I've become adept at bendy straws. We walk across the hall, fill a little tupperware pitcher with ice chips and water, grab a clean styrofoam cup, lid and straw, and bring it back to his room. He can't pour the water from the pitcher himself - not yet, anyway - so we do it for him. Get the...
Read moreThe roles we play along the better way
Let me try to describe my Lent so far in four words: beautiful, devastating, chaotic, hopeful. It has been one of those months, and it is within that strange context I wrote my latest piece for Velvet Ashes (a whopping three weeks past deadline). The ladies over there are gentle with me, and...
Read moreFrom Us
Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare Him room.
And heaven and nature sing.
These are the shortest days, the sweetest days
I told myself I couldn't close out another week without actually writing something. December is our busiest month, with Christmas cards and class plays and parents association meetings and a good deal of work thrown into the mix. Writing seems to take a backseat...
Read moreThe eczema report of 2014
It's that time of year again, the wintry mix of dry and itchy skin, red rashes, cracked hands and lotion experimentation. Blessedly, it's been one of the better years for the two of us, Ella and me. We're still using some of the meds and ointments she got last Spring and my hands haven't started bleeding yet. Bonus! But still we cope the uncomfortable scratchiness of nearly everything, do the moisturization dance twice a day, and I'm having to find creative ways to keep everything off my neck, where my outbreak is worst.
I can't really believe it's taken this long to come to the realisation that what E and I have is an actual chronic illness, having given up hope that it will ever really go away and trying to find ways to just deal with it. It's a never-ending quest to find products that keep us functioning and don't make it worse. Very few things ever really improve our symptoms, but there are a few lotions, moisturizers, soaps and such that make living with eczema slightly better.
Here's what's in our proverbial medicine cabinet (we actually don't have a medicine cabinet, but that sounds better than "littering our night-stands and every other bedroom surface").
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