The Search for Miss Direction: When Homebound, West Virginia Projects Abound!

So last night around 9:30 we added throwing up to the list of Noah's symptoms. Scared the heck out of me! I've never ever heard off that with strep before. So a call to the on-call doc said it happens sometimes. Told him Noah had also spiked a fever (higher than before) in the afternoon which meant we knew school was a no go. He advised us to do tylenol or motrin every 3-4 hours for the fever and try again with the meds he'd been prescribed. He's been on amoxicillian before so don't think it was an allergy and haven't had a similar problem, so we're crossing our fingers. If he's not better by tomorrow it'll be back to the doc. In the mean time...

One of the toughest things about strep is that as long as the fever/pain is under control there's not much else *wrong* with him. It's more a matter of containing him at this point. So last night I came up with a game plan to keep Thing 1 and Thing 2 occupied AND get in plenty of West Virginia fun! I can't believe how much we did! (And had a blast doing so)

We started the morning by making Coal Rice Krispy Treats. You'll remember that West Virginia is the second largest coal producer in the United States. The kids loved these, they're tasty and it was just fun. My only note is that I thought I had black decorator food coloring but didn't, so I used some gel icing in black that I had. To make these more authentic looking next time I would definitely get the black food coloring. Think this would be a great Christmas gag gift!

Then we tackled a couple of different projects in rounds. I had finished the letters on the backs of our Christmas PJ's so we still needed to add our handprints on the front. (A tradition that started after the Bean was born!) So I worked with one of them at a time while the other made this very cool Chihuly Inspired "Glass". The artist known as Chihuly is actually from Washington, but this was my attempt to remind the kiddos of the importance of glass making in West Virginia. They had fun and the finished products were pretty cute. They actually decided to turn a few into ornaments to give as Christmas presents, one for our tree and Noah put one in his room as a sun catcher :)

When we got those finished we started work on some Sharpie Patterned China plates. As I mentioned yesterday, pottery is another major industry in West Virginia (remember that Homer Laughlin who is responsible for Fiesta Ware is from there) So I picked up these plates at the dollar store and let them go to town creating their very own China 'pattern.' They had a blast and again, I thought they turned out super cute!

We then finished up the rest of our Christmas ornaments (I should not be allowed on pinterest during Christmas time, I think...) and then made a batch of Aunt Sylvia's Applesauce for dinner tonight. And that got us to lunchtime! (Phew!) After all that I felt they had more than earned a picnic lunch with a movie. Their choice (doing Aunt Shell proud) - Despicable Me! While they watched I worked on a couple projects myself (after cleaning up the disaster that we had made!) including one of my favorite new cute foods! (Can't spoil it, you'll have to see the pictures) The kids loved them and the Bean now wants them for her birthday treat on Friday. I will be more than happy to oblige:)

Grant had a dinner with people from work tonight, so the Duo and I continued on our own. I made these super easy Chicken and Dumplings - West Virginia Style. I don't think dinner gets much easier (or comfort food like) than this. After dinner I had planned to take them over to this really neat house in Livonia to check out the light display there, but unfortunately a soon to be birthday girl decided to cop a 'tude and we didn't make it. Instead Noah helped me work on a Christmas present for a friend while the Bean brooded over her poor decision making. So frustrating when an otherwise awesome day goes south. At this point, everyone *seems* to be doing well and I'm really hoping to be able to send them both to school tomorrow. Especially since I am supposed to be helping at Holiday Shop for Noah's school :) We'll see what happens. So until then...

West Virginia Fun Fact of the Day: Some famous individuals from West Virginia include: Pearl Buck (author), Peter Marshall (television host), Chuck Yeager (test pilot /Air Force General), Don Knotts (actor), Mary Lou Retton (Olympic gold medallist for gymnastics), and Kathy Mattea (country music singer).