Lice??!!!

As an extra Christmas present, half the family is hosting lice. I've never dealt with this before, so here's what I'm picking up on the internet, and what I'm doing to solve the problem.

Get it off their heads: The first kid I found had a bad infestation. At least, it was shocking to me. I ran down to the drugstore, sabbath or not, and bought a RID kit. Shampooed her hair in Piperonyl butoxide, then combed through her hair, using the gel in the kit to ease the way, alternating between the plastic comb in the kit, and the metal comb I'd bought. After each pass, I'd wipe the comb off with a paper towel and put that in the trash.

Then I started looking around on the internet, overwhelmed by how much cleaning, laundering, and vacuuming I'd need to do to remove any lice from the house. There I discovered the Robi comb. I went back to the drugstore that night and bought one, and used that to find and remove many lice from the next kid's hair, and a few from mine. It's a comb with a little electrical current to catch and kill the lice as it moves through the hair. Ugh! Kid Two and Me still need combing to remove eggs.

The good news: they like the dark, so the lice aren't going to be in our eyebrows or on our arms. If we can be clear for ten days, we've probably gotten rid of them.

I think my next plan is to get Cetaphil lotion and use that for nit comb-thrus. I guess I need to train a teenager to comb through my hair. I suppose we'll all be getting in touch with our inner ape this week, grooming each other this way.

Get it out of the house: Because otherwise they'll move from the pillow, floor, clothing, towels, and just be back in your hair. Adults can live 55 hours on a textile, but I'm not sure if the eggs keep longer.

Down comforter I ran it through the dryer for 40 minutes. I hope the heat did them in, if anything was there. The cotton cover looks scorched.

Other bed linen Wash and dry in hot. That's a lot of laundry with a houseful of kids, but I'm working through it. I've decided everyone's only getting one blanket back, so I can rewash everyone's bed linens every day for the next little while.

carpet Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. Our vacuum doesn't have bags, so I hope none of them rise in a cloud back into my hair when I dump the bag. Of course, some of the kids' floors are covered in post-Christmas toy mess, so there's prep work to the vacuuming.

upholstery At this point I realized all our upholstery is leather, which basically means we're in luck. What can you do really, wipe it down? I don't think the lice can live on it.

Stuffed Animals I'm not sure what to do at this point. I've read that we could leave the house for three days, and when we returned all the lice would be dead for lack of host. But I've also read I've got to put the stuffed animals in an airtight bag for two weeks to kill what may be in them. Is the longer period for killing the eggs? If so, wouldn't the eggs be surviving on the carpet or towels longer than three days?

I've put the stuffed animals in non-airtight garbage bags out of the way for now.

Clothing I don't think I have to wash the clothes hanging in the closets, since we're just getting back from a two-week vacation. But everything else, and the closet of little Miss Dress Up, has got to run through the system.

I'm staging everything in stacks in the tile-floor hall. I'm thinking of getting big garbage bags to keep it in, just because the site of possibly contaminated laundry is scaring me. And, we've all got to brush by it to get to the bathroom. I know they don't fly, but still...

I got socks

My sister is TLC Stitches, and she made them. So I got a better present than you.

Maybe not this year

Did you know you can put spicy peanut sauce in a fondue pot? And dip into it broccoli, and potatoes and bread and all things that taste yummy with spicy peanut sauce?

Wouldn't that make a great lunch Christmas day for the family, casual and fun and festive?

Not if we're all just over the stomach flu. Or still have it if my husband finally succumbs tomorrow.

Ack!

Housework Chiasmus

So, cleaning up the kitchen resulted in a pile of dirty rags.

---But when I got to the washing machine, it was full of clean clothes that needed to move into the dryer. Where's a basket so I can do that?

--------The baskets are in various bedrooms, full of clean laundry ready to be put away. The easiest, I figure, are the two baskets in my own room. I'll just dump them out on the bed, so I can see what's there and put them away.

------------But, I haven't done my Saturday sheets change yet, so I'll do that first.

------------Except that, I can't find my set of clean sheets.

--------So, I strip the bed and put the clean clothes on the mattress.

----Then I use the empty basket to move the laundry (ah, there's the other set of sheets) and start the dryer.

Then I put the rags into the washing machine and start them.


Coda:
----------------Type it up for the blog
--------I'm putting away the clean clothes now.
----In 30 minutes when the dryer finishes I'll make the bed
And the dishwasher will be done, so I can finish the kitchen.

Mommy the House Elf

My son has been reading the Percy Jackson series nonstop, and taking the books with us everywhere. But he chooses the oddest bookmarks. The other day he was marking his place with a black sock as we all drove somewhere in the car.

"Hey," I said to him. "give me that book, will ya?"

He closes it on the sock, and hands it over.

"Master has given Mommy a SOCK! Mommy is FREEEEEE! I can flee the family and serve them no more"

My husband says, "oh, no you don't!"

Mom Tricks

Son, to Daughter: Hey look, I taught Mom a trick!

Mom (me) wondering where the heck this is going.

Son, to Mom: Mom, Here Mom! Blink! Blink Girl!

Mom blinks as usual.

Son, to Mom: Good Mom! Good Mom! Here, have some salad!

I love Carlos Rota

He was in an episode of White Collar as a bad guy. But I was happy to see him anyhow, since he's so great in Little Mosque on the Prairie (as Rayyan's father, the contractor). Even my husband remarked on how great his voice is.

Now, if someone would just cast him as a good guy, but in a role with more heft than his character in Little Mosque on the Prairie.