Parenting Without a License

To flu shot or not to flu shot

I am not a big fan of the flu shot.  I can see getting one if you have a compromised immune system, or if you work with the public a lot, or even if you are one of those people who get taken down hard by the flu. I know the medical experts swear by it, actively encourage/guilt trip about it, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it.  But I have a hard time with the "shot in a dark" aspect of it all. They really don't know what strain of the flu is going to cause problems in any given year, and the problematic flus never seem to be part of the flu vaccine that year. 

I'll tell you right now that Doug gets one every year.  He is one of those people who is sometimes sick all winter, and he'll do anything not to be that way. I've had the flu shot twice. Once, when Sam was first in day care and we were getting colds left right and center (when I never get colds), and I thought it prudent. One other time we all got it when we were visiting my mom during flu season.

I am not prone to the flu, and neither are my kids.  In fact, the only time I can remember, and the only time Sam and Tess have gotten the flu, are the two years we got the shots.  And we got the flu bad. Three of us were hospitalized, me with double pneumonia (both times), Tess with severe dehydration, Sam with a high fever that wouldn't go down.  Now, I know you can't get the flu from a flu shot.  But I have a (totally non-medical, unproven) theory. Like I said before I NEVER get colds and flus.  I haven't had a cold probably in five years.  Despite that crazy first year of daycare, Sam only gets colds once in a blue moon. I think we have a really good natural immunity to colds and flus and somehow the flu shot messes that balance up. I could be wrong, and probably am. But that feels right. So I can tell you now we're not getting the generic flu shot this year.

But.

And there's always a but.

H1N1. A very overblown, panic inducing non-news story. A very mild flu. But, it has spread like wildfire. It's insane how this pandemic became a global reality almost overnight. And from what I read, it is very likely a second wave will strike this fall/winter. And it's not behaving like a typical flu. There's the virulence for one thing, and the fact that the people who have been taken down are often young and healthy. There are some scary theories about the flu mutating, or getting tougher to beat when people are down with the usual colds and flus of winter.

The Canadian government has secured enough of the H1N1 vaccine for 1 1/2 times the population of the country. So we should have no trouble getting the shot. I don't want to, but I almost think I should.  This is not a shot in the dark -- this is a proven, fast spreading flu. My kids go to school, we are out and about a lot. I almost think I have a public health responsibility to try and keep this strain at bay if at all possible.

What are your plans for the H1N1 vaccine?  Will you get it on top of the regular flu shot?  Will you get it at all?  Do we have a responsibility as a community to keep fast spreading (if mild so far) viruses at bay when we can?

Beautifying the fishbowl

When we moved here a little over two years ago, our yard consisted of a giant pile of dirt.  Like many new homes we didn't have sod, but we live at a bottom of a hill and they basically piled tonnes of dirt in our yard. We have a small yard, with houses all around us.  Like this:

But we wanted to create an oasis.  So we enlisted the skills of a landscape designer. She came up with a great plan which would have put us in the poorhouse if we had it completed by a landscaper.  So we decided to build it all ourselves.

And seriously -- we (mostly Doug!) has put a tremendous amount of sweat equity into this yard. First we had a bobcat level half the backyard and Doug built the fence because we had kids and dogs and needed that in right away. But that was a mistake.  We have wrought iron gates to the front which weren't  big enough to get a bobcat through.  So everything else had to be done manually.  From taking hundreds and hundreds of wheelbarrow loads of fill out, to moving hundreds and hundred of stones for the retaining wall and patio. To bringing every tree and plant around from the front of the house. To bring a tonne of gravel back for under the patio, deck and wall.  It was all done by hand. 

So we built a retaining wall, deck, patio, shed and playhouse. All by hand, all using plans we found online that we liked.  No kits at all. We sodded and built gardens and a square foot vegetable garden and planted trees. And now the backyard is done!  We are waiting for a proper sandbox cover (a nice canvas one with grommets) and we need patio furniture still, but that's it. I think we made good use of a small space.  Here is the end result:

We have the front yard finished and next year we are building walkways and gardens up the sides of the house.  It's our own little home made patch of green. 

Big deadline, will be back soon

We just got back from a week's holiday and I have two days left to meet the deadline for a major project and I am procrastinating like you wouldn't believe. 

So what's new with you:)

But I did want to let you know that I am alive and well. My blogging is getting more and more sporadic, and I am trying to decide if I should keep it up or not. It seems like I keep up with most folks on Twitter or Facebook.  OK I am having a sense of deja vu.  Did I already mention this inner turmoil?  Well if I did, I am still wondering.

In the meantime, some vacation photos. We rented a cottage next to our good friends on a lake in the BC interior.  It was insanely hot (high 30sC, around 100F) every single day.  Which is nice but in a non-air conditioned cottage it was a bit much. I kept hearing about how at least it cools off in the mountains overnight, but let me tell you those people lie!!  But we had a terrific time nonetheless.  Here are a few photos of the trip until I finish this project.