* Middly is home from the hospital! He came home last night after dinner; it was kind of touch and go whether they'd really let him out and he did come home still sick (he still has a low-grade fever and a bellyache), but he is eating and drinking, and Tylenol is enough to manage his symptoms so we all agreed he'd be better off recuperating at home. The official diagnosis is "gastroenteritis that was getting better at home with a bland diet but was exacerbated by Daddy feeding him fast food." I have railed about my ex's refusal to feed the children anything that doesn't come in a decorated paper bag or box with a toy until I am blue in the face, and now he has put one of my kids in the hospital with that crap! Just not the one I always thought it'd be (Little Child's digestion is still not that of a normal kid and feeding him a greasy fast food meal is like setting off a bomb in your bathroom, the poor kid--this isn't much of an issue at home, but...). I don't think I even need to tell you how caps-lock filled with mothereffing RAGE I was over this for about five entire minutes...that's all I really had the energy for. It's been at least a week since I got even six hours of sleep in a night between the children being ill, Hotter being ill, Middly being in the hospital, and my trying to catch up on everything at home. RAGE! Ooh look, a shiny object...
* Please do not, any of you, suggest that I take this up with Social Services. Social Services doesn't care that my ex feeds my kids crap, and the doctors who treated Middly probably wouldn't be willing to testify in court that Middly ended up in Club Med due to Death By Supersizing, and even if they were a) there is no HARD EVIDENCE that that is what did it and b) I have no money for lawyers, especially for a lost cause like trying to amend custody and/or visitation over something like this. Yes, Little Child is medically fragile and I could MAYBE, if I could afford to bring his out-of-town GI specialist to court with my imaginary lottery winnings, MAYBE get a judge to ORDER the XY to stop feeding him crap, but y'know what? Even in this little fantasy all that would accomplish would be to make everyone miss work to go to court because civil court orders are only enforceable with a) evidence that they've been broken, like photos from a PI or something and b) time and money to go BACK TO COURT. And all of that is if I even thought it was for the Greater Good to take away the XY's visitation, which I do not. For all that he is a shitty father and human being, he IS the MFA Children's father and they are going to have to draw their own conclusions about him. If I force the issue they are going to end up lionizing the fucker and demonizing me for taking him out of their lives. They already pretty much know he's a tool, but he's a charming tool who buys them things I can't afford to give them and they do love him (which is more than he deserves, but then Life Is Not Fair).
* Don't worry, karma put on her shit-kickers and ran roughshod over the XY. I very nearly had to go and pick Middly up from the hospital (where the XY stayed with him from Sunday night until he was discharged) because the XY couldn't go more than five minutes without puking. HAHAHAHAHA! Rad.
* Last night I made dandelion chips! They're like kale chips, but wilder--I got the idea from the Pinterest but you make them the exact same way as you make kale chips. Most people's first reaction on hearing "dandelion" is something along the lines of "OMG BITTER!?!" The trick is to pick the leaves from dandelions that have NOT flowered yet. Once they flower they're gonna be gross. Also, you obviously don't want to pick your dandelions from somewhere that's been treated with any kind of herbicide, pesticide, or chemical fertilizer, or an area where they're likely to have been walked on by people or pooped on by animals. I pick mine from fairly "wild" areas of the yard (we've been living in our current home for upward of three years and I know the lawn hasn't been treated during that time) like around the compost pile and the edges of my garden, and go for new growth that's unlikely to have been walked on. I also soak my dandelion greens in cold water with a little vinegar in to kill any soil-cooties prior to oiling them up and baking them. Why dandelions? Well, for one if correctly gathered and prepared they carmelize in the oven to a delicious, almost nutty flavor and are quite tasty in addition to FREE! Plus they're loaded (and I mean LOADED) with Vitamins A and especially K, which are safest to get from dietary sources. They've also got a decent amount of Vitamin C and Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. I don't much care for boiled or fresh dandelion greens, but I love me some kale chips and now dandelion chips as well; I've gathered the fuzzy seedheads from a dozen or so dandelions and plan to try and grow them in a large pot for guaranteed-clean snacking.
* I freaking hate it when work computers force me to change my password. I understand the reasoning behind this, and should probably change my personal computer and various account passwords more often, but...it's put a kink in my happy little morning work-routine of "arrive, drop lunch off in kitchen fridge, get coffee, log into computer." It's like when you're walking up or down stairs and you think there's one more but there's not. ANNOYING!
* Since my body apparently reads my blog and responds to written complaints (I am now TEN ENTIRE POUNDS lighter than when I posted my whine about the water weight last week, which I would link to except that I am posting this via e-mail from The Precious because HOTTER HAS STOLEN MY COMPUTER) (the part he ordered to fix his was the wrong one, grr), I would like to hereby go on record and say that it wouldn't hurt my feelings any if my tits crept a couple of inches back up my chest. Please and thank you.
* I saw a recipe for HONEYSUCKLE JELLY on the Pinterest and now it is pretty much all I can think about when I have the free time to consider such things. Honey. Suckle. Jelly. You'd best believe I'll be trying THAT out! We have a nice patch of honeysuckle around the blackberry patch at the back of our yard where I can get clean, pesticide-free honeysuckle blossoms.
* Speaking of food from the yard, we are now getting mixed baby greens aplenty. We had salad made of them with dinner last night and I packed a big Tupperware container of them and a four-ounce Mason jar with some home-made dressing to have with my lunch. I love me some salad! I can't wait for the tomatoes and cucumbers to start coming in!
* How are all of YOU?