K-rations for dinner on Veterans’ Day -by Dave

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Well, I am humbled and in complete admiration of my wife.  All through the day, we both were explaining the meaning of Veterans’ Day and why we are thankful to active duty military and veterans for protecting our freedom.  We are particularly thankful, as a family with 9 children, since there are many countries that limit the number of children you may have!photo credit: Minnesota National Guard

But one small thing helped put things in a better perspective.  At the request of our oldest, who knew we had something special from Grandpa Cleveland stored up in the pantry, Robyn broke out the military K-rations and an old tin camping kit, and we had K-rations for dinner while sitting huddled on the floor!  Just a small glimpse of one of the many sacrifices our military makes for us on a daily basis, but what a powerful and “sense”-ational way to bring the message home to little ones.

If you have never had K-rations, you are in for a treat.  Our meal came out of a hermetically sealed heavy brown waterproof bag, and consisted of “spiced beef”, dehydrated mashed strawberries, peanut butter, crackers, and a chocolate bar.  I can say that all were completely horrible (I was kind-of looking forward to the chocolate, but that was probably the worst!), with the exception of the spiced beef being palatable.

WOW, I am always amazed at how it is so easy to take for granted the incredible freedoms we have here in America, purchased at great cost by our people in the military.  And while we routinely include them all in our nightly prayers, tonight I think we were able to pray for them with a little more heart than normal.

God Bless America, and God Bless and Protect our troops, at home and abroad!Veterans' Day-Arlington National Cemetery

Best cream for diaper rash (by Dave)

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OK, having 9 children has not been without challenges.

One thing that is amazing is the number of diapers we change.  If you calculate about 6 diapers per child per day for the first year of life, and then 4 per day for years two and three (all very conservative estimates, mind you)…let’s see…that’s 14 x 365 or 5,110 diapers per child by the third birthday!!  So, considering that all of ours are not superstars who have potty trained themselves by age three, I would estimate we’re pushing 50,000 diaper changes between the two of us.

So I guess that makes us some form of experts in this area (keep tuned in, I hope to post my secrets to the “30 second diaper change” in the near future).  One thing we fortuitously stumbled upon with our first child when we attended a baby fair in Miami was an incredible product by Xttrium Laboratories simply called “DRC” for diaper rash cream.Xttrium-DRC (diaper rash cream)

We have tried numberous balms, creams, ointments, powders, etc. over the years, but we have found nothing that soothes and seals raw bottoms like DRC.

I think it’s the zinc in it that does it, but the formulation makes the paste the right ‘pastiness’ to really adhere well to bottoms and keep any further diaper mess off the skin.  We have used it for years and it has saved us much heartache.  When we can’t find it in stores, we go right to the website (click on the picture to the right to go there), where at the time of this writing it can be purchased at $6.99 .  We have literally purchased it by the box in the past.

As a Dad of 9, I would recommend this product for most babies.  It has worked well for all of ours.

One point I have noticed, however, that deserves mention.  When I diaper a baby, depending on the condition of the bottom, I usually choose powder OR cream, but I try not to use both.  We have found in the past that using both (regardless of brands or makeup) tends to attract some sort of infection that needs prescription medication (Mupirocin) to treat.  I don’t know why that happens, or which bug causes it, but we’ve encountered it a couple times when trying to ‘overdo’ it with cream plus powder.

I hope this information is helpful.

How I do…the Laundry! Part 1

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With nine children, we have a tremendous amount of laundry.  Fortunately for me, doing the laundry is my favorite household chore.  For whatever insane reason, seeing all those cute little clothes and remembering how the kids looked or what they were doing in those little clothes is a treat for me.  However, I can not say that it is what I would prefer to be doing for so much of my time!

At the current time I am up to two loads of laundry a day.  I always forget how much extra laundry a baby generates.  Even though his clothes are so little, the spit-up always winds up on my clothes…and my towels, and his blankets, and the floors (but that is for another post).  My usual routine is to do some laundry at night and some in the morning.

So, over the years I have developed some great methods to ease the laundry load (pun intended!).

1. I have learned to not be too particular about the shape of the clothes when I put them in the wash.  I pre-treat very little.  This is not the “perfect” method, as some stains become permanent, but it does move the laundry along much faster.  I also do not pre-straighten the clothes.  Meaning that I do not put them all “right side out” each time.  Because I have so many little ones and I teach them to be independent as soon as possible, I wind up with lots of little inside-out clothes in the hamper.  Most of the time I just put them in as is, I have found that it is much more pleasant to put them right-side-out after they have been washed and dried and are smelling very fresh!

2. I separate only for light and dark loads.  I don’t have the time nor the space to save up for a bleach load, though I do try to do one every so often.

3. I have a Fischer & Pykel washer and dryer set – that I love!  The washer is energy efficient and spins most of the wetness out of the clothes.  This makes the dryer time much shorter.  The dryer takes only a little longer than a wash load.  I can really power through some laundry since they both finish almost at the same time.

4. The Fisher & Pykel set also has a delayed timer on the washer – love that too!  I can put a load in at night and time it to wash in the morning.  This has been so great for me in the cyling of the laundry.

Laundry icon is used courtesy of pdclipart.org

5. My most recent laundry advancement has been to become a “stuffer”.  I was sooo not a ‘stuffer” just a few months ago, but then my mom (by marriage) came to visit one time when I had Mount Laundry erupting.  That lady turned six of my loads into three loads of laundry!  I couldn’t believe it, nor could I watch it at first.  I was initially shocked that she would stuff so much laundry in the wash.  I mean, didn’t she know that the clothes needed to slosh around in order to get clean?  Fortunately, I held my tongue and walked out of the laundry domain.  After some time of deep reflection and upon consulting a close friend (who was also a closet stuffer), I stepped past my skepticism and …  well… I started to “stuff”.  And I have been stuffing ever since.  I have not noticed any difference in the cleanliness of the clothes, so I just can’t stop!

My most treasured laundry secret is in the folding and the putting away realm.  I will post about that next!

And I couldn’t end this post without mentioning that I usually have several helpers.  My littlest kids (2-4 year olds) will hand me the laundry or help move it into the dryer.  My oldest kids (6-9) can load the washer and the dryer, but they can’t always reach the buttons!  Even though my kids are capable of doing the laundry, I don’t usually have them doing it.  As I mentioned earlier, the laundry is one of my favorite household chores, so I would rather have them be doing some other chore and save the laundry for me.  It is also working well that I do half at night and half in the morning, so they are usually sleeping or doing other chores.

Note:  Laundry icon is used courtesy of pdclipart.org

Caddy for bathroom cleaning (by Dave)

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OK, I don’t want you to think I am a salesperson for Sterilite or Rubbermaid, but here’s another good product that is useful to have around the house.

Being that we have recently had a bout of the flu in the house, clean-up is the current phase of our lives.  All too often in the past I would notice a bathroom that needed cleaning and did not have supplies handy.  Then I would go searching about the house, and before I could find them and return to the bathroom I would be waylaid by someone needing immediate attention.

Sterilite Caddy ~$2-3

*POOF* the memory of what I was intending to do evaporated after 20 minutes (or 2  hours) of attention given to little ones, and the bathroom stayed dirty.  So I decided to spend a little green and stock each bathroom with a handy little caddy (pictured here), an old, used kitchen sponge, a ‘dollar-store’ toilet brush, a deodorizer/disinfectant spray, and a can of Comet or similar cleanser, plus any  assorted ‘specialty cleaning’ items, tailored for the bathroom in question (I like to use blue syrup-style industrial liquid toilet-bowl sanitizer for the high-traffic powder room near the kitchen).

Since then, the cleaning tools are close at hand, and I usually try to grab the nearest child to instruct them on the finer points of cleaning as I am doing it (and recruit them for future help).

Sterilite Caddy $5-6 version

The low-end version of the caddy (pictured above) sells for about $2-3, while a higher-end version (pictured at right) sells for $5-6.  You might save some money, depending on the number of bathrooms you have, by purchasing in bulk, with a slightly reduced cost per-piece in 5 or 6 packs.

Likewise, I buy cleanser in 6-packs at Sam’s Club or the hardware store.  The result:  immediate gratification of a clean bowl as soon as I see it starting to get dirty.  Plus, I can always tell the older children to ‘pick and clean a bathroom’ when they start getting bored and fighting with each other.  Ah, housework, that wonderful tool to create internal harmony!!

How I Do…a sick routine with 9 children.

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Since Dave already mentioned in his last post that we were getting sick, I thought that I would continue the theme.

Yes – they have all been sick this week.  It started Monday, and is hopefully ending tomorrow.  This was a fast one!  This virus (OK, probably is the swine flu) came on like a fast train, raged with high fevers for 24-48 hours, then left the station with some lingering coughs.  Hopefully it is a ONE-WAY passage for us and it will not cycle back.

So, how do I manage 9 sick kids and what do I do when they get sick?  As David mentioned before, we don’t get sick very often, but it does happen and each time I have to decide…to quarantine or share the germs.  I have never been able to fully quarantine, as it would break my heart to see one lone kid not being able to share life with the rest of the house.  So, viruses usually wind up getting to everybody.   The factor then becomes how quickly it spreads!  I am usually really tempted to sit them all down and have them lick each other and drink from one slobbery straw – just kidding.

This is how our usual sick routine goes…

Somebody gets sick.

Little Nurse image used courtesy of reusableart.com

They are sent to the couch for the day with blankets, pillows, favorite toys, fluids (not usually allowed in the family room) and lots of extra TLC from everyone.

Depending on who it is that is sick and the age, the videos usually go on.  And here – I let go of the “mommy guilt”.  I do not let them watch very much TV, but when they are sick, they need to rest.  And, who can rest when you’ve got a house full of cool siblings to play with.  We are like an everyday party day at our house!  So, the videos go on to keep the sick one entertained and restive.  Of course, all of the others support their downed sibling by watching also (right! they all love it when someone is sick and they all get to watch videos!).

I then make the pot of chicken soup, sometimes homemade, sometimes Campbell’s, and sometimes OodlesofNoodles – chicken flavored of course!

Orange juice (not watered down) and oranges are standards, along with popsicles and Jello.  And I also give double dosed vitamins, just in case and mostly because they love to take them.

To try and decrease some of the germ spread, we use Bandettes – the sippy cup labels - (which we use all the time anyway) and I spray lots of Lysol on the most frequently touched areas.  I would use a Bleach solution, but I can not go anywhere near bleach without it leaping from the bottle on to my clothes, leaving that telltale blop of pure white.

The biggest thing that I do is brace myself to survive!  I lower my expectations of getting things done, and I try to be there for my kids.  I know that they are going to not be feeling good, AKA – whiny and needy, so I mentally prepare for the constant onslaught and lighten things up everywhere else on my agenda.

This week was actually very, very good for us.  Barring a relapse, we totally conquered this virus – 9 kids in 5 da

This picture was taken from Heur et malheur (fortune good and bad), by E. d'Erwin, illustrated by H. Castelli, Paris 1877. Image used courtesy of oldbookillustrations.com.

ys…not bad!

Note:  Little Nurse image used courtesy of reusableart.com;  The “doctor’s call” picture was taken from Heur et malheur (fortune good and bad), by E. d’Erwin, illustrated by H. Castelli, Paris 1877. Image used courtesy of oldbookillustrations.com.

Sterilite Buckets for flu season-by Dave

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Bucket girl with rosy cheeksIn general, when it comes to sick children, we have been extremely blessed with good health.

Our pediatrician marvels that we rarely see him and says we must have developed a terrific ‘herd immunity’.

This has been great, up until last fall.  From late December 2008 through early April 2009, our little ones passed a persistent little bug around to each other in multiple waves.  We’d be bug-free for a few days, and then magically it would pop up again and make multiple rounds.

Bandette Product

Now, I am certain our Bandette product helped contain the disease (notice the shameless self-promotion) by limiting transmission of germs between cups.  However,  having 8 little ones under one roof made it near impossible to keep them from coughing around each other, etc.

And this was not your typical bug of fever for 2 days and 3 in bed-notice the handy bucket tucked to the sidemaybe one episode of simple daytime vomiting.  No, this was a superbug.  It lasted around 4-5 days each episode, and there would be sudden nighttime projectile vomiting.  We started out changing sheets 3-4 times per night.  That lasted a few nights before we ran out of sheets and ability to keep them all laundered, and out of energy.

Sterilite Bucket

That’s when we got an idea.  I ran out to the store and bought a stack of half a dozen or so Sterilite plastic buckets and put one next to each bed.  I bought extras for ‘known sickies’ to carry with them throughout the day.  While Robyn was not thrilled with the idea of these buckets all around the house, it sure beat vomit all in the bed linens, couches, carpets, etc.

Buckets can also be used later for wash big and little carsBesides, when you are done with the flu, you can use the buckets to help wash big and little cars.

As I write this, we currently seem to have gotten a new bug, with four little ones febrile and three on the mend.  I hope this one does not stick around.

Pray for us.