Fuzzy Socks and Black Beans

Taelin finally is on the mend (knock on wood) although I think it is taking a little longer than usual for her ears to be completely unplugged.  Yesterday I tried to tackle some of the house and get it back under control and as I was cleaning off the counter I found the homemade heating pad I made this week to try and help Taelin manage the ear pain she was having.

If you haven't ever had an ear infection, count yourself lucky.  They can be so painful and it doesn't take very long for your entire head to hurt.  Ibuprofen kind of helps but really, until the antibiotics do their thing, you are in pain.  And Taelin is most like people that when she is pain and it doesn't really get better, she get cranky.  I don't blame her at all...but a cranky 4 year when I have only had 3 hours of sleep?  Let's just say, there wasn't enough patience to go around and everyone needed some sleep.

I remembered the rice bags that I used when I was younger for my own ear infections and climbed off the couch (where I had been glued with a miserable little girl) and went digging through my sock drawer looking for the softest sock I had.  What I found was a pair of bright blue fuzzy socks that I actually don't wear that often.  I grabbed one and headed off the the kitchen to look for rice.   I was completely out of rice so then started digging through the cupboards looking for something that could serve in the rice's place.  And way in the back, was a bag of black beans.  As I dug them out, I again vowed that I really needed to clean out the cupboards sometime soon.

I set out to fill the sock and spilled more beans on the counter and floor than was reasonable but finally got a fair amount in the sock and tied it off.  I popped it in the microwave for 30 seconds and relief was on it's way.  She looked at me like I was a bit crazy when I told her to hold the sock to her ear but it was seconds before she laid her head back down in her lap with the sock on top.  It was only a few minutes before she was asleep.

At some point, probably only a few minutes after that, I fell asleep too.  It wasn't a very long nap but it was exactly what we needed.  When we woke up, we reheated the black bean fuzzy sock and instead of watching the next episode of Pinky Dinky Doo, we got out her beads and some ribbon and made necklaces. It was the first normal thing we had done in two days.

So this week I am extra grateful for my slightly used fuzzy socks and the long lost bag of black beans.  Grateful not only for the pain relief that they provided that day and in the few days that followed, but for the nap that recharged our bodies and the beautiful bead necklaces that recharged our hearts.