We're all a bit blue

We had to put our dog down yesterday, so things have been pretty melancholy around here today.

He wasn't old--not quite seven, actually--and he was the most perfect dog we ever could have dreamed of.

Would you believe, of all the things you may have to put a dog down for, we had to put him down because of allergies?  Not our allergies, or our kids' allergies, but his own.  You'd think I have allergies down to a fine science by now.  We tried all sorts of different allergy medications, grain-free diets, steroids shots, etc.  But nothing worked, and it got to the point where he was scratching all of his hair off and making himself bloody.  He was too good a boy and too loyal a companion for us to let him live with that suffering.

So forgive me if I'm not feeling very creative today.

If it's not one thing, it's a gazillion...

It seems like everything always happens at once.

We were exposed to whooping cough, so we're in the wait-and-see limbo to see if our kids are going to get it or not.  With a two-year-old with sickly lungs and a four-month-old baby, I'm certainly not looking forward to it, if they do have it.  But they do have a minor, intermittent cough at the moment.  So it could go either way.

At the same time, I'm training for a 10k run.  And I finally went to the doctor for some breathing issues I have, and I'm now the proud owner of my very own inhaler.

Then, two of my kids have gotten stung by bees this spring.  Of course, being my kids, they're both allergic.  This is my son's foot, a whole week after the sting--and this is the first time he's ever been stung.  You can't tell the swelling in this picture, but you can definitely still see the hives.

So now I get to cart several sets of epipens around with us, instead of the single set I used to carry.  Technically, I should also be carrying a set for my wasp allergy.  I figure if worse comes to worst, I'll just use the kids' epis on myself.

On a happier note, I finally found something better that helps with my five-year-old's eczema.  She has a spot on her wrist that itches horribly and blisters.  Hydrocortisone cream helps it, but I don't want to keep putting steroids on the same spot of skin over and over indefinitely.  I finally discovered that pure lanolin works wonders!!  It's not totally gone yet, but it's getting better and better, and I think that it soon will be.  And it's all natural and way better for her.

Hopefully all of this craziness will soon calm down.  I have several projects I really want to work on and finish and share with you all!  Exciting stuff coming soon...

Allergen-Free School Supplies and Toys

If you're able to buy your kids whatever crayons, paints, toys, etc you want to, I am soooooooo happy for you!  For many of us, it can be a nightmare.  Having to call or email companies to find out if a certain type of tape has latex, if their putty has gluten or wheat, if their crayons have been handled by someone wearing latex gloves, etc.

For instance, you're at home, wrapping a present for your daughter's birthday--your daughter who is deathly allergic to latex.  Then you run out of tape.  You need to go to the store anyway, so you head out  to get some.  Once at the store in front of the tape, you realize that you forgot to write down the brand you bought last time--the one brand that you already found out was latex-free.  So you call your hubby at home and ask him what brand it was.  Only, he already threw away the empty dispenser you so rudely left in the middle of the floor, took it outside, and the garbage truck has already come.  You call the 1-800 numbers listed on several tape packages, and they all say they'll speak with their "whatever-it-is" department and get back with you, may they please have your name and number, they'll call you back in 5-7 business days.

So you write down several brand names and head back home tapeless, but on a mission.  Once home, you get online and write e-mails to all the companies, asking if their tape is latex-free.  You try to be civil, even though you feel like telling them how idiotic it is to use such a highly allergic material in anything anyway.  They all write back a week later, asking for specific product names, numbers, colors, manufacturing date, and all of the other information you didn't write down from all of those packages.  So you go back to the store, write down everything, head back home, and e-mail all the information in.  They then write back a month later, just to tell you that all of their tapes contain latex, and they hope your pleased with their products, and they hope they can be of more service to you in the future.

Meanwhile, your daughter's birthday passed two weeks previous, and you eventually just threw the half-wrapped gift into a gift bag.

I recently heard about an awesome website, Discount School Supply.  On their site, you can actually look only at products that are free of specific allergens!  You can search based on gluten, dairy/casein, peanuts/treenuts, eggs, soy, and yes, latex.  They even have latex-free, regulation-sized footballs, basketballs, etc.  And the prices are great!!

No, they didn't ask me to advertise for them--they don't know who I am or that I'm even blogging about them.  I was just excited that someone actually took the time to make it easy to find safe products without jumping through hoops.  I thought this might help some of you out, too!

Latex Allergy Awareness Week!

I can't believe that I almost forgot to mention that it's Latex Allergy Awareness Week!!

There are so many dangers of latex all around you, that most people simply aren't aware of.  While traveling home from vacation, we stopped at a fast-food restaurant to grab some food for my hubby and I (I brought food along for the kiddos).  I ran in, and they had bouquets of balloons.  Had I taken Little Love #5 in there, she could have gone anaphylactic.  Even me just walking in, some of the dust from the balloons could land on my clothes and still give her a reaction.

One of my favorite restaurants to eat at is Applebee's.  I was thrilled to find that our local one no longer has balloons in the lobby.  However, they use latex gloves when preparing food in the kitchen.  That means that everybody who eats there is eating latex.  I had an allergic reaction there recently, while eating with some friends (that's how I learned about them using latex in the kitchen).  I'm not 100% sure what caused it, but I'm worried that it was the latex.  Not only is it dangerous for people eating there, but it's highly likely that one or more of their employees will develop the allergy from wearing the gloves daily.  But Applebee's is not interested in changing their corporate policy for their customers or their own people.

Lately, I've seen a lot of people doing lots of things with latex balloons:  wreaths, science experiments, etc.  People don't think twice about it, and I can't blame them.  I never did, either.  But now I can't look at a balloon without thinking of the fact that it could take my daughter's life in an instant.

Check out the American Latex Allergy Association site for all sorts of facts about latex allergy.  Educate yourself and limit the exposure of you and your family so that you don't develop this horrible and life-threatening allergy.

Have a wonderful and safe latex-free week!!

MedicAlert Bracelet Fix

Little Love #5 has to wear a medical ID bracelet 24/7.  If something ever happened that we were in a car accident and we were unable to speak, or if she were with a babysitter, or any other kind of weird situation, emergency medical personnel need to know her allergies.  This bracelet lists her reactive airway disease, her anaphylactic reactions to latex and avocados, her contact allergy to dairy, mango, and aloe, and then says "others."  It also has the 1-800 number for MedicAlert and her own, personal ID#.  Any emergency personnel can call that phone number and give them her ID number, and they'll get a list of her other allergies, her medications, her emergency contact information, her medical insurance information, etc.

Well, she's had that bracelet for several months now, and kids grow so quickly!  So it was getting a bit snug.  I don't want to have a whole new bracelet engraved, so I took her in to the jeweler today to have a couple of links added.  But the jeweler had a brilliant idea.

He had a stainless steel necklace chain with links similar in size to the bracelet we had.  He sold the entire chain to me for $8.  He took a short length of that chain and replaced the chain on her bracelet.  I brought the rest of the chain home.  Next time we need it lengthened, I can just take the long chain I bought, and he can add more links from it.  As long as we don't need to change the actual wording on her bracelet, we can continue to add parts from this chain indefinitely!  Here you can see the original bracelet chain on top.  On bottom is the chain I just bought, minus the part he used to make her bracelet today.

So now we can make sure her bracelet fits her as she grows, and it cost me a total of $8 and change!  (He didn't charge me anything for labor.)  She's happy that her bracelet is no longer too snug, and it can easily be flipped over to read the back--but she can't get it off.   What an easy fix!

Anyway, I thought this might help out other parents out there in the same situation!

Anybody wanna clean my house for me?

So, we just had a full week of Vacation Bible School at our church.  Our church is an hour away from here, so an hour there in the car, 2 hours of songs, lessons, crafts, and snacks, an hour back home, plus any errands that needed to be run.  All done with 5 kids 8-and-under and me still in my first trimester of my current pregnancy.  Needless to say, I'm exhausted!!  (But I got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time on Thursday!  What a glorious sound!!)

And my house is a wreck.  I didn't get much housework done this week.  The dishes are clean, because we need something to eat off of.  But I'm behind on laundry (though that only takes a day or two to get behind, so I'm rarely fully caught up), though I did cheat and use disposable diapers all week.  I know, I know, but I went for the convenience.  I have dog hair tumbleweeds blowing around, laundry that needs to be washed, bedrooms that need to be straightened up.  And no, I won't post pictures!

To top it all off, I'm out of white vinegar, my main cleaning product.

Vinegar is like a magic potion.  It has so many uses!!  It's antimicrobial, deodorizing, and has good scrubbing power.  I use it to scrub my counters, table tops, and sinks.  I use it to wipe down the toilet.  Mixed with some baking soda it does great at cleaning burnt-on messes on the stove and clearing out clogged drains.  Did you know it also works as a fabric softener?  My kids are allergic to fabric softeners, and even a dryer sheet thrown in with their clothes leaves enough residue to give them horrible rashes.  So I use a Downy ball, but I put white vinegar in it, instead.  Again, it helps clean and deodorize the clothes (it also helps rinse out residue from detergents), but it also helps soften and cut down on static when the clothes are dried.  My kids aren't allergic to it so I can use it anywhere, and you don't have to wear gloves while cleaning with it because it's not poisoning you to be on your skin.  It's gentle on the environment (unlike my disposable diapers this week!).  To top it all off, it's yummy in a salad!  You can't say that about Soft Scrub!  =)  

So, my house really needs a good cleaning.  On the other hand, I have some beautiful fabrics like these just waiting to be put to good use...

These are all jerseys, and I have a wonderful dress/leggings combo planned for them that will hopefully appear here soon.  Aren't they gorgeous?!?!?  I'm going to do a long-sleeved dress to add a splash of color to this fall and winter!

I've got several more projects just waiting to be completed, too, but the housework keeps beckoning.  So, do you want to come clean my house for me so I can do something fun?

Allergic Reactions

I've been asked what my kids allergic reactions look like.  Well, it really varies based on what they're exposed to.  Some rashes are super-obvious.  Some you can barely see, but it makes their skin feel like sandpaper.  Some you know what causes them, others could become a gameshow called "Name that Bump."

My oldest daughter's first rashes were so long ago that I don't have any good pictures of them--we didn't have a good camera then.  But here she is with hives after taking amoxicillin (which I am also allergic to).

Her entire body looked like this, including the soles of her feet and her face.  And they itched horribly.

This is a rash my Little Love #4 had recently.  We're pretty sure it came from clothes--you can see it follows the waistband line of his pants and then his shirt.  What I think caused it was this:  My sister-in-law had given me a big bag of hand-me-downs.  She uses Tide detergent, which is the absolute worst about leaving chemical residue in clothes.  I washed those twice in Charlie's Soap (which is, in my opinion, some of the best stuff on the market.  I don't use anything else in my house or for my family).  Charlie's actually pulls chemical residue out of clothes, but it takes several washes--especially for Tide.  Anyway, my theory is that there was enough Tide residue in my washing machine that when I washed a load of clothes with my son's clothes in it next, some of the Tide got into his clothes.  When he wore the clothes, this is what happened:

If you go to the tab about latex allergy, you can see pictures of the hives my youngest gets from latex, as well as the rash left on her face from certain foods.  She also can get hives if we eat certain foods, even if she's never eaten them before.  Mangoes are no longer allowed in our house.  She's never eaten them, but if anybody else in the house eats them--even if we follow up with vigorous handwashing and toothbrushing--she gets hives.

These are just a few of the examples we've seen over time.  The reactions are getting fewer and farther between as we learn what the triggers are and how to avoid them.  Sometimes it takes a lot of detective work, and sometimes we never figure out what caused a reaction at all.  Each episode is a learning process.

Have any of you learned tricks and methods to deal with allergies in your house?  Do you substitute certain foods in recipes?  Is there an everyday product you make rather than buy?  Please share!

Necessity is the Mother of Invention, Right?

So I've always liked "crafts."  I find them fun and entertaining.  But I never made time for them.  Perhaps if I ever would have found that one perfect-for-me craft or hobby, I would have focused more time and energy on it.  But I'm the type that gets bored doing the same thing all the time.  I find something new and fun and run with it--sometimes to faulty extremes--just to get bored and ready to move on to something else.  However, I do like to go back to it once I'm bored with the next few whims.  So I guess I'm more of a rotational-interest type of person.  But again, I just never took much time for any of these whims, anyway.

Then children happened.  A wonderful thing, but life-altering to say the least.  Especially when they end up allergic to everything.  Ok, not really everything, but close enough.  It started out with my oldest being allergic to soaps, detergents, dryer sheets, sunscreens, etc.  So I found the most awesome soap-making book (more on that in a future post) and started making my own.  It turned out fun and rewarding, not to mention giving me the most luxurious soap I'd ever tried!  So that's how that whim got started.  Here are a few of the soaps I've made:

Then, around the time baby number 5 came along--my third girl--I stumbled across the cutest hair clippies in the world, but at a not-so-cute price.  So I decided to make my own, which also led to woven headbands, etc.  So that's how that whim started.   Here is some of my girls' stash:

I've always enjoyed sewing, but I had never gotten much into sewing clothes.  I just did more sewing projects.  However, that baby number 5 I was just talking about had an anaphylactic reaction at 8 months old from being in the same room with two balloons (no, she never touched them).  Latex allergy turned my world upside-down.  How many little girl clothes have no elastic, no spandex, no latex-containing appliqués, etc?  Not many.  So now I'm sewing clothes and loving it.  So that's that whim.  Here are some skirts I made for the girls, using 100% cotton fabric and latex-free elastic.  That way, as my youngest grows into them, she'll be able to wear her older sisters' skirts, too!  (All of my crafts are always latex-free.)

So this blog isn't about sewing, or clippy-making, or soapmaking, or any other kind of making whim I happen upon.  It'll be about the crafting in general, I guess.  Because once you HAVE to do it, and especially once you enjoy doing it, you finally do make the time.