount of health information for women about women’s health. Their support to young girls and young women who are in search of accurate health information is so important. Their low cost health clinics are vital to the welfare of women all across the country. I can’t count the number of times a woman has said she can’t afford to visit her doctor but she CAN afford to visit Planned Parenthood!

    Stand up for women and for women’s health and support Planned Parenthood! And, stop by and thank Rickie Beth for her blogging on behalf of Planned Parenthood. Sponsor her if you can and if you can’t, then do offer a comment to her as she blogs.

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    Daily Dose of Health – Blogathon

    Health and Wellness /

    As I’ve mentioned before, TW has Ulcerative Colitis. In support of Webgrits and her blogging efforts on behalf of CCFA I’m going to talk a bit about that. Click the links, go support Kelly while she and her brother blog for the cause!

    Ulcerative Colitis is an auto-immune disease and it stinks! A lot. TW takes a wide range of medicines and none of them work all that well, in fact their side effects are as bad as the disease and are often worse! The finding of medications that would help has been really rough. The first drug, Asacol actually put her in the hospital almost immediately after diagnosis, for ten days. It was not fun.

    Now she’s doing ok on Imuran but it works to suppress the immune system. This means that anytime one of the kids (remember, we have a lot of kids) gets sick, TW is at risk for getting REALLY sick. Anytime someone comes to work sick, she’s at risk for getting REALLY sick. She has trouble sleeping and sometimes she has trouble staying FOCUSED.

    Eating is a problem, and considering I already have problems with eating, this is a real issue. We were told upon diagnosis that there isn’t really a list of foods to avoid but have since made some food discoveries of our own. Peanut butter is not good, which is bad since TW loves Reese’s Peanut Butter cups (when they are in season). Cole slaw is also out, which is troubling because it’s one of our favorites. Greens in general are bad, again troubling since we are vegetarians. And meat is really not good but that’s ok, lol. I could go on but you’re getting the picture, aren’t you?

    If you have UC (or Crohn’s) and are looking for an online support group, WebMD recently added a Crohn’s & Colitis message board that has some very knowledgeable members who are always happy to offer feedback and support.

    Now that you know a bit about UC and how it troubles our lives, head over to Webgrits and offer your support during Blogathon! And pledge if you can!

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    Daily Dose of Charity – Blogathon!

    Daily Dose /

    The 2005 Blogathon has begun!

    I meant to surf through all of the campaigns last week and sponsor some, offer moral support to others and set up feeds for them all. Of course I procrastinated and am feeling horrible for doing so. These people are giving a lot of time and effort (not to mention loss of sleep) for some really great causes.

    Please take some time out of your day and sponsor if you can, offer support if you can’t. And consider joining me next year as a Blogger in Blogathon 2006!

    I’ve sponsored Webgrits who is blogging for the CCFA! I’ll probably sponsor some more in a bit, and will update them when I do. In the meantime, go surf, go support, go SPONSOR!

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