Sickness and Weather

Winter weather.  For those of us in snowy climates (I’m in the midwest), it is often a big UGH!  Yesterday it was freezing rain, and today we are under a warning that may give us up to 16 inches of the white stuff.  Surprisingly, Hubs was able to fly out as scheduled.  While our road was a sheet of ice, the main roads were heavily salted, so okay for driving.  I was secretly hoping that the airline would cancel Hub’s flight.  I would have liked having him home with today’s storm.  Oh well.  I’ve dealt with other nasty winter storms, and I’ll deal with this one too.

After dropping Hubs off at the airport, I stopped by Lowes for three 50 lb bags of salt.  I had a gift card, so nothing out of pocket.  I also have a 10% military discount, so that helped shave a bit off the cost as well.  Until I need it, I’ll keep two of the bags in my car.  We mostly need the salt for the steep hill part of our driveway, and even then, I try and use it sparingly.  To further stretch our dollar, I mix the salt in with cold ashes from our woodstove.  The combination makes for better traction.  The hill is also far enough away from our house that I’m not concerned about tracking it indoors.

Since I was in town, I also went ahead and got some groceries.  Usually stores are super busy whenever there is talk of a big storm, but there were very few shoppers.  Other than some perishables, I shouldn’t need much for a few weeks.  Since one of my goals for 2020 is to do better at tracking every dime, I figured that starting the year not needing much, might help.  Lol The last thing I did was top off my gas tank in my car~again, to help start the year off right!

I’ve caught yet another cold this season.  I don’t like to point fingers, but most likely, it was passed along to me from the sister of the kiddo I take care of.  Last Thursday, their other sitter was unavailable, so I ended up watching both kids.  The little girl (she’s 4 1/2) was sick with a cold.  By Saturday, the little boy was also sick.  And by yesterday, I was feeling it.  I’m hoping the Zicam I’ve been taking will shorten the duration.  The kid’s grandmother has been sick, but for her, it’s the flu.  Needless to say, she hasn’t been around to help out with the kids.

With all this sickness going around, I decided to see if taking some Elderberry will help boost my immune system.  It certainly can’t hurt.  The store had a buy one get one free sale going on, so that is another thing I bought yesterday.  I was a little leary of how it might taste, but surprisingly, it isn’t too bad.  In the past, I’ve tried Echinacea, but I don’t think it helped all that much.  Unfortunately, when you are around sick kids, it can be hard not to get whatever they get.

And…as forecasted, it is snowing.