Uphill idealist

(Image from 123RF) When I was young, I used to think my Mom would be a great nurse. She had all the details of how to make me feel better when I was sick perfected. Her checklist of care looked something like this: 1. Notice, without the aid of a thermometer that I felt under the weather. 2. Determine, with the aid of a thermometer, how high my fever was. 3. Head to the pantry a return in a matter of moments with a tall glass of Ginger-ale accompanied with crushed ice and a striped straw. Give me Tylenol to take with the drink. 4. If my fever was quite high, she's get cotton and rubbing alcohol and rub down my arms and legs. 5. If my throat were sore, she'd get Vicks and rub my chest and throat down and wrap my neck with one of my Dad's long socks. 6. If I was restless and could not sleep, she's read out loud to me until I dozed off. One winter, I was so sick with strep throat my mom read the entire book of Charlotte's Web to me. The medicine I had been given by the...

Image from Sunday morning blog. Two weeks ago now I injured my right little toe. In a morning rush, I ran up my stairs and spot on kicked the base of the exercise bike with my right foot. It was quickly clear by my tears and yelp that I had done some damage to my toes, but not wanting to make a big fuss over "little toes", they were buddy taped and I was on my way. Over a few day there was growing annoyance with the whole development. I could not run each morning, as is my routine, due to the throbbing in my foot. Each morning I'd put my foot on the floor and hobble about clumsily as my canine jogging buddy looked at me in confusion. She was not happy with the development either! A week and a half in - it was not feeling better so I decided to give my chiropractor a call. Chiropractor? You see, in the past my chiropractor has been able to work on other joint issues I'd had. I had confidence that he could fill me in on at least how long this healing process was going t...

"But, my lips hurt real bad!" - Napoleon Dynamite You may have seen this quirky film a few years ago, or maybe not, but I think everyone can relate to the scene where Napoleon is stuck in school with no chap-stick and is calling home to see if his brother can drop it off for him. Chapped lips are horrible nuisance. No, they are not life-threatening - but annoying, distracting and painful. Have you ever misplaced your lip balm when you need it the most? It's an impossible thing for me, especially this time of year, to be without a tube of lip balm in my pocket. I have a couple favorite brands of lip balm: Burt's Bee's Peppermint and Thistle Farm's Tuscan Earth . The first is soothing because of the Peppermint and the second has a sort of sweet herbal fragrance and heals chapped lips amazingly fast. Once I applied the Thistle Farms Balm while in a waiting room, and a six-year-old boy walked in, sat down next to me and happily exclaimed, "What is that yumm...